Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Last Airbender.
Bodyguard of Azula
Chapter 72: Rampages and Ends
"Talking"
"Thinking"
"Bijū/spirit talking"
"Bijū/spirit thinking"
(Location: Naruto)
As he slowly came back to a conscious state of mind, he felt sluggish "…Huh…? What…happened…?" He tried to ask himself. He felt like his brain was full of cobwebs. When he tried to open his eyes, it was like they wouldn't. When he was able to crack them open an inch, there was what felt like two spears trying to stab them. He instantly closed them again, regretting his decision. "Bad idea, that was a bad idea!" He chanted as he rocked back and forth.
"Will you stop that, ya fool?" A familiar voice asked him. "You look like you're cannonballing into a pool."
When those words and that voice floated into his ears, he stopped rocking and slowly opened his eyes, trying carefully get used to the blinding light. When they finally adjusted, they widened in surprise at was in front of him. "Bee?" He asked, not entirely believing it. But the Kumo shinobi was right there before him, both of them standing in a white void.
"Who else would it be?" The Jinchūriki of the Hachibi asked back. "There's only one Killer Bee and that would be me, the top cheese."
"I thought you didn't like cheese." The voice of a woman commented as one appeared by his side. She wasn't taller than him, but she was able to look him in the eye without lifting her head. Her long blond hair was held in a ponytail against her back. She wore a black and purple shirt as well as black pants. The headband of Kumogakure was somewhat hidden underneath her hair, but it was still visible.
"Come on, Yugito. I was just trying to make a point, ya know? Fool, ya fool." He said to her.
Her eyes went flat and hard at those words. "Bee, what have I told you about rapping or calling me a fool?" She asked with a tone of voice that promise something painful if he didn't answer correctly.
Which was why Naruto wasn't really surprised as he watched the Raikage's brother be cowed. "That you would geld me with your nails if I did it again." He muttered, not wanting to maintain eye contact. He even flinched when his eyes gazed at her nails.
"Glad to see you remembered." She replied easily enough. She looked over at Naruto, who was still staring at them both. "So, you're the Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi." She stated, looking him over. "Hmm, can't say I'm impressed."
That snapped him out of his silence. "And who the hell are you again?" He asked her.
"The name's Yugito Nii." She introduced herself. "I was the Jinchūriki of the Nibi."
He looked at her closely. "Hmm, can't say I'm impressed." He finally said, throwing her words right back at her.
She gave a feral grin. "I think you and I will get along just fine."
"It took me four years and twelve rounds of ass-whooping for you to say that to me." Bee said, almost sulkily.
She threw him a vaguely annoyed look. "Bee, that was more than eighteen years ago. Get over it." She told him.
"I see you guys are having fun." A man's voice spoke.
When Naruto looked over to his left, where the voice had come from, his eyes widened again. "You two are here as well?" He said in surprise, looking at the two Jinchūriki from Iwa.
"I am Han, he is Rōshi." The taller of the two told him, gesturing first to himself, then to his companion. He was differently dressed then in the photo, but it was still the same person.
"How do you know us, kid?" Rōshi asked him with a slight frown on his face.
"I saw a picture of you two with the Tsuchikage when I was in Iwa. You're the Jinchūriki of the Yonbi and he's the Jinchūriki of the Gobi." He answered, first pointing at the redhead and then at the tall man.
"Yeah, well, that's not entirely true." The redhead muttered. Before Naruto could ask him what he meant by that, someone else joined them.
"Hey, is the new guy up yet?" A darkly tanned girl with an orange clip in her light green hair asked, standing beside Bee. What she wore probably would've made the ladies in Ba Sing Se look at her in distaste for showing her stomach and legs off like that (but then again, Naruto had always thought of Ba Sing Se ladies as prudes). Her orange eyes were alight with curiosity.
"Ask him yourself, Fū. He's right there." Yugito told her, pointing at the blonde.
She turned her gaze on him and frowned. "Why are you curled up in a ball?" She all but demanded. "Try standing, I'm sure you'll like it."
That was when he realized that he was floating in mid-air, still in his rocking position. "Oh, sorry about that," He apologized as he lowered his feet and finding something solid to stand upon (even though he knew that there wasn't anything really solid for him to do that).
She smiled at him. "That's better, right? Anyway, you've already heard my name. It's Fū and I was the Jinchūriki of the Nanabi."
"And you're from Takigakure, right?" He asked her.
She managed to look surprised by his observation. "How did you know that?"
He pulled his lips back into a small, dry smile. "Your headband," He answered, pointing at the headband in question, wrapped securely around her right arm. It was quite obvious for everyone to see.
When she looked down at where his finger was pointing, she had the decency to blush. "Oh, so it is."
"Someone get you by surprise again, Fū?" A new voice asked her. It came from a young man that stood beside Han. He was a slim person, whose kimono was hung loose over his frame and allowed people to see some of his chest. He held a sort of pipe in his hand and a jug of bamboo was held in place against his chest by the kimono. His brown hair covered one of his eyes, but the other one wasn't, allowing people to see its pale gold iris.
Just when she was about to turn and say something in reply, someone else did. "Utakata, I thought you promised to stop saying things like that." A boy who stood next to Rōshi said to him. Even though he looked like a boy, he spoke with a man's voice. There was a small smile on his face, which made the scar that trailed down from his left eye and looked stitched together move with it. His eyes were pink and had no pupils, and he had messy locks of light grey hair. He carried a pole-like weapon on his back.
"He also promised to be more cheerful and upbeat!" Fū replied. She crossed her arms and gave a huff, like she was annoyed with what Utakata was doing.
The man in question just rolled his eyes and frowned at her. "I am more cheerful and upbeat." He told her.
"It doesn't look like that to me." She fired back at him. "For the love of Kami, I would say that you're even more depressing than usual!"
"Utakata, Fū, can we please not have this fight right now. We have a newcomer, after all." He turned to look at the newcomer. "Greetings, Naruto Uzumaki. I am Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage." He introduced himself. "I was the Jinchūriki of the Sanbi. The fellow in the blue kimono, as you already heard, is Utakata. He hails from Kiri as well."
"I was the Jinchūriki of the Rokubi." Utakata added.
"That's…good to know." Naruto said, unsure of what really to say. Once that had passed, he started counting. "Hang on; there are only eight of us. Aren't we missing someone?"
"You are indeed." The voice of an old man answered his question. Turning his gaze to where the voice had come from, the blonde saw an old priest with a long beard standing before him. "Hello, my name is Bunpuku. I was the Jinchūriki of Shukaku."
"I thought Gaara was the Jinchūriki of the Ichibi." He objected.
The priest wasn't offended by what the blonde said. He simply smiled. "I was his predecessor." He answered.
"Oh, I see." It was the only thing he could really say. Trying to avoid an awkward moment, he looked around but all he saw a white void. "So…where exactly are we?"
"You don't remember?" Yagura asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey, I had the same problem." Rōshi reminded the Mizukage, looking at him with a pointed expression.
"Same goes for me." Bee added.
"And me!" Fū chimed in.
"You were the same when you first arrived here." Bunpuku told him.
"Okay! I get the point!" He snapped, a severe look of annoyance appearing on his face as he looked at all of them. Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he looked back at Naruto. "Try to remember what happened to you." He encouraged the blonde.
"I know what happened to me." He replied with a snappish tone in his voice. "I had just killed Obito and had walked a few steps away before falling to my knees. I was there for a couple of seconds when the Gedō Mazō…" He trailed off as he remembered what had exactly happened. The armshad grabbed hold of him and brought him closer and closer to the mouth until… "That damn thing ate me!"
(Location: Team Avatar & Team Paragon)
They weren't quite sure how it happened. One moment, they were traveling through the air and on the ground when all of a sudden; the creature had (for lack of a better word) appeared. A brief moment of stunned wonder followed its appearance. Then it roared so loudly that the two teams almost felt their ears would burst. Appa and Fǎn Yìng bellowed in pain at the roar and began to fall to the ground. Both Aang and Zuko were able to pull them up enough so they wouldn't crash directly into the ground. Instead, they skidded for a few feet before finally stopping, leaving a trail behind them.
"Appa, you okay, buddy?" Aang asked his sky bison, concern and worry evident in his voice as he leapt off and landed on the ground. The bison gave the equivalent of a groan for an answer. "Guys, I don't think that Appa will be able to get up into the air again." He told the others.
"We just need to give them a few minutes." Zuko told him, after just finishing a similar conversation with Fǎn Yìng. "They should get their bearings back after that."
"I don't think we have a few minutes!" Sokka replied as he stared at the creature that towered over them. It had a muscled build to it, but the muscles themselves were uneven. Horns ringed the top of its head, but they were all uneven, in placement and in length. It had arms and legs, but the thing that grabbed their attention was the ten tails waving in the air behind it and the single eye it had. It almost looked like a Sharingan, except for the fact it had more rings around it and with those rings, more tomoe.
"Does anyone have any clue what that thing is?" June demanded as she reined Nyla in. Her whip was out and ready to use, but she was not about to charge head-first into a fight against something like that.
"I could be wrong, but I think that's a Bijū." Suki answered her as she counted the tails it had.
"Aren't there only supposed to be nine Bijū?" Katara asked her. The Waterbender was swiftly checking both Appa and Fǎn Yìng for any actual injuries.
"I thought so, but I'm counting ten tails here." She replied, waving her hand in the direction of the creature.
"Does it really matter how many tails it has or whether or not it's a Bijū?" Toph asked them all. "I can feel it coming straight at us!" They could all feel the ground shaking at the creature made its way to them. Not knowing what else to do, they all prepare for battle.
"Ride the skies and roar fire, Sōryū!" Zuko declared, drawing the two Dao swords that were his Zanpakutō, making them change into their Shikai state. The right blade began to hum with the sound of fire and the left blade began to crackle with the sound of lightning.
"Defend your kingdom of snow-covered forests, Kuroga!" Sokka said, drawing his own Zanpakutō as it split into two blades. Suki drew her sword, realizing that her fans weren't going to really work against something like the creature, and activated the shield on her left bracer. Katara, Azula, and Toph settled into their respective stances and readied their elements.
The only one who didn't do anything was Aang. When he finally looked at the creature, he froze. When the creature finally stopped and looked down at them, its eye was only focused on the Avatar and vice-versa. Finally, what broke the silent staring contest was Aang and what he did surprised everyone there. "YOU!" He said in a harsh snarl, his face taking on the same harshness. When he spoke, it wasn't with the voices of the past Avatars. Instead, it was with one single voice, a deeper and rougher voice. The creature roared at him and he roared in return, his eyes and tattoos glowing white as he went into the Avatar State.
They all just watched as he bent a large column of fire and threw directly at the creature, slamming it into its side. He then leapt into the air and bent a sphere of air around him. Once that was done, he flew directly at the creature. "…Is that normal for him?" June asked after a few moments of stunned silence.
"No." Katara answered as she watched her boyfriend attack the creature with all four of the elements. It was almost like watching a fly attacking a badgermole, only the fly was packing some serious firepower (she would later consider it ironic she thought of the word "firepower" just as Aang bent a fireball and threw it at the creature's eye).
"Thank the Spirits for that." If that was normal, she might've regretted slugging him in Ba Sing Se.
"What? What happened?" Toph demanded. "All I felt was Twinkle-toes taking off. What's going on?" She kept turning to her head to look at the others. The shaking caused by the creature's feet was giving her very good clarity of what was around her.
"He just took off into the air." Suki told her, her eyes not looking away from the fight above them. Even if she could, she wouldn't. The last time she had technically seen Aang go into the Avatar State, she had been too far away to actually see anything. Now, she had a front row seat to it. "He's fighting that thing."
"And why are we just standing here like a bunch of idiots?!" The bounty hunter amongst them demanded. "Come on!" She urged Nyla on, cracking her whip. The shirshu seemed to hiss in agreement and sped towards the giant creature.
"You ready, Akela?" Sokka asked the wolf beside him. Akela's answer was to lift his head back and howl a challenge at the creature. "I thought you were." Both Tribesman and wolf followed June into battle. Suki went after, and soon caught up with them.
The rest of them heard the sound of someone landing behind them (given the amount that was going on, they were surprised to have heard that in the first place). Looking back, they saw a member of the Konoha ANBU standing before and instantly recognizing that he was one of the shinobi following them. "Please tell your team is getting the Hokage and the rest of the shinobi in Konoha out here and into the fight." Katara said to him.
He nodded his acknowledgement. "We're setting up multiple entry points right now, but it might take a few minutes for a coherent force to come through and aid you." He told them. Once those words were said, he leapt back to where he had come from.
"I hope we can last a few minutes." She said, mostly to herself.
"Then we'd better start." Azula declared, walking over to Fǎn Yìng. "Have you gotten your bearings back?" She asked the dragon. He got back on his feet and flapped his wings once to answer her question. "Good to know." She climbed aboard him. "I'll try to help Aang from the air." She told the others. Fǎn Yìng launched himself into the air.
"I though you didn't want a dragon, you had Naruto!" Zuko shouted up at her.
"Well, he's not here right now, is he!?" She shouted back down. The dragon then flew straight into the fight, breathing fire onto the creature.
"Well, let's get going already guys!" Toph told Zuko and Katara before running off to fight the creature. Both the Firebender and the Waterbender shared a quick look with each other before following her.
(Location: Naruto)
"I can't believe it. I was actually eaten by the Gedō Mazō!" The blonde exclaimed.
"That's about the gist of it." Utakata told him shortly.
"So, we are literally inside the thing, correct?" He asked the Mizukage among them. He wanted to be sure he wasn't stuck inside a very weird prison or something like that.
"Yes, we are." Yagura answered.
"And how long have you guys been in here?" He couldn't help but ask the question. It was just one of those things you had to ask someone.
"That's a little personal, isn't it?" The pink-eyed shinobi asked, a little offended by the question.
Bunpuku couldn't help but chuckle. "When you first met me, one of the first questions that came out of your mouth was how I kept my beard clean when I had nothing to use." He said in reply.
Yagura couldn't help, but sprout a small blush on his face at those words. "Alright fine, you've got me there." He conceded. As he turned to look at the male blonde among them, his blush began to fade away. "But to answer your question, Naruto, we're not entirely sure."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked back.
"Let me put it to you this way, Naruto." Bee spoke. "How long has it been since I was taken?"
"A few weeks," He answered softly. What happened that day was still painful to him, even if he didn't show it on his face anymore.
"It's only felt like three days or so for me."
"And as I am one of the ones who have been here the longest, I can honestly say that I have lost track." Han told him, agreeing with what Bee said. "It was a little unnerving at first, but I got used to it."
The Fire Paragon could only stare at the Iwa shinobi with a look of semi-horror. "Oh, hell no, that's not happening to me." He declared. "I need to get out of here."
"You'll have to forgive us if we don't point out the exit to you." Yugito said, obviously sarcastic. "We all kinda gave up at some point."
"But I still have to try." He turned around and started to run, desperate to find a way out of this place. But all he could see was the white void all around him. He must've run for a good ten minutes before finally stopping. But when he turned around to see if the others were still in sight, he found that he was still in the same spot. "Oh no," He groaned.
"Please, by all means, keep running." Fū said to him with a grin. "Right now, you're the only person here who has the type of muscles I like and I was enjoying the show."
"Excuse me, but we're right here." Yagura told her, gesturing to the rest of the males there.
Rōshi turned to look at him with a slightly bemused expression. "Would that be the royal we you're using there, Yagura?" He asked with a small smile on his lips. "I know you used to be a Mizukage, but I had no idea you were royalty on top of that too."
He stifled a snarl of frustration and annoyance. "You know what I mean, Rōshi." He replied. "There are six other guys here."
"One of those guys is freakishly tall and keeps his head covered; two are way too old for me, not counting Mr. Freakishly Tall, and the other guy is too bulky for my tastes." Fū answered, counting them off on her fingers.
"That's five." He told her.
She just smiled at the Mizukage. "The only kind of woman who would date you is the kind who has a fetish for small boys." She said brightly. As if on cue, all the men there (even the old priest) gave her an odd look. "I'm just saying."
"Why don't you just become a lesbian then?" Bee asked her.
She made a face at him. "I like the opposite sex much better than I do my own, thank you very much. Besides, the only other woman here would slice me to ribbons." She added with a slightly scared expression.
"And you know it, kid." Yugito told her with a very cat-like grin.
"Meanwhile, we're still stuck here with no way out." Naruto said, getting everyone's attention again. "Have you guys tried to talking to your Bijū and figuring out a solution?" He asked.
All of the faces before him fell and turn into solemn expressions. "Naruto, have you tried reaching out to your Bijū?" The priest among them asked him, his voice quiet and yet, was heard by everyone.
He didn't say anything as he tried to call out the fox. "Hey Kyūbi, get out here, we need to talk." He mentally shouted, only to receive no reply. "This isn't the time for jokes or naps, furball. We need to talk." Again, there was no reply. "…Fox, I am willing to admit that everything that comes out of your mouth is nothing less than pure gold and you always give the best advice, if you show yourself." If buttering up and flattering the Bijū didn't work, then he didn't know what would. But for a third time, he didn't get a reply. It was like his mind was devoid of the Kyūbi and if he was being honest with himself, it made him nervous.
"Any luck with that?" Fū asked him. Her voice had an odd hopeful tone it, like she was all praying that he would be able to contact the Bijū he supposedly had.
He looked at all of them. "He's not there." He whispered in a strangled voice. It only lasted a second before he exploded. "Why isn't he there!? Where's the Kyūbi? Where did he go?" He demanded.
They said nothing at first. Then Yagura spoke. "Naruto, do you remember that I had said that I was the Jinchūriki of the Sanbi? Do you remember everyone else who introduced themselves saying a similar thing?"
He froze, going through his memories and realizing that they had said something like that. "You mean…all of us…?" He tried to ask, only to fail at finding the right words.
Everyone else nodded. "The Akatsuki sealed our Bijū into the statue, and we were brought along for the ride." Yugito said. "They're gone, we don't have them anymore."
When he heard that, he couldn't believe it. "The fox is…really gone?"
Utakata nodded once. "Yep, he's gone, probably sucked out of you by the statue. It was almost complete when you showed yourself; it just needed one more thing and you had that thing, so it reacted and ate you."
"Look, I know that the Akatsuki were trying to revive the Jūbi." He told them all. "But why would they be sealing the Bijū into the Gedō Mazō if that's what they were trying to do?"
"Naruto, the Gedō Mazō is more than just a statue."Bee answered his question. "It was the husk of the Jūbi's body. It was somehow summoned from the moon."
If he was surprised before, now he was stunned. "You're kidding me." They all shook their heads in the negative. Then he realized, with growing horror, what that meant. "Are you saying…?" He began to ask, only to trail off.
"That the Jūbi's body has all nine of the Bijū, has regain its former strength, power, body, and movement?" Utakata asked his question for him. "What do you think?" In the space they had unconsciously created by standing in a circle, a window was formed. And through that window, all nine of them saw the rampage the Jūbi was currently on.
(Location: Battlefield)
The few minutes both teams had to hold out for had long since passed. Konoha shinobi kept pouring out of the forests and joining the fight against the creature. But both Team Paragon and Team Avatar (at least, the conscious ones, as Aang was still in the Avatar State and was attacking the creature) knew that those reinforcements would probably stop coming in soon. If they wanted to keep a good chance of surviving (or even winning) this fight, it couldn't be drawn out.
While the creature's main attention was on Aang, its tails seem to act of their own accord against the others. They swept down across the ground, striking anyone who hadn't been fast enough to get out of their way. But the effect this could've had on the shinobi was greatly minimized by the Benders on the ground, utilizing their respective elements to the fullest.
"Remind me again why I didn't bring the Yuyan Archers or the Dragon's Fangs with us when we came back?" Zuko shouted over to Toph as he beat back a tail with a large column of fire creating by spinning the right blade of his Zanpakutō. The tail tried to fight against the fire for a couple of minutes before giving up the fight and moving away.
"Because you said, and I quote, 'it's supposed to be a vacation away from all the stress and problems we've been having recently and quite frankly, we need it.'" She answered as she bent the earth to jut out two columns to trap the tail that Zuko had beaten back, only to have it slithered free.
"Well, the next time I say something like that, hit me so that we can make sure it's not stupidity talking. And make sure I bring one of them or both" He ordered.
"I thought that was supposed to be Azula's or Naruto's job?" She asked him. It certainly seemed like in the past. If one of them had said something potentially stupid, the other two would try and make sure it wasn't (which had led to an interesting evening on Ember Island that involved identical twin girls, a misunderstanding, and the amount of waves that had washed up on the beach that day).
"Were they there at the time?" He asked back, half sarcastic. He bent a fireball at the creature's body and was supported by a few shinobi who knew Katon jutsus. But it didn't seem to work, as the fireballs just seem to bounce off of its skin.
"Alright, alright, I will. Would you like me to have the Dai Li and Kyoshi Warriors come along as well?"
"You'd have to take that up with Suki. Other than that, yes please." He answered before suddenly throwing the left blade of his Zanpakutō at an incoming tail. It turned into a lightning bolt as it flew through the air, but missed as the tail suddenly curved around it and making it miss. He gave an annoyed grunt as he grabbed hold of the sword again.
"Hey, what happened to Katara?" The blind Earthbender had lost track of her in the midst of the singular chaos that was the creature. Now that she was actually looking for her, Toph couldn't feel the Waterbender.
"She's up in the sky with Azula and Aang. Appa was able to get back up on his feet, so she took advantage of it." He told her. Looking up, he saw the sky bison flying evasively through the sky, avoiding the creature's attacks. He would periodically fly low to a nearby river so his passenger would be able to bend some water out of it before flying back up. If the creature knew about what Appa was doing, it paid no attention. Instead, it kept its attention focused on Aang.
Feeling a hand clap his shoulder, he looked over to see who it was. He relaxed somewhat when he saw that it was Shikamaru. "Well, this is troublesome." The Nara clan heir said as he stared up at the creature.
"Now is not a good time for that, Mr. Lazy!" Toph shouted at him as she bent a boulder out of the ground and threw at an incoming tail. The boulder shattered against it, but it was enough to make the tail recoil.
"I can see that." He told her.
"Well can you get in there and stop it with whatever it is you do? You know, that shadow grabbing thingy?" She asked, not looking back at him.
"My clan is already doing that. So far, their efforts are not even slowing it down." He had a look of worry on his face as he spoke.
"Do you have any idea what it is?" Zuko asked him.
He shook his head in the negative. "I don't have a single clue." The sound of a running dog somehow managed to fill their ears and when they looked in the direction where it came, they saw Akamaru coming towards them. "Kiba, do you know what that thing is?" Shikamaru asked the hound's rider.
He also shook his head in the negative. "All I know is that it smells bad." He answered. "And I'm not the only one! Shino's bugs are afraid to even come out and when Hinata tried to look at it with the Byakugan, she screamed and covered her eyes. I'm not sure if she's gone blind or not."
"Do not worry, my youthful friends!" Lee shouted as he landed next to them. "Neji suffered the same pain earlier in this fight, but he has recovered. I am sure the youthful Hinata will do the same."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Lee."
Out of the chaos, June came towards them, riding Nyla hard. "What in the name of the Spirits is that thing!?" She demanded as she stopped her shirshu aside Akamaru. Behind her, several members of the Akimichi clan grew in height and tried to push the creature back. Even though its attention wasn't on them, they only succeeded in pushing it half an inch back. It tails swopped in and knocked them all aside, sending them flying through the air. Most of them were able to shrink back down to normal size before hitting the ground. The ones who didn't made a bit of a mess where they landed.
Both Shikamaru and Kiba winced at that. "That's going to hurt." Kiba stated.
"You guys still haven't answered my question." June told them. "What in the name of the Spirits is that thing!?" She asked again, pointing her whip at for extra emphasis.
"We do not know, my very youthful friend." Lee told her. "But we do not need to know its name to defeat it. We only need our YOUTH!" He pumped the air with his fist. If they tried to look closely, they would've sworn that there were fires burning bright in his eyes.
"…Lee, right now, I don't think any of us care about what you say. We care about what you do." She turned Nyla back to where the fight was. "Now come on! We need to beat that thing!" She and the shirshu charged off again, going straight for the creature. Both Toph and Lee were right behind her.
Zuko, on the other hand, saw that Appa was flying towards the water. "We need to get Katara on the wounded." He said, mostly to himself, before running off in the direction of the river.
Before either of the two Konoha shinobi could say anything, one of the tails slammed into the earth near them, causing giant boulders to start raining down on them. Kiba and Akamaru leapt into action. "Gatsūga!" The heir to the Inuzuka clan cried as he and Akamaru twisted into mini grey tornados, smashing the boulders into smaller pieces. Other Inuzuka clan members and their partners were doing the same thing all around them. During all of this, Shikamaru tried to get out of the way of the shower. He kept his head down and kept moving.
Once he was out of the way of the boulders, he saw that Chōji, Ino, Tenten, and Sokka with Akela standing around him. "Nice hustle there, Shikamaru." Ino told him with a smirk. "I think that's the fastest I've ever seen you run."
"You are a very troublesome woman, Ino." He said in reply.
"Do you have any idea how to fight that thing?" Tenten asked him. She was panting slightly, letting the others know she had just been on the front line, trying to beat the creature back.
"No, I don't. Even an inkling of a plan that I have is squashed by it and what it does." He answered with a shake of his head. "The fact that Aang seems to be dueling it doesn't really help."
They all looked up at the sky. Even with Azula and Fǎn Yìng helping him (Katara and Appa had disappeared from the sky, which meant Zuko had made contact with her), Aang's attention was fully on the creature and vice-versa. It did almost look like a duel, if the look of hard harshness on the Avatar's face whenever they could see it was anything to go by. "Do we know what happened?" Chōji asked Sokka.
"No. One moment, he was checking over Appa. The next, he and that creature made eye contact and he snarled at it." The Tribesman answered. "It was almost disturbing to see, actually." The only time he had actually seen Aang lose his temper was when they encountered the Sandbenders after Appa was taken. But that had been a full on explosion of anger. What he had seen was pure rage, contempt, and hate when those two saw each other. That was something he never wanted to see on Aang's face again.
A loud explosion filled the air, making them all look up. It seemed like Aang had torn a chuck of the earth and set it ablaze with his Bending before sending it hurling straight towards the creature. It caught the flaming chunk of rock, but then it exploded in its hand, making it roar in pain. When they all heard that roar, everyone clasped their ears in pain. Even Fǎn Yìng started to falter. The only person who didn't hold his ears and prayed that the roar would stop was Aang. Instead, he bent the nearby river up out of its bed and slammed into the creature's mouth, essentially giving it a mouthwash. It stumbled backwards a few feet before finally stopping. Seeing this, Aang tried to up the pressure of the water, but the creature reached out and struck his sphere of air, making him lose control of the water.
The creature tried to catch him and crush him, reaching out with its claw. But before it could, an angry lowing filled the air. Appa swooped down from above the two and knocked the claw with a flap of his tail, bending the air into a furious column of twisting air. The creature then turned its eye upon the sky bison and tried to attack it, but Aang intervened with a roar of his own and several fireballs, beating the creature back away from Appa, who quickly flew away. Fǎn Yìng and Azula rejoined the fight, the dragon with his fire and the Firebender with her lightning. And all the while, the creature's tails tried to either assist it in its fight against Aang or tried to kill the shinobi attacking it.
"If we manage to live through this, I hope to Kami that we never find something this troublesome again." Shikamaru muttered to himself as they all rejoined the fight. He was unaware of the fact that everyone there had unconsciously prayed for the same thing.
(Location: Naruto)
He wanted to look away from the window, but his eyes remained glued to what was appearing. They all were. They just watched in silence as they saw the Jūbi attack Aang and the Konoha shinobi. Finally, he tore his gaze away from the mirror and looked at the rest of them. "We have to do something." He declared.
They all looked up at him after that declaration. "…So you have something in mind?" Utakata asked him in a very dry tone of voice.
"No, not really," He answered honestly. It was a little embarrassing (especially after what he had just said), but it was the truth. "We still have to do something."
"And what would that be, kid?" Rōshi asked, half curious and half amused at what he heard.
"I don't know. But we just can't stand here and do nothing!" The blonde protested. It was just wrong and every sense he had and trusted agreed with what he said.
"Why not?" asked Han. "We're quite familiar with doing nothing."
"Yeah, it's become quite a good friend of ours ever since we got stuck in this place." Fū agreed with a shrug of her shoulders.
He could only stare at them. "Are you telling me that you would rather do nothing and let that continue?" He pointed down at the window, just as Azula threw lightning at the Jūbi. "You wouldn't try to stop it?"
"What can we do?" Bunpuku asked him in a quiet, gentle voice. "We are stuck inside of the Jūbi itself."
"And in case you haven't noticed already, we don't have a way out of here." Yugito added, her tone was pure sarcasm.
"Besides, what's the point of trying to save them?" Fū asked as she stared at the mirror with a frown on her face.
Naruto swung his head over to look at her. "You wanna say that again?" He asked her, his tone challenging.
She looked up at him, the frown still on her face. "Why should we try to save them when they've done nothing for us?" She asked him, meeting his silent challenge.
He gestured angrily down at the window, right at the image of the dragon. "The woman who's riding that dragon is the woman I love." He said in a tight voice. "She, as well as many of my friends and comrades, is out there fighting it."
She looked down at the mirror and then back at him. "That's not good enough."
"What?" He asked. As he spoke, his voice became a growl. "What do you mean that's not good enough? Of course it's good enough."
"Not to me, it isn't. I see no reason to try and stop the Jūbi from its rampage."
"My friends are out there!" He shouted, jabbing his finger down at the mirror.
"That's their fault." She replied with ease. "It's quite stupid of them, really. They should've just run, they'd have lived if they did. Now, they're just going to do die." When he heard that, Naruto let a roar of anger and leapt for her, spinning into a kick. She wasn't expecting that move and got his foot buried in her stomach.
She flew backwards from the circle and he followed through with her. When the two of them landed on the ground, they immediately started to fight each other. There was no real sense of actual fighting styles as they exchanged blows. They just turned into brawlers. Sometimes, they would separate from one another for a couple of seconds before going at it again. The only thing that remained constant was the angry looks both of them had on their faces.
But when they separated themselves again and charged forward to punch each other, a block of sand appeared in front of their fists, stopping both of their punches. Surprised by the interrupting action, they didn't see the two small tendrils of sand sneaking up behind them and grabbing them by the foot. Finding themselves hoisted up into the air, they found themselves looking at Bunpuku from the upside down perspective. "Are the two of you finished?" He asked them in a mildly disapproving voice. Their answer was to glare at one another. He frowned and the sand started to shake them, making them wiggle in the air. "Must I repeat myself?" He asked them as the sand stopped.
Naruto shook his head rapidly, not wanting to get shaken like that again. "No, we'll stop."
The priest smiled. "Thank you." The sand let go of their feet and they fell to the ground, barely managing to land on their feet like a pair of cats.
Still feeling the pains from where Fū had managed to strike him, the blonde looked over at Bunpuku. "How did you do that?" He asked.
The old man chuckled at that. "I was the Jinchūriki of Shukaku at one point, remember?"
"But there's no sand in here and you don't have a gourd or anything that can even remotely hold sand." He pointed out.
Once those words had been spoken, the sand disappeared. "The reality around you can be bended to your will." Yagura explained.
"Really?" asked Naruto, making the Mizukage nod his head. The Fire Paragon looked down at his hand and started to imagine a kunai was there. He shaped the weapon in his mind, remembering the color of it, the sharpness of it, how the light dully reflected off of it, the weight of it, and the feel of it in his hand. And all of a sudden, there it was in his hand. "Cool." He stated.
"I know, right?" Bee asked with a grin.
He returned the grin before looking around. "Wait, if the reality can be bent to our will, why haven't one of you tried creating a room or something?" He asked the rest of them.
"We have." Han answered him. "But it all returns to this when someone new arrives, like you. It, for lack of a better phrase, goes back to basic."
"I see." His curious expression turned serious. "We're getting off topic here. We need to stop the Jūbi."
"And why should we?" Fū demanded of him, the frown on her face turning into a scowl. "They all called us freaks and monsters. They told their kids to keep away from us. They beat and molested us when we were young and when we would finally become powerful, they would glare at us, make scathing comments about us behind our backs, and keep us confined to a house on the outskirts of the village unless they needed us!"
They all stared at her in silence. Finally, Yagura looked at Rōshi. He knew that it was probably not the best time, but he felt that it had to be said. "And you thought I was royalty."
The Iwa shinobi scowled at him. "Not the time, Yagura." He said in reply.
"Fū, I know how you must feel about your village." Bunpuku told her with a gentle voice. "I was imprisoned and despised by the people of Sunagakure. But I held no hatred for them or any ill will. You have to find it in your heart to do the same."
"What if I don't want to?" She asked him.
"Then why did you still wear the headband of Takigakure?" Yugito asked her.
"Don't you have anyone you would protect in the village? Someone who would have made you stay?" The priest continued, ignoring the former Jinchūriki of the Nibi.
She fell silent, thinking about it. "…My twin, Shibuki." She finally answered. "He tried his best to protect me when we were little. When he became the leader of the village, I promised that I would always be there to help him, even though his council disapproved of that."
"And how do you think he's feeling since you were taken?" Naruto asked her, latching onto the idea. "Would you be willing to let the Jūbi come to your village and destroy it, killing him in the process?"
"HELL NO!" She declared loudly with a look of wrathful anger on her face at the mere thought of it.
"That's what I feel right when I look at that." He pointed down at the mirror, which showed Aang and Azula attacking the Jūbi while the tails were attacking the surrounding shinobi, trying to smash or crush them. "I want to stop the Jūbi to protect them. I don't know about all of you, but I do know that there are people who miss you." He looked over at the two Kumo shinobi. "Yugito, when I was in Kumo and heard your name, it was spoken with respect and awe. A lot of people said that it was a tragedy that you were taken. Bee, when your brother found out what happened, he tried to kill me. When he calmed down, he ordered us to leave and never come back." He turned his gaze to the shinobi from Iwa. "Han, Rōshi, Ōnoki still grieves for you. He sent shinobi out to find you two when he heard that you were being attacked!"
"He did?" Han asked. He couldn't believe it. He never would've thought his sensei would risk resources like that, just to make sure they were okay.
Naruto nodded before turning to look at the priest among them. "Bunpuku, you say that you hold no hatred for Suna. Would you willing let the Jūbi have the chance to destroy it?"
"I would not." He stated firmly.
"Yagura, history might remember you as a bloody tyrant, but would you allow the Jūbi to tear Kiri apart?" The Fire Paragon asked the former Jinchūriki of the Sanbi.
Yagura scowled at his question. "I swore an oath to protect, defend, and lead that village with all of my being. I will not let it be destroyed."
He looked at Utakata, who spoke before he did. "And of me?" asked the former Jinchūriki of the Rokubi. "I left Kiri before I was captured. I hold no real loyalty to it."
"But would you let it be destroyed?" The blonde pressed him. "You would truly let the village, as well as the rest of the world, burn and be torn asunder, just because you didn't feel like trying to stop it all?"
He was silent as the words went through his mind and stayed there for a little while. "…I'm not that selfish." He declared after a few moments of silence.
"But why would it matter in the end?" Rōshi asked Naruto, getting everyone's attention. "Do you think that this is the first time someone's tried to collect the Bijū to gain ultimate power? I'll grant you that this might be the first chance that they've succeeded. But even if we do stop the Jūbi and if we get out, there'll be someone else down the road who will want to do something similar to us."
They all had to admit, it was a good point. So long as they were around and so long as they held the Bijū, odds are that there was someone who would want to obtain them to wield ultimate power. Maybe it would be five years from now, maybe fifteen, maybe fifty, or maybe when they were all dead and new Jinchūriki had been created. The fact remained the same; there would be someone else who would want the power of the Bijū.
As a silence fell over them, Naruto looked down at the window. Then remembering what had been said before, he looked around the white void and then at his hand. "Bunpuku, you said that the reality around us can be bent to our will, right? And we are currently inside the Jūbi?"
"Yes, on both accounts." The priest answered.
"Okay then." He said with a smile that had any of his enemies had seen, they would've known to run. "I have an idea."
(Location: Battlefield)
In the designated area for healing the wounded, Katara, Sakura, and other medical shinobi were doing their best to stay on top of things. The number of people coming into the area was becoming more and more steady, something that made them all nervous. But they didn't stop, they just kept going.
"More incoming!" shouted a nearby shinobi, alerting them. They all turned to see who it was. It turned to be Shikamaru supporting Kiba, with Hinata and Sokka following them. Both Akela and Akamaru were at the end of the line.
Katara immediately ran over to her brother's side. "Sokka, what happened?" She asked him, looking him over.
"One of the tails managed to send a rock the size of one Akela's paws at me and clipped my side." He answered in a slightly strained voice. He winced and let out strangled hiss when she found the area. "Ah! Yeah…that's the spot."
"Come one." She led him to one of the available spaces and sat him down. She reached for the pouch at her side and bent the water out of it.
"What about you guys?" Sakura asked the others.
"I'm almost out of chakra." Hinata answered, swaying on her feet. Sakura signaled one of the other medics, who gently led the Hyuuga clan heiress away so she could receive the right treatment.
"Kiba's leg is broken and I have a concussion." Shikamaru told her.
"I can speak for myself, Shikamaru." Kiba told him with a pained voice. He was taken by Sakura to a space next to Sokka and sat him down. Shikamaru all but collapsed next to her. No one told him to move, as he wasn't really blocking the path and everyone was too busy to complain.
Sakura went to work right away. Covering her hands in green chakra, she placed them gently against the Inuzuka's broken leg and began to heal it. She took her time, as she and Kiba knew that the injury put him out of action for the rest of the fight. But she also didn't waste time. She was careful and made sure that his leg would be successfully mended. She kept her focus on the leg, ignoring the sounds of nearby shinobi groaning in pain (or even the few who were dying), and the sounds of battle coming from nearby.
"There you go." She declared as she finished. "It's mended, but you'll have to stay out of the fight from now on, Kiba."
"Yeah, I kinda figured." He replied as he gently tested his newly-mended leg. Akamaru whined in relief at the sight.
"Now, Shikamaru, hold still," She ordered the Nara clan heir, turning her attention to him. He didn't grumble or complain as she brought her hands up and around his head. "Just what in the name of Kami are we fighting?" She asked them.
"You know, I've been hearing that question a lot recently." Sokka mused aloud. "Personally, I'm going with 'Big, ugly, scary thingy' and leaving it at that." He winced as his sister continued to work on his side.
"Sokka, it has to be something." She said in small protest.
"What would you call it then?" He challenged her.
"I don't know. Maybe it's some sort of spirit."
He rolled his eyes somewhat. "Ah, yes, of course. How silly of me not to realize that anything that looks weird or unnatural must be some sort of spirit." He said with full-blown sarcasm. It soon disappeared as his face scrunched up in pain. "Ow! You did that on purpose!" He accused her. They both knew that Katara was a master healer. She wouldn't have made him feel any more pain then need be. So when he felt the pain come back, he knew that she did it.
She just looked at him with an expression that was half-amused and half-innocent. "Did I?" Akela, who was lying on his stomach next to Sokka, rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Now's not the time to be fooling around, Katara." Sakura admonished her.
"Right, sorry." She refocused on the healing.
"But in all seriousness, what is that thing?" The Hokage's student asked after a moment.
"I already said I don't know." Shikamaru answered. He was still trying to figure it out but he just didn't know enough.
"Like I said, I've been hearing that a lot recently." Sokka asked him before gasping shortly in pain. "Ah! OW! KATARA!"
"Will you keep your voice down?" She told him crossly. "And that was your rib mending, not me."
"Oh. Sorry." Overhead and off in the distance, they heard the Jūbi roar. While they weren't close enough to get the full effect, the sound of the roar echoed and reached them, making them wince and try to desperately ignore it. As the roar faded away, more wounded shinobi came in. Among them were Lee and Neji.
"We have got to find a way to defeat that thing." Kiba said as they watched the newcomers are lead to free spacing to be checked over and receive treatment.
"And how exactly to you supposed we do that?" Shikamaru asked him. "The troublesome thing isn't even paying attention to us."
"I know that! It keeps its attention on Aang. But we still need to beat it somehow."
"Kiba, everyone is having a hard time staying close to it, let alone trying to defeat it." Sokka told the Inuzuka clan heir. "Those tails are keeping us at bay and Aang isn't helping either." In his sole concentration of the creature, Aang didn't seem to realize that he would've been killing other people. Thankfully, Zuko and Sokka had realized this and began running interference, Zuko in the sky riding Appa and Sokka on the ground (which was why he got clipped by a rock).
"Aang is still in the Avatar State?" Katara asked her brother.
He nodded. "This is the longest I've ever seen him stay like that. Those two are completely focused on trying to kill one another. Nothing can stop them from attacking one another."
"But why would that be? We've never seen that creature before."
"Katara, you and I both heard that voice come from Aang. I think it would be a safe bet to say that one of his past lives knew what that creature is. And going by how hard Aang is fighting, I'd say that they don't like each other."
"I guess that's something we'll have to find out once this battle is over." Kiba said.
"EVERYONE, LOOK AT THE MONSTER!" shouted someone, making all everyone turns their head at the creature as directed. When they did, they all saw something incredibly weird.
The creature was standing completely still, its mouth agape. Oddly enough, Aang didn't press his advantage. He just hung in the sky in his sphere of air. Both Appa and Fǎn Yìng did nothing as well, staying afloat in the air next to the sphere. For a single moment, the entire world felt frozen.
Then that moment was gone. The creature gave Aang one last look, full of hatred and rage. It gave one last cry, that oddly sound like it was grieving and also pleading. And then, it just disappeared. One moment it was there and the next, it wasn't. It just…vanished.
Everyone just stared at the space where the creature had stood. No one said a word. There were no shouts or cries of victory. There was just silence. Later, whether they had known about the others or not, everyone had agreed that the end to the fight could only be described with one word: anti-climactic.
In the two weeks since the fight against the creature, things went relatively back to normal for Konoha. People went about their business and left it at that. Those who had been badly injured during the fight were immediately rushed back to the hospital. While many lives were saved, some were still lost. The shinobi who could be put into action were, going out on missions like nothing had ever happened.
But for Team Paragon and Team Avatar, those two weeks were spent looking for their missing teammate. Whenever they could, they would head out and hunt for him. But no matter how many times they looked, they just couldn't find Naruto. Even Nyla couldn't find him, as June told them that the blonde's scent kept disappearing and reappearing. But they didn't give up on him. They kept on searching for him, and the person who was at the forefront of each search was Azula.
"We all set?" Sokka asked as he looked around at everyone there. They stood in front of the gates to Konoha and were about to go looking for the blonde again.
"Yeah, we are." Zuko answered from atop of Fǎn Yìng. He was the only one on there because he had forbidden Azula from riding with him after she had kicked him off of the dragon and into the sky (even though she had apologized and said that she was a little on edge, which a more ungrateful person might replied with "Understatement.").
"Same here," Aang said from atop of Appa with Momo on his shoulders. Once the fight with the creature was over, he had descended from the sky to the ground, going out of the Avatar State. When everyone asked him what had happened, he surprised them by claiming he hadn't a clue of what happened. The last thing he remembered was making eye-contact with the creature. After that, nothing (both Ino and her father offered to go into his mind to find what the relationship between him and the creature was, but everyone vetoed the idea, saying that there was a very good chance of them getting stuck in there).
"Then let's get going already." Toph said with impatience, itching to start looking again. Since they continually failed in finding Naruto, some people were beginning to believe that he was dead. Both of the teams kept denying that, insisting that he was alive (it had gone so far that Team Paragon started a brawl in a bar when someone who dislike Naruto said that he was happy the fox brat was died loudly).
Nyla perked up and started sniffing the air, catching his rider by surprise. "Whoa, what is it, Nyla?" June asked him as she resettled herself in the saddle. "Do you have his scent?" Everyone looked over at the shirshu with naked hope in their eyes. Maybe this would be their break. Maybe the scent would hold and they would be able to find Naruto. But when the shirshu lowered his head and began to hiss, June was confused. "What's up with you? The only time you hiss like that is when Naruto's around and just insulted…" She trailed off as she looked in the direction Nyla was hissing at, her jaw dropping.
When everyone looked in the same direction, their jaws also dropped (even the animals. What they all felt at the scene in front of them was summed perfectly by Sokka. "You have got to be kidding me!"
But nobody was kidding, what they saw was the truth. Walking towards them, like nothing had really happened in the past two weeks, was Naruto himself. They just stared in shocked silence as he came up to them, stopping a few paces in front of Katara. "…Hey guys?" He offered somewhat weakly. No one said a word to him, they just stared at him. The air around was becoming saturated with a feeling of awkwardness. It finally broke when Azula walked up to him and slugged him hard across the face, sending him to the ground with an audible THUMP. "…I deserved that." He admitted from where he lay on the ground.
"THREE WEEKS!" She bellowed from the top of her voice, standing over him like a vengeful goddess. "YOU LEFT US AND DISAPPEARED FOR THREE WEEKS! YOU LEFT ME AND DISAPPEARED FOR THREE WEEKS! IF YOU EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN TO ME, YOU ARE A DEAD, DEAD MAN. I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND MAKE YOU WISH THAT YOU HAD NEVER BEEN BORN, LET ALONE LEFT! UNDERSTAND!?"
Once the tirade was over, he couldn't help but laugh as he stood up. "Kami, I love you, woman!" He declared with a big goofy grin. The two of them moved as one, reaching for each other and locking lips in a kiss that was hot enough to set them on fire. The reaction among the teams varied. Aang, Katara, and surpassingly, Momo, blushed at the sight. Sokka and Suki shared a smile. Zuko, Akela, and June rolled their eyes and waited for them to stop.
When they finally separated from one another, June spoke. "Are you guys done?"
"Maybe," Naruto answered. The grin was still somewhat there. "We might find some privacy next time. Or we might not."
"Where'd you get the sword?" Sokka asked him, looking at the katana strapped to his side.
"The same place you and Zuko got yours." He replied. It would've been a cryptic answer if anyone else had heard it, but everyone there knew what he meant and left it at that.
"Where did you go for three weeks, Naruto?" Aang finally asked.
"I went to take care of the last known Akatsuki member and to make sure some people I knew got home safely." The blonde answered. This time, it was a cryptic answer that nobody understood, except for himself.
(Location: Kumo)
A was in his own personal training ground, pounding target dummies into the ground. He had been doing this for the past few weeks, ever since he had learned that Bee had been taken. As that thought crossed his mind, tears started to well up in his eyes. That night, he had destroyed an entire forest in sadness and rage. He wanted to take it out on the Konoha shinobi (specifically, the Jinchūriki of the Kyūbi), but he knew it would bring either Bee or Yugito back.
He could still remember the days when he had met both of them. Yugito had been brought home by his father and he had instantly adopted her as a sister. When he met Bee, he had been trying to find his tag-team partner and found it in the odd kid who liked to rap (even if it was bad). He called the two of them brothers and he stayed by those words. His nostalgia and sadness turned into anger and he focused that into beating the dummies apart. When he was on the last one, he crushed it completely with a Lariat fueled with anger and grief. It flew through the air and went through four trees before stopping.
As he stood there, panting from exhaustion, he heard a low whistle. "Damn, bro. That was quite the show." A familiar voice said, making him freeze in place. He then turned around to see who it was, and saw that it was both Yugito and Bee standing before him.
"Miss us much?" His adopted sister asked him with a smirk.
(Location: Iwa)
Ōnoki made his way to the entrance of his village. He had been pulled out of a meeting because of a message that required him to come down to the entrance, saying it was urgent. "Alright, I'm here." He said snappishly to the entrance guard. "What's the problem?" The guard simply pointed at the other side of the entrance. He followed the finger and went still when he saw what it was the shinobi was pointing at.
"Hey, you old grump." Rōshi said with a grin and a wave.
"Ōnoki-sensei," Han said in greeting, being a little more formal.
(Location: Kiri)
Mei sat at her desk, going through paperwork. The stuff seemed to be never-ending. "Please give me a distraction right now." She silently begged. That was when the door to her office was knocked on. "Yes?" She called out, secretly glad for it.
"Lady Mizukage, there's a guy out here who wants to see you." Raimu spoke from beyond the door. "He's says he used to be a shinobi."
"Send him in." The door opened and a handsome young man in a blue kimono walked. She didn't know why, but he looked oddly familiar.
"Are you the Mizukage?" He asked her.
"I am her." She answered.
"My name is Utakata. I'm the Jinchūriki of the Rokubi and former shinobi of this village. I was hoping you'd let me come back."
(Location: Taki)
Shibuki was waiting in a clearing just outside of the village. A messenger hawk had flown in earlier, telling him to come to this clearing at this time, alone. Normally, he would've never paid attention to something like that, but it had been written in a coded message that only two people knew, and he was one of them.
Thinking about that letter made him think about his twin sister, making his heart beat with sadness. When they were little, despite what had happened to her and despite what he could do to protect her, she had been one that protected him. After what happened with his former sensei invading, he made a vow to never be weak or afraid anymore. But that vow didn't do any good when he learned that Fū had been taken. So he promised to never let that happen again.
As he kept his back to a tree and kept checking and rechecking the surrounding area, he heard a chuckle he hadn't heard in a long time. "Nice to see you've finally grown up and manned up, Shibuki. Where's the guy who used to be terrified of a leaf floating by?"
He looked at where the voice originated from. "Is that you, Fū?" He asked with naked hope in his voice.
As if to answer his question, she stepped out of the shadows of the trees and into the light of the clearing. "Hey, little brother, been awhile," She casually greeted him.
When he heard those words, he frowned and lapsed into an old argument. "For the last time, Fū, you're my twin sister, not my older sister!"
"Hey, I came out of Mom five minutes before you did. That makes me the elder." They stood in the clearing, arguing a pointless argument. And yet, they did it with smiles on their faces. They were happy to see one another.
(Location: Konoha)
Both Sakura and Sasuke walked out of the hospital. Sasuke had still been in there during the fight with the creature and he was finally getting out. "I am glad to get out of that bed." He told her as they walked. "I think I was about to go stir-crazy in there."
"Well, you didn't miss much, I can assure you." She said in reply.
He frowned slightly at her. "That's a lie and the both of us know." She laughed lightly and he found that he couldn't keep his frown on his face. Instead, it was replaced with a smile. But when he looked to see beyond the walls of the hospital, the smile died away and was replaced with a small look of horror.
Seeing the look, Sakura turned to see what had caused that. "Oh no, not them," She said with an annoyed expression when she saw what it was. Just beyond the walls of the hospital were Sasuke's Fangirls.
"SASUKE!" They all cheered when they saw him. He didn't do anything in response, at least none that they saw. He had figured out that when it came to Fangirls, it boiled down to three basic things. The first was don't make any sudden movements, the second was avoid making eye contact, and the third was if the first two failed, run like hell and find a good hiding spot (which were becoming rapidly diminished for him).
However, Sakura did something that surprised him and the Fangirls. She turned and pulled Sasuke into a kiss which, after being momentarily surprised, responded gladly to. The Fangirls just watched in stunned silence as the make-out session continued. When it finally stopped, Sakura gave them a challenging stare. "Mine!" She declared.
A groan swept through the horde (as well as a few sobs). Not wanting to risk angering her as her reputation about that was well known, they all left. When they were finally gone, Sasuke looked at her. "You are an amazing woman." He stated.
She smiled at that. "Flatterer," She replied. "Now come on, the others have probably already started the party."
Night had fallen as Tsunade walked down the streets of the village. After Naruto gave his (rather brief) report of what he had been doing the past three weeks, word somehow spread that the Akatsuki had been destroyed. People felt that was cause for celebration and an impromptu festival was thrown together.
Everyone was having a good time. But she wasn't, not yet. Multiple things were going through her mind. Just because the known members of the Akatsuki were died, didn't mean the organization itself was done for. They still had no idea how many people were a part of it (or even who those people were). They had no idea where they were hiding or what they would do now that the Akatsuki was shambles (at least, she hoped it would be in shambles). How they received funding outside of missions or resources was still a complete mystery. And there was also the matter of Kabuto. They hadn't heard even a whisper of him since he broke out. This was worrying because the man was surely up to something; they just didn't what it was or where he even was. Not to mention that they had no idea what that creature was (the suggestion of it being a Bijū had been bounced around, but people really didn't believe it. It was common knowledge that there were only nine Bijū).
She mentally ordered herself to put all that in the back of her head. "There'll be plenty of time to worry about it later." She told herself. "For now, you have a night to relax." She stopped at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the house where Naruto and Azula lived. She had decided to invite both Team Paragon and Team Avatar to join her and the Konoha Eleven for a small party before they left, and the last thing she heard about them was they were all at Naruto's and Azula's place. She walked up the steps and went for the door. But when she reached for the handle and touched it, the door swung slightly inward.
Cautious and concerned, she pushed the door open, seeing the house was shrouded in darkness. "Hello?" She called out, reaching for the light switch and flicking it on. When the lights came on and showed her what lay inside, her heart fell. She had been in the house once or twice, usually with Jiraiya when they had to talk to Naruto and Azula, and she had seen what they had done, consciously or unconsciously, to add their own style to the place. But now, now it was empty, completely bare. It looked it was waiting for someone to come and live there.
As she walked into the house, she saw a small piece of paper lying on the kitchen counter. She walked over to it and picked it up, noticing that had Naruto's handwriting on it. It simply read:
Job's done.
End
Author's Note: Thank you for all the review you've sent me.
I'm sure a lot of you were probably thinking the same thing after you read that conversation between Sokka and Katara. So I'm going to head you off at the pass: the Sage of the Six Paths is not (I repeat, NOT) one of the past Avatars. I know some of you are going to ask me the question of why would Aang fight like he wanted to destroy the Jūbi if the Sage wasn't one of the previous Avatars. Too bad, that would be telling, and I try not to tell.
As for the meeting of the nine, I felt that it was necessary for a representative of Shukaku be there. And since Gaara was alive and kicking, I couldn't really use him. So, I went with Bunpuku. Personally, I like to think that when a Jinchūriki dies and the Bijū is taken out, something of that Jinchūriki stays with the Bijū. If that's not true, why would Shukaku remember the old priest?
I apologize if you thought that the battle against the Jūbi wasn't what you were expecting. That particular fight wasn't exactly center stage for me. It was focused Aang and vice-versa. When you have that, as well as have multiple people trying to fight it when it's not even paying attention to them, makes it a little difficult to keep it centered on the Jūbi.
And before you ask me what was Naruto's idea was or what happened to Yagura (Bunpuku's already dead), save yourself the trouble and don't. Again, that would be telling, and I try not to telling.
Originally, I wasn't going to have Fū come back. But then I bounced it around in my head, and I thought I could make it work. The main problem was that technically speaking, she didn't have anyone to go back to, so I fixed that. Now, I will admit that I've never really seen the OVA about Takigakure, only what I've read for research. That is why I didn't use a lot of details.
I'll see you all next chapter!