The Wanderers
Chapter 61 – Deus Ex Machina
A/N: I want to thank you guys for the feedback surrounding the last chapter. It was an experiment, and I'll admit it isn't my thing. That's what I'm using this fanfiction for, and I appreciate the honest feedback. Please keep it up, it really does help.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, character betrayals would make sense.
***Previously-On***
Having successfully infiltrated Kirigakure, the ex-Mizukage Yagura led his team deep into his home village in the hope of rescuing the current disposed Mizukage and saving his village from an oncoming Quiraji invasion. After an encounter with some civilians, the team got to the prison and took down the warden without any trouble, making their way through the many traps to the lower levels of the prison, finding a malnourished and near-death Mei Terumi. Deciding to risk his life for his home, Yagura transferred a large portion of his recently re-acquired Tailed Beast, making the disposed Mizukage a close Tailed Beast container. On their way out of the prison, Mei broke out her best lieutenant and gave him orders to mobilise the ANBU before the group moved to the Mizukage's building. Breaking into the building, they immediately killed the Mizukage's doppelganger, only to find that it was itself a replacement for the real villain. Revealing himself to the group, a masked man called Tobi revealed his displeasure at the day's events. They tried to attack him, but their attacks were ineffective as he appeared to phase straight through them. After several attempts, Hinata began to work out the trick with her Byakugan, moving her body into his to negate his ability to attack them back. Using his strange doujutsu, Tobi sucked her into a technique, with both Yugito and Fu diving forward to save her and being sucked in as well.
***End Summary***
Skidding along the ground, Naruto used his hands to slow his momentum before glaring back up at his opponent in frustration.
Mangetsu took a laboured breath and steadied himself on his feet, ignoring the gaping wound in his side that bled onto the soft ground beneath his feet. His opponent had an annoying habit of pressing him in a manner the Swordsman hadn't been expecting in someone that looked like he did.
Naruto looked at the battlefield around them, noticing how drastically it had transformed during their battle. They'd kept away from Kirigakure itself for most of their duel, but the ground was scorched from Mangetsu's lightning blade and torn apart by Naruto's wind technique.
"You've got to be running low on strength by now," commented the Swordsman leader. "I can see the difference in your expression."
The blonde Tailed Beast container chuckled and stretched out his shoulders, flexing his arms dramatically. "Are you kidding me? This is training exercise compared to some of the other battles I've fought."
"You're underestimating me?" said Mangetsu with a raised eyebrow, shocked at the idea of it. "Surely you know better by now."
Naruto grinned at his opponent wickedly, "On the contrary, this is the most fun I've had fighting in ages. You aren't trying to kill me; I'm not trying to kill you. It's great fun!"
Mangetsu stared at his opponent for a moment before groaning and running a hand through his white hair, "This is infuriating. I am trying to kill you, boy!"
"Well, okay, maybe you are…but you must admit you're having fun too."
The Swordsman groaned again and brought up his stolen Konoha blade, "I'm going to start cutting you now. I don't know when I'll stop."
Naruto grinned and reactivated his Kattoken, wishing he had better control over the technique. His original intention had been to end the battle quickly, but his opponent was as tenacious as he was, meaning that the damage to his arms was reaching breaking point.
If Hinata were here I could keep fighting as normal…
He shook himself out of it; he had to win battles without relying on his wife's healing abilities. Not that he'd ever tell her that.
Looking at his opponent's body, it was clear that he was just as tired as Naruto was, though he had something the Swordsman leader did not.
Kyuubi! Kyuubi! You there? Placing a collect-call to the pain-in-the-ass Nine Tails!
Inside his head he heard a low growling, followed by a string of expletives. "I was napping, boy. I dreamt I was a volcano and was pouring lava all over pathetic mortals like you."
He began to charge at his opponent, fuelling as much strength as he could into his Kattoken as he clashed with Mangetsu's sword. Because of his technique the lightning couldn't quite reach him, but Mangetsu was a tricky opponent and every swing of his sword aimed to cut through his guard. Naruto treated his arms like they were swords and parried with each blow, though he wasn't able to get any offensive movements going.
I could use your help, Kyuubi. Any chakra you want to give would be fantastic.
The voice inside his head snorted, "Yes, that will absolutely happen. And I'll grow wings and fly away. No, wait, I can actually do that. I'll grow a large horn and…no I can do that too. Damn it."
Kyuubi, I could do without your crap at this time. He's going to overpower me pretty soon; he's not losing any speed.
Mangetsu feigned a strike at Naruto's head but as the blonde shinobi went to defend himself he shifted part of his body into water and skirted around the sides, slashing at Naruto's shoulder.
Immediately upon contact lightning shot through Naruto's body and he roared out in pain, lashing out wildly with his arms. Mangetsu dived away easily, but the unstable nature of Naruto's Kattoken meant he suffered numerous cuts to his arms in response.
Creating some distance between himself and his opponent, Mangetsu could feel his arms weakening at the wounds he suffered.
Kyuubi! Any time now!
Naruto's voice was starting to sound desperate, though a part of him had noticed his opponent was just as exhausted as he was. As he gritted his teeth and stood up from the ground, his eyes widened as he saw the body of Roshi lying not far away. It was clearly messed up fairly bad, but he didn't have to be too close to see the Four-Tails container wasn't going to be getting back up.
Mangetsu noticed his shock and went to move in to take advantage of it, but Naruto's expression changed as he turned back to his opponent with a look of cold fury in his eyes.
The Swordsman leader stopped in his attack and doubled back, "You shouldn't be so angry with me. Your people killed three of mine. I should be angry with you." Mangetsu's voice was emotionless, but he felt a cold fury growing inside him at having to admit that he didn't care about his companions' deaths. They weren't exactly his favourites in the group to begin with.
"But you're not," said Naruto coldly. "I didn't like Roshi that much, but we came here to help save your village. He didn't deserve to get killed."
Mangetsu lowered his sword, thankful for the respite from the fighting though he wouldn't admit it. "You keep saying that. How could you possibly be trying to help us?"
His opponent shook his head, "I'm through talking. Let's finish this."
"I haven't given you any of my power, boy, just so you know."
I know you are not strong enough to help me just yet. I've got this.
"You haven't 'got this', you're barely standing."
Naruto ignored his occupant and stamped his feet into the ground, slapping his legs and concentrating as much as he could on hardening himself with physical energy. His opponent seemed hesitant to attack him again, but seeing the look in his eyes it was clear there was only one way to solve their duel.
Driving the lightning blade into the ground in front of him, Mangetsu went through a quick set of handseals and clasped both hands on the sword's hilt. A large column of water began to emerge behind him and he lightly tapped the Raijin no Ken on its edge, causing the column to electrify and create a terrifying crackling sound as he began to move towards his enemy.
Naruto responded less obviously, though his technique required more concentration than he was used to. Physical energy techniques didn't have any obvious effect on his body, but in combination with whatever strength he had left put into his Kattoken caused the air to sound like it was being torn apart from every angle.
As they started to move towards each other, several large balls of water began to separate and fly towards Naruto, crackling with lightning. The Nine-Tails container ignored them and charged forward, not even noticing when they made contact with his body. His technique allowed him to ignore the pain and the damage as he closed the gap between the two of them rapidly.
Mangetsu spun the Raijin no Ken in the air and held it up to bring it down on Naruto's head, as the lightning-covered water behind him turned into a large dragon and reared its head to come crashing down on his enemy.
The two of them finally clashed in a single instance of strength and power, Mangetsu's water and lightning slamming into Naruto even as he slammed a fist into Mangetsu's stomach, completely covered in air-based spiritual energy.
Mangetsu grinned at the contact and changed his body into water to absorb the impact, completely surrounding his enemy with water. He knew that nobody could survive for long under those conditions; even as he stabbed into the sphere he created with his sword in an attempt to finish the job.
After half a minute he withdrew the water and looked down at the blonde boy's body. He nodded his approval at the battle they had had, it wasn't something he was going to forget any time soon.
"You died well, boy."
As he turned to work out what was left of his group, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see a broken sword sticking out of his chest.
"Wha…"
Naruto walked out from Mangetsu's side, his face not showing any emotion as regulated his breathing, "Sometimes it's the simplest techniques that win battles."
Mangetsu tried to turn his body to water, but he didn't have the strength to mould any chakra. "How…when…"
The Nine-Tails container indicated with his head to Mangetsu's back, "I marked you during our first exchange. I just needed to distract you long enough to take advantage."
Coughing blood onto the ground as he fell to his knees, Mangetsu let out a small chuckle, "You…missed my heart…"
Taking little care in removing his sword from his opponent's chest, Naruto sheathed it on his belt and stared into Mangetsu's face. "On purpose. I'm not a killer. But you need to stop being in my way."
The Swordsman leader shook his head and reached forward tentatively, grasping the hilt of his sword and slowly pushing it towards Naruto. "Your…prize. I didn't like…using it anyway. Too…simple."
Naruto took the sword with caution, wary that his enemy could still attack him even in his state. "My thanks, I guess."
"You're going to…help the…village?" he asked, looking up at his opponent for only a moment before his wound took him from consciousness.
Naruto took a step back as he strapped the Raijin no Ken to his belt, nodding his respect to his opponent before turning around. "I'll do my best."
oOoOoOo
Killer Bee tried to hold back Ameyuri's twin blade assault, but the young woman was too fast for him and was already inside his guard before he could stop her. She hooked his swords through her Kiba blades and sent them flying to the sides as she kicked him straight in the chest and stomped him into the ground.
Ameyuri stood on top of his prone body and held one of her blades at his throat, while the other stabbed at the air above. "Hell yeah! Winner!"
She looked around to see if there was anyone to celebrate her victory, but judging by the battlefield it looked like she was the only one around from the Swordsmen still standing.
"What are you doing, Bee?"
The Eight-Tails container sighed at the sound of his occupant complaining, the fight had been one frustration after the other.
It's not like I'm not trying. She's a good fighter.
"Perhaps as a swordsman. But not as a shinobi. Get your head right, Bee."
Killer Bee sighed again and looked up at his opponent, remarking on how sharp her teeth looked through her wicked grin. A thought came to his head and he immediately grimaced at the prospect.
"BEE! That's horrible! I would have thought you above such things."
Inside his head, Bee shook his head continuously, unable to escape the terrible thought.
Fine, FINE!
Taking an account of his situation, Killer Bee reached out and grabbed at the Kiba blade aimed at his throat, while a tentacle shot out of his shoulder and wrapped around her other wrist.
Ameyuri's expression immediately shifted to panic as she realised how much the situation had just shifted away from her advantage. "Ah crap. I celebrated too early again."
Killer Bee grinned behind his sunglasses and activated a basic ninjutsu, "It isn't like a Swordsman to hold back from killing someone."
Lightning shot up the Kiba blade and bypassed the safeguards, causing her to shake as she suffered the technique completely.
Jumping up from the ground, Killer Bee's tentacle let go of her wrist and Ameyuri dropped to the ground, her blades falling out of her hands.
"You're strong, kid. It's only because I'm a Tailed Beast container that I beat you."
Ameyuri gave him her trademark toothy grin before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body fell limp. Killer Bee could only shake his head as he stepped back from the woman's unconscious body.
"Have a few problems, did you?"
Bee turned to see Naruto walking towards him, the look on his face telling the Eight-Tails container that his blonde companion had won his battle as well.
"Nothing I couldn't handle," said Bee, rubbing at his neck sorely. He didn't want to admit it, but the battle with Ameyuri had drained him of more chakra than he would have thought. "Where are the others?"
A solemn look came over Naruto's face as he indicated to the side. Bee turned and saw why his expression had changed so drastically.
The two of them slowly walked over to a ruined section of the battlefield in front of the closed Kirigakure gates. They looked down at the red haired body at their feet, both of them feeling a sense of regret at the death of their companion.
"Did you see who took him down?" asked Naruto, not sure how he felt about the Four-Tails container's death. "It doesn't look there is any more fighting going on."
Killer Bee could only shake his head, "I was too preoccupied with my fight."
"I don't see Han anywhere either. He might have been taken out as well."
"How much chakra do you have left?" asked Naruto, though he could tell that they were both in about the same condition. He shook his head before Bee could respond, "What are we meant to do now? Whatever advantage the others would have gained is surely done by now."
His companion nodded in agreement, "I don't know how much longer we could have kept this up anyway. Maybe we should transform and attack the village directly."
"Don't be ridiculous!" said a shocked Naruto. "What part of not killing them do you not understand?"
Killer Bee jabbed a finger at Roshi's body, "They killed one of us! What else am I meant to do?"
Naruto took a step back and crossed his arms with a disapproving look, "I preferred it when you were just rapping."
The Eight-Tails container went to say something, but Naruto's expression changed and he turned his head like he was listening to someone speaking in his mind.
After a few moments Naruto turned back to his companion, his concern clearly written on his face.
"What is it?" asked Bee quickly.
"We have to move. Grab Roshi's body and fall back to the rally point."
The Kumogakure Tailed Beast container smirked before barking out a short laugh, "Don't think you can command me, kiddo. You might have the Nine-Tails, but you ain't no leader of me."
Naruto apologise with a weak smile, "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I have to go and help one of the others, but you know we can't attack the village anymore. They didn't attack with their main army, but if the other group was going to make it in, they would be there already."
Killer Bee had to concede that point, there seemed little point in maintaining their position of attack. But he didn't like the idea of retreat, and despite himself he worried over Yugito's wellbeing.
Reaching down with a large hand, he hefted Roshi's body over his shoulder, mentally regretting that he had to treat the body in such a way. "Where are you going?"
Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated his energies, "To save the day."
With a crack of lightning Naruto appeared above the ocean, only having a moment to steady his feet on the ocean floor before he could get his bearings. A voice called out behind him, but Naruto didn't get the chance to ask what they said as a cannonball came screaming towards him. He activated his secondary teleportation skill and reappeared a short distance forwards, hearing the explosion behind him nearly deafen his ears.
"Naruto? Are you okay?"
The Nine-Tails container turned around on the water to see Gaara floating towards him, clutching at his shoulder with blood running the length of his shirt.
"Gaara?"
His old companion put away the kunai he had been given by the Nine-Tails container and offered him a hand up onto his floating sand platform. "You don't waste any time. We have to go, right now."
Naruto leapt up onto the sand platform and patted his friend on the back, taking care to avoid his injured side. "What's been happening? Why did you call me out here?"
Gaara took in a short breath and indicated to the ocean around them. It was only then that Naruto took a proper look at his surroundings, his eyes widening as he saw the devastation.
Scattered across the ocean surface were large planks of wood and plumes of smoke, with littered bodies telling a grisly tale. Naruto could scarcely believe the carnage; it was far too familiar to the siege for his liking.
"So the battle went well then," disgusted with himself that he approved of what had been done here.
Gaara used his sand to pull them high into the air above the battlefield, and Naruto saw that there were still a half dozen battleships sailing towards them.
"How did you guys manage this?" he asked, concerned that there was something here he was missing.
The Kazekage indicated to the forward-most battleship with his better hand, "It doesn't matter. They took Utakata, and I've barely got enough chakra to keep us afloat."
Naruto bit at his lip, scenarios running through his head. A few years ago he would have charged down in and likely gotten himself heavily injured, but now he knew that situations like this required a more patient approach.
"Can you get back to Kirigakure?" he asked as a plan began to form in his mind.
Gaara nodded quickly, "What are you planning on doing?"
The Nine-Tails container stood up from his kneeling position and put his hands together, creating a Kage Bunshin to stay by his old friend's side. "You said Utakata was down there, right?"
"Naruto, don't…" Gaara started to say, but Naruto was already gone, having dropped down to the ocean surface.
The Nine-Tails container sped quickly along the water, finding new avenues of strength to maintain his fast pace as he charged towards the battleship Gaara had pointed out. His approach was clearly noticed as cannonballs and arrows quickly rained down on his position, but Naruto was too fast to be caught by such attacks.
Within a minute he was at the front of the battleship, taking a moment to gather his strength before leaping high onto the bow and activating his Kattoken in preparation for anything the Quiraji was going to throw at him.
On the deck of the ship was a pack of Quiraji soldiers ready to spear him with their weaponry, but it was the five figures dressed in black robes that drew Naruto's attention. They felt…wrong to him, like something he wanted to get as far away as he could.
"Do we have another sacrifice then?" came a voice behind the Black Robes, walking into view. Immediately Naruto was on edge as he felt an even worse feeling in his gut at the figure's presence, not recognising his robed figure, but recognising the draining feeling he had on the surrounding area.
"Who are you?" demanded the robed figure, holding a chain in his near skeletal hand.
Naruto's expression darkened as he saw Utakata being dragged on a chain behind the figure. Both his legs appeared to be gone, and the chain was attached to a collar around his neck. Naruto felt his choler rising at the treatment of his fellow Tailed Beast container, but battle-tested wisdom indicated that this was a foe he shouldn't face on his own.
"What are you going to do with him?" asked Naruto, biting back his inner need to rage against the Quiraji foe.
Kyoukou yanked forward the unconscious Utakata and grabbed at his throat, pulling him up to head height, "Who, Utakata here? Oh nothing more, I suppose. He's told me all I need to know."
"Then let him go. You've lost your army, you can't win here."
The Quiraji leader smiled a humourless grin and placed his free hand on Utakata's head. Naruto yelled out in distress, but couldn't do anything as Kyoukou appeared to drain the essence of life from his body, causing him to wither and die before Naruto's eyes.
"Oh no, Naruto. There is much more I think we can learn from your kind." His soulless eyes stared into the blonde shinobi's, "To think the beasts of old survived this long."
Remembering the Kyuubi's tale about the war with the Quiraji, Naruto swore to himself as he realised they didn't know about the Tailed Beast's presence until just now. It was clear by the look of Utakata that he was gone, looking like he'd been dead for a number of years despite having only gone a few moments ago.
"I'll kill you for that," said a furious Naruto, feeling his Kattoken blowing out of control in line with his anger. "Slowly and painfully."
The Quiraji leader cocked his head slightly, seemingly amused at the anger displayed by the shinobi. "He killed my men in that beast form of his, slaughtered them without any question of mercy, and you are angry at me for exacting justice? You shinobi are the most hypocritical people I've ever met."
A part of Naruto felt like the Quiraji leader made a reasonable point, but that was quickly overwhelmed by his disgust at how his companion had been killed.
He clapped his hands together and accumulated a massive amount of chakra, indicating that whatever discussions they were having were now over.
Kyoukou immediately barked an order at his Black Robe subordinates, who pushed their hands towards Naruto, but the blonde shinobi had already activated his technique. As they attacked him all at once, the Nine-Tails container jumped forward and spun around in a whirl, using his Kattoken to pull apart as much as he could before he flew too close to Kyoukou and disappeared in a puff of white smoke.
The damage to the battleship was done however, as his wind chakra had ripped apart the mast and was forcing the ship to take on water. A short distance away, Naruto watched as the crew began to panic and several of the remaining ships moved to help the crew abandon their battleship.
"Well that worked, I guess."
"You took too many risks. What if…"
"There's no point in arguing, Kyuubi. What's done is done."
Not wanting to waste any more chakra than he had to, Naruto turned around and began running back to Gaara's floating position, hoping his distraction would keep the Quiraji from launching an attack until their leader was back on a ship that wasn't sinking.
oOoOoOo
"That was your plan?"
Naruto jumped onto the sand platform and nodded to his clone before turning to the Kazekage, "Can you get us back to the Kirigakure island?"
Gaara frowned at being given an order, but nodded regardless, "I have enough strength for that. What did you have in mind?"
"We have to regroup. Roshi's dead, Utakata's dead, Han's probably dead…this whole thing is a mess."
"Such is war," said Gaara, ripping a strip off of his scarf and wrapping it around his shoulder. "Were the others successful?"
Naruto shrugged, he had no way of knowing what had happened to the other group. He sat down on the sand platform and took a long breath to calm himself down. "I doubt they'll be willing to follow us with such small numbers. If nothing else, you and Utakata stopped the invasion."
"That was all Utakata. If that man hadn't shown up, he would have destroyed all of them."
"Did he transform?" asked Naruto, remembering the time he had seen Gaara transform during the Chuunin Exams in Suna. He'd seen a number of horrible things in his life, but that had been the first time he had been properly frozen in fear.
"Something like that. I was trying to defend myself from attacks while he dove underwater and changed. All I could see were strange slimy tentacles that destroyed battleships with a single swipe."
Their sand platform sped over the water as Naruto and Gaara recovered from their respective battles and discuss what they should do next.
"When do you have to go back to Suna?"
His old friend sighed, he missed his home. "I said I would commit to solving the problems here for the greater war. If we can secure Kirigakure as an ally, we have a good chance of surviving the wars to come." He turned to Naruto and offered him a bottle of water, "Besides, I have faith in the people of my village."
"I'll have to visit it again at some point," said Naruto, taking the bottle with a nod of thanks. "Sounds like you've done some good things with it since the last time I was there."
Gaara nodded as their sand platform moved over the land and towards their previously agreed rally point. With a rocky exterior and entrance facing a small amount of ocean, their rally point was cleverly disguised as a meaningless piece of land concealed from both sides of Kirigakure. Because that's all it was.
As they descended to the rally point, they saw Killer Bee relaxing on a smooth piece of rock. When they came to a stop it was clear that the Eight-Tails container was asleep, though he still seemed to be wearing his sunglasses and tapping his foot to some unknown beat. Roshi's body had been carefully placed on the ground, though with Han gone they weren't sure how they were meant to get it back to Iwagakure, or even if they would want it back.
"Nice to see one of us can be so relaxed," said Naruto dryly, jumping onto the ground.
Gaara let his sand slowly bring him to the ground and gingerly touched his shoulder before grimacing in pain.
I'll have to improve my techniques, if my defence can be breached so easily by their soldiers.
"You should have let me at them."
The Kazekage kept his stoic visage, but internally he was rolling his eyes. Shukaku, you can't swim.
"Ah. I'll just shut up then."
Thank you.
A strange feeling came over the Kazekage and his face twitched into a tiny smirk. Turning his body around to the opening, he coughed slightly to clear his throat. "You can come out now."
The air in front of him shimmered for a moment before dissolving into a short haired young woman who gave the Kazekage a respectful bow, "You called, Kazekage-sama?"
Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin at her appearance, but relaxed himself when he saw her wearing a Suna forehead protector.
Killer Bee continued to snooze uninterrupted.
Without needing prompting, the Suna spy stepped forward and examined her leader's shoulder, concern clearly written on her face. "Did you bandage this yourself, sir?"
Gaara waved off her concern, though that didn't seem to stop her. "Matsuri, I need you to tell me what you know about this village, anything that can help us."
"There isn't much to say, Gaara-sama. The village has been in lockdown for weeks," she said as she undid the scarf around his shoulder and reached into her pack to produce a healing substance. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think these guys were hiding."
"But you do know better?" asked Naruto, finding the spy's actions acceptable, despite Gaara trying not to indicate how bad his wound was. Even after his battle with the Nine-Tails container, the Kazekage was not accustomed to injuries.
The brown haired girl shot him a dark look before turning back to her leader, "Gaara-sama, who is this man?"
"Uzumaki Naruto," said Gaara through his teeth, not enjoying the stinging sensation as the substance she rubbed into his wound began to heal him.
Upon hearing that, Matsuri's expression changed instantly and she gave the blonde shinobi a wide smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir! Gaara-sama has said many great things about you."
Naruto gave a chuckle and patted his old friend on the back, "I like this one. How come you didn't mention you had a spy in the village?"
Gaara grimaced as he pulled his shirt back up over his wound and looked over at his friend, "It wasn't necessary. I sent her here before I knew of this mission. Don't forget, I'm a Kage. There are some things we have to do."
"Yeah, don't remind me," said Naruto, his smile showing that he was only feigning annoyance. He turned to Matsuri, "Do you have any soldier pills on you?"
The young girl nodded and revealed a small selection of medical items in her pack. She gave her leader a smile, "Would you like one too, Gaara-sama?"
"I'll be fine, thank you Matsuri."
Naruto reached into the pack and produced four pills in hand, taking a long breath before swallowing all of them in one go.
"Is that wise?" asked Gaara, watching as Naruto struggled with the massive burst of chakra that the pills gifted to him. More than one pill was dangerous even to Chuunin-level shinobi, but four at once was unheard of.
Naruto grinned through clenched teeth, "I'll be fine. Just…give me a second."
Gaara nodded and turned his attention inward to his occupant.
Shukaku, where are your chakra levels?
"I'm not your ally, kid. I'm your prisoner."
I'm trying to be civil, Shukaku.
Inside his head he could hear the same evil chuckling that used to keep him from sleeping as a younger shinobi.
"Fair enough. You won't be transforming any time soon, I've been feeding you chakra to keep you alive."
Why didn't you heal the injury on my shoulder?
"I already told you, kid. Sometimes suffering is good."
"Gaara-sama? Are you okay?" asked a concerned Matsuri, seeing the unfocused look on her leader's eyes.
The One-Tails container shook his head and nodded to his subordinate, "I'm fine, Matsuri. I'll need you to go back into the village and check something for me."
"Of course, sir!" said the enthusiastic ANBU shinobi.
"Hold on a second," said Naruto as he picked himself up from the ground. He felt chakra flowing through him, which he knew would cause him to crash horribly once the battle was done, but he didn't care about that at the moment. "Take me with you."
Matsuri gave Gaara a raised eyebrow as he in turn gave Naruto a questioning look. "What are you planning, Naruto?"
The blonde shinobi grinned and patted himself down as if he was covered in dust, "I have to make sure my wife is okay."
"Wife? You're married?" asked a shocked Matsuri. He wasn't much older than Gaara was.
Naruto ignored her and gave Gaara a confident nod, "We need to know what's happened with the others. I have to make sure Hinata isn't hurt."
"Why don't you just teleport to her?" asked Gaara, feeling at the Hiraishin kunai the blonde shinobi had given him at the start of the mission.
"I can only do Hiraishin a limited amount in a short period of time. Something tells me this isn't over yet, and I might need to do it again soon."
"Fair enough," said the Kazekage. He turned to his spy, "Can you take him to the others from our group?"
Matsuri nodded, though she was visibly unhappy at what she had to do. "They went into the Mizukage building not long ago. But the ANBU have surrounded the building, it won't be easy."
"Can you do it or not?" asked an impatient Naruto.
"Of course I can!" said Matsuri, not wanting to appear weak in front of the Kazekage. She walked forward and grabbed him by the shoulder before turning back to Gaara, "With your permission, sir?"
Gaara considered the situation for only a moment. He knew the limitations of Matsuri's concealment technique, and it would be too difficult to ask her to take both of them. He also knew that Naruto was the most stubborn person he'd ever met, and nothing would stop him from going after his wife.
He gave her a quick nod and the two of them vanished under a concealing blanket of wind chakra.
Seeing his subordinate and friend go back into the fight, Gaara let out a short sigh and placed his original gourd on the ground beside him. His other gourds had been destroyed, and he felt useless.
"You gonna just let them go?"
Gaara turned to stare at the speaker, reminded that he wasn't alone. "I'm the Kazekage; I can't go in and brazenly attack another village."
Killer Bee scoffed and turned his gaze back to the sky, "Won't matter before long. I doubt this'll come to anything anyway."
Despite himself, Gaara could understand the Eight-Tails container's pessimism. Even with all the victories they had achieved over the Quiraji, it felt like there was always something that came up to knock them back down.
"Will this ever end?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Don't count on it," said Killer Bee in response, drifting back to sleep.
A burst of information slammed into Hinata's mind as her Byakugan took in their new surroundings. Both Yugito and Fu had leapt to their feet immediately upon being dumped in the area and watched their foe cautiously as Tobi materialised in front of them.
The dimension was covered in a dark blue haze, with the three kunoichi feeling all their senses thrown into disarray by the odd proportions of the objects within. Their feet stood on a smooth dark blue floor that appeared to run into an infinite horizon, while the area was covered by a mass of different shaped rectangles, some piercing high enough into the dark sky that they couldn't see the tops.
Hinata quickly recovered from the change in scenery and picked herself up and concentrated her energy on their enemy. She could see through the man who called himself Tobi's mask, though it wasn't exactly what she had expected.
Underneath his mask, half of his face was scared terribly like it had been burnt away and rebuilt, and his concealed eye held a second Sharingan, telling her that he must be an Uchiha that she'd never heard of. His chakra reminded her of both the Uchiha brothers, though it was separate from them as well.
But she wasn't going to tell him she knew that. Information was power in their world.
"This is a messed up place," commented Fu, her eyes wide open at the dimension they'd be been brought to. "It's like up is down or something like that…"
Yugito nodded, keeping her cat-like eyes on their foe and preparing herself to attack him with all her strength. "Will he still be able to use that strange technique?"
"I don't think so," said Hinata, feeling an odd resistance to her attempt at pulling at the air around her with spiritual energy. "This is part of his technique…it seems to be based on his Sharingan. That's what brought us here."
"Seem to have all the answers, don't you?" said their enemy, flexing his gloved hands menacingly. He moved his masked face to stare at each of them individually before coming back to the young Hyuuga girl and finding his anger spiking to heights he hadn't experienced in years.
He was going to kill her and enjoy it. It wasn't as if there was anything else to do, now that his plans were ruined once again.
"I have an inherently stupid question," said Fu. "How are we meant to get out of here?"
"Focus on taking him out," replied Yugito quickly, extending her nails into long claws and leaping forward to slash at Tobi's front. "We have other things to worry about."
The masked foe seemed almost insulted by the attack as he moved the bare minimum to avoid the attack before reaching out and grabbing the Two-Tails container by the throat with a crushing grip.
Both Fu and Hinata shot forward to defend their fellow kunoichi, but Yugito wasn't a green soldier unprepared for battle like Tobi thought she might be. With a burst of speed she brought up her feet and shoved them onto Tobi's chest, using her hands to grab at his hand and bite into it with her claws.
She couldn't see the expression on Tobi's face, but that mattered little to her as she felt his grip lessen and she was able to jump backwards away from his arm and landing with a smirk on her face.
Hinata and Fu held themselves when they saw Yugito was able to keep herself uninjured, though the body language in their enemy showed he hadn't been expecting her to break his grip so easily.
"Don't attack him one-on-one," warned Hinata. "His Sharingan gives him too much of an advantage."
Taking in an account of the situation, Tobi exhaled a long sigh and shook the arm that Yugito had clawed at. The kunoichi watched as a strange white substance appeared along his arm and covered the dark red wound and appeared to heal it within seconds. The rip in his sleeve remained, but it was as if he'd never been hurt in the first place.
Hinata watched the whole thing with her Byakugan, but couldn't understand how it worked. She knew there were some things she would never understand about other shinobi's techniques despite the information she could obtain, but their enemy seemed to get more complex as they fought him.
"Enough of this charade. It is clear that you are not going to go down without some effort. I'm tired of playing these games." He reached up and pulled back his hood, revealing a head of short spiky hair, his face still covered by his orange spiral mask, though his right Sharingan was clearly obvious through the hole that had seemingly gotten wider. "You will never escape this place. It will be your tomb."
Hinata looked at her two companions as they wordlessly agreed to each attack at once. Trying her best to work out an attack strategy with their abilities, but put that thought aside as she saw Tobi shifting his posture to a more aggressive stance.
However despite her own hesitation, both Yugito and Fu dived at their foe, intent on finishing what they had started in the Mizukage's office. The Two-Tails container moved rapidly to his side and pulled back a claw, while Fu had surrounded herself with bright coloured sparks and had her hands ready in a complex hand seal. Before Hinata could call out for them to fall back and think about it for a moment, their enemy reacted to their attacks at once.
Using his Sharingan to predict their attacks, Tobi clapped his hands together and created a large column of fire between himself and Fu, forcing her to stop before she leapt into the flames. Just as Yugito's claw threatened to remove his head from his shoulders, he grabbed at her wrist and spun her around in a circle with a surprising show of strength, sending her flying straight into the column of fire.
The Kumogakure shinobi screamed out in pain as she flew out the other side and slammed into Fu, setting her on fire in the process. The two of them frantically rolled on the ground, trying to put out the burning flames.
Her hands already running through the ninjutsu, Hinata threw a large globe of water onto the two women to put them out before concentrating her chakra on removing the fire column, wary of how well their opponent could likely manipulate the flames if left unchecked.
She still kept her Byakugan active, which saved her life as Tobi moved with an unnatural speed behind her and reached out to grab at the back of her head with his hands. Hinata jumped closer to the column of fire and spun around before diving towards the masked foe, her hands as fast as blurs as she struck at as many chakra points as she willing to risk before moving away again as he threatened to slash at her face with a kunai that appeared out of his sleeve.
The Hyuuga heiress kept her piercing gaze on Tobi as he put his arms down and turned to stare at her, his Sharingan showing her a whole range of twisted emotions. But one thing was clear from that short exchange they had just had.
"What has happened to your body?" she asked softly, not expecting an answer from their implacable foe.
Both Fu and Yugito got up from the ground and patted themselves down, the two of them seemingly angry at themselves for panicking so easily. They moved over to Hinata and took up positions again.
"He's a lot stronger than he looks," observed Fu, silently communicating with her occupant and trying to form a strategy of her own. "Any suggestions?"
"Physical attacks won't work, he's too fast," said Yugito, lamenting the fact that she had to admit his Sharingan gave him an edge in speed and manoeuvrability. "I might have to change."
It was very slight, but there was a slight shift in Tobi's expression behind his mask as Yugito made her observations that Hinata caught. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but she'd lived her life by being cautious so she wasn't going to dismiss any piece of information.
"We're at a disadvantage here," she said quietly to her group members. "I still haven't worked out how to properly use my main techniques in this place; he's too powerful to go at one at a time."
"One at a time…" Yugito considered her statement for a moment before a sly grin came over her face and she motioned for the other two to stand back. Running through a quick set of handseals that Tobi was easily able to recognise with his Sharingan, she dug her claws into her palms before driving them into the ground. A giant burst of wind slammed into Hinata at the same time, knocking the white-eyed shinobi off her feet as she let out a satisfying noise at the revelation.
Yugito pushed as much chakra as she could from her occupant as she activated her technique. "Kuchiyose: Hineko Kakekomi!" (Summoning Technique: Fiery Cat Stampede)
A small plume of smoke erupted under her hand before the area around her exploded into bright blue flames, setting a stark contrast to the dark world around them. Both Hinata and Fu instinctively put their hands up in defence, the blue flames were far hotter than anything they had experienced in the past.
If Tobi was concerned by the appearance of the flames he gave no indication as he pointed a hand at the flames that had consumed Yugito entirely.
However before he could do anything, a small part of the blue flames shot from the side and slammed into Tobi's side, setting his robe on fire as it drew a long gash before diving past as he tried to swat it away.
Dozens of flames began to repeat the trick, and Tobi was forced to activate his own fire technique to keep them at bay. Yugito maintained her fire technique, her two allies noticing that the flames had taken cat-like shapes and were gaining in speed.
Seeing their enemy was unable to respond, Hinata turned to Fu and gave her two quick hand signals, pointing upwards then straight down. Despite being from different villages, the Seven-Tails container understood what she meant. A pair of large insect wings appeared on her back and she took to the sky, slowly making her way into her Tailed Beast form.
Yugito let out a bestial roar within the blue flames and sent out a large cat-like burst of blue flames that slammed right into Tobi's flame wall, though the masked shinobi was easily able to read the attack through his Sharingan and move out of the way.
But that didn't matter as his senses drew him up to the loud buzzing sound in the sky, causing him to let out a growl and put up his hands. A white substance began to emerge out of his arms, but he held back his technique as his Sharingan began to notice a strange sparkling light around him.
It wasn't clear to him what it was, and without seeing the handseals or the origin his Sharingan wasn't able to read the technique. After a few seconds he realised it was doing exactly what it was meant to, it was distracting him.
But he was wrong. It was doing much more than that.
Seemingly in an instant, the Two-Tails container appeared in front of him, covered in blue flames in her Tailed Beast form, reaching up with a fiery claw to rip him to shreds. His inborn instinct on his reliance on his red eyes proved less than helpful as the sparkles grew intensely bright and blinded him temporarily. It was only those same instincts that saved his life as he leapt backwards and just missed being torn apart, the ground where Yugito's claw struck lighting up with the same blue fire her Tailed Beast form was covered in.
"You'll have to try harder than that," he said with a cocky tone, still unable to work out how the technique had blinded him in both eyes despite his mask.
"Not that hard," came a soft voice behind him.
Hinata placed her hands in front of her to either side of Tobi, pushing her spiritual energy through the air and creating a vacuum in a square around him. The masked shinobi tried to struggle, but Yugito shot forward in her regular form and slashed at his arms with extended claws on her hands, taking his arms off at the elbows.
To their surprise, instead of his regular deeper voice, a childlike scream came from his body, and was quickly silenced as Fu came diving down and stabbed through his chest with her seventh long tail, piercing through where his heart was.
The three of them took a step back as his robed body slumped to the floor. Fu turned back to her normal form and cocked her head suspiciously, "That was…odd."
"Very odd," said Hinata, restoring the area around the body so that there wasn't a risk of one of them walking into it. "Like he became a different person."
The two of them seemed to get the message as they turned around to watch Tobi slowly appear out of the ground, his arms across his chest like it was a simply stroll in the park. His Akatsuki robe had gone with the doppelganger; he simply wore a dark blue light robe with a white sash around his waist.
"Asphyxiated…disarmed…stabbed…that's a damn shame. He was a good boy."
"That wasn't a clone," observed Hinata, kneeling down and placing a hand on the body they had just taken out. "It's some kind of…chakra hybrid."
Tobi turned his masked gaze to the white-eyed kunoichi, "His name was Zetsu. Or at least his template was. He was the last."
Staring at him with her Byakugan, Hinata noticed that the strange substance she had encountered earlier was gone from his body, with the exception of the right half of his body. She couldn't understand how he could have become that way, but she began to get inklings of a strategy on how to fight him.
Since it was clear he had seen through their techniques, such a formation wouldn't work twice.
Tobi reached up to his mask, and with a single clench of his hands crushed his mask on his face, letting the chunks drop to the ground to reveal his twisted expression as he regarded the kunoichi through his cold red eyes.
Fu stared at his face for a moment before shaking her head at the image, "Man, you are really ugly."
"Your good at focusing on the little things, aren't you?" asked Yugito with a sarcastic tone.
"What's wrong with his eyes? They don't look normal," said Fu.
Hinata stepped over the body and stood beside her companions, monitoring everything about their opponent to ensure she was prepared for anything he could throw at them. "It's the Mangekyou Sharingan. Don't stare at them directly; he'll put you under a genjutsu."
"Won't matter to us, we are Tailed Beast containers," pointed out Yugito. "If we all attack at once, his doujutsu won't be as effective."
"A well thought-out plan, though futile." Tobi's face broke into a twisted grin, "Now that I know your abilities, I'll take pleasure in tearing you apart."
Yugito and Fu shared at look between each other, they both knew they were low on chakra from their transformations. It was clear that he still seemed at a fairly intimidating level of strength, and they had no means of escaping the dimension he had taken them to.
"The two of you are pretty fast, right?" asked Hinata quietly, noticing that Tobi had no weapons hidden in his outfit, nor any obvious written seals that he could use to summon any.
The Tailed Beast containers nodded, though still confused over what she was talking about. Hinata stepped forward and slowly pulled her sleeves up so that she had better use of her arms. "Back me up; keep him from countering with any ninjutsu."
Both Yugito and Fu seemed to notice a scary confidence in the young dark haired kunoichi, but seeing no better plan they took positions at her side.
"Are you honestly going to try and fight a Sharingan-user with taijutsu?" scoffed Tobi, unfurling his arms and holding them in an open stance in mockery of her defiance.
Hinata reached into her pack and produced a small flask, but Tobi wasn't going to let her complete a technique as he ran through a long sequence of handseals in unbelievable speed before putting his hands to his mouth.
"Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku!"
A massive wall of intense flames exploded outwards from his mouth and covered the entire area in flames as it covered the distance between him and his enemies in an instant. Yugito snarled and dived to the side, using her immense speed to try and outrun the flames. Fu stamped a foot on the ground before jumping high up into the sky, using what little chakra she had left to summon her occupant's wings and reaching just above the flames.
Hinata did neither as the flames slammed into her position, with Tobi unrelenting for several moments before cutting off the technique and regarding the devastation his fire technique had caused.
"Hmm. As I thought." Tobi turned his scarred expression to his hands, wondering why he had been forced to spend so much chakra on three little girls.
His take-over of Kirigakure had ultimately failed, and with both the last Zetsu's dead there was no way he would be able to repeat the feat. Looking at his gloved hands, Tobi wondered what he was even doing with himself since his main plan fell to pieces.
His Sharingan drew his attention back to the battlefield as he saw three chakra signals coming into view. Tobi found himself gritting his teeth in frustration, "Don't you people ever die?!"
Fu landed on the ground a fair distance away from him and folded her wings into her back, swiping her hands to get rid of the flames on the edges of her skirt. "Not when we can help it."
Yugito also made her way to her Tailed Beast container ally, having hidden from the flames behind one of the giant rectangles. "That was some technique. Must have taken a lot of chakra to use."
Emerging from the sphere of water she had created, Hinata released her breath with a sigh of relief. The water trickled back into her flask and she walked up to her companions, grateful that she had finished her training on spiritual energy and manipulating water in time for them making landfall back home.
"How could you still be alive? That's the most powerful fire technique I've ever seen," said Fu with a shock at seeing Hinata unhurt.
The Hyuuga heiress smiled warmly at her companion and took her place at their side, enjoying an aura of mystery surrounding her techniques. A part of her wanted to explain it, but she liked the fact that Tobi had a look of veiled shock on his face.
Looking at her companions with her Byakugan, Hinata could tell how little chakra her companions had left. She wasn't sure how much they could borrow from their Tailed Beasts, but Hinata knew that she would have to be the main combatant in this final part of their fight.
"Do you have a plan?" asked Yugito, recognising that the confident Hyuuga kunoichi had the most strength left between them.
Hinata nodded, "The two of you need to distract him while I try and get close. If I get into taijutsu range, it's over."
"You seriously think you can defeat me with just taijutsu?" said Tobi with an arrogant stare. "You are underestimating me."
"Why don't you…" started Fu, but Hinata put her hand up to stop her.
"Don't get sucked into his pace," said the white-eyed kunoichi. "Let's just get this over with."
Her two companions looked at her for a moment before nodding and preparing themselves to charge at their mutual foe. The three of them began to move towards Tobi, with Yugito and Fu at the front with Hinata right behind them, a circle of water slowly emerging around her from her flask at her side.
Tobi frowned and put his hands together into a handseal, spitting a rapid fire set of large fireballs at the women charging towards him.
The three of them were easily able to avoid the fireballs, though when Tobi ramped up the speed they were getting closer and closer to striking them. As they came within mid-range of their enemy's position, Yugito and Fu both swung around the sides, forcing him to concentrate on three areas at once. He concentrated his attacks of Hinata's approaching position, but after seeing a number of fireballs stopped by a shield of water he could see how much of a disadvantage he was facing.
Both Yugito and Fu flew at him from either side, but his Sharingan was able to read their movements easily, allowing him to move at a slightly faster speed than the Tailed Beast containers. He blocked Fu's swinging leg and grabbed at Yugito's wrist, throwing the Kumogakure ANBU into her Tailed Beast companion, but as his Sharingan was distracted by them he wasn't able to track Hinata's charge towards him as she demonstrated a speed he hadn't seen before in the young Hyuuga shinobi.
Using her spiritual manipulation of the air around her to increase her speed, Hinata was able to duck under one final fireball before throwing four large globules of water at his sides. Clapping her hands to activate the technique, Hinata extended the water towards him in an instant, using them to hold his arms in place.
If Tobi was surprised by her movements he gave no indication as he began to power through the restraints, but it was already too late as Hinata slipped into his guard even as her companions recovered and moved to charge at him once again.
For a single moment it seemed like Hinata and Tobi were engaging in a battle of their doujutsu, but both of them knew the battle was already over. In that single moment, Hinata gave him a sympathetic look before pushing her hands towards his chest.
Tobi stopped struggling against her water restraints as he saw the Hyuuga seal laid down on the floor that encompassed both of them. His eyes widened as she took her stance, but was surprised even further as she moved her hands to a different position and added a second layer to the Hyuuga seal binding him in place.
Her white eyes stared at his messed up body and she began fuelling spiritual energy into her Hyuuga taijutsu technique.
"Juuken Hou: Hakke Hyaku Nijuu Ha Shou!"
Hinata's hands were a blur of speed as they slammed into Tobi's chest, though before he could recover from each individual strike, five more slammed into his front. Hinata was quick, yet methodical, and after several moments she completed her attack and drove a single finger into the base of his neck before releasing her breath and stepped back as Tobi dropped to his knees.
His face betrayed his terror as the chakra keeping his right side attached to his body began to come apart, as he looked at his opponent with a mixture of confusion and appreciation.
Hinata didn't know what had caused someone like him to become that way, but at that time she didn't care as she massaged her fingers sorely.
"That was crazy!" said Fu as she came up to Hinata and clapped her on the back. "Why didn't you do that earlier?"
"I wouldn't have been able to get through the armour that he used to make that clone," said Hinata, smiling at the young girl's enthusiasm. "And I wasn't sure I could do the technique to begin with. My cousin was always better at that technique than me."
"Is he still alive?" asked Yugito, noticing that their enemies eyes had changed to a normal black.
Hinata nodded, "But he can't use chakra. I've shredded his chakra points."
"For how long?"
The young Hyuuga kunoichi shrugged in a manner that was very similar to her husband, "Forever? I have no idea, but unless he has a way to get more chakra points, he won't even be able to stand up."
"Wow," said Yugito with a surprised tone. "That's…surprisingly harsh."
"We can't leave him here though," pointed out Fu. "The others wouldn't let him live after what he's done to their village."
Yugito looked at her companions for a moment before rolling her eyes and producing a kunai from her belt, driving it into Tobi's temple before flicking the blood off and sheathing it.
"Well that's done, I guess," said Hinata, not sure how she felt about the cold-blooded ending to their fight.
Fu stared at the area around them, remarking at how despite the battle damage it all looked the same to her, "I don't think there is an exit anywhere in here."
The Two-Tails container snarled in agreement, it did appear like they were stuck in the strange dimension. Seeing Tobi's fallen body in front of her, she pulled back a leg and began kicking it in the side, feeling a lessening of her anger with every blow.
"Why are you doing that, Yugito?" asked Hinata with a groan.
"I'm out of dead horses," replied the Kumogakure kunoichi before going back to kicking Tobi's corpse.
Minutes later while the girls were resting they were seemingly not surprised at all as a loud crack of lightning appeared beside Hinata as her husband came charging out of thin air with the lightning sword he had been given, ready to slice through anything threatening his wife.
"Rargh…huh?"
The blonde shinobi turned around with surprise on his face, more at the fact that there was no battle going on around him. He turned to see the amused expressions of the girl's faces, as Fu slowly picked herself up from her resting place on a small rectangle and Yugito seemed content to wait it out.
His gaze fell upon his wife and he felt himself relax as he saw she wasn't harmed. "Hinata…thank god. I…uh…came to the rescue…"
Hinata smiled at him and gently reached forward to touch at his cheek, "That's sweet, honey. Did you happen to bring some food?"
"I could do with some sweetbread," said Fu, running her hands through her hair in an attempt to straight it. "What about you, Yugito?"
"Sashimi," said the Two-Tails container, eying the blonde shinobi suspiciously. "Aren't you stuck here with the rest of us now?"
After giving his wife a kiss on her cheek, Naruto turned to see Tobi's body lying on the ground, twisted and nearly without a human-like shape. "I see you handled things rather well then."
"You had any doubts?" asked Hinata with a mock frown on her face.
"Of course not," said Naruto as he spun back to regard his wife, able to see through her ruse. "But he was clearly a strong opponent, and I didn't want to presume."
His wife playfully slapped him across the shoulder before hooking her arm around his and leaning on his shoulder, "Can you take us back now?"
Naruto nodded and indicated to the other Tailed Beast containers to come and grab onto him before reaching into his pocket and dropping a Hiraishin kunai on the ground.
Hinata gave him a questioning look, but the blonde shinobi merely winked at her as Yugito and Fu both placed their hands on his shoulder.
"So how does this wo…"
Yugito never got to finish her sentence as Naruto teleporting the three of them out of the dimension and away from the memories of their battle.
Author's Note:
And so Tobi dies. Finally. He wasn't in this story long, and without the stuff that happens in the real story he doesn't have too many techniques, so this was a weird battle to write. Regardless, I hope you liked it.
We're coming up on the ending of this arc, and then we move on to the serious business of this story. There is still much more to go yet, and I'm not going to stop until I finish it.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.