The sounds of war—the shouting of troops, the screeching and roaring of creatures, the sound of blades clashing against claws, and the distant echoes of blasts—could be heard all around them as they stared at the monster in front of them. Their own battlefield was void of sound; there was no fighting, no talking as they all faced each other.

"You should have done it right the first time," Fuzen finally said. "Then I wouldn't have been here now."

"It's too late to worry about such things," Ame-No-Mi Kumari responded. What's done is done and she couldn't change that. Maybe if they weren't so naive and more ruthless, things would have been different. "I have another chance to do it right."

As her response hung in the air, Fuzen zeroed in on Sakura. "And you intend to do so with her?" She was a petite little thing from what he observed, but he could see it in her face, the similarities to her grandfather.

"I wouldn't underestimate her if I were you," the goddess replied.

"I won't," he answered, remembering how he committed that mistake the last time. He had severely underestimated Kenta and every other shinobi that were present on the battlefield at that time, thinking they were just normal humans that outranked the rest of them. However, he had quickly found that not to be the case. Whoever they were, wherever they had come from, they had possessed speed, strength, and abilities far beyond what he had known humans in this world to have. And now, as he looked down at the pink-haired mortal facing him on the shoreline and the dark-haired man next to her, he felt that they were far more superior than those people of the past. And that despite their looks, they could cause one hell of a mess in their wake.

Silence settled among them again, but it did not last long for the goddess was the first to make a move. With the flick of her wrist, two light beams zoomed through the air towards the demon whale. One made contact, hitting him directly on the side of his face, slightly cracking his skeletal face, but the other missed as he moved to retreat in the ocean. With his large fin, he sent a mammoth of a wave their way. They all ran for higher ground, watching as the wave crashed onto the sand, washing away some nearby troops who were fending off the creatures of Fuzen's army.

As the water receded from the coast, the goddess sent another attack Fuzen's way. His tail crashed into the ocean, allowing for a wall to form from the impact. It mostly negated the attack.

Sakura, along with Sasuke, was now on the sandy shore again, observing the situation.

"Sakura," Ame-No-Mi Kumari said, appearing at her side. She spoke in a soft tone to her and the pinkette nodded as she eyed the demon whale. His sudden attack of water needles came at them, but was turned into steam by Sasuke's fire jutsu.

The goddess left the shinobis' side to take to a bit of higher ground.

"Scared?" Fuzen asked dauntingly when he saw her moving away from the fight. Her lack of response didn't bother him one bit.

"Celici gamnet nenmel," Sakura suddenly casted, a gloved hand held out towards the demon. Hundreds of small gems made out of ice appeared, floating in the air around Fuzen.

"What's this?" The demon almost laughed as he looked at the small specks in the sky.

Suddenly, rods of ice shot out from each floating bit, trapping the demon in place. The rods had stabbed through the gaps in his skeletal body, had cracked several of his bones and had even broken some as they kept him rooted to his spot.

"Acigalal micapt!" the goddess casted loudly from her place. A large glacier started forming in the sky above Fuzen. The chunk of ice was a little over half the size of the demon whale's body and positioned right above the middle of his back.

The goddess was hoping that once it falls, it would gain enough momentum to almost split the whale in two, making their job of defeating him easier.

"Hm?" Fuzen spared a glance upwards and slightly chuckled as he noticed the icy mass was almost complete in its formation.

This caused both Sasuke and Sakura to narrow their eyes as they observed him. They had fought many enemies over the course of their time, and any time one of them started scoffing, chuckling, or even reacting the way Fuzen was, then there was always some hidden plan or thing waiting behind the scenes to twist things up.

And as if to prove them right, the minute the glacier started to plummet towards Fuzen, several enormous, red tentacles rose out of the water, entangling itself around the mass of ice, stopping it from crushing the demon whale's bones.

A loud, screech like roar was heard then as a gigantic octopus' head rose from the water, trails of salty liquid flowing freely down its face. "Meet Toco," Fuzen stated, introducing the humongous creature whose piercing eyes fell on the couple. The tentacles holding the mass of ice started tightening their hold, squeezing the glacier until it finally broke into hundreds of pieces. As ice chunks rained down around them, Toco swung a limb at the ice rods that were restricting Fuzen, shattering them and allowing the demon to be freed.

Another tentacle made its way to the shore, about to swipe along the sandy expanse. The pinkette and Uchiha flashed out of range, taking shelter behind one of the jagged rocks at the far end of the shore. From their crouched position, they watched as the tentacle swept the coast, throwing troops aside and dragging some back to the ocean.

Sakura's emerald orbs managed to catch sight of something unusual as the tentacles dragged the soldiers. There were spikes hidden in the octopus' suckers. She pointed it out to Sasuke just as a soldier got caught on one and dragged back to the ocean.

The Uchiha's orbs narrowed slightly as he looked for the hidden spikes Sakura mentioned, eventually finding them when the shore was swept again.

Sakura, on the other hand, was peeking out from behind the rocks, looking at the whole scene. "Sasuke-kun," she said, turning to him with an idea. His head slightly inclined in her direction, telling her he was listening, while his eyes never left the battlefield.

The pinkette relayed her thoughts to him and he glanced at her for a second, nodding at the plan she had come up with. It was going to take a lot of energy out of her, something which he expressed with his eyes and face, but she reassured him that even so, the jewel would produce majority of the power needed for the move and at most, she would need about ten minutes to recuperate to gain back a stable energy level.

She looked back over to the two monsters out in the water before casting her spell. "Trewa ent." Both her and Sasuke watched as the salty water started climbing up Fuzen's and Toco's body in strips. The strips connected themselves to each other and formed a net over both creatures, holding them down in place.

Wasting no time, Sasuke sent his lightning racing through the net. Fuzen hissed in discomfort, his skeletal body charring a bit from the charge while Toco roared in pain as he thrashed about from the shock, eventually settling down. The lightning had caused him to undergo temporary paralysis, allowing the battlefield to settle down slightly.

It also allowed Sakura to recuperate, which was something she really needed at the moment seeing that after she casted the spell, Sasuke had to catch her when she slumped down into the sand. It had taken the exact amount of energy that she thought it would have, but the draining effects it had on her was more than she had anticipated for.

"I just need a couple of seconds," she told him from her place against his chest. He knew she needed more time, but nevertheless nodded at her. His eyes went back to the field, staying alert to what was going on in case he needed to move them quickly.

Seeing that her companions was in need of some time and that the second monstrous creature was k.o.'ed at the moment, Ame-No-Mi Kumari drew closer to Fuzen.

"Back for more?" he asked, catching sight of her.

As the two engaged in battle, the medical team eased their way out onto the field to retrieve the wounded. The octopus had done a great deal of damage and had injured and even killed many troops. Their numbers were diminishing at a pace they didn't account for. But how could they know of the second monster that was lurking beneath the ocean, ready to aid the Bake-kujira with his quest for control.

"What's up with that ugly thing?" Naruto asked, landing next to the Uchiha.

"It's paralyzed," Sakura answered just as Hinata appeared next to the blonde.

"What happened to you?" Naruto asked, already changing topics.

"She burned herself out when she helped to paralyze that thing," Sasuke answered.

"You did that?" the blonde asked surprised.

"Sasuke and I…why?" the pinkette asked.

"Ehehehe," he laughed out, scratching at his blonde hair. 'Sakura-chan only manages to get scarier and scarier.'

"Will you be okay?" Hinata asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm good," the pinkette responded, trying to get to her feet. Sasuke helped her up and steadied her from wobbling.

"We'll take on big ugly," Naruto stated just as Tadahiro made it onto their battlefield. "We're going after ugly red over there," Naruto informed, pointing to the octopus. Tadahiro nodded and they were off.

Now that they were left to themselves, the Uchiha turned to Sakura. His brows were furrowed slightly and she could see the unasked question in his eyes. "I'm fine," she reassured. "If it makes you feel any better, there's a tonic in my pouch that I can take that will help." Without a second passing by, he reached into her small pack and fished around, looking for the item. He finally grabbed a small brown bottle. "Yeah, that's it," the pinkette confirmed.

She downed the contents and patted his arm. "Feel better?" she asked him jokingly. His pointed look caused her to laugh.

Naruto's sudden yelp drew their attention. Toco was already coming to his senses.

"Let's go Sasuke-kun!"

x

XxXx

x

Naruto's Rasen-Shuuriken had successfully gotten rid of one of the octopus' tentacles, but the missing limb had caused Toco to go on a rampage with its other appendages wreaking havoc to anything and everything within its range.

"Summoning: Jūrasetsu-nyo!" Tadahiro exclaimed, one hand slamming to the ground. Within seconds the silhouettes of the Ten Demon Daughters could be seen through the drifting smoke.

The first inky female to emerge from the mist took in the scene before her before glancing back at her summoner. Her sisters soon joined her, some of them snarling while the others groaned. They all had immediately felt the presence of the larger demon once they had set foot on the battlefield. They all knew who he was: Fuzen, the Bake-kujira. The large, ghostly, skeleton whale who always had an army of strange birds and fish following him in his wake. There wasn't a demon or demoness alive that didn't know of him. He was the one at the forefront of the previous war; the one who lead thousands of their kind into the hands of death.

And as they looked up at him towering over them, only one thing could be surmised: this situation was bad. And as if to make matters worse, there was a monstrous octopus gearing to attack them as well. The daughters now understood how severe the situation was and they gathered around Tadahiro to come up with a plan. Once they had something solid, eight of the daughters wordlessly took off, leaving behind two of their sisters to assist and defend Tadahiro. The others were going to work alongside Naruto and Hinata to remove the tentacles from the beast. With the limbs removed, everyone would be able to fully focus on their own battles.

"Ne, Hinata?" Naruto called over as he dodged a flailing tentacle.

"Yes Naruto-kun?" She answered right as one group of the sisters managed to rid the beast of a limb.

The blond landed right next to her. "Do you think we can kill it by stopping its heart?" Yes, they were making progress, but it was taking them too long to get rid of all of the octopus' limbs. Moreover, the blonde had noticed that the tentacles were getting in the way of Sasuke's and Sakura's battle. The two had to dodge several times to avoid being impaled by the hidden spikes. Honestly, stopping the heart was the only thing Naruto could think of to end this fight quickly.

"Possibly…but it's a big creature," she honestly answered. With her Byakugan activated, she scanned over Toco trying to locate the organ. "Um," she began.

"What is it?" Naruto asked.

"It has three hearts."

"Say wah?" Confusion was all over his face.

"Ee, and they are located towards the back of the head."

"Hm..."

As the blonde thought about what to do, he failed to notice one of the tentacles coming right for him.

"Naruto-kun, watch out!" Hinata tackled him. They skidded across the ground a couple feet before turning their heads to see the limb crashing into the ground.

One hand came up to rest lightly on her head. "Thanks Hinata." As they sat up, the red appendage rose into the air and they both watched as it shot towards Sasuke and Sakura.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yelled in slight horror. One of the suckers with the hidden spikes had nicked him in the shoulder.

A similar horrified scream came from the opposite side. "Tadahiro!"

Toco: Octo (for Octopus)

Celici gamnet nenmel: icicle entanglement

Acigalal micapt: glacial impact

Trewa ent: water net