Chapter 29

Kurotsuchi shot up awake, eyes wide to the open air and her skin immediately freezing from the intense cold. She took in oxygen like she had just sprinted a marathon and looked all around, trying to take in the world around her. A world unlike the one she had nearly died to. The entire castle that was supposed to be above her head was exploded outward and down, practically pinning her to the ground. The only thing that kept her from being turned into a pancake was a white and blue oversized slug covering her from the waist down. There was an open hole in her combat shirt from where she'd been pierced from her own blade and a tear in the middle showed a wide, ugly scar from her fight with the Uchiha.

"Stay down. You're in no condition to move around," Came the soft, feminine voice of the slug on top of her. She recognized it as Katsuyu, Tsunade's summon. "You're lucky I found you when I did. You were almost dead."

She finally caught her breath and started swiping the thick layer of slime over her skin off her body as quickly as she could. The cold air made it feel like she was covered in ice. "W-What happened?"

"Lay down and rest. You can't go back to the fight."

Her eyes went wide and she looked all around her general area. "Where is it?" She asked frantically.

"What are you looking for?"

"My sword! Where is it? It was… It was…" It was in her. Pierced through the chest, near the heart. And now it wasn't. She looked at Katsuyu more intensely. The hilt of her sword was poking out of its side, probably kept for safekeeping.

Kurotsuchi grabbed the hilt and pulled it out with a wet schlick, then started scrambling to unearth herself from the white and blue slug. It started to protest against her actions, but she paid it no heed. She slapped her hands against he ground and slabs of earth rose up to push the rubble off her body. The girl stood and stretched her muscles and immediately regretted her decision. It was like someone drenched her insides with spirits and threw a giant fireball in the middle for good measure. Her muscles cramped and every foot of viscera in her gut protested.

She still stood, though.

"Where are they?" She asked, surprised by the rasp in her voice. How long had she been out? Hours? Days? Who was still alive?

Oh no.

"Where is he?!" She shouted at the summon, climbing up to the top her rubble tower. Her heart sank at what she saw. A wasteland of rubble and broken architecture pockmarked with pools of bile lava and acid. Swamped with water, lit on fire. A cloudy sky with spires of lightning reaching down to the ground every other second off in the distance. A few miles away she could see a giant horror, one eye, one ear, one mouth, many hands, the size of a mountain. The ten-tails, unknown to her.

"W-Who? Wait, no. Get back down. You're not completely fixed."

"I'm fixed enough," she growled out, grabbing a hold of the cold stone and jumping off. Every step she took was an earthquake of pain in her torso.

She still walked, though.

She still ran.

The sounds of the summon protesting her actions was lost to the whistling wind as she navigated the wasteland spread before her. She had to find him. Make sure he was okay. He needed to know. She couldn't die with him not knowing. He couldn't die not knowing. If there was anything in the world that had a just bone, it would give this to her. It had already taken her mom and her freedom, and then gave her him with its own cruel sense of humor. And it also gave her everyone else.

The world gave and the world took and she was starting to understand that. Right then. With the air chilling her skin to ice and her body shouting to her to stop, lay down, rest. She understood. But it wasn't enough. She would have to be greedy for just a little bit. Just a little bit.

She climbed over the crest of another part of rubble and looked at another, strangely colored mountain in front of her. Purple and orange and broken apart at weird, odd angles. It took her a few seconds of puzzling to realize it was the discarded exoskeleton of Chomei. Her heart sank when the thoughts of Fu's lifeless body being stuck inside, but she quickly steeled herself with the knowledge that it might simply be armor she had discarded during a fight.

She could still be alive.

But for right now, the armor was a impediment to her progress. And she had to walk through it.

At first, she was able to jump over it majorly from the help of an earthen wall she used for momentum. But she wasn't able to manipulate the discarded remains like she could earth, and her feet wouldn't stick to the material no matter how much chakra she applied to her feet. She had to climb the rest of the way like a mountain climber.

It gave her time to think about things. And also time to struggle against a familiar yet completely unknown foe: climbing.

The thought that Fu might be dead and that she was climbing over her body underneath a giant layer of purple and orange monster made her heart sink. Turmoil from physical damage and emotional damage were working their way through her torso and gut. She needed to puke, but she knew that if she did, she would be rendered weak enough as to not be able to move forward even one more step, even one more pull of the body, even one more sweeping view of the hellscape around her.

Tears pricked at her eyes.

Fu had to be alive. If she was left alive and Fu was the one who died, then nothing mattered. That girl, such a bundle of happiness and joy, always looking forward to life despite her surroundings, always smiling and struggling for a better life; a better way forward; a better laugh; a better everything. And what was she in comparison? Mean and foulmouthed and sour. If she was left and Fu was taken, then the world surely didn't need to exist.

Kurotsuchi finally pulled herself over the tallest part of Fu's body and started sliding a convenient ridge to the ground. Off in the distance, the thing that towered over everything was starting to be obscured from fog. Flashes of explosions lit up its towering silhouette for brief moments. There was still struggle. There was still conflict. There was still a chance.

A chance.

That's all she needed.

As she moved, her body began learning its place. She was the one in charge, not it. It could complain, but it needed to obey. And so it did.

She came to a crater made by an explosion greater than she would have thought theoretically possible. And she had known the mad bomber of Iwa on a first name basis. At the epicenter, instead of smooth, black rock, there was an irregular shape that she could have sworn twitched in the slightest of amounts. It was on the way to the giant thing, so she shuffled to its direction.

Could be an enemy.

Could be an ally.

It was a risk she was going to take.

As she got closer and closer, she realized that the irregular shape was oblong and of a different texture to everything else around it. Closer still and a form of relief flowed over her. A piece of Katsuyu that had been covered in soot and dust. Poking out of its body was a shock of dirty blond hair and a hand gripped tightly around a piece of orange cloth.

"Is it Yugito?" Kurotsuchi choked out.

The clone of Katsuyu noticed her presence and shivered from the outside stimulation. "It is Yugito. She is in critical condition. Most of Matatabi has been taken from her."

"Is she going to live?" Kurotsuchi asked desperately.

"For now. But she could expire within hours if the tailed beast is not returned to her. Her chakra system has become too dependent on it."

"Wh-What about…" Kurotsuchi shook her head to clear her thoughts. She looked at the monolith that Fu left behind. "What about Fu? Is she okay?"

"Something similar happened, but I don't know her whereabouts."

"Can you… Can you slugs communicate with each other? Has anyone seen her?"

"We can, but there is a dead zone where the fighting is happening. Also, we haven't confirmed a body. There may be hope, but the possibility that she's dead is not small."

Kurotsuchi gulped and took in a few deep breaths. "It'll have to do," she muttered before taking off to where the fighting was heaviest. Katsuyu protested in much the same way, but Kurotsuchi didn't have the heart to listen to it.

Yugito.

Awkward and jilted and smart and strong and arrogant. That's the person Kurotsuchi first met and kind of hated. Now, she was kind and serene and accepting… and also still pretty awkward. But it was more endearing now. It was easier to love her. She wanted to continue being with her, poking fun at the woman where she could and laughing together when one of them says something funny. She wanted to argue with her and cry with her and laugh with her.

That one needed to live too.

Pools of acid and lava beckoned to her next. The fighting with the big thing was getting more heated too if the inclusion of other giant titans was of any indication. And so she walked. She needed to get there. She needed to talk to him, even shout out at him while he fought. She wasn't any use on the battlefield, but she still needed to be there.

On her way across the pools of waste, she came across a person wearing a familiar blue dress sitting on a chair of her own making, appearing to the world a corpse.

Mei.

Kurotsuchi grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her frantically, fearing the worst. When the woman startled up out of her trance and started swinging at invisible enemies, she felt a little bit stupid for thinking that anything could take Mei out. Nice when she needed to be. Mean when it was required. Always wise. Always smiling, even if the smiles were rarely genuine.

When their eyes met, Mei put a hand to her chest and rocked her head back, letting out a shout of relief. "I was starting to worry for the worst when you didn't show up. You're always ready to throw punches."

"It's nice to see you too," Kurotsuchi said, leaning her body against the chair she made. "Out of chakra?"

"Just about," Mei said. "If there were conventional enemies, I might be of some use, but I won't be able to do anything against…" she paused and winced as a particularly large explosion blasted out from the main battlefield. "Well, you get the point. How's Yugito? I saw her explode."

"She's fine. There's a Katsuyu on her, but she needs Matatabi back quick. Did you see what happened to Fu?"

"Flying around, last I saw."

Kurotsuchi nodded. "Good. Temari?"

"Still fighting."

"…And…"

Mei looked up her. The woman looked downright exhausted. She was fresh out of fight, something Kurotsuchi didn't think she would ever run out of. But still, her face lit up a little bit. A smile struggled to overcome the exhaustion. "He's fine," she said. "He's… well, he's him."

Kurotsuchi's lips pressed to a thin line. She nodded, having expected that. Somehow she knew that the world would change by his actions as a way of tipping the scales.

"I need to… I need to talk to him."

Mei smiled knowingly. "Time's short, you know. And not to be rude, but there's not much you can do over there. Care to take a message?"

Kurotsuchi shook her head resolutely. Absolutely not. It was a long time coming and she needed to do it herself. No one else. "Are you in love with him?" Kurotsuchi asked, almost shocking herself with her forwardness.

Mei smiled like she'd been asked to recount a story from the past. "Who knows?" she said with a shrug. "Little bit of advice from old to young? We're not as in control as you think we are. And your emotions are almost never going to appear straight-forward. So if you have a glimmer of true, absolute knowledge of what you want… fucking tell him."

Kurotsuchi smiled a little bit, feeling a bit more at ease. She didn't know if she would live to see tomorrow, but she knew that if tomorrow wouldn't come, her world would be put to peace at the very least. "Thanks. And don't worry, I know."

The woman gave her a thumbs up and smiled before closing her eyes and letting her head fall back, relaxed.

One last stretch to go.

Rather than the destruction making the ground under the giant sink low, it created huge crests of earth, ice, and rock that pushed out from around it. She could climb it, but her chakra levels were faltering. She might have to freeclimb the last portion.

And then, like a bullet shot through fog, a person was forcibly ejected from the fight many meters above the crests. Luckily, the person unfolded a fan and was able to glide to the ground. Having spotted her, Temari glided to where Kurotsuchi was. "You're alive?" Temari asked, equal parts relief and surprise. "You're always ready to throw punches, so when…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kurotsuchi said, interrupting her. "I got it. Think we're gonna win?"

Temari shrugged. "A lot of stuff is happening and I don't understand half of it. But we're still fighting, so we have a chance." The leader of hidden sand appraised her more fully. "You're not thinking of heading up there, are you?"

Kurotsuchi shrugged. "You know me… I don't make the best decisions."

Temari's shoulders sagged. "You'll probably die."

"I need to talk to him. Just ten seconds will do."

Temari bit her cheek and nodded, more to herself than to Kurotsuchi. "Okay. I understand that. A little bit. Actually, not much at all, but I know you'll do it even if I don't help you. There's a bit of a pow wow going on right now, so you just might get your chance. Get up there and get out as soon as you can."

Before Kurotsuchi could question Temari's methods, the girl from sand already unfolded her fan, braced it backwards, and created an air vacuum that shot her upwards like an air cannon. She didn't even have the air in her lungs to scream from fright and surprise. What she did hear was Temari yelling after her "I BELIEVE IN YOU!"

Stoic, headstrong, also just strong, smart, kind, a little bit distant.

And a good friend.

Kurotsuchi scrambled at the lip and slid down the earthen gravel. Ahead of her was a scene she wouldn't be able to describe with words, but it didn't really matter because she didn't really pay it much mind. Directly in her path of sliding downwards was a group of people. Some glowing from an unknown force, some frantically talking, some eyeing the scene ahead of them.

She came to a stop in front of them and scanned their faces for a shock of yellow, whisker marks, and maybe an orange jumpsuit, but the one most similar to her husband was a guy made of glowing orangish yellow energy. Weird eyes, blocks instead of lines for whisker marks, utterly surprised to see her.

"Kurotsuchi!?" he exclaimed.

Yup.

That was him.

She hated him at first. She really did. Ignorant and stupid and brash and he pranked her. He fucking pranked her. Annoying laugh, childish attitude, poor disposition.

Bit by bit, he turned her eyes around, though. Kind, infectious laughter, stubborn, headstrong, dearly caring, always doing his best, not bad to look at either.

And his dad killed her mom. Not his fault, but it still stung. Any semblance of a normal life was taken from her by his dad. But she didn't want that normal. Not anymore. He was her normal. She worried about him, wondered about him, and her heart fluttered for him.

She walked forward, her legs jelly and her voice caught by her throat.

She had to tell him.

She had to.

Had to.

He rushed forward and wrapped an arm around her side to stabilize her. "You shouldn't be here. You're hurt."

She looked up at him and brought her other hand to his cheek. He was unrecognizable, but nothing had changed. Nothing that mattered anyway.

"I'm happy that I was forced to marry you. I'm in love with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Everyone speaking or murmuring fell silent at the sound of her voice speaking those grand, unstoppable words. "I don't know how you feel, or even if there's going to be a tomorrow, but whatever I'm feeling is real. And you need to know it."

He smiled a little bit and arched a brow. "Did you think I didn't love you? Go, sit down, get some rest. We're going to get through this. We're a family."

He kneeled down and let her fall on her back on the hard ground.

She had done it.

She had told the boy she loved that she was in love with him and he reciprocated those feelings. Such a simple thing made her world. It was…

Great.

Truly wonderful.

And nobody could take that away from her.

One by one, memories her time together with all of them flashed through her mind. The good and the bad and the in between. She remembered all of them. And tears came to her eyes, flowing down her cheeks and wetting the cold rock. And she didn't know why the tears were there. Was she happy? Sad? Angry? Distraught.

Regardless, she was part of a family now. Hell, she always was, but now she knew she was. She could say 'I love you, have a good day', 'do your best', 'I'll be home waiting for you' without anyone looking at her odd.

She could sleep with her arms wrapped around someone she loved.

She could eat a groggy breakfast before bidding her family goodbye.

She could have kids.

She could go to a big, boisterous dinner.

Those things were nice, sure, she didn't disagree. But more than anything, she wanted there to be another tomorrow. Just one more. And the words he spoke gave her hope that there would be one.

World peace? Who gave a shit about that?

Her world was peace. And that was good enough for her.

00000000

Sometime later

Naruto finally had a chance to rest. Completely exhausted from the duties of the day. Full schedule ahead with no signs of it stopping.

But it didn't matter.

He smiled.

The end.