I am very late. Lol.

Without further ado, yeesh, that's a full 24 hours late.

Chapter 91: Battle of Flames; Horrid Realization

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the rain had not let up during the few brief hours of rest Sasuke and the rest of the initial defense force had gotten. As they marched through the terribly dark, hallowed forest surrounding them in the wee hours of the morning, the flora and fauna were abuzz with the sounds of rain hitting the scattered branches and leaves, creating an odd, almost unsettling 'pitter-patter' that had him biting at his nails as they waited atop a particularly tall tree, one that gave them leverage to see quite a good distance into the rest of the forest.

They'd left mere hours prior, marching into the woods the second they'd met up with one another. They, along with a good thousand or so ninja ranging from hardened Anbu to relatively green Chuunin (nearly all of their force that wasn't out doing other missions, or busy with other tasks), had set up a perimeter a good twenty or so minutes travel from the gates of the Leaf Village.

And now… now they waited.

It was rather agonizing, Sasuke found.

Off to his left, showcasing nerves of steel, Shikamaru yawned. He was stood next to both Ino and Choji, and the three chatted lightly. Behind them, Asuma lightly rebuked the three, reminding them to stay focused.

Zaku and Kin stood nearby, with Guy and Tenzo at their backs. Tenten, Lee, and Neji stood beside their master, and had taken to doing some early stretches to get the grogginess out of their systems. He couldn't much blame them for that, as he was fairly sure all of them were rather tired. He was positive that none of them wanted to be there, but, well, needs must and all.

He turned to his right, and Yugao and Hayate smiled over at him as he looked to them, the both of them with their hands on the blade's at their waists. He found his hand drifting to his own, seeking comfort in the feeling of the handle.

His brother's soft smile, just off to his left, belied the looks the others were shooting the man. Many seemed to simply assume that he was there against Sasuke's will at first, though quite a few seemed to not know how to handle such a situation at all. He could not blame them their reactions; not with the propaganda they'd been fed for years and years. It would likely be a long time, if it would ever come to pass, that Itachi would receive anything but those glares.

In front of them, heading their formation, was Jiraiya of the Sannin. His pose was confident, reassuring the rank and file surrounding him that, no matter what came at them, that they'd stand their ground against them.

And they'd have to. They had no idea the size and strength of the army that was approaching them, other than that it consisted of Zetsu, and a lot of them. Still, the exact capabilities of each individual member, the actual number of enemy combatants…

Well, it would have to be quite a lot of them if they truly intended to take on the world. And… that had been the Akatsuki's goal.

"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."

He remembered Black Zetsu's words, words that had come from both the shadow leader of their organization's mouth, and the puppet master who stood over even him. The true, hidden goal of the Akatsuki… he swallowed his nerves as he tried to ignore the truth they faced.

That if they accomplished their goal of resurrecting the Otsutsuki known as Kaguya, whomever she was… then the world very well may end.

And it was he was thinking about that, trying to digest the Akatsuki's goal in his head, that he heard a ninja in the distance shout out the words they'd been dreading.

"Contact!"

Hell broke loose almost immediately.

A good thirty Zetsu burst out from the underbrush, trying to tackle some of the frontline ninja before they could offer up resistance. Luckily, all had the reaction time to jump back away and fire off a few kunai or other Jutsu. Far less luckily was the way that several were caught in the talons of the white Zetsu's chests. They did their best to pry the soldiers our, but it was clear they were having their chakra drained at a rapid pace.

Several were dead by the time they freed them.

As a wave of Zetsu hit their position, Sasuke and Itachi jumped into action. Their opponents were a level below them; that much was clear from the first few exchanges. Still, in the numbers they were showing up in, it was also rather obvious that the Zetsu would still be a threat. Thirteen swarmed him all at once, though, thanks to his brothers kunai striking a good seven right between the eyes, he was more than capable of handling the other six himself.

He took a moment to simply admire Itachi's handiwork as the man took on a good portion of the Zetsu their unit would be dealing with simultaneously. A section of their numbers were burnt to a crisp by a fireball Jutsu, and another half or so were cut into by a windmill shuriken the man had pulled from seemingly nowhere.

It was at times like this that he realized that in a straight fight, he and Itachi were in different leagues. His brother had not been a member of the Akatsuki just for show; no, he'd earned that position. He was one of the strongest ninja in the entire land.

They finished cleaning up their section with the help of some of the others; namely Guy, Yugao, and Hayate, who cleaned house with their martial arts and kendo styles, respectively.

Nary a moment later, a raging ball of flame hit against the left side of their formation some fifty or so meters from him, and he watched as the few ninja who'd been hit were dragged away by the others. Luckily, it seemed no one had been killed by the attack, but they'd certainly suffered a few losses to overall combat strength rather instantaneously.

"What's going on!?" He heard Tenzo yell. "Is it a Zetsu!? I didn't think they could cast Jutsu!"

"It's no Zetsu!" Another called from further down the line, barely audible to Sasuke. "It's some woman in a damned Sand Ninja outfit! She's hitting our line with some sort of Fire Jutsu, but it's stronger than anything I've ever seen!"

Tenzo cursed, seemingly realizing that he wasn't the person for the job, for as proficient as he was with the Wood Style, flames would burn his strategy to pieces.

But…

"I'll handle her!" Sasuke shouted, beginning already to make for that direction. He realized with a curse that he couldn't exactly leave, as he turned back towards his brother "Itachi, can you hold here?"

"Of course." The man nodded. "But are you sure you can handle it? I could go–"

"I've got it, don't worry." He smiled at his brother, before turning back around. "Besides…"

"There's something I've been meaning to test."

/-/

The woman Sasuke ran into was a bit of an oddity. She was from the Sand Village, that much was certain, but she certainly didn't look… well, alive. Her skin was a pale white, as if that of a corpse as opposed to a living human, and the sclera of her eye were a deep black. The pupils in the middle, as well, were a solid white, and she seemed to barely regard Sasuke at all before she aimed her hand at him and fired off a raging ball of flame his way.

Sasuke turned on his Sharingan as he barely managed to dodge it, even if the tree behind him wasn't so lucky. It was bored into, taking a massive, flaming hole out of the bark. In nary a second, the flame had fully spread along the next several trees around them, and toppled that one, its integrity ruined. The sound of the rain striking the blaze, a horrid mess of what sounded almost of hissing serpents, created an eerie backdrop for their fight as he paced around his opponent, and she did the same.

He gulped; quite glad he'd managed to avoid that earlier blow.

He drew out his sword from its scabbard and used it to cut along the edge of the next fireball sent his way. A move impossibly precise for one who didn't possess the Sharingan's ability to focus so intensely on the minutia of his actions, but one he could manage. The raging torrent of fire split in twain, each half striking the ground just behind him. The woman before him regarded him no differently, though, well, given that he was fairly sure he knew what this was now, he hadn't expected her to.

The Reanimation Jutsu… he hadn't been there when Orochimaru had brought back Deidara, Yahiko, and Danzo, but he'd certainly been told of his capabilities by Sakura and Naruto on the trip back. They'd been fairly sure no one else in the Akatsuki possessed the same level of mastery over the reanimation Jutsu as Orochimaru did, but he supposed it might've made sense for him to have prepared a few bodies that he simply hadn't had the time to utilize during their fight.

Naturally, Black Zetsu, seeing no real use in them other than as pulp, would send them out to fight on the frontlines.

This one must've been one such person.

And yet, it seemed like, differently from those who'd been revived inside the base itself, this woman possessed no semblance of her old personality from when she was alive. Merely a husk that could cast Jutsu… that was all she was.

The unique Kekkei Genkai she seemed to possess that made her flames burn hotter than normal, the life she must've lived as a Shinobi, the death she'd experienced that'd brought her here… he wondered, briefly, if Orochimaru, if any of the Akatsuki, cared a single iota about such things.

He concluded that they didn't as he kicked off of the already muddy earth beneath him and dashed back into the fray.

His opponent channeled another ball of flame into her right hand, and then two more. She spun them around in a Sharingan-like pattern, lighting up the dark and ominous forest around them before firing them off individually at him. The first he dodged, the second he deflected, and the third he narrowly ducked underneath as he struck up at the woman's body with his blade, bisecting her in half.

He heard a few nearby Shinobi, who were apparently watching his battle while dealing with some of the Zetsu, cheer as she fell to the ground. For a moment, she was entirely lifeless, before her body began to reconstitute itself, the strips of paper that seemed to make up her form reforming.

He hummed quietly as he considered his options here. He could perhaps fight her to a standstill, buying the time the others needed to fight back this initial wave until a Sealmaster could get over here, and they could lock this one up. Alternatively, though, and far more likely, was that there wouldn't be a good window for that to happen unless he could provide them one.

And so… option B…

Provide them one.

He reached into the back of his skull for the feeling that'd been hovering around him for a few days now, ever since he'd spoken with his brother in the bowels of the Akatsuki's main base. The words the man had said to him, the truth of what'd happened all those years ago… they'd affected him so deeply, so completely, that he'd felt something within him begin to shift. But…

It hadn't been until he'd truly decided to forgive his brother that something had changed entirely.

He channeled that feeling that hung there, finding it traveling through his visual cortex, though the optical nerves of his eyes, and into the blazing Sharingan.

He shouldn't have been sure of what was going to come from out of it. In fact, he was fairly sure that he would have had no notion at all had his brother not implanted him with that infernal flame to kill Hidan nearly a year ago now. Because that feeling from back then…

It was quite similar, minus the agonizing pain of his eye acting on its own, to the one from back then.

He felt the pupil in his left eye change shape, into some odd, multi-pronged pattern, and spoke the word,

"Amaterasu!"

Flames caught upon his opponents clothing, beginning to burn at them before she could so much as react. She reached down and tried to put the flames out manually, though all that did was cause the black hellfire to travel up her arm. She stood stock still for a moment, trying to process, seemingly, what she should do about that.

And then… she seemed to decide she would do nothing at all.

It made a sick amount of sense, Sasuke couldn't help but thinking. Her body was unending, it physically could not be destroyed, and it seemed the Reanimation Jutsu's ability to regenerate was just a little bit faster than the Amaterasu's ability to burn it to ashes. Still… well…

He hazarded a guess that if he managed to bisect her again, managed to cut across her body, then the Amaterasu's unending flames would keep the reanimation Jutsu too busy for her to regenerate from the more major injuries.

And so that was what he would aim for.

He took a rather aggressive approach to this, blitzing in and bringing his sword up. His opponent dodged back, narrowly avoiding the blow, but then took a step forward, reaching out her hand and trying to touch him.

His eyes widened as he realized her plan; to make contact with his skin with a hand burning from the Amaterasu's black fire. It would easily travel across them, and without any way of actually canceling out the flames…

Yes… that would be it for him, he couldn't help thinking.

And so, he took a step back, now wanting to take this far slower.

His opponent thought otherwise. Now it was her dictating the pace of their engagement, stepping into his guard, and using both her own scorching fireballs and his blazing Amaterasu to try and burn him alive. He narrowly managed to avoid all her strikes thanks to the Mangekyou Sharingan's enhanced sight, but even so, he could tell that he couldn't exactly keep his eyes like this forever.

He was already beginning to grow quite dizzy. Utilizing his Mangekyou Sharingan for the first time… it was making his head spin somewhat. He would need to finish this soon… otherwise he'd be killed by some random woman whose name he didn't even know.

He decided he wouldn't be allowing that and thought hard as he tried to think up a plan. As he was doing that, he felt a presence just behind him, and flipped over it, narrowly managing to dodge the claws of a White Zetsu, who his opponent fried with her scorching balls of fire mere seconds after.

He took that opportunity, though, as the woman had to pull her hand out of the now melting Zetsu corpse, to enact his plan.

When she looked up at him once more, he charged at her, channeling a Chidori along the length of his blade to enhance its cutting power. He swung with his full force, eviscerating the White Zetsu she'd thrown between them to act as a meat shield, and even cutting off her left hand, which she was just a tad bit too slow to pull away from. Still, it wasn't enough, and the Sand Ninja moved forward, striking his torso with her right hand and spreading Amaterasu onto it.

He screamed as the fire coursed across his body and began to engulf him entirely. His opponent turned away, seemingly thinking that the end of the fight, and preparing to go and assault some of the nearby Leaf Ninja, who were calling out for him in a horribly concerned way.

But they needn't worry. He had it all under control.

His body, or, well, the Shadow Clone he'd managed to create in the confusion, puffed into smoke.

Scorch lady turned around just a bit too late to respond to him, or, well, her turning around was exactly what he'd wanted her to do. For, in her desire to try and locate him…

He had the perfect moment to sneak up behind her, draw his sword around, and slash across her back.

Her arms flopped onto the forest floor beneath them, and her upper torso joined them a moment later. Luckily, it seemed the earth beneath them, what with how horrendously soppy it was from the rain pouring down on them, wouldn't conduct the Amaterasu's flames.

The woman's body, just as he'd suspected, didn't begin to reform. It seemed, as he'd guessed, far too busy healing the Amaterasu's damage to do anything for the larger wounds his opponent had taken. Idly, he noticed a kunai with a tag on the end of it sticking out of the woman's shoulder blades, and he dislodged it with his sword, thinking it perhaps some kind of trap.

Instead, the moment he did, the woman below him gasped.

His eyes widened, and he turned the upper half of her chest from off of her front and onto her back, so that her now life-like eyes could look upon him.

"You defeated me," She spoke, smiling slightly, as if impressed. "Well done, I must say."

"I… thank you." He spoke as the sounds of battle around them began to fade, the Zetsu's first wave seeming to be almost entirely repelled.

"You even freed me from that spell that had been placed upon me as well. For that, you have my gratitude, Uchiha of the Leaf."

He supposed, back in her time, she must've fought against Uchiha from the Village on occasion. That she would be able to recognize one of their Clan purely from the Sharingan was not that hard to believe. It was a rather obvious tell.

"I am Sasuke Uchiha." He spoke, finding respect for his fellow warrior beneath him. "What is your name?"

"Pakura." She said with a smile. "Though, well… not like that matters, given I'm fairly sure that I'm dead."

He nodded, confirming her suspicioins. "You're under the effects of the Reanimation Jutsu."

"Was that… The Second Hokage's Jutsu? That which forced dead allies to fight against one another?"

He… didn't know, actually.

"I believe you were under the spell of one of the Sannin. Orochimaru."

"That bastard, huh…" Pakura laughed dryly. "Suppose that makes sense."

"You… I apologize." He spoke. "I wish there was more I could do for you than to simply seal you away."

"Eh, not your fault, kid. You played the hand you were dealt, just like everyone else." She shrugged. "Were you from the Sand, or the Mist, I might hold some grudge against you, but… nah, you seem alright."

He smiled. "Your flames… they were terribly powerful."

"Hah, that's Scorch Release, my Kekkei Genkai." She smirked his way. "And right back at you. Those flames… what'd you call them, Amaterasu?"

"Mhm."

"I've never once battled something quite that strong… hell… I didn't even get to die in battle when I was killed last time. Ambushed by those damned bastards, left to die by my own people…"

Pakura let her neck slump back against the dirt, indenting somewhat in the muddy ground as the soldiers around them let out a victory cry. It seemed the last few Zetsu in the first wave had been culled.

"This… if I was going to have to go out, this would've been how I wanted it. Against a strong opponent, in an even fight…" She smiled serenely. "One filled with respect."

Suddenly, Pakura's body began to glow an almost ethereal white. His eyes widened, as did her own, as the pieces and parts of her body crumpled into papers, which quickly burned into ash.

"What is…" Sasuke let out as a spirit-like body rose from out of the embers of Pakura's remains.

"Ah, I see…" Pakura let out a resounding sigh, sounding entirely at ease. "So… that feeling of peace allows me to pass on… how interesting."

He looked up at her as she rose into the sky above before she called out one last thing.

"One little request, Sasuke Uchiha."

"What?"

"If you run into a young woman from the sand named Maki," She spoke as she faded into the ether. "Let her know… to live her life as best she can."

And before he could say another word, she'd disappeared entirely.

He took a deep, calming breath as the surrounding soldiers cheered for him. He smiled a bit bashfully as he rubbed the back of his neck, and a few came over to say how well he'd done. Still… he found the words in his throat rising without any further help and spoke them into the wooded hollow as he walked back to his old position, content with what he'd done.

"If I run into her… I'll pass it along."

/-/

Two waves of Zetsu attacks later, Sasuke could fairly safely say that he was officially getting kind of tired.

Sure, it had been easy to use the three or so hours of sleep he'd gotten before when he was still high on adrenaline from the opening fights, but it'd been roughly 8 hours at this point of on and off combat, and wow, he was just about dead.

His right arm ached from where he'd taken a particularly nasty hit earlier (it'd been a blunt strike from a Zetsu, just a rather harsh punch, but even so, it'd certainly slowed down that arm quite a lot), and he had a plethora of smaller injuries along nearly every piece of his body.

"How are you holding up?"

He turned to see his brother approaching him, waving lately as he sat down on the wood beside him. The man was untouched, having not taken a single wound across the entire day.

He tried not to focus on that as he let himself be pulled into conversation.

"I'm okay." He admitted after a quick sigh, rubbing at his eyes to keep the exhaustion at bay. "Alright, horrendously tired, barely hanging on, and overall, just wanting to go and get a good night's sleep for a change."

His brother laughed at his expense. "I can't say I don't understand that."

He hummed affirmatively as he watched some of the nearby ninja lean against the trees behind them. Idly, he saw the few guardsmen they'd set up, all Hyuga themselves, with their Byakugan active, watching the area around them. If any Zetsu tried to sneak by them and into the village, they'd know long before.

"So, much like me, it seems you possess the Amaterasu."

"Yeah… It's a frighteningly powerful technique, and luckily, I've already gotten to see some of what makes it so strong, and some of what makes it a double-edged sword."

Itachi nodded. "Your battle against that woman…"

"Pakura." He informed him.

"Pakura, yes, was good for you. It taught you all of what you'll need to look out for when it comes to utilizing its sometimes-blinding power. The ebb and flow, the double-edged nature of the eternal flames. Still, I can't help wondering just what it is that will be located within your right eye."

He questioned that as well. It would make some sense if he possessed Tsukuyomi, just like his brother, but at the same time, he also knew he could have something entirely different as well.

It was as the two of them were discussing nothing of any real value, simply talking to fill the time, that one of the Hyuga raised his hand, smiling.

"Got good news, boys!" He shouted out. "The contingent from the Sand has arrived!"

Several let out raucous cheers, though Sasuke's own eyes narrowed somewhat.

"The Sand Contingent has arrived already?" He asked the man, stepping up towards him. "That was fast. Where are they?"

"They passed by us about half a mile that way," He pointed, indicating where the general path to the Leaf would take them. "They're about halfway to the gates now, but they're outside my range now. Looked like a bunch of guys. Hell, if they're quick about it, though, we could have reinforcements coming within the hour!"

He could feel the man's reason for such excitement; if reinforcements arrived, then they might be able to go home.

Still, something about this just wasn't sitting right with Sasuke.

"What's the matter, Sasuke?" Itachi looked his way.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but even still…

"Hey," He called that's the same Hyuga, who turned to look at Sasuke after a moment of laughing with some of the other ninja. "There are no Zetsu on the horizon for quite a while, right?"

"None within a five-mile radius," he confirmed, nodding. "Why?"

"Just a feeling." He answered as he turned back towards Itachi. "I'm going to go and check on that procession. Best case scenario, I waste a few minutes of my time, but… I don't know, there's something about this that's bugging me."

"Well… Alright. I'll come with you."

"You don't have to–"

"Sasuke, you're my brother." Itachi smiled his way, looking more than a little awkward at having said that. "Allow me to put my faith in your gut feeling."

He spent a few moments in silence as he contemplated what to do, but finally nodded in the end, signaling the both of them forward as they dashed through the forests of the Leaf, back towards the Village proper.

For some reason, Sasuke kept speeding up. Even past his normal pace, he realized he was travelling at the pace he might if they were in an emergency scenario.

And as they hopped out of the trees, and landed at the gate, Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized why.

"Izumo! Kotetsu!" He shouted as he ran towards the horribly bloody forms of the two gatekeepers of the Leaf. They were both still alive, having very clearly been attacked mere minutes, if that, prior, but they didn't have long.

He got to work immediately, channeling healing chakra into his hands as he dealt with the most egregious wounds first. Kotetsu he'd stabilized, but Izumo was still unconscious as he leaned him up against the back of the watch station and turned back to his partner.

"What the hell happened!?"

"A-Attacked…" Kotetsu wheezed out, panting horribly. "S-Sand contingent… they attacked us… they weren't… weren't them at all… they were Zetsu in disguise!"

His blood ran cold as he stood up and turned towards the gate.

It hung open.

He and Itachi both ran towards the village proper, gunning it inside as they looked around for the Sand contingent.

They spotted them easily enough, taking the central road of the Leaf Village up and into the shopping district.

He swore as he threw a kunai, catching one in the back of the spine and killing him instantly. He turned into a White Zetsu as he died, though, unfortunately, that wasn't enough to stop a nearby civilian from screaming at seeing what'd just occurred.

Which was more than enough warning for the other Zetsu to turn back around, and for them to all laugh and smile his way as they pushed into the now panicking crowds behind them, disappearing from sight as they filtered into the yelling caucus.

"Itachi!" He shouted, spinning his Sharingan into an active position. "Get the gates closed, and guard them yourself if you have to, but don't let a single soul inside! Inform as many members of the Leaf as you can, there are rogue elements inside the village!"

"Will do!" His brother answered. "What's your plan!?"

He was already booking it down the road, running up the side of a nearby stall and using it to vault up to a higher level on the tall office building beside him. He climbed it with chakra, trying to get a proper vantage point of the crowd below him…

And he swore as he saw no Sand Ninja at all and realized just what it was they'd be dealing with.

It wasn't that they could just disguise as other ninja to get in… but once the White Zetsu had gotten into the Village…

They could be anyone.

The Hokage, no…

Everyone had to know.

It was then that he heard a horrible explosion from off in the distance, and he turned to see the forest off in the distance, where they'd just been fighting, up in smoke. He swore as he realized they were likely doing the same thing they'd done to get in here as to overwhelm their forces there, to disguise themselves as allies and then strike when they'd let their guards down.

"Shit… shit, shit!"

And he rushed down the street as quick as he could, gunning it straight for the Hokage building which hung in the distance, trying to ignore the way the droplets of rain impacted against his skin.

And prayed it was not already too late.

End Chapter 91

Uh... cliff-hangers and whatnot. I forgot to upload this today, so I'm editing now when I'm about to go to bed. My bad, once again.

On Chapter 97 though, finally, so that's good. The story should end on 100? Or like 101, but it'll be close.

Anyways, next week and all that!