Psychic King: OK, in a last ditch effort to warp this battle up I, Psychic King, have decided to take what some may call the 'cheaty' way out. I fear it may not be completely pretty, but a Psychic King's gotta do what a Psychic King's gotta do. I have gone over and over in my mind what to do, in fact I have several versions of the last three or four chapters because I couldn't find a way to write it that pleased me; despite what you may think, I DO have my principles, so please forgive any cheating that may occur on my part, but in order to bring you chapters in a timely manner THIS BATTLE MUST END! Don't understand? Please read the chapter... (which I am pretty happy with, by the way) ::::rambles off, still muttering::::

Sasuke: ::::annoyed:::: What's she babbling about NOW?

Naruto: ::::shaking his head:::: I donno... She's been pretty weird since she got back, you know? ::::Shrugging:::: Maybe it's a mental break down?

Psychic King: ::::rambling back on:::: By the way, in case you couldn't guess... I don't own Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke or any other actual character I may have actually mentioned in this story... But hey, maybe if I could go back in time I could create the story before its original creator and take all the profit... But I still can't draw... ::::rambles off again, once again muttering::::

QUICK EDIT! MY section breaks aren't working! I've tried a few things but nothing wants to work, so we'll see... Sorry!-so for now it'll looke like this:

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Embrace of Solitude

Chapter 23

Sakura sighed, once again staring at her hands as she moved them. They were going the direction she told them to, that felt good at least. The last couple hours had seemed like a distant dream, where she could watch but not interfere, it had been very disconcerting. Gin smiled at her as he continued picking up the remains of the bone circle they had made.

"It may not have seemed like much, but it really was a good thing you did." He said softly. "Because of you, your aunt can now pass on."

"Yeah..." Sakura replied, lost in thought and not really paying attention. For a brief moment she and her Aunt had shared her body... a very brief moment, but still, it had been enough for her to live the whole of Illia's life, from Illia's perspective. She had laughed with her, cried with her and... Naruto... Her heart skipped a beat as she thought of the blonde idiot and she felt a blush creeping onto her face. "I know... I know everything. Is that normal?"

Gin laughed, patting the girl on the head. "For a while it will all be fresh in your mind; right now you probably feel like it was YOUR life, don't you?" There was a tentative nod. "That's normal. Eventually it will fade and become more like... how you remember an old friend."

Sakura's blush grew even brighter as she remembered Illia's wedding night with Naruto. She was beginning to wonder how she would ever look Naruto in the eye again...

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"That's a Kentaar." Uzu muttered, humorless smile twisting his face. He heard in the distance the sounds of alarms going off, he heard someone shouting about the city having been emptied and how it was finally time to attack. The speech was probably rather inspirational, but Uzu couldn't bring himself to listen as he stared at the giant wolf before him. Every bone in his body, every hair on his head, every inch of his attention was focused only on his Uncle. Even as the giant creature raised a humongous paw, crashing it down on the wall next to him, sending debris, bodies, dust and God knows what else flying everywhere Uzu remained in place, fixated.

Someone was standing next to him, someone was yelling to him, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. Uzu turned his head towards the person, but his eyes couldn't focus on anything besides the creature before him. He was vaguely aware that someone was carrying him, that someone was taking him farther away from Kentaar and then there was more yelling, more debris, more fur. Uzu struggled out of the grip of the person holding onto him and they just let him fall. Of course they did, there was a war going on, no one had time to fight a friend and protect their town.

Once on the ground Uzu stood. The war between the wolves and the Ninja waged on around him, neither side bothering to pay him much attention, each focused on each other so Uzu moved forward, closer to the giant creature. Never once since the night his mother was killed had Uzu seen his Uncle in full splendor like this. He was awed at the giant form and he felt... calm; it was a feeling uncommon to him. For the last twelve years Uzu had operated in a frenzy of emotion. Anger, fear, happiness, rage, sorrow, hate; he'd been unable to stop the torrent of emotions, unwilling to, but now, as he stared at the creature that killed his mother, that deprived him of a childhood, that stole TWELVE years of life as a family with his father away from him, deprived his sister of all memories of-

Uzu's eyes widened as a second giant wolf, smaller, but still huge, appeared almost before his eyes. His sister... Mina! Suddenly his shoulder shattered with pain and Uzu's body fell to the ground, battle raging around him.

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Uzu opened his eyes, coughing slightly. He wasn't sure if he was coughing because he woke up or if he woke up because he was coughing. What he WAS sure of right now was that he was miserable. He had even missed going out with Daddy to see Uncle Tagen and left home like a GIRL with his mother and little sister... Not that he really minded having Mommy and Mina-chan all to himself. After taking a long drink of water he snuggled deeper under the warm blankets covering him, closing his eyes; yeup, there were good points to being sick, too.

The sound of a man yelling snapped his eyes back open; was Daddy home? He cautiously pulled the blankets back, crawling on his hands and knees towards the cave entrance, he peeked his head around the corner; if Mommy found him out of bed she'd scold him for sure.

"You're scaring her!" His mother was saying, her voice wobbled strangely. "Give her back to me!"

Uzu's eyes widened as he stared at some strange man; he looked KIND OF like Daddy, but he was bigger and he had long brown hair- no maybe it was gray... And his eyes were yellow! He stared in fascination at the large yellow eyes which were fixed on Mina, who he was holding high in the air. Uzu gulped as the stranger's eyes snapped briefly to him and a cold, cruel smirk twisted the almost handsome face. "Give her back? She's mine, woman, and I'll take her if I want! You're just a temporary caretaker."

Uzu's mouth shook with sadness as the man walked towards the edge of the cliff with his sister. Was he really going to take her away? "GIVE MY SISTER BACK!" Uzu hollered moving fully out of the cave now and approaching the man, but his words were drowned out by his mother's screams as the man tossed the little girl, blanket and all, over the side. He heard the small sounds of his sister shrieking as she fell.

For a moment Uzu's body stood perfectly still, shock washing over his being. Why would an ADULT throw a little child over the edge of a cliff? This stranger had to be playing a trick on Mommy, Mina was fine, Daddy probably caught her just on the other side of the cliff, Mina was fine. He stood for a long moment staring at the edge of the cliff, waiting for his father's smiling face to appear with Mina, Tenmar and Ganten and then they would all laugh because they managed to scare Mommy and everything would be OK. But his father never came.

Eyes wide, Uzu turned to watch as his mother, screaming like a woman possessed, launched herself at the strange man, knife in hand. Blood sprayed everywhere as the knife cut through the man's face; Uzu screamed as the warm red liquid spattered over his body. A few drops landed in his mouth and Uzu fell to the ground as the slightly salty metallic taste filled his mind.

"Tsk, Tsk, you should not have done that, Illia..." The strange man said, turning towards the woman, eyes beginning to glow. Then the man grew bigger and harrier and... a giant dog-looking thing now stood where the man had been.

Uzu's body began to shake as the giant dog smacked his mother with its claws, sending her body flying. There was a sickening slapping sound as she slammed into the rock wall, a small pool of blood already formed beneath her as she slid to the ground.

"Are you just going to sit there? Don't you want to avenge your sister and mother, or are you just a pathetic weakling?" The dog asked; when Uzu failed to respond it snorted and looked back over the cliff's edge.

A burning sensation filled Uzu's body and he screamed as hair began to sprout from his arms, chest and back. His mouth throbbed as his teeth grew longer and sharper and his hands and feet prickled as his fingers and nails elongated into claws. He didn't know what had just happened to him, but he didn't really care as he rushed headlong towards the THING that killed Mommy and... Mina... He heard his voice come out as a pathetic howling cry as he reached the creature's leg and dug his teeth and claws into it.

Before he fully had gotten used to the feel of biting into living flesh he was tossed into the air by the creature. He landed on the ground and one humongous paw landed on top of him, claws stabbing into his chest. Instinctively his back arched from the pain, causing him to push the claws deeper into his own body. He saw the creature's mouth move down, and for a moment he thought, 'The last thing I'm gonna smell in my life is doggy breath.' But then his mother was there, standing between him and the fast approaching face. HE screamed as the mouth attached itself to his mother rather than him and watched in horror as his mother's body was thrashed around like a rag doll in the creature's mouth. He tried to move, but the pain tearing through his shoulder was too much for his five year old body to bear, as he was passing out he noticed another, smaller giant dog with bright green eyes climb painfully up the cliff.

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"Mina!" Uzu jumped from the ground with a start, looking around himself. Apparently after he passed out on the battlefield someone had dragged him to a building that had been turned into a makeshift front line hospital. That was a good sign for Konoha, if they had time to care for their wounded than the battle must be going in their favor. He settled down onto the mat he'd been laid upon, clutching at his chest. He noticed that he'd been bandaged and looked down to see that he was indeed bleeding. But those wounds were from over twelve years ago, how could they...?

Shaking his head, Uzu stormed towards the door of the hospital shirtless, tearing off the bandages as he walked. He heard someone calling after him as he left, but he didn't even pause as he headed towards the sounds of battle. Mina... Mina was Kentaar's daughter, how could he have not noticed it? And right now, she was most likely fighting their father and brothers in the form of a damn wolf and... And it would kill Naruto to have anything to do with her death. Especially if, as Uzu suspected, Mina was not in full control of herself right now.

It did not take Uzu long to find his family, two giant wolves and one giant fox, with two Ware-fox running around were not hard to spot in a crowd. It seemed that his father had sufficiently managed to lure Kentaar out of the city, but not completely away from it. Uzu growled as he dashed by ninja fighting both other ninja and wolves. It appeared that Kentaar had a bigger attack force than he thought, but nothing Konoha couldn't take. Of course, if Kentaar weren't occupied with Naruto than the battle would definitely be flowing in his favor.

There was a sudden burst of flame and then a dark figure was running along side him. "Sasuke?"

"Yeah."

"What the hell's going on?" Uzu couldn't stop himself from asking.

Sasuke gave the man a critical look. "I figured you'd know, I just got here a little while ago. I need to get to Naruto!"

"So do I." Uzu added, after a moment he turned his head towards the boy. "I need your help; you have to tell my father something."

"You want me to tell him that Mina's the other giant wolf?" Sasuke replied dryly, raising his eyebrows questioningly.

"How'd YOU know?"

"Your mother told me, anyway, I saw her transform. You?"

"Repressed memories... What do you mean, my MOTHER told you?" Uzu asked, erupting as Sasuke's words sunk in.

"Long story. Look, I'll talk to Naruto; you work on snapping Mina out of whatever trance Kentaar has her in, OK? She doesn't want to hurt you guys."

"That's good to know." Uzu replied, grin creeping across his face. The knowledge that Mina didn't hate the last twelve years with them made him exceptionally happy; he could care less if they had different fathers, in his mind she would always be his little sister.

Sasuke nodded to Uzu as they reached their targets and headed their separate ways. He now found himself faced with an interesting dilemma; HOW was he going to tell Naruto ANYTHING while he was a giant nine tailed demon fox fighting against his brother, a giant nine tailed demon wolf? His eyes widened a bit as he noticed Kakashi and a number of other upper level ninja for the first time, darting in and out of the fight. He felt a quick stab of jealousy that Naruto would allow Kakashi by his side to fight Kentaar and would send Sasuke off to baby-sit Sakura. That jealousy was quickly replaced by anger and it was with that emotion that he went to face Naruto.

'How dare he not allow me to fight at his side?' Sasuke thought as he ducked under a tall nearby tree and began climbing. He quickly climbed up the tree, if Naruto and Kentaar were to stand still for a moment he could probably jump and make it onto Naruto's back, the problem was, how was he going to get them to stand still? The tree shook viciously as Naruto pounced back a few feet, one large red eye caught on Sasuke's form in the tree. Sasuke scowled as he saw the fox heave a huge sigh and jump forward quickly.

'Shit, he's trying to protect me!' Sasuke realized as Naruto clamped his teeth down on the wolf's neck, pushing him backward.

"What the Hell are you doing here, Sasuke?" Kakashi demanded, appearing suddenly next to the dark haired boy. "Your stink is strong enough for that monster to have caught it by now; you're only making things harder for Naruto."

Sasuke's scowl deepened as Kakashi's words hit a note of truth in the boy's mind. "I have to talk to Naruto!"

The masked man shook his head, laying a kind hand on the boy's head and pushing him firmly away. "Get out of here. You can talk to Naruto later."

The world shook once again as the wolf Sasuke knew to be Mina fell backwards and crashing into Naruto. Sasuke felt himself slipping forward in surprise, grabbing onto Kakashi for support before he fell off the tree. He watched in horror as the Naruto-fox turned an annoyed head towards Mina, ready to clamp down firmly on her neck and tear it out. Without thinking he jumped, trying desperately to get between Naruto and his daughter. "NARUTO, STOP! THAT'S MINA!" He screamed louder than he would have thought humanly possible, praying his message would reach the fox in time.

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"MINA!" Uzu screamed as he approached the smaller of the two wolves, its eyes were a glossy yellow. He ignored the various ninja that were trying to approach him, keep him from his sister. His eye caught on familiar shapes on the far side of his sister, Tenmar and Ganten were both attacking one of Mina's hind legs, trying to force her to fall to her feet. He wanted to yell at them to stop, but there wasn't time. He noticed with a small amount of joy that neither Tenmar nor Ganten had any new visible wounds on them, the same could not be said for any OTHER being within range of the wolf.

"Mina! Wake up! You don't want to do this!" His sister paid him no heed; instead she lifted a humungous paw and lowered it swiftly upon a nearby Ninja. For a moment Uzu was afraid that his eyes were going to pop out of his head, and blood was gurgling from his mouth, but before he died she lifted her paw and flicked the man out of her way, turning to snap at a woman standing on her back. She wasn't killing people... Not even the Ninja, she wasn't killing!

A surge of hope rushed through him, if only he could make her listen to him! Maybe if he could get her to look at him. "TENMAR! GANTEN! Help me!" He screamed, jumping quickly up a nearby tree, he knocked into one of the Konoha ninja as he did so, pushing them away. It was a young man, probably younger than he was. "Get the away from here." He didn't wait to see if the boy took his advice.

By the time Uzu reached the top of the tree and stood eye level with Mina, Tenmar and Ganten had finally noticed him and were making their way to join him, confused and angry looks on their faces. "What the HELL are you doing here?" Tenmar demanded, grabbing his brother's arm, trying to pull him away.

"Tenmar, it's MINA!"

Tenmar stared at his younger brother critically. He'd passed out only moments after Kentaar had sown up and now he was trying to convince him that the monster they were facing was Mina? Tenmar shook his head, noticing the glossy look in Uzu's eyes. "Kentaar's done something to you, hasn't he?"

"No! He's done something to MINA!" Uzu practically shouted, for a moment he wanted to hit his brother. Was he just going to sit here while strangers KILLED their sister? "Look, why do you think that out of everyone you and Ganten are the only ones that haven't been hurt? Why do you think that she hasn't killed anyone? She doesn't want to do this, Kentaar is FORCING her to, and you HAVE TO help me wake her up!"

Ganten stared, eyes narrowed at his brothers before nodding. "I don't know if Uzu's right, but there IS something strange about this wolf, and, Tenmar, are you really willing to take the chance?"

Tenmar glared between his brothers for a moment then sighed. "Alright, I'll give you five minutes, if you can't snap her out of it by then, then you have to help us take her down."

Uzu shook his head, "I can't-"

Tenmar put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Uzu, if it IS Mina, don't you think that she'd rather die than be stuck like this? You have five minutes; Ganten and I will stop the others from attacking until then."

Uzu nodded, swallowing a big lump that was forming in his throat. Five minutes... Taking a deep breath Uzu waited a moment for Tenmar and Ganten to make good on their promise to remove the ninja from the scene, thinking about what he was supposed to say. Long speeches about the happiness of life had never been one of his strong points. "Mina!" He called again, wondering if Sasuke had made it to his father. "Mina, listen to me!"

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The wolf stood for a moment in surprise as all of the prey disappeared, then it focused a yellow eye on Uzu. Something inside her head was screaming that she should attack the pathetic man, kill him, maim him, destroy! But something else, far more insistent, deeper in her mind was telling her to hold back, don't kill this one! Not this one!

She shook her head, moving a step backwards. She didn't know anything but the desire to kill and this ringing in her ears, she couldn't think, she needed to run away, but where to?

"...to me! Mina! It's Uzu, your brother! Da-Naruto needs your help, please wake up!" The voice came to her from a distance, but as she stared at the man something began to click inside her.

Uzu... Brother... Uzu! Her eyes opened wide and she felt her own mind re-exerting control. Father needed her? Mina, still in wolf form, turned to glance at the battle still raging beside her. Her two fathers, the man that conceived her and the man that she was raised to love, were fighting, things were not going well, she glanced back at Uzu.

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Uzu sank to the ground triumphantly as his sister's eyes flashed green then normalized. He heard Tenmar yelling happily, "Mina! It really is you! I'm so glad!" Uzu could hear the relief in his voice.

"I TOLD you, bastard!" And then many things happened almost all at once.

"DIE BEAST!" A ninja broke from a tall tree near Uzu, arm glowing. Uzu, Tenmar and Ganten began moving, but they knew by the time they reached their sister it would be too late. They were right, the ninja was already standing on Mina's nose, fist buried inside her right eye. He yanked and the eye came out with a sickening pop.

For a moment Tenmar stared at the man in horror and disgust then he heard the scream beside him, "BASTARD!" Before he realized it, a white haired blob was rushing forward, even as Mina fell backwards. Ganten didn't seem to notice that the creature was moving; he was too focused on the man holding what was left of his sister's eyeball. "How DARE you hurt my SISTER, you BASTARD!" Ganten's hands wrapped around the startled man's neck and Tenmar moved quickly.

"Ganten, he didn't know, stop before you kill him!" Tenmar insisted, holding the boy away from the man.

Ganten wasn't paying attention; he growled and spat as he kicked at the man. His first kick connected, but by the second, Tenmar had pulled him further away from the man. "LET GO OF ME, TENAMR!" Ganten bellowed, still scratching to get to the man.

But Tenmar had no intention of letting go; Tenmar was vaguely aware that Mina had backed accidentally into their father, but his full attention was occupied by his squirming brother, wasn't Ganten supposed to be the composed one? He was so occupied by controlling his brother that he barely heard Sasuke's scream of, "NARUTO, STOP! THAT'S MINA!" Tenmar turned in time to watch as his father's giant mouth descended on his sister's neck, fangs barred.

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By the time Naruto processed what Sasuke was screaming, it was too late. His mouth had already closed on something and blood was trickling down his tong. Whatever it was felt small to be Mina's jugular. Fear coursed through his body as he opened his mouth and a body fell limply out. His transformation began slipping away as he stared down at a mixture of pale skin and dark red blood, all with a familiar black mass of hair.

"Sasuke!" The dark haired boy vaguely heard Naruto's voice screaming his name. He opened his eyes slightly, barely able to see through the pained tears forming in his eyes.

"That hurt, dobe." Sasuke muttered, eyes focusing slightly on a blonde mass of hair standing over him. The last question that went through his mind as he passed out was when did the blonde get so tall?

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"...I don't CARE if it's a baby; I say we kill it before it grows back up." A male voice hollered; in the background Sasuke could head hear the loud sound of a baby screaming. He opened his eyes tentatively, but quickly closed them again; the light in the room was painfully bright.

"Now that he's like this, I can't allow you to kill him," A voice a lot like Naruto's replied. But that can't be Naruto, Sasuke was sure. Naruto's voice was higher pitched, less commanding and almost always filled with some sort of mischievous laughter, but it was a comforting sound all the same. "Anyway," the voice continued, "even like this, he wouldn't be easy to kill." The baby's crying tampered off as the calming voice continued to speak.

"Maybe we should continue this conversation later." A third voice replied. He recognized that voice from somewhere, it was... Iruka-sensei? Sasuke listened to the sound of two people leaving the room and relaxed.

"Sasuke?" The second voice asked. "Are you awake?"

Sasuke once again attempted to open his eyes, wondering why his chest hurt so badly as he did so. His eyes met with endlessly blue eyes that he knew could only belong to one person. "Naruto? What happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" The voice replied.

Sasuke's brow furrowed, why was Naruto speaking in such a strange voice? Did something happen to his throat? "I think..." As he spoke he tried desperately to remember. "You bit me, you bastard."

He felt a thrill of panic run through him as the blue eyes winced and moved further away. "I'm sorry."

Two things Sasuke noticed as Naruto moved further away. This first was, again, how tall the blonde was suddenly, and the second was a pair of yellow eyes, glaring at him from a small round face. "Have I been asleep for that long?" Sasuke asked as it finally dawned on him WHY the blonde was so ridiculously tall.

"A couple days." The blonde replied, the sound in his voice implied that it had felt like longer.

"Then why-" Sasuke trailed off. How was he supposed to put this? Why was Naruto suddenly taller than Kakashi? Why had his hair grown almost as long as Tenmar's? WHY was he supporting a 5 o'clock shadow? Where the hell'd that baby come from? No, wait, that last one was an entirely different question.

"You should rest." Naruto said suddenly in a tone that left no room for argument. "I'll stay with you until you wake up again."

Sasuke obediently closed his eyes, wondering what made the dobe think that he'd actually be able to fall asleep in a situation like... this...

Naruto slumped into a chair as Sasuke's breathing evened out. He glanced between Sasuke and the room's other sleeping occupant and sighed. What was he supposed to say to Sasuke now? What was he supposed to do? The blonde tucked a strand of long red hair behind the other sleeper's ear and sighed again. What the hell was he supposed to do?

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Psychic King: OK, once again, as always, I apologize if this chapter seemed to take too long. Now that the battle's over I feel a lot better about the prospect of writing more, though. happy sigh I also hope that the chapter still makes sense at the end, I saw an ending in sight and decided to push onwards, even though I am very tired. I wanted to get this baby posted ASAP. Don't worry next chapter will have more information on what happened in the battle and why Mina is unconscious and maybe even if anyone else got hurt! But that's not something I plan on worrying about right now, As soon as this is up I get to SLEEP!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As always happy, sad and angry remarks can be sent to my e-mail; or you can use the handy review function on I'm off to la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la land. BIG GRIN