This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Naruto series, which is trademarked by Masashi Kishimoto. Everything aside from the original characters are created from the wonderful mind of Kishimoto.
Most of the following unrecognizable are original characters of mine.
Comments, suggestions, criticisms, even just simple messages are welcomes, please feel free to message me anytime.
Thanks for reading!
Chapter 32 :
The screams and wails around her flooded her senses, her vision was beginning to turn black and she'll end up passing out if she didn't control her breathing and calm herself.
Soichiro
"Kaede, Kaede, KAEDE!"
"Kaede" amidst the yelling and the panicking, amidst her darkening vision and the mist, Kakashi's voice stood out to her like a clear high pitched bell in a calm summer afternoon.
"I won't ask you to fight if you can't you don't have to force yourself, but the people here, our comrades, they need your help, doing the best that you always do..saving lives" Kaede a sudden clarity presented itself to Kaede, this wasn't like the previous war, this war was different, this war was not formed because of the aggression towards something they hated. No, this war was to protect everything they love, and hold dear. Shinobi who once hated each other coming together as one to protect each other.
This is different…
And she too is no longer the same Kaede before.
"Thank you Kakashi" Kaede muttered and unleashed her threads, healing those who were injured by wrapping her threads around them.
"Stay on your feet, your ninjas for crying out loud, rely on your senses" Kaede nagged her comrades.
"Well, Kaede sure seems energetic today, must be the spring time of my youth influencing her" Guy raised a thump at Kakashi who only sweat dropped and smiled.
But the sound of several things popping from a ground, like a casket caught everyone's attention and even in the thick mist, they were able to see their opponents, the former yet still feared seven swordsmen of Kiri.
And as if their very presence wasn't fear inducing enough, the white haired one opened a scroll releasing each swordsman's weapon of expertise.
"Damn it where does Kabuto find the time to collect all these things?" Kaede grumbled.
"Let's buy some time for Ensui and Maki, everybody attack" Kakashi ordered his company, this includes Kaede who smiled and winked back at him mouthing thank you before joining the rest of the company to battle.
"Kaede" Kakashi muttered as Kaede and her threads as everybodies' tentacle like shield giving them the advantage of focusing only on the attacks, but even so it proved not enough against these dreadful warriors.
"Don't waver!" Kaede advanced towards the enemy together with Guy, to buy Kakashi and the others to seal Zabuza first, so the bloody mist can disappear.
Kaede was going heel to heel with Pakura when she heard Chidori, or better yet the sound of Chidori dispersing, but the mist not settling down, and as she dodged Pakura's deadly scorge technique, Kaede remembered something in one of Kakashi's stories.
"We met a rogue ice user, young and promising, who chose to live as his master's tool and die as his master's shield" Kakashi told her after she finished examining his team's body after the gruelling mission.
Kaede, barely dodged Pakura's hands before grabbing a exploding tag and attaching it to her enemy's body, simultaneously pushing her with a collected amount of chakra on her hands properling Pakura several feet away, crushing trees in her way, before exploding.
Haku, like years before kept his arm in his body, giving Zabuza the opportunity for his deathly strike, but before the tip of the sword can make contact, a blur of yellow appeared in between them.
"Not in my lifetime" followed by a loud crash, that forced everybody backwards.
"Fuin: Disabling Bind of Threads" and as the mist settled down with the defeat of it's caster, Kaede stood before a Zabuza, slowly being wrapped around in threads, thin yet strong.
It was a small victory, that came at a great cost, yet all the more did they want to end this as quickly as possible.
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"Damn it, there's just no end to them" Natsume wiped the sweat off of her brow, the ones she extinguished with her flames were already impressive, but still more and more arose to torment them. They took advantage of having the strength in the numbers, and pretty soon, they would also have the advantage of deceit in their hands.
Natsume saw Neji being trapped within Zetsu's claw like body, and immediately grabbed it by the neck and burning him into ashes.
"Don't let them touch you and absorb your chakra, this guys can copy your persona down to the chakra signature so be careful" Natsume helped Neji to his feet.
"You didn't have to, but thank you" Neji said taking her hand, and though he was already on his feet, their locked hands and shared gazes lingered more than it should have.
"Oi, would you two knock it off, now is not the time to be ogling each other!" Kiba scolded at them rushing past them with his fang technique.
"I WASN'T OGLING NEJI!" Natsume ran after Kiba, sending flames that barely missed him to hit the Zetsus
"Hey!" the two hotheads bickered, and Neji watched them for a while before a smile formed on his lips, not seeing an incoming Zetsu despite his invincible 360 vision. Thankfully his cousin was quick to act on his behalf.
"Quite a handful isn't she?" Hinata stood behind Neji covering his back, and at the moment both of them thought how both of them were attracted to people who are both boisterous and exuberant, and for a moment they pondered if the attraction ran in the timid Hyuga bloodline.
"Several thousands have passed right under us"
"Inform HQ immediately"
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"We jave just received a word from Gaara's Fourth Company, four enemies have been spotted, they are the second Mizukage, the second tsuchikage, the fourth kazekage...and the third raikage" the intel personnel from sunagakure hesitated before finishing his report knowing the appearance of a reason father was touchy for the rash man.
"What, even my Oyaj? Damn that Akatsuki?"! ``Needless to say nobody was shocked by his reaction.
"Even so, the numbers don't match up with the sensory unit's reports" Tsunade brought up.
"Tsunade-hime, it is the second tsuchikage that has appeared, no wonder we can only detect three, the reason being that sensory detection is futile against Lord Mu," Ohnoki explained his one of his former master's capabilities in evading the entire sensory unit.
After that one of the sensory unit's personnel revealed that they were having difficulty detecting the white zetsus apart from the reanimated people and that several thousands were on their way to Darui's company.
"They have the strength in numbers, but why are they trying to focus their strength in quantity on the first division" Kazumi inquired, standing next to Itachi, who frowned, deep in his thought. It wasn't a rookie decision, the people on the opposition were geniuses when it comes to fighting, some would say they were war savvy, every moment had to be of their intent.
Just then Ao detected another foe approaching Darui's company, and with already thousands of white zetsus at their doorstep, numerous reanimated personalities arrived, and they were all powerful, two of them were even gifted with the chakra of the kyuubi.
Itachi looked over to Shikaku who was already coming up with a plan, if he knew someone that could tip the enemies' nerve wracking war plan, it would be Shikaku.
And disappoint he did not, even when the kages themselves were having trouble sitting still at the face of the enemy, he was able to put forward a counter strategy that was sure to ruin the enemies' purpose, a strategy that none of the kages contradicted.
Well of course, except for Ohnoki, who pointed out the battle variance between hundreds of shinobi against a person who can harness kekkei tota, and decided to even the odds himself by joining Gaara and his regimen.
However, no matter how impressed the plan may seem, three Itachi, Yoko and Kazumi all looked to one another.
"If I may input my own thoughts, sealing the reanimated people will be futile if we don't find the caster of the edo tensei" Kazumi voiced out.
"I agree, but pursuing that endeavor right now will be futile, we don't know half of what is happening, or if killing the caster would indeed break the edo tensei, there is too much left in the dark to pursue that" Tsunade reasoned.
"Unless of course we had someone who can confront an enemy and make him do exactly as we need without the risk of being tricked" Yoko suggested, it didn't take a second for Shikaku to realize what Yoko had been hinting at.
"She's right, Itachi would be capable of putting Kabuto into a genjutsu and dispel the edo tensei, plus it would not be something the akatsuki would expect to happen" Shikaku suggested to the kages that remained in the head quarters.
A looked to Tsunade then to Itachi, assessing the Uchiha, whose brother tried to kidnap and almost had his brother killed.
"Hokage, what do you think of this?" A asked the advice his Fire Country counterpart.
"Uchiha Itachi was ordered by the former hokage to infiltrate and spy within the akatsuki, I don't know if there is anyone more loyal to this cause than he is" Tsunade answered without hesitation making Itachi's hearts swell, touched by the hokage's words and the amount of trust she placed in him. The raikage rubbed his chin for a moment, he had heard of Itachi several times from Misaki, he was her very first teacher, before she even entered the academy, and from Natsume who told her everything behind Itachi as they returned from the kage conference.
"I trust your judgement, but if you betray the alliance, I will not hesitate to cut you down" A stood up making the order official, just as he did, Itachi bowed to the ground on one knee just as he did during his Anbu days.
"Kazumi, make sure he doesn't stray" Tsunade ordered the young medic who bowed in obedience too.
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Kazuhiko stood beside Darui on the shores as the waves slowly revealed their enemy.
"Here they come" Darui remarked as more and more Zetsus appeared and in their midst the selected powerful reanimated.
"Attacking from the tale of the regimen huh, what and old school tactic" Kazuhiko sighed, his hands on hs pockets.
"Hey, I heard that these white things are weak against lightning style, care to test the theory?" Kazuhiko smirked.
"It's a drab, but I'll show you just who it is whose guarding this side" Darui shrugged and launched an attack so everyone can find an opening.
It was perfect too, since it was very lovely of them to put themselves in the water, for the others that got away from Darui's attack and jumped above the rest that suffered, Kazuhiko already had his plans.
"Showing off is not really my style, but I do have someone to impress amongst the ranks" Kazuhiko scratched his the back of his head, sneaking a quick look at TenTen before forming a couple of hand signs.
"Katon: Unforgiving Flames" Kazuhiko punched his right hand in the air and from it burst forth a geyser of flames that burned several zetsus into ashes upon contact.
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It's been a while since Gaara relayed the identity of their enemies, and still, he hasn't said a word, much less move from his spot. Ayako stood patiently by Temari and Shikamaru, knowing to believe in Gaara and his abilities, but still Ayako couldn't shake the worry from her senses, Raza was still a sore subject in their home and they didn't exactly have the best of parting, Orochimaru robbed them of that opportunity, yet in it's twisted way, this war could possibly make up for that loss…
Or not.
"What's wrong?" Temari asked Ayako, to Temari, Ayako was already a little sister and someone she looked out for just as much as she did for Gaara.
"I'm worried about Gaara" Ayako sighed looking up on Gaara's post, and all though she couldn't visually see him she knew where exactly he stood on his perch.
"Stop, worrying, we both know Gaara is better than that, you and Naruto already made sure of that" Temari elbowed Ayako with a smile. Nodding her head Ayako disappeared into a gust of wind and petals.
Gaara stood unmoving from his watch into the slowly approaching foe in the horizon, they were taking their time in moving all the more creating anxiety from their group. Petals appeared in his hindsight and before he knew it, Ayako stood next to him.
No words, were exchanged, not that a lot had been exchanged between the two of them in their lifetime, but in that very moment, Ayako felt like she needed to voice what she was feeling, not just for Gaara, but for her sake.
"I'm here Gaara, no matter what happens today, not matter where your decisions, will lay, I will always be here by your side, it didn't change then, it will not change today and it will never change" Ayako professed, beside Gaara, her own words comforting her anxiousness, like she herself needed assurance for her own resolve.
Gaara's was not a man of many words, but he has never found himself in a place where he is unable to conjure something to say, except now, so he did what he always did, he expressed his feelings in gesture and action, reaching out and holding Ayako's hand tight in his grip.
And frankly, that was all Ayako needed.
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Kakuzu began collecting his heart in order to fill up his unit of monsters of different nature types.
"I was hoping to get to you, before you could do that, but hey, I guess that's part of your charm" Kazuhiko said removing the bandages on her arm.
"Your that Sarutobi brat" Kazuku said placing the heart of the fallen shinobi in his own chest.
"Damn that never fails to disgust me" Kazuhiko smirked, finally removing the bandages on his banged up hand.
"Come to think of it, we didn't really get to fight before, did we?" Kazuhiko ran towards Kakuzu avoiding the black mass monsters on his way.
"Katon: Unforgiving Flames" Kazuhiko once again released his strong flames, but this time, he got back to making hand signs, this time for another technique.
"Futon: Bladed Twister" Kazuhiko followed up, causing the wind twister to absorb the flames, and their enemies, burning the black masses in a turbulent twist of blades and dizziness.
"What a futile effort" Kakuzu remarked, but was quickly put in his place to find that Kazuhiko used two flashy well coordinated attacks as a disguise to perform a small targeted attack, wrapping his wind chakra infused kusarigama around him and the black monsters, that strangled them to combustion.
"You were pretty flashy yourself, galavanting your nature techniques, I knew without all five I wouldn't be able to keep up with you, especially since you now run on unlimited juice" Kazuhiko took out a kunai swinging it in his hands, wrapping his wind nature on the kunai, throwing it to land on Kakuzu's chest where the last heart lay.
"I underestimated you brat" Kakuzu said as the sealing team wrapped him one last time.
"I was once like you, you know, I thought being older made you superior, but a friend of mine taught me to never underestimate your opponents no matter how small they are, you never know, because it's usually the little things that blind you, well in her case it's both literally and figuratively" Kazuhiko robbed his head.
"Good bye, I hope we never see each other again" Kazuhiko said one last time before the seal completely shut.
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Naruto ate away Iruka's hidden letter while he rushed farther and farther away from his retainers, and towards the direction of the war, when he very narrowly dodged a flash of sliver between his eyes, making him land on the ground prematurely, there stood on the ground next to her katana, Misaki looked at Naruto with an expressionless face.
"What do you think you're doing?" Misaki asked her twin who was standing before her, face with complete disbelief.
"Misaki" Naruto gritted his teeth as Misaki pulled her katana from the ground, and sheathing it back in its place, but Naruto knew this was no sign of surrender, this only meant that she wanted to stop him without hurting him, fatally that is.
Naruto was not an idiot, he knew just how fast Misaki was, and if he wanted to have a chance at getting past he was going to have to resort to extreme measures. So reaching out from deep within him, he activated the kyuubi's chakra to give him the advantage, but across him, Misaki did not faze, if anything a smile formed upon Misaki's lips. Naruto collected as much force on the soles of his feet, creating as much strengths as he can to springboard himself in order to increase his speed then launched himself into the air.
He couldn't believe the speed he was going, but when he turned behind his back to check on Misaki, the red head was already gone from her previous position, he turned and in that millisecond he saw a flash of red before he was sent skidding on the ground.
When Naruto was able to grasp what just had happened he stood to find himself in the same stance on the very same spot he was just at, Misaki still standing on the very same spot, as she did moments ago.
"Is this...genjutsu?" confused, Naruto looked around him to find Akihiko balancing himself on a small boulder, sitting leisurely.
"Don't look at me, I only changed the scenery, I have no power whatsoever on what is going on right now" Akihiko raised both hands in a surrendering fashion.
Naruto's fists clenched tighter and once again, tried to rush past Misaki…
...again...
...and again…
...and again...
Each time trying to push farther and farther, beating himself harder in the process.
"You know, you'll never get anywhere trying to challenge Misaki with speed" Killer Bee said, finally catching up to join Naruto in his escape.
"You're never gonna get past her/ you can compete harder/ she'll only get faster/ try equals disaster/ you will end up beaten/ she will have you eaten" Killer Bee explained in his own
"Damn," Naruto gritted his teeth, pounding his fist unto the ground.
"But don't you think it means something?" Akihiko intervened from his spot.
"I mean, you've tried to rush past her over and over again, if she really wanted to stop you she had countless possible means of doing so, why'd you think she is allowing you as many chance as you can get to rush past her," Akihiko explained.
Naruto looked towards Misaki who was looking intently at him.
"Our father, our parents place their faith in you, in us, to harness the kyuubi's power and protect the world from the masked man on the day of our birth, and I believe in their faith, so show me the results of your training" Misaki told Naruto, simultaneously as Akihiko stood next to Misaki and released his genjutsu field revealing layers and layers of barricades, the final one being Misaki's stronghold.
"If you're determined to help in this war, then use the kyuubi's power and get past these barriers." Misaki said and flashed out with Akihiko.
"Where'd she go/Leaving us low" Killer Bee wondered as the red head disappeared.
Naruto smirked and tightened his hitae ate, activating kyuubi chakra once more.
"You know, you guys might want to prepare for some escape attempt" Akihiko said crossing his arms as he leaned against the tree watching the over confident group of Kumogakure barrier nin.
Meanwhile, Misaki just stood, arms crossed, waiting quietly, he didn't know what was running inside Misaki's head, she was not making a move to help Naruto escape, but she wasn't exactly putting an effort to stop Naruto, even her barrier was pretty weak considering she was still able to transport the whole island on a considerable distance and still recover as quick as she did.
"Here they come" Misaki said barely above a whisper, followed by a loud crash against the barrier, causing it to crack.
Misaki smirked, it wasn't what she was expecting, but who was she kidding, Naruto was never one to conform, so it was no surprise that he found another way to her conditions, and as the two jinchuriki tag teamed to destroy layers and layers of the kumogakure nin barrier, Misaki's smirk turned into a smile growing bigger with each layer.
Until finally, Naruto and Killer Bee arrived at the final layer, Misaki's barrier, one which the caster stood on the other side patiently waiting for their every movement. Killer Bee was first to lunge against the barrier, his bijuu tentacle fist crashing against the barrier, but unlike the other barriers this one barely cracked
"Misaki's erected barrier/ As expected would be stronger" Killer Bee grunted landing on his feet, nevertheless, Naruto still lunged for the only thing standing between him and the war, and as their chakras came into contact, Naruto reached out to his twin's mind.
'Misaki, you were always the stronger one, always protecting me, always choosing to suffer by yourself, but Misaki, let me fight too let me share your pain, I promise, to get stronger and stronger to bare your pain with you, you are never alone Misaki, I will be here for you, just as you are for me' Naruto said through their link, his eyes never wavering contact with Misaki who stood on the other side of the barrier.
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Ten Ten Teeeeeen!
Chapter 32 Let's keep it coming!
What it is it good for absolutely nothing, war, whoah, I apologize for the less than exciting fight between Kakuzu and Kazuhiko, but in my defense, Kazuhiko is also a brilliant strategist like Azuma, and I figured, had some training with his grand father, plus lets not forget the fact that by this time the secrets of Kakuzu's body is all known, so that's why Kazuhiko was already able to device a plan.
And might I say how difficult it is to right Killer Bee's lines as he is known to rap his entire statements. I had to write his statement finish the chapter, then return and change it into rap form. Another thing I had difficulty, this time during the outlining is with is Itachi, who is so pivotal character, yet so rarely exposed, so finding a place for him during the war was needless to say a challenge.
This was supposed to be uploaded on May 31, 2019, but under several circumstances, work had me staying at a province wherein there was no type or form of communication other than through the telephone line or speaking personally to a person, nine hours of driving through mountain ranges and rotating black outs were a normal part of the day.