The Wanderers

Chapter 82 – Trial of Conquest

A/N: Just a small point, these three battles all happen at the same time, but will be in separate chapters.

A/N2: Due to popular demand, I will be writing an extra 100th chapter as a Writing Tips and Tricks chapter. It'll come out at the same time as the last chapter of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, the Animal Path of Pain would have been more creative.

***Previously-On***

While the shinobi strike force moved against the Quiraji leaders into the now-broken chakra-nullifying field, the defenders of the Fire Temple struggled with the weight of numbers and strength that the regular Quiraji army brought against them. During a lull in the fighting, Ino is warned about 'voices in the walls' by her daughter and she discovers a large cluster of Quiraji infiltrators slaughtering the civilians. She used her summon technique to take them out, but the battle continued to rage above with Dosu marshalling the defence.

Within the ashes of Konoha, the Quiraji leaders revealed themselves. The Four stood against the shinobi strike leader, and not long after Benkei showed himself to the shinobi and took a seat to watch the battles. When some of them went to attack Shikyo, Naruto called them back with a warning from his Tailed-Beast, and Benkei revealed that she is embodiment of the mother of shinobi, Kaguya, through which they shared a heritage. She struggles against his control and was currently not a threat, so the shinobi concentrated their efforts on the other three Quiraji leaders.

The battles for their lives had begun.

***End Summary***

The Quiraji leader took notice of the five shinobi that had segmented themselves off to face with a long stare. She recognised many of them as prey that had escaped her grasp in the past, though none more so than the blonde haired shinobi that had destroyed many of their vital buildings while avoiding her beasts.

If she could put an arrow through his chest and mount his head on a spike, it would be a good afternoon.

"Do we have a plan of attack?" asked Nagisa at a low growl, her white partner beneath her standing on her front paws ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Her question sounded like it was directed to the group, but she was really asking Kakashi if he had a plan, her habit of deferring to him was still well in place.

Kakashi considered their situation for a moment, taking into account the abilities of the shinobi at his side. He was grateful that Naruto had joined them, as the blonde shinobi had an explosive tendency to surprise the Quiraji that would be vital, but the Inuzukas' presence was also important considering their opponent. It didn't take him long to formulate a plan, but much of what he could think about depended on how their opponent attacked.

"We shouldn't just wait for her to attack, we need to go on the offensive," said Kiba as chakra poured out of his body. He fell into his Four Legs Technique easily, with Akamaru standing at his side growling loudly.

The others could find little fault with his logic and prepared themselves to attack the Quiraji leader, but hesitated when they saw Shouri walking towards them with her arms spread out wide on either side, like she was embracing her old companions.

"You are confident in yourselves. This is good." She took another step forward and bowed to her opponents, showing respect with her body even as a cruel smile sat on her face that spoke to her true intentions. "But you would do well to remember the main principle of conquest."

"And what is that?" asked Kakashi at a distance, keeping his Rinnegan eyes fixed on the dark area that was their opponent. He was getting used to seeing her that way and could feel the eyes flooding his mind with the knowledge that Nagato had left him.

Shouri's smile widened as she gracefully moved an armoured gauntlet over the rocky ground in front of her. "It is by the tip of the spear that the wall crumbles to dust."

She didn't give them a chance to decode the meaning behind her words, as the ground beneath her hand rumbled and ruptured upwards like a mini-volcano. A gigantic rhino clad in black-plated armour and a single scythed horn lurched out of the opening and thundered towards the cluster of shinobi at a break-neck pace. It moved faster than a creature of its size should have been able to and the sheer shock of its appearance was enough to put the shinobi off for a moment.

The rhino was large enough that only the Inuzukas' had the speed to get out of the way as they dived out of the way, while Konan was already separating herself into paper form to diffuse the damage and Kakashi was trying to fuel chakra to his eyes to repel the giant beast.

However, there was no need for them to defend themselves from the beast.

Just as its scythed horn tried to sweep over the area in front of Kakashi, it suddenly stopped in its tracks like it had struck an invisible wall. Standing in front of it with his hands firmly clasped around its horn, was a fired up Naruto, having teleported in front of them and taken the blow head on. His feet dug into the ground and his arms pulsed with physical energy as the giant creature struggled against his implacable strength.

Naruto knew he could only maintain his hold for a few moments before physics overcame him, but he wasn't about to wait for that to happen. Shifting his weight onto his back foot and adjusting his grip, the blonde shinobi stared into the rhino's dead eyes for a moment before letting out a loud grunt of exertion.

And with a single motion, he hurled the Quiraji rhino over the shinobi group that had chosen to fight the female Quiraji leader, forcing it to land on its back with a loud crash that sent a shockwave around the nearby area.

Naruto readied himself to jump on top of the rhino and deliver the finishing blow, but he saw that he didn't have to when two whirlwinds of claws slammed directly into the middle of the rhino's chest, spraying blood across the battlefield. Unlike shinobi summoned creatures, the Quiraji ones were made of flesh and bone and only disappeared at their master's discretion, not when they were taken out.

Kiba and Akamaru appeared on top of the rhino in a triumphant pose, while Naruto pouted and stuck out his lip at them. "Show offs. I could have done that."

Behind them, Kakashi shook his head and turned to his partner, "Their generation has far too much energy."

Konan smirked and began to recollect herself from her scattered form. Her eyes hadn't left the Quiraji leader even with the appearance of the creature. "That isn't the only card she has to play," she warned softly.

Her partner went to ask where Nagisa had disappeared to, but then he remembered how her abilities worked and kept it to himself. "We should move together before she pulls something like that again. I don't want Naruto to overexert himself just to try to show up Kiba, and vice-versa."

"A sound plan," came Shouri's voice from her position across the battlefield. "But you've forgotten some of the other principles of being a conqueror." In a single fluid motion faster than any regular soldier could have managed, she unshouldered her bow and strung a finely-tipped arrow before firing it straight at the Akatsuki survivor.

Konan's shinobi instincts caused her to automatically disperse into a cloud of paper, a natural defence that had yet her safe in battle for many years. The arrow appeared to pass through a gap between sheets, but as she hadn't completely dissipated she gasped loudly and dropped to her knees as the paper parts of her reassembled quickly into her. She clutched at her side, feeling a scrap at her side as the arrow had torn through part of her robe, though it was only a glancing blow.

Her partner went to help her, but Konan was already on her feet and testing her legs to ensure that Shouri's attack hadn't done any serious damage, so he turned his attention back to their attacker.

The Quiraji leader's smirk grew as she lowered her bow, "First blood."

Her triumphant look seemed out of place for the insignificant wound she had inflicted, but she was already stepped back and drawing another arrow from her quiver. She seemed undeterred by the fact that both Naruto and Kiba were now speeding towards her, their eyes blazing and their intentions clear.

"There is one final principle of being a conqueror that you should be aware of," lectured Shouri, though it was clear that the shinobi didn't care about her lesson. She waited for the right time before diving to the side just as Nagisa appeared from her blind spot with a bladed gauntlet ready to tear her apart. The Inuzuka's blow just barely missed the shimmering white armour of the Quiraji leader, though Nagisa was already on the rebound and moving to strike at Shouri while she picked herself up from her dive. However, she saw that the Quiraji leader was already aiming her arrow directly at her chest. Even with her speed, there was no way she would be able to dodge in time to avoid it.

Luckily for Nagisa, she had her wolf companion by her side even through her shadow-movement technique. Yuki didn't hesitate for a moment in hurling itself into the Quiraji leader's body, ruining her shot as the arrow sped off into the distance. Nagisa used the opportunity to leap backwards as far as she could and prepare herself for another assault. She hoped that Yuki would be able to do the same as the large wolf barrelled over Shouri and landed on all fours, snarling loudly at the fallen golden warrior. It saw an opening to go for her throat and took it, its mouth wide open and ready to clamp down on the seemingly vulnerable hunter.

Being tackled by a large creature such as Yuki had caused Shouri to lose her grip on her bow, which she knew if they'd seen it her siblings would never let her live down. The wolf bearing down on her didn't concern her in the slightest; it was hardly the first time she'd been caught off her guard with one of her prey.

It didn't mean she was vulnerable. She was just very pissed off.

Without her bow, Shouri didn't have many ranged abilities that didn't extend to her summoning abilities, but that didn't mean she was vulnerable in close quarters. She just had to re-evaluate her combat strategy.

As Yuki bore down on her, Shouri placed out a hand as if denying the large wolf out of sheer stubbornness. The creature fell into her with a loud snarl, but before its jaws could clamp around her face, Shouri spun around its flank and appeared behind it, flicking her hands like she'd just washed them. It was an instant movement, but that was all she needed as she slid a long knife back into her belt. It glistened a deep red for only a moment before it disappeared into its sheath.

Nagisa knew she should go and see whether her suspicions were true, but she could smell it from her far-off position. She closed her eyes so she didn't have to see her companion fall, though she still heard the death howl as Yuki collapsed into the ground in a pile of blood.

She was calm under pressure by nature and the death of someone close to her was nothing unusual, so Nagisa had the battle-sense to make her way to her cousin's side and take several deep breaths to calm herself down. Her Inuzuka techniques required her to be calm and controlled, rather than enraged.

That didn't mean she wasn't furious. Instead of a red fury, she felt cold ice in her veins. It was what made her dangerous.

"As I was saying…" said Shouri as she cracked her neck loudly and turned her attention to the two male shinobi approaching her with the large white dog at their side. "…one final principle."

"Nothing gives a damn!" yelled Kiba as he sped past his cousin with his hands ready to tear at their enemy.

"The principle…" continued the Quiraji leader, ignoring the Inuzuka and putting her hands out in front of her. "…of never fighting without an army at your back."

Despite his fast approach, Naruto was able to recognise what she was referring to and skidded to a halt to stop himself from over-extending. He went to shout a warning to his old companion, but Kiba and Akamaru were already committed to their line of attack. They knew that their normal chakra attacks wouldn't work against her with her personal chakra-nullifying field around her, but that didn't mean they had no hope. Kiba had thought about the problem a lot during the travel between the Fire Temple and Konoha, and he'd come to one grand conclusion.

Momentum was everything.

He came into range just as his chakra failed him within her chakra-nullifying field, but the sheer amount of speed both he and Akamaru had created was enough to maintain his attack vector towards the Quiraji leader. In his hands, Kiba wore a pair of long bladed claws that he pointed towards his target in a single thrust, knowing that with the amount of momentum he had accumulated he would spear straight through her. At the other side, Akamaru had leapt to her front and had opened his mouth wide; preparing to bite through her vulnerable neck once Kiba had struck her.

It was a good plan, one that might have worked had their opponent not been Shouri.

Instead of striking the Quiraji leader, Kiba's trajectory was thrown off as a cluster of beasts lurched out of the ground in front of him, throwing their bodies into him and sending him spiralling into the air. Akamaru had enough foresight to slow himself down and leap out of the way just as the same thing was about to happen to him, but he wasn't about to get away fast enough and several creatures that looked like horse-sized armadillos drove their horns into his side.

Kiba snarled as he spun through the air before noticing that he had his ability to mould chakra back, now that he was no longer in range of the Quiraji leader. Using the momentum of his flight, he spun himself in rhythm with his fall and turned himself into a Tsuuga whirlwind, bouncing off the ground and slamming his clawed front into the creatures that had attacked Akamaru.

The suddenness of his attack sent the creatures flying and gave them enough room to retreat backwards as fast as they had approached, but a horde of summoned creatures was already hot on their tracks.

While they fled, their three fighting companions stepped forward and prepared their own techniques to give the retreating combatants enough time to reach them. Naruto created a pair of Kage Bunshin and shot them forward with a wind element technique, the pair of them holding large amounts of explosion notes between them, aiming themselves at the large animals that towered over Kiba and Akamaru as they ran. Konan spun a large quantity of paper sheets above her in a large disc and hurled it like a chakram around the pair of retreating fighters, tearing apart entire groups of twisted animals that fell into its path as sharply as if it had been made out of steel. She felt a strange twinge in her side as she manipulated the paper circle with her hands to protect Kiba and Akamaru, but ignored it as it required concentration to keep the paper sheets so tightly packed together.

Kakashi's eyes flicked as he tried to think of a technique to help Kiba and Akamaru get back to them and his body reached before he could come up with a plan. One of his hands shot up and faced the two of them while a strange gravitation force spiralled out from his hand. The pressure seemed to grab hold of them and wrench them towards Kakashi at a monstrously quick pace, easily closing the distance faster than either of them could have anticipated. Kakashi's eyes cancelled the technique just before they slammed into him and the silver-haired Jounin had the instinct to step out of the way as both Kiba and Akamaru spiralled back onto their feet and shot the Konoha Jounin a suspicious pair of looks.

"Don't look at me," said Kakashi quickly. "I have no idea how I did that."

"Well…just warn us next time," replied Kiba with a begrudgingly thankful tone. "She summoned up so many at once."

Naruto put up a handseal and exploded his Kage Bunshin, ripping apart a large hole in the animal horde that had pursued Kiba and Akamaru. "She does that. When I was running from her, she sent thousands of dogs after me. Sometimes at night I still hear the howling."

"That's because Hinata sometimes makes those sounds just to mess with you," said Kiba with a sly grin.

"She does?!" Naruto could hardly believe it and turned to look at his white-eyed wife as she fought against Sensou in close quarter combat with the Otokage at her side. "I can't believe it!"

"He's just having a go at you, Naruto," said Kakashi, hiding a smirk behind a serious expression.

The blonde shinobi shot back at the Inuzuka shinobi to see Kiba burst out laughing, but before he could give him a piece of his mind, he instinctively teleports away as an arrow screamed into the area he had been standing in.

Shouri let out a tsk and lowered her bow as she saw that the blonde shinobi had been able to evade her killing blow. He'd done that the last time she'd encountered him and had a habit of being difficult to pin down.

That was what the army of beasts in front of her was for.

It was a chaotic mess of various creatures both oversized and armed to the teeth that protruded from their frothing mouths. Legions of armoured animals like the ones that slammed into Kiba before ran at the front of the army, ready to absorb whatever attacks the shinobi could throw at them. At the sides were packs of huge wolves with claws able to cut through armour with ease and a number of large cat creatures such as lions and tigers flanked their positions, ready to pounce. But the majority of Shouri's army was comprised of creatures as large as rhinos and as fast as cheetahs.

And more appeared by the moment with little effort required on Shouri's part. It only took a few moments before they were outnumbered by over fifty-to-one.

Not one to just leave things at that, Shouri took a backwards step before leaping up into the air. Beneath her feet emerged a huge eagle covered in grey and white feathers, screeching loudly into the air as she landed on its back before taking her soaring into the air.

The shinobi facing her watched as the Quiraji leader took to the skies, assuming that she would take up a high position and rain arrows down on them from above while they were being attacked by the horde of beasts.

It was only moments before the horde of beasts came close to the five shinobi and Akamaru, even with their longer range attacks reaping a terrible toll on the animal force. They had been standing together a reasonable distance apart, with Nagisa appearing behind them and wearing her combat-face on in the face of her partner's death.

When the animal army hit them, they hit them hard. Their shinobi abilities still worked on the beasts and they were able to avoid many of the attacks that came against them by moving quickly backwards and to the sides. However, this forced them apart as the animal horde flooded the battlefield and tried to swarm around them.

Naruto immediately surrounded himself with physical energy and began bashing his way through the animals that came close to him. Some of them got close enough to strike at him, but they bounced off his defences and were quickly taken care of by the quick Uzumaki shinobi. This was his way of conserving energy while trying to gauge whether he could reach Shouri up in the sky.

Kiba and Akamaru moved to the same location, not by coincidence, and were already conversing on whether they should do their combined technique and use their three-headed wolf form to take out huge clusters of beasts at once. Kiba was all for the idea, but Akamaru had to remind him that a bigger form meant a bigger target for Shouri to fire at and that they'd experienced what happened when they got struck by her arrows.

They hurt like hell. He had no interest in going through that again.

Saving that plan for another time, Kiba flicked a soldier pill to his partner before consuming one of his own and took a long breath to calm himself before waiting for the first beasts to come into range. There were an awful number of them though. Even with his confidence, he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to fight against so many. If this were a normal battlefield, the sensible thing would be to retreat and then strike back from a place of strength.

But that wasn't an option. Kiba would just have to fight his way out and then some.

Kakashi was no stranger to fighting on his own, particularly against unfavourable odds. He had once fought against a hundred Snow shinobi in order to rescue their princess from her uncle. It had been while retreating and he never killed any of them, but that was just for him to know.

Shinobi Rule Number 37: Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

While he had his old teammate's Sharingan, Kakashi had copies hundreds of techniques. He was said to have copied a thousand techniques, though he'd stopped counting somewhere in the eight hundreds.

With Nagato's Rinnegan in place, Kakashi had a wealth of techniques available at his disposal, so many that he wasn't even sure where to begin. He'd heard tales about the Rinnegan's ability to produce all forms of chakra, but having it at his fingertips with his experience was something else entirely.

It was like he was a god. If Kakashi didn't know that he had such a limited chakra pool he could understand how corrupting such power could be.

As he wasn't about to become a megalomaniac, Kakashi put his hands together and moulded a reasonable amount of chakra. He wasn't sure which element to use, but since he'd never used it before he was curious what it would be like using a wind technique. His Rinnegan responded to his wish like it had sentience and a large gale of swirling wind blades erupted around him. It only lasted for a moment, but even that was enough to hurl dozens of beasts into the air and give him time to catch his breath.

But only for a second before he was swarmed once again.

Konan wasn't one to fight in close quarters. It wasn't that she wasn't proficient at it; she'd regularly proved herself during their war against Hanzo in underground combat that left little breathing room between combatants.

But when their opponent was in the air and seemingly immune to chakra-attacks, Konan could recognise that her remaining on the ground was not a feasible option. She spread out her hands and covered herself in a large collection of paper sheets, manipulating them so they formed into large wings at her shoulders. In a single flap of her paper wings, Konan launched herself into the air as the area she had been standing in was swarmed by marauding beasts.

Up in the air, Shouri drew a line on the rising Akatsuki kunoichi, pulling back a barbed arrow to finish the job she'd started at the beginning of the battle. She pulled back the arrow, but before she could fire it an orange blur appeared in front of her. Shouri knew exactly what it meant and without a word of command her eagle mount dropped straight down before pulling back up behind where it was initially flying.

Naruto turned around from where he'd line-of-sight teleported to and swore under his breath as he saw that she'd already escaped from me. He pulled back a fist and tried to send a blast of wind chakra at her, mostly for the sake of it, but it failed as it came into her chakra-nullifying field. He noticed that the Quiraji leader didn't even pay him any attention as she trained her bow back on the rising angel that was preparing to face her.

Falling to the ground, Naruto knew that he was still in the five-second period that restricted his line-of-sight teleportation ability, meaning that the ground would be coming up awfully fast.

Without thinking, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a seal-wrapped kunai he'd prepared early, tossing it towards the ground. It landed in a group of beasts that swarmed around it instantly, making it a somewhat undesirable place to teleport to.

That wasn't about to stop Naruto though. As he fell towards the ground, he decided that it was better to fall into chaos than it was to fall into solid ground. With that in mind, he clapped his hands together and covered himself in a thin layer of lightning chakra, a trick he'd learned on the road while speaking to the Eight-Tails container at length about lightning.

Naruto used his father's Hiraishin technique to teleport to his kunai on the ground, and at the same time he exploded the lightning armour outwards, electrocuting everything around him and creating a gap in the beasts' ranks.

Of course, Naruto also got electrocuted by the attack. He knew he hadn't gotten it down perfectly, but having experienced it for himself, he almost felt sorry for all the Quiraji soldiers he'd struck with lightning during the war.

Almost.

Now that she was in the air, Konan wasn't too sure how she should go about attacking the Quiraji leader. She could guarantee she had greater manoeuvrability than the enemy's eagle, but that meant nothing if she took another arrow. The wound on her side had started to burn, even though it had just been a surface wound. She suspected it had something to do with the arrow, but Konan didn't exactly have the time to examine it and have it dressed.

Instead of worrying about it, Konan summoned up a cluster of paper sheets and fired off a large number of paper shurikens at the flying Quiraji leader. Shouri made no effort to dodge the attacks, knowing that they would fail before they could strike her. She drew an arrow in her bow and aimed it straight at Konan's chest. Unlike the arrows she had fired before, this one would cross the distance instantly. It was a kill shot.

She released the arrow and watched it fly straight and true. It struck Konan right in the middle of her chest, just as she planned and went straight through to the other side.

But there was no blood. That was the first sign that she knew that something was wrong.

With her wings supporting her, Konan glanced down to make sure her paper form technique had held despite the Quiraji leader's arrow. When she'd seen that she was going to get hit by the arrow, she exchanged herself completely with paper sheets and made a large hole in her chest area so that the arrow wouldn't touch any of the paper sheets. If there was anything she had learned from the start of the battle, it was that it didn't hurt to be careful.

As the hole closed up and she reformed, she re-evaluated her battle strategy and constructed two long lines of paper to form into tendrils. She could already see the calm Quiraji leader string another arrow into her bow, but not before Konan would be able to retaliate. She flung the tendrils at the Quiraji leader, but this time at the ends she had attached large quantities of explosion notes that detonated just before they reached her chakra-nullifying field.

The force of the explosions was enough to shake Shouri on her eagle mount and spoil her shot, though there was no clear damage once the smoke cleared.

However, Konan had gotten the confirmation she had needed. Explosion notes were able to produce their explosions only with chakra, yet if they detonated before they were nullified then they were effective.

And Konan had plenty of explosion notes at her disposal. It didn't take much chakra to detonate them, which the Akatsuki member knew was an important factor in this battle. She doubted she'd be able to win the battle on her own against such a dangerous foe, but she wasn't just going to wait for the people on the ground to win the war against the beast army and then help her.

She had her own war to fight.

On the ground, Nagisa slashed back and forth with chakra-infused shadowy claws, reaping a terrible toll on the beasts that came near her. She bore several injuries from the sheer number of beasts that surrounded her, but it was her rapidly declining chakra levels that truly concerned her.

That didn't mean she was going to slow down her attacks, as it was clear that the various creatures attacking her had every intention of not relenting until they were all vanquished. Not only that, but more creatures emerged from the ground beneath Shouri's eagle by the moment.

Nagisa's abilities weren't designed for prolonged combat. She was first and foremost an assassin, and her main target was beyond her reach. All she could do was defend herself until an opportunity arose, or one of the others was able to make a break to her position.

Swooping around the battlefield on her flying mount, Shouri took her eyes off her flying opposition for a moment to get a view of the battle beneath. She could see her army of beasts struggling against the four shinobi on the ground, but she knew that they were only there to present her openings.

There was one available to her right now.

Ducking under a sweeping claw from a corrupted lion, Nagisa stepped forward and buried a claw into its stomach before spinning around and defending herself from a pair of wolves that were determined to sheer her face off with their teeth. She slipped into the shadows for a split second to appear behind the beasts and cut them down in a single motion. It cost her chakra that she couldn't afford to lose, but the Inuzuka kunoichi had enough soldier pills in her pack for an emergency situation.

She turned to face her next opponents, and that's when she felt an impact in her chest. The beasts around her continued to swarm, but they appeared to be moving towards her in slow motion. She looked down to see a feathered shaft protruding from her chest.

A frown came over her face slowly. She hadn't felt any pain.

One of the beasts behind her clamped its teeth into her shoulder, but she didn't feel any pain from that either. It felt like she was moving through water as she dropped her shoulder and shoved one of her chakra claws into its face, spraying blood over her front.

She felt two more impacts in her chest and she looked down to see two holes in her chest from spiral shots that had passed straight through her.

She felt the pain from those.

Despite all her strength and stubbornness, Nagisa couldn't bring herself to remain standing on the battlefield any longer. Her legs caved out from under her and she landed on her knees. The constant stream of beasts converged on her rapidly, while the hovering Quiraji leader drew a final arrow in her bow and aimed down at the ground once again.

A short distance away, Kiba spun himself out of a Tsuuga whirlwind and saw his cousin on her knees with an arrow sticking out of her chest. His eyes widened and he shouted her name, but he could see that there was no way he'd be able to reach her before the cluster of deadly beasts overwhelmed her. Through a small gap between the Quiraji creatures, he locked eyes with the animalistic kunoichi and he had a final silent moment with his last living relative.

Nagisa smiled as she was swarmed by Shouri's beasts and ripped apart by a flurry of claws and teeth.

oOoOoOo

Even though he was fighting with multiple ninjutsu techniques at once with his Rinnegan taking up a large portion of his chakra and concentration, Kakashi still felt his old companion fall and another piece of his heart died. He wanted to fight his way through to her body so he could give her the respect she deserved, but Kakashi knew that the exact opportunity Shouri would be looking for.

He held in his grief and funnelled that frustration into the repelling technique that his Rinnegan offered to him. The gravity push slammed away every beast in a sphere around him, giving him enough time to speed through a set of handseals and aim at the flying eagle above the battlefield.

"Raijuu: Hatori no Jutsu!" (Lightning Beast Flying Technique)

Out of his extended hand shot a large bird made of pure lightning that flew high up into the air and sped towards Shouri and her mount. The Quiraji leader gave no indication that his attack meant anything to her and readjusted her bow to take aim at the flying Konan nearby rather than bother defending herself against his attack. As the lightning bird slammed itself into the underside of the Quiraji mount, the chakra within the attack dissipated completely and it disappeared as if it had never existed.

Down on the ground, Kakashi swore silently and turned his attention back to the horde of beasts that had recovered from his gravity push and were moving towards him once again. He had to check whether her chakra-nullifying field extended entirely over the eagle and whether he could take it out from a distance and get her on the ground where more than Konan could attack her, but clearly that wasn't an option available to them.

He hoped whatever Naruto was shouted would work, as the blonde shinobi seemed to be using his Kage Bunshin to great effect in distracting the beasts so he could come up with a plan. Kakashi took in a slow breath and clapped his hands together to activate an earth technique.

The battle had to go on.

oOoOoOo

Naruto had discussed it with his occupant, who had been conspicuously helpful in their exchange, and he'd come up with a plan. It was an insane Naruto-type of plan, but if they could pull it off then they'd be in a great position to attack the elusive Quiraji leader and deal her a serious blow.

But he needed everything to be in place, and the horde of beasts that kept coming at them was keeping them separated from each other and that would be their deaths.

While his clones fought against the charging combination of bizarre creatures, Naruto glanced over at his old Inuzuka companion, seeing that Kiba and Akamaru had broken out of a cluster of charging beasts and were recovering as they tried to move quickly around the battlefield towards where their partner had fallen.

He saw an opening and teleported himself with his wind spiritual energy next to Kiba's side, causing the ex-Konoha shinobi to nearly attack him out of sheer instinct.

"The hell are you doing?!" shouted Kiba as he turned to face the beasts that had been pursuing him.

"When you see an opening, I need you guys to attack!" shouted Naruto back, clenching his fists as he tossed two kunai at either side of a large group of lions and tigers that were coming towards them. He clapped his hands together and a large barrier of lightning erupted between them just as the cluster of beasts came into range. Kiba lowered his fists when he saw their pursuers were momentarily taken care of and turned to ask Naruto what the hell he was talking about, but the blond shinobi was already running over to where Kakashi was fighting.

"Do you know what he meant?" asked Kiba to his canine companion.

Akamaru barked at Kiba shortly before transforming himself into a clone of his partner and charging towards a cluster of dogs that offended his sensibilities. His Inuzuka companion considered Akamaru's point for a second before conceding that he might be correct and charged in after him.

They'd be ready, even if they had no idea what they were going to be ready for.

After Naruto explained himself to his old teacher, Kakashi wasn't sure whether he should be impressed or horrified. They fought back-to-back against the larger beasts that seemed to be more interested in them than any of the others on the battlefield.

"Can you get it to her?" asked Naruto as he stepped back from a lion that he'd electrocuted.

Kakashi held the kunai with the seal wrapped around it tightly, recalling similar words being spoken by Naruto's father during the Third Shinobi War. For a moment he could have sworn it was Minato giving him the order rather than his old student.

The silver-haired shinobi nodded with a proud smile, "Not a problem." He watched the blonde Tailed Beast container smile in response before disappearing in a flash, further cementing Kakashi's image of the Fourth Hokage in his eyes.

oOoOoOo

Naruto appeared at one of the few permanent Hiraishin seals on the battlefield, holding up his arms to defend himself from any possible attacks that might come his way. He nearly had his head taken off by a swinging sword as the flash red of Sensou attempted to attack him, but the sword was blocked away by a spinning Hinata who took a moment as her cousin blasted back the Quiraji leader and kept him occupied.

"What are you doing here?" asked the Hyuuga kunoichi, using the lull to catch her breath.

Naruto grinned as he always did and gently kissed his wife on the cheek, moving a strand of her blue hair from in front of her face behind her ear. "Just taking a moment to enjoy the little things." He didn't have to say anything; she could read the look in his eyes as easily as she could when they'd first started dating.

She sighed and nodded, smiling back at him, but Naruto was already gone.

"If you are quite finished!" came Neji's voice a short distance away, his hands turning into blurs of motion as he fought back a flurry of sword attacks from their opponent.

His younger cousin shouted back an apology and sped after him, her white eyes once again focusing on the Quiraji leader they had dedicated themselves to defeating.

She hoped he was wrong. She'd forgive him if it happened, but in the same vein she didn't want to make that choice.

oOoOoOo

Kakashi waited for a break in the fighting before shouting a warning to his partner up in the air and tossing the kunai towards her. Konan heard the shout just in time for the kunai coming up towards her face, causing her to reach out and grasp it with an extended paper hand upwards and bring it towards her chest. She kept her amber eyes on the floating Shouri and brought up a wall of paper to disguise her movements as an arrow came screaming towards her. It came through the wall like it wasn't there, but Konan was no longer there.

"What am I meant to do with this?" she shouted down to him as a frustrated Shouri flew through the wall of paper and looked for the Akatsuki kunoichi angrily. She created a paper clone to distract the Quiraji leader and balked at how difficult it was to extract the chakra from her body. The pain in her side was getting worse by the minute; she wasn't sure she could feel her left leg anymore, but that made little difference while she was in the air.

Back on the ground, Kakashi gave her a quick set of hand signals and shouted up to see whether she got the idea. Konan had only seen the last two, but she got the general idea and signalled back her affirmation of the plan. She took the kunai and placed it at the front of her robe in a wrap of paper before watching her enemy tear apart her paper clone with her eagle before turning her attention to her.

Shouri was getting impatient. She could use that to her advantage.

Konan made a direct beeline for the flying Shouri, using her paper wings expertly to bank and move on the wind to avoid the constant firing of arrows at her. She'd been feeling her strength failing her since she'd taken to the air, but the Akatsuki member had suffered far worse in the past and powered through it with sheer stubbornness and the knowledge that she couldn't afford to fail.

The Quiraji leader appeared even more frustrated by her inability to hit the flying kunoichi, despite the fact that each arrow came closer and closer to striking her. She seemed determined to get close to her, which she suspected had something to do with the paper slip that the man on the ground had thrown up to her, but she had to know that her techniques and explosives didn't work within a short range of her.

It made no sense for her to charge her, but Shouri wasn't about to try and find out what her plan was. She rummaged around in her half-full quiver for a moment before drawing an arrow that had a split head, drawing it in her bow quickly. She adjusted her aim for the eagle flying beneath her feet and fired it directly at her opponent. The arrow sped at the flying angel rapidly, but Konan had seen these types of attacks too much to get struck by them again, dropping her altitude and then using a large flap of her paper wings to shoot back up towards Shouri's position in the air.

However, she only stayed in the air for a moment before the arrow that had been fired at her split into two came back around at an impossible angle to pierce into her back. Konan cried out in pain for a moment before dropping towards the ground in a cloud of paper sheets.

Shouri grinned triumphantly and turned her attention to the shinobi fighting her beasts on the ground. That was when the real form of Konan appeared before her and used her wings to drop onto the back of her eagle, even as her paper wings dissipated when she entered Shouri's sphere of chakra-nullification. She pulled back a hand with a kunai and dug it into the opening between Shouri's neck and shoulder armour plates.

The Quiraji leader bent forward in shock before spinning around to kick at the attacker behind her, sending Konan flying backwards while she pulled the kunai out of her neck in a small spray of blood.

"Damn woman and her shinobi tricks." Shouri looked at the bloody kunai for a moment before discarding it off her mount, "All that for a little pinprick. Worthless."

"It wasn't worthless," came a male voice in front of her. The Quiraji leader looked up to see Naruto flying towards her, having waited for Konan to be close enough while being outside of her chakra-nullifying field to Hiraishin to the seal Kakashi had thrown up to her.

With his fist covered in his Kattoken, Naruto slammed it into her face as hard as he could. The combination of his momentum from his Hiraishin and the spiritual energy vortex surrounding his fist struck her with such force that her eagle died instantly and she was sent torpedoing down to the ground.

Recovering her wings with a burst of chakra, Konan swooped forward and caught the now-falling blonde shinobi in her arms, asking whether he wanted her to take him down to the ground. Naruto thanked her for the assistance and told her to do something that just sounded ridiculous.

As Shouri struck the ground, she could feel several of her limbs splinter and crack with the impact, even with her armour absorbing the majority of the damage. The young shinobi had struck her face with some type of spiritual energy similar to what her older brother could perform, cutting up her face to the extent that she knew her carefully chiselled physique would never look the same again.

She glanced around for her bow, seeing that it had fallen a short distance away from her. It looked like the string had broken during the attack, but restringing a bow in moments was second-nature to a hunter such as her. She got up from the ground and dragged herself over to her battered weapon, dragging her left leg as she felt that many of the bones had been crushed by the impact of her fall.

That was when Kakashi broke his way out of the pack of beasts that were pressuring him and shot towards her at his highest speed. He knew that none of his ninjutsu abilities would work against her, but he also could see that she was struggling to recover from Naruto's attack. Even without chakra, he could still be fast and dangerous at close range.

As he ran forward his hands sped through handseals and he used an Earth technique to hurl rocks from his feet straight into the struggling Quiraji leader while he drew two kunai and shot forward even faster. Shouri sensed his attack and turned around to defend herself, though she mistakenly thought that the field around her would stop the flying rocks and took several glancing blows on her shoulders and chest as the rocks' momentum compensated from the lack of chakra.

As she recovered she tracked the speeding shinobi coming towards her with her eyes, seeing that she wasn't going to be able to reach her weapon before he came into close range. The strikes to her shoulders had hurt her arms to the extent that it was more difficult to raise them, so she doubted she'd be able to use her hunting knife as efficiently as she had before. So she did the only thing available to her.

When he came into range, she brought up a hand and four large creatures emerged from the ground to slam their bodies into the charging shinobi. Kakashi caught their attack with his Rinnegan eyes and he could feel himself being wrenched away by a wind technique that the doujutsu seemed to do on its own. The creatures only struck at air as Kakashi was blown around the side of Shouri in a single gust of wind. The movement was a little unsettling for Kakashi as he still wasn't used to the Rinnegan's techniques, but he still caught his footing and moved into close range with the Quiraji leader.

Shouri still had the ability to duck and weave away from his kunai strikes, but Kakashi was only stalling for time as his Rinnegan eyes tracked the movements of the people around him. He made a downward slash with one of his kunai, forcing Shouri to jump backwards to avoid having her face split in two. As she did, Kakashi flicked both the kunai at her from difficult angles, causing her to bring up her arms to defend herself. He silently wondered why she hadn't summoned any more creatures to defend herself, but then he realised that while she was preoccupied she wasn't able to perform her technique.

But that information wasn't necessary anymore.

Kakashi took a jump back and put his hands up towards his face, activating a low-rank Raiton ability that he'd used to great effect in the past. Shouri was foolish enough to look at his strange pose and that cost her as a blinding light emanated from the silver-haired shinobi; her chakra-nullifying field offered her no protection from his lightning technique.

The Jounin then did the very sensible thing of getting out of the way by jumping backwards as far as he could. While Shouri clutched at her eyes painfully, she had left herself vulnerable.

From both sides came the spinning Tsuugas of Kiba and Akamaru, streaming towards her as fast as they could. She could hear them coming towards her, but the spinning made her unable to pinpoint their locations without her eyes. Their Tsuuga whirlwinds reached her sphere of influence and the chakra portion of the techniques cancelled out, but it got the pair of them close enough with enough momentum to get through her defences.

Akamaru in his normal form lurched himself forward from his spinning motion and clamped his teeth into the Quiraji leader's arm, biting through the white armour and into her flesh. As he did this, his companion shot forward and snarled triumphantly as he shoved his clawed gauntlet into the tiny gap behind her elbow, holding it tightly as she instinctively struggled against both of their grips. They knew eventually she would use her beasts to throw them off, but they only needed to hold her for a moment.

That was when Naruto came screaming down from above, having been thrown down by Konan at his request. He had both his hands together in a diver position and was concentrating his hardest to keep his trajectory with wind chakra so that he hit where the others were holding her. As he came into view he covered his forearms in as much spiritual energy as he thought they could handle, forming a long drill that was aimed straight at Shouri's exposed neck.

The Quiraji leader still hadn't recovered from Kakashi's blinding attack, but she could hear the wicked slashing of the air around the blonde shinobi above her. Shouri's instincts screamed at her to get out of the way, but her arms refused to budge under Kiba and Akamaru's restraints. She did the only thing she could think of, to flare out as much physical energy as her body could produce. It exploded out of her like a shockwave, knocking both of her captors off their feet and pulling their blades and teeth from her arms, though they left terrible wounds in their wake.

Shouri recovered her footing from the effort and looked up to prepare herself for Naruto coming down towards her.

But the sky was empty.

The Quiraji leader looked down back at eye-level, wondering what had happened as she saw Kiba and Akamaru creating some distance away from her.

That was when Naruto struck her with his Kattoken straight in the back. The spiritual energy-based technique ate through her armour as if it wasn't even there before biting into her back and ripping apart her body in a torrent of wind.

Even with her specialty armour, her physical energy defences and her innate ability to dodge attacks, Shouri had no defence against the sheer force that Naruto brought against her.

Not one to let Naruto take all the glory, Kiba shot forward and shoved his claws into her stomach ruthlessly. He had no mercy for her, particularly after seeing his cousin go down to her beasts. He knew she was already gone and he had to get revenge for that.

It felt good, watching the life fade from her eyes as they killed her. He could see her turning her head despite their attacks and reach out a pleading arm towards the image of Benkei, but the Quiraji leader seemed entirely ignorant of her fate.

Shouri died silently, under the weapons of her apparent prey. The hunter and conqueror had failed.

oOoOoOo

With their summoner dead, the Quiraji beasts faded into nothingness as the anchor keeping them there had lost power over them. Both Konan and Kakashi took a moment to make sure that none of them were still around before dropping their guards through sheer exhaustion. Naruto and Kiba looked down at the mutilated corpse of the Quiraji leader for a moment before sharing a look and both kicking the fallen hunter unceremoniously in the body.

"Reckon she's gone?" asked Kiba tentatively, wary of the Quiraji's ability to surprise them out of nowhere.

Naruto glanced around the battlefield for a moment, "Her beasts are gone, I think it's a safe bet." He didn't ask about the Inuzuka's cousin, they both knew that Nagisa had gone down during the rush of beasts and hadn't survived. "We should go to the others, they might need our help."

Even with blood running through his fur, Akamaru still had the strength to bark a few times before buckling slightly at his own exhaustion.

"Akamaru's right," said Kiba with a snarl. "We're mostly tapped out. That last attack took nearly everything from us, and the others don't look like they're doing much better."

Naruto flexed his hands to test his strength before turning to the older shinobi. He hadn't expended as much strength as the others in the battle purely because of how much stamina he had, but he could see that Kiba was right. Kakashi didn't have much chakra left just by how heavily he was breathing.

The Akatsuki member hadn't been able to keep herself up as her legs gave out beneath her. As she fell, Kakashi leapt forward and caught her in his arms, though the effort brought him to the ground as well.

It hadn't looked like she'd taken any blow that would have brought her to her knees, but as he held her tightly he could see the wound that she'd taken at the start of the battle had festered and turned a sickly purple colour.

Poison. He should have suspected it from the start, given Shouri's triumphant look after she'd struck her with it. He had a working knowledge of medical techniques, but he had neither the chakra nor the expertise to treat her wound, and judging by the fading look in her amber eyes she didn't have much time left.

She was a stoic and serious person, but Konan could recognise a moment to smile when she saw it. "Guess it's now my turn to go. Took longer than I thought."

"Giving up, are we?" said Kakashi with a matching smile, though there was no amusement in his expression. "I've never known you to stop at a half-done job."

The Amegakure kunoichi scoffed and tried to push herself up, but she no strength left in her body. It was a strange feeling, something that she vaguely recalled from a previous time but this time it hurt.

It hurt like hell this time.

Kiba and Akamaru made their way across the battlefield to the body of their fallen clan member and her animal companion. She'd given a costly toll for her life, killing dozens of twisted creatures before she'd been overwhelmed and finally killed.

It had been a last stand worthy of an Inuzuka. He was sure his mother would have said the same thing; even with the apparent issues the two of had shared.

At his side, Akamaru gave a soft howl and nudged the body of the dark haired Inuzuka. Kiba nodded grimly and knelt down beside her. He knew that the battle was far from over, but during the temporary lull he had to take a moment to say farewell.

She'd been the only family he'd had for a long time, and even then they'd rarely seen eye-to-eye. The last conversation they'd shared that hadn't related to the war had been when he and Ino had broken up, and they had argued as they often did.

Part of him thought that she didn't deserve to die that way, but the part of him that knew that it was exactly what she would have expected. She'd told him many times that she'd been prepared to die when she'd fallen over that glacier all those years ago and once you take that step you cannot ever take it back.

Her death was worthy of respect. That was how he would choose to remember her.

Konan coughed painfully and clutched at Kakashi's arms tightly. "It's okay, Kakashi. Someone has to go and keep Yahiko and Nagato under control."

"I'm sure they'll be very angry that you're coming to them. Nagato will be very annoyed with me," said Kakashi grimly. "I made him a promise, after all."

She still had the strength to give him a doubtful look, even if it only lasted for a moment. "You have the Rinnegan, Kakashi. I know you."

It had to go unsaid. She knew that the gifted eyes would eventually kill her partner, just as it had her childhood friend. She'd kept her silence when he'd revealed that Nagato had given them to him, but now she wished she'd destroyed them when she'd had the chance.

Kakashi went to say something, but his partner reached up slowly and felt at her partner's face with her hand, "Don't even think about bringing me back. I'll never forgive you if you do."

Even with his Rinnegan eyes, Kakashi couldn't help but let a few tears fall down his face and he nodded his reluctant agreement and clasped her hand into his. The paper-user didn't last long after that; within moments the life left her eyes and she lay dead in his arms.

Kakashi knew that he didn't time to mourn her properly, but he couldn't seem to get up off his feet and let her go. His relationship with the purple haired kunoichi had been both complex and simple over the years, yet he hated the fact that he'd lost yet another important person in his life.

It seemed to be his destiny to watch everyone die before he did.

Naruto jogged up to his former teacher, seeing that neither of them had moved since the end of the battle. He saw that Konan was in a bad way and knelt down beside them, "Is she going to be okay?"

Kakashi glanced over at the blonde shinobi and hesitated before grimacing and shaking his head slightly. "You should go help the others, Naruto, while you have the strength. Kiba and I will join you once we have recovered."

The Uzumaki recognised the sense in his old teacher's words and got back onto his feet with a sigh. He looked over at the other battles being fought, but before he got a proper look he noticed something important.

There was an opening. It was only small, but he didn't even seem to notice them.

Naruto had a shot and he was taking it. He drew his sword slowly and activated it before disappearing into the air.

Author's Note:

And so one of the Quiraji leaders falls. The fight against Shouri was meant to be over-the-top, as an appetiser for the rest of the final battles. I hope this lived up to your expectations, both with the fight, the conclusion and the unfortunate deaths of Nagisa and Konan. This is the final battle, people are going to die. I just hope I did them justice.

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.