I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.

Rematch

Ryuu sighed, standing as the statues began to march into the field, spreading out into a massive formation. At a glance, he could tell there were thousands. Which meant he needed to get busy. He had failed to master the Rasengan, unsurprisingly, so he'd have to do it the hard way.

He shot forward, drawing his tanto and forming a Vacuum Blade. Then, as he reached the first line of troops, he dropped, slashing them across the legs, severing them. He grinned, beginning to flicker and streaking forward, almost a dozen Afterimage Clones spreading from him, beginning to sever the legs of the statues. One statue slashed at a Ryuu, and the blade passed through him before he took the arm off, then the legs again. After a few more minutes, and dozens more statues, Ryuu appeared beside Fu again, sighing as the statues began to surround them.

"Well, it seems we've got their attention," Ryuu said.

"True," Fu nodded. "Now we just need to hold it."

Ryuu nodded, looking past the ring of statues where more were continuing to march toward the Land of Swamps. Ryuu huffed, forming a Chidori in his left hand and charging, Fu forming a Vacuum Blade over her tanto and kunai, charging in the other direction. Both tore into the statues, rendering as many as they could immobile, Ryuu using the Chidori to destroy some. After several seconds, they destroyed the last of the circle and Ryuu shot after the statues heading for the Land of Swamps. He shot through the first few lines, slicing them into small pieces with his Vacuum Blade before spinning and using his Chidori to destroy a circle of them. Then, he turned back to the front just as a massive root exploded out of the ground, crashing into Ryuu's gut and hurling him backward out of the soldiers. Ryuu flipped, landing on his feet in a low squat, skidding backward a short distance before stopping, Fu stepping up beside him as Zetsu rose from the ground.

"Zetsu," Ryuu said calmly. "Why am I not surprised to find the Akatsuki's behind Moryo's resurrection?"

"Oh no, we had no hand in his return," Zetsu said. "But now that he's awake, he'll make an excellent distraction while we go about our business as we please. Please hand over the Seven Tails' Jinchuriki."

"Oh sure," Ryuu said. "Right after you bring back my entire clan and kill Madara Uchiha."

"If you refuse, we'll take her by force," Zetsu warned.

"Well for your sake, I hope you're a hell of a lot stronger than you were the last time we met," Ryuu said, forming a Chidori in his left hand, gripping his tanto tightly in his right. "I refuse."

Zetsu watched him for a moment before nodding once. Then, roots erupted out f the ground in front of Zetsu, streaking toward Ryuu as Ryuu activated his Sharingan. Then, just before they reached Ryuu and Fu, Kakashi landed in front of Ryuu, lightning exploding out of his right hand, forming into a wolf and exploding through the roots. Ryuu leapt over Kakashi instantly and exhaled a massive stream of flames at Zetsu, roots erupting out of the ground, blocking them. Then, more roots reached around the side of the still-burning wall, stabbing at Ryuu, only for Fu to streak past them, the roots falling apart along several slashes, the rest halting. Ryuu spun instantly and deflected a thin pointed wood spike as Zetsu stabbed at him with it. Zetsu pulled it back across his chest and stabbed again, then again, and again. Ryuu fended him off, backing away with his wings as Zetsu pursued him on several roots, stabbing at Ryuu relentlessly. Fu flew past and slashed Zetsu's roots, but instead of falling, fresh roots burst out of the stumps left by the old ones, seamlessly sealing it before Black Zetsu transformed his arm into a root and smashed Ryuu away with it, turning and allowing White Zetsu to hurl the wooden spike after Fu. Fu deflected it with her Water Sword and Kakashi leapt at Zetsu from below, Chidori pulled back.

Zetsu's legs erupted into roots, impaling Kakashi, only for him to transform into lightning, blasting Zetsu and hurling him. Zetsu crashed down, roots shrinking back to their normal length before he slammed a fist into the ground, a wall of roots shooting out of the ground and blocking Ryuu's Pressure Damage. Ryuu shot forward, slashing his way through the roots, but Zetsu was gone. He heard Zetsu growing out of the tree behind himself and spun, slashing and streaking away from it, splitting Black Zetsu's arm from palm to elbow, however, both halves simply transformed into roots and slammed into Ryuu, sending him crashing to the ground. As Ryuu stood, Zetsu's arm fused back together just as Fu flipped over the roots Zetsu was partially extended from.

"Water Style, Severing Wave!" Fu shouted, exhaling the same pencil-thin stream of water Ryuu had tried on the statues the day before.

Zetsu shot out of the roots so fast Ryuu could have missed it if he'd blinked. Zetsu avoided the stream of water before Black Zetsu grabbed Fu by the throat, a chakra suppression seal spreading from his hand. At the same time, he began to rapidly sap her chakra. Ryuu hurled his tanto, sending it spinning up between the two, taking off Zetsu's arm as he did. The roots around Zetsu's legs shot to the ground and hurled him backward just ahead of Ryuu, Zetsu tilting his head back to avoid the uppercut, and Ryuu glared at him.

"You're scary," Zetsu said. "The boss is actually concerned you might be stronger than him." He flipped backward, retracting his roots and landing on top of the wall. "I've run out of patience. We're ending this now."

"Bring it on," Ryuu growled.

Zetsu began to form hand seals, then slammed his hands into the roots. A moment later, they exploded upward, expanding into a gigantic statue with a face about five times the size of Ryuu's body, five smaller faces around the top of its head like a headband, and hundreds of wooden arms behind it. Zetsu was standing on the statue's head and crossed his arms.

"Time to die," Zetsu said. "Summit Enlightenment!"

The statue's arms all shot out from behind itself, curving around and flying down at Ryuu and Fu. Ryuu formed hand seals quickly and knelt.

"Earth Style, Falling Earth Spears!" Ryuu shouted, shoving as much chakra as he could manage into the ground.

Massive stone spikes began to erupt out of the ground in blurred streaks, Fu standing directly behind Ryuu to keep from restricting his options. The spikes began to hit the wooden hands in a series of collisions as fast as a hard rain, the entire stone spike and arm both being obliterated, leaving Ryuu plenty of room to form more spikes. Finally, the last hand crashed into a spike and was destroyed just as Kakashi appeared over Zetsu, shoving a Chidori at him. Zetsu leapt off of the statue and Kakashi's hand drove itself into the statue's head before lightning erupted outward from his hand, obliterating the statue before Kakashi leapt off of the falling remains, narrowly escaping being impaled by Zetsu's roots.

Ryuu shot off of the ground after Zetsu, slamming a punch into his face. Instantly, there was a sound like an explosion and Zetsu streaked away from Ryuu, exploding into the ground and plowing through it for a hundred feet before flipping out of his trench and crashing down again, cratering it. Ryuu shot after him, only to flip and streak to the side as roots began to erupt out of the ground and stab at him then retract as more stabbed at him, chasing him. Finally, he flipped, flying at Zetsu again and punched a root, the entire thing exploding into splinters within a second. However, Zetsu was gone. Ryuu twisted instantly, contorting his body out of the way of a wooden spike as Zetsu grew out of the root to Ryuu's side. Then, Ryuu punched the root, the root exploding, sending Zetsu flying again, though he flipped and landed on his feet this time.

"Those Repulsion Seals are very troublesome," Zetsu said.

"They are pretty great, aren't they?" Ryuu grinned, landing in front of Zetsu and raising his hand just as Fu dropped his tanto into it, then landed beside him, Kakashi stepping up beside him on the other side. "Shall we finish this?"

"Let's," Kakashi nodded.

Zetsu cocked his head to the side just as roots exploded into the ground over every inch of the ground for a hundred meters, only to stop with Ryuu standing on the side of one holding Kakashi and Fu under his arms. He shifted both so that they could stand on the roots, then sheathed his tanto and exploded off of root, leaping from one to the next toward Zetsu. A new root grew out of one to impale him, but he blasted through it instantly. Zetsu began to sink into the ground but just as he had sunk up to his shoulders, Ryuu landed beside him, fist scraping the ground in an uppercut before rising and slamming into Zetsu's nose. His head smashed through three roots before bouncing off of two more. Ryuu sighed as Fu and Kakashi landed on either side of him.

"Are you alright?" Fu asked.

"It was only a clone," Ryuu said. "Zetsu escaped."

"How do you know?" Fu asked.

"There was no Black Zetsu," Ryuu said. "Half of his face just looked like it had been burned off. He was deformed, like all of the clones of Zetsu I've fought."

"I see," Kakashi nodded. "Well, anyway, we should get going. The Ghost Army will have made it quite a ways. Guy went to try and slow them down while we fought, but he probably won't be able to do much."

Ryuu nodded and they all took off, heading toward the Land of Swamps after the statues.

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