AN: Everything has a happy ending? Is that what you want me to say? Well, then. I guess we will see.
Chapter 8: The End of All Things Part I
"Hinata, wait!" Hinata had been about to follow Naruto down through the hole in the ground when she heard her name being called from the direction of Konoha. She spotted the Kazekage, followed closely by the Hokage, Shikamaru, and Temari. They all came to a stop next to her, which was when Kakashi appeared next to her in a puff of smoke.
"Hinata, report."
"Yes, Hokage. I followed Naruto till his presence disappeared here. I assume he went down the stairs."
"Those walls seem familiar…" Kakashi had pocketed his book, and was examining the walls of the staircase with his sharingan revealed.
"They should, they are covered in the same type of seals that the underground tunnels are. This was made to block all chakra from escaping, so it is no wonder we can't sense Naruto anymore."
"Please, Hokage! We are losing Naruto!"
"…Here…" Gaara had coated the ground in his sand and was now lifting everyone down the deep shaft in the earth on a sand platform.
"Where are the others, Hinata?" Shikamaru knew that they would need every ounce of manpower to stand a chance against a possibly insane Naruto, let alone any other Akatsuki they might find.
"Sakura and Shizune stopped to fight a member of the Akatsuki with a large… thing on his head. Jiriya is fighting a blue haired lady."
"Zetsu… but I haven't heard of a women in the Akatsuki."
"It doesn't matter what they are doing. They are not here, so that makes us in a tighter spot then before. They are probably going to get here too late."
"Temari is right, but we still have a chance to stop Naruto from destroying Konoha if he recognizes Hinata."
"Destroys Konoha? But how? We are probably a quarter kilometer underground now! And we don't even know if this is going to lead towards Konoha." Shikamaru sighed. It looked like he would need to explain everything.
"These seals, they were made many years ago. The stairs are falling apart in most places. This is an extension to the evacuation tunnels under Konoha. It makes sense, being that this is on the opposite side of Konoha from most of our past enemies. The tunnels are pretty much the exact same as these. This was just an unrecorded extension that the First probably never had a chance to finish before his untimely death. I know it will go under Konoha, because we touched the bottom a few seconds ago and the doorway is right behind you. Now follow Gaara, before we loose him." Shikamaru calmly walked with his hands in his pockets between the startled Temari and Tsunade. Hinata was already directly behind the Kazekage, followed by Kakashi and the now running Shikamaru.
"That is one sharp kid."
"Yeah, why do you think I am dating him?" The two ran after the rest of their group.
Team Guy, Sakura and Shizune arrived just in time to watch Shino's insects devour the rest of the corpse's more edible parts. Ten-ten held back a retch as the insects crawled away from the skeletal remains of what should have been a human.
"Jiriya, where is Hinata?" Sakura ran up to help the aged man to his feet. His face was white, though Sakura thought it was more from watching a body get devoured by flesh eating insects then weakness from a battle.
"W…what? Oh, yeah. She went after Naruto. Come on. And Shino…"
"…Yes?"
"Don't ever do that again unless I am not around!"
Naruto was rushing down the abnormally wide corridors, finding many large caverns, but always finding another doorway at the back of the last. If he had been in his right mind he would have been intrigued by the seals surround him on the walls. He also might have been wondering how he could even see, when there was no source of light in the entire place. He ran on all fours, now, with his tails whipping behind him at an increased speed. He could almost taste the presence of the person he was drawing closer to. I am coming. I hope that you are ready to die. Then I can finally be at peace… Naruto finally arrived at his destination. He entered into a cavern easily the size of half of Konoha. The center of the large and mostly empty area held the only interesting landmark. A huge statue, grotesque in appearance, stood in the direct middle. Naruto wasn't even phased as he ran towards the enormous statue. It appeared to be a half buried statue of a nine eyed monster. Two enormous hands cam out of the ground in front of the body, each finger wide enough to have three people stand side by side on it. The hands stretched outwards, as if attempting to grasp some imaginary thing in front of the nine eyes. If he had bothered to look closer at the body, he would have seen that it went from the shoulders of the monster to the head. It was likely over a hundred feet tall. The head appeared to be nothing more then nine eyes, no mouth or nose. The statue was covered in slips of paper reading "seal". Also, many seals had been carved into the actual body of the mammoth statue. Naruto didn't care about any of that. He saw his prey. Sitting on top of the giant statue's head was one man, covered in shadow. Naruto stopped moving after he had climbed up one of the hands and gathered himself to pounce. The person stood up and opened his eyes. They revealed themselves to be made of many rings of various colors.
"I guess… that you are… the Kyuubi container… yet… the Kyuubi isn't in you anymore…" Naruto smirked, speaking for the first time since seeing his wife's charred corpse. It wasn't his normal voice… it sounded as demonic as he appeared.
"FOOL! I am the Kyuubi."
Gaara stopped at the entrance to the next cavern. Standing in the middle of the medium sized area was another Akatsuki member. Hinata almost slammed into his back, as did the rest of the team. The Akatsuki removed his hat to reveal the face of an almost beautiful red haired man about Gaara's age.
"You are Sasori of the sand."
"And you must be Gaara of the Desert. I have heard of you. You killed Deidara and Kakuzu with the help of the Kyuubi's container. You, yourself, are a demon container. The one tailed tanuki, Shukaku, if I am correct. I am sorry that I can not let you pass, Lord Kazekage. Maybe you would enjoy it if I had you met one of your predecessors. You could spend all the time you needed to… discuss… your life. Well, all the time you have left." Gaara didn't even change facial expressions as a puppet of the Third Kazekage appeared next to the puppet master.
"Go." Hinata looked at Gaara. "I said go, I will destroy this traitor to my village. It is my duty to Suna and to the previous Kazekages." Gaara walked forward as his gourd disintegrated into sand. Hinata and the rest ran around to the side, leaving Gaara facing off with the puppets.
"I am sorry, but you all really must stay. You don't have a choice, you will stay here. Dead or soon to be dead." Sasori sent the Third to intercept the running shinobi. It had pulled out two wicked looking blades, poisoned from what Tsunade could tell, and was about to attack Hinata from behind when it collided with a wall of sand.
"Your battle… is with me… traitor." Gaara held out his hand towards the puppet. Sand pushed it away from his comrades, leaving them the opening they needed to get through. As they passed through the arch into the next corridor Tsunade threw a piece of paper onto the wall.
"A small seal can't stop me… what?" Sasori had put his hands into the sign to release the seal, only to find that it was no ordinary seal. It was simple enough to dispel, but no matter what he did it would take exactly thirty seconds. It wasn't meant to be hard, just time consuming. Gaara had known exactly what was going on the second that the seal didn't disappear instantly.
"Concentrate on me." Gaara held his puppet of the third in his sand's grasp. He clenched his fist, destroying the puppet and crushing it into tiny pieces. All of the needles and weapons contained in the puppet fell to the ground, useless. Sasori was angry. He had failed the boss and had allowed people past him.
"Fool. You would think a Kazekage would know better then to take me on alone."
"Your puppets are useless against my sand." Gaara moved his sand around him, preparing for his next assault. Sasori sneered at the unmoving and unflinching Kazekage. He removed a scroll and released two puppets. Each was a perfect replica of Sasori himself. Gaara understood.
"You are also a puppet." Sasori managed to contain his surprise at Gaara's deduction. That was not something he wanted to reveal to this very capable opponent. "Very well, then you will be crushed also."
"Just try."
Gaara called up a massive amount of sand from around his feet before sending it streaking towards the fabled puppet master. All three went flying away, sprouting metal wings from their backs. The wings folded to their sides and began to spin like saw blades. The three Sasoris flew faster then Gaara's huge amount of sand could follow. One came in to slice Gaara in half, but found out the hard way that Gaara's sand defense, honed and perfected over his entire life, was much better then anticipated. The blades were immediately stopped by Gaara's sand, inches from his face. The sand crept up the trapped puppet before coating it completely in sand. Gaara used the ball of sand to crush the puppet. When he released the sand, the pieces of the puppet fell, revealing that it hadn't been the real Sasori. Gaara hadn't even moved the entire time, but his steadfastness was his demise. Two more Sasoris came at him from different angles, and while one was being covered by the sand, the other used a blade that came out of it's wrist to cut Gaara's head in half.
"Fool!" Sasori didn't even pay attention to his other puppet as he focused on the seal again. He was almost done with it when he realized that his feet were covered in sand. What the hell? Gaara appeared out of the ground, shedding sand as he rose. Sasori looked to where his lifeless body should have been. It was dissolving into sand. His other puppet had already been crushed. Sasori grinned at Gaara, an innocent grin that a boy caught stealing cookies would give to an elder brother or sister.
"So you got me." Gaara's sand covered his entire lower body and held his arms in place. If he had wanted to move, he couldn't anymore. Gaara's sand felt around his upper body, as if looking for something. No! He can't know about it! How the hell could have figured it out? Sasori began struggling at the sand. Gaara's sand stopped over his left breast.
"You really should try harder to keep your chakra source disguised. Especially when it is in only one point in your entire body. Now, if I am correct, this is your… heart." Gaara made a fist with one hand as Sasori's puppet body screamed in pain. Suddenly the puppet went limp. Gaara took no chances. He had learned early on that expert shinobi could stop their hearts for short periods of time. And could possibly escape a half hearted sand tomb. Gaara's sand covered the body completely.
"Desert Funeral." Gaara clenched both fists at the large pile of sand. It visibly contracted to almost half of its original size. Gaara held it there for almost ten minutes, pouring more and more chakra into making sure that every part of the puppet's body was broken down into the size of dust specks.
"Gaara!" Gaara turned to see Rock Lee run up, followed by a large group of shinobi. "Gaara, how are you? Are you following Naruto, too? What is in that pile of sand over there? Did you just have a fight? Are you ok? Where…" Lee was forced to stop when Neji smacked him upside the head. Sakura took over for her boyfriend, who was on the ground rubbing his head and injured pride.
"Gaara, where are the others?"
"Up ahead, go!" Gaara used the last of his chakra to unseal the next corridor. Gaara knelt on the ground after that, still emotionless, but gave a small grunt of exhaustion. Shizune knelt next to him.
"I can stay with Gaara, everyone else GO!" Jiriya led, followed closely by Sakura and Lee as they entered the next doorway.
Pein had jumped down to the other hand and Naruto prepared to kill.
"So, Kyuubi. You finally… overpowered your container…"
"No! The container became the Kyuubi, not the other way around. Are you the leader of the Akatsuki?"
"Really? So the Kyuubi is dead… no… it is reborn…"
"Are you the one who hired all of those thugs to come after me?"
"Yes."
"Good, then I will finally be able to kill you!" Naruto jumped towards the other hand, chakra blazing around his body. Pein jumped towards him, also. They met half way and clashed. They each landed on the opposite hand then where they had started. Naruto looked down at his side, which now had a gash in it that looked like it had come from a wind jutsu. Pein turned to face the tailed ninja with wind surrounding a kunai.
"You didn't use any seals…"
"And you call me the fool? Do my eyes look normal? I have a Kekkei Genkai that allows me to use ninjustu without the use of words or signs."
"Not like it even matters. I will kill you here. You can't even imagine the power I have, and now that I have nothing to live for I won't hold ANYTHING back!"
"Not even your little wife? I heard you were wed recently…"
"I KILLED HER, YOU BASTARD! SHE DIED WHEN I WAS KILLING YOUR THUGS! YOU ARE GOING TO DIE FOR THAT!"
"… It doesn't really matter. She couldn't love a demon, like you. It was all a plan by the Forth Hokage. He put that fox inside of you for the same reason that all demons were put into humans…"
"WHAT?"
"You were born to be a human weapon. And when you became unstable and were no longer able to fight in battle for fear of losing your mind to the demon inside, at an early age as all vessels do, you would be told to breed. Clans and villages that are always attempting to gain in power… how do you think the Kekkei Genkai were created? All that they are, are the remains of demon blood flowing in the veins of the remains of families that once had a demon vessel in their family tree. It is better off that both you and her died, before another curse on the human blood was created."
"… Did you just say... that it was better for everyone that Hinata died…" Naruto's voice was low as he turned away from the leader of the Akatsuki.
"Yes."
"Well, do you know something, bastard? It wasn't better for her or me! YOU DON'T THINK WE WERE IN LOVE? I WILL PROVE IT BY KILLING YOU TO FULFILL THE FIRST PROMISE I EVER MADE TO HER AND THE LAST PROMISE I MADE OVER HER LIFELESS CORPSE!" Chakra started pouring out of Naruto, covering his entire body in a coating of blood red chakra to match his blood stained clothes and tails. He stared into Pein's eyes before lifting a fist out towards him, with blood red chakra almost dripping from his fingers. "I VOW TO WIN!"
AN: Time to get serious. One more chapter till I release the rest all at once. I have the rest of the story completely planned out. Hehehe... oh, and if you thought Sasori was more of a challenge then I made him out to be, you are wrong. The anime fight is pretty cool, but sand can clog a puppets joints in the same way that Shino used in the Chunin exams against Kankoro. Sasori was up against the worst possibly person for him to be up against. Gaara should never be underestimated, he rocks. Second favorite character in all of Naruto. Hinata, Gaara, Naruto, Lee, ect. OK... so the next chapter will obviously be Naruto v. Pein in a no-holds barred, everything goes, free for all to the death. Hinata is coming close to Naruto, will he finally snap out of it? If you think that one man against the Fifth, three Jonin, a sennin, and another group of ninjas is an unfair fight then you... are making the same mistake Kiba made about Naruto. Don't underestimate the power of the dark side... yeah.
AN: UPDATED Sorry, had a problem with the upload and a quote was left out. It is now in.