A/N: This is my first try as an author so bear with me. English isn't my first language so don't hesitate to pm me with any fault you find, I am always eager to learn.
Things went better than I expected them to, with the final twist of having Tobi as a Sasuke coming from an alternate future dimension. Responses went from genuinely surprised to positive with the exception of one really negative opinion about this. So thanks for your support and I'll try to reply here to the one who found this bad, granted all question asked do have a certain merit.
First thing asked was why would Sasuke let baby Naruto live when he could have killed him and be done with it. Well, I did say he had to fight Minato and Kushina in order to get close and already used some chakra in order to control Natsuki into attacking Konoha. The result of that fight left him severely injured, but he still managed to prevent Naruto's parents from sealing their memory into their son. With his superior God complex personality, he felt that was enough to hold Naruto back and also counted on Kyuubi or Natsuki not being so cooperative with Naruto. Let me remind you that Naruto kept all his powers concealed until he was already quite powerful and able to fend for himself.
Another slight misconception is the time paradox theory. I also knew this would be come out along the road by those who would not approve of this. So I tried to defuse the situation beforehand, by repeatedly adding the 'alternate universe' words but I can understand why it still came out. Very well my theory for this, is that every choice of action one individual makes creates a new reality that is unique among an infinite possibility of parallel universes, and as such, a future Sasuke coming back in time and doing the things he did, doesn't create a paradox or tear in the space time continuum. Well, everyone is entitled to his own opinion, so I can understand if we don't see eye to eye on this.
The other things he said were more about the fighting scenes than the time travel plot twist itself, so I'll leave them aside.
Anyway, welcome to the next chapter of Kaze No Kami.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other manga for that matter.
Chapter 62 : Final Clash
Amegakure – Outskirts of the City
As the blinding light created by Sasuke's jutsu died down, those lucky enough to have evacuated the city in time tried to gather themselves with their companions. The Shinra Tensei took out the better part of the Zetsu clones army, having no sense of self conservation, they didn't try to leave the city when hell broke out. Those programmed by the Kotoamatsukami were lost, not understanding the situation and their presence on that battlefield.
The Alliance's main forces, on the contrary, only took minimal time to reform their lines, with the rest of the group under Gaara's command joining them. Natsuki and Yugito, under her normal form again, were already in charge. Gaara left Mei and Kurotsuchi leading their group to safety while he tried to fly over the city and see the extend of the damage.
Kabuto, Otogakure's Second in command himself, surrounded by the enemy had no other choice but to surrender. Not that he would have continue to serve this "new" Sasuke, as the bastard just tried to kill them all with his last jutsu and had been using them in the shadows since who knows when. He was quickly put under physical and chakra restrain and extracted to a safer zone until further notice.
Seeing the outcome of the battle, Tsunade quickly summoned Katsuyu, the Slug summoning boss. The medics were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of injured people they had to treat and the arrival of Tsunade's slugs was very welcomed. The blonde Hokage only hoped her knucklehead of a surrogate son was alright.
Above the city, with Gaara
The Kazekage was floating in the sky, using a small amount of controlled sand. The damage done to the city was tremendous, nothing was left of the former city of Amegakure. Only ruins and rubble remained where houses and high towers used to stand only a few minutes ago.
As he came closer to the ground level, Gaara saw that Naruto was apparently unharmed, same could obviously be said about Sasuke. Both of them were starring at each other in the center of the city. Seeing no movement there, Gaara decided to search for the other members of the underground expedition group. He looked for the hole where they came from and was surprised to see a partly burnt Killer Bee, still in his bijuu state, covering the hole with his body.
The jinchuriki was not alone, his brother, the Raikage was with him, trying to put away the rubble that was crushing his brother's body. It looked like they used Bee's form to absorb the blast from Sasuke's jutsu. Even though he suffered no critical damage, Bee was still injured and it took a lot of him to sustain the strength behind the Shinra Tensei in an attempt to cover their group's retreat.
Countless dead bodies were washed away by the blast, mostly Otogakure's forces. Gaara tried to locate the higher staff of Sasuke's former army, namely Kimimaro, Juugo and Suigetsu but failed to find their bodies.
With his preliminary recon mission over, Gaara took off again and left the city in order to go inform the other Kage of their precious people's whereabouts and status. Most likely those from Kumo and Konoha would be pleased to know that Naruto, A and Bee were alive. Now, the rest was left up to Naruto, once again as the Alliance's beacon of hope against the threat that the Uchiha represents.
Ground Zero, with Naruto and Sasuke
Everything around them for a mile had been pushed away by the Shinra Tensei, leaving an empty and plain field for the two of them to fight it out. From the result of this final battle, the fate of the Elemental Nations would be sealed. Whether good or bad, the end was close now. On one side, in his white clothing stood Uzumaki Naruto, Champion of Light. On the other side in the black clothes was Uchiha Sasuke, Avatar of the Darkness.
From a corner of his eyes, Naruto also looked for A and Bee as Gaara just did. He was relieved to see them both alive, albeit injured, but still breathing. He could now focus all his attention to this character, an Uchiha Sasuke, apparently coming from a future version of this world. The tale he heard from the man was still fresh in his mind, all his life, everything that made him go through hell in his early years up to the point where he found love, had been a consequence of that man's actions.
If what this Sasuke said is true, he should have met with both his parents when he tampered with the Shiki Fuujin seal holding back Natsuki. That, unfortunately for him, never happened and he was quite sad to learn that he missed the chance to meet Minato and Kushina in this lifetime. However, something else came to him while lost in his thoughts, his meeting and bonding with Natsuki was also an indirect effect of that man playing with the timeline. Naruto didn't know nor did he wanted to know if he had had another chance for Love in that alternate universe where he and Natsuki weren't this close, for he already felt like the happiest man on Earth to have found such a mate.
The blond was still in his Dragon Sage form, with his wings deployed and his Ryugan activated. There was only one Hiraishin kunai left, the one he just used in order to escape the blast since all the other ones had been blown away. Naruto decided to attempt the same strategy he just used in his previous fight against Sasuke, going through hand signs he once again covered the battlefield with his markers in preparation for his attack.
"Senpo : Sho Ryu Ha !" He yelled as he took off toward his opponent. However, instead of simply standing there and counting on his shield, Sasuke performed his own space time ninjutsu. The Uchiha disappeared shortly, only to reappear a moment later in Naruto's path and then, with a well placed high kick, the raven haired warrior intercepted and kicked the blond away. All this happened in less than a millisecond, but to those two, it was almost a normal speed. Nevertheless, Naruto was surprised, his jutsu had just been countered and he also took a nasty hit at full speed.
"Did you really think that it would be as easy as it was against my younger counterpart ? Let me remind you that you aren't the first one to have used the Hiraishin against me in a fight. I've studied that jutsu and came up with my own version of it, you won't be able to reach me with such pitiful attempts." Sasuke said with a smirk before channeling chakra to his body and summoning his own version of the Susanoo.
In addition a the small crossbow it already had, this one also carried a sword in its free hand. What made it really dangerous though, were the blazing black flames that were covering its whole body. The previous version only presented some purple flames, not these dark one from the ever famous Amaterasu. Without waiting for his opponent to regain his composure, Sasuke immediately went on the offensive and started to fire arrows coated with those dark flames toward Naruto.
The blond managed to avoid the first arrow, once again thanks to the several Hiraishin markers set all around the field. However, this version of Susanoo could continuously fire arrows at him and he had to continue dodging for a while, making it hard for him to concentrate on formulating a battle plan to counter his enemy.
"Damn, his attacks are much faster than with the previous version of that jutsu, gotta concentrate one hit of that attack and I'm dead. His first counter may have surprised me but I'm still faster than him, all I have to do is to remain focused and I'll be alright. If only I could use my genjutsu skills against him, that's the one thing he has no counter against, but that damn rain is making it easy for him to follow me ..." Naruto analyzed in his mind, as he evaded another flaming arrow coming his way. However, in the middle of his move his eyes suddenly widened, as he finally thought of a counter that might actually work against Sasuke.
"What's the matter, Dobe ? Is running away all you can do ?" Sasuke taunted as he saw the blond evading another arrow. This Sasuke had a lot more chakra than his younger self so he could still go on for a while before worrying about his reserves.
With the Alliance's Leaders
When Gaara reported the situation inside the ruined city of Amegakure to his fellow Kage, they decided to move closer in order to provide help to Naruto if he ever needed it. With the situation outside the walls now under control, they also sent help to the underground tunnels, led by Konan and Yugito, in order to rescue whoever was still trapped there.
Tsunade, Mei, Kurotsuchi, Gaara and Natsuki were the only Alliance's warriors allowed on scene. Some other high ranking shinobi were left in charge of the cleaning up, as Sharingan no Kakashi from the Leaf or Zabuza, the Demon from the Mist.
As the group reached the city's walls, they were greeted with a vision they would forever remember. Sasuke's new and improved version of the Susanoo repeatedly firing flaming arrows toward Naruto who was skillfully evading them using the Hiraishin jutsu. This was a battle above Kage level and they all knew none of them had what it take to get in there.
Nevertheless, looking at the flow of the battle they knew from experience that Naruto was currently under pressure and on the defensive while Sasuke had the momentum and was on the offensive. All had, at some point in their lives, witnessed Naruto's strength and it was really impressive to see the blond struggle against his opponent.
Natsuki wanted to come closer but was prevented from doing so by Tsunade who knew better than to let the emotional red head distract Naruto, in the middle of the most important fight of his life. With no other choice, the group stayed there and continued to watch the battle from afar, praying for Naruto's success.
Back with Naruto
Naruto swiftly moved away from Sasuke, trying to create some distance between them and then immediately went through a familiar series of hand signs before slamming his right hand on the ground.
"Ninpo : Kuchiyose no Jutsu !" He yelled as a large cloud of smoke was generated. Seconds later, Ryuoh, the Dragon King, appeared next to him. He was Naruto's only dragon that had yet to enter this war, since all the other ones had been summoned for the aerial strike team. Ryuoh was a special case though and could only work with the true contract's summoner, Naruto.
"What have you called me for, Naruto ? Most of my subjects have already gone back home and told me that you and your allies were about to win this war." The Dragon Leader said he starred at the deserted ruins of Amegakure.
"That's partially true, the only one left to beat is that guy. However, he uses some nasty fire based attacks with the black flames of Amaterasu. You're the only one who could withstand those, that's the reason why I summoned you." Naruto replied while pointing Sasuke. He then did a new hand signs and called another jutsu.
"Futon : Kyouka Suigetsu." Naruto calmly announced as he disappeared from Sasuke's sight. The Uchiha could somehow still see the general layout of Naruto's body, thanks to the rain streaming around the blond. Naruto then started to speak with Ryuoh, but, in this state Sasuke could not use his Sharingan to read the blond's lips and consequently had no idea of what they were discussing.
The black dragon suddenly took off and started to quickly launch black fireballs towards his target, surprising Sasuke, and in the confusion, he completely lost track of Naruto's position. Sasuke tried to scan his surroundings with no success, as the blond really had taken advantage of the situation to disappear. He used his Susanoo to fire arrows at Ryuoh but the Elder Dragon had the same Ryugan eyes Naruto had and easily avoided the attacks. Furthermore, the Amaterasu had no effect against him, as the one dragon who breathes dark flames himself.
Ryuoh suddenly rose higher in the sky and finally got out of Sasuke firing range. As soon as he was in the safe zone, he started to bombard the Uchiha with powerful fireballs, destroying even more the already ruined Amegakure. Sasuke cursed since he couldn't move from the ground as long as he had his Susanoo activated. Seeing the black flames from the Dragon King coming closer to him, he had no other choice but to jump out, temporary shutting off his ultimate defense jutsu. No human being was impervious to those flames, he could control and extinguish his own flames at will, however he had no control over those from an external source.
As soon as the Susanoo was disabled, Sasuke felt the wind output increase all around his body and not a second later, he felt a great deal of pain as something pierced him from the back, right next to his shoulder. Turning his head backward, Sasuke tracked the attack back to a small shadow located by the broken form of the former Kage Tower. This was a place where the rain couldn't reach and the perfect spot for Naruto to hide himself in, more than a mile away from him.
"Futon : Kamishini no Yari." Naruto said as he revealed himself, holding his katana and pointing it toward Sasuke. The Uchiha fell to the ground, with blood leaking from a corner of his mouth, the likely result from some internal bleeding. Losing no time, Naruto moved himself on top of Ryuoh using the Hiraishin and then, both the Dragon King and his summoner launched a new jutsu at their downed target.
"Futon : Dai Ten'Ka Furyu En'Dan !" Naruto said, as he and Ryuoh launched a combined attack composed by his partner's black flames and his wind dragon jutsu to fuel them. The result from their collaboration jutsu was a blazing black wind dragon flying down on the still unmoving Sasuke. The Uchiha couldn't get away, too distracted by the pain he felt to use his space time jutsu, he brought a hand to his bleeding mouth as the torrent of dark flame fell on him.
Naruto's attack created a lot of smoke as it touched the ground, seeing that Sasuke didn't have the time to run away, he was hoping this last attempt was good enough. The flames died down pretty quickly, contrary to Amaterasu they didn't have the ability to burn for days without a proper source to fuel them. Once the scene was cleared, Naruto was surprised to see the burnt remains of Manda, the boss of the Snake summoning contract and the only creature Anko never tried to summon.
"How dare you use me like this, Uchiha. You will pay for this ..." The Snake Lord died in the middle of his sentence, succumbing to the full extend of his injuries from Naruto's jutsu, coiled on himself. Once Manda died, part of himself rolled off, revealing Sasuke and six shadows, protected from Naruto's technique by the several layers of Manda's burnt flesh. The blond's eyes widened as he saw the Rinnegan in their eyes but the most surprising thing was their identity, for in front of him stood Jiraiya, Itachi, Danzo, Orochimaru, Kisame and Nagato.
Naruto knew from the reports of the infiltration mission in Ame that Sasuke had the bodies of Itachi and Danzo, Orochimaru and Kisame's presence weren't such a surprise either. This was not the first time he would have to face an opponent with the famed eyes from the Sage of the Six Paths, but, to go against his own teacher was not something he would have ever seen himself doing. Furthermore, he was not expecting to fight his cousin Nagato again either. All in all, Sasuke had assembled a very dangerous group of individuals as the members of his Paths.
"One thing is certain, from my first fight with Nagato, I can tell that they are all already dead, feel no pain and have no emotions whatsoever. They are controlled using the Rinnegan and share a common vision field. I'll have to disable that link between them, if I am to remain in this game, as there is no way I could face those six at the same time ..." Naruto thought from his position on top of Ryuoh.
With the Observers
"Jiraiya … To see you again like this." Tsunade couldn't hold back her tears from seeing Jiraiya again, of course she knew of the Rinnegan and how the wielder could control the dead in order to do his bidding. It pained her to see the Toad Sage used like this, an empty vessel with no mind of its own.
"Leave me alone, you cowards, he needs my help !" Natsuki had to be restrained by Gaara and his sand, otherwise she would have jumped into the fight. The sight of all those S-Ranked shinobi, teaming up against her mate was more than she could handle. No matter how strong he is, it wasn't fair for him to fight them on his own when there were four other Kage watching this battle.
The Kage were all ashamed to admit that the best they could do for Naruto right now, was to not interfere in his fight. With Natsuki's or their presence of the field, the blond would not be able to unleash his most destructive jutsu, and those were currently the only means to defeat Sasuke.
With Naruto
The "drones" lost no time and immediately started to attack the blond and his dragon. Orochimaru summoned the Kusanagi and tried to pierce Ryuoh with it, only for the dragon to swiftly evade it, thanks to his Ryugan eyes.
Itachi and Danzo used a combo attack, Itachi fired a Gokakyu while Danzo increased that jutsu's power by infusing his Shinku Taigyoku into it. Naruto had to jump off Ryuoh while the dragon took the giant fireball straight on, receiving no damage since he was immune to fire.
As soon as Naruto left his summon, he was pulled toward the ground by Nagato's Bansho Ten'in. It was to risky to come in close contact with Nagato, so the blond decided to flash away toward the closest Hiraishin marker he had on the ground.
Unfortunately for him, as soon as he reappeared, the ground bellow him started to sink, signaling Jiraiya's signature Yomi Numa trap. Naruto barely managed to see what was happening around him when Kisame appeared out of nowhere and tried to decapitate him using the Samehada that Suigetsu left on the field when the explosion destroyed Ame.
Ryuoh pulled Naruto out of the swamp jutsu just in time to avoid Kisame's hit and quickly flew to a higher height without looking back. That was very close, one second later and the blond would have lost his head in that combined attack by Jiraiya and Kisame.
"Are you alright, Naruto ? This is your former sensei, will you be able to fight against him and really give it your all ?" Ryuoh asked the blond.
"Don't worry, I'm not scared to face him right now. Quite the opposite in fact, it is my duty as his student to not let the Uchiha use him that way. I'm not even sure if there's still a part of his soul in that body down there, the last time I faced the Six Paths, they were like soulless drones." Naruto replied.
"Very well, how do you want to do this ? Even you can't fight them all on your own, we need a solid plan to win this." The dragon king said, remembering their first contact with the Paths.
"There is only one path left, I have one last jutsu I can use against them that will ensure our victory. The reason why I didn't use it up until now is because I'll only have one shot at it before my chakra reserves are completely depleted." Naruto told Ryuoh.
"What can I do to help you ?" His summon asked.
"I need to stand still for a definite amount of time while I channel my chakra for that jutsu. I'll need to stay concealed within my genjutsu field for that, but, with the rain it's easy for them to track me. We need to find a way to temporary stop the rain, I don't suppose you can do something like this ?" Naruto said.
"I can't, water is not really my field of expertise, but I know the one for this." Ryuoh said as he reverse summoned another familiar dragon, Hyorinmaru. The ice dragon was quickly briefed on his mission and lost no time as he immediately rose higher in the sky above them.
During all this, Sasuke had managed to heal himself from the cut he received earlier. He was furious that Naruto had once again managed to escape, even the Six Paths weren't enough to finish him. All were currently scanning the sky, trying to anticipate Naruto's next move, when something changed. The air suddenly felt much colder and the rain instantly stopped. This was unheard of in Ame, for the rain to stop like this, was not something that happened in hundreds of years. Snow started to fall but the strange thing is that it didn't fell inside the city, only around it. Sasuke's eyes widened at this, it could only be Naruto's work, meaning the blond was somewhere around them already, hidden in his genjutsu field.
A large fireball, launched by Ryuoh, forced Sasuke and his Paths to move closer to the center of the city. Seven pairs of Sharingan and Rinnegan were scanning the surroundings in order to detect the slightest movement from Naruto, but without the rain it was now impossible for them to locate him.
"This is the end, Sasuke." Naruto suddenly said, as he appeared right in the middle of where Sasuke and his Paths had jumped off to after avoiding the fireball from Ryuoh. Fuinjutsu markings started to appear on the ground, all around them in a one hundred meter wide circle range.
"Uzumaki Zenjutsu : Hifujin no Jutsu !" Naruto yelled as time stopped inside the field he just created and he once again became one with the wind.
A/N : That's it for now, tell me what you thought of this chapter. As usual, please read and review.
Whole chapter dedicated to the final clash between Naruto and Sasuke. Next chapter is the final one and will cover the end of this fight as well as the epilogue. For the choices of those Six Paths, don't start to flame me about their identities. Tobi / Sasuke had all the time in the world to collect all their bodies while everyone was busy with the war.
Now about the Hifujin, yes, that's the same move he used to defeat Nagato. I said at the time that it wasn't a ninjutsu and that I was looking for a better term to define it. Being the combination of all aspects of the shinobi skills I decided to name that family Zenjutsu, 'Zen' being the term for "all".
Uzumaki Zenjutsu Hifujin would be translated as Uzumaki Omni Arts : Flying Wind God.
On a side note, things seem to go well for my other story since its first chapter destroyed my record of number reviews per chapter with 29 reviews so far. Kaze no Kami had at most 25 reviews for the chapter 45. I guess I should be proud that my second work is doing great. Thanks for your support, since I know most of those reviews came from my regular readers for this story.