Quietus

by Seraphina Scribes

When first he laid eyes upon her, he thought her the very personification of spring. He watches, from the depths of shadow; waiting to steal her away from the land of the living. Waiting to make her Queen of the Dead. Hades/Persephone retold. SasuSaku/AU.

79. Chapter 78

Thank you to everyone who waited patiently for the next chapter. I hope you'll find this was worth the wait. Consider it a two in one update due to the length and content.

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Chapter LXXVIII

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A sacrifice made at a most heinous cost,
Upon the summit of a mountain lost,
Giving way to a most tumultuous grief,
From which there can be no relief.
As apparent, made, are the victims of war,
Dissolving shrouds of doubt that lingered before.

---

Orochimaru gripped onto the railings of the raised steel platform, proudly overlooking his formidable army below. Hundreds of rows of the tall, strongly-built creatures he had engineered known as White Zetsu, were lined up before him, standing at focused attention, ready for deployment at last.

Using the contents of the phial that Sasuke had traded had yielded impressively sturdy beings that possessed shaggy, short green hair, glowing golden eyes and thorned, plant-like appendages growing on their sickly white bodies. They were broad shouldered and though the top halves of their torsos more closely resembled male humans in build, in reality they possessed no true gender.

Orochimaru had designed them to be ruthless, and his trusted scientists, led by the genius Kabuto, had modified their genetic makeup until they had achieved the desired, perfected results. The Zetsu were stealthy, able to hide and melt into puddles of oozing white liquid courtesy of their unique cellular DNA, and to swiftly traverse great distances underground due to the nature of their earth elemental chakra. They had the added ability of creating spores and clones of themselves that were capable of attaching onto people, hindering movement and leeching off inner chakra networks to multiply and boost their own. They did not hunger. They did not tire. And, most importantly of all, they answered only to Orochimaru.

Beside him stood his faithful servant Kabuto, completely altered beyond human form. His loyalty and will were entirely Orochimaru's, but the Daemon of Fear viewed the doctor as more than a simple, mindless puppet. No, Kabuto was nothing like his other subjects. He was his true and highly trusted apprentice. A prime example of how mere mortals could be tweaked and perfected to achieve higher states of existence.

As he gazed at his soldiers, Orochimaru contemplated how far he had come along his research since the ancient days of old. His experiments had first begun out of harmless curiosity. Long before he became fixated on achieving the ultimate physical vessel, Orochimaru had been a young student of alchemy who'd possessed an intense interest in studying that which was already deceased. He had been a former acquaintance of Jiraiya's long ago; the two had met in an ancient village and struck up the most unlikely of tentative friendships.

Back then, Orochimaru had been focused on his science, studying the concept of regeneration, collecting knowledge and trading unusual ingredients along his travels. His very presence, however, had always been met with terror wherever he wondered, an outcast amongst everyone around him by virtue of his function as Deimos. He learned that his natural appearance caused others alarm, and so he had begun adopting disguises, seeking to blend in better whenever it suited him to do so.

Jiraiya had been the first person to fully accept him, the first deity to look upon him with neither fear nor disgust. It had been Jiraiya who had invited him back to Olympus, offering him its extensive resources and wealth of knowledge in exchange for his servitude to its King and Queen. He had no doubt recognised the daemon's cunning mind and abilities and anticipated that in the wrong hands, Orochimaru's gifts could cause the world great harm.

Orochimaru had agreed to accompany him, curious to know the science of those who resided in the sky. Zeus had taken a keen interest in his work initially, placing him under the apprenticeship of a learned and trusted alchemist who had taken Orochimaru under his wing. His test subjects were predominantly white snakes, created from modified droplets of the gorgon Medusa's blood.

The snakes had enchanted Orochimaru from the moment he had first set his eyes on them. Something about the mesmerising way they shed skin and were reborn anew turned the gears in his head. Darker thoughts and morbid fascinations began to brew in his intelligent mind as he hungrily took to the palace archives to acquire further knowledge. His interest in regeneration eventually evolved into researching whether it was possible to transfer remnants of one's own consciousness and chakra into other physical shells in order to possess and change forms. When he suggested this to Minato, the young King dubiously questioned his motives. What reason did an immortal have, wishing to inhabit other bodies? He did not understand Orochimaru's ideas, his innate need to push the boundaries of his own abilities, to defy the laws of nature themselves. He did not see eye to eye with them.

He'd mollycoddled mortals too much, his priority always to ensure their welfare and well-being on the surface. Zeus, for all his remarkable intelligence and wisdom, had still been so young to the world, had not yet accepted that humans could never achieve true peace as Orochimaru did. Their natures were too innately violent. Too selfish and greedy. Many deserved to be tortured, to die. Many deserved the terror that Orochimaru cast upon them, and yet, still the noble Minato refused to authorise human test subjects, insisting that a human's punishment was strictly tied to their fate in the Underworld and the afterlife.

And so, strict rules were enforced upon him, restricting his practice to snakes, and he was kept under close sentry at all times within the palace alchemy rooms following his meeting with Zeus. Orochimaru pretended not to notice the eyes watching him - but he was aware of them all and soon grew to resent the meddling, the lack of freedom to study what he wished, leading up to his decision to abandon Olympus altogether. He betrayed his mentor and stole away rare palace ingredients for his own selfish purposes - but not before Minato himself had almost caught him. Orochimaru had lost a hand and many of the ingredients he had bundled from the scuffle that had ensued, and had been lucky not to lose much more before making his hasty escape by utilising a forbidden teleportation jutsu he had secretly perfected and kept hidden from the Olympians. One that allowed him to change form into that of the very snakes he so admired and to evade what otherwise would have surely been eternal confinement.

His escape had whisked him back to the surface world below and he had hastily taken refuge, determined to evade capture. He started to dabble further into the forbidden arts, burrowing himself away beneath the ground where the Thunder God's retribution could not reach him, intent to regenerate his severed limb. He gradually fell deeper into madness, and began to abduct live human victims, beginning with the frail first, or those he knew would not be missed, before he no longer discriminated, attempting to manipulate their free will, experimenting with shifting his consciousness into their bodies to possess their minds. He found that the more humans feared him, the more they listened to his whispers and the stronger his powers and influence over them grew.

Minato regularly sent out royal scouts for his capture, outlawing the kidnapping and mutilation of mortals and calling for his execution, but Orochimaru outsmarted them all, possessing other forms to remain hidden out of sight. Jiraiya, betrayed by Orochimaru's defection and holding himself partly accountable for being the one who had led him to Olympus - managed to use Sage mode to track him down, attempting to reason with him, but found his old friend too far gone, too consumed by his obsession to achieve the ultimate physical vessel. Any attempts Jiraiya had made to capture Orochimaru and deliver him to Zeus had proven futile. He had simply grown too clever, too crafty, able to disperse in body at a moment's notice.

Unlike Zeus, Cronus had approved of his work. His attention had first been drawn to him following Orochimaru's attempt at stealing the young Hades away, the event and its outcome dutifully reported to the Titan god by Hypnos and Thanatos of the Uchiha. Unlike the Olympians, it had not taken Cronus long to locate the serpent whose hideouts were nestled between the surface and the Underworld. Initially he had intended to smite Orochimaru for his insolence in daring to steal away one of his own progeny and the youngest of his clan - only for his Sharingan to read the serpent's nature and recognise in him a potential use. In exchange for sparing his life, he secured Orochimaru's service, offering him access to the shadow arts and forbidden resurrection, the kinds of unnatural, horrific techniques unused and outlawed by the Olympians.

The resurrected mythical monsters were just one example of the leaps and bounds he had made in his research thanks to the knowledge afforded to him by the Uchiha patriarch. And now, the latest creations, his Zetsu, were primed for battle also.

In truth, Orochimaru did not care for the balance of life and death. He did not care for Madara's war on the surface deities, or who ruled the throne of Olympus. He cared only for his own selfish schemes and designs, and throughout time, had benefited from his service to the Uchiha Lord. Their plans aligned - for now. Madara wished to acquire Sasuke's Rinnegan once it was awakened - but Orochimaru wished to possess his body entirely. Surely the ultimate vessel was to be found in the mighty King of the Underworld with all his gifts. After all, he had acquired all of his clan's abilities - even death, over which his elder brother had previously governed.

To control the devastation of death itself! To have that boon at his very fingertips! Orochimaru relished the thought, the endless possibilities it would afford his research, and could not wait for the day when the curse seal consumed Sasuke entirely.

"Are they not magnificent?" he smiled in smug satisfaction, his eyes roaming over his prized creations.

"A sure sign of your excellence, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto replied politely.

"And your tireless hard work." Orochimaru assured him.

"You are too kind, my Lord," Kabuto answered humbly.

"They are ready, Kabuto," Orochimaru informed him. "A waste it would be, to keep them cooped up inside here... do you not agree? Kukukuku."

Kabuto met his golden gaze with his strange own, and smiled deeply in return.

---

"It's f-freezing, -ttebayo," Naruto mumbled, rubbing his hands together vigorously as they followed after Kakashi, who led the way forward, his flashlight illuminating the dark path ahead.

"Well," Kakashi sighed quietly. "We are inside a mountain."

"You're the sun god," Sakura muttered. "How can you even get cold?"

Naruto tossed an indignant glance back at her. "Hey, it's not like I walk around on fire, Sakura-chan. I just make sure the sun rises and sets every day."

He made it sound so casual, like it was no huge feat, rather than the remarkable act of life it truly was. Sakura released a short, amused chuckle and trudged after her friend, her boots crunching down on hard gravel. They had gone through the opening after escaping the gruesome spider nest and found themselves in a huge area littered with boulders and rocks that seemed to stretch on forever. The air was cold, damp and it was far too disconcertingly quiet. Sakura kept shining her torch up, expecting to find something horrific hanging on the shadow-concealed walls. But it seemed that they were truly alone, and so they continued to venture onward, once more with no clear direction of where they were headed.

She could sense Sasuke walking two foot-steps close behind her. Her thoughts were overrun by his unexpected decision to assist Naruto. Inside her chest, her heart skipped a beat. Had her words truly reached him at last? Did she dare to hope that they were finally going to be on the same page? She was under no illusion that he still despised Naruto and Kakashi, but this was surely a start to improving relations. Wasn't it?

Or was she simply being prematurely, foolishly, naively hopeful? She wanted, so desperately, to lay down the weapons they wielded around one another, to call a truce for everyone's sakes. Sakura was tired of the animosity and ill-feeling. They needed to move forward. Surely Sasuke understood and appreciated that now, knowing that this was her final life, that there would be no more cycles of rebirth for her after this? Sure that was why he had helped Naruto.

She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes briefly. Do it, she urged herself. Just try it. What have you got to lose?

'Sasuke...?' She began hesitantly, attempting to communicate with him telepathically.

Silence met her mind, but she could feel, somehow, his eyes burning intently into the back of her head, that his attention was fixed entirely on her.

'I…' she began carefully. 'I just wanted to say thank you. For helping Naruto back there.'

He offered her no reply. She supposed she hadn't expected one. Sasuke couldn't exactly be ecstatic about offering his aid to the very deity he clearly detested the most out of them all.

'It means a lot to me.' She finished, telling herself that perhaps, if she was more open and transparent with her emotions, he would eventually follow suit, or at the very least read that she was being sincere. That was the advice Ino had given to her in her last text messages when Sakura had despaired to her that nothing she was trying was working to break Sasuke's barriers down.

She waited, with baited breath, disappointment trickling within her at the extended silence in her mind. Just when she thought that he would offer no answer at all, she heard a brief, echoing, 'Hn.' It was dismissive. Displeased. But a response all the same.

Sakura's face brightened, and a strange excitement bubbled within her. She was astonished at how one simple non-word could elevate her mood. But it wasn't the word itself, she knew. It was the fact that he was allowing her to know that he had heard her. That he was permitting the telepathic communication and not shutting her out. It lended her further hope that slowly, surely, they could finally move forward and work toward the same goals.

They continued onward, where the path eventually began to narrow, leading them between gigantic walls of rock. They followed it through and stepped out into a large, cavern-like structure. The walls and floor were covered with a thick layer of frost. As Sakura exhaled, she saw her breath condense before her eyes, the air temperature plunging further around them. She then caught sight of glistening, crystallised webs hanging high above them. They were covered in a thin sheen of ice, delicate and beautiful in form, nothing like the sticky, thick cobwebs they'd battled to escape from earlier.

Her heart lurched. Did more of the gigantic, terrifying arachnids dwell here?

"No way!" Naruto whispered, echoing her thoughts as he noticed the webs in turn. "Not more of those freaky spiders?!"

Kakashi lifted a hand, signalling for silence and they all drew to a cautious halt. His gaze carefully inspected the intricacy of the webs, noting them to be different to the ones they had encountered after falling into the mountain. Whatever had woven these was a master spinner. His eyes narrowed. There was only one known creature capable of spinning such designs; a woman who had been punished for insulting the gods themselves.

"Arachne," he murmured. "This must be her lair."

"Who?" Sakura inched closer to their mentor, straining to hear his words - but any further talk was interrupted by a loud rustling sound. Team Seven immediately adopted a circular formation, turning their backs toward each other as they waited for the creature to manifest. Sakura nervously noted that there were no other openings in the cavern other than the one they had entered through. Was there a hidden exit, or were they about to waste their time and chakra in a confrontation that it was wisest to flee from?

Her eyes lifted to the roof of the cavern, widening when she glimpsed something scurrying rapidly across the walls. A moment later it had leapt into the air, descending right on top of them. They scattered apart, slipping on ice in their haste as the monster landed on the ground, sending powerful vibrations through the floor. Sakura scrambled back up to her feet and her lips parted in muted shock.

A humongous grey-black hued spider with eight slender, long legs, the tips of which possessed sharp, curved, claw-like appendages, stared down at them. Except it looked nothing like the arachnids they had escaped from before. In place of where its head ought to have been, was the human-like torso of a slender, grey-skinned woman, fused horrifically to the spider's abdomen. The tips of her fingers were blackened and clawed, and her face was twisted with rage. Her lips and eyeballs were entirely black. Instead of human teeth were sharp chelicerae and she possessed two extra pairs of beady eyes on her forehead. Her impossibly long hair was dark as shadows, cascading all around her, concealing her breasts from view. She exhaled frost and when she flexed her fingertips, fine threads of icy-silk materialised at her command.

"Arachne," Kakashi informed them. As he had suspected. "She was a mortal woman once, too arrogant and confident in her abilities as a weaver. She was punished and transformed for taunting and mocking the gods, believing herself to be most superior in her craft."

"She was turned into... that?" Sakura got out, gaping at the spider-woman in appalled disbelief, pitying the harshness of her fate despite her innate horror. "Just because she boasted...?"

"The immortals punish and show mercy as they see fit," Kakashi responded. "In any case, this isn't the time to question the morality of it; Arachne's venom is poisonous and any puncture-wound from those claws is bad news. I know little else of her abilities, other than that they appear to be ice-based in nature - don't get caught in her webs!"

"Alright!" Naruto punched a fist against his palm. "Let's burn spider lady down!"

"Sasuke," Kakashi glanced at the stoic death deity. "Can you cloak us? If we have the element of surprise, then we can end this battle sooner."

Sasuke blinked and wordlessly lifted a palm. Naruto exhaled in fascination when he felt cold, rippling shadows enveloping his body, hiding him completely from sight. His heart leapt with hope. Sasuke, who had refused them the protection of his element before, was now actively cooperating with them.

Arachne released an inhuman hiss in frustration and felt the air using the fine hairs on her legs, seeking to locate her prey using her other senses. Listening intently, she then lifted her palms, splaying them outwards. Threads of slicing, frosty-silk flew outward, seeking to ensnare Team Seven in a deadly web.

Sasuke immediately lifted a hand and directed a deterring, fiery blast of Katon at the spider. She evaded, alarmingly supple and quick in her movements despite her size, shooting out threads to carry herself onto the walls of the cavern. Shrieking with rage, she then leapt back onto the ground and slammed the tips of her arachnid legs down, emitting a disturbing cry. She continued to scrape her claws against the frosty ground, causing Team Seven to pause, uncertain as to what her motives were - when they felt a sudden, powerful vibration beneath their feet.

Sasuke glanced down, his eyes widening when he realised - a split-second before it happened - that something was burrowing rapidly upwards toward the surface. He immediately dove to his right, arms closing around Sakura, throwing them both out of the line of immediate danger just as the floor abruptly exploded, sending great chunks of icy rubble raining everywhere. Sasuke channelled Susano'o, directing the shield above all their heads, absorbing the impact of the massive clumps of rock before it dissipated at his command.

Out of the yawning opening in the ground came a pair of enormous, crushing, dark-blue pincers. Sakura froze as a gargantuan sized, steel-blue hued crab climbed out of the chasm. Its hard shell and mighty legs glistened with spiked ridges of thick, solid ice, and everywhere it stepped turned to a thick layer of frost.

Sakura gulped. Its eyes glowed a fierce silver and its every heavy movement caused the ground to quake beneath their feet.

"What the hell?!" Naruto exclaimed, cringing in distaste. "The hell is that thing, dattebayo!?"

"Not good!" Kakashi acknowledged. "That's a Karkinos crab. If it catches any of us in those pincers, we're done for! It can also use ice-mist to give away our location-"

Sure enough, the crab instantly emitted a spray of delicate mist that covered the entire cavern with a frosty dew. Sasuke scowled, watching as the fine particles stuck briefly onto the moving shadows cloaking them before dissolving, and saw the way Arachne's keen eyes immediately picked up on their general location. These foes were clearly intelligent.

Sakura directed a blast of flame chakra at the crab. It lifted its pincers to form a protective barrier against the fire that assaulted it. To Sakura's astonishment, the flames quickly sizzled out, as if doused by the intensity of the cold mist that hovered around the crab's body.

"Of course, it has water abilities, too!" Kakashi realised. "Try lightning and earth elements!"

The gigantic crab sprayed out more mist to betray their locations and immediately scurried toward them. Arachne leapt onto its back, her legs weaving icy strings that flew out in their direction. Sakura shivered against the iciness in the air. They had no way of escaping the fine particles that settled over the swirling pulses of shadow around them, betraying them for mini-seconds at a time before the dark element devoured them. So long as the crab continued spewing its mist, their cloaked advantage was significantly nullified.

'They can see us?!' Naruto asked telepathically.

'Not clearly, only when the mist initially connects with the shadows.' Kakashi replied.

'They will occupy the crab,' Sasuke's voice pointed out.

'Yes, it'll slow down their attacks and keep Karkinos focused on revealing our location. Everyone, aim for Arachne first! Her venom is more dangerous!' Kakashi agreed.

'You got it!' Naruto affirmed.

Switching strategies, Team Seven regrouped as Arachne once again directed bursts of threads at them. Naruto tossed spinning shuriken at the silk strings, slicing them apart before they could reach him, and then grabbed his twin blades, charging straight toward the female arachnid.

"Karkinos's underbelly is its weakness!" Kakashi shouted, ducking low to avoid Arachne's webs.

Karkinos slammed its legs onto the ground, and Sakura's breath caught in her throat as a cluster of smaller crabs began to scuttle out of the huge hole. They were tiny in comparison to the huge Karkinos - but still larger than any life-sized crab she had ever seen. Like their parent-crab, they spewed mist that allowed them to view shimmering, otherwise invisible silhouettes for a few brief seconds, just long enough to pin-point a general location before attacking. Unsheathing her sword, Sakura stabbed at one, cringing when her blade clanked against an impenetrable shell. She channelled lightning and aimed it at the shell instead, hearing a satisfying crack that sent one of the smaller crustaceans flying onto its back.

There was a blur of movement and Sasuke alighted atop it, stabbing Kusanagi down ruthlessly into its belly before leaping off. Sakura caught his gaze and nodded, then turned her attack to the other smaller crabs, hitting them with electrical bolts that stunned them, before Sasuke and Naruto closed in to finish them off, working in tandem seamlessly.

Kakashi directed chidori streams at the king crab, but they barely succeeded in grazing its armour. Sakura lifted her hand to assist - only to cry out when a frosty thread suddenly wrapped around Kakashi's ankle, hauling him forward. Arachne had finally managed to strike with frightening accuracy courtesy of Karkinos's icy mist.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she and Naruto called in alarm. Naruto flung metal discs to cut the thread but was prevented from running forward by a cluster of small crabs that had surrounded him and Sakura. Seeing this, Sasuke swooped in to retrieve Kakashi, gritting his teeth when another curtain of freezing mist was sprayed into the air. He lifted his gaze to find Karkinos towering over them, rearing back, ready to impale them with its front legs. Reacting quickly, Sasuke summoned Susano'o, the impenetrable barrier appearing just in time to protect both him and Kakashi from the impact. He grabbed the masked deity in a skeletal fist and skirted backwards, replacing distance between themselves and the humongous crab as Sakura and Naruto finished off the last of the smaller ones.

"Thank you, Sasuke," Kakashi breathed heavily, pushing himself back onto his feet. Sasuke did not respond, calling back Susano'o, his mind racing for the fastest way to take out both targets, one that they could not possibly hope to defend against.

Amaterasu, he concluded, and began concentrating his chakra in preparation for the devastating attack.

Karkinos slammed its pincers into the ground, sending a jagged blast of spiking icicles forth at such breath-taking speed, it sent Naruto diving roughly to the ground to avoid them. Sakura jumped aside but another wave swiftly followed, encasing her in a prison of ice. She glanced down at her feet in horror, finding them to be frozen up to her knees in impermeable frost.

The glistening cage around her shattered seconds later when Sasuke and Kakashi struck it with fire and lightning, cleaving the frost apart, blowing off great chunks of ice that then melted away to harmless water. Sasuke grabbed onto Sakura's right arm, hauling her backwards as Naruto activated Sage Mode and went for Karkinos, succeeding in landing a few quick strikes to its underbelly before he was forced back when the monstrous crab spun in a vicious circle.

Arachne had already scurried out of sight, using Karkinos's attack and thickening icy mist to her clever advantage. Sakura gasped as she felt something bitingly cold wrap around her throat, violently cutting off her breathing as it yanked her aggressively forward. She struggled to draw a breath, lifting her blade, trying to hack at it but her fingers felt frozen, her arm numb from cold. Another shower of shimmering mist fell upon them and Naruto yelled, lunging forward to assist Sakura, only for three other strings to shoot out from the fog and catch him instead. Arachne had used her senses to anticipate his path of movement. Before anyone had a chance to react, he had been dragged into the spider-queen's deadly clutches and was being spun into a thick webby cocoon. Arachne reared her front legs back, hissing, ready to inject him with poison.

Sakura flailed, feeling her lungs depleting of oxygen as the string tightened around her throat. A moment later the pressure on her cardiovascular system eased when a stream of lightning energy snapped the thread that had been choking her in half before chakra strings wound around her arms and dragged her back out of harm's way.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed fearfully, sending a wild burst of lightning at the spider. Karkinos blocked it and batted away Kakashi's attempt to direct an earth-based attack at Arachne.

"Enton: Kagutsuchi!" Sasuke slashed black fire forth that flew in a spinning disc toward Arachne's front legs. It slammed into her, setting the front of her body alight. She screamed in agony, immediately releasing Naruto, who was fully immersed in the thread.

Kakashi leapt beneath Karkinos, slashing at its underbelly with his lightning blade as he passed through, using the advantage of Sasuke's concealing shadows to easily dodging its stabbing legs before he lunged toward Naruto, slashing across the sticky webs with a carefully controlled stream of chidori. Naruto used his Sage abilities to break out, peeling the remaining sticky residue from his body as he fell free.

"Gross, gross!" he shrieked.

"Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, look out!" Sakura cried, hitting the crab with another bolt of lightning. They leapt aside, narrowly avoiding sharp, impaling shards of ice that Karkinos pelted down upon the ground. It swung its pincers, trying to grab at them, before slamming its claws back into the ground, sending further waves of jagged ice in frozen fractals in all directions. Sasuke countered with Katon, melting them away and Naruto used his boosted speed to leap high into the air, aiming a devastating sphere of Rasengan at Arachne's abdomen.

It connected, further fanning the black flames and Arachne writhed in agony, trying to douse them out in vain with the ice of her webs. It was futile. In a last, desperate attempt to cause damage, she raised her hands, calling into being hundreds of tiny floating, poisonous needles between her palms. Kakashi faltered, suspecting her intentions, and opened his mouth to call out a warning to his team - but Arachne had already let the attack blindly loose, flinging the deadly venomous projectiles in all directions. They were delicate and nearly invisible as they hurtled through the air.

It happened too quickly for Sasuke, who had just dodged another of Karkinos's blindly swiping giant pincers, to summon Susano'o again in time. Spotting the needles glinting in the air, he immediately flash-stepped instinctively to Sakura, shoving her backwards with such force that her back slammed against the wall, knocking the air cleanly from her lungs. Gasping, she lifted her eyes up to find Sasuke's arms caged on either side of her, shielding her from the poisonous needles that stabbed straight into his back. Her heart lodged in her throat when pain flashed across his face, followed by a startling trickle of blood that trailed out his mouth.

"Sasuke…!" she gasped out in horror.

Within seconds, Sasuke felt the potent venom seize his body, like fire burning through his veins, severely hindering his movements. His Sharingan locked momentarily onto Sakura's wide, distressed emerald-eyes just before full paralysis began to kick in - and then something was hauling him backward, with such force that his sword flew from his hand and his compromised body could not hope to stop the momentum.

The concealing shadows immediately dissipated from around them, their master's chakra control failing as the poison rapidly ravaged his blood-stream.

"Shit! Sasuke!" Naruto dove forward, but Karkinos's descending giant pincer obstructed his path. He slashed furiously at it, trying to break through. Kakashi attacked it with angry bursts of chidori, allowing Naruto to zig-zag aside to avoid its attempts at crushing him. The sun deity tossed a spinning Futon Rasenshuriken at Arachne in rage, further fuelling the flames of Sasuke's prior Enton attack, but she had already caught the paralysed death deity in her deadly attack, the legs that remained unburned spinning thick threads around him within seconds, layers upon layers of them, until he vanished completely from sight, buried beneath an icy cocoon.

"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed in fear, adrenaline flooding through her at the realisation that Sasuke, who was always so unfazed, always so invincible, was in very real danger at that moment. She desperately depleted the entirety of her fire chakra crystal, sending an explosion of flame at Arachne. It hit her in the chest and she writhed in agony as it merged with the black fire. Her entire abdomen withered away, weeping pungent venom. Though grievously wounded, Arachne battled valiantly on, sending forth another flood of ensnaring threads. Further howling Rasenshuriken sliced through them and Sakura summoned an earthy barrier, molding it around her head and body like a shield as she attempted to get closer to Sasuke while Naruto and Kakashi worked to wear down Karkinos.

To her horror, Arachne's threads were dragging the God of the Dead forward, toward the edge of the chasm in the ground. She meant to throw him into the bottomless pit! Kakashi's attempt to intercept her with chakra strings were blocked by Krakinos's pincers, and Sakura realised, heart pounding, that it was down to her to save Sasuke.

Drawing from her speed and strength orbs, she dashed forward, throwing herself down onto Sasuke's web-coated body, slicing at the fresh threads that tried to obtain a firmer grip on the cocoon containing him, digging the heels of her boots into the frosty ground - but in vain. Her feet kept slipping on ice, with nothing else around her to hold onto.

She felt chakra strings wind around her arms and then Kakashi was trying to draw them both back, away from the opening in the ground. Naruto slammed another Rasengan into the crab's underbelly, stunning it briefly, long enough to grab onto the strings and take over from Kakashi.

"Hold on, Sakura-chan, I've got you!" he shouted.

Hands freed, Kakashi sent a vicious, impaling stream of chidori straight through a struggling Arachne's throat, puncturing it with brutal precision. Her arms were ablaze with black flame, unable to shield herself, and she convulsed, finally succumbing to her wounds, slumping forward - but not before one final shooting string from the only leg that remained free of fire latched onto Sasuke's cocoon and pulled him after her as she plummeted through the hole, burning away until nothing was left of her.

Karkinos recovered, leaping its mammoth body into the air before landing, causing a violent quake to rumble through the ground that knocked everyone off their feet. Its huge pincers smashed down wildly, sending ice clumps everywhere. They severed the chakra strings holding Sakura back, and she shrieked, unable to stop the momentum from dragging her forward too - and then she and Sasuke were toppling over the edge, falling into the darkness after the felled spider.

Sakura's thundering heart jumped into her mouth. Her arms locked tight around Sasuke's web-encased form as they plummeted into the deep.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice echoed after her but Sakura knew, without question, that there was no way he or Kakashi could get to them in time. She couldn't see anything around her except impossible blackness, could feel nothing but the biting air streaking past her. Gritting her teeth, she focused, refusing to give into mindless panic, and used the remainder of her earth crystal to form a thick, cocooning barrier around herself and Sasuke, a desperate attempt to protect them both from the pain of impact. Beneath them she directed a concentrated funnel of wind to slow their momentum and break their fall, her terror escalating by the minute the deeper they plunged.

Her strategy worked. Eventually they landed - roughly but not fatally - onto hard ground, rolling violently until they came to an abrupt stop. Sakura lay sprawled on her back, winded, blinking up in disbelief, shaken and stunned that she had managed to survive the fall. Without her chakra-crystals, she knew that every bone in her body would have been shattered to pieces by the impact and she would have surely died.

There was nothing but eerie darkness above them. Her relief at surviving the fall was short-lived as she moved onto her side and crawled anxiously over to the cocoon that imprisoned Sasuke. Was he still conscious inside, she wondered? Just how potent was Arachne's poison?

Fear whispered through her blood, but Sakura swallowed it down. He would be fine, she told herself fiercely. He was strong. The strongest person she knew. There was no way a little venom would cause lasting damage. Even as the thought entered her mind, she was reminded of the last time he had been poisoned, by her own lips. The havoc that had wreaked on his body back then, too.

Sakura pushed the intruding thought aside. She'd dropped her sword in the fray, she realised in dismay, and fished desperately into her supplies pouch, grabbing a small dagger which she used to cut carefully through the threads. They were sticky and freezing to the touch, scalding her fingertips with ice that burned cold. But Sakura didn't stop until she finally succeeded in slicing through the thick barrier, carving him free from its suffocating entombment.

She found Sasuke unconscious beneath, his skin clammy and alarmingly pale. Sakura's heart skipped a beat, stunned to find someone who was always so proud, so powerful and unyielding, in such a vulnerable state.

"Sasuke?" she shook him gently, but he remained motionless, unresponsive.

Rolling him carefully onto his front, Sakura shrugged out of her jacket and, using the light from her torch to help her see, covered her hands protectively with the leather sleeves, before she proceeded to yank out the needles, one by one. She grimly noted how many there were, how deeply they had penetrated into his body. Blood dripped from the ends of the deceptively slender spikes as she patiently worked to extract them, taking painstaking care in her work. Once she was certain that she had gotten them all out, she pulled his jacket off him in turn, and ran her palm over his back. She couldn't feel any other needles over his shirt, but pushed the material up his back regardless to check for any left behind or embedded under the skin, noting the angry puncture wounds that marred his smooth flesh. They were surrounded by purple, thread-like veins, indicating poison damage.

Sakura's lips thinned to form a determined line. She could heal him. Her mother had taught her how to locate and extract venom from beneath the skin. Taking a deep breath, she drew warm, healing chakra from the crystal orb equipped in her arm brace, and set to work.

---

By the time Sakura had removed all the venom she could detect in his blood-stream and sealed his wounds, she was exhausted. Gently rolling Sasuke onto his back, she then grabbed her ambrosia canister, feeling drained from extensive chakra usage. Gulping down a measured sip, she released a heavy sigh of relief when she felt its soothing effects immediately rejuvenate her depleted energy levels. Putting the bottle away, she then pushed herself up to her feet, taking a look around at her surroundings for the first time since they'd made their awkward landing. She shone her torch around to discover that they were in a small cave-like structure. There was no way out of it, Sakura grimly noted, circling the area. All the walls were enclosed with rock. Turning her light upwards, she squinted, peering up at the large opening they'd fallen through high above her head. There was nothing but ominous darkness beyond it.

Were Naruto and Kakashi alright? She couldn't hear their telepathic calls. Were they still battling the monstrous crab, or had they fallen through the chasm in the ground and landed somewhere, too?

With nothing else to do, she made her way back to Sasuke's side to wait for him to regain consciousness. He was breathing steadily and she was pleased to note that the colour had returned to his cheeks. Sakura knelt beside him, switching her torch off to preserve its battery. Her eyes trailed slowly over the chiselled, angled planes of his face in the dimness, over his dark, long lashes, his straight, aristocratic nose, his proud, wilful lips. They were devoid of their usual scowl, relaxed in sleep. Locks of silky raven hair had fallen into his face and he suddenly looked remarkably young to Sakura, almost like a regular guy her own age who had taken a casual nap.

She leaned over him, peering intently into his face, watching closely for any signs that he might soon regain consciousness. Her hands were overcome with a curious, nagging itch to remove the offending locks. Reasoning that he was still very much out of it and probably wouldn't come back around for another few minutes, Sakura reached out and gingerly pushed the offending strands aside, her fingertips lingering in place, recalling the soft silkiness of his unruly hair and how it had once felt beneath her touch.

This was the deity her past self - her original self - had been in love with, she acknowledged, the weight of finally allowing herself to think it, to fully accept it dawning upon her. The one with whom, in her immortal form, she had shared a forbidden, clandestine romance, before he had callously severed all ties and discarded her. As Sakura gazed at him, she was haunted by the enormity of knowing that in a past neither of them could recall, they had been lovers. The dream she'd had days earlier had revealed that her memories had been sealed at the time of her death. But what had happened to Sasuke's? Who was responsible for altering them and removing all recollection of her, and why?

She longed to know the answers. To have clarity cast on their situation, to understand why he had done the things he had, whether he had truly betrayed her trust as Kore. Somehow, against all the odds, they had been flung together by fate and circumstance again and Sakura found herself once more questioning just how much of the attraction she felt toward him, the impossible magnetic pull and sizzling chemistry that radiated electrifyingly in the air between them, was the result of their past connection.

How much could it be, when neither of them recalled one another? And yet she couldn't deny her body's reaction to his proximity. The way her heart-beat quickened. The maddening flutters within the cage of her stomach, like butterflies trapped agitatedly within. How she felt both safe and on-edge whenever his dark eyes tracked her movements.

She'd repeatedly tried to ignore it over the course of their travels, to tell herself that her cantering pulse was simply the result of all the unfinished business between them and the way they'd parted on such awful terms, but the more time she spent in Sasuke's company, the more she felt that inexplicable, irresistible draw toward him. The desire to once again understand him, to unearth what his true thoughts and feelings were.

He was an enigma to her, even now. In a world where everything was black and white, good and evil, he was an indistinguishable grey area that symbolised the unknown. He was unpredictable. Wild. Like a turbulent storm, both blisteringly intense and ice-cold. Was it any wonder that she found him so fascinating?

Her fingertips absently brushed his hair back further as she lost herself to her contemplations, failing to initially realise that his dark eyes had opened and he was blinking up at her in a moment of disorientated confusion.

Sasuke froze, roused back to consciousness by the feel of gentle fingers lingering in his hair. The last thing he had expected to see upon awakening was the very vision that presented itself before him: that of Sakura leaning over him, a look of incredible sadness in her expressive eyes.

She finally noticed him and inhaled sharply, tensing, immediately snatching her hand away as if she'd been struck by a live wire.

Heat pooled into her face. You idiot! she reprimanded herself, blushing furiously in the darkness. What's the matter with you? He just caught you red-handed; why didn't you pull back sooner?

"S-Sasuke," she stammered. "Arachne caught you in her web, and there were poisonous needles stuck in your back." Sakura told herself that if she kept talking, she could somehow brush off her guilt and embarrassment. She watched him slowly sit upright and continued, "We fell through the opening in the ground and..." her voice trailed off as Sasuke glanced cautiously around them.

"Kakashi and Naruto?" he asked.

"We were separated," she explained. Biting her lower lip, she then supplied, "I got as much of the venom out of you as I could."

His eyes shifted onto her, burning like intense sooty coals despite the lack of light. She had healed him? He registered that she had done a good job, given that he was in no discomfort. It seemed that Sakura had learned a great deal during their time apart. Sasuke was glad for it. He was pleased that she wasn't so ignorant, sheltered and reliant on others anymore, as she had been when they'd first encountered one another.

"Do you feel alright?" she regarded him hesitantly.

"Aa," he answered shortly, averting his gaze.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" she pressed anxiously. "I have another healing orb if you need it."

He opened his mouth automatically to snap at her to stop fussing over him unnecessarily - but then glimpsed the genuine worry on her features, and felt the harsh words dissolve on the tip of his tongue. Instead he stared at her in silent, carefully-masked astonishment. She had told him she cared for him in the forest. He had stubbornly refused to believe it, not wanting to accept that there was any possibility that she might, given all the heartless things he had done, the misery and pain he had inflicted upon her. But looking at Sakura in that moment, her pupils fully dilated in the dimness and her features open and sincere in their concern, Sasuke suddenly realised that she had truly meant every word she'd said.

He swallowed thickly, overrun with bewilderment. Why didn't she hate him, the way he despised himself for what he had done? It made him angry. It made him uncertain. She was meant to loathe him. It would make things so much easier for them both if she looked at him with hatred. But there was no such semblance of emotion in her expression. Her cypress-green eyes were kind. He could hardly stand to look into them, knowing he deserved no such kindness.

"Sasuke?" she was gazing at him expectantly, nervous at his lack of response. His eyes lowered to the gravel strewn ground, and when he said nothing else, she lifted her arm and reached out to him.

In a reflexive movement, he caught hold of her right wrist, instantly on guard, halting her hand from advancing. Sakura released a startled, quiet gasp, taken aback by the swiftness of his reaction and by the warning that glinted in his fathomless eyes. He still didn't fully trust her, she realised with a sinking feeling of disappointment, even despite their talk in the forest. Could she blame him? Sakura told herself that she understood he needed time to move forward in his own way, too. He'd already taken a significant step toward doing so by aiding Naruto, for her sake. She couldn't lose sight of the bigger picture. This wasn't about them, and yet...

And yet she couldn't simply pretend that she wasn't sensitive to the fact that any time she tried to reach out to him, Sasuke clammed up, unreceptive to her attempts to ease the tension between them. As if he couldn't stand the thought of being close to her beyond what was absolutely necessary. It was a shocking change to their initial dynamic in the Underworld, but Sakura supposed it was to be expected, given their present circumstances. She needed to be patient - no matter how much his frostiness, his treating her like little more than a stranger and acknowledging nothing of their shared experiences in his Kingdom, stung on the inside.

Her heart pounded. The feel of his fingers closed around her wrist sent something akin to an electrical current zig-zagging through her body, and every part of her felt alive, humming with a strange static that made her overly aware of their proximity.

"Your jacket," she explained, indicating the article of clothing in her hand, her tongue feeling oddly thick and clumsy now that they were completely alone together again. "I had to remove it to heal you... I was just giving it back."

He blinked, and then his eyes narrowed at her, suspicion slated all over his otherwise reticent features as he accepted the jacket and released her wrist. Sakura swallowed and then her gaze was snagged by a cut that she'd somehow overlooked on his left bicep. It was minimal - so minimal in fact that Sasuke hadn't even bothered to take care of it himself. She felt a surge of emotion well in her chest, determined to show him that he could rely on her, to prove it in any way she could. Instead of drawing away, she reached out and hovered her palm above the wound. Sasuke blinked, disturbed by her actions, only to glance down in confusion, watching as she healed the superficial scrape.

"Don't waste your chakra," he admonished her.

"It's not a waste," Sakura retorted. "You wouldn't leave a cut untreated on me, would you?"

"..." He said nothing to that. Their eyes locked together and Sakura felt the breath in her lungs arrest. His gaze was as striking as it had always been, and she could feel the undeniable force of attraction between them, crackling like a volatile lightning current in the air.

A strange stillness fell over them as they regarded one another. Sakura slowly lowered her hand, and placed it gently over his fist which was still clutching onto his jacket. She felt him tense at her touch, saw the uncertainty flicker across his dark eyes as he glanced down at her hand, at the way her fingers were splayed open, as if he could not understand why she was initiating physical contact.

'Sasuke.' Sakura felt that her heart had lodged itself in the base of her throat as she initiated telepathic communication with him once again. 'Please. I meant everything I said in the woods about moving forward. I wish you would believe you can trust me. The same way I trust that you'll keep me safe, no matter what.'

Something akin to anger sparked in his eyes. 'Since when,' his voice retorted curtly in her mind, 'have I been someone you trust, Sakura?'

She held his gaze defiantly, undeterred by his attempt to dismiss her words. 'Since I realised we're not enemies,' she responded truthfully.

His eyes searched hers for a long moment, and Sakura held her breath, awaiting his reaction to her words. But he said nothing, and was quick to draw his hand away before rising to his feet.

She didn't understand, Sasuke thought to himself in frustration. Treating her as nothing more than an assignment was the safest option for them both, especially true given the loathed Curse seal that had been placed upon him. Why did she keep trying to reach out to him, to mend things the way he could see her attempting to do, all too plainly, all too maddeningly, in her healing, soothing manner? He felt the threat of her closeness, knowing he needed to retain the distance it was absolutely necessary to keep in place, for her sake. For his. Why was it, though, when it was just the two of them alone like this, he felt his resolve waver?

Sasuke had been so sure, so confident at the start of the mission, that he would avoid all interaction with her. But being around her all over again brought into sharp relief everything he had ever been drawn to about her. The warmth of her presence, the way his eyes were powerless to keep from slipping onto her when she was not looking his way. He had believed her betrayal and their time apart would change things. He bitterly acknowledged that he had been sorely mistaken. He couldn't even keep himself from listening to her whenever she telepathically called out to him.

Why did she keep pushing? What did she want from him? She had consumed his life in every single way, and it was his own fault. He had initiated it all. Sakura was tangled in the mess she found herself in, noticed by the enemy, because of him. Did she not see that? Did she not perceive how his involvement in her life had damaged it in so many ways? How could she possibly truly ever overlook it? It was inconceivable to Sasuke. Even when he knew that she was doing so for the greater good - surely she would recall all the ways in which he had rained misery down upon her when it was time for her to return to his realm?

Surely she would return unhappy, unwilling? It was easier to bear the accusatory resentment he was sure he would see in her eyes when she came to serving the six months of what he knew she viewed as her sentence of imprisonment in his world, if he did act like they were strangers now. It would be easier if he did keep her at arm's length than it would be to be foolish enough to hope, to believe that everything was resolved and forgiven between them.

He sullenly shrugged his jacket back on, irritated at her, at himself, but despite that, he silently offered his hand out to her without looking down her way. Sakura felt relief - mixed with warmth that fought off the damp cold air of the chilly cave around them - course through her veins and she reached up and gratefully accepted his grasp, allowing him to pull her back up onto her feet.

She replenished her depleted chakra orbs, tossing the empty ones to the ground. Pulling her jacket back on, she pointed up to the opening above their heads. "We fell from up there. Kakashi-sensei and Naruto were still fighting the crab."

Sasuke angled his face upward, and attempted to establish a connection with the two. His eyes couldn't perceive anything in the darkness, indicating that they'd fallen from a very great height.

'Kakashi,' he telepathically called out. No response came. His eyebrows knitted together. Were they still in the midst of fighting? There was only one way to find out. They needed to return to the cave above, and to do that Sasuke had to channel his full-form Susano'o to take flight. He felt a sliver of uncertainty about doing so. What if another monster lurked deeper in the mountain? What if it was wiser to save his chakra levels and attempt to find another way back up?

"How far was the fall?" he questioned.

"A really long way down," she replied. "It would take us a while to make it back up even if you used Susano'o. Maybe we can try to find another way out to save chakra?" She circled the small area they'd fallen into again, and pressed her palms against the rocks, shining her flashlight around the circumference of the space. Once more she found nothing but barriers - until her eyes suddenly spotted what appeared to be a square shaped opening in the bottom of the rock-face which she'd initially overlooked.

"Sasuke," she beckoned to him. "Look. I think we can crawl through here. Maybe this might lead us somewhere?"

He walked over to her and crouched down, inspecting the opening. Then he reached out with a palm and sent forth tendrils of shadows to scan the area ahead to ensure there was nothing dangerous lurking inside the tunnel. When he sensed only empty passageways within, he entered inside, calling for Sakura to follow him. They crawled slowly through the compact tunnel. Sakura winced as her knees scraped over hard rock and manoeuvred left and right, trusting Sasuke to lead them to an exit, until he finally reached another opening and pulled himself out.

'Sakura.' His voice echoed warningly in her head. 'Keep quiet.'

Sakura frowned in confusion and crawled out after him - only to immediately flinch, slapping both her hands over her mouth to stop a horrified screech from escaping her lips.

They'd entered another cave infested with huge, hideous brown spiders. They hung everywhere; from the walls, ceilings, their abdomens pulsing horrifically. Thick webs concealed the route ahead.

'Fire,' Sasuke's voice communicated in her mind, wrapping a fresh cloak of shadows around their bodies to keep them concealed from sight.

Sakura fought back her disgust and nodded, lifting her arm to aim for the closest of the arachnids. The cavern then exploded into fire-light as she and Sasuke worked together to incinerate the spiders, quickly laying waste to their nest and causing the cobwebs around them to dissolve away. When the cavern was finally cleared of all monsters and threads, they found an opening on the other side of the rock-face.

As Sasuke recalled the shadows from around them, Sakura turned to look at him, and offered him a smile. "We make a pretty good team now," she announced.

He met her gaze briefly, then closed his eyes dismissively. "Hn."

She blinked, bristling at his nonchalance. "Oh, come on," she insisted, frustrated by his refusal to acknowledge her growth. "Aren't I stronger than I was in the Underworld?"

"Still reckless," he quipped, deliberately choosing to agitate her.

"But I'm a lot better," she argued. "Why can't you just admit it, Sasuke?"

"Why do you need me to?" he challenged back.

"Because-" she spluttered, caught off guard by the abruptness of the question. "Because you were the one who taught me how to fight and control chakra first and…"

He paused, raising an eyebrow at her when she became visibly flustered and broke off.

"And…?" he intoned flatly, after a heavy pause.

"And now," she hastily continued. "I can control all kinds of chakra, and I'm better at keeping my cool in the middle of ba- argh!" She turned her head, nearly jumping out of her skin when a dead, burnt spider suddenly rolled onto its side to her right.

Sasuke snorted at her reaction, a stifled sound, turning away from her - but not before Sakura caught the small, amused smirk that danced on his lips. She blinked after him in shock. Had he… just smiled? She stood, gawking after him for a few seconds, stunned.

The next glance he sent back at her over his shoulder was frosty, his usual mask of indifference in response to her motionless state. "Sakura," he said simply.

"Right." She nodded and followed after him through the opening in the wall, which brought them into another chamber.

It was pitch black. Sakura shone her torch, finding that there was nothing but a vast expanse of water ahead of the rocky boulder they'd stepped out onto. There appeared to be no way to cross over it. She stared intently at their surroundings, trying to find a clue, a way that would allow passage across to the other side.

"I can't see anything," she squinted, struggling to make out anything in the darkness ahead other than the rippling body of water.

Sasuke blinked, his Sharingan activated, gleaming crimson in the shadows. "Look closer," he prompted.

She glanced uncertainly at him, then turned her gaze back to the water. Did he mean that it was an illusion? She focused, applying the training she had been given by Kurenai and Kakashi to peel back layers of genjutsu. Sure enough, a faint, thin wooden bridge began to materialise before her amazed eyes as the illusion gradually blurred before finally breaking entirely. The beams led over the water, into the unknown beyond.

"I see it now!" she pointed. "Can you make out what's on the other side?"

"Not yet." He moved forward, testing the sturdiness of the path with a boot before stepping onto it, motioning for her to follow. Slowly they began to navigate over the narrow planks. There were no railings to hold onto, Sakura noticed with a gulp, which meant that they would have to maintain a careful balance if they didn't want to plunge into the icy, surrounding water.

"Stay behind me," Sasuke instructed, turning his head slightly to make sure she didn't fall too far back.

Sakura nodded and inched after him, close enough on his heels to grab easily onto his jacket if the need to arose. She placed one foot after the other, balancing cautiously as she walked along. All around them the dark waters swirled silently, sinisterly. There was no telling how deep the wide pool of liquid went - or what might be lurking within it. The very thought of something terrible hiding beneath the surface filled Sakura with dread.

Sasuke stepped to the right and she mirrored his movements. The bridge criss-crossed across, veering left and right and ahead at alternating points. At length Sakura glanced back to see that the platform behind them had vanished into darkness, confirming that they'd travelled a great distance.

"Still no word from Naruto or Kakashi-sensei?" she asked.

Sasuke began to shake his head, when something suddenly leapt out the water in front of them before diving back in. Sakura gasped in surprise, and his left hand shot out instinctively to grab onto hers to anchor her, in anticipation of her losing her balance. They stood, rooted to the spot in silence, waiting for whatever it had been to rematerialise and make itself known. The minutes trickled by. Nothing else happened. The only sound around them was the steady plip-plopping of dripping water echoing in the distance - and the roaring of blood rushing through Sakura's ears.

"What was that?" she finally whispered anxiously. Her eyes darted to Sasuke's fingers, closed firmly around her palm.

"Just keep moving." He relinquished her hand, his Sharingan narrowing in the darkness, scanning cautiously around them. Finally he glimpsed the other side through the thin veil of mist ahead, which led to yet another opening in a huge rock-face. No sooner had he set eyes on it, the precarious bridge beneath their feet began to rumble ominously.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried, glancing down to find that the planks were slowly sinking into the water. Thinking quickly, Sasuke swiped his thumb across his teeth and bent down, pressing his palms to the narrow beam before it submerged. A plume of smoke burst into existence around them and he hopped onto his hawk summon, pulling Sakura onto its back with him. She reflexively laced her arms around his midriff to keep balance as Garuda soared powerfully up into the air, flying the remainder of the distance now that Sasuke could discern the exit.

Sakura glanced back to find that the bridge had completely disappeared behind them and that some manner of strange aquatic creatures were once more diving through the waters. Before she could make them out, they had vanished again. She shook her head, relieved that at least they hadn't had to fight them.

Garuda carried them safely to the other side and then disappeared at Sasuke's command. They made their way through the opening in the wall, which led them into a winding tunnel.

Sasuke summoned a shadow-blade in his hand, rueing the fact that he had dropped Kusanagi in the frantic battle against Karkinos and Arachne, very irked over the possibility that he might have lost his trusted, signature weapon for good. Charging a steady current of crackling chidori along the shadow-sword to illuminate the way ahead, he followed the path, which opened out to another cavern. It was completely enclosed, seemingly without a roof and empty of anything but jagged, surrounding rock. In the middle of the floor was a circular panel, marked with a lightning bolt crest.

They walked over to it. Sasuke bent down, pressing his palm against it, pouring lightning chakra into the seal. The rune responded, glowing blue and the ground shook beneath their feet. Sakura inched closer to Sasuke's side and a moment later the circular panel shot up from the ground, forming a rotating platform that transported them at great speed upwards. Sakura grabbed instinctively onto his arm to anchor herself and glanced up, trying to discern where the platform was taking them, the speed of the momentum they were moving at whipping strands of her hair across her face. But everything around them was a dizzying, dark blur of motion until she finally spotted rock-face above them.

The platform took them neatly through a circular opening before halting as abruptly as it had begun to move. A resounding click informed them that they had reached their destination.

"Well. You both took your time," a familiar voice remarked wryly.

"Sakura-chan! Sasuke! You guys are alright!"

Sakura spun around in surprise, relief immediately flooding through her at the surprising sight of an unharmed Kakashi and Naruto, who had been waiting for their arrival. They had reached another circular, enclosed cavern with familiar crest panels set into one of the walls, indicating that they were close to the entrance of the relic room.

"Naruto! Kakashi-sensei!" she exclaimed happily. "How did you get here?"

"We finally kicked that crab's sorry butt," Naruto approached her, handing her back the sword she'd dropped before she'd fallen out of the battle arena. Sakura gratefully accepted it, slotting it back into its jeweled scabbard. "Then we had to fight through some more of those smaller crabs and followed all the passageways until we ended up here."

"We figured it'd be smarter to wait for you two to come back up than go down looking for you," Kakashi informed them. "Karkinos sealed the opening right after you fell through it. There was no way for us to get through, and it seems Minato planned for that outcome, too."

"He could've taken it easy with the spiders and the crabs, -ttebayo," Naruto grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm glad you're safe," Sakura smiled.

"What about you guys?" the sun deity asked. "Did you run into anything else?"

"Just more spiders," Sakura pulled a face in distaste. "We landed in a small cave and managed to crawl out of it, and fought our way through some. Then we had to break a genjutsu and pass over some water. That platform brought us back up here."

Naruto nodded and then pulled a blade from where it had been holstered behind his back for safe-keeping, holding Kusanagi out to Sasuke.

"Oi. Sasuke. You lost something," he said, tossing the sword to him.

Sasuke caught it and gave him an unreadable look, before offering a curt, rigid nod.

"Alright," Kakashi turned toward the barrier in the wall. "Looks like this is it."

They pressed their palms to each elemental crest and sure enough, the seals once again glowed, causing the rock-face to rumble aside. They walked through the opening, entering a narrow passageway that climbed up a set of stairs leading to another circular area with cascading waterfalls and arched columns. It perfectly mirrored the rooms where they'd obtained the first two relics.

Team Seven made their way onto the platform, climbing the steps that brought them onto a square-shaped dais with four unlit torches. They activated the runes on the raised platform and the torches in their iron-carved stands burst into golden flame. The smaller platform bearing the key to unlocking the relic appeared before them.

"I wonder what we'll find out this time," Sakura mused.

"I want to know what that bastard did to my parents," Naruto's expression darkened.

Sasuke was silent. Within his chest, his heart had begun to pound to a sickening rhythm. What would the memory spheres reveal about the past? What else would he discover of the war? Would he finally find out what had happened to his brother and cousin?

Sakura placed her sword in the slot releasing a golden sphere that materialised and floated before them, shedding particles of light. Taking a deep breath, she reached out to it. No sooner had her index finger connected with its surface, it rippled and expanded outward, and once again golden light pulsed over and surrounded the platform around them.

Then the images began to form and they all held their breaths in anticipation, watching intently as the continuation of Minato's sealed memories played out vividly and soundlessly before them.

The sphere opened up over a battlefield, littered with more soldiers than the eye could see. Locked in combat were opposing sides clad in contrasting armour; the white, gold and silver of Olympus and the dark, black and red of the Underworld. Banners bearing the insignia of the royal Olympian crest and the Uchiha emblem flapped in the wind as deities charged against one another, exchanging skilled sword-blows, arrow, spear, kunai and elemental chakra attacks. In their midst waded behemoth giants formed of water, clay, wood, wind, sand, stone and fire. There appeared to be deities perched on their shoulders and they were wreaking havoc across the battlefield, taking out dozens of soldiers at a time.

It was the day of the war, Sakura realised, rooted to the spot as her eyes took in the events. If she ignored the glowing outermost edges of the images, it was almost as though they were part of the scene themselves, fully immersed in it.

"The Titans," Kakashi murmured in recognition.

"Titans?" Sakura glanced at him questioningly.

"Ancient immortals who governed the old world before Minato was crowned King, and were overthrown from rule thereafter," Kakashi expanded. "They were violent in nature and shared Madara's view that all mortals deserved to live in enslaved service to the gods."

"Those bastards were on Cronus's side in the war," Naruto recalled angrily. He tensed when he then caught sight of heart-breakingly familiar faces a moment later. His father and mother, clad in royal battle raiment, locked in combat with a colossal, orange, nine-tailed demon fox.

"Ma… dad…" he whispered, his heart lurching painfully within his chest, taking a subconscious step closer to the life-size images moving before them.

The Kyuubi? Sakura gaped at the beast in astonishment. Was this the creature that Naruto had told her about, with half its chakra sealed within him? It was undeniably majestic yet terrifying, a fierce, wild monstrosity, possessing eyes that blazed red with lethal, murderous fury. It towered over the battlefield, making dwarves of all the deities below save for the Titans on their elemental mounts. Vicious and ruthless, it laid waste and ruin to great clumps of earth with its mighty clawed paws, its nine enormous tails swishing menacingly behind it. Every time it slammed one of them down, the ground visibly quivered around its body.

The tailed-beast reared its head back and a humongous ball of spinning, dark chakra energy gathered at its mouth before it unleashed its attack across the battlefield, causing devastating damage on a wide radius. Hundreds of bodies were flung up into the air, armour and limbs blown apart from the force of the explosion. The Kyuubi readied itself to release another catastrophic bomb - when a blinding flash of movement flickered before it. A golden-haired deity materialised in the air above the beast, wielding a mighty, crackling bolt of lightning in his right hand. Too swiftly for the Nine-tails to defend against, Zeus, the King of the Gods, slammed the bolt down upon the demonic fox's head, splitting open a gaping wound.

The Kyuubi's jowls parted in what was clearly an enraged roar and it lifted a paw to swipe at its assailant, but Zeus had already blurred out of sight entirely, his movements lightning quick, too fast for Team Seven's eyes to track. Glowing golden chakra chains shot out from the body of a slender, red-haired woman who stood at the base of a mountain and wrapped around the creature's throat, hauling it backwards before Zeus reappeared and hurtled three more electrifying bolts at the creature, connecting at its neck, its back, its right shoulder. The Kyuubi tumbled sideways onto the ground, injured and furious, struggling against its binds before pushing itself back up onto all-fours, turning its possessed eyes onto the flame-haired woman. Her hands were extended outward, summoning forth further chakra chains to lock around the fox - but she was abruptly intercepted.

A masked man in black armour, whose cloak rippled in the breeze behind him, alighted before her, slashing brutally at the woman with a dark blade. Diverted, she lost her hold on the Kyuubi, who shook free of the chains and bounded at breath-taking speed toward the mountain.

Sasuke's eyes widened in recognition. Shisui. That was his own cousin attacking Hera, forcing her to relinquish her binds. He watched, engrossed by the images, as Hypnos advanced upon her, pushing her up the mountain with fast, carefully aimed, precise attacks, the hallmarks of a highly disciplined and skilled fighter. She retaliated with a golden staff, alternating wind and water strikes at him, negating the raging flame-balls of Katon he fired toward her. When Hypnos got close enough to slash up at her at closer proximity with his sword, she drew a silver sword from the belt at her waist and parried his attack, shooting forth another chakra chain from her body, seeking to capture the Uchiha who was locked in a deadly dance of blades with her.

Her attempt was intercepted by another masked deity with long raven hair. Sasuke's breath hitched in his throat, his gaze fully consumed by the image of his older brother moving to teleport Shisui safely out of reach of the chains. Thanatos then fluidly reappeared behind Hera in a flurry of black feathers, his sword-arm drawn back, aiming a decapitating slice straight at her vulnerable neck. Hera whirled around to face him, whipping out more chains to force him to retreat. One of the chakra binds struck Thanatos's blade with such power, it almost knocked it out of his hand entirely. He flickered out of the line of her attack and alighted gracefully behind her, and he and Hypnos proceeded to coordinate a joint assault against the Queen of Olympus.

She raised her hands, twisting and turning, calling upon golden, hallowed shields of light to parry the blows in quick succession - when she abruptly froze in place, as if caught in a sudden trance. Genjutsu, Sasuke instantly recognised; what had always been Itachi's deadliest form of assault. Trapping the mind with his Sharingan without so much as lifting a finger. Hypnos abruptly dropped low. A large, green-hued, glowing skeletal fist materialised around him and shot out, seeking to swipe Hera up in Susano'o's unbreakable hold.

A destructive lightning bolt interrupted the attempt, forcing the two Uchiha back, cracking the ground with the force of its strike. It was swiftly succeeded by a further four bolts which connected explosively against the armour that Hypnos enveloped protectively around himself and Thanatos to absorb the impact. A split-second later Hera had been effortlessly whisked away from before them and transported higher up the mountainside by her husband. The King and Queen of the surface gods alighted upon Olympus's mighty, ascending staircase, watching as the Kyuubi bounded toward them.

A confident, sneering Cronus was now standing atop its head.

The Uchiha patriarch gestured aggressively down at the two masked deities below, who had just fought through another cluster of Olympian soldiers. He pointed at them to give relentless chase after Zeus and Hera. They surged obediently forward, and moved onward with Cronus and the Kyuubi, steadily climbing up Mount Olympus. The seat of power of all the gods.

"There's Killer B!" Naruto pointed.

Sure enough, the armour-clad guardian of Olympus had intercepted, his seven swords drawn, forming a barrier along the stairway that climbed up to the summit to protect the King and Queen. He was flanked by a blonde-haired woman wielding a giant fan, a red-haired man and another warrior concealed by a black hood. There was a large blast of smoke and two more humongous creatures appeared. One of them possessed an ox's head and eight octopus like tails, the second was a single-tailed, tanuki sand demon. Immediately they brawled with the Kyuubi and the masked deities, slowing down their advance, allowing Zeus and Hera time to ascend to the pinnacle unhindered.

Both sides scuffled in a deadly melee, powerful attacks exchanged between them. Sasuke caught sight of his brother's Susano'o, sunset-orange in hue as it extended to its full form. In its left hand it wielded an enormous, circular shield that negated all elemental attacks, absorbing the deadly tailed-beast bombs that were fired at them, holding firm and allowing Cronus to slip through and venture on ahead as they continued to battle with the guardians.

Four of the Titans joined in the fray. Water, sand, stone, fire. They surrounded the tailed beasts, slamming mighty fists into them and diverted their attention, forcing the Olympian guardians to shift their focus. Thanatos and Hypnos were soon able to break away, leaping gracefully up the mountainside to follow after their king. Killer B's attempt to catch them failed when the blond-haired clay-elemental Titan flew overhead and dropped detonating bombs from the sky down on the steps of Olympus, causing them to collapse entirely before landing in front of B, engaging him in combat.

Naruto's heart pounded in his chest, unable to drag his eyes away from his parents' retreating forms. They had been watching the vicious combat ensuing below and had started to continue their ascent, Cronus giving chase behind them. The climb was spent repelling the Uchiha's devastating attacks; deadly bursts of dark, sinister chakra molded from chaos itself, an endless barrage of Katon missiles that set the green trees surrounding the mountain alight. They were on the defensive, saved only from being caught by Zeus's sheer speed as he carried himself and his queen up the lengthy distance to the pinnacle.

All around the mountain, the war raged on, continuing with violent blood-shed, the formidable Titans slaying masses of Olympians and Underworld dwellers alike as they wreaked havoc upon the fire-lit, charred battleground. They were not, Sasuke realised with a start, discriminating, further confirming that Cronus was acting in his own selfish interests and cared not for the welfare of his own kin.

Zeus and Hera finally alighted at the summit of Olympus, in a spacious, circular courtyard surrounded by magnificent white-marble pillars that were joined together to form arched, windowless openings. The Kyuubi, which had finally succeeded in losing the other tailed-beasts thanks to the interception from the Titans, sprinted up the mountainside, carrying Hypnos and Thanatos on its back, arriving at the pinnacle in a matter of a few great leaps. It landed beside Cronus, and as Thanatos and Hypnos touched down beside their ruler, the Nine-tails reared its head back, giving birth to another destructive ball of chakra.

The palace's golden gates glowed, forming a formidable force-field to deter intruders from entering. The Kyuubi let loose its monstrous bomb, easily blasting the towering barriers off of their hinges entirely. The creature then ventured through, unstoppable in its rampage, destroying the beautiful columns that supported the intricate mosaic and mirror-adorned ceilings of the palace's entrance halls. Glistening balcony balustrades, fountains and decorative statues crumbled under the Kyuubi's crushing tails as if they were formed of little more than paper as the tailed beast laid waste to a most magnificent palace.

Naruto's chest burned, witnessing first hand the ruin that had befallen his beloved home. The way it had been decimated and torn down by one who had no right to claim its throne. He couldn't blame the creature sealed within him. It was all too apparent that Kurama was not in a sound frame of mind, possessed and acting solely on Cronus's orders.

Zeus rapidly formed hand-seals and slammed his palm against the mosaic-tiled ground, summoning into being a humongous toad that immediately attacked the Kyuubi, cleverly drawing its attention away from himself and Hera. Sakura lifted a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening further as she watched the carnage ensue. A wickedly smirking Cronus lunged straight at Zeus, followed closely by Hypnos and Thanatos and together they exchanged a flurry of sword-blows, stabbing and dodging and parrying, stepping around one another in movements that were too fast for her eyes to follow.

Zeus warped behind Cronus and opened a palm. At his command a flash of light illuminated the air as another large lightning bolt crackled into his waiting hand, which he drove straight toward the Uchiha Patriarch's head. His attempt was intercepted by Hypnos who flash-stepped protectively before the Underworld's founder, raising a hand to absorb the attack with Susano'o, affording Cronus the opportunity to flicker behind Kushina. She spun and aimed a powerful sphere of wind-chakra at him. He parried with a large gunbai fan, batting the elemental attack aside and stabbed a shadow blade straight toward the small gap in the side of her armour. She blocked it with a shield of light that Cronus savagely cracked to pieces with a dark-blue Susano'o fist which materialised at will and shot out, grabbing the Queen of Olympus in a crushing, vice-like hold. She struggled, gasping for breath. Zeus side-stepped and immediately teleported her out of it, barely having time to recover and set her down safely before Thanatos sprang lithely at him.

Naruto shifted restlessly on his feet. He could hardly stand to watch. His mother and father were clearly outnumbered, there were no other soldiers present to protect them or fight in their stead. They were alone with the enemy. His confusion at seeing Hypnos and Thanatos aiding Cronus and attacking his parents caused him to glance questioningly at Kakashi, and then to Sasuke.

"I thought they were on our side!?" he exclaimed angrily. "My dad gave them his kunai!"

Kakashi shook his head, equally at a loss to explain what he was seeing.

"Let's watch to the end," he responded.

Sasuke remained silent, fully fixated on the events playing out in front of them. He could scarcely draw a breath. His cousin and brother did not seem to be bluffing. They were clearly protecting Cronus in earnest, to the best of their abilities, sparing no chakra in their choice of attack and defence. He watched, wide-eyed and incredulous, as they alternated between parrying Zeus's offensive strikes, shielding Cronus and attacking Hera, the painful memory of how well the two coordinated so flawlessly together in the midst of battle flooding back to him. Where Shisui's attacks ended, Itachi's began, and so on it continued, Sleep and Death reading one another's movements and intentions seamlessly, timing their actions with lethally precise execution.

Why...? His hands closed to form tense fists and pandemonium ran rampant in his mind. Why would they help Cronus at all, knowing what they had? Why had Zeus given them the kunai marked with his Hiraishin seal if they were attacking him with such animosity? What was the purpose behind all their meetings? What was going on?

The Kyuubi was still wrestling with the humongous toad Gamabunta, who had finally succeeded in drawing it away from the deity melee but was deeply wounded, barely capable of doing more than defending itself.

Cronus lifted a finger to his lips and exhaled a monstrous blast of fire. Hera retaliated, throwing up her arms to call forth a gigantic wall of water that slowed down the burning stream of flame just long enough to allow her and Zeus to flicker out of sight. Her choice of defence was overwhelmed by the fire's heat, that broke through the tsunami wave and slammed into the farthest arched pillars, blowing them to pieces before the fire ball flew off deeper into the palace grounds, destroying numerous structures within.

Cronus's Sharingan glinted menacingly as he, Hypnos and Thanatos spun around, trying to locate the Olympian rulers' whereabouts - only for rage to contort his features when the Titan Uchiha realised that Zeus was continuously using Hiraishin to keep himself and Hera cloaked temporarily out of sight. He unleashed Amaterasu into the air, trying to clip the Flying Thunder God midflight, but Zeus's speed was so breathtaking that even Cronus's esteemed Sharingan could not predict his flight path nor catch him in time, the black flames igniting fallen pillars around them instead.

Zeus abruptly burst out from beneath Cronus's feet, compelling the Titan to leap into the air to avoid being grabbed by the ankles before he made short work of what his Sharingan quickly identified to be a mere clone of the Thunder god. The real Zeus appeared before him a split-second later, his face set in grim determination as he lifted a marked kunai. A contemptuous sneer formed on Cronus's lips and he visibly appeared to be taunting the younger, golden-haired deity, easily avoiding the lightning bolts that were directed his way before lunging toward Zeus, his hand reaching straight for the surface deity's throat as Hera sent a spinning fury of tornado attacks at Hypnos and Thanatos, blocking them from intercepting.

At the very last moment Zeus teleported away and suddenly re-materialised right behind the Titan god, finally succeeding in connecting a hit, hurtling a lightning bolt straight into Cronus's armour with such force that the metal dented, melted by the incredible heat of the attack. He followed up with a series of blindingly fast lightning strikes, wielding them skilfully in his hands like crackling swords before slamming a vicious heel into Cronus's gut, kicking him aggressively backward, increasing the force behind it by directing a burst of wind-chakra into his foot.

Hypnos caught his King as he skirted back, steadying him. Meanwhile Thanatos lunged at Hera, his eyes glinting crimson behind the barrier of his gilded mask. Hera made the mistake of briefly meeting his gaze and immediately froze, momentarily caught in the God of Death's merciless genjutsu. Thanatos stabbed her straight through the throat, prompting the watching Naruto to yell in alarm - only for her body to burst into a shower of peacock feathers around him, indicating the use of a clone.

The real Hera re-materialised and attacked the death deity with multiple chakra-chains. Two connected around his arms and chest and he instantly dispersed into a murder of black crows, breaking effortlessly free before reforming in the air above her, following up with multiple burning bombs of Katon. Hera sent forth a blast of funneling water to stall them before throwing herself aside to preserve her chakra, the intensity of the flames Thanatos had summoned causing another great pillar to shatter into ruins.

Zeus nimbly evaded a flying, giant shuriken that Cronus flung at him and slapped a Hiraishin seal onto it, causing it to hurtle back at Hypnos who fluidly somersaulted to avoid it. Thanatos behind him caught it and altered its direction, sending it spinning toward Hera. She adeptly wound chakra chains around it before tossing it right back at the two masked deities who flash-stepped away to avoid it. Focusing a concentrated cyclone of wind-chakra at her feet, Hera then spun in a rapid circle, chakra-chains rotating and lashing out around her at great speed in a wide radius, preventing Hypnos and Thanatos from closing in and keeping them diverted away from her husband. Zeus directed another lightning bolt at Cronus who caught it with his partially formed Susano'o's skeletal fingers, before lobbing it right back at its master. It struck the thunder deity, the electricity crackling harmlessly around his form, doing no damage to the one who commanded its element. Zeus then vanished, retrieving Hera and once more they danced around the arena, too fast to be seen in their movements.

Cronus's Sharingan eyes darted rapidly left and right and then finally managed to correctly anticipate their path of movement, leaping forward at great speed and slamming his gunbai fan down. Zeus and Hera broke apart to avoid it and the Titan succeeded in grabbing Zeus by the throat for all of three seconds before the elusive Thunder god evaded him, warping himself out of his clutches and vanishing with Hera just as Thanatos and Hypnos closed in on her again.

The Kyuubi ferociously slammed Gamabunta into the ground, aiming for the enormous toad's jugular. The summon finally vanished into smoke, heavily wounded and defeated, forced to preserve itself, and the Nine-tails immediately turned away, rearing its head back, calling into being another chakra bomb at Cronus's telepathic command. It grew to humongous proportions before the Kyuubi let it loose, the inescapable scale of the deadly attack intending to force the Olympian King to reveal himself again.

The devastating, malevolent chakra-sphere vanished seconds after it had appeared. Cronus froze in an instant of uncharacteristic surprise - and a moment later the tailed-beast bomb reappeared, warped straight at him and the other Uchiha courtesy of Zeus's Hiraishin abilities. Both Thanatos and Hypnos erected their Susano'o armours to shield themselves, skidding backward from the immense power of the gravitational blast. Giant clumps of stone and marble flew through the air, the entire area around them shaking violently from the force of the blast.

Cronus was forced to summon his full-armoured Susano'o to contain the Kyuubi's lethal attack, his chakra armour succeeding in throwing the energy ball harmlessly up high into the skies above, before he scaled down his barrier to save his chakra levels. A brief period of chaos ensued, in which Zeus re-materialised between the billowing smoke that filled the courtyard, now completely destroyed beyond recognition with only a few remaining columned arches left encircling its once majestic perimeter.

His vivid blue eyes lifted skyward, catching brief sight of black wings flitting through the thick shroud of smoke, before his narrowed gaze returned to Cronus, another spiking bolt of lightning forming in his palm. Cronus formed rapid hand-seals and a huge sphere of rock fused with chaotic energy shot up from the ground, trapping Zeus within, seeking to crush him with dark matter. Seconds later, it was pierced with hallowed golden light from the inside and then exploded out into smaller fragments as Zeus broke free from its confinement.

Thanatos sent spinning shuriken of black flame at the Olympian king who knocked them out the air with spiking crackles of lightning. Sakura gazed in awe as his form re-appeared through the smoke, enveloped in pious light. Standing there, with his unruly blonde-hair tossed by the wind, a lightning bolt-earring flashing in his left ear and his white cloak billowing around him, Zeus looked like the very epitome of majestic, mythical valour.

Fearlessly he faced down the Uchiha Titan and uttered something that provoked the elder god to lunge once again at him. They exchanged a frenzy of sword and fist strikes, evenly matched in their attacks. Thanatos intercepted, exchanging sword swipes with Zeus and Cronus used the advantage to aim another succession of large, comet like bombs forged of chaotic-matter at the Olympian. Zeus swiftly warped to dodge them and struck them with precisely aimed lightning bolts, zig-zagging at epic speed as he reduced them to smaller pieces - then teleported away to avoid a surging punch from Hypnos's Susano'o that attempted to crash into him from behind. Cronus jumped over the glowing green barrier, lifting his gunbai over his head, sending another explosion of dark energy at Zeus who countered with a spinning ball of Rasengan. The attacks collided, the force of the elements meeting throwing them both backwards. Hera whipped out another chakra-chain, trying to catch Cronus by his ankles but the Titan retaliated by aiming a monstrous wall of Katon in her direction, forcing her to form five more clones of herself to create a negating tsunami of water powerful enough to dispel the flames.

Cronus used Zeus's distraction to his advantage, slashing out at him with his shadow blade. The thunder god's eyes widened and he parried it away, his gaze flying to his Queen to discover that she was on her knees, shaking violently. Thanatos had caught her in an illusion, timing the debilitating psychological attack to meet her eyes the moment Cronus's flames had vanished. Hypnos stood behind Hera, and they both lifted their blades, aiming them straight at her neck. Zeus dropped low, driving an aggressive kick to Cronus's ankles before flash-warping to his wife's side, lifting her into his arms and away from danger just before the Uchiha could decapitate her. He broke her out of the genjutsu, placing a hand tenderly to her shoulder before directing a fierce glare at their enemies.

Their scuffle was then interrupted when the Nine-tails suddenly bent over, clutching at its head in agony. It squeezed its eyes shut, writhing in anguish, and when its eyes next opened, they were no longer consumed by vacant red holes. Only the irises remained crimson, and they fixed immediately onto Cronus and the other Uchiha, livid, an awareness and consciousness within them that had been visibly lacking before.

It was as if the creature had been abruptly snapped out of a spell.

The Titan god's eyes widened in disbelief as the Kyuubi roared in fury and began to viciously attack Hypnos and Thanatos instead. The two younger Uchiha skirted back to evade its swipes, momentarily diverted from Cronus's side as they sought to catch the Kyuubi in genjutsu once more, to bring it to heel, but the angered tailed beast, restored to its senses, was intelligent. It turned its back to avoid their Sharingan, slamming its nine tails down in an attempt to crush Death and Sleep. Zeus used the chaotic distraction to flicker behind Cronus, forming quick hand-seals that locked Cronus in a golden, chakra-depleting cube that rapidly sucked his chakra levels, transferring some of his reserves to Zeus himself, forcing the enraged Titan to relinquish the remainder of his Susano'o to slow down the rate of absorption. Cronus pushed out at the stifling barrier with gravitational chaos, and the dark matter shattered the cage, leaving him momentarily vulnerable and without a shield. He sprang at Zeus, slashing out with his blade, sending forth multiple spinning discs of lethal black flame. One of them clipped the edge of Zeus's cloak but the Olympian swiftly tore it off his shoulders and was once again quick to warp out of further harm's reach.

As soon as he touched down, a circle of black fire erupted around him, forming a crackling wall of Amaterasu. Zeus once more used his ability to teleport to escape the flames but Cronus was already waiting, jumping into the air and spitting forth ferocious dragon-shaped Katon attacks that rained down on the Olympian. Zeus lifted a palm and countered with a powerful Rasengan, scattering the flaming dragons in multiple directions.

The Kyuubi released another gargantuan, catastrophic chakra bomb, sending it indiscriminately at everyone on the summit. Zeus and Hera blinked out of sight and Thanatos and Hypnos flash-stepped before Cronus, loyally shielding him with their Susano'o barriers to preserve his chakra. The area exploded once again into a suffocatingly thick shroud of smoke - then four humongous tails slammed down, striking Thanatos's barrier. His shield held firm, protecting everyone behind it, but another huge detonating bomb tore through the smoke seconds later. Its gravitational power sent Thanatos skidding backward, away from Hypnos and Cronus's side. He lifted an arm, shielding his eyes from the blinding flare of light that accompanied it, his hair and cloak billowing in the wind behind him, momentarily losing sight of his cousin and his King.

Sasuke watched Shisui grit his teeth with concentrated effort when another bomb slammed into his barrier, barely allowing him time to recover from the onslaught of the first. His Susano'o blocked out the damage, but it was starting to pulse dangerously, indicating that its use was losing effectiveness and that he had already used up a great deal of his chakra reserves. He succeeded in batting it aside but another bomb immediately followed. With a mighty effort, the deity of sleep managed to deflect the demolishing ball away. It disappeared into the smoke beyond and then, almost immediately the green Susano'o ebbed and disintegrated, Hypnos's chakra all but spent. He sagged slightly, clearly exhausted.

The Kyuubi spotted its opening and wasted no time in lunging at Cronus, a gigantic claw aimed piercingly at his chest.

Without even blinking, Cronus reached out and ruthlessly grabbed hold of Hypnos by the back of his neck, hauling his body roughly between himself and the Kyuubi's claw, using him as a makeshift shield in replacement for the Susano'o he clearly did not wish to summon forth in order to selfishly spare his own dwindling chakra levels. Stepping aside, he allowed it to impale Hypnos straight through the chest instead, the connecting hit and force of the impalement knocking the God of Sleep's mask from his face. He blinked, visibly stunned, and looked down at the claw embedded in his body. Blood pooled into his mouth, dripping down his chin as he struggled to draw a breath, his eyes lifting to Cronus in bewildered disbelief.

Sasuke stepped forward with a start, anger burning like wildfire in his veins. The rest of the room had vanished around him. He watched, in disgust and fury, as Cronus sacrificed Hypnos without so much as batting an eyelid, clearly judging that his purpose - and life - were spent the moment his chakra had run out. Sakura gasped, horrified to see how easily Cronus had cast aside his own kin and exchanged alarmed glances with Naruto.

Thanatos stilled, his gaze locking immediately onto Cronus, watching as he snarled something into Hypnos's ear. Looking livid, the Titan gripped the God of Sleep's shoulder, clearly draining any remaining chakra that was left from the younger deity - before allowing the Kyuubi to rip him brutally from his grasp. Hypnos's body was hurtled violently up through the air, before he sickeningly slammed against one of the few remaining columns and slumped motionlessly onto his front on the ground. He did not stir again.

Chakra-chains then shot out through the smoke and enveloped the roaring Nine-tails, which struggled violently, trying to break through and evade them. But still more surged forth, wrapping suffocatingly around the creature until it was rendered unable to move. The smoke cleared, revealing Hera whose palms were extended, her entire body shaking violently from the effort to suppress the Kyuubi, to hold it in place as Zeus's hands moved to form a flurry of fast seals. He then pressed his palms against his wife's back, causing the chakra-chains to fortify and glow brighter.

Thanatos's gaze flicked for only the briefest of moments onto his motionless kin before aloofly turning his attention back toward Zeus and Hera. Sasuke looked on in horrified disbelief. Never would his brother ever allow harm to befall Shisui, much less fail to respond to his being so grievously hurt. How was he still aiding Cronus? His heart pounded, the sickening sense that something had to be very wrong for Itachi to choose to act in such a manner causing unease to lodge itself in the pits of his stomach. It went against Itachi's very character to abandon who he viewed as his own older brother. Just as his murder of Erebus and Nyx had.

Cronus looked toward the nine-tailed Kyuubi, his eternal Mangekyou flashing menacingly as the God of Death raised his sword and flash-stepped forward with such speed that his blade locked immediately with Zeus's. They two exchanged a series of sword-blows, before Thanatos's form dispersed into crows, alighting directly behind Hera. He drew his blade back, intending to impale her through the chest, but Zeus intercepted, snapping a powerful lightning bolt at him to ward Thanatos back.

Cronus had managed to quickly regain possession of the Kyuubi once more with his Sharingan. Its eyes blazed anew with unseeing rage and with a renewed burst of strength it broke out of some of the chains and hurtled another chakra bomb at the Olympians. Thanatos raised his Susano'o shield, covering himself and Cronus from the blast as Zeus once more warped himself and Hera aside. Dust and debris flooded the area and Hera sent forth further chains in a desperate attempt to subdue the demon fox. Cronus lunged forth, spotting her location, ready to strike but Zeus intercepted, crossing blades with him to keep the Titan from attacking his Queen. Thanatos leapt aside to avoid the slamming of the Kyuubi's tails, his own Susano'o beginning to flicker dangerously, before the demon fox abruptly bounded forward.

Zeus's eyes widened. He had seen the Kyuubi move and realised where it was headed. He warped away from Cronus and threw himself before Hera in a desperate attempt to reach her in time to protect her, utilising Hiraishin - but for once, he was not fast enough to teleport them away and they were both impaled straight through the gut by the tailed beast's lethal, curved claw.

"NO!" Naruto cried, tears welling in his eyes, the anguish of finally seeing the awful tragedy that had befallen his parents on the summit pushing him to breaking point. He gripped onto his hair senselessly, visibly stricken. "No! NO! Damn it!"

Kakashi stared, wide-eyed and internally distraught, the extent of their King and Queen's sacrifice finally made apparent. He watched as the heartless Cronus threw his head back and laughed in glee. Sakura could almost imagine the sound, and it made her blood run cold as she gazed at the horrendous sight in open-mouthed horror.

"Ma…" Naruto's voice quivered, breaking with anguish. Tears were spilling down his cheeks, and his entire body was trembling violently. "Dad-"

Sakura reached out to him, gripping his left arm, trying to keep her own tears and shaking at bay. Kakashi silently placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, deeply pained by what he was witnessing. The crushing guilt of not being able to be there for Minato, for failing to protect his king returned to him full force, flooding him with bitter remorse.

Sasuke tasted copper bitterness in his mouth and realised that he had been biting his own tongue hard enough to draw blood. He swallowed, his gaze locked onto Itachi, who stood back, observing the calamity that had befallen Zeus and Hera, chillingly unruffled and perfectly composed just as Sasuke always recalled him to be. He seemed to be awaiting further orders from Cronus. Sasuke's heart raced as he acknowledged that he was watching what were likely to be the last few minutes of his brother's existence. Shisui, it appeared, had already passed, or at the very least had succumbed to his terrible injuries shortly after falling to the ground. He had not moved since.

Cronus saw an opening and attacked with Amaterasu, going in for the kill, but even in his heavily injured state, Zeus countered, enveloping himself and Hera with a spinning vortex of wind and wild spikes of crackling lightning that criss-crossed around the Olympian royals, forming a physical, electrical barrier. The black flames clipped onto the bolts, setting them aflame, and Zeus sent them shooting erratically outward, forcing both Thanatos and Cronus to dodge to evade the dangerous retaliation strike.

With blood spilling from their mouths and the electrical barrier still spiking around them, Zeus and Hera then lifted their hands and formed rapid seals. The chakra-chains maintained by Hera glowed brighter and countless more roped around the Kyuubi's body, pinning it down in place. Cronus and Thanatos threw everything at them to halt them, but their combined barriers held firm, fortified by another arc of golden-light that acted as an impenetrable shield akin to Susano'o. Seconds later, the demon fox's form was overwhelmed with blinding light. The amusement quickly waned from Cronus's face as he gazed up at the Nine-tails in a moment of rare, alarmed confusion, a second before it dissipated entirely into millions of particles of light. The Titan god blinked, stunned, quickly realising that it had been sealed away completely, and turned just in time to see a barely-standing Zeus and Hera, now freed of the Kyuubi's claw, completing a series of complex seals that he did not recognise.

The barrier around them flickered and finally failed, leaving them unguarded. Cronus's expression twisted into one of ugly, unbridled rage and he yelled something - just as Thanatos sprang swiftly forth and drove a blade of flame straight through Zeus and Hera's chests.

Sakura's hands flew to her heart, as if she herself had been impaled, appalled by the heartless brutality of the act. Her eyes automatically shifted to Sasuke, as if he could somehow explain his brother's callous actions. But the death deity looked just as shocked, equally at a loss to account for what they were seeing.

"What's happening?!" Naruto exclaimed, stepping forward in horror, his body ready to burst with fury. "That- that damned traitor-! My dad! He trusted him-! What the hell?!"

Zeus's cerulean eyes widened, meeting Thanatos's stoic, masked gaze. His lips parted in surprise, pouring out blood, and genuine shock passed across his handsome features, a look mirrored in the incredulous eyes of his stunned queen. Zeus then blinked and looked down in open bewilderment at the blade that had pierced straight through their armour with such ease. A fleeting moment of clarity then seemed to dawn on Zeus's face, and his gaze returned to Thanatos as he struggled to form words. He lifted a hand, gripping onto Thanatos's left arm, his face contorted with immense pain.

Sasuke released a shallow, unsteady breath, not missing the way his brother's head bowed slightly, the way his heavy-lashed eyes behind the mask lowered. What in the world was Itachi doing?! The marked kunai. All those meetings on Olympus. Why would Minato provide him and Shisui with any tools and strongly imply an alliance if it had ended with Itachi betraying him and Hera? His thoughts ricocheted wildly, his mind in absolute disarray, his eyes unable to make sense of what he was seeing.

With his life-force rapidly fading, Zeus used the last of his strength to lift his hands, forming one final set of seals before pressing his palms back against a weeping Hera's. Her hands closed tightly around his, causing a transparent gold barrier to shoot out from their forms and erect around the entirety of Olympus's summit.

"No…" Kakashi breathed. Understanding dawned upon him as he noted the way Thanatos's eyes lowered to watch the hand seals, allowing them to be formed and doing nothing to halt them even when he had every opportunity to do so. "This isn't a betrayal…" he shook his head. "This was a deliberate distraction."

Sakura released an astonished breath, her gaze fixed on the enigmatic masked deity in confusion, not knowing what to think. If Sasuke was difficult to read, then his reticent older brother had clearly been even more so, impossible to discern in his intentions with his unmoved poise and marked absence of all emotion in combat.

"What?" Naruto demanded, struggling to accept it. If that was the case, why had his father and mother seemed so stunned?

Sasuke's lips parted. He noted that Itachi was standing in front of Zeus. Between Zeus and Cronus who stood behind him. Cronus hadn't immediately realised that they were forming one last set of hand seals. His mind raced to decipher what that had to mean.

Thanatos then wrenched his blade roughly out of Hera and Zeus's chests. The two Olympians began to fall, inhaling their last breaths. Some distance behind Cronus there was movement as Hypnos finally stirred, rolling quickly off the edge of the platform. Thanatos immediately drew back at his cue, swiftly flash-stepping past Cronus, meeting the Titan's incredulous gaze for just a fraction of a second - just as an infuriated Cronus looked down at his hands, noticed Hypnos's movement from the corner of his eye and finally realised what was happening. He opened his mouth, his head following Thanatos's movements, and raised a hand, summoning a large, jagged, sharp shard of black-shadow ice, forged of deadly, life-draining chaos, sending it hurtling through the air straight after the God of Death. It stabbed the death deity straight in the back just as he leapt gracefully off the pinnacle of the mountain and a crystal barrier snapped up around Zeus and Hera's forms, the last thing they saw before their vision finally faded away to black.

The air fractured in Sasuke's lungs as the memory orb pulsed and finally dispelled into particles of light, taking away any hope of discovering what had happened next.

No, he thought. It could not end there. Once more, he was bereft. Empty and cheated again by the ignorance he had been left to drown in for millenia. His brother had suffered. Shisui had suffered. There was no semblance of doubt left in his mind. Every truth he had thought he'd known was a lie.

Suddenly, he saw everything with painful, perfect clarity. His brother had played the role of faithful underling to the very end and had ultimately betrayed Cronus at the very last second, not even once allowing his composure to slip in the heat of battle - even when Shisui had been badly hurt. By feigning killing Minato and Kushina - who had already been likely dying as a result of whatever forbidden seals they had cast - he had diverted Cronus's attention just long enough to allow them the time they needed to form the last set of hand-seals required to strip him of his powers and trap him on Olympus.

Itachi had played his part of double-agent flawlessly; the brilliant plan had been executed to perfection, and Cronus had only realised something was amiss at the very last moment. By then it had been far too late to react, and his final attack before his powers had shut off completely had been in helpless retaliation, trapping Zeus and Hera and striking out in outrage at a fleeing Itachi.

Sasuke silently processed what he had seen, stunned. To betray someone as formidable and intelligent as Cronus was meant that everything Itachi and Shisui had done, every action they had taken, would have had to have been carefully and meticulously planned and calculated, would have served a very exact purpose. Which meant that, even though Sasuke didn't understand it and had never been able to comprehend or accept it - that Itachi surely had to have had a legitimate reason for taking their parents' lives? If Cronus had been so willing to sacrifice all of his kin to secure his own success, then was it so far-fetched to believe that perhaps Nyx and Erebus's deaths were on his blood-stained hands, also?

Disturbed by the possibility, Sasuke felt numb, cold inside. His very blood had turned to ice and a terrible weight rested upon his chest. For all those millenia, he had bitterly believed his brother to be a cold-hearted traitor to his clan, and now he had discovered that there had been so much more to Itachi's actions than he had ever realised, than he could have ever fathomed. Far from being traitors, he and Shisui had been the only two Uchiha who had taken a stand against Cronus and his crimes. Silence roared heavily in the chamber as the third relic revealed itself to the shocked Team Seven. As Kakashi retrieved and copied the seals on the artifact, a sudden realisation washed over Sasuke, pieces of the puzzle clicking almost audibly in place in his overwhelmed mind.

Itachi and Shisui had escaped the summit. Though heavily wounded, they had both been alive at the time.

He drew in a quiet breath. If Cronus had been trapped on Olympus, and Itachi and Shisui had survived the fight - could that mean that either his brother or cousin, for a brief time at least, had inherited the rest of the clan's abilities before they had passed to Sasuke? How long had they both survived after escaping the mountain? Whatever had transpired after that, which had led to Sasuke being the only remaining descendant following their abandonment of Cronus?

Had Cronus been the one directly responsible for their deaths, in the treacherous attacks he had instigated against them both? Was that the true reason they had both passed on? Not because they'd been attacked by any of the opposition, but because they'd been irreparably injured by the very farce of a 'King' who had led their entire clan to war for no reason other than to chase his own, arrogant glory?

The painful, crushing truth stripped bare for him to see stared Sasuke right in the face: that were it not for their wounds, his brother and cousin might have survived.

Shisui and Itachi had clearly chosen to aid the Olympians, prioritising the greater good over an enslaved, war-torn world and had been prepared to sacrifice even their own lives to achieve a period of peace, to protect the precious balance of life and death. But it hadn't been the Olympians who had ultimately killed them.

It had been the monster Cronus himself.

Hatred and rage gnawed away at Sasuke, burning like bitter, scalding acid within his chest. He wanted to scream. He wanted to maim, destroy. He wanted to rip Cronus to pieces, to tear his head off, to end his existence in the most ruthless, bloodiest, most tormenting way conceivable. To make him pay and suffer the same way he had made the rest of the Uchiha clan and Sasuke himself suffer from the consequences of his selfish, self-centred actions. He had betrayed them all.

He sensed eyes on him and turned his head slightly, meeting Naruto's hurt, subdued gaze, before glancing at Sakura, who was staring anxiously at him. In that moment, Sasuke finally understood and acknowledged that everyone had lost in different ways. Naruto had lost his parents and home. They had laid down their lives to stop Cronus. Sasuke had lost his clan and family. Sakura had lost her life and been doomed to a torturous cycle of rebirth. There had been no winners in a war that had been meaningless, that could have been prevented entirely if only Cronus himself had somehow been imprisoned.

The only mysteries that remained were the causes of the gaps in Sasuke's own memories - and knowing what had become of Itachi and Shisui after they had escaped from the summit. Everything else, he now saw clearly. Cronus was the sole cause of every casualty in the war but himself.

His eyes fell away from Naruto and Sakura. In contrast to Cronus, Zeus and Hera had done everything they could to protect their own, selflessly sacrificing their own lives, using seals that guaranteed their passing. The glaring differences in the two sides and their approach to ruling were undeniable. Sasuke felt sickened to his very core. Finally he knew the full truth about Cronus, and all the heinous crimes he had committed.

How he had so callously pulled Shisui into harm's way, allowing him to be stabbed in his stead as if he had been nothing but a puppet haunted Sasuke. The image of Itachi leaping from Olympus with a shard of black-ice protruding from the centre of his chest burned into his mind's eye. He swallowed thickly, fighting to keep the mask of indifference plastered on his face. It was not the time to grieve, he told himself. It was not the time to lose focus.

His brother hadn't. Not even once.

"That son of a bitch," Naruto raged. "I'm going to kill him! Somehow, I swear it, he'll pay for everything he's done to all of us!"

Sasuke's hands tightened into fists. And for the first time in thousands of years, he found himself silently agreeing with the sentiment of Uzumaki Naruto's words.

---

The circle of light returned them to the base of the mountain. It was the middle of the night, and the sky had thankfully cleared of all rain. They quietly retrieved their motorbikes, and as Sakura slipped onto the passenger seat behind Sasuke, she found herself concerned about him. What they had seen in the memory sphere had been upsetting for everyone, but she couldn't imagine how Sasuke had to be feeling, seeing Cronus responsible for the wounds inflicted upon his brother Thanatos and cousin Hypnos. To know that everything Zeus had told them had been true; Hypnos and Thanatos had sided with the surface gods and worked with the King and his Queen to seal Cronus on Olympus.

Surely his entire world had been turned upside down. Everything he had believed in had turned out to be a lie. Sakura could relate. That had been her, too, when she'd been kidnapped to his realm, when she'd discovered that the supernatural was real, that her mother and friends were all immortals and that she herself was the reincarnation of a deceased spring goddess who had lived countless lifetimes over. She knew how it felt for the world to be rocked on its axis, to feel like it was snatched from underneath one's feet. She imagined that was how Sasuke had to be feeling at that very moment. Angry. Shocked. Betrayed. Upset. Confused. Hurt. Like nothing would ever be the same again. Like nothing made sense. Harsh reckonings like that forced people to change.

If those closest to Sasuke had lied to him - and she had no idea why he had been kept in ignorance - then she couldn't blame him for trusting nobody else. It was no wonder that he kept them all - her included - firmly shut out.

She could feel the tension underlying the death deity's body, and knew better than to attempt to reach out to him then. Once more he needed time to process things. They all did. Even Naruto was gloomy and resentful following the revelations, his usually cheerful expression sullen and angry.

"We'll make camp tonight at Iwagakure, the Hidden Stone Village," Kakashi informed them, and without saying anything else they set off onto the road again.

---

They reached Iwagakure's front gates just before dawn and decided to spend the rest of the day there until the following morning. They were ahead of schedule, Kakashi had informed them, and after everything they had been through, one day of respite surely wouldn't hurt. The news was like sweet music to Sakura's ears. Upon arrival, she enjoyed a hot shower, washing off all the sweat and grime from the gruelling mountain mission, glad that they had time to wash their clothes and recharge. She made sure to text her mother and friends back home to reassure them that all was well before heading to bed.

After they'd slept and recuperated, Kakashi released them to spend their time as they saw fit while he re-stocked on their supplies, updated the other surface gods of their progress, and took some much needed time-out for himself - but not before sternly warning the three other members of Team Seven that he didn't want any trouble from any of them that day.

"There won't be any trouble, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto reassured their mentor with conviction. "We're all on the same side here." His eyes had then pointedly moved to Sasuke, who had remained silent and avoided his gaze, before departing alone - much to Sakura's disappointment.

She set off with Naruto, who confided in her that finding out the truth at last about the fate of his parents had renewed his resolve to avenge their deaths and stop Cronus once and for all. They both wondered if Sasuke was having similar thoughts, but Sakura had once again urged her friend to be patient with him. After all, none of what they had found out had been easy on the death deity, who had perhaps been misled and lied to the most out of anyone.

The Hidden Stone Village was very different to Konoha and Sunagakure in its design, landscape and in its proud people. It was aptly cradled in a mighty, towering circle of protective mountains that served as a defensive cocoon around the village. Sakura learned that Suna and Iwa were not fond of one another, and had shared many conflicts of interest throughout the course of history. They traded supplies being neighbours, but relations were frosty at best. As she took the time to explore the Hidden Stone Village with its cobbled pathways, neat lawns, trees and its compact stone-buildings, she learned about the local customs, attire and clothing, as well as the multitude of languages spoken, some of which she had never even heard before.

She stopped by market stalls, inspecting the wonderful, unusual wares on show, tried different foods with Naruto, and was surprised and internally delighted when Sasuke finally fell into silent step beside them half-way through the day while Sakura was inspecting some local medicines. He did not speak, merely watched and listened quietly as she asked the vendor about the nature of the herbs and mixtures used in the village, purchasing a few rare ingredients to take home to her mother, but his presence by her side felt welcome and familiar.

Naruto wisely chose to say little, and did not attempt to cajole Sasuke into any manner of banter. The mood of their unit was a pensive one following the revelations of Zeus's memory sphere and when they stopped to eat at a local ramen bar that evening, he cautiously invited Sasuke to share a meal with them. The death deity wordlessly declined and Naruto did not press the matter.

Sakura glanced behind them as she took a seat at the table next to her friend, to find that Sasuke had not vanished. Instead he lingered outside the restaurant, arms crossed, leaning cooly against the wall of the building, minding his own business as he waited for them to finish their food. They ate their meal and Sakura requested a ripe, plump tomato as Naruto settled the bill. The restaurant owner gave her an odd look, but handed her one wrapped neatly in a napkin, free of charge nonetheless.

Sakura stepped outside ahead of Naruto and approached Sasuke. She held up the bundled fruit as she reached him.

"I got you this."

He turned his head toward her, blinking curiously down at her offering. Slowly, he unfolded his arms and accepted it, opening it up to find the tomato. He raised an eyebrow, and his dark eyes shifted onto her questioningly, as if the gesture completely baffled him.

Sakura blushed under the weight of his probing stare. Clasping her hands awkwardly behind her back, she said, "I umm, noticed you're fond of tomatoes, so I figured you'd like one as a snack."

"..." Sasuke continued to stare at her for a long moment. Then he wrapped the fruit back up. Before he could draw his hand back, Sakura reached out on impulse and lightly touched his arm, looking up at him with sorrowful eyes.

'I'm sorry,' she communicated telepathically. 'About your brother and your cousin. I really am, Sasuke.'

He immediately tensed, his jaw clenching, a sure indication that he had heard her. Then he pulled his arm away as Naruto re-joined them, giving away nothing of his thoughts.

To Kakashi's immense relief, they all returned to him at the end of the day in one piece, without any further disagreements or conflicts. Sakura was pleasantly surprised and beamed beneath her duvet cover when she cracked an eye open and spotted Sasuke later that night, sitting on the windowsill of their team's hotel-room in quiet sentry, munching thoughtfully on the very same tomato she had obtained for him earlier.

---

They returned to the road the next morning, and the next two days of their journey were relatively uneventful, following a similar routine as the previous days of travel between locations with them setting up camp wherever a suitable place could be found. Lightning Country was their destination, and Kakashi deduced that the quickest way to reach it would be to cut through the Hidden Waterfall Village and cross over the ocean itself. That way, they could avoid any land-bound, unpleasant surprises in the form of any further enemy attacks.

The third day that followed their departure from Iwagakure also passed in peace. They arrived at Takigakure, the Hidden Waterfall Village. It was a spectacular sight to behold, constructed around a large tree and surrounded by lush green hills, sprawling valleys and cascading waterfalls. The skies above it were a brilliant blue, the climate much cooler and fresher due to its proximity to the ocean. Sakura gazed around as they passed through it in awe. Its buildings were quaint, colourful, constructed mainly of wood and the people wore mostly white, beige and grey, neutral-toned clothing. The local fashion was to wear one's hair in beautiful braids and Sakura was soon stopped by a group of little girls who cooed in fascination over the uncommon colour of her tresses and insisted that they braid them for her.

Sasuke halted as Naruto and Kakashi went obliviously on ahead, turning to find Sakura surrounded by five excited mortal children no older than seven or eight years in age between them. She gave him a helpless look as they tugged pleadingly at her hands, but he made no move to intercede, instead releasing a quiet snort at the children's innocent antics. Sighing, Sakura found she didn't have it in her heart to refuse their hopeful little faces and relented, allowing them to lead her to perch on the edge of a stone water-fountain where the little girls then proceeded to arrange her hair in the elaborate, local fashion. When they were done, they sweetly pressed flowers into her hands and jubilantly waved her off.

Sakura felt Sasuke's gaze lingering on her as she rejoined him, but when she glanced his way, his dark eyes had already moved to the path ahead, walking with his hands in his pockets. She lifted a hand self-consciously to her hair, feeling the intricate plaits, and wondered why Sasuke had been staring at her, how they looked. Then, catching a glimpse of herself in the reflection of a shop window, she realised with appreciation that the girls had done a wonderful job.

They stayed only a few hours in the village before exiting back out onto the road. It would take another day and a half's ride to reach the ocean, Kakashi informed them. Their next destination was a location known ominously as the Mountain's Graveyard, which would allow them to reach the waters and cross over to Lightning Country. That was where, Kakashi presumed, Suigetsu would meet them to assist them further in their travels.

They made a quick comfort stop at a petrol station to check the air-pressure in their tyres and to top up on fuel before speeding out onto the winding highways once more. At length they ventured off the main dual carriageways, following signs pointing toward the Mountain Graveyard that warned of loose rocks falling from cliff-faces. The drive through was tedious, the pleasant green scenery of the village they'd left behind fading away to dull grey. They camped that night in a small cave Naruto discovered using Sage-Mode, before setting off the next morning after sharing a simple breakfast consisting of dried fruits, flat-bread and salted strips of meat.

As they stepped out of the cave, they were immediately met with a sight that was as disturbing as it was thoroughly unexpected.

Countless white, androgynous forms rose silently up from the earth and surrounded them, preventing Team Seven from reaching the vehicles they had left cloaked nearby. Plant-like appendages protruded from their bodies, and their golden eyes were disturbingly inhuman.

"What the hell?!" Naruto exclaimed, immediately adopting a battle-ready stance. "Where'd these aloe-vera freaks come from?"

"Orochimaru, no doubt," Kakashi murmured, preparing a lightning stream of energy in his palm.

Sakura gaped as more of the grotesque, sickly looking creatures materialised from the ground before them, enclosing them in a wide circle. They were somehow rapidly forming more clones of themselves.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He stepped forward. "Save your chakra," he uttered curtly.

"Huh?" Naruto glanced at him in confusion. "You know a quick way to beat these things?"

A faint, contemptuous sneer curled on one corner of Sasuke's lips. He had been wondering when he would encounter these beings. They were created from the very same phial he had handed to Orochimaru on Olympus with his own hand. A phial that Chiyo had assisted him in cloning to near perfection - with one single, fundamental difference in its molecular structure; it had been contaminated with the essence of his own element, insidious and concealing in nature.

Cronus and Orochimaru were about to find out that they hadn't been the only ones who had attended the exchange on Olympus with unpleasant surprises hidden up their sleeve.

The White Zetsu reared back, lifting their hands, ready to attack in unison with the earth element. Sasuke's right palm immediately shot upward, and Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi watched in astonishment as the creatures instantly froze in place, unable to take another step.

"Orochimaru," Sasuke said coldly, knowing the serpent was watching, could hear him. "You underestimated me." His eyes bled to crimson, focusing his attack of choice. A ruthless genjutsu that crippled the Zetsu army to their knees within seconds.

"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed, visibly impressed. "How'd you do that, Sasuke?!"

Sasuke blinked, his gaze narrowing mercilessly as he regarded the helpless creatures that were beginning to wither to black, devoured by the shadows Sasuke triggered to activate inside them, sucking out their very life-forms. Orochimaru had given him the Curse Seal of Heaven. And Sasuke, in return, had gifted death to his subjects. He had absolutely no intention, however, of sharing details of his trade with the other members of Team Seven. That was a detail better left unsaid.

"Burn," he murmured darkly, and inhaled deeply, raising his fingers to his lips. A devastating blast of Katon raged forth, enveloping the army. They combusted into flame, writhing, struggling to drag themselves to safety, but Sasuke's hold on them remained ruthless, absolute.

Sakura gawked at the phenomenal, deadly display of power. Somehow, Sasuke had outwitted the enemy. She wondered how he had been able to poison Orochimaru's subjects, if it had anything to do with his forbidden trip to Olympus.

"Alright! Way to go, Sasuke!" Naruto punched a triumphant fist into the air.

"Everyone, to the bikes, quickly!" Kakashi urged, and they turned away, running toward their vehicles. "We don't know what else they'll send after us!"

A retaliating ball of flame soared just over their heads, blasting a nearby boulder to smithereens. Team Seven turned, frantically seeking out its source and Kakashi's blood ran cold as his lone-eye came to rest on a cloaked, masked individual who was standing on the roof of the very cave they'd sheltered in for the night.

Obito, Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Madara's servant had arrived - and he wasn't alone. By his side was Kabuto, his ghostly-pale face shadowed by the brown hood he wore over his head. There was no doubt in Sasuke's mind that Orochimaru had been keeping tabs on him via the Curse seal for the duration of the trip, and the arrival of Madara's allies was surely proof of that. They had either appeared to disable or abduct them. He knew he couldn't allow either to happen to Sakura.

"Cleverly done, Sasuke," Obito spoke, his voice echoing deeply in the air, sending chills down Sakura's spine. She knew from experience that this individual was ruthless, dangerous. He had been the one to slit Ino's throat, had kidnapped her friends. It was his abduction of Neji that had ultimately led to the seraph's untimely demise.

"Shit!" Naruto cursed. "It's that masked bastard again!"

"Obito…" Kakashi whispered, his heart constricting deep within his chest, as if an icy fist was squeezing around the organ. Knowing that behind the mask was the deity who had once been his closest friend, completely brain-washed and possessed by Madara's evil influence, now lost beyond retrieval, cut him apart inside. What had happened to him? How had Madara enslaved him? Did any part of his consciousness remain at all? The questions - and the deafening lack of answers - haunted Kakashi.

"Hn," Sasuke regarded Obito with derision. "Running errands for Madara?" he taunted, his new-found awareness of Cronus's true actions filling him with utter contempt toward the Uchiha patriarch.

"My Lord expresses his sincere disappointment in your decision to aid the surface deities," Obito answered levelly. "You are a traitor to our clan."

Sasuke glared at him. "Madara is the reason why the Uchiha perished," he hissed back.

"On the contrary. They were honoured to die for their king," Obito answered, irking Sasuke further. It was evident to the death deity that Obito's mind had been completely warped to believe every single lie Madara had fed to the clan prior to their demise. He retained no semblance of his own individuality, his sole purpose for existence to serve as the Titan Uchiha's pawn-piece on the surface chess-board. He was a threat that needed to be taken out, and yet Sasuke knew that they were in a vulnerable position. Their priority was to safely reach the final relic site and for him to complete his sentence. They couldn't afford to be injured, captured, or to waste the level of chakra required to subdue a powerful foe like Obito.

"Obito!" Kakashi addressed him. "Is that really you? How? You died right before my eyes!"

Obito was silent. Then, slowly, he lifted his hand, and removed the wooden mask concealing his face from view to reveal a dark-haired deity about Kakashi's age in appearance. His eyes opened, revealing a Sharingan in the right iris - and a Byakugan implanted in the left. The right side of his face was heavily scarred, as if a terrible accident had befallen him.

Kakashi felt the blood drain from his face as his worst fears were confirmed. It was indeed none other than Uchiha Obito in the flesh, but his mind was clearly not his own.

"What happened to you…?" Kakashi asked.

"I was saved by Lord Cronus," Obito answered. "And gained a new purpose."

As Madara's puppet, Sasuke internally noted, his bitterness and anger flaring once more. Obito was a fool. He had no idea how cruelly Madara had manipulated their clan. How could he? He hadn't even been there on the day of the war.

"You…" Naruto's voice quivered, his gaze fixed onto Obito's left eye. "Where did you get that eye from?!"

"Your friend," Obito answered calmly, "was very willing to lay down his life."

Naruto stiffened and Sakura's eyes widened in horror. She recalled Neji, whose eyeballs had been carved gruesomely out of their sockets, how greatly he had to have suffered before he'd succumbed to his dreadful injuries. "You-!" she gasped in realisation, an anger so immense kindling within her that it stole her very breath away.

"You… took Neji's eyes?" White-hot rage burned through Naruto's veins. "You son-of-a-bitch!" He stepped forward, but Sasuke, who had anticipated that he would move, grabbed him roughly from the collar of his puffer jacket to keep him from attacking recklessly.

He could see that Obito was choosing his words deliberately. Trying to get a rise out of Naruto. Trying to split them apart.

"Sasuke-!" Naruto began angrily.

'Wait, you idiot,' Sasuke telepathically snapped in irritation. 'The Byakugan can see inner chakra pathways.'

Naruto blinked at him in astonishment.

'Sasuke is right,' Kakashi cautioned. 'It affords him a full circle of vision at all times. Whatever you do, Naruto, don't tap into the Kyuubi's chakra. We can't afford to get caught now, we need every one of us to get that final relic!'

Naruto clenched his teeth but chose to heed their warnings, deciding to stay put, though gazing up into the eye that had once belonged to Neji was akin to a thousand needles stabbing straight through his heart. That was Hinata's kin's eye. Obito had no right to wield it.

"You killed him!" Naruto seethed.

"He chose to die for the Hyuuga princess," Obito answered simply. "Such is war."

Sakura was disgusted by the heartlessness of his cold words. He was surely a representation of their true enemy's ideals. A monster who cared for nobody else's well-being but his own.

"We meet again at last, Miss. Haruno…" His companion then spoke with mock affection.

Sakura peered up at the man in the brown robe who stood beside Obito, trying to place his voice.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Tsk tsk. So impolite," came the response. "After I took you under my wing, and all the knowledge I helped you acquire in the hospital… how quickly mortals forget. That is, assuming you are just a mortal. How concerned all your friends and mother are, for your precious welfare..."

Sasuke's expression remained stony, but Kabuto's words were unsettling to his ears. They suspected Sakura was more. Of course they did. And he was entirely responsible for the enemy's attention shifting onto her. His face betrayed nothing of his thoughts but internally, his blood felt like it had turned to ice.

Sakura blinked in surprise. Her lips then parted, aghast, as her brain finally registered a similarity in the voice to someone she had once known, but not heard for a very long time. "Dr. Yakushi?" she said uncertainly, disbelief plastered across her features as she gaped up at him in shock.

"I am honoured that you remember me."

"What happened to you?" Sakura gasped, glimpsing the snakes that slithered out beneath the sleeves of his cloak. Alarm prickled all over her.

"He was corrupted by that creep Orochimaru!" Naruto's hands closed into fists.

"Corrupted?" Kabuto repeated. "Oh no. I have been liberated by the great Lord Orochimaru. No longer confined to a weak mortal shell."

'We need to retreat,' Kakashi told his unit telepathically. 'We can't let them get their hands on the relics. I've copied them all with my Sharingan but there's no telling what Madara might try to do if he obtains them. Obito will use Kamui to attempt to transport us to the enemy. I'm conserving chakra now to use mine in an emergency - but it takes a while to store enough to use it more than once! The bikes are our only chance of losing them!'

'We can use our summons too,' Naruto communicated. 'If we lose the bikes, right?'

'We might have to. Keep your belongings on you just in case! There's no telling what they might try to hinder our travel and we need to plan for all outcomes!' Kakashi replied.

"You traitor," Sakura glared at Kabuto. "My mother gave you the job at the hospital!"

"We all have our secrets, Sakura-chan," Kabuto offered her a chilling smile, and Sakura felt her skin crawl in response to the endearing suffix he chose to attach to her name.

"You have something of mine, too, Hatake Kakashi." Obito said, returning his mask onto his face as he pointed a gloved hand at Kakashi - and with that, he flickered abruptly out of sight. Kabuto leapt down, multiple snakes shooting out at them with great speed from beneath the sleeves of his cloak.

Sasuke immediately summoned Susano'o, wrapping Team Seven in its impenetrable defensive shield and slammed a skeletal fist straight toward Obito and Kabuto to push them back. They leapt aside to avoid it then scattered when Sasuke directed a ferocious blast of Katon at them, using the explosion of fire as a diversion to allow himself and his team-mates to reach their shadow-cloaked vehicles. Obito sent another devastating fireball at them, which Sasuke deflected with his Susano'o, buying Kakashi time to mount his bike.

Activating Sage Mode, Naruto quickly formed a howling sphere of Rasengan and lobbed it toward Kabuto, who dispersed into liquid form to avoid it before re-appearing beside Obito.

'Sakura,' Sasuke's voice resounded in her head. If Kakashi could only use Kamui once to transport any of them out of harm's way, then in his mind, there was no doubt as to who had to travel with him. 'Go with Kakashi.'

She hesitated, glancing anxiously back at him and Naruto. 'But Sasuke-' she began to telepathically protest. Leaving the two alone to face the enemy together filled her with apprehension.

'Now!' He ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument.

She wasted no further time, grabbing her backpack from their shared bike and slipping onto the passenger seat behind her mentor who immediately pulled away, shielded by the wall of Sasuke's Susano'o behind them. They sped off, Kakashi accelerating at great speed quickly as they tore onto the road. They were quickly tailed by more of the White Zetsu creatures who travelled swiftly beneath the ground and surfaced continuously around them, directing wood-based attacks their way. Taking the initiative, Sakura twisted around in her seat to cover Kakashi's back and harnessed the fire orb in her arm-brace, shooting out bursts of fire to repel their attempts to force them off the road.

A sudden huge explosion sent a humongous cloud of thick smoke into the air behind them. Sakura gasped fearfully, her eyes widening as they turned toward the source. Naruto and Sasuke were back there. An unbearable, tense minute passed by. Then out of the haze came a speeding motorcycle and her heart leapt into her throat in relief. Naruto was steering and Sasuke stood perfectly anchored on the passenger seat behind him, his Susano'o deflecting Obito's attacks.

Plumes of smoke surrounded their bike and Sakura glanced down in astonishment to find that a pack of eight dogs of varying breeds and sizes had appeared to flank their vehicle and instantly began to work in coordinated succession to defend them against the onslaught of zetsus that kept leaping out through the ground. The canines were unnaturally fast, able to travel in blinding blurs of movements.

"Kakashi-sensei, those dogs?!" Sakura called.

"My summons! Don't worry about hitting them, they're trained to evade. Keep aiming at the enemy, Sakura!"

Sakura nodded and sent forth further blasts of fire attacks. Kakashi violently veered to the left to avoid something in the road and the momentum almost sent Sakura flying off the passenger seat. She glanced behind her to find that Kabuto, who was now travelling on a flying Stymphalian bird, had caught up to them and summoned a flurry of hissing snakes with fangs extended, aiming for the wheels of their vehicle. Kakashi manoeuvred to avoid them and Sakura slammed a bolt of lightning into the serpents, watching in disgust as they melted away into the ground before aiming a bolt at Kabuto's mount. The bird evaded, falling back.

The ocean was looming ever closer on the horizon but to Sakura it appeared to be an eternity away. How were they going to outrace their formidable foes? Obito was also travelling by air on one of the same gigantic birds that had attacked them on the road several days prior. She lifted her arm and sent another crackling surge of lightning at him, but his mount evaded and swooped down toward Naruto and Sasuke, sending a hailstorm of sharp feathers at the deities.

Sasuke's Susano'o easily deflected the projectiles, and a skeletal fist shot out, grabbing the tail of Kabuto's Stymphalian bird. The scientist abandoned it, joining Obito on his mount before Sasuke's armour tossed the captured monster violently back into the air. It spun upward into the sky, out of control and lost to their enemy.

The zetsu that attempted to surround Naruto's bike then exploded into shadows, taken down by Sasuke's influence but like weeds they continued to sprout upwards. Naruto swerved precariously to avoid several of the creatures and another of Kabuto's summoned snakes, before running over two others, accelerating to maximum speed as he sought to catch up to Kakashi.

There was a sudden ripple of movement in the air and then Sakura saw a swirling vortex appear between their bikes. Naruto was heading straight toward it.

Sakura cried out in terror. She remembered, all too well, what that was. "Naruto! Sasuke! Look out!"

Sasuke's head whipped around at her scream, his Sharingan immediately locking onto the threat.

"Shit!" Naruto swore. "Sasuke, jump!" In a heartbeat, he and Sasuke abandoned the bike, and it was sucked right into Obito's kamui seconds later. Sasuke shielded their fall with Susano'o, rolling rapidly onto the side of the road until they came to a stop, protected from another rain of sharp needles by the glowing chakra barrier. Wasting no time, Sasuke swiped his thumb across his lips and slammed his palm against the ground. Garuda materialised and he took to the skies on the back of his trusted hawk summon, scooping Naruto up with a skeletal fist to join him. His hands now freed up, Naruto summoned multiple clones that lunged toward Obito, throwing spinning Rasenshuriken at him, seeking to buy them enough time to catch up to Sakura and Kakashi.

Sakura continued to aim frantically, trying to take out as much of the enemy as possible, assisting the hounds that raced tirelessly at their side. Cars returning from the ocean occasionally passed them on the other side of the mountain-cradled highway, panicking motorists honking and swerving to avoid what their eyes could not believe they were seeing. One driver was flung off the side of the road entirely in the chaotic confusion. Sakura swallowed regretfully, knowing that they had no time to think of other casualties. They simply could not afford to be caught.

Another ripple appeared in the road in front of Kakashi and a sudden jolt in the tyres of their vehicle sent the motorbike veering precariously to the right. Kakashi cursed, glancing down to find that the zetsu had flung plant-like spikes onto the tarmac that had punctured straight through their wheels. Something then smashed into their left side and both Sakura and Kakashi were flung violently from their seats. Sakura desperately tried to summon a protective cradle of earth chakra to break their fall in time but felt herself being swept up into the air a moment later by Susano'o's skeletal hands as Garuda dove low, allowing Sasuke to grab onto her and Kakashi, saving them from being drawn into Obito's Kamui vortex.

"Good thinking, Sasuke!" Kakashi acknowledged, calling his canine summons on the ground away as the death deity safely deposited them atop his own. "Kamui can't catch us as easily if we're mid-flight!"

Kabuto formed quick hand-seals and sent forth flying metal projectile weapons in a bid to clip Garuda's wings. Naruto summoned a dozen leaping clones to take the hits while Sakura continued to relentlessly fire elemental attacks toward the winged monster that carried their enemy, forcing it to swerve left and right in the air, disturbing the accuracy of their foes' attacks.

Sasuke's Sharingan tracked Obito's movements. He was the greater threat, but his unpredictable aerial flight placed their attacks at a distinct disadvantage, too. He needed to connect just one Amaterasu to disable the Uchiha. He could feel his eyes starting to burn, the result of fatigue from the massive reserves of chakra he was drawing upon the longer he kept Susano'o sustained. But he had no choice. The barrier was the only thing guaranteed to prevent them from being sucked into Kamui and until they disabled their enemy, he simply could not afford to remove it.

Obito lifted his hand, and above his palm a dark sphere of energy began to form.

"What's that?!" Sakura gasped out. It looked alarmingly like the ball of destruction they'd seen in Zeus's memory orb.

Kakashi's lone eye widened in alarm. That chakra… it was akin to a tailed-beast bomb. How did Obito have the capability of using it? It grew larger and larger, until it was a huge gravitational sphere hovering above him.

"Damn it!" he cursed. "If that hits us, we're done for! Sasuke!"

Sasuke solidified his Susano'o, gritting his teeth as he pumped further chakra to expand the barrier to its full, winged form. Seeing the strain in his jaw, Naruto clamped a hand onto his shoulder.

"Here!" he yelled. "Sasuke! Use my chakra to help!"

"Sakura!" Kakashi shouted. "Stay behind us and guide the hawk!"

Sakura dropped down low, as Kakashi rose and placed his hand on Sasuke's other shoulder, lending him a steady stream of chakra in turn. Obito unleashed the devastating bomb, and Sakura directed the hawk to fly upward. She knew that she couldn't let that monstrous ball of chakra hit the ground below at any costs.

The ocean glistened ahead of them, reflecting the early morning sunlight beyond the clouds as Garuda flew at great speed toward it. The gargantuan orb slammed into Sasuke's barrier with such force that it jarred through all their bones and sent Garuda screeching in alarm, jolting precariously forward before it regained its graceful aerial balance. But the Susano'o held firm, pushing back against the impact of the malevolent chakra sphere.

Naruto ground his teeth and flooded Sasuke's chakra network with his own Sage Mode chakra. Sasuke felt the relief on his own reserves and drew upon the borrowed energy, the surge in levels allowing him to let Amaterasu loose whilst fortifying Susano'o further. The black flame jumped onto and spread over the ball, crackling across it in response to the movement of Sasuke's Sharingan, rapidly reducing its size until it withered away to nothing.

But Obito had already prepared another. It hurtled toward them like a howling, devouring black hole, and Sasuke frowned with effort, once again absorbing its destructive impact with his Susano'o.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura screamed, pointing in front of them. Three kamui vortexes were starting to form ahead of them.

Kakashi turned, his eyes wide as he caught sight of the rapidly expanding space-time maelstroms. He realised what Obito was trying to do; to slam enough chakra bombs at them to deplete Sasuke's chakra until Susano'o failed. Then nothing would stop his Kamui from spiriting them away. Kakashi knew he needed to act fast before that happened.

"Sasuke!" he yelled. "I have to kamui us away!"

Sasuke set the ball ablaze with black flame once again and as soon as it had dissipated he quickly withdrew Susano'o, his eyes widening as he watched Obito form a third bomb. Just where was he getting that level of monstrous, tailed-beast chakra from? He realised, with horror, what it had to mean, his Sharingan detecting the unnatural nature of Obito's chakra aura. There was no mistaking it; Obito was a tailed-beast host. It made sense; Cronus had already captured some of the beasts at the time of the war. Evidently he had chosen to seal them within his puppet for safe-keeping, and to afford him greater strength and chakra-resources.

Kakashi lifted his eye-patch and a second later they had all been sucked into his own Kamui. When they were transported out, they landed roughly on the concrete ground by the edge of the ocean. Garuda had vanished.

Obito and Kabuto were soaring down from the sky toward them. Kakash inwardly cursed. This was bad! He hadn't had enough chakra to transport them any further after lending some to Sasuke to secure their shield.

Another enormous bomb descended toward them. The death deity got to his feet and gritted his teeth, lifted his hands to form his full-bodied Susano'o once more, wrapping his team in its powerful barrier just in time to deflect the huge energy orb, sending it crashing back into the ocean behind them. Giant waves erupted as it vanished under water. But blocking three monstrous tailed-beast spheres in a short space of time was starting to take its toll on Sasuke. In desperation, he swiped outward with his phantom-guardian's mighty blade, sending Amaterasu at the Stymphylian bird, the flight of the flames aided by the spinning Rasengan Naruto unleashed to speed up the attack. They connected with the bird's wings, setting them alight, and Obito and Kabuto immediately leapt from its back to avoid being devoured by the inextinguishable fire.

Sakura watched in horror as the bird fell away and another exploded into being in the air at their command, catching them on its back. Obito raised his palm once again. The sky had turned to an angry grey, signalling the arrival of a sudden storm brought on by the static and heat released into the air from the chakra bombs.

A sudden, deafening roar filled the air and ice-cold water showered down over them. Sakura, still on her hands and knees, glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes widening at what she saw. A fearsome, humongous steel-blue sea-dragon had materialised out of the ocean and was rearing its many scaled heads back, hissing menacingly, its silver eyes locking onto Team Seven. Powerful jets of water then shot out of its mouths - straight toward Obito and Kabuto, slamming into the bird that carried them and knocking the next bomb Obito had prepared prematurely out his hand, sending it skewing grossly off-target.

A second later Sakura felt icy-coldness wrap around her and then before any of them could react, they were all wrenched violently backward and with great speed over the barrier and into the bottomless ocean. Bubbles blinded Sakura's vision and she held her breath, struggling in mindless panic to surface from the waves - but her attempts were only met with impossible resistance. She opened her eyes, trying to seek out her team-mates - only to freeze in astonishment at the sight that met her. Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke were all enclosed in bubbles of air - and so was she. They were floating underwater, and she realised with a sudden start that she was able to breathe.

"Well, well." A light voice mocked sarcastically. "Don't we all owe me one big-time, now?"

Their gazes moved to find a powerful, magnificent, blue-grey sea-stallion, hovering in the water before them. The ocean-mount possessed long, rippling, dark waves of water for a mane and tail and piercing, luminous silver eyes. Its reigns were elaborately decorated, forged of glowing silver. There was no doubt that the horse was fit for royalty - as evidenced by the cloaked Ocean King who sat in its jewel-encrusted saddle.

Suigetsu met Sakura's incredulous eyes and winked playfully. "Missed me, Pinky?"

---

Author's note

Given the contents of this chapter and just how much happens, I'd really appreciate feedback and your thoughts! I've been working up to the Olympus reveal for years so this is a pretty significant chapter which I'm excited to be able to share with you all at last. I'll be taking another break over the holiday period which is why I have posted this before then. Please keep an eye on my profile for further status updates as to when I will begin working on the next one. I hope everyone who celebrates has a Merry Christmas if you don't, a restful break and Happy New Year to all, regardless. Stay safe and thanks for reading!