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 76: Changed

She had so much to tell him, but there was a knot in her throat that prevented her from speaking. It was no time to tell him everything anyways. She pushed away from his warm embrace. Her face still showed no emotion, but her heart was starting to break free from the lock put in place. He looked at his dear granddaughter. He could tell she was in a lot of pain. She couldn't hide her emotions from him. Family was like that. They could tell how you felt even when you try your best to conceal your emotions. Family shared one heart.

"You were Naruto's first friend, right?" The Fourth then asked her with a smile. "Thank you for that and thank you for standing by his side all this time."

"I…" Yuki began, but then stopped not knowing what to say to that. She wondered if she deserved those words.

"You have an interesting chakra, little girl." The Second then said approaching them. She recognized his face from the mountain in Konohagakure. "You have the Uchihas' eyes, but your chakra is that of the Senjus."

"Save the talk for later, Tobirama. We have something to do immediately." The First said before she could reply to the Second Hokage.

"HASHIRAMA! I've been waiting for you!" Madara screamed from afar.

"I'll deal with you later, Madara." Hashirama said calmly as he and the other Hokages surrounded the Ten-Tails.

"Yuki, watch closely." The Third told her. "This is a technique that you probably haven't had the chance to see yet."

He still remembered how much she loved learning new techniques and mastering them. As they each completed the seals simultaneously, a red barrier appeared and locked in the Ten-Tails. On top of the outer barrier, the First used the Ten Seals to keep the Ten-Tails down. The amount of chakra and of precision needed to form the barrier were impressive. Only those of the Kages caliber could form such a strong barrier.

"This is called the Four Crimson Ray Formation." The Third explained to Yuki. "It requires a great amount of chakra, but it is one of the strongest barrier existent. You need 4 people to form it and to maintain it. Since we are all reincarnated, we won't be exhausted from forming it, so all of you should take this time to rest."

"But Madara…"

"He is now only interested in fighting the First Hokage. Save your energy to defeat the Ten-Tails."

She told Kiku to go rest. As her trusted aid disappeared, her hair went back to its normal length and her eyes changed back to its usual moon-like color. At that moment, Yuki sensed Sasuke's chakra within proximity. She looked back and saw that he had met up with Naruto and Sakura.

"He's here to help." The Third told her. "You should head over there to hear him out."

Yuki nodded and joined the former Team 7. Everyone also noticed that their former teammates was now present on the battlefield and rushed over. As impatient as ever, Kiba was the first to ask:

"Why are you here?"

"You are all as noisy as ever." Sasuke said. "But don't worry… I'm here to help."

"Help?" Sakura asked while healing Naruto.

"Many things happened and I've, now, decided to protect he village and I will become the Hokage." He said as he looked at Yuki.

Everybody went silent for a moment. Yuki looked back at him as she squinted her eyes as if trying to read his thoughts. He was dead serious, but she wondered if he meant it. In fact, what she was thinking was "What is he actually thinking?"

"Do you even know what a Hokage is?" Kiba yelled back as the first shock dissipated.

"Do you think that all you did will just disappear? That's impossible." Shikamaru added.

"I don't care about what you all think of me. I just know that this war was created from the Kages' mistakes and I will become the Hokage to change the village."

Yuki looked at Naruto and spoke to him telepathically: "Do you trust him?"

"Leave him to me. If he does anything to harm the village, I will…" He stopped his thought process and smiled at Yuki and gave her a thumbs up as Sakura finished healing him. "Sasuke, let's put an end to this war together."

"Don't leave me out of this." Sakura said. "I won't just be watching your backs again like before."

The Hyakugou seal appeared on her forehead with those words. All these years of hard work were finally revealed to everyone. Sakura never fought at her maximal capacity for this very reason. She saved chakra little by little within that seal. Yuki never thought she would see that seal on anybody else but Tsunade. Sakura was truly the best pupil Tsunade has had.

Sasuke said nothing. He just looked at the enemies. The look in his eyes was murderous as always. However, this time, it was directed towards a common threat. He hadn't worked with everyone in a long time. Yuki wondered if things were going to be alright. He barely knew of everyone's ability. He had been working on improving himself so much that he forgot others did so as well.

"The Ten-Tails has my seal on him. I can teleport you three inside the barrier." Yuki then said.

"Can you go through the barrier?" Sasuke asked her.

"It shouldn't be a problem." Yuki told him as she held out her arm to allow them to hold onto her and her eyes changed to her mangekyo sharingan.

"We are all in this together. We can't just you 4 fight this battle alone." Shikamaru then said.

At that moment, the barrier was distorted from a Tailed Beast Bomb for a quick second before coming back to its original shape. Had they been in there at that moment, they would have turned into dust.

"We must act quickly." The First from afar told them. "I will create an opening for everybody else, but stay close to the exit so we can seal the opening the moment he is ready to launch another bomb."

With those words, Yuki teleported herself and Team 7 into the barrier. From the corner of her eye, she could see the Third smile. He was happy to see how much she had grown and improved. Back then, every teleportation drained her energy so much. Now, she was able to take three others with her. The moment they arrived within the barrier, the Ten-tails miniature clones coming from its body were released to tackle them, preventing them from being able to attack its main body. They fought them off by themselves for a little while before being joined by the rest of the Alliance. The First created a small opening the barrier allowing everyone to come in and help them.

With their entrance, the Juubi created even larger clones of himself to keep up with the shinobis of the Alliance. They began struggling to fight off the creatures. Everyone had been fighting for two days straight. They are running on spirit alone. Giants had to be fought off with giants. As if they all had the same thought, simultaneously, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Yuki summoned their giant partners in crime.

"Always bringing me to dangerous scenes." Toki told Yuki.

"Don't complain. The world will end if we don't give them a hand this time." Gamakichi, Naruto's partner, told him.

"Katsuyu-sama, could you attach yourself to the Alliance members to help them recover?"

Gamikichi and Aoda, Sasuke's partner, headed straight for the main body, jumping above and slipping through the crowd of clones. Toki was in charge of attracting the attention of the Ten-Tails so that it would focus on him instead of Sasuke and Naruto.

"Ino, can you let everyone know to keep the clones busy away from the body in a specific location? It will allow for Naruto and Sasuke who are closer to the main body to be in its blind spot and strike the Ten-Tails down."

"Gotcha." Ino replied to Yuki and transmitted the message to everyone.

Looking at the Ten-Tails eye movement from the top of Toki's head, Yuki figured the blind spot and headed towards Sasuke and Naruto. Focused on getting the two of them in the location where they could attack the Ten-Tails, she did not notice that two of the clones were about to attack her. Someone came to her rescue, striking the two beasts away.

"Yuki, you are acting carelessly." He told her before striking more enemies down. "Neji would be disappointed if you joined him in heaven so early. He died protecting Naruto, but, even more than that, he died trying to protect who mattered most to him. If he saw you in heaven now, he would be very sad."

She looked away from Hiashi. The last few years, he had truly cared for Neji as his own son and, consequently, saw Yuki as family as well. He knew how much she meant to his nephew. He knew that she was everything to him. He was willing to die if it meant that she could live. She didn't say anything to him, but Hiashi knew that those words helped, at the very least, loosen the lock around her heart.

She got to Naruto and Sasuke quickly as everyone distracted the clones and the Ten-Tails towards one of the opening created by the First. She explained the plan to them. They exchanged looks and started the seals to create their jutsus with Gamikichi and Aoda. Yuki then placed her hands on their shoulders and then brought them all right away to the monster's blind spot. The worries Yuki had with regards to Sasuke's ability to work with his former teammates were solved as they mixed their jutsus together perfectly. The Ten-Tails collapsed from the impact. The clones melted away. It felt like they had done it this time.

"Alright! Time to bring back the other Tailed Beasts!" Naruto said happily as he got closer to the Ten-Tails body. "Kurama, let's do it!"

Sasuke stopped him on his path: "No. Let them burn."

Yuki looked at Sasuke as their eyes met: "I should have known."

"I said I was going to change things." Sasuke replied to her telepathically.

"I should have known that your murderous dispositions hadn't gone away. Sasuke… what is it that you are truly seeking?"

"I want to change the village from what we have known. For that, we need a clean slate."

End of Chapter 76

Thank you for reading another chapter.

Looking forward to hearing some feedbacks from everyone.

xox

Krystal