A/N: Happy Valentine's day!

Chapter twenty

The sound of two smashes made Skylar open her eyes and shield them from the bright golden light, currently surrounding her and healing her slowly. She couldn't help selfishly closing her eyes for a little bit and leaning against the solid and warm body holding her up and against him.

"You've been reckless… Kiiro's going to be fine by the way, she's resting." Naruto's voice rumbled through her as she rested her cheek against his shoulder.

"That's good to hear… Who came?" She asked, relaxing against Naruto drowsily as he healed her and she let her muscles rest a little as she heard the battle waging on behind her.

"Our teams… Tsunade-obaa chan will be sending more as she gets to them and I heard Kumo is sending over someone to help as are the rest of the countries." Naruto said, stroking through her matted red hair as Kakashi, Sai, Yamato and Sasuke fought what was left of Kakuzu. The sound of a lightning blade piercing through skin was heard as she felt Kakuzu's chakra disappear and she decided she had to get up now with Naruto's help as Kabuto didn't look happy.

"You cheated." Kabuto said and Skylar scowled at him before the reanimations moved, separating her from Naruto as her dragons reunited with her and they began to heal each other. Skylar looked across the battlefield with annoyance and growled. Kabuto had paired up Naruto against Jiraiya, Sasuke against Itachi, Kakashi against Neji, Yamato against Kisame, Sai against Orochimaru and Sakura against Chiyo.

"Now for the next round." Yusei said as he formed hand seals before placing his hands on the ground as five more coffins appeared and the doors fell open and Skylar felt like she was fighting a loosing battle… Yagura, Minato, Mu, Gaara's dad and the Sandaime Raikage for her to fight next, the previous Kages.

"Not again." Yagura complained as their coffins disappeared and they gained consciousness. Minato's eyes landed on Skylar with confusion.

"Tell me about it, I've been fighting freaks and reanimations all morning and it's only noon… It's nice to meet all of you even under these circumstances, my name is Uzumaki Skylar and as I'm sure you've noticed, you'll be fighting me." Skylar said as the Kages regarded her.

"Naruto?" Minato said as all of their eyes turned to the battles happening behind Skylar.

"Unfortunately so… You're son just can't mind his own business can he?" Skylar asked with a grin and Minato smiled. Skylar moved on to explain everything to them as he listened and Kabuto let it happen.

"Alright… Enough chit chat, start fighting." Kabuto ordered and the Kages sighed. The ground rumbled under Skylar's feet as she jumped high into the air, gold dust chasing after her, she began to wrack her brain for how he was defeated in the fourth war and cursed, realising Gaara's sand had slowed it down and cursed as she twisted to avoid it. Her eyes caught a flash of lightning to her side as she grabbed the Sandaime Raikage's arm, thrusting to hit her as she used his momentum to twist her out of the way. A white see through bubble appeared around her and her eyes widened as everything wet white and she flashed away to hit the ground hard, only to roll backwards and flip back as gold dust chased her.

Something whizzed past her head as there was a yellow flash and blue, slipping her leg out to drop to the ground to avoid the rasengan, twisting into a press up position and kicking Minato away as she rolled forwards to flip back again from the gold dust. There was a cracking sound behind her as she threw a senbon off to the side and saw coral rising out of the ground where she just was and took a second to regain her breath, down on her haunches.

"You're good." Yagura said as the five Kages stood together once more.

"But not good enough since all I did was defend myself." Skylar puffed out, trying to ignore her muscles screaming at her as well as her chakra.

"I've put a mark on you so be careful." Minato said as well and Skylar nodded, knowing it was on her ankle when she kicked him away.

"I have to say that was very interesting." Kabuto applauded again slowly, mockingly as Yusei grinned next to him. Skylar narrowed her eyes into a glare at him and Kabuto just smirked. "Let's have some more one on one battles since I didn't get to finish watching them all… Who's first?" Kabuto asked, holding his arms out like it was a carnival and Skylar scoffed, spitting some blood out onto the ground next to her. The Kage's all looked at each other before Minato sighed and stepped forwards.

"Let's get this over and done with shall we?" He asked, trying to smile reassuringly at him and Skylar shrugged as she sheathed her scythe against her back, noting her roll of linen was finished. The fluctuation of the air and chakra was enough to tell her that Minato was using the body flicker jutsu and timed it right to dodge his kunai swinging up at her from Minato's crouched position as she jumped back into a flip to dodge Minato trying to sweep her legs out from under her.

"How long has it been since the war?" He asked, using the Body Flicker as his kunai came into contact with the metal cable of her scythe attached to her belt. Skylar held the cable as she flicked a senbon out of its pouch and swapped the cable for the senbon, connecting over and over again with Minato's kunai.

"You want to talk about this now?" Skylar asked in exasperation and Minato grinned and shrugged as a rasengan was aimed for her but Byakko stopped it as the dragons were still over her shoulders and around her waist.

"Well when else do you expect me to ask about these things?" Minato complained with a slight smile as Skylar cracked a slight one as well, using Chidori Nagashi to push Minato back. He threw a normal kunai as he formed some hand seals and the kunai multiplied as Skylar focused her chakra, the wind stopping the kunai dead in their tracks.

"True… It's been about four years. Do you have the yang half of the Kyuubi?" Skylar asked as Minato flashed over and they began a close combat fight as Skylar charged up a Chidori to attack with.

"Unfortunately yes… I think Yagura has the power of the Sanbi as well so be careful." Minato warned as she sliced him in half and reached into one of the scroll pouches on her flak jacket and rolled it open, swiping some blood across it, unsealing a roll of linen that feel to clip on her back with her scythe before she replaced the scroll. The linen to seal Minato was interfered with by gold dust and Skylar cursed as she used her chakra and will to roll it back up using chakra strings.

"Sorry but I like these pawns and since the Hokage failed, you can move onto the next opponent." Kabuto said cockily as Minato's reanimation fixed itself and he jumped into line.

Naruto stood ready, having fought Jiraiya for a while and catching up with each other as they fought. He could see Skylar fighting his dad and their mouths moving, meaning they were talking which made him smile slightly.

"You got yourself one hell of a girlfriend there, Gaki." Jiraiya teased with a laughed and Naruto grinned.

"Believe me, I think she could whip my ass no problem, she shouldn't have any trouble with my dad or those other Kages." Naruto said as he used a water wall to stop the fireball Jiraiya sent his way.

"There's some merit to this reanimation at least, getting to catch up with you and I'm proud of you Naruto, you've far surpassed anyone's expectations including my own and probably your father's as well." Jiraiya said as they began a sage hand to hand fight and Naruto couldn't stop smiling.

Sasuke couldn't stop smiling either, as he fought with Itachi and his brother smiled at him like he hadn't done since he was a kid, training with his big brother.

"I'm glad to see you happy and back where you belong Sasuke." Itachi said, as it was susano'o against susano'o. Sasuke just smirked as he continued to fight against his brother… He had nothing left to say to him and just let Itachi get everything else off of his chest. Sasuke laughed along with his brother as they spoke about Kiiro and everything that had happened since the war and Skylar as well because she played a big part in Sasuke's life and Itachi was glad Sasuke was back with his friends especially Naruto and now Skylar and Kiiro, two mysteriously powerful girls.

"You're not going to last much longer at this rate." Byakko warned as Skylar dodged with Hiraishin again from the particle style Mu was currently using on her.

"Look, I just have to go through him, Yagura and The Sandaime Raikage and then I can probably seal them if I'm quick enough without them getting in the way." Skylar breathed out in a puff of air through her panting and holding her leg that Mu had caught with his particle style once already. "Dammit, there's too much I don't know about him." Skylar cursed as she noticed she was getting pushed back and closer to the other battles happening.

"Act like a real ninja dammit!" Seiryu growled at her angrily, which surprised Skylar as she noticed Mu disappeared again. "Most ninja go into battle blind about their opponents which is where both you and this damn bandaged guy are at now… He disappears without a trace and can use the particle style… What else can you deduce?" Seiryu growled angrily with conviction to his voice as Skylar swung around with a senbon, embedding it into Mu's arm as he reappeared. She blocked a high kick aimed for her head with her arm as she tried to kick him back, embedding the senbon as far as possible.

Skylar knew Seiryu was right but he was the damn Tsuchikage and a good one to boot and she knew an advantage was better than none. Lightning was her best shot with his particle style by what she remembered as she charged up a Chidori and dug it into his stomach, flaring her power into the jutsu, ripping him apart in massive sparks of lightning as Skylar sank to her knees, breathing heavily as Mu regenerated and stood back in line. She cursed as she saw Gaara's dad step forward and ready himself as she battled to stand up, every part of her felt like it was on fire and nothing there, even her knees wobbled as she stood up but she still glared at her next opponent.

He used gold dust by the magnet release and sand was the only thing that could go up against it. Water was out of the question as it was one of her weaknesses so was earth… Why was she so good with the non-tangible elements? Popping a food pill into her mouth, she began to dodge and jump away from the gold dust chasing her as she wracked her brain once again to find something that would give her an advantage. She was out of options as she formed hand seals against a huge wave of gold dust.

"Fire style: Grand Phoenix Extermination Jutsu." She said, holding her fingers to her mouth in the tiger seal as she breathed out a huge blue burning ball, melting the gold into one solid structure… It also gave her a barrier between her fights and everyone else as she used an earth jutsu Kakashi taught her, travelling underground. She pulled him into the ground and hit him with the flaring of her chakra and wind, ripping apart his reanimation as she jumped out of the ground.

"The amount of chakra you're absorbing and using is ripping you apart, you can't keep doing this." Suzaku said out in worry as Skylar collapsed to her knees once again… Her coil and chakra network was burning, her muscles ripping and her resolve breaking with each opponent she faced. She was making more and more mistakes and she knew it, it would be the end of her if she wasn't more aware and careful as she stumbled to get up, limping slightly from her right thigh where the particle style caught her. Yagura stepped up and stood with his arms crossed and Skylar sighed… Two more to go as she charged right in with lightning again against a water user, dodging coral as it appeared out of the ground.

Yagura went down easily, his heart just not being in the fight like all of the other Kages but their small attacks were enough to wear Skylar down that little more each time as she dodged for her life against the Sandaime Raikage using a single finger thrust as he attacked.

Naruto smiled as Jiraiya was the last to be sealed with Kiiro's help as she had some linen left for sealing and the team regrouped, three sets of sharingan trying to look past the gold wall.

"She's not doing well." Naruto said, in Kyuubi and sage mode, being able to sense her as well as all of her opponents left. "She hasn't taken out a single one."

"Maybe Kabuto's not letting her… The previous Kages are very valuable pawns to him." Kakashi said as all seven of them made their way over, jumping on top of the golden wall and watching as Skylar went with Chidori against the Raikage's lightning armour and thrusts as it looked like a hand to hand fight.

"What is she doing?!" Kiiro said out in panic and worry, Sasuke holding her across her shoulders as she was wanting to jump in and help Skylar as Naruto was resisting jumping in, clenching his hands.

Naruto fell to his knees as if it was all a dream and slow motion, his face blanked as his chest hut as badly as if he was in Skylar's place… He was sure he heard screaming but it was too close for it to be Skylar's voice but then he heard Kabuto's manic laughter and he just couldn't hold his mode anymore, reverting back to normal with emotional pain.

Skylar was too slow to dodge… Their presences had made her look for a split second. The Raikage took the opening and used his finger thrust, stabbing right through Skylar's heart and her whole body, his hand breaking through the skin and bone on the other side as her body curled in on itself with the impact. Red hair flaring like the blood flying from her wound and her mouth as she gasped with wide, pained and unbelieving eyes.

They all watched in horror as Kiiro screamed with Sakura but Sasuke was holding the struggling blonde off of the ground as she reached for her first friend, dying right in front of her. Sasuke's eyes were shut tight, tears still pouring through them as he rested his forehead against Kiiro's back and Kakashi collapsed next to Naruto… This was Rin all over again but this time… He was in Obito's place, the injustice in it all was enough to crack his sanity that much further as he clutched tightly to his chest, battling to pull in air through gasps as it all happened in maybe a second but to Team Kakashi and Team Yamato, it was eternity.

Skylar gasped as she gripped the Raikage's wrist with her shaking hands, it was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world being suspended by your shattering rib cage as gravity pulled you down. Her eyes were wide as she tried to focus on breathing but warm salty and irony liquid filled her passages, making breathing hard as everything started to go cold, starting with her limbs as her arms hung and her head lulled forwards to hang.

"NO!" Naruto's voice screamed, cracking with intense and heart breaking emotions, it shook the land and made Minato look away, seeing his son even more broken than he was on the battlefield… Just like when he saw Kushina hanging from chains, after having the Kyuubi taken from her but this was happening way to quickly. Everything was just quiet as the Raikage stood there with surprise in his face as the cooling liquid travelled up his arm… He just destroyed the world's hope and now he was just stunned until she twitched and brought her hand so quickly down on his wrist, breaking it off as he jumped into line with the other Kages in different states of shock, surprise and sadness.

Skylar's body crumpled to the floor as all she saw was hazy brown dirt and the clouded sky from the many lightning and fire attacks. She could feel something so peaceful calling to her but her eyes refused to close, even though she could no longer breath… Her left hand was stinging like a bumblebee, it was her thread to the conscious world as her body worked on autopilot… She couldn't even hear her heartbeat anymore as her body felt numb and cold, the liquid running across the ground providing little heat as it poured out her life.

Naruto was mumbling Skylar's name brokenly as he watched her lying there on the verge of death and one of Kakashi's hands fisted into his jacket as all you could hear was Kakashi's hyperventilating and crying coming from the rest, especially Kiiro, Sasuke and Sakura. They just all stood there, broken and watching Skylar's final moments, knowing hell was to pay once there was nothing left to watch but death take her.

Skylar rolled with a pained cry, surprised she had any breath left to do it, rolling onto her left side as pressure was added to the through wound, waking her conscience a little more as her right hand flopped over to join her left hand. Taking some blood from the ground with her right thumb, she followed the circle on her left hand roughly in one quick motion as she just couldn't concentrate, her body was just on autopilot as she watched like an outer body experience. She drew a slight squiggle down the middle of the bloody circle, separating the dragons sitting on the tattoo as she dotted each rounded edge, like the dragons were holding a red round ball in their claws, her autopilot finally giving out as she watched with blurred eyes. She felt herself fading quickly as her eyes finally closed only to feel like she was on fire in her stomach as wide purple eyes opened.

Skylar gasped breath, rolling onto her back and arching in pain with a scream as she hit her fisted left hand into the ground, every cell in her body was on fire and it felt unbearable. Her head whipped from side to side, eyes scrunching shut as she gritted her teeth through breathless cries as she felt a thumping in her chest. She was sitting up now, staring at the ground as the tribal design slinked up her arm like serpents and down her left side of her body as the dragons settled over the hole through her, covering and chasing each other once again as she felt a little more energised and aware, she flexed her left hand, noticing her whole left side of her body looked like Sasuke when he entered the first stage of the cursed seal and the dragons almost swam around and through her wound. She stumbled to stand up but she did and smirked at Kabuto who was seething and Yusei kind of looking glade or impressed, Skylar couldn't care.

She stretched slightly, finding no pain but incredible and almost endless power rushing through her vein as all of her aches and pains faded away, even the pain on her thigh… She knew this was dangerous but she relished in the feeling of being warm again. Slipping multiple scrolls out of her jacket, juggling them as she unrolled one, swiping blood across a seal before rolling it up and replacing it, doing the same with the next scroll. Her executioners blade came spinning out, landing in it's clip easily as well as two rolls of linen as she got down into an attack position, pulling her senbons from her pouch, calculating everything as everyone was still stunned. Senbons in her right hand and scythe up behind her in her left she ran towards the Kages and threw a senbon, her red flash sounding like a break in time and space, almost like lightning.

Team Kakashi and Yamato watched as this all played out and she got up like she wasn't seconds away from death. They flinched at the bright red and the huge crack that went with it as she appeared in the middle of the Kages. Three sets of sharingan trained on the group but they couldn't see nothing but a blur of red and a silhouette of red as weapons spun in the middle but shifting slightly. The only notion to tell them that Skylar was attacking was the way the Kages stumbled and tried to attack back but she had already flashed through three other positions before they realised and she was back on them again.

A lightning Executioners blade stuck through Mu, freezing him into place as the three blade scythe wrapped around the Raikage. She stopped long enough to see her, almost lying on her side through the air, red hair flared out as linen flew out, sealing Mu as she flashed to the blade, taking it with her next flash as she continued an onslaught, finally sealing the Raikage, retrieving her scythe as it clipped onto her back with what was seen of the Executioners blade and one roll of linen. One last flash of red, she tackled the Kazekage and sealed him in a flash when Minato attacked from behind with a rasengan between her shoulder blades.

Skylar flew into something but she knew it wasn't the ground as she rolled with it for a while before stopping on the warm and soft mass that she collided with. She opened her eyes to gold once again as Naruto was on his back with her on top, glaring back at his father.

"Kabuto has taken their wills away… It's not Minato anymore." Skylar said as she also watched the last two reanimations and dread crawled up her back.

"I never expected you to have a fail safe like Tsunade-sama and that pink haired teammate of yours." Kabuto said out with annoyance and Skylar smirked, still in Naruto's hold.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game." Skylar said back at him with amusement and he glared at her, the rinnegan and sharingan not seeming to imposing anymore, they only had power as a full set anyway. Skylar managed to unwrap Naruto's arms from her enough to get them standing up again even if Naruto kept a tight hold around her waist, glaring at Kabuto over her shoulder as the rest of the team came to join them. Skylar pushed Sakura's hands away when she tried to heal her but Sakura seemed a bit distraught and numb to fight back as she stared through Skylar's wound. She was drawn into an awkward group hug but she smiled none the less, making sure to get skin-to-skin contact to each one of them to reassure them she was still alive after her near death experience… Again.

She did grab Kakashi properly and hug him tight as he squeezed her gently back as she could feel he was still shaking and made a mental note to sit down and talk to him properly later but right now…

Yusei placed his hands on the ground once again as eight coffins showed up and Skylar seethed killing intent like it was going out of fashion as she glared death at Kabuto who was smiling.

"We can do this all day Skylar." Kabuto laughed as he held his arms out at his new army of eleven and Kiiro gasped, crying and chanting little 'no' every gasp.

"We can't let him keep using the dead like this… It's disgusting." Kakashi growled as his killing intent joined Skylar's.

"What do you suggest?" Skylar asked, tilting her head back to ask him but kept her eyes on the new and old reanimations.

"Take Yusei out first, he's the one controlling the reanimation process since there is no way Kabuto would have had this amount of chakra to summon so many… Remember reanimations have unlimited chakra." Kakashi said in a low voice and Skylar nodded

"What about them?" Skylar asked, jerking her head towards the reanimations.

"I think we can handle them." Sasuke said.

"Reanimated Jinchuuriki or not… I won't let him use my sisters again even in death." Kiiro growled as she activated sage mode and her sharingan with it as Seiryu slid off of Skylar and around Kiiro's waist.

"Take out Yusei and then we can deal with Kabuto, we've got the jinchuuriki." Naruto said, stepping up next to Skylar as did Kiiro who was smirking. Naruto and Skylar looked at her with worry until six wings appeared from behind her and red chakra coated her skin lightly, not as heavily as it use to on Naruto.

"I won't be fighting alone." Kiiro said with a smile and Naruto smiled and Skylar laughed a little because it still hurt.

"So, Choumei likes you huh?" Skylar mocked and Kiiro grinned. Skylar took a deep breath and looked at each jinchuuriki. Nii Yugito, Yagura, Roshi, Han, Utakata Fu, Killer Bee, Minato, Gin and Kuro.

"If you use Hiraishin as expertly as you did just now, you'll break through them no problem and take out Yusei, got it?" Kakashi asked, his face right next to her ear as he placed his hands on her shoulders, everyone watching the reanimations.

"Yeah, I got it sensei." Skylar nodded.

"How's your condition?" Kakashi asked as it seemed the reanimations began to get restless.

"Fine and healing since I activated this seal… I'll explain once this is all over." Skylar said and she heard Kakashi sighed before he patted her shoulders and stepped back.

"Be careful." Naruto said, kissing her cheek.

"Don't you dare die on us again Dobe." Sasuke said with a relieved smirk and Skylar nodded.

A/N: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the update, there's only two more chapters after this… I know so sad even I'm a bit sad finishing it but life must go on. Please review and tell me what you think about this story, it would make my lonely day with my boyfriend, my computer :D