I apologize for the very late update, but I had other stories to work on, and school is continuing to put a lot of merciless pressure on me. I hope to finish this story soon. There aren't that many chapters left anyway.
"Glad to see you're still alive, Ningyou," the Edo Tensei shinobi said, smiling gently.
"Karasu," Ningyou whispered.
Itachi turned around from where he fought three opponents. His eyes widened as Susano'o stabbed through the three undead ninjas with one jab of the Totsuka Blade.
"You…" he choked out, pain twisting his heart at seeing his apprentice being manipulated like this.
Karasu bowed her head politely. "Itachi-san," she greeted her mentor.
"I'm sorry about your puppet, Sasori-san," she added, eyeing the remains of the Third Kazekage, Sasori's most beloved puppet.
Sasori kept staring in shock.
Karasu tilted her head. "Surely, you all can't be this shocked," she asked, "Didn't Leader-sama say that something like this might happen?"
"It's not just shock, you idiot!" Ningyou exploded.
Karasu opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly, her body moved forward of its own accord.
"Damn!" she cursed as she was forced to form hand seals, "Get out of here!"
"Move!" Sasori shouted to Ningyou, shoving her aside as Karasu executed a Lightning Style attack. There was a silence as the undead clone sliced off Sasori's right arm, which fell to the ground with a dull thunk.
There wasn't any time to react to the loss of Sasori's puppet arm as Karasu made a sharp turn and headed for Itachi and his Susano'o. Ningyou reacted quickly and sent Porcupine after Karasu, forcing the resurrected kunoichi to veer off track.
"Karasu, please stop!" Ningyou shouted desperately.
"If I could, I would!" Karasu called back, "I can't control my actions!" As if to prove it, she started forming a series of hand seals and blasted a giant fireball at Sasori.
"Water Style: Water Shark Bomb Jutsu!" A giant shark of water collided with Karasu's fireball, evaporating it with a hiss of steam.
"Kisame!" Sasori hissed at his savior, "You, Kakuzu, and Hidan were supposed to wait and engage Fumetsu!"
Kisame swung his sword onto his shoulder. "Some Edo Tensei ninjas found us, so we were forced out of hiding."
"Where are Hidan and Kakuzu?"
"Right there." Kisame jabbed his finger over to where Hidan was pulling off a psychotic killer rampage and Kakuzu was making sure the zealot didn't do anything too reckless.
"Kisame-san! Look out!"
The shout made Kisame turn and receive a hard blow from Karasu's Earth Style: Iron Fist. There was a nasty crunching sound as Karasu's fist made contact with Kisame's left arm. It dangled uselessly by the shark-man's side, broken.
Sasori used his remaining limb to send a couple of his armed puppets after Karasu. Karasu jumped into the air, her body doing somersaults to avoid the barrage of attacks.
Itachi took the chance to attempt to seal her away using the Totsuka Blade. Waiting until Karasu was doing a complicated twist in midair, he commanded Susano'o to aim for his former apprentice's body. Susano'o lurched forward, the tip of the sword going for Karasu. However, its target merely turned into a flock of crows. The Totsuka Blade passed harmlessly through the space where Karasu had occupied.
There was a loud roar and a blaze of orange as another Susano'o exploded into being. It let out a howl before clashing with Itachi's Susano'o, forcing the latter back due to Itachi's exhaustion.
Clasping her hands together, Ningyou began to form a series of hand signs. Ending with the sign of the snake, she focused her chakra into the jutsu.
Fuijutsu: Shiki Fujin! (A/N: For those who don't know, this is the jutsu the Third Hokage used to seal away Orochimaru's jutsu.)
Ningyou felt as though cold water was flowing through her body. Glancing behind her, she saw the Shinigami hovering in the air, a knife in its mouth and a necklace of beads in its left hand. It's long, spiky hair wrapped itself around a human-like figure that materialized from Ningyou's body. My soul, Ningyou thought.
As she continued watching, the Shinigami wrapped the beaded necklace around its left arm, chanting some kind of incantation. A cursed seal spread across the arm, and the Shinigami thrust said arm into Ningyou's soul.
With all the preparations done, Ningyou charged forward to where her target was battling against Itachi, Sasori, and Kisame. Dodging between any stray attacks, she closed the distance between her and Karasu, ignoring her mentor's bewildered cry. Ningyou ignored the kunai in Karasu's hand, reaching out and gripping the latter's shoulders at the same time the kunai entered her abdomen.
"Ningyou…" Karasu's shocked whisper sounded thunderous despite the fight still going on.
Ningyou coughed up a mouthful of blood before replying, "It's all right. We're going together."
Karasu blinked and her eyes widened a little before her mouth twitched into a soft smile. "You should say goodbye first."
"Okay," Ningyou agreed. She turned to Sasori, who stood frozen.
"I'm sorry, Sasori-san," Ningyou began, "I won't be able to help you after this. I'm giving up my own life to seal away my friend. But it's all right; I would have still died today even if I did make it past this battle. Please, don't hate me."
Karasu turned to Itachi. "Itachi-san, I apologize for the trouble I gave all of you. Although I can promise, you will never see the two of us like this again." On second thought, she added, "And stop using your eyes so much. You'll go blind."
"Ready?" Ningyou asked quietly.
"Go ahead," Karasu answered, closing her eyes.
Ningyou took a deep breath and shouted, "SEAL!"
The Shinigami immediately reached out through Ningyou's body and seized Karasu's soul, pulling it out of the resurrected kunoichi's body. Karasu's undead body disintegrated as her soul was dragged through Ningyou, who let out a cry of pain as a seal mark appeared on her stomach.
The Shinigami devoured the two souls and dissipated, leaving Ningyou to fall face down on the ground, next to the merged corpse of Kuroi and Shiro, who had appeared where Karasu had last stood. The clones were clearly dead.
Review, please. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible!