Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews. Don't worry guys I'm almost done, plus I actually know where I'm going now (yay!) and I think I know how this story's going to end. As promised everyone will come back, yes even the Teme. Some people sent me their OCs, and unfortunately I had already started to write this ch when I got the first one and so I couldn't use them as students, but then I got the bright idea to use them as graduates instead! Aren't I brilliant! OC s belong to Canuck101, HatakeRyari, LoveYoshi, AthalaJinx (in that order. Hokori got the most description because he got here first, and, well, we've known each other longest, and I have the most faith in his boss's ability to not hate my living guts if I prove I can't write him at all.) Anyway, I hope you all like the ending (I'm certainly glad I'm done) and everybody cross your fingers that I get more readers when I can label my story "complete."
Chapter 27: The End of Days
Storm clouds were gathering already. As the eight remaining Golden Soldiers made their way across the outer grounds of the school, a large grassy stretch of land dotted with small boulders and odd rock formations used mostly for training and sparring, the sky began to darken, first gray and then black clouds coming to block the bright sun. By the time the actual school was in view, the daylight had all but vanished behind an artificial night.
"We have to hurry," called Kiba, riding on Akamaru with Usagi seated in front of him, "the Raising will probably start soon, if they've already made the weather this bad!"
"How do we know when its started?" Usagi asked, shouting to be heard over the now roaring wind. Then they crested a small hill, and Usagi found her question answered. The inner grounds and the academy itself were laid out before them. It was nestled in a small sort of valley between three gently sloping hills, and the whole thing seemed almost the curl in on itself like a spiral. There were four main areas; the front entrance walk, a great rock quarry, an enormous lake dotted with islands, and the school itself. The front walk was a grassy area dotted with cherry trees, a path of white stone leading up to the large gate into the school building. The quarry was a dusty expanse of bare earth, set slightly into the ground and full of boulders and rock formations of different kinds of stone. The lake, speckled with grassy green islands, had a a great white bridge that stretched from the shore all the way to a large island in the center. And then the school. It was a palatial structure, as large as a hidden village itself and just as complex, with towers, turrets and elevated walkways stretching through the air, and a temple that supposedly honored the original Golden Army set on a small hill to one side, apart from the school but also clearly part of it. The whole thing was built of white stone with gold trim, and had the sun been shining brightly Usagi imagined it might have been shining.
As it was their eyes were drawn to the lake.
Great congregations of students were gathered on the shore. As they watched the sky above began to swirl, the clouds either converging or emanating in circles around a single point, just above the center island. Shadows stretched across the water, turning blue to black, and squinting Usagi could just see a lone figure standing beneath the swirling clouds.
"Its already started!" yelled Kiba in alarm.
"We're too late!" Sakura cried, her eyes wide with horror.
"No we're not!" Usagi protested, climbing up to perch on Akamaru's head, "I can see someone on the island! Who is it?"
"Only one way to find out!"
Kiba pulled Usagi back into his chest as Akamaru took off toward the lake. Thunder cracked overhead and the wind roared, blowing at hard as it could at their heads as though to force them back. Akamaru barreled down the hill, barking like mad, Kiba and Usagi on his back and the rest of the Army behind him.
Then someone on the shore caught sight of them.
"Someone's coming!" called a voice over the sound of the storm.
"It's the Golden Army!" came another.
"Don't be stupid, the Golden Army has more people!"
"Look, its them!"
As the great white dog reached the congregation on the shore the students parted to admit them. All of them stared, wide eyed, at the adults before them, eight people wearing headbands embossed with the Golden Star of Hope. Whispers began to dart through the crowd.
"Who are they?"
"Its them!"
"The Golden Army!"
"Its really them!"
"Make room!"
"Here they come!"
"Move it!"
This last comment came from a rugged looking man, thin but packed tightly with muscle, with wolf's ears poking out from beneath his rusty blond hair. He was dressed in a tight blue sleeveless shirt and baggy blue jeans, no shoes, and he wore heavy spiked bracelets on both arms, a wolf's fang dangling about his neck. Hokori, the school's head taijutsu teacher.
"Lee!" he called, pushing through the crowd of students, "Outta me way! Outta me way!"
"Hokori-sensei!" Lee called in surprise, turning to face the newcomer.
"Lee!" he called again, finally coming up beside the army, "what in da hell is dat ting?"
Then Hokori's question was answered for him.
The lake exploded upwards, an enormous, swirling black mass of darkness, as big as the school itself, coming up from the water. Lighting crashed through the sky as it swirled round in the high wind, a great black tornado. An awful roaring could be heard, and the first thing that can into clear focus out of the shadowy mass was a mouth; a great, gaping, fanged maw that stretched and roared. Two burning red eyes blinked open, blazing with fire and hatred as they took in their surroundings and then fell on the crowd. It roared, the shadowy thing twisting and solidifying, taking the shape of a great horned monster raising halfway out of the lake. Its hands clawed at the sky before reaching over the crowd of students. Some screamed, but others shot kunai tagged with paper bombs at it. These exploded with little effect and the demon laughed; a deep, booming laugh like thunder.
"The Nightmare," Usagi breathed.
"Hit it with everything you've got!" yelled Kiba over the din, the rest of the Army readying themselves for the attack
"That means us too!" called a high, female voice. Jumping up on a boulder at the lake's edge a girl of no more than eleven, with short silver hair and large blue eyes, shouted over the crowd of students. "Are we Golden Academy students or not!"
Then the fight really broke out. Jutsu of every style and element shot up from the crowd of students as they all began to regroup. Several with dogs at their heels clustered around Kiba as Shino found a following of students with coats buzzing with insects. A whole corp of puppet masters fell in around Kankuro, several students with byakugan eyes surrounded Hinata, and Lee suddenly found himself in the midst of a collection of students all dropping weights to the ground and pulling weapons from nowhere. A cluster of students, mostly girls pulling on thick gloves, surrounded Sakura.
Each students attacked following a member of the Army, and not a single one acted alone. Every attack included three, four, five people, all attacking in harmony with the same style, following their Golden Army leader, the member they had spent their school days aspiring to be like. If the idolized member of the Army wasn't there, they simply picked the closest group and began to coordinate attacks with fellow students, keeping their eyes on the Golden Soldier they had chosen to follow.
In effect, six new Golden Army's formed on the spot.
"Uncle Neji!"
Neji turned, eyes sweeping over the students that had fallen in behind him and Hinata to find Usagi behind them all, jumping up and down and waving her arms at the school.
"On the biggest tower!" Usagi called, waving, "Look there on the side!"
Neji directed his byakugan to the school's tallest tower, a great, gleaming, windowless structure in the center of the school. There, clinging to the side, was a figure, apparently making their way up. They clambered through the sole window at the top, and disappeared.
Neji leaped over the crowd, landing beside Usagi. "Come on!" he called over the noise, hoisting the little girl onto his back and heading for the tower. Jumping from surface to surface he cut across the school interior and darted up the circular wall, aiming for the room at the top.
"Did you get a look at who it is?" Usagi called over the roar of the wind.
"No!" Neji yelled to make himself heard, "but whoever it is, its the one who's been controlling the Darks and Harbingers!"
The one who killed Tenten.
Reaching the window Neji grabbed the ledge with one hand and swung the two of them inside. He landed in a crouch, one hand on the floor to steady himself, allowing Usagi to clamber off his back.
Before them stood a cloaked figure with its back to them.
"Who are you!" Neji demanded, straightening, eyes flashing with rage.
The figure turned slightly, then gave a chilling laugh. "And here I thought you'd remember me, Neji-san," he said, turning to face them fully, "after all, we took the chuunin exams together."
"You!" Neji hissed, eyes narrowing.
Kabuto Yakushi laughed again. His eyes, one normal, one the yellow eye of a snake, gazed down on Usagi, and his half scale-covered face twisted in a sickening smile. "Hello, Usagi-chan. Its nice to finally meet you, little playmate."
Usagi growled, glaring back at him. Rage was boiling up inside her as she looked on the person that had caused her family so much pain. The one that had claimed the lives of five of her aunts and uncles. The one who had killed her father. She felt what she had come to know as the feeling of demon chakra welling up in the pit of her stomach. Just as it had before it grew and expanded outward, pressing against the barrier of her skin. Her nails became claws and her teeth became fangs, and she didn't need to see her eyes to know they had gone from blue to red, the pupils slitted like those of a fox.
"Stay away from her," Neji hissed, stepping to the side to partial to block Usagi from Kabuto. A kunai seemed to materialize from nowhere, and he held it out defensively in front of the little girl.
"How touching," Kabuto snickered, "but there's really no need for that. Its not my playmate that I'm here for, you see. Not this time."
"Why are you here, then?" Neji demanded, hate filled eyes never leaving Kabuto's face, "What have you done this for? Don't you realize the severity of what you've done, the power of the creature you've raised!"
"It seems that it is you who doesn't realize the reality of the situation, Neji-san," Kabuto replied easily, smiling almost patronizingly at him. Usagi looked on it horrified fury. She'd used to think that Neji looked eerie when he smiled because of his byakugan, but what a far cry that was from Kabuto's petrifying smile.
Kabuto chuckled slightly, an unnerving, disturbing little laugh that made Usagi shiver. "I have come here for a power that is far beyond even that of the fearsome Nightmare coming slowly into being outside. When I have attained it, I will be able to control the Nightmare, and after it is fully raised and I control its power, only the Master of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, the most powerful jinchuriki of all, will be able to be my playmate!"
He paused here, gazing intently, insanely, at Usagi. "Its a shame I won't get to play with Naruto-kun again, like we did in our youth, but you, Usagi-chan, I think will prove just as amusing."
"Don't you touch her!" Neji yelled, stepping fully in front of Usagi now, but she sidestepped him to look at Kabuto again.
"What power?" she demanded, her voice a low growl from her fanged mouth. "What power are you talking about?"
Kabuto was looking right at her now, completely ignoring Neji as though he were totally irrelevant. "The Ultimate Power," he replied in a low breath, "the Greatest Power in the world. Naruto-kun found it. The power Orochimaru-sama had been seeking, the Greatest Power of all. I should have known it would be Naruto-kun to find it."
He began drifting to his left, never taking his eyes off Usagi. "He didn't keep it for himself, though. He hid it away, where no one else could get to it. He himself said that he'd hidden it right here, under everyone's noses, in the Golden Academy itself, the most well guarded place in the world. By his own word, he knew that it could defeat the Nightmare. He said it could accomplish anything, that nothing was beyond this power. The Ultimate Power. Hidden right here."
He turned his gaze behind himself, focused on the same object he had been eying when they had entered. The room was large and circular, the spiral stairway from down through the tower ending in a trap door to Neji and Usagi's left. The sole window was just to the right of them, one curved wall not a few feet behind the two, and Kabuto was standing towards the center of the room. Behind Kabuto, across from Neji and Usagi, was a chest. It stood a few feet from the wall, a wooden box with a curved lid, the metal corners and hinges shining gold. There was no lock, it was so well guarded here within the school that wasn't necessary. On the front of the lid was emblazoned the Golden Star of Hope, the symbol of the Golden Army and the Golden Academy.
"It's been here from the beginning," Kabuto breathed, his voice dripping with a sick desire, a rasping hiss that was more like Orochimaru's than his own.
"And now," his eyes flew wide open in triumph, "It is mine!"
"I don't think so!" called a voice from the window. "Chidori!"
A great ball of lightning came hurtling through the window, aimed straight for the half-snake. Kabuto leaped into the air, narrowly avoiding being electrocuted, and landed on the other side of the room, across from where Sasuke now stood.
"Uncle Sasuke!" Usagi cried in delight.
"You came back!" Neji continued, more surprised than anything else.
Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, smiling smugly at the little girl. "You expected me to stay away?"
Kabuto straightened, smirking at Sasuke. "Well, if it isn't another of my old playmates. Sasuke-kun, how nice to see an old comrade in a situation like this."
Now he rounded on Kabuto. "You," he sneered, "you were never my comrade. You're the two bit servant of a dead snake, and now you've taken your mad quest for power too far!"
"You say that like you were never on just the same quest," Kabuto replied, gazing intently at him. "Don't pretend like you aren't seriously considering killing me just so you can take this power for yourself."
"You're right, I am seriously considering killing you," Sasuke replied, taking a step forward, "but its not because of that. I'm going to kill you because," with incredible speed Sasuke flipped through the hand signs required for the chidori.
"You have to be stopped!"
A ball of lightning appeared in Sasuke's hand and he charged at Kabuto. Neji and Usagi looked on as he leaped into the air, yelling in rage as he drew back his electrified fist to slam it into Kabuto's gut in a punch that would surely split him in half.
It never connected.
There was a great flash, making Neji and Usagi shield their eyes, but when they could finally see again they saw, not Kabuto lying dead on the floor, but instead, Sasuke on his knees. Kabuto had him by the wrist, useless sparks of stray electricity flaring between his fingers.
"And just who's gonna stop me, Uchiha?"
Kabuto bent Sasuke's wrist sharply, making it snap. Sasuke grunted in pain, trying to pull free, but to no avail. Kabuto laughed.
"What's wrong, Sasuke-kun? I thought you were thinking about killing me? Changed your mind?"
Kabuto threw Sasuke back across the room by his caught wrist. The raven hit the wall and slid down it, his eyes half lidded in pain and exhaustion. Kabuto stepped forward, his grin turned to complete mania.
"You're nowhere near as strong as Naruto-kun, are you Sasuke-kun? Now that he's gone, you just can't win. You're a mockery of a leader, without Naruto-kun leading the Army nearly half of you died on the journey, and you can barely keep yourselves together let alone organized. You couldn't even manage to hold his position as General for a week! They abandoned you, Sasuke-kun, just like you abandoned them to seek power from Orochimaru-sama. I suppose they never really forgave you for running off to the Hidden Sound Village all those years ago, when they'd all worked so hard and risked their lives to protect you. To them, you're a traitor, and that's all you'll ever be!"
He's right, Sasuke thought, gritting his teeth against the pain as he tried to stand, I am a mockery of a leader. I couldn't protect the Army, I couldn't keep them together, hell I couldn't even stop Usagi from being kidnapped! I am weaker than Naruto. Why? What makes him so much better than me! What makes him able to do all the things I could never do? Why can't I do this? Why am I so weak! Its no wonder I don't deserve Sakura, I'm just . . . I'm just a failure!
"Man, Sasuke, can't you do anything right?"
All movement, all breath, all thought in the room came to an abrupt halt. No one really dared to believe that any of them had heard that. It was a voice they all knew, but . . . it couldn't be. It couldn't be . . .
"Naruto!"
The First Golden Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, stood on the window ledge, looking calmly out on the scene before him and the four astonished faces turned to him.
"Papa?" Usagi whispered. She took a shaky step toward him, hardly daring to believe it. Her heart felt like it was trying to expand out of her chest. All the demon chakra drained away as her vision zeroed in on the man standing framed in the window. He smiled.
"Hi, little rabbit. Miss me?"
"Papa!" she cried, running toward him at last. He dropped to the floor and held out his arms, catching her up in his embrace as she threw her tiny arms around his neck. Usagi buried her head in her father's neck, letting her happy tears soak into his collar. It felt so good to have his strong arms hold her close again.
"No!" Kabuto screamed in rage, glaring horrified at Naruto. "This can't be! You're dead!"
"Obviously that's not the case," Naruto told him, smirking as he stood upright, leaving Usagi standing at his feet.
"NO!" he shrieked, "I've waited too long!" Kabuto made a dive for the chest, seizing the lid and throwing it open.
"Naruto, you idiot, stop him!" Sasuke cried, still collapsed on the floor, but Naruto merely chuckled.
"Don't worry," he said calmly, "its nothing he can use."
"What?" Kabuto murmured, looking down into the chest. Usagi leaned forward to peer inside. It was full of papers in file folders. On the tab of each one a name was written.
"What is this?" Kabuto asked, stunned, gingerly picking up a folder and opening it to examine its contents. "This is supposed to be the Ultimate Power! Its just a bunch of files, on students no less!"
"Not students," Naruto corrected, "graduates. Hadn't you realized what this room is?"
Usagi looked around, taking in the room fully for the first time. The walls were high and lined with rows of empty shelves, and behind the chest there was a ladder on a track that she hadn't even noticed before.
"Its a records room!"
"For graduates of the Golden Academy," Naruto continued, staring steadily at Kabuto. "In this room is kept, will be kept, records of every active graduate of this school. Its an archive of every shiobi who loves this nation with all their heart, enough to be willing to devote their lives to protecting it. People come to this school to become good enough to be part of the next Golden Army, the entity that protected this nation, and continues to protected it, in its times of greatest need. The files in that chest represent the future of the Golden Army, and of this nation. That is the Ultimate Power!"
Kabuto dropped the folder he'd been holding, staring at Naruto in shock and horror. "No!" he hissed, "No! This can't be! It was supposed to be the Ultimate Jutsu!"
Naruto grinned. "You want the Ultimate Jutsu, huh?" he asked, looking patronizingly at Kabuto. "Well I doubt its the best that'll ever exist, but this comes pretty close."
With practiced ease, Naruto extended a hand and threads of blue chakra drew from the air and wove into a circle to form a swirling ball in Naruto's outstretched palm.
Kabuto didn't have time to move. He didn't have time to dodge, block or even think before the perfectly formed ball of merged demon and human chakra slammed into his stomach. He immediately tried healing himself, but it was no good, Naruto caught him by the throat and held the rasengan into his stomach, forcing it to redo the repaired damage and carving a hole deep into his gut.
As Orochimaru's remains withered and died first the scales began to recede from Kabuto's face, until at last two black eyes stared up at Naruto. "You win, playmate," he whispered. Naruto released his neck, letting the rasengan fade and Kabuto fall to the ground to move no more.
"Naruto," Neji breathed, letting himself speak for the first time. "What . . . why . . ."
"Later," Naruto cut him off, turning back to the window, "its not over yet, or did you forget that thing out there?"
Naruto helped Sasuke to his feet so they could all look out the window. While they had been fighting the battle had been raging outside and the students were losing ground. More and more of the monster was rising slowly from the lake, and try as they might the students could not force it back.
"Its true Naruto," Sasuke panted, looking down on the fight, "the Army's no good without you!"
Naruto smirked a little. "Wait. Not everybody's here yet."
Sasuke frowned. "What do you . . ."
Then Sasuke's question was answered for him. From over the hill the Golden Army had just recently descended came soaring a familiar golden brown pixie cut.
"Sora of the Sky?" Sasuke blinked in surprise. "We're we at her graduation ceremony? What the hell is she . . ."
"She's gonna be a teacher in year, I think," Naruot remarked idly, "but she's not here alone."
He was right. Behind Sora came Aretha Negati, along with Sekuri Trenusaki and a number of others, all of them faces Sasuke remembered from the very first graduation ceremony of the Golden Academy. They swooped down on the lake, Sora breaking upwards to attack from the sky. Sekuri leaped in beside Hinata, sending a wall of water shooting from his mouth and blocking one enormous clawed hand from flattening several students, while a great boulder from Aretha slammed against its shoulder, actually knocking it to the side a bit.
"But there's no way they can defeat that thing on their own!" Sasuke protested, staring out into the crowd of students in disbelief. "They might be doing some damage but that won't be enough to take it down. We have to help them!"
"I think I have an idea," Naruto replied easily. He turned to Usagi. "I see you've managed to hang on to your glider through all of this," he observed, gesturing to the staff still clutched in Usagi's hand, "you ready to fly?"
Usagi extended the wings. "Always."
Usagi stood on the window sill, glider in one hand, Naruto standing behind her. She extended her free hand.
"Just feed the fox's chakra into it," he instructed, his hands beginning to move over hers, "I'll do the rest."
Under Naruto's experienced hands the sphere began to take shape. Usagi bit her lip, concentrating on letting out a steady stream of red chakra, staining the blue orb purple.
"Can you maintain it?" Naruto asked seriously.
"I think so," she whispered, glaring determinedly at the creature before her.
"Good," Naruto pulled back his hands, giving Usagi full control over the purple rasengan they had formed. "Go!"
Usagi dove off the tower, her glider angled for a strait shot at her destination. The raging wind tried to throw her off course, but she channeled chakra into her glider, making it cut through the gale as she flew straight for the demon's heart. She held in one hand a jutsu that her grandfather had created, her father had perfected, and now she was about to use to defeat the most fearsome demon in all existence. She held a family legacy, the power of her family, of her blood. She could practically feel their strength flowing through her.
"Power of Three Generations: Ultimate Rasengan!"
It was sort of like flying through a freezing curtain. As the rasengan hit the point on the creature's chest where its heart should have been darkness sprayed out around her, completely enveloping her field of vision. There was no other sensation besides a burning cold all around her, and all sound stopped, the wind, the sound of the creature roaring, the noise of various jutsu being executed on the ground, all of it was drowned out. Though she could neither hear nor feel the wind around her she had the idea that she was still moving forward, that despite the lack of air current to support her glider she was not falling.
Then the blackness lifted and she was soaring through light again, so bright that for a moment she could see nothing. Then she felt herself crash into something soft and two arms went around her, holding her close in a very tight hug. She looked up, blinking in the bright light, to see her mother's smiling, tear stained face.
When Naruto descended into the crowd there was a complete uproar.
"Is that him?"
"Its the Golden General!"
"There's no way!"
"He's really here!"
"Naruto!"
This last one came from Sakura. She stared dumbstruck at her teammate as he strode calmly through the crowd, Neji and Sasuke in tow. He grinned at her, then continued on as the rest of the Army fell in behind him. He kept his eyes on one person, and by the time he reached her the space around her, about five feet to each side, had been cleared so that she stood in the center of an open space.
"Hinata," he whispered, stepping up close to her as she stood perfectly still, looking at him in disbelief. She placed Usagi on the ground, not taking her eyes off Naruto.
"Hinata," he repeated, looking nervously into her eyes, "I'm so sorry I didn't . . ."
"Naruto!" Hinata shrieked suddenly, cutting him off. She threw her arms around him, pulling him down into a tight hug. He looked stunned for a moment, then laughed softly and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. He kissed her hair softly.
"Hinata," he said for a third time, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this. I hope you can forgive me for scaring you."
"Of course," Hinata breathed, crying slightly into his coat, "of course, just . . . you're alive!"
"Course I am," he laughed lightly again, "I'm not that easy to kill."
"Naruto?" asked Neji tentatively from behind him.
Naruto disentangled himself from Hinata, though she refused to release his left arm, to turn and look pointedly at Neji.
Neji looked earnestly, almost desperately at Naruto, hesitated a moment, then, "Please tell me you want your job back!"
That made Naruto laugh out loud. "Yes," he said firmly, "I am getting it back. You are not ready."
Neji gave an audible sigh.
"Come on," he called, gesturing to the other members of the Army, "lets go inside and I'll explain everything."
It took the teachers a while to actually get the students all back where they needed to be and out of the Army's hair. Plenty clamored for autographs, from pretty much every member of the Army, and a fair few begged Naruto to let them show him their techniques. Half an hour later however, the students had all been corralled into dorms and Naruto led his Army down a hall off the main entrance hall, and then through a door into a meeting room, containing several chairs and couches in a circle surrounding a low table.
"Hey guys," said Temari from her position on one of the couches next to Shikamaru, "did you miss us?"
They were all there. Shikamaru and Temari were huddled close together on one of the couches, a chair separating them from another couch where Ino and Choji were sitting, Ino's legs crossed over one of Choji's, all of them smiling broadly.
Neji only saw one person however.
She was sitting with her back to him. He couldn't see her face, but the hairstyle was utterly unmistakable. When he entered she stood and, cautiously, stepped around the chair. Her eyes were trained on the floor as she turned at last to face him.
She looked up, looking him the eye for the first time since he had thought he'd watched her die. "Hi, Neji."
The next thing anyone knew Tenten was being lifted clean of her feet for the second time that day, this time into Neji's tight hug. She gave a very uncharacteristic squeak, her eyes snapping wide open and her face rather pink.
"Neji," she breathed, "I . . ."
"God!" he cut her off, not loosening his grip in the slightest, "Tenten! How?"
"Lady Tsunade," Tenten gasped, and for the first time they all turned to see her standing in a corner, smiling wryly with a bottle of sake from a nearby cart in one hand.
"Neji," Tenten whispered against Neji's hair.
"Yes?" he whispered.
"I can't breath."
"Oh!" he said, releasing her at once, but kept a gentle grip on her upper arms with both hands, as though reluctant to let go. She drew in a lungful of air and smiled shyly up at him.
"I brought Tsunade when I came along behind you," Naruto explained, stroking Hinata's hair. "I figured a few of you would be injured, and once she'd gotten over the shock of my being, you know, alive, she agreed to come with me and heal anyone that was left behind.
"But, you were run through!" Neji protested, looking down to examine Tenten. Her shirt was still torn, but beside that there was no trace of the fatal wound she had sustained little more than an hour ago.
"And she's damn lucky the wound was where it was," Tsunade informed him, grinning knowingly. "Any lower and it would have hurt the baby."
Neji stared at her, nonplussed. "Baby?" he repeated.
"Yeah," Tenten murmured, looking at the floor. "I . . . I'm pregnant."
Neji stared at her for a moment. Tenten shut her eyes tightly, waiting for his hands to disappear from her arms. Waiting for him to let her go, but then . . .
"Mmm!" she mumbled in surprise as Neji lifted her chin abruptly and crashed his lips onto hers. She froze a moment, then melted into his embrace, letting him draw her close again.
"Tenten?" he asked, pulling away to look earnestly into her eyes. She looked up at him, confused, but then . . .
"Will you marry me?"
Tenten let out a shaky breath and nodded, somewhere between relieved, excited and just plain happy. The room erupted in cheers.
"Don't schedule it for a month or two, though," Ino called, grinning. She leaned over and kissed the corner of Choji's mouth. "Us first."
This announcement as well was met with wild applause.
"Well!" Sakura piped up, letting out a shaky sigh of her own, "I suppose this is as good a time as any to announce, what I'm sure you all already know. Yes, I am pregnant as well."
"And yes, Lee is the father."
To everyone's surprise, this announcement came from Sasuke. Sakura and Lee both stared at him, hardly daring to believe it. He looked Sakura in the eye for a long moment. "Don't think this means I'm giving up," he warned, "because I'm not. But," here he turned to look away, feigning a look of boredom, "Lee won this round."
Sakura and Lee both laughed in relief, pressing foreheads together and gazing into each others eyes.
"Make no mistake though," Sasuke interjected sharply, "then next child you bear will be an Uchiha."
Sakura smiled knowingly. "Whatever you say Sasuke-kun. Whatever you say."
"And where the hell have you been?" Sasuke demanded, glaring at Naruto, as though just to take the subject off himself.
Naruto shrugged. "Watching," he replied simply, "I had to know if you guys would do okay without me. You're getting there, all of you, but you still need work."
"So, you staged this whole thing as, what, a test?" demanded Ino, looking at Naruto incredulously.
"Well, no," Naruto replied, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly "not the whole thing. When I realized that someone was trying again to raise the Nightmare it occurred to me that, well, I won't be around forever. I've been watching the whole time, and I would have stepped in the moment you needed my help, but I wanted to see if you would all be okay without me. You," he looked pointedly at Neji, "are the next person in the Army I'd trust the most with my village, after Sasuke. I have a few people," here he winked at Usagi, "in mind for my official successor, but if anything were to happen right now I would expect you to take over. I hope it doesn't offend you, that you weren't my first choice, but . . ."
"No!" said Neji firmly, "I'm not offended. I very much hope I never have to take over for you. Ever again."
Naruto laughed, then turned to his wife. "Hinata," he whispered apologetically, "I hope you can forgive me for not telling you. I wanted to, really I did, but . . ."
Hinata put a finger to his lips, cutting him off, then reached up and kissed him gently.
Usagi beamed up at her parents for a moment, then turned to face Neji, who still had his arms wrapped around Tenten. She looked at the floor, then determinedly back up at him. "Okay, so, maybe you're not so bad," she conceded, "or as much of a social climber as I thought you were. You're . . . you're maybe okay. Maybe."
Neji smiled broadly. "I'm glad to hear it, little rabbit."
Usagi's face immediately hardened. "Don't think this means you're allowed to call me that!" she yelled, "and you had better make sure you take good care of Auntie Tenten, or I'll . . ."
"I will, Usagi," Neji told her firmly.
"Well now, if there's nothing else we need to get out in the open," Naruto piped up, looking pointedly around the room and getting the affirmitive from everybody, "what do you guys say we all go home?"
-Afterward-
Ino and Choji got married two weeks after returning to the Hidden Leaf Village. Three years later they had a daughter. She had long blond hair. Her parents named her Haruhi, but most of her friends know her as Honey, because of her obsessive love of sweets and her beautiful singing voice. She's a little on the chunky side, but her Uncle Shikamaru always tells her that she looks beautifully healthy, so she really doesn't care.
Due to pregnancy complications caused by her injury, Tenten gave birth three months too early. The child, a little girl, was thankfully completely developed, but very much undersized. Her parents named her Chibi-chibi, and though no doctor expected her to survive, she did in fact grow up, and became a splendid kunoichi with help from (you guessed it) Lee-sensei, as well as Sakura-sensei who taught her to use Tsunade's super strength technique at her and Lee's dojo. A year after her birth she was joined by two baby brothers, twins Hiashi and Hizashi. They only ever asked their father which one was older once, and he'd simply smiled and told them he couldn't express how much it didn't matter. Most people just know them as "the twins," since their father is the only person who can really, consistently tell them apart.
Eight months after the reforming of the Golden Army Sakura and Lee had a daughter. They named her Tsuki, and when she grew up she and Chibi-chibi were on the same squad and trained with the same techniques at the same dojo until they were practically sisters. Tsuki never had any real sisters or brothers or, thankfully, any half siblings. Sasuke, keeping true to his word, never gave up on Sakura, but neither did he get anywhere.
Two years after the birth of Tsuki, Shikamaru and Temari had a daughter as well. They named her Midori, and she took after her mother, using two miniature version of Temari's iron fan, one in each hand. The only thing her and her older brother Shikashi really ever bonded over was shogi, and it should be noted that Shikashi hates being an older brother because it means he is responsible for his sister. He finds Midori unendingly troublesome.
Gaara and Matsuri got married the same year Midori was born. They never had any children, but they both lived a long and happy life together, and of course were always more than happy to look after their niece and nephew.
Like all the other children of the Golden Army, Usagi and Mizu did eventually go the Golden Academy. Mizu became a master of Gentle Fist, and eventually became the next head of the Hyuuga clan, since none of Neji's children had any interest in the position. Usagi was a Golden General in the next official Golden Army, and at the age of 25 became the Second Golden Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
And yes, of course, they all lived Happily Ever After.
Author's Note: Oh my goddess! Its finally finished! This ridiculously long and complex story that I have created has finally come to an end! A bit of a rushed end, but an end none the less. My goddess this ch is fucking long though! I might have divided it up into like, five more ch, but it just felt like the home stretch. Someone asked me for longer chs, so, here's my long ch! Yeah yeah, no post-time-skip attacks used, and I made up a dumb version of rasengan, it just keeps things simpler. I hadn't even started watching shippuden when I started writing this story, so you could say its based mostly if not entirely off part one. Haha, Sasuke's a weakling, I love his little inner thoughts during the battle with Kabuto. No, you can do nothing! You fail at life! Bwahahaha! Ok, evil little anti-sauce-gay rant over. I did kinda base his fight with Kabuto off the first time he faced Itachi during part one. You know, the most humiliating defeat ever. Ok, now I'm done. Ending was honey drenched pink rainbow fluff, was it not? I must always have a happy ending. This is my nature. Anyway, that was my totally nonsensical Naruto fanfic masterpiece, I hope you all enjoyed it, thank you and Good Night.
