The Super Bowl's on today I suppose.
Nothing else to report.
Without further ado, GME to the moon? Or am I too late on that one?
Chapter 80: Twice Departed
Standing in the Hokage's office after finally making his way back into the Leaf Village (and making a quick pit stop back at his house to drop off his things, including his brand-new cloak), Naruto hadn't exactly thought that the day would be easy, but at the same time, he'd sort of been hoping for a more laid-back return, one that wouldn't test him quite so suddenly on what he'd learned, and would give him a few more days to practice and otherwise relax on his own. Instead…
"You want us to do what!?"
Tsunade, to her credit, gave a mild smile in response to his more energetic exclamation.
"I said I want the two of you to be my guardians for the upcoming Five Kage Summit."
He couldn't wrap his head around that, and so he tagged Sasuke in by tapping the boy on the shoulder. For a moment, his best friend seemed to wonder what it was he was supposed to actually do, but he sighed and took a step forward after a few back-and-forth gestures.
"If I may, Lady Tsunade, why would you request that two of us when you have far more experienced ninja under your command?" He asked simply. "For example, why not take Shizune?"
"Well, as things are, she's too busy to attend. She and a few others are working on mapping out all of Orochimaru's remaining active bases in the Land of Fire, which, as you might imagine, is a rather time-consuming process. Shizune herself is out of the Village, and likely will be for the foreseeable future. Normally, I would turn to people like Kakashi for this, but as you know, he's not here, either." The woman looked up at them with an almost absent smile. "And so… For lack of any better options, I come to the two of you."
Naruto found himself satisfied by that answer, but Sasuke didn't seem to be having it.
"I might buy that if people like Kurenai and Asuma weren't still in the Village, or even people like Genma or Raidō. As things are, however all four of them are present and accounted for. You should have no issue gathering an effective guard. So why us?"
Tsunade smirked.
"Because I consider the two of you stronger than all four of them."
Naruto wasn't alone in having his eyes bulge in their sockets. Sasuke just beside him gave a very similar reaction, one which caused the Hokage in front of them to laugh lightly.
"Not all four put together, mind you, they'd defeat the two of you with time if that were the case, but I believe that with your latent teamwork, I could take any pair of those four and match them against the two of you…" She pointed towards them. "And you would win."
"You… Actually mean that." Naruto found himself muttering.
The woman shrugged with a slightly apologetic look on her face.
"Well, maybe not Asuma and Kurenai, but even if you couldn't beat them, it'd be close."
"Oi, granny, don't kill your own compliment!"
"Call me granny one more time, and we'll see what ends up 'killed'."
He scowled, crossing his arms as Sasuke gave a small breath of mirth.
"Anyways, getting back on topic, Naruto, how did your training go?" Tsunade asked him rather casually. "Did you make any progress with Sage Mode?"
He scratched the back of his neck, wondering how to word this. "Well… about that…"
"You don't have to be embarrassed if you didn't make any progress, Naruto." The woman smiled at him reassuringly. "You only had a week, after all. That's hardly any time to be practicing a technique."
"Actually, granny…" He smirked rather pridefully. "I fully mastered Sage Mode."
Both Sasuke and Tsunade shot him rather odd looks at that.
"What do you mean you mastered it?" Tsunade asked curiously. "Do you mean you can hold it for a longer period of time now?"
"Well, uhm, I don't really know the limits of my own ability at the moment, but during training, I was able to hold both the Nine-Tails and Senjutsu chakra inside myself simultaneously, while indefinitely holding my Sage Mode transformation. Granted, I was completely still the entire time, but… that old geezer toad said I had achieved 'Tranquility of the Self'."
But of the other people in the room stared at him rather dumbfoundedly. He coughed a single time, trying to dispel the awkward atmosphere.
Nothing really happened.
"Naruto… You… Are you serious?" Tsunade inquired.
"Uh… yeah? Why would I be lying?"
She shook her head, even as Sasuke's face took on a miniscule smile, one filled with pride, but also just the smallest bit of envy. For perhaps the first time in their lives, Naruto felt he'd truly surpassed his best friend. And it seemed the boy opposite him thought so as well.
"In that case, I take it back."
She looked up at them again.
"You two could beat the four of them."
She reached down under her desk and pulled out a manilla folder, placing it atop it. Naruto was a bit surprised to find that he actually recognized it. It was the folder detailing his preliminary promotion to Jonin that they'd all received just after their trips to the Sand.
"What's this for?"
"To make it official." Tsunade said with a voice that shone with pride. "To give you the rank of Jonin in the Village Hidden in the Leaves." She smiled broadly at him as his heart skipped a beat. "I do believe, as a master of Sage Mode, you've earned that much, at least."
He stood there clumsily for a moment, not really sure what to do with himself, but it was Sasuke elbowing him in the arm that caused him to finally move.
"Go on, Naruto." His friend uttered with a tiny smile. "Congrats, and all that."
He found himself smiling a bit dopily as he walked forward, took up the pen on Tsunade's desk, and signed his name where it was indicated for him to do so. As he pulled away, Tsunade took the sheet of paper, detailing a promotion to Jonin, and slid it into what he imagined was his personal personnel folder.
"Well then, I suppose that takes care of the last little piece of difficulty we might have encountered. I don't think there's ever been a guard to one of the Kage's present at the summit that wasn't a Jonin. Now, at least we can upkeep that tradition."
Naruto tilted his head. "Couldn't you have just given me a ceremonial rank-up?"
"Well, yes, that was the plan for today anyways, and honestly, you'd already earned it, even without Sage Mode, but don't you agree that it's nice to have really earned it?."
"Uh… No?" Naruto tilted his head. "I was pretty sure I'd already done more than enough."
Tsunade momentarily paused.
"Semantics."
"What, how is it-"
Suddenly, Naruto sensed something on the edge of his consciousness, and he could tell by the way the other two in the room turned towards the door at the same time as he did that they had as well.
He stepped towards the door cautiously, and thrust it open without delay, allowing the three figures who'd been leaning against it to spill into the room. He didn't recognize any of them immediately, but judging by Sasuke quiet sigh, he did.
"Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon…" His best friend muttered under his breath, staring at the three children with a judgmental look. "I don't suppose you want to tell me what you're doing here? Better yet, how'd you even get in here in the first place?"
The three peered up at Sasuke slowly and guiltily, very clearly aware that what they'd done, eavesdropping on one of the Hokage's conversations, was probably technically a crime.
"We asked nicely–" The spiky-haired one spoke up, before being whacked by the girl just off to his side. "– Er, I mean – We snuck by the guards!"
Tsunade let out a groan of exasperation, even as Sasuke gave a rather long "Riiiight."
Naruto walked forward and grabbed the boy by the blue scarf wrapped around his neck and shoulders. Konohamaru (or at least, he was pretty sure this was Konohamaru) complained rather animatedly as he dragged him up to his feet, but he mostly ignored the boys protests as he turned towards Sasuke.
"Who are these guys?"
Sasuke ran a hand down his face in beleaguerment.
"'Those guys'… Would be my Genin team." His best friend sighed as he pointed towards each of them as he said their names. "Moegi Kazamatsuri," He pointed to the girl with her hair stuck up. "Udon Ise," The sniveling one who looked the sorriest. "And Konohamaru Sarutobi." The boy he was currently holding by the scarf.
And… Wait, he recognized that last name.
"Are you related to the Third Hokage?" He asked the young boy as he let him go, allowing him to move freely once again.
Despite the words only being out of his mouth for around a second, he realized he'd made a mistake in saying then when both Sasuke and Tsunade winced simultaneously.
"Yeah, he was my grandfather…" The boy looked up at him with a fury in his gaze. "What's it to you?"
He could tell immediately this was probably not a topic we wanted to be breaching and backpedaled away from it as quick as he could, holding up his hands in as clear indication of surrender as he could give.
"Sorry, wasn't trying to pry."
Konohamaru opened his mouth, looking like he might say something else, but a hand on his shoulder from one of the other kids, and the both of them shaking their heads 'no' when he turned to look, seemed to calm him down enough for him to let out a near-silent "s'Fine."
Tsunade cleared her threat from the back of the room, and everyone turned towards the Hokage herself.
"Even so, I'll have to ask the three of you to leave. This is not a conversation you have any reason to be involved in. Why don't you go and–"
"Hey, c'mon!" Konohamaru interrupted the Hokage, which not even Naruto was foolish enough to do. "We've had a Jonin sensei for a month, but we've only actually gotten lessons from him for like a week! You keep stealing him away from us before we can actually learn anything!"
Tsunade, far from looking self-assured, or having a good excuse for that, instead coughed awkwardly, as if feeling a bit bad.
"Yes, well, admittedly, it was a rather poor time to assign him to the three of you, but we had no way of knowing at the time that his services would be required out of the Leaf Village so soon after having been made a Jonin."
Konohamaru nodded. "That was that stuff in the Waterfall, right?"
Tsunade's brow creased. "How'd you hear about that?"
The three kids looked to each other with panic for moment, before they seemed to settle on a shared excuse.
"It's a mystery!" They said simultaneously.
Tsunade let out a loud groan of annoyance, and while Naruto was right there with her, Sasuke had the tiniest smirk on his face, as if he knew the truth of their words, and found their fake answer rather amusing.
"I suppose it doesn't matter how you obtained that information, but what exactly do you want me to do about your little predicament?" Tsunade eyed them curiously. "It's not like you can be brought along. This is a rather important diplomatic mission, after all."
Naruto could see the sense in that, but the last thing he'd expected was for Sasuke to raise objection.
"Actually, why don't we bring them along?"
Tsunade seemed stunned that Sasuke would even suggest such a thing.
"You're planning on bringing three newly-minted Genin to one of the most crucial Five Kage Summits of this era… Seriously?"
Sasuke nodded, seeming completely serious.
"I didn't mean to imply that they would be there for the meeting, rather, I meant to bring them along for the journey itself, so that I could teach them while we were on our way to the Land of Iron. Besides, they could certainly use some real-world knowledge of how ninjas operate in the field. It might not have made for the best first C-ranked mission, but our trip to the Wave was vital to our development as a team."
Tsunade shook her head, as if flabbergasted she was even humoring this.
"Be that as it may, what do you actually plan on doing with them once the summit itself begins?"
"I figured we'd leave them to some of the guardians of the Land of Iron. It's not as if every samurai is going to be in attendance for the meeting, despite them being present in the building, correct? They could watch them once things actually pick up."
"Samurai?" Naruto asked. "What're they?"
"Not the time, Naruto," Tsunade sighed out as she pinched her brow. "Sasuke, you do realize this is entirely unprecedented, correct? The Leaf Village would be the laughingstock of the other nations if this got out."
Sasuke looked at her a bit funnily.
"They'd look down on us for… Training our Genin well?"
"Okay, admittedly, that was kind of a weak excuse." The woman sighed. "If they got into trouble on the road, there'd be no where to take them."
Sasuke shook his head lightly. "You're… the medic, aren't you? Not to mention I myself have healing abilities, although not quite to the same degree. Besides, don't I need the leadership experience? Or I believe that was how you worded it when you assigned them to me, anyhow."
Tsunade glared at him, though Sasuke answered her look with a completely straight face. The two warred with one another (though, really, Sasuke still looked entirely calm) for another few seconds, before Tsunade let out a gasping breath.
"Alright, fine! They can come!" She finally relented, though she looked incredibly serious as she stared up at Sasuke a moment later, though the severity of said moment was undercut by the loud cheering from the peanut gallery. "But you're in charge of them. If they misbehave, it's your head, got it?"
Sasuke bowed his head, even as the children in the back started fervently discussing their plans. "Understood, ma'am."
Naruto shook his head in exasperation as he stared at his best friend, even as Tsunade shushed the three students who kept making a racket.
"So, let me get this straight." He opened, curious to see what the boys response would be if he laid what had just happened in front of him. "You just signed yourself up for an entire week, or more, of being entirely alone with those three while eating, sleeping, and camping out in the wilderness… and having to teach them useful life advice about being a ninja the entire time?"
Sasuke, as if possessing a diabolical plan he was finally able to unveil, turned to him with a tiny, smug smile.
"Hey so… remember that bet we made? Whoever got to Jonin first got something out of the others?"
"Uhm… yeah? Why?"
"Guess who's cashing in his favor?"
Naruto realized his mistake far too late to do anything about it.
"…I hate you."
/-/
Kakashi held his hand up in front of him, a common signal that meant 'stop', and the three figures following along behind him obliged, not moving a single muscle as he peeked over the log he'd hid behind.
Below him, sleeping in a clearing after having presumably traveled for days on end without rest, was a member of the Akatsuki. Behind them, wrapped in a paper the same color as the leaves of the forest surrounding them all, the massive, looming body of the three-tailed beast stood encased.
Which would make their opponent Konan.
Pakkun, who had guided them this far, gave him a quick nod as Kakashi threw him a dog treat, and dispersed into white smoke. He turned back towards the clearing and motioned for both Tenzo and Anko to move forward.
The two placed their hands on the ground. From out of Tenzo hands came roots and branches that pierced into the earth, and from out of Anko's sleeves came writhing snakes, which slithered across the ground and into the nearby shrubbery. He waited patiently for a good four or five minutes as the two scanned the surrounding area for threats or traps.
Finally, when the two's different tools of investigation came back to them, they turned to him and reported their findings.
"There's a pretty simple ring of paper bombs surrounding this place. They point both inwards and outwards. They're all rather well hidden, but there's a release point at about 60 degrees right, we can get around them."
Kakashi nodded. "That'll be our plan. I'd rather not alert her that we're here if at all possible. Where's our route?"
The two pointed him towards a small piece of shrubbery that blended in rather well with the rest of the clearing. It looked innocuous enough, which was perhaps why Konan had chosen it to make it her escape point, if she were to need one.
Simply put, it wasn't always feasible to imagine that she'd have the time to deactivate the paper bomb line protecting her flanks. If someone got in in a hurry, then she'd be in as risky a position as they would be if she'd truly locked herself in. Thus, she'd made a small hole in her formation, one that theoretically only she knew the location of.
But it was a common enough tactic that they'd learn to look for it in times like these, and so Kakashi found himself stepping over the bush, and inside the ring of explosives. Behind him, the other three filed in as well. It was a risky venture, for if they made a mistake, they'd likely be blown to smithereens. Still, the four of them were some of the best of the best the Leaf Village had to offer. He knew there'd be no error.
He motioned for Tenzo to move in first and gave a signal that called for a silent kill. The man didn't hesitate, placing his hands as softly on the ground as he possibly could, and letting earth and water chakra flow through them.
Two wooden beams, each about as wide as tree stumps, rose up from out of the earth on opposite ends of Konan's head. All it would take was another second, and they would crush her skull like a watermelon.
Before they could, however, Kakashi felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and he motioned for all four of them to jump backwards. Just in time, too, for a fireball engulfed the space they'd been standing in just moments prior. Unfortunately, the noise of that flame hitting the earth was enough to wake the sleeping agent, and she shot up and into a fighting pose likely before she was even fully conscious.
Though perhaps the worst thing was the assailant who'd just arrived.
"Kakashi…" Tobi spoke casually, as if addressing an old friend. "Been a while, hasn't it? What, three years?"
He bit down on his bottom lip, even as his Allies came up behind him and reinforced his position.
How long had he been training for this reunion? Nearly that entire length of time? His efforts in training Sasuke, his near-suicidal excursion to spy on the Akatsuki, his frequent trips to the memorial stone while in the Village, not to speak to the departed, but simply to see if the man in front of him would rear his ugly head once more.
And now… now he was right in front of him.
This was it. It had to be. He could let this ghost of his past torment him no longer. He would end it here. He would slay Tobi… and free himself from the grip the man held over him.
"I…" Kakashi shook his head, doing his best to shelve his personal feelings for the time-being. "I suppose it has."
"Tobi?" Konan sounded a bit confused as she stepped up beside her ally. "What are you doing here?"
"You were taking your sweet time getting back to base. I figured that I could utilize Kamui to get the Three-Tails back in short order." At the reveal of the man's own Sharingan's power, named exactly the same as his own, Kakashi could only grind his teeth together as yet another piece of evidence was added to the pile, pointing towards an inevitable conclusion. "We cannot afford any more delays, not now."
Kakashi, and every other member of their small force, took a step forward.
"You're not going anywhere." He assured the two. "We'll annihilate you both."
Tobi turned towards their group, though he stared directly at Kakashi himself, with an air of what seemed to be intrigue hanging around him.
"Oh? How interesting. Then how about this…"
He turned, and, with nary a motion, activated his Kamui. Tenzo and Anko both fired off Jutsu to try and disrupt the ability, but Konan was faster, and even Guy's Dynamic Entry was nearly matched by a pack of paper bombs. Luckily, the man was able to dodge down just in time for them to sail over his head, and impact against a tree just behind him.
The resulting explosion was enough to set the forest around them on fire, and catch the remaining paper bonds, those that Konan had set up as a perimeter, in the ensuing flames as well. They, too, fired off, and in little time at all, their little battleground was entirely engulfed in a hellish inferno, one which lit them all up in hues of oranges and yellows.
As he finished absorbing the Three-Tails into his eye, Tobi turned to them with an almost challenging laugh, one which was only accentuated as he cracked his knuckles.
"Try and stop me."
/-/
Naruto wasn't sure if he'd admit to it if he were ever asked, but as he opened the door to his apartment, beginning to pack up his things for the journey ahead, he still couldn't help feeling like he wasn't doing enough.
Surely, attending the Five Kage Summit was an honor, one the likes of which only a handful of ninja would ever get to experience in their lifetimes. But even still… He would have traded it away to be where Kakashi was right now, in the thick of the fight, genuinely helping in their war against the Akatsuki.
What was he going to do? Stand beside Tsunade and look scary? What was the point in that?
He sighed as he threw the last of his jackets into his pack and slung the thing across his back. It was heavy, sure, but certainly nothing to really be thought about. Honestly, it was a welcome distraction from the thousand other things he really should've been thinking about.
It was as he was making his way out of his room, however, that he accidentally kicked a cupboard by his bed, the same place where he'd stored his cloak from earlier. He wouldn't be needing that, it wasn't like he was headed off into battle, and so he reached down to close the small door.
But he saw something he hadn't remembered putting there, hiding underneath a few other trinkets… Well, at least not until he thought about it a bit harder.
It was his Chuunin Vest… The one given to him just after they'd gotten back from the Sound Village.
There it was, silently resting, having not been touched for over three years. The person he'd been when he'd received it… The Naruto of back then felt like a dream, something he'd fabricated. There was no way he'd been that childish, that foolish all that time ago.
And yet… He had the memories, didn't he?
There was no denying that Naruto, the one he'd been before, like the one he was now, truly existed. Maybe the way he was thinking about himself now was a piece or part of the 'Tranquility of the Self' he'd gained from training at Mt. Myoboku, but… even with that…
He still didn't feel worthy of it.
But it was less so that at this point. He'd attained an understanding of himself that very few could claim to hold. Within it was a knowledge that was a bit disconcerting.
He'd never be satisfied with himself if he held himself to a standard that was beyond what was possible. And right now, as he was…
He was about as close as he could get to that metaphorical feeling of satisfaction.
Mastering Sage Mode, achieving something that very few had ever accomplished in the history of the world… Was that not worthy of being a damned Chuunin? Hell, he was a Jonin now. He had every right to don the vest within his cupboard and face the world…
And yet, even so, he closed the cupboard door, and walked out of his apartment.
Not enough.
Not yet.
/-/
"It's time."
Sakura was up and out of her bed before she was even really awake. She turned to the doorway to see that Itachi had already taken out both of the guards there, and likely every other guard in the prison complex.
None of them looked dead, which wasn't too much of a shock, but what had her surprised was mainly the fact that they were up and walking about. They seemed entirely indifferent to the fact that he opened the door to her cell rather brazenly and allowed her to step out into the open air of the rest of the compound.
"You… put them under a Genjutsu?" she asked as she stepped to the side and allowed Itachi to close the cell door behind her.
He nodded rather nonchalantly, as if what he'd just done was no big feat at all. "They should awaken in roughly an hour, but I've specially programmed the guards in front of your door to think that you're still in there."
She stared at him a bit dumbfoundedly.
"And I suppose you think nothing about that is impressive?"
He glanced at her oddly. "Not particularly. Why?"
"Nothing." She sighed, dealing with a true genius more annyoing than she'd thought it'd be. "Let's just go."
At that, at least, Itachi seemed in agreement.
They trekked through the base quickly, though Sakura would admit rather easily that she was more or less blindly following Itachi. She had no real clue where the winding hallways he was leading her through led to, and all she could do was hope that this wasn't some elaborate trick.
Not like she could do anything about if it were, but still.
As they pulled into a room adjacent to the main hallway, she came face to face with a figure she hadn't been expecting, and drew her weapon – a kunai that Itachi had provided her with – into her right hand.
Before she could do anything more, however, Itachi raised his own hand in front of her, stopping her for moving on the target, and the way the other man in the room let out a quiet breath as he stepped forward had her reassessing the situation. As he stepped into the light, she lowered her blade, sighing out herself.
"My bad." She muttered quietly. "Couldn't tell who it was."
"No, it's fine." Kabuto gave a tiny, worried smile, evidently loaded with the energy of the day. "Hey, Sakura. Sorry about that scratch I gave you last night, I didn't mean to-"
She stopped him by holding up a hand.
"First of all, don't worry about that. Second of all, why didn't you just tell me you were with Itachi when you were working on me the last few nights? Could've spared me an awful lot of worrying when he brought it up all of a sudden last night."
"Ah, well, let's just say I wasn't quite sure where watchful eyes were lurking." The man explained. "Itachi's Genjutsu is a relative safe zone, seeing as only he and his 'victim', in this case you, can enter it. We decided pretty early on into our partnership that we'd really only communicate via Genjutsu when at all possible. We try to keep those communications to a minimum, however, as Itachi's eyes become more and more strained every time he uses them, we felt that any unnecessary information was better left unsaid, until we could discuss it in person."
She tried to wrap her head around all of that, and in the end found herself simply nodding in agreement. It seemed the right thing to do, given the circumstances, even if she wasn't all that happy about it. It certainly helped explain the change in his character.
"Alright, sure, I'll buy it. For now, what's our plan?"
"We're getting you, and as many of the Jinchuuriki as we can, out." Kabuto began speaking as Itachi checked the hallway just outside, before waving them all forward. "The vast majority only just arrived today or the day before, and since so many members are still absent, bringing the last few back in, there's been no start on sapping out their Tailed Beasts. They should all still be alive and unharmed. For now, we keep a low profile, and hope to get out with all of them."
"And if that doesn't work?" She asked as they rounded a corner.
"If that fails, then plan B is to sow as much chaos as possible, while getting as many Tailed-Beasts out as possible. If they find us out, the rest of the base will go on alert immediately, so at that point, staying on the down low would only be a hindrance. The great nations, mainly the Sand and the Leaf, will come here in time. We simply have to hope that when they arrive, they'll be able to save those that we had to leave behind, and stop Tobi's scheme before it can be completed."
Sakura could sort of see where they were coming from there.
"And if something goes wrong?"
Itachi smirked. "The planning type?"
"I just want to know what we're up against here."
"Fair." He acknowledged. "Plan C is to get out as quickly as possible. If they know… and they might, then we need to disappear. The Akatsuki are not the types of people we can deal with on our own, even with my strength."
She nodded, as did Kabuto, more than agreeing with his assessment as the man pushed open a door that led to a set of stairs, which they quickly descended. At the bottom, he pushed open another door, and Sakura was left wondering just why the room that they'd entered into…
Was entirely empty.
She looked to both Itachi and Kabuto, who seemed rather concerned.
"Where… are the Jinchuuriki." Kabuto muttered under his breath. "Just this morning they were being stored here."
"I'm afraid they've already been moved to a more… secure location."
All three of them turned towards the sound of the new voice, and Sakura herself bit down on her bottom lip as she saw the seven figures approaching them.
"Rest assured, we'll take awfully good care of them." Black Zetsu rasped. "Still, I must say, I still find myself rather surprised. To think Itachi Uchiha of all people of would betray the Akatsuki. Kabuto seemed obvious the moment he joined, but you… hah, I can't say I'd have predicted that one."
"How long have you known?" Itachi asked calmly, showing no hint of fear.
"Since the two of you formed your little alliance. Let's just say I was a fly on the wall for that conversation and leave it at that."
Kabuto clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth.
"It matters not when you decided to betray the Akatsuki. Only that you did." Pain said as he, and all five of his forms, one of which looked strikingly familiar, a thought she'd have to save for later, stepped forward. "You will pay for that with your lives."
Instead of responding to that, Itachi spared her a glance. Whenever he saw there was apparently enough for him, for he looked to Kabuto a moment later.
"Sakura, get ready for combat." He said to her, and she did just that. "Kabuto, we'll take route four on our way out. If anything obstructs that, then six."
"Got it. I'll take Black Zetsu. Do you and Sakura have Pain?"
Itachi hummed in acknowledgement, not even getting her okay (which quite frankly felt unfair, given she was fairly sure she very much did not have Pain) before turning back towards their opponents. The look in his eyes had not changed, it was almost apathy, but seemingly just couldn't manage to be quite that…
As if the person beside her cared so much to the point that he, an S-ranked mass-murderer, could not even fully disguise it.
"Barrel through them on our way out of here, but don't worry about taking them down. I'm fairly certain neither of them can be killed."
Sakura could only swallow nervously on nothing as she brought about her evolved state and began to channel chakra through her limbs.
Well then… Sakura thought to herself as the three of them charged forward, and their assailants did the same.
Seems like Plan C it is.
End Chapter 80
Alright, Final week of double-spaced chapters! From then on, we should be all guns blazing to the end of this story with our old weekly schedule! Probably around... 15 chapters of this story left til it ends? That sounds about right. Could be more, could be less, but I've at least got the ending in my head, so that's good.
See you all in two weeks!
