Daze
Chapter 29: The mentor's gifts
A/N: One hell of a cliffhanger eh, here's 29 at last, enjoy.
X X
Hokage office, A few hours earlier…
"Tsunade-sama!"
A man rushed in falling to the floor from exhaustion with an urgent look in his eyes.
He held out a red scroll with a seal that marked it as a level 5 emergency correspondence.
Tsunade paled, taking the scroll and popping it open with her chakra.
"W-what's this, the ANBU guarding The Uzumaki mask shrine, they've all been found dead?!"
She read over the note, her eyes quickly traveling from one line to the next.
"The Death god release mask is gone!"
She stood up slamming her fist into her desk and snapping it in two.
"This must be Danzo, damn him!"
Urgently she paced.
"You, messenger, tell the gate guards to inform me the instant Team Kakashi returns, this is an order of utmost importance."
The man nodded.
"Y-yes Hokage-sama."
Before the man could even stand the door was opened and a second messenger ran in.
"T-Tsunade-Sama, level 5 message here!"
The woman handed her the red scroll.
Tsunade opened it and immediately recognized the handwriting as Jiraiya's.
"W-what, Akatsuki, in the land of fire?!"
She heard a loud crash and paled looking out her window.
"W-what?"
A tall man smirked.
"Long time no see, Hime."
Dead forest, Current time...
Naruto drew the black blade, picking up the fallen Kakashi and flickering over to Sakura, setting their sensei down next to Sasuke he stood between his team and the enemy ninja.
"Sakura, focus on healing Sasuke, I'll hold them off."
She nodded quickly, focusing on her hands which were glowing a violent green.
Raiga, and the Iwa Jonin Kenshi, landed on either side of Kazuma; Oltier, and the Kumo Kunoichi Tomue took flank at Naruto's sides.
"It's five to one boy, and you're outmatched."
Naruto held his blade firm in his hand forming a one handed seal with his opposite and channeling flames into the sword which transformed into a much longer flame sword in his grip.
His Mangekyou eyes saw every flicker of chakra in the bodies of his adversaries.
He noted that Kazuma's new leg had a wellspring of chakra reminiscent of Tsunade's chakra signature and was clearly some sort of dormant cell tissue.
Inside Oltier was a strange silver-white chakra which seemed to violently attack and stave off any of her normal chakra which approached it.
Naruto grimaced, raising the blade in front of him.
The Iwa ninja Kenshi having formed an earth seal earlier reached into his pouch pulling out a pile of white clay and folding it with his hands;
-placing the folded clay into his mouth he clapped his hands with chakra and spit it out as a clay eel, which lunged at Naruto.
Naruto pulled shuriken from his hip channeling lightning into them and tossing them at the clay creature.
'He has the same jutsu as Deidara, but without body kinjutsu it takes him longer to form constructs,'
Naruto noticed the eel fall slack as the man cut the clay from his mouth irritated.
'- lightning nullifies anything he can throw so as long as I keep lightning chakra at the ready he will be rendered asinine.'
Naruto formed a one handed seal charging towards the man while swinging in a wide arc with his Totsuka sword.
Kazuma, Kenshi, and Raiga jumped into the air to avoid the slash but Naruto smirked, lifting his free hand with his thumb up and fore-fingers extended out.
"Waterstyle: Hozuki Watergun!"
A bullet of pressurized water fired from his fingertips toward Raiga, who raised a lightning blade to defend only to have it shattered and the water bullet strike him in the chest.
"W-what power."
He coughed out blood falling to the ground and clutching his side.
"The Hozuki water gun can't be blocked, if you were a real member of the seven swordsman you would have known that fact."
Raiga growled but felt his blood pooling beneath him, falling unconscious.
'That's one down.'
Kenshi landed and began forming an earth seal pulling more clay from his pockets, he folded it and filled his mouth with two large piles, his cheeks jutting out like a chipmunk.
Naruto stabbed out at him with the flaming tip of the Totsuka but was forced to dodge as Kazuma spun a wind blade toward his neck.
Kenshi coughed out the clay in a massive puddle and two large arms burst out as it began to form into a malformed clay golem.
Kenshi tied a rope of clay to his wrist and began to control the golem like a puppet.
Tomue drew two kunai channeling lightning into them and running around behind Naruto towards the downed Sakura.
Naruto spun around to stop her from attacking but was struck in the back and knocked down by blunt wind bullets courtesy of a grinning Kazuma.
The Cloud Kunoichi smiled slightly as she threw the kunai at Sakura.
Sakura paled, unable to dodge from all the chakra she had pooled into Sasuke.
Sasuke sat up wrapping her in his arms as a large spectral figure surrounded them and Kakashi.
It's arm swung out tossing the kunai back towards the Kunoichi who twitched to move out of the way, suddenly, she widened her eyes in shock.
"But I dodged, why am I back here?"
She looked down at the twin kunai which stuck in her chest, blood trailing from her lips as she fell to the ground.
Sasuke turned to face his pink-haired comrade, his eyes bleeding.
"Sakura… Don't worry about me, heal sensei… there's still time."
Sasuke breathed heavily from the chakra drain but he seemed to be stable.
Sakura nodded, popping a food pill to restore some of her energy and leaned down, placing her hands softly on Kakashi's wounded neck.
Naruto gazed shocked, his eyes noticed Oltier's silver chakra spike around her arms and eyes as she began to pale, and sweat profusely.
'D-did she?'
Kazuma failed to notice Oltier's betrayal as his eye was drawn to the spectral Susanoo.
"Kenshi destroy that thing, I'll keep the boy away from your golem!"
The Iwa ninja nodded, running with the golem which began to stomp towards the Susanoo each step slamming the earth and leaving imprints of clay behind.
Naruto swiped at the clay creature with his totsuka blade but his footing was taken by a low wall of wind which sent him sliding across the ground.
As he rolled onto his back he saw Kazuma leap into the air above him and spike his wind staff towards the ground where Naruto lay.
Thinking fast, Naruto used Amaterasu, his vision blurring and his eye bleeding as the black flames engulfed the wind above him.
Kazuma hopped away as the black flames pushed through his wind and headed towards him at the speed of sight.
The man kept running his prosthetic leg dripping white goo as he pushed the limits of his body to escape the pursuing black flames.
Naruto managed to encase the man's leg with the black flames catching him and travelling up his body.
Kazuma sliced the leg off with a kunai and hobbled away watching in horror as the flames ate through the leg and continued moving towards him.
Naruto winced in pain grabbing his bleeding eye as his vision further blurred and the black flames disappeared.
Kazuma laughed ecstatically from his good fortune forming a hand sign and firing wind blades from his mouth.
The first one struck Naruto carving into his leg tendon and preventing him from standing as his leg bled onto the forest floor.
Naruto still reeling from the Mangekyou strain was unable to move as he saw the wind chakra approaching rapidly.
He heard Oltier cry out in pain falling to her hands and knees, and suddenly the clay golem warped back to its initial position taking the wind blade in its body and splitting in half.
Kazuma noticed what had happened and growled turning to the girl and forming a hand sign.
"Tobiko you damn traitor, I knew you were too weak to finish the mission!"
He opened his mouth preparing to fire a wind blade towards the girl who was currently immobilized coughing blood.
Naruto formed a one handed seal and grabbed some displaced clay from the ground, tossing it out as a bird, it struck the lower half of the clay golem and the Iwa ninja Kenshi paled.
"No no no no no!"
Kazuma's attention was drawn as his head turned and Naruto raised the seal higher.
"Katsu!"
Naruto's clay bird exploded, igniting the C-2 chakra in the golem and causing it to begin to shake, with fire shining from its eyes.
Naruto pulling from an unknown wellspring of power body flickered over, wrapping Oltier in his arms and summoning a bandage wrapped object from the ground.
The golem exploded with awe-inducing light, the Iwa ninja who was tied to it with a clay rope was vaporized instantly, Kazuma who raised a mud wall was sent flying across the forest;
-Flipping violently through the air and crashing through several of the tall dead trees in the area.
When the dust settled, Kazuma fell slack impaled like a scorched scarecrow on a sharp branch.
His burning blood rained down on the forest floor, and one of his arms fell off still clutching out in terror.
Naruto was breathing heavily, wrapping Oltier gently into his chest with one arm while he held an orange glass shield with his other;
-It's mirrored surface had the slightest crack, and it rippled, slowly restoring the damage.
"T-the Yata Mirror, thank you… Itachi-nii."
Naruto dropped the shield to the ground and it dispelled, in a cloud of smoke returning to the Susanoo along with the Totsuka blade he had summoned earlier.
He fell to the ground tired, Oltier coughed blood onto his chest as she latched on his arm for comfort, her purple hair gaining streaks of ghostly white.
Sakura breathed heavily as Sasuke's Susanoo rained down in purple crystals of energy, having just barely endured the blast.
Kakashi coughed, wheezing out a labored breath.
"W-what... the hell... happened?"
"Sensei!"
Sakura cried onto the man's chest smiling cheek to cheek as her emerald eyes welled up with emotion.
Sasuke noticed a strange translucent liquid leaking from the blood trail on his neck.
'A paralytic agent… to slow his heart?'
Naruto sat up shakily, helping Oltier to her side and laying her down, he checked her pulse clutching her wrist softly.
'She's stable.'
The girl's eyes closed and she fell unconscious, blood leaking from her mouth, her body was still pale, and shaking from the drawbacks of her power.
Naruto reached into his hip pouch pulling bandages and tying the tendon of his leg together.
He grabbed the girl picking her up bridal style and walking shakily over to his team, he bit back the pain as every step sent sharp jolts through his leg and up his hip.
When he arrived he dropped to his knees ungracefully and set the girl down in front of Sakura.
Sakura checked that the girl was stable and ran a few tests to ensure her condition wouldn't get worse.
Reaching into her pouch Sakura pulled out a fancy seal tag and placed it on the girl's forehead, tying her wrists behind her back with ninja wire.
"Sakura, you're shaking."
The kunoichi nodded, popping two more food pills, her eye twitching half lidded from chakra strain.
"I'm fine Naruto, I have my own mission and I won't let low chakra reserves stop me from making sure it's a success."
Sakura leaned over with a grunt of exertion she pooled green chakra into Naruto's leg, repairing the tendon, and closing the wound, returning her attention to Kakashi.
She finished healing his neck wound force feeding him a plasma pill and helping him to a sitting position.
"Sensei, Tsunade-shishou tasked me with capturing Oltier, please I need you to come with me now, the prison isn't far from here."
Kakashi though fatigued nodded in understanding, shakily standing up and helping Sakura lift the girl to an unconscious standing position.
The two of them faced Naruto and Sasuke.
"You two wait here, we'll return as soon as we're done and head for the village."
Naruto nodded, sitting down and clutching his still hurting leg.
"I wasn't looking forward to a long trip right away anyway."
Sasuke nodded in agreement holding his injured chest.
"We'll be here when you return."
Satisfied Sakura and Kakashi dragged the unconscious girl in the direction of the nearby blacksite.
Once they had disappeared in the distance Naruto turned to Sasuke.
"So, protecting Sakura with your own body, I never thought I'd see the day."
Sasuke blushed looking away from his blonde rival.
"Things have changed, Sakura means something else to me now."
Naruto's eyes registered an unspoken passion in his onyx eyes.
"I didn't realize, I'm glad you finally found someone precious."
Sasuke adjusted the small clay dog around his neck.
"It's not just her Naruto…"
He turned to look at Naruto, an unknown emotion in his eyes.
"You, Kakashi… everyone in the leaf, you're all precious to me."
Naruto felt his chest tighten as he smiled tearing up at the sky.
'You hear that Itachi-nii… he's found it… your will of fire.'
A raven flew from a nest in a nearby dead tree leaving black feathers floating down behind as it faded from vision under the cloak of the blinding mid-day sun.
After an hour or so of waiting Naruto and Sasuke shakily climbed to their feet having mustered enough energy to confidently move.
"How far do you suppose the site is from here?"
Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly.
"A few hours at most, if it was anymore they would have brought us along."
They were interrupted by a twin set of footsteps steadily approaching.
Naruto heard a playful whistle and the sound of sharp metal scraping the dead-barked trees.
"Oi oi oi Naruto-kun, looks like we missed the party, Jashin-sama wept."
A deep graveled man grunted with annoyance.
"Shut up fool, let's get this over with so we can get back to making money."
Sasuke and Naruto faced the men whose black cloaks flapped in the slight wind.
Naruto began to sweat as he and Sasuke, still exhausted, assumed weak fighting positions.
Sakura and Kakashi set the girl down on the floor covered in tags, stepping out of the area of effect.
Inside Inoichi dug through her mind while Tenzo and Choza channeled the chakra to maintain the barrier.
"Shikaku-san will deliver the message to Tsunade, we need to get back to Naruto and Sasuke, they're probably bored waiting."
Sakura cracked a slight relieved smile.
Kakashi nodded subtly.
"You've done well Sakura, I know it wasn't easy seeing your friend like that."
Sakura shook her head.
"Whatever friendship we may have had, she ended when she betrayed us and hurt you sensei."
Kakashi gave her an understanding look.
"I see, well nevertheless, she's handled, let's head back it'll take us an hour or two with our current stamina."
The two left the complex following the long winding trail back to the distant forest.
Naruto groaned holding Hidan's scythe back with his Wakizashi.
"There's still time Naruto-kun, convert to Jashin now and perhaps he'll save you from damnation."
Naruto growled.
"Shove it up your ass, you bony bastard!"
Hidan glared at him.
"And here I thought we were friends gaki, but you know the rules, disrespect Jashin and, YOU DIE!"
Sasuke grappled the tall masked Akatsuki holding his stone-laced spear arm back from his chest.
"Itachi's brother, shame we have to kill you now, in a few years you'd have commanded quite a bounty."
Sasuke grunted with annoyance holding the man's arm between his palms, he channeled lightning between them and snapped the stone off of the man's arm, kicking him in the ribs.
Kakuzu hopped back smirking beneath his mask.
"Lightning huh?"
Kakuzu groaned as his back began to pulse two black, masked creatures bursting from between his shoulder blades.
Both had blue patterns on their masks, one resembled a fish with legs while the other was some kind of owl.
Sasuke looked at the display with disgust.
"Are you even human?"
Kakuzu chuckled.
"I'm old, very old, and strong, but there is no doubt I'm still human."
The masked creatures began to spew water and lightning from their mouths.
Sasuke hopped up running sideways on a tree to avoid the torrent.
Naruto attempted to surprise Hidan with a feint slash aimed for his under arm, but the man countered effortlessly slamming his scythe down and almost piercing Naruto's shoulder.
"H-how?"
Hidan chuckled madly.
"You forget who taught you boy, all of your tricks are ours, you'll never beat me like that."
Naruto and Sasuke locked eyes wordlessly agreeing to swap opponents.
Naruto leaps over Hidan tossing down a smoke pellet from his sleeve and facing off with Kakuzu.
"Kakuzu-san, I admit I never wanted to face you in battle."
Kakuzu nodded.
"You made the Akatsuki a lot of money gaki, but you're too much of a risk to our outfit, no hard feelings."
Naruto charged the man leaping over a barrage of lightning from his masked beast and struck out with his arm encased in hard stone.
"Stone assault spear!"
Kakuzu looked at him baffled, hardening his entire body and grabbing the boy by his arm.
"Really Naruto, my own technique, I wouldn't bother using jutsu against me, I taught you most of them."
Naruto paled running through the list of jutsu in his arsenal.
'Damn it he's right, excluding puppet master jutsu, and sharingan abilities he knows everything I have,'
The boy began to sweat breaking out of the man's grip with lightning and putting some distance between them with a series of back hops.
'-I could use an elemental rasengan, but if he avoids it I'll be too low on chakra to defeat him.'
Forming a Dog seal Naruto reaches into his pouches throwing something out.
"Katsu!"
Kakuzu shook his head in disappointment with his lightning mask channeling a series of electric senbon.
"Deidara's jutsu huh, it's a good move, but It doesn't work if you telegraph beforehand, kid."
Kakuzu's eyes widened as the attack was revealed to be a series of paper birds.
"W-what, that's Konan's?!"
He began to channel chakra to his water mask which fired a spume wetting the paper but to his shock it was still solid as Naruto had oiled them beforehand.
The birds crashed into Kakuzu and unfolded, encasing him in a coffin of paper and obscuring his vision.
Naruto took the opportunity pushing his limits and encasing the paper in Amaterasu flames.
Kakuzu tore out just moments before the flames engulfed them by releasing the wind mask from his back and hopping away to safety.
"I take back what I said, maybe you aren't so foolish, but you should know cheap tricks won't beat me."
The wind mask readies a pillar of slicing wind from its mouth and Naruto is forced to dodge an onslaught of wind, water, and lightning.
Naruto channeled chakra into the ground with his hand, leaping high into the air and Kakuzu focused his vision on him.
The papers which had fallen on the forest floor began to sizzle and Kakuzu noticed, unable to react in time his Water mask grabbed and tossed him away, igniting in the explosion.
"You took one of my masks, now I'll have to replace it with your heart Naruto."
The wind and Lightning masks resumed their offensive on Naruto as the fire mask launched from Kakuzu's back tossing out a pillar of flame into the air and forcing Naruto to fall to the side.
He paled as he noticed Hidan throw his scythe in the direction.
'A diversion, to lure me towards Hidan!'
Sasuke tossed his sword filled with lightning into the air, cutting the cable to Hidan's scythe and stopping it just short of cutting Naruto.
"Th-thanks Sasuke."
The two regrouped at the same time as Hidan and Kakuzu.
Hidan hopped into formation with Kakuzu's three masked beasts.
Kakuzu growled, sending his beasts after Naruto and Sasuke who were forced to run dodging blasts of elemental light.
Hidan grinning chased them with his scythe.
Naruto jumping over a pillar of lightning saw an opportunity and charged Hidan directly.
The man smirks, swinging out with his scythe.
"Dumb move gaki!"
Naruto grins at him and ducks, Sasuke tosses fire infused kunai at him and Hidan is forced to bend back to duck under the blades.
Naruto slams his hand into the man's gut, tossing him away with a palm.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"
A sealing matrix appears on Hidan's chest and two puppets summon beside him charging at Kakuzu.
Kakuzu notices they've been shoddily prepared with simple pins and ninja wire holding their heads on.
The two puppets leap into the air, the male's visor lifting and tossing out a wall of obfuscating light.
Kakuzu chuckles.
"You can't blind my masked beasts, as long as I can see, so can they."
The female puppet who had landed in the wall of light rushed at Kakuzu, he swipes out with a stone encased fist removing her head but not before her eyes glow green.
His senses are filled with dizziness as his footing begins to shake.
"What, genjutsu!"
Slamming his hands together he channels chakra.
"Release!"
He dispels it and sees the male puppet approaching him, calling his lightning masked beast it blasts the puppet to pieces.
To his shock and anger the puppet's form begins to shift and he sees it was actually his wind masked beast.
Naruto grins.
'Two down.'
Kakuzu enraged has his fire masked beast completely incinerate the remnants of Naruto's puppets.
Naruto grimaces at the complete loss of his puppets.
'Well that trick won't work twice.'
Kakuzu begins to shake again his final earth masked beast launching from his back.
Sasuke, seeing the moment, rushes the man slashing his left arm off with his sword.
Kakuzu groans in pain as his arm is sent flying away.
Before Sasuke can react Hidan slides next to him and swings his scythe, blood flying upward.
"Sasuke!"
Sasuke falls over clutching his sword as Hidan licks his lips.
Naruto attempts to stop the man but Kakuzu's three masked beasts surround him.
In a moment of distraction Kakuzu is able to send his right arm trailing underground and it bursts out clutching Naruto by the neck.
Kakuzu's fire mask tackles him, pinning him down and opening its mouth above him, in it's mouth hot fire near Naruto's face causes him to sweat.
"Do not move boy, I need your heart, but if you attempt to interrupt Hidan I will incinerate you."
Naruto sweats unable to move as Hidan licks the blood from his scythe circling himself and beginning the ritual.
Watching in horror, Naruto sees Hidan pierce himself in the heart with his scythe, Sasuke rolling over on the ground.
Hidan laughs maniacally and Kakuzu smirks.
Kakuzu who opened his mouth to say something, clutches his chest and doubles over in pain coughing blood into his mask.
"Kakuzu what is it?!"
"M-my heart, Hidan you damn fool!"
Naruto uses the moment to form a quick Rasengan and slam it into the Fire mask above him destroying the heart and sending it flying away.
Sasuke who was on the ground snaps his eye open staring at the lightning mask beast, and encasing it in black Amaterasu flames.
Sasuke begins to pale as his vision unfurls and everything goes black.
Kakuzu crawls on the ground, his final mask retracting into his body.
"Y-you bastards, you've destroyed all but one of my hearts."
He tears his mask off his long hair falling as his skin hardens into black steel.
"I'm out of patience with you gaki, it's time to collect."
Kakuzu walks over to the downed Naruto raising a stone spear hand above his chest.
Sasuke stumbles around confused, and Naruto notices he's completely blind.
Hidan chuckles.
"Oi Kakuzu this Uchiha brat used up his vision, this'll be easy."
Kakuzu turns his furious red-sclera green eyes on the man.
"Shut up and kill him you damn fool!"
Hidan growls at the man, walking over to Sasuke and raising his scythe back like a batter.
Turning back to Naruto, Kakuzu grins with his stitch mouth raising his stone spear hand.
"Goodbye, Naruto."
Naruto pales and closes his eyes only to hear a cutting sound break through the air.
Opening his eyes he sees Kakuzu frozen stiff and shaking as the second note of sound begins to play, it becomes recognizable as haunting music from a steel flute.
Hidan growls frozen just short of cutting Sasuke's face with his scythe.
Naruto smiles with relief and shock.
'Tayuya-chan, but how?!'
Boisterous laughter, and a loud croak is heard among the music.
A moment later a massive shockwave shakes the ground as a giant frog lands on Hidan, crushing him into the earth.
The frog's mouth shoots open and it grabs Kakuzu with its tongue pulling him into its mouth and vanishing with a poof of smoke.
From atop the frog a man lands semi-gracefully loud wood geta sandals clacking on the ground.
"E-ero-sensei?"
Jiraiya chuckles and nods to the boy.
"Long time no see Naruto, what, you couldn't send me a letter?"
Naruto smiled up at the man.
"Sorry, it was inconsiderate of me... not to consider my master's feelings like that."
Tayuya steps from behind a tree, still playing her flute, and checks on the crushed Akatsuki.
His arms and legs resembled tree branches which had all but snapped off the tree, and his back was bent backwards, with his neck at an odd angle.
Hidan growled like a rabid animal.
"I can't move right now but I will still kill you, come here bitch and I'll bite your neck out!"
Tayuya walked over punching the man in the face and sending him folding over.
"He's alive but he won't be moving anytime soon."
Jiraiya nodded satisfied.
Turning back to Naruto who he had helped stand and was currently holding up he smirked.
"You found yourself a real catch eh Naruto-kun, smart, feisty, and with hips that I could- Aaagh"
Tayuya smacked the man in the face and he clutched his bleeding nose falling over.
"Shut it geezer."
Naruto sweatdropped as she caught him in her arms holding him gently against her chest.
Jiraiya stood up wiping the blood from his nose and noticed his second student still blindly crawling around feeling with his hands for balance.
The Sanin helps Sasuke to his feet looking grimly.
"His vision is gone, completely."
Naruto sighs wearily.
"I'm not doing much better, ever since Orochimaru, but now especially, my vision's all blurred out."
He looks at Sasuke who feels his gaze upon him.
"I think it's time."
Sasuke nodded in agreement, holding Jiraiya for a sense of balance.
"When we reach the village Naruto... we'll have Sakura exchange these eyes."
Tayuya and Jiraiya helped them to a stable position.
Jiraiya summoned a second frog which swallowed Hidan and poofed away.
A short time later, Sakura and Kakashi arrived and were immediately confused at the scene.
Sakura walked over supporting a tired Kakashi.
"Jiraiya-sama, Tayuya-chan, why are you here?"
Jiriaya chuckled.
"It's a long story Sakura, let's get back to the village and discuss it with Tsunade before my frogs completely digest these Akatsuki."
"A-Akatsuki?"
Kakashi's brow lifted in confusion.
A few hours later…
The tired team Kakashi, plus two, arrived at the village gate as the moon rose over the skyline.
Walking shakily to the hospital, Jiraiya and Sakura volunteered to file the report.
Tayuya helped Sasuke walk, while Naruto carried Kakashi on his back.
"It's odd isn't it sensei, that I'm the one carrying you."
Kakashi sighed.
"I'm too tired to find humor in the moment."
Naruto sighed.
"I suppose that's fair you did almost die at the hands of your new student."
Kakashi sweatdropped.
"When you put it like that I sound pathetic."
Tayuya opened the door to the hospital guiding Sasuke through where a nurse took him from her hands.
"All of you please follow me to Exam room B, Sakura-san should be with us soon."
Naruto lowered Kakashi who insisted on walking the last couple steps himself.
Naruto and Sasuke climbed into hospital beds across from each other while Kakashi got one at the end of the room.
The nurse had them strip down to their personals so she could look them over.
Sasuke had a nasty scar on his chest from the wind kunai, it had pierced his aorta and if Sakura hadn't been there he would have bled out in minutes.
Kakashi's wound despite the intense nature of it wasn't actually fatal due to a paralytic agent Oltier had laced her kunai with to slow his bodily functions.
Still he had a straight-lined scar across his neck.
Naruto's injury had the worst long term consequences as it could potentially limit his mobility if it didn't heal properly.
As the nurse was preparing them for surgery Sakura stepped into the room and whispered something gently into Sasuke's ear which made him smile.
Naruto and Sasuke volunteered to avoid anesthesia so they could go home the same night after the surgery.
Naruto joked that he had lived in a cave for two weeks after eye-surgery so his apartment wasn't much worse.
The two left the building with bandages wrapped around their eyes and were asked to return in a week so they could be checked for complications before the unwrapping.
Tayuya guided him back to his apartment and volunteered to be his caretaker during his rest period.
Sakura told her parents she would be gone for a few weeks to take care of Sasuke at his home.
The weeks went by surprisingly quickly, as the two got to stay at home eating, resting, and spending time with the girls they loved.
Finally the day arrived and they returned to the hospital, Sakura was the one to cut the bandages from their eyes and hold a mirror up to them.
Naruto saw in his eyes the fan pattern, interwoven with the almost-nucleus esque pattern of Sasuke's eye.
Sasuke saw something similar, though his eye was the reverse.
The two of them gazed into each other's newly found light.
A new sense of connection was mutually passed between them.
How could they not see the world in a similar light, they had twin eyes.
Unbeknownst to Sasuke though, Naruto felt something strange when his eyes reawakened.
Like something strange and powerful was coming close to being unlocked within him, and it just needed one final key to be unleashed.
He felt strange echoes of a dream, though it was still fuzzy, he could remember one phrase.
"Within you lies the secret to my power; use it to repair the mistakes of the ancient past, my mistakes,"
"-Ashura I beseech thee."
Naruto's eyes glew with power, though Sasuke could see the brilliant chakra contained behind them he chalked it as the might of the Eternal Mangekyou, unaware of the power beyond.
X END X