7.6k words...meep.

Chapter 54

Slipping into Takigakure was even easier than Tetsu no Kuni.

Not because Akari had mysteriously gotten better at stealth, no. It was because nobody even tried to stop her. Scanning the walls surrounding the village, Akari found them barren of life. Behind them, in the distance, she could see the colossal tree, though it was far less active than before, probably because there were none left for it to battle against, the higher branches twisting and curling in random ways.

She walked up the wall, hopping straight off the other side and steadily approaching the living tree, her hands in her pockets as she skipped along at a decent pace. As she got closer, she saw several of the branches up high begin gathering in her direction, the tree probably had a way to detect Chakra signatures and defend itself. Kicking off the ground, she crossed to the side as those branches stabbed down into the ground, the sheer mass of the tree giving them incredible force.

If she could catch one, her new necklace might have meant it wouldn't force her back, but there were quite a few branches, more coalescing together and rocketing out, forcing her to quickly zip backwards as they slammed a massive area collectively, digging a giant circular crater into the ground. "Akari, be wary...I feel my siblings...all of them, but they are...tainted. I don't know what has happened here, but...it reeks of manipulation."

With a sigh, Akari pulled out one of her Kyokai-Sen scrolls from a holster, sweeping it open then laying her hand on the centre of the scroll for a few seconds, steadily pulsing her Chakra into the seal. After a moment, the centre flushed green, then yellow, finally settling on red. Grinning, Akari rolled the scroll back up, winded her arm back, then tossed the scroll as harshly as she could towards the centre of the tree.

In her head, she counted down the seconds until detonation, the tree's branches snapping out at her scroll as it flew. "Awh, that sucks." She murmured as a branch managed to pierce the scroll. It was still going to detonate though, just not where she wanted, as her vision flashed light, a few seconds later nearly deafening her as the explosive went off, a detonation vastly more powerful than a GBU-43/B bomb, all contained within a scroll that fit into the holster on her leg.

It only caught the branches of the tree, the body of the tree itself protected from the explosion, but she could tell the tree was pissed off when it actually started throwing attacks at her so furiously that the entire colossal thing began tipping over. Realizing quickly that it was falling right towards her, Akari waited a few moments to make sure it was actually falling instead of leaning, then took a Hiraishin stone and threw it with all her strength outwards, ninety degrees from the way the tree was falling.

She waited to feel the marker had stopped moving, then gave a cheeky wave to the tree before teleporting, leaving the giant husk of wood to thunderously collapse on nothing emptiness. She picked the stone back up, tossing it in the air, snatching it, then dropping it into her inventory along the other few dozen stones she had. With her hands quickly stuffed back into her pockets, Akari approached the fallen tree, keeping out of reach of the branches which were still questing for her. "So, got any ideas boo?"

"I...have a suspicion." Akari kept approaching, letting Kurama decide whether to tell her or not. She kept a wary, Sharingan-filled eye on the branches as they began trying to spear her again, making short hops to either side to avoid the attacks. "I...believe this could possibly be an attempt to reform the Juubi, perhaps even the Shinju." Whatever Akari was expecting, that certainly wasn't it, surprising her.

An enterprising branch tried to impale her during her distraction, but she shook her head and avoided the attack, quickly slapping an explosive tag onto the house-sized branch of wood as it retracted, exploding it into shattered fragments. "Wait, the Shinju, so, the tree that Kaguya ate from, right?" She avoided another combined strike of several-dozen branches by using another Hiraishin to dash sideways, starting to get used to the rather simplistic attack style the tree adopted.

"Yeah, the Shinju was what Kaguya stole a fruit from. She then merged with it to become the Juubi, got defeated by my father and his brother, then got split into I and my siblings. Though with the return of the Juubi's body as we saw when you slew Obito, somebody has been pulling strings behind the scenes." She hummed her agreement, spawning a few dozen Shadow Clones, each with enough Chakra to fire several Great Fireball Jutsu's.

As a wave of flames erupted as each clone performed the hand seals, the tree lashed out, using branches to sweep the fire away, keeping the main trunk safe. "That doesn't explain how Gyuki and Kokuo disappeared though." She knew Kuruma didn't have an answer, of course, she was just thinking aloud so he knew what she was thinking. "Oh whatever, let's just smash this damn...tree. Well, that's not a fun sight."

Indeed, seeing the hovering form of the Shinigami was certainly not what Akari expected from this little mission to go crush a colossal tree. "Mortal." He spoke, his words crackling and unpleasant to say the least. "You have stolen from me, what was paid must be recouped." As he spoke, Akari faintly became aware of the fact somebody else was here, keeping a wary eye out with her Sharingan, but seeing nothing. "One soul must be given, for services rendered. Yours, or the soul of the mortal who invoked me."

"Yeah, and while I'm at it, why don't I also give you Kurama, Naruto, and everything else. Here's some news buddy, fuck you." Maybe antagonizing a Death God wasn't a great idea, but...if he was able to, wouldn't he have just gone to Konoha and pulled Minato back to wherever he was supposed to be, or just stolen Akari's soul outright. It was therefore likely he was unable to directly interact with their world.

After all, he was only meant to take the souls of the dead, not the living. "You will regret your actions." Was all he said, floating backwards towards the tree. On a whim, Akari threw a Senbon at him, unsurprised when it sailed straight through the spectral being. Frowning, Akari looked around as she felt a shiver run up her spine, but nothing else was visibly there. Perhaps the Shinigami had some kind of ability to make ghosts torment his target, making them uncomfortable or something?

She was more interested in the fact that the giant tree seemed to almost be...shrinking, and turning brown, as opposed to the dark oak colour it was before. "Uh oh. Akari...you remember how I told you to never summon my father?" Blinking, Akari nodded. "I've reconsidered. You may only summon my father if you are about to fight the Juubi."

"WHAT?! Oh, that's not good." Akari mumbled, her eyes tracking the tree as a colossal sharp-toothed mouth appeared on the side of the shrunken tree, large spikes similar to conch shells sprouting from the largest mass, while arms rippled out on either side of the mouth, slamming onto the ground and hoisting the giant creature up. "Kurama, you think you can give me a boost, make your pops a bit stronger when I summon him?"

"Let's do it!" She felt Kurama's Chakra flood her body, raising her Chakra bar immensely. They hit their regular limit of three million points, which was just barely past the point of severe but not crippling pain for Akari, then kept going, forcing her body through great strain but reaching just over four and a half million points of Chakra before she gave in and used her eye, gasping out the name Hagoromo Otsutsuki as she grit her teeth from the burning pain of having her Chakra coils bloated and stretched so much.

The man appeared in a puff of smoke, looking around in confusion for a moment before his Rinnegan-filled eyes settled on Akari. "This...was not expected. Child, what have you-" He stopped, his lips frowning as he looked behind himself at the Juubi. "I see, this is certainly not in line with what was foresaw." Akari couldn't help herself, she giggled despite her pain. "Does what is beginning to happen amuse you?" He asked, his voice sounding honestly curious, though with a little fury.

She shook her head. "Not what's happening, just the fact that I've really fucked this timeline up. Man, if the Entity could see me now, he'd probably wonder what the hell is going on." Though Hagoromo was visibly confused by her words, he merely shook his head, turning to face the Juubi as its arms cracked back and forth, the colossus trying to move itself. "So, Kurama said he thinks that someone's bringing back the Juubi, but...he's not in there, so how is it awakening?"

Hagoromo's expression got a shade darker. "It isn't complete. Something has manipulated the soul of my mother, torn the portion of her soul away from Kurama...it's forcing her to awaken, but in a weakened body. Without Kurama's Chakra, the Juubi would be missing a great deal of its strength. I must ask, Child, could you perhaps summon my brother alongside me?" Akari winced, remembering the burning feeling of forcing her reserves open so much.

"I could, but I'd be pretty useless in a fight afterwards. Either that, or he comes back with way less Chakra than you, as in, less than half?" The man shook his head.

"Bring him as you are now, and while you do so, please explain how this ability works so I may better understand our limitations, as I can feel your Rinnegan was not responsible for this reincarnation of ours." Nodding, Akari did so, laying out exactly what advantages and disadvantages the two brothers would now have, at the same time as she summoned Hamura Otsutsuki into the fray. When she brought up the ability to summon three spectres, Hagoromo looked thoughtful. "Perhaps we could garner more assistance by summoning my younger son, Asura. He would be useful for suppressing the Chakra of the Juubi."

Humming, Akari shrugged, summoning Asura Otsutsuki as well, her Chakra dipping once again. At the same time, Hamura had gotten his bearings, the two brothers both watching the Juubi attempt to get used to its malformed body. She helped the son of Hagoromo to stand, grinning when he gave her a smile. "Akari-san, I would recommend you stay back, this battle will leave the region ravaged, and while I commend your reserves, you would likely be overmatched in this fight."

Akari rolled her eyes, her left arm flipping a Kunai as her eye flashed with the Rinnegan, spawning the King of Hell behind herself. "Don't worry, I can just heal any damage I sustain, plus...-" Akari whipped her hand down, slicing a good carving through her right arm, wincing slightly at it. Holding the bleeding wound up, she then formed several hand seals, using her Mystical Palm Jutsu to seal the wound right back up, not even leaving a scar. "-I'm not exactly a pushover for healing myself."

Hagoromo watched her for a few more moments, his brother settling a hand on his shoulder. "Alright young one, but...I beseech you to keep yourself safe, not just for your sake." He pointedly looked down at her midriff, making her smile.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Kurama would be the first to tell me if I was getting on over my head." As she spoke, Kiyo peeked out of her vest, deeming the area safe. "Oh, and this little one would probably bite me if I went and got myself seriously hurt." Pulling Kiyo out of her vest, Akari spoke quietly to the little dragon. "You ready?" The dragon gave an emphatic nod, disappearing into smoke on her hand. Akari turned to the side, extending a palm to help control where exactly Kiyo spawned. "Animal Path." With a cloud of smoke, a far larger Kiyo appeared, her head the size of Akari's entire body. "So, let's go whoop some ass." Akari said, trotting over then hopping up onto Kiyo's back.

Hagoromo shook his head, Asura laughing while Hamura merely focused on the Juubi, which at this point had managed to settle itself, growing several more haphazard arms to stabilize itself. "Well, let us start this battle off with, as I believe the younger would say, a bang." Hagoromo dead-panned, his hand raising towards the sky. "Chibaku Tensei." He intoned, with a black sphere firing out of his palm and ascending, large clumps of rock ripping themselves from the ground and flying towards the tiny black point far above them like bullets. Massive, building-sized bullets.

Beside him, Hamura raised his own hand. "Tengai Shinsei." His Jutsu made the sky cloud over swiftly. Looking up, Akari saw a giant meteorite dropping towards the Juubi. It was clear Hagoromo's son, while he knew his father was powerful, underestimated his strength, as he was stood gasping at the colossal floating rock Hagoromo was forming.

"Hey, cutie!" All three of the Otsutsuki's turned their heads to look at her, making her giggle and look towards Asura. "Youngest cutie." The two brothers turned back, Hamura grumbling something unsavoury under his breath. "Get on, I'm guessing you're a bit less strong than those two?" The younger man shook his head, a smile on his lips as he jumped up onto Kiyo's back behind Akari.

"I have the...what would you even call it...I can make wood grow, which father told me was good for draining Chakra from his Bijuu in the event they rampaged for whatever reason." Humming, Akari bid Kiyo to start flying up and around, keeping her distance from the Juubi whilst letting them see as it's eye locked onto the Otsutsuki brothers and roared, thundering towards them.

It then got smashed into the ground as Hamura's attack struck, flying past the still-forming attack of Hagoromo and crushed its head into the floor. Akari couldn't hear what the two brothers were saying, probably smack-talking to each other, but she didn't miss when the Juubi's head rocketed back up, roaring louder than before and wrenching one of the spikes off its back, launching it at the pair in a frenzy.

Using the Sharingan, Akari could see they'd both split away from the other to avoid the attack, Hamura making a movement to approach the Juubi while Hagoromo held back, his palm still extended towards the sky, making the already-huge boulder constantly increase in size.

As if recognizing the danger, the Juubi roared again, its eye glaring at Hagoromo before charging, forcing the Sage to begin evasively moving around, whilst at the same time he swept his palm down, the huge satellite seeming to realize gravity was a thing as it began to drop, picking up speed as the rock, which was larger than the Juubi itself, thundered towards the beast.

It looked up, the mad eye spiralling around as it looked around in a panic, meaning it was still stationary as the construct crashed into the ground, shaking the earth beneath them. Akari asked Kiyo to fly near enough to let them see how the Otsutsuki brothers were doing, but a massive gust of wind negated that, as Hagoromo cleared the air with a sweep of his hand, revealing that the Juubi was now pinned under the rock, its body sprouting arm after arm which snapped trying to make the beast rise.

It honestly looked a bit like a malformed turtle with a rock for a shell. She saw the two brothers look at each other and nod, the pair of them each rushing the beast and slamming their hands against its head, making it screech in defiance, the rock on its back crumbling as spikes sprouted through it, though Akari noted that the beast was shrinking. "So, you gonna go help 'em?"

Asura merely gestured an arm at the scene. "How can I help them when they seem to have things in hand?" Akari shrugged, asking Kiyo to take them closer so they could get within hearing range of the two brothers, which the dragon did, responding to her request with a trill. "So, how does this creation work?" Akari resisted the urge to spin around and slap the man behind her.

Cutie or not, you don't insult an awesome and adorable dragon by calling her 'it'. "First off, she, not it, or I will kick you off this dragon. Secondly, she's basically a summons animal, but way more malleable. I can summon her hand-sized, or bigger than, well, that thing!" She pointed at the shrinking Juubi. "But that would leave me in a coma unless Kurama supported me, so...yeah."

Kiyo swept over the two brothers, landing behind them in a trot, Hagoromo turning from the writhing Juubi to look at them with a frown. "Child, we may have a problem here. The Juubi is being forced through evolutionary stages by...something. If it reaches the final stage, it will awaken our mother, and we do not have enough Chakra to fight our mother as we now are, even if she were weakened. We do, however, have a chance to seal the beast again, as it is still merely like an insane and incredibly powerful child." Raising an eyebrow, Akari waited for the ball to drop.

When it didn't, Akari tipped her head to the side. "Okay then, but...wait...hang on, you said that the soul of your mother had been forced into the Juubi?" Hagoromo nodded, his eyes flicking to the Juubi for a moment as part of its skin cracked apart. "Then, can't you just use the Rinnegan's Human Path technique to rip her soul back out and, I dunno, make the King of Hell eat it?" Hagoromo stared at her for a moment, then looked back towards the Juubi.

"We had hoped that we could merely contain her until she finally decided to stop fighting and move on the Pure Lands...-" Hamura answered for his brother. "-but she never did, clinging to life within the Gedo Mazo upon the Moon. I fear that this time, her soul will have to be truly destroyed, for she will not listen to reason." Hagoromo closed his eyes, as did Hamura, though his hand found its way to his brothers shoulder. "You know she will never give up her lust for destroying this world and reclaiming her Chakra, brother."

With a sigh, Hagoromo patted his brothers hand. "I know." He turned to look at Akari. "This may burden you, but I must ask you, Child, if you could bear the burden of containing what is left after our mother is destroyed?" Akari blinked, looking down at the seal on her abdomen.

"Uhh, I mean, what about Kurama? I don't want him to get over-written by whatever this is, so...I don't know if I could like, release him from this seal, take this husk thingie in, then have Kurama take it over or something?" Hagoromo chuckled at her, making her stop and stare in confusion.

"I assure you, I would never cause harm to one I see as my own son. I must admit, it...warms my heart to know that one truly sees him for what he is, not what he was made from." Akari blushed, sheepishly scratching her neck. "Regardless, we would remove our mother's soul from the Juubi, leaving it without control, an empty body so to say. Kurama could then take this body over, without hindrance or fear of being assimilated by our mother. Without her mind driving, the body cannot do anything but exist." Humming, Akari asked for Kurama's opinion.

After all, it was he at risk here, Akari knew that Hagoromo probably had a seal mapped out for containing the Chakra, he'd done it once before after all. "I don't mind, it would ensure nobody ever tries to use the Chakra of my siblings against you. Plus, if I ever left the seal, I'm fairly sure I'd be fine, nobody would be able to touch me. Aside from you and father of course." Smiling, Akari nodded at Hagoromo, telling him Kurama's response as well as her own.

At the same time, she dipped her head to avoid a flailing tentacle limb which tried to take her head off, drawing the Kusanagi and slicing the fleshy appendage off. "We should probably also get to work before that thing reconstitutes itself. I'm guessing you want to do a double-chambered one-way seal at first, then pivot the finished seal into a single-chamber to let Kurama move in at his leisure? Because if so, we're gonna have a hell of a time making sure the entry-bridge doesn't break down from how much Chakra is gonna be pumping through this thing." She took in the dropped jaws of the three Otsutsuki's with a raised eyebrow. "What? It's not exactly complicated."

Hagoromo was the first to recover, a smile on his face as he...oh that was cool. he was literally drawing the seal out in the air using his Chakra, whilst at the same time from his other hand he was creating a seal-tag, inscribing it with lines. As she watched, she analyzed what it was going to do, the basis for it being to absorb Chakra. He'd even managed to compress the Chakra-storage component so it fit on the small tag but still able to contain more Chakra than her own seal, which was pretty necessary since the Juubi wasn't exactly small.

While he did this, Asura was hard at work forcing large trees to grow around the Juubi then bending them down over the main body, a large ribcage of wood forcing the Juubi to stay on the ground, whilst more trees grew around the area, acting as an AoE effect against Bijuu Chakra. Hamura was aiding him, constantly destroying any limbs that sprouted to try and tear away the wood.

Akari wanted to help them fight, but she had her own role, writing a second seal on herself where Kurama would end up after assimilating the Juubi's Chakra. She settled on her left bicep, both because Calligraphy was easier with her right hand and because she liked the idea of having the seal on her bicep, it just looked nicer. Heaven forbid she didn't have the seal in an awkward place to reveal. Bearing her midriff wasn't exactly something she liked doing, especially when wearing a Jonin vest, it made her feel a little vulnerable, even if she knew she could whoop pretty much anyone's ass.

With deft fingers, she got to work, scrawling a rectangular shape, then beginning to inscribe seals, compress them to as small as they could go, then write more seals. If she fucked this up, she'd lose her arm at an absolute bare minimum, so, above every other seal, this one had to be absolutely perfect, to the point she had both her Sharingan and Rinnegan active, practically glaring at her arm as she wrote seals on herself.

At one point she saw Hagoromo look up and frown, making her panic for a moment as she went over every inch of the seal again to make sure it was absolutely perfect, but he just shook his head and chuckled, getting back to his own work, leaving Akari confused for a moment before she shrugged it off and kept writing. A thunderous explosion attracted their attention as the Juubi forced a colossal amount of Chakra into its back, cocooning it under its flesh then exploding it, rending the wood to nothingness. As it tore itself upwards to try and fight, Hamura dropped a second meteorite on the beast, forcing it down with a scream and giving Asura a chance to recapture it.

As he did so though, Hamura took a stumbled step, his leg disappearing under himself as he used up the last of his allotted Chakra bringing down that second meteorite. He merely looked at Hagoromo for a moment before his face faded, a gentle smile on his lips. "Rest well brother, I'll be seeing you soon." Hagoromo said, inclining his head even as his arms endlessly worked to write two simultaneous seals out.

Asura then began forcing more wood to cover the Juubi, burning off Chakra as he formed wood to ensure it didn't break free a second time, since now, the one meant to aid him had disappeared. Fortunately, thanks to the fact he hadn't needlessly entered the earlier fight, he had Chakra to spare. The Juubi attempted to pull the same trick, but this time Asura caught it, sending several lances of wood to pierce the bubble of Chakra forming on the Juubi's back, rendering the explosion far smaller than if it was allowed to build up.

The beast shrieked in fury as its back was ripped apart by an explosion a second time for no pay-off, its face contorting as it madly focused on everything it could, writhing and contorting constantly as more hands attempted to grasp away at Asura's wood. He made each piece sprout thick spikes to hinder the Juubi's efforts, forcing it to expend more energy healing those same hands.

As Akari wrapped up the seal on her arm and flash-dried it, she clicked her fingers. "I'm gonna go help keep that thing down, how long are those going to take?" Hagoromo inclined his head, releasing the seal-tag in his hand with a flourish, making it float towards Akari.

"That one is finished. This one however-" He spawned a large elaborate scroll into existence from his free hand, laying it on the ground and pressing it open with his foot, continually working on the primary seal. "-will take a minute more. Go, now, before it breaks free!" Attesting to his words, the Juubi shattered several large branches of Mokuton wood with a cluster of hands all working in unison to tear away at them.

With a hand seal, three clones, each with fifty-thousand Chakra Points, appeared beside her, the three of them forming hand seals. One formed the seals for the Goryuka no Jutsu, one the Furyudan no Jutsu, and finally, one formed the Rairyudan no Jutsu, each one spitting forth their dragon in three different natures, the three dragons each spinning around each other as they flew towards the Juubi.

She didn't bother thinking of a name for the combination attack as all three dragons smashed into each other right at the eye of the Juubi, burning a lance through its 'head'. The noise the Juubi made was utterly inhuman, it even made Akari shiver just hearing it, though her clones were undaunted, pushing the three dragons through the Juubi. All the hands on its back retracted as it grew more inside the hole the dragons made, trying to snatch, punch, claw, or just generally tear at the dragons as they ripped a colossal hole through its body, smashing out the back of the mass then each curling back around for a second attack.

With the Juubi open to attack, Akari created another two dozen cheaper Shadow Clones, giving one the seal Hagoromo gave her, each clone knowing her plan. Without a word, they darted off, each clone giving as much cover as they could to the primary seal-wielding clone as they approached. Thanks to the fact it was now blind, her clones had no problem reaching the body of the beast, her main clone leaping up and slapping the seal against the Juubi, the beast screaming loudly enough to cause damage to each of her clones and burst them, her tri-dragon wielding clones following suit.

Their disappearance caused a large explosion as the three unstable dragons merged together, the fire and wind elements fueling each other whilst the lightning merely added plenty more damage to the mix. Her lightning-fused and wind-enhanced flames spread to Asura's Mokuton trees, though he was already disappearing from using too much Chakra, giving a smile and wave to Akari as he disappeared, his trees crumbling to nothingness. "Oh, let's not forget..."

Akari bolted forwards and stabbed her arm into the Juubi, focusing her Rinnegan into the Human Path, being momentarily stunned by the maelstrom of souls flowing within the Juubi. There was one there though that didn't even remotely match a human soul, which she quickly snatched a firm hold of, tearing it out of the beast with a wet and fleshy ripping sound.

As she held the soul of Kaguya Otsutsuki in her hand, she felt the same spine-crawling sensation as before, but this time, as she looked around, with the Rinnegan enabled and in Human Path, she could see an outline. That was all, just a faded white outline stood behind her, seemingly watching her. Deciding to focus on that for a moment, Akari turned to fully face the weird...spectre, she supposed was apt for it.

But, staring at the figure, Akari began putting things together in her head. Two scrolls disappearing from her inventory. The intervention of the Shinigami. The Entity going silent. Without even a moment's hesitation, she whipped her hand into her inventory, taking hold of the item the Entity gave her, then brandishing it towards the Spectre, grinning as it took a hurried step backwards. "273, I fucking knew it! Fuck you you fucking prick!"

Akari didn't totally know what the weird box she was holding was, but she had a pretty good feeling that she knew how to use it. By throwing it as hard as she fucking could at him! She, therefore, wasn't too surprised when it slammed into his chest before he could even do a thing, peeling itself open slowly to reveal a white light which nearly blinded her vision. Nearly being the keyword, she watched every satisfying moment as the white light almost seemed to burn away at 273's outline.

After a few second, the box closed, with 273's outline gone, the box folding in on itself and disappearing. "Huh...well that was easy." She tilted her head. Then again, 273 definitely wasn't doing nearly as much as before, so he was probably severely limited in what he could do, going so far as to trying to graft together an enemy which would be strong enough to kill Akari, making a deal with an irate Shinigami to get ahold of a soul who should have gone to the afterlife, the same one she was now holding. "So then, what to do with you..." She swished the soul from side to side, finally shrugging and spawning the King of Hell. "Hope you're hungry, this bitch is probably quite filling."

With a casual toss, the King of Hell's mouth snapped out a pink tendril towards Kaguya's soul, wrapping tightly around the ethereal white mass and wrenching her into its mouth, jaws clamping shut as the big...thing disappeared into smoke, taking Kaguya's soul with it. While this was happening, the Juubi finished sealing into the tag attached to it, Akari snatching it up and planting it in her inventory for safe-keeping, heading back over to Hagoromo. "Mission accomplished, Kaguya is now being digested by the King of Hell, the one who started this whole thing has been dealt with, and the Shinigami is, well, I can't do much to a Death God yet aside from frown at him if I meet him again."

Nodding, Hagoromo extended a hand towards her. "The seal please, the Juubi must be sealed first." Shrugging, Akari plucked the tag out of her inventory again, giving it to the man even as he kept up with the final stabilization for the seal. She watched with unhidden curiosity, taking apart each section he added in her mind. Hagoromo wasn't known as the Master of Fuinjutsu for no reason after all.

Pointing a finger, Akari swept it next to one portion. "Wouldn't it be better to loop this section back into itself, having it stop here would destabilize it, right? Oh, but then where would it loop to not cause an overflow...yeah no you were right." Hagoromo kept working, though a smile came to his lips as he did so.

"I presume you too are well-versed in Fuinjutsu?" Akari pulled out her second Kyokai-Sen Fuinjutsu tag, laying it down. "Hmm...I see. You could perhaps make this more efficient if you ran a secondary series of feedback loops through the-" Akari shook her head. "Why...ahh, I see." The pair talked shop for a little while as Hagoromo finished up the seal, pressing it into the large scroll he had prepared, the lines making contact with a hiss. He then took the tag he had placed on his knee and pressed it onto the seal, channelling Chakra through the seal and coaxing the transferal process to start. "This should take at most five minutes, so would you like to begin releasing Kurama so he can enter the seal?"

Smiling, Akari did so, though that smile turned to a frown as she sat down and crossed her legs. "Well, I guess this'll be goodbye for like ten minutes. It's gonna be weird not having you piping up in my head constantly or snoring." She murmured as she opened up her seal, allowing a steady but considerable flow of his Chakra to pour forth and form his true corporeal body.

It wasn't enough to really hurt her, but it was still painful feeling that much Chakra flowing through her coils. As his body coalesced into the form of a colossal fox, Akari let herself fall backwards with a sigh, grinning as his head appeared above her. "Nip my ear in that form and I swear I'm shoving Kiyo up your ass." Kurama laughed deeply, a thunderous noise which made her grin widen, her eyes softening. "You ready for this boo?"

He smirked, showing rows of razor-sharp teeth. "As if I'd ever turn down such strength, especially strength enough to know that I could never again be sealed by mortal means outside of you and father, my Chakra would destroy any normal storage seal." Humming, Akari couldn't help but agree. Even without Kurama's Chakra the Juubi had so much to spare, literally forcing a flood of it out of its back as an explosion, twice!

She watched Kurama approach his father, dropping down so he was closer and could watch, a smile coming to the old man's face as he finished pressing the Juubi's Chakra into the seal then lifted the large scroll and brought it to Kurama, laying it down beside his paw. "Simply channel your Chakra into this point here when you are ready, then it should be a simple task to assimilate the rest of the Juubi's Chakra, as you yourself were born from it." Kurama looked at Akari, giving her a grin which she returned with a wave and a loudly-yelled 'good luck', before he planted his paw down on the seal.

He immediately began being sucked into the seal, the sight making Akari look away. It looked like it hurt Kurama to be absorbed like that, and Akari wanted nothing more than to just stop the whole thing and hug him, but that wasn't an option. So, gritting her teeth, she forced herself to turn back and watch every moment. If Kurama had to deal with this, Akari could put up with watching him do it.

A hand resting on her shoulder told her that Hagoromo had moved beside her while she was fixated on Kurama's sealing, a soft look in his eyes. "You...really do care for my son. For that, I thank you. I know he has not been treated well in the past, nor was he treated kindly until...well, what would have happened has now become what will never happen, so it doesn't matter."

Smiling, Akari patted his hand with her own. "Well hey, at least he'll be safe now. I mean, who would dare mess with the most powerful beast in the Elemental Nations...or her Bijuu?" Her words made the old man guffaw, covering his mouth as he recomposed himself. "But...seriously? I'd go to war with every single village if it were one day announced that Kurama was too dangerous to be left alive...he doesn't deserve to be hunted and hurt like he has."

"Even Konoha?" His words brought Akari up short. Konoha was home. Konoha was Naruto, and Minato, Kushina, Anko, Komachi, Sei, Kana...everyone! But Kurama was, well, Kurama. He was always there, making quips, lounging around on her shoulders chewing on Dango, playfighting with Kiyo. She bit her lip, her eyes watching as Kurama's tails disappeared into the seal.

"I don't...if Konoha decided Kurama was a threat and had to be eliminated...I'd run. I wouldn't be able to fight them, but I wouldn't stand by and let them kill him out of fear. Even if it would hurt so much to leave behind everybody I know, I'd do it for him." She announced, her eyes drifting away from the seal to focus on Hagoromo's Rinnegan-filled eyes.

There must have been something he liked there, as his smile widened. "You know, when you first brought me forth, I was afraid that the prophecies being wrong would allow our world to be destroyed...this outcome is better than any other that was foreseen. I would like to offer you a...a boon." Raising her eyebrow, Akari blinked in surprise when Hagoromo held his palms out, creating a Kunai in his hand.

He hadn't unsealed it or anything, so how he did it was a mystery. Then she recalled he did the same thing with the sealing tag and the big scroll. "Okay, that's pretty cool. And...my Sharingan has no idea how you did it...neat. is it a Kekkei Genkai?" Hagoromo chuckled even as he shook his head, the Kunai on his hand dropping to the floor with a thud as he overturned his hand.

"This technique is a little too advanced for your Sharingan to copy, but it is not a Kekkei Genkai. The Banbutsu Sozo no Jutsu allows for the creation of matter by using Yin Chakra to bring Imagination to reality, then imbuing that creation with life using Yang Chakra. Of course, a Kunai is not alive, but to create, say, a Tailed Beast, one would need to imbue that body with life. That is, after all, how I created the nine Bijuu." Humming, Akari watched him create another Kunai, this one also being dropped to the floor.

As he repeated the action a third time, it clicked for her, simply through watching him repeat the action. It reminded her a little of the Nara's Shadow Puppetry, but on a way more advanced scale. She stuck her hands out and focused. The first step, after all, was to completely de-nature her Chakra, make it neutral. She needed Yin and Yang Chakra, not Katon or Doton or any other nature.

While Akari tried to replicate this feat, Kurama was finishing up his 'meal' of devouring the Juubi, adding its power to his own. When he was finished, he tore his way back out of the seal, still just as fox-like as ever, though with a tenth tail now adorning his body. He had some weird black marking as well, but they didn't seem to actually do much aside from be there and look cool.

With a sigh, Akari gave up trying to do the Banbutsu Sozo for then, knowing she had plenty of time to practice. Plus, if she really needed help, she doubted Hagoromo would mind being summoned to help her out a little. "Now then, we shall begin resealing Kurama into your seal. Are you both ready?" Akari nodded, Kurama doing the same. After looking between the pair, Hagoromo nodded, stepping back and waving Kurama forwards to press his nose against the seal on Akari's arm.

Immediately her Chakra coils burned, as his far more potent Chakra flowed through her system, the pain making her curl inwardly on herself. Akari formed hand seals as quickly as the pain would allow, using the Mystical Palm no Jutsu to ease his passing through her system, acting as a painkiller to take at least the edge off the fact it felt like someone took a pan of boiling water and forced the whole thing down her throat in one motion, the water then staying boiling somehow and providing a constant internal rupture of pain.

She felt Kurama slow down a bit, the pain lessening which when then lessened more by her Jutsu turned it from nigh-unbearable to merely extremely painful. Still enough to make her clench her eyes and grind her teeth together, but not so much she wanted to throw a fireball at whoever thought this was a good idea. Hagoromo merely watched, he had nothing which could aid Kurama's passing into the seal. Then, as quickly as it began, it was over. "Kurama, you good?"

"I SHOULD BE ASKING THAT QUESTION!" Akari jumped slightly at Kurama's loud, furious voice. "I swear, I want to punch my father in the face right now for not warning us." Smiling, Akari brushed a hand against the seal on her arm. It was...good to have his voice back. Losing him, even for only ten or so minutes...it made her feel so alone.

"Well...I'm happy to have you back boo." He chuffed, though Akari knew he probably had a blush on his face...if a fox could blush that was. "Hey, you want to come out, see whether your familiar form still works?" Kurama did so, poofing into existence as the familiar one-tailed fox form. "Awesome, glad that feature works, I wasn't sure if the other sections of the seal with render it useless."

As Kurama hopped up her arm then onto her shoulders, she turned to face Hagoromo. "Well, I suppose this is goodbye. My mother cannot threaten this world again, and I can finally rest. I would ask you not summon me again unless in grave need." As he spoke, Hagoromo's hands began disappearing, the man willingly de-summoning himself rather than Akari dismissing him. "And please, look after each other." With a smile, she reached an arm up for Kurama to headbutt, giving his fur a tousle.

"We will...I promise."

Phew.

That...was both incredibly fun, and super-daunting to write! I know it might feel a little rushed, but...I wrote over seven and a half thousand words in 24 hours, gimme a break.

...Nah just kidding boos, I loved every moment. Kiyo is adorable, Kurama is an awesome fur-baby, I feel like Hagoromo's interactions with Akari suited him, Asura is cool and so is Hamura, and just...the way things were handled, I think at least, were acceptable. Akari hasn't checked her notifications yet so no exp, yadda yadda.

There'll be a few more chapters, possibly even only one or two, and then...that's it, the end, finite. Akari will start going to other places, so please, do go and vote on the poll, it's at the top of my profile. Right now, one Universe is winning by a colossal margin, so better get voting!

Today's recommendation is Playing Our Roles by The Grim Blade. It's a story of a man who takes over Roman Torchwick's body five years before Canon, alongside having the power of the Gamer. Hijinks ensue. My only problems with it are that it only releases a chapter once a month, and those chapters are often shorter than mine! But hey, it's still awesome!

Hope you enjoyed!

(Extra: As a warning, Chapter 55 is going to be far, far shorter than this, to the tune of sub-2000 words. I just...didn't have any nice way to end the story, so I want to ask. Would you boos rather I call this complete here and now, or upload the Chapter 55 I currently have and have that be the final chapter? because I feel like the final words Akari spoke were a nice, sweet ending, but it doesn't tie anything off. Then again, the way I tie off the story in 55 kinda sucks anyway.)

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 149

Age: 17?

Experience: 83,888/149,000

To Next Level: 65,112

Title: Sannin-slayer - Defeating one of the three legendary sannin is no easy feat, but you managed it. Future opportunities unlocked.

Secondary Title: Jonin - +25% Experience gained working with Genin

Health Points: 303,000 - ((100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 10) x 3

Regeneration Rate - 20,000/m - 333.33/s - (Vit x End) x 2

Chakra Points: 599,625 - (((100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 10) x 1.5) x 3

Regeneration Rate - 26,450/m - 440.83/s - (Int x Wis) x 2

Strength - 100

Vitality - 100

Endurance - 100

Intelligence - 115

Agility - 400

Wisdom - 115

Luck - 100