A/N: Yep, yet another long delay between chapters. To be honest, I've had my mind on other projects, (and not to mention that some real-life stuff got in the way for a little while) so I'm going to finally get off my ass and finish this since I'm so close to the end. Rest assured, I will finish this fanfic.
Chapter 17: Itachi's Gambit
All was quiet in the Shadow Realm. The world's heroes, despite uniting and making a valiant effort to stop the Shadow Realm Army, were defeated easily by Z, the true mastermind behind the entire invasion. With all of the world's denizens in a lifeless trophy state, all hope seemed lost for the Anime World of Trophies.
Within the Shadow Realm stood Itachi's hideout, still in rubble after Frieza and his henchmen's siege. Krillin, Amuro, and Itachi lay dormant in their trophy forms, seemingly doomed to remain in that state for all eternity.
That is, until the brooches placed on Krillin and Amuro shone brightly, enveloping the two in a bright light. As the light died down, the two rose up, alive and rejuvenated.
"Ugh, my head!" Krillin groaned, rubbing his head. "Did I really just get killed for 24 hours straight, or did I just dream that?"
But Amuro was too fixated on the brooch attached to Krillin's forehead to answer. "Hey, what's that?"
Amuro reached for the brooch and yanked it off Krillin with a hard tuck.
"Ow! Be careful, will ya?" Krillin complained.
Amuro examined the brooch in his hand closely. "This brooch is shaped like the Uchiha Clan insignia." He looked over to his side. "And Itachi Uchiha is right over there."
"Yeah, that's the guy who attacked me!" said Krillin. "I say we leave him and get out of here!"
"But if we were both in our trophy state until just now, then something must have revived us. Since we're the only ones here, it doesn't look like anyone else tapped our stands. And we were both wearing these strange brooches, so I can only assume that they were what brought us back to life," Amuro reasoned.
"So you're saying Itachi beat us up and captured us, only to place those brooches on us so that we can revive later? That doesn't make any sense at all!"
"Either way, I want some answers."
And without further argument, Amuro tapped Itachi's stand, reviving the prodigy ninja. Waking up in a stir, Itachi opened his eyes to see Amuro and Krillin looking down on him.
"So it appears that my plan was a success," Itachi said as he pulled himself up from the floor.
"What plan? You better start talking, pal!" Krillin demanded.
"Yes, I do suppose you need an explanation as to why I abducted you and placed those brooches on you," Itachi calmly replied. "It all started a few days before the invasion started…"
A few days earlier
Seto Kaiba sat in his office at KaibaCorp Headquarters, diligently typing away at his laptop. His uneventful workday was soon interrupted, however, when a boy with black hair, blue eyes, and wearing a yellow vest and a blue-striped shirt barged into the room.
"Seto! We got trouble!" yelled Kaiba's younger brother, Mokuba.
"What is it THIS time?" Kaiba grunted, obviously annoyed.
"Someone's broken into the hangar! I think he's after the Kaiba Craft! The guards are fighting him as we speak, but he's easily overpowering them!"
"Someone must have a lot of nerve attacking KaibaCorp Headquarters directly!" Kaiba rose from his chair. "But they'll soon realize the error of their ways after I crush them in a duel!"
The Kaiba brothers rushed as fast as they could to the KaibaCorp Hangar. As they arrived, true to form, Itachi was making short work of the security staff. Piles of guards turned into trophies littered the floor.
"Stop!" Kaiba ordered his remaining guards. "You're no match for him!" His employees stepped aside to allow their boss to approach the Uchiha. "I am Seto Kaiba, president of this company! What business do you have breaking into my headquarters?" he demanded.
"Ah, yes, Seto Kaiba," Itachi turned to face the KaibaCorp CEO. "I am with the Akatsuki, and we have taken in interest in your Kaiba Craft 3. I will surely allow our search for the Jinchuuriki to become much easier. And we shall have it."
Kaiba angrily brandished his Duel Disk. "Well, if you plan on stealing from me, you're going to have to defeat me in a duel first!"
Itachi merely cocked an eyebrow for a moment before throwing a kunai in Kaiba's face, which instantly reverted him to trophy form.
"BIG BROTHER! You'll pay for that!" Mokuba rushed at the rouge ninja.
Itachi looked down at the younger Kaiba brother in mild annoyance before simply kicking him aside, which was enough to knock him into trophy state.
"Shut up, Mokuba!"
The Uchiha turned to face the Kaiba Craft 3, only to find himself suddenly enclosed by a group of Mass Monsters. Behind the crowd, several more Mass Monsters were boarding the blimp's gondola through the windows.
"Are these Masses? I've never heard of such behavior from these creatures," Itachi thought to himself in an unconcerned tone.
"So then what happened?" Krillin asked in eager suspense.
"At that point, I had little choice but to engage them. I was victorious, of course, but the other group of Masses that snuck onto the Kaiba Craft had already gotten away, along with the airship, by the time I was finished. However, I was able to probe into the collective minds of the Masses that I defeated with my Sharingan. And that was when I saw him," Itachi explained.
"Saw who?" Amuro and Krillin both asked in unison.
"The one commanding the corrupted Masses, as well as the true mastermind of this entire invasion…Z."
"Well, I don't know who this Z character is, but I'm sure Goku will take care of him," Krillin crossed his arms and nodded confidently.
"You don't understand!" Itachi uncharacteristically shouted. "Z has Light Hawk Wings, our universe's manifestation of the energy of a being that's even greater than our own god! And he has FIVE OF THEM! He can destroy the entire Dragonball Z universe with just a breath if he wanted to!"
"Oh…um…damn." was all Krillin could say in response.
"Z has been manipulating the other villains and Haruhi all along, all for the purpose of sending our world into the Shadow Realm. I do not know his reasons for it, but I did know that I had to counteract his plan in some way," Itachi continued.
"And I take these brooches had something to do with it?" Amuro guessed.
"That would be correct. The Uchiha Brooches that you hold are designed to revive any fallen warrior after a certain period of time has passed. My plan was to defeat any strong warrior I come across and to equip each of them with a brooch set to activate after my projected time for when Z uses his Light Hawk Wings on everyone else."
"Oh, I get it. Use the brooches to revive a few people after Z thinks he's won, we revive everyone else, and then we all take Z by surprise, is that it?" Amuro reasoned.
Itachi nodded. "Essentially, I was creating an ace in the hole in case the others fail to defeat Z on their own." Itachi looked up at the dark sky above them. "And it seems that my plan was needed after all."
Krillin stood with his arms folded, deep in thought for a moment before speaking again. "Well, that's a lot to take in. I'm not sure if you're telling the truth or not, but I guess I have no choice but to trust you. But I'm keeping my eye on you."
"By all means, 'keep your eye on me.' I can assure you that everything I have said is truthful. Now we must make haste."
And with that, Itachi led the way out of his hideaway.
As the unlikely trio stepped out of the castle, Amuro and Krillin gasped at the thick fog of darkness that surrounded them.
"So, this is the Shadow Realm?" Krillin looked around nervously.
"Stay alert. We have company," Itachi pointed to an incoming trio of Mass Monsters heading their way.
Amuro blasted the leading Mass Monster with his beam rifle as the remaining two leaped towards Krillin and Itachi.
"DESTRUCTRO DISK!"
"FIRE STYLE: FIREBALL JUTSU!"
The remaining Mass Monsters were sliced and burned, respectively, causing them to dissolve. Itachi, Krillin, and Amuro continue onward, and in less than a minute, they found a trophy.
"It's Sailor Moon!" Amuro yelled. He quickly revived the fallen magical girl.
"Ugh, it feels like I was knocked out for a whole YEAR!" Sailor Moon groaned. She then looked at the "camera" accusingly.
After a long trek across the land, and with many enemy encounters in between, Itachi, Krillin, Amuro, and Sailor Moon managed to find and revitalize Yusuke, Faye, Shinji, Ichigo, Alphonse, Yami Yugi, Dark Magician, Inuyasha, Spike, Chihiro, Ryo-Ohki, Edward, Speed Racer, and Goku.
The greatly expanded group stood in front of Haruhi, who laid still in front of the stairs Z created.
Amuro was horrified at the sight. "Man, when you said that this Z guy was powerful, you weren't kidding! I didn't think anyone was capable of doing THAT to Haruhi!"
Krillin, however, was focused on the trophy not too far from her.
"Oh, look, it's Frieza!" Krillin sneered.
"Indeed it is," said Itachi as he walked over to the fallen villain.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"In order to defeat Z, we need all the help we can get," Itachi explained before tapping Frieza's stand. After a brief flash of light, Frieza shot up to his feet, not in the best of moods.
"LIGHT YAGAMI! HE'LL PAY FOR BACKSHOOTING ME!"
"Calm down, Frieza. We have bigger things to worry about," Itachi replied.
"Calm down? You presume to order me around? You must want to meet your family soon!" Frieza threatened before getting into a fighting stance.
"Oh no! I knew this was a bad idea! Now we're going to have to fight Frieza again!" Krillin cowered.
However, Itachi, undeterred, looked at Frieza right in the eyes and said "TSUKUYOMI!"
The next thing Frieza knew, he was back on Planet Namek, fighting Super Saiyan Goku. The white alien looked around in confusion.
"Huh? How did I get back on this dirtball, and why am I fighting this monkey again?" Frieza grunted.
"For the next 72 hours, you will relive all of your defeats," Frieza heard Itachi's voice from inside his head.
"What! What do you mean?" Frieza demanded.
"Hey! Look out behind you!" Goku warned him. "Get down, now!"
But Frieza only had enough time to look over his shoulder before being horizontally sliced in half by his own technique, a stray homing variation of the Destructo Disk that he used earlier in the fight.
"My own attack…AGAIN!" was all Frieza could utter before hitting the ground.
Now Frieza was in a rocky area on Earth, with the mechanical enhancements he received after his defeat on Namek.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Frieza yelled in annoyance.
"BURNING ATTACK!"
Frieza turned around and saw a Super Saiyan wearing grey pants, a black shirt, a Capsule Corp jacket, and a sword sheath tied around his torso standing on a nearby cliff, firing a ki blast at him.
The half-mechanical villain flew into the air, avoiding the blast. "When I get my hands on…HUH?"
And before Frieza could even react, he was vertically cut in half by Future Trunks. As Frieza's vision literally split in half, he again heard Itachi's voice say, "One second down, 71 hours and 59 seconds to go."
"Wha-?" Frieza began, but was cut off by Trunks chopping him into a million pieces and blasting him away.
For what Frieza endured for 72 hours, only an instant had passed in real-time. Frieza fell over, back in trophy form.
"Now, let's try this again," Itachi said before tapping Frieza's stand for the second time.
"LIGHT YAGAMI! HE'LL PAY FOR BACKSHOOTING ME!" Frieza repeated.
Itachi sighed. "I'm going to slap some sense into you." He then proceeded to bitch-slap Frieza across the face continuously.
"OH YEAH! GIVE IT TO 'EM, ITACHI!" Krillin cheered from the sidelines. Everyone else gave Krillin weird looks.
The prodigy ninja finally relented in his attacks, and Frieza backed up, covering his face since it was in intense pain. "Hey! What's your problem?" Frieza yelled.
Itachi pointed over to his left side. "THAT'S my problem!" Itachi answered.
Frieza turned to where Itachi was pointing and finally noticed Haruhi's body and the flight of stairs. "H-Haruhi? Unbelievable! I've seen her power for myself, and, as much as it loathes me to say it, her powers surpass even my own! So who managed to take her out?" Frieza said through gritted teeth in a mixture of both amazement and anger at the thought of someone else being vastly more powerful than him.
"It was a being who calls himself Z. He was controlling Haruhi the entire time, manipulating all of you from the shadows like puppets on a string," Itachi replied.
The alien tyrant clenched his fist. "A puppet, you say? NO ONE controls Lord Frieza like a puppet!"
"And since we share a common and powerful enemy, our best chance at beating him is through cooperation," said Itachi.
"It makes my skin crawl just looking at you, Frieza, but it looks like the only way out of this is if we team up," Krillin added while glaring at one of his killers.
Frieza crossed his arms and gave off a confident smirk. "Hmm. Alright, fine! I'll help you. You weaklings are going to need all the help you can get."
Not a second later, Goku teleported right in front of Frieza, so close that he was invading his personal space. "Alright! So you FINALLY decided to give up your evil ways and become a good person!" the Saiyan exclaimed.
"Hey, I never said that, you damn dirty ape! As soon as this Z character is taken care of, I'm going to go right back to killing all of you!" Frieza threatened.
"And we wouldn't want it any other way, Frieza," Krillin said sarcastically. "C'mon guys, we still have half of our friends to save."
And with that, the group set out into the yet unexplored areas of the Shadow Realm to find their remaining allies.
A/N: Find out what happens to the not yet revived fighters on the next chapter of the Shadow Realm Emissary. It won't take me 364 days to update, I promise. :)