Final Masquerade

Sasuke and Naruto's fingers twisted and slid together perfectly into place, like a key fitting into many locks. While Naruto had held his hand out initially, it was Sasuke who took the lead and shifted his fingers first, forming half of the next hand sign. As they continued their advancement, Naruto didn't even need to look over to know where to move his fingers next, knowing the formation of the standard poses by heart. Even though their minds were separate, it only took seconds for the full jutsu to be completed and together they shouted out: "Combination Style: Lightning Cyclone Jutsu!"

Still with their hands joined, they formed a large wind-lightning sphere and tossed it to the sky. There was a second of silence before the ball imploded like a collapsing star, forming a hole above from which a twister descended. Cracks of black lightning flashed within and all objects pulled into the tornado were instantly incinerated. As Naruto had hoped, Takami turned his attention to deal with the impending threat, leaving him and Sasuke to advance closer.

He knew though that there was little chance it'd be that easy and he was right. Takami effortlessly sent out a pulse of energy which pushed the tornado back at them but Naruto concentrated on controlling the wind portion to redirect it again. Trees and rocks were ripped up, making it harder for them to continue their running. He looked over to Sasuke to see what they should do next and saw him eyeing their tornado intently. Sensing his staring, Sasuke looked over at him and gave a nod, confirming something in his own mind that he opted to not share with Naruto. In silence, he broke away and Naruto ground to a halt as he witnessed him launch himself heedlessly into the storm.

"Sasuke!" He screamed, immediately beginning the signs to cancel out the attack. He stopped himself though on the last symbol, gritting his teeth as he stared up at the monstrosity. Sasuke had charged in for a reason and instead of undermining him, he decided he would trust him and whatever seemingly harebrained idea he had. With that decided, he began to put into play his own strategy.

Like before, he formed a handful of glowing Tailed-Beast Mode clones and allowed them to lead the charge. With the tornado temporarily pushed back, Takami was already in the process of delivering another wave of energy to cancel out Naruto's ranks but upon their departure, each threw a large shuriken. The shuriken popped with small bursts of smoke to reveal half a dozen more clones, each with their own miniature Tailed-Beast bomb.

Five seconds, Naruto thought as he held up his own Bomb. Five seconds before he recharges and pushes or pulls all of us in. I have to strike right—NOW!

He caught just a glimpse of a surprised magenta eye before the air around him exploded. Takami disintegrated, the attack reducing his body to nearly imperceptible fragments. Even with a sphere smaller than his Rasengan, the blast radius left a crater fit for a meteor. In panic, he looked around for the tornado that was hiding Sasuke and saw nothing. Had he…accidentally destroyed that as well?

"Sasuke is fine for now," a gentle voice said, and Naruto spun around to come face to face with another Takami. A clone! He formed another Bomb but the lone figure split into two, then those two into two more. He was encircled by them, all of them with that damn face of pity that Takami wore so much, as though asking why Naruto continued to make this so hard for himself. Naruto promised to send him and his "pity" straight to hell!

But still, he didn't attack. He'd screwed up and had practically allowed himself to become caught in his genjutsu. Knowing it didn't make it any easier and he tensed with his senses racing, waiting for the man to make the next move.

"I must admit, now that I'm inside your mind, you're a lot more resilient than Sasuke," One of the Takami's spoke up, the "original" one. "Sasuke's is clouded with a great deal of self-doubt, anger and regret, like many a classic anti-hero. I knew he would be rather pliable after I managed to capture him back in the Land of Iron, which had the added effect of planting even more seeds of shaken confidence in him. But you…your mind is solid. You know yourself very well with no exploitable doubts. How rare…"

Naruto kept to himself his previous internal battle about prioritizing Sasuke over the village and decided to let Takami think whatever he wanted to.

"It's quite the relief though that this Rinne-Sharingan has awoken now as I can finally retrieve Kurama without so much hassle," Takami continued and Naruto instantly took a step back, his heart racing. "I'll still need the others to help with the extraction regardless; there's no way around that. But this new ability will make the subjugation easier. I can also show our Nine-Tailed friend everything he's missing by being trapped within you and remind him of everything that's happened due to his so-called alliance with humans."

"He's happy here with me!" Naruto snarled, a deep growl coming out due to the fox's inner projecting. "If you weren't so full of your own ego, you'd know that he and I have a bond. Besides, if so many people are going to come after him like you said, then he's safer here with me!"

"Perhaps, but that means your life is constantly in danger—"

"I'm used to it," Naruto countered.

"Which in turn puts those around you in danger—"

"The Leaf won't fall so easily. We'll rise up to protect Kurama!"

"And once you die, the fighting for him will begin once again," Takami objected impatiently. "And even if you willingly pass Kurama to someone else, then they will be the next target. It'll continue for all eternity. However, let me set him free and my people will protect him and the other Beasts. Not only will this balance the power that Konoha has, this will also prevent the village from such vicious attacks."

Unable to control himself, Naruto let out a full snort, surprised that he could even laugh at a time like this. "The only 'vicious attacks' on Konoha recently has been from you guys! Look, I'm not interested in buyin' what you're sellin'. Kurama and I are a packaged deal but if ever Kurama wanted to be let free, even though that results in my death, then I'll do it but only when he makes that choice. Until then, you can take your 'Save the Tailed Beasts' agenda and shove it!"

Even though logic told him it was an illusion, he swirled a Rasengan into his hand regardless and hurled it at the group of Takami's. There was a realistic eruption of sound and his vision was obscured with a wave of kicked-up dirt, which made him marvel at the realism of the genjutsu—

"NARUTO!"

A shudder ran down his body, reacting to a chill. He looked up and saw the last vestiges of a tornado dispersing in the clouds. He was back in real time with Sasuke staring deep into his face. "Thanks, I—I'm sorry. I got caught in his genjutsu…" Having fallen victim so quickly made him lower his eyes, ears burning. His gaze though focused on Sasuke's right hand, where a Chidori was formed, albeit much smaller than usual. Sasuke had always previously performed the attack with his left hand.

In looking at the destruction in front of them, he initially thought that his Rasengan actually did do damage, but then he looked closer. The scars on the ground were that of lightning and not wind. He reasoned that Sasuke must have fired off a Chidori while obscured in the tornado and used the opening to break the illusion over him. Gritting his teeth at his failure, he removed his headband and instead tied it around his eyes, allowing no light to peek through.

Sasuke looked to him in concern, Takami's form becoming visible with the dust starting to settle. "What the hell are you doing? That blind fighting crap only works in the movies; you're going to get yourself killed." Movies…and with Takami.

"The way I see it," he chuckled with Sasuke groaning, "If I'm caught again, I'm likely dead anyways. Besides, I have an idea. You just keep doing what you're doing and I'll follow after."

Sasuke clicked his teeth but nodded once. "Fine, but stick close!" And with that, he was off.

"I love it when he gets all concerned about me," Naruto murmured before creating a third wave of clones and charging with him.

Putting the headband over his eyes had been a gamble but one that was paying off. The clones were acting as his eyes and with so many, he was being fed various angles, but was still able to put them together as a cohesive whole. The best part as well was that there wasn't a way to put a genjutsu on a clone, making them infallible to at least one of Takami's tricks.

The more pressing issue was Takami's ability for magnetism, to both repel and pull objects in. He'd failed to attack last time within the five-second time gap but as Takami once more put out his hand in the signature pose, this time he would be ready. A second later, one of the clones relayed a scene of all of them being dragged closer, though Naruto could already feel his body being lifted from the ground and flung forward.

As a group they were sucked in with Sasuke leading the pack. The Uchiha allowed himself to get close enough to almost be eye to eye with Takami, which worried Naruto as he could see that the man's second hand that wasn't controlling the pulling was preparing for something else. Perhaps noticing it as well, Sasuke struck his sword in the ground and released the Chidori with blue waves snaking through the ground.

Still being propelled through the air, Naruto reached behind him and flung one of his Truth Seeking orbs, willing it to be the element of his desire. When it combined with Sasuke's jutsu, it released itself as a river of sparking water, heightening the Uchiha's attack. Too slow to avoid both attacks, he felt his blood rush with excitement when Takami actually took the full hit, disappearing under the force of the water.

Sasuke's sword kept him from being washed away and Naruto had switched to flying on his own to keep from being swept up in the stream as well. When the water finally seeped away, Takami lay soaking on the ground, coughing. He wanted to wait to see what he would do next but Sasuke broke out running once more, and Naruto was too afraid to let him charge ahead on his own. He swooped in beside him and flattened out one of his orbs, positioning it right in front of Sasuke. Wordlessly, Sasuke hopped on and Naruto guided them closer.

To their surprise, Takami managed to pull himself up and instead moved forward this time to bring the fight to them. Of the five clones Naruto had originally created, three had been wiped out in the combination technique but the other two was more than enough for Naruto to now tell that Takami was starting to feel the strain of the battle. For all of his powers, his chakra levels were nowhere near what Naruto held. Had this not been a foe that'd tortured Sasuke and had taken the eyes of children, he might've been able to muster up a shred of sympathy for his demise.

As it was, he felt nothing when Sasuke engulfed Takami's right arm in flames with the command "Amaterasu!" Naruto followed this up with one of his massive Rasengan's, knowing it was complete overkill. Instead of landing the attack himself, he sent one of his clones to deliver the blow and a moment later, he was grateful he had.

A swirling void greeted the clone, absorbing it before it could land the hit. He and Sasuke came to a halt, gritting their teeth at the sight of the Kamui. With it in front of him like a shield, Takami coated his left arm in chakra and used it to slice through the burning arm before it could fully consume him. Switching from blue to green chakra, he healed the wound though not before having lost a considerable amount of blood.

Still with the vortex threatening to devour anything that dared to get close, he looked up at them and this time Naruto did flinch as tears of blood ran down the man's cheek. "Here's where I'm supposed to say something like 'I underestimated you two', but that'd be a lie," he panted, struggling to stay standing. The Kamui flickered once but managed to hold itself. "It's precisely because of your strength that I wanted to rid the world of such powers. I never deluded myself into thinking it'd be easy. Still, if I should die, let me die with dignity, knowing I've given my best."

Naruto barely registered anything he'd said, as all of it sounded like generic villain bullshit. At the conclusion of his speech, the Kamui dissolved and Naruto sent his remaining clone to deliver the finishing blow the last one failed at. The second before it connected though, it disappeared and Naruto's vision went dark without the additional set of eyes. Throwing caution to the wind, his curiosity made him lower the headband from around his eyes and what he saw on the other side would've made him discard it in shock regardless.

The last clone had perished due to what initially appeared to be a wall of black flames not unlike the Amaterasu. As they watched, the flames grew higher and began to take on a shape…a very familiar winged and armored humanoid form. Standing before them at several hundred feet tall, Takami had transformed his body into that of a Complete Susano'o.