These final few chapters are probably going to feel really rushed because I want to get this finished soon so I can move onto something else I have planned. The only reason I'm not doing that now is because I don't want to be uploading three stories at once. That just sounds like such a pain. But anyway, enjoy.
CHAPTER 15
Temari had never seen such a grim sight in all her life. The Shinobi Alliance was in shock. Gengo had his Superweapon fully charged and ready to fire upon Nara Shikamaru, Temari's soon to be fiancé. Temari couldn't bear to watch him get obliterated, so she tried to look somewhere else. But the only other sight other than a wall or the sky wasn't much better. Lying right next to her was Hinata, who was holding the lifeless body of her husband Naruto, completely dissolved in tears. Gaara was kneeling above her, silently mourning the loss of his friend. It truly was a horrible situation. Everyone was so shocked at how badly they seemed to have been beaten that they just stood there and stared at the statue. Temari tried to run over to Shikamaru and pull him from his bindings, but Kankuro's puppet Black Ant kept her firmly in place. All she could do was scream for him and struggle as the laser began to shoot towards him. But he held a cocky grin on his face, even when it seemed like there was no hope. Did he have a plan or something? Temari thought to herself.
As it turned out, he did. The laser had barely reached halfway before it sputtered out entirely. As everyone stared in confusion, Shikamaru started shaking his shoulders and grunting in pain. Temari noticed blood beginning to run down his sides and begged him to stop, but he ignored her and kept going. Eventually he stopped, and two bloody kunai knives fell into his hands. Everyone stared as it slowly dawned on them all how that happened. "He must've jammed them up his armpits before he was brought here!" said Kankuro. Temari was amazed at his ingenuity, even if it caused him great pain. Everyone watched as Shikamaru fiddled with the kunai in his hands until they were in a position he liked, then he began to hack at the nails that kept the chakra wire bound to him.
It took him a minute, but Gengo eventually realised what Shikamaru was doing and he ordered his ninja to attack him. While they did that, he turned and lunged towards Naruto and Hinata. Gaara quickly enveloped the couple in sand. "I will not let you hurt my friend any more!" he yelled, sharpening the edges of the sphere. "Hinata, make sure to defend him if they get through the sand!" "Hai!" Hinata replied. Gengo used his new Puppet master Jutsu to attack Gaara with two puppets that appeared from a secret door. Gaara countered with his sand and the two fought ferociously. Alliance Shinobi and Enlightened Ones clashed all around as Shikamaru continued to hack at the nails that held the Chakra in place. After 20 more minutes of doing this, he accomplished what he wanted to do. He dropped the knives and strained against his bonds. They were cutting into his skin and he started bleeding, but to everyone's amazement, he was able to free his hands from the bindings. Then, once again shocking everyone, he was able to use Shadow Possession to completely remove the wire.
Gengo spotted this and changed his attack. He had his puppets charge at the Shadow wielder as he struggled to stand up. But Gaara intercepted them by lodging sand into their joints, temporarily immobilising them. Temari used this moment to quickly free herself from Black Ant and lunge for Shikamaru. She grabbed him and pulled him over to where Naruto lay. Gaara took the sand shield from around the two to concentrate all of his power at Gengo, who was sent flying across the battlefield. He used Chakra threads to make the base catch him, then summoned another two puppets to fight with. The original two were thrown at Gaara, who had the foresight to wrap himself in his ultimate defence. This turned out to be a good idea, because the puppets had paper bombs attached to them, which would've damaged Gaara in some way had he not done so.
When Temari got Shikamaru to safety, Gaara enveloped the two of them as well as Naruto and Hinata. Temari spent the next few minutes holding Shikamaru in a tight embrace, which he returned happily. She noticed he was crying slightly, but didn't call him a cry-baby. Mostly because she was doing the same. Once they were done, Shikamaru looked over at Hinata who was still bawling over Naruto. He raised his head slightly and told her, "Naruto is still alive." His voice was really weak, but they could still hear what was being said. "What?" Hinata asked, glancing between him and Naruto. "That's a... Kage Bunshin" he told them. Hinata glanced down at Naruto. At that moment, Naruto's body vanished in a puff of smoke. Shikamaru swore quietly. "What happened!?" asked Hinata, panic in her voice. "He's ran out of strength," Shikamaru replied. "We spent everyday since you came and fled upgrading his Kage Bunshin ability. He is now able to make sure it keeps its form even after it's killed, by keeping his Chakra flowing into it. Only problem is he can only keep it up a maximum of five minutes before he faints."
At this Hinata stood up. "Where is he?" she demanded. "Same place as last time" Shikamaru responded. Without another word Hinata made to leave the sand shield. But before she could, Shikamaru called out to her. "Wait. I also figured out how their Chakra wire works. You will need to know this if you plan on fetching him!" The two women stared at him. "How does it drain Chakra?" Temari asked. "There are special seals in the sleeves of those who wield them," Shikamaru replied. "In order to stop them from draining you, you need to cut off the sleeves of their robes, making the seal useless. As for when they use nails, the seals are on the nails, so just scrape them off like I was doing." Temari was impressed by Shikamaru's knowledge. Hinata thanked him and broke the protective sand. Then she made a break for the doorway that led into the base. Sakura defeated one of Gengo's ninja then followed after. Temari carried Shikamaru into a corner and pulled out her fan, ready to defend him against any who would try to hurt him.
Hinata and Sakura raced through the base, Hinata trying to find the real Naruto and Sakura looking for Sasuke's eyes. They found an Enlightened One and Sakura beat the crap out of him before he could even pull out the Chakra wire. Once he was lying, bloodied on the ground, Sakura managed to get the whereabouts of Sasuke's eyes out of him. Then, she and Hinata parted ways, with Hinata carrying on down the hall and Sakura running up a flight of stairs. As Hinata ran, she could feel herself tear up as thoughts of the state she'd find Naruto in. Shikamaru said that he was only able to hold the Kage Bunshin five minutes after it died, so she was terrified of what that five minutes did him.
Because of the fact that she came at it from a different angle, Hinata got completely turned around in the base. But after blindly racing through the base for almost fifteen minutes, she found the door marked "extract". She kicked the door down and charged inside. There, lying in a corner behind where he was supposed to be strapped, was Uzumaki Naruto. He was unconscious, and his skin hugged at his skeleton. Just like his Kage Bunshin, he was topless. But this time, his chest was rising and falling slightly. But just to be safe, she placed her ear on the left of his chest. She heard his heartbeat and burst into tears. She held him tightly as she did, then was taken by surprise when she felt his arms wrap around her. She looked up to see him tearing up as well. She dissolved into is shoulder and melted into his warmth. They remained like that for a while, before Hinata picked him up and she ran out of the room. Naruto probably felt useless, Hinata thought to herself as she ran.
Temari was furious with herself. As she was defending Shikamaru while a medical ninja revived him, she noticed that Gaara was having a bit of trouble against Gengo. So she swung her fan at the puppets, knocking them against the wall. But Gengo was able to change their trajectory at the last second, causing them to fly at her instead. She quickly ordered the medical ninja to take Shikamaru and avoid the attack, then she swung the fan again, causing the two to blow up. The force of the blast threw her backwards into the medical ninja. By the time the two were able to stand up, Shikamaru was gone. Gengo was now standing up on the statue, with Shikamaru in his hands and a kunai pointed at him. "ENOUGH WITH THIS FIGHTING!" he yelled, grabbing everyone's attention. "You all came here to save Uzumaki and Nara!" he went on. "But now that Uzumaki is dead, he's the only one left to save. If you don't drop your weapons right now, I'll skewer him!"
Temari wanted to charge up there and pulverize him, but knew that she'd loose Shikamaru forever if she did. So with great frustration, she made to throw her fan down. But as everyone was dropping their weapons, an orange Rasen-shuriken came flying from one of the hallways and struck the statue. Everyone brightened when they saw this. They knew of only one man who could do something like that. Sure enough, Naruto came limping out of the hallway, resting on Hinata's shoulder and another Rasengan in his hand. Uproarious cheers erupted from the Shinobi Alliance and the fighting resumed. Temari had never seen her younger brother look more relieved in her life.
Gengo and Shikamaru were loosing their balance on top of the statue. But Gengo was still determined to kill his foe. But as he raised the kunai, Chidori came flying from the top of the crater, striking him in the chest. Everyone turned to see Sasuke and Sakura standing up there. Sasuke was rubbing his eyes, obviously getting used to having them again. His other arm was raised in Gengo's direction, with Sakura being the one to aim the shot. She looked horrified with what she did, but pleased at the same time. As Gengo coughed up blood and slumped over, Shikamaru was able to free his hands and use his Shadow Possession Jutsu. The shadows wrapped around Gengo and stabbed into him, forcing him to let go of Shikamaru. At that moment, Naruto hurled another Rasen-shuriken at the statue, breaking it to pieces and throwing the two men off.
As the two of them fell, Sai and Ino came swooping in on Sai's Ink Birds. Sai caught Shikamaru and flew him to safety while Ino caught Gengo. She got off the bird and had it fly up and slam him into the ground. Then, she ordered the eagle to fly over to Hinata, who placed a now unconscious Naruto onto it. The men were brought to where Sasuke was and Sai promised to defend them with his life. Sakura nodded appreciatively, then jumped into the crater. The four Kunoichi who began the rescue mission surrounded Gengo, who pulled out a vial of a red liquid and jammed it into himself. To everyone's amazement, his wounds healed and he stood up, ready to fight. "I used some of the Kyuubi's power in Uzumaki's blood to heal myself," he explained, throwing the vial away. "Unfortunately I was only able to make one before the Kyuubi himself interfered. But it's enough that I'll be able beat you." "We'll see about that!" Temari replied angrily as she raised her fan. Sakura used the diamond in her head to power herself up, Hinata readied her tiger fists and Ino readied her Mind-transfer Jutsu. Then, they attacked as one, ready to kill the man who hurt their lovers.
So I hope you're hyped for the next chapter, which should be out next week. But first, let me explain the Chakra wire thing properly. Basically, I read this Naruto fanfic called "Missing" a few months before I started writing this. In it, Naruto is bound by Chakra wire and a seal that suppressed his Chakra. When I started writing this, I forgot about the seal and thought that that's what Chakra wire did in the anime, so I wrote it like that. But a few days ago I reread the fanfic and noticed that they wrote that he was bound by a seal. So I came up with that kinda dumb explanation to save my stupidity. But anyway, see you in the next chapter.