Hey!
Finally we've reached the finale of 'Peach Flower'. Let's see how this will pan out. However, I have to remind you that this chapter is only the last but one chapter. So the story is not completely over yet. :)
Have fun reading!
Chaos
...
Chapter 21: Coup d'état
The brothers made their way through the woods of the Fire Country. Kinkaku made sure Momoka followed them closely as she inconspicuously looked around. It was strange to be back, to recognize the forests and yet see the differences which had grown with the years. She didn't know where exactly her husband and his brother were headed but she expected familiar faces behind every corner and tree and bush.
However, the KinGin-brothers were very cautious in their approach. They applied a Henge as soon as they reached the village gates of Konoha and turned into civillian merchants following the treck of the Second Raikage's entourage. The oblivious guards let them pass. Momoka wanted to warn them, wanted to tell them to alert everyone and kill the imminent threat. But Kinkaku was watching her. So she just dropped a tuft of oleander and snapdragon as she carried her flower basket and hoped someone who was able to read her message would find them.
From the corners of her eyes she noticed a shadow behind her, one moment it was there, then the flowers were gone. Contented, she hoped it was ANBU and that they reacted accordingly.
Once inside the village the brothers forced Momoka to lead the way to the Hokage palace. From the banners she gathered a peace treaty ceremony between Kumogakure and Konohagakure was held. Momoka concluded that the brothers wanted to sabotage this event. So she had to prevent it somehow.
If only she could get into contact with ANBU directly. If only she could attain her weapons and stop Kinkaku and Ginkaku herself.
"Alright. From here on we'll find it, right, Ginkaku?" Kinkaku grinned, and his brother nodded: "Right, Kinkaku." They pushed Momoka aside and rushed towards the building.
In the meantime Momoka got back on her feet. This was her chance! She ran through the streets of Konoha without looking left or right, and when she reached her destination she found it was still there: her chalet. In a hurry she barged in and saw nothing had been changed. Without further ado she grabbed the special blade which throned on a holdfast, turned on her heels and sprinted back out.
As if welcoming her home, the Chakra inside her blade hummed as it recognized its mistress.
But she didn't dwell on it; instead she rushed as if her own life depended on it and as fast as she could towards the Hokage palace. She didn't bother to take the door, but she infused the soles of her feet with Chakra and ran up the wall so she could reach the Hokage's office faster.
She jumped onto the roof and peered through the windows. Her heart stopped as she recognized Tobirama-sama. He was still as handsome as back then. Instantly she noticed that he was wounded severely and still fought on against the KinGin-brothers, who had turned into their Kyuubi-form; the Raikage was already on the ground, blood pooling around his body, and so were several animal-masked Shinobi - ANBU members, she recognized, as one of the masks had slipped and revealed the face of one of her squad members.
Just this instant Tobirama-sama collapsed. And Touka saw red. She barged in and jumped in front of him right when the brothers were about to slay the one man she didn't want to die. Red hot sparks ricocheted from her blade as the Kyuubi-Chakra collided with it.
"So you can fight after all, Momoka? Who would have thought, right, Ginkaku?" Kinkaku's contorted voice laughed hollowly.
"Right, Kinkaku," his brother echoed.
"Enough of this charade. My name is Touka Senju. And you made the one mistake that will cost your life: you attacked Tobirama-sama, so prepare to die!" Touka roared and unleashed a vicious spectre of a Gen-Jutsu, but the brothers tore right through it. She swung her sword in a wind-mill succession to parry and counter-strike as the kyuubified men lashed out with their tails and claws. Gen-Jutsu after Gen-Jutsu she threw at them, didn't even stop or falter when one of Ginkaku's tails lancinated her. They would learn why she was feared and reknown throughout the Shinobi world first hand!
She didn't care anymore that these guys wielded the five Treasured Tools of the Rikudou Sennin, she didn't care anymore that they were two against one and she didn't care anymore that they had the Kyuubi's Chakra. Touka just wanted to kill them, slay them, butcher them, more than she had wanted to kill Madara. Because Tobirama-sama was dying, and it was their fault.
Touka hacked and slashed while her Gen-Jutsus tore at the Kyuubi-Chakra and showed them the horrors she had nurtured through all these years to one day unleash upon them. And now was this day! Ghastly creatures no man could fathom sprang into creation and leapt Kinkaku and Ginkaku. They howled and screamed as the creatures ate and peeled off the Kyuubi-Chakra from their bodies. As the brothers fled the building, bleeding profusely and barely able to stand on their own two feet, Touka fell to her knees beside Tobirama-sama.
His eyes fluttered open. "Touka... is that really you?" he rasped, barely conscoius but fighting the greedy claws of death.
"Yes, Tobirama-sama, I'm here. I'm here now," she gently said, cushioned his head on her lap. "Don't move. I'll heal you." She tore at his armour to reveal the wound and gasped as she saw it was fatal. She pressed her hands on his wound and applied her healing-Jutsu.
"Touka...I... I searched for you. Danzo said you were probably dead...but I...I couldn't believe, couldn't accept..." he murmured. Blood ran from his mouth and he coughed.
"Shhh. Don't talk," she whispered. Tears were welling up in her eyes as she tried to heal him, willed all of her Senju-heritage to make it possible to save his life. Was she not cousin to Hashirama, who had been one of the most outstanding healers ever? "And don't die, you hear me?" So she poured her Chakra into him, tried to heal what could not be healed.
But Tobirama was stubborn as always. "I...finally got your messages. Mito-chan helped me... decipher them." He coughed blood again, but he faintly smiled. "Next time... I'll give you oranges instead of lemons. And four-leafed clover...and...and peach flowers...and jonquils? ...should've done that years ago..."
"No, don't say that," Touka whispered as tears started flowing down her face, her heart likewise spilling over as it broke for him. These were the words she had always hoped for all theses years ago. But the life with the KinGin-brothers had changed her so much. "It's too late now...it's too late. My body is ruined; I can't bear you children anymore. I can only serve you as Kunoichi, and even that I can't..." She sobbed.
It was obvious he was dying, and he should know that, too. Still she did everthing she could to prevent it from happening, adamantly kept on healing him and denied the facts.
He reached out his hand and gently touched her cheek. "I don't care...I don't need you...to bear me children. I just want to be with you, Touka," he still smiled weakly. But then his eyes fell shut and he suddenly lost conciousness; his life was slipping through her fingers like grains of sand and the last grain had just fallen. But she couldn't accept it.
Touka cried harder. "It can't be. Because you have to live! I love you so much, I've always loved you. I'd give my life for you, Tobirama-sama, if only you lived!" She leaned forward to kiss his lips for a first and last time. It was very different from what she had always imagined. The kiss tasted salty, like the tears she cried, and tangy, like the copper of his blood.
Regardless of her own lethal wound she then pressed her hands on his chest and applied the Jutsu which Chiyo had developed in order to give life to her puppets: "Kishou Tensei!" She felt how her remaining life force was sucked out of her and all of her Chakra flowed into Tobirama's body. "Please, Tobirama-sama, you have to live...", she whispered. Her body felt so heavy and her conciousness was slipping, but she willed herself to finish this Jutsu. Everything depended on it. All her life would have been in vain if Tobirama died here and now!
"Breathe!" she exclaimed, "Come on, breathe!" Her tunnel vision was blurry due to the tears and Chakra drain and blood loss of her own wound, and the longer it took to reanimate him the harder it became to stay awake. But she had to succeed, she had to bring him back to life! And she would. She poured every ounce of Charka which remained within her into Tobirama, gave him all she had left to give and made the impossible possible.
Yet Touka never saw him breathe again and come to senses, and she never witnessed him despair, take her limp body into his arms and break into tears as he realised she had died for him.
