Chapter 8

Last night

Matatabi got up slowly and lethargically from her prone position and started stretching out her spine. Naps were fine and good, but she needed to get up and pace around every now and then. And she was content to have tried to do that, until she heard the annoyed grumbling of one of her siblings emanate from somewhere near her. She was so surprised that she jolted a little bit and crouched down, baring her sharp teeth out of sheer reflex.

"Hide your fangs," a harsh voice grumbled. "I see you're as quick to anger as ever, but you should be wary of who you threaten. You might just get bitten back."

Matatabi's mouth fell down and she stood up as regally as she could. "I was never quick to anger, if you remember. I've only ever simply refused to cow down to your unreasonableness."

"As obstinate as ever, then."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It is. From my perspective."

"And the world doesn't revolve around you, does it?"

Kurama's bloodshot, red eyes opened and his eyebrows slanted downwards. He got up in as menacing a position as he could and glared at her with all his might. "What are you doing here? And where's your cage?"

Matatabi nearly harrumphed out of smug haughtiness. "If only you had the eyes to see what's right beneath your snout," she said sarcastically.

His eyes swiveled down to look at their Jinchuuriki's held in each other's arms and snoozing happily. They were in deep slumber and paid no attention to the world around them. "So that's why you're here," he said. "Where's your cage?"

"Have you been asleep these past few days?"

"Not much else to do around here."

"You could chat with your Jinchuuriki."

"Do not make fun of me. I'm not in the mood for it."

Matatabi sighed. "You're never in the mood for anything other than sulking and feeling bad for yourself, are you? You know, the world is so much more beautiful than you take it to be. You only need to let yourself have some of it."

Kurama's lip curled into a snarl and his tails swished around him. "Answer the question."

The great construct of fiery chakra paced around the two Jinchuuriki on the floor and finally curled around them, flames licking at their bodies, steadying their minds from straying too far into a harmful dreamspace. "I don't have a cage anymore."

"Bullshit."

"Do you see a cage?"

"You know as well as I that cages can come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps you don't have a cage binding your movement anymore, but the fact that we're talking through a connection of Jinchuuriki means that you have a leash around your neck. And the one holding it is being nuzzled by you."

Matatabi nearly laughed. "You know nothing of my situation and yet you sit there, chained like a pitiful dog and decry both me and my Jinchuuriki. And I thought you were annoying and bullheaded before."

A great cacophony of clanging rung out through the space as Kurama fought and clashed against his bars to no avail. "If only there weren't bars between me and you; I'd rip you to shreds if I had the chance!"

"But you don't," Matatabi said, protecting the ears of both Yugito and Naruto from the normally ear-shattering noise. "And you never will. At least not the way you are."

Kurama sat down, still snarling at her and said "Okay, you say I don't know your situation. Enlighten me then. Tell me how far off the mark I am," he said through a condescending tone.

Matatabi looked down at her own Jinchuuriki wrapped in the arms of Kurama's. She was smiling. Perhaps from a good dream or something, Matatabi didn't really care, she just liked knowing that Yugito was smiling. It was a rare face she made. One that she didn't show anyone, not even her. She really hoped Yugito would benefit from the contract. She wasn't even that serious about her Jinchuuriki shacking up with Kurama's. She mostly saw it as a chance for her to make friends and real connections with other people.

"She's been through a lot, you know. Yours has too, I think. Just because we're sealed in them doesn't mean that we can't try to understand them. It doesn't mean we can't try to sympathize with their pain or talk to them. Isn't that what Hagaromo's wish was? For us all to try to understand each other?"

Kurama growled lowly. "Do not invoke that man's name in front of me. It was due to human's selfish greed that we are like this. Hagaromo failed spectacularly. We're not seen as conscious things with our own feelings and desires. We're weapons to those humans. We're tools. We're things. We're seen as the embodiment of hatred simply because we exist. Simply because we are born. And you would align yourself with one of them? You said you were obstinate? Maybe once, but no more. The moment your accepted the cage you were in was the moment you broke."

Matatabi did not rise to his provocations or feel even the slightest bit of angers stir in her heart because of him. If anything, she only felt pity for him. "I didn't accept her. Not at first. I was still angry. I wanted to be free. I wanted to run around and have control over my movements. And she… she didn't even know who she was. What she was. The people she grew up with hated her because of how she was born. Because of the power that she couldn't control. And she grew more distant and this… hole appeared in her heart. All this anger and detachment and sadness and fear and everything else that could consume someone was there. I could have taken it. I could have taken control and gained my freedom. Something stopped me, however. Can you guess what it was?"

Kurama was silent.

"I brought her into the mindscape and I looked her in the eyes and I swear to everything holy in the world, it was like I was looking in a mirror. She was twisted and gnarled from the hatred. And when I saw her like that, I realized I was too. So I introduced myself and she introduced herself. And now… I just want her to be happy. So yes, maybe I still am in some proverbial cage. And yes, maybe I actually am just a cowed, broken thing. But you know what? I'm happy. I'm happy being next to her to share her misery and her triumphs. Can you say the same? Are you happy too?"

Kurama huffed. "And how could 'the embodiment of hatred' ever feel happy? I simply destroy. If that's what they show me. If that's the picture I'm painted as with no hope of ever telling my story. If that's what these fucking terrible, hypocritical, warmongering humans want to see me as, then who am I to not oblige them?"

Matatabi smirked and laid her head down to rest. "If you weren't paying attention earlier, then I may as well tell you now. Right now, there's a peace treaty. It's still young, but if it works, there could be no more war. And if there's no more war, there's no need for weapons. And if there's no need for weapons… then what good are you?"

"You would predicate your existence by ingratiating yourself to their sensibilities? I'd rather die a dog's death. And besides, if history ever taught me anything, it's that humans desire destruction far more than either you or me ever could. This 'treaty' will fall apart. And we'll be right back to square one."

"And if it doesn't?"

"…"

"Let's play a game then, you and I. A game of ideals. If the treaty works, if war is truly quashed, then you have to try to talk to your Jinchuuriki. You have to try to understand him."

Kurama smirked. "And if I win, you have to fry your Jinchuuriki's brain and take over her body, then escape."

"Okay."

Her chakra didn't fluctuate. As that simple, two syllable word floated from her mouth, there was not an ounce of insincerity, or hesitation in her voice. She was being serious. Deathly so.

"You're serious."

Matatabi closed her eyes and tightened her body around the two Jinchuuriki even more. "You may not have much faith in your Jinchuuriki, but I do. If there's someone who could save the world from itself, it would be him. He reminds me a lot of Asura, actually. He's thick headed and stubborn and sometimes loses his temper, but he always tries. He wantsto understand."

"Asura failed too."

"Maybe, but he might not."

"The death of your 'friend' is a lot to wager over a maybe."

"I'm not just wagering her life. I'm wagering your happiness."

Matatabi's breathing evened out and Kurama didn't say another word more. He slinked off into the darkest reaches of his cell and tried to lay down as comfortably as he could.

He didn't sleep that night.

00000000

They didn't have much to do other than to stand around and wait for Naruto and Fu to come back, so the front gates were full of arguably the most dangerous and lethal shinobi known to man simply milling about and making idle chit chat. To any that might have passed by and or through the front gates, it would have been most definitely a surreal sight to see the Raikage and the Tsuchikage making snide remarks at each other, the Hokage trying her best to make small talk with the sand wife, the rock wife and the Mizukage straining through conversation while the leader of waterfall stood off a slight distance away and the cloud wife meditating under the shade of a tree.

Looking up at the blue sky with drifting white clouds hanging about, Temari bit her cheek a little bit and said "The weather's nice."

Tsunade nodded her head up and down a few times and responded with "That it is. How's the weather in sand? Should we expect… anything?"

Temari looked back down to the Hokage. "…It's the desert. It's going to be hot."

"So… sunscreen then?"

"Unless you want to tan or burn."

Tsunade brought a hand to her chin in silent thought. "Do you think I could pull off a tan?"

Temari shrugged. "I… wouldn't know. I usually just burn. The whole family does. So I'm not really an authority on tan fashion."

Tsunade outstretched her arm and looked down at it. She was a very pale woman. Trying to imagine her skin tone to be more along the lines of, say, Ai's, just sent her mind reeling. Tan to the nth degree probably wasn't the best idea. Maybe a moderate amount? Should she try a low SPF this time? Wait… she could just change the illusion. No, she didn't want to go down that rabbit hole. If she changed her skin it wouldn't be long before she started changing other things about herself.

"…Have you ever been to sand before?"

"A few times," Tsunade murmured. "But never for longer than a few hours."

"Ah," Temari said.

While a pregnant pause overtook their conversation, Kurotsuchi was having a very different one with Mei. Her face was flushed with a somewhat indignant frown on her face as she looked at the tall woman from a downward slant.

"You can't be much older than 18 or so. Don't you think that's a bit long in the tooth for this kind of thing?" Mei asked.

Kurotsuchi's eyebrow twitched. "I haven't been in a serious enough relationship to have justified it," she said evenly. It was a practiced response. One that she had used for a few people who had the unfortunate combination of being nosy and overly familiar.

"Such a thing doesn't require extreme intimacy."

Kurotsuchi's nose curled up. She was starting to see why Temari exploded at her the way she did. "It does to me."

"But to so obstinately hold on to something that doesn't hold any actual value… it's just your first, after all. And hopefully, it could lead to many more times after that."

"Can we drop this conversation, pretty please?" Kurotsuchi ground out through clenched teeth.

"Why, if you wanted to, I could get rid of it for you, right here and now."

The girl's eyes went wide from surprise. "Here? In front of everybody?"

Mei shrugged. "Why not? There aren't any rules against two women doing it. At least not in mist, there isn't. I'm not sure what stone's policy on it is…"

"It's… okay, for two women to do it, thank you very much. Stone isn't that backwater. But- But, anyway. No. No thank you. I'm saving my first time for someone special," Kurotsuchi said this while looking away as a smattering of a blush colored her cheeks.

"Perhaps for a very special little blond…?" Mei asked, impish smile growing on her face.

Kurotsuchi's embarrassment vanished from her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. She sighed and looked up to the sky. "Still need time to figure it out. And when or if it does happen, by the way, you're not going to be privy to it," she said as she leveled an accusatory finger at the older woman.

"What's going on?"

Mei and Kurotsuchi's head snapped to Yugito, who had gotten up and walked over to them with neither noticing.

"My, we're just talking about the finer points of firsts and how important or unimportant they are on an individualistic scale," Mei said with her smile that hid all emotion.

"More like she was trying to cajole me into giving her my first right here and now."

One of Yugito's eyebrows raised a notch. "In front of everybody? In the dirt?"

"That's what I was saying!" Kurotsuchi said emphatically.

"I shouldn't think location would have much to do with it," Mei said.

"But…" Yugito said, looking at the ground. "In the dirt?"

"Well where would your preferable location be?"

"Indoors, like almost everybody else in the world."

"Hold on," Kurotsuchi said, holding a hand up. "I think I'm going to take Mei's side on this one. Just indoors? That's a little bit limiting, isn't it?"

Yugito looked like she considered herself the only sane person in an asylum. "For your first time at least. You'd want to have your first time outdoors in front of people? I'm not a prude, but I do have lines."

"And where was your first, Ms. Judgey?" Mei asked, getting a little bit annoyed.

After a little bit of hesitation, Yugito replied with "At home. In my bed. With the person I… I thought I loved."

Kurotsuchi and Mei shared a knowing look. "I think," Kurotsuchi started.

"That we're talking about two different things," Mei finished.

Yugito looked from one wife to the other, quizzical brow raised at them. "Are you not talking about sex?"

"We were talking about kisses," Kurotsuchi said, giggling. Mei raised a hand to her face to hide a smile of her own.

"First kisses?" Yugito asked, ending with a leveled star at Kurotsuchi. "Don't you think you're a bit long in the tooth for th-"

"Oh, shut up," Kurotsuchi interrupted indignantly, prompting Mei to lean over, trying to hide her laughter best she could and Yugito to smirk to herself.

It was fun to talking to people, she decided.

"When do you… think…" Mei trailed off, forgetting her sentence as she stared up at the sky. Kurotsuchi and Yugito followed her somewhat worried gaze.

"What's going on?" Kurotsuchi asked.

The sky was a solid blue with small splotches of clouds lazing about. All were relatively the same size or shape except for one. It was swirling and twirling inside of itself to a very odd degree. And it was the only one seemingly affected, so it was hard to put it under the excuse of weather phenomenon.

"That… doesn't look right?" Yugito whispered.

Just as the small flickers of fear blossomed in their chests, the cloud they were staring erupted and dispersed as a small white object rocketed out of the bottom of it directly towards the hidden leaf, leaving a small trail in its wake. Its journey was less than a second long and when it hit the ground, a plume of fire and smoke flew up. Half a second later, the sudden boom and shockwave hit them in their stomachs and grabbed a hold of their hearts.

There was usually a warning of an attack. An awareness of some sort. The knowledge that you were in hostile territory or that you were wanted dead. That wasn't there in this situation. There was no agitation amongst the countries at the moment. There was nothing to warrant an attack. Like a knife in the back of someone you trusted your life with, the attack shook everyone to their very core.

But they were also battle hardened shinobi. They were used to such things occurring every now and then.

"Spread out!" Tsunade shouted, already running towards the city. "Contain the problem! Help the wounded!"

They were vague orders, but everyone who heard her knew exactly what to do. Everyone ran out with one purpose, one order, one understanding of what do should be done.

They were to help an ally in their time of need.

00000000

"NOOO!" Fu shouted, holding her forearm over her eyes to shield them from the smoke and flying miniscule particles. When she dared look again, she saw naught but a smoking crater and the remnants of the puppet that exploded. There was no sign of Gaara anywhere.

Her shoulder trembled. Looking down, she realized that Naruto was leaking foam from his mouth and his face was starting to turn purple. The arm that encircled her shoulders was starting to go limp. What kind of poison was that? Who should she help first? Where should she go? What should-

"No," Fu ground out, eyes getting focused. She stopped thinking. She started doing.

First things first, attend to the wounded before looking for the dead.

Running over to the nearest wall, Fu laid Naruto down and took off his already ruined shirt to look at the puncture marks. It wasn't even completely off before she gasped from surprise. Where he had been punctured by the needles, there were growing strands of purplish veins coming from very bruised skin. The injuries were growing so fast that she could see it advance on, eventually becoming a singular localized mass of diseased flesh.

Seconds things second, compartmentalize, then help.

Jinchuuriki's were all pretty much immune to poison and venom from her experience. Naruto shouldn't be any different. His beast's chakra should be helping him, but it wasn't. Why wasn't it?

"Okay," Fu said, breathing out before laying both her hands on his decaying flesh and channeling chakra into him, creating a forced connection. "Time to find out," she muttered under her breath, closing her eyes.

When she opened them, she and Naruto were in much the same position, but in a drastically different setting. Water was leaking in from nearly everywhere in as little volumes as small dribbles all the way up to waterfalls coming from the pipes and walls. That wasn't a healthy chakra system. No way in hell.

Directly in front of them was a cage covered in a pitch blackness. There was no other sound other than her worried breathing and the dribbling of water.

"Hey! Kurama!" a shrill voice shouted out from behind her. "What are you doing!? Your host is about to die!"

The rush of water being displaced nearly upended her and Naruto from their positions. Fu leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Naruto's unresponsive form to keep him in place. When the water settled and she dared look back up, she was staring at the bloodshot eyes of a terrible beast. With a maw full of sharp teeth and a disjointed, human-like upper body and most importantly, eyes full of hatred and rage. "Please," she urged. "You have to help him."

"Yeah," Chomei added. "Your host is about to die! You have to save him."

Kurama huffed to himself in quiet laughter. "I always hated that term," he said. "It makes it sound like I'm more akin to a parasite than a prisoner. Host and parasite living in harmony? Don't make me laugh."

"But- he'll- you'll. You need him to live!" Chomei shouted, not understanding of what was happening. "If he dies, you'll die."

"So be it. If I am to live as a parasite for all of eternity, I'd rather die with the scant dignity a prisoneris afforded."

"But- But… The seal you're in leaks out your chakra constantly. This isn't a matter of him taking your chakra or not. This is a matter of you hoarding yours to kill both of yourselves!"

"If my container is so weak so as to rely on my existence for his own, then that's his problem. Not mine."

"Bu-"

"Chomei!" Fu shouted out, squinting her eyes closed. Her fingers were clenched so hard into her palm that she might have bled if she were corporeal. "There's no time. Just give him your chakra!"

Chomei backed up a little bit, flabbergasted by such a suggestion. "W-What?"

"It's all the same, isn't it? Just give him your chakra! Quick, there's no time!"

Looking back up to Kurama, Chomei and the other beast shared an indecipherable look. "T-That's never been done before. We don't kno-"

"How many times do I have to repeat myself?!" Fu shouted out, voice cracking midway through. His body was getting cold in her arms. Looking at his fingers, Fu's gut sank at how blue his fingers were. "There's no time," Fu whispered. It was happening again. She didn't want to lose anyone ever again and here she was, holding a dying person in her arms that she wasn't strong enough to protect.

"There's no time," Fu said to herself in despair.

00000000

The pandemonium inside the village lasted for all of ten minutes. Although that might sound like a small amount of time, in battle, life was decided in a matter of seconds. Ten minutes passing was enough for hundreds, even thousands to be killed.

That being said, Konoha had been through much worse before. Humanoid puppets running around and sowing discord was much less destructive than a giant, three headed snake smashing through the village's walls. The interspersed explosions didn't help matters at all, but was still much less destructive.

And so, with no exact objectives set in their minds, the four remaining wives of Naruto Uzumaki set out to do their best to aid people of Konoha. Whether that meant administering first aid to wounded soldiers or citizenry, fighting walking automatons, or dodging out of the way of explosions, they all did their best to help.

All except for Temari, who made a beeline to where her brother said he would be last: with Naruto and Fu at a clothing store in the shopping district.

She shouldn't have been afraid for him; he was ten times stronger than she ever could be, but there was still a sisterly protective feeling that she had for him. She had to know he was safe, even if that meant just being able to look up at him floating on a cloud of sand.

Shaking her head, Temari got back to the task at hand. Most of the dolls were taken care of by the time she got to the shopping district. So much so, that she only ran into one and had summarily reduced it to wooden splinters in no time. It seemed that most of everyone's attention was firmly on damage control; helping people, putting out fires, the works. On her way over, a few leaf shinobi gave her dirty, suspicious looks, but they didn't try anything. They were still confused and looking for direction and seeing Temari, a sand shinobi, probably didn't conjure much images of trust in their eyes, what with her country invading theirs only a scant few years ago, but they all recognized her from the ceremony. It was enough for them not to act on impulses. International incidents and all. More than death, shinobi were scared of starting those the most. They last for years and was the main reason for so much strife over the centuries. The words of Jiraiya echoed in their heads and stayed their blades.

Which was good for Temari, because she didn't pay them much mind. She was too busy looking into the windows of the stores, grasping for hints of clothing that might indicate it was a boutique. She was starting to get worried. Gaara was not afraid to make big shows of power to help ease the populace. Seeing a giant sand titan on your side was quite the morale booster, after all. But that wasn't to be seen. Hell, he usually surveyed things from above to see how he could help. The fact that she had seen neither hide nor hair of him was worry provoking.

In front of a store, indistinguishable from others due its charred outside and blackened windows, was a man lying prone on the ground taking in shallow breaths while clutching his right arm. Temari immediately knelt down and gave him a look over. Other than the bleeding arm, he seemed to be alright, just fevered and delirious.

"Are you okay?" she asked, taking out a scroll with bandages sealed inside while she did so.

He grunted out in pain. His face was cold, pale, and clammy. Sweat covered his brow and it looked like it took momentous effort to even tilt his head upwards. "T-The… monsters…"

Temari shushed him and tried to pry his hand away from his shoulder. "It's okay," she murmured above his head. He was weak and couldn't even try to hold onto his arm with her trying to pry it off, but he kept at it with a zeal she had never seen before. It was like he was keeping a hold of something that hid danger. She tried to wipe away the blood, but it never came off correctly. She wiped and wiped at it, confused at what was happening, until she realized the blood wasn't on his skin, it was under it.

In fact, looking at the rest of his arm, she saw that a dark purplish red had encroached on nearly all his exposed skin, from the forearm leading up to the shoulder and down to the chest. He'd been struck with a venomous poison she had never seen before. It didn't matter if she got the antidote in time, he was a dead man, insides ravaged by the effects already.

Tossing away the bloodied bandages, Temari grabbed his face instead and looked into his eyes. "What. Did. You. See?" She ground out loudly and concisely. This man was the first one she saw with such terrible wounds. The one controlling the puppets had to be near.

"Sand," he gasped out. His lips were turning blue. "Sand… and explosions."

Her fingers nearly dug into his cheeks. "Did you see Gaara?" she asked frantically. "Where is he?"

The man slapped the ground with one hand. "Red hair… sewers."

Just as she was about to hold the man's hand and comfort him as he passed away, a most strange incident occurred. A pure white bird no larger than her fist fluttered down from the heavens and landed on his chest. It looked around a few times before hopping up to his neck and pressing its face down on his cheek.

Temari looked on with confusion. "What… the…"

The man smiled and happiness engulfed him. It must have been a sign from the heavens.

Then the bird exploded, tossing Temari away from him and completely destroying everything above that man's shoulders. It was like someone wearing molten hot, steel toed boots had kicked her in the chest five times at once. She landed a few feet away in a clump, shell shocked and confused. What had just happened?

"RRAAHHHHHHAAAAAAHAAAAAH!"

A horrid, ear-tearing shriek melted out from the charred store. Temari had to slap her hands to her head to try to end the onslaught on her senses, but no such help came. It was like the sound penetrated through her very skin. The scream ended just long enough for the doors to the store to be blasted apart and away with so much force that the glass was turned into a fine powder.

Where the doors used to be was a strange beast. It was hunched forward, nearly scraping the ground with its fingers. A red shroud of chakra coated its entirety, but strange, physical artifacts littered its body. Compound eyes, arms covered in a purplish gray exoskeleton, chest distended forward, malformed wings twitching on its back. But the worst of all was just the way it moved. There was no such thing as fluid motion with this creature. It moved so fast in such small increments that it was almost like it was teleporting every second. Like there were pieces of motion cut out in a movie. All in all, it was like an evil combination of bug and human, but there was something still on it that told her exactly what it used to be.

There was yellow blond hair on its head and the clothing that still hung on by threads was navy blue, belonging to Yugito and worn by Naruto.

Temari looked on in horror at the indignity to humanity that stood before her. What had happened to him? Where was her brother? What was even happening?