THE IMPERIAL PALACE – NARUTO RETURNS
In the Leaf-Military Camp
Clyde and Lara stand side-by-side and watch anxiously as their opponent casts his eyes to the south. Whatever has caught his attention, it is not something they are keen to distract him from. Their ultimate strategy is not to defeat Hashirama but to buy as much time as possible, and these few seconds are priceless. Hashirama shakes his head, not turning his gaze back.
After a moment, Hashirama raises his hand palm pointing to the sky and curls his fingers back, gesturing towards himself. As he does so an enormous wooden pillar appears behind Clyde and Lara, driving the two of them towards him at such great speed that they fail to even react.
As soon as the two generals alive, Hashirama punches forward with both fists. His left fist connects with Lara's chest and as a few flecks of blood fly, she is driven back through the wood. With each meter backward she moves more splinters scatter around her and her health deteriorates further. Clyde on the other hand is saved only by the quick application of his concentrated defence.
"You won't… get what you want… not while Naruto is still alive" Clyde says through gritted teeth, "He won't let you… kill innocent people… from this world".
Hashirama is enraged by this comment. "Don't think that you know him better than I do. Uzumaki Naruto and I are both Hokage of the Hidden Leaf!".
Incensed, Hashirama pushes harder. Slowly, the armor manifested by Clyde's concentrated defence begins to crack. With an ever-increasing pressure the shattering sound spreads from the 1st Hokage's fist to the entire set of armor. Clyde can only close his eyes and hope for the best, knowing that he is already giving everything he has to just resist the attack.
Lara teleports to Clyde, grabs him, and teleports a short distance away.
"Right, left, then right again!" Lara shouts at him.
Without any more words, she teleports the two of them back in front of the 1st Hokage. She puts them back into the most dangerous spot on the entire battlefield. In this position they begin their coordinated counterattack.
Clyde acts first, he pulls as much power as he can from his golden cloak and throws a 'darkness' dart into the right foot of Hashirama. Lara acts to balance this perfectly, she creates a spear of 'light' and stabs it into Hashirama's left foot. For the next few seconds, the 1st Hokage won't be able to move from the spot.
Clyde seeks to bind Hashirama further, gesturing left and right with his arms, a parade of 'darkness' chains begin to bind Hashirama's arms behind his back. Hashirama initially underestimates this move but is stunned as for the next five seconds Clyde continues to reinforce the chains further and further. With the final inch of his arms covered Clyde holds Hashirama still as tightly as he can before shouting at his accomplice at the top of his voice.
"Lara, now!".
Lara teleports a short way backward, positioning herself right in front of Hashirama and putting her hands forward. She begins to charge her concentrated attack.
However, despite Clyde's grip Hashirama starts to break free. Initially the chains begin to snap. The first one looks like a fluke, but the second does not. After the first two snaps they speed of Hashirama's escape increases. A third chain snaps, a fourth, and a fifth. The binds on his arms begin to fall to the floor. Clyde continues to hold on like his life depends on it, but it is hopeless, the Senju clansmen breaks free and throws the general from his back. Lastly he leans down and pulls the two sharp objects from his feet.
He has escaped!
Hashirama turns around and reaches out towards the now helpless Clyde.
In a flash, Lara arrives between the two of them.
Her concentrated attack is ready.
"Take this!" Lara shouts as she unleashes the concentrated attack on Hashirama.
'Light' energy circulates around Lara's feet due to her incredible power. Energy concentrates on the ends of her fingertips and launches towards Hashirama. The little energy that does leek spins around, re-joining the concentrated mass at the end of her fingertips. It becomes a blinding light after the first three seconds, a consuming energy that buries Hashirama tight within its grip.
Clyde raises a hand to cover his eyes and murmurs a few hopeful words under his breath.
When he finally lowers his hand, Hashirama is still standing!
He took the concentrated attack and is still standing!
Lara shakes her head and laughs. "Wow, seriously?".
Hashirama retains a deadpan look in return.
"This should serve as proof that barbarians like you never win in the end, General Lara".
Lara spits in his face.
"Go to hell, Senju Hashirama".
Hashirama gathers 'death' on his fist and brings it backwards. Lara closes her eyes. There are no more tricks to play, no more stalling tactics. They have surely given their best and come up short.
Hashirama's punch is intercepted by Clyde, who uses his concentrated defence one last time. This defence is weaker than the previous ones he used and it is quickly broken. As the defence breaks so do Clyde and Lara's bones, Hashirama's strike pushes them away at tremendous speed. Clyde lands with several significant injuries and instantly realises what happened, his defence gave way. He has lost so much divine energy that he won't be able to put another up.
Landing in a heap, Lara rolls away from Clyde and sighs. "What use is it Clyde? I have no ideas left. I have no energy left. We can't win here".
"I know" Clyde replies, getting quickly to his feet. "But just for a moment stop and use your senses, can't you feel it?".
Lara senses hope in her subordinate's voice, hope that she doesn't really understand. Against her nature, she humours the fool in what she believes to be her last moments. She stretches out with her senses. Her eyes snap open. She did believe they were her last moments. But now hope has returned to her too and she quickly gets to her feet.
"The reason for his urgency, we only have to hold on a little while longer" Clyde says, "Naruto is almost here!".
"Fine, if we have to scratch and claw we'll do it" Lara says, "I'll stall until he gets here, and then with our counterattack we will show this man exactly what we can do".
A Short Way to the South
Minato continues on his quick journey to the North. His chakra and divine energy both being constantly drained as the cost for his quickest possible movement speed. He doesn't look away from the North, simply moving forward in a straight line without so much as a glance in another direction. He knows how dire the situation was when he left and it is unlikely to have gotten any better. There is only one man who can remedy these terrible happenings and he is right next to him.
Naruto looks on with a determined look in his eye.
"Dad, Clyde and Lara have almost run out of energy, they will die if we don't hurry".
"I am hurrying".
"Can you…".
"Naruto, I'm going as fast as I can" Minato says, "You just need to be ready to beat him when we get there".
Naruto looks away from his father, nods and concentrates on the flow of divine energy around his body. His wounds are still bad enough to hold him back and his reserves of divine energy aren't getting any greater. He needs to free himself up to fight somewhere near to his full capacity. After all, if he goes against Hashirama in his current state of health he will lose.
In the Leaf-Military Camp
Hashirama turns his head to the south once more, panic now clearly written on his face. 'He's coming too fast. He's almost here. I don't have any time left!'.
Hashirama leaps at Lara and Clyde without hesitation.
There is no counterattack, Lara simply grabs Clyde and teleports to the nearest safe spot. Recognising that as soon as Hashirama's feet touch the ground he will be after them again. This is a game of cat and mouse now. It's a waste of Lara's divine energy and she won't be able to last more than a minute doing it, but it is their only hope of evading the 1st Hokage until his eventual successor arrives.
'He's not giving me enough time to recover energy' Lara says in her head, 'If I run out of energy to teleport we will die!'.
They both know that this is the end of their battle, one way or another. It's a battle that has a set deadline, the arrival of Uzumaki Naruto. That deadline is surely just a few seconds away.
Naruto is inching closer!
Lara tries to teleport once again but pauses as she struggles to find any more reserves of energy.
"Clyde, I can't keep this up any longer, you need to use the concentrated defence again".
"There's no energy" Clyde shouts back.
"Then we'll die".
Lara teleports out of Hashirama's way once again and then feels a terrifying sensation. In her inner world energy has stopped flowing from the giant tablet. She cannot teleport anymore.
'Too low on divine energy, we're done for'.
Hashirama leaps at Lara and Clyde one final time, this time finally grabbing hold of them. He takes no time to celebrate the feel of getting the two enemies in his hands. He immediately goes to work, grabbing them both by the head and slamming their skulls together as hard as he can. The damage is instant and obvious reinforced by their screams of agony. He doesn't wait for them though, he's in a hurry. He uses wood to bind the two of them together, but cleverly weaves it between them to prevent them touching one another. Lara won't be able to teleport them away now.
Since the generals have no method of escape Hashirama puts some distance between the two of them and rallies 'death' energy from within his body for the final attack.
A few hundred meters away, a young man and his father teleport to within seeing distance of the whole incident.
Naruto is here!
"There they are" Minato yells as they come within sight.
Hashirama glances at Naruto and immediately attempts a fatal attack on the two generals. He creates a spear of wood, enhancing it with 'death' divine energy and casts it forward towards the two defenceless generals.
No divine energy left. No way to defend themselves.
"Stop that spear!" Naruto points and shouts.
Minato raises the kunai over his head and throws it forward, comparing the relative speed of the kunai and the spear as soon as they are thrown. Depending on the speeds of the projectiles, Clyde and Lara will either live or die.
'Damn, it's not moving fast enough' he realises, 'We're not going to make it in time'.
Jumping a short way forward, Naruto catches the kunai his father only just threw. He quickly spins on the spot and throws it forward again.
Naruto's intervention more than triples the speed of the kunai.
Both kunai and spear bear down on Clyde and Lara, their speeds so close that Naruto dare not chance the kunai getting there first. He knows that time to react will be minimal after his father teleports, so he begins a potential defensive movement in advance of their moving.
Minato watches, his eyes bolted to the kunai, then he does it!
The flying thunder god technique.
Minato times it perfectly, putting Naruto in the perfect position between Lara, Clyde and the spear.
With a slap of his hand, Naruto knocks the 'death' spear aside, saving the two generals. Clyde takes a deep breath of air. Both he and Lara have survived.
After taking a moment's pause, Minato sets to work cutting the wood away that binds Clyde and Lara. He surrounds his palm in 'wind' energy and repeatedly chops at it like a tree. After six cuts he manages to get through. He knows that this would be child's play for Clyde or Lara if either of them were at one-hundred percent. The fact that they need help with this is a testament to how far Hashirama managed to wear them down.
After being cut free Clyde rests for a few seconds, recovering some of his energy. He subconsciously starts the process of rebuilding his divine energy reserves, convinced that he is still likely to need them. After this he looks up and sees that Minato's hand is outstretched to him. He accepts the hand gratefully and gets back on his feet. The complexion of the battlefield just changed drastically.
Lara refuses the 4th Hokage's offer to help her onto her feet, pushing him away as she gets up and dusts herself off. Looking at the back of the 7th Hokage she is lost for words at first. What is there to say in this situation?
Eventually Lara finds the words to express herself. "You took your time here getting here!".
Naruto doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Instead he just smiles and nods his head at the head general. "It's good to see you too Lara".
"What kept you?" Clyde asks nonchalantly.
"I was saving Tsunade from having 'death' forced upon her. I stopped her becoming like Hashirama and Boruto" Naruto says.
Hashirama stops his previous frantic attacks, instead opting to just watch the four people in front of him. The advantage across the whole battlefield is still theirs, he likes his chances, especially given how his fights with Naruto have gone before. However, in this scenario he might as well take the time to build his divine energy back up. Looking at Naruto, it seems like the Uzumaki has saved none.
Naruto places his hands on Clyde and Lara's shoulders before pushing 'life' energy out of his body and into theirs.
Initially Clyde doesn't react but then he grabs Naruto's hand, frantically throwing it away from his shoulder.
"What do you think you're doing?" Clyde asks, "Look at you, you're almost completely exhausted. You look like you've been running for the last ten years".
Lara didn't notice it before, her relief was so great that it overwhelmed her, but now she sees it. Naruto is drenched in sweat, there is not a single part of his body that isn't bruised somewhere. Small drops of red liquid mark where the worst of his wounds have already healed. He is no state to be fighting, he should be moved to a medical facility immediately, he shouldn't be the one administering first aid.
"What exactly happened to the south?" Lara asks.
"It's a long story, but I fought Boruto and Sarada for a while" Naruto says happily, "After that Sarada came back to our side. She got in a few good shots first though".
"Where is she?".
"Fighting Boruto, Tsunade's fate is in her hands now".
Hashirama's ears manage to catch those words. He holds some hope in the back of his mind that Boruto will be able to defeat Sarada and that Tsunade will still end up joining their cause. He won't have time to think about that soon, even at a quarter of his full strength Naruto demands his full attention.
"That doesn't matter right now, we just need to focus on the obstacle in front of us" Lara says, turning back to Hashirama. "The three of us need to work together if we're going to eliminate him".
"I won't kill Hashirama" Naruto counters.
The two generals look at him incredulously. At first they wonder if they heard Naruto right but then they remind themselves about just who he is. This is the way he always works, he refused to kill them when they were his enemies, he is refusing to kill their enemies still. Hashirama is different from them though, he is a greater threat, a different kind of enemy, a traitor.
"You're mad" Clyde says, "Even if we are going to defeat him without killing him, we have to work together".
"No, I'll do it alone".
"Naruto, you're completely exhausted, you can't do this alone".
"I will do it alone!" Naruto shouts this time.
"You're an idiot" Lara says. "I have seen you fight this man before. I've seen it twice. You lost against him both times and this time you're in an even worse state than you were then. There is no logical reason to believe that you will win".
A sound argument. Clyde and Minato both agree with it on first inspection. There is no suitable argument that they can make against it, there is probably no logical argument that anyone can make against it. However, they both remain optimistic that whatever Naruto says in reply, he will make the two of them believe that he is capable of doing what he will say.
"I don't care about your logic right now, I have something that I thought I had lost inside me" Naruto says. "Right now I cannot lose to Hashirama, it won't happen. So believe me, this time I will definitely beat him".
Minato shakes his head.
"You've never needed to convince me, Naruto. You're my son".
Minato teleports away, joining the larger battle between the homeworld military and Hashirama's followers. His presence begins the initiation of a counterattack.
Lara looks to Clyde. "Are you actually going along with this nonsense?".
"… if we are saying it's impossible for Naruto to beat Hashirama, what chance do we have against Furst?" Clyde asks. "I'm going to go and save the others".
Clyde runs back towards the battlefield, knowing that he alone will be enough to turn the tide of the battle and put an end to the slaughter of the homeworld military. That leaves only two people standing opposite Hashirama. That leaves Naruto and it leaves Lara.
"Last time you fought him it was pitiful to watch" Lara says.
"I know".
"I looked at you, the leader of these shinobi, and I wondered what they saw in you" she continues, "What could they have admired so much about this hopeless fool who cannot stand up to the traitor?".
"I know".
Lara turns her back to Naruto.
"You better prove that they are right to believe in you".
Naruto doesn't hesitate.
"I will".
Lara follows after Clyde and Minato, ready to lead her forces in their battle for survival.
That leaves two.
They face each other for the 3rd time.
Uzumaki Naruto vs Senju Hashirama.