Chapter 22: Launching A Rescue
Hey guys. So we're almost done here. There were going to be 26 chapters before but this one ended up being too short. Even now after I combined it with what I had planned for the next chapter it still is. Well, that will make it even quicker as I've decided to focus on this story only this week and finish it off. Should be done by this Saturday or Sunday.
Sakura looked upon the spot that Seyatsu and Hanako had vanished as Sasuke and Naruto stood next to her. She cried as a horrible truth came crashing down on her.
"I wasn't strong enough! I'm never am strong enough! I can't do anything on my own! I couldn't protect them!" Sakura sobbed.
Naruto walked over and put a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Its not your fault Sakura, Indra is the one who first invented ninjutsu to begin with."
"The Ten Tails Excess chakra flows through him," Sasuke affirmed. "You are a powerful kunoichi, Sakura. Perhaps the strongest in the village or even the entire world today. But he has an unfair advantage."
Sakura sobbed and embraced Naruto. "We have to get Hanako back!"
"And Seyatsu!" Hinata said as she struggled to keep herself from crying as well.
"We will," Naruto said before glancing at her. "We'll save Seyatsu too."
Sasuke nodded as he came and stood next to his wife. "If it's the last thing we do. We will end the memory of the hatred that has passed through the souls of my clan for generations and plagued this world with it."
…
Seyatsu and Hanako were suddenly in an unfamiliar room with several large table inside. The tables held a variety of chemicals held in bottles and devices that moved them from one vial to another. There was also a cabinet of some sort. Before they could do anything, the man who'd abducted them pinned them down and tied them up in chairs. Hanako shook helplessly but Seyatsu struggled against his bonds.
"W-who are you? What-what do you want from us?" he demanded with a slight stammer.
The man who'd abducted them glanced over at them as he opened the cabinets which the young Uchiha heir got a glance at. Seyatsu saw the tops of files held within drawers. He couldn't make out the letters or words at this distance.
"I want nothing from her," the man said looking at Hanako. "Only you. You will be my vessel for the future. I will take over your body and then transplant these eyes and the extra chakra I hold into you. Then I will destroy your father and her father as well."
Seyatsu shook at the thought that he would be used to kill his own father.
…
Naruto pinned Orochimaru to the wall of the stadium, the snake Sannin's eyes were full of fear as he beheld the controlled Nine Tails form of the Seventh Hokage.
"Alright Orochimaru. I know you were threatened into helping Indra! That's the only I'm not gonna kill you!" Naruto roared. "Now talk and we'll decide whether to reconsider our alliance! What does Indra want with Seyatsu?"
"The same thing I wanted with Sasuke," Orochimaru choked out. "To take over his body. He wants a body with the natural born powers of the Uchiha! He's probably at my lab in the Sound Village right now preparing to do so."
Naruto stiffened.
"Seyatsu won't be able to resist him! Not without the sharingan!" Sasuke said, gritting his teeth in worry.
"Oh Seyatsu!" Hinata put her hands together.
"You may still have time!" Orochimaru said. "Indra needs to create a new form as I did in order to be able to take over someone's body.
…
Indra rummaged through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. The recipe to create a temporary form that would him to transfer into another body. He gathered the chemicals in the list and began putting them together. Soon he would have everything he needed.
…
Naruto took a breath. "We have to act quickly,"
"Yes," Hinata agreed. "We can't let Indra take over Seyatsu's body!"
She spoke in determination. Her fists clenching and shaking as she thought of her child, a vein popping in her forehead. She looked ready to unleash her maternal fury into the most powerful gentle fist anyone had ever seen.
Sakura smiled. "Let's do it. For our children."
"For the village," Sasuke added.
"For the peace of the ninja world," Naruto said.
"What about us?" a voice asked from behind.
The four adults looked over their shoulder to see Kasumi and Orenjii standing there.
"You two stay here," Sakura said to her twins. "You are not ready to fight against a foe like what we are going up against. Temari!"
The fan using woman walked up to them. Temari had just been patched up by Ino who'd moved on to find other people to help that were injured in the attack.
"I want you to look after them while we're gone, please," Sakura said.
"No problem," Temari said. "I'm sure Orrenji will be happy to sleep over with Shikanamu."
Under normal circumstances she would have been right. But the male Uzumaki twin had no heart to look forward to something like that right now. He thought of his younger sister and teammate.
"No way! I'm going with you to save Hanako and Seyatsu!" Orenji said.
"Me too!" Kasumi said. "Dad, you taught me a true shinobi is one that saves their friends and doesn't run away from a fight."
Naruto sighed. "Yes. But you aren't running away. You are staying out of it. Me, your mother, Uncle Sasuke, and Aunt Hinata will get them back. We've been through worse, we fought the Ten Tails and Madara, Indra can't be more powerful than that."
Kasumi wanted to argue, but couldn't find a reasonable counter to that. She still had the feeling that her parents needed her and her brother though. Or maybe she just didn't want to miss out.
"Come on you two," Temari said to the twins.
She led her own son and the twins away as Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Hinata looked at each other.
"Let's do this," Naruto said.
Sakura and Hinata nodded. Sasuke said nothing but nodded. He leapt out onto the main arena quickly followed by the others.
"Get close to me," he said.
A purple aura surrounded him as he unleashed his Susanoo. It grew to its full body form and sprouted wings as his wife and comrades took their places next to him. They rose up as the chakra made surface levitated them. Once Susanoo was fully formed, Sasuke had it flap its wings and prepared to take off.
"Wait!" a voice called out.
Naruto and Sakura looked and saw Kasumi and Orenjii had already made it down here with Temari. The Uzumaki twins leapt up and Sasuke opened the Susanoo for them.
"You're not coming!" Sakura reminded them.
"Yeah, I know," Kasumi said.
"We just wanted to say good luck," Orenjii said.
The twins hugged their parents and were hugged in return.
"We'll be back you guys, we promise," Naruto said as he felt Kasumi's hand on his back.
The twins leapt back down to Temari and Shikanamu. Susanoo flapped its wings again and took the air. It soared like a bird with the three most powerful ninja in the Hidden Leaf as well as Hinata inside. Temari then led the children to her house. The fighting had already been stopped in the leaf with the creatures Indra had made being destroyed thanks to the efforts of brave ninja. But many had been injured, and now Tsunade, Ino, and the rest of the medical ninja had their hands full treating them.
As they followed Temari, Orenjii whispered to his sister.
"Do you think it worked?" he asked.
She nodded and said, "I've been studying the Flying Thunder God Technique grandfather Minato used to use since Dad started teaching me the Rasengan. I managed to get special permission to look at the jutsu seals thanks to being the Hokage's daughter and I applied the technique to Dad. So, we'll wait a while and then teleport to him."
"What if he's still in the air or it doesn't work?" Orenjii asked.
"Then we're either gonna maybe fall to our deaths or still be here," Kasumi whispered.
…
Indra mixed together the last of the chemicals and a pinkish green liquid resulted. He drank it and stood there for an instant as Seyatsu and Hanako stared. Then he began to twist and writhe as his body… or rather… Ranzo Shimura's body… took on a new form. While Orochimaru had taken the form of a snake, Indra took on a form much different. That of a miniature version of the ten tails itself, reflecting the chakra of the beast that Ranzo had stolen and inadvertently caused his own downfall as well since he'd absorbed the chakra of both Madara and Sasuke. Two souls that were part of the same reincarnation cycle of hatred and brought back the original progenitor.
Indra grinned in his new form as he looked at Seyatsu.
"Now you will be mine!"
Okay so since I ended up making two chapters into one it looks like this might be the week in which this story is completed since I decided to focus on it alone. Hope you guys are enjoying this so far. Come back on Wednesday or Thursday as well as this Saturday or next Sunday and the story should be complete by then. Next chapter will feature the battle with Indra as I felt it would be better to combine another set of chapters originally planned to be separate. So that makes 24 chapters altogether.