Flash of Red and Black
Chapter XXIII
"What a heartfelt reunion!" Orochimaru cackled before he made a move to escape. Kurama instantly shot after him, but then Sasuke was suddenly inches from me with his sword at my neck, and I couldn't move. All I could do was stare at the blackened eyes of my dead best friend and feel like my entire body was getting crushed.
Right then, in that moment in the middle of the battlefield, I saw it all. Images of lives no longer possible passed through my head. I could see myself talking to the other Kage with Sasuke, my best friend, my ANBU captain, my brother standing there beside me at the Chuunin Exams. I could see myself getting yelled at by him and Sakura for not getting enough sleep. I watched as he set flowers on the graves of his family while I did the same for mine. I could hear him insulting me during a spar, pushing me to fight harder. I saw him rebuild his clan with the kunoichi who loved him from the start.
An image of that clan flashed before me. It was no longer a clan riddled with pain and hatred, but instead it was a clan whose laughter and love outshone all the dark shadows of its past.
And in that moment, I didn't care if that sword sliced through my neck or not. I deserved whatever punishment he deemed fit for failing to bring him home, for failing to die with him, for failing to make those visions a reality.
"Naruto!" I vaguely heard Kakashi cry as he dashed in front of me just in time to restrain Sasuke's arm from slashing his sword through my neck. "I already told you, didn't I!? Don't make me leave you ever again! I am not leaving you! So don't you dare let yourself die!" he yelled at me, waking me from my haze of lives never to be.
My eyes refocused and I immediately grabbed Sasuke's other arm, preventing him from driving a kunai into Kakashi's side. I looked over my best friend again, but slowly I accepted that this wasn't him. He didn't have Sasuke's personality, and Sasuke wasn't immortal—I knew that best.
"Sorry," I said before kicking the fake back, taking the kunai from his hand as I did before blocking an attack from Karin. "You're just going to have to keep rescuing me for the rest of my life," I continued, taking a Rasengan to Karin's stomach, momentarily immobilizing her before I had to dodge Sasuke's Katon. "So you'd better not go anywhere either," I finished, making several more bunshin to hold back Jugo just as he started rushing at me.
"You got it," Kakashi called over to me as he fought with Suigetsu.
I smiled a little, but it faded fast as I returned to the fight. Going against Karin was simple enough (the whole "immortality" thing made it a bit tougher, but since I had plenty of stamina—maybe even more than before with all the new chakra—I could deal), but fighting Sasuke—not Sasuke. An undead enemy at his level—at the same time made it quite a bit more challenging. Plus I knew that the only way to get rid of them was to either seal them or force the caster to undo the jutsu, and Sai was the only one with any sealing jutsu which didn't help much since he was injured and with the med-nin.
I skimmed the battlefield for a second, just before dodging Karin's kunai and Sas—her teammate's sword thrust that followed immediately. Fighting someone of his strength wouldn't normally be so difficult, even with someone else helping him, but avoiding looking him in the eyes was frustrating at best. (I may have gotten better, but genjutsu was still no friend of mine.)
Even in that short glance, I could see things that I didn't like. The hordes of enemies were only getting thicker, and the deeper they came from, the stronger they were. With his followers strengthened so much by his experiments, I didn't even want to know how much Orochimaru had altered himself, but I knew that I would find out anyway.
After avoiding the paths of a couple Katon and some shuriken, I glanced at Kakashi to see him having some trouble. He kept trying to put distance between himself and his opponent so he could use some doton techniques, but Suigetsu was having none of it. His blue-haired enemy kept pressing forward, forcing Kakashi to either block the massive sword with a measly kunai or to dodge the sweeping attacks.
Not liking what I saw, I dodged more attacks from my own opponents before forcing a chakra arm to emerge from Kurama's chakra that still enveloped Kakashi and grabbed Suigetsu's arm, preventing him from taking another swing. Kakashi took the opportunity to dash inside Suigetsu's reach and shove a kunai into his vitals. However, the kunai just seemed to slide off, and my grasp on his arm failed as he slipped away by liquefying himself. I cursed under my breath as I blocked a kick from Sasuk—one of my opponents—while moving my head to just barely avoid the kunai Karin speared towards my head. Glancing at Kakashi again, I saw that he'd darted away from Suigetsu, frowning as he moved away from a super close-range fight. I couldn't help mirroring his expression.
Taka was hard enough to fight the first time—the fact that Jugo and Karin had survived so long after the war was proof of the team's strength, but their newfound immortality added all kinds of new problems to the mix. And that's not even mentioning the growing throngs of other enemies strewn about the battleground.
I cursed under my breath before shutting out my thoughts. Thinking wouldn't solve anything at the moment. Forcing myself to become a lightning-fast and deadly weapon was the only thing I could do to make a difference. I needed to down as many enemies as possible in the shortest time possible, otherwise we would be overwhelmed by numbers, and if we were at such a disadvantage above ground, I could only imagine the situation of the teams below.
I grit my teeth and dodged a few more attacks before calling Kurama back from pursuing Orochimaru, forcing him back inside me.
"The hell do you think you're doing, brat!" he roared.
"Calm down. We'll get to him eventually. But first we need to clear out the field," I told him quickly as I dodged another Katon.
"Then let me thin their numbers out!"
"We need both quality and quantity right now, and it's too risky to have you out this time. I don't know what will happen, using so much chakra at once," I told him, and he growled, but said nothing else.
"Thanks, Kurama," I muttered aloud before making my signature seal. Immediately, a couple hundred bunshin materialized on the ground around me, and they all set to work pushing back the droves of mutated shinobi around us.
"Naruto! What are you—" Kakashi started shouting at me, trying to scold me for using so much chakra so soon after being injured so badly.
"I'm fine. Just take Suigetsu down," I told him, not letting him finish. I saw his eyes harden, but he turned back to his fight and I turned to mine. I'd have plenty of time to hear him out once Orochimaru's blood had run dry, but until then, I had a pair of immortal enemies in front of me to deal with.
Every attack by one enemy was swiftly followed by the other, making dodging difficult, but I knew there was little point in attacking since they would simply regenerate until Sai could seal them. I frowned and concentrated on Sai's chakra. Kurama's chakra was still coursing around him, and I could tell that he wasn't with the other medic-nin anymore, but he wasn't making much progress through the battlefield. I frowned more. Either he was hanging back to back up Yamato, or he was having trouble breaking through all the mutated shinobi.
Quickly, I sent Karin flying back with a heavy kick to her stomach, and after dodging the thrust of a sword from her partner, I kicked him in the back, knocking him away long enough to create another handful of clones. Immediately they set off to get Sai, and I twisted away from another blow from Karin once she recovered.
"Brat, the longer you take here, the more time that snake has to escape," Kurama growled, apparently losing patience with waiting for Sai to arrive.
"What do you want me to do, then?" I shot back as I ducked out of the way of a few more attacks. My clones seemed to be making quick work of most of the enemies, but a couple hundred bunshin could only do so much against a few thousand enemies whose numbers were only growing.
"Either make use of all this chakra or let me out. As it is, you're getting nowhere."
I frowned. I knew I still had plenty of chakra and so did Kurama, but I didn't want to push myself too much and end up in an even worse situation. Still, after another glance around the battlefield, I knew I didn't have much of an option. I could tell my bunshin still hadn't made it to Sai, and he hadn't budged either. And despite the speed and power of all my clones, curse-marked shinobi were coming out of the tunnels faster than my bunshin could take care of them.
Clenching my jaw, I made two Oodama Rasengan and shoved them into my attackers, blasting them into the ground and temporarily immobilizing them. Then I took a deep breath to steady my chakra before making the seal for bunshin.
Immediately the surrounding area was overrun with my image. Another good thousand bunshin blasted their way through the crowd of enemies, swiftly taking down every one of Orochimaru's followers that they came into contact with. I took another slow breath to steady myself, not used to using that much chakra all at once, even if I had more than enough left, before readying myself for another attack from the regenerating enemies now standing before me.
I sensed a rush of emotions flow through Kakashi as he saw the second wave of bunshin cover the field, but I pushed it out of my head as I dodged a sword and some shuriken. As I continued dodging attacks, I finally felt Sai's chakra moving towards us.
"Sai's on his way!" I called over to Kakashi as he jumped out of the path of Suigetsu's sword. Other than giving a short nod, Kakashi said nothing in response as he continued his fight with Suigetsu and I turned back to mine. But before our enemies could start another attack, an explosion rocked the ground beneath us, and debris flew through the air. As the ground stilled, I prepared myself for an attack curse-marked shinobi, but then I recognized the chakra in the dust cloud.
Moments later, Shino emerged with a crowd of insects around him and Kiba, Hinata, and Lee following shortly behind along with one of my clones. I glanced them over quickly, and though they seemed tired, they seemed okay for the most part as they headed towards Kakashi, apparently unsure which of the clones was the real me as my clone headed to join his other copies fighting against the curse-marked shinobi. As they moved, though, I could tell Kiba was favoring his left leg.
"Rabbit! Take Dog to the east side of the field! The medic-nin are stationed there," I called over to the group, and the two looked at me, slightly startled to discover the original, but they recovered in the next second and nodded before heading off to the temporary medical camp. Lee and Shino then started heading towards me, eyeing my opponents with severe frowns before I spoke up again.
"I can handle these two. Go help Kakashi," I ordered, and the two glanced at each other before nodding and heading that way.
With those four now above ground, that left eight below, two teams. The clones I sent after them hadn't dissipated yet, but I still worried since they were apparently too deep below for me to be able to sense their chakra. Still, I had confidence in them, and I knew they wouldn't let me down.
I hardly had time to get back into my fight before finally I felt Sai's chakra nearby.
"Sai! I leave sealing Suigetsu and Jugo to you! Lee! You cover for him!" I shouted as soon as he was close enough to hear. Lee immediately hopped back from the fight with Suigetsu to cover for Sai, and Sai whipped out a scroll and unsealed a giant paintbrush and an even larger blank scroll before starting on his task.
My chakra was still covering him as he worked, and the only evidence left that he'd ever been injured were the tears in his flak jacket.
Though it was a struggle for Kakashi to handle Suigetsu alone, the four of them were easily able to seal him. With that opponent down, Kakashi picked up Suigetsu's sword and ran to join my clones at holding back a rampaging Jugo.
It took them a while longer to seal the juggernaut, but they managed just before Kakashi and Sai spent up the last of my chakra that had surrounded them. So once the four made their way over to me, I had a chakra arm reach out and tap each of them, restoring their chakra again. I saw Kakashi frown as I did, but I ignored it for the moment. Instead I focused on the enemy in front of me as the four worked on sealing Karin.
However, once my opponent no longer had a partner to work with, the fight seemed to become more difficult, and I could only give a dry laugh.
"You never were one for teamwork, ne, Teme," I muttered quietly as I dodged his flurry of attacks. But after that short lapse, I clenched my jaw and shut out the sick feeling of nostalgia that had rushed over me.
"One more!" I heard Lee say from my left, and I glanced over to see the group finish sealing Karin. Then I turned back to my fight in time to just barely dodge a fatal blow of Chidori, though it still grazed my shoulder, leaving me cringing and making the stench of burnt flesh hang in the air despite how rapidly the wound healed—leaving almost no evidence of the injury by the time the group appeared next to me to seal the last opponent.
"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked as he used a doton to protect Sai from the Katon our enemy released.
"I'm fine, but if this drags out much longer we might not be able to catch up with Orochimaru," I said, glancing over at him. He frowned but nodded. We both knew that time was not on our side.
"Ready!" Sai called, and Kakashi and I both nodded before I rushed towards our enemy, pushing a Rasengan at him. He dodged it, but put himself right in the path of Kakashi's sword.
However, then our opponent plunged his own sword into the ground and jumped on top of its hilt before dashing onto Kakashi's sword, readying Chidori as he ran up the length of the weapon. Quickly, I readied two more Oodama Rasengan and used chakra arms to plunge them towards our enemy, trying to catch him between them, but he jumped just in time for them to miss him, and instead the two Rasengan crashed into one another, creating a wild rush of chakra that only threw our opponent higher in the air.
However he still had Chidori activated, and as he fell back down, he aimed straight at Kakashi. I immediately flashed over to the attacker and used chakra arms to grab him midair and pull him away with me, sending us both crashing against the ground several yards away. His Chidori plunged into the ground mere inches from my head as he landed next to me, and suddenly Kakashi's sword was plunged into his back, pinning him down just long enough for Sai's tiger to sink its teeth into the enemy's shoulder. I stood and took a steadying breath as I watched our final enemy get sealed away, but just then another explosion blasted through the ground below us, sending us all flying.
I cursed under my breath as I made my way to my feet once there was ground beneath me again. My ears were ringing as I looked around, but I didn't have time to worry about it. As soon as I regained my footing, I had to avoid the jaws of a giant snake that came slithering out of the hole where I was standing just seconds before.
"What the hell—"
"Orochimaru has a message for you. 'It really shouldn't be called a reunion if his personality isn't intact. So I'll give you a present before he kills your friends,'" the snake hissed above me. I just stared at him for a moment, confused, until he slithered away from me, heading towards Lee who was still struggling to stand.
I cursed again, forgetting about Orochimaru's message as I rushed to Lee, blocking the serpent from sinking his fangs into him, before glancing around to see how everyone else was. Shino was slowly making his way to his feet, and Sai was already standing but looked a little unsteady. However, I was nearly in a panic when my eyes finally landed on Kakashi.
I looked right when our enemy plunged his sword into Kakashi's shoulder, making Kakashi let out a strangled groan.
"Kakashi!" I screamed, and then suddenly Kurama materialized next to me. I let go of the massive creature, leaving Kurama to shred him for me as I flashed to Kakashi's side immediately blasting a Rasengan into his attacker's side, preventing him from causing any more damage. Then I turned to Kakashi and pulled the electrified sword from his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" I asked, worried as I looked him over for other wounds. Kakashi sat up and put the hand of his uninjured side on my shoulder.
"Fine. But do you really have enough chakra for all this?" he asked, glancing at Kurama as his fangs ripped into the snake.
"'Not enough chakra' won't ever be a problem again," I said, giving him a small smile as I transferred some more of Kurama's chakra to him, hoping to heal the wound a little faster.
Then I heard someone "tsk" behind me, and Kakashi's eyes narrowed. Mine, however, went wide, remembering the message from Orochimaru.
Slowly, I turned around, trying to brace myself.
"Usuratonkachi," Sasuke said, looking at me with that usual arrogant expression of his. (It felt like he'd never died at all. Like I never killed him. Like he could still come back with us and help me take care of the village.)
"Teme," I choked out. I didn't have much time to sort out my feelings, though as Sasuke rushed at me, kunai in hand.
"Kakashi! Take Lee to Sakura," I called behind me.
"I'll be back soon," Kakashi said after hesitating for a moment. I just gave a short nod before Sasuke and I clashed kunai.
"Shino! Cover Sai!" I shouted across the field.
"I'm surprised you're giving the orders," Sasuke quipped as we both dashed in to cross kunai again.
"I'm Hokage now," I said back, my face locked into a frown, and Sasuke mirrored my expression.
"The village is still standing, huh?"
"Stronger than ever."
"With a loser as its leader?" he jabbed, and my frown deepened.
"The loser who has already killed you once," I said, feeling like a Rasengan was swirling inside me. I was angry. I was hurt. I was sad. I was alive, and my dead best friend was standing right across from me, fighting me. And I knew that I would have to take him down again.
"I can't believe I lost to you."
"As cocky as ever."
"As weak as ever."
"You died at the hands of this weakling."
"Apparently it was a fluke," he said, just as a bunshin of his appeared behind me, plunging a kunai into the back of my knee. I let out a strangled groan, gritting my teeth. Sasuke just stood there, watching me pull the kunai from my leg, but instead of an arrogant face, he just seemed angry.
"Damn it! Was your resolve really this weak when you killed me before!?" he shouted, startling me as I looked back up at him. But I couldn't look at him long. I glanced away, looking back at the ground as my face twisted with anguish. Then I heard him walk past me and pick up his sword.
"Fine. If that's the case, I take back what I said. You're weak, and I definitely wouldn't have gotten any stronger if I stayed in that pathetic village of yours," he spat before swinging his sword down to slice through my neck.
My hand shot up and grabbed the blade. I stood, ignoring the blood rushing down my hand and the blood that was drying from the already-healed wound on the back of my knee.
Then my eyes met his. And I knew he could see every thought that was rushing through my head in that moment.
"You always have been my best friend. Thank you," I said. Then, keeping one hand on his sword, I wrapped my other arm around him. My heart clenched, but when I stepped back again, I was prepared. "Next time we see each other, it'll be on the other side."
Then Kurama flashed next to me and stomped down on Sasuke, holding him in place while Sai's tiger dashed over, biting into Sasuke again. This time, rather than blood seeping from his lips, a small smirk took its place as he closed his eyes. And I couldn't help thinking that it was a much more suiting way for him to go.
I called Kurama back inside me and I stood there for a while longer before I felt a hand on each of my shoulders. And from the corner of my eyes, I could see Sai and Shino on each side of me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before squaring my shoulders and stepping back to look at both of them.
"Are you both okay? Injuries?"
"Your chakra already healed the minor ones that I had," Sai replied, and Shino nodded in agreement.
"Chakra levels? Fatigue?"
"I have plenty of chakra thanks to you. Fatigue is building, but it will still be a while before it has any noticeable effect," Sai said, and again Shino nodded in agreement.
"Then head to the south end of the field and meet up with Shikamaru. Update him and tell him I'm heading after Orochimaru."
"I'm coming with you," I heard from behind me.
"How's your shoulder?" I asked, turning to Kakashi.
"By the time we catch up, it'll be all healed thanks to Kurama-san's chakra," he said. I looked him over before nodding.
"Don't push yourselves too hard. Good luck," I said, before Kakashi and I dashed off, heading farther north.
So, so sorry for taking so long with this chapter. I'm going to try really hard to get the next chapter out next weekend. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! As always, let me know if you have any predictions! I love reading what you think will happen next.