Helpfully Colour Co-ordinated Powerups
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?" Tsunade screamed.
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Orochimaru screamed back louder.
"What, so you're saying that THAT-" she pointed at Naruto and Sasuke. They were still glowing purple and gold. "Just HAPPENED?"
"What, you think that in the middle of all this I-" Orochimaru stopped, looked down again. "Wait. Shut up."
"Oh, now you're trying to tell me to-"
"SHUT UP!" Orochimaru snapped, crouching down next to the pair. "Look!"
Tsunade did. And frowned.
She certainly didn't have the chakra vision that came with certain dojutsu, and she wasn't about to interfere with whatever the hell was happening by sticking her own hands into the mix.
But she could see that the two colours were...spreading. Gold sliding across onto Sasuke, and purple beginning to cover Naruto.
"I'm aware I'm judging this from the most layman perspective possible." Orochimaru said. "But...are their chakras-"
"Mixing?" Tsunade finished. "I...I think so."
Sasuke tried to process what he was being told. "So. You and your brother...murdered god?"
Next to him, Naruto seemed less skeptical and more absolutely ecstatic.
"Well, sort of." Hagoromo admitted to them. "We couldn't kill Kaguya. Could barely beat her. The only option for dealing with her permanently was sealing her away, but the issue we faced was where. You've witnessed that the more powerful a being you attempt to seal, the more difficult it is. A scroll wasn't going to cut it."
"You could have tried to put her in the Reaper?" Sasuke suggested. "Wait, hold on, how does the Reaper and the afterlife fit into all this?"
"I have literally no idea." Hagoromo admitted. "As in I haven't the foggiest how that relates to any of this. I don't even know how the Uzumaki came up with all that. It's a little concerning."
"Oh."
"But, well, without literally summoning death itself, there were only two possible hosts to seal the Ten-Tails into." Hagoromo sighed. "And Hamura called 'not it' first."
"You became the Jinchurikki of the Ten-Tails?" Sasuke's mouth fell open.
"You were strong enough to fight the Ten-Tails and then you became the Jinchurikki of the Ten-Tails?" Naruto was now looking suitably horrified. "Sasuke, where did you put the 'increase estimated threat level' button, I need it."
Hagoromo rolled his eyes (sort of. It was hard to tell with the Rinnegan.) "Relax, I'm dead now. I'm not much of a fighter anymore. Indeed, as I grew old and my body began to fail, I knew that I could not allow the monster within me to ravage the world again. I also did not desire to force another to bear the burden I had, for carrying that thing in my mind for so long was...taxing. So I had an idea." He waved a hand at Sasuke, who still had Samehada slung over his back. "Hello dear, by the way."
"Hello darling~" Spoke the sword, causing Naruto to scream and jump about ten feet away. "It's been too long."
"It has." Hagoromo replied, smiling. "Are my descendants treating you well?"
"Varies from person to person. This latest one is a strapping young man, I'm sure he'll do great things."
Naruto pointed a shaking finger at it. "Sasuke, has your sword...always? Done that?"
"Yeeeeeah...Probably should have brought it up. I try to ignore it." Sasuke admitted sheepishly.
"Hey!"
"With Samehada, some other tools, and the Creation Of All Things technique, I was able to split the Ten-Tails." Hagoromo explained. "The result...was the nine tailed beasts."
"Okay, yeah, question." Naruto interrupted, holding a hand up. "I've wanted this answered for bloody years. The beasts have different power levels based on their tails, right?"
Hagoromo winced, likely realising where this was going. "Yep."
"Why the hell is it exponential!" Naruto practically screamed. "Why is it one through nine tails if the thing has ten, why isn't one tail's worth consistent from beast to beast, why-"
"It was an accident!" Hagoromo shouted back. "Okay? There, I said it!" He slumped, groaning. "I'm sorry if the time when I split a mad god into separate sentient beings wasn't done cleanly enough for you. I had a big bloody monster that I'd just let out of myself and I only knew one spell that carved a certain chunk off it, so I just...did that. Over and over again."
Ashura and Indra were snickering at him, and he glared at them. "Shut it. But yes, Kurama was about forty-odd percent of the Ten-Tails? I think? And then when the Ten-Tails was still alive I just...did it again. Gyuki was forty odd percent of what was left, then Chomei was about forty percent of what was left after that...you get the idea. Eventually I cut Shukaku off and the remainder (what you call the Gedo Mazo) stopped moving. And then I stuck it in Hamura's basement and swore him to secrecy about the whole thing."
"You should have seen it." Samehada laughed. "It was just him swinging me up and down in a panic for almost forty minutes. I don't think he stopped screaming for the entire time."
Hagoromo turned around and started sulking. Indra and Ashura were in stitches laughing.
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glance.
"So he's an idiot." Sasuke summarised.
"Would you expect anything else from our grandpa?" Naruto replied, giggling.
"Got enough of this shit from Hamura, fucking horsecrap..." Hagoromo grumbled. "Anyway, Bijuu. They exist. But what the Rinnegan can do, the Rinnegan can undo. What was split apart can be put back together again. I doubt I need to explain to you why you need to stop this 'Madara' fellow-"
"Because my brother has terrible taste in men." Ashura sniggered, still stood to one side.
"Fuck you." Indra scowled, blushing.
"I'm getting there." Hagoromo told them, shooting an irritated look.
"You're taking too long, Dad!" Ashura complained.
"There's a lot to get to!"
"Just do the bloodline bit, the mixie bit, and then let them out."
"Damn kids these days. No appreciation for a good exposition delivery..." Hagoromo huffed, and turned back to Naruto and Sasuke, who were trying not to laugh.
"Anyway. Myself and Hamura both had children, and following the same pattern as us and Kaguya, those children's powers were diluted. My two sons were Indra and Ashura here. The former wielded the Sharingan (and a bunch of other stuff) while the latter wielded wood release (and a bunch of other stuff). And as their descendants in turn spread through the world and-"
"Fuuuuuuucked!" Ashura said, very loudly, before Indra grabbed him and hip-threw him onto the floor.
"Thank you son. Yes, that. The bloodlines spread further. Merged, separated, and merged again, until we were left with what we have today. All leading to you two, and what is currently happening to you."
"Right." Naruto nodded. "What is happening exactly?"
"Sasuke-kun has put himself inside of you!" Ashura shouted, before gargling as Indra grabbed him by the throat. The pair continued to grapple on the floor.
Naruto gave Sasuke a questioning look, and the Uchiha coughed and shifted in place. "I shared my chakra with you to try and make you not die. It...worked?"
"Oh, it did more than work." Indra told him, arms wrapped around his brother's throat. "You weren't just sharing chakra with your friend. You were merging the chakra of the descendants of me and my brother. You were recreating the chakra of the Sage of Six Paths."
Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other in shock.
There was a twist, and Ashura broke his brother's hold, then flipped him onto the bottom, saying: "Chakra is a tool that brings people together. In this case, you. Your bodies have some of the DNA of pops in you; the DNA of Kaguya. And now that you've come together, it's remembering."
"GET OFF!" Indra snarled. Ashura did, and the pair stood up, straightening.
"But not without us." Ashura continued. "I mean, maybe if you two had a kid-"
"We're both dudes!"
"-Then they might be the most powerful ninja born in millennia. But since we're doing this in the external way rather than the inherited..." Ashura grinned. "Your bodies will need reminding."
"Nothing too special happens without our assistance." Indra grimaced. "Which I really shouldn't have given to Madara, he just demonstrated a very impressive resolve. Because obviously, if the Rinnegan had appeared every time our descendants got touchy feely, Black Zetsu would have had a far easier time of it all..."
"Wait wait wait wait wait." Sasuke held up a hand. "Did you just say Rinnegan?"
The two brothers looked at each other. Smirked.
"Tell me, kiddos." Ashura said eventually. "What would you say to some Brand New High Risk Superpowers?"
In the wasteland of the Fourth Great Shinobi war, there was a moment where everyone seemed to hold their breath.
The amassed armies of shinobi didn't really know what to do.
Tsunade and Orochimaru were quietly panicking over Sasuke and Naruto's bodies.
The Kage were recovering from the second time in as many hours that someone had tried to kill them all with a giant blue sword.
Madara stood atop the flailing, shuddering Ten-Tails, arms crossed, impatiently tapping his foot at a rapid pace.
And Might Gai stood over Hinata, fist not a centimetre from her head.
Which meant, strangely enough, that it wasn't currently buried inside it.
Hinata reopened her eyes, and looked up in shock.
The expression on Might Gai's face was one that would stay with her for the rest of her life, however long that came to be.
His teeth were clenched, pupils practically invisible, skin ash-black and hair glowing red. The sheer visceral tension in his body was unmistakable, Hinata could practically feel it, as he slowly opened his mouth.
For everything that was happening, his voice was actually quite quiet.
"No." He uttered.
The fist began to pull back.
"Excuse me?" Black Zetsu sounded just plain surprised. "What the hell do you think you're-"
Gai's other arm pulled back, began to thrust forwards-
Stopped, just like the other one.
Gai straightened, allowing Hinata to scramble back across the stone.
His whole body was shaking, Hinata could see blood vessels bursting everywhere, and the Gate of Death was reaching it's namesake. The sheer agony Gai must have been in didn't even bear thinking about.
Nonetheless, he took a step backwards.
"What?" Zetsu was panicking now, only blackness squirming across the surface of Gai's body. "This isn't possible! No mere human can resist the True Shadow Possession! I am chakra! I'm controlling every mote of energy in your body!"
"But the Eight Gates don't use chakra..." Hinata breathed. She clambered shakily to her feet.
"You-ngh-made one critical error!" Gai said, as he pulled both his arms out to either side. "There is...no...shadow...THAT CAN DOUSE THE FIRES OF YOUTH!"
He forced himself down onto one knee and looked up at Hinata, torso and throat bared.
"MY STUDENT!" He shouted. "LOOK DOWN THE PATHS OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEFEAT, AND SEE THAT THE WORLD WILL SUFFER FOR IT! MUSTER YOUR RESOLVE! DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO!"
Hinata grimaced, fists clenching to either side of her. But she sure as hell wasn't going to ruin this moment for him. A blue flame engulfed her, the Tenseigan Cloak having finally had enough time to replenish itself.
"This cannot be!" Shrieked Black Zetsu. "I have forced the kindest of men to slaughter their own families! I have swung the sword-arm of Indra himself! I cannot be foiled by some, some, some beast in a jumpsuit! This is impossible!"
"Rule one of the ninja world." Hinata told him, eyes hard. "The universe does not care what you believe to be impossible." She bared her own teeth in a feral smile.
"Especially not when it's being done by a man with the heart of a lion, and everything to lose!"
Her gaze softened as she looked at the more human part of her target's face. "Gai-Sensei? It has been an absolute pleasure."
Konoha's Green Beast smiled. "Likewise. Tell Kakashi that he is my greatest friend, and Lee that I love him like my own son. Now STRIKE!"
Hinata struck.
Black Zetsu was fast in his attempt to flee Gai's body, but Hinata was faster. She blitzed forwards and grabbed Gai, one hand on his head and the other on his heart, and Counter Chakra blazed into intensity around her fingers.
She didn't want to risk what might or might not kill the wretched parasite, so resorted to the most certain method of dealing with it she could think of. Namely, powering her lionfists up the wazoo.
You're chakra, huh? Thanks for letting me know.
Ths monster's screams reached a fever pitch, then distorted and split, as the shadows were inexorably pulled off Gai's body and consumed in flame.
Hinata didn't kill Black Zetsu.
She absorbed him.
The process ended with a flash, and Hinata staggered forwards, barely able to catch herself, nevermind Gai. Still, she did so, lowering him to the floor.
She had hoped, but, no: His heart was no longer beating. His entire body had been cooked from the inside out, cracks in his skin revealing hot orange glows that wisps of steam lazily twirled up from. His eyes were rolled back into his forehead, and his body was still.
Hinata sighed, and laid him down. "That was the most badass thing I've ever seen," she told him, "you absolute fucking legend."
Gai did not reply, and if one corner of his mouth had twitched upwards, then she would have convinced herself that she was imagining it.
Taking a second to think, she found that she could still hear some stray thoughts that most certainly weren't hers in her head. Black Zetsu was still there, inside her now, annoyingly, which might become a problem in the future. For now though, he was dealt with. Which just left...
"For the record." She called out, floating up again and turning to Madara, "If there exists a physical limit on how pissed off someone can be at a person, then I've hit that with you. Like I've reached that point. I'm as pissed at you as I once was with Neji, and that's saying something."
"I don't know who that is and I don't care." He announced, as she closed the distance between them.
"Yeah, figures." She chuckled. A few of Zetsu's scattered thoughts came to her, and she went "Huh. Hey you know the shadow-man was planning to betray you, right?"
"Oh he was?" Madara paused, seeming to think about it. "Yeah, figures. I knew he had something up his sleeve, but wasn't sure how he planned to do it." He sighed and stretched. "And once again you fall victim to the error that plagued so many of my opponents before you: not taking the time to think your actions through."
"One of our last enemies is dealt with." Hinata reviewed, "I'm still at full strength and you're all alone now."
"Oh is that how you see it?" Madara smiled a hunter's smile. "Look at it from my perspective. Two of the only people who could threaten me are now dead, I didn't have to lift a finger...and it's wasted more than enough of your time."
Beneath him, the mature Ten-Tails opened its mouth and roared. Madara put his hands together. "SIX PATHS-"
"SHIT!" Hinata blasted towards him-
"TEN TAILS COFFIN SEAL!"
The blank white world rumbled around it's occupants.
Indra and Ashura both looked up at the same time, staring at (apparently) nothing. They both simultaneously said "Fuck."
"What? What happened?" Naruto asked.
"The Ten-Tails has a new host." Hagoromo said, gravely.
"Told you you were taking too long!" Ashura complained.
"Then let's not delay further by arguing." Hagoromo swept his hand through the air, forestalling further complaints. "Naruto. Sasuke. Your time has come. Are you prepared?"
"Go out and fight Madara? We've been doing that all fucking day." Sasuke shrugged, trying to hide the fact that Madara Uchiha with the power of the Ten-Tails scared him beyond the capacity for rational thought. "But uh, if you have power-ups, we'll take them."
"Got it." Ashura walked up. "Alright 'ninja', time to see what you're really made of. Hands out, do what we do."
Ashura and Indra both reached an arm out to each other, touching palms, and stretched their other arm forwards.
Naruto and Sasuke mimicked them, Naruto touching Ashura's palm while Sasuke touched Indra's. The four stood in a square, and their bodies all lit up glowing.
"One last warning." Hagoromo called to them. "Naruto, what you gain here will allow you to continue to fight, but your chakra channels are still critically broken. You will have to draw on the chakra of your teammates to survive."
"Well that's not a long-term solution. How do I fix it?" Naruto shouted back, as the light surrounding the four intensified.
"Look within yourself!" Hagoromo instructed. "A greater power still lies there! Grasp it, and follow in my footsteps!"
Naruto blinked. "That's super vague! The world's at stake, can you be more specific?"
"Fine!" Hagoromo shouted. "What you want to do is-"
Naruto whited out.
Tsunade and Orochimaru both took a step back, as the glow around Naruto and Sasuke's bodies pulsed once, then vanished.
A full second passed.
Then they both opened their eyes.
Hinata didn't hesitate for a moment, holding both hands out in front of herself and channeling her chakra outwards.
What resulted was, well, basically a giant Kamehameha. A blast of blue energy tore forwards, punching into the cloud of smoke that had been whipped up by Madara's sealing.
She saw it fail.
The Shinra Tensei (which was kinda similar to her Heavenly Spin, now she thought about it) gave Madara a sphere of protection from the beam. With her Tenseigan, she saw him idly reach out to the edge of said sphere, touching one hand to the energy, and go "hmm." as his fingers burned off completely.
The Shinra Tensei was only a brief reprieve, and Hinata was maintaining the pressure on the energy beam, but Madara had much more up his sleeve for when it ran out. Ten black orbs floated around his back, and three of them swung round in front of him, merging together into a shield that had no problem holding her attack at bay.
The fingers on his hand regenerated while he was doing so.
Hinata "tch"d and gave up on the blast, flying in with energy curling about her hands. When she finally got close enough to get a good look at him...
Yeah, that was about what she'd expected, really.
Madara's hair was white, and his skin was pale. His two Rinnegan gleamed, and worse, there was this strange fold in his forehead around which chakra swirled intensely.
A Truth-Seeking orb morphed into a black war fan, which he swung up at her, even as she pivoted in midair and brought one fist down.
The resulting explosion sent pieces of the landscape flying away around them.
Neither of their arms gave.
"So I can't absorb or nullify your strange Tenseigan chakra." He mused. "But then again, you can't do the same to mine...thank you, I'll keep that in mind. Limbo."
A hand grabbed her leg.
It was only able to catch her by surprise because it had appeared out of nowhere, this ethereal clone of Madara had just poofed into existence and grabbed her, what level of bullshit is this?
She disengaged from the real Madara and brought her wings around, skewering the duplicate below it's ribs on both sides of its torso.
She backflipped in midair, kicked away a fan swing from Madara and hurled the clone away, then all the fucking truth seeking orbs at once were coming at her.
She pulled her wings up to block six (OW-) and caught one in each of her arms (Vishnu, remember? Four. Oh yeah, also OW-)
Which naturally put Madara in the perfect position to pull his fist back and punch her in the stomach.
Gai hits way harder than you. Was her first thought, but the attack was still more than enough to tear away her Tenseigan cloak and send her plummeting back to the ground. She coughed, on her knees, and slowly stood back up. "Okay, this powerup is super annoying." She groused. "It ditches you faster than Ino when she realises you're a romantic rival...okay wow that one was a little harsh."
Madara seemed to give absolutely zero fucks about her cloak, instead offering her a confused look. "You can see the Limbo clones?"
Hinata blinked, looked, and finally paid closer attention to the etherial doppelganger that was currently stood on the floor in front of him, in a defensive posture.
Now that he mentioned it, she couldn't actually see it, given that there wasn't anything there. There was a brief moment of whiplash where she tried to actually bother interpreting what the Tenseigan was telling her. A greater dojutsu than your ancestors have held for generations, and you're letting it run on autopilot. Good job.
It was the forces, she realised after a moment. She could see forces now. There was pressure, a place where the air wasn't, in the shape of a Madara. Nothing was contained there, it was like the force was being exerted from...somewhere else? But he referred to them as clones, so he wasn't just using the Deva path's telekinesis to create a force zone...
None of that was what she said, though. When he said "You can see the Limbo clones?", what she said was "What, like it's hard?"
He raised an eyebrow at that. "Says the girl with the second best dojutsu in existence."
She shrugged, using all the time he was wasting to try and recharge her TCM. "First of all, that's a pretty bold claim. The Tenseigan's meant to be equal to the Rinnegan."
"I wasn't saying the Rinnegan was first." He smirked.
"Huh. Well I'll unpack that later. And second, I'd also be able to see them if I, oh I don't know, splattered them with paint? Tossed a cloud of chalkdust in the air? Naruto could have worked your secret out in his first year of the academy."
Madara shrugged. "Odd, then, that it's what I used to kill him."
Her temper flared, as did her chakra, as the Tenseigan cloak reasserted itself. "Prick. And why in the hell did you just spend a full, real time second allowing me to-"
HEY MAYBE IT'S THAT THING HE LITERALLY TOLD US ABOUT WITH THE THINKING ABOUT OUR ACTIONS.
Hinata stopped laser focusing her Tenseigan on Madara and his clone, instead resorting to a more standard 'use your Byakugan to look everywhere' viewpoint.
And then she realised.
"Oh, right, got it. Think your actions through. See, I'm learning."
And then the ground beneath her exploded.
She leapt up as giant roots tore up from the stone, then down again, digging in deep and away, and an enormous tree trunk erupted from the ground behind Madara. It was the biggest thing she'd ever seen, almost as wide as the Ten-Tails and quickly growing much taller than it.
"What in the everloving..." Hinata breathed.
"The Shinju Tree." Madara helpfully informed her. "If it finishes growing I win instantly."
"Right. Got it." She started flying towards him again.
Madara's Rinnegan flashed and the Limbo clone was joined by three more, all of whom moved to intercept her. One punch was enough to let her know they were weaker than he was (thank Kami) but considering that he was definitely on a level above her...
She struck one, knocking it back, parried two more with her wings and kneed another in the chest, then axed her leg down and slammed it's head into the floor.
Two anchored themselves to the floor with chakra, effectively holding her in place, while the one she'd knocked away was blowing a giant fireball at her (they can use Jutsu? Good to know). She yanked up the one she'd knocked into the floor and threw it into the oncoming fire, resulting in an explosion that at the very least wasn't on her, and then she channeled lightning chakra out through her wings into her oppressors hands. That didn't seem to do anything though, so she threw a little Adamantine energy into the mix, and that got them to unhand her, the force vanishing from her wings as their physical forms seemed to flicker slightly under it's effects. She span around into a jump and kicked one in the head with the same energy, causing said head to disintegrate, before turning to the other and peppering it's body with palm strikes. By that point, the firey pair were back upon her, and the others were reconstituting even as she watched oh for goodness sake they're like the Edos and they're Wasting My Time-
Time to try out the rest of her skillset. Specifically, the telekinetic aspects. She reached out to either side and pushed, and an omnidirectional wave of force spread outwards, tearing up the rubble around her and forcing the Limbo clones away. Bootleg Shinra Tensei: Achieved. She took off again, towards the tree, and the damn clones followed, substituting or body flickering out in front of her and bombarding her with long ranged fire attacks. She dodged what she could, shrugging off the rest, finally the TCM's chakra countering properties were helping her for once, and maybe if she just used the Gryphon as a regular attack she'd be able to blow the damn tree in half, because it was growing fast, the blood-red flower bud at it's top stretching higher and higher into the sky.
She began making the hand seals on the fly, then was forced to stop and throw herself left as a giant sword sliced through the air she'd once occupied. She turned back and glared.
"THE LIMBO CLONES CAN MAKE THEIR OWN SUSANNO?" She bitched, seeing Madara chuckle through her Tenseigan, before charging up another crystal chidori and slamming it into the fist that was coming at her from one of the four blue titans. They weren't as ungodly tall as Madara's personal Susanno was, but they were still massive, and though her attack shredded the entire arm of the aggressor, she was quickly reminded of an important fact: You can't use sticky shoes to cheat conservation of momentum when you're flying. She was sent careening backwards through the air, and before she could recover, another of the Susanno grabbed her completely in it's palm and swung her around, making to slam her into the floor. She made use of the good old 'firecracker in the hand' technique to blow the fist apart midway through, and was able to land hard on her feet, knees bending into a squat from the sheer Gs she was tanking. Grimacing with closed eyes (OW!) she waved one hand in response to an incoming swing, manipulating force to make the giant sword of one of the attackers just barely miss her, stabbing into the floor less than a metre to her right. Immediately after, the other three all made simultaneously to do the same thing.
She exhaled, held her arms out, felt and saw and pushed-
The swings never landed.
Around her, stone began to levitate upwards into the air. The Susanno did the same; the blanket field of force she was exerting simply dragging everything upwards because try sticking to the floor when you're floating inside a big blue robot, fuckers!
For a brief moment, she realised that she was basically a Jedi, and that Naruto and Sasuke were going to be pissed when they found out.
The Limbo clones had a solution, however. The blades in their hands all flashed with blue fire and transformed into bows, with which they quickly took aim.
OH COME ON-
Abandoning any further herbicidal plans, Hinata swept her arms around in a circle, shouting "Heavenly Spin!"
The dome of swirling force was amplified by the Tenseigan's power. All four Susanno arrows streaked through the air towards her, and clattered off her defense like so many matchsticks. But now they had just dropped back to the floor, and were reloading, and she just wanted them out of the way-
"NGAAAAAH!" She channeled as much power as she could into the dome, spinning faster and faster, forcing it to expand outwards.
Outwards it went. The dome increased from ten metres in radius to twenty, fifty, a hundred, more. The Limbo clones were caught up in it and forced outwards, the giant blue avatars sent tumbling away across the landscape.
The dome dispersed, and Hinata didn't waste a single moment catching her breath. She started making the hand seals for the Gryphon again, turning back to the Shinju tree to see MADARA RIGHT THERE, the real version of him flying rapidly towards her with a spear made of truth-seeking orbs outstretched.
She fired off the Gryphon, the giant electrical lion-owl blasting out towards Madara...who simply threw his spear. It obliterated her attack on contact, because of course it did, and she desperately beat her wings to try and get out of the way even though a quick maths check told her that there was no way she would be able to.
In the end, though, she needn't have bothered.
There was a flash, and a stone in front of her suddenly wasn't a stone. Instead, appearing in it's place...
"Sorry we were so late!" Sasuke Uchiha grinned back at her. Gone were his usual dark eyes, or even his red Mangekyo. Instead, both orbs were purple, with concentric circles spreading out from the centre. "We got lost on the road of life."
His right arm was extended outwards. Grasping that arm, turning back, Naruto flashed her a smile as well. His appearance was, seemingly, totally unchanged. "But come on. Like we were going to miss this?"
The spear was still flying towards them, but Naruto held out his free hand and caught the tip of it. The black energy seemed to flow around his arm like water, the densest chakra Hinata had ever seen changing itself at Naruto's command, he directed it in a circle around the three of them before throwing it back at it's sender.
The energy reformed itself into orbs, then returned to the set of ten floating around Madara's back. Madara, who was now looking much less cocky than he had a few moments ago.
Naruto closed his eyes and focused. Slowly, space warping around them, Truth Seeking Orbs began to grow into existence around him, spawning in the air from seemingly nothing. He was able to make six before visibly sagging, taking deep breaths.
"Easy." Sasuke warned, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "We don't have your nigh-infinite supplies of chakra anymore."
"Don't, haah, worry." Naruto shook his head and looked up, eyes hard. "I'll make these last."
Hinata was still looking between them in shock. "You...you're alive?"
"Last I checked." Naruto smirked in a way that was significantly hotter than it had any right to be.
"And you-" Hinata stopped. Pointed at Sasuke. "You have the Rinnegan."
"Yup." Sasuke nodded. He did. Two of them.
"And you-" She pointed back at Naruto. "You have Yin-Yang release?"
"I...think so?" He looked her up and down. "What did you get?"
"Tenseigan." She answered, shrugging. "Long story."
"Yeah I bet. Did you have to talk to a ghost for yours?"
"Yes, actually." Hinata sighed. "Life is...weird, recently."
"Yeah no shit." Sasuke snorted. "Case in point: There's a giant tree over there that's literally just stopped growing."
Hinata blinked. Then coughed. "Ah. We, uh. We weren't supposed to let it do that."
The trio turned.
Madara didn't seem to be paying them much attention any more. He was looking up at the moon, head craned back, arms crossed. Above him, the Shinju Tree loomed. The red flower at it's top had unfolded, spinning out into a beautiful crimson bloom.
"Lovely night for it, isn't it?" Mused the resurrected demigod. "Practically perfect weather. Though to be honest, if clouds had been able to stop this, it would have been rather embarrassing, wouldn't it?"
He looked back down at them, and they all took an involuntary step backwards.
The 'fold' on his forehead had opened. There, right in the centre, was another eye. It was blood-red, and though it bore the circles of the Rinnegan, it also contained Sharingan tomoe. Nine of them.
"Rinne-Sharingan." Sasuke breathed.
Naruto gulped. "Uh, in case you weren't caught up with all the lore, Hinata? He's basically god now."
"Basically." Madara agreed. He sighed. "From the bottom of my heart, children, and for your own sakes, I genuinely hope that you don't find a way out of this."
And Hinata knew that he was telling the truth. "Stop him." She breathed. All three of them charged.
Madara looked back to the sky. "I call upon the Juubi, the Shinju Tree, as he who has fed upon it's fruit and made himself one with it's power. Spread thine roots across the world, and touch the bodies, hearts, minds and souls of all those who dwell there. I bid thee, bring to the world the sleep that has no end."
Team Seven converged upon Madara's location.
They were nowhere near fast enough.
"May the world sleep. May the world dream." Madara closed his two normal eyes, leaving the Rinne-Sharingan alone in his head.
"I cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
And so the moon bled.
We're in the endgame now.
Okay, so, to clarify my headcanoning.
Thing one: Zetsu is out of the picture. This means that Kaguya has no way to reemerge from Madara. No dodging the final battle and exchanging it for a Dragon Ball Z character, their fight is with Madara, in all his ridiculously overpowered glory.
Thing two: Madara can cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi with his Rinne-Sharingan. But he needs the tree to be there because he needs it's roots to trap everyone in.
Thing three: Naruto and Sasuke aren't Indra and Ashura's reincarnations. They're their descendants, who have grown as people to the point where they represent all the characteristics that the original brothers respect and strive for. Thus, Indra and Ashura are willing to help them.
As opposed to, you know, completely invalidating the show's entire moral and making it feel like none of the main character's achievements are his own.
Thing four: My explanation for the Ten-Tails being split is also made up, but it fits with the strange variance in power levels between the Bijuu. I crunched the numbers using 40% as a baseline, and it actually checks out; Kurama would be stronger than every other Bijuu (sans Gyuki) combined, which we've seen from some of the late game fights. As a matter of fact, Kurama is almost 60X stronger than Shukaku. It also leaves the husk, the Gedo Mazo, at about half again as powerful as Shukaku. This isn't super relevant, I just thought it was interesting. And hey, the payoff to the running joke was funny (I hope).
Thing 5 (the most important): In the manga, Naruto and Sasuke got magically gifted special powers by Hagoromo because they needed a powerup.
But the medallion says that's dumb, so we're not going to do that.
Here's what I'm using: When the descendants of a badass from both sides of his family come together, they recreate his chakra and start to replicate his superpowers.
Toneri implants an earth Hyuuga's eyes, he recreates Hamura's power and gets the Tenseigan.
Hinata consumes the chakra from the eyes of the Moon Hyuuga, the same thing happens.
A descendant of Indra absorbs the chakra of a descendant of Ashura, their eyes evolve into the Rinnegan. This happens in canon with Madara, and it has now happened with Sasuke. This is why Sasuke has two normal Rinnegan and not his (admittedly cool) 3-tomoe Rinnegan in one eye.
So, a descendant of Ashura absorbs the chakra of a descendant of Indra...and they get Yin-Yang release. This feels sensible to me, as these are bloodline powers they're getting, and what do (almost, Kimimaro's weird) all bloodlines appear as? Dojutsu, or Combination Nature Transformations. Hence, maxing out your inheritance skill tree gets you the pinnacle of those. Hashirama never got it because the circumstances of Madara draining his chakra were asymmetrical and he never got to do it back. Whereas now, Naruto and Sasuke are sharing.
However, none of this can happen without the holy ghost in question giving it's approval and giving their chakra and DNA a little nudge, which is why there haven't been a million Rinnegan in the millenia since Indra and Ashura's death.
Now I can hear you all asking, 'BuT sWaGkAgE-'
wait fuck wrong one.
'BUT ADAMANT, WHAT ABOUT SIX PATHS SAGE MODE?'
To which I respond...I'm getting there.
RIP Gai.
Also damn, this Coronavirus crap in the real world is totally crazy, right?
