W00t! Longest chapter yet! 3,300+ words! Took a while, but there's a good reason for it... it's in the endnotes.

disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the rights to the swearing that's dotting the story. Seriously!


When Hinata activated her Byakugan again, she felt a nauseating pull on her head. She immediately knew that it was related to the strain on her chakra, as she had been fighting continuously for most of the day. She took one full circle glance and was horrified by what she saw, or rather what she didn't see.

"Naruto…" she whispered to the blonde next to her. "I can't see anything…"

His head snapped to her with worry in his azure and crimson eyes. "You can't? Why? Are you injured?"

"No," she shook her head, lavender eyes still open. "I can only see one thing…"

"What is it?"

"That chakra ink. It's inside those… things," she gestured to the bladed spines snaking from the sea of pillars. "They're blocking my view. I can't even see the individual machines…"

"Then quit using your bloodline. I can see 'em just fine."

She silently obeyed as the veins around her eyes relaxed and receded. Sure enough, the writhing hordes of bonelike cords were only visible to the naked eye.

"You didn't see the king, did you?" Uzi asked in a voice no louder than a whisper.

"No," she replied similarly. "We gotta find him."

"Crap…" As soon as he decried their situation, the sound of organs exploded in a grand melody. The flowing spines broke from their random interwoven patterns and rushed the eastern duo.

Naruto ducked as Hinata held out Lorsvall's rifles in opposite directions and spun on her heel, delivering a circular barrage of sharpened silver. The horrid accuracy of the firearms didn't even slow most of the spines down as they snaked around the shots and brandished long, intricate spikes. Several bony appendages approached the blue-haired woman with blinding speed, blades shining from the lights overhead.

The Hyuuga ducked and rolled at the last possible moment. She heard the spines' blades clash with a solid metallic noise behind her as she looked over to Uzi. The blonde merely glanced at her before grasping Trench's sharp clamp in his hand and stabbing the center point into the circular implant in his left wrist. He held his arm out and, with a sudden burst of energy applied to the steel ring, shot the clamp into the high ceiling, partially elevating the dead assassin by the arm. He clutched the corpse and threw him to the side with as much force as he could muster.

Several spines rushing from above were entangled in the steel cable hanging from the roof and, in an attempt to loose themselves, ripped the fastener from the ceiling while lifting Trench's body off the ground. The cord only caused more incoming bony appendages to get caught in the large knot being formed by the frantic movements of the bonelike machines. The assassin's body had much the same affect, as his rising corpse blocked many spines as the machines impaled it on their way towards the eastern duo.

At the first signs of entanglement, the blonde red-eye scooped up the damaged trench shovel and, while swinging and stabbing to parry the advancing protrusions, charged towards Shades's body. Hinata saw his movements from the corner of her eye and followed, silver-spewing rifles firing in all directions behind them to keep the bonelike devices at bay.

Upon reaching the former intelligence officer's corpse, Naruto grasped the modified rifle and unlatched her ammo belt. He saw that no magazine was inserted and fixed that problem by slamming a new one in and pulling the slide back. As soon as a bullet entered the chamber he took aim at the nearest bladed spines and fired a salvo of bright shots.

The Hyuuga approached him with her newly acquisitioned firearms still spitting out globular silver in random directions. "What do we do now?!" she shouted over the gunfire and grand noise of the organ pipes.

"Get to the throne first!!" he yelled back before ejecting the now empty clip and inserting a new one. A sharpened blade appeared before him and he whacked it away with the shovel head. "Then find out where that damn organ is!!" He dropped the unique weapon for a moment and grabbed Shades's corpse by the back of the uniform. After tossing her in the direction of the elevated chair, he snatched the shovel again and shouted, "Move!!"

The eastern duo moved in perfect synch as they charged to the royal seat. The female traitor's body was reduced to hand sized hunks of bloody meat by the time they passed it, but it provided them with a few precious seconds as they scaled the ordinary stairs of the throne. As soon as they reached the top they dove over it, causing the following spines to either fly over them or thoroughly fill the manmade hill with holes.

At first their focus was on the slowly disappearing chair behind them, then the new spines protruding from the columns behind the throne. As soon as their attention directed itself to the back wall, however, their eyes went wide with a mixture of shock and awe.

Located against the rear wall of the chamber sat a massive organ. As the tyrant sat at its base playing the grandiose tune, the sound reverberated through the incredible pipes and burst through with utter brilliance. Upon further inspection, dozens of pipes both large and small trailed off into the abyss of pillars, carrying the thundering music even further. The wooden structure holding the instrument in place was constructed from beautifully embroidered mahogany and the sweet smell of pine tinted the air. If it weren't for the dangerous situation and the lethal purpose of the organ, the grand instrument would have been a breathtaking sight to behold.

For the smallest of moments, the eastern duo was entranced by the view. Hinata felt a small tear well up in her eye and Naruto's shoulders didn't feel as stiff when they gazed upon the king's glorious musical weapon. But as quickly as it came, their awe dissipated.

Uzi aimed the modified rifle with one arm against the tyrant and pulled the trigger. As soon as the firing pin ignited the shell casing, the ruler shifted to another key and a slew of spines formed a broken wall between them. There were still plenty of gaps through which bullets could pass through unhindered, but they were rapidly being filled with more bony appendages bursting through to join their mechanical brethren on the other side.

"Get to the pillars!!" the Hyuuga ordered. Both easterners were on their feet and off the heightened throne in seconds, firearms blazing and shovel swinging.

"Trade one!!" the blonde shouted, throwing his rifle at his companion and receiving one of Lorsvall's firearms in return. He ran ahead of the blue-haired woman into a gap in the columns and pummeled everything in their way with sharpened silver.

The White Eyes of Death swung the late General's other rifle behind her with her right arm to provide cover fire while balancing Shades's rifle with her right limb. Since the red-eyed easterner's current ranged weapon produced inaccurate rapid fire, bladed spines would be bypassed by the solid shiny chakra. The traitor's weapon, however, did not suffer that weakness, and Hinata exploited it by taking care of the stray bonelike machines.

After a few minutes of being bogged down and one shovel later, the easterners reached the makeshift spine wall. After a short bout of cursing, Uzi poured his dwindling energy into the lengthened tattoo of his right arm and formed another chakra blade. He jammed it into a gap in the hopes of prying the bony cords apart, forgetting that they carried the energy-absorbing ink as well. His legs almost buckled under the sudden intense drain before he cut off the energy to his arm.

"Shit!" the Hyuuga yelled out. "You okay?!"

"Yeah, yeah…" he gasped, clearly winded. "Bad move…" he pointed Lorsvall's gun at the makeshift wall and fired at point blank range. "Gimme a sec…"

"Make it quick!" She wasn't so much impatient as she was worried that they would be overcome by the deadly spines. She swung around, literally back to back with the red-eye, and kept up as much suppressing fire as she could, even though the advance of the bony appendages was getting closer and closer…

"Gah!!" Naruto shouted in agony. Hinata peered over her should, fingers still on the triggers, to see what was wrong. Another gap had opened and a fancy spiked spine had stabbed into the blonde's right shoulder. Uzi overcame the pain and, still tearing the bony wall apart with Lorsvall's silver fire, reached up and grasped the spike with his left hand. With a grunt, he pulled the blade free from his flesh and, struggling against the great force of the machine, jammed it into the nearest pillar. He noted that the spine suddenly went slack upon cutting into the column when the fox's energy began to heal the wound. "I got it! Let's go!" he commanded when the silver shots finally melted the bony appendages away.

The duo continued their familiar pattern of the blonde red-eye taking point while the blue-haired easterner provided covering fire. After a few minutes, they reached what they presumed to be the back wall. Their belief was confirmed when the contained noise of organ music passed by in several pipes strapped to the wall.

"We're almost there!" the Hyuuga yelled even though she knew the blonde didn't need to hear it from her. "Just left of us!"

As Naruto banked left, he decided to shoot one of the pipes on a whim. "Couldn't hurt anything…" he though as he pulled the trigger. Upon contact, the sharpened silver sliced the tube with a gush of air. Suddenly, a handful of spines dropped lifelessly to the ground. "How did I not see that?!" his tired mind screamed at him. "Shoot the pipes!"

Hinata obeyed and swung Shade's rifle to the side, emptying its clip into a set of tubes. She tossed Lorsvall's second weapon ahead of her and Uzi caught it as she loaded a fresh, and final, magazine into the modified firearm. She took quick aim again and drilled holes into the remaining pipes without issue, unless bladed spines falling to the ground was considered a problem. When the firing pin clicked against the empty clip, she lobbed the useless weapon into a still functioning bony cord, delaying its attack by a few seconds.

They cleared the pillars and were intoxicatingly close to the tyrant on his bench. The red-eye raised the late General's weapon and opened fire on the organ itself. The king's expression didn't change as he shifted his melody and more bony tubes raced to defend the instrument. But, accuracy not withstanding, several shots of silver passed through the hasty airborne barricade into the massive pipes.

The White Eyes followed her crush's lead and opened fire on the beautiful musical tool. As more and more tubes burst open in a flurry of heated air, the more bladed spines obeyed the laws of gravity and crashed to the ground. After several minutes of this interchange, most of the tubes were rendered useless and the frequency of bony machines was at a manageable level.

Hinata took advantage of the situation and unleashed a barrage of sharpened silver into the console of keyboards, causing a sudden explosion of steam to erupt from the base of the instrument. She instantly saw the results of her plan as the remaining spines dropped to ground, adding another layer of bony structures to the crowded floor.

Before the leader could escape his seat, Naruto charged forward and, forming an energy blade with his right arm, impaled the crooked ruler through the chest. The tyrant hacked up a mouthful of dark blood as his dark mauve eyes turned to view the blonde.

"Ah…" he coughed up some more blood. "Well done… red-eye…"

"You deserve it, bastard," Uzi responded calmly, his serene demeanor meant more so to show true punishment rather than respect for a fallen enemy. "Say 'hi' to Lorsvall for me."

The tyrant's mouth cracked a small grin in between vocal convulsions. "Tell… him… yourself…" His brilliant violet eyes stared blankly into the azure and crimson eyes of Naruto as he summoned the last of his strength and tapped a key with his index finger. There was an audible click as key sank deep into the console and the ruler's dead hand fell away.

"What was that?" the Hyuuga inquired nervously about the sound as she strode towards the red-eye. The blonde dissipated his weak blade and scanned the room like a scared rabbit.

"I… don't know…" he replied apprehensively, not knowing what to think. "We should get outta here…" he was interrupted by a sudden tremor.

They both glanced over to the throne at the center of the chamber. The granite and marble stone of the structure cracked and fell to the ground with a mighty crash to reveal something underneath. It was a machine roughly the same shape as the royal chair that concealed it, and small lights that formed a line across the top blinked on and off.

"What is that?" Uzi asked no one in particular as he and Hinata walked over the dead spines towards the device. As they neared it, there was a low beeping noise.

The blue-haired woman's eyes went wide when she realized what the sound indicated. "It's a bomb!"

Naruto's head snapped around to gaze at her with alarmed eyes. "It is?!"

"Yes! Run!!"

The eastern duo threw their acquisitioned guns to the ground and ran as swiftly as their exhausted legs could carry them towards the massive entrance doors. They made it to the opening in twenty seconds and took another three to open the damn things when the beeping noises began getting louder and increasing in pace. The device was a 'dead-man's' weapon and would go off in a short while… a very short while.

They charged through the embroidered hallway that led to the throne room when the noises became deafening and strung together to form a loud squeal. There was no time left.

Uzi suddenly grabbed Hinata by the waist and pulled out what was left of his energy tails. The lift was out of the question, so he decided to take the only other option available. He shot his weakened tails forward and struck the wall with as much force as he could muster. He felt the drain on his chakra and ignored the instinct to pull back, instead forcing more energy into the non-corporeal appendages. The wall eventually gave, revealing the outside world to the long hallway.

"Hang on!" he shouted as he leapt through the makeshift opening, eastern companion still in his arms. He curled his tails around them as a shield, shut his eyes tight along with the Hyuuga, and prayed.

No sooner had the duo felt the wind brushing against them did they feel an intense heat rush over them. Their eyes were glued shut as the explosion enveloped them in a blinding light. Naruto could feel the force against his energy barrier but strained every muscle in his body to resist dropping it. After a few intense seconds, the heat began to dissipate and the light dimmed.

They opened their eyes and peered back at the tower as Uzi released the energy appendages. The top of the massive tower was missing and the remains were engulfed in flames. There was nothing left of their indoor battlefield.

The duo then looked down at their newest problem: height. They were in freefall several thousands of feet above ground with no way of stopping or slowing their descent. They could apply chakra to their bodies to absorb some of the impact, but their reserves were almost entirely gone; it wouldn't save them.

"You okay?!" he shouted above the gusting of the wind to his companion.

"Yeah!" she replied. "How about this?!" she pointed down.

"Lemme see…" he extended his tails to bury them into a skyscraper or two. The blast had thrown them outwards a bit into a slightly undamaged part of the city. His mind froze in horror when his energy appendages only came out a few feet. There was no chakra left for him to use. If he were to pull more from the fox, he ran a high risk of unleashing its consciousness as well, and that would provide a whole new set of problems.

He turned to face the white-eyed easterner and gave her an apologetic look of deep regret. "I'm so sorry…" he said with tears forming at his eyes. "There's just nothing left…"

She smiled sadly at the blonde with tears also welling in the corners of her white eyes. "It's okay, Naruto. I least I can die with you…"

The easterners embraced each other closely as the ground became closer. They closed their eyes to revel in the last precious moments they had together. The thousands of feet quickly became hundreds and rapidly counted down.

They were surprised that death was so quiet and not as violent as they thought. Instead of feeling their bodies crush against the ground, all they felt was a sudden jolt followed by a feeling of lightness. Their watery eyes opened to see what the afterworld was like.

At first all they saw was the sky. Then buildings and towers populated the scene as they moved upwards. They glanced down at each other and, through the corners of their eyes, saw tan wool flapping in the wind as their trajectory changed.

"Phew!" a smooth, quirky voice spoke from the side. "I got you guys just in time!"

The azure and crimson eyes as well as the lavender lenses slowly turned to be met with a familiar pair of golden eyes.

"S- Silba?!" Hinata squeaked in surprise. "When did you get here?!"

"Just now!" she smiled brightly at the duo in her arms. "I thought you might need some help, so…"

"How did you find us?!" Naruto asked with equal shock in his voice.

"I saw the explosion and just knew it was you! You guys are real hellraisers!"

The silver-haired lycanthrope bounced between buildings as she gradually brought the easterners safely to the ground. As soon as their feet touched the earth, she released her iron grasp on them.

"Silba…" Uzi began, still awed by what transpired. "I… don't know how to thank you…"

"There's no need," her smiling face adopted a look of satisfied humility. "Both of you showed me mercy when I gave none. You offered me a second chance, and I owe you everything for that."

"Thank you, Silba." The Hyuuga grasped the werewolf in a strong hug. "Thank you so much."

The former enemy returned the gesture before breaking loose. "Well, if you'll excuse me…" Her bright smile returned. "I have some soldiers to command! Besides, I feel a little more sluggish these days…"

The eastern duo smiled back at the newly pregnant woman as she scurried off. They were surprised by the abrupt appearance of the woman, yet grateful that she came to repay a debt the way she did.

"Rather impressive," a bored voice sounded off from above them. "Naruto Uzumaki."

They shot around to locate the voice's owner to find a man dressed in a black robe atop a leveled building.

"And who are you?" Uzi returned with a rasp in his voice rather than the yell he would have preferred. He was too tired for that.

"Itachi!" another set of lungs called out from behind another bombed out structure. The war-torn figure scaled the ruins and glared at the Sharingan user with similar bloodline eyes. "I finally found you!"

The unharmed Uchiha looked towards his younger brother. "Sasuke," he stated impassively. "I see you also survived this battle. What have you seen?"

The avenging easterner's skin began to form flaming tattoos of some sort. As he angled his short sword at the older ninja he calmly claimed, "I have seen your death."

Naruto shut his weary eyes for a moment. "Shit…" he mumbled. "I forgot about him…"

Hinata nudged him and asked no louder than a whisper, "What should we do?"

He looked at the older man, clearly seeing that he had stayed away from battle, and then glanced at his dark follower whom he knew had been fighting the whole time. "We gotta fight him…" he answered with a sigh.


And there you have it. I wanted to get the fight with the king over in a hurry, just 'cuz. There's better things out there... (hehehe...)

Alright, more news: I have lotsa homework this weekend, and I absolutely, positively, have to do it. There's a slight possibility that this may be the last chapter for the weekend, so treat it as such. I mean, c'mon, it's the longest chapter yet!!

Yeah, and this story's only a few more chapters away from completion (think... less than 10, maybe more than 5 chapters...?). But ph34r n0t!! There is a sequel in the works... if you liked this story, you'll love the continuation of it...

Peace out!