I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Blast From the Past
The creature's blade flashed as it descended before blood flew into the air. Everyone froze, staring in wide-eyed shock as the creature backed away, Hinata falling forward and crashing to the ground. The creature unleashed an unearthly shriek and the rest all surged forward. They all stopped and backed away as black flames burst to life in front of them. Itachi blinked then spun around as Sasuke sprinted over.
"Thought you guys could use some help," Sasuke stated. "Shizuka, take Hinata back to the village."
Before she could, a group of three creatures leapt at Hinata. Before anyone could react, three glowing green kunai flew out of the fog and killed them before a deafening roar bellowed from somewhere in the fog.
"What is that?" Minato began as Hinata stirred, looking up just as a swarm of Chakra Chains shot out of the fog smashing and killing creatures right and left. Then, the chains began to spin, seeming to chase each other before twisting together and binding to form a massive serpentine dragon out of Chakra Chains.
"Is that...a Chakra Chain Dragon?" Minato blinked.
"No one can do that," Itachi blinked.
"Kushina says that no Uzumaki has ever had a strong enough Kekkei Genkai," Minato said eye widening. "No one except..."
"Naruto," Hinata breathed, barely able to make a sound.
"Sorry I'm late," Naruto apologized, walking out of the fog, the dragon extending from his right shoulder and fighting the creatures as he walked over to Hinata, placing a hand on her shoulder and using Medical Ninjutsu to heal her wound.
The moment she was healed, she sat up, slapping him across the face before grabbing his collar and pulling him into the single most passionate kiss he had ever had. He kissed her back happily for a moment before pulling away as a creature smashed his dragon aside. It charged at Naruto and Hinata but a glowing green kunai formed behind his shoulder and then shot at the creature, driving itself through the creature's throat and into another's skull, the dragon returning to the fight.
"Sorry I've been gone so long," Naruto sighed.
"Naruto..." Minato breathed. "How are you...here?"
"I have that freak I got sealed up with to thank," Naruto spat. "How long's it been here?"
"More than a year," Minato stated.
"I thought so," Naruto nodded. "Same timeframe as inside the Shinigami. Except, in there, there's no such thing as dying. I'm sure your clone remembers that."
"He did," Minato nodded.
"Well, I spent the first month fighting that freak," Naruto stated. "No death means no holding back, on both sides. The inside of the Shinigami is a dark and dismal alternate dimension. In there, expending chakra continuously will increase your chakra reserves rapidly but will in no way harm you. So after a month of constant all-out warfare, I'm not sure how strong I am now. Either way, these creatures are something he created while fighting me. I see their true form and, your worst fear is a blessing."
"You managed to hold your own for a year?" Sasuke gaped.
"Hell no," Naruto snorted. "The amount of power he had before I sealed him was him conserving energy. During that month we were fighting, I saw him use up to fifty percent of his total power. At one percent he was as strong as when we all fought him together. I couldn't hurt him, ever. After that month, we both understood we were wasting our time. But boy was it fun and satisfying to do it. But in the end, he decided he had better things to do and skipped to sixty percent of his power, tearing a rift between our dimension and the dimension inside the Shinigami. The same rifts that you've likely got reports about. I noticed and slipped through before he could stop me, arriving in time to help Temujin and Shizuka fight these things. However, when we finished, the Forbidden, the freak sealed inside the Shinigami, used his power to suck all three of us in. He then opened another rift. I went through and sent both of you out through it. This time, however, Ryuzetsu got pulled through. Then Shion, and a hundred others. Karin and Ameyuri I managed to get free already, Ryuzetsu being the last one I know of alive inside. She'll get free soon though."
"Where are Karin and Ameyuri?" Minato interrupted just as the dragon was pinned and Naruto sent a barrage of kunai to free it and the remaining creatures fled.
"Scattered," Naruto stated. "I'll find them later. For now, the important part is, inside, he still has limitless energy, I do not while I'm on this side of the rift. He creates those things from his raw chakra. they're relatively weak, especially since they come from him, but he can create endless floods of them. The rifts are at fifty five percent of his power."
"So?" Tsunade questioned.
"So at a hundred, he'd kill the Shinigami and free himself entirely," Naruto stated simply. "The rifts are essentially gashes from the Shinigami's stomach to the outside world."
"Gross," Sasuke stated just as a strong wind started up, pushing them all toward the rift.
Naruto grabbed Hinata just as she slipped, holding her agains him with his left arm as the Chakra Chain Dragon separated into individual chains, securing the others and himself as he held his right hand out to Sasuke.
"I'll need to borrow your power for this," Naruto stated.
Sasuke held a hand over Naruto's and a Rasenshuriken with lightning racing around the inside formed, this time with miniature Chakra Chain Dragons spinning around the outside.
"This is one parasitic partnership I'm ending," Naruto stated hurling the Rasenshuriken into the rift where it briefly illuminated a pair of glowing red eyes and pitch black snout before it exploded between the eyes, a horrible shrieking roar emanating from the thing as Chakra Chains shot out of the explosion, binding the thing in place as the rift closed, the fog clearing in seconds.
"Is it over?" Sasuke questioned.
"For the moment," Naruto nodded. "Now, we need to head back to the Hokage's office so we can talk. I need to file a year's worth of reports."
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