Forgotten

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Naruto (Shippuden). This is a story inspired by the original made up for entertainment purposes only. - Krystal

Chapter 66: Bittersweet Victory

She was just about to meet up with Lee when she got news from the headquarters to head for the First Division instead as they now had to fight the infamous Ginkaku and Kinkaku from Kumogakure. She was told that only if she went there would the Fourth Raikage stay put at the headquarters. She couldn't help but chuckle at that information. Scolded by Inoichi as to how she shouldn't be laughing in the current situation, she stopped immediately and followed the orders from the headquarters. She quickly flashed herself to Darui who was the commander of the First Division.

"I was hoping you would be bringing an army with you." He told her as she made her appearance.

"Am I not good enough?" She asked him, slightly offended. "Don't worry. Reinforcement from the other companies are coming."

"They've already captured Atsui and Samui into that gourd." Darui told her. "I have to avoid saying whatever word it is that I say the most often since they cursed that word."

"I didn't realize I got here this late." Yuki said as she bit her lip.

Kinkaku and Ginkaku were already extremely strong. Adding to their strength was the ownership of two of the most dangerous weapons to have ever existed. They had truly had to devise a proper plan to be able to defeat them. Furthermore, they couldn't count on more reinforcement as everyone was already preoccupied by other reincarnation at shore. They had to take the battle out in the water. In a way, it was advantageous to Yuki as she was very proficient in water jutsus. However, she was uncertain if those were enough to fight monsters like Kinkaku and Ginkaku. The two brothers seemed to not care about her sudden appearance. They probably thought nothing much of her. She looked like a fly to them. As Darui and Yuki both used black lightning to strike down the two of them, they quickly dodged the attack and sneaked up behind Darui.

"That is such a dull..." He stopped himself as Yuki cried out his name.

Yuki spread out chakra strings like a puppeteer would and attached them to Darui as she tried hard to pull him away from the gourd. She kept pulling on them, but the sucking power of the gourd was much stronger than she was. She could hear Darui apologizing non-stop as he felt like he let so many down. She did not give up on him despite knowing that it would be hard for her to overpower the effect of the gourd. All of the sudden, the tension loosened and Darui came flying towards her. They both landed into the water and swam back to the surface to counterattack the two brothers. Using the sudden situation to their advantage, they took the two of them by surprise. As Yuki created a whirlpool below Ginkaku, Darui was able to disarm him. Yuki then sent Ginkaku flying towards Kinkaku. Yuki flashed herself there and took ownership of the weapons Kinkaku had in hand. She cursed Ginkaku as she was able to place her seal onto him. Darui didn't waste a single second and got him to call out his brother, his most spoken word, and sucked into the infamous Benihisago.

"One down, only one more to go." Darui said.

However, as he said those words, he felt down on one knee. The utilization of those weapons, including the gourd, required a lot of chakra. Yuki could sense it too. She quickly summoned her trusted aid, Kiku. As she appeared, she nodded at Yuki, understanding the situation right away. She climbed on top of Yuki's head and began gathering Nature energy for her immediately. As the process began, she wasn't the only beginning to transform. Kinkaku was enraged by the fact that his brother got captured by the Allied Force. He began transforming into what resembled a tailed-beast cloak form. There was six tails to his transformation. Yuki's transformation was complete as well as her hair grew a couple more inches and her lashes looked like the snow had just kissed them. Both her sharingans showed themselves as the mangekyo state. She began moving towards Kinkaku. Darui wished he still had enough chakra to keep up with her. However, he knew that if he tried, he would just be in her way. Instead, he quickly communicated with the headquarter to see where they were at with the reinforcement and to update them on the current situation.

Kinkaku went on a rampage. He began spreading his tails onto shore and harming the Allied Force without restraint. Yuki told everyone to move back and to take cover as she took on him by herself. She saw in the corner of her eye Tenten who refused to back down. However, she knew well that she was no match for the monstrous force that was in front of her. Instead, she made it her goal to protect as many shinobis on shore as she could. Yuki was thankful for her resolve. She couldn't protect and fight at the same time. With her friend protecting the lives of the Allied Shinobi, Yuki could focus solely on fighting Kinkaku. She tried to restraint him in many ways, including trying to take him down with Amaterasu. However, the cloak he had on protected him against most physical attacks. She knew the only thing she could do was try to put him under a genjutsu until the headquarter sent some help to seal him up. It was easier said than done as she was unable to make eye contact with him. He knew well not to make eye contact. He kept moving to avoid falling under her jutsu.

Yuki tried contacting Inoichi as she was moving around. She wasn't well versed in the art of telepathy, but she could manage, at least that's what she believed. She was wondering if they could send Shikamaru over to the First Division for this one fight.

"Inoichi-san?" She telepathically asked.

"How..." He began as he wasn't aware that she could freely communicate with him without having him initiate the communication.

"Let's leave that for later? I've been thinking that we would need someone from the Nara clan come over to help hold this one down." Yuki interrupted him.

"You thought of the same thing as Shikaku. Shikamaru is on his way. We also sent Ino and Choji since there are other fights to be had there that would need them to intervene."

"Thanks." Yuki said as she cut communication, sensing it was coming to an end.

As the conversation ended, she could sense Shikamaru's chakra nearby. He was quickly approaching her. Before she could give him a sign to come, he was already there. He looked at her with a smirk:

"I heard you actually needed some help."

"As you can see." She said as she pointed to the transformed Kinkaku.

"The bigger they are, the more shadow they create." He said as he formed the seal to trap Kinkaku in his own shadow. "Bear in mind that I can't hold him down for that long."

"I will only need a few seconds." Yuki reassured him.

As she finished talking, Kinkaku was no longer moving. Yuki quickly stepped in front of him and stared him in the eyes and put him under a genjutsu. Shikamaru released his shadow jutsu and Kinkaku collapsed onto the water, his cloak still present though. At that moment, Darui gave them sign that he had received something from the headquarters to seal that large amount chakra. Still under Yuki's control, Kinkaku responded to Darui's call for him. He was then sucked into a large container known as the Amber Purifying Pot. That battle had now ended. For a moment, Yuki contemplated sitting down for a second. However, things were not over yet. She turned towards the shore where there were more reincarnation. One of them, from where she was standing, was none other than Asuma. He had now encountered Ino and Choji. Shikamaru quickly headed there as he knew he would be needed. Yuki sent Kiku away as constantly gathering Nature energy was exhausting for her. She believed it was best to save everyone's energy until it was truly needed. Yuki also undid her sharingan as to save her own chakra before flashing herself to shore.

"This is never ending." Darui commented to her.

They were both fighting off the large amount of white Zetsu heading towards them. Among them was also Kakuzu. He was a lot of trouble the last time they fought him. Yuki never expected to see him again. He had already ripped out many hearts. He was heading towards Tenten who was standing her ground. She seemed to have picked up one of the legendary weapons that was wielded by Kinkaku, the Bashoshen. The large fan allowed her to generate any elemental jutsu at will. However, it took a lot out of a person's chakra once used. It revealed itself to be quite useful as it destroyed instantly whatever mask Kakuzu sent towards her. Right that moment, Yuki sensed a large amount of warm chakra exude from someone she was very familiar with. She turned around to see that Choji had spread his wings and flew above all. He broke out of his cocoon. He defeated Asuma as tears rolled down his face. Choji had always been so kind. Everybody knew that. He blossomed under such difficult circumstances. It was perhaps necessary. However, it still broke Yuki's heart to see him succeed at the expense of a final goodbye with his sensei. He didn't stop there to mourn his sensei. He quickly moved on as he knew he was needed elsewhere on the battlefield. Soon, the First Division overpowered their enemies and claimed victory where they were.

Before they knew it, the evening came. They saw the sun setting out in the ocean. The ocean was red, not just from the color of the sky, but from the blood that was shed that day. The White Zetsus were retreating into that blood bath as well. They couldn't comprehend why, but they weren't complaining. Before they could call it a day, the masked man who called himself Madara appeared. Yuki quickly headed over to fight him. However, she couldn't even close enough and he summoned a large monster-like statue who destroyed everything on its path. It created a large shockwave that Yuki barely managed to lessen its strength by softening the ground around them. It still caused many fatalities as many fell from where they were and were sent flying against rocks, into the ocean while their internal organs were torn apart from the shock. As Yuki collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion trying to reduce the numbers of death with such a large scale jutsu, the statue vanished just as quickly as it had appeared in front of their eyes. Yuki slammed her fist onto the ground as she looked around and realized how many more had just died. Shikamaru quickly headed over to her side to make sure that she was okay. Everything had happened so quickly. They weren't even sure what had happened and why they were under such brief and devastating attack.

"They took away the Purifying Pot and the Gourd." Darui came and told them.

"They were after the Nine-tails chakra." Yuki said as she coughed up some blood. "I should've realized it. I knew that Kinkaku's chakra felt familiar to Naruto's. I'm such an idiot."

"You can't blame yourself." Shikamaru said. "There was so much going on. Nobody could have..."

Yuki stood up as she wiped away the blood at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were filled with tears as she saw the immobile bodies spread everywhere on the beach and in the water. She took a deep breath and walked towards one of the bodies. She closed their eyes. They deserved at least that much. She knew they couldn't do much for them at that moment, but she still wanted them to be able to finally close their eyes and rest.

"Let's recover the bodies from the waters." Darui said to Shikamaru as they exchanged looks and followed Yuki.

How many lives were lost that day? Yuki didn't want to know. One was already too many. Although she prepared herself mentally to such loss, she never realized how much she grew to care for each and every individual of the Allied Forces. Whether she knew them personally or not, she had sensed their chakra at one point. She had wished for their well-being at least once. She probably saw them at least once. As the bodies were lined up on the beach, the survivors prayed for them and wished them a safe journey to heaven. Yuki turned away from the scene and walked away as she flashed herself to a place where she could feel comforted.

End of Chapter 66

Thank you for reading yet another chapter.

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xox

Krystal