Chapter Eleven

Welcome to the Nightmare

G-God, what has that evil - no, we KNOW what she did to you! But WHY WOULD SHE DO THIS WHEN YOU WERE INNOCENT?! And it made sense that the woman who was like her mother had been at the wrong place at the wrong time...a victim of circumstance, undeserving unlike those people Kaguya spoke of.

Why was she such a fool to think that thing, that shadow of a former self, would recognize her?

"Who is this 'Granny Tsunade'?" White Zetsu looked at her with one single, blinking yellow-green eye while his dark half laughed humorlessly. "Oh, don't listen to her. Don't bother with a scrawny brat who's just confused."

Naru's temper just about snapped, but then Kaguya-bitch interrupted the moment, declaring there was no more time to waste, because she had work to do before tomorrow, and declared the five friends would have to "meet my soldiers" - in the form of none other than several dozen more of those white ghouls who rose from the earth, leering and laughing at the sight of the young men and women who flinched and cowered into each other, more out of disgust and pity instead of fear.

None of these beings ever asked to be transformed, nor could they have prepared for it. The same would go for the others currently living here; she then remembered that the past ones composed of jerks who went after Kaguya for defending herself - including her lover who was a coward in the end, sticking to the law and caught in a lose-lose scenario.

"I have better matters to attend to than waste my time with you, but the time will come again," Kaguya said, hands still outstretched on either side of herself. "From this moment on, the world as you know it will cease to exist. I shall reunify all chakra!" Her voice echoed as she teleported herself out of here, going who knew where - and right through a spatial opening behind her. She remembered the old sage telling them his mother could transport through time and space to another location, called what?

Oh, I think...space-time or something.

Now that she was gone, Naru and the gang were surrounded by these things, and that flytrap one with the black half - Granny Tsunade, I hate her for doing this to you, and ruining our lives; I swear she is gonna pay - was long gone.

"There's too many of them!" Gaara said. "And that means we have to..." He trailed off, looking behind him towards a short cliff where there was plenty of space and trees. This fight meant that the landscape could be devastated in places, no doubt attracting the attention of Konoha authorities in no time.

"You're right. But remember, guys, these aren't human anymore, and there's no way to bring them back to what and who they were before," Sasuke said, strangled and angry at the same time. His face visibly twisted. "If we never knew this information, I might have had no trouble mowing every single one of them down."

Hinata could not speak, just look upon all the ever approaching White Zetsu with watery eyes and a face of cold rage. It was at that moment Naru saw the one thing which finally appeared in the middle of her friend's forehead at this particular time: a small diamond shape colored red like blood, a rose, a ruby - or maybe Gaara's hair. And it was just when the emotions ran high, until Neji broke the moment off.

"Time to finally put our training to use."

Oh, you took the words out of my mouth. "Then let's go, guys!" Naru shouted, assuming the stance first, and then threw the first punch to the nearest White Zetsu she could. This was meant to be a diversion tactic so that they all could leap down below, and she'd join them afterwards. Those things - what if they had no real combat skills? What would their purpose be on Kaguya's orders? Or was she thinking too much into this?

Each with a shout of their own, both Neji and Gaara took the jump, followed by Sasuke, ending with Hinata. They all shouted up at her unanimously, but this damned new Zetsu had to come her way before he got a taste of her fist that sent him pummeling into a few of his brothers. Bitch really did make sure they had nothing to do with a specific gender, though made sure they looked male enough, like the old days when all soldiers were men.

Guilt shoved aside, Naru dipped low and swung out a kick to knock one more off its feet before standing up and somersaulting into the air, joining her man and their friends.

"Alright, spread out!" Sasuke shouted, and they did just that, but he cartwheeled over to a pile of rubble where a pole was lodged in - it just HAD to be there! - and gave it a quick experimental whirl as though it were a bo staff. Their martial arts training in college had better pay off! "Welcome to my world, freaks!" he shouted at the four White Zetsu that charged for him, after every single one of them leaped over the small cliff to come right at them. It made Naru whistle as she saw her guy take them out with a blow to the face, to the middle of the body, and when he was no longer satisfied, he settled on weaving the hand signs...and out came the greatest ball of fire from his mouth which a few dodged, but two of them ended up not being so lucky and screamed to their crispy end.

Naru cursed herself for getting momentarily distracted by the thought of hot fire from Sasuke's mouth - idiot, not the time for that! - and hurried to make six shadow clones of herself when the exact same number of White Zetsu made way for her. One by one were her clones turned into a puff of smoke until the real her was left, but in the melee, those plant-freaks were temporarily restrained and gathering themselves. This called for her special technique and one last clone of herself: the Rasengan which plowed them right through the middle of their fragile bodies, killing them instantly.

Both Neji and Hinata were just plain kicking ass with this super awesome, close-range attack they dubbed "Gentle Fist"; any opponent or target they came into contact with would be subsequently damaged internally, and they had no problem with these inhuman servants of Kaguya. They'd explained to her during their training that they surgically injected a certain sum of their own chakra into the other's system. But since the White Zetsu had no internal organs of their own, there was no time wasted in shutting them down. Oh, just the slightest touch could cause the same amount of damage, therefore the technique's name. She still remembered the day she'd been subjected to that like it was yesterday, when Hinata pinpointed it right to the center of her abdomen, the world blacking out and knocking her out for the rest of the day. Just...ouch.

Her girl was really a beast, even more than she'd been back then, now that she had the Strength of a Hundred Healings pulsating red in the middle of her forehead just as the Byakugan visibly strained her ocular veins.

Neji...how the hell could she put it when he palmed down every Zetsu that kept coming in? Him and his cousin together, back to back even, made them a dynamic duo.

Gaara himself - he was not much of a physical fighter compared to the rest of them, but he had a secret weapon that he kept on himself at all times which had been a...a water canteen of all things, in the shape of a small gourd. How silly was it? Except he'd had it for years, because he came from a desert, after all.

Anyway, it proved effective because his sand abilities were stemmed from it, after having some real sand imported from Suna.

Boy...she would have had nightmares for months if not years, had the jutsu he used been witnessed by other normal human beings. He could capture a large number of White Zetsu by burying them in sand which poured from that miniature gourd on his being - and he could crush them to death if he wanted to. "Boy, oh, boy" is right; I bet if Hinata never knew him the way she did, she would have been too scared to think about approaching him. But damn, he could help us with the fight in no time at all!

Except, the problem was that there were still MORE White Zetsu coming, and now they were all bunched together: five of them against ninety-nine whatever thousand of the others left!

Shit...now this means one other thing for us to do. We can mow them all down, since Kaguya-meinu has a hundred thousand or so of them and our advancement can get them. Thank God Sasuke said the words.

"Let's do it...Knights. We avenge Tsunade and the world under threat."

~o~

About damned time we got to the biggest part of the show here and now.

"Tanuki!" And on Gaara's command, just as he weaved a single sign for the animal, the chakra light formed there and covered his entire body...leaving behind him being clad head to toe in maroon, and in the middle of his forehead was a headband bearing a metal plate etched with the kanji for "ninja", or Shinobi.

His special weapon - he didn't have anything materialistic, but something far more supplementary and stronger which would stretch to far parameters and protect himself and his friends.

"Twin komainu!" Hinata and Neji shouted unanimously, doing the same on their parts, leaving them both garbed in ninja gear, though Neji was all in white and Hinata was purple. Their weapons of choice: he bore twin tantō short swords he would keep on his belt, while she had the yumi and ya bow and arrow.

"Kitsune!" Naru was now in bright orange and brandished the wakizashi which was closer in length to Neji's twin blades, and that left Sasuke himself as well as his trusted katana sword which made him feel mighty and powerful like a god - and in blue like the stormy seas.

"Taka!"

All of them also had shuriken, kunai, and several other ninja tools, but there were also noticeable additions amongst each of them, primarily in Naru and Sasuke himself: her eyes gained orange markings on the outside while her pupils dilated to look like those of a fox's. He also had the ability to inflict lightning from his left hand and envelope it around his sword, thereby giving it the name of "Chidori Lightning Blade".

His girlfriend's new level was known as Sage Mode - absorbing of nature energy around her and inflicting of serious pain in hand-to-hand, with or without direct physical contact - and this meant she would be able to take her Rasengan to new extremes.

Their group was known as the Avenger Knights. Because of what Kaguya had done to Tsunade and what she would do if they didn't stop her.

But by the time they'd assembled, every single White Zetsu had vanished, shrinking into the earth from plain sight. "Where the hell did they go now?!" Naru growled. "They gonna pounce on us or what?"

Sasuke let his Sharingan scan, though he sensed nothing. The Hyuuga cousins could use their doujutsu after him, but if these White Zetsu were that damned good at camouflaging themselves, it was nothing short of a trap.

~o~

Hagoromo had been here all this time, being caught between life and death while taking the Tailed Beasts with him, rather than spreading it throughout the world and letting the rest of the chakra go. And no one had awakened it until those five...and one more who is here with my son.

These mountains were overflowing with chakra in the minerals. It overwhelmed the moon princess to her core, so to think about taking it all in after she dealt with her son...

Black Zetsu laughed with her when he and his other half rose from the earth to take in the ethereal surroundings. "Well, what do you know? This is a dream come true, Mother." White Zetsu sniggered. "Um, yes. I've never seen anything like this before."

"What does it matter to either of you? It will all belong to me in no time," Kaguya snapped. "Just go back to the fight and keep recording the results like you were supposed to, and I'll review it later."

Both of them said yes in unison before shrinking back into the hardened soils. She watched closely until they were both gone before heading further into the cave, coming at the edge of the tunnel to her right - and there down below was the presence of chakra in that water to beyond, where she would have no issue swimming through. Kaguya gracefully plunged headfirst downward into the otherworldly pool, where she exited and ended up in dry surroundings.

"You're here at last...Mother."

"Indeed, Hagoromo. It's a shame I don't see both my sons together - but it's one less to worry about." To even be in his presence was...a strike to her heart, only for a moment. She loved her sons so much she was willing to protect them and then leave behind her legacy, but she was immortal and could not really die. And they turned on her to "save the world", to save humanity from being dictated. They failed to understand that humanity thrived after conflicts were resolved; humans were hardly ever the most intelligent of creatures, no more than the animals which existed long before them. Times had been quiet and easy, better to handle than it was before I arrived. You and your brother ruined it, and now look what's happened.

Taking in the appearance of her son, he had gotten so much older than she remembered. Not only did he still bear the Rinnegan eyes and the third eye which was bloody red and bearing the dark rings, but the defined lines in his features made it sad that he had aged so terribly compared to her, but what happened? He'd married, had children of his own, and just died - but here he was now, caught in limbo because he knew she'd return someday. "You're too late to exact your plan," Hagoromo said coldly. "You are not going to transform humanity into your slaves like you've done before, not even to formulate a new chakra fruit for a power that destroys you from the inside."

Kaguya scowled at him, fingers extended so the claws were ready - especially at the young man who made himself known and reached behind himself for the sword that was strapped to his back; he had chakra awakened within him, as well. No doubt that he was powerful, but no match for her. And the resemblance to Sasuke Uchiha was uncanny. This is his elder brother...ah, yes, Itachi. I remember you well. And how handsome are you. I once had a weakness for a man like that, but you are not worth my time. "Save me the lecture," she hissed to her son, returning her attention to him. "I've been in your presence for hardly five minutes and already hear it. You expect me to let this go after a millennia, to call a truce just like that? You have any idea what it is like to be locked up in a catastrophic core for thousands of years, Hagoromo?!" She raised her voice, on the verge of screaming her rage and causing the walls to tremble.

"Locked up for threatening a world that isn't yours," Itachi Uchiha seethed, calm and collected. He then drew his sword, the blade glinting in the light. "You might have begun as a benevolent goddess, but you let all the power get to your head that you shouldered everything without giving the people free will. All of us humans are the same in that regard, but yes, every action has consequences - and extreme lengths are gone to for peace. You used to want to make this world a better place, isn't that right?"

"...you insignificant ants don't understand as much as you claim. I see you are correct, but there are no guarantees. Your brother and his friends I will deal with in due time, so the two of you..."

Try and sweet talk me all you wish, but my mind is made up. I will finish what I started, and no one will be in my way.

She allowed her hair to grow to a farther extreme length, only to find her attention momentarily diverted once again to Itachi who took it upon himself to attempt getting the drop on her, substituting himself with a shadow clone which transformed into a flock of crows as he was struck through the heart by one of the needles her extended mane released - only for the real one to be paralyzed by invisible forces. He pushed her for the last time; one too many buttons pressed to her liking tonight, indeed.

Kaguya was pleased that several hair thorns caught Hagoromo in vital points - his arms, his wrists and his heart notably - and he grimaced visibly in agony despite fighting it off. He could not leave that zone composed of liquid chakra, by the looks of it, which gave her a fabulous advantage, but first...

She summoned Itachi to her side for one purpose only, but with no intention of killing him. He had a message to give to his brother and those friends of his. Smirking, she reached up, black nails going right for the target -

- and dug right into the delicate surrounding within his eyelids, taking the eyeball in her grasp without popping it, and yanking it right out of his socket, snapping the threads within.

His howls were music to her ears just as Hagoromo's pained groaning was.

~o~

These creatures hide good and well.

"Damn, this just gives me the creeps," Naru muttered as the five of them scouted through the woods, keeping close to the mountain as much as possible, "and look who's talking. But I don't sense their asses at all."

"You're not wrong there," Sasuke agreed with a grunt, pissed that his Sharingan assessed nothing. "I have a bad feeling myself about this. They'll just pounce on us at the first chance they get, so let's keep together just to be safe." Neji didn't disagree with him, so with that being said, he activated his Byakugan, Hinata joining in, but even their three-hundred-and-sixty degrees' worth of magnifying didn't catch a damn thing.

"They don't have chakra channels or normal human internal systems," Hinata said with some traces of despair, "so don't hesitate on putting them out of their miseries."

It was greatly disturbing to hear his once passive, tender-hearted cousin talk like that, almost akin to a remorseless soldier. But she had a point, and no one disagreed with her. All they could do was fight to prevent this from happening again...

We can't lock onto them, either. They're made with the earth and can infiltrate well -

And if the danger wasn't amplified enough, it erupted in their faces when familiar white figures burst from all around them: from the ground itself, behind the trees, and apparently nowhere. "Here they come!" Gaara shouted, and they all got to work in assuming the stances before throwing the kicks and punches, including a hilarious moment when Naru spat to one that they all made her sick, repeating it three times before lopping the Zetsu in half horizontally with her wakizashi.

"CHIDORI - CHIDORI STREAM!"

Sasuke had once attempted the Rasengan during their training years, finding it to be fascinating when his girlfriend was getting all that chakra gathered into the swirling ball of power, though his Lightning Style prevented the pressure from staying in place, thus resulting in the wildly crackling bouquet in the palm of his left hand, which was where his Yin symbol was located. And right after driving it through the heart of one White Zetsu, he turned his attention on another to extend the lightning blade into another source, the stream of its name - the crackles emitted not only from his hand, but from all over his ENTIRE body, attacking more Zetsu which advanced on him and shocking them to death at his will.

Neji had to concentrate on his own moves as well as Hinata's. And for that, he had a splendid surprise of his own just like she did. Both of them were highly skilled with these absolute offenses, but with one of them, even the slightest error made in learning without the Byakugan led to -

"See you fools later!" With that, Neji mustered his body's energies and leaped into the air, spinning like a tornado and causing the Zetsu to collide into each other, only for himself to deliver the blows in the form of emitting blasts of chakra, expelling it from his internal pressure points and causing the targets to be literally blown to pieces - and one even went flying through the air to smack dab onto a great tree trunk only to wind up as gluey muck. One of the sickest things I can remember thinking of.

Hinata saved Sasuke's skin by joining forces with him, back to back temporarily, all the while firing a shot with her bow and arrow at the same time Sasuke released an immense new fireball. When they separated, it was Hinata's chance, holding out her clenched fists on either side of herself. There appeared the glowing blue lion faces - the "Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists". Upon coming into contact with another, they drained the chakra networks, and they severed so many parts of the pasty goblins who looked on in horror. They stood no chance against this raging lioness - and that same phrase was evident in Gaara's eyes when he looked her way after burying more with his sand. He then formed a suspending platform of sand beneath himself, extending it when he picked up every single one of them - Sasuke and Hinata, then Naru, and finally Neji himself - before bringing them above the heads of the remaining White Zetsu which were here.

As far as they could tell, there were only seven left. Who knew how many more were leftover from Kaguya's old army. Neji let himself smirk when he knew just the trick, and it wasn't gonna come from him.

"Naru...they're all yours."

"...Wind Style: RASENSHURIKEN!"

And right after forming two shadow clones to help her out - one for adding to her Wind Release while the other kept the chakra contained - she produced a gigantic shuriken-shaped version of her Rasengan, effectively giving it a good toss and sending it right into the sand where the last of the Zetsu were buried, all screaming their last when they were trapped and helpless...

...and the eruption left behind sand and formless white pieces of nothing in particular. They were all elated that their teamwork eliminated inhuman enemies, but the greatest one was still out there somewhere, maybe at the Shinju Tree.

Suddenly, Naru exclaimed in shock, doubling halfway over and being supported by her man. "What is it?" Sasuke demanded, being patient while she took several seconds to grit it out, causing Neji, Gaara and Hinata to gasp in shock. "Damn it!" Sasuke swore in response, eyes narrowing as he looked up in the direction of the mountain. Naru took a few shallow breaths when she'd answered.

"I sense Old Man Six Paths...we have to go to him now!"

You all have seen the kanji for Shinobi especially during the Fourth Great Ninja War, so no need to show what it is. Translations of the animals of our heroes:

-Tanuki = racoon dog (Gaara)

-Komainu = lion (Neji and Hinata)

-Kitsune = fox (Naru, obviously)

-Taka = hawk (Sasuke, also obviously)

Meinu, by the way, means "bitch".

I wouldn't be surprised if any of you were hearing "Go, go, Power Rangers!" in your heads - all of you who are fans of the franchise, at least - when you read this. :D

I am super proud of this story and can't wait to see how else it will go. Also, thanks for the loving reviews I have now gotten so far, so please keep it up with the feedback. :3