1zara-uchiha1 and I don't own the Naruto cast or anything else you might recognize. 1zara-uchiha1 owns Laura and I own Kahlan. Together we own the plot.

Chapter 97

Note: A ninja war could be the cause of WW3 and devoted ninja fans will help their favorite ninjas. If you ever come across such a devoted crazy fan, be sure to give them an ass kicking.

~Kahlan's POV

A savage scream erupts from my throat as I jump onto the back of one of the soldiers. I slam my sai in the spot where neck meets shoulder, yank out and do it again and again and again until they crumble to the ground. All I can feel is rage and the need to survive.

Getting off the fallen soldier my wild eyes land on another person ready to attack me. The two of us engage in a hand to hand combat. He goes to punch me; I block and go to knee him in the gut. The man jumps back and I swing a left hook at him. The man grabs and twist; I twist my body and drop to the ground to swing with a right hook. He catches that arm and I throw myself at him with all my weight. He stumbles back, but doesn't fall. So I gather my chakra, let it burn and swirl inside me.

I let myself get kicked multiple times in the ribs and allow him to flip me over him and onto the ground. Once my back hit the ground free from his grasp, I roll away jumping onto my feet. The man pulls out some sort of blade and I pull out my Sais.

Eyes locked on one another we move in a slow circle. His left foot moves forward just slightly and I lunge at him with a growl. I swing my blade; he blocks it and grabs my other arm then kicks me once again in the ribs before pushing me away. He attacks and I parry the block then go to give him a high kick to the face. He leans backwards while twisting his body to the left to dodge then goes to swipe his blade at me.

Quickly, I move away but receive a small cut in the process. The pain last for a fleeting second, but gets pushed away. The fight last for seconds, minutes, hours…I know not only that my body moves on its own. I'm unable to grasp anything for long; all I am doing is reacting. When he attacks, I dodge or block then attack myself. He dodges or blocks then attacks again. It's a dangerous dance as we try giving the most damage as possible while trying to receive little; a dance that goes in his favor for a little bit, but then goes into my favor, constantly going back and forth.

After gathering enough chakra, I jump back a few feet away from the man and create a clone. The clone nods and goes to attack the man. While the clone is distracting the man, I do the hand sign dragon then tiger.

Slamming my hands on the ground I mutter, "Fire release volcano."

My chakra pours into the earth and I close my eyes. I can feel the molten beneath the earth moving slowly towards the surface. This jutsu takes time since Florida has no volcanoes and it uses the molten that is way beneath the surface. That in turn also makes this jutsu a very draining jutsu, but that thought doesn't stay in my mind long as I push more chakra into the earth. The jutsu was created by Itachi but it is difficult to use it here in Florida, but not impossible. Like I mentioned it is very draining and will take time unlike if we were some place that had volcanoes. Plus your hands must touch the ground for it to work, making you open for attacks. I've only tried it once during training and I had passed out (before anything could happen) because of it.

My body tenses sensing someone coming up from behind me. Keeping my hands on the ground, I kick up almost looking like I'm trying to do a handstand. A hiss escapes from my lips as a gun goes off as my body starts flipping over to look like I'm doing some yoga type of bridge thing. Pain explodes in my side, but I grind my teeth refusing to remove my hands from the ground. I can feel the molten reaching the surface.

Kicking up, I make my body go back in the handstand before flipping over back into the original position I was in. My left arm gives out and my face connects with the concrete. Skin gets torn up but I don't move, my body is shaking too much at the moment.

Closing my eyes, I dismiss my clone. The ground starts shaking and I can feel the heat from below rising. Slowly, I open my eyes as my nails try to dig into the concrete as I pour a bit of the chakra I got back from the clone into the ground to speed the process of the jutsu.

The ground shakes more, the heat rises. With my body still shaking I bring myself up onto my hands and knees. The ground around me explodes, extending about two and a half feet and molten lava erupts into the air. The few people around me get caught in it screaming and filling the foul air with the smell of burning flesh.

Whimpers escape from me as my hands start burning, and droplets of lava land randomly on my exposed skin. I snatch my hand from the ground and the lava comes down. My body quickly moves into a protective fetus position as it falls and more droplets fall on me.

When it stops, a wave of exhaustion washes over me, but my instincts continue screaming at me, continue to have control. So, weakly, I push myself to my feet. I go to take a step but stumble and crash down onto my knees. Grinding my teeth, I push myself back up.

A hand descends on my shoulder. Following the orders of my body, I spin around activating my hidden blade and go to plunge it into the person who touched me. Their pale hand stops me, so I activate the hidden blade on my left hand and go to use it.

"Stop," the person commands grabbing my left hand. "Calm down."

My body relaxes reasoning that I'm out of harm's way. Slowly, I look up and my eyes collide with onyx eyes and a face framed by black bangs with a forehead protector that has been slashed. My brain searches for a name to connect with the face.

"I…ta…chi," I say slowly as my vision starts going black.

My body stops supporting me, causing me to fall forward as exhaustion hits me like a freight train. I feel him catch me and I try to speak, to apologize for reasons unknown to me for the moment, but my mouth refuses to open and my eyes stay glued shut. I try fighting the exhaustion, but it just tightens its grasp on me yanking me into the black waters of unconsciousness.

Blood…everywhere…covering me, I need to get it off. Wash it off in the river…but it is so dark and forbidding looking. But I want it off; it needs to come off NOW.

"Take the chance," whisper voices.

I walk over to the river…or does it move towards me…nothing is clear but the need to become clean. It's all cold and my body shivers. My bare feet stop at the edge of the wide river…or it stops before my feet.

"Wash," the voices whisper harshly. "Wash it away."

Instead of turning tail and running, I fall to my knees. My hands sink into the dark river as the water feels like ice stabbing, but I continue to let my arms sink in up to my elbows. Clean... get it all off.

I scrub viciously at the blood coating my arms and hands, but the water does nothing. It stubbornly clings to me and all I can do is whimper in desperation. Nails dig into the skin to claw the blood off, but still it won't move an inch. Then hands start coming out of the water some of them looking badly burned showing muscles and bones while others look completely fine.

I go to scramble away, but the hands latch onto me. A scream rushes out of my throat as the hands start to pull me down and I struggle to move away. They yank harder, digging their nails into my flesh until my own blood is mixing into the blood already caked on me. My scream turns into desperation as I become closer to the water and then pulled under.

Desperately I try to get to the surface, but arms start wrapping around me dragging me farther into the inky depths of the river. My lungs burn for oxygen but the only thing available is water. Bubbles float up from below getting larger as they reach the surface. I try to fight the hands off but it feels like more wrap themselves around me.

When the need for oxygen becomes too much I find myself somewhere else, surrounded by rocks and flames. Eagerly I take in large gulps of oxygen only to cough from the sulfur in the air. My eyes dart around the area falling on a group of…people…dressed in black robes with chains around their feet connecting them together.

"Covered in blood," whispers the group as they start walking over to me. Scrambling to me feet I move backwards only to collide into a hot wall. "Forever covered in blood."

"No," I say closing my eyes and shaking my head.

Hands grab onto me and my stomach turns at the putrid smell of flesh. Pain starts erupting everywhere as the hands seem to plunge into me. It feels as if they are starting to remove my insides. A scream starts crawling up my throat.

"Covered in blood forever," they whisper. "Now it is our turn to kill you.

"No," I scream getting into a sitting position. "Get off, let go!"

I keep screaming as I kick and punch and try clawing at anything touching me. Eyes burn as liquid is sliding down my face in a seemingly never-ending rain. Sweat adorns my body and purple walls meet my vision. No rocky walls, blood, rotting hands just purple walls.

"Kahlan," Laura's voice says. I stop screaming and fighting as I turn my head to the left. My wide eyes land on Laura standing a few feet away from the bed a frown on her face. "It was just a dream."

I just keep my wide eye stare on her without saying a word. She frowns even more and I look away down at myself. Pajamas cling to my sweaty un-bloody body. My hands are lightly wrapped in bandages.

"Konan is the one that patched you up though she had Sasori help get the bullet out of your shoulder and Kakuzu stitched the wound up," Laura says and I look back at her. "Konan was also the one to clean you up and put the pajamas on you. You've been out for a week. Itachi said it's probably because of the jutsu you used."

"The war," I whisper as I wipe away some of the tears.

"Is still going on," Laura replies continuing to pout. "They're going to talk about it on the TV."

"Where…is everyone," I ask once again whispering.

"I'm right here," Itachi replies walking into the room with a cup. "Konan and Leader-sama are having a discussion in the parlor. Everyone else just got back finishing their missions Leader-sama set them out to do. Drink this."

He brings the cup to my lips, and I bring my hands up to hold onto the glass. Cool water slides into my mouth and down my throat. My hands wrap around the cup, and I drink the water as fast as I can without choking. Within seconds I finish and wipe my mouth from the few drops that escape.

"I want to watch the TV," I say as he takes the glass back.

"That would be unwise," Itachi replies.

"I want to see what's going on," I say back as I start untangling the sheets around my legs.

"Are you sure," Laura asks and I nod my head in reply.

Itachi looks at me for a moment before turning around and walking out of the room. Taking that as a sign of him not going to force me to stay, I climb out of bed. The moment I stand my legs start crumbling and Laura quickly moves to my side to help me stand.

"I'll help you," she says with a smile.

"Thanks," I mumble. "I think it will take a few minutes for my legs to get used to walking again."

"Yeah," she replies with another smile as she starts helping me out of the room.

Together we walk down the hallway to the stairs then descend them. Reaching the bottom we turned to our right heading right into the living room where everyone is sitting around near the TV minus Itachi and Zetsu. Laura helps me walk over to the couch and we sit next to Konan just as Itachi walks into the room.

"Where's Zetsu," I ask.

"He's out spying around the house," Laura replies.

"Kahlan how are you feeling," Konan asks looking at me with a small frown.

"Numb," I reply honestly. I don't know if I should be feeling anything or not. If I am, I much rather hold onto the numbness.

"A week ago," says a news lady appearing on the screen. "The town Cape Breeze in Florida was under attack by a group of people. We soon learn that there were two groups both having inhuman powers. Police tried to protect and save the citizens but had ended up calling the National Guards for help; a few days later after showing up they had to call in others for help. Our other Army and Marine forces have joined the battle that started in Cape Breeze.

From many interviews and our own research we have learned the start of the battles come from people that are known as ninjas from a popular Japanese manga series known as Naruto. It is unsure how these people got their powers but they are very powerful. An unknown amount of fans of the series have taken up arms to participate in the war now raging across America soil, some fight for the Konoha and others fight for the Akatsuki.

Battles have started across all over the country. It is believed that if this is unable to get under control that another country will take the opportunity to start fighting America. From the battle still raging in Cape Breeze we may just be looking at the start of World War Three."

Leader turns off the TV cutting the rest of what the woman will say off. For a moment we are all sitting in silence. Hidan is the one to break the silence.

"What the fuck does she fucking mean by World fucking War Three," Hidan asks.

"Baka," Kakuzu says. "It means this will be the third world war if it even goes that far."

"What did the woman mean by the Naruto series, un."

"No idea," Laura replies with a confused look.

"Whatever she meant we have…fans fighting for us," Sasori replies.

"Who fucking cares," Hidan says. "Let them fucking fight for us; they're fucking stupid if they think we will fucking care."

"It doesn't matter," Leader says standing up. "This war will continue and we will destroy anyone who gets in our way. We will rest here for the night and then go back out and fight."

Slowly I stand up. Everyone looks over at me but I say nothing, just walk out of the room. My feet carry me to my room. Picking up Rellik off the bed, I walk over to the closet. Opening it I walk into it and then close it behind me. Clinging tightly onto my bear, I sit down in the corner of the dark closet. I'll just stay here where I'll be safe maybe even somehow disappear.

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Kahlan's mind hasn't fully accepted the fact that she has killed people. In fact it views it as being traumatic and is trying to forget what she has done but can't so right now she's a bit distant and feeling numb. It seems like a natural thing people would do if they're not used to killing.

Anyways, we both hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying the story. Thank you to everyone who has been reading, adding this to their favorites and/or alerts and for reviewing, it means a lot to us. Please stay tuned for the next update and once again thank you. Reviews are much appreciated and loved; until next time. ^.^