The Last Day. Uzushiogakure's shores.
The sun rose slowly on the silent coast.
The cities in the Eastern Land of Fire had been evacuated, and the only people here were ninja. There was no way Nagato didn't see the gathering troops from up there, no matter how far they were from the flying citadel.
"The operation begins at noon." Naruto confirmed.
Ao, Mei's commander-in-chief, nodded. "Our ships will be deployed in the Eastern Ocean."
"We'll be on standby, then." Naruto nodded.
"The artillery bombing will begin as soon as Kiri is in place." Kitsuchi, from Iwa, confirmed. His words were clipped, and his eyes were furious. This was a man who hadn't forgiven Umi's role in his daughter's death.
"Understood. As said, we will fly in from below and disable any barriers or weapons we can."
"So. Tell me." Sasuke asked Naruto.
"Yes…?"
Sasuke hesitated.
"Umi… It's safe, right?"
Naruto shrugged. "We try to make it so, yes."
"…Has anyone ever breached the barrier…?"
Naruto thought about it. Shachi would be able to pass through — possibly had already, according to Karin's 'dream'. Then again, she had no ill intent against the place. And if he had found a way to contact her, he would have done so today.
"No." Naruto shook his head. "Nobody with any ill intent did, as of yet."
"I see." Sasuke said slowly. "I have come to believe Konoha is not as safe as I previously thought."
"…It's a pretty dark place, too, I've heard." Naruto said wryly.
The Uchiha let the ghost of a smile appear on his face.
"Then again, if Nagato manages to learn of Umi's location…" Naruto said evenly.
"He won't destroy it." Sasuke shook his head. "Not with both the Raikage and the Seven-Tails' jinchūriki around."
"I agree." Naruto nodded.
Sasuke then did something that took Naruto by surprise entirely.
"In this case, I implore you. Send a clone to Konoha. Take Hinata to Umi. Keep her safe, until we manage to get all of this fixed. Protect Hinata and our twins."
Could've told me way earlier. Considering how tight the village's security is going to be today, it's going to be a pain in the ass.
"Don't implore me." Naruto rolled his eyes. "…She won't be too happy about it, if she's anything like Hanabi."
"She… She will understand." Sasuke didn't sound too convinced.
"…You explain this shit to her, then. Write something at least. Anybody else…?"
"No. My mother insists on fighting."
The strike team assembled.
All nine of them were wearing identical armors. Clinging tight to their bodies, they were reinforced, fiber-based suits. They could use chakra to increase protection for the wearers and absorb part of incoming ninjutsu. Over it, they wore the latest version of the Cloak of Shifting.
"I'm… kind of nervous." Karin admitted.
"You're thinking too hard." Sakura grinned. It was obvious this was bluster though.
"Only because someone is not thinking hard enough." Ino supplied helpfully.
"Leave Naruto out of this." Hanabi frowned.
Naruto shot her an unimpressed look.
"Who do you think coordinated the whole thing…?"
"Nara Shikaku?" Hanabi went for an innocent look.
He chuckled. "Fair enough. But I wasn't going to bother with the actual coordination. That's what underlings are for."
"Underlings, huh." Sasuke growled. "Is that what you think we are, as well?"
"I would never dare."
"Enough. Don't run yourselves ragged before we are up there." Itachi cut them off.
"Are you talking to anyone in particular…?" Sasuke asked him with a frown.
"…I wouldn't dare." Itachi said. Naruto hid a chuckle.
"The ships are almost in place." Anko said, looking at the horizon. "Are you ready to go?"
"Does it matter?" Karin asked with a grunt. "We're going either way."
"Objective's simple. Get in, find the Gedō Mazō, stop the fortress, kill all remaining Akatsuki members. Not necessarily in this order."
Anko put her hand in the middle of them.
"…What are you doing?" Sakura asked.
"It's a Sannin thing." Anko answered. "It's a team hand-stack. Good for camaraderie, teamwork… all that shit."
"So?" Naruto asked.
"If it's good enough for Sensei, it's good enough for you." Anko glared at Naruto.
With a sigh, he put his own hand above hers. Sakura slapped his. Karin put hers above it, followed by Ino and Hanabi.
Sasuke did so with a shrug; Itachi with a long-suffering sigh.
One man was missing, though. Anko gave Shisui a pressing look and with a sigh, he put his hand with the rest of them.
Naruto made a whip cracking sound with his tongue. It echoed loudly and Shisui glared at him, harshly.
Naruto cleared his throat. "Now that you're finally full-fledged, real shinobi, things will only become more difficult—"
"We're not fucking Umi ninja." Sasuke groaned.
"Today, it's pretty much the same thing." He grinned. "Grow strong and wise, young seashells."
When Naruto's face turned to stone, so did theirs.
"Get ready. Whatever happens, Nagato must die."
They limbered up and got ready.
Nagato's voice boomed across the land.
"I am Uzumaki Nagato. My demands have not been met yet and your… armies stand gathered below me. The destruction shall begin soon. First here… then the Villages."
Naruto's clones gave the order to fire.
Explosions shook the ground.
The air became alive with light. On the Iwa — mixed with Konoha, Kumo and Suna shinobi — side, men loaded up the long-range artillery. Chakra was heavy in the air. The weapons were camouflaged using both seals and illusions.
The roar of cannon fire echoed and the air became acrid with smoke and mist as well. A bitter smoke, one that painted every face in dark shadows.
It was not fear though; not yet.
In the seas, Kiri's navy began their assault as well. Water jutsu, wind and lightning combined with shelling.
Faces were not much paler, not much more flushed. They were not more tense… and yet they looked different.
With the beginning of the fight came a promise.
With the horns of war came a tense watching, a strange sharpening of the senses.
Bodies and minds were bound together; full alertness.
There was a shimmer of ominous light around Uzushiogakure.
"Time to go!" The real Naruto called.
All nine of them shot into the air, spreading.
Three Susanoo shimmered into existence. Pink, red and green giants of light and chakra.
With a burst of power, the spectral shapes scattered, each of them flying upward, thrumming with power.
The noon clouds began to glow red, yellow and blue, reflecting the enormous fireballs that rose in the sky, as well as the jutsu that erupted down below.
Putting his eyes firmly forward, and ignoring the knot in his chest, Naruto and his team blurred forward, rising above the seas. The rushing winds made him squint his eyes, and he knew the others must have been feeling the same way.
It was not even the middle of the day, but the chakra, the thunder in the air made the air dark and heavy.
Like a cloudy autumn evening, where the skies shone orange; forlorn.
On the coast.
Tenten tried to keep her mind on the target, even as the heat started to become too much to bear.
Iwa's artillery was powerful. And wasteful, too. Too much chakra was needed to operate them over such a long distance, and a large amount of it just turned to pure heat.
If she had it her way…
Sweat trickled down her face, and she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. There was nothing she could do here but load more weapons, ensure they were not jammed, shoot.
Lee and Gai-sensei had been sent elsewhere, along with some of the allied forces.
And she knew that Neji was up there, somewhere. Fighting for the opposite side.
But she couldn't focus on something like this, right now. Now when they had a seemingly unbreachable fortress to breach.
None of the projectiles seemed to do anything. Whatever barrier ninjutsu the Akatsuki were using, it was definitely working. Projectiles broke apart once they reached, and jutsu simply faded away, once close to Uzushiogakure.
Was this something Nagato had done, or was it what the Uzumaki clan had done beforehand…?
All of it, whether talking about Nagato himself, or his now mostly-gone clan, was shrouded in myth. The only Uzumaki she could say she had known, if barely, was Naruto.
And it was hard to think this polite young boy was the one currently flying straight toward the danger. The one who was commanding the divisions, with clones in several places at once. The one that had killed two of Konoha's strongest shinobi.
And—
White creatures began to emerge from the beach.
"What the hell?!" Someone roared.
"They're coming!"
Men started to rush toward them, weapons drawn.
But Tenten could see that this was not it. Some shinobi were fighting among themselves, as well. They had been warned about the Zetsu, shape-shifting creatures.
"Call for the sensors!" Somebody screamed. "Gather them!"
The air was heavy with tension, and blazing fire from the fighting.
Bodies littered the ground, some from the treacherous white creatures, some from the explosives, the poisons they were carrying. The sky seemed painted red from here, crackling and burning with a constant roar.
The smells were something she would unfortunately not forget, she knew.
Tenten saw a man stagger up, face and beard bloody, followed by another of these shape-shifters. Her blade flew and struck true.
The bearded man died, all the same.
An explosion pushed her away, and when she slowly rose up, her ears were ringing.
Ah.
There were men running toward her, and she had a feeling they were not coming to help her.
Lightning struck, seemingly from the sky.
Tenten could not figure where it was coming from. She could only stare in horrified amazement at the ongoing chaos.
How did it happen so suddenly?
Something pushed Tenten, and she fell again. Only then did she realize a blade was flying through the air, where she had been one moment ago.
There was a crackle of thunder, and a man fell dead.
"You're Lee's teammate, aren't you? I remember you." A deep voice said.
Tenten looked up. She met ringed purple eyes, and they were glowing.
"Uzumaki-san…?" She hesitated. "Aren't you supposed to—"
"Hmpf. No need to be so formal. And I'm simply a clone."
A dozen of men turned toward him right away. Tenten understood they were not who they seemed to be, right away. Naruto's eyes roamed over the battlefield, seemingly ignoring them.
"Uzumaki-san, they are not—"
"I know."
His chakra erupted, lightning flared and they all fell dead. Charred bodies piled up, wherever he went. Tenten's eyes were fixed on Naruto's back.
A great sense of inadequacy welled up inside Tenten. The amounts of chakra that washed over her made her heart race with terror. This was a clone?
Naruto's clone continued to scan the beach, lightning flaring at his fingertips and shooting off with terrifying precision.
Above them, the sky itself seemed to crackle and burn as shinobi continued to hurl their might against the immovable white city that hung under the clouds.
And then the fortress itself started to fire back.
The coastline became a place of smoke, mayhem and death.
Or rather, even more so.
Lightning broke the air.
Beams of orange and blue light shot forward from Uzushio, destroying the Iwa force's projectiles before they even reached.
When they reached the coastline, they turned sand and dirt to glass.
Thunder from the sky; rumble from the earth.
The armies switched to chakra-absorbing shells, of which the designs had been supplied by Umi, to even the odds.
They continued their assault, still, and soon the air was too full of smoke for most shinobi to even see through.
Clouds of flame shoot up, explosions rose, in the air this time.
The earth burst, splinters flew; more men and women died. The dull thuds mixed with the crashes of the explosive roars.
There was pain and there was terror; a song of fire, finding flesh as it swept outward.
A man glided out of the fortress.
At least, Ao thought it was a man. He could see the oceans of chakra that swirled around him, too large to be contained in a mere human body.
The man-shaped end dropped from the sky like a boulder, until he was halfway between Kiri's navy and the land forces.
Ao saw even more and more chakra gather within him, until looking in his general direction hurt.
A shiver went up his spine, and Ao forgot how to breathe.
Uzumaki Nagato raised both hands.
One felt as though it faced Ao directly.
The other was aimed at the coast.
So, was this how Kumo had ended…?
Chakra coalesced around Nagato like a wave of flame and power. He uttered two words.
"Shinra Tensei!"
A wall of pressure.
Several people had moved the moment Nagato had appeared, quick as lightning.
A blond man came to stand in between the god in the sky and Kiri's navy. The same words came out of his lips.
"Shinra Tensei!"
The pink, red and green chakra-clad giants fell in front of the land troops.
"Shield of Shukaku!"
"Yata Mirror."
"Deity and Beast Reflection."
Light bloomed, chakra flared. Power that seemed so far beyond human.
The pressure abated.
And the end didn't come.