Dust and Ashes
Against all odds, we had yet to die. It had honestly come as a surprise to all of us, and even Madara seemed rather shocked over the fact that we were not only still breathing but still fighting. In fact, our latest combo attack had forced Madara into defence, allowing Itachi and I to continue our aggressive offence. Our primary goal being to ruin Madara's Susanoo, allowing us a few seconds to seal him away before he managed to reactivate it. Though, judging by Madara's now smirking expression, we still had a long way to go.
"I'm impressed. It seems there're still capable nins in this world. Still, two against one is a bit unfair, maybe I should even it out." Madara stated before forming a sole Shadow Clone. 'Of course he has enough chakra to create a Shadow Clone with a Susanoo and still smirk arrogantly…' I groaned mentally. Madara didn't give me much time to do so before attacking me harshly, and with no Itachi to back me up, the battle went from feeling hard to completely hopeless.
Akira shivered in exhaustion as she killed yet another missing nin. The match was slowly tearing her down and she knew that if they didn't find a way to end this quickly, neither would be able to get out in time to avoid the explosion. Konoha didn't need any more losses. She saw the nin, who appeared to be the leader, working on some sort of seal next to the door. 'Fuck, if he's capable with seals he might be able to contain the Amaterasu and get them out. We need a final strong attack!' Akira realized with a deep frown. She knew Itachi had his Yasaka Beads which could take out all of them if they could gather at one point. 'That means I'll have to play bait, but they won't go against me with a full-blown defence. The Susanoo will have to go.'
Akira scanned the remaining opponents, it was only about fourty left, but it would be disastrous should even one survive. With the leader working on a seal that might be able to disable the Amaterasu, they could risk hoping that their current plan would take them out. Plan Chi was their absolute last resort and they had no code for what Akira needed to do. Not to mention that Akira knew that Itachi would never fire if it would risk her life and she would need ten seconds to recharge enough chakra to reactivate her Susanoo. Still, she knew what she had to do.
"Formation X!" She yelled to Itachi and dropped her Susanoo, narrowly avoiding a Kunai flying towards her.
"Tachi! Formation X!" I yelled at my friend, trying desperately to push Madara back. I knew it was a stupid plan. An idiotic one in fact, bordering suicidal. But desperate situations call for desperate measures.
"Don't you dare!" Itachi shouted back at me, his eyes blazing with worry.
"We don't have a choice." I shot back and took blocked yet another of Madara's attacks. "It's this or we just give up."
"Then let's switch." Itachi's voice was strained from the power he used to block the Shadow Clone attacking him.
"For the sake of Kami can you two drop your sibling squabble?" Madara stated with an annoyed frown on his face. He looked much like a frustrated teacher trying to shut up two students rather than a Shinobi in the middle of a fight. 'Okay, that is seriously annoying when I'm standing here and figuratively dying.'
"Yeah Tachi! Listen to your ancestor!" I snapped and took a backflip away from Madara to create more space, my Susanoo disappearing the second I landed.
"Wow, taking away your Susanoo and you look very much like an ant ready to be squeezed." Madara stated coldly and shot towards me.
Akira used the closed missing nin as springboard and took a flip over most of the enemies, closing in on the leader of the missing nins. She proceeded to adjust her grip on her tanto and slaughter her way through the nins and over to the leader. With her Susanoo gone, all of the remaining missing nins took their shot at attacking her. 'Six seconds.' Akira mentally counted and started a complicated dance of attacks and evasions. She saw Itachi readying his attack and knew it would be a close call. Still, all she needed to do was avoid getting killed for the next four seconds and reactivate her Susanoo at the exact same time as Itachi fired and then kill those who survived by hiding behind her. 'Totally going to be alright!'
3
2
1
"Now!" Akira yelled and reached for her chakra just as the beam of light shot towards her.
"NO!"
I barely managed to dodge Madara's Susanoo fist swinging towards me and started running over to Itachi and the Shadow Clone he was fighting. 'Ten seconds.' I mentally counted as Madara's Shadow Clone also spun around to attack me. Itachi used the distraction to ready his Yasaka Beads. '3 seconds.'
Everything was happening so quickly, one second, I was blocking Madara's fire jutsu with a water jutsu, the next thing I knew, I was reactivating my Susanoo and combining my Amaterasu Arrow in combination with Itachi's Yasaka Beads, effectively breaking apart the back of Madara's Susanoo and forcing him to release it so that he could reactivate it again whole.
"Ten!" I yelled to Itachi and quickly blocked Madara's Shadow Clone, who of course still had his Susanoo active. While I was dancing around with the Shadow Clone, trying desperately to avoid his attacks without wasting chakra, Itachi was trying to pierce Madara with the Sword of Totsuka. From the looks of it, he was having a hard time. 'I need to keep him distracted, but how can I do that while fighting off this stupid Shadow Clone?' I mentally groaned. I scanned the Shadow Clone and suddenly got an idea. 'This will either allow us to win this fight or make us lose embarrassingly.'
Akira's eyes fluttered weakly, though the thirteen-year-old still had a hard time making out her surroundings. The world was blurry and dark. She shivered weakly from the cold, her entire body screaming in protest at the movement. Slowly but surely, her view bettered, and she was able to make out the woods surrounding her. With a groan, she used her elbows to push herself up slightly to scan the area around her. Like any Shinobi, her first instinct was to scan for possible enemies. She cursed herself for the noise she made, knowing fully well that if any enemies had been around her, they probably would have noticed her by now. Just as she managed to get herself up into a sitting position, a hand grabbed her shoulder and a person she quickly recognized as Itachi sat down in front of her.
"You're a bloody idiot." He hissed and pulled her into a tight hug. "The Susanoo blocked the worst of my attack, but it gave out all too quickly. How could you do something so stupid?"
"It worked, didn't it?" Akira asked, her voice cracking slightly.
"Yeah, the mission was a success." Itachi muttered, and Akira could almost feel him rolling his eyes at her.
"Then it was brilliant! Much like my ever-awesome self." Akira insisted, earning a sound from Itachi that sounded something between a sob and a chuckle.
"You're a moron." He stated half-heartedly. "Please never do anything like that again. You're not allowed to die on me."
"Yeah, yeah… I promise to fight awesomely in the future as well" Akira smiled slightly, hoping that she had at least cheered him up slightly.
"Somehow that worries me even more."
"Oh do shut up…"
I concentrated my chakra and created a Shadow Clone, sending a quick prayer to Kami and jumping out of the Susanoo, hoping that my Shadow Clone could keep it up. It wasn't something I had tested before, and I assumed I would only have a few seconds at most before the Susanoo faded and Madara's Shadow Clone started attacking me. But I would take the seconds I could get. It wasn't like I had much of a choice anyways. Quickly, I unsealed my spare tanto and jumped into action. With both Itachi and I fighting together again, Madara was having a harder time avoiding all of our strikes. '7 seconds left.' I mentally counted. I knew that if we were going to win, we had to do so within the next 7 seconds. With that resolve I pushed harder. Unlike earlier, Madara seemed easier to fight. Or rather, I was able to understand his fighting style and take that into consideration when fighting. Itachi and I were now fighting perfectly synchronized, each attack strengthening and preparing for the next. '2 seconds.'
For a few brilliant seconds the world was perfect. I wasn't sure exactly how it all happened, but somehow Itachi was able to stab Madara with one second left to spare. We had looked at each other in both shock and pride. With Madara sealed, only Obito and the Jubi remained. For those brilliant seconds, I was sure that everything was going to work out perfectly. The world made sense again. I had my brothers, I had my boyfriend, all of my friends and could see a future in the light. A world no longer covered in darkness. With the real Madara being sealed away, his Shadow Clone vanished as well. It was strange and seemed impossible. But somehow, we had done it. We had managed to beat the man the Kages themselves had failed to beat and had done so without obtaining any critical injuries. Only we hadn't. With the combination of adrenaline and shock I had failed to notice. It was rather ironic. One would think that it would be hard not to notice. But somehow, I didn't. At least not for a few glorious seconds. The first alarm that something was wrong was Itachi's lips moving into a shocked cry I could barely hear. The world was slowly fading as I collapsed onto my hands and knees. I looked down hesitantly, feeling that something was wrong. We had defeated Madara, but he had left me a final gift. The final gift of my Nii-san's tanto piercing my stomach.
AN:
Heyyyy! So, I've been gone for like a month? Though on the bright side, I just finished my last exams! Which is great! As you can probably tell from this chapter, I'm almost done with the fanfiction. I hope you guys liked the chapter! Not quite sure I did ahah… Anyways, I'll probably be out with the last chapter next week and the epilogue the week after that, so I hope you look forward to it :))))
