The Wanderers
Chapter 89 – Trial of Death
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I would have given one of Naruto's children bright red hair.
***Previously-On***
The final battle has begun.
After his revival from being killed at the hands of Hinata, Benkei's first action was to kill Kakashi and stop the potential revival of the others he and his children had already slain. Having been forced to recover from the constant battle, most of the shinobi strike force kept their distance from the Quiraji leader, while the Otokage and Kazekage conducted their own attack against him. Neji was able to kill Benkei with his special weaponry, but the Quiraji leader just revived once again. In the second battle after this, he was engaged by Rock Lee and Kiba in a high speed battle while he wielded a long sword. However, the battle cost Kiba and Akamaru their lives before the rest of the shinobi strike force came in to assist and Rock Lee was able to crush Benkei's spine and kill him once again. This time, the Quiraji leader's revival was faster than the other times and he wasted no time in reaching out to crush Rock Lee's legs into paste before being re-engaged in battle once again. When he turned to attack the weak Hinata and Naruto, he was intercepted by a recovered Killer Bee and kept occupied by the rest of the shinobi strike force. Inside his mindscape, Naruto and the Kyuubi came up with a plan to try and stop the Quiraji leader's revival, returning to the battlefield and grabbing Sasuke to assist them before moving to Shikyo and entering her mindscape.
***End Summary***
The transition from reality to the mindscape was not a pleasant one for either Naruto or Sasuke. The Kyuubi used their chakra and its own to force its way into the body of Shikyo and sink its claws into her mind. The Quiraji leader's defences were concentrated on her external body and not her mind, but Shikyo's brain still fought against them with all its might.
The Kyuubi pushed through and deposited its cargo within her mindscape just as its chakra ran out and it was forced to withdraw back into its jail to preserve its own life. It would never tell Naruto the risks it had taken to do the thing it had just done, or how close it had come to losing them several times.
As such, the pair of ex-Konoha shinobi were deposited into the mindscape of the Quiraji leader head first, landing on a strange landscape after a few seconds of falling. Sasuke landed on his feet with an expertly timed flip, even taking a moment to strike a minor pose. Naruto landed on the ground by his shoulders, but had enough time to roll and stand up like nothing had happened. He shook his head to readjust himself and looked around to see where they had landed.
Unlike the times he had spent in his own mindscape, the area within Shikyo's mind was highly detailed and lush; Naruto figured it had been drawn from someone's memories at one point or another, probably the Quiraji leader's experiences.
They stood on a plateau of stone, looking over a broad lush jungle that expanded out as far as they could see. It had a mixture of rainforest trees and large hills of grasslands with a variety of animals going about their daily lives, oblivious to the surrounding conflicts. Off into the distance were several massive stone structures that looked ancient even before they were constructed and on the plateau they were standing on there were several animalistic statues that neither of them recognised.
"Where are we?" asked Sasuke as he reached forward to touch one of the statues. "This doesn't look like anywhere I know."
Naruto glanced around for a moment before shrugging his shoulders, "No clue. This is a mindscape though, so take everything you see in here with a grain of salt."
Sasuke gave no indication that he heard what his friend said, but regardless he turned back to him and crossed his arms over his chest. In that moment of downtime, Naruto got a good look at what the battle had done to his old friend.
"Out of curiosity, do you know what you look like right now?"
The last Uchiha frowned, not liking the tone Naruto was using, "If you're talking about the energy that Kyoukou stole from me, yes, I am aware."
Naruto put up his hands pre-emptively to show that he wasn't trying to insult him, "I'm just saying, you look like you aged a bit, that's all."
Sasuke glared at him for a few seconds before realising that after the death of Kyoukou he hadn't had the chance to get a proper look at himself. Considering it for a moment, he put up his hands and created a normal Bunshin, one that barely took any chakra at all. The image appeared in front of him and turned around so he could get a proper look at himself. After Naruto's comments he was expecting the worst, but instead he saw that, while he had indeed aged, it wasn't as bad as he would have thought. His hair had gotten a bit longer and he had a few more lines on his face than he had beforehand, but otherwise he just looked like he was in his mid-thirties. He was a little disappointed that he didn't have the grooves on the side of his face that had clearly defined his brother and father, but other than that he wasn't too worried.
With a wave of his hand he dismissed the Bunshin and turned back around to look at the edge of the plateau, "So, we are here now. What are we looking for?"
Naruto shrugged again, "No idea, the Kyuubi has gone dark. I guess we look for Shikyo? She's the reason we're here after all."
"How much time do we have?" asked Sasuke as the two of them jumped off of the stone plateau to the jungle below. "I don't like the idea of leaving the others to fight Benkei on their own."
"It's hard to say, the way time works in mindscapes is weird. We could spend five minutes in here and it would be a year outside, or it could be weeks in here and minutes outside."
"So you have no idea, is that what you are saying?"
The two of them landed on a part of the grasslands and began running towards the entrance of the nearby jungle. Naruto smirked at his friend as they ran, "Just like old times."
"We don't have old times, Naruto. We just have the time before Konoha got destroyed and that's it."
His blonde friend pouted as they moved into the tree line and were struck by a sudden shift in humidity and found themselves completely surrounded by the jungle. They moved through the jungle quickly, seeing no difference from one area to the next as they moved as quickly as they could. Neither of them liked the idea of spending any more time in enemy territory than they needed to, but after nearly an hour of fruitless searching in the jungle it became clear that merely searching wasn't going to be enough.
Eventually Sasuke lost his patience and stopped at the base of one of the larger trees inside the jungle, reaching over his shoulder to pull off one of the large bugs that had attached itself to his shirt, "This is pointless. We aren't going to find anything at this rate."
Naruto stopped at a nearby stump and looked up at his friend, agreeing that they were getting nowhere fast. He thought about it for a moment before pointing up to the top of the tree above Sasuke, "Why don't you go up there and scout the area with your Sharingan? I can cover more ground with my clones and then we can compare notes."
Sasuke had to admit it was a reasonable plan, giving his friend a nod and taking a large leap up to the nearest branch of the tree while Naruto put his hands together and created an army of Kage Bunshin with the standing order of searching for anyone they could find.
At the top of the tree, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and looked around the area carefully. It was strange seeing the trees and brush with his red eyes as opposed to when he had seen similar objects in normal space. Every object in the world had a measure of energy that he was able to see to a small extent, though nowhere near the amount that a Byakugan-user was able to see.
But here in the mindscape, there was almost a conspicuous lack of energy within the environment that he could see. It was clearly full of life as his regular eyes could see, but there was no resemblance of chakra potential at all in anything he could see.
Was this set in a time before chakra was founded? It would make sense if it were taken from the memories of the woman who had given birth to chakra in the first place.
Wasn't there a story about a tree with her?
Sasuke was trying to remember what his brother had told his about that legend, but the thought of his brother was like a dagger in his chest. He and his brother had come to an understanding that one or both of them might not survive the battle, but he hadn't expected Itachi to die for him like he had. It ate at his chest to think of those final moments, but Sasuke shook himself out of it and continued his search. Seeing that there was clearly nothing of interest in the jungle, Sasuke broadened his search to the surrounding areas, concentrating more on the stone structures to the north of his current position. There were several trees that were taller than the one he stood on, but he had enough of a vantage point to see most of what he needed to. It gave him enough information to make at least one major observation.
This place was much larger than they initially thought. Off in the distance he could see an expansive desert and a foggy mountain to the south that looked more like an active volcano.
It made no geographical sense, but Sasuke had to remind himself that they were within a specific mind's reality and many different rules probably applied. His chakra flow within his body felt the same as when he'd been fighting Benkei earlier, though something told him that he shouldn't waste chakra in this mindscape.
After a few more minutes, Sasuke figured that he wasn't going to find their target by conducting wide sweeps with his Sharingan; there was just too much space to cover. Instead, he decided that, if it were him, he would shackle their target in a secure location that would have some significance to him.
Looking at the closer areas, Sasuke noticed that the stone structures had a strange draw to them, like large pyramids that were more detailed than the others things he had seen.
That was very suspicious to the last Uchiha. He pulsed chakra to his eyes and activated his Eternal Sharingan, concentrating his gaze more at the base of the stone structures that reminded him of strange pyramids. It didn't take long for him to realise that he was on the money as a tiny trace of blue energy emerged on a noticeable trail. He focused his attention on the trail and saw that it led to a small figure of bright blue energy deep into the ground beneath one of the stone structures.
That had to be their target.
Sasuke made sure that he was right before turning his attention back to the ground and dropping to where the original Naruto was standing. "Naruto, I think I found something."
The blonde shinobi ignored him for a moment, his eyes closed as he was giving direct orders to the clones he had spread throughout the jungle. He whispered silently as Sasuke could see he was absorbing a lot of information from his clones at once.
"Naruto, I know where we have to go."
After a few more seconds Naruto's eyes opened and he looked over to his old friend with a hint of exhaustion on his face. He hadn't realised how difficult it would be to maintain that many clones within the mindscape in comparison to back in the real world. He shook himself out of it and regarded Sasuke's red eyes with his own, "We have a bigger problem."
"What is it? What did you find?"
Naruto's eyes moved to the side and he motioned with his hand for him to take his shoulder, as they had when they'd entered the mindscape. He concentrated on one of the seals and activated his Hiraishin technique with Sasuke coming with him.
"I found Benkei."
oOoOoOo
When they arrived at the area Naruto's clones had marked, Naruto and Sasuke were thrust into battle at the edge of the jungle, with clones flying all over the place. The two of them moved apart as a clone was sent flying towards them at a screaming pace, just barely missing them before colliding with one of the entrance trees in a small cloud of smoke before translating its information directly to the original.
Naruto grinded his teeth as the information continued to flood into his mind, from the moment the outer edges of his clone force had encountered the enemy to now when he had taken out nearly a hundred of them with little effort involved.
The Quiraji leader's image was similar to that they knew from the outside; a large overbearing man with pitch black eyes with no irises and power dripping from the area he occupied. However, he appeared to be a few feet taller than both of them remembered, and as he dispatched the charging Naruto clones with almost a dismissive set of gestures with his hands. The physical energy techniques were destroying the clones with complete ease, despite their speed and tactics they had adopted from attacking the Quiraji leader so much.
"How is he here?" asked Sasuke, hesitating to rush into battle with someone who shouldn't even be even be here. "I thought you said this is Shikyo's mindscape."
"It is," said Naruto, wincing as he said a group of his clones crushed into the ground with a dropped hand from the Quiraji leader, feeling their pain as they collided into the stones and exploded into clouds of smoke. "Remember, he took control of her a long time ago. It's probably some kind of representation of him of some sort."
"Like an avatar? That's a pain in the ass."
"Maybe, maybe not." Naruto fingered his sword cautiously as the last of his clones threw themselves at the Quiraji leader and were brushed aside. "If he's controlling her, perhaps taking him down here will solve our problems and get us out of here at the same time."
"Sounds like wishful thinking," said Sasuke as he charged forward with his sword covered in spiritual-energy lightning. The avatar of Benkei noticed him charging with disinterest, not even recognising the young shinobi that his real form had killed before in the real world. His dark eyes stared at his sword for a moment before flicking his hands up and creating a barrier made of spiritual energy directly in front of him. The Uchiha's blade slammed into the front of the barrier directly, piercing through further than the Quiraji leader may have anticipated, but he wasn't able to break through completely.
But the distraction was long enough for Naruto to line-of-sight teleport to Benkei's side and move to stab him straight in the liver with his lightning blade. The Quiraji leader moved instantly backwards and slammed his elbow into the blonde shinobi's face before his strike could land. Naruto clenched at his face as he stumbled back, before grinning and disappearing into a cloud of grey smoke while the real Naruto appeared above him with his Kattoken activated and ready to strike at his exposed head.
At the same time, Sasuke broke through the spiritual energy barrier due to Benkei's distraction and the proper application of his own spiritual energy through his sword and positioned himself to slash at the Quiraji leader avatar's front.
Benkei had several options of dealing with the two young shinobi's combined attack, but he decided that the simplest way was to muscle his way out of the situation. Dropping a knee, he slammed one of his fists straight into the ground to send out a wave of physical energy to repulse everything around him. The wave sent the two shinobi flying away in different directions, while Benkei stood back up and clenched his fists slowly. He made no sound as they recovered their footing and regarded him cautiously from a distance.
"Got a plan in mind?" shouted Naruto from the other side of their enemy.
Sasuke stared at the avatar of Benkei for a moment with his Eternal Sharingan while his mind formulated a plan. He saw an increase in power in the Quiraji leader, more so than when he'd just fought him before entering the mindscape. It was likely that any potential weakness being revived had incurred on Benkei did not exist in this version of him. That would make things much more difficult, as they had been clearly overmatched at that time. Though he might not know some of the cleverer shinobi tactics they had used late in the war.
"How about the one we used to stop the Tailed Beast in Suna?" he called back.
Naruto tried to react properly to the suggestion and failed miserably. He gave Sasuke his best impression of every time the Uchiha would call him a moron, "Sasuke, we had half a village for that plan, plus Kakashi-sensei and a bunch of siege engines!"
"I'm not saying it'll be easy…" said Sasuke as their enemy turned his dark gaze to his and pulled back his fist to attack him. A wave of physical energy shot towards him at a frightening pace, but he could read the movements with his Sharingan and move the minimum distance to avoid the strike. He could feel the air pulsing with power near his face, strong enough to send a shiver down even his battle-hardened spine. "…but it's simple enough, is it not?"
Thumbing off his lightning sword and placing it back on his belt, Naruto sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, I suppose so." He leapt back nearly fifty metres and placed his hands into his old handseal, concentrating his chakra as densely as he could.
While Naruto prepared that part of the plan, Sasuke waved his sword defensively in front of himself while Benkei stepped forward to deal with him personally. The Quiraji leader took a few ominous steps before disappearing in a blur of movement. Without chakra in his body, Sasuke wasn't able to completely follow his movements with his Eternal Sharingan, but his battle instincts were still able to save him as the avatar of Benkei appeared directly in front of him and tried to squash his head between his large hands. The small shockwave of physical energy would have obliterated his head regardless of whatever defence Sasuke would have constructed, so instead the ex-Konoha shinobi ducked as far down as possible and moved forward into the Quiraji leader's body to slash across his lower body with his sword.
As his sword nearly touched Benkei's skin, the Quiraji leader moved around much faster than Sasuke would have expected and slammed his knee into the back of the Uchiha shinobi, sending him flying away.
The blow wasn't enough to break bones or do any serious damage to Sasuke, but it still hurt like hell and sent shockwaves of pain up his back as he spun around in the air and glared at the Quiraji leader with his red eyes. With a pulse of chakra to his eyes, he ignited Benkei's arms with the black flames of Amaterasu while placing his hands into a handseal and moulding large amounts of chakra through his arms.
The avatar of Benkei looked down at his burning arms, noting that even though it was a chakra-based attack it still burnt like regular flames. He took in a large breath and blew the black flames off his arms with a powerful blast of wind spiritual energy, brushing them off like they were simple dust mites. He looked up to see a pair of lightning bolts flying towards him from the shinobi he'd sent flying, forcing him to move the minimum distance so that they struck the ground behind him rather than him directly. He looked up with a slight frown, reaching out with one of his hands to try and grasp the last Uchiha with his extended physical energy technique and crush him between his fingers.
However, before he could complete his grip of the dark-haired shinobi, he felt two impacts on his back that disrupted his technique. There was a small cloud of smoke behind him that seemed to result from the impact strikes, but when he turned to see what had hit him he was blindsided by a flying projectile that slammed into the side of his face and sent him stumbling backwards.
Near the tree line of the jungle, a group of blonde-haired clones stood in a long line across the flank, preparing for the next wave of attacks. The original Naruto created a new clone and placed it at the edge of the line, nodding to the ones at the end for them to proceed. With flawless execution, the clones of Naruto held each other's feet with their hands as the final clone grabbed the newly created one by the hands and they began to swing around faster and faster like a sling. The original Naruto aimed it through careful timing as the line of clones released their shinobi missile straight at the stumbling Quiraji leader.
It was a smaller version of how they had defeated the rampaging Shukaku when Gaara had lost control during the Suna Chuunin Exams, but just as effective now as it was then. Benkei was able to dodge out of the way of the flying missile just in time, but two more quickly followed suit from similar formations nearby, flying towards the avatar of Benkei rapidly. With a fast supply of clones to provide him ammunition, Naruto pounded the Quiraji leader from all three sides. Most of his clones missed him despite their speed as Benkei moved expertly away from the flying missiles, but some of them were able to pierce through and clash into his body. They didn't do much damage, but they were enough to keep Benkei on his toes and keep his attention.
While dealing with the clone projectiles, Benkei was mostly blind to Sasuke's approach from the rear, with his sword covered in lightning and his movements enhanced by select parts of his Susanoo armour. He was moving faster than most eyes would be able to track and leapt around to slice straight through Benkei's neck with enough force to slice through a small mountain. After testing the Quiraji leader's defences earlier, Sasuke knew this strike would be enough to break through.
To his surprise, his strike succeeded in removing the avatar of Benkei's head from its shoulders with no movement to dodge or even acknowledge that he was being attacked. However, there was no spray of blood and gore like he was expecting; instead the head just fell to the ground with a single bounce before disappearing with a strange shimmer. The avatar of Benkei disappeared like he wasn't even on the battlefield in the first place, leaving the last Uchiha shinobi and the clusters of Naruto clones with confused looks on their faces.
Naruto glanced around the area for a few moments, trying to work out whether the Quiraji leader had just avoided the decapitating strike by moving away, or whether they had already been successful in removing him from the mindscape.
Sasuke was not at all convinced that they had won the day. He had felt some resistance from his blade to make it a reasonable attack, but it had been far too easy to defeat the Quiraji leader that had killed them so easily earlier. He kept a tight grip on his sword and scanned the area quickly with his Eternal Sharingan; waiting for the inevitable reappearance that he was sure was coming.
After a few seconds he heard the sounds of clones exploding behind him. He turned around to see the avatar of Benkei rampaging through the clones of Naruto that had been hurling themselves at him earlier. The original Naruto tried to create some distance as heavy blows from Benkei's fists tore apart his clones with ease, while Sasuke quickly covered the distance and moved to his side.
"So much for killing him," said Naruto dryly as he clenched his fist to activate his Kattoken. "I don't think this is the real Benkei."
"It's just an image, but I think we will have to defeat it to get out."
Naruto sighed as two of his clones were able to drive two kunai past the Quiraji leader's defences into his side, only for him to disappear and reappear within a few seconds to smash their heads between his hands. "He's probably drawing his power from Shikyo, which is why we won't be able to beat him. He has too much influence in the mindscape."
"What are you suggesting then?" Sasuke's Eternal Sharingan watched their enemy carefully, preparing to light him up with black flames the second the chance arose, but he was wary of wasting chakra on a pointless technique, even if it wasn't going to make him blind anymore.
"You said you found something inside the stone structure from before, right?"
Seeing what his old friend was getting at, Sasuke turned his red-eyed gaze temporarily back into the nearby jungle, seeing the far-away stone structures near where they had entered the mindscape. The trace of chakra was tiny, barely noticeable, but it was enough for them to go on for the moment. "I've got a location, yes. But we can't just leave him here. We might not find him again."
"Something tells me he'll find us again," said Naruto as he moved back to his old friend's side. "I can take us back to where we first arrived and then we can go look into that stone structure."
After finishing off the clones, the avatar of Benkei turned his attention to the two shinobi a short distance away and began running towards them with his fists ready to obliterate them once they were in range. The two younger fighters knew they weren't a match for him at this stage, but both of them were fighting against their own pride as they had an opportunity to end the battle once and for all but didn't have the strength for it.
With a heavy sigh, Sasuke sheathed his sword and nodded to Naruto, closing his eyes to try and avoid the swirling sensation as his old friend placed his hand on his arm and activated his Hiraishin back to one of the seals he had placed on the plateau they had arrived on. It had been instinctive for him to place seals at most of the important areas that he came across, but doing two Hiraishins in quick succession in addition to all the ones he had done before they had entered the mindscape ate at his stomach and threatened to make him ill as they appeared on the plateau once again far away from the avatar of the Quiraji leader.
Sasuke shrugged off Naruto's grip and stared at the stone structure in the distance, getting a better view of what they had to aim for in relation to where the chakra source was emanating from. From where he was standing, it looked like there was a trace of chakra near the top of the stone structure that led through a variety of passageways before reaching the main source. For a moment he wished he'd had a Byakugan so that he could get a view better than just a blue light amidst a dark background, but for what they needed, it would have to be enough. Naruto asked him if he knew where the entrance to the stone structure's interior was, but Sasuke was already leaping down into the jungle to reach it as quickly as possible.
Cursing his friend's lack of understanding about the toll that constant use of the Hiraishin did to his body, Naruto caught his breath once again and leapt in after his old friend. He only hoped that the avatar of Benkei didn't follow them as quickly as it fought, otherwise they might not survive a close-quarter battle with the superior foe.
To avoid being ambushed on their way back out, Naruto recalled all of the Kage Bunshin that had been spread throughout the jungle and hadn't been involved in the short skirmish to converge on the stone structure and move into a tight net of patrols and guard positions. If the avatar of Benkei made his way to the stone structure and took out any of the clones, Naruto would know instantly and they would need to be extra-cautious.
Upon arriving at the stone structure, it didn't take the two of them long to find, what they assumed was, the entrance. It was shaped like a block-based pyramid with columns and pillars keeping each section stable with scriptures and engravings that neither of them could understand.
But Naruto recognised the writing. It was similar enough to the small amount of writing he had seen during Hinata and his adventure in the Quiraji homeland for him to figure out that the stone structure in the mindscape was clearly based on an object that had once existed in the past, but had been long since destroyed. Hinata had once said that she'd seen very small amounts of similar writings in the shinobi continent from the times of the Quiraji Empire's occupation, but nowhere near enough to get an understanding of what it actually said.
By following the chakra traces with his Sharingan, Sasuke found a large round door near the top of the stone structure that looked like it served as either an entrance or a passageway inside. The door was covered in the Quiraji symbols and held four circular devices along the centre with different images that the two of them figured was some type of key combination that would require them working out the code from the writing around it.
Seeing as the doorway was at the top of the structure and they weren't sure how long it would take the avatar of Benkei to find them again, the two of them decided they weren't going to open the door that way. Naruto activated his Kattoken around his right arm and slammed it straight into the centre of the doorway, while Sasuke drew his sword and lit it on fire with his spiritual energy and cut a path around where Naruto had struck.
If they had used their combination strike against a doorway at the bottom level of the stone structure, there would have been little chance that the structure would have remained standing. Such as it was, their combined attack only blasted away the top level of the stone structure and sent it flying off into the distance to reveal a large open stone floor in front of them. Near the edge of the stone floor was a single staircase that spiralled downwards, no doubt leading deeper into the structure's interior.
The two ex-Konoha shinobi shared a knowing look for a moment before breaking out into a run to get down inside and reach their target as quickly as possible. As they began their descent, Naruto gave his partner a piece of information that quickened their descent.
Two of his outer-most clones had encountered and subsequently been defeated by the avatar of the Quiraji leader as it made its way towards their position. They didn't have much time. If there were any traps within the stone structure they would just have to power through them and get to their target as quickly as possible.
To their surprise, they didn't encounter any resistance as they sped through the various passageways and corridors within the large stone structure. There were a number of false trails and doorways that they encountered, but with proper scouting by Naruto's clones and the tracking of the chakra trail by Sasuke's Sharingan gave them enough foresight to move efficiently and directly to the bottom of the stone structure that led to their target.
After nearly ten minutes of frantic running, where Naruto kept the two of them informed of how the battle outside the stone structure they came to a stone doorway in the floor that looked to be the only entrance to the final chamber below them. Naruto's clones outside the stone structure were creating their own clones with the intention of holding back the avatar of Benkei from reaching into the stone structure to the two shinobi inside. The avatar of the Quiraji leader blasted apart groups of several clones with every blow, but they were keeping him at bay for the time being.
Naruto went to blast apart the door with his Kattoken, but Sasuke kept him back and ran through a quick set of handseals before creating a small blade of concentrated blue flames and began cutting his way through the stone floor. It was a slow process at first, but as Naruto got the information from his clones outside that indicated that the avatar of Benkei had finished his slaughter of them and was moving to entering the stone structure himself, Sasuke began to cut more frantically.
Just as he finished the job and the floor doorway fell down into the chamber below with a loud thud, the entire stone structure shook like it was at the epicentre of an earthquake. The two ex-Konoha shinobi stared at each other with wide eyes for a moment, both of them realising that the avatar of Benkei hadn't taken the roof entrance that they had.
He was bashing his way through from the middle entrance at the ground-level. If he didn't get through to them in time, he was going to bring down the entire stone structure down on their heads.
Sensing the urgency of the situation, Sasuke and Naruto dropped down into the lower chamber and were instantly surrounded by darkness. Using a small amount of chakra, Sasuke created a small flame in the centre of his palm and illuminated the chamber.
Unlike the previous areas within the stone structure, this chamber held no Quiraji writing or symbols whatsoever. The only object they could see within the chamber was a single figure chained to the furthest-away wall.
It was the image of Kaguya that the Kyuubi had shown Naruto prior to the battle. She stared at the newcomers through her pure white Byakugan, showing no emotion as they approached her cautiously. It was clear she was being kept as a prisoner, but now that they stood in her presence it was plainly obvious how much power she was giving off.
"This is our target?" asked Sasuke with a suspicious look on his face. "This isn't Shikyo, is it?"
"No, this is her. Remember what the Kyuubi said, she was taken over by the Quiraji and changed. This is probably the real Kaguya."
"So if we unchain her, we'll free Shikyo from Benkei's control? Seems simple enough."
The chained Kaguya's face shifted upon hearing that and her deep feminine voice filled the chamber in a compelling tone, "That will not work, children. I am not the true Kaguya."
Naruto and Sasuke both sighed at the same time, they were exhausted at how convoluted the situation was getting. While Sasuke maintained his flame torch and tried to keep his footing while the stone structure continued to shake at the avatar of Benkei striking at the structure directly. Naruto stepped forward and began to undo the chains binding the large female ancestor, while Kaguya explained the situation to her apparent saviours.
"When Benkei and the Quiraji captured me and took over my mind, they had to split my mind into two parts so that I didn't retaliate and break free. I've been trying to help my children against them by reviving them and keeping my own power contained, while fighting off their control. But your presence in here has disrupted that and I cannot fight against Benkei much longer."
"So if we free the different parts of you and then defeat the avatar inside this mindscape, we'll be able to keep him from reviving outside?" Sasuke was sceptical of the idea, but it wasn't as if they had any other information to go on.
Naruto finished undoing the binds and offered his arms for the mother of shinobi to help her down, but Kaguya dropped her arms and breathed out a long breath before looking over at the last Uchiha with both her Byakugan and the Sharingan in the centre of her forehead. "You are one of the direct descendants of my sons and the wielder of my doujutsu, correct?"
"Don't hold it against him," said Naruto with a smirk. "He can't help it."
Ignoring his old friend's comment, Sasuke stepped forward with his torch burning brightly as he looked at her face. He could see the mixture of experience and strength written all over her expression, but there was pain and suffering in her three eyes. She had suffered through centuries of her children killing each other and now was at the centre of the son of her first children trying to kill her other descendants.
"This is one more thing you must find within the mindscape. I am only one part of a whole and you will need to find my body before you can escape. Take my power and seal it in a scroll before the avatar comes in to reseal me."
"Where is this body of yours?" asked Naruto as Sasuke frowned and pulled out a scroll from his pack. He wasn't convinced by the plan, but that was primarily because the sheer amount of power she was emanating surely couldn't be contained in a single scroll.
While Sasuke prepared that, Kaguya turned her attention to the other shinobi that had helped her. She noticed that he was one of the descendants of her son from a different line, fighting at the side of the other boy like a brother. "I do not know its exact location, only that it resides in the desert area. You do not have much time before the avatar reaches you."
The stone structure shook once again and a loud crashing sound echoed around them. The walls began to crumble around them and it was obvious that they were only a few moments away from engaging the seemingly immortal avatar of the Quiraji leader. Sasuke showed their target the scroll he had in his pack and Kaguya smiled at him in a way he wouldn't have thought possible from a being so powerful. She reached up and placed her hand on the scroll, infusing her power within its contents and disappearing into thin air. Naruto nearly jumped at her disappearance, but only had a moment before the chamber was torn open to the outside and the avatar of Benkei stepped in with his fists covered in stone dust and ready to crush them into tiny pieces.
Sasuke immediately transferred his chakra from the small flame to a huge flamethrower that overwhelmed the Quiraji leader momentarily, while they got a grip on the situation. They didn't need words to communicate what they clearly needed to do, with Sasuke shoving the scroll Kaguya's power had transferred herself into his pocket and maintaining his flames while Naruto looked past the Quiraji leader's body to the outside jungle. The stone structure was clearly crumbling around them as large chunks of stone fell all around them, but the main danger came from the avatar of the Quiraji leader walking through Sasuke's flames towards them.
Hating that he had to look to Naruto to get them out of the bind once again, Sasuke gave his old friend the signal to teleport them out before cutting off his chakra flow to his flamethrower and stepping back to his side. He would normally fight back with all his strength, but they had to focus on the mission at hand. He was planning on coming back and beating the avatar of Benkei into oblivion, but something about Kaguya's reaction to their presence was very troubling to him.
Not wanting to use Hiraishin three times in short succession, Naruto warned Sasuke that this transition was not going to be pleasure before grabbing his arm and line-of-sight teleporting them directly into the air exposed by the avatar of Benkei's bashing into the bottom of the stone structure.
Sasuke's body struggled with the transition, but as they fell towards the ground he had more than enough strength to bite at his thumb and speed through a set of handseals before summoning a large hawk for the two of them to land on and catch their breath. It was strange that the summoning technique worked within the mindscape, but Sasuke wasn't going to complain as Naruto pointed in the direction of the far-away desert.
"That's where we need to go, according to Kaguya."
Sasuke directed the hawk to take them to the entrance of the desert, sensing that it was struggling to hold its form within the mindscape. It lasted just long enough to get them to the edge of the desert and allow them enough space to leap down onto the sandy ground. From their earlier aerial position they could see that the avatar of Benkei's entrance to the stone structure they had just been in had been enough to destroy it, showing them just how much power they were fighting against.
"Maybe we can use Kaguya's power to defeat the avatar of Benkei," suggested Naruto as he glanced back at the jungle area behind them. "We might not have a choice."
Feeling at his pocket, Sasuke shook his head and began walking into the desert, "I don't think it works that way. Come on, we have a lot of ground to cover."
"I suppose you're right," said Naruto with a sigh. He felt bad that they hadn't had more time to speak to Kaguya, as she clearly knew what was going on, but they had to take what they could get.
After escaping the stone structure, Naruto and Sasuke immediately set out towards the desert with the intention of ending their quest as soon as possible. To conserve energy Naruto held back from using his line-of-sight teleporting ability, but even at the reasonable pace they set out on it still took the better part of a day to get to the areas where the sand and the grasslands were no longer merged together into one environment. While travelling, the two of them discussed their hope that the battle outside was going to plan, though they doubted that time had passed outside in the same way it had inside. Anything that happened to their bodies while they were connected to Shikyo would happen to them in the mindscape, so if the real Benkei had defeated the others and attacked them, they would have noticed it by now.
Once they got to the desert proper however, things began to devolve from there.
Unlike before, when Sasuke was able to pinpoint Kaguya's source of power from the chakra she was subconsciously generating at the bottom of the stone structure, looking for her body in the desert was similar to looking for a needle in a giant sand pit. The sand stretched out as far as they could see and they had no point of reference except the information she had given them before they had sealed her power in the scroll that Sasuke now carried.
"She could be anywhere in here," said Naruto with a depressed look on his face. "Do we even have the supplies necessary to do this?"
Sasuke knelt down and picked up a handful of sand, feeling the course texture between his fingers for a few moments before letting it fall back to the ground. He smirked and turned to his old friend, "What is it you keep saying? Just like old times?"
Naruto blanched and kicked at the sand piles near his feet, "Don't remind me. I almost died in that stupid desert in Suna, no thanks to you."
The last Uchiha ignored his complaints and began running into the desert in front of them, keeping his Sharingan activated and scanning the area as much as he could. There wasn't even a trace of chakra to be found in the expansive wastelands but it gave him a wider spectrum of sight and that would hopefully help them stop an ambush from any potential enemy forces or even the avatar of Benkei that they both knew was tracking them even now.
oOoOoOo
After two days of wandering, even their monstrous stamina pools were beginning to circle the drain while their search produced nothing more than the knowledge that both Naruto and Sasuke really hated deserts. They had searched throughout the days and the nights, with the last Uchiha scanned the area with his Sharingan and Naruto splintering off clones to check certain areas that might contain what they were looking for.
They found nothing at a consistent pace. The desert seemed to stretch on without end, as even the jungle they had started in was nowhere to be seen. Eventually the two of them agreed that they had to take a few hours to rest and catch their breath. While they began looking for a place that was safe to stay in, the two tired shinobi saw an image of the avatar of Benkei off into the distance.
"Reckon that's a mirage?" asked Naruto as his hands slowly moved to the sword at his side.
Sasuke stared at the image with his Sharingan, unable to see anything except the large man walking towards them ominously. He hated the fact that he didn't want to engage the Quiraji leader at all, it felt cowardly and spineless, but neither of them was in a particularly good condition to fight the enemy that he doubted they could really defeat in the mindscape anyway. "I don't think we should wait to find out."
"You're probably right," said Naruto as one of his hands moved to his forehead. He'd had his clones searching for any area that could contain areas of interest, even though the process was particularly draining lately with the Kyuubi's influence, but even now there were nearly a hundred moving around in every direction. One of his clones had responded with a pulse of chakra before stabbing itself with a kunai to send the information it had seen directly to the original Naruto. "Hang on, I might have a place."
"Our target?" asked Sasuke as the image of the avatar of Benkei broke out into a run while still looking like a mirage, forcing the Uchiha shinobi to draw his sword and prepare himself to accept a charge.
Naruto shook his head as he processed the information he was being given, "No, it's too small. Looks to be a cave in the side of a tiny mountain without anything around it. Still in the desert, though."
"How far away?"
"Too far by foot," said Naruto as he stepped forward to place his hand on his old friend's shoulder. The last Uchiha had complained about the mode of transportation in the past, but as the image of Benkei came closer towards them he was forced to admit that, if nothing else, it was convenient to be able to move around so easily. This was the fifth time they had detected the avatar of Benkei following them, though at times they had been able to fight him off and flee, whereas other times they had put as much distance between them as they could afford.
They got the feeling they were getting closer, but there was no way to tell until they actually found the mother of shinobi's body. Naruto teleported himself and Sasuke through his father's technique to a seal the clone had left before killing itself to give him the information.
The two of them landed on the sand bed almost gracefully, far away from the avatar of Benkei tracking them. They looked up to see the small mountain the clone of Naruto had found, it looked like a large chunk of rock about the height of the old Hokage mountain with a small opening that appeared to lead into a small cave. The ex-Konoha shinobi looked around the area to ensure that they weren't being followed before the two of them ran towards the cave opening.
They were both exhausted and needed a few hours to catch their breath. If the way their time in the mindscape had gone was any indication, they could afford to spend a night recovering their strength.
Hopefully the avatar of Benkei would leave them alone for a night, so they could continue their search in the hope of ending the conflict.
oOoOoOo
Having sealed the entrance to the cave and ensured that they had enough air holes to breath from the top, Sasuke lit a fire with his ninjutsu and began patching up his accumulated wounds. On the other side of the cave, Naruto stripped off his shirt and began fanning it over the fire, enjoying the warmth over his bare chest.
"Do you have to do that right now?" asked Sasuke with no small hint of annoyance in his voice.
Naruto ignored him and placed his shirt on a nearby rock before sitting down beside the fire and putting his hands up against it. They'd been searching and fighting for so long in the mindscape he'd almost forgotten what it was like to just rest for a few moments and recuperate his thoughts. He reached over to his pack and rummaged around for a few seconds before producing a piece of fruit that he bit into hungrily.
"Hey, where did you get that?"
"I had a clone get me some," said Naruto with his mouth full. "Seemed like a good idea, since we've been here for ages."
Sasuke glared at his old friend menacingly, hating the fact that he had thought ahead and he hadn't. He could feel his stomach grumbling fiercely in protest to how he'd been treating it since they'd arrived, but his pride demanded that he didn't cave to temptation.
But that only lasted until Naruto produced a small mango from his pack and Sasuke didn't even contain the drool that fell from his mouth. With an amused chuckle, the blonde shinobi tossed it to his old friend, watching him catch it before revealed a look of complete defeat at giving in so easily.
"I…I don't need your pity fruit," started Sasuke, but nevertheless he bit into it and let its juices flow down his throat with a sigh of relief. It wasn't enough to completely satisfy him yet, but it was a good start.
"So what do you think is happening back outside?" asked Naruto after a few minutes of silence. The fire flickered between them ominously, threatening to reveal their position or rob them of their warmth at any moment by going out.
Sasuke shrugged as he leaned against one of the cave's walls, "Hard to say. We have no way of knowing how much time has passed out there. The battle could be over, for all we know."
"I don't believe that," said Naruto stubbornly. "Hinata and the others wouldn't die so easily."
"Kakashi did," shot back Sasuke with a dark look in his eyes.
That thought kept both of them quite for a long time, trying to work out why their old teacher had tried to sacrifice his own life for theirs, only to be cut down so brutally without time for them to process it. They had been so occupied with fighting Benkei that they'd not had the time to think about what they were doing, or what it would mean. But now that they were stuck in the mindscape until they were killed or they defeated their enemy, it was hard not to take their resting time to think about the others and what they'd been doing.
Eventually one of them had to break the ice, but to his own surprise Sasuke was the one to talk first. His relationship with Naruto had changed over the years and he still thought of him as a stupid ignorant moron that had delusions of importance, but when it came down to it he was one of the only people he could really talk to.
"So what's married life like?" he asked in a manner that he tried to convey his lack of interest in the topic, failing miserably.
Naruto glanced down to the ring on his finger for a moment, remembering the quick wedding they had gone through after the battle in the Quiraji continent. "It's…nice. Yeah, I think that's the best way of describing it. Nice."
The last Uchiha stared at him for a moment before snorting and shaking his head quickly, "Only you could say something like that. Absolutely idiotic."
"Why do you ask? Are you thinking about it?" He expected Sasuke to give him a sarcastic remark, perhaps call him a moron, but to his surprise he could see legitimate consideration in his friend's dark eyes. That was enough to make Naruto whistle an impressed tone, "This woman has some power if she can get you to think about this kind of stuff. I remember when you wouldn't give Sakura the time of day despite all her pestering."
"That…was different," said Sasuke quietly. "Fiore is…I dunno…"
"Do you love her?"
That was a question the last Uchiha should have been prepared for, but when Naruto asked he wasn't able to give an immediate answer. He had thought about it in the past, but hadn't come up with a conclusive response. "It's…complicated."
Naruto raised an eyebrow and leaned closer to the fire to get warmer, "Well it involves you, so I don't doubt that. Love isn't exactly something that is the easiest thing to admit."
"When did you first know with Hinata?" It felt very unlike him to ask that question, but given how much they had been fighting together within the mindscape and Naruto's unfortunate expertise in the area, he had to take the risk.
His blonde friend considered his question for a moment; it had been such a long time since he wasn't in love with his wife that it was difficult to remember when the transition had occurred. "If you're asking whether there was some big moment when I noticed, I guess there wasn't. I just…noticed."
"That's not helpful in the slightest," said a frustrated Sasuke with a sigh. "I'm not looking to marry Fiore or anything…but after this…I'm sure the topic of what we are doing next will come up. It's not as if there will be more rebellions for us to fight together."
Naruto watched his friend talk with fascination, it was so rare for Sasuke to talk about his feelings that he had to resist the urge to slap himself to see if he was awake or not. It didn't matter that they were both technically in a dream-like mindscape. Seeing that he had the chance to be helpful in an area that his friend was not particularly well-schooled in, Naruto began telling him the time when he first realised how important Hinata had become to him.
"There was a time during the six-month period when Kakashi-sensei and Itachi were doing their memory-technique thing. Hinata and I had been dating for a while; we hadn't done anything too drastic or anything at that stage since we were just kids really. One day after coming back from her work, Hinata sat down beside me on a couch and fell asleep on my lap without saying a word."
Despite himself, Sasuke smiled at the sentiment. He could recall a number of instances when Fiore had done the same thing, in fact one of the first times he had really looked at her as more than just a fighting partner had been when he'd first arrived at Cascading Flow and they'd fallen asleep on the same couch together.
"I won't bore you with the details," continued Naruto, "since you probably don't care. But there was a moment when I looked at her sleeping face and had a crystallising moment of realisation. She was that comfortable with me that she was able to completely open up and be that vulnerable in front of me…she valued me that much without even saying it. I didn't stand a chance; I knew that I loved her at that moment."
Sasuke considered what he said carefully. He knew that Naruto was more experienced in this area than he was, as difficult as that was to admit, and the scary thing was that he made a lot of sense. He had always felt comfortable with Fiore, even when they'd been at each other's throats. He knew he felt something for her, but he wasn't sure what it actually meant.
"Does that help at all?" asked Naruto when he saw that Sasuke had gotten quiet after he'd finished.
His old friend stared into the fire between them for a long time, trying to process everything in his mind. Eventually he decided that it would be something he would discuss with her once the battle was over and they had a few moments to themselves. He didn't doubt that they would be busy if they were to win the war, but after that he wasn't so sure.
He'd been fighting every moment since he could remember. It was strange to think of a time when that wouldn't be the case.
"We should try and get out of here as quickly as we can," said Sasuke eventually, feeling at the scroll that sat in his pocket. "Even if the battle outside isn't over yet, we can't linger here much longer."
Naruto nodded in agreement, pulling his shirt back over his front and placing his hands together to create a pair of Kage Bunshin behind him. "Let's get some rest and keep up our search tomorrow. I've got a good feeling about tomorrow."
Seeing that his old friend had created the clones to guard them while they slept, Sasuke found a comfortable part of the cave and wrapped himself up with his cloak, while Naruto did a similar thing on the other side of the cave. There was no way to tell whether the avatar of Benkei knew where they were or not, but they were still human and needed a break every once in a while. Naruto had observed that the image of the Quiraji leader had become more desperate over the past few days and that was both worrying and comforting.
They were getting closer to their final target.
Sasuke blasted out a wide torrent of flames into the area directly in front of him, while Naruto tried to figure out how to open the door behind them without bringing down the whole structure on their heads.
"Good feeling, huh?! That's the last time I listen to you and your stupid plans!"
Naruto smirked as he fiddled with the mechanical moving parts of the complex ancient door. "I'm amazed you remember that. That was days ago."
"Just get the damn door open," spat back Sasuke impatiently.
They'd lucked out in finding the entrance to the catacombs in the desert after two of his clones had fallen into a giant pit created from a large sand-dwelling creature, but after stepping inside the dusty tomb a massive door had slammed down behind them and a cluster of Quiraji warriors had appeared from within the walls to attack them. They were only projections of the Quiraji leader's mind within the mindscape and didn't seem fazed by the situation at all.
Whereas the two shinobi knew that they would need some form of escape route in case things went really wrong.
Naruto eventually threw up his hands and walked back to Sasuke's side, "I can't figure it out. We'll have to find another way out."
"Lovely," said Sasuke as he cancelled his fire technique and looked at the Quiraji warriors that had survived his attack move towards them once again. The fact that they hadn't suffocated when he'd used a fire technique meant that there had to be another source of oxygen somewhere nearby, which was good since it meant that they were still going to be able to breath.
"Can you teleport us out once we have our target?" asked Sasuke as he withdrew his sword and stepped towards the approaching foes.
Naruto shrugged as he pulled out the Second Hokage's sword and activated it with his thumb, "Probably. Seems like we're in the right place though. Benkei'll probably show up at the end to stop us."
"Won't that be lovely." The Quiraji soldiers in front of them looked to be similar to the Red Warriors they had faced earlier, though clearly less powerful than what they had become. They wielded blades and physical energy against them, but neither of the ex-Konoha shinobi were particularly concerned.
Working together in a flurry of quick movements, Naruto and Sasuke broke through their ranks with relative ease and took them down quickly. As they delivered the final blows the Quiraji soldiers disappeared like shimmers in the air, but unlike the avatar of Benkei they didn't appear to return immediately.
They weren't going to wait around to see if they did. Behind where they had been fighting the Quiraji soldiers was a long passageway that appeared to be darker than the chamber they had encountered the power of Kaguya in earlier. There was no trace of chakra this time for Sasuke's Sharingan to follow, but the fact that there was a structure here in the middle of the desert that had taken them the better half of a week to find was a good sign.
The Quiraji writings on the walls around them were quite encouraging as well.
Lighting up the area with his flames, Sasuke began moving down the passageway quickly, while Naruto took a moment to look at the symbols on the wall, noticing some similarities to the ones from the earlier stone structure. He didn't understand it, but something told him that there was something to be found there. He told Sasuke go on ahead of him, wanting to figure out the puzzle while he made his way down into the underground structure.
Even with his Sharingan active and moving as cautiously as he could, there were a number of traps that he encountered that he hadn't been expecting. As he moved through the passageways large spikes and projectiles emerged from the walls to attack him directly. From years of battle experience Sasuke was able to avoid the worst of the traps, though there were the occasional projectiles that glanced his sides and tore at his clothing.
Sasuke had to resist the urge to light the entire structure on fire in frustration at the seemingly random nature of the traps. After the third spike trap scratched at the side of his face, he decided he wasn't going to risk going through his way. Putting his hands together he created a pair of Kage Bunshin and sent them ahead of himself. Having worked out the trick for himself over the years, Sasuke condensed enough chakra within the clones to avoid them disappearing after a single strike and sent them out ahead to spring any traps that might lie between him and wherever the passageway led to.
After a few minutes he was joined by Naruto, who asked why he had stopped all of a sudden. Sasuke gave him the short version and asked whether he had discovered anything useful on the walls.
"Nah, couldn't understand any of it. I think this is from when the Quiraji occupied our homeland though, judging from the look of the writings."
Sasuke waited a few moments before receiving the information about his clones deep into the structure. "There is a pair of chambers about two minutes down a path, both of which are blocked by large groups of Quiraji soldiers. She could be in either chamber."
"So we'll split up then," said Naruto, walking forward and immediately triggering a spike trap that spat a pair of long spikes directly at his face. He moved his head just in time and stared at the wall where they had buried themselves several inches in the stone. "This place is pretty crazy."
"Come on, Naruto. After seeing my clones, there is a chance those soldiers will have told the avatar of Benkei that we are here. I'm sure he's already on his way."
His blonde friend nodded grimly and the two of them moved down the passageway quickly, avoiding the traps that the clones didn't spring. There didn't appear to be any swirling areas to try and throw them off, which made them wonder if they were in the right place or not, but as they came to the split path they decided to go their separate ways with the intention of seeing which area was the more important one for them to proceed down.
Confronted by a cluster of ten Quiraji soldiers standing in front of a large stone door, Naruto decided that he wasn't about to let them slow down their progress, particularly in the knowledge that their target might be behind that door. Instead of attacking with his Kattoken as he would normally, Naruto flicked a pair of kunai at either side of the Quiraji soldier group before they got the chance to attack him. He clapped his hands together in a handseal before drawing his sword and striking it down to the ground in front of him. The Quiraji soldiers moved to charge towards him, but Naruto connected his chakra to the hilt of the Second Hokage's sword and extended it outwards into long lightning tendrils that lashed out at them with loud cracking noises. The passageway lit up as they tried valiantly to fight against his lightning technique, but with his kunai acting as redirecting nodes and Naruto controlling it directly, they only lasted just over ten seconds before each of them fell to the ground, having burnt up in their skins and disappeared like the soldiers before.
Picking up his sword and retrieving his spare kunai, Naruto stabbed his lightning sword into the door and began cutting. The energy-output of the sword struggled against the movements as it wasn't what it was designed to do, but Naruto had learnt how to feed chakra to the blade to ensure that it stayed sharp and continued its job.
In the other passageway, Sasuke saw no need to expend more chakra than he was required to. He ignited the closest Quiraji soldier with his spiritual energy flame so that the passageway was full of light for him to fight and activated his Eternal Sharingan before disappearing in a flash of movement. While the avatar of Benkei was extremely powerful and able to counter such movements, the Quiraji soldiers that existed within the mindscape were almost pathetically simple to take down and Sasuke barely even broke a sweat moving between them with his sword and cutting them in seconds. He stared at the door for a moment while stepping over the bodies, noticing a resemblance between it and the one that had closed down behind them when they'd first entered the underground structure. It likely had a similar combination lock that he simply didn't have time to figure out.
But luckily, he wouldn't have to. His red eyes noticed a small hole on the corner of the doorway, likely made by a small rodent or something similar. It wasn't something he was particularly looking forward to, but Sasuke ignored his pride momentarily and placed his hands together to transform into a small mouse. He scurried through the hole quickly into the chamber beyond.
Twenty minutes later, the two ex-Konoha shinobi reconnected in an adjoining corridor as the two chambers were connected by a split path the same as the one they had entered in. Naruto had several large cuts along his arms and was breathing heavily with a trickle of blood in his blonde hair, while Sasuke had one of his eyes closed and a heavy set of bruises along his face with one of his arms hanging at his side.
"Want to talk about it?" asked Naruto through long breaths.
"Not even a little bit," said Sasuke back, spitting a small pool of blood onto the stony ground near his feet.
The two of them continued to walk down the passageway, both hoping that they were close to the end as they had been forced to expend a large amount of energy in dealing with their mutual chambers. The passageway had slowly become lit by glowing yellow stones along the ceiling, revealing more of the Quiraji writings and giving them a better indication that they were in the right area. After a few minutes of walking they came to large doorway that, unlike the previous ones, was not blocked at all.
Inside the doorway was a massive chamber that easily dwarfed the others that they had passed through earlier, but it contained a large number of objects and architecture that were clearly Quiraji in origin.
But neither of them cared about the other contents of the chamber. They stepped inside and prepared themselves for battle as they saw the avatar of Benkei standing in the centre of the chamber with his hands crossed over his chest. Directly behind the avatar of the Quiraji leader was Kaguya, kneeling on the ground with her hands chained to the floor on either side of her body. Despite her state, the mother of shinobi gave the intruders a warm smile and watched them carefully with her Byakugan and Sharingan eyes. She could clearly tell they had succeeded in retrieving the power that had been contained in the other area of the mindscape and was hopeful they would be able to release her.
"That'd be right," said Naruto with a despondent look on his face. "It was never going to be that easy."
Staring at his ancestor's Sharingan eye in the centre of her forehead, Sasuke thought he could feel her trying to send him a message as the avatar of Benkei uncrossed his arms and began walking towards them with physical energy emanating from his fists. Following the micro-movements in her eyes, Sasuke was able to determine what she was trying to tell him and reached into his pocket to produce the scroll that the previous incarnation of Kaguya had sealed herself into.
The avatar of Benkei noticed the scroll with his first demonstration of emotion since they had entered the mindscape. His dark eyes widened upon seeing it and he shot forward to reach out and try and grab it with one of his large hands.
Sasuke dived out of the way and grimaced as he landed on his bad arm, but still rolled away back onto his feet as Benkei turned to face him, reaching out with his physical energy to grip Sasuke with his extended invisible hand.
However, before the avatar of Benkei could crush his within his grip and retrieve the scroll, Naruto teleported in front of him and slammed the heel of his foot into his temple, sending him crashing into a nearby wall. Naruto landed down on the ground with his hands up ready to fight off their attacker, "Go release Shikyo, I'll hold him off."
"I don't need…your help," groaned Sasuke, but Naruto had already ignored him and was charging towards the avatar of Benkei with his fists raised and clones appearing at his sides as a distraction. Sighing heavily, Sasuke let Naruto handle their enemy for a few moments as he turned and made his way to the captive Kaguya near the back wall. As he approached her he used the Eternal Sharingan that was still open to set the chains on fire with the black flames of Amaterasu. They only lasted a few seconds before her hands were free and Sasuke was leaning down in front of her to offer her a hand up.
"You are a welcome sight, my child," said Kaguya as she slowly stood up and stretched out her arms sorely. "It has been many centuries that I have been captive here."
"Yes and I'm sure it has been terrible, but we're in a bit of a rush," said Sasuke as he turned around to see Naruto being hurled around the room like a ragdoll. "Can you help us get out of this place?"
The body of Kaguya stepped up behind him and placed an affectionate hand on his shoulder; speaking an entire conversation with the touch along as her other hand reached over and plucked the scroll from his hand.
The moment her long fingers undid the seal and opened it up the entire room appeared to freeze as she underwent a rapid transformation. Her stature grew instantly to tower over the two of them and her long red hair extended down past her feet while two long horns emerged on her forehead. For a moment she adopted a terrifying visage as her three eyes glared at the avatar of Benkei hatefully.
In those seconds that she recovered her power and became complete again, the avatar of Benkei gave off an expression of fear while his previous opponent picked himself up from the ground with a loud groan. Both he and Sasuke watched as Kaguya stepped forward and grasped the avatar of Benkei with her hand before crushing his throat and obliterating him into tiny specks of dust, leaving little evidence that he'd ever existed.
With that done, their fight was over for the time being. Kaguya's face returned to its serene state and she turned her attention to the two shinobi that had been instrumental in freeing her from the Quiraji's grasp. She smiled widely and opened her arms up in a receiving manner, "The two of you have done well in rescuing me."
"Doesn't look like you needed much help to me," said a grinning Naruto as he struggled to walk to his old friend's side. "You handled him like he was nothing."
"It was only affection for my children that allowed the Quiraji to imprison me in the first place," clarified Kaguya with a twinge of regret in her voice. "Now the power they held over me is no more and I am finished."
"So that means Benkei won't be able to revive again outside, correct?"
The mother of shinobi nodded to her Uchiha descendent before taking a long breath and retracting the power she had been giving off so that she was only a mildly suffocating presence instead of an overwhelming one. "You have to finish it now."
Naruto went to ask her what she meant, but the look on Sasuke's face beside him told him that his original suspicion was correct. "You can't mean…"
"It's not your body anymore, is it?" asked Sasuke with a knowing look. The visual difference between the Quiraji leader Shikyo and Kaguya was obvious, but so were the similarities and that spoke volumes as to what they would have to do.
"I need the release of death, so that I can return to what I was doing before the Quiraji captured me."
The two ex-Konoha shinobi looked at each other again for a few seconds, unsure whether they would be able to do what she was asking them to do. They had spent all this time coming here to rescue her and had done exactly that, but now that they were here they didn't want to destroy the woman that had clearly overpowered the avatar of the Quiraji leader with such little effort.
But they both agreed that such power wasn't going to translate to the outside, and that was where the real Benkei was. If they left her alone they might never leave the mindscape, since the Kyuubi still hadn't recovered from their entrance in, and there was a chance that Benkei could enter and dominate her once again. There wasn't going to be a second chance.
Hating what they were forced to do, Naruto and Sasuke drew their swords and stepped towards their ancestor with steely expressions on their faces. As they approached her, Kaguya was struck by the similarities between the two of them and her youngest sons, who had fought and died against the Quiraji in ages past.
Stepping towards the young shinobi, the tall mother of shinobi reached her long arms out and took the two of them in a loving embrace, placing her face between the tops of their heads and kissing them affectionately.
"Thank you, my children. You are the greatest gift a mother could ask for."
With heavy hearts, the two ex-Konoha drove their respective blades into her chest and gave Kaguya the release she yearned for. As they did so the mindscape began to collapse in on itself, the underground structure disappearing in a shimmer to reveal the desert above before that began to disappear as well. Naruto and Sasuke shared a final look as they sheathed their swords, waiting for the mindscape to be destroyed and to send them back to the battle outside. If the fatigue they felt now translated outside though, they wouldn't be much more use.
Hopefully what they had accomplished would be enough.
Author's Note:
Yeah, this chapter got pretty long. I wanted to do a lot of different things here at once and it got a little bit out of hand, but I hope it was enjoyable. Just a note though, the battle isn't over yet.
I'm currently writing the Writing Tips and Tricks chapter to come after the final chapter of the story in a few chapters. If you guys have anything you would like to know about or read about, feel free to leave a review and I'll see if I can put it in.
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.