A/N: Well, I'm STILL sick, but writing passes the time, so here we are. To address some of the responses I got to last chapter's AN:

Just because Gaara won't be redeemed doesn't mean that he can't have a function outside of being a moral lesson for Naruto. There's more to story telling than cautionary tales and life lessons.

Jiraiya will not be in this fic, because there's no actual use for him in this version of events, much less so late in the game. He was more or less a plot device to cover for Naruto's lack of development as a person and Kakashi's neglect as a teacher in canon, and in this fic, Naruto is at a far different point of maturity, and Kakashi does his job. At that point, Jiraiya does not need to be there, and I will not be wasting my time writing him.

"Not touching Shippuden" means that I will not be writing beyond the Valley of the End by more than two, *maybe* three chapters. This fic will have an epilogue, in which events from the years in between will be lightly explained, but they will not mirror canon.

All of that aside, this chapter will wrap up the fighting for the invasion. I hope you all enjoy it :)

Time for chapter 52

Enjoy!


Naruto's vision faded back into focus with a jolt. He had been knocked out, and he was laying flat on his stomach. Pushing himself up with his arms, the blonde looked around the general area. What he saw was shocking. Satsuki and Haku were both on the ground as he had been, though the huntress was up on her knees. They were inside the lip of an enormous cater, roughly one hundred feet in diameter, and at least thirty feet deep at its pit. Red electricity was crackling across the floor of the hole that had been blown in the ground, and Naruto could feel the hostile chakra loaded into the air.

His entire body was sore. He felt like he had been crushed under a building. As he managed to join Haku on his knees, the memories flooded back in. Gaara had detonated a massive chakra bomb of sorts, and logic dictated that the damage before them was the result. Taking a closer look at Satsuki, who was the only member of the trio to have not risen, Naruto was relieved to find that she appeared to be breathing. Finding that standing was strenuous, the Jinchuuriki crawled over to his fallen teammate and checked her pulse. It was faint, but it was present. She was alive, and fairly stable.

Naruto then looked to Haku, who, upon further inspection, was nursing a horrific injury. A branch from one of the nearby trees had been blown free by the explosion, and it had skewered her right through her left shoulder. She had made no attempts to remove it, from what he could see.

"Are you alright?" he asked nervously. It was a foolish question, but it was all he could think to say. The huntress' gray flak jacket had been lost in the shockwave, leaving her with only her tattered black bodysuit.

"I've been better, but…" she started in a strained voice, her eyes fixed down in the depths of the crater.

"...I'm not what you should be worrying about. This isn't over yet." she said. Taking the verbal cue, Naruto looked down the slope they were roughly settled on. Down on one knee, with his left arm of jagged sand cracked and crumbling, was Gaara. He was situated at the lowest valley of the pit. He had been caught in his own blast from the looks of things, and he was worse for wear.

"Him surviving that makes some sense, but…how are we alive?" Naruto asked, speaking more to himself than Haku. The Anbu girl spat red saliva out of her mouth.

"I made a barrier at the last second. As dense as I could manage. It didn't save us from injury, but it held up enough to keep us alive." she explained. It certainly contextualized the odd sprinkle of ice crystals in the soaked dirt.

"Thanks for that." Naruto muttered. Gaara had risen up to his feet again. He hardly looked happy, but he was very much healthy enough to fight.

"His strength's dropped off by about half. He used a big chunk of what he had left." Haku reported. She then pursed her lips.

"Do you have anything up your sleeve? Because making that ice wall used up the last of my chakra." she asked. Naruto kept his eyes fixed on Gaara, who was now beginning to ascend the slope toward them.

"Yeah, I've got something, but it takes me time to charge, and I doubt I can use it more than once right now." he said. Haku nodded and labored up to her feet.

"How long do you need?" she replied. The genin thought for a moment. If he had been fresh, the delay would have been fairly minimal, but even with the food pill in his system, he was tired. There was also the matter of control.

"One minute." he said. It was a generous estimate, but it was likely close enough to the truth. Haku responded by taking hold of the branch in her shoulder and ripping it out. Its end was sharp and slicked with her blood. She then gripped the same shoulder and shoved it back, producing an unpleasant cracking sound.

"I'll buy you time. Get to it." she said, walking down to meet Gaara, brandishing the sharp branch as a weapon. Naruto watched her with unease for a moment, but quickly did as he was told. Turning his right palm up, he focused his chakra. Slowly but surely, blue energy began to swirl just above his hand. His mastery of the technique was far from perfect, but he had pulled it off more than once.

"C'mon, work with me…" he grunted, forming the chakra into the outline of a sphere. He then applied a spinning motion to the energy within. As he formed the jutsu, he was shaken from his focus by the sound of Gaara and Haku beginning to fight. A quick glance down revealed a dire scene. Only twenty seconds had passed, and the Anbu appeared to be struggling badly already.

"Ignore it." he coached himself, forming a shell around the spiraling chakra. Another ten seconds passed. Thirty in total. The process was coming along well enough, but it felt too slow. He had a deadline to meet. Another ten seconds. Sounds of a beating down below. His nerve was slipping. All that was left was to stabilize the core of chakra and let it settle. He needed to remain calm. It was essential.

"Not now. Don't lose it now." he hissed to himself. Only ten seconds remained. He was nearly done, but he was hitting a wall. He had the chakra to complete the formation, but squeezing it out was proving difficult, and conjuring the fox's chakra would take more time than he had to work with. As the struggle was on the verge of bleeding on too long, Naruto felt a weak grip on his thigh. A small rush of chakra then coursed through his body. Looking down, he saw that Satsuki had regained consciousness. Her face was entirely overtaken with the black markings, but her eyes held strength.

"End it." she mouthed, her hand slipping off of his leg and dropping to the ground as she blacked out for a second time. She had given him the last of her chakra. With his face taking on a determined scowl, Naruto stood up fully and applied the energy she had donated to the spinning sphere. The final push ensured the jutsu's function, and set it into a self-sustaining motion. It also took on a unique characteristic compared to the previous occasions Naruto had utilized the technique, in that small strands of electricity crackled from its shell.

Though his initial steps were slow, the genin rapidly broke out into a sprint down the slope. Gaara had knocked Haku down violently, and he was now pinning her with his foot the same way he had done to Naruto himself. His left arm was in the shape of a cracked spike.

"Gaara!" Naruto called, drawing his fellow Jinchuuriki's attention. The redhead turned to face him, his eyes widening slightly as he processed what was blazing toward him. Seeming to realize that he was in no condition to meet such force head-on, Gaara attempted to retreat to the side, but before he could take two full steps, Haku grabbed him by the ankle.

Seconds later, Naruto was upon him. Gaara attempted to intercept him with the point of his spiked arm, but the leaf genin knocked it aside with his free arm and stepped into him. He then slammed the spinning sphere of chakra into his chest.

"Rasengan!" he yelled out, his eyes shifting from blue to red and back again. The spinning orb bored its way into Gaara's chest, eventually bursting into a blast of charged wind and sending Suna's Jinchuuriki flying back down into the pit of the crater. Now standing inert next to the battered Anbu girl, Naruto lowered his outstretched hand back down to his waist, breathing heavily all the while.

For several moments, he stared down at Gaara's fallen form in silence as the rain continued to pour. A glance at Haku revealed that she had finally lost consciousness. He was the last man standing, so to speak. When he had fully filtered all that had happened so very quickly, Naruto began a gradual trek down into the crater. As he drew closer to him, it became clear that, once again, Gaara had survived. His body was twitching, and he was certainly in horrid shape, but he had not died.

Reaching him inside the same minute, the blonde stood over his fallen foe, whose eyes were still open. The Suna boy's chest was sporting a grotesque wound, and he was losing profuse amounts of blood. The sand had melted away from his left arm and shoulder, revealing what appeared to be a scar.

"You copied me. Clever bastard." Gaara rasped, choking up blood as he spoke. Images of the woman he had slaughtered flashed through Naruto's mind. He had felled a beast. Reaching into the remnants of his pouch, the blonde produced a kunai. Gaara sighed.

"I'm not a fan of dying, but there are…worse ways to go." he conceded. His tone was coaxing. He was pushing Naruto toward the edge. The blonde reared his hand back, preparing to stab the crippled Jinchuuriki in the throat and end his life. Halfway through, he stopped. Something deep within him was holding him back.

"Go on. Do it. You know it's what you want." Gaara encouraged him. Shaking slightly, Naruto fought within himself. His conscience won out. Throwing the kunai aside, he stepped back away from the redhead.

"Even if it is, I'm not like you." he said firmly. Gaara smirked, propping himself up on his elbows with difficulty.

"Sure you are. Give it some time." he said. The blonde's hands curled up, and he slammed his fist into Gaara's head, knocking him out cold. Standing up straight again, Naruto turned his back on Gaara and began walking back up the slope. A quarter of the way up, the adrenaline wore off, and at half, his legs gave out and he fell forward.

Within moments, he joined Haku, Satsuki, and Gaara in the darkness of sleep.


It had been years.

If he'd had things his way, Kakashi never would have resorted to it at all. It was the furthest thing from his first choice. His absolute last, if anything. Its acquisition had cost him the final shred of what little innocence he'd kept, and it hadn't been by choice. But, now was not the time to rule out solutions for the sake of personal peace. His village was at stake. The situation was bigger than he was. Pushing down the pain barging into his psyche, Kakashi leapt as high into the air as he could without touching the ceiling of the barrier.

"Now, Guy!" he yelled from up above. His comrade immediately flew into action, knocking Tobirama toward Hashirama, whose eyes were fixed on Kakashi's airborne form. With timing honed by thousands of assignments and just as many close calls, the Copy Ninja's left eye flew open to reveal a spiral pattern in place of its usual tomoe.

"Kamui!" he cried, straining his evolved sharingan with all his might. At the focal point of his vision, right between the two undead Kage, a spinning vortex appeared. In an instant, the reanimated shinobi were pulled toward it. As they resisted, Kakashi pushed his left eye closer and closer to its limit. If the tactic were to fail, all was lost. With one last push, the silver-haired ninja managed to fully engulf both Hashirama and Tobirama in the vortex, rending from the dimension entirely.

The moment the task was done, Kakashi felt a massive spike of pain erupt in his head, and he dropped into a freefall. Guy rushed to his aide on the rooftop, catching him just before he could faceplant on the unforgiving dry wood.

"Good going, Kakashi. We'll take it from here." he said, setting his friend down on his back. The Copy Ninja was too spent to even nod. He was forced to watch what came next from an awkward downward angle as he lay flat. Guy quickly ran to join Hiruzen, who was facing down an openly shocked Orochimaru, and once at his side, he stood at the ready. Kakashi's hearing was far too muffled by exhaustion and pain to clearly determine what words were exchanged over the following few moments, but the general dynamic was clear.

Powerful though he was, the Snake Sanin clearly had enough sense to recognize the dire straits he now found himself within. Hiruzen had been fighting him to a stalemate all by his lonesome, and with Guy's far from unnoteworthy strength added to the cause, his chances of victory were slim at best, and nonexistent at worst. In line with this logic, the pale man made a signal to the four unknown figures just beyond the barrier. A moment later, the red walls of chakra dissipated, leaving the rooftop exposed to the storming rain. Orochimaru then threw down a smoke bomb, and when it cleared away, he was gone. Hiruzen shut down a preliminary effort to give chase by Guy.

'Could have gone better, but we're all alive.' Kakashi thought to himself. The Hokage and jumpsuit-wearing Jonin were at his side seconds later, with both kneeling down.

"I can't say I'd have picked the method myself, but you gave us the means to checkmate him. You'll be compensated for this, Kakashi." the elderly leader said, laying a hand on the younger man's chest to check his vital signs. The Copy Ninja attempted to sit up, but barely made it up an inch.

"I'm probably gonna be useless for a few weeks. Maybe a month." he said stiffly. Though the tedious amount of bedrest he would be forced to partake in soon certainly occupied a reasonable chunk of his headspace, something else dominated Kakashi's thoughts.

"Satsuki and Naruto. They were both fighting the Kazekage's son. I felt them. We need to–" he started, a slight panic working into his voice. Before he could finish, his voice gave out momentarily. Invoking his greatest power had rendered him bone dry. Hiruzen stood up .

"I'm aware. I had a hunch that Naruto would be that boy's fixation, so I had help arranged ahead of time. I'll go and collect them." he said. He then looked to Guy.

"Take him to a medic. I'll take care of the rest." he ordered. The flamboyant Jonin responded with a thumbs-up before slinging Kakashi over his shoulder. The Hokage leapt to the next rooftop a beat later, leaving the comrades alone.

"Rest easy. Your kids are going to be fine. They're a tough bunch." Guy assured the Copy Ninja. Kakashi coughed raggedly, unable to respond with words. He was then carried off, with his fellow Jonin bounding from building to building in the direction of the Arena. Just before his world went black, a single thought burned into his brain.

'You three…had better be alright.'


Hiruzen's eyes widened as he came upon the sight of what he could only assume had been a violent, drawn-out struggle. There was an artificial path carved into the forest, with trees ripped out of the ground and strewn about. The foliage had been violated and disheveled, with a dull dirt coating over what had once been a lush forest floor. Distressing as these details were, it was what lay at the end of the lengthy clearing that brought a feeling of genuine unease to the old man's gut.

A massive crater, wide and deep, had been blown into the ground, and Hiruzen could feel the residual chakra crackling in the air as he approached it. Simple common sense suggested that the crushing blast he had heard and felt minutes earlier had caused the abrasion. Walking up to the crater's edge, the Hokage peered down into its depths. What he saw was both greatly heartening and concerning. Even from the great distance he occupied, he could clearly make out the forms of Naruto Uzumaki, Satsuki Uchiha, and Haku Yuki, alongside Gaara, who was laying at the very bottom.

From a positive perspective, none of them had been vaporized or blown into chunks, but on the negative side, none of them were moving. Leaping down onto the slope, Hiruzen landed roughly in the middle of his three Ninja. First attending to Naruto, the Hokage flipped him over from his stomach. He was still breathing, and his heartbeat was steady, but he was bleeding from the mouth, and his body was burning hot to the touch. Next, he moved on to Satsuki, whose prognosis was far more worrying.

Like her teammate, she was breathing and maintaining a steady pulse, but unlike him, her skin was ice cold, and her body was absolutely overrun by the mark on her neck. Making a mental note of each symptom, Hiruzen jogged over to Haku. Her injuries were easily the most outwardly unpleasant. She was sporting a painful-looking hole in her left shoulder, and she was covered in bruises.

'Even with all three of you combined, you very nearly met your ends. What a mess.' the Hokage thought to himself grimly. His eyes then shifted down-slope, resting on Gaara. The Suna boy looked nearly dead. His chest was ripped open, and the dirt around him was shaded red from his blood. Despite his ghastly appearance, Hiruzen could still feel a bare trace of life within him. Slowly approaching the fallen boy, the Hokage stopped ten free from him. Even as a near-corpse, the redhead absolutely oozed a repulsive bloodlust.

"How dare you defile my forest, brat." Hiruzen growled. Having expected no response, the Hokage was made to flinch when he received one.

"So emotional. It's just a cluster of trees. They'll grow back." came the voice of something utterly inhuman. Hiruzen's heart began to race. He had not been aware until that very moment, but upon hearing its voice, the Hokage knew all too well who and what had addressed him.

"So, they chose the Kazekage's son. I'd call them cruel, but I'd rather not be a hypocrite." the old man said as evenly as he could. The ancient voice chuckled without a trace of mirth.

"It was his fate the moment he was born. Premature and small. Unwanted by all but a mother doomed to die. I was his only path to relevance, and his father knew it." the beast recounted. Hiruzen felt his skin crawl.

"Though, I must say, he took to me like a fish to water. I'd like to say that I changed him, but I've always suspected he was born disturbed." the demon added. Hiruzen spat in the direction of Gaara's body.

"Shukaku, Tanuki of the Desert. Also known as Shukaku the Mad. I think I know which theory holds its water." he snapped back at the ancient being. Another dark laugh.

"You're entitled to believe whatever you like. Regardless, I'm so impressed by the efforts of your underlings that I'll grant you a boon." Shukaku said vaguely. As the Hokage began to question him, one of Gaara's hands rose up, a marionette on the demon's strings. Crackling and popping, the hand pointed up the slope. Following the line being drawn for him, Hiruzen found himself looking at Satsuki.

"What of her, wretch?" he asked with venom. Shukaku let Gaara's hand drop back down to the ground.

"A great darkness is brewing within her. Of her own design, I cannot say. What's more, the vessel's commitment and loyalty are strong. He may be sucked into her storm." the demon said ominously. Hiruzen suppressed the very real shudder that ran across his spine. The words were pointed and concise, and they articulated a fear the elderly leader had harbored for some time. As silence took its grip on the crater, Shukaku's presence faded away, leaving only his broken host.

Breathing deep to calm himself down, Hiruzen shook his head and stepped toward Gaara again. His advance was interrupted by a puff of smoke just in front of the boy. Another man had appeared. He was wearing the Jonin flak jacket of Suna, with half of his face covered by a cloth. The Hokage recognized him to be Baki, leader of Gaara's cell. At first, the two men stared at one another without a word.

"Please. I've already lost one. I can't lose another." Baki said after a time, the exposed side of his face bearing visible grief. The Hokage briefly weighed his options. He was far from fresh, but he was more than capable of killing both the Jonin and his fallen student in practically no time at all. In some ways, eliminating Gaara entirely would be an excellent piece of risk-management. The boy was clearly unstable, and incredibly powerful. A dangerous combination of traits to be sure. Yet, as attractive as the option felt from a logical viewpoint, Hiruzen could not fully silence his empathy.

"I'll give you ten seconds." he said sternly. Baki made the only smart choice, and scooped Gaara up as briskly as he could without injuring him further. Right as his grace period expired, the Suna Jonin vanished again with the Jinchuuriki in tow. Sighing heavily once alone again, the old man turned toward his unconscious Ninja on the slope.

"I've grown soft." he muttered, trudging up the incline and putting Naruto over his shoulder without having to stop. When he reached Satsuki, he stacked her on top of him, and then slung Haku over his free shoulder. He could hear the rumbling of feet off in the distance, and he could feel the density of chakra in Konoha decreasing. Suna was retreating, at long last. They had staved off the threat. Glancing at the unconscious teenagers he was carrying, the Hokage allowed a cautious smile.

'You all performed marvelously.'


Gaara's eyes slowly dragged open as the bumpy rhythm shook him from his slumber. Night had come, as evidenced by the darkness of the sky. Wherever he was, the rain had ceased, and he was dry. He was in absolutely crippling pain. His chest specifically felt like it was on fire, and every bone in his abdomen felt like it had been crushed. It was quite fortunate that he had developed a near-endless tolerance for physical pain over the years, or he certainly would have cried. The anguish was great enough to warrant the tears.

With his senses returning to him fully, the Jinchuuriki looked around, carefully moving his neck so as not to disturb his wounds. He was being carried, and at all sides of him were Jonin. They were running at full speed, ripping across a grassy plain. With another look on ahead, he saw the familiar dunes of the desert waiting to embrace him. No effort was required to uncover the memories of what had all occurred. He had been beaten. Soundly and fairly.

It was a first, in many ways. Gaara had certainly been battered by his father before, but outside of the neglectful man from whom he derived his features, the redhead had never been undone. There hadn't even been a close call. He had long wondered what such an experience would feel like. The emotions it would elicit. He had expected to be angry. To be frustrated with his failure. But he felt no rage or shame. If anything, he felt a sense of relief.

He had grown bored of dominance years ago. To be unchallenged had its perks, especially from the angle of reputation, but it was deeply uninteresting. To be pushed, to actually feel his own mortality, it had brought him a sense of purpose lost on him before that day. It undeniably helped that the effort required to bring him down had been truly herculean. Three separate Shinobi, all of whom had been powerful in their own right, one after another. He had beaten all three of them head-to-head, but their combined might had overwhelmed him in the end. His ego remained undamaged. He was satisfied.

Turning his gaze upward, Gaara was met by the unsettled face of his Jonin leader, Baki. The man had never been one to wear a smile, but even by his sullen standards, he looked unusually depressed. Reviewing what little context he had at his disposal, Gaara came to a realization.

"Where are my brother and sister?" he asked, discovering that his voice was little more than a weak whisper. Baki's pale lips pulled into a tight line.

"Kankuro is further back. He's in critical condition, but he should survive." he reported professionally. For all of his stoic fronting, the Jonin's tone sounded brittle. Gaara furrowed his brow.

"And Temari?" he pressed. For the briefest of moments, the Jinchuuriki could have sworn that he saw his teacher's bottom lip quiver the slightest bit.

"Killed in the line of duty. I'm…sorry, Gaara." he replied, an uncharacteristic break in his voice. The news froze the redhead momentarily. It was a shock, in more ways than one. Temari was far from weak. Despite her low rank, she was easily a step above many chunin. She could handle herself, even in active warfare. Beyond that, as with both himself and Kankuro, she was assigned a security detail at all times in situations of great peril.

"How did she die?" Gaara asked calmly. Baki took a moment to collect himself, clearly not wishing to break down at such a time.

"She broke off from her platoon, and struck out on her own. She was crushed to death by falling rubble." he explained. The Jinchuuriki processed the information slowly. One single detail remained unknown to him.

"Was it an accident? Or was she murdered?" he inquired. The Jonin audibly swallowed a lump in his throat.

"According to what little Kankuro managed to say, she was killed by the boy she faced during her match." he said. The face of Shikamaru Nara flashed across Gaara's mind. The mellow genin had been a pain from the very start, but he had never expected him to strike so viciously. He had not seemed capable of such a thing. Pushing down the jumbled combination of anger and begrudging respect rising up within him, Gaara chose instead to focus on what he had lost.

He had never been one for familial bonding. His siblings had scarcely been much more than convenient conversationalists to the redhead. He knew them, and they knew him. That had been the extent of their relationship, or so things had seemed. But as he delved deeper into his memories, and brought forth a more honest emotional slate, Gaara found a single image recurring time and again.

The smile of his sister.

It was not a pretty thing. It was wide, crooked, and toothy, but it was distinctly Temari's. With each memory he combed through, the more consistent the emerging pattern became. He had forgotten many of the times he and his siblings had shared for lack of caring, but what he did recall nearly always featured that same grin. As far back as he could remember, Temari had been there, offering her own form of support. What it meant to him, Gaara could not fully discern.

In an extremely rare gesture of softer emotion, the Jinchuuriki looked toward the starry sky his sister had always loved to stare at on clear nights.

'Rest easy, Temari.'


A/N: So, yeah. The invasion has wrapped up. I'm honestly quite proud of myself. I managed to do the whole damn thing in seven chapters. Maybe it felt a little rushed as a result? Either way, my main goal was to not let it drag on and bore you guys.

My decision to have Kakashi whip out Kamui might be a little controversial, but I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility in a desperate situation.

The final arc is now on the horizon, but before it starts in earnest, you'll be getting a *lot* of character stuff for a while. Not as long a stint as the month of training, but even more significant.

Leave me a review if you're able. Makes my days to read them :)

I love you all

Read and Review!