The Wanderers
Chapter 87 – Fighting Against Order
A/N: In regards to the movie stuff coming out and hints towards one pairing over another, I'm not counting my chickens until they've hatched. Whether it happens or not we'll just have to wait and see. Remember, it won't be the end of the world if it's ambiguous.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, the final fight would be closer to a fist fight.
***Previously-On***
The final battle has begun.
After the bombs fell on Sunagakure, the only survivor that could possibly resist the Quiraji invasion of the shinobi village was the young head doctor who was still struggling with her own suicidal thoughts. In her manner of trying to escape the hospital she accumulated some injuries that threatened to expose her to the Quiraji invaders. Gathering her courage she took a risk to try and escape the village but was captured and sent to her execution. At that time, she finally accepted that she could not deny the being that shared her body and embraced her inner demon. She became Iceheart.
Once she accepted that part of herself, Sakura stopped her non-killing pact and slaughtered every Quiraji soldier that she came across. Eventually she came across the Quiraji general and brutally quartered him and crushed his heart in her hands. She then turned her attention back to the Quiraji soldiers remaining in Sunagakure and made it her mission to kill them all.
***End Summary***
"Bullshit," said the Otokage with his arms crossed over his chest.
Not one to share in his choice of words, nevertheless Gaara had to agree with his compatriot, "Even if you had that kind of intention, you wouldn't have the means."
Kakashi gritted his teeth as he processed the information the Quiraji leader had just given them. It was highly likely that he was bluffing to try and destroy their morale and divide them. But it was just as likely that he was telling the truth. As far as he knew, Benkei had not lied to them yet and didn't strike him as the kind of man that had any need to.
The others were almost firmly in the Otokage's mode of thinking, but none of them could shake the suspicion that he was telling the truth. They were all deeply troubled by the news, but they also knew there wasn't anything they could do about it at this stage.
Mei was torn at the news. On one hand, she had her dedication to the cause here and knew her place was on this battlefield. But on the other hand, she couldn't just leave her village to die if he was telling the truth. She almost turned to leave the battlefield, until a hand pressed at her shoulder to keep her there. She turned to see Rock Lee shake his head slightly. Without a word she nodded in response and turned back to the battlefield.
Throughout his tale, the Quiraji leader had maintained his cocky smile and had kept his gaze squared firmly on the surviving shinobi in front of him. Now that they knew the fate of their people, he spared a moment to look at his subordinate who hadn't moved since she'd emerged from the building with her companions. She still hadn't responded to his commands for her to kill the shinobi, but it no longer mattered. Her presence was all he required.
Benkei uncrossed his arms and slowly flexed his hands, "No more talking is necessary. Now is the time for you to die."
The shinobi strike force looked at each other for a moment before each stepping forward to confront him. Some like Kakashi and Kiba were low on chakra and still needed more time before they could engage him properly in battle, but most of the others were itching for their chance to finish the battle once and for all.
The Quiraji leader opened his arms and offered his opponents the first chance to strike at him. Most of the shinobi strike force knew better than to go for a pre-emptive strike when the enemy was prepared for it, but those with long range attacks saw no reason not to take their chance. Kiba hurled himself towards the Quiraji leader and created a whirlwind of fire that he shot towards his foe, while at the same time Mei complemented his attack with a shot of magma from her mouth.
The two fire-based attacks drenched the Quiraji leader rapidly, as Benkei made no motion to dodge the attacks at all. After a few seconds they fell to the ground as they failed to penetrate through to their enemy.
Benkei looked down at the pool of magma and flickering flames at his feet, rolling his eyes and reaching into a pocket in his pants. "You are so predictable, using your useless power against me."
"Chakra doesn't work at all," warned Naruto to the others, but they all already knew that from their battles with the other Quiraji leaders. It was clear that there was a chakra-nullifying field around Benkei, but they all frowned as they saw the Quiraji leader produce a small black device from his pocket.
Holding the device in his hand for a moment, Benkei took a short breath and crushed it between his fingers with little effort. With that, the chakra-nullifying field protecting him faded and disappeared with only a discarded chunk of metal as evidence of its existence. The Quiraji leader cracked his neck as a demonstration that he was now ready to fight and clenched his fists. "Now your little attacks can get through. I have no need for such assistance."
The shinobi facing him looked at each other for a moment, not sure whether they could believe what they had seen. Unlike before, none of them were going to waste this opportunity. At once, the enemies of the Quiraji present sent their attacks straight at their foe.
Sasuke, Kakashi, Killer Bee and Naruto all sent bolts of chakra-based lightning, while Mei and Hinata collectively created a cascade of water to crash into their foe. Kiba attempted his fire trick once again while Akamaru recovered from their battle; while Gaara created a spike of the densest sand he could make and hurled it straight at Benkei. Neji placed a hand next to his mouth and sent a pulse of deafening sound towards their opponent and Fiore, drawing on the knowledge that she could control more than one piece of her wood at once, created a blade that spun towards Benkei at breakneck speed.
Even the non-chakra using Lee kicked up a storm with his high-speed techniques and sent a blast of air to enhance the speed of the other techniques being directed at their enemy.
It was a devastating combination of attacks that would have taken out any normal foe. Many of the attacks blended together and formed into larger attacks on their way towards their foe, while those with greater control moved around the non-complimentary attacks and used better vectors to attack their foe. Without his chakra-nullification protection, Benkei would surely be severely harmed by their combination.
Moments before the whirlwind of various attacks struck him, Benkei took a wide side-step that covered over a score of metres and watched as every attack sailed past him harmlessly. He slowly turned his head towards the shinobi and his expression darkened. "I am not a moron, though. Don't think it'll be that easy."
While the shinobi recovered for a second volley of their combination attack, the Quiraji leader decided he was not going to wait around for them anymore. With a small burst of physical energy that cracked the ground beneath his feet, Benkei shot forward at such a high speed that he was in the midst of the shinobi strike force before they knew what hit them.
His first target was the Tailed Beast that had presented itself earlier in the battle. Benkei was the ultimate pragmatist and recognised the rapid recovery and obvious grudge on the Kumogakure Tailed Beast container's face. Killer Bee was able to read his movements, since he was used to fighting high speed opponents like the Raikage, but after the battle with Yugito his body was sluggish to respond and he was only able to sway backwards to avoid the full extent of the Quiraji leader's strike.
Instead of his fist striking the Eight-Tails container's forehead, Benkei's fist struck the underside of his chin. The blow had enough force to crush his spine in a single strike, but Killer Bee's sway had diffused enough of the power that it only broke several of the bones in his face and sent him flying into the ground hundreds of metres away. Killer Bee was unconscious the moment the shock of the strike hit him and the Eight-Tails inside him attempted to wrap him in a protective cocoon of chakra to soften the blow, saving his life as the back of his head struck against the hard rocks of the crater of Konoha.
The others of the strike force had barely blinked and one of their group was already down. They had no time to check whether Killer Bee was still alive or not as the Quiraji leader quickly turned his attention to the others around him.
The fastest of their group was the first to get to him, slamming a green-clad leg into the side of Quiraji leader's shoulder. Benkei moved an arm in an attempt to catch Lee's leg in the action, but the taijutsu master flipped around in the air and landed on his hands on the ground before kicking both his feet into the underside of Benkei's chin. However, unlike his blow to the Eight-Tails container, this attack had no effect on Benkei as his physical defence was more than capable of taking such an attack.
Benkei's eyes twitched at the attack and Rock Lee disappeared in a flash before the Quiraji leader could counter-attack him, landing softly a short distance away with a drawn-out breath.
"His defences are strong…" observed the taijutsu master as the others took up defensive stances around the enemy. There were too many of them in their group to all attack him in close combat at once, but not all of them were close-combat orientated. Benkei had not shown any interest in fighting at range so the long-ranged types moved to the back of their hastily acquired formation while the close-quarter fighters steeled themselves and moved to the front lines.
It wasn't a bad formation by any means. Benkei could see that they were certainly taking him seriously, particularly after seeing him take out one of the most powerful shinobi in their group in a single blow. Killer Bee was seriously drained and distracted, but that didn't detract from the severity of his defeat.
Benkei let the shadow of a grin appear on his face before adopted an emotionless expression once again. He was starting to enjoy this battle.
The first shinobi that moved to strike back at him were the former Team Seven members that were present at the battlefield of their old home. Naruto clapped his hands to cover them with the swirling spiritual energy of his Kattoken, while Sasuke's Eternal Sharingan eyes flared and a large purple warrior appeared around him drawing a massive bow aimed directly at their foe. While his students prepared their attacks, Kakashi used the knowledge of the Rinnegan to enhance his old abilities and ran through handseals so quickly they barely looked like he'd made them before creating a dog made entirely of lightning and sending it flying through the air the same time Sasuke released his chakra arrow at the Quiraji leader. While they attacked at range, Naruto shot forward with his teleportation ability and appeared to the side of the Quiraji leader and pulled back an arm to strike at Benkei directly.
The Quiraji leader saw the rapid-fire attacks flying towards him with fascination, seeing that even he wouldn't be able to dodge those without effort. To resolve that issue, he created a barrier of physical energy at his side to defend from Naruto's attack before reaching out with his large hands to mimic the act of grabbing the blonde shinobi by the arm. He knew it was dangerous to touch him directly while his Kattoken swirled around him, but with his ability he had no need to do so as he picked up the ex-Konoha shinobi at range and flung him into the path of his comrades' attacks. Naruto was within his time frame that prevented him from line-of-sight teleporting again and he didn't want to waste his Hiraishin teleports so early in the fight. To defend himself he extended his Kattoken entirely around his body and braced himself to take the attacks.
Seeing that their attacks were about to hit their ally, Kakashi used a burst of chakra through his Rinnegan and dispersed the attacks in a pulse of gravity that sent Naruto flying away, but saving him from Benkei's follow-up attack, which was to slam his fist into the ex-Konoha shinobi's chest.
While the others moved to attack Benkei at the same time, Hinata sped around the battlefield at her top speed and held out her hands to catch her husband before he struck the ground. Naruto had enough presence of mind to cancel his defensive technique before he harmed his wife, but the impact was enough to send both of them to their knees.
While the married couple recovered their footing, Benkei was attacked on all sides by a combination of close-combat attacks by Kiba, Neji and Rock Lee. His arms became a flurry as he defended and parried their close-combat attacks while simultaneously striking out with furious physical energy and beating them back. Kiba fought side by side with Akamaru and was beaten back every time he tried to claw his way into the Quiraji leader's defences, coping a dangerous blow to his side that nearly broke his ribs in a single blow. Neji was still recovering chakra from his near-death experience at the hands of his cousin, but he was still a taijutsu genius and was able to duck under Benkei's counterattacks to try and strike at him directly. With Rock Lee taking up most of Benkei's attention with his rapid-fire techniques that gained in speed and power with each moment, Neji took advantage of Benkei's distraction and created a single blade of chakra into his remaining hand. Moving like a leaf swaying in the wind, Neji moved between the attacking Rock Lee and Benkei and drove his spear-hand technique straight into his throat. The strike was so quick and sudden that Benkei didn't have enough time to dodge the attack or completely block it with physical energy. He had no chakra for Neji to disrupt with his Hyuuga technique, but the strike was strong enough to draw a small cut of blood along the rough skin of the Quiraji leader.
Benkei roared out at the attack and brought up his hands to crush the Otokage's head between them, but Neji was already slipping back out of range and taking up his stance again. To make up for losing the target that had drawn first blood on him, Benkei turned his attention to his two other close-combat opponents and increased his speed so that he fought at the same pace that Lee did. In an instant he kicked out at Akamaru and sent him flying before driving a fist into the side of Kiba, breaking the ribs he had missed earlier. Rock Lee tried to counter his speed by striking directly at Benkei's head, but the Quiraji leader powered his way through it and drove his head straight into the face of the taijutsu master. Even with his body twisting out of the way to diffuse the power, Rock Lee still felt his nose and cheeks break under the overwhelming power that forced him to retreat temporarily.
Benkei snarled and turned his attention to the kneeling Inuzuka that was trying to get back up with his shattered ribs inside his body. He could feel spikes of sand raining down on top of him from the Kazekage failing to penetrate his armour of physical energy, but when he reached forward to end the young shinobi's life he was denied as a large wooden hand reached forward and scooped up the Inuzuka and his companion before hurling them back towards the relative safety of the long-range shinobi's ranks.
Fiore recovered her wood as Kiba stuttered a quick thanks and turned to see how hurt his animal companion was. She hadn't joined in with the close-combat fighters as she recognised the danger the Quiraji leader posed at such close range, but after all those attacks the most they had done was a tiny scratch on his neck at close range that looked like it had already healed. "This guy is monstrous," she muttered as she formed her wood into a long pole.
"He isn't unbeatable," said Sasuke at her side as his Susanoo blazed brightly around him. "His movements are rigid when he is impatient. Even without chakra, I think I can read him with my Sharingan."
The Quiraji leader turned and stared his empty black eyes directly at the last surviving Uchiha. Even after steeling himself for battle, Sasuke couldn't hide the shiver that ran through his body at the unsightly gaze he was receiving. His Sharingan eyes looked away as his Susanoo slowly fell away as Sasuke realised that it would likely be no defence if their opponent were to attack him directly. It would be better to save energy for attacking.
However, he was hardly alone in this battle. While the Quiraji leader had turned his attention away from them, the Mizukage and Kazekage had consulted on a plan and had moved into position to attack him. Gaara landed on the ground and clutched his hands into the stony ground, while Mei placed a ring of her fingers around her lips and began blowing a large cloud of mist that encompassed the whole area that Benkei was standing on.
The others in the group immediately took several large steps backwards as the mist spread out over a reasonable area before stopping under the Mizukage's control. While the mists she normally used were a light blue colour that clouded the sky at the same time, the mist she had covered Benkei with was completely white and so dense that the person inside wouldn't be able to see more than a few feet in front of them.
Standing in the dense mist, Benkei waited for a moment before realising that it was no ordinary mist. Lifting up his arms, he looked at the tanned scars on his skin to see small wisps of smoke emerging from him. It sizzled and burned as the acidic properties of the mist ate through his physical armour and into his skin. The pain was pleasant at first, almost an amusing tickling as the object of shinobi struggle, but after a few moments it became clear that it was more dangerous than he first thought.
Taking a step towards one of the edges of the dense mist, Benkei felt a sharp tugging on his legs. The Quiraji leader looked down to see tendrils of sand clutching at his ankles, swarming up towards him.
An effective strategy, he observed analytically. Keep him stationary and let the acidic mist burn him into a liquid paste. The shinobi were learning.
Benkei kicked off the sand grips with little effort and launched himself towards one edge of the Mizukage's mist. The acid had begun to burn through to his muscles, but his spiritual energy was enough to keep it from doing any serious damage though his arms and the rest of his body's physical energy armour hadn't been penetrated by the time he left the mist.
The first person he saw upon his emergence was the controller of the sand that had tried to keep him steady. The Kazekage had taken to the ground to try and grip his legs with his sand, which left him particularly vulnerable to counter-attack. He was guarded on either side by the taijutsu master and the last Konoha Jounin, but Benkei simply swiped his hands towards them. The force of his physical energy technique was enough to send both Rock Lee and Kakashi flying, though they suffered little damage as they recovered their footing a fair distance away.
Seeing their enemy approach, Gaara pulled his hands towards his body and created two waves of cascading sand that slammed into the sides of his opponent. It was enough sand to crush an army of soldiers without a second thought, but it wasn't nearly enough to stop the Quiraji leader. Benkei continued to step forward like he was walking through a soft breeze before reaching out a hand to grip the Kazekage with an invisible hand. A short distance between the two of them, Benkei stared into the young man's pale eyes for a moment just to take in his last gaze before closing his fist and crushing him with overwhelming power.
The Kazekage's body was obliterated in an instant.
Benkei released his grip and watched it fall to the ground, frowning as he saw that there had been no blood. The Kazekage's body held its form for a moment before collapsing into a small collection of various coloured sand on the ground. The Quiraji leader grinded his teeth in frustration and turned to see where Gaara had reconstituted himself, but instead he saw Naruto and Kiba flying towards him with their techniques ready to attack him. Their timing was flawless and Benkei wasn't in a mood to make the necessary movements to dodge the complex attacks.
As Kiba in his three-headed wolf form spun a whirlwind of flames on one side and Naruto with his Kattoken drills on the other, Benkei grounded his legs and clapped his hands together in a manner reminiscence of his shinobi opponents. As the two ex-Konoha shinobi's attacks slammed into the air directly in front of him, they clashed into an insanely strong physical barrier that Benkei had erected in front of himself. Kiba took more damage than he could have dealt by slamming into the barrier, but using his momentum he was able to twist away just before Benkei moved to counter attack him.
Naruto decided he wasn't going to back down from the Quiraji leader's attacks even though he knew he couldn't penetrate through from the front. Switching his energy to a more physical-based defence, he braced himself and watched as Benkei pulled back a fist and threw it at his fast so fast that he could barely see it.
He caught the punch in both his hands in such a way that it diffused the power throughout his body. The Quiraji leader's fist was so large that it took both hands just to stop it, but even with his legs braced into the ground Naruto could feel his muscles screaming out in protest at the weight being pressed into him.
But he had stopped Benkei's attack without taking any real damage. It had taken significant effort and no small amount of physical energy, but he had shown that the Quiraji leader wasn't so overwhelmingly powerful.
In that moment of triumph, Naruto forgot one of the primary lessons of battle.
Never take your eyes off of the enemy's hands for a second.
Benkei's other hand crashed into the side of Naruto's head so quickly it knocked him out without even a hint of protest from his defences. The strike was strong enough to break his grip on the other hand and send him flying through the air. The only reason he survived the attack at all was because he had coated himself in physical energy, but Benkei's punch was still enough to do serious damage to the ex-Konoha shinobi.
Both Kakashi and Hinata were there to catch Naruto as he fell and without losing stride his Hyuuga wife began healing him and trying to bring him back to consciousness. The others knew he was in good hands and concentrated their efforts on fighting the Quiraji leader, wary of repeating the mistakes they kept making.
However, Benkei was in the same mindset. He saw that his enemies were taking more cautious stances and that allowed him to take an account of the situation. The mist he had been standing in earlier was dangerous; it was definitely something he wanted to avoid. The best way of doing that would be to go after the source.
With that in mind, Benkei turned his attention to the red haired Mizukage near the back of the enemy formation and powered towards her at his top speed. Most of the shinobi between them smartly got out of the way, though the pair of Sasuke and Fiore both prepared attacks and timed themselves to attack Benkei when the opportunity arose.
The Quiraji leader batted away the Uchiha's spiritual energy lightning blade with a wave of his arm and drove a shoulder straight through the spike of wood that Fiore had aimed at him. Despite his physical energy armour the spike still bit into his shoulder, but Benkei ignored the minor inconvenience and dove straight towards his intended target.
Not one to allow herself to be so easily attacked, Mei placed her hands together and spewed a wave of lava from her mouth directly while a trio of tails began to emerge from her back. She didn't have much control over the Tailed Beast that had been recently placed under her care, but the Three-Tails was surprisingly conducive to her attempts to utilise its power. She could already feel the force of an extremely powerful water technique building within her chakra network and wanting to explode out at the enemy trying to kill her.
Benkei wasn't about to give her to opportunity to do so. Through sheer force of strength he barged through her lava defence and reached forward to clutch her hands into one of his large hands. Without a moment of hesitation he crushed the bones in her hands with a single vice grip before levelling a heavy punch directly at her face.
Mei ignored the unbelievable pain in her hands as she watched his fist approach her, but before it could contact the beast inside of her could wait no longer and pushed its chakra through her mouth to spout a single blast of water directly into the Quiraji leader's face.
The blast was enough to knock Benkei off his feet and a short distance away from the Mizukage, though Mei had no strength to follow-up on her attack as she looked down at her hands to see them mangled and crushed with bones sticking out of her flesh in horrific ways. It was enough to make her throw up what she had eaten prior to the battle, but she had no time to pity herself as the Tailed Beast within her pumped chakra through her body and began setting the bones and pushing them back into her skin. It was an excruciating process that would undoubtedly leave terrible scars, but it would also allow her to re-join the battle if necessary. Though how much chakra she would have to fight with was debatable at this stage.
Seeing the Quiraji leader temporarily knocked off his feet was an opportunity that the shinobi strike force couldn't not take advantage of. Sasuke and Fiore both turned around to attack him once again, but they were overtaken by the surviving members of Team Gai as the fastest shinobi in the current world and the Otokage attacked in the same formation they hadn't used in over half a decade.
Rock Lee swung his legs around like a fulcrum and drove the side of his heel into the head of the Quiraji leader, though not enough to penetrate through Benkei's defences. Even though he had been surprised by the Mizukage's sudden defence and wasn't quite back on his feet, Benkei was hardly defenceless and moved up an arm to grab at the speedy shinobi's leg to stop his momentum. However, his arm was blown away by a wave of air from the Otokage's palm and that gave Rock Lee enough time to open Five Gates in moments and shift his movements in the air and gather his strength into a single overwhelming blow. Before Benkei could muster further defences, he slammed his heavy leg straight down into the middle of chest with a loud roar, "Hitori Omote Renge!"
The blow was so strong that its force went through the Quiraji leader's body into the ground beneath, sending cracks that echoed the accompanying shockwave. While part of Benkei's chest caved in from Rock Lee's attack, the Quiraji leader coughed a small amount of blood onto his weighted leg and grimaced painfully.
Not one to claim early victory, the taijutsu master leapt off of his quarry and landed unsteadily, noticing that he had put so much strength into that one blow that the blowback from opening the Gates was far more than in previous times he had attempted them. It wasn't as bad as when he'd opened nearly all of them to save Sakura, but it still hurt like hell.
Neji shot forward to take advantage of his old companion's attack and try to finish the job, but from his position on the ground Benkei slammed a clenched fist into the ground to create a small crater with a clear demonstration of frustration as he leapt to his feet and clutched at his chest carefully. There was a large bruise forming where Rock Lee's foot had struck him and even without his Byakugan active Neji suspected that he'd probably broken a few bones in the attack. Considering it was an attack heavy enough to destroy a building, Neji was impressed at the Quiraji leader's resilience.
But Benkei was not amused as he reached up and wiped the blood from his lips. His face flashed anger for a moment before re-adjusting back to normal and taking a deep breath to show that he was uninjured from the taijutsu master's attack. He would never say it out aloud, but he was impressed with the show that the shinobi strike force was putting on. They were resourceful and clever, with several of them using Quiraji-like attacks that were actually a threat to him.
The time for testing their abilities was now over. He had enough of an understanding of their individual abilities that he had to acknowledge they were strong and worthy of killing.
Benkei glanced over at the immobile Shikyo that hadn't made a single reaction to the battle so far for a moment before turning back to the shinobi that seemed determined to resist him. "Your struggle is meaningless. I am immortal and my reign has been endless. Your little Sage and his pets could not defeat me and you will fare no better."
He would now fight seriously.
The shinobi strike force was collectively concerned about his statements, particularly when he had looked at the only other Quiraji combatant in the area. Shikyo's presence was troubling to say the least; particularly with the knowledge that she could kill any of them with a single touch should she choose to join the fight at any moment. Naruto and Hinata had tried to keep an eye on her throughout the battle so far for any indication that the enemy had made any headway on bringing her into the battle, but there hadn't been any changes whatsoever. It didn't look like she was waiting though.
Rather, she was fighting an internal battle that couldn't be interfered with. If the Kyuubi was to be trusted, they had to let her fight her battle. After they had taken out Benkei they could deal with Shikyo.
Benkei turned his head to choose his first target, but he could see that the shinobi strike force was already moving to attack him. The blonde shinobi that he had swatted aside earlier had been healed by the young dark-haired girl and charged towards him with the lightning blade in his hand, the others holding back as if he would be able to solve their problems by himself.
A foolish notion. He pulled back a fist to blow his foe away, but held back when he saw the blonde shinobi splitting himself off into a large number of clones of himself as he charged forward. Within moments there were almost a hundred of the ex-Konoha shinobi, each wielding the Second Hokage's sword. They surrounded the Quiraji leader quickly and moved in to attack him at once.
He had seen the technique before; it was something shinobi would do to gain experience before attacking themselves, or was used as a distraction while they attacked from a blind spot.
Benkei had no interest in such an attack. He clapped his hands together in an explosive shockwave of physical energy, blasting away the clones of Naruto in a single wave. The shadow clones dispersed into small clouds of smoke, while the original Naruto that had charged forward with the rest of them was blown away far enough that he smacked into his old teacher's stomach, sending them both sprawling onto the ground.
Several of the shinobi strike force leapt at him, with the main combatants of Fiore, Rock Lee and Sasuke moving to attack him directly. Benkei shot past them in a burst of speed and aimed himself at the long-range fighters in their formation. His hands reached out with physical energy to attack the pair of Kages that had attacked him earlier, clutching at the Kazekage's body on his newly created sand platform while swiping at the Mizukage's body directly.
Gaara's sand reached forward to try and block his attack, but he could still feel the tight grip of the energy around his body from the Quiraji leader. Sensing that he would be easily crushed if he let Benkei finish his attack, Gaara allowed the Tailed Beast within him to assist him. Shukaku shot out a pair of monster claws in a circle around him, breaking off the Quiraji leader's ranged grip through sheer force before shooting a blast of sand in a follow-up defence. Benkei didn't even dodge the sand, letting it fall away from his defences.
The Mizukage wasn't as fast with her defence, having concentrated on recovering her energy as her hands fixed themselves. She was sent flying to the side, but was slowed down as Hinata gathered a small amount of water and slowed her fall. The young Hyuuga took a moment to check on her husband's condition and with seeing Naruto picking himself up and charging back into the fray, she turned her attention to Mei and asked whether she could help with her healing.
With the two Kages temporarily out of the way, Benkei turned back to the three shinobi that had attacked him and unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of middle-distance attacks with physical energy. Rock Lee was able to dodge out of the most of them, while Sasuke and Fiore quickly huddled behind a defensive shell of her wood. The bursts of physical energy battered at her shell powerfully, cracking the wood and sending showers of splinters in the area around them. But her defences held up against his barrage and allowed them to occupy Benkei's mind for a few moments.
This gave Neji the time required to prepare his attack at a short distance away, but before the Otokage could attack the Quiraji leader he saw Naruto teleport to the rear of the Quiraji leader and pull back a Kattoken arm to drive into Benkei's back. He tried to shout out a warning to the brash blonde shinobi that it was too dangerous to attack alone, but he was too late.
At the same time as Naruto tried to drive his drilling attack into Benkei's back, the Quiraji leader turned to deal with him, seemingly having eyes in the back of his head. The Kattoken strike glanced across the Quiraji leader's back and skimmed harmlessly off, but before Naruto could lead into his next attack his opponent struck out at him.
Benkei's large hands reached out and grabbed at Naruto's arms tightly. Naruto tried to use his Hiraishin to teleport away, but the Quiraji leader's touch blocked his chakra from moulding properly within his body. In response, Naruto coated himself with physical energy and waited until his internal clock would allow him to line-of-sight teleport away again.
Benkei wasn't going to give him that time. He was done playing around.
In a single squeeze of his hands, Benkei crushed the bones and muscles in Naruto's arms. The cry of sheer agony was like music to his ears as he dropped the crippled blonde shinobi down to the ground. He looked over the battlefield to see the look of absolute disbelief and horror on the other shinobi's faces, but most of all he could see the despairing look on the young girl that had healed him earlier.
With a cruel smile on his face, Benkei pulled up his foot and drove it straight down into the ex-Konoha shinobi's neck. Even with his defences, Naruto had no means of surviving the attack completely and his windpipe was crushed along with most of his chest. His mind was full of images of pain and misery, but the final thing he heard before his eyes closed for the final time was the sounds of the Tailed Beast inside him raging against his weakness and trying its best to flee the inevitable.
Every person present processed Naruto's demise differently, but only two people truly reacted to it. While emerging from behind his partner's wood shell, Sasuke had watched his friend's final moments with growing hatred in his red eyes. His mind glazed over and the fury he had once held bottled inside of himself emerged in that single moment directed at the person that dared to harm someone Sasuke didn't want to admit he was close to. A huge purple warrior emerged around him, larger and stronger than he'd ever summoned before and he charged towards the triumphant Quiraji leader with a cry of outrage.
Hinata's mind wasn't able to process what just happened. One moment she had made sure that Naruto had recovered from his attack and had turned her attention away and the next moment he was gone. She blinked several times, as if trying to deny what her white eyes were clearly showing her.
Then she screamed.
Ignoring the rational part of his brain that told him attacking by himself was a stupid move to make; Sasuke hurled himself towards the Quiraji leader with his sword pointed at his heart, using his Susanoo as both protection and a means of accelerating his movements.
The Quiraji leader took in the young girl's scream of anguish with a mixture of relish and regret. He felt like he had wasted an opportunity to get a more interesting fight out of the young man, but he also recognised that he was an actual threat to him and needed to be neutralised.
He turned around to see the last Uchiha flying towards him with the clear intent of avenging his fallen comrade. Benkei recognised him as another dangerous one of the shinobi strike force, as his black eyes could clearly see the spiritual energy gathered around Sasuke's sword in the form of a lance made of lightning. His control over the force was impressive; Benkei wasn't sure whether his physical defences would stand up to such a powerful attack.
But with such a straight attack and his energy entirely focused on attacking, Sasuke wasn't expecting his opponent to simply disappear into the void and let him attack through the area that he no longer occupied. Sasuke skidded to the ground and looked around frantically for his target, while his partner recovered her wood into its weapon-form and began running towards him to support him.
That was when Benkei appeared out of the air behind him and stabbed his arm through Sasuke's back to stick out of his front. The Uchiha's Susanoo provided no defence to the straightforward physical energy strike and Sasuke wasn't given the grace of a final thought as his body caved in and he dropped to the ground in a large pool of blood.
Benkei looked down at his blood soaked arm, staring at the liquid dripping down onto the ground with fascination for a moment before leaning down to the ground and wiping it on the cloak of the shinobi he had just killed. It had been too easy to take him out; clearly they were less effective when their comrades were killed.
An amusing weakness, though nothing he hadn't seen before.
Fiore charged towards him with the express intent of recovering her partner's body, tears flowing freely down her face. Benkei turned away from her and began walking back towards where he had killed the first shinobi, curious as to how the others were handling it. Fiore ignored him and dropped straight down to Sasuke's body, ignoring every principle of battle as her anger and grief towards her partner rose to the surface.
With the others in the shinobi strike force, something clicked in Hinata's mind and her eyes glazed over as her voice had run out a long time ago. She picked herself up from the ground and stared directly at the Quiraji leader with her Byakugan blazing directly forward.
With the last part of her voice, Hinata screamed out a bloody cry and threw herself towards the man who had taken everything from her.
oOoOoOo
While the other shinobi tried to process the events that had just occurred so rapidly, the one woman so deeply affected by it took matters into her own hands. Her roar of anguish had been heard throughout the outlying areas as she closed the distance towards the triumphant-looking Quiraji leader with her hands covered in spiritual energy.
Benkei smirked as he saw his next target bringing herself into the slaughter, reaching out a hand to crush her from a distance. At the direct angle she was charging him at it wouldn't take much effort to squash her out of existence.
As he closed his fist around the area she was standing in, the young kunoichi disappeared from his sight. With the rage in her eyes, he hadn't thought her capable of tactical manoeuvres, but it was hardly anything special. He turned to the side to see the Hyuuga heiress close to him in an attempt to unleash her grief upon him.
It would be too easy to bat away her attack and crush her with his bare hands. He opened his hands and prepared to receive her attacks, but hesitated when he noticed something off about the young kunoichi's hateful gaze.
He figured it out just as the woman in front of him disappeared into a small cloud of smoke. He felt a sharp pain in his side as he turned to see Hinata driving a bladed hand into his flesh. Her spiritual energy strike had completely bypassed his defences as she had seen that he hadn't maintained them that well on his opposite side. With fury and hatred fuelling her actions, Hinata slammed in one strike after the other into his exposed side, covering herself with blood as she tried to bore her way through the Quiraji leader from one side to the other.
Benkei roared out in clear pain and swept over his arm to drive the point of his elbow into her head in an attempt to make her back off. The angle was not favourable to the Quiraji leader but he put in enough strength that he would have been able to crack the Hyuuga kunoichi's skull open.
Even in her enraged state, Hinata's Byakugan gave her the information necessary to warn her that an attack was coming. However she had no interest in dodging away and ridding herself of the opportunity to cause more damage to the hateful person that had taken away the love of her life. Without any instruction on her part, a part of water tendrils emerged from the ground and slashed directly at the Quiraji leader's face. Even with all his experience and battle training, Benkei instinctively moved his hands to protect his face.
In that moment, Hinata summoned up a large amount of spiritual energy into her hands and shoved them so hard into Benkei's side that she could feel his ribs breaking at the impact. It was a brutal move that would've been more appropriate coming from her deceased husband, but Hinata no longer cared about technique or finesse.
She would slaughter this manner no matter what the cost. Even if it took everything had and destroyed her body, he would die by her hands.
And anyone trying to stop her would suffer a similar fate.
Benkei's face contorted in pain at Hinata's attack as he realised that while she was enraged to the point of insanity, she was still a skilled fighter and capable of advanced fighting techniques. He grinded his teeth through the pain and summoned a wave of spiritual energy around him to throw her off his flank. The blast was enough to send Hinata flying back a score of metres and give the Quiraji leader a moment to recover, but that was all he got.
The moment her feet landed on the ground, Hinata was already launching herself back at her enemy. At her sides, groups of water tendrils sprung up from the ground and lashed out at Benkei directly, following their master's unconscious desire to see him harmed while Hinata's hands flared up with wind spiritual energy and formed into long blades to pierce through his armour.
"Shouldn't we be helping her?" said Rock Lee a fair distance away with the other shinobi strike force survivors. He had despaired when he had seen Naruto and Sasuke fall, but like everyone else his heart had broken when Hinata's cry of anguish had sounded throughout the battlefield.
None of them had moved to attack Benkei since she had charged. Some of them had been so shocked at the sudden killings of two of their strongest fighters and close friends, while others like Mei and Kiba were still in the process of recovering from the previous parts of the battle to have any effective means of assisting her.
At the taijutsu master's side, the Otokage shook his head grimly while glancing over at the fallen blonde shinobi's body. Naruto's corpse was not a pretty sight and he hated that his cousin had been forced to watch helplessly as he had been killed by the enemy that had also killed her father and her sister. Neji understood her pain well, but he also knew that there was no way they could help her in her current state.
"We cannot help her," said Gaara while Neji was still trying to find the words to say exactly that. The Kazekage had recovered a reasonable level of chakra through Shukaku's assistance during the break, but he was no fool and could see what the Hyuuga kunoichi was doing. "She would just as likely attack one of us as the enemy. Her grief has blinded her."
"We can't just stand here and let her throw herself away," said Kiba as he struggled to his feet. At his side, Akamaru barked softly in agreement, but neither of them was in much of a condition to fight.
Neji activated his Byakugan and watched his cousin hurl herself at Benkei without a hint of self-preservation or restraint. She was giving off so much power in those moments that it was difficult to distinguish between his cousin and Benkei while they swirled around each other, trying to attack and kill one another. In his black and white vision, it hurt his eyes a lot to look at Benkei as he had the appearance of a black void that sucked in all the energy around him, but it hurt equally to see Hinata the way she currently was.
Her energy output was tearing her body apart. At a cellular level he could see the damage she was doing to herself in her mad quest to avenge her husband.
He couldn't deny her that, no matter how much he wanted his cousin to survive this battle. She had a right to her grief and her anger and would never forgive him if he took that away from her.
Besides, the more bastard-like aspects of Neji had observed that she was pushing back the Quiraji leader and dealing more damage than they had been able to do all at once. She might be able to give them an opportunity to finish the battle once and for all, and for the sake of their race he had to let her fight.
But he wasn't going to let her die. The moment he saw that she was at a disadvantage he would leap in to help her and they would take down Benkei at once.
Benkei snarled as the agile girl ducked and dodged away from his heavy strikes like she was in the middle of a trance. Her furious gaze coupled with the red look in her pure white eyes hadn't changed, but the method of attacked had shifted when he had tried to strike out against her once again. She continued to gather water around her in a constantly rising whirlwind while accumulating spiritual energy within her.
He was no fool as he continued to try and attack the moving kunoichi. She had accumulated more energy than his children would have been able to accomplish and more than he would have thought a shinobi capable of doing, though it was not something he considered a significant threat to him.
Nevertheless, he had to take her out before she actually hurt him. If the previous part of their battle had shown anything it was that given enough opportunity she could get through his defences. His side was still recovering from her furious attack and the insolence she showed just increased the amount that he wanted to tear her apart.
Other than that though, he was enjoying himself quite thoroughly. Benkei was glad that the shinobi were putting up a fight. It would make his victory the sweeter.
Clenching his fists tightly, Benkei abandoned the mid-range fight and closed the distance between himself and the young kunoichi in an instant, gathering his physical energy for a wide-range attack that she wouldn't be able to avoid.
As if sensing his intent, Hinata stopped her dancing motions and stretched out her hands to her sides. The water she had been gathering around her stopped flowing and froze in position around her arms while the young Hyuuga glared hatefully at her approaching target.
She had no intention of dodging or parrying. They would trade blows and she would kill him. It wouldn't sate her, but it was a good start.
Hinata powered out all the energy she had contained plus more that her body couldn't handle, uncaring over her fate after the next minute. Benkei hurled a fist at her directly with a blast of physical energy, intending to blast her away and deal with her counter-attack, assuming that the kunoichi would try to avoid his attack and then fall prey to his follow-up.
But Hinata stood her ground and watched his attack vector with her Byakugan to get the best angle for her own attack. The huge amounts of water she had created moved to her back and began to swirl into a single concentrated sphere, while wind energy formed around her hands to create a single large blade of pure spiritual energy. She waited until Benkei was almost in range to strike her and activated her technique.
Even in her enraged state, Hinata was capable of high-level strategies and complex thinking in order to achieve her goal. But in this one exchange, she didn't care about any of that. The water sphere begin her exploded with such force that it hurled the Hyuuga heiress towards her enemy at an even faster speed than he was approaching her with. She threw out her arms and pointed her wind blade straight at his chest.
Benkei's strike landed first, cracking the air around Hinata and slammed into her with enough force to break every bone in her body.
But the critical damage was avoided as Hinata's wind blade sheered straight through his strike and into his body itself. Her muscles tore at the impact and she could feel her body breaking apart from the Quiraji leader's attack, but she didn't care about any of that.
Benkei froze in the air with blood falling from his mouth as he looked down to see the young girl's arms elbow-deep in his body. Her blade had cut through his defences like they weren't even there and had shredded apart nearly every vital organ in his body.
He couldn't hide how impressed he was. The pain was excruciating and he doubted he had more than a few seconds of life left, but someone this little girl's resistance had broken through and inflicted this much damage on him.
It was a fair start.
The two of them fell to the ground with a quiet thud; Benkei's eyes closing as his life left him rapidly, but even with her partially broken body Hinata had no intention of stopping her attack. She withdrew her arms from his chest and covered her fists in physical energy before mounting the deceased Quiraji leader's body and pulling back her fists.
The remainder of the shinobi strike force ran towards her quickly as they watched in horror while the usually calm and gentle Hinata pounded her fists into the dead flesh of the Quiraji leader's face. She laid blow after heavy blow into his head, pounding every inch of her hatred and grief into him. Every strike sent shockwaves into the ground beneath while simultaneous tearing up her muscles and cracking her knuckles painfully.
By the time Neji, Kiba and Rock Lee reached her to pull her off of his corpse Hinata was only pounding tiny chunks of flesh into other chunks of flesh. She squirmed for a moment in their tight grip, screaming for them to let her go before her eyes glazed over and she slumped in their arms.
Benkei was as dead as dead could be. It had cost Naruto and Sasuke their lives, but they had won.
oOoOoOo
The battlefield was a mixture of order and chaos. The Quiraji leader lay dead on the ground, torn apart by his attacker's grief-fuelled fury, with each of the shinobi present recognising that he was long gone from the battle. With his death, the end of the war could be assured, though they still recognised that if he had spoken the truth about the attacks launched at their arrival then it was possible that they had merely won a pyrrhic victory.
Yet despite their victory over their hated foes, none of the shinobi present felt like celebrating. The one non-shinobi in the group knelt beside the fallen body of her partner, silent tears falling from her eyes as she couldn't lift her head to regard anyone else in the area.
In contrast, the grief and anguish of the woman that had the won the battle for them was clear for all to see. Hinata held her husband's body in her arms and screamed out to the sky, raging at the fates that had robbed her of her love. She had run out of tears in the moments she had fought Benkei to his demise, but her eyes were still red and trying to produce more as she maintained her tight grip on him. The other shinobi in the group felt her pain as a sharp dagger through their hearts, even those that hadn't had such a connection with the blonde shinobi. Neji knew that he should go over to his cousin and give her the comfort she clearly needed, but the Otokage didn't have the heart to approach her. He had liked the blonde shinobi enough to respect his relationship with her, but the pain in her howls of anguish hurt him far more than Naruto's death had.
But the one shinobi that felt the two shinobi's deaths more acutely than anyone except for their partners was the last surviving Jounin of Konoha. Kakashi hadn't been able to do anything to stop the Quiraji leader's rampage and his spirit had broken upon seeing his students crushed underfoot like they were nothing. He had loved Naruto and Sasuke like they had been his children, not that he'd ever told them that, and now they were gone like everyone else in his life. His father, Obito, Rin, the Fourth, Gai, Konan…he was the only one left. If Benkei was to be believed, it was likely that Sakura was also dead.
Kakashi couldn't accept it. He wouldn't accept it. This was not how he was going to let things happen.
He had the power to change that. It was going to kill him anyway and he had suspected that he might need to at some point during this battle.
Kakashi made his decision as he moved his hands into a handseal. His gifted eyes gave him the knowledge and flooded his body with all the chakra he could give and more. It was within his power to bring them back and, for a last act as a shinobi and as a teacher, he didn't think it would be half-bad.
As the doujutsu activated, he could feel his own body tearing apart at the power that should never have been his. A demonic figure tore out of the ground with a thundering shockwave and stopped at three times the height of its summoner. It wore the face of the King of Hell surrounded by purple fire; its appearance was enough to shock the other shinobi and prepare themselves for another battle, but Kakashi's expression told them that it posed no danger for them. As life left his body, a pair of blue lights emerged from within the depths of the demonic figure's mouth before shooting out across the battlefield to enter the fallen bodies of his students.
Life began to flower within the pair of Konoha shinobi once again, beginning with a single heartbeat, followed by another, and then another. Eventually they were able to take a breath and they both gasped out at once like they had been underwater for hours and had finally been able to come back to the surface.
Hinata couldn't believe what she was seeing as her husband began to stir in her arms. All grief and fury vanished in the moment that she felt his heart beat for the first time since Benkei had crushed it under his foot. Her hands glowed a healing blue and she pulled him back to her until his eyes flicked open and he took the long gasp that brought him back into the world. The Hyuuga heiress could not embrace her husband quick enough or tight enough, to the confusion and struggle of her blonde partner.
Unlike Hinata, Fiore watched her partner's revival with a mixture of relief and surprised anger that he had worried her so much. While Sasuke breathed his first since his death, she reached out to touch his chest just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. The hole that would have killed a wild boar had been healed the moment the blue light had enveloped him and besides the hole in his shirt there was no evidence that he had been injured at all.
Sasuke blinked his eyes rapidly and turned to see his strong, prideful partner looking down at him with obvious tears running down her face. In a rare display of affection, without a word he reached over to her with his hand and gently wiped away the tears. He smiled at her in a way that she had never seen before and said the softest thing he could. "Hey you."
Fiore shook her head and laughed, wiping away the rest of her tears and taking his hand into her own, helping him up onto his feet. "You're an asshole, you know that?"
"Oh, I definitely know," said Sasuke, wavering on his feet for a moment before looking around to see if what he remembered had actually happened. He saw Naruto struggling to get to his feet as well, but it was the demonic figure falling back down into the ground besides Kakashi that really woke him up from his stupor. "What happened?"
Kakashi tried to use his Rinnegan to maintain the technique, as there were others he knew he should try and revive. He'd promised not to bring Konan back and would honour that pledge, but the others like Itachi, Nagisa and Yugito had every right to come back to life.
But his body didn't have the energy to bring anyone else back. The Rinnegan had taken everything he had and was now collecting its final due.
He couldn't do any more. His life was coming to an end now that he had made the necessary sacrifice for his students. It was a good way to go, he figured. Now he could join his fallen friends and his partner. Hopefully Konan and the others would forgive him.
But his graceful death was denied to him.
As the demonic figure that had brought Naruto and Sasuke back to life disappeared into the ground with a plume of purple flame, Kakashi felt a pair of large hands clasp on either side of his face. He was given the gift of a final look at his students up and walking around before the hands turned quickly and snapped his neck.
The last Konoha Jounin collapsed to the ground, his eyelids closing over his gifted eyes. His murderer stepped over his body and cracked his neck loudly as smoke smouldered along the hundreds of wounds that had been inflicted on his body.
The Quiraji leader looked over the shocked faces of his shinobi enemies, drinking in their confusion and anger at his treatment of one of their own. He hadn't wanted the shinobi that had worn the Sage's eyes to repeat his revival trick again and had adhered to his own declaration at the start of the battle.
"I told you that you would all die by my hands. You cannot kill inevitability."
He began to move towards his shinobi opponents once again.
Author's Note:
Now, I know that seems like an ass-pull, but it's so very not. There have been enough hints and lead-up to the final bit of this chapter that I hope it didn't come off that way. He isn't unbeatable, as I hope this chapter showed. But he's not easy either. Benkei is here to do his business.
It is really hard to write an action scene with one opponent against eleven. I completely understand why manga and such reduce the numbers so quickly. It's an absolute mess otherwise. The problem is that you want to give every character their part in the fight, and sometimes that just isn't possible.
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.