serialkeller: Thanks. Poor Forgettable-Iwa getting laughed at.
Foxstar: Wish granted. I just added Tsunade's bit to what I already had planned. It's fairly similar to what you wanted, so it should work.
Chapter 29
(Suna)
Gaara was finishing up some paperwork when a messenger entered his office. "Kazekage-sama, our allies have arrived." He stood aside to allow Tsunade, Mei, A, and Forgettable-Iwa into his office.
Gaara stared at the last one curiously. "Who is he?"
"I'm the one representing Iwa!" The man cried. "We met in the Hokage's office, remember?"
"No, I don't." Gaara stared at him for a moment before turning to Tsunade. "We've already reinforced the walls. What we'll do next-"
"You won't have time to prepare all the defenses you wanted," a certain white-haired pervert said entering through the window.
"And why not?" Tsunade demanded.
"It's already made landfall. It'll be here faster than you planned for."
"If it had already made landfall I wou-" Gaara was cut off as the door slammed open.
"Kazekage-sama! The monster has already reached our shoreline!"
Jiraiya gave Gaara a knowing smirk. "Thank you, you are dismissed," Gaara told the ninja.
"So what do we do?" Forgettable-Iwa asked.
"Stalling tactics," Tsunade replied. "We send out a force to slow it down while we finish preparing."
Gaara nodded. "The team should be ready to leave in 30 minutes. I'll let you three-"
Forgettable-Iwa cut in with a "Hey!"
"Four, decide who to send."
30 minutes later the force stood at the gates ready to leave. From Konoha there were both Jiraiya and Tsunade, Itachi, Sasuke, and Menma. From Kiri was Mei. From Suna was Temari and another random kunoichi. From Iwa was Forgettable-Iwa and a dozen other random ninja. From Kumo was Team Samui.
Tsunade looked over the assembled ninja. "Alright, everyone, we need to slow that thing down and buy some time for the defenses to be completed."
The group quickly set out and raced across the desert to meet the beast. Roughly halfway to the coast they found the creature. The towering black beast was making its way towards them quickly. The miasma surrounding it seemed to have reached new heights since the destruction of Kiri. That, combined with the heat haze of the desert made it appear as a giant black cloud approaching them.
"Is that... can we really stop that thing?!" An Iwa ninja asked.
"We can, and we will!" Forgettable-Iwa said jumping forward. "Help me trap it, my brothers and sisters!"
The Iwa ninja all followed him through a sequence of hand seals and held the last one, waiting for the beast to get in range.
"What are you doing?" Mei asked.
"We're going to trap it in a giant earth prison," Forgettable-Iwa replied.
"Will the top be open?" Mei asked. After a nod from Forgettable-Iwa she got an idea and stepped forward as well.
When the beast entered their range the Iwa ninja all slammed their hands to the ground with a shout. With a rumbling four giant slabs of earth raised from the ground around the beast. Mei jumped on top of the one in front of them as it raised and waited for them to finish the jutsu.
Once the technique was finished and the beast was standing inside a box Mei took a deep breath and began to spew out lava, filling the box with the burning liquid.
As the box was filling in she noticed a woman standing on top of the Jūbi staring at her impassively. 'That must be the Uchiha woman the kid talked about.' She adjusted her aim to hit the woman with lava but all of it fell short. No matter what she tried it always dropped down into the box without hitting the woman.
Eventually the box was nearly full and Mei jumped back off the wall, exhausted. "It's a sea of lava in there, I'm sure the beast is-"
A large crack sounded out, quickly followed by three others. Each crack resulted in one of the massive earthen walls crumbling away. Lava flooded out into the sand dunes around them as they fled away from it. Many of the Iwa ninja who were too exhausted to move after their combined technique were caught by the lava and died agonizing deaths.
Mei lowered her head and apologized to the dying men and women.
Menma turned to Sasuke and Itachi. "You guys want to try something fun? I know Sasuke hasn't done it yet, but I'm wondering if you've tried, Itachi."
Itachi turned a blank look to him. "Tried what?"
"You'll see," Menma grinned and turned to shout at Temari. "Hey, Suna girl! You're a wind element, right? Come here!"
Both Temari and the Suna kunoichi made their way over. "We're both Suna girls and both wind element, what do you want?" Temari asked, annoyed.
"Well that works fine. You both want to be a part of the biggest fire technique in history?"
The two women looked and each other and shrugged. "Sure. What do we do?"
Menma turned around to face Itachi and Sasuke and activated his Mangekyō. "We'll use our strongest fire attack, you boost it."
The two Uchiha immediately understood and activated theirs as well. The three of them stepped forward beyond the rest of the group and with a combined cry of "Amaterasu!" sent a massive black fireball at the creature.
The two girls both used their strongest wind attacks to boost the fireball even further. The other members of the group all looked on in shock at the fireball that was now the size of the Jūbi itself.
The beast wrapped itself in its tails just before the fireball hit it and exploded, raining black fire across the desert. After the fireball was gone the beast flicked it's tails outward and roared, knocking the group off their feet.
As the group staggered to stand they saw the creature bringing each tail to its head where the fires seemed to disappear. After the fires were all gone from the creature it looked down at the group and growled.
"I think all we did was piss it off," Sasuke said.
The group gathered up and looked out at what their attacks had done so far. Behind the creature was a lake made of lava that was slowly cooling and all around it was a massive black fire. Neither of the attacks had seemed to really phase the creature or had slowed it down at all.
"This... isn't going very well," Jiraiya said with a frown. He turned to Tsunade. "Our turn?"
Tsunade nodded and the two of them used their summons. The rest of the group fell back so that the two wouldn't have to fight the beast among the black flames. They all gave each other awkward smiles at hearing Gamabunta curse Jiraiya for summoning him in the desert, while Tsunade and Lady Katsuyu were pleasant to each other.
The two summons were able to hold the beast back for a couple of minutes before they were forced to dispel due to injuries. The two Sannin jumped back and let the Kumo group make their attempt. It didn't slow the creature down either.
As the group fell back once again they had reached visual range of Suna. A messenger arrived soon after. "You're letting it get too close! We're not ready!"
"There's nothing we can do to stop it, damn it! Evacuate the city!" Tsunade ordered him. The messenger quickly ran off to inform Gaara.
Menma approached her and Jiraiya. "If you distract Honoka-sensei I can stall it. Remember though, that she's immortal. Don't waste your time trying to kill her, just keep her busy."
Forgettable-Iwa, who had been close enough to hear them talking jumped forward. "Do not fear, everyone! I - - will distract that vile woman!" The wind happened to carry his voice away from all of them the moment he spoke his name. He rushed forward to attack.
Two Iwa ninja that were nearby looked at each other.
"Who was that?" The first one asked.
The second one frowned and squinted at Forgettable-Iwa as he charged. "I don't know, but he kinda looks like that guy we voted to lead us, doesn't he?"
The first looked closer. "Hey, you're right. What was his name again?"
The second rubbed his head. "I don't know, I couldn't hear-"
Tsunade who had finally noticed him rushing the enemy shouted at him. "Forgettable-Iwa, no!"
'Yes! This is it! I'll be a hero and my name will be forever etched into history! Parents will tell their children stories of my bravery for eons!' The man jumped, 'Everyone will finally know the name of-' only to be swatted down and stepped on.
"You... can't." Tsunade trailed off at watching the man get crushed.
She frowned and turned to Jiraiya. "Come on, pervert. Let's deal with her before anyone else tries to be a hero."
"Right. I'll get her off of there, you just be ready," Jiraiya said as he summoned another toad. "Ok, Ken-san, there's a lady up on top of that thing's head and I need to get her off of there. Go ahead and smack that monster around for a bit then aim for the head, I'll take care of the rest."
Gamaken smacked the beast with his sasumata a few times before aiming for the head. Jiraiya snuck out on the end of the weapon and launched himself at Honoka as it swung past, tackling her off the head of the creature.
As then flew through the air and landed on the sand Jiraiya got a few gropes in. "Not bad," he said with a lecherous grin. "Maybe we coul-"
She violently kicked him in the groin before hurling him away from her with Shinra Tensei.
Tsunade just shook her head. "Pervert deserved it." She then rushed at Honoka.
Back with the Jūbi, Menma stood in front of the rest of the forces. He raised both of his hands towards the beast and focused.
The others looked at him confused before he muttered "Shinra Tensei." and the beast slid back a few feet before digging down beneath the sand to stop its backwards movement. With a growl it slowly began moving forward again, slamming each limb down into the earth beneath the sand as it moved.
Menma grit his teeth and pumped more chakra into the technique. The beast ground through the earth as it slid backwards again. This time it lowered its body and opened its mouth. An orb started to form and Menma cursed. "Get behind me!" He pumped more and more chakra into the technique pushing the beast further and further back as it continued to mix chakra.
Jiraiya and Tsunade saw what the Jūbi was doing and disengaged Honoka. They made their way over and arrived behind Menma just as the beast fired.
Menma grunted and angled his hands. The beam that tore through the air towards them left a deep trench in the earth. As it hit Menma's angled Shinra Tensei it shot up into the air. When the beam ended Menma collapsed to the ground panting.
"That's... all I can... do..." he gasped out before losing consciousness.
Tsunade quickly picked him up and turned to the others. "Fall back! We've done all we can."
The group turned and fled back to Suna. With how far back Menma had pushed the creature and how it seemed to lazily move forward again they had bought a few hours of time.
All it cost them was forever altering the southeastern desert of Suna into glass and the lives of most of the Iwa ninja that had joined the group.
(Suna)
It was sunset that same day when Menma awoke in a hospital room. Tayuya had been sitting in a chair nearby and stepped out for a minute when Tsunade walked in.
"Glad to see you're alright, brat. That was quite the show."
Menma silently looked out the window. The Jūbi could be seen in the distance. It was nearly at the city and would no doubt attack soon. "They won't be able to stop it," he said quietly.
Tsunade looked out the window at the gathering forces. "No, they won't."
Tayuya returned but paused as she heard a woman's voice. She listened in to the conversation. 'If that shithead is seeing another woman, I swear to god...'
"I can," he continued. "I'll have to return to Konoha, and it will take me time to prepare... but, by the time it arrives there, I should be ready."
Tsunade studied the side of his face as he looked out the window. 'Like father like son?' She sighed. "Are you sure?"
Menma nodded.
Tsunade stared at him silently before turning and heading for the door. "We'll try to buy you more time."
Menma waited for her to leave before slowly getting out of bed. With a grunt he stood and used Kamui. He felt something slam into his back and wrap around him just before he vanished.
(Konoha - Menma's apartment)
Menma staggered as he appeared in his apartment. He looked down to find arms wrapped around him.
"You're planning something stupid, aren't you, shithead?"
"Tayuya? I don't know what you're talking about," he said as he turned in her arms to face her.
"Don't lie to me! You have the same look on your face as you did when you faced Orochimaru!" She buried her face in his chest. "You're... going to win this one too... right?"
"Don't worry. I'll stop her, and the Jūbi."
Tayuya looked up at him. "How long will it take you to prepare?"
"Honestly, it's mostly just resting to recover my chakra. I'll need all the chakra I can get for what I'm going to do," Menma replied.
Tayuya studied his eyes for a bit before pulling him to the bed. The two spent the night together in the bed, though neither of them slept.
End Chapter 29
A/N:
Next chapter will be the finale.