Finally got this dang chapter finished! I'll save my ramblings for the bottom of this story so you can get right to this chapter quicker! On a side note- yay for this story reaching 100 reviews already! I did a joyful little dance, A Jinchiriki's Husk didn't get the 100th review until after I had completed it! So point A Jinchuriki's Strength!
As always, thanks for the reviews/favorites/follows =)
Shout out to everyone who reviewed since last time: Echo Uchiha, Toasty Warrior, Otaku Overlord, pharix, Jozern, Goddess of Night Eternal Faith, Nut Man 117, saveme57, tricksie, ZeroTail29, Blazing CobaltX, bankai777, butterflyV, wingedmercury, Starfire99, Darious Frost, TheOmegaMan, One for Words, Reviewer
Echo Uchiha: =)
Toasty Warrior: Considering what I have planned for later chapters, this war is going to be scorching =P
Otaku Overlod:I'm still debating on whether to show Asuma or not. I've got all of the battles planned/mapped out for this story, but I'm still debating on whether or not to include certain individuals in certain battles. It really depends at this point what I decide to do with Shikamaru, because I would want it to be ShikaInaCho vs. Asuma, not InaCho vs. Asuma.
pharix: lol =P
Jozern: Thanks! And not exactly on the killer puppet mode, Kabuto just tightened his control some. Kinda the same thing that happened to Itachi in the beginning of this story. He could fight Kabuto's control briefly, but eventually had to give in. I actually ran into a challenge when I started trying to write the Silver and Gold Brothers. Not my favorite fight scene I've ever written. I just wanted to put them up against Naruto so bad!
Goddess of Night Eternal Faith: This chapter took me another month to pump out =( Sorry for making you wait so long, I really hate going so long between updates my stories! And Kabuto has something on Madara (I don't remember what manga chapter it was, but he summoned a casket with the edo-tensei that stopped Madara from attacking him), so Madara can't directly take Kabuto out. Makes sense he would go to Konoha to have them do his dirty work for him! And a big theme of this story in general is the growth of Naruto and Sakura, and I gave Naruto Haku to show his growth, I figured Sakura could use some love to. And voila! You have Chiyo!
Nut Man 117: I'm glad you're enjoying the fights! I'm not overly thrilled with how the Kinkaku and Ginkaku fight turned out, because I had a really difficult time in writing them. I hope the fight doesn't disappoint (...that much) =P
saveme57: Hopefully the Kinkaku/Ginkaku fight is up to par. I didn't change the weaknesses of the edo-tensei. I used one of the newer manga chapters AND Narutopedia (to make sure I didn't miss anything). Glad you enjoyed the chapter =)
tricksie: Thanks =) Glad you enjoyed the chapter! And so far so good in DC =) The cherry blossom festival was awesome (the metro ride in to DC however, was not) =P
ZeroTail29: Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it, hopefully you'll enjoy this one too =)
Blazing CobaltX: Hehe, unfortunately it took me nearly another month to get out this update too. My apologies! To my knowledge Chiyo still hasn't been sealed in the manga, so there's always the slight possibility that Sakura and Chiyo will square off. Although with the most recent chapter, I highly doubt it..
bankai777: Madra's spy is one of the new Akatsuki members. He's the only new Akatsuki member I plan on showing in this story (maybe I'll have them make a cameo in the last chapter), but all the new Akatsuki members are OCs. We'll see more of them in A Jinchuriki's Radiance, the third and final part of my Jinchuriki series =)
butterflyV: Glad you liked the start =) Hopefully the conclusion to this battle is up to par! I'm not sure if I'll be directly following the kages in any of their fights for this story (they'll definitely be involved, but they might just get a mention). But I can say that regardless, Shikamaru is going to have a clever plan of getting them involved =)
wingedmercury: Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! I lol'd at your Zombie compliment comment for chapter 2 =P
Starfire99: I wanted to use the Silver and Gold brothers for a Kyubi v. Kyubi showdown of sorts, and I think that's reflected in the fight!
Darious Frost: Death? Oh ya, a lot of it =/ Character death? Still undecided, I hate killing off characters. I'm still debating it though, so we shall see!
TheOmegaMan: I've hated Kabuto since he first introduced himself to the gang during the chunin exams, so I know how you feel! =) Glad you like the pacing!
One for Words: Lol, I know tis is a word, I play a lot of scrabble =P And thanks for the compliment! That's quite high praise and I'm honored to receive it =)
Reviewer: HOORAY FOR YOU FOR GIVING MY 100TH REVIEW! [insert confetti and streamers here] Glad you enjoy my stories, and I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter =) Thanks for the 100th review =)
Standard disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or else I would be filthy stinking rich and Sakura will **DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE MOST RECENT MANGA CHAPTER, SPOILER TIME** kick the living crap out of Neji without so much as breaking a sweat. I know the guy is under someone's control, but still. Taking out medics? Not cool man, not cool. **SPOILER DONE!**
Anyways... Let's get onto the chapter shall we? Please do enjoy, A Jinchuriki's Strength- Chapter 7: The Enemy of My Enemy
"How are our forces holding up?" Shikamaru asked the Hyuga clansman who was currently serving as his eyes on the battlefield.
"So far our losses have been fairly minimal. There are two demonic looking men with what appear to be powerful artifacts that are capable of sucking a person inside it when used in conjunction with each other, but Naruto-san has engaged them."
"Interesting… And how is everyone doing chakra wise?"
The Hyuga's eyes swept across the battlefield as he assessed the chakra levels of Konoha's warriors.
"Most of our forces have 45-60% of their total chakra remaining." He finally answered.
"And what about Naruto's chakra levels?"
"Naruto-san appears to be conserving his chakra; I would say he still has about 75-80% of his total chakra left."
Good. I was afraid Naruto might charge in and start throwing all of his most powerful techniques around in an effort to end this war before it even gets started…
He was pleased to say in the least that his plan had yet to meet any hiccups. Their forces had been fighting for 10 minutes now. Seeing as how Ino's jutsu could only last for 15 minutes, they wouldn't need to fight much longer.
"Very good." Shikamaru turned his attention to a young genin who was holding a large flare gun. "You're going to launch that flare in exactly five minutes."
"Hai Shikamaru-sama." The young genin nervously replied. Shikamaru-sama? Tch, that just sounds weird... The lazy genius walked up to the group of ANBU that were standing over a series of seals.
"I'm going to have our forces retreat in five minutes. Make sure you're all ready to activate the barrier the second the last Konoha nin gets here. The ANBU simply nodded their heads in response.
Alright everyone… Just five more minutes.
Naruto leapt backwards as one of the demonic looking men tried to strike him with the strange golden rope. He quickly tossed a three-pronged kunai into the ground and flashed away just before the other man could strike him with the strange large sword he was wielding.
These two just won't give me a break… The annoyed jinchuriki thought as he was forced to again leap out of the path of the golden rope. As soon as he had entered the battle the two brothers seemed hellbent on defeating him.
FLASHBACK
Naruto ran towards the gold and silver brothers at full speed, he didn't even flinch when he saw one of Chiyo's puppets move in his direction from the corner of his eye. He knew Sakura would protect him. As he neared the brothers they turned to him with wicked grins on their faces.
"Doesn't that feel like the Kyubi brother?" The shorter of the two asked the other. His taller brother grinned back at him.
"It sure does Ginkaku. It's been a while since we've played with that old fur ball. Its chakra meat was to die for!"
Naruto had to calm himself as the Kyubi raged from within him at the man's words.
"Hey boy, why don't you let the Kyubi out? We wouldn't mind eating some more of that chakra meat." Ginkaku sneered.
"HOW DARE THEY MOCK ME!" The Kyubi roared in rage as it threw itself against its cage in fury. As the Kybui attempted to break out of its cage, Naruto couldn't help but be thankful that his father was a seal master.
"You two have power that doesn't belong to you. Make this easy on yourselves and just give up." Naruto responded as calmly as he could while focusing on controlling his emotions. He knew that in the Kyubi's current state, if he let just a hint of anger seep into his mind the Kyubi could use it to take over. He needed to remain calm.
"You're pretty confident for one so young!" Ginkaku yelled as he lunged towards the jinchuriki with a swipe of his sword.
FLASH IN
The two brothers hadn't relented ever since he had entered the fight. They had flat out ignored Lee, Gai and the ANBU members that had come to Lee's aid. Naruto ducked under Ginkaku's sword and struck him in the chest with his sage-enhanced strength causing the demonic looking man to hurtle backwards.
Gai flickered into his flight path, and with a powerful kick sent the undead man into the ground. Naruto was suddenly blasted backwards from a powerful wind, but used his hirashin to flash to the kunai that he had thrown earlier before the blast could do any damage to him.
One of the Anbu members shot a fireball at Kinkaku, which the former kumo nin didn't even try to avoid.
"While I may not be happy about being revived by this technique, it is pretty useful in a fight." Kinkaku said as the smoke cleared to reveal his body healing itself.
Damnit… Naruto tightly balled his fists in frustration. These guys are dangerous, I need to take them out quick. But I have to focus on remaining in complete control of my emotions… I can't afford to let the Kyubi influence me in any way…
"Hey you ANBU members." Naruto called out, gaining the attention of the masked nins. "Go help Gai and Lee keep Ginkaku distracted. I'll handle Kinkaku."
The ANBU members simply nodded and ran to Gai and Lee's side who were patiently watching as Ginkaku walked out of the crater his body had made from Gai's kick.
"Smart move boy… trying to split us up like that. But it won't work, that's not how we fight." Kinkaku said with a grin as Ginkaku barreled past the Gai, Lee and the ANBU members to stand by his side.
Sakura leapt backwards as one the white puppets arms extended to trap her in a makeshift cage. As she landed she stomped the ground creating a fissure where the puppet had been standing. Pushing chakra into her legs Sakura leapt forward as the puppet lost its balance destroyed it with a powerful chakra-enhanced punch to its "chest."
She looked over towards Chiyo just in time to see Kakashi appear out of the ground with a chidori crackling around his hand. Before he could use the chidori against the undead granny, a demonic looking puppet struck the back of Kakashi's head with its large fist. Sakura let out a sigh of relief when Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke revealing a smashed log in his place.
"Sensei, don't worry about Chiyo-sama right now. The edo-tensei will heal any damage we do to her, so it's a waste of chakra to go after her. Focus on destroying her puppets for now, the edo-tensei can't heal those." Sakura called out to her sensei who had yet to reappear after using the substitution jutsu.
Chiyo chuckled as she observed the confident young woman standing in front of her. Sakura has really grown since I've been alive. Good… I knew she would.
"Very observant Sakura, I'm not surprised at all that you would notice that."
Suddenly Chiyo's bald puppet with holes in its head crumpled to the ground as Kakashi appeared out of seemingly nowhere and stuck a chidori through its body. "A very good observation indeed Sakura."
Three down, seven to go… Kakashi thought as he looked at the rest of the puppets. His gaze landed on his former pink-haired student, who curiously enough wasn't watching Chiyo's actual puppets. Her gaze seemed to be focused entirely on Chiyo's fingers.
Why isn't she… Kakashi's eyes widened as realization struck. A puppet can't act instaneously… By watching Chiyo's fingers she can figure out every single move the puppets are going to make.
Sakura noticed one of Chiyo's fingers twitch and without even looking at the puppet striking at her, weaved to her right dodging its strike. She finally gave the puppet her attention; it had spiky black hair and had the mark of Buddha on its mouth.
Sakura scanned Chiyo's remaining puppets until she found a puppet with the sangha seal and hurled the spiky-haired puppet at it with her chakra-enhanced strength. The two puppets shattered as they collided with each other.
Emerald eyes again turned to Chiyo's fingers. Those same eyes widened in momentary panic. Shit! Sakura twisted her body around to dodge the sword of Chiyo's red-haired puppet, but she knew she was going to be too late.
Just before the sword could cleave into her, what appeared to be a hound made out of pure lightning leapt on the puppet and destroyed it.
What was that technique? A bewildered Sakura thought as she stared at Kakashi. It looked like he just manipulated his lightning chakra into the form of a beast… That's incredible!
"That was an impressive technique Kakashi." Chiyo complimented as she sent the puppet with a dharma seal towards Kakashi. Before the puppet could get close to Kakashi, Sakura used chakra-enhanced speed to flicker in front of the puppet and smash it to pieces with a powerful thrust kick.
"Looks like we're even now eh Sakura?" Kakashi asked with a one-eyed smile as he walked to her side. "This is a little easier than I thought it was gonna be."
"These puppets were much quicker when Chiyo-sama and I fought Sasori, and used a lot of joint attacks… I think Chiyo-sama is resisting Kabuto as best as she can while we destroy her puppets." Sakura said, confirming Kakashi's suspicions.
"Well then, let's not waste anymore time then. We don't want her kindness to go to waste now do we?"
Sakura smiled as she watched the fingers of the old woman who had had an impact on her life even though she had only known her for a few days. "Hai sensei, let's finish them all of right now. Do something to take Chiyo-sama's attention off of me if you don't mind."
"Of course Sakura." Kakashi leapt towards the red puppet, just as he got close, it lifted its face to reveal four spinning blades made solely out of chakra. The copy nin dug his feet into the ground to stop himself.
Once Sakura saw Chiyo's focus shift to Kakashi her hands flew in a myriad of signs.
Kakashi swore as the puppet with long hair shot its hand out and connected with the red puppet. He heard Sakura mutter something as the long-haired puppet began to hurl the red puppet around. The copy nin prepared to dodge the red puppet as it was hurtled in his direction, but to his surprise, the puppet missed by a good five feet.
He heard the sound of a puppet being destroyed and looked over to see Sakura standing over what remained of the one-eyed puppet that had been inactive throughout their battle. His former student flickered in front of the long-haired puppet. The puppet attempted to kick Sakura, but it kicked in completely the wrong direction, and Sakura rewarded its mistake with a powerful chakra-enhanced punch.
Kakashi gathered lightning chakra around his hand and finished off the red puppet with chidori before turning back to Sakura with a curious expression on his face.
"How…?"
"That was a difficult genjutsu to detect Sakura." Chiyo complimented with a smile.
Genjutsu… So that's why Sakura wanted me to distract Chiyo. To make sure that she didn't suspect being caught in a genjutsu.
"Altering my senses just slightly so that I saw everything about five feet to the left of where it actually is. I'm sure you've surpassed your master by now if you can cast a genjutsu like that."
Sakura blushed slightly at the compliment. "Well… I'm not sure about that…"
"If she hasn't yet, she's well on her way." Kakashi quipped with his typical one-eyed smile, causing Sakura to blush a little more.
"Well… now that you two have gotten the hard-stuff out of the way, I think I'm going to stop resisting Kabuto now. It's quite tiring and after seeing the two of you fight, I'm sure you can handle little old me by myself?" Chiyo called out in a tired tone.
"I think we'll be fine, thank you Chiyo-sama." Kakashi replied.
Sakura and Kakashi dropped into their fighting stance as Chiyo charged them.
"You expect us to believe it's that simple?" Tsunade asked incredulously causing Madara to chuckle.
"Don't forget, you have to get to Kabuto first Tsunade. But if you can get to him then all you need to do is take control of him and force him to make the seals of the dog, horse, and tiger to end it. That's something you Nara's shouldn't have a problem with, am I right?"
"And simply killing Kabuto won't cancel the technique?" Gaara asked calmly.
"It will not, those revived by the technique will simply continue on as they were commanded to by Kabuto before you kill him."
Tsunade opened her mouth to question Madara some more, but the ancient Uchiha beat her to the punch.
"Looks like I'm out of time here. My attention is needed elsewhere. Feel free to take your time defeating Kabuto." Madara called out in a jovial tone before swirling out of the room.
Naruto tensed the muscles in his legs as he prepared to leap towards the two brothers, but before he could attack, a familiar swirl appeared in between the leaf forces and the brothers. As the man materialized a flurry of emotions flew through Naruto's body. Dread, anger, determination…and fear. Try as he might, Naruto couldn't shake the memories of his most recent battle with this man- a battle in which this man toyed with him, and would've defeated Naruto if it weren't for the interference of the Yondaime.
"Everyone stay back, you're not on his level. Let me handle him." Naruto barked out as he drew more nature chakra into his body.
"You're going to handle me are you Naruto? I wasn't aware that you had reached my level of power." Madara chuckled as he fully materialized.
"I'm going to defeat you right now and end this stupid war!" Naruto exclaimed in a tone filled with confidence that he didn't exactly have as he stared at the ancient Uchiha.
Damnit… why am I worried. I've spent this entire past year doing nothing but training for this moment… I can defeat him. I WILL DEFEAT HIM.
"Hmm, curious." Madara said casually. "As much as I would like to play with you, I'm not here for you just yet. So I'm afraid this fight of ours that you seek just won't be happening. Not that it wouldn't be hard to capture you Naruto, but with the hirashin it would be difficult to hang on to you. So it's just not worth my time to bother at this point. But don't worry Naruto, I'll come for you soon enough."
Naruto's toad-like eyes were wide with shock as he watched Madara turn his back on him and walk towards silver and gold brothers.
I don't know what he's planning… Naruto thought as he grabbed a three pronged kunai out of his pouch. But I'm not going to let this opportunity slip past me. The jinchuriki threw this kunai at Madara and flashed to it just as it reached his body. His strike phased right through Madara.
The ancient Uchiha sighed, and used his rinnegan to blast Naruto backwards. "Come on Naruto… you should have remembered from last time that wouldn't work on me. I expect more out of someone with the blood of a senju running through their veins.
"Hey! I don't know who you are, but this kid and those life nin over there are ours. Back off." Ginkaku growled.
"Sorry, but you serve another purpose for me, you and your brother are finished with this fight." Madara calmly replied.
"Serve a purpose for you? I don't remember you being the one controlling the edo-tensei." Kinkaku sneered. "I see no reason to serve you."
Madara stopped directly in front of Ginkaku. "Well I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice." He proceeded to suck Ginkaku into his eye.
"GINKAKU!" Kinkaku roared in anger as the Kyubi's chakra began bubbling around him. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?"
"The same thing I'm going to do to you." Madara calmly replied. Red tails of chakra began sprouting out of Kinkaku, before a fourth tail could form, a three-pronged kunai thudded into the ground, and Naruto flashed behind him and quickly put him in a full-nelson lock.
"I'm afraid I can't allow you to turn him into a statue Naruto." Madara said as he teleported directly in front of Kinkaku and Naruto. He began to suck Kinkaku into his eye, which forced Naruto to flip backwards.
"Well, I have what I came here for." Madara said cheerily. "Enjoy what little time you have left in this world Naruto, I'll be back for the Kyubi soon."
"Stay here and fight me you bastard!" Naruto roared.
"Most people try to avoid their death Naruto, yet here you are challenging it directly…" Madara noted as he swirled away.
"Damn it!" Naruto swore. Am I really still that weak that Madara completely ignores me? Am I really so weak that Madara doesn't even see me as a threat?
"Naruto-sama!" The ANBU captain called out, bringing the jinchuriki out of his pessimistic thoughts. "Those artifacts the brothers were using… someone with as much chakra levels like yours could use them to seal the souls of the revived shinobi."
Naruto simply nodded and walked towards the discarded artifacts. As he reached for the golden rope, his senses tingled and he leapt backwards just as Zabuza's giant sword ripped out of the ground where Naruto had previously been standing.
Sakura dodged a punch from Chiyo, used her chakra scalpel to sever all the tendons in the old woman's legs, and then struck her in the chest with a powerful punch. She was about to follow up with another attack when she felt a chakra that she hadn't felt in just over a year. It was a chakra that filled her with dread. The chakra of the man who had almost taken Naruto away from her.
Madara… Sakura panicked and turned towards Naruto's battle to see Madara standing in between her fiancé and the two demonic looking men who were using the Kyubi's chakra.
Naruto… Just as Sakura was about to join Naruto against Madara, she felt chakra threads wrap around her arms and legs.
"Damnit!" Sakura swore as Chiyo manipulated her body to launch itself at Kakashi. Her former sensei dodged her strike and leapt backwards, creating some distance between them.
"That man… he scares you doesn't he?" Chiyo observed as she again sent Sakura after Kakashi. Sakura's fist connected with the ground as Kakashi again dodged her, creating a large crater.
"That man is who is responsible for all of this; he's the man who was really behind the Akatsuki." Kakashi answered for Sakura. "So you can understand why Sakura and I need to finish our fight here and join Naruto."
To Chiyo's surprise, Sakura used her chakra-enhanced strength to break off from Chiyo's chakra threads, giving Kakashi the distraction he needed to use one of the sealing scrolls on the old woman.
"Fuin suru." The old woman was sucked into the scroll admist a bright light.
Sakura sighed in relief and turned back to see how Naruto was doing against Madara and gasped. Madara is gone… and so are those two demonic looking men… Did Naruto beat them all that quickly?
Her eyes landed on her fiancé and she instantly noticed the frustrated look on his face. No… if he had beaten Madara he would be jumping around for joy right now… She began running towards Naruto as he walked towards the discarded weapons that the two demonic looking men had been using, and was quickly joined by Kakashi.
The pair gasped when Zabuza's executioner blade shot out of the ground forcing Naruto to leap backwards, followed by the demon of the mist himself.
"Damnit… looks like our sealing scrolls don't work against the edo-tensei." Kakashi muttered.
"I'm glad you came back Zabuza." Naruto said. "Now we just need Haku to show up." As if Naruto's words were a cue, ice senbon suddenly rained down on Naruto. He flickered away before he could be turned into a human pincushion for the second time in his life.
"Naruto!" Sakura greeted as she suddenly flickered to his side. "Are you ok?" Her emerald eyes were filled with the worry.
"I'm fine Sakura-chan." Naruto replied with his "normal" foxy smile.
"You must've done well to drive Madara away that quickly Naruto." Kakashi complimented as he joined his former students.
A disappointed frown briefly flashed on Naruto's face, but he quickly shoved it away in place for a cheesy grin. Both Sakura and Kakashi both easily noticed his frown.
"Hehe, you know me sensei." Naruto said in as cocky of a tone as he could muster.
The look on Sakura's face told Naruto that she wasn't fooled, but before she could say anything, the flare that the small Konoha strike force had been waiting for the entire battle finally was launched into the sky, sparing Naruto from anymore questioning…for now.
"Well that's my cue, and I got a promise to keep!" Naruto said cheerfully as he quickly flickered away from his fiancé and appeared directly behind Zabuza.
"I told you I'd save you guys didn't I Haku?" Naruto asked with a true smile while he locked Zabuza in a full nelson lock and began channeling nature chakra into the undead swordsman.
Haku resisted Kabuto's control as he watched Zabuza transform into a toad stone statue. Before he could so much as utter a thank you, Naruto was behind him and had his arms restrained.
"So long Haku, thanks again." Naruto whispered. Haku felt the nature chakra enter his body, its power was incredible. He could only imagine how powerful Naruto had become.
"Thank you…Naruto." Haku whispered just before transforming into a stone toad statue himself. Naruto let go of the now Haku statue and nearly fell backwards. Damn, forcing those transformations took more out of me than I thought it would…
The jinchuriki tried to steady himself but he had used up nearly all of his chakra. Before he could stumble anymore, Sakura appeared in front of him and scooped him up bridal style.
"Sakura-chan…what are you doing?" Naruto asked as his face was flushed with embarrassment.
"You're too tired to run to our barrier, so I'm going to carry you. I have plenty of chakra left." Sakura replied as if there was nothing strange about the situation at all.
"I'll be fine Sakura-chan. Besides… what will people think if they see their hero getting carried around by a girl?"
"What's wrong with a girl carrying a man?" Sakura growled, her face had a look that told Naruto he better watch his words carefully.
"Oh? Umm… well it's just… well tradition you know…" Naruto stammered nervously.
"Shut up baka." Sakura said softly with a warm smile on her face.
Naruto did as his fiancé commanded and remained silent as the Konoha nin took off in a full retreat.
Great… All of the villagers will be waiting for us when we get back to the village. I'm never going to hear the end of this… Naruto thought dejectedly, although he still wore a small smile on his face.
"So they're running? That's strange…" Kabuto said to no one in particular. "Was the point of that battle really just so Naruto-kun could force the toad statue transformation on two of my undead shinobi? I expected better of Konoha. How disappointing…" But at least Zabuza and Haku provided enough distraction to keep Naruto from getting ahold of the sage's relics…
Kabuto heard a swirling sound and turned around to see Madara Uchiha standing before him.
"Ah Madara-sama, so nice of you to show up. Although did you really have to take the silver and gold brothers from me? They were some of my favorite puppets. They both don't have that much of the Kyubi's chakra in them."
"Every little bit helps Kabuto." Madara replied. "Are you going to continue your march on Konoha?"
"Of course Madara-sama. It only took my forces 15 minutes to force them to retreat; Konoha will be nothing more than a memory soon."
Madara nodded. "Good. Goodbye Kabuto." The ancient Uchiha disappeared in his swirling vortex.
Hmmm… the way Madara said goodbye… Kabuto scratched his chin in pensive thought as he thought about the last of the Uchiha clan.
"Alright barrier team… get ready… Here they come!" Shikamaru ordered as the leaf strike team came into view. They were being chased by hundreds of undead shinobi.
Shikamaru sighed in relief as the last Konoha nin crossed the barrier line.
"Ok, put up the barriers now!" In a matter of seconds a large yellow barrier shot up to the sky as the barrier team completed its job. Kabuto's forces bounced off the barrier and began launching jutsu after jutsu at it, but just as Shikamaru had planned, the barrier held strong.
"Alright everyone, let's head back to the village. Oh and Naruto…" Shikamaru glanced over Naruto who was still being carried by Sakura like he was her bride. Naruto looked at Shikamaru to see his lazy friend smirking at him and prepared for the first of many waves of teasing to come when everyone sees Sakura carrying him around.
"Try not to squeal in delight when she carries you over the threshold."
Naruto sighed. "You know Sakura-chan…I'm really fine now. I swear!" If she lets me down now, I can just deny it ever happened and when people from the strike and barrier teams try and tell people about it I'll just call them liars… Then I'll play the hero card. I can see it now. "Hey, I beat Pain, do you really think I would need Sakura to carry me around?" Ya… This will work…
"Not going to happen Naruto. You're exhausted, why don't you just get some rest." Sakura suggested. Truthfully she realized Naruto could walk just fine on his own; he could certainly walk just by using her arms for support, but she liked carrying him. She didn't get a chance to carry him around all that often, and this would help send a message to his increasing number of fan girls. Sure, she had a ring now to keep them at bay with, but seeing her carrying him around would just further solidify the message that Naruto was Sakura's, and Sakura's alone.
"I'm not tired… just let me walk Sakura-chan. I think I need to stretch my legs!" Naruto whined, hoping the approach of a child would be able to save him from an embarrassing situation.
"If you don't stop whining I'm just going to use a genjutsu on you to put you to sleep." Sakura threatened with a playful smile on her face.
"That's mean Sakura-chan…" Naruto muttered.
"What was that?" Sakura asked sweetly as she placed a hand on Naruto's temple.
"Nothing Sakura. Nothing at all, thanks for carrying me!" Naruto quickly replied.
"Good answer." Sakura grinned down at him as the Konoha forces continued back to their village.
The Konoha forces walked through the gate and were greeted by a large number of both shinobi and civilians. As Naruto predicted, many people snickered at the sight of Konoha's powerful hero being carried around bridal style by his fiancé.
"Shikamaru…" Sakura's beautiful voice brought Naruto out of his embarrassed thoughts. "Do you need anything more from Naruto and me?"
"No, Kakashi can accompany me when I report to the Hokage."
"Good. I'm taking Naruto home then." The jinchuriki swore he could hear Kiba snickering and thought he heard something about him being Sakura's bitch. Sakura apparently heard this as well and stopped in her tracks to turn to Kiba. She decided to give her fiancé a break; she was well aware of the amount of teasing he was going to receive for being carried around by her.
"Say what you will Kiba… but at the end of the day, at least Naruto can say he's getting some… can you?" Sakura said with a smirk. It took a lot of control to stop herself from laughing not just at the shocked expression on Kiba's face, but the wide and startled eyes of her fiancé as well.
"I eh… well…" Kiba stammered, trying to come up with some sort of comeback. After trying to think of a good comeback, he dropped his head dejectedly. "Damnit…"
Sakura looked around at the rest of the crowd gathered around and silently dared any of them to tease her fiancé any further. But after seeing what just happened to Kiba, there were no takers. Satisfied, Sakura took off towards her and Naruto's apartment.
Naruto and Sakura walked (well Sakura walked, Naruto was just along for the ride) to their apartment in a pleasant silence. The pinkette finally let Naruto down once they were inside.
"So you just couldn't wait to get me home eh Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked with a grin.
"I couldn't. Now you're going to tell me what happened on the battlefield today. I know something related to Madara has hurt you. So don't even bother trying to cover it up. I'm your fiancé and you will tell me when something is wrong; just like I'll tell you when something is wrong with me." Sakura replied, crushing her boyfriend's hopes of a…romantic evening.
His normally smiling face dropped into a frustrated frown. "It's not that…"
"Tell me." Sakura interrupted.
"It's just… Madara appeared on the battlefield today."
"I know; I sensed him. I was going to come help you out, but Chiyo-sama interfered."
"When I saw Madara, I assumed that this was it. This was going to be the moment that I fought my legendary battle with Madara and saved the world… And I was scared. Scared of what happened the last time we fought."
"Naruto there's nothing wrong with being…"
"And that's not the thing that has gotten to me the most." Naruto quickly added, interrupting Sakura's attempt to console him. His emerald-eyed angel just stared at him, with that same concerned look on her face that he had seen so much since returning on his training trip with Jiraiya.
"Madara didn't even show up today for me. To him, it was just a mere coincidence that I was there. He wasn't threatened by me in the slightest… He turned his back on me, and completely dropped his guard, so I tried to attack him. But I failed, and he easily sent me flying. I've spent the entire past year training so I could beat him and he still beat me easily. I'm not even strong enough for him to even remotely consider me a threat… If I'm still this weak… how am I going to defeat Madara? How am I going to save the world?"
Sakura smiled softly at Naruto and cupped his face. "Who knows how you are going to do it… I certainly don't. But you're Naruto, so I know you will."
"Sakura-chan… it might be…"
"Impossible?" Sakura interrupted. "Don't forget Naruto, you've spent your entire life doing the impossible. You've not just beaten opponents who seemed to be much stronger than you, but you've managed to make them a better person. Look at Nagato. You defeated his Pain paths and convinced him to revive every single Konoha citizen that died during the Pain attack."
"But…" Naruto started.
"And look at me." Sakura interrupted. "Just six years ago I would have told you it would be impossible for you to win my heart. But yet again, you made the impossible possible and I'm happy to now say that I love you so very much. Where six years ago I would've told you that I would want to spend as little time with you as possible, now I hate being away from you for even a few minutes."
Naruto looked at Sakura with a warm smile. "I guess I do have a habit of doing the impossible eh?"
Sakura leaned forward and softly kissed him on the lips. "Yes you do."
Sakura stepped back from Naruto and grabbed his hand."Now I did tell Kiba that you were going to be getting some tonight…" Sakura said in a sultry voice. She began leading the pair towards their bedroom. "And I certainly wouldn't want to be called a liar…" The look on Naruto's face told her that he had forgotten all about his doubt about facing Madara.
Whew! Alright, last time I updated I said the new job was going to be slowing down enough to where I could start updating regularly again. If you read my story Guardian or follow my writing thread over on the Heaven and Earth forums there is no need for you to read this next part, because you've already read it. I mean it, I directly copied and pasted it because I'm a tad bit lazy:
I know last update I said you can expect weekly updates again because my new job was going to calm down. Sadly, that was not the case. Instead of my job calming down, I instead worked 80 hour weeks all through April! On the plus side- I got some pretty good overtime pay. On the negative side- my life for the month of April consisted of: going to work, coming home, working from home, going to bed. Rinse and repeat. =P So, with that lesson learned, I will promise that I will get updates for this story out as quickly as I can. Ideally I would like to update it once a week, but sometimes it's just not possible. On a bright note- my boss swears that this past month is not normal and I shouldn't plan on working 80 hour weeks very often, this was just a really busy month!
ALRIGHT! Start reading below this again, because I'm going to comment on this most recent chapter.
This chapter was one of the most difficult ones that I've ever written mainly due to the fact that I foolishy wrote in opponents whose fighting styles I wasn't overly familiar with. I sorta skimmed through the manga chapters/anime episodes where Chiyo fought, and the Silver and Gold Brothers curse was so convoluted that I had already forgotten exactly how it worked. As a result, I'm not thrilled with these fighting scenes, but I at least like to think I salvaged them a little and they're not among the worst things ever written in fanfiction!
Also, for the first time ever, I had difficulty coming up with a chapter title. Not really important, just a random side note =P
What's coming next chapter:
Next chapter is going to be another peaceful chapter. Konoha and its allies will be resting while they wait for Kabuto's army to break through the barrier. So you can expect some fluff, probably some secondary pairing developments/moments, and just some general set up for the main battle. After next chapter all hell will break loose and I think you'll be in for a good ride =) I'm REALLY excited to write the fights that I have planned for the end of this story. Giddy with excitement even.
Thanks for reading, please do review, and I shall see you next time =)