Yup, it's me again! Many of you wanted me to update ASAP, so I sat down to it and somehow managed to write this chapter quicker then I usually do (even though college is really horrible right now).
With this chapter the battle in Suna basically ends. All the questions you asked last time will be answered in it (well, kinda), so all you have to do is read it to find out the answers. Naturally, thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter.
Now, before I'll end this, there's one, final announcement I'd like to make: someone was actually brave enough to offer me beta-reading this fic! His penname is Falkyn and thanks to him you won't have to suffer my terrible, English grammar. Naturally, this situation has another plus: if there'll still be mistakes, I always have someone to blame for that :D But seriously, I hope that with Falkyn's help you'll find this story more enjoyable.
Falkyn speaking now: Hello people! It's me, the new beta-reader. Woot. I just want to say that I'm still in high school, so any English Majors who notice grammar mistakes I make, (however small they may be,) cut me some slack, please. I did edit this at four in the morning, and I have had no sleep. I'll do my best, so don't yell at me please. I hope you enjoy the story. By the way, I didn't bother to correct minor mistakes like a period as opposed to a comma at the end of a character's paragraph. Just so you know. It would take much more time than I have on my hands right now. Okay, on to beta reading for me. On to reading for you.
Chapter #14: Things That Are, Things That Were
Title Page: Tamao is looking up with a badger sitting on the top of her head
"So… what do you need me to do?" asked Naruto, with determination in his eyes, which slowly began to turn red. Naraku only smiled slightly before replying: "Keep her busy and weaken her a bit. But please, do what you can to not harm her."
"That last part might be a problem!" yelled the blonde as they both jumped away while stone spikes shot from below. The former leaf-nin landed on the wall and sticking to it with his chakra, he bit his finger and began writing on the scroll he picked out.
The moment his feet touched the ground, Naruto performed his standard technique: "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" and in a flash hundreds of the blonde clones surrounded the former stone-nin, who was still kneeling and embracing herself with her arms. She looked up, with tears still running down her cheeks. She was different from the last time the whisker-marks saw her: her skin was now completely pale and she seemed way skinnier then before. Her entire body was trembling and in several places veins began to appear.
With a short moment of hesitation, the Kyuubi vessel's clones charged straight at the girl from all directions, but most of them were stopped as a ring of stone spikes shoot from around her, impaling ten of them. The other bushins however managed to jump into the air, right above the spikes, and came down with their fists ready straight at the former stone-nin.
But to the blonde's surprise, the stone spikes that were surrounding her suddenly began bending back and in a flash formed a stone dome above the Kaku vessel, making all Naruto's clones land on it. All it took was a second for small spikes to shoot from outside the dome, each cutting through a clone and making them all disappear in the cloud of white smoke. As the smoke cleared, the whisker-marks noticed that the dome was no longer protecting the girl, however not a single bushin of his survived.
And in the next second a huge, stone hand shoot straight at him. Acting on instinct, Naruto jumped off the wall and into the air, but unfortunately that's precisely what Kaku wanted as another stone hand appeared from the first one and grabbed the blonde while he was still in mid-air. Once the whisker-marks was trapped, the hand began to clench, crushing him inside.
"No!" Tamao yelled from the bottom of her lungs. Whether her will to save her friend had made the hand slow down for a split second or not was one thing that no one will every know, but there's no doubt that for that short amount of time the crushing stopped and that was enough for the blonde to gather chakra in his palm in the form of a blue orb and break his way out of the trap in time.
As his feet touched the ground, Naruto charged at the Kaku vessel, performing another Kage Bushin in the process, this time creating four clones. While the original stayed behind and began a new set of hand seals, the replicas moved forward, picking out their kunai.
But surprisingly for everyone, stone ropes shoot from below ground and circling around the four clones as they were charging at Tamao, each from a different direction, trapping them all. Then the girl's eyes set on the original, but they weren't her eyes anymore. They were black with red fire circling in the middle of them.
As Kaku's sight caught Naruto, another trail of stone spikes came his way at an incredible speed. As it was merely inches before it's target, all four, trapped clones suddenly exploded because of the explosive tags hidden behind their shirts, destroying the 'ropes' that were binding them, spraying small rocks all around. As several, tiny stone hit the girl on the face softly, the trail of stone spikes slowed down, giving the blonde enough time to finish his technique: "Fuuton: Tatsumaki Hakka no Jutsu!" and in a flash a small tornado blasted below his feet, making the whisker-marks fly high into the air.
As he flew through the air, red chakra surrounded him, forming claws around his fingers and a single tail growing behind him. His eyes now turned completely red, his teeth became fangs and his whisker-marks were more visible. He landed on the other side of the girl and charged at her again, at an incredible speed.
In a flash a clawed hand made of the orange chakra surrounding Tamao grew out in an attempt to pierce through the blonde, but the Kyuubi vessel managed to somersault to his right in time, thus avoiding the assault. He was merely inches away from the kunoichi when another hand shot out, this time hitting him in the stomach, but luckily for him, he received a hit from an opened palm.
As the blonde was sent flying back, the chakra surrounding the kunoichi began to form again, creating hands with claws and growing five tails on the rear. While the whisker-marks slammed into the wall, Naraku only cursed in his mind: "Five tails already? If I don't hurry there'll be no stopping it!"
Meanwhile Kaku shot one of its chakra hands towards Naruto. Unable to dodge in time, the blonde extended his own hand as well and the two collided. However, to the leaf-nin's surprise, the claws on Tamao's hand extended and continued heading towards the whisker-marks.
Naruto drew back his chakra palm, hoping to dodge the attack in time, but all he achieved was moving his vital points from the claws way. He let out a cry of pain as two claws cut his legs and one pierced through his left shoulder, widening his wound.
As blood dripped down the blonde's left hand, Kaku clenched his hand around the leaf-nin, trapping him yet again. As the beast's grip tightened, Naruto felt his bones start to crack. Having no way to perform hand seals, the whisker-marks decided to try a desperate move. In a fraction of a second his chakra hand shoot out towards the kunoichi's body and swiped her off her feet, making the hand grabbing him let go, opening the wound on his left shoulder completely.
"You wanna fight with tails, asshole?" asked Naruto through clenched teeth as he looked at Tamao, who was slowly getting back to her feet. "I have all nine of them!" and as he said so, the second, chakra tail grew from his back. Yet his eyes widen as he realized that he wasn't the only one who changed.
The girl's body was slowly being covered in hard stone, beginning with her neck and right arm. This new… mutation seemed completely not related to Kaku's current state as the orange chakra surrounding Tamao's body was still there.
"What the hell?" the blonde asked himself, confused as he observed the whole scene. "She's starting to transform into something like Gaara back then, but it's different for some reason. This can't be good." The moment he finished this thought, several small, stone hands shot from below ground in a third attempt to trap him.
Acting on instinct, Naruto jumped into the air and as the hands reached out to grab him, he used his chakra claws to break them into pieces. But even though he managed to avoid the first attack, he saw several, small, stone spikes forming in front of Kaku once again. Only this time, instead of sticking out from the ground, they shot out and flew right at him.
Having no way to dodge the assault in mid-air, the blonde extended his chakra hand and used it to grab a nearby building. Once his claws sunk into the building wall, he pulled himself out of the spikes way, avoiding certain death.
As the whisker-marks landed back on the ground, he charged at the kunoichi once more, performing an instant hand seal: "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" and in a flash seven Narutos appeared in the place of one.
"USELESS." came a deep voice from Tamao's mouth. But the blonde knew all too well that wasn't the girl's voice. At least not anymore. He knew a very similar voice: cold, superior, evil. He knew it, because he heard it in his own head. Such a voice belonged to Kyuubi. "I'll bust your butt out of her!" he only yelled back as each of the clones prepared a kunai.
At that moment, all hell broke loose. The first bunshin took a step forward and was suddenly pierced by a stone spike that shot toward him from the ground. The clone that ran after him jumped onto the spike and used it to close a little more of the distance to the girl. Meanwhile the other clones avoided other spikes that shot from the ground at them. One, however, did not make it.
Once the remaining clones escaped the forest of spikes, they found the ground opening itself before them, creating a large and wide hole, the bottom of which was covered in shadows. Tamao moved her right hand, which was now completely covered in rocks and three times as large as a human's, and the ground beneath the clones crack, making them lose their balance. Four managed to jump into the air in time. One was not so lucky.
The beast was yet undone. At it's command stone spikes once more shoot from the ground, flying at the four, remaining Narutos. Having no, other alternative, two clones grabbed the other two and tossed them out of the way right before they were pierced by the spikes themselves and disappeared in the cloud of white smoke.
As the last two remaining blondes landed on the other side of the pit, one normal and one surrounded with red chakra, they resumed their charge, just to stop a second later as stones flew from below ground yet again, forming before them and creating two, stone gargoyles that blocked their way through.
With a moment of hesitation the clone charged at the stone figures and jumped forward. But what seemed to be an attack, turned out to be a diversion as the real Naruto used his clone's back to jump even higher, above the stone creatures, while the bushin exploded due to an explosive tag it had in it's hand, destroying both gargoyles.
The last blonde, still surrounded by red chakra, continued moving forward and aimed his knife at the girl's head, only to have his attack blocked by the huge, stone hand of the kunoichi. In the next second, orange claws of chakra from the girl's other hand pierced right through the leaf-nin's body.
"LIKE I SAID," stated Kaku in a terrifying voice. "USELESS." but Naraku, who kept on writing on the scroll, not moved by anything that happened below, only said to himself with no emotions showing on his face: "Big mistake. There were seven clones…"
And as on queue the Naruto that had been pierced by the claws disappeared in a cloud of white smoke, making the demon's eyes widen. In an instant it turned around to see the real blonde standing right behind him and launching a chakra hand of his own at it.
As the red chakra grabbed the kunoichi, immobilizing her, the blonde stated without any satisfaction: "You shouldn't have created that spike forest which blocked your view. When you did that I made an extra clone and made one of my bushins use the henge to make itself look exactly the way I'm now."
"I SEE," announced Tamao in Kaku's voice. "CLEVER FOR A HUMAN. BUT I SHALL NOT ALLOW AN INSECT LIKE YOU TO STOP ME!" and as she finished her statement, a huge wave of rocks appeared behind the blonde, heading straight towards him.
Having no other way to dodge, the whisker-marks pulled closer to the kunoichi, using the chakra hand he had grabbed her with. But the moment he got close an evil smirk appeared on Tamao's face and small, sharp stones shot from below the ground and started to circle around the girl's body.
Naruto, who was now close to the kunoichi, received numerous small cuts in several places by those small rocks that suddenly formed a shield around the Kaku's vessel, including a cut on his right palm, forcing the blonde to jump back to avoid more serious damage. A moment later his eyes widened as he noticed that the stones that just a second ago were circling around the former stone-nin flew up and then came down straight at him, in an attempt to bury him under.
With no other option, the leaf-nin made a desperate move and extended his chakra field once more, growing a third tail on his back. To Kaku's surprise, the stones he sent onto the blonde scattered with the first contact with the red chakra. "AN INTERESTING TURN OF EVENTS." the beast thought to itself with a tiny smirk. "I WONDER TO WHAT EXTENT HE'S MANAGED TO CONTROL THAT STUPID FOX CHAKRA."
As the rock rain stopped, Naruto looked up, breathing heavily. And it was then that his eyes widened as he saw how Tamao looked at this point. Besides her right hand, her chest and legs were covered in rocks, and three rocky tails grew out of her back. The girl's head, which still remained human to an extent, now had sharp fangs growing from her mouth and ears slightly modified in shape..
"I'M REALLY ENJOYING THIS, BRAT." announced Kaku with satisfaction. "GO ON, SHOW ME HOW FAR YOU CAN GET." With that several, small stone spikes shot right at the blonde again, cutting him here and there.
The whisker-marks charged forward, but this time it was Kaku that extended a chakra field, making it so that Naruto was unable to go through. In the next second it got worse as the orange chakra began to form small spikes on the surface, which cutting the leaf-nin's body yet again. "Dammit, I've run out of options!" the boy cursed to himself as he began collecting chakra in his hand.
In a fraction of a second an orb of chakra appear in Naruto hand once again, only this time it wasn't blue. It was a bloody red. The blonde pushed his hand forward and to Kaku's surprise the orb broke right through his chakra, clearing the leaf-nin's way to him. "Kitsune Rasengan!" the whisker-marks yelled desperately as his attack connected with the stone armor of the seven-tailed beast.
Tamao's eyes widened as her rocky armor began to crack. Stones started to shoot out from it, leaving the girl's clothes as the only protection of her body yet again. Kaku's orange chakra and Kyuubi's red began circling around the two, in a strange way merging with each other and creating a small tornado above them.
And then a blinding flash of light shot from where the two Jinchuuriki stood, making it impossible to see what exactly happened. As the darkness of the night slowly returned, one could see Naruto and Tamao standing in front of each other, each breathing heavily. The former stone-nin's armor was completely gone, as were the colorful chakras that surrounded each of them. The blonde, however, had received many new cuts, his eyes had turned blue again, and he no longer had the claws and fangs.
"FOOLISH BRAT!" Kaku's voice came from Tamao's mouth yet again. But it was different then before. It wasn't cold or superior. It seemed exhausted. "DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD WIN? I'M THE MASTER OF EARTH! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY INSECTS LIKE YOU!" With that he held out his hand and another stone spike began to form itself.
Naruto only stared at it. He was too weak to avoid it now. "I gave that last blow everything I had." he thought to himself with a weak smile. "My hands and legs won't move… this is where it ends for me."
Meanwhile Naraku finally wrote the last symbol on the scroll. As his blood sank into the material, he quickly pulled out a kunai and cut his right palm before performing a long set of hand seals. As he finished the symbol chain, he placed his right palm in the middle of the scroll and clenched his teeth as pain shoot through his hand when the symbols he drew with his own blood turned back into liquid and swam right into the cut he made.
As the pain grew bigger and bigger, small cuts suddenly began to appear on his right hand, eventually forming the sequence of symbols he just wrote on the scroll. Once all the blood he used for writing returned to his body and bloody marks stopped appearing, he backed away, still feeling pain.
The marks on his hand that appeared just a second ago began healing at an incredible rate. With a flash, they disappeared, leaving no sign of ever having been there. Only the cut on his palm remained. As the process finished, the former leaf-nin set his eyes on the kunoichi's body and with determination in his eyes he jumped into towards her. "Consider this my final gift to you, Tamao-chan…"
Naraku landed in front of Tamao and in a flash drew a symbol on her forehead with his own blood, using his middle and index fingers. Once the mark was complete, he covered it with his hand, which was still covered in his own blood, and began concentrating his chakra into his palm.
"Naruto, I'm leaving everyone under your care" the young Monodane thought to himself as veins suddenly began pulsing in his hand, which started shaking. In a flash Kaku's chakra began to escape the girl's body and flooded into the former leaf-nin's palm, making him clench his teeth in pain. As she slowly regained consciousness, Tamao whispered "Naraku-kun…" when she saw the boy and realized what was going on. The stone spike that was about to pierce through Naruto shattered.
"In the end," Naraku thought to himself with a weak smile, "this is my luck. It's always been my luck." As that last thought ran through his mind, he coughed up blood and felt his skin begin to rip apart in the places he was cut before. "Dammit! So soon? It's because of those injuries that swordsman left me. Shit, at this rate…" But then another hand covered in blood landed on the one he was using to hold onto Tamao's head.
As the former leaf-nin looked to his right, he saw Naruto holding out his right hand as well. "I don't know what you're doing," he stated simply, "but it looks like you could use some help." And that moment, some of Kaku's chakra that Naraku was absorbing transferred into the blonde as well.
"His hand is covered in his own blood," the young Monodane thought as he realized what was happening, "and because of that the sealing works for him too? I didn't even know more then one person could use this sealing method at the same time. And by splitting Kaku's chakra in two…" but he didn't finish that thought as he noticed the demon chakra in the girl's body disappear completely: "Naruto, take off your hand!" he yelled, making the Kyuubi vessel follow his command instantly.
Once their hands were off her forehead, Tamao collapsed to the ground, but before she hit it, the former leaf-nin managed to grab her and place her softly on the sand. Without looking back at the blonde, he said: "You might wanna lay down."
"Why?" asked Naruto, completely confused. At that point his vision became blur. He felt his strength leaving him and he collapsed. "That's why," answered Naraku before he followed the blonde's example and laid down in the sand next to the other two.
Night slowly became day and the sun began to rise over the horizon, causing sunrays to fall on the faces of the three, young ninjas who had just ended their battle. None of them wanted to fight it. None of them meant to hurt another. But war doesn't choose and demons care not about such things.
All around the sound of battle quieted down. The fight had ended. But the prize for this victory, which the Hidden Sand Village had to pay, was it too high? Even with the warm air blowing straight at them, the three remain motionless. Could this be the end of those three that met not so long ago and yet managed to became friends?
Could this be the end of Akaramu Tamao, Monodane Naraku… and Uzumaki Naruto?
---three, cold bodies lay in the rays of the morning sun… what awaits the trio?---
And so this chapter ends. Hope you liked it and that you'll leave a review with your opinion on it once you're done reading.
Not too many techniques used this time around, but there's one that needs describing anyway:
Fuuton: Tatsumaki Hakka no Jutsu (Wind Element: Tornado Ignition Skill) – technique invented by Naruto. The whole secret behind it is to concentrate chakra into your hands and after performing the right hand seals, release it into the air. If performed correctly, the chakra that was send into the air will create a small tornado. In this chapter Naruto released the chakra under his feet, to use the tornado to lift himself up.
And I believe that's that for this time. Hope you had a good time reading this and that you'll bless me with a review once you're done. Best wishes and until next time!