Colors of Life and Death series
Truth in Dreams
by Songbird21

Chapter 35

"What?!" Naruto said in horror.

"How the hell did you get samples of Naruto's DNA?" Sakura's voice said from Naruto's right.

"Sakura?! What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be getting the kids to safety!" Naruto said loudly.

"WHAT?!" Hidan yelled irately.

Kakuzu snorted. "I told you we should have killed them sooner."

"Shut the fuck up!" Hidan spat. He turned to Naruto's group. "I am gonna torture you ten times as much to make up for the loss of my sacrifices!" he yelled.

"Inner Sakura is taking care of it," Sakura said, ignoring Hidan's rant. "You need a healer."

Hinata's eyes widened and then she cast her gaze to the ground. "I know how they got the samples," she said. "When Orochimaru...took him last year," she said in voice that said she could barely stomach the memory.

"Heh. One of you has brains after all," Hidan said mockingly.

Kakuzu glared at his partner suspiciously. "Since when the hell do you make such long, cliché speeches?"

Hidan rolled his eyes. "Because it's fun messing with people's heads. Get with the program you fucktard."

"You keep saying shit like that and I'm gonna rip out your intestines!" Kakuzu growled angrily.

"Pft, you wouldn't do it. You know you'd have clean up the mess so we could get back to work," Hidan answered with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Kakuzu gave a derisive snort. "Just hurry the hell up," he said through gritted teeth.

Hidan smirked in satisfaction and went on. "Because of the unique method of sealing Yondaime came up with simply removing Kyuubi woulda been impossible. We gave up on our plans for a while till Orochimaru said he knew how to kill the beast but leave the power." He looked upwards in a wistful manner and sighed. "I wish I coulda been there. Such a beautiful torture. I get chills just from imagining your screams." He ignored the horrified look on Naruto's face and went on. "We found out about his plans when he went to Itachi, asking for help to catch you. In exchange he was sposed ta stay outta our way. He had no idea we planned to have him killed once you had the niji chakra," he said with an evil grin.

Hidan cracked his neck again. "We needed a clone of you cause only your system that can handle that much chakra. And now that we finally have a clone who isn't a drooling blank dumbass we'll transfer the niji chakra to him and make him a member. He'll be the perfect weapon and you...you'll be a corpse," he finished with a cruel glint in his eyes.

Naruto started to rush forward but was stopped when more of Inari's blood ran down the boy's neck.

"Uh uh uh," Hidan said. "Now, are you going to turn yourself in or do I give this brat a look at his entrails?"

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes with a frown. "I guess I don't have a choice." He looked at Hidan. "Hey, asshole—can I at least have a minute to say goodbye?"

"Heh. Whatever," Hidan replied.

Naruto went over to Sakura and gave her a hug. "Sakura-chan, is inner Sakura done with the kids yet?" he whispered.

Sakura turned her face into Naruto's chest so Hidan and Kakuzu couldn't see her mouth move. "Almost."

"Use her to get Inari outta there."

"I'll try," Sakura whispered back.

Naruto and Sakura pulled apart and Naruto gave Hinata a kiss. "I love you."

Tears had formed in Hinata's eyes. "I love you too."

"Alright alright. Break it up," Hidan said. "We're on a tight schedule here. We still gotta find that damn sanbii brat."

Naruto swallowed and began walking—it was then that Inari found his voice. "No, Naruto-nii-san! You can't!"

"Oh dear. You can't seem to shut up can you? What a shame." And without another word Hidan took a small, single-bladed scythe from under his robe and neatly sliced off Inari's right pinky finger.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Inari screamed.

"INARI!!" Naruto and Sakura yelled in horror.

"Ahhhh! Gyahhhh!" Inari cried as he held his profusely bleeding hand.

Kakuzu covered his ears and gritted his teeth. "Now he's just making more noise."

Hidan smiled serenely. "Yeah, but this is a sound I like."

Naruto could barely contain himself. "You son of a bitch," he growled.

"Yeah yeah. Hurry up before he loses more than a finger," Hidan said.

Naruto reached the end of his walk and Hidan began to bind Naruto's hands. Hidan's shadow suddenly came to life and shot upwards, knocking Inari away from the Akatsuki. It was then that Gai and the rest of the Konoha group came charging into the clearing. Gai picked up Inari and got him out of the way in the space of less than a second.

Naruto used the confusion to jump up into a nearby tree and barely missed being sliced in half by Hidan's deadly weapon.

Gai looked at Inari's hand and then at Sakura. He was angry. "I told you not to engage the enemy!"

"We didn't have a choice! Those kids were gonna die if we didn't get them out." Sakura paused for a second. "Naruto made the right decision," she said firmly.

Gai's eyes widened a bit in surprise but quickly became serious again. "Well, it's too late to argue about it now. Let's just deal with this." He looked with sympathy at Inari's hand. "See what you can do to stop the bleeding."

Sakura nodded. "Hai."

"Hinata, Kazehana, you're with us," Gai said.

Suddenly Hidan's eyes were wide and he was staring down at what looked like black triangular spear sticking out of his chest. He looked behind him to see a perfect shadow image of the girl with the pink hair. Its arm had extended and sharpened.

"Got him!" Sakura said in triumph. But her smile faded away when she noticed Hidan staring at her with what could almost be described as an annoyed pout. "Wha...why isn't he dead?"

"Why you sneaky little bitch," Hidan stated in a half impressed, half annoyed tone. He pointed at Inner Sakura's arm. "Do you have any fucking idea how much that hurts?"

Inner Sakura pulled its arm out and jumped back to its mistress.

Gai's face was one of shock. "Is this guy immortal?" he muttered to himself. Suddenly he noticed he was only looking at one opponent. "Where's the other one?!"

Kakuzu appeared behind Sakura—his fist moving toward her with frightening speed. She barely managed do dodge and wound up with a glancing blow to her left hip despite her efforts.

Hidan had taken the opportunity to draw a circular symbol on the ground with the blood dripping from his wound. The circle had a triangle inside it, each of the triangles points touching the circles inner edge. "Hey, don't kill any of them yet. I need them for my ritual," he said to Kakuzu.

Kakuzu cocked an eyebrow as he leapt into a tree. "Fine. Let's see how well you do without my help."

"Like I need it, Bastard." Hidan turned to the Konoha group just as Naruto rejoined them. "Divine judgment awaits, heathens. You who are ignorant to the pain of others."

"How are we going to beat someone we can't kill, Gai-sensei?" Hinata asked.

Gai stared at Hidan, his teeth clenched. "I don't know."

"He can't be killed but he can be injured. If we can remove his head at least he won't be able to fight," Neji suggested much more calmly than he should have been able to at that moment.

"You don't have time to chat!" Hidan yelled. He whirled his triple scythe around by a long chain coming from its handle and whipped it toward the Konoha group.

The group dodged and the mighty weapon dug a ten foot long track in the dirt where they had been a moment ago. Naruto made twelve kage bunshins, Hinata charged up chakra to her fingertips, Tenten pulled out a kunai, Lee removed his weights and the rest fell into battle stances.

Gai began making seals but the scythe flew again and managed to make a nasty cut on his right forearm before he got out of the way. "Gah!"

Naruto's eyes flattened into a suspicious glare when he noticed Hidan lick the blood off his blade.

Kazehana let loose with a huge ball of flame from her mouth. Hidan dodged it for the most part but his arm got badly burned.

"UGH! After I kill you I'm gonna make a leather belt outta your ass!" Hidan yelled.

Kakuzu snorted. "Told you, you should have trained more in dodging."

"Shut the hell up!" Hidan retorted.

Suddenly Gai's face contorted in pain and his hand flew to cradle his arm which now felt like it had been burned. "What the hell?"

Lee saw Hidan's skin begin to change color. "Neji-san, look at Hidan."

Neji's expression became confused. "What on earth....?"

When it was done changing Hidan's skin had become pitch black and it looked like he had skeletal tattoos all over his body, giving him a very eerie appearance.

"Hurts doesn't it, asshole?" Hidan said with a smirk. "Divine judgment has been dealt."

Is this a jutsu or something? Gai wondered.

"How's it feel? Perhaps you've come to understand the pain of others." Hidan smirked and shifted his weight a bit. "And now the ritual begins. You've already fallen victim to my curse." He smoothed his hand over his hair. "It's time for the two of us to savor sublime suffering!" He pulled out a long, thin dagger and aimed it at his leg. "Get ready! This is gonna hurt like hell!" He cackled madly as he drove the blade through his thigh.

Gai's hands flew to his leg as he cried out in pain and fell to the ground. "Wh...what....?" he croaked out through gritted teeth.

Hidan laughed again. "Isn't the pain fantastic? And living through it feels even better! As the other dies, their agony resonates through my body. This pain is the best!"

Sakura hurriedly finished with Inari's finger. Gai needed her more. She picked up Inari and put him in a safe place about twenty yards away before rejoining her team.

"Attacking the vitals is such a waste. This is much more fun!" Hidan said gleefully.

"I'm gonna gut you!" Naruto yelled. His upper body weight shifted forward, indicating that he was about to run at Hidan.

Sakura's eyes widened and she quickly held Naruto back. "Naruto, look!" she said as she pointed to Gai's leg. "That's the same spot where Hidan stabbed himself. If we just rush Hidan Gai sensei's life would be in danger."

Naruto nodded and his expression settled into a frown. "What the hell do we do then?" he wondered out loud.

Hidan pulled the dagger out of his leg and held it up high. "Woooo! Where do ya want it next?" he said as he hovered the dagger over various spots on his body. His smile became sadistic and he held the weapons tip at his heart. "Or should I just end it now?"

Tenten looked to Sakura. "What about Inner Sakura?"

Sakura shook her head. "She takes up too much chakra. If I take her out again I won't be able to heal anyone."

Kakuzu had been entertaining himself by breaking small branches off the tree he was perched in but he'd gotten impatient. "If it's gonna take this long I'll kill them all myself."

Hidan angrily turned his head toward his partner. "Back the fuck off, Kakuzu! They're mine!"

"How did he link his body to Gai-sensei's like that?" Lee asked.

Naruto's eyes went wide. "The blood! I saw him lick Gai-sensei's blood off his main weapon! Could that be it?" he asked Sakura.

Sakura was surprised. "Partially—but look at the symbol on the ground. I think he's got to stay inside it to keep his curse going. He drew it just before his skin changed."

Naruto thought for a minute and suddenly his expression became determined. "I have an idea, but I'll need a distraction to make sure he doesn't have time to react to me."

Kazehana reluctantly raised a clawed hand. "I can do it."

"Okay," Naruto said. He turned to Tenten and whispered something to her.

Tenten nodded slightly, moved behind Lee and Neji and discreetly took a scroll from the pouch on her hip. "Ready."

"Okay," Kazehana replied and in the space of a few seconds she was a naked human woman, instantly drawing Hidan's attention.

Hidan cocked an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to impress me? Hate ta break it to ya girly, but I've seen naked chicks that were much hotter than you," he remarked smugly.

Kazehana's face squished up into an offended frown.

Naruto barely managed to avoid passing out from blood loss at the sight of Kazehana long enough to throw his special kunai. It landed right at Hidan's feet and in the blink of an eye Naruto vanished and reappeared right behind Hidan. He took advantage of the moment of surprise to knock Hidan out of the circle.

A huge, black windmill shuriken sliced through the air and Hidan's neck. His head flew from his body and landed on the ground. His body quickly followed suit.

As Tenten landed from throwing her weapon Naruto used his foot to erase the blood symbol and turned to Kakuzu. "Okay, and now for...."

"Kakuzu, you bastard!"

Naruto's eyes widened to full capacity as he stared in disbelief at Hidan's talking head.

"You knew what they were doing! You let them hurt me on purpose!" Hidan yelled angrily.

Kakuzu cocked an eyebrow. "You're the one who told me not to interfere. Besides—is it really that wise of you to be yelling like that in your current situation?"

"It's not like you have to point out my mistakes and make me look like a fool you insensitive bastard!"

"Is this all of them?" Sasuke asked hurriedly as he ushered the last of the children into Kyoha's audience chamber

Kyoha looked over the group. "Almost. One is missing," he replied.

Sasuke nodded. "Inari," he answered. "The Akatsuki have him. The rest of our shinobi are trying to get him back."

"You'd best be going then," Kyoha advised.

"Any word on our reinforcements?" Sasuke asked.

"Unfortunately no," Kyoha answered.

"Alright then," Sasuke took out a piece of paper and quickly drew a map. He handed it to Kyoha. "This is our location. Please give it to the team when they arrive."

"Of course. You better hurry. I'm sure they need you," Kyoha said.

Sasuke nodded. "Hai." And with that he ran out the door as fast as his legs would carry him.

Tenten was helping Gai to his feet. "Are you alright Gai-sensei?"

"Hai. Arigato, Tenten," Gai said as he shook his head to clear his mind.

"For someone who can't die you're an awfully big baby about getting hurt," Kakuzu said.

"Just shut the hell up and help me!" Hidan yelled. Although how he yelled with no lungs to force air through his windpipe was anyone's guess.

"Tch. Fine," Kakuzu grumbled as he began to walk toward his partner.

"Oh no you don't!" Lee yelled as he put on a burst of speed. He grabbed Hidan's head just as Kakuzu was reaching for it and kept running.

"Alright, Fuzzy brows!" Naruto cheered. "Keep going! We'll handle things here!"

Lee saluted with his free hand. "Osu!"

Kakuzu was about to run after Hidan's head when he found himself met with a wall of opposition. "You'll hafta get through us first," Naruto said as he folded his arms.

Kakuzu sighed. "Like that will be a problem." He crossed his arms in front of him which had some kind of stitches around the middle of each forearm. The stitches suddenly popped loose and he thrust his arms forward. His hands, connected by impossibly long tendons, shot out from their moorings and grabbed Sakura and Kazehana by the throats.

Kazehana tried to suck in a breath to use her fire but her airway was cut off. In desperation she reverted to her dragon form and the new size of her neck proved to be too much for Kakuzu's grip and his hand released her. She fell to the ground and coughed for a second before leaping up and shooting fire at Kakuzu, forcing him to let Sakura go as well.

Gai shot forward, attempting to hit Kakuzu with a series of kicks but Kakuzu was too fast and dodged all but the last one which he caught and used Gai's momentum to toss him nearly twenty feet away. Gai's head landed on a rock and he was out for the count.

"Gai-sensei!" Tenten yelled. Her face flattened into a determined glare as she pulled out a large scroll, made a few hand signs, and unrolled it with a flick of her wrist. There was a puff of smoke and out of it appeared a pair of twin katana. But before she could charge forward Kakuzu suddenly had a sparkling hole through his chest. Behind him was Sasuke with a triumphant smirk on his face.

"Got you, you son of a bitch," Sasuke said just before pulling out his arm.

Kakuzu fell to the ground, blood pooling around him.

"Sasuke-kun!" Tenten yelled. For a moment it seemed like she was going to act the fangirl like Sakura had done so long ago and yet.... "What the hell?! I was about to get him!"

Sasuke's smirk became one of amusement. "Be faster next time."

Tenten growled and slugged him in the arm. "You're so damn smug!"

As Sasuke rubbed his arm he couldn't help but think that she was cute when she was mad. He kept it to himself, of course, but it was difficult to do so. His thoughts were interrupted, however, when he was suddenly kicked into the air. He managed to right himself and land, although shakily, on his feet.

Kakuzu lowered his foot to the ground. "Damn you," he said to Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes showed his confusion and worry. What the hell? I know I hit his heart!

Kakuzu removed his cloak. Revealing multiple places where he seemed to have stitched himself together and four very creepy looking mask-like faces on his back. One of those faces was broken and bleeding. Bulges appeared under the masks, making them appear to have a life of their own. They ripped themselves from his back and four strange black monsters formed around them. These monsters looked like a very evil version of a haystack.

The broken mask let out a horrible groan of death and fell to the ground, its body dissolving into the dirt. The "threads" that held him together re-stitched the holes the mask monsters had come from.

Sakura was horrified but managed to study the situation fairly well. Since one of the masks that came out of his body is dead that means Sasuke did make a killing blow. There's got to be some trick to it.

One of the monsters opened its mouth and let out a powerful wind attack. Everyone jumped out of the way and a different monster used an earth attack that thrust pillars up from the ground. The group managed to dodge except for Neji, who rode a pillar to the top and used the height to try out a new attack. He got up some speed by jumping from pillar to pillar and then dove at one of Kakuzu's monsters. "Kaiten Bomu! (A/n-Heavenly Spin Bomb)" A glowing shell of chakra surrounded Neji's body as he rocketed toward his target. He hit with the force of a wrecking ball but still only managed a glancing blow; leaving the mask cracked and bleeding, but still intact.

Sakura had used the distraction to retrieve Gai from the battle field and begin healing his wound.

"Raiton Gian (a/n- Lightning Element: False Darkness)!" yelled Kakuzu. A torrent of lightning raced towards Naruto, Hinata and Kazehana. There was no time to run and so Naruto stood in front of the other two and began channeling chakra, hoping to use it to deflect the coming attack.

Suddenly there was a flash of silver and green and an explosion of lightning to rival that of Kakuzu's attack. "Raikiri!" When the bright light was gone Kakashi stood there, holding up his now burnt hands and breathing hard.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura said in surprise.

"How did you get here so fast?" Neji groaned as he walked slowly to his comrades, nursing a heavy bruise on his left arm.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "Tomoyo!" He ran to a spot not more than twenty feet away where Tomoyo's crumpled form lay on the ground. He gently turned her over. "Tomoyo! Are you alright?!"

Tomoyo managed to force her eyes open. "I'm fine...Kakashi-kun. Just tired. Go and help them," she said with an exhausted smile.

Sakura put a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. "I'll take care of her."

Kakashi nodded and headed back into the fray where the others were already in the process of avoiding a large fireball. His eyes widened in surprise. He can use fire too?!

"Tomoyo brought you here didn't she?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi saw the mild look of anger on the face of his student. "Trust me. I tried to talk her out of it. She's tired but Sakura doesn't look worried so I think she'll be alright."

Naruto seemed reluctantly satisfied with his cousin-in-law's explanation and turned back to the enemy. "I don't know what the hell is up with this guy. For some weird reason he can use three elements. From what Sasuke told me a few days ago, he shouldn't be able to."

Sakura spoke up from where she was healing Tomoyo. "I think it has something to do with those monsters. Sasuke punched him through the chest earlier but it only killed one of those." She made a face. "They came out of his body."

"So it died in his place," Kakashi said with his brow furrowed in thought.

Kakuzu smirked. "Nice deduction. This is my heart collection." He gestured at the monsters. "I took them from various shinobi I've killed. I used to have five, but since you took out one of them I'll have to replace it...with one of yours."

I see. So he takes people's hearts and acupunctures them into his body. He's even managed to keep their chakra's element; which explains why he can use so many different elemental recompositions. Kakashi thought.

"Looking at your forehead protectors reminds me of the very first Konoha shinobi I fought," Kakuzu said as the stitches on his right arm loosened. "The first Hokage that is."

"How old can he be?!" Neji asked with wide eyes.

"You're really immortal?" Kakashi asked.

"Nah," Kakuzu answered. "No one is immortal. By adding someone's heart to my collection right before mine stops from old age I've managed to lengthen my lifespan. Of course, the hearts need to be removed from the shinobi while they're still alive." He relished a moment in the horrified looks on the faces of the teenagers. "Enough talking." The stitches on both arms came undone and the strange black, tendon-like things that also made up the mask monsters went toward the Konoha group with the speed of a cobra, wrapping around each of them and holding them tight.

As Naruto struggled against his bonds he was lifted into the air and brought closer to Kakuzu. One of the tendons had been wrapped around his neck, slowly cutting off his air supply.

"Catching you had better be worth it. This whole thing has been a pain in the ass," Kakuzu grumbled. The mouths of his three monsters opened wide, prepared to wipe out the Konoha group with a triple elemental attack.

Naruto's hands came closer and closer as he fought to stay conscious and in one last great effort he brought them together in his favorite seal. Around thirty clones rushed Kakuzu, cutting at his 'tendons' with kunai. The sheer number of them granted them the power to sever the tendons and the team fell free.

In less than a second the tendons were screaming toward them again. Everyone managed to dodge them except Naruto, who was still tired from the combination of the bunshins and the fact that he was still recovering from being choked. A tendon stabbed through his left shoulder and he screamed and lost his battle with the darkness.

"Naruto."

Naruto heard an unfamiliar voice and felt a hand gently shaking him. "Uuuugh," he groaned.

"Naruto! Wake up!"

Naruto's eyes opened a bit. Through the small gap in his eyelashes he could make out the shape of a man. Who?

"Come on, kiddo! You don't have time to be snoozing!" the man said, this time sounding more urgent.

Naruto's eyes opened all the way and the sight that greeted him made his breath catch in his throat. His voice came out in a disbelieving whisper. "D...Dad?"

Namikaze Minato smiled with the same grin that had greeted Naruto in the mirror for the last fifteen years. He reached out a hand and his son took it.

As his father pulled him to his feet Naruto decided he must be dreaming. He was in a fight. Obviously he'd been knocked out. It felt so real yet there was just no other rational explanation except.... His eyes flashed wide and he let go of Minato's hand, leaping backwards in the process. "This...this isn't a dream...is it?" he asked, his heart racing in panic.

Minato smiled and shook his head. "No. I'm really here."

Tears found their way to Naruto's eyes. "Then...then I'm...dead."

Minato's smile became comforting. "No. You're not dead. And, sadly, I'm not alive." He cocked his head to one side. "Don't you have any idea where you are?"

Naruto wiped his eyes and looked around. He was standing in an open field he didn't recognize but for some strange reason the feel of the place's energy felt familiar. Almost like.... "The seal?!"

Minato grinned. "That's my boy."

"You...you were here the whole time?!" Naruto asked.

"No. Only since Orochimaru killed Kyuubi. But even then it's taken me all this time to fully regain my self awareness. When you were stabbed a moment ago the surge in your chakra gave me the final jolt I needed." He walked over to Naruto and stroked his son's forehead. "I wish I had time to talk to you right now, but you're still in danger. I promise I'll explain everything later but for now," he pushed Naruto gently backwards, "you need to wake up."

A white light washed in front of Naruto's vision and his father was gone.

.........TO BE CONTINUED

This is the longest chapter in COLAD history (4,756 words). I figured you guys deserve it after my long absence. There were several reasons for the delay in this chapter; not the least of which was editing my latest anime music video for the Anime Boston contest. I barely had time for anything else but editing. And then after that was done I had to get back to work on all the custom My Little Pony commissions I'd been neglecting to work on to get my video done for the deadline. Needless to say, my card has been full. Hopefully, now that the dust has settled, the chapters will be coming again on the old schedule.

Yes things will be fully explained soon. For those of you who read the manga I actually had the idea to do this long before the chapter with Naruto and Minato came out. I just find it hilarious that yet again my plans were very close to Kishimoto's. I hope you all like my rendition of the fight so far. I did a lot of research in the hopes of making it believable.

To those who are still reading this story, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me. I promise I will finish this series no matter what.

Cheers!

Song