I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.


Back Again

Madara flew away, spinning as fast as Ryuu had been, stomach twisted into the Uzumaki Clan symbol with three times the rotations. Ryuu, on the other hand, flew away from the explosion in a trail of dust, hiding the extend of his injuries. Finally, the dust cleared, allowing everyone in the Alliance to watch as his head and torso down to the bottom of his rib cage to sail away from the explosion. He crashed down in the rubble, forming a massive crater. Less than a minute later, Fu was over him, sobbing.

"You bastard!" Fu sobbed. "You're not allowed to die before I go back! You can't do this to me! It's not fair!"

Tobi grew out of the ground, staring down at Ryuu before up at the tree.

"Is this really all that comes of trying to help those around you?" Tobi wondered.

"No," Naruto said landing beside them. "This is what happens when someone chooses how they die, and for what. I can bring him back, but I can't restore his body."

He can use mine," Tobi said, unraveling then encasing what was left of Ryuu, fusing with him below the neck. "Please save my friend."

Naruto nodded, resting his hand on Ryuu's forehead, placing the same mark as he had done for countless others on Ryuu's forehead.


Ryuu's eyes fluttered open and he groaned. His body felt numb. He could feel, but only barely. Fu was kneeling over him, sobbing and restraining the urge to hug him. Ryuu slowly sat up, groaning again.

"What were...those memories?" Ryuu asked, struggling to speak.

"Mine," Tobi said, making Ryuu's head snap down ward, realizing Tobi was around him. "I let you see what happened after you died, so you wouldn't need to ask questions. Idiot. Even though you lasted longer than Guy, you only lasted eight minutes."

"How many did he save?" Ryuu asked.

"He saved three hundred seventy two," Tobi stated. "Including you. He got to Neji before turning and heading back. He also saved B on the way back. But, Obito wasn't in this dimension. So he couldn't save him. And he couldn't restore your body."

"I know," Ryuu sighed. "You showed me, remember? Is there anything we can do about my body?"

"We'll have to go and find pieces of Zetsus that aren't in too bad of shape," Zetsu said. "Then you'll need rehab again to adapt to having most of your body be like me."

"I see," Ryuu nodded. "After this war we can go."

Tobi agreed and Ryuu turned to Fu, seeing that she was still a reanimation.

"Why didn't he save you?" Ryuu asked.

"He said he had to go and stop Madara," Fu said. "But, we can figure something out later. If all else fails, you can always recreate your body and bring me to life with your Sharingan, right?"

"Yeah," Ryuu smiled. "We can. But, for now..."

"Go," Fu smiled. "I'll wait here."

Ryuu smiled and nodded, pushing himself up as Tobi closed his head around Ryuu's. Then, Ryuu turned, sprinting along the ground, stumbling a few times before crashing to the ground.

"Looks like I'm not used to using your body in place of my own," Ryuu sighed.

"Want me to take over?" Tobi asked.

"No," Ryuu sighed. "If I'm going to be of use, I'll have to get used to it. But Tobi, I'll be fighting using your body. So, if I'm wounded..."

"Don't worry about me," Tobi smiled. "I'm hard to kill. And I can't feel pain. Besides, I still have a lot of debts to repay and sins to atone for. So do what you have to do."

Ryuu nodded, pushing himself up and beginning to run again. He stumbled a few times but began to get used to Tobi's body. After a time, he dropped into the pit where they had left Kakashi and the others, finding Naruto and Sasuke there. Just as he landed, Madara and Obito appeared out of a Kamui rift, Obito clearly dead with Black Zetsu controlling him, and Madara now possessing both Rinnegan.

"Looks like I was too late after all," Ryuu sighed. "I was hoping I was able to hold him off long enough for you to finish it."

"It was close," Naruto stated. "But he was harder to pin down than we expected."

Ryuu looked to Naruto and Sasuke. Both had changed. Naruto's chakra shroud now included six floating black spheres behind him and the cloak was now a coat. In addition, Naruto's skin was no longer glowing. Sasuke, on the other hand, now simply had a Rinnegan in his left eye that had six tomoe on the two innermost rings.

"Looks like I'm just in the way," Ryuu stated.

"Yes," Sasuke nodded. "Especially with that fragile body."

"I won't disagree with you there," Ryuu nodded. "But I'm still going to help where I can."

Sakura suddenly sprinted forward, the seal on her forehead opening and spreading over her body. As she reached Madara, he drove a black rod through her abdomen before she threw a punch at him, hand being blocked at the last second. Naruto and Sasuke sprinted forward as well, Sasuke to attack Madara and Naruto to rescue Sakura. However, Sasuke's attack was blocked and all three of them shot away. They skidded to a stop and Naruto pulled the rod out of Sakura, allowing her to heal.

"Enough of this sideshow," Madara growled flying into the air.

"Naruto," Sasuke said.

"I know, there are more of them, right?" Naruto asked.

"More of what?" Ryuu asked.

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said. "You can't help with them."

Just then, the ground began to shake, massive chunks of it breaking free and shooting up to the dozens of black spheres floating over the battlefield, forming dozens of massive floating chunks of stone.

"That's...what...meteorites?" Ryuu gaped.

"There's quite a few," Sasuke growled.

"They're a bit bigger and more solid than raindrops, but..." Madara shrugged before swiping a hand downward, the meteorites he had formed beginning to fall.

"Let's go Sasuke!" Ryuu growled, forming his samurai-armored Susanoo and flying up to meet the meteorites, Sasuke's Susanoo just behind him.

Ryuu's drew his katana, forming it into his drill and blasted it into the first meteorite he reached, blasting it into pieces, which began to rain down below them. Thankfully there was no one there, so as long as they didn't let any intact meteorites hit, they would be okay. He jabbed his drill up, fire and wind chakra mixing and flying off of it, blasting several meteorites as a black sphere with a Rasenshuriken's blades spinning around it and a Tailed Beast Ball inside of it sailed past, blasting another into tiny pieces and Sasuke flew past, slashing several in rapid succession. Ryuu drew his Tanto as well, the blade extending into a blade and then opening into a second drill. Then, Ryuu flew up into the rain of meteorites, destroying anything he could reach with his drills as Sasuke slashed anything he missed. Just as he was about to destroy another, a massive Rasengan design with nine tomoe appeared on the moon.

"Damn," Ryuu growled. "is that what I think is is?" Ryuu asked.

"The Infinite Tsukuyomi," Tobi confirmed as a massive ghostly silhouette of a woman appeared stretching past the Horizon, the moon positioned so it seemed to be an eye in her forehead. "Who's that?"

"I could ask you that," Ryuu growled. "What do we do?"

Just then, seven massive Rasenshuriken like the one Naruto had used before hit the remaining meteorites, exploding and blasting them to bits as Sasuke's Susanoo closed around Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura. Then, a blinding light began to shine from the moon, bright as day. Tobi's eye hole twisted shut, leaving Ryuu in the dark.

"Activate your Byakugan and Sharingan together if you want to see," Tobi said. "But I'm immune, so while you're wearing me like this, so are you."

"Well well," Ryuu grinned, activating his Byakugan without deactivating his Sharingan, suddenly able to see outside. "Two useful things I learned from you at once. Let's go get Madara."

"Wait, look down!" Tobi shouted.

Ryuu looked and his mouth fell open. Massive roots were exploding out of the ground, extending tendrils of wood out and wrapping around everyone caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi. After a few minutes, they were hanging from the roots in wooden cocoons.

"Damn," Ryuu growled. "So many. Please tell me this is only here."

"No," Tobi said. "I'll be everywhere in the world."

Ryuu growled in frustration just as he spotted movement. The Third Hokage. He wasn't under the genjutsu. Ryuu landed in front of him, letting his Susanoo fade and the Third Hokage prepared to attack him.

"It's Ryuu Uchiha," Ryuu stated. "I'd show you my face but the thing around me is blocking out the Genjutsu for me."

The Third Hokage paused then nodded and lowered his staff.

"Why aren't you effected?" Ryuu asked.

"Probably because I'm already dead," the Third Hokage stated.

"Then, that means..." Ryuu trailed off, turning just as Fu slammed into him, hugging him.

"I'm okay," Fu said letting go and backing away. "But...what's going on?"

"I'll tell you later," Ryuu said. "See the big purple Susanoo over there?"

"Yeah," Fu nodded.

"Get there," Ryuu said. "Actually, help me cut everyone down first."

Both reincarnated shinobi nodded, leaping to the roots and smashing the tendrils holding people. However, the moment they did, more tendrils grew out catching them. After a few failed attempts, Ryuu landed beside the others and sighed.

"It's not working," Ryuu reported.

"No," the others agreed.

"Alright," Ryuu nodded. "I'm going to try something else. Stay here."

He formed his base Susanoo, creating a sword and sliced a root off. however, before it could even fall to the ground, roots grew out, catching it and then pulling it back into place.

"Well that didn't work," Ryuu sighed as Fu stepped into his Susanoo. "Alright. We're going to go and find someone that will be distracting Naruto during his fight. Then we're going to see Naruto and the others.

Fu nodded as Ryuu formed his Susanoo's legs, looking around with his Byakugan's sight.

"Found her," Ryuu said, the Susanoo leaping over and taking hold of the cocoon.

It pulled her free, the cocoon passing into the Susanoo and Ryuu tore the wood off, freeing Hinata. Wood began to wrap around his Susanoo but its free arm formed a sword, cutting itself free then leaping into the air, progressing into its final form, flying to Sasuke's. He released his Susanoo and the three of them fell to Sasuke's below them, passing into it like water then falling to the ground. Ryuu set Hinata down gently and Naruto rushed over, kneeling beside her as Sasuke walked over.

"Why am I not surprised," Sasuke sighed. "I take it reanimations and Tobi are immune?"

"Along with anyone currently wearing Tobi," Ryuu nodded as Tobi opened his head since they were safe.

"Your eyes..." Sasuke blinked.

"What?" Ryuu asked.

"Your Sharingan...they're white," Kakashi stated.

Ryuu blinked then drew his tanto, Tobi opening his back out of the way, and inspected his eyes in the blade's refection. His Mangekyo Sharingan were white with the design being red. And when he regressed to normal, they were white with black tomoe.

"I like it," Ryuu grinned putting his tanto away. "So, any idea how to wake up Naruto's girlfriend?"

Naruto stood and held his left hand out, the index and middle fingers extended, and Sasuke gripped the fingers with his right hand, forming the Rat hand seal. A moment later, Hinata's eyes transformed from the Rinnegan they had been back to their normal lavender white. She looked around for a moment before seeing Naruto and sitting up, throwing her arms around him.

"Thank you," Hinata smiled.

"What were you dreaming?" Ryuu asked.

"There was no war," Hinata said. "Me and Naruto were happy together and Neji was still alive, and Pein had never attacked the village."

"Oh, that's right," Naruto said. "I never got the chance to tell you. I saved Neji."

Hinata's eyes widened before she threw her arms around him again, beginning to sob out of joy.

"How much longer until the light fades?" Ryuu asked.

"Not a clue," Sasuke said. "We'll just have to wait.