THE END WAR – NARUTO'S STUDENTS

The Imperial Palace

Sarada and her father are doing their best, but for Sasuke it is becoming clearer each moment that they cannot win like this. Even his most powerful illusions are becoming less effective against Erik. Previously the image of Naruto reliably scared the King of Cheqitori, but that is no longer working. Erik is a man who has been trained for battle his entire life. He was brought up as part of the legendary Hertz clan, though the majority of his clanmates have clearly rebelled against him. In the Hertz clan the expectation is that you will either become a great warrior or a great seer. He may not be the strongest of the royals, but he is one of them. He is the mightiest warrior the clan has ever produced.

Sasuke's strikes are becoming more erratic. Even a man with his remarkable discipline and focus can only go for so long. He is unsure whether these strike exchanges are to his benefit. Now they seem to be the only way he can land any offense against the king but doing so means that Erik will strike him back too. Sasuke is definitely the more skilled of the two warriors, but even his vast experience as a shinobi cannot make up for the power difference between him and a royal. He wishes that his rage was enough, but it is not. For a class 8 to defeat a class 9 is just too difficult.

Sarada's luck isn't much better. Her tier 3 'creation' powers allow her to 'create' gasses. She has knowledge of many different gasses. Poisonous gasses, gasses that burn, gasses that put her opponent to sleep, none of them are effective against the Noble King. They all require time to use, time that she doesn't have when fighting an opponent this quick. Her Rinnegan's unique powers also work against her. Her unique powers are based on cosmic effects, meaning that with his golden 'cosmic' energy Erik is the perfect opponent to counter them. Rather than benefitting her, using the Rinnegan's unique powers may help Erik to understand more about the various uses of his element. It is her worst possible opponent.

Sarada 'creates' diamond restraints to bind the Noble King's feet to the floor. Sasuke arrives before Erik and uses his time-manipulated punch to land the strongest strike he can against him. He mixes this technique with the Instant Escape, striking Erik twice more. Three times. Four times! Sasuke then jumps up and kicks Erik in the chest. The king trips back to the floor. Sarada expands the diamond constraints, pressing him firmly down. Sasuke stands over the bound Erik and uses repeated time-manipulated punches, attacking Erik like a madman. He knows this may be the last chance he will have to defeat Erik, to defeat the man he blames for Sakura's death.

After many unanswered strikes Sasuke sees Erik's eyes drift slightly. The Noble King is fading! This is a chance he cannot pass up. He raises his sword high above his head and enhances it with as much golden 'spacetime' energy as he can muster. He slams the sword towards Erik with that same mad look in his eye. He tells himself that this is it. He either takes revenge for what happened to Sakura here, or he won't be taking it at all. But Erik's hand breaks free of the diamond restraints and takes hold of the sword.

Sasuke's muscles fail him. Erik gets to his feet, breaking through the tough material binding him. He walks towards Sasuke, pushing the Uchiha clansman backwards. After the third step he snatches Sasuke's sword and casts it aside. He then spots Sarada approaching from behind him in her comet form. He uses golden 'cosmic' energy to take her out of that form and then uses his Barrier divine ability to create a wall in front of her. Sarada bumps painfully into the wall at speed. Erik walks over to her, still holding Sasuke in his other hand. He then lifts her up beside her father.

"You two are pathetic," Erik says.

The Noble king throws his two opponents forward. When they are ten meters from him he creates two barriers either side of them. He then slams those barriers together, hitting the Uchiha from both sides. They each collapse to the floor exhausted. Erik's attacks have become more vicious as the fight has progressed and theirs have failed to do any significant damage to him. Sarada looks at him and grits her teeth, wishing that she had more time. She knows that if she had more time she could defeat him.

Erik talks mockingly as he walks towards them. "I have been to a few pocket-worlds in my time as a royal. I was impressed that the emperor had created them, but I was not impressed with their warriors. Even your pocket-world the strongest of them all is nothing to boast about. How many people lived in your realm compared to Homeworld? I bet there are over one-hundred-thousand times more in Homeworld.

"You have lived your lives under the impression that you are geniuses, but this moment should prove that you are wrong. You are mere class 8 warriors fighting against a royal. In this place you are strong, but you are neither of you are a genius. No, that title is reserved for class 9s, those of us who approach the very limit of what power it is possible to obtain. I hope that you take some comfort that your death came at the hands of someone who has earned that distinction. You are not a genius, I am!"

Sarada defiantly gets to her feet.

Erik gathers golden 'cosmic' energy in his hand before sending it up into the sky. With his hand raised in the air, he brings his arm downward. As he gestures a huge meteor appears in the sky, a meteor surrounded by golden 'cosmic' energy. If that hits them it will be all over. If Erik still has the energy to do that again he could devastate the rebellion by himself. Sarada whispers to herself that it is now or never and she raises her hand towards the meteor.

Sarada extends her arm quickly, shooting golden divine energy from it. The golden divine energy surrounds the meteor and after a seconds delay slices it to pieces. Erik stumbles back in fear when he looks at what is happening above. A mere class 8 warrior couldn't do that. Even a class 9 warrior with 'creation' energy shouldn't be able to do that. No, he recognises the energy that just destroyed that meteor. It was crimson.

That wasn't golden 'creation' energy.

That was golden 'destruction' energy.

Erik looks back at Sarada and realises what must have happened.

"That's impossible," Erik says.

"What's wrong?"

"Could it be… no… that cannot happen. The emperor was able to learn your element because he was a genius, but this… could it be that you learnt his element as well?"

Sarada answers Erik's question not with words but with actions. A second golden divine energy cloak activates around her, joining the golden 'creation' cloak is a golden 'destruction' cloak. Thanks to her visual prowess she was able to look at Jonas's tablet while their shared corridor was collapsing. She is now a class 9 warrior.

"It is too bad you let this happen," Sarada says. "I am the daughter of Uchiha Sasuke and the student of Uzumaki Naruto. You should have realised that I would be a genius."

Sarada mimics the method of travel that Jonas used before. She 'creates' water under her feet. She then 'creates' more water behind her while 'destroying' the water in front of her. It gives her a constant forward momentum, helping her to approach Erik faster than she could have done on foot. Unlike her comet form this is a method of travel that he cannot prevent. When Sarada arrives in front of Erik he creates a golden 'cosmic' hammer and strikes towards her with it. That is not good enough, Sarada is a genius. Sarada swings her hand out, using golden 'destruction' energy to destroy the hammer before it ever reaches her.

Erik is now panicking. He uses his divine ability to create a barrier between them. Not strong enough. Sarada uses golden 'destruction' to shatter the barrier instantly. She grabs Erik with her left hand before 'creating' a diamond gauntlet on her right. She then further enhances her right hand by adding golden 'destruction' energy to the gauntlet. She punches Erik holding back only slightly so as not to kill him. With this mighty attack, powered by two elements, she defeats Erik. In the end her skill was on a different level to his, in the end she proved to be the genius.

Erik drops to the floor. He is immobile. He is defeated.

Sasuke pushes himself up to his feet and approaches Erik and Sarada.

"You really are a genius Hokage."

"I've learnt from the best," Sarada replies. "What do you want to do with him?"

"You can't kill me," Erik says, pleading desperately. "You are Naruto's followers right? You have seen how he acts around others. You have seen him be merciful. You cannot kill me, that isn't what he would want. I could help you fight the emperor; I could tell you his weaknesses."

"The emperor has no weaknesses," Sarada says.

"I could still help you!"

Sasuke shakes his head. "I don't know what Sarada's plans are for you, but I know what is going to happen to you now. You are responsible for Sakura's death, that is not something that I can just overlook. You can appeal to Sarada's loyalty to Naruto, she is his student. But I am not Naruto's student, I am his Shadow Hokage."

"Yes and a Shadow Hokage should never—"

"What was her name?"

"Her?"

"Sarada's mother! What was her name!?"

Erik has no answer. The last thing he ever sees is the golden 'spacetime' energy pooling around Sasuke's hand. He dies with two people looking over him, the two people who approached him to avenge Haruno Sakura. In the end it was not his arrogance that cost him, nor his weakness, it was his uncaring attitude towards Sarada's fallen mother.

King Hertz Erik is dead!

Nearby, the Imperial Palace

Three brave generals stood up to the toughest enemy they could find, to King Didier of the Beast Kingdom. The first of these generals is General Alaa, the general formerly responsible for Ewoa, a master of 'sound' energy and the Berserk Switch. Alaa is joined by General Rana, the general responsible for Aturia, the land Didier hopes to become the king of, she is a master of 'space' energy and the Sonic Scream. The last is General Yasmine, the general responsible for Cheqitori, the master of 'lightning' and 'water' energy as well as the Lucky Three divine ability.

These three generals stood up to King Didier the Lion.

These three generals have made a terrible mistake.

Alaa's Berserk Switch grants him great speed and power. He uses both to enhance his movements as he tries to take the king down in a close-range fight. Close-range is Didier's speciality. Alaa has no movement fast enough, no strike strong enough, nor any shout loud enough to fight against the Beast King. It doesn't take Didier long to overwhelm the general who used to report to Mauer Sabine. Didier respects him as a man of great determination with a fighting style similar to his own but has no time for mercy on the battlefield.

General Rana is the next to fall. The Sonic Scream has proven effective against warriors on her own level in the past, but it requires only one thing from a class 9 warrior to resist it, willpower. King Didier has more willpower than any beast has had in generations. He is the Beast King who will usher in an era of peace with the humans, a golden age. Even as Rana bends the 'space' between them Didier outpaces her. He leaps at her through the air and takes her down with a single powerful strike.

The Lucky Three keeps Yasmine in the fight for longer than the others, but she is no match for King Didier. She hoped that she could turn this fight into a battle of attrition, but she cannot. There is no way to slow down the fight against someone as strong as Didier, no way to delay the inevitable defeat. When she sees him flying through the air on her final use of the Lucky Three she smiles and laughs three times. At the end she understands that she has made a poor decision. She should have realised that the rebellion was going to become strong long ago. All that is left now is to accept her fate.

But Didier stops. He doesn't finish the three of them.

Didier nods to his nearby subordinates. Laurent questions the order but Emilie insists that they listen. The two of them drag their own defeated opponents, Odion and Dodi, to join their comrades. They deposit them alongside Yasmine, the only general left standing. They look back at Didier one more time to make sure he is certain about this. He is certain, he tells them to re-join the battle and leave the five generals to him. Reluctantly Emilie and Laurent leave.

Didier speaks with the generals. "You have all done terrible things. Unlike your commander Safura you did not do them because you one day planned to betray your emperor. You did them because you were selfish. You did not consider the people you have protected in previous conflicts; you did not consider the people you pled your allegiance to. Under normal circumstances that is unforgiveable. However, while I dislike the decisions you have made I understand why you did it. You obeyed because you were afraid."

Yasmine can feel the energy building around Didier. This is his energy, 'leadership' energy. It inspires her. It doesn't just make her believe what he is saying, it makes her believe in Didier's message. She has not felt inspiration like this in a long time, not since Homeworld was under different leadership, not since the days of the old empire.

"You will not go unpunished for your actions when this war is done," Didier admits, "But you can still prove that redemption is not beyond you. This is the time to show everyone what kind of people you are. It's time to show them if the Imperial Guard protects the emperor, or if it protects the empire. More importantly than the people, you need to prove to yourselves what kind of people you are. In the future you need to look back and live with the decision you make today.

"This is the last chance you will ever get to side with the people of Homeworld again. With your help we can stop the fighting. With your help we can stop the losses from both the rebellion and the Imperial Guard. All this fighting, all this death, it benefits nobody but Furst. Work with me. Turn the Imperial Guard back into what it was always meant to be, the protectors of the empire. Convince them all to put down their weapons and make this important decision with you.

"General Alaa, General Rana, General Odion, General Yasmine, General Dodi, help us to save Homeworld. Join the rebellion!"

Nearby, the Imperial Palace

Clyde grabs his daughter's shoulder and teleports away with her, using a divine ability he inherited from Hannah's mother. He is overwhelmed by the sense of panic. He has only just met Hannah and now Max has put them in this dire situation. Clyde never knew about his divine ability, the Sensory Steal. Hannah has been blinded. With Max breathing down their neck even now how are they going to survive if she can't fight? He can teleport for a while but not indefinitely, eventually the Science King will find them. When that happens he will take Hannah for experimentation. Clyde promised Lara and Mirai that he would find Hannah, he can't let her go now.

"Are you OK?" Clyde asks.

"I can't see."

"Is your sight coming back or is it gone completely?"

"It's not coming back. I don't think it will come back until he lets it, or we kill him."

"I don't think Didier has battled any of the royals yet, maybe he can help us. If I can find him we can head towards him with teleportation. He can defeat Max for us. That way we can get your sight back."

Max arrives having caught up with the two of them. He smiles at the look on Clyde's face. Clearly the Head General of the Military understands the situation they are in. Hannah remains calm though, a quality he admires. Even now that she has lost her sight there is no sense in panicking, it will only make you weaker. That is a good instinct, a good instinct that she gained thanks to Max's experiment. He plans to make that instinct even stronger in future iterations. He creates a javelin from golden 'particles' energy and throws it towards Hannah.

"We don't need to run," Hannah says.

Naruto's student leaps in front of her father and catches the javelin. To the shock of both Clyde and Max she spins once on the spot before throwing it back perfectly towards the King of Aturia. Not only is her instinct good enough to identify the incoming attack without one of her senses, but it is also good enough to pinpoint Max exactly. Clyde now understands the extent of Max's experiments to create his daughter. Hannah's instincts are not marginally better than normal. This is not like when Carmen rebalanced her senses to fight with partial blindness, Hannah is fighting while totally blind as if it is no different.

Hannah gathers golden 'light' energy between her hands and claps, using the Light Speed technique to approach Max. Max attacks her with conventional strikes but Hannah blocks each of them with remarkable skill. Although he notes some hesitancy on the part of the experiment, Max is still not able to keep up with her speed. After twenty exchanged strikes are blocked by each of them Hannah makes a breakthrough, landing an uppercut to the underside of Max's chin.

The moment Max is lifted from the floor Clyde teleports to him, kicking him in the chest and pushing him back away from his blinded daughter. He glances at Hannah, amazed by what she is capable of. That Light Speed technique is not the result of Hannah's remarkable instincts, it is the result of her own talent and ingenuity. Hannah may have started fighting with a huge advantage but she only reached the royal level because of her own abilities. Hannah is one of Naruto's students, and she is demonstrating the skill to reflect that.

Max forms a beam of golden 'particles' energy and fires it at Hannah. Clyde prepares to teleport them away but Hannah tells him not to. She knows that she should be focused but knowing that her father is so impressed with her abilities pleases her. Despite the danger that comes with this fight, this is the happiest she has ever been. Hannah wraps her hands in golden 'darkness' energy and claps them together. She creates a 'darkness' of tremendous weight that draws Max's attack in and crushes it, this is her supreme defensive technique, Black Hole.

Max rushes towards Hannah. He can't believe that she is this good at fighting. He suspected that her instincts would be supreme but that she would be lacking in experience and understanding. That is not the case. Hannah is an experienced and talented fighter. Just as he is about to attack her the experiment gathers golden 'light' on one hand and golden 'darkness' on the other. Hannah claps the two opposite energies against each other. Clyde recognises this technique; it is the same one that he and Lara used against Carmen. Hannah calls it the Stun Clap.

Unfortunately Hannah's efforts to impress her father have made her careless. As she strikes towards the stunned Max she realises that she has made a fatal mistake, one that she doubts even her instincts will be able to help her out of. As she connects with a strike to Max's head a hand grabs her wrist. The contact is not enough stop Hannah who still lands a powerful blow against the Science King, but he was able to do what Clyde really hoped he wouldn't.

Max has used the Sensory Steal again to take Hannah's hearing.

Hannah is blind and deaf.

"Hannah! Hannah! Can you hear me!?" Clyde asks as he moves his hand in front of her face.

There is no response from Hannah. Clyde takes hold of her hand, assuring her that he is there with her. He is not on the same level as Hannah though, he is not capable of taking on the Science King. This is quickly proven as Max approaches and kicks Clyde away from her. He now stands in front of his creation and watches her fumble around helplessly. She strikes in his general direction a couple of times, getting closer to him than he suspected she would. However, it is obvious that without visual or audio information her instinct has become much weaker.

Finally Hannah hears something. It is a voice in her head.

"Do you like your instinct?"

Hannah looks up and sees someone in the darkness. It is Naruto.

"Naruto-sensei…"

"Hannah, your instincts, do you like them?"

"Of course not, after everything they made me—"

"Your instincts have never made you do anything, that was Max." Naruto says. "Hannah, those instincts of yours are designed to be perfect. They are the reason that you are seeing me now. They are overwriting the natural messages of your brain. They think that you need me to tell you this."

"If you are just a hallucination how can I trust you?"

"There is no logic you can use here. You have to make a choice. The time has come to decide what you want to do with those instincts. Using them reluctantly is no longer good enough. Either reject them or make them your own."

"Can I defeat him if I accept them?"

The vision of Naruto smiles.

"You know that better than anyone Hannah."

Hannah covers her hands in golden 'darkness' and golden 'light' energy. Max isn't worried, the evidence points to her instincts not working anymore. That couldn't be further from the truth. Hannah is now better connected with her instincts than she has ever been before. She strikes Max's abdomen with the golden 'darkness' energy first dealing a reasonable amount of damage. Max doesn't consider this anything unusual as he begins to prepare a counterattack, but something very unusual is about to happen.

Identifying the spot where she struck with golden 'darkness' previously Hannah strikes again. There is still golden 'darkness' energy lingering on that spot and the moment the golden 'light' energy connects with it the damage is increased several times over. She repeats this several times, each blow more devastating than the last, each strike magnifying the damage inflicted. This is the latest technique Hannah has created. She will call this technique the Light-Dark Barrage. This is her concentrated attack.

Max leaps backwards to try escaping Hannah, but he is out of luck. A hand grabs his head from behind and pushes him forward. It is Clyde. The Head General of the Military approached the Science King from behind using his teleportation divine ability.

"Max… I can see you…" Hannah announces.

Max tries to break free of Clyde's grip but Hannah hits him with her left hand, leaving residual golden 'darkness' energy on his face. She then jumps a short way into the air before striking down with her right hand. She strikes towards the residual golden 'darkness' energy with the golden 'light' energy.

"You are not my father!"

With the final strike of her concentrated attack the Light-Dark Barrage, Hannah creates an explosion that switches rapidly between light and dark. When the explosion has stopped she looks in front of her and her previous metaphor becomes reality. She can see again. She can hear again. Her senses have been returned because she has won. It is over.

Hannah has killed her creator.

Hannah has killed Science King Weiss Max.

In Response to BLCKFOX2020
Who asks if Shikadai has the potential to be a class 9 warrior now?

He would need to understand another element in order to have that potential.
That way his strength would be like this.

[Mind + Other] (3) + Double Transcendent (2) + Combo (1) + Shinobi (3)

Thanks for reading.