"...You sure you want to do this," Naruto asked Kakuzu.
"Yes."
"Obviously you haven't thought about it. Right here is not the best place to fight, what with Konoha in view to see us fighting. Over there." Keeping him in sight, Naruto walked away. He was about to turn a corner but stopped. "Well?"
"...Alright." He followed until they stood there. "Summon him."
"Make us," Naruto challenged. "Skarmory is our friend and we summon him more often to be with him then the actually fight. Because few can force us to. Are you strong enough to make us?"
"Watch and see." He ran at Naruto and went for a punch. Naruto ducked it then twisted to the right as these razor sharp threads spread from the fist. He ducked, brought his legs to his chest, rolled to the right, and came to his feet. He stood there, his back to Kakuzu.
"No, you are not." He started to walk away, bored with him. "You say you know Skarmory-sama? Means you have had a full life. But it also seems you have one still to go. Don't waste it for revenge."
"For over a hundred years, I have waited and searched for this chance," Kakuzu growled. "I am not giving up now!"
"...Fine." Naruto turned around. "Which do you want? Swords or hammer? And know, as strong as we are, Skarmory-sama is a hundred times stronger. We only summon him when it truly is dire."
"Which ever is stronger," Kakuzu told him.
"...We'll go with the hammer for now." Naruto took the stick and hit the end of it to the ground. There was a bolt of lightning and Naruto straightened with Mjolnir in hand, the six metal disk on his chest. "May you be accepted into the gates of Valhalla."
"What is that," Kakuzu asked.
Naruto smirked under his mask. "It is the realm where warriors that died in battle, the ones that fought honorable enough to impress Odin, are taken. We heard they have great ale there." Naruto let go of the handle and started swinging it around by the loop at the end. He threw it and Kakuzu ducked under it, letting it fly overhead. Naruto was already on him, he went for several punches and kicks. He found them all blocked by the threads. As they went to stab him, Naruto formed the Kage Keiri and cut them apart. Flipping it onto his back, he pulled the Mjolnir back to him. He swung the hammer wide, forcing Kakuzu back. "We appear to be even, more or less, in Taijutsu."
"It does appear so."
"Then let's stop the warm up." He slipped Mjolnir into his belt and started doing handsigns. As he did them, a massive amount of water fell from Venom into the bowl the had walked in. "Dog, bird, monkey, horse, snake, dog," Naruto found himself saying as he did them. The temperature dropped as the water turned to ice and reformed. A narwhal jumped into the air above them. Kakuzu was expecting Naruto to run to get out of the kill zone so he was surprised that he only made sure the whale did not land on him while he continued to fight. When it came back to earth, it shattered when it hit the rocks. Ice spears flew everywhere. Kakuzu saw them coming from behind Naruto. The odd thing was, he swore he saw Naruto smirk under his mask before he jumped into the air, twisting this way and that, weaving through them. Kakuzu was far to big to attempt such a feat so he brought up a wall of earth to stop them. They hit it and broke some more. He was about to drop it when something hit it from the other side and shattered it, going right for him. Mjolnir slammed into his chest and through him into the mountain side. It vanish and reappeared in Naruto's hands.
Kakuzu got up and fire flowed along his hands. "An ice user, just like Zetsu said."
"You know they are dead, right?"
"Yes. I don't care. All I care about is finishing you!" He pushed his hands forward, throwing the burning spheres at him. But Naruto formed a mirror in front of them. "You are good but not good enough. Almost nothing can break these mirrors. Our bloodline and that of our wife. And it is what we used to defeat Kisame and Itachi." Naruto jumped forward, shooting a web at his hands and catching them in one of his. "Here comes the crescendo." His free hand started one handed handsigns...when a head appeared from Kakuzu's back. It looked like a mask and it opened its mouth, a whirlwind appearing in it. Naruto pulled and threw Kakuzu before he could blast him. "What the hell!?"
Kakuzu ripped his shirt off and turned around. Naruto saw four mask sewn into his back. As one, they opened their mouths and an element formed there, growing stronger for a moment before launching their attacks. Naruto was dived to the side, missing the first, ducking the second, coming up short for the third, and about to step back to evade the fourth. But a rock wall was behind him now. With the three around him, he couldn't avoid the fourth one now. "Shit." The sphere of water hit him, blasting him through the wall. Both him and Venom were stunned so they could do nothing when something picked him up and held him in place. Kakuzu walked forward, popping his knuckles.
"Summon him."
"Screw you," Naruto replied. The wind was knocked out of him from a punch to the gut. Followed by an upper cut.
"Summon him."
"...Alright, here is how you do it. You first have to draw our blood. Then you have to put it on a seal."
"Where is the seal?"
"On our right ass cheek." He was punched so hard in the jaw, the bone broke for a moment before Venom mended it. "Alright, it is on our left ass cheek. Aagh!" Kakuzu had taken a dagger, stabbed it into his shoulder before twisting it.
"You think this is a game?"
"Compared with what we have to deal with now, yes."
"It isn't, this is as real as it gets." His water mask reached over Naruto's shoulder to pull up his shirt. "Last chance before I have some fun."
"Try it, let's see what you can do."
Kakuzu placed the kunai tip just under his collar bone, planning on cutting him open like a doctor for an autopsy. "...No. You will take the pain, and never give in. But I know what it will take, Naruto, to break you."
"Enlighten us."
Kakuzu leaned in close. "Your wives," he whispered, making Naruto's eyes widen. "That's right, I know all about them and you. So, you can just summon the traitor or I can encase you in stone to your neck and leave you while I go have fun with them." Naruto snarled and started thrashing, trying to break free. "You know what it will take, boy! Summon Skarmory!"
"We will rip your heart out and force you to eat it if you touch a single hair that belongs to them! There will be no place safe from us! We will kill you slowly!"
"I guess that is your final answer. Their lives are now mine. But first," he looked at Mjolnir on the ground where it fell. "Time for a little payback." He reached for it and tried to lift it from the ground. It wouldn't budge. He couldn't even grab the handle. "How? A seal, it must be." He grabbed Naruto's hands and looked at them. Not seeing a seal on them, he pulled off the gloves and threw them aside. He grabbed his hands and flipped them back and forth. "Why can't I lift that hammer?"
"Because Odin did not judge you worthy. Choke him."
"What are you..." His eyes widened as something tightened around his throat. His hands reached for his throat and tried to pulled it off. But Venom, the part that were the gloves he tossed aside, was practically his skin.
"Tighter...tighter!" Naruto felt the thing behind him loosen so he pulled free of it, lunged at Kakuzu, and wrapped his hands around his neck. "You will never touch Hinata-chan, nor Haku-chan!" Naruto used all of his strength to cut off blood and oxygen. Kakuzu's face turned purple and still he didn't stop. Finally, when the creature behind him crumbled, he did. He looked at the corpse on the ground for a moment before he reached a fist back and brought it down on Kakuzu's jaw, breaking it before Venom reformed his gloves. "Never threaten those we love." He began to walk away. "Impossible. We crushed the life in you..."
"You killed one of my hearts," Kakuzu stated as he stood again. "Impressive. You won't do it again, however you did it."
"A heart? You have multiple?"
"I take them from those I have killed," Kakuzu told him before attacking again. Naruto ducked to the side, picked up Mjolnir and swung it, forcing him back. "And your heart will definitely add to my power. Ice and those weapons you make."
"You still have to kill us," Naruto snarled. He threw the hammer, catching him in the chest. Naruto called it back to his hand and slipped into his belt. He jumped and threw a punch, planning on taking his head off. But Kakuzu caught his hand.
"Dance around now, you bastard." Naruto touched the ground and threw another punch. That one was caught too. "Usually I straight out kill. Not this time, you are going to see just how out classed you are. And the things I have planned are the stuff of nightmares." Naruto felt him start to push so he planted his feet to the ground, bracing himself. And Kakuzu still pushed him back. And Naruto felt it again. Fear. This man had all five elements, his body was a weapon, and he was stronger than him. He was pushed right into the rock wall. His arms were spread while the threads spread from Kakuzu. He positioned them to stab him in several painful spots. "Before you die, know your women are now mine." They started down.
"NO!" Naruto did something he never done before right then. He used Venom himself as a weapon. It came off his chest and body to form a shield. The threads hit it and were caught. Several tentacles then wrapped around his body and swung him into the wall several times, causing the stone to break. "You will die!" Venom then became a whip and cut several lashes into his back. One of the mask rose from his back and a ball of fire formed in its mouth.
"Burn." The fire shot forward, destroying the spot that Naruto stood on. But he wasn't there. He heard snarling up on the wall and looked up. Naruto had his hands and feet pressed against it. His mask began to split while tendrils rose from his head and back. Those on his head formed ears while the ones on his back became five tails. His suit became more streamline while fangs formed in his mouth with this long ass tongue appearing as well. Kakuzu heard about this, it was what happened when he began channeling the Nine Tails chakra. Next, he should turn red.
Naruto didn't. "You want Skarmory!? Here he is!" Blood appeared on his claws while he did the summoning. He slammed them down and the cry of the raven shook the hill.
"Naruto? What happened to you?"
"He threatened Hinata and Haku," Naruto said, pointing at Kakuzu. "All so he could fight you."
The giant raven looked at him. "...I know you. Ah, I remember now. How's your father?"
"I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!"
"That bad, eh?" He spread his wings and took off into the air. "Let me guess, he is still mad about his father?"
"That is what he says," Naruto replied. "Help us kill him, Skarmory-sama. And we will never ask anything of you again."
"Ask, I insist. You know how boring it gets there?" They looked back down as Kakuzu glared up at them. Then a thousand threads shot from his back. They laced together until they formed wings. He flapped them and took off after him. "Not bad, chick. Now, where does it go from here?"
"It goes to your death!" Fire and lightning appeared on his shoulders.
"Hang on, kiddo!" Skarmory began to climb higher into the air, dodging the attacks. Then he dived down on him, knocking from the air. On the ground, Skarmory went to stab him with his claws. As the talons slammed into the ground, throwing up rocks and making gouges. But Kakuzu kept dodging out of the way. He then made a whip from the thread and cracked it against his right claw. Skarmory lifted the wounded limb, seeing blood, and growled. It wasn't often that he was injured. "You threatened Hinata and Haku. Let me tell you something, I am going to kill you. But it won't be quick and quiet like it was for your father. It will be loud and nasty, my kind of kill. And when your eyes go dead, the hell I send you too will seem like heaven after what I'll do to you."
"You aren't good enough. I have been training for a hundred years, refusing to die even, just for the chance to kill you."
"A hundred years aren't good enough," Naruto growled at him. Kage Keiri and Samehada in hand, he jumped off his friend and brought the two down where he had been standing. Kakuzu had jumped back and sent a bunch of his threads to kill Naruto. He knocked them aside with the Samehada, sapping away the chakra that controlled them, buying him a much needed moment. He threw the Kage Keiri behind him. Several yards back, it hit the end of the web attached to it and straightened, blade pointing at them. Naruto pulled it back as hard as he could and it came rocketing for them. Kakuzu was not getting away with threatening them. His Earth mask rose up from the ground and the Kage Keiri speared it. But it saved Kakuzu. Naruto ripped the sword out of it and tossed the dying thing aside. While several of the threads wrapped together and became a spear. He stabbed at Naruto and on reflex, Naruto held the Kage Keiri so the spear went through the hole at the end. The spear, having turned rigid, was held down so Naruto forced it even farther, breaking it. "So the Keiri is a weapon breaker," he muttered.
"DAMN IT," Kakuzu roared in pain. He sent a punch at Naruto, trying to take his head off. But he forgot about Skarmory The giant raven slammed a talon down on him, forcing him to the ground. Then began to reach down with his beak to tear his head from his body. Several threads rose from Kakuzu and slipped under Skarmory's feathers before stabbing him in the heart. "DIE!"
Skarmory froze before blood began to slip from his beak. "NO!" Naruto tried to get to him in time to use Venom to heal the wound. But Kakuzu was already free. Growling, he held both swords at the ready. "We would call you a bastard but that would be an insult to bastards everywhere!" He jumped, dodging through his attacks and brought his blades down. His remaining mask caught the blades in their hands. Naruto snarled, baring his fangs, before his tails suddenly came around and wrapped around the two, squeezing, trying to crush the hearts that made them. The two burst and were destroyed. "Just you and us, now."
"No, there's just me," Kakuzu stated. He jumped back and started doing handsigns. Naruto did the same, doing two sets of one handed handsigns. A cyclone of water shot at Naruto while he launched a black ice dragon at it. The two hit each other and were canceled. But before Kakuzu could start another one, another dragon came through the smoke, having been hidden behind the first. Kakuzu flew into the air, and Naruto followed. He attached a web line to his back and punched him so hard, he flew back down. Only to be pulled back where Naruto held him by his legs with his feet under his arms. They came back down and Naruto drove him headfirst into the stone. The impact threw Naruto clear. He got back up and headed to see what remained. To find Kakuzu on his last leg. "What's wrong," Kakuzu said, coughing up blood. "Not going to get kill me and get your satisfaction out...cough, cough...of killing an old...fart."
Naruto looked down on him, blood running from his mouth and arm while the ears and tails faded away. "The killing, no. No satisfaction. Everything up until the killing is going to be gasp." Naruto reached down and grabbed him by the head, digging his claws into it. Both hands then held him by the head while Venom wrapped around him to add to the pressure. "This is for threatening those we love. More over, this is for Skarmory." He began to squeeze. Kakuzu didn't scream for a while until the blood started coming from his eye, nose, and ears. Some shot up onto Naruto's face, he still kept squeezing. When finally his eyes went dead, Naruto dropped his body and did another summons. This time, a flock of ravens appeared and ate his body. A fitting end, in Naruto's opinion. He remembered Skarmory and ran to where the giant raven had fallen. "Skarmory-sama!"
"...Hey Kiddo," he said weakly. "Guess you killed him."
"You're going to be alright... We mean, how could you not! You are the biggest, baddest mother fucker around, you can't die!"
Skarmory chuckled at that. "I maybe the biggest but I'm not the baddest anymore. Relax, kiddo, this is part of life."
"No, we can help you."
Skarmory sighed. "Naruto...let me tell you something. First, all things die, even that symbiont will someday. That includes me. Second... Well, Nekomata isn't the only one that works for the Shinigami."
"But...we don't want you to die," Naruto said, hugging him. "You said you were supposed to help us save the world. You can't if you die."
Skarmory chuckled again. "Nothing is written in stone, kiddo, even prophesies. I've done...so many horrible things in my life. If there is any good inside me, I think it is because of you. And I thank you for that...Uzumaki Naruto...and Venom." Skarmory took a final breath and his head fell limp to the side.
"No...No!"
—oo000oo—
Death, the former two tails, set the head down and backed up. "The crowd holds its breath, waiting to see if she can do it." She then ran forward and kicked it. It hit a pole and fell through the goal. "SHE DID IT! The wildcats win the world series! The crowd goes wild!"
"You fucking bitch," the head screamed at her. "Just kill me already!"
"Ah-ah, not yet, Hidan-chan," Death said with a smile.
Famine, the former eight tails, looked to her. "Why do you torture that thing? Not that I truly mind."
Death shrugged, "It's what I do."
Glutton, the former seven tails, pulled some flesh from a leg bone and ate it while Lust, the former three tails, was beating around the last surviving, barely, body of pain. While the real Pain was being dissected by War. Pestilence, the former one tail, turned to Carnage. "You should be happy, big brother. Now, nothing can stand between us and the destruction of this world."
Carnage snarled at him, grabbed him by the throat, and tossed him aside. "I will be happy when I have my full power again! You all might be satisfied with these...these scraps! But I was the most powerful being in existence! And I mean to be again! A creature so powerful, that even Galactax himself will hesitate to come to this planet!" He threw his fist, destroying the remains of a building. "And we can't do shit because of the damn seals! As long as Naruto and those weaklings are there, we can't get them!"
"Then draw them out," Lust stated. "You are Naruto."
Carnage froze and turned to her, a grin revealing more of his fangs. "I am... We only need something that he treasures. A little symbolic would be good too... Of course. Heeheehee HAHAHA! Wave!" Famine waved his hand, not understanding what he was talking about. "Not that kind of wave, fool. Wave, the country. Where I was born, where he met Haku and Serum. And where some of his most treasured people are. Wave is his weakness."
Glutton tossed aside the bone and stood. "While that is all well and good, let us not forget he has to know to be able to come. And being as we did this," he motioned to the destroyed Hidden Rain Village around them, "in an hour, he will never come in time. Thus he won't come."
Carnage turned and looked at something, still chuckling. "Oh, he will come. And he will know. Because you will tell him, won't you my little paper crane?" He walked over and held the face of a woman in his hands. Konan had come back, not knowing what happened to only be captured by them. Carnage was thinking about what to do with her up until now.
"Fuck you," she growled.
"Naughty, naughty," Carnage said before slashing her cheek. "You will go and tell Naruto of Konoha what we plan, all of it, or the things I will do to you will have you begging for death." To make it clear what he meant, he licked his lips and started to reach for her breast with a claw. "Do I make myself clear?"
Konan tensed, almost refusing but too afraid to. It had only taken Famine, the weakest of them there, to capture her with ease. And Carnage had the strength of the boy that picked apart Akatsuki before they came to be. "...I'll do it."
"That's a good girl." He threw he to the ground and held her on her side, so that an ear faced the sky. "And to make sure..." A piece of Carnage flowed into his claw and he held it above that ear. He dropped it on her head and it came to life. It looked around before it began to flow into her ear and brain. She screamed a long time in terror, then pain.
—oo000oo—
Naruto hung his head, having not spoken for a while. It had been two days since Skarmory died and he could barely bring himself to eat. No one could reach him, not Tsunade, not Haku nor Hinata, not even Shadow and the ANBU. "You know," said the last voice Naruto expected. "When the last member of my team died, Namikaze Minato, I so immersed myself in things like Icha Icha Tactics, and just looking at the memorial stone, that I was barely fit to be in ANBU anymore," Kakashi told below the branch Naruto was on. "Not because of skill, because I failed to see something. What I had around me. I still only just see it, even with the son of my sensei in my life now." He leaned against the trunk. "Damn mask feels so tight right now," Kakashi muttered before pulling it down. "A mask can hide so many things. What you look like, scents, things that you do from you. But you know, every now and then, you just got to pull that mask down. Or you become it."
"...He was our friend, asking nothing of us," Naruto stated. "He died because we were arrogant. We were mad."
Kakashi sighed before lifting his headband, letting Naruto see what he actually looked like now. "You know how I got this scar and this eye?" Naruto shook his head no. "My first mission without sensei. The target was a bridge and sensei had been called to the front line. Myself and my teammates, Uchiha Obito and Inuzuka Rin, were to continue the mission. And Rin was captured by enemy ninja. Obito, being both the fool and the genius, made the right choice. He went to save Rin and I went to continue the mission." His normal eye showed little but his Sharigan was crying. "I left them... Saying what I had since my father went after his team and abandoned the mission. Those that don't follow the rules are trash. No more lies, Naruto. I look at Sasuke and I feel like a bastard. I look at you and I feel a traitor, ignoring what sensei taught me. My father left me alone in the world because he couldn't live with his choice. And I thought about making that same decision myself. And I couldn't because I was too much of a coward.
"When I went after Obito and Rin, I lost my eye. But we were able to save Rin. As we were exiting that cave...I was hit by a rock on my blind side. And Obito... He gave his life to pulled me from certain death. Me, when I didn't deserve it." He ran a hand over his face. "And I have never faced up to this until now. That mask hid it from me. My father dying, Obito dying, Rin dying, and your father dying. I will always know...I could, and should have done it different. And nothing, not on this planet, not in this universe, will ever change that or bring them back. So I was left with trying to find what to do with the life I didn't deserve."
"What did you find?"
"Until recently, with you, Sasuke, and Sakura? Not a damn thing. I was so secluded in my pain that I let nothing in. Nothing and no one."
Naruto leaned over the branch to look him in the face. "So you never faced it."
"Right. But Naruto...you are stronger than me in every way that matters. So why are you not facing it?" Naruto didn't have an answer. "Because if you do, you will admit, that you are not so strong that everything goes according to plan. That things don't always come out right. And there is nothing you can do to change that. The true first rule of shinobi, people die. The second, no matter what, you can't change rule number one. I just wish to god you didn't have to learn this."
Naruto couldn't keep it in anymore. He dropped down and hugged Kakashi. "It isn't right! We should have been faster! We should have been stronger! We should have called for help! Anything different and he wouldn't have died! And it is all our fault!" Kakashi just held him as Naruto finally let his tears out and be the child he was. "Why, god why did all this have to happen!? Why did Jiriaya have to give us the scroll!?"
"Because you needed the strength," Kakashi told him. "And still do. Akatsuki may be gone but Kyuubi is still out there and not another person has the strength to fight him. So you need to be strong just a little longer, Naruto."
"We're tired of being strong! If we weren't strong, Carnage would never have gotten a way out!"
"And Haku wouldn't be here, and Hinata would be afraid of her own father, your best friend, Kimimaro would be dead, and Akatsuki would be alive and unstoppable," Kakashi told him. "Bad things will happen in your life, Naruto. All you can do is to try and keep them from happening often."
"How can we summon them again!? He watched out for us, we watched out for him! That was the way it was supposed to be! And...and we didn't."
"...By summoning Ebony and telling him. If he was as good a person as Skarmory, he will forgive you."
Naruto shook his head, "We don't think we could face him."
"But you have to," Kakashi told him. "Or you will never face it. You have to, Naruto. Come on, just go through the steps with me. Draw your blood to your hand." Weakly, he cut his hand on the Kage Keiri. "Make the handsigns. Now infuse it with chakra, as much as it takes to summon him."
Naruto hesitated before putting his hands to the ground. A tower of smoke and he was in the air. "Ebony-sama..."
"Naruto? I wasn't expecting to speak with you, what with my brother being here with you... Where is my brother?"
"We can't say it, Ebony-sama, we have to show you. Up on the cliff overlooking Konoha." Ebony spread his wings and flew up there.
"Brother, there you are... Brother...Skarmory!?" He pushed against him with his beak but he didn't move.
"We tried to do something instead of just leaving him here but we couldn't move him," Naruto told him. "...We're sorry! We're so sorry..."
Ebony's own tears fell. "Windele, Goddess of the wind, take my brother to your side and forever hold h-him in your embrace. I, I never would have thought it. He has never been beaten before... Don't worry, brother, I will keep your word."
"We...will understand if you want to revoke the contract."
"No. Skarmory knew he would die this way. Not where or when...but fighting. He would always say, 'It's a matter of time, dobe. When I die, you will be the strongest'. I always hated him calling me that. He is the stronger and gets to die fighting for a person he believes worth dying for. Leaving me." Ebony shook his head. "Naruto, whatever it is you are fighting now is also my fight. When the time for it comes, make sure I am there, please."
"...Thank you," Naruto whispered. "For not leaving us...thank you."
Ebony rested his head against Skarmory's back. "Time to go home, brother." They vanished in a cloud of smoke. Naruto fell to his knees and finished crying.
—oo000oo—
"Konan," Jiriaya said in disbelief when he saw her.
"Jiriaya-sensei," she whispered. "You must help me, please...I must...find the jinchuuriki Uzumaki Naruto."
"What do you want with him?"
"He...Carnage wants him...and if I don't tell him...the pain..."
"I understand, I will take you to him." Holding her in his arms, Jiriaya ran all the way to the Uzumaki estate. Fuuma guard let him pass instantly, being that he came often. He came to the house and opened the door. "I need Naruto right away!"
"We're here," Naruto said, coming from the kitchen. "What is it, Jiriaya-sama?"
"This is Konan, a student I had long before I taught the Fourth. He's here, Konan."
"Car...nage, Carnage wants you to know...to come...to Wave. If you and the others don't...he will slaughter the whole country...starting with Tsunami and Inari, before eating what is left. Please...tell me you know how to get what he put in me out. This red thing made of the same thing that covers his...body."
Naruto widened his eyes. "KIMIMARO! HELP HER!"
Kimimaro ran to her as she suddenly began to scream. "We...don't know where it is. Where is it?" She couldn't answer so he rested a hand on her chest and worked outward. But when he saw her eye suddenly begin to fill with red fluid, he knew. He rested his hands on her face and Anti-Venom entered her body through her pours. It found Carnage and destroyed it before easing its way back into Kimimaro. "She should be fine now," he said. "What do you want to do, Naruto-sama?"
He was silent for a moment. "We are going there and we are going to kill them. Enough is enough."
—oo000oo—
Author's Notes. It took a while to figure out if I truly wanted to do that. But I think I should have. What do you think?
