Remedy

by Ser Serendipity

The Akatsuki has been destroyed, Root has gone rogue, the Tailed Beasts are missing, and Orochimaru and his followers are haunting the land like greedy ghosts. The world is on a tipping point, the Five Great Villages all preparing for a coming calamity and for a fourth and perhaps final world war. Now, Naruto and his friends must protect everything they love. A Not Sick Sequel.

1. First Strike

Remedy Chapter 1

In Media Res

Naruto stared up into the purple sky and picked out countless stars.

This far out from any major cities, there wasn't as much light pollution as there was in Konoha. The lights of Tonika pushed back against the night a little, but they were barely anything compared to his home and did nothing to obscure the million points of light in the infinite canvas of darkness drawn over him.

He'd seen the stars before, of course. This wasn't his first time far away from Konoha, and even six months ago he probably wouldn't have been entranced by them. When he'd been younger, he'd always been focused on the people around them, not lights that didn't matter an infinite distance away. But since Amegakure, Naruto had taken more time to appreciate things like that. He didn't know if it was conscious or not, but he didn't mind when it happened.

Though obviously the company made it a lot better.

"Is it always like this for you?" he asked, looking over, and Hinata returned his gaze, looking into his eyes. He was somehow still so easy that it sped his heart up.

"The stars?" she asked softly. Her Byakugan was active, the veins pushed out. A lifetime ago, when he'd fought Neji, the look had been intimidating, but now it only made Naruto appreciate how crazy complicated the dojutsu was. "A little, but not like this. Not in Konoha, anyway." She turned onto her back and settled into her chair, closing her eyes but still seeing. "They're outside my range, after all. I can't imagine what they'd look like up close…"

She breathed out, settling in, and Naruto did as well. They had dragged two padded chairs up to the roof of the townhouse to keep watch, and he had made sure Hinata got the more comfortable one. Unlike the Byakugan, his Sage Mode didn't cost any chakra to keep running; he just had to sit still. Even if it looked like she was relaxing, Naruto could feel that Hinata had essentially been holding a medium-sized weight level for hours now.

"They're really big, right?" he asked, and Hinata nodded. "Jiraiya-sensei told me that."

Naruto wasn't sure when "Pervy Sage" had become "Jiraiya-sensei." It had been an invisible transition in the last six months, maybe an unseen mark of them moving closer to peers than students. When it came to Sage Mode, Naruto had surpassed him, but Jiraiya still knew more about pretty much everything in existence than him, including astronomy. It wasn't exactly something Naruto took a ton of interest in, but it was neat to know.

"Really big," Hinata confirmed with a laugh. "Thousands, millions as many times as big as Earth. You know, we learned that in the academy, Naruto."

"Ah," Naruto waved her off. "Well, that explains that then. You know I never paid attention in the academy unless we were doing something cool."

"Do you ever regret that?" Hinata asked. Naruto actually considered it, and then shrugged.

"Sometimes," he said, looking back at the stars. "But I think I got most of what mattered one way or another."

"Mmm." She was looking at him again, but not looking at him. Her attention was elsewhere. "Sasuke and Sakura are going around the perimeter again."

"Do they think we're gonna miss something?" Naruto groused, putting his hands behind his head. "You're up here! I've even got a backup clone ready."

Hinata giggled. "Sasuke's paranoid. I'm sure Sakura is just happy to take a walk with him." Naruto rolled his eyes, and she reached over to lightly shove him. "Don't be mean. You can't blame him, right?"

"I guess it's better safe than sorry," Naruto admitted. He could sense them too, moving along the northern edge of the town quickly but methodically. As usual, Sasuke was lukewarm, his chakra tightly controlled and only ever expressing itself in spikes and pulses. At his side, Sakura was warm and bright, hopping along and occasionally chatting with him without care. It had been half a year since she'd lost her right eye and it barely weighed on her anymore.

This was the first time all three of them had been on a mission together in months, though Naruto thought that was totally justified. When Sasuke had first gotten back it had been the norm, but Tsunade had decided that he'd more than proved himself after the second month and started giving him his own assignments, though he was still a genin. Naruto too, for that matter; Sakura had made Jonin, a fact that she held over her teammates with perhaps a bit of smugness.

Naruto didn't mind: she'd deserved it. If anyone had the right to boss him and Sasuke around besides Kakashi-sensei, it was Sakura. She and Ino had taken up joint command duties on this mission, which Shikamaru had been all too happy with. Naruto got the feeling that Shikamaru didn't really enjoy being a Jonin, though he rarely openly complained nowadays. He was always willing to step up when it was necessary, but equally ready to pass off his duties when the opportunity arose.

"Also, I guess it's not impossible he'd see something we wouldn't," Naruto continued. "Those guys were here pretty recently."

"Of course," Hinata said. "And it makes the town feel safer, I'm sure." She gestured at both of them, and Naruto couldn't help but glance at the way her chest rose and fell with the motion. Sitting with Hinata was always easy; sitting perfectly still with her around was significantly harder.

"It's different to have two ninja hold vigil on your roof and swear they'll see another attack coming compared to two patrolling the village." A small smile slipped out. "Even if we can see a couple miles farther than them."

Naruto laughed. "Yeah. It must have been scary, you know. I was thinking while Ursa was telling us about it, what would have happened if not for those Rain ninja? And Kisame? And I guess the militia from Haicho?"

"They preferred to be called samurai," Hinata gently chided, and Naruto snorted. She couldn't keep an amused grin off her face either.

"I've seen samurai," he said, remembering his visit to the Land of Iron with the Toad Sage some months prior. "Those dudes are a militia. Guys and girls with swords if I wanna be mean. But seriously. Would this place even be here?"

Hinata frowned. "Probably not," she said, looking around. Tonika was a small town set in a large valley on the western edge of the Land of Fire; there was little remarkable about it aside from The Hole, which was, of course, mind-boggling, but the town itself probably had less than five-hundred people in it and only covered a couple square miles. "Maybe a couple would have escaped, but the rest would have been killed."

"What the heck was worth killing them over anyway?" Naruto scratched his head. "Their treasure? Did you take a look at it yet?"

"I did," Hinata said with the placid look that Naruto had learned accompanied her dry sense of humor.

"The treasure?" he asked, and her facade almost broke.

"Yes."

"The big secret treasure?"

"Yes."

"The big secret treasure hidden away in the center of town?!"

"Yes!" She finally broke down laughing, and Naruto leaned over and took advantage of the lapse to tickle her side for a second. Hinata squirmed away with a squeal, and he pulled back with a laugh.

"So what is it anyway?" he asked, and Hinata shrugged, wiggling a little as she settled back into her chair.

"It didn't look like anything special, to be honest," she admitted. "It looked like it might be an instrument. Maybe a kind of flute, or something percussive, though a really big one. If that's what it was, it was taken apart a long time ago." She grew a bit more grim. "But the town thinks it's important, and Kabuto Yakushi apparently thinks it's important, so that's all that matters, right?"

"I don't sense anything from it," Naruto said. "So it's not like a weird weapon or something, right?"

"I doubt it," Hinata confirmed. "Though… maybe it could channel chakra? Its construction is complicated."

"Huh," Naruto said, immediately deciding that it was obviously a tool that could enhance ninjutsu or something like that. What else could someone like Kabuto want it for?

They kept talking and enjoying the deepening night and each other's company for several more hours. At some point, Naruto's hand crept over and took Hinata's, finding it cold, and she held onto him without a word for some time. Eventually, they ran out of trivialities to talk about.

"It's almost morning," Hinata said, pointing at a distant tinge of dark blue on the horizon. The sun was rising somewhere far to the east behind the forests of Fire, and Naruto could feel the hills and plains around Tonika starting to change and wake up as creatures of every size and shape started to move.

"Good thing you're fun to talk to," Naruto joked, but Hinata didn't laugh. She was staring at the invisible sun, a wistful look on her face.

He frowned. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said with a yawn. "It's just… Neji's getting frustrated. We had an argument before I left."

"An argument?" Naruto asked, shifting and leaning forward to bring his face in front of hers. "I didn't think you guys had those kinda things anymore."

"We don't. Not usually." Hinata had her hands clasped in front of her, her fingers nervously pressing against each other so hard the tips were going white, and Naruto gently took her hands to keep her from continuing the nervous tic. She breathed out, faintly blushing. "He thinks things are moving too slowly."

"Well, I mean…" Naruto said, not sure how to say it politely. "They are, right?"

"They are," Hinata grimaced. "But getting mad at me isn't going to change anything about that. The clan's old, and it moves like an old man. Father and I are just happy we've ensured he won't be marked with the Curse Seal again. But he wants to push for confirmations and concessions so that no one else will be marked going forward already." She sighed. "One of my cousins is pregnant. Well, second cousin. Tsugumi? You've met her, right?"

Naruto nodded to confirm as Hinata continued. "She's in the Branch House. She's due in just a month or two. Her daughter is going to be the first person born into the Branch since Neji… came back."

"Oh. That's gonna be…" Naruto looked off towards the distant dawn as well. "Complicated, I bet?"

"It certainly will be."

"Well, you know where I stand on that," Naruto said, trying to sound optimistic. "Guess I gotta hurry up and become Hokage so I can tell them to knock it off, right?"

"It wouldn't work, Naruto." Hinata shook her head. "The clan has gotten so inflamed… I don't know what the solution is."

"We'll figure it out," Naruto said, squeezing her hand. "Together, you know?"

She squeezed him back. "I couldn't do it alone-" she said, and then she squeezed him again, tighter. "Wait."

"What?" he asked, stretching his senses to their limit on instinct. The world opened up like an orange peel, and Naruto felt the hint of a monstrous presence to the west. It felt like sandpaper and dried blood. "Oh crap. Can you see them?"

"I see them," Hinata confirmed, standing up and swiveling her head, her eyes darting in every direction with constant micro-adjustments as she took in the expanded universe her eyes revealed to her. "Forty… forty-four all told." She coughed, a laugh stuck in her throat. "Forty-four? Do you think that's on purpose?"

"Kabuto always thought he was smarter than he was." Naruto could feel them now; a variety of chakras were rushing in from all directions, some huge and some small but all sharp and focused on Tonika. "Damn, he's really going all out."

He stood up cupping his hands around his mouth and bellowed as loudly as he could, sure that at least the shinobi around the town would hear him. "HEY!" he shouted, watching as Hinata continued to track the incoming enemies. "GET READY! THEY'RE COMING! MORE THAN FORTY!"

Then he bit his thumb, his Sage Mode toughness failing for just a moment at his will, and completed a summoning jutsu in the blink of an eye. Three toads appeared, each coming up to around his knees and in a variety of colors, blue and green and red. Naruto was really glad he's already asked Myoboku about summoning some elites tonight.

"So late in the day?" the red one, Gamakiro, grumbled. "This better be good, baby-sage."

"Gamakiro, Gamaden, Goketsu," Naruto addressed each of them respectfully in turn. "It's just like I told old man Fukasaku, okay? There's some seriously dangerous people coming. Can you spread the word, and if you see anyone who's like, a civilian about to get killed, seal them away, okay? Don't put yourself in danger or anything; I just wanna make sure people don't get caught up in this."

"You're not gonna be popular for unleashing a plague of man-eating toads," Gamaden, the blue one, laughed, and Naruto laughed with him.

"More popular than just letting people die, I bet!" he shot back. "Now get going! They're moving fast!"

The toads departed, Gamakiro throwing Naruto an incredibly disrespectful salute as he backflipped off the roof, and Naruto turned back to Hinata. "Anyone really dangerous?" he asked, watching her eyes dart about. He could feel Ino and Shikamaru leaping into action, waking and organizing both the town militia and the Rain shinobi that had been squatting in Tonika during the first attack and had agreed to stay. Sakura and Sasuke were up and at it too: in fact, they were already moving to intercept the group from the north, though they'd returned from their patrol hours ago.

Unlucky for them, Naruto thought. The enemy, that was.

"It's forty-four versus twenty, if we include the militia," Hinata said, bringing her hands up into a Ram seal to focus. She looked pale: sitting on the roof with her Byakugan active for hours had definitely drained her, though Naruto knew she was still more than strong enough to bend steel with her bare hands. "Not bad odds, but Kabuto's right to be confident." She started pointing and Naruto homed in on the chakra signatures she was singling out, committing their sensation to memory. "There, Hayate Gekko. Remember the proctor who died at the Chunin Exam? A swordsman." Her finger shifted. "Asuma Sarutobi." Naruto blanched. "Yeah. I don't know how Ino and Shikamaru will handle that. A couple Akatsuki members, Hidan and Deidara, he's flying, though he doesn't have much clay…" She frowned. "And Hidan is very strange. The last two are the worst, though."

"It's gotta be that one, right?" Naruto gestured to the north, towards Sakura, Sasuke, and a monstrously huge and terrifying chakra that reminded him of nothing more than a tidal wave made of thorns. "Who the hell is that?"

"The Shodaime," Hinata said, and Naruto grit his teeth.

"Seriously? The First Hokage?" he confirmed, and Hinata nodded. "That bastard…"

Digging up bodies was messed up all on its own, but it seemed to Naruto like there was something particularly evil about bringing back the First Hokage, the man who'd made the Land of Fire what it was today, to sack one of its minor towns. Of course, him being a super powerful dude who'd basically changed the world was problematic too.

Though… the First Hokage? If Kabuto and Orochimaru had the Hokage available as zombies, why hadn't they been in Amegakure like some of these other ones…?

"He's one of the only ones that's not all there," Hinata said, and Naruto shook off his train of thought and gave her a questioning look. He could feel they were running out of time; the zombies were getting closer by the second, and would be in the town within two minutes. It would be best to fight them outside it, definitely when it came to the stronger ones. "Kabuto must be suppressing his personality to keep him from breaking free. He's probably weaker than he was in life too."

The decision was effortless, and Naruto knew it was true in his heart. "Sakura and Sasuke can handle him," he said, and Hinata gave him a disbelieving look. "I'm serious. What's the other one? You mentioned two."

"The small one," she said, indicating a chakra approaching from the south that reminded Naruto more of ninja wire than anything else. Small, bright in the light, and stretched taut enough to take someone's head off.

"Huh, I thought it would be one of the big ones again," he said, stepping in that direction. Hinata put her arm out in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.

"It's an Uchiha," she said, and Naruto paid attention. "The only one. I don't recognize him…" She pursed her lips. "But he has a Mangekyo Sharingan."

"Well, that's bad!" Naruto said matter of factly, and to his relief Hinata couldn't suppress a smile. "I'll go get him first then. If he's anything like Sasuke or his brother he's probably crazy dangerous."

He started to move, brushing past Hinata as he went. "Be safe, right?" he asked, and gave her a peck on the cheek that turned his whole face red.

"You too!" she insisted, turning back towards the center of the town and heading off towards Ino and Shikamaru, who were gathering the other ninja and militia. "Remember, Shikamaru has the seals!"

They parted ways, Naruto heading south and Hinata north, and he closed his eyes for a moment as he leapt off the roof, soaring high into the sky and letting his senses run wild as he took in the whole valley. She'd be fine. He knew she would be. Even Edo Tensei weren't worth worrying about when it came to a ninja like Hinata.

There was a distant poisonous presence, a leering, slimy chakra to the west. That had to be Kabuto, Naruto thought. After he dealt with the Uchiha, he should go after him, right? He barely had time to finish the thought before two things happened.

The first thing was an explosion of energy a bit outside the town to the east. Something erupted out of The Hole like a bullet, slammed into the ground, and started rushing west with a maniacal cackle that Naruto could hear from hundreds of feet away. As the chakra moved it rapidly expanded, like a mouth growing wider and wider and presenting even more teeth by the second.

Well, Kabuto wasn't his problem anymore, Naruto thought. Kisame Hoshigaki was on the hunt; the rogue ninja obviously wanted to finish his business with Orochimaru's copycat.

The second thing was an arrow the size of his arm hurtling out of the darkness as Naruto reached the apex of his jump, aimed right for his heart.

"Hey!" He caught it out of the air, getting thrown a bit to the left with the force of the projectile and spinning with the momentum. "I'm thinking here!"

He threw the arrow back with a sonic boom, Sage Mode augmenting his already considerable strength, and even though he couldn't follow it perfectly through the darkness he felt it hit; the Edo Tensei that had fired it from a little over a thousand feet away fell over, his head completely obliterated by Naruto's returned shot.

Naruto fell, landed, and ran.

The Uchiha was coming in pretty fast, but he wasn't quite Naruto's target yet: there was a moat that surrounded Tonika with several cute footbridges spanning it, and six Edo Tensei were already trying to cross it right in front of him. He took them in at a glance; men and women, one of which he recognized as Hayate the swordsman. The others were a mix of ninja from the Hidden Stone and Cloud, some armed with weapons and one with a bizarre contraption that was hooked into his chest and covered his mouth like a muzzle.

"Hey, you have brains?" Naruto shouted out, and he was met with a chorus of curses, pleas, and threats. He focused on Hayate; the man had a spark of recognition in his eyes.

"Naruto Uzumaki?" the man asked in shock, already charging forward with his sword in a low guard. "What the hell happened to your eyes?"

"Long story!" Naruto shouted. Two of the Edo Tensei split off, and he created a clone to go after them, a Rasengan already keening in its hand. "Can you tell me what you're being told to do?"

"Well, we're definitely attacking this town!" Hayate shouted, sweeping in with a lightning-fast strike. It was an impressive attack: as he plunged forward, two shadow clones popped up at his sides, creating a blur of blades that converged on Naruto from three angles at once. "Heads up! I'm-!"

"Got it!" Naruto said with a grin. He caught the real sword with his bare hand and squeezed, his fingers leaving indents in the blade as he struck out and slammed a fist into Hayate's chest in the same movement. The clones, just a step behind, were both swept off their feet and reduced to smoke by a low kick: the first kick visible, and its ghostly followup even deadlier.

Hayate blew backwards with a dent in both his vest and the papery flesh and bones beneath, leaving his sword in Naruto's hand, and Naruto spun and clobbered the next zombie to charge him; he used the sword as a cudgel, still gripping it by the blade. The dead Cloud ninja stumbled past with a crater in his skull, and Naruto turned to the two remaining enemies, the man with the chest thing and a woman charging with flaming fists.

"Whoa!" he said, dancing out of the way of three burning strikes before he stomped down on her foot and stopped her in her tracks. "That's a cool jutsu!"

"Fucking Leaf ninja!" the woman spat at him. She wasn't wearing a headband: a rogue? Well, a dead one maybe. "Always so-!"

"MOVE, SHINOBI!" The final Edo Tensei roared, and Naruto glanced over at him with a hint of alarm as he felt the man's chakra swell like a storm. His voice and his chakra traveled down through the muzzle over his mouth into the metal pack on his chest, condensed and resonating with deadly energy.

"Uh-?!" Naruto didn't have any time to say something coherent before the man's words exploded out of his chest with deafening volume and unbelievable speed.

The sound-jutsu tore up the ground and the bridge before the man, annihilating everything in a fifteen foot wide path as it pushed back against the world with such violence that everything else in existence had no choice but to stop and listen. It struck the woman with flaming fists and so comprehensively obliterated her that there weren't even scraps of paper yet; it was like she and Naruto had never even existed.

"Wow," Naruto said from behind the man, who stiffened and started to turn in a panic. Naruto slammed his elbow into the back of his head, and then seized him by his neck as he started to fall. "That's a really crazy one."

He spun and threw the Edo Tensei with a roar of effort, and the man flew so far and so fast that in just seconds he was out of Naruto's sight. He rushed around, doing the same to the ninja whose head he'd caved in. When he seized Hayate by the vest, the man gave him a smile even as he tried to punch Naruto in the throat.

"Konoha's doing well, huh?" he said, and Naruto smiled back.

"We're doing just fine," he said, and he threw Hayate past the horizon.

A second later his clone vanished, returning its chakra and the memory of two more ninjas being thrown away from Tonika. The chakra of the flaming fist woman was so disparate that Naruto could barely feel it; it would probably take her some time to reform. Good enough for now.

He turned, looking across the destroyed bridge and the moat, and saw a figure on the other side.

"Don't look at me!" the man immediately barked, and Naruto obeyed him mostly out of shock at the sudden command. "Naruto Uzumaki, whatever you do, do not look at me!" Naruto felt him begin to advance and heard the scrape of steel; a sword being drawn. The man's chakra was already boiling, pooling in his chest. An Uchiha fire jutsu, he was almost positive.

"You know me?" Naruto said. He closed his eyes and turned his head back towards the Uchiha, seeing solely with his Sage Mode now. It wasn't nearly as good as his eyes, but he could at least tell where his opponent was.

"You're my target!" the man confirmed. "The Jinchuriki!"

He spat a volley of fireballs, and Naruto ducked, dashed, and leapt amongst them, one of them nearly scoring his arm and burning his jacket. As he dodged, the Uchiha charged, his sword filling up with flaming chakra.

"Is that why Kabuto sent you after me?" Naruto asked, swinging around with a roundhouse kick that the man slid under; he swung, his blade scoring Naruto's back but not penetrating his skin. As Naruto counterattacked-

The Uchiha vanished.

Naruto stumbled, overcommitted to his punch. "What?" he muttered, 'looking' around. He realized that the man was about five feet behind him.

"Oh shit-!"

Something slammed into him; a skeletal fist that struck hard enough to bruise his spine and send Naruto tumbling through the mud, rolling to his feet and sliding back from the force of the impact. He couldn't see it, but it was obvious: the Uchiha had a Susano'o to go with his Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Who are you?" Naruto shouted, pushing himself back to his feet with a groan. The Susano'o was developing further, growing taller and thicker, and Naruto grimaced; he'd need jutsu to crack it. His backup clone popped, flooding him with more Sage chakra.

"Shisui Uchiha," he said. "Naruto, I'm already attempting to use a genjutsu on you. I possess non-visual illusions that will affect you even with your eyes closed." He started advancing, his Susano'o complete; Naruto could feel attacks forming in it, thin needles of chakra that would burst out of its fists. "But my visual genjutsu is the most dangerous; it is imperative that you not look me in the eyes. I don't know what I've been brought back for, but I am certainly trying to snare you with the Kotoamatsukami."

The name pinged a memory in Naruto's mind, but he was far too focused on the fight to give it any thought. He focused on the feeling of Shisui's chakra, like strings of razor wire carried by a strong wind that constantly buffeted him, and breathed out, emptying himself of thought.

The Susano'o attacked, firing senbon composed of chakra in constant waves as Shisui dashed forward, its fists slamming down with terrific violence. Naruto blew aside the senbon with a wave of his hands, caught the first attack with his arms crossed, and then kicked up, knocking it away. He followed up with a Rasengan intended to shatter the construct's ribs-

Then, Shisui was behind him again.

"I was known as Shisui the Teleporter!" The man shouted, and Naruto dove away, dodging another wave of senbon. "My shunshin is my most developed jutsu; I usually appear-!"

He displaced again before Naruto could turn. "-behind you!"

Naruto threw a punch that the Susano'o caught, but not before the punch's ghost slammed into its chest. He heard ribs crack and grinned.

"Good!" Shisui shouted. "A few more of those-!"

"Naruto!" Hinata screamed in terror right behind him, and Naruto flinched, spinning around and almost opening his eyes. His mind barely kept up; she wasn't there. He couldn't sense her chakra. It was just her voice.

"Help me-!" she screamed again, and then there was a sick schlick, a metal rod being pushed through her heart. Naruto stood frozen and trapped in the past.

"What are you doing?!" Sakura this time, and then a crash and a scream. Naruto heard her die, thrown off into the sky by an impossible force, her bones crushed by hostile gravity.

"Did you really believe I had not prepared spares?"

"You're not dead yet!"

"I'm sorry…"

"Your friends are gone!"

Naruto's whole body shook like he had a deadly fever, his teeth chattering as he was attacked from every direction by the voices and sensations of the past stabbing into him like serrated knives. The barrage nearly knocked him down before he clenched his fists and screamed, trying to drive away the distractions.

"Focus on me!" That was the one true voice, buried under the rest by their volume and insistence. Shisui Uchiha was trying to undermine his own genjutsu. "You've got to fight it, Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto bit his tongue.

His mouth filled with blood, but the sharp pain drove away the voices in an instant; the genjutsu broke like a bone. Naruto had just enough time to feel relief before Shisui Uchiha slammed a skeletal fist into the top of his head and buried him several inches in the dirt, simultaneously slashing at him with his flaming sword.

"Sorry," Naruto said from the ground, and Shisui laughed, sounding relieved. "This isn't the best I've ever done." Beneath his body, he formed a simple hand sign.

"I'm glad you're so tough, at least!" Shisui said, driving his sword down towards Naruto's throat. He rolled back, avoiding the blade and kicking out in the same motion, but his opponent had a Sharingan: Shisui saw the attack coming and altered the trajectory of his sword, slipping it between Naruto's legs and bringing it just inches away from his gut.

Naruto pushed back, scrambling clear of the blade, and Shisui pursued, his Susano'o following and shielding him. But Naruto could tell that even when completed, it wasn't nearly as advanced as Sasuke's: all Shisui could manage were the ribs, head, and arms.

That meant that when his shadow clone burst out of the mud with a Rasengan in both hands, it didn't need to go through the Susano'o. It came from below, already inside the ribs, and even Shisui the Teleporter couldn't react before the clone plunged its dual Rasengans into his back.

Shisui slammed into the ground, his entire torso reduced to mulch by the double jutsu, and Naruto stood back up, keeping his eyes closed.

"Excellent!" Shisui sounded delighted. "Goodness, that's an incredible clone technique. You hid it from my Sharingan with your own body? Brilliant."

"Thanks," Naruto grunted, walking over. The Susano'o was crumbling away; Shisui's body was too damaged to maintain it. Even if Edo Tensei were immortal, they still followed some of the rules of the living. "Sorry about this."

"It's necessary," Shisui said, facedown in the mud. Naruto stomped on his arms and legs, breaking them away as his clone finished shattering the man's spine. "I must admit…" He paused. "No. It's pointless for a dead man to ask questions, isn't it?"

"I don't have a lot of time," Naruto said apologetically. He cast his senses out once more, feeling the village. Some zombies had made it inside; his friends were fighting. He felt Hinata blow someone's brains out with the Gentle Fist and grinned. "But hey, I don't have anything to seal you. I'm going to get you as far away as possible; if we don't get the guy who brought you back, we might meet again. Hope not though."

"Just tell me one thing then," Shisui said as Naruto picked up his limbless and shredded torso, keeping his eyes facing away. "Is Itachi Uchiha alright?" Naruto paused; he hadn't expected that question. "I gave him a terrible burden."

"I think he is, yeah," Naruto said, and Shisui sighed in relief. "Sorry I can't give you a better answer."

"I appreciate even that, Naruto Uzumaki," he said, and then Naruto hurled him with all his might to the south. Shisui's broken body disappeared into the far distance, and Naruto groaned, feeling his bruised spine and a couple burned cuts where Shisui's fiery blade had shallowly wounded him on his back and arms.

"Well, that was a mess," he grumbled, turning back to the town. Most of the dangerous shinobi that Hinata had pointed out had been taken care of, including Hidan and Deidara, but the chakra of the First Hokage was continuing to rage. To the west, Kabuto was running; Kisame was catching up. At this point, it was only a matter of time until the man got caught and eaten alive by the blue dude's shark-sword or called back his Edo Tensei to overwhelm Kisame. Either would keep Tonika safe.

As Naruto started moving to rejoin his friends, he watched a tree the size of the Hokage Tower suddenly sprout beyond the town, a huge spiky shadow that shot up out of the ground with supernatural speed. There were three distant figures fighting atop it, dashing about with incredible speed, one wielding a sword covered in lightning and the other two fighting with their fists.

"Ah, crap."

Naruto ran faster.