Chapter Twenty-Five: The Failure That Wasn't
Under Hinata's sway, the prince of bats flew faster than Keisuke had ever managed to get him to fly, even in darkest night. Admittedly, though, it was getting darker outside; the huge accumulation of energy hovering high above the battlefield swallowed all other lights, ensuring that only itself was bright among the clouds. As the battered shinobi passed over the enormous expanse of dirt and rock, headed for their beloved friend, they knew that one way or another, the end of the conflict in the Grave was near.
"How are you feeling now, Keisuke-san?" Sakura asked, finally setting down her medical kit. She had just finished re-bandaging all of the blind man's horrendous injuries—with proper bandages and anesthetic, this time—even including his now-empty sockets, which she had plugged with cotton balls and covered with his Hidden Leaf headband. While she thought he looked rather ridiculous wearing it like that, she had to admit that the functionality was unbeatable.
"A great deal better, thank you," Keisuke replied. He sat up, feeling the places where the bandages tightened around him. His entire chest was wrapped up, as were both of his legs and his left forearm. His right forearm was in a small splint. His raggedy clothes, with the exception of what was left of his pants, were all gone; Sakura had removed the filthy garments to reduce the chance of infection.
He wished he could have felt out with his Ghostly Arms to see how Haruka was doing, but he knew he could not, having been forced to resort to the Thirty-Two Ghostly Arms variation in his effort to escape. That technique combined the sixty-four feelers into thirty-two thicker ones, increasing his abilities, but disintegrating the arms over time. Now he had no feelers left, and because his eyes had been gouged out, he could only detect her presence by concentrating and opening himself to her chakra signature.
His bitch of a mother, he tried to reason, must have been some kind of influence on Orochimaru. Why else give him a set of eyes, if not to let him see his beloved partner the way he'd been wanting to for years and then take that sight away in cruel injustice?
"Haruka-san is doing very well, too," he heard Sakura say. Had she been reading his mind? Or...
"Is it that obvious?" he asked.
His answer came in the form of titters and giggles, which he knew were from Sakura and Hinata. For once, he decided not to let it bother him. After all, it was thanks in large part to them that he was now alive and free.
Then Hinata said, "We can move her next to you, if you like."
Visions of himself holding her flitted across his cerebrum, accompanied by memories of the tender loving care she'd administered in the prison cell.
"I'd like that."
"That would be dangerous," volunteered Ayaka. "At this speed and height, moving her around dramatically increases the chances of her falling and dying."
"Then I'll move." Deprived of vision and his Ghostly Arms, Keisuke reached out to make his way by plain, simple, skin-contact feel. He cleared his mind, allowing himself to locate his partner by the weak signal of her chakra.
"Hey, you shouldn't be moving, either!" insisted Sakura, taking hold of his arm to restrain him. "You don't want to make your condition..."
Keisuke suddenly snapped his head up towards the sky. In his attempt to feel out Haruka's chakra, something else had made itself known to him. The others quickly noticed it, too, and soon all of them were swiveling their heads looking for it.
"Do you feel that?" asked Sakura. "its massive! Where is it?"
"Hmmm?" grumbled Yabun-Hame in half-annoyed curiosity. "Pretty girl, what's going on? Keisuke-san, you had better not be playing any tricks here..." Keisuke ignored the prince. He was too busy trying to figure it out for himself.
There was silence for a moment as everyone cast their eyes and their minds about for an explanation to the massive feeling they were experiencing, but the silence was short-lived. It was soon broken by an obscenely loud, ear-splitting cracking noise that vaguely resembled thunder but was too loud to truly be interpreted by human ears. It took a few seconds for their ears to start to adjust, and then they heard Hinata's voice yelling above a loud, rumbling roar accompanied by a strange chirping noise...
"its above us!"
"Shit! Hang on!" yelled Yabun-Hame, in a manner very unlike a prince. He gave a loud, defiant screech and pumped his wings, banking away from the oncoming titanic power. The rumbling and chirping grew steadily louder as it approached, and Keisuke wondered for a moment if they were going to be hit.
However, the sound reached its peak and began to grow quieter. Keisuke let out the breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding and heard Sakura sigh in highly-pronounced relief at the same time.
"What the hell was THAT?"
Keisuke's heart jumped as he realized who had spoken.
"Haruka-san, you're awake!" exclaimed Hinata.
The blind man put on his best smile, the one he always wore before he and Haruka started a practice duel. He felt her chakra surge; Sakura had done a good job, and she was strong as ever. He found himself feeling extremely grateful to the girl.
Still, those facts didn't answer Haruka's question, which also happened to be his own question. Just what was that huge power he had felt shoot past them, making all that noise? It was so brilliant that he could not ascertain his nature at the first detection, but it was so large that he couldn't help but assume the worst. If that thing was a new enemy, it would not be an easy one to escape from.
"its heading below..." Hinata began, but then she gasped as she came to a terrible realization. "... No, its headed back where we came from! Naruto-kun's fight..."
"Oi, Yabun-Hame!" Keisuke yelled, forgetting all respect for nobility, "Get us down there now! No time left!"
"Keisuke, you're going to owe me a lifetime when I'm through with you!" the bat shrieked. However, he wasted no time in following the instruction; he, too, could feel that this was no small matter. As they landed and he allowed his passengers to disembark, he remained on the ground in the dirt, where he normally would never see fit to lie, and emitted repetitive ultrasonic waves, observing the events below.
Like the others, he was given a scare that would remain in his memory forever.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Naruto growled in barely suppressed anger. Where had that nasty granny gone off to? What the hell was this thing she was leaving him with? He knew it was strong, that was for sure; the wall of power surrounding the summoning circle was more than indicative of that, with its massive chakra and electrical force. The sparking, crackling power reminded him of Hikaru's futile rage back down in the depths of the facility, but at the same time, he knew it was much larger.
He kept Kyuubi's power burning hot in himself, knowing that the need for it was not yet over by a long shot. Nine fiery tails raised themselves protectively in front of his body, shielding him against the wind and the debris that was being thrown up everywhere. Naruto waited, crouched in his defensive stance, wishing that he knew where to find the demoness so he could make her regret this. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that yet—not until he knew exactly what it was he was up against now.
It was only another short moment that he had to wait. Feeling the large power concentrating, reaching upward, Naruto looked toward the sky and saw an object hurtling toward him from the brightly darkened sky. It appeared to be a ball of flame and sparks, like an electrically charged meteor falling from the heavens. He could detect the enormous power coming from it, and he sensed the connection between it and the summoning circle. The circle's power was drawing this thing into it like a chakra suction.
As it neared the ground, Naruto braced himself for a gigantic impact that could collapse the room on him, but that turned out not to be necessary. The impact was heavy, but the thing did not hit like a meteor at all; instead, it landed catlike on four clawed legs, and it was the horrendous howling it made afterward that nearly collapsed the walls.
Naruto's eyes watched the circle expire, its job complete, and the wall of electricity disappear, revealing his new enemy... "one of his own kind," as the demoness had put it. This thing was nothing like him—it was massive, looked like a weasel, had yellow fur that stood on end and sparked when it moved, and had black, beady eyes that looked at him like a piece of meat—therefore Naruto assumed that Keisuke's mom must have meant that it was one of his demon tenant's own kind. He looked around the weasel's head to its back end. Sure enough, there were multiple tails—six of them, bent and forked like lighting and with hairs on them that were straight and pointy as spikes.
His head turned upward and behind him when he heard a loud cackling behind him. He'd found the demoness, finally, if it was just a bit too late. She was still in her feeble human state, no dark power left in her at all, but that was hardly necessary now that there was a Bijuu in play, and she knew this as well as he did.
"I concede that you are stronger than me," she called. "Another few minutes, and I would have been finished. You have a powerful demon within you indeed, Uzumaki Naruto, but all that is behind us now. Very shortly, you will be vaporized."
Naruto sized up the Rokubi, noting its enormous chakra, its great electrical charge—he was pretty sure that the big weasel could use that at will—and its huge claws and spiky fur. Not to mention, it was as big as the Hokage's tower. He gave the ancient hag a cocky grin.
"Nah," he told her, "I can beat this one, too. He's big, but he's got almost no room to move in this room. He's got a lot of chakra, but I have more—my own plus Kyuubi's. He's got lightning, but I've got wind, which means he'll just be wasting his energy. It might take a while, but I'll bring this monster down. The thing you have to realize is that once I really get going, there isn't much anyone can do to stop me."
The evil woman smiled nastily at him in kind. Naruto's grin vanished; she had something up her sleeve.
"It doesn't matter," she seethed. "He doesn't have to defeat you. He only has to keep you busy until those Akatsuki dunderheads that Orochimaru has been so worried about finally manage to aim correctly... which, if the light in the sky right above us is any indication, should be just about any minute now."
Naruto looked up again. She was definitely right about something going on up there. Was it really Akatsuki, though? He supposed it would make sense. Akatsuki didn't like Orochimaru much, and now there were two of the tailed monsters under their nose. He swallowed heavily as he came to the realization that unless he managed to get by this monster quick, he was not likely to live through the afternoon.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"Down there!" Hinata yelled, pointing at the huge thing that engulfed what was left of the chamber. Her face had gone very pale with horror at the sight of the bijuu, and she searched the area desperately, trying to find some sign that Naruto was still alive in there somewhere.
Keisuke stepped up, supported by Haruka and Sakura, to the rim of the sunken battleground. He had no feelers to confirm his fears, but he had no need of them. He recognized the beast from his childhood days, just as evil and as potent as before, and he also found himself in a considerable state of dismay. Granted, there was nothing left of his old home to destroy anymore, but there was Naruto and, if Rokubi managed to destroy him, the rest of their party, plus whoever else his demon mother thought she wanted dead.
"Demons summoning demons," he said to himself. "Who'd have thunk it?"
"Wow," Haruka said, looking on in amazement, "Your past is really catching up with you lately, isn't it? I guess its only like you to drag us into it, moron..." Even as she insulted him verbally, she grasped his hand and squeezed it until he felt it was about to fall off. Both actions made him comfortable; here was something that he could deal with. He grasped her hand firmly in return, and he felt a change in her attitude, as though she were taking heart from his attention.
He felt another change in her aura as her Byakugan flared to life. She released his hand and walked off to one side of the group, trying to get a better view around the Rokubi, whose immense power created a bright blind spot even in her vision.
The others also did what they could to try to see the fight better. Ayaka reached into a pouch at her waist and, after digging for a long moment, managed to find one last seed. Clasping it in one hand, she whispered words to it and formed seals with the other hand. Immediately, a thin, wiry vine began wrapping itself around her arm, and she leaned over, dangling her hand over the cliff face so that it could grow down that way. Small pods began to form on the vine, and these started to vibrate.
"Hey, what is this?" Yabun-Hame protested. "Those things are interfering with my ultrasound! Cut that out!"
"The vibrations from these plant pods are much smaller," Ayaka assured the animal dispassionately. "At most, they will only blur your picture a little. You should still be able to make out what is happening."
Yabun-Hame made a pout face, but decided he would rather accept it than fly in there and put himself in danger just to remove a few weeds. The girl was right, anyway; he could still catch most of what was going on. Sakura crouched between the two of them, the only one without such a useful ability as ultrasound or Byakugan, hoping that they would have the decency to keep her informed. In the meantime, she looked on the events below with her normal vision, seeing what she was able.
Sakura didn't need special vision, however, to see what happened next. The Rokubi gave a sudden howl and leaped into the air, once again becoming a ball of flame and sparks. Apparently, it could fly about this way, using its immense electrical power to combust the air create a fire that served the same function as a rocket.
"It can fly!" she exclaimed.
This realization caused Yabun-Hame to give a loud screech of terror. He'd assumed the sky could be his refuge, and the discovery that he was not safe even up there was not a welcome one. Were he not a noble prince and afraid of nothing—and immediately soothed by the beautiful Hinata and seized by the legs by the too-strong Sakura—he would have taken off right then and there.
Keisuke paid all of this little attention, for a thought had occurred to him that caused him some discomfort. If his mother had had to resort to summoning Rokubi, she must not have been powerful enough to defeat Naruto. Was she dead, then? If not, then where had she gone? If she were alive, she would, most likely, grow strong again as she had before, feeding off humanity's sorrows, and eventually she would be able to once again summon this monstrosity or others, unleashing it on more villages. There could potentially be many more instances of The Grave.
"Haruka," he said, "We have to try to find my mother. If she's survived, she could be a major threat to our home in the future."
He was answered with silence. Sudden alarm spread through him as he realized that he could not feel her aura nearby.
"Haruka?" he repeated fearfully. "Damn it! Everybody, help me find Haruka! She's gone off on her own somewhere."
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
The demoness laughed inwardly as she clung to the wall, affixed by chakra, watching the battle taking place. The boy had already made one mistake in thinking that the Rokubi would be hampered by the relatively small size of the chamber. Ability to fly opened up a whole new level of freedom for the giant electric weasel. From up there, it could attack the boy without having to fear retaliation from the land-bound creature.
Hovering a good distance above them, the beast let loose a howl that shook the whole place, and released its massive electrical charge upon its target. Naruto made use of his power over wind, calling up a Razor Wall jutsu to repel the blast. The demoness noted that the boy had to increase his power output substantially when the blast hit to avoid having his jutsu fizzle out against the overwhelming shock. She smiled wickedly; he was good, but Naruto would never overcome Rokubi fast enough to escape the attack that those Akatsuki fools would unleash on him.
Speaking of which, she should probably get out of there herself if she wanted any hope of escaping to terrorize the Hyuuga. She'd already expended all of her demonic power and had no victims to drain, so she would be traveling as an ordinary human for much of the distance. Turning upward and starting to walk up the cliff face, she intended to run quickly out of the grave and start her long trek immediately...
Unfortunately for her, someone else had other ideas. The moment she turned around, she was hit squarely in the chest by two human feet, and sent skidding down the vertical ground several yards before she could recover her balance. Enraged, she looked up into the face of her enemy, determined to crush whoever was getting in her way.
Her silver eyes grew wide as saucers when she found Haruka standing over her, bathed in a chakra that was the same sickly yellow color which burned in the Caged Bird on her forehead. The demoness recognized that chakra—it belonged to Keisuke, who had inherited it from her. Yet the demonic taint had never been this prominent, even when Keisuke was at his most violent.
"You," she called to Haruka. "You're one of the ones I've beaten before. Where did you get that power? All Hyuuga are descended from me, but only Keisuke would have the ability to make use of that tainted chakra. Your human heritage should far outweigh my influence..."
"That would've been the case," Haruka interrupted, "Had Keisuke not been such a friendly drunk, and put this funny little cap on my seal a while back." She indicated her forehead and the Caged Bird Seal that glowed yellow there. The demoness was alarmed to find that the source of the taint in Haruka did indeed stem from there. Her glowing silver eyes narrowed.
"I see," she said. "So my son infused your seal with his taint, preventing any of the Main Family from using it to kill you. An innovative trick on my son's part. I assume you can freely control it?"
Haruka's face was confident, bold, and fiery. Her hands, extended palm-open in the Jyuuken style, brimmed with her own power and with Keisuke's.
"Until now," she admitted, "The only thing I could ever use it for was to change my chakra to avoid being detected by those who could sense and identify it. They would think I was Keisuke just going about his business and stop chasing me. Even using it for that, though, I couldn't maintain it for very long. Your little lackey Hiroto changed all of that."
"Hiroto?" the demoness growled. "The only thing he was concerned with was to provide me a body. He can't possibly have found it in his heart to help someone like you."
Haruka flashed her Sadist's grin, causing the demoness to flinch and burn with sudden anger.
"I never said he helped me willingly," she said. "The snooty bastard, in trying to scare us while he did his magic, let out an important secret. Want to know what it is? He explained why Keisuke can't really use the power he got from being related to you. The blind idiot doesn't like to watch his victims squirm before they die. He doesn't take pleasure in cutting a bloody path through armies, doesn't appreciate the rush that comes with seeing the fear and pain in their faces."
As Keisuke's mother began to realize that her enemy was one-hundred percent right, she began to feel afraid. Her fear grew as she watched the yellow taint to Haruka's power grow even stronger. She knew that her own fear was feeding her enemy, but she could not suppress the feeling; the demoness that fed on fear was not learned in controlling fear for herself.
"You won't!" she cried frantically, throwing up her palms. She was desperate to get this woman away from her, this foul woman who dared use her own power against her. "You won't win this! Hakke Kushou!"
The gale-force chakra whirlwind was countered by Haruka's own Hakke Kushou, and the two forces met in midair. Razor-sharp gusts split off from the point of contact. For a moment, the two women were locked in a stalemate. That didn't last long, however. The demoness's fear continued to grow as she realized that she was losing. Haruka's sadistic grin was amplified by even more dark yellow power.
"Hakke Kushou ni no Tachi!"
Haruka's vortex suddenly reversed its direction, pulling inward with its force instead of pushing out. The demoness's whirlwind, which was already swirling in that same direction, was assimilated by Haruka's and enhanced the inward pull. Keisuke's mother was pulled rapidly upward, against gravity and her own will, towards Haruka before she even realized her error.
She saw Haruka's palm rear back, filled with the power that Keisuke had given her one night in a bar, made stronger by her enemy's terror, which now peaked at the grim realization that she was hurtling toward death with no way to stop herself. Desperately she flailed about, trying to escape, but all her efforts were futile and both of them knew it.
"JYUUKEN!"
All the breath was knocked out of her, and she suspected that her innards had all been liquefied by the force of the attack. Her whole body felt aflame with the agony, and she knew that she was already dead. It was only a matter of time. The silver glow in her eyes fading, her Byakugan receding, she looked up into the face of her conquerer, helpless as the mortals that she had destroyed in the past.
"How does it feel," Haruka asked, looming with black anger over her prey, "To be the victim of your own terror? What is it like to be powerless and broken at the feet of a mere mortal, the same kind of person who you used to feast on? DOES IT HURT?"
"You..." gasped the dying demoness, "Are a... monster. Like me... evil, sadistic..."
"Wrong," Haruka spat, releasing her dark yellow power. She returned to her normal self, with her normal Hyuuga chakra, appearing before her destroyed enemy as any other human would have. "I'm a Sadist, but I'm not like you. I only terrorize evil bitches like you, and leave the good people alone, because you, unlike the people you killed, deserve it."
The demoness could no longer speak. Her life was on its last few heartbeats. She looked on Haruka in defiance, longing to reach out and swat her, but unable to.
"And personally," Haruka finished, leaning in to whisper in her ear, "I like to think there's only one Sadist in Keisuke's life, thank you very much."
The silver eyes rolled up into the back of Hiroto's head. The illusion of the demoness vanished, leaving behind only Hiroto's mangled corpse, which plummeted to the battleground below and splattered into many pieces. The pieces were soon buried by stone and soil that flew back from the clash of Naruto and Rokubi.
Haruka stood alone in her triumph, satisfied that the nightmare was finally over, but at the same time feeling drained. Such a large amount of evil energy pulsing through her had made her feel high, almost giddy while it lasted, but now that it was over she was feeling sluggish, sapped. On top of that, she was tired from all of the fighting she had done earlier. Now would have been a good time to leave this crater, before she got caught in the crossfire between the two battling titans nearby and was too slow to escape safely. She made ready to climb back up to the Grave's barren surface.
Up she ran, gunning as fast as she could for the edge of the cliff. She found, however, that she was more tired than she first imagined. Her legs just didn't want to run, and she had to concentrate hard in order to get her chakra to stick her to the vertical surface. Her head was pounding; she felt somewhat hung-over.
"Ugh," she said to herself, "What the hell is wrong with me all of a sudden? I can't be this tired, can I? After all that, I should still have some energy left..."
She was interrupted by a loud roaring noise that came from above. Immediately she directed her eyes upward, looking for what had made it. It did not take her a long time at all to find.
"No way," she said, not wanting to believe it.
Yet as the curtain of multicolored chakra fell from the heavens, surrounding the battlefield and preventing all means of escape, disbelief quickly became impossible.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"This isn't good," Yabun-Hame said. "This weird wall definitely doesn't feel friendly!"
"I'm inclined to agree," Keisuke said. He could feel its chakra surrounding them, several times more voluminous than either Rokubi's or Naruto's. "If it were concentrated, it would annihilate us in one shot. It looks like whoever's making it is aiming to prevent us from leaving rather than destroy us, though."
"Perhaps not," Ayaka said. "Take a closer look. The wall of chakra is not stationary."
"Definitely not," Yabun-Hame agreed.
Hinata, Sakura, and Keisuke observed carefully. At first, they could not pick up any change in it at all. To them, it looked like it was standing quite still. After a moment, however, Hinata gave a small gasp as her acute vision noticed the minute changes. Sakura recognized it soon after, and her voice shook with the deadly implication.
"its constricting," she said. "its very slow, but that wall is closing in on us."
Ayaka nodded, then turned to Keisuke. "You were right when you said that we were not meant to escape. That does not mean that we are to be captured alive."
The group quickly went quiet, and Yabun-Hame began shaking nervously. Some of them had been paying attention to the repeated blasts that this force had been pounding the base with all day, but none of them had suspected that it was capable of this. Whatever was in control of this had some amazing focus to be able to handle chakra in such a manner.
"Hey, uhm..." the Bat Prince began, gulping down fear. "You, ah, don't have a plan for getting us out of this, do you?"
That was a very good question. There were no holes in this wall as far as they knew, and the tunnels that led into the battlefield chamber from the rest of Orochimaru's base were either caved in or blocked by debris at this point. All around them was constricting death. In the center, a struggle raged between two demonic forces, either one of which could easily squash them all. Haruka was missing. Keisuke was wounded and would slow them down. Yabun-Hame was afraid to fly because of the Rokubi. The matter of getting out of this mess seemed, at this point, an unanswerable question...
For normal people, at least. Not for the man whose voice brought them all whirling about and staring in shock.
"I have a plan," he told them quietly.
They all looked—except for Keisuke—upon Uchiha Sasuke with a mixture of surprise, fear, respect, anger, and sheer awe. His red eyes blazed with the power of the Mangekyou Sharingan, but he did not unleash it upon them as some of them might have expected. His raven-colored hair blowing in the wind, he looked almost serene in spite of the deadly force that everyone knew he carried inside of him. He had the look of a man who was resigned to a plan of action and would not be stopped... who knew that he couldn't be stopped.
Keisuke, by contrast, felt the power in this young man, and respected it, but had no fear of it. He knew that this was the same man that had helped him and Haruka escape from Orochimaru's prison, and he would not have done so simply to let them die here. Even if he had some use for them later, Sasuke intended to help them live through the day, and Keisuke was sure of this. The blind man stood, turning toward him.
"What's your plan?" he asked gruffly.
Hinata and Sakura looked at Keisuke, completely bewildered. Did he not know who this was? Surely not, or he would be begging for their lives right now instead of asking what his plan for saving the day was. Ayaka, however, looked over to Keisuke and nodded her head in understanding. She, too, knew that the Uchiha had come to save them; she, after all, still had a "purpose" to fulfill on his behalf.
"Rokubi must be repelled," Sasuke said. "If it isn't, Naruto might not escape in time. Hinata should help him perform his Fuuton Rasengan technique. He can figure out what to do from there."
Hinata almost didn't believe her ears. This convict that she and Naruto had beaten back in Konoha was actually telling them what to do, and to help them escape, no less. Confusion showed through on her face.
Sasuke looked at her dispassionately, the cool face of logic.
"I saved your companions back in the forest," he said, "And I helped Keisuke escape from his prison."
"I don't believe it!" Sakura hissed. "He's the one responsible for all of this, I'll bet. Killed Orochimaru, and now he wants his other opposition out of the way..."
"But he did liberate me and Haruka," Keisuke said. "He also gave me the summoning scroll for Yabun-Hame. Believe me, Hinata, Sakura, he wants to help us."
That shut Sakura up. She had been so convinced that Sasuke had gone completely over the edge into darkness, but now Keisuke was on his side. How was this possible? Surely Sasuke, the power-hungry jerk, didn't mean to atone for his crimes after all this time.
"Once Rokubi is out of the way, and Naruto is with your group," Sasuke continued, "You'll have to be ready to move quickly. I can break the wall, but there isn't any guarantee that I can keep it broken. Once an opening is made, you have to escape immediately and get out of the Grave."
"What about Haruka?" Keisuke asked, a solemn look on his face.
"If you want to save your friend," Sasuke said, "You had better move quickly."
"All right, then," Keisuke assented. "Hinata, Yabun-Hame, let's go. We'll drop Hinata with Naruto and then find Haruka. The rest of you wait here and be ready to run."
Hinata was still unsure of Sasuke's intent, but she understood the need to find Haruka and help Naruto. She jumped onto Yabun-Hame's back and focused her eyesight in a wide arc, looking for their friends. It was not hard to find Naruto—he was putting out a monstrous level of power—and she located Haruka making her way carefully down the rock wall towards the ground a moment later.
"Please, Yabun-Hame," she said soothingly, "Take us to them. We won't be in there very long, I promise, and then you can go home."
"Ah, damn it! I can't say no to you!" cried the Bat Prince. "This is going to kill me, I swear on my father the King's grave..."
"Your father isn't dead," Keisuke pointed out, causing Yabun-Hame to lift off so quickly that he almost tumbled off.
"You're lucky I didn't just leave you there in the first place, Keisuke! Now shut up, we're doing this now and I don't need to be distracted!"
With that, the bat and his passengers dived down out of sight. Sasuke, Sakura, and Ayaka were left together on the ledge.
Sakura turned to Sasuke. He was simply standing where he was when he had arrived, gazing unfazed out at the chaos. Except for the red, shuriken-pupiled eyes, he looked every bit the Sasuke that she had once known: cool-headed, focused, determined to succeed and protect his friends.
"You must want something from us," she said to him, trying to get his attention. "You're going to have us do something for you when this is over."
He turned to look back at her, and she suddenly found herself losing hold of her anger at him. His expression was so much like the one he had worn in the old days, so calm, yet full of life. A familiar feeling began to spread through her, and against her better judgment she began feeling as though she could trust him.
"If I fail," he said, and his expression saddened, "I'm relying on you and Naruto to kill him for me."
By him Sakura knew that he meant Itachi. Was he the one behind this strange destructive force in the sky? That seemed to make a lot of sense, Itachi being among the most powerful shinobi who ever lived.
"Akatsuki's involved in all of this, aren't they?" she asked.
Sasuke gave a nod.
"I can defeat them here, but if I don't survive it will be up to you two to finish them."
"But you're Uchiha Sasuke, the avenger," Sakura said. "There's no way you would die now..."
"We'll see."
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Naruto was breathing heavily, sucking in as much oxygen as his lungs would hold. He needed it to sustain his effort against such a powerful monster. He was still confident that he could win, but he was now conscious of the threat closing in from above and had pulled out all the stops. If he didn't put out his utmost effort now, he would not be able to finish this in time to escape.
His hands whipped through seals and his lungs expanded to hold the air for his attack. He imbued each molecule of the air with his potent wind chakra, and then let it fly. The Renkuudan air ball slammed into the big weasel's head, making it scream in pain. It left its perch in the air to come crashing back down to earth, claws extended, wanting to tear him into pieces.
Naruto was so busy recovering from his expenditure of energy that he almost didn't dodge the swipe of the Bijuu's paw. He felt the tingle of static electricity from its body as it cleft the boulder he'd been standing on, and beads of sweat flew off of his head. The monster swiped again, and twice more, each time missing him, but each time coming closer than the last and leaving increasingly big gouges in the ground.
"Damn it," he said, finally coming to rest against the far wall, "You're pretty fast, big guy. You might even have me beat on a bad day.
Although today might be that bad day, he added silently. its not looking real good at the moment. If I had the time to wear him down, this would be a lot easier... he cast a quick glance upward... but time's just running out faster and faster now.
The Rokubi snarled and bared its teeth. It had become extremely angry that such a small morsel had bested it. It wanted revenge, and it wanted it now. Here it comes, he thought, and raised all his tails and arms against the coming attack.
The attack was put off momentarily, however. A deafening screech pierced both his ears and the ears of the Rokubi, causing them both to cover their ears in pain. Naruto recovered first... the sound had been closer to the enemy than it had been to him. He looked around, trying to figure out where it had come from.
"Naruto-kun!"
The voice was music to his ears. He looked up to see a gigantic winged creature fly over his head and dump a person from its back above him. Midnight hair flowed with the wind and the athletic, supple form dropped down next to him. She landed with perfect balance and beheld him with fierce, willful pearly eyes.
"Hinata!" he exclaimed. "You couldn't have picked a better time..."
"We have to slow down the Rokubi," she said, interrupting him, "At least until the others finish their parts. Keisuke-san is going to pick up Haruka-san..." she pointed to the other end of the chamber, where the bat was flying next. Naruto could make out the form of a man on the creature's back, flying towards a figure struggling on the cliff face.
"And then what?" Naruto asked, turning to look at Rokubi again. "That barrier around the place is almost solid chakra, and its stronger than mine."
"Sasuke is here," Hinata said. "He says he can make an exit for us."
Naruto's focus fell so fast that he almost lost hold of Kyuubi's power. He stared at Hinata incredulously, as though he had not quite understood what she was saying. He forgot that Rokubi was about to recover. All he wanted now was an answer to Sasuke's unexplained appearance.
"I don't know why he wants to help us," Hinata went on, "But Keisuke-san trusts him, and I can't see how we can get out on our own."
Naruto blinked, taking it all in. Then, quite to Hinata's surprise, he smiled.
"That guy," he said. "I didn't think I'd ever get through to him, but it looks like I finally have, at least for now..."
The Rokubi finally recovered itself, and blasted away in a rage, not caring what its lightning hit. Hinata saw Yabun-Hame almost take a hit, forcing Keisuke to pull away from Haruka to avoid the danger. The effort to retrieve Haruka was no longer going smoothly. Naruto remembered where he was, and what it was he had to do.
"Let's end this thing, right now," he said. He seemed to have taken the news of Sasuke's return to heart. In his hand, the Rasengan took shape.
Hinata nodded, smiling at him. He was back in his prime, the proud and powerful Uzumaki Naruto. She took hold of the spiraling chakra and retained it in a perfect sphere, allowing him to concentrate on changing its nature. In a moment, the bright ball of wind-powered destruction was complete, and Naruto looked at Hinata, grinning happily. Flaming tails, red eyes, canine fangs, and all, he was the very image of youthful energy. In spite of the current circumstances, she couldn't help but laugh a little.
"I'm really glad you came with me," he told her, causing her to flush with pleasure.
Rokubi howled in frustration. its anger had completely eradicated its common sense, and the walls were rapidly deteriorating under its assault even as the chakra wall shrank towards them. Some of the chakra wall was even inside the chamber now. It was time.
"Together?" Naruto asked.
Hinata smiled brightly and nodded.
"Yes!"
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The terrible ripping noise and the agonized howling announced that Rokubi had been defeated. Sasuke looked over the edge of the rock to confirm it for himself. He saw Naruto and Hinata pressing the Fuuton Rasengan even further into the monster's hide, and watched as the force finally propelled it back against the stone walls, then through the stone, and finally into Akatsuki's constricting chakra trap, where it howled again as it was disintegrated.
"What just happened?" Sakura asked. "Where did it go? Did that wall kill it?"
"No," Sasuke announced, watching carefully through his Sharingan. "Akatsuki's weapon destroyed its physical body, and took its chakra into itself. The weapon will become even stronger now."
Even as he said so, his words were being proven true. The whole wall flared with newfound power, and began constricting more quickly.
"It uses Bijuu chakra as a pure destructive tool," Sasuke continued. "My brother, with his Sharingan, interfaces with the weapon module and controls the chakra. Defeat him, and the weapon is useless."
"Bijuu power?" Sakura asked. "How many Bijuu do they have?"
"Six, now that they have taken Rokubi," Sasuke replied.
"And Itachi?" Sakura asked. "How are you going to beat him from here?"
Sasuke folded his arms and peered up at the sky, the point where he could no longer track the source of the power.
"I'll find a way. After all, I now have the Mangekyou Sharingan, too."
"The wall is quite close to us now," Ayaka interrupted. "We should move."
Sasuke nodded his agreement, and leaped down the rock face. Rokubi's rampage had put several footholds on it, so that they could leap down in increments. In moments, they had joined Naruto and Hinata down at the base.
Naruto and Sasuke traded glances. Naruto's power had dissipated; his eyes had returned to their normal blue, and his tails were vanished into their base Ghostly Arms. He was smiling. After a moment, Sasuke smiled back at him. There was too much to say between them and, unfortunately, no time to say it.
Sasuke thought he had lost his friend forever by betraying him, a pain that had brought him power. It seemed, however, that Naruto had always believed he would come back. Such faithfulness put a warmth in the Avenger's soul that he had not allowed himself to feel in years, and made him even stronger. What it would have been like if Naruto had succeeded in retrieving him, those years ago...
But all that was past now. It was time to atone for the pain he had caused.
"We had it," Naruto said, putting one arm around Hinata and one above his head. "You got it."
Sasuke nodded. The walls were closing in, but there was more than enough time now. Focusing his mind, he drew on the power of the Cursed Seal. His skin mottled, turning dark and abrasive. Gray splotching spread over his lengthening hair, and he slipped out of his shirt as the ugly wings sprouted from his back. His eyes, except for the burning Sharingan, were all black.
"I'll draw the chakra towards me," he told Naruto. "It will create a hole in the wall. Run through and get out of the Grave as fast as you can. Don't wait for me, or you might be killed."
"Got it," Naruto said, still smiling. "Thanks, Sasuke."
Sasuke smirked back. "You don't even know, bonehead. Thank you."
Then Sasuke turned to Sakura. She was looking at him with obvious mixed emotion, unsure of how to react. He couldn't help but grin. He'd never admit it, but he'd missed her, too, and regretted leaving her behind without any closure. But he knew that she was a strong woman now. She would survive.
He pumped his wings, bent his legs, and launched into the air. He'd said goodbye to his friends, possibly for good. If he were to die now—a good possibility, though he'd fight to his last breath—he felt that he'd said enough.
His smile vanished, and his face became all business. It was just him and Itachi now.
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Naruto and his friends watched Sasuke rise high into the air, lifting towards the source of Akatsuki's weapon. It was majestic, the way he flew now; if it were not for his hideous appearance, he might have been mistaken for some kind of avatar of god. He climbed so high that Naruto had Hinata synchronize to him to use her eyes, because his own eyes only saw a speck in the air.
At last they saw Sasuke stop, hover stationary for a few moments, and then throw back his head and spread his arms to the wind. Immediately, the chakra answered his call, and began to funnel toward him instead of flowing downward. Where it touched him, a humongous clash of darkness and light ensued, causing bright flashes in the sky.
"Look!" Naruto yelled. "He's doing it!"
Sure enough, he was. The chakra parted, leaving an opening large enough for twenty men to walk abreast. For a moment, they simply watched, in awe of Sasuke's masterful control. Eventually, however, they came to their senses.
"We'd better go," Sakura said. "We don't know how long he can keep this up."
"Right," Naruto agreed, snapping his head back to earth. "Let's go! Hinata, stay close to me, I want to know right away if anything changes up there."
"I understand!" Hinata asserted.
Ayaka was already outside of the weapon's range, having no desire to stay and watch. Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura sprinted after her, and in moments were outside of it themselves. They rapidly caught up to the plant-user and found, much to their delight, that a familiar young man was with her.
"Shino!" Naruto cried in excitement.
"Naruto," Shino acknowledged. "I am glad to see that you survived, and brought Hinata and Sakura with you. However, I am curious as to your other company..."
"I have not broken our deal," Ayaka said, her eye catching his warily.
"I don't doubt you," Shino reassured her. "But, Naruto, where are Keisuke and Haruka?"
Naruto's face paled as he realized that he did not know. In his excitement over Sasuke's change of heart, he had forgotten all about them. Fearing the worst, he turned to look back at the closing chakra wall. The gap was still there, thankfully, so there was still a chance that they could get out, but they were nowhere in sight.
"Damn!" he swore. "Nii-chan was going after Nee-chan, last I saw them..."
"Naruto-kun," Hinata alerted him, "Look up there!"
Yabun-Hame came screaming through the gap in the wall, the tips of his wings barely grazing the edges. It apparently hurt, for he let out a screech that was worse than the one that deafened Rokubi, and he barely managed to flap himself the short distance toward the party before he fell, exhausted, to the ground, where he skidded a good thirty yards before coming to a rest.
"That," he panted, "Is the LAST time I listen to that filthy commoner..." And he vanished in a flash and a puff of pungent smoke, leaving his passengers behind.
Sakura rushed over to them, determined to see how badly they were hurt. Naruto and Hinata followed.
"Well, isn't that something," Sakura said, a sly smirk playing on her lips. Naruto looked down at his adopted siblings, and laughed, inclined to agree that it was.
Keisuke and Haruka, both totally unconscious and battered, but obviously alive and stable, lay side by side on their backs, their hands clasped firmly together. An expression of victory was on both of their faces; they must have been having good dreams.
"They're so peaceful," remarked Hinata.
"Yeah," Naruto said, "But they could definitely use a bath."
"And so could the two of you," Sakura rebuked. "You're a mess."
"Perhaps all four of them simultaneously," Shino suggested. "I noted a suitable river just outside of the Grave..."
"Hey, that's enough of that!" Naruto yelled, but it was too late; Shino's attempt to lighten the mood had worked, and Sakura was already laughing, imagining the four of them bathing together.
Well, so much for that, he thought. But hopefully we can avoid any more.
"Seriously!" he said. "We've got to keep moving. Sasuke doesn't know how long he can keep this up, and we might get hurt or killed if it backfires. We have to get out of this place, now."
"Then I will take you to where the others are," Shino said. "Follow me."
They started on their way out of the Grave, Naruto hauling Keisuke and Shino supporting Haruka with his bugs. All of them were tired, but they had energy to run, at least. They would be in the safety of the woodlands within an hour.
As they ran, Naruto took one final look behind him, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sasuke. The light of the immense chakra was too bright, however, having constricted down to a single focused beam of power. There was no way to tell what had become of his lost friend. That suited him just fine; there was still work to be done, and worrying about this would only distract him.
Whether Sasuke lived or died, however, he resolved that he would not be sad. Three years ago he had promised Sakura that he would bring their raven-haired, ill-tempered comrade back, a promise that had seemingly failed. Yet now, he believed that Sasuke had found redemption... the failure was no longer a failure at all, but had become a blessing that had saved all their lives.
"Good luck, Sasuke," he said quietly, turning back to his friends, "Wherever you're going..."
"Did you say something, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked. She ran alongside him, peering at his face with mild concern.
"Nothing, Hinata-chan," he said, smiling brightly. "Say... when we get home, you want to go out again?"
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There was brightness all around him, engulfing him, swallowing him. It burned through him, causing him horrible pain even as he experienced the satisfaction of knowing that his friends had escaped safely. Such pain he had never felt in all of his shadowed life, not even under Orochimaru's sometimes cruel tutelage. He felt sure that he was going to burst with it.
Sasuke didn't complain. It was his penance for all the dark deeds that he had perpetrated in his quest for power. He deserved this, and he welcomed it gladly. The pain was cleansing him, removing the heaviness of all his crimes and making him a real person again instead of a monster.
And after all of that was removed, he was pure. Uchiha Sasuke was finally the person he was meant to be all along; not only an Avenger, but also a Protector and a friend. He took comfort in that knowledge, and felt himself grow stronger from it. He had more strength than he'd ever had before, because he was his complete self, succeeding as a Protector where he had yet to succeed as an Avenger.
Not to worry, though, he said to himself. I'll succeed at that soon enough.
He pushed his consciousness, propelled by his newfound focus and the power of his Mangekyou Sharingan, upward, following the current of the chakra to its source. His power was no longer limited, and within moments, he was in the presence of his wayward brother.
Itachi detected him immediately. He stared through Sasuke with eyes of disappointment.
You have grown stronger than ever, he said, but you still carry the weaknesses you had before. You have passions other than your hatred which hinder you.
"I'm not hindered at all," Sasuke replied. "And soon enough, you'll find out that my 'other passions' will be the ones that put you down."
If you infer that you will destroy me today, you are mistaken. In your present state, you do not have the power to kill me. The power of the Bijuu answers my command, and I am far away.
Sasuke took stock of his position briefly, and realized that his brother was right. He could not kill Itachi, and already his body was so badly damaged that he was unlikely to survive, even if he fled now. A total victory was impossible now.
"Well," he said, "That's just too bad, isn't it? I suppose I'll have to settle for hurting you, then, and let them handle the rest."
Don't be ridiculous. You cannot even touch me.
"Is that so?" Sasuke said. "We'll find out, won't we?"
He focused his will, magnifying his power to its maximum level. Chakra burst forth from his body and swirled all around him, mixing with the Bijuu chakra. Normally doing this was unthinkable, since drawing on such unimaginable energy from the Curse Seal meant almost certain death.
Death no longer concerned Uchiha Sasuke, the Avenger and Protector.
He could not seize control of all of the Bijuu chakra, for Itachi's weapon intensified his influence over it. It was enough to do the job, however. When he was satisfied, Sasuke mustered all of his remaining strength and, with a cry of strain and fury, sent it back against the flow that Itachi dictated for it, driving it with his mind back where it came from.
A great and angry pulse in the burning power surrounding him told him that he had succeeded. Itachi was hurt, and hurt badly. He would live, of course, but he would be sitting out the rest of this war. Naruto would have time to recover and, if luck was on his side, gain control of the situation. Perhaps they would actually manage to destroy Akatsuki in the end...
But that was a tale that, Sasuke knew, he would not live to hear of. Itachi was going to see to his death before he retreated. He would have to leave his quest for vengeance in the hands of the Jinchuuriki, the friend he had only just recovered.
He smiled. Somehow, he felt that this was what was right.
"I had it, you got it," he said. "I know you'll win... Naruto..."
The light surged around him, more brilliant than ever. In another moment, Uchiha Sasuke was wiped off the face of the earth, to live on only in the memories of those he left behind.
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