Heyo. Another chapter. I'm up to working on Chapter 96 now.
Nothing else to report, without further ado...
Chapter 89: Escape and Ultimatum
Naruto breathed rather heavily as he and the rest of the party rushed through the rapidly collapsing hallways of the Akatsuki's base.
"How much further, Hinata!?" Kakashi's shouted to the girl who led their formation.
"Not much further!" She reassured them all as she made another seemingly arbitrary choice of which hallway to walk down, as the stone around them continued to crack, the integrity of the base itself failing.
And sure, Naruto recognized the fact that because of the woman's Byakugan, she could tell exactly where it was they needed to go, but still… It was disconcerting to simply follow entirely blindly, even if he was used to putting that sort of implicit trust in his friends.
He paid some close attention to the other members of the group, who were all doing varied levels of "OK". Anko, Dosu, and Kabuto seemed to be the worst off, the former two having had huge wounds they were still recovering from in different ways, and the latter burned and poisoned. Even if he wasn't dying from either, it was clear he was having some trouble controlling his muscles to do exactly what he wanted them to with Sasori's (admittedly heavily dampened) poison coursing through his veins.
Sakura looked horrendously exhausted but was otherwise able to keep up with the group, though the wound on her back from where she'd supposedly been cut by Anko under Orochimaru's control would need looked at, even wrapped in gauze as it was. Ino, Tenten, Zaku, and Kin seemed similar, having sparred against their respective opponents, and used a good majority of their energy doing so. He himself wouldn't deny he was looking forward to a long, hot shower when he got back, having exhausted three of his four Indigo Sage Mode clones, and waiting to see if he'd need the fourth at some point. If not… He was considering simply popping the clone to give him the energy he needed to keep going.
The only ones who seemed completely unaffected were, unsurprisingly, the four Jonin who hadn't taken any major wounds. Tenzo, Guy, Kakashi, and Jiraiya ran along behind Hinata, covering her in case she needed backup, and seemed raring to go if another fight sprung up, even despite Kakashi's burned legs from when he'd purportedly fought Obito some few days prior. He supposed that was the difference between them, experienced Jonin, and himself, one still new to the title. Hell, Jiraiya had taken a hit to the head that had nearly knocked him out, and here he was entirely unaffected merely half an hour later. Well… maybe the trick wasn't that he was unaffected, but that he was doing his best not to show it?
Thinking that the case at least let him feel a little bit better about himself.
About five minutes, and a few close calls with falling debris, later, they found themselves at the entrance to, presumably, the chamber holding the Jinchuuriki inside of it.
"They're rather far in, so we can afford to just break the door down without worrying about their safety." Hinata informed them.
He gladly cleared the way for Guy and Tenzo, the former priming his leg for a powerful kick, and the latter channeling chakra into a wooden battering ram. They struck the door at the same time, utterly annihilating the stone barricade.
They stepped into the space and inspected it quickly, knowing they had very little time. Even still, if they got caught by a trap that incapacitated one of them, that would be far worse than taking their time examining the space. Even with that being said, Naruto couldn't deny that his throat was dry as the ceiling above them creaked and bowed inwards.
"Room's clear!" Tenzo shouted out, pointing towards the back of the room, where another door laid. "Let's go!"
They followed behind him, charging into the next room and finding the Jinchuuriki they'd been looking for. Not a single one of them was awake, all laid out upon the floor as if they'd been dumped there with little care.
"Well, we know they're not under Genjutsu's…" Jiraiya said as he ran a hand over one of them, a twenty-or-so-old looking man with a yukata. "Couldn't hold a Jinchuuriki…" He turned to Kabuto and Anko. "I'm thinking a pretty simple sedative, although evidently a strong one, probably crafted by their resident expert, Sasori, or by Orochimaru. Would either of you happen to have–"
Kabuto stepped forward, reaching around to his pouch, and pulling out a scroll.
"One of the only scrolls I kept from my days working under Orochimaru, the list of antidotes to his poisons. I have a pretty simple general antidote to some of Sasori's mixes that I brought in case we ran into him today, as well. It's what I used earlier."
Anko shot the man an impressed look. "Not bad. All I have are a few general antidotes, mostly antivenoms from working with and against his snakes."
Jiraiya nodded, taking the scroll Kabuto had given him, and, after a few seconds spent rifling through it, eventually bit down on his thumb, and summoned from out of it a rather innocuous looking bottle of liquid. He forcefully opened the man's mouth, though flinched as the roof above them once more shook.
"Well, let's hope this works the first time." He spoke as he poured a drop on the man's tongue.
After ten or so seconds, the man's eyes shot open, and he gasped as he coughed horrendously. He took in the sight of all of them after a moment, his eyes somewhat hazy. "Who the hell are you people!?" He asked accusingly. "What've you done with Hotaru!?"
"We're ninja of the Hidden Leaf, here to rescue you." Kakashi spoke as Jiraiya began waking the other Jinchuuriki, passing a few droplets of the antidote to Anko and Kabuto, who got to work administering it to the others. "If you can stand, then please, we don't exactly have a lot of time here."
The man nodded, standing, and brushing his yukata of dirt as he stepped into their group. Naruto also watched as Hinata stood beside Anko as she woke Fu from her drug-induced slumber. The girl's eyes opened slowly, but when they set on Hinata, a wide, beaming smile immediately bloomed upon her lips, and she reached up and wrapped her arms around her.
"You… you came to save me…" Fu laughed.
"Of course, I did." Hinata smiled genially. "Though, well, I'd be remiss to take all the credit for it. Everyone came to save all of the Jinchuuriki."
"Hah, that's great." Fu let out excitedly, before wincing slightly, "Also… Ow, everything on my body hurts."
"Yeah, well, that'll happen when you've been sleeping on a hard, rocky floor for the better part of a week." Anko laughed as Hinata and Fu shared a quick hug. "Seriously though, we need to be moving, this place is coming down around us, and fast."
The two both nodded as they stood, and the last of the Jinchuuriki, a twenty-something year old woman with a long, blonde ponytail slung herself to her feet. Her headband made it clear she was a ninja of the Cloud.
"Alright, that's everyone." Jiraiya turned towards Hinata. "Can you find us the shortest way out of here? We don't exactly have the time to go and get everyone, so we'll just have to hope that the others got out alright."
The girl nodded, focusing hard as she reactivated her Byakugan. After a few scant moment spent concentrating, she opened her eyes, and began leading them out of the room.
The Jinchuuriki followed behind them nervously, and Naruto couldn't exactly blame them for that. For all they knew, this was just another Akatsuki trick to move them from one place to another, or to kill them in a way they wouldn't suspect. None of them, aside from Fu, had ever met any of them, after all.
He felt he should probably do something about that.
"Don't worry." He spoke, letting a bit of the Nine-Tails chakra bud up around him to show them he was the same as them. "Trust me, I'm just like you. We're really here to rescue you. But if you hesitate, we might not be able to protect you. I know I'm asking a lot, but I need you to believe in us."
"Y-Yeah!" Fu spoke up, seeming nervous at addressing the others. "Naruto and those guys… you can trust them, they're good people!"
The other Jinchuuriki hesitated, but eventually, the oldest, an elder man who was apparently the Jinchuuriki of the Four-Tails, nodded his head with a grumbling hum.
"I recognize Copycat Kakashi over there. I suppose it would be odd for them to come and try and trick us using so famous a man as a decoy."
"You're not wrong…" The cloud ninja spoke, her eyes narrowing. "Still, Two-Tails feels weaker than it did before. It feels like some of its energy has been taken." The woman glared up at them accusingly. "Was that you?"
"No," Naruto shook his head. "That was… well, we presume a man… thing named Black Zetsu did it."
"Okay…"
"Listen, just…" He sighed. "I know this isn't exactly fun, nor would you be smart to put implicit faith into us, but we are going to get you out of here. I need you to, for the time being, at least believe in that."
The other Jinchuuriki hummed for a moment, before Two-Tails sighed.
"Alright, fine, I'll put my faith in you all. Not like I've got many other options."
The last, the one clad in a Yukata, hummed as he went along with their plan.
They climbed flight after flight of stairs as Hinata led them through the maze-like corridors. A few times, rocks fell from the ceiling, and one particularly unfortunately placed one managed to snag Ino's shoulder, causing the woman to wince terribly. They had no real time to stop, and could only hope that the woman's shoulder wasn't fractured as they pushed on.
Another fifteen minutes went by, and Naruto could tell they were getting close to the top. Hinata's eyes widened for a second, and she screamed out rather loudly "HAKU! THIS WAY! FOLLOW MY VOICE!"
Naruto wasn't exactly sure why she'd be calling for the man (he realized a likely reason about 2 seconds later), until, that was, he heard the sounds of footsteps, and saw as Haku rounded the corner at the end of the hallway they'd been set up in.
"Haku!" Ino shouted, practically gasping in relief. "Thank the gods you're alright!"
The man smiled over at them all, and Naruto got a good look at his body. His entire left side looked to have been wrapped up in a hurry, and there were multiple red splotches along the white cotton that indicated he hadn't exactly done a prime job of it. Even still, he seemed pretty conscious, which was a good sign, meaning he wasn't anywhere close to bleeding out.
"Good to see you all." Haku nodded, panting slightly, evidently exhausted from having run all the way here. "I defeated Kisame, struck him down for good." Naruto wasn't alone in smiling at the man at that. "But, well, when the base began to collapse, I'll admit I began to worry that I'd be buried along with him. Thanks for calling out to me, Hinata, I'd been taking random pathways for quite the while."
The woman nodded, smiling, before turning towards the direction they'd been headed for before, and running that way. Anymore talk of reunion could wait for later.
Almost immediately as they rounded the next corner, Naruto heard Hinata let out a curse. He saw what she was talking about a moment later; a massive piece of the ceiling had fallen into the hallway and had completely blocked the path from being accessed at all. Hinata immediately doubled back, pointing them in the direction they'd come in and taking a different route.
"What's the plan!?" He asked her, feeling no small bit of panic beginning to rise within his chest.
"The plan is to take one of the other routes out." She explained. "Unfortunately, there's only one actual exit, but we can tunnel our way out using Tenzo's abilities if we're able to get close enough to the surface."
He nodded, understanding that well enough as they took another path. This one was on its last legs, but at the very least it was open.
After a moment's more, Hinata grabbed her head, swearing slightly in a rather uncharacteristic manner.
"What's wrong?" He heard Fu call out worriedly. "Are you…"
"My chakra… I'm nearly out…" Hinata bit down on her bottom lip. "Please hold on… not yet…"
It was as she was trying to regain control of her Byakugan, keep the embers fueling it alive for just a little bit longer, that a piece of the roof just above her broke off. He swore as he tackled he girl forward, narrowly managing to keep her from being crushed by the falling debris. It wasn't large enough to close off the tunnel, but unfortunately, it seemed Hinata had fully lost focus when he'd pushed her, for the Byakugan's signature veins had faded away.
"Crap…" The girl whispered. "I… I lost it."
"Do you still remember where we were going?"
"Yes, but… If that path is also blocked, then I'm afraid I won't be able to guide us any further than that."
He realized the significance of them being trapped without a guide within a rapidly collapsing maze, and bit down on his lip as he turned back to the girl beneath him, helping her up.
"Then we'll just have to hope it doesn't come to that." He spoke, and several of the others nodded as well.
Before they could go any further, Anko had reached into her and pouch and pulled out a small, round orb. He recognized it almost immediately as a food pill.
"Here," The woman spoke as she cut it in half and flicked it with her thumb towards Hinata. "It won't take effect immediately, but hopefully at least you'll be able to turn your eyes back on within a few minutes."
Hinata seemed grateful, Though Naruto couldn't help but notice that Sakura shot her master a pained expression. "Anko, what have we learned about food pills?"
"Hey, this is an emergency!" The woman assured them. "Besides, I cut it up a bit first!"
"Right, uh-huh." Sakura deadpanned. "Hinata, I would just watch out for your stomach if I were you."
"Uhm…" The girl hummed awkwardly.
"Ignore her, we have more pressing matters." Anko shook her head, sending her student a small glare. "For now, can you take us to where we need to go?"
"I…" Hinata took a deep breath, swallowing the half-pill, before humming in acknowledgement. "Right. Follow me, I'll get us out of here."
They followed the winding hallways of the Akatsuki's base in abject silence for quite a while after that, focusing far more on their direction than any idle conversation. Fortunately, as they came upon the end of their chosen path, Naruto began to see light streaming into the proverbial end of the tunnel.
"We're here!" Hinata shouted. "This is where Naruto and the rest of us came in from! We opened up a hole in the ceiling, so we should be able to get out that way by climbing the walls."
"That's awesome!" Fu cheered. "Good going, Hinata!"
The girl in question blushed slightly, as if embarrassed at being given such naked praise, but just as she did, the room around them rocked and quaked. He saw as a massive boulder fell in the room just beyond them, and watched as the shock wave coursed through to their tiny hallway as well.
The entrance just in front of them sealed shut as it collapsed in on itself. Nary a moment later, as they turned around, content to take another route, the way they came from collapsed as well.
The ceiling above them cracked ominously.
Naruto had to bite back the immediate urge to swear as he took stock of the situation. No one, aside from Fu, admittedly, was panicking, despite the circumstances, which was good, because they needed to act quickly as things where, and if any of them had started to panic, well, that would have slowed them down significantly.
"Tenzo, can you–" Kakashi started.
"Way ahead of you, Kakashi," The man spoke as he placed both hands against the wall just off to their left. "Give me some room, I'm going to tunnel straight through. Be aware, however, that this might destabilize this part of the cavern. Be ready for any falling debris, or, in the event that the next hallway beyond us starts to collapse, be ready to run."
Naruto swallowed on nothing as the man drilled them a path back out to the main hallway. They stepped into it, and breathed a sigh of relief at, at the very least, being in a more open area.
"Alright, I'm going to tunnel into the room you all landed within." Tenzo spoke, placing his hands against the wall just in front of them yet again. "Once more, be ready for any falling debris–"
"TENZO!"
Naruto hadn't even see what it was Kakashi was screaming about, but before he could do a thing, the man was already jumping out of the way. A massive chunk of the roof fell just where he'd been standing, which would've, likely, utterly annihilated the Wood Style user.
Still, that was not the end of their plight. Another section of the roof caved in next, and even the floor began to crack under the combined weight. Naruto swore as he pulled Tenten off a collapsing section, and watched as Fu sprouted wings from her back and took off with Hinata, narrowly avoiding a massive hole that'd opened up beneath her.
"Shit… This entire corridor is coming down!" Jiraiya shouted. "Tenzo, you need to carve that hole!"
"Yeah, I'm working on it!"
The man's work was agonizingly slow as he watched the hallway they'd taken to get here collapse under the weight of the rest of the base. Cracks formed directly above them, and Naruto felt his heart leap into his chest as the roof above him fell in.
Just before a massive, flaming orange shield stopped the rubble's descent.
He turned to his left, looking to see just who their saviors were. His eyes almost immediately widened as he saw the man standing there, panting slightly in exhaustion as the figure that surrounded them held the world around them together.
"Don't worry… I'll keep the cavern up." Itachi spoke, his ghastly avatar clearly straining, but managing to hold the ceiling above them. "Still, I'd advise you hurry!"
The other figure could only smile at seeing them.
"Yo, Naruto." Sasuke gave a tired greeting. "Uh… talk later?"
He nodded. "That sounds… yeah."
Tenzo got to work, cutting a path through solid stone that would hopefully take them into the amphitheater-like area just beyond. His pace was terribly slow, and even if Naruto knew the man didn't exactly have any better options, it was still hard to watch. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he'd finished carving his tunnel, and they followed it into the wide area beyond that.
Just above them… right there…
Sunlight.
Naruto could almost cry.
"Nearly there!" Kakashi shouted to the rest of them, beginning his ascent the moment he reached the back wall. "C'mon! We'll be out of here soon!"
The rest of them nodded, immediately falling in behind him and scaling the rocky surface. It was slow-going, but at least this room seemed to be mostly intact. The climb ended up taking a while, but not terribly long. They were to the surface in perhaps 15 minutes.
Naruto didn't quite kiss the earth beneath him… But he definitely thought about it.
"Right…" Kakashi panted. "Let's all take a second to catch our bearings and treat our wounds. We can keep moving once we've done so."
Not a single person argued with that.
Naruto found himself, almost immediately, drawn towards Sasuke. He'd been intent to ask his best friend just what had happened with his brother, but instead, he watched as Sasuke walked, first thing, towards Sakura, who was having the wound on her backside dressed by Kin, and who was, in turn, dressing Anko's wound on her thigh, and began speaking with her. It seemed, from their hushed voices, they were doing some catching up.
And so, lacking anything to do, Naruto found himself just sort of… hovering.
"Thank you for coming to save me, Hinata." He watched as Fu blushed slightly, scooching a bit closer to her crush and smiling up at her as Naruto trended towards the two of them. "You really are my hero…"
Hinata's face lit up red, and she scratched the side of her head, seemingly unsure of what she should say, or, well, at least, that was the vibe Naruto got from her expression.
"Hey, uhm… Fu?"
The girl tilted her head to the side. "What's up?"
His friend opened her mouth, seemed to try to push air out, and then, after nothing happened, simply… closed it.
"N-Nothing!" She said, waving her hands in front of her face. "Don't worry about it!"
Naruto was fairly sure that if Kiba had been here, he'd have sighed.
He trended towards movement out of the corner of his eye and saw that Haku was the one approaching someone else this time.
"Itachi Uchiha." Haku spoke as he sat down in front of Sasuke's brother. "I wanted to inform you that Kisame Hoshigaki has died."
Itachi didn't seem particularly saddened by the news, but Naruto also couldn't deny that there was a certain… melancholy that hung about his frame as he nodded.
"I suppose that makes sense. You two were always at one another's throats, were you not?"
"Mhm." Haku hummed, before shaking his head. "I… Kisame… he had a message he wanted me to carry to you, Itachi."
The man's eyes widened somewhat.
"Oh?"
""Live the best life you can with what you have left"," Haku elucidated. "That was his message."
Itachi was silent, entirely so, as Haku stood, and walked back towards his section of the group. And yet, Naruto studied the man's face, even as he seemed to try and process that. After a moment, Itachi gave a small, sad smile, as if in quiet remembrance. He shut his eyes, and laid back upon the ground, evidently deciding to rest up for their journey.
And so, once again, Naruto found himself lacking anything in particular to do.
Still, at least this time, they weren't still for very long. As he got up and walked towards him, Sasuke apologized.
"My bad, man." He smiled. "I… once we get back to the Leaf, let's talk, alright? I'll… tell you everything."
He nodded. "Sounds good."
"Alright, everyone," Kakashi called out, and in that idle moment of time, Naruto remembered that, technically, he and Sasuke were the leaders of this group.
Well, Kakashi hadn't actually been working under them, more alongside them, but…
He shook his head. There was time to think about such idiotic things later, when they were safe back in the village.
"Let's get a move on. We'll be returning to the Leaf Village. Jinchuuriki, we'll have you brought back to your home villages within the week, if at all possible."
All four nodded, though a particularly enthusiastic Fu turned to Hinata, and smiled widely. "Ooh, can we have a sleepover at your place!?"
Hinata smiled, nodding after a moment. "That sounds nice. I'd like that."
Kakashi signaled with his hand, and the rest of them followed behind. Naruto found himself lagging behind the group somewhat, shaking his head as he thought on recent matters. Orochimaru's words, namely, were what he was so focused on…
"Yes, well, I'm sure you'll find that if they get their way, if they succeed in bringing back an Otsutsuki to this plane, then this world won't just see a war beyond any it's seen before…"
"It will come to an end."
He shook his head, forcing himself to remain positive. He wouldn't be swayed by the words of a madman. They had before, and would continue to resist the control of the Akatsuki. They had, after all, managed to take out two members, and free the Jinchuuriki.
They'd accomplished their goal.
And so, with that happiness hanging about him, he charged forward.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up just a tad too late for him to react.
Something slammed into his stomach, and though he initially assumed it to be a kick, or some other kind of strike, as he looked down, he found it was a metal device being pushed against his…
Against his seal.
He watched as the contraption ripped a chunk of the Nine-Tails' chakra from out of him, and he wretched violently at some of his power quite literally being torn away from his body. He watched as the arm which was sticking out of the ground below him yanked the device away, and he fell to his knees as he heard one of his friends scream his name.
"What the hell!?"
"What's – Naruto!"
"Shit!"
He watched as the figure rose from the ground, a wide, conniving smile on its face as he took in it's form.
"That was rather easy, I must admit." Black Zetsu spoke. "Well, I suppose you were quite distracted with other matters."
Naruto took stock of the things form as he gazed at its body. The right half was as before; a pure black 'skin' covering the body of the unfortunate bastard he had a hold of. But… it was upon closer inspection that Naruto realized just who that was. His left eye was gone, but his right eye, a blazing, wheeled Mangekyou Sharingan, glowed in his skull.
The body of Obito Uchiha was under the control of Black Zetsu.
"I suppose I ought to thank Itachi as well," Black Zetsu grinned horribly, his raspy voice echoing through the clearing as he was surrounded by Naruto's teammates. "For placing Obito under this Genjutsu. It would've been so terribly difficult to control him if he'd been awake, but like this, his body is mine to manipulate."
Itachi clicked his tongue along the root of his mouth, even as Kakashi, his expression bleak, stepped up, a kunai coursing with a Chidori brought in front of him.
"You… Why would you place one of your own Allies under your control!?"
"Well, let's just say it's no secret that Obito never much trusted me." Black Zetsu explained, the zipper-like smile attached to Obito's face never once disappearing. "and I, as Orochimaru may have already hinted at, have my own agenda I'm afraid. Pain, Konan… they can be manipulated through the hate they carry for this world, but Obito… Well, he was just a bit too intelligent for his own good, I'm afraid. He never once trusted me, not after he found that book from the Whirlpool Village talking about Kaguya."
There was another mention of that name, of Kaguya, Naruto couldn't help thinking. The supposed mother of the Sage of the Six Paths.
An Otsutsuki.
"But, well, even though I initially thought that this attack might set us back a ways, it ended up going better than I could've hoped for. After all, now we possess at the very least pieces of seven of the Tailed Beasts. Soon… we will possess all nine, and we will be closer to the revival, incomplete or not, of the Ten-Tailed Beast, and with it… mother as well."
Naruto's eyes widened, which seemed to be a fairly common reaction among their group, but Kakashi seemed unconvinced.
"Why the hell are you telling us this!?"
"Hmm… well, first off, because I enjoy watching you human beings squirm, I must say, it's always been one of my most favorite things to watch your weaknesses of heart eat away at you… such flawed beings." The creature laughed. "But secondly… because there is not an earthly thing you can do to stop me."
It was then that a beam of wood erupted from out of the ground just beneath Black Zetsu, Kakashi having concealed Tenzo's hands from sight. It was sharpened, easily enough to cut into the body of a man…
It passed straight through Zetsu, the being entirely unaffected.
"Hahaha!" Black Zetsu rasped cockily. "Was that all, or do you have something else to show!?"
The two both simply grinded their teeth together.
"Well, if you're to attack… I suppose it's only fair that I fire off one of my own," He held up his hand, and snapped his fingers. "White… launch our armies, would you?"
The ground below them shook horrendously as some force rocked the earth below. Naruto found his gaze drawn to a particular piece of the land, which split open, and allowed for a pale white hand to emerge, gripping onto the rock.
"W-What the hell!?" Zaku shouted as he fired off some scything winds, annihilating that singular hand. "They're…"
"Zetsu." Sakura confirmed as she bit down on her bottom lip.
From out of the ground crawled tens of hundreds of White Zetsu's. Each wore upon its face a nasty, pale grin, as if excited to utterly eviscerate them.
"Shit…" Anko spoke for all of them as she backed away slowly, even more rising from the ground. "Can we… take them?"
"Oh, don't worry too much about that." Black Zetsu waved away their concerns as he took a few steps back into the Zetsu hoard. "Their targets aren't you, after all."
"W-What!?" Naruto shouted, barely managing to get over to the rest of his group as the White Zetsu began approaching them. "Then… what exactly is your target!?"
Obito's body was puppeteered into rubbing its own chin, Black Zetsu letting out a hum, as if lost in thought.
"Well… how about… Oh," He looked over at them, his eye narrowing as a manic sort of laughter took over his expression. "The Leaf Village…"
"I think we'll destroy that first."
End Chapter 89
Dun dun dun! Or something I don't know.
Anyways, more Trip Down a Hill next week!