Chapter 49: The Crumbling Alliance
Sakura was first to move, picking Sasuke up, "come on Naruto, we have to get him out of here," she said.
Naruto nodded and took Sasuke's right arm across his shoulder, Sakura under Sasuke's left, and the two carried the unconscious ninja away from the Alliance.
x-X-x
"Sounds like you got reinforcements," Black said once he was back on his feet, Blue having just removed the blade from his back.
"We might just," Sin said with a slight grin.
"Is this the traumatic end of all of us then?" White asked from the floor beneath Edge's sword.
"I can live with that," Wiseman said.
Out of the darkness behind Lerah came three men, the last remaining Heads of the Alliance.
"Ah, Vox, Gaze and Kraik, the parties all here," Sin said.
"Just about," Dea said from behind Sin.
Sin looked behind him, "just Lax and Dragoon missing then," he said.
"Were here," Lax called from behind Vox.
"It appears these two have the drop on us," Kraik said glancing behind him at Dragoon and Lax.
"Now that the Twelve Terrors are here in full representation, I believe it has arrived at the proper time to rectify the vast error in our previous judgment," Vox said.
"What the hell does that mean?" Blue asked.
"Kill the twelve," Kraik said.
"Why the hell couldn't he say it like that?" Blue asked.
"Have you never heard Vox talk before?" Black asked.
"Can we fight already, my swords thirsty for blood," Dragoon said drawing his blade.
"Edge, if you'd be so kind as to let White up, I would like to fight one of my descendants," Sage said.
Edge nodded and stepped away from White who got up and grabbed her katana. She walked over to Black Tzet and Blue, the three Colors and Tzet were now in the center of the hall. To their left were Sin, Dea, Frost, Stone, Strag, Sage, Grim, and Nomad. On their right were Wiseman and Edge. Further right was Lerah, Vox, Gaze, and Kraik. And beyond them were Dragoon and Lax.
"What manner of ideology did you prescribe in the processes of designing this assault and further conflicts in the manner of individualities betwixt the oppositions we now see ourselves facing?" Vox asked.
"We thought we'd just kinda wing it from here on out," Strag said shrugging.
"The great mind held captive within your cranial prison did not devise such designations for further usage beyond this point of conflict we now face? The knowledge of such vast failures upon the opposition of this organization has thusly caused fatal errors in both of the opposing directions.
"Though one is most assuredly doomed to the great and vastness of failure, the direction of which that failure was once so forcefully known by both sides, however with the horrific addition of this knowledge that once know direction is left in the spiral motion, and therefore none whom are currently held within these stone barriers can properly predict what the final determination will lead to," Vox said.
"That's a mouthful," Dragoon said.
"It's true too," Sage said.
"Unfortunately," Wiseman said.
"Am I the only one who's lost?" Blue asked looking around.
"Before Wiseman said that them being here was without the aid of Strag, they were doomed to loose. Then Strag shows up, meaning in reality we are doomed to fail. But their plan ends here, so from now on, the winner is unknown to both sides," Black said.
"Screw it, I'll ask later, I got legends to kill now," Blue said.
"She didn't get after that?" Dea whispered in Frosts ear, Frost just shrugged.
"It's a bit tight to have twenty people fight here. Who's gunna move?" White asked.
In response Kraik took out his two katana and slammed them both into the right side wall of the hall. About fifteen feet of the wall crumbled into rubble giving the fighters the room of the three cells behind it, "that should be plenty," he said stepping back.
"There's more room upstairs though," Gaze said walking into one of the cells. He went to the opposite wall and crouched low, "whoever wishes to fight me, or in more space, follow," he said before jumping up and through the stone ceiling.
"Aw damn," Frost muttered.
"Got him," Grim said, Nomad behind him. the two jumped through the hole after Gaze.
Without a word both Kraik and Vox went through the hole as well. The twelve looked between themselves for a moment before five more went through the hole, Dragoon, Dea, Wiseman, Edge and Sin.
"And then there were ten," Frost said.
"We got more than enough room for the ten of us. Who gets who?" Black asked.
"Id rather kill the girl, but I guess I'll have to settle for the one who led her out," Blue said.
"Sorry, I already got dibs," Black said.
"What?" Blue yelled turning on Black.
"He threw a sword into my back, I'm gunna be the one who kills him," Black said.
"I'll take the smart one," Lerah said cutting Blue off.
"Mr. silent for me," Tzet said.
"Looks like you get the leftovers," Black said.
"Okay, now that you know who you're fighting, mind telling us?" Frost asked.
"Well, from how I gather it, I fight Black, Stone fights Tzet, Strag fights Lerah, and you get Blue," Lax said.
"Oh… wait! That makes me leftover," Frost said looking at Strag.
"That's the way things go Leftover," Black said with a grin.
"Hey Lax, wanna trade?" Frost asked.
"Sorry no, Hell hath no fury, and she'd take it out on me," Lax said.
"What was that?" Blue asked.
"Why are you talking, we're here to kill you. Is this a pathetic attempt to stall us?" Stone asked.
"Thank you," Tzet said.
"Shut up, I'm the one that kills you," Stone said drawing his sword.
"Fine then, lets do this," Tzet said charging Stone.
On his example Blue, Black, White and Lerah also charged. Their opponents spreading out to get enough room for the fight. Each member of the Alliance attacked at nearly the same time, and the five members of the twelve all successfully blocked the attack. Stone and Lax managed a counter, but the other three didn't have time before things went to hell.
A near deafening explosion sounded off from the upper levels. The entire building started to shake.
"What the hell was that?" demanded Blue.
"Does this place have a self destruct?" Frost asked.
"Not that we were told about, but that's the kind of thing the Heads might do," Black said.
The walls around them started to crack and crumble. The ten warriors were having a difficult time staying on their feet; the battle was on hold at the least.
Sage's head was tilted back, looking at the ceiling. He was looking for a trace of any of the others. Then his head snapped to look at Lax, "Get us out of here now Lax," he said very calmly.
"Right," Lax said nodding before he bolted down the hall to get to the secret passage. His four allies were right behind him, as was Tzet, who knew where they were headed.
"Aren't you gunna help your allies?" Frost asked.
"They can help themselves, they know other ways in and out of here," Tzet said.
x-X-x
Naruto and Sakura were a distance from the Alliance, though the top few feet were still visible over the trees, if they chose to look. Then the explosion sounded and both stopped to look back at the building.
"What was that?" Sakura asked.
"No idea, I don't thing the twelve use explosive tags," Naruto said.
"It'd be a lot of tags to get that big of an explosion," Sakura said.
They were silent a moment as Naruto thought of an answer. As he opened his mouth to give it, the few feet of the Alliance base that was visible sunk behind the trees.
"Oh god, it's collapsing," Naruto said taking a step closer to it, still holding Sasuke.
"Are the twelve out?" Sakura asked.
"I have no idea," Naruto said.
They were silent again for a while before Sakura spoke, "Naruto, get Sasuke back to Konoha, I'm going back to the base," Sakura said.
"What? Why?" Naruto yelled, almost dropping Sasuke.
Sakura took a few steps closer to the Alliance base, leaving Naruto to hold Sasuke alone, "the twelve might be hurt. None of them can heal their wounds, they might need me," Sakura said.
"But what if one of the Alliance is still able to fight?" Naruto asked.
"I can fight, you know that," Sakura said with a slight grin.
"Not when you use all you chakra for healing," Naruto said.
Sakura didn't answer. She just smiled at Naruto and started back to the Alliance, shouting, once she was gone from sight, "Naruto! Get Sasuke back to Konoha!"
Naruto stood there a moment, not knowing what to do. He wanted to chase after Sakura, but he couldn't bring Sasuke into what could be there. And he certainly couldn't leave him here. With much pain and regret, Naruto started back to Konoha.
x-X-x
AN: dear god, Vox is very hard to write. Anyway, it's been a while since I did an author note, so I figured I was a bit overdue. For those who are wondering when the arcs break up, and their names, I've stopped naming them. I think it takes a bit away from the story to have it broken into small pieces. However, I am still doing parts. This is now part four, which actually started with the gods talking. Naruto's attack on Chaos was the last thing from part three.