Pro tip: If you use the phrase 'of course' once or twice in your narration, it gives what you're saying a whimsical, conversational air. If you do it too much, it becomes repetition, which is bad. But if you keep using it, it becomes a ~motif~
Either way, drinking game; take a shot every time you see it.
Interlude: Dreams
Toneri Otsutsuki held Hanabi's hand very tightly in his own. The young girl looked up at him, and quietly asked "Toneri? W-what's happening?"
Toneri wasn't sure what to say.
The two of them stood on the surface of the moon, looking out and upwards at the surface of the Earth above them. It was a beautiful view, one he had longed to show Hanabi for years now, and with his new (old) eyes...wow. What he could see through the puppets didn't do it justice.
But there was something wrong with the image.
In the terrain that he had long since memorised as the centre of the 'Ninja World', which at this point should be totally dark as it faced away from the sun, there was a single bright red spot.
And perhaps more obviously, the terrain around him was glowing blood red.
"I...don't know." He gulped. "But I think we might regret losing the ability to drop the moon on them."
Haku Yuki dreamed.
He dreamed he was in Konoha, and he was loved. Sai, Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, Sakura; everyone loved him, and he was never alone. Zabuzza was there, having survived, and he was the Mizukage (though of course, Mei was still alive. She loved Haku too). Naruto achieved his dream of becoming the Hokage, and Haku stood at his side as he brought peace to the ninja world. Haku, of course, had never had any such aspirations to power. He was simply happy that when he went home, there were people there waiting for him.
Sometimes, however, he did get this small, disconcerting feeling in the back of his mind. A certain...guilt. For he had never truly earned the love of all his peers. Their feelings were genuine, honest, and true, but Haku couldn't help but sometimes wonder why. All their lives were perfect; what had he done to make them care for him so? Sometimes, when he was feeling his worst, he would ask. And while their reassurances as to his many lovable qualities certainly felt nice to hear, they always seemed...empty. Hollow.
Whenever he felt this way, Haku just took those he loved and held them all the tighter.
Konan dreamed.
In her dream she had been strong enough to save Yahiko, way back when. Her, Yahiko and Nagato rose into their power and tore down Amegakure, defeating Hanzo the Salamander in a particularly gruesome and satisfying way. They rebuilt their village, and went ahead with their plan to save the world.
And people listened.
There was no war, no scheming, no Akatsuki. They merely talked, and people understood. The ninja villages laid down their arms and ceased their wars, and the world was at peace.
Her child was born healthy and strong, and never knew war or suffering.
And there were still many many problems she had to busy herself solving, many fights she still had to fight, which she naturally complained about to anyone who would listen.
They were her own fault, of course, the dream providing her with them because they were what she wanted. She would never admit it to herself, that in the quiet moments she often found herself wishing for such events. Because without any conflict, she didn't really have anything to do.
Shikamaru Nara dreamed.
"This is a dream, isn't it?" He asked, setting a shogi piece down on the board.
"How could you possibly know that?" Shikaku Nara looked at him exasperatedly.
Shikamaru just raised an eyebrow.
"Right, of course." Shikaku sighed. "Something something, fuck you I'm Shikamaru, yadda yadda, right?"
"Something like that." Shikamaru smiled. "Though it's probably more that the dream thinks that the only way I'll be happy is if I can unlock some ~great secret~ that nobody else can."
The pair were sat on the floor of their living room, playing against each other. The sun shone warmly, but not too hot, through the windows, illuminating Shikamaru just the way he liked it. Because of course it was.
Now it was his father's turn to raise an eyebrow. "I didn't know that you had those kinds of aspirations."
"My aspirations are to sit down on a comfy bed and do absolutely nothing." Shikamaru corrected him. "I just also happen to be incredibly vain. Why do you think I put the effort in to screw with Kankuro so much? Showing off is one of the few things I'll actually exert myself to do, it just clashes with my persona to admit it."
"But you're admitting it to me?"
"You're not real. I can say whatever I want."
"Fair enough." Shikaku paused, then put a shogi piece down on the board between them. "So what's the plan, try and escape?"
"What for?" Shikamaru snorted. "There's nothing I can do out there. Doesn't matter how smart I am if Madara can kill me before I can think." He sighed and leaned back, moving another piece. "Which, I imagine, is another reason why the dream actually let me figure out I was inside it. It wants to keep me here at all costs, but it knows I won't be bothered to try and leave, so there wasn't any risk. I'll wait for team seven to sort it, and if that doesn't work, guess I'm stuck here."
"Hmph. How very like you." Shikaku moved one of his own pieces. "So what are you going to do? You're essentially lucid dreaming now, in a world designed to give you whatever you want."
Shikamaru looked down at the Shogi board. Saw how he could win. Sighed again. "Not this." He told his dad. "I do want to beat you at Shogi, but there's no point if it isn't really you. It's not even a real intellectual challenge, since anything that's set up for me is designed for me to beat it eventually."
"I could start talking about how I'm proud of you?" Shikaku offered.
"Again, it isn't you." Shikamaru shrugged. "So there's an undercurrent of lying to it." He smirked. "I'd be tempted to go outside and wait for Temari to show up and seduce me, if I didn't know that it wasn't really her either."
"Hm. Good point." Shikaku twirled a piece between his fingers. "What if a bunch of nameless hot ladies came through the door looking for you?"
"Eh." Shikamaru waved a hand in a so-so gesture. "Maybe later, if I'm in the mood."
"See with you, there's a very real chance that means 'never'." His father pointed out.
"And if I don't want them to, nobody in this world will ever call me out on that." Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "My apathy being enabled. This place is perfect for me."
"Then why do you even want to leave?" Shikaku asked, seeming genuinely curious.
Shikamaru chuckled, looking out the window. "Simple. I have teammates to get back to."
Then he flopped onto his back, spreading his arms out. "Alright, come on, dreamworld. I'm bored now. You're supposed to be able to keep me here forever, surely you've got something to entertain me?"
There was a knock at the door. Shikamaru glanced to it, as it opened, and a familiar figure bustled in.
"Sorry I'm late!" Called Asuma Sarutobi. "I was a bit busy with background details you don't care about. Ino and Choji should be here in a couple minutes. How you doing, Shik'?"
Shikamaru closed his eyes and smiled. "Heh. Well played, dream. Yeah, I'm doing fine Sensei, how about you?"
Gaara dreamed.
His childhood had been happy, living with his mother and his siblings. None of Suna's people feared him; instead, they were proud of the boy who defended their village. Shukaku was fond of him, and the two were able to work together properly, meaning he quickly became Suna's Kazekage. Leaf Shinobi came round often, meaning he was able to play regularly with Naruto, and Sakura still came to love him. Eventually, the two married.
Over time, Gaara would befriend all the Jinchurikki, and the nine formed a council who regularly met to discuss Bijuu matters (and to just hang out).
However, in all Gaara's dreams, his father never appeared. He simply had no interest at all in the man, so there was no enjoyment to be gained in defeating or befriending him. Rasa was written out of Gaara's life, and of course, nobody ever questioned it. Certainly not Gaara himself. He was just glad that when he slept, his dreams were peaceful ones.
Rock Lee dreamed. He mastered all eight gates, and became the first shinobi in history to use all eight without dying. He defeated Team Seven in combat, then continued to travel the world with his teammates, Tenten and Sai. Their days were filled with boundless adventure, defeating monsters, saving princesses, and proving to all the power of youth.
And if he ever became tired, felt the urge to stop, take a break, settle down? He simply brushed it off, and moved on to the next fight.
Fugaku Uchiha dreamed.
In his dream, he discovered Shimura Danzo's manipulations much earlier on. He lead a strike force of the strongest members of his clan (Itachi included, with Neji tagging along, of course) and in one swift stroke, tore down the entirety of ROOT and struck down its leader.
The Uchiha regained their status in the eyes of the village, honourable and respected, and when Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped down, Fugaku was elected Hokage in his place.
The workload of such a position was oddly low, of course, allowing Fugaku to do what he had wanted to do the whole time: Be a husband to his wife and father to his children.
Sasuke grew up knowing his dad loved him, not feeling pressured to meet any standards yet soaring above them anyhow. Itachi had a long talk with Fugaku, and the two came to understand and respect each other. And Mikoto got all her boys home every night to eat dinner together, without any hidden plotting or manipulation. As a family.
In this dream, the Akatsuki and Pain simply...never appeared.
Because in Fugaku's ideal world, none of his loved ones ever had to go through the suffering necessary to truly awaken their potential.
And of course, without that suffering, they would never have been strong enough to win.
The Legendary Sannin dreamed.
Tsunade never became Hokage, for she never wanted it. Her luck was brilliant, good fortune randomly befalling her on an almost daily basis to her never-ending delight (though it did sometimes cause her an odd sense of foreboding that she couldn't quite shake). She found a cure to almost every ailment to befall the world, trained many others in her methods, and spent the majority of her days living in Konoha with Dan Kato and Shizune, getting up to hijinks and causing plenty of property damage.
She never got over her fear of blood. She simply never had cause to encounter it.
Jiraiya was the godfather he always wanted to be. That is, an absolutely terrible role model for Naruto and a few other kids growing up in Konoha, much to their delight. He mastered sage mode, learned many great secrets of the universe, and then still spent his free time causing mayhem across the village. Getting drunk, going out partying, crashing in Minato and Kushina's place and waking up to her outraged screams in the morning.
His luck with the ladies remained absolutely terrible, and his flirtations always ended in some amusing let-down, and he remained a bachelor indefinitely. Naturally he complained about this regularly, but had only himself to blame. He didn't actually want an endless supply of nameless women to fall into his bed; he wanted family. And that was what he had, so he was content.
Orochimaru, naturally, had aspirations much higher than those of his teammates. He solved immortality in one body, first of all. True immortality, with no sacrifices or caveats. He synthesised the Rinnegan and the Tenseigan and gave himself both, then became the Jinchurikki of the Ten-Tails and controlled it perfectly. He became instated the Kamikage, the ruler above all rulers, and took over the entire ninja world, sharing with them his knowledge and his miracles. He found all, knew all, possessed all. And then he fought the Reaper and defeated it, and tore down the wall separating humanity from the pure lands, returning all the dead to the living and ensuring that nobody ever, ever, had to die again.
Many of his subjects hated him, believed him a demon or a demagogue. Because, of course, that was what he felt he deserved. But he was reunited with his parents, and they were proud of him.
All the Sannin, naturally, had each other. Because if there was one thing they all wished for above all others, it was to be a team again.
Except not really.
The Infinite Tsukiyomi did not link the dreams of its occupants together, not without being directed to.
So all three dreamed of a future with facsimiles of their loved ones.
And all three were alone.
Naruto Uzumaki dreamed.
It was...an interesting experience. Like someone had written one of those fanfictions where he was OP and everything went well.
Minato arrived earlier to stop Kakashi having to kill Rin, saved Obito, found out about and sealed Black Zetsu, job done. The Kyuubi was sealed into him at birth, but his mother survived (funny how that worked, huh?) and he grew up the son of the Hokage. Danzo was dealt with before he was old enough to understand what genjutsu was, and Minato took no shit from the other clans or villages, meaning Hinata and Sasuke both grew up fine. They became friends in the academy, got on a team together. Events played out similarly, but slightly shifted, always allowing for the people Naruto cared about to make it out unscathed. They became Chunin, then Jonin. Hunted down the Akatsuki, but got back in time to stop Pain before he actually destroyed Konoha, so Nagato was able to make it out alive.
Team Seven became the greatest team in the world, the new Legendary Sannin.
And eventually...
Naruto sighed, arms leaning on the balcony of the Hokage tower, and looked out over a perfect Konoha. "This isn't real, is it?"
"How'd you figure that?" Minato asked, sat on a sofa back inside. It was sunset, the two were alone in the building.
"My friends." Naruto replied, not looking back. "There's a disconnect, they...shouldn't be like this."
Minato groaned. "Oh, perfect. What, did we get the characterisation wrong?"
Naruto snorted. "Breaking the fourth wall already?"
"You've already figured it out, it's not like there's much point in lying to you and pissing you off." Minato shrugged. "That would be the exact opposite of what we're going for here. So?"
Naruto turned back to look at him, blowing out a breath and thinking. "They're...perfect. Perfectly imperfect. But that's the problem, which doesn't make any sense..." he bit his lip, then continued. "They're the versions of themselves I want them to be most of all. That being: exactly the versions of themselves that they are in reality. But, this..." he gestured vaguely. "Their lives have been perfect. And if their lives had been perfect, they wouldn't be the way they are. Hinata, Sasuke, Haku, Sai, me..." he looked down. "We've all...hurt. And it's been horrible, and I'd spare them it if I could, but it's made us who we are. If you take that away from them, the things they've felt, the choices they've made...you take away who they are. Or you don't, and I start to notice plot holes."
"Hmph." Minato chuckled. "Funny. I never had you pegged as the smart one."
"Well, there's also that the Yin-Yang release is letting me feel that everything is made of chakra."
"Oh, right, that'd make more sense." Minato paused, and tapped the table he was resting his his feet on. Whether the table had been there before they had been paying attention to it wasn't really relevant. Resting on that table was a white hat, decorated in red. The Hokage's hat.
"It's your inauguration this evening."
"It is?" Naruto thought about it. "Oh yeah. Funny that." He raised an eyebrow. "You're trying to bribe me to stay with a hat?"
"It's what you've always wanted." Minato pointed out.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, you know damn well that-"
"It's not just the position, I know. But you can have everything else too." Minato spread his arms. "Do you know what the point of this dream is? To give you your personal utopia. Anything you want, you can have it. Whatever you need, you can grab it." He snapped his fingers. "Just like that."
"My friends-"
"Are here."
"They aren't real-"
"Says who?" Minato laughed. "All you have are your senses to tell you what's real or what isn't. For all you know your last life could have been a lie too. Anything you could possibly have hoped to gain from your teammates, any psychological motivator or reward for your friendship and compassion, you can get just as easily in here. Better, even, and in higher quantities. It's what this place is built to do. Why would you ever want to leave?"
Naruto paused. "There's...a lot of answers I can give to that." He said, eventually. "But basically, it's because of the Edo Tensei."
"...Come again?" Minato asked.
"The Edo Tensei can bring souls back from the dead." Naruto explained. "So can the Rinne Tensei. The Reaper Death Seal can trap souls, and the Reaper Release mask can release them again. Ergo, souls exist."
He picked up the Hokage hat to demonstrate, squeezing it and watching the fabric distort. "They exist, and they're real, tangible, and you can prove that. Which means that I have good reason to believe that other people; living, breathing, thinking, seeing, feeling people...really exist." He laughed a little, in spite of himself, "and I mean, isn't that crazy? It's an honour, genuinely, that I'm...I'm not alone." He paused, then tossed the hat back down onto the table. "So I can't stay here. Not when they are out there." He looked over his shoulder, back out to the balcony. "So what are we waiting for, eh?"
"You, dipshit." Sasuke snorted. He and Hinata were sat on the balcony railing; their Rinnegan and Tenseigan respectively standing out as proof that they weren't the teammates the dream had tried to thrust on him. "Us two didn't feel the need to give a dramatic speech before breaking out."
"Well excuse me! We don't all have magic god-eyes that let us break through all the genjutsu automatically!" Naruto grinned, turning around and walking towards them-
"He could kill you." Minato said, interrupting them. He still hadn't got up from the sofa, but he was looking at them intently. "You realise that, right? If you go out there, the chance he kills you is pretty damn high."
"True." Hinata admitted. "But when has that ever stopped us before?"
"And besides," Sasuke pointed out, "It's not like we've got this far by doing the sensible thing, right?"
"What they said." Naruto flashed back an apologetic smile. "Sorry, dream. I'm not hitting the snooze button on this one."
"Heh. Alright then." Minato stood up. "For what it's worth, I'm proud of you all."
"Given that you're not real, that means diddly squat." Naruto pointed out.
"Yeah but this does imply that you think that you're doing something your father would be proud of." Minato pointed out.
"Huh. Oh, well, I'll take it." Naruto shrugged and turned around, holding his arms out. "Uh, how does this work?"
"You stop being a moron and let us break your genjutsu for you." Sasuke answered. "Now come here-"
Both of them each took one of his hands.
There was a flash.
Naruto awoke and found himself blind and slimy and eww and there were arms holding onto his so he just braced himself and let them tug-
With a sickening squelch, he was pulled free.
He landed on hard stone and shivered, his whole body and clothing covered in something, blinking to adjust to the low light. "What-" he coughed, spitting out some goop that had accumulated in his mouth, "what in the fuck-"
"I remember when you used to have a problem with swearing. Guess that's character development?" Sasuke's voice chuckled from somewhere nearby. "Try to focus up. You've been out for less than thirty seconds, but I wouldn't be surprised if it feels like a lifetime."
"It's nasty, I know. Burn it off with chakra as soon as you can." Hinata's voice was reassuring, and what was probably her arm wrapped underneath his, hauling him to his feet. "Blink, you should get your sight back pretty quickly. Unless that was just our dojutsu helping us out..."
"No. No, I'm good." Naruto patted her shoulder, shaking his head and wiping his face clean of gunk. He looked back, and...
"I was in that?"
His teammates has pulled him out of a bulb in a giant mass of plant matter. Naruto wasn't initially able to understand what he was looking at, but as he panned his view up, left, and right, he realised.
The root he had been removed from was as tall as a building, looked about as thick too, and in one direction it spread outwards all the way to the horizon, sometimes dipping below the surface or rising higher in its path. If he looked far enough, he could see it criss-crossing with and separating from dozens of other roots just like it.
Then Naruto traced it the other way, and saw the world tree. He...genuinely couldn't describe its size, because he didn't have a proper frame of reference for anything near to its height. The biggest thing he'd ever tried to conceptualise was Madara's Susanno, and the tree was many times the height of that. It's roots spread in all directions, tearing the landscape apart to make room for them.
On a hunch, Naruto closed his eyes...and then reopened them, narrowed. "Oh, that's not fair." He muttered.
"What?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm feeling for Senjutsu. But there isn't any." Naruto gestured at the root. "This thing, it's...it's absorbing it. All of it. Shit, it feels like the air's got no moisture in it..."
"Well that's bad." Hinata moved towards him and put another hand on his shoulder, but this time it wasn't just for reassurance. Chakra flowed across from her to him. "It means we'll still have to do this to fuel you, unless you can find a way to fix it."
"Oh, damn, you're right. I'm still technically dying." Naruto winced. The Yin-Yang release (which, by the way, he had absolutely no idea how to control, he was just making it up as he went) was the only reason he was able to use the chakra he borrowed rather than it just falling apart upon his broken tenketsu. "Sorry, guys, I don't-"
"If you dare to say anything along the lines of you being a burden, I will slap you." Hinata warned. "Shut up and call your orbs back."
Naruto smiled, gratefully. "Right." Another moment of focus and the surface of the root burst in six separate places, the Truth Seeking Orbs having been swept up in the chaos but left intact. He looked between his teammates, and sighed. "Shall we get this over with then?"
It didn't take them too long to reach the foot of the tree. There, sat in seiza atop a small rock outcropping, was a man with three eyes. All of them were closed.
"Do you hear that?" Asked Madara Uchiha, as they approached.
All three stopped to listen.
There was the quiet whistling of wind. The occasional echo of small rocks falling in the distance. If they strained, the flower of the god tree could be heard rustling far above them.
Eventually, Sasuke spoke up. "Nothing."
"Precisely." Madara answered, still not looking up at them. "Nothing. The sounds of nature, perhaps; plants, animals, weather. But other than that?" He paused for effect. "Silence." He raised one hand, gestured. "These roots spread across the entire surface of the planet. Every human being in the world has been ensnared, and is now dreaming. For the first time in millennia, the world is asleep. At peace."
"So this is it, then?" Hinata asked. "This is your endgame? Put the entire planet in a coma?"
"The Infinite Tsukuyomi shows to everyone what they want most in the world." Madara answered, simply. "They are trapped in eternal bliss, unable to harm one another. Everyone is at peace, now." He tilted his head up to them. "Everyone except you."
"You expected anything less?" Naruto smirked.
Madara sighed. Stood. "...No."
He opened his eyes, and his sheer presence hit them all like a Bijuu Bomb. Those with special eyes could see the chakra swirling about him like a hurricane, and Naruto could feel the magnitude of the natural energy that was contained within his body. What they were looking at was quite literally the strongest being to exist in this reality since the Sage of Six Paths.
...They all decided simultaneously to at least try to get out of this.
"You are aware that this turns people into Zetsu, right?" Sasuke pointed out. "Like if you leave them like this-"
"I'm aware. I fixed it." Madara rolled his eyes. "It would be a bit anticlimactic if I had to give up because of something like that. No, everyone will be fine. Forever. Literally, in fact; they won't ever die while nursed in the Shinju Tree's roots."
"Immortality in the goop?" Naruto shuddered. "Doesn't sound nice. I mean I'm all for not dying, but...well what's even the point of living like that?"
"What's the problem?" Madara spread his arms. "For all they know, that is their world now. A gentler one. They will live their fantasy, never once knowing pain, nor strife."
"A stagnant life." Sasuke challenged. "If they never face challenges, they'll never be able to grow."
"I'm an Uchiha too, you realise." Madara told him, pointedly. "I know full well how struggle can make one stronger." He scowled downwards. "But not everything that 'doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Sometimes it breaks you. When you're forced to crawl beneath some rocks and hide while your family is slaughtered around you, when you're taken captive by an enemy force and abused mercilessly as something subhuman, when your brother is murdered right before your eyes..." He clenched his fists. "Challenges may build a person up. War tears them down."
He looked between them. "You have all suffered, I can see it in your eyes. Do you believe that it made you 'stronger'?"
They looked at each other, for a moment.
"No." Hinata said, eventually. "But it made us who we are. I would not change that for anything."
"How inspiring." Madara drawled. "But what of suffering to come? Surely you aren't saying you would willingly fall upon the sword for...what? Character development?"
"I'm not going to deliberately fail to solve a problem," Sasuke answered, "but I'd rather risk screwing things up than run away from them."
"And if you had a magic button that could automatically solve any problems you might face?" Madara challenged. "Would you press it? Even if you knew there was a risk you and your loved ones might get hurt if you didn't?"
"Well." Naruto shrugged. "We're all here, aren't we?"
He paused to let that sink in. Then suggested, "Take everyone out of the Tsukuyomi and offer it to them freely now they've had a taster, see how many agree to go back in. I'm sure there'll be some, but it isn't going to be everyone. Probably not even a majority."
Madara growled. "Biases." He muttered. "Of course they won't want to. They'll be afraid of something going wrong, afraid of me lying, afraid of giving up their choices. Doubts, stupidity, irrationality...and then they'll go ahead and make the wrong decision."
"Ooh, biases." Hinata rolled her eyes. "Have you ever heard of my favourite one of those? It's called the 'bias bias'. It's when you point out that the other person has a flaw in their line of thinking, and then use that to throw out the entire argument without weighing it fairly. 'You're clearly biased, so I'm going to make decisions for your own good'."
Naruto grit his teeth. "Oho, wow. You just said that then as an example and I actually just wanted to hit you, that was nuts."
Sasuke snorted. "Yeah. Try having a parental figure, you get stuff like that all the time." He looked back at Madara. "So that's what this boils down to? You think you know better than people?"
Madara shrugged. "In short? Yes."
"Oh, wow, he's telling the truth..." Hinata muttered.
"So you're going to use power to make the people do what you believe is best for them." Naruto sighed. "You're just like Pain. Except I already turned Pain into a good guy. Hey, you ever here that one study about giving-"
"Fifty Ryo conditionally and five Ryo unconditionally to get people to do a task?" Madara smiled, wryly. "Hashirama ran that study. We argued about this for years. Decades, even. No matter what, it always came down to freedom versus safety. To whether or not people should be allowed to make their own decisions, and to what degree.
In the end, our difference in opinion was a simple one. After everything he'd seen, Hashirama still believed in people. And after everything I'd seen...I didn't."
Madara sighed. Looked back up at them. "If you can't come up with any arguments he couldn't...you aren't going to convince me."
Naruto looked at him for a long few seconds, trying to find any holes in the simple, blank wall Madara had constructed as his argument. Hoping that he'd be able to find something in Madara's face he could point to as the source of why he was mistaken or irrational, a false piece of evidence he could pull up with a loud 'OBJECTION!'. After all, he'd always been able to swing people around to his way of thinking before...
But what he saw wasn't pride, or anger, or greed, or fear. Madara wasn't lying to himself. Madara was just...sad.
"I believe you." Naruto said, quietly.
And then he started planning how to kill him.
Madara chuckled, and Hinata and Sasuke both gave Naruto shocked looks at the first genuine emanation of killing intent they'd ever felt from him. It wasn't the hot rage of the Kyuubi, the dispassionate ambivalence of Orochimaru, or the zealous certainty of Pain. It was a man who placed murder as his absolute last resort finally resorting to it, the determination of a kind person going to war. It could have put the entirety of Konoha's ANBU in the hospital by itself.
"Okay." Madara reached both hands up above his head. "Children, you've had your extra five minutes playing out past curfew, but now? It's bedtime."
Naruto and Hinata blinked, and Sasuke held a hand up. "As the only person here with an actual father figure, I'm the only one who understands that enough to be intimidated.
"I am trying to limit casualties as much as possible." Madara continued. "As I said, what I want is for everyone to suffer as little as possible. There's a reason I left so many people alive during the pathetic excuse for a war we just experienced. To that end, I have moved the cocoons of any ninja nearby more than twenty kilometres away from the Shinju Tree, meaning we can do this with minimal collateral damage."
"Aw, that's nice." Hinata praised.
"I'm doing it so I can freely use my strongest Susanno."
"Oh."
Madara looked them all over. "I would like to offer, one final time, for you all to surrender. I'll remove your pesky eyes and powers and lock you in your dream fantasies forever. But to sweeten the pot, I'll even allow you to retain your memories of what's happened in the real world, and sync your dreams so you can truly interact with each other. I'd really, really rather we didn't do this."
"Afraid?" Sasuke asked.
"No." Madara told him, simply. "This is called 'mercy'."
"Just for completeness, he is telling the truth." Hinata remarked.
"While I do appreciate the offer..." Naruto cracked his knuckles. Looked left and right, checking his teammates faces and finding only determination. "I'm afraid we'll have to decline."
"Very well." Madara held out one hand. A staff made of Yin-Yang release came into being there, and he slammed it's butt into the floor. He started flying. "Then I am going to kill you. I will not hesitate, I will not showboat, I will not give you second chances and I will not make stupid mistakes. I will not take risks. That was always Hashirama's forte. If you require time to prepare yourselves or there is some business you need to conclude, you may take the time to do so now."
Madara then turned away. Not that it would actually affect his sensory abilities, but the thought was nice.
Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata all immediately huddled, connecting to each other with a genjutsu and a chakra sharing trick they'd picked up from Kurama for communication their target couldn't pick up on.
Do you think anyone's ever told him that he's really badass? Sasuke asked. Like, come on. That was awesome. Was it true?
All true. Hinata replied. I'm going to be honest, I think we're out of our league here.
Guys. Naruto thought, very forcefully. Come on. Did being out of our league stop us getting the bells off Kakashi? Beating Zabuzza? Beating the goddamn One-Tails as genin without even using our bijuu or dojutsu? He grinned at them. Madara has made one fatal miscalculation.
Which is? Sasuke and Hinata asked, simultaneously.
He's from the past. Naruto explained, smugly.
For the first time in five years, Team Seven is finally working together to take down a single opponent...and Madara doesn't even know why he should be afraid.
So what I'm saying is. Let's show him.
With that, they began to strategise.
Important details to note:
-Madara has the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan (including Susanno), Rinnegan (including Limbo), Yin-Yang release, and Six Paths Sage Mode. He has functionally limitless supplies of chakra and Sage chakra. So long as he remains the Jinchurikki of the Ten-Tails, he will regenerate completely from any attack that does not instantly destroy his brain, which would successfully kill him. Team Seven are relative to him in terms of speed and reaction time, but they are all significantly slower. In a raw fistfight, all three attacking him at once would lose.
-Sasuke still has Samehada, which can drain chakra, but it's current supply of Sage chakra has been depleted. He has access to all standard Rinnegan abilities (see the intro to chapter 64 for a list of these) and Amenotejikara, which allows him to substitute with objects without hand seals. He still has all his Mangekyo abilities, but must shift his eyes back to use them, meaning he cannot use his Rinnegan and Mangekyo powers simultaneously, with the exception of his Susanno.
-Hinata's Counter Chakra (Tenseigan) cloak is temporarily destroyed upon taking a solid hit. Attacks using it function similarly to Yin-Yang release, which they can withstand, and while they also counter all standard jutsu, they are similarly unable to affect Sage techniques. She still has all her Gokei abilities, but must shift her eyes back to use them, meaning she cannot use her Tenseigan and Gokei powers simultaneously, with the exception of her Vishnu. However, the Tenseigan does allow her to mimic them to a certain degree.
-Naruto in his base form is significantly weaker than all other combatants. He cannot access his Kyuubi avatar, as all the Bijuu are contained inside Madara. He must find a way to gather sage chakra in order to achieve Sage mode, which is currently all being absorbed by the Shinju Tree and Madara. He can still use his Shadow Clones, Adamantine Chains, and Rasenshuriken (which he cannot throw), but the magnitude of power with which he can use these is significantly diminished.
-Naruto's massive reserves of chakra were lost when Kurama was. He is borrowing chakra from Sasuke and Hinata to continue fighting. None of their reserves are full. They can only use their strongest powers for a limited time without running out, unless Naruto finds another way to gain chakra.
-Each member of Team Seven possesses a method of removing the Ten-Tails from Madara if he is suitably incapacitated. A direct strike to Madara's abdomen from Samehada, Hiragekoma, or Naruto using Yin-Yang release, will functionally end the fight.
-Destroying the Shinju Tree will not free the captive shinobi, and there wouldn't be much point in doing so anyway, since none of the ninja still alive stand any chance against Madara at all. All other humans on the planet are captured, and Hanabi and Toneri are too far away to help. Team Seven must win on their own.
-Madara can be considered Bloodlusted. He will attempt to kill all three members of Team Seven with whatever method he believes gives him the highest chances of doing so. Being the Jinchurikki of the completed Ten-Tails is not causing him any mental strain or confusion that will hamper his intellectual capabilities. No character reason will cause him to perform at anything below his absolute peak of effort.
-Nobody in the fight will be turning into Kaguya. That is an author's promise.
-Everyone in the fight is aware of all the above points. If there are more powers, abilities, relevant factors, or sources of strength available, (and there are) then one or more character does not know of them, and they have not been listed. But you all might.
I propose a challenge to anyone reading this. What would you do?
Can you think of any ways that:
A) Team Seven might be able to beat Madara?
B) Team Seven might be able to increase their own power or improve their own chances?
C) Team Seven might be able to effectively counter one or more of Madara's abilities?
D) The fight may be affected in a way that I have not realised/not told you?
Headcanoning, metagaming, and naive optimism are all allowed. It would be somewhat hypocritical of me to refuse them.
As the fight has not yet been written, ANY AND ALL SUGGESTIONS MAY BE USED.
You reviewers have kept me going so far; so I figured it would be fun to include you in this fic's finale. I look forwards to what you come up with.
The next chapter will be released at 22:00 London time (18:00 EST) on Saturday the fourth of April.
See you all then.
-Adamant
