Journey of the Three Failures Chapter 25: Toward the New Age, Act One, a naruto fanfic

J3F\\\Journey of the Three Failures

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hello! Hope everyone's having a happy holiday season!

College is great, but doesn't provide much time for fanfiction writing ^^; Even so, I got quite a bit written before coming home for break. Then, after writing some more and getting close to wrapping up the originally intended Chapter 25 I decided to actually check and count how many pages I had. Realizing there were 114 so far, I decided to split it up into two chapters after all, which will be "Toward the New Age" Acts One and Two.

Thank you for your reviews, praise, criticism, or advice, Chargone, Omega the darkness, DialACow, foxsadist712, Malix2, digitalflame192, BronzeButterfly18, Soraya the All Speaker, RedRangerBelt, KoreanGal5, TwiliFay, chibigirl8, Godschildtweety, KageVincent, RamenKnight, graceful warrior of ashmeadow, Veraozao, Wyrd42, amfrazier74, Full Speed Ahead, kitsutenshi, Universal Hope, breakingheart93, Cuervo Blanco, hinanarulovr, rasen mokuton, Sir Nyan of Canterlot, Mexicano27, hga, Shizuka Taiyou, Ddash2157, DarkWolf991, foxmage, Adam218, Zerosixnine2011, and anons signing M, Jack of no trade, and Dan! Once again, you keep this story alive!

A few more Gaiden chapters are out – second part of Akane and Midori's backstory, first two parts of Hiyuki's, and a short, humorous Naruto and Hinata sidestory.

Also! ATTENTION! No, really, if you skip the rest of the AN, please read this! The story's mock-AMV is now complete! If you're reviewing, or even just reading this story, there's a video dedicated to you ;) Link is on my profile, so watch if you care to, and drop a like if you can!

Note that this chapter will have a bit of third person-limited POV, with two parts that unavoidably needed to be told from the eyes of two outside the central five characters.

Finally, chapter song is "Jump" by Two Steps From Hell :P

Disclaimer: Watashi wa… NARUTO wo… do not own. *seriousface*

…Yyyyyeah, I don't own NARUTO!

Journey of the Three Failures

Chapter Twenty-Five: Toward the New Age, Act One

Part One: Come What May

Naruto ナルト

A new day approaches…

I drew in the cool mountain air, felt it in my nostrils, my lungs, even as it played over my body, my face, my hair.

According to the toads, a week in I had progressed to a level beyond that most students might attain in years of study. How that is, I'm not really sure; after all, for the longest time all I had going for me was my gut and my grit. I'm only fourteen, for the kami's sake…

Now it's been two months, and I feel things are finally beginning to come together. I used to fear my power – I still do, but the fear can no longer rule me. I know what I am, and it's more than a container to hold a demon. I'm ever changing, transforming, growing… and the things I've learned here are nothing short of amazing. I can feel the world breathing around me, now…

The path of the Sage had brought me into balance without as well as within. Sharpened mind, abundant energy, grueling work. Destroyer, healer, trickster, wraith, demon… sage. All of these things had meshed without my even realizing, and I was finding that I had come to possess true strength.

It's with this strength – this frightful strength – that I will protect the ones I love, without fail.

I relished in the breeze. Floating down from a state of meditation, I blinked and laid half-lidded eyes on the horizon as I sighed slowly.

The critical hour only draws nearer, now… My peaceful sunrises are numbered. It's time to return – for the dawn of war, and for whatever certainty may lay beyond.

"OI! Naruto-chan!"

A voice boomed across the canyon, and I started – a motion that didn't bode well for my seating on an earthen tablet balanced atop a tall and fine-tipped stone spire. I flailed and scrambled, clinging to the column as the thin tablet tipped and split in two.

"Hai?" I called, eyebrow twitching as I watched the two halves tumble to finally shatter over the distant ground.

"Ma will have your chapped hide if you're not at the table for a last meal before ye're to be heading out! What're you doing out there, anyways?"

I smiled. In a nimble move I climbed to stand with the peak beneath the ball of one foot, the other foot tucked neatly behind. "Just… savoring the daybreak."

"What? Speak up, boy!"

"It's nothing, Shishou – I'll be at the table soon!"

Lee リー

In this land, the Land of Iron, I had found many a great warrior to challenge.

And, though initially drawn by the promise of battle, it was in Iron that I eventually became one who followed not only nindou, but bushidou as well.

"You are a great shinobi, Rock Lee… and a fine samurai as well."

"Lord Mifune…" I bowed at the waist, in the hope of conveying some fraction of my gratitude. "I cannot thank you enough."

"Raise your head, Rock Lee! Meet my eyes in the knowledge that you, as Lord Washi before you, stand among the finest practitioners of the art of pure and honorable combat. Carry the pride befitting of such stature ever upon your shoulders as you now go along your own path, and wield steel always with valor. On this day, I see before me a young man who is neither shinobi nor samurai. You are beyond these. You… are a warrior."

My lips parted slightly in shock; I knew that he did not toss words about lightly. Heeding his command, I hardened my expression and refrained from lowering my head again. Rather, I met his strong old eyes firmly and without wavering, my jaw set.

"Arigatou gozaimasu."

Hinata ヒナタ

A methodical, smooth wooden scrape wheedled intermittently through the nightsong of the borderlands as a lone claw steadily carved. Sliver by sliver, the instrument was taking form. Around me, this enigmatic rift, this northern shore of the sea that divided the over realm and the demon realm, was steeped in twilight. An array of noises crept from the misty woods, some but never all identifiable; auras swirled with soft sighs in the shadows. In the flickering glare of a small fire, I kept undaunted about my work.

–"If you wish to train in the way of the bow, you will craft your own and learn yourself, as the Branch do."–

The voices of the night. The smoothing of the wood.

–"H-hai… Otou-sama."–

Hemp fiber, deftly woven. Strung by knots at the ends. I tested the flexibility, the strength – two factors so precariously intertwined, and found both satisfactory.

–"A-a-anou… could you, p-perhaps… teach me h-how to … anou… to shoot this…?"

"Lady Hinata? Shouldn't m'lord be teaching you?"–

Unhurriedly I stood, taking a moment to stretch my arms and legs with a groan. I lifted the bow in one hand, an arrow fletched earlier in the other, and within a moment of straightening had notched, drawn, and fired. The projectile whizzed into the darkness, and a muted thud was followed by a screech – then nothing.

"So it works," Kurogiba said, practically materializing at my side. I would have started, had I not first sensed his spiritual presence. "All set, then? You've been at that all day. You'd think you would be quicker by now, with all of those contraptions you've gone through…"

"The first bow I ever made wouldn't shoot an arrow any further than a rubber band," I said, making my way to the trees. "The second exploded in my face as soon as–,"

"As soon as you managed to hold the full draw, yes, and it nearly put your eye out to boot."

"W-well, right," I said, parting shrubbery with my hands. "There are things you can't rush. But what were you doing all this time? You weren't keeping an eye out for this thing sneaking up on me," I said, holding up by the hindmost set of knobbly, three-toed feet a fanged, six-legged creature that sported a charmed arrow in its neck.

"Like spiders to us," he scoffed. "I would've warned you of something big."

"These little devils are dangerous!" When they got their teeth into something, there was no getting them to part their jaws even in death. I had learned from experience, and wouldn't soon forget the taxing muscle tissue regeneration that had followed.

"Nothing you couldn't handle, evidently. I had faith in you, and you've got a snack on your hands. What's to complain about?"

My stomach rumbled as I was about to reply. Blushing, I pulled the arrow from the fiend and set about my meal.

Kurogiba sighed as I polished if off a few minutes later. "Why bother with that thing?" he asked, picking up the arrow neatly in his front teeth. 'Human weapons, when your claws are plenty for you to hunt and fight…'

'I carry this thing, don't I?' I pointed out, tapping a claw to the New Moon Blade, the dagger of obsidian at my hip.

'That is the token of your second Trial, forged of a fang of a prior incarnation of Gobi no Ookami – that we retrieved at no small risk of life and limb. And soul. That can help reign in your darkness. You know what I mean, Pup.'

'My claws are plenty for hunting, yes,' I thought back, accepting the arrow with a mental nod of thanks. 'But my proficiency in Juuken and Kyuujutsu alike are vital … if I am to be a Hyuuga of consequence once more.' Of status. Of importance. Of the Main House.

'Human clans can have such strange ways…'

I could sympathize with the remark. Ookami cared far more about a leader's individual prowess than adherence to any specified arts or traditions. And Ookami would never dream of subjugating their brethren. They – we – were wild, but free.

'I can't argue with that.'

An expansive sea of muted blue was sprawled before me; it stretched on, an uninterrupted sheet of dull, glassy grey, until it vanished behind a curtain of heavy mist. I stood unmoving, clawed toes tensing and untensing in the coarse, chalky sand that lined the eerily tideless, lightly frosted shore.

'What's the matter now?' He came to my side, studying me briefly. 'Huh? You ready to head out, or not?'

'Ani-ue… you've probably figured this out, but I don't trust your mother.'

'I'll say. When Mum finds out I really let you go without visiting her even once, she'll probably cry. I'll be nervous around her for weeks.'

'Ani…'

'She's stopped opening her mind to us, Hinata,' he gave, referring to the other elemental wolves.

'That's unusual, right?' I pressed, brow furrowing to the smallest degree.

'It has never happened before. For her to conceal her intentions from her children, even from her favorite, Kurochi … it's strange, yes. Even unprecedented. I can't tell you what she's thinking, but I do know she values your life. She always has…'

'Valuing my life, alone, is not necessarily enough.'

'No; no, it's not.' He shook his head, crimson gaze leveling skyward as a stale breeze went rippling over his blazing pelt. 'But no matter the uncertainty, what can we do but move forward?'

Withdrawing in thought, I fell silent. I needed to save my cousin. To fight for my village, to protect my comrades. To reclaim the Hyuuga Clan. To control my demonic side. With all of these resolutely accepted musts that could play out in any number of forms, one additional, vague unknown was disconcerting in many ways.

Watch out for the Gobi.

Do not trust what she says.

Beware of manipulation…

I was out of sorts, standing here like this. I was wary to move forward, even when – or perhaps because – there would be no going back.

Kurogiba groaned beside me. "Pup."

"H-huh?"

"Fight me," he said, "Right now."

And he attacked.

My reaction was sharp enough to evade his first, sudden strike; the swipe of heavy claws passed beneath my leaping feet and coiled legs. Then the wolf vanished in a blur, and a solid mass of force slammed soundly down against my back, knocking my breath away and smashing me into the earth.

Holy… I rolled neatly aside as he reared and stomped with enough strength to make the earth jolt beneath us. Darting to my feet, I scowled and dodged slash after lunging slash, rolling and weaving outside the rapid blows. Kurogiba's combative power was enhanced perhaps twofold within the border of his native Youkai no Kokudo. Here, a strong enough dead spirit could possess something approaching true substance – while still moving about swiftly as a whisper on the wind.

His movements blurred; a short line of blood broke into being and spilled down my cheek. I lunged to my right, and my left arm prickled with the flicker of invisible force that was the Wolf of Fire shooting past in the blink of an eye. Twice more he charged curtly, flashing with ferocious speed, and twice more I dodged, teeth clenched and eyes morose as shaking air throbbed past me.

I sensed his pouncing for my back and turned, raising my claws; he came smashing into existence with front claws sparking painfully against my own. My toes dug a short way, sliding back a few inches into the shallow water before I could find traction, and we were locked this way with enormous power shuddering between us.

"Gh... What are you doing?!" I snarled through grinding teeth, eyes wide with effort as my muscles strained to hold off his strength.

"That's easy!" he sneered, giving a shove of force. The instant I braced to withstand it, the wolf was evaporating in a burst of flame. I staggered forward as he materialized in a crack of swirling fire a few yards back, launched himself forward from low, and drove the crown of his skull clean into my gut.

"GAH!"

"I'm getting you to stop thinking…!"

I was sailing, thrown by the strike so that the sea and sand and sky tumbled across each other. I yelped when he snagged me from the air, with a line of searing fangs lodged firmly in my side and lower ribs.

"And start acting!" he snarled, plowing my back viciously into the earth.

My ears rang. "D…dammit, Brother…" I croaked.

'What the Hell happened to all that resolve you spoke of?' he asked in frustration, increasing the pressure of his jaws. 'You're the one who taught me, a wolf, how to charge ahead like an idiot and fight through, come what may. You're the one who told me, even though you were still a stuttering scrap of meat, that you would become a kunoichi I could be proud to fight alongside, and got me to believe you! Do you realize what a fake you are, if you let your so-called resolve fall apart now?!'

'Ani-ue…' I ground my teeth.

'Tch… Anyways,' he thought, pressing me more firmly into the ground, 'you'd better give up now. You never have escaped this one.'

It was true. I was pinned on my upper back, shoulders and neck, with half my torso in a jagged vice, immobile arms splayed out and my feet hanging above me. I couldn't draw enough breath like this to stay conscious for long.

But…

I pulled my feet in, curled my body what little it painfully could.

'Brother… If you put it that way…'

A jet of flame shot from my mouth, crashing across the wolf's face – and my own legs – above me. Kurogiba was so shocked that I'd attempt to attack him with an element we both knew him quite invulnerable to that he didn't realize I was gathering my strength – not, at least, until I shoved off my shoulders to get my feet fast on the ground and straighten with a yell, flipping the wolf onto his side by way of his fanged grip.

My right palm clapped down onto his head next to my right side, fully charged. Standing on my feet, blood running down my side, I gave a wolfish smirk.

"Don't ask me to give up after challenging my resolve."

The fiery eye that I could see widened. It was too late for him to pull away.

The Chakra Concussion Blast broke from my palm with a mighty crash, its shockwave dissolving in a spray of phantasmal flame the head and the jaws that gripped me, before his substance was altogether banished, and scattered.

It was minutes later, as I sat periodically spitting blood and manipulated my youki to patch up the substantial damage to my side, that a small ball of flame slipped into existence in the air. Following its materialization, residual bits of simmering fire and tatters of spiritual energy from the surrounding area swept to feed the sphere, which in turn expanded, shone, and exploded in a billow of flames; left in its place, Kurogiba grimaced and shook himself out.

"You actually broke free," he groaned, half in annoyance, skulking my way. "You tore yourself up worse to do it, but you got me. Tch…"

"You woke me up. For a minute there, I was a kunoichi my partner would be ashamed to fight alongside. I'm sorry. It's by virtue of my propensity for proving a negative old dog like you wrong, though, that you've been able to stay by me no matter how unbearable I can be, isn't it?"

He snorted good-naturedly, eyes shut. "Cheeky pup. If you're done cleaning up, let's get on with it."

"Right," I said, pulling a fresh shirt over my head. Bow in hand, I stood. "With no more delays."

"You lead, then. Where you go, I'll follow."

I smiled.

Across this sea, to the others… and onward, to whatever may await.

Neji ネジ

Eyes trained loftily ahead, I paused and slipped a hand from the warmth of a pocket to adjust the collar of my coat. People like cattle milled around me on the street, heads down, uniform in grey garb as well as in measured pace and singular direction. None made eye contact with any other. At the conclusion of the rally, without deviation, the herds of humanity had dispersed for the respective residential districts; night was oncoming, and curfew would shortly be upon them. My breath frosting into a brief puff of mist in the December air, my steps gliding, I pressed on after the dissenter.

New Oto achieved efficiency through fear – such a caliber of efficiency that, surrounded by the subdued acceptance of the masses, discontent became palpable in those souls it burdened. It was amazing what signals a difference in mindset could produce. This one – even his gait was different. He kept looking furtively over his shoulder; he hastened restlessly through the crowd. Whether his unfortunate heart was plagued by an innate need to cling to his discontent or he could not quite shake the lingering sentiment made no difference to me.

"Halt."

Everyone in the vicinity stopped, as one; all, but for the poor dissenter, who flinched into an extra step. None of the mass so much as looked up. Even surely beyond the range of my clear voice, those further behind, upon finding those in front of them had stopped walking, conformed in a wave of ceasing motion without questioning, or so much as expressing their confusion at the disturbance to their progress. Head high, I spoke.

"You know who you are. You were glaring at our Lord Orochimaru for the duration of the event."

The man turned, looked me in the eye. I scoffed, unable to help but feel amused at his confrontational boldness. For all his glowering, he was unable to hide the slight shaking of his voice. "I will glare at tyrants as I so please…"

He knew how this would end; everyone knew. I shook my head. "Tsk… the temerity of the powerless knows no bounds. Do you wish for correction?"

His hands curled into trembling fists, his jaw set though his seething eyes were wide. Resolute, he drew himself up from the slouched posture that was customary for the ones in the grey, rationed garb, and turned to face me fully. "Th… There is nothing wrong with me!"

"Piteous soul…"

"A brave soul never dies."

"Let us see."

In a blur my foot was touching down, so lightly, ten yards behind him. A short, sharp cry – a flash of crimson bursting from rent flesh – and he thudded to his knees, and flat to the earth. A shiver might have run through the crowd of drooping heads; eyes perhaps shut, but nothing more. Outstanding: such was the level of their restraint.

There were no martyrs here.

I rose where I knelt, slipping one hand into my pocket as the other flicked away the hot life's nectar streaked upon clawed nails. I glanced back, and watched as with a hoarse croak the dissenter's bulging eyes glazed.

Nearby, a child whimpered; a mother swiftly covered its mouth. Seeing me taking notice, the woman paled and dropped to her knees, holding her girl close and bowing her head. She had met my eyes briefly, and though by no means in challenge must now have realized her mistake, for her breath became rapid. None acted in the frozen world around us, not even as I stepped toward her. It was remarkable.

She looked up, eyes pleading, wordless in her terror as I stopped before her. I smiled grandly, fangs bared, eyes murderous. Then I spoke, to the woman and child and to all the rest.

"Proceed."

The mass had sufficiently proven its restraint. At my word of permission they continued on, plodding subduedly for their homes. Dazed, the woman rose and shakily fell into step, her daughter's hand clasped too tightly in her own. That was the end of it. I watched the sea of bodies part around the corpse of the dissenter as it was passed, desolate faces impassive. Walking against the crowd, I radioed the location for identification and disposal as I headed back for the Hokage tower.

It was unfortunate, but the masses needed to stay broken.

Hanabi ハナビ

"HYA!"

"HRAH!"

Between my small palm and his broad one, chakra crackled and burst in a clash of ferocity. I reeled, palm smoking – and realized that this time, he was recoiling as well.

Our strikes had been even.

In a flash of speed, he was whirling – I leaned away, and a heel kick blazed past, a hair's breadth from my chin. From the backbend I pushed off my hands, and found myself repelling the first of a chain of strikes almost before I had even gotten my feet on the ground. I wove furiously outside his flawless strikes, teeth grinding all the while.

This was it – I could feel it in the flow of the battle. I was reaching him. Since he never held back, I had first learned to barely hold my own. Since I couldn't take many hits, I had been struck and struck until I learned not to be struck.

And now, because I had held forever at heart the will to surpass him, I had learned to strike back.

His palm cracked the wall beside my head – in the same instant that two of my fingers jabbed swiftly and firmly into a tenketsu below his wrist. I knew from experience that the point I had hit was particularly painful, but being the seasoned fighter he was, he barely flinched. In the heartbeat of weakness I kicked out, and his arm caught my sandal's sole before his abdomen – but not the successive kick of my other sole as it cracked into his face. The blocked kick had been used to climb, and from the second, once it connected, I pushed off of him to flip neatly so that my feet met the wall. I was poised for scarcely an instant before I shoved toward him, palm lashing out.

It was a manner of strike Kiba had flattened me with on two separate occasions that I had pushed him to a wall; so decisive an attack, of unexpected height and velocity, had been enough to catch me off-guard at the time. My current opponent, even after a boot to the face, was not to be so easily thrown for a loop. He whirled in evasion, nailing a tenketsu on my calf muscle as I passed.

I grunted. My hand met the ground, and after sliding a bit I stabilized with my feet and kicked myself into an inverted spin, unleashing a burst of the Hakkeshou Kaiten to knock my foe back from his lunge of attack. I came out of the artful twirl with my feet safely beneath me, and from my crouch I launched myself – more off the leg that was not weakened – and from the air rained a storm of strikes upon my off-balance foe.

He was good – so good it was frightening. Even so, I realized I was smiling, throbbing eyes wide with excitement as I lashed out in a frenzy of palms, driven, possessed by a thrill of combat that set the Hyuuga blood in my veins ablaze. I was reaching and breaking new levels of speed; my movements were growing sharper than ever they had been before. He was forced to take a number of hits with his forearms.

My feet clapped to the ground, and we traded blows, paused so very briefly, and were at once engaged heatedly again. Two more such bursts of outrageous intensity occurred before the heel of his palm smashed against the side of my ribcage, just below my underarm, throwing me back from a failed lunging strike.

My mouth fell agape as I staggered back, side searing. My body wanted to crumple in pain, to give out right there.

My opponent closed for what he fully knew would be the final blow.

My body wanted to quit, but my raging spirit wouldn't let it. Wildness snapped into acuity, and with a mindless certainty I spun sharply in place. His palm arced by, and just like that I was inside his strike as well as his guard – he was near my level, having forfeited the advantage of his great height in order to attack – and my rising palm was cracking soundly into his jaw.

Then, with an ascension of prowess born as I then willed it, I closed in a swift series of steps and drove both my palms into Hiryuu-oji-san's gut.

Never, never before, had I thrown him off his feet.

I heard, indistinctly, the shocked exclamations of our three spectators; I saw Uncle begin to sit up, panting, face pale in disbelief and… fear. Fear, on one of the only faces on which I would not have thought it able to manifest…

But now, the inexplicable thirst for victory quelled, I slipped from my high – something buckled inside me – and I dropped to my hands and knees, coughing, Byakugan vanishing, an arm cradling my ribs as I realized my fatigue and shivered in pain.

"I… I am surpassed…" The fear on Hiryuu's face had been overtaken by awed admiration. "And m'lady Hanabi, not nine years of age… I fear to so much as imagine her a grown woman."

Catching my breath, I looked at him with one eye shut. "Th-this… it's good, right? Wasn't this the goal…?"

"Yes… Yes," he said, and beheld me with a warm smile, partly of joy, part of pride. He got to his knees, and I saw Harumi sink gracefully, pressing her forehead to the floor. Hikujaku and Hitaka, still in shock, started and hurriedly followed suit, prostrating themselves to me. Head bowed, Hiryuu clasped my hand in his own. "I am surpassed, and thus…" He pressed his lips to the back of my hand for a moment, and then lowered his head again. "And thus, our finest hope… is born."

I was soaked in sweat, battered near as badly as he, and didn't feel all that worth being bowed to at the moment. But suddenly I was the leader of New Konoha's Hyuuga – not merely arbitrarily in name, blood, and the faith of a possibly misjudged role in prophecy, but in power.

Suddenly, I was fit to lead.

I nodded, eyes softening. "I won't let you down. I will be worthy of the allegiance you've shown – I swear it."

Twenty-Five, Part Two: Final Days

Hinata ヒナタ

–"So, you're the last of the Three Demon Generals? Our own Naruto-chan, and your swordsman friend, arrived earlier today…"–

Three Demon Generals, I thought, suppressing an embarrassed smile as Kurogiba and I followed the escort of Sky ninja up the mountain path. That's what people are calling us now?

It was on the sunset of the twenty-first of December, the longest evening of the year, that I entered Yama no Kuni and set foot in the territory of Soragakure no Sato. Not only having trained here in medical ninjutsu and naginatajutsu, Naruto had apparently lent a helping hand to the village, sticking around through a series of rough stints and raiding a while back, and shown a selfless commitment and fortitude of character that the Sora-nin respected. Naruto was the first outsider in a long time to be seen in this place as a dependable friend; having the village's chief medical expert, Seifuu Matsuzuki, to vouch for his trustworthiness was an extra plus. By fortune of this connection of Naruto's, the Leaf's army had a place, centered on an abandoned barracks and training field outside the village proper, to gather and make final preparations for the march back north to Fire and New Sound.

A whoop up ahead snapped me out of my reverie. Further down the path, a group of people grew distinguishable. Among them a swordsman in green robes and the light armor of black shoulder and hip guards, sporting his Leaf hitai-ate around his waist, stood with well-muscled arms crossed as he beamed happily; his teeth sparkled even in the dim and wavering lantern light. And, in front of a black-haired, bespectacled Sora-nin who held the lantern, a blond youth waved enthusiastically. The black cape he'd added to his outfit accentuated the shoulders that seemed to have grown a bit broader since I'd seen him last, and the gentle angles of his face were handsomely defined in the flickering light – changes that must have been happening gradually even during the time we'd been together, but that were now all the more appreciable with time spent apart.

More than anything, though, what set my warming heart aflutter was the goofy, crooked grin on his face and the familiar sparkle in animated indigo eyes.

They were walking out to meet us. Unable to hold in my smile, I ran ahead and finally tackled my two favorite guys in a hug.

Naruto ナルト

It was with a great amount of laughter between us that Hinata threw her arms around Lee and I, and we lifted the girl up; somehow, though, we fumbled our balance and toppled into a guffawing heap on the ground. I was wiping away a tear of laughter as Hinata planted a kiss on Lee's cheek and another on mine, blushing like mad.

"I-I didn't even realize how much I missed you until I–,"

I sat up, catching her soft lips in a brief but loving kiss. "Until you saw us?" I guessed, snickering cheerfully as we parted. In reply she grabbed me in an embrace, which I gladly returned. "Oh?" I said, one hand lightly patting her back as she nestled her head fondly at my chest. Her eyes were shut in mirth, and her smile, wide but still soft, sweet as ever. Her short midnight hair was untidy without being unkempt, and the lightly tousled look added to a sense of lovable scruffiness about her. Otherwise her hair was much the same, except… "This is new," I remarked, hand brushing a short ponytail that fell close to her neck, tapering to an end just below the level of her shoulders.

"Do you mind it?" she murmured, looking up at me with inquisitive white eyes.

"Think I can make do," I teased quietly, winking. "It compliments your bangs, y'know?"

As we had probably been on the ground for longer than Three Demon Generals ought to, Lee stood and cleared his throat softly. He gave Hinata, who was blushing with renewed vigor, a hand to her feet, and she in turn took my hand and pulled me on up. As they caught up, the han'you ducked her head to the squad that had been her escort, smiling shyly for fear of a negative impression. "P-please pardon our silly behavior, if you will…"

The Sora shinobi had been surprised, sure, but were neither quick to judgment nor beyond empathy by any means. The squad leader smiled. "You had not seen your friends for some time, right? We can pardon you your happy reunion, Hyuuga-san. If anything, it is a joy to see such close camaraderie."

She bowed her head in appreciation, while Kurogiba yawned.

My chortling was cut off by a sharp elbow to the ribs. I growled at Senpai for a moment, but straightened with a start as I remembered. I put on a smile, setting one hand on his shoulder and the other on Hinata's.

"Hinata, I'd like you to meet Seifuu Matsuzuki, the man who taught me to save lives. Matsuzuki-senpai, this is Hyuuga Hinata… my dear comrade, and my beloved."

They bowed to each other and spoke their greetings. Hinata was surprised when, once they straightened from the formality, the medic stepped up and bent to give her a hug. "You have my blessing, Miss Hinata, and my best wishes." He pulled away, hands resting on her shoulders, and beamed. His voice was warm. "May the two of you bring each other happiness and fulfillment in your lives."

The girl was blushing, but happily so. "Thank you very much, Seifuu-san."

"Hey, loosen up," he said with a smile, hands fisted at his hips. "Naru-chan hasn't told you too many horror stories, has he?"

"Only how you're about as cuddly as a porcupine," I muttered. I could have sworn the eyes that fell on me glinted ominously in the darkness before they were lost behind the glare of his glasses lenses.

"What was that?"

I garbled out a jumble of words before stepping to put Lee between Matsuzuki and me. "H-huh-wha-who said something? Not me!" I laughed.

"Why're you standing behind Lee–?"

"So, the festivities!" I interjected. "Let's show Hinata-chan to the Solstice festivities!"

Matsuzuki brightened, his vicious smile turning carefree in the same moment that kindly eyes became visible, and my heart felt safe beating again. Gods, that guy was a terrifying chuunin. "That's a great idea! The night is young; things should just be getting started."

Kurogiba blinked, looking from me to Matsuzuki to me again, a 'What the hell?' in his eyes. See? I wasn't crazy! 'I don't know!' I mouthed, drawing a flat hand levelly in front of my neck.

"Solstice…?" Hinata was saying, and Lee nodded.

"You have gotten here just in time!"

Lee リー

In the field by the old barracks, a sparsely vegetated plain nestled comfortably between a few hills, the chill winter night was coming to life with merriment. The scent of roasting bird wafted smokily through the air along with pungent spices that went into warm beverages. Being an amiable people, a considerable number of Sky villagers had come down from the mountain village to commingle with their guests, bringing festive spirits with them. Fiddlers and flutists cranked out traditional-sounding tunes that many danced and skipped to; shinobi of all stripes and origins took turns recounting tales by a bonfire. A few rings had been set off for friendly bojutsu sparring, with crowds of spectators gathering to cheer on the most proficient staff-wielders; I smiled as I saw a Sky ninja guiding an ex-Waterfall-nin, who wore a green bandana around her neck, through a few basic forms with the practice staves in their hands. The spiteful cold of another long night was simply no match for the electrical liveliness concentrated here.

Naruto, after a hearty staff bout with Matsuzuki-san, caught sight of Hinata and Seifuu Kiremori both among the clapping spectators, and took the opportunity to pull them aside for introductions. The chuunin woman kissed Hinata on both cheeks, evidently happy to finally meet her. In a minute the four were dancing, skipping and twirling to the fiddlers' current upbeat, folksy tune. Smiling children scampered through the crowds, flinging woven wreaths of grass and mountain flowers into the air. In a graceful motion Naruto snagged one as it fell toward him, and placed the prize carefully upon Hinata's head, his expression suave. For several moments the two peered into each other's eyes. Then the tune came to a close, and they lightly embraced each other to share an ardent kiss.

I looked away, shaking my head. The bonfire – over there, a large group had gathered as Jiraiya took center stage, arms gesturing to accentuate his words, and Tsunade snapped what could only be corrections to his tale.

That should be interesting…

"Anou… Rock Lee-san, isn't it?"

I looked up to see a maiden, around her mid-teens, with autumn red hair framing her softly blushing face. "Hai," I answered, "I am Rock Lee."

Her mouth fell open a tad, her cheeks glowing brighter after I spoke. She collected herself, smiling kindly through her evident timidness. "A-ah – I'm Akiyama Fuyumi–," she bowed slightly, "–and, I was wondering if you might wish to join me for a dance."

I smiled soberly. "Gomen nasai. I fear that I must decline."

"O-oh… Well…" She held in front of her the distinctive flower wreath she had been hiding behind her back, and after a moment's hesitance held it out to me. "Even so, if you might take this, and perhaps keep me close to your heart…"

I clasped one of her outstretched hands softly. "You are very kind, Fuyumi-san. Still, I am not for you. There is too much uncertainty before me; the coming battle will be a difficult one. Forgive me."

"Lee-san…" Her eyes were saddened, but she nodded. "I understand. I will pray for your and your comrades' success."

Moist-eyed, she left the grass wreath in my hands and ran off to join the group of girls that had been watching at a distance, shaking her head at their questions.

"You should dance with one of them, Lee-kun." I blinked as Hinata sat beside me on the half-log bench, a mug in her hands. "How many of Sora's young ladies have you turned down?"

"A few." Seven. "Partaking of the rum?" I asked, nodding toward the beverage in her hand.

"Apple cider – dry," she assured me. "I had my fill of rum in the drinking contest earlier."

"Right…" I remembered watching. About an hour ago, once facing down the final contender, a hulk of a Sora-nin, she had hiccupped once and summarily declared herself unable to continue – effectively, throwing the contest before the poor man could pass out. She could stomach almost any intoxicant (or outright poison, for that matter) without consequence, after all. "Hidoi," I teased, smiling subtly. "Trashing a competition simply because you can?"

"A half-Ookami youkai has to have some fun," she answered innocently, though I caught the slightest twinkling of mischief in the corner of a white eye.

"No one anticipates that mischievous streak," I sighed. "Meanwhile, a fellow with a dangerous ineptitude for holding his liquor is going thirsty…"

"Oh!" she said in realization. "It's great to err on the side of caution, but I can sniff out something clean for you…"

"Iie," I said as she started to rise. "Do not worry about it."

"If you're sure…" She sat back down, eyes thoughtful. "Lee-kun… actually, I was wondering if you're feeling alright. Even with so much going on, you've been sitting alone for so long – it's not like you. You haven't even visited the sparring rings, have you?"

I frowned; so, I had been causing her concern. "It is nothing, really."

"Lee-kun…"

"I cannot bring myself to relax," I conceded. This was not a lie. "Truth be told, I do not think I have felt such anxiety since the night before we fought in Wave."

She winced. "I see… I feel the same, but this is probably the last chance we'll have to relax like this for a while. I really do think we should try to enjoy it. It might even ease your nerves, if you let it…"

"You are probably right."

She smiled, reassured. "See? Go ahead and eat something. Spar a bit. Dance with someone, even – it doesn't have to mean anything. Do you know – a Sky kunoichi asked me earlier whether you already have a sweetheart?"

My face warmed; I rubbed my neck. "I do not know why they keep approaching me…"

"Don't you?"

I blinked. She sounded honestly perplexed at my statement. Evidently she understood something that I did not; gathering this, she chuckled.

"You don't realize how much you've changed, do you? Your strong chin and jaw, your muscle definition, your clothes and hair…" Her small hand cupped my face, and attentive eyes traced the rough scar that I knew ran across my nose and down to my jawline, and a smaller one that had been dashed near my chin, before she met my eyes again. "You've become ruggedly handsome."

"N-nani? Boku ga?" I asked quietly, pointing to myself with a flustered frown of uncertainty. She shook her head in amazement. I considered that perhaps the rum really was getting through to her.

"And when you're the spitting picture of masculinity, it doesn't hurt, either, to be a warrior renowned for strength matched only by the immense kindness of your heart. Any girl could consider herself lucky to be with you, Lee-kun."

I gulped, surprised by the sudden flattery. I could smell the flowers in the grass wreath on her head. "Y-you… really think so?"

"Of course!" she chirped happily, clapping a supportive hand on my shoulder. "Who wouldn't be attracted to my cool, tough Onii-san?"

My mouth opened and shut, and I put on a grin. "Way to inform me now, younger sister," I chortled, tousling her hair to mild protests. Laughing, she got to her feet and thrust her mug of sparkling cider into my hand.

"It's true that some of them might be looking for love, but plenty are just looking hoping to socialize. I know you don't want to get any hopes up, but dancing with someone is harmless. The celebration's as much of friendship and community as it is of love, if not more. And for all you know, the perfect girl for you is here today – but you'll never be any the wiser if you don't open up and give them a chance!" she called, and skipped off to catch up with Naruto again.

I blinked. Then my jaw set.

"YOSSSSHHU! ! !" I bellowed, rising to stand tall.

Unblinking, I paused – face warming, lip wrinkled and one eyebrow twitching with the knowledge that I was ruggedly handsome.

Then, spotting a downcast Fuyumi-san and her friends in the crowd, I downed the half-mug of sparkling cider and hastened over to request a friendly dance.

Hanabi ハナビ

New Konoha had received correspondence from the outside. The loyalist army was gathering, and making final preparations for its strike.

–"I'm not sure if I can do that again, actually…"

"Then we practice, until you can tap that intensity at will."–

The biggest battle yet is coming. When it's here, I need to be ready to do whatever I need to do!

With a yell, I knocked my off-balance opponent decisively to the ground. Mitarashi Anko-sensei grimaced. "The hell?!" Her eyes turned to Hiryuu, who observed. "What kind of training have you put this kid through?"

The man's face was indifferent. "You laughed, Anko-san, when I asked you to go all out against her. M'lady's skill is prodigious; she grows more formidable with each passing day. I take it you will not underestimate her again?"

Anko smirked as she stood. I'd thought as much. I had seized and won our brief skirmish more quickly than she had realized not to hold back – a fluke, by surprise. I fell into my stance, nodding. "Don't worry about hurting me, please. I am a chuunin of New Leaf, after all."

"Got it," she said. Then her hands flew together and blurred, and a stream of fire was lancing my way.

–"You know how Hyuuga fight – but Anko-san has something else in common with Neji."–

A ninjutsu, right off the bat? I leapt to the side, Byakugan flaring to life – and ducked to narrowly avoid a kick from behind that swept above my head. I rolled backwards to get some space, but was immediately occupied with deflecting the flurry of shuriken that she threw backhand as she lunged. Arm drawn far back, she swung her fist.

Such an obvious strike…

I caught the blow in my hands. As I did, however, something shot from her sleeve to dart with blinding swiftness around my arm.

Snakes–?!

And a knee cracked sharply into my gut.

Spittle shot from my mouth as the serpents withdrew. I staggered forward with a wheeze before my feet slipped from under me, and I crashed down on my side in the grass, wincing as I tried to control my breathing. What a shot…

"You can't be thrown off your game that easily, Hanabi-chan," Anko chirped, smiling devilishly.

I groaned and started to push to my hands and knees, eyes determined. "R-right…"

Show me… How does a student of Orochimaru fight?

Lee リー

On the twenty-sixth of December, a small group of us accompanied Lady Tsunade to the Village Hidden in the Sky, nestled in the heart of the range of mountains. Part of the agreement that allowed our army to base its operations so near the village required the sannin kunoichi's visiting their medical facilities, evaluating their program, and sharing her expertise.

We had stayed with her only long enough, however, to see an ecstatic Matsuzuki-san greet her at the head of the facility (and unabashedly ask for an autograph). Naruto's true interest was in showing us around the village, and catching up with occasional friends and acquaintances.

Soon enough it became evident that we were spending more time keeping Master Jiraiya out of trouble than anything, for his regular antics would not bode well for Sky's opinion of its guests. Naruto had the presence of mind – to the master's great dismay – to cut the tour short prior to reaching the natural hot springs district, and we had thankfully ended up with little incident at a dojo clear across town.

WHAM!

"S-sugoi…!" A Sora genin whispered beside me on the sidelines, wide eyes glued to the combatants. "What a sparring match! I-I can't even see Naruto-nii-san's strikes, but this Hyuuga-san is defending against them!"

My eyes darted as Hinata, Byakugan active and skin patterned with black, ducked and sidestepped from invisible, pulsing blows that hummed on the air around her, never leaving her stance. Gritted teeth in a smirk, she caught on her forearm a strike that connected with a crash.

I can track his Shadow Strikes; that much, the two of us have long since learned to do. But…

Hinata blurred side to side, and with a thud Naruto was blocking a driving fist before his face. He backpedalled from an artful string of palms and fists, diverting one in such a way that when he turned, his face came into my view – yellow eyes with laterally elongated pupils, underscored on his face by twin, rounded swathes of orange, twinkling competitively.

"Hinata is among few comrades he can feel safe sparring with like that; anyone else trying to block those blows would just wind up with shattered bones…"

On Jiraiya's other side, Kakashi observed with the Sharingan. "Sage Mode… I still can't believe he mastered it."

Jiraiya nodded. "In the hills the other day, I had him pit his Senjutsu against mine. While our han'you Hyuuga isn't showing the full extent of her strength right now, either… if Naruto were to go all out, I wonder whether her demonic powers would be able to stack up…"

A few yards between them, Naruto made as if to lunge, a hand outstretched; Hinata jumped upward to dodge the clone that launched itself for her feet, and the true Naruto darted to snag her ankle in his hand, and slam her flat on her back to the floor. With a recovery speed bordering on nonsensical, Hinata pulled by the leg he held to smash her other foot clear into his face.

"Still…"

Hinata landed on her feet and slashed, nearly stumbling as he evaporated under the strike; he spun in place ten yards off, the elegant flaring of his cape distracting from the arm he drew back, before he reappeared before her, a fist sinking into her gut. She snapped double with a grimace, and he landed a savage blow to her face. Thrown off her feet, she got a hand on the ground, flipped to all fours, and launched in a burst of speed to mash her shoulder into his gut, propelling him fifteen yards. Her feet touched down a moment before his did, and she launched her foot into his face with all her strength, sharp teeth glinting in a smile as she straightened him out again.

"You are getting blood all over the place…" I muttered, lip twitching.

"Pint-sized demons," Kakashi said, as much in bemusement as in exasperation. "Look at them – they're having a blast. Almost hard to believe they're crazy for each other."

"Nothing says 'romantic' quite like beating the tar out each other!" I said, flashing him a smile.

"You have Guy's sense of humor – ah, sorry, Lee, but that's actually not a compliment."

Jiraiya, who had been silent in thought, tapped a fist on a cupped palm, his mouth forming an 'o'. Eyes narrowing, he leaned over toward Kakashi, whispering his theory behind his hand. "Their relationship emphasizes a strict no-touch policy. This must be how they deal with their pent-up sexual frustration!"

Within the instant, a young Sage was landing a flying kick at his tailbone as a young demon levered a leaping elbow into his jaw. His back smacking to the ground, he was already shrieking a stream of apologies as a five-foot tall girl, eyes shut and face glowing red, shook him furiously by the neck.

"Stupid perverted old man!"

Naruto stood by, fists on his hips and stormy scowl dampened by the color in his cheeks. Kakashi popped a book open, turning away with a sigh and strolling off to lean against the wall. "You bring these things on yourself, you know. Just be glad Lady Tsunade isn't around…"

"Um… will they be alright?" the Sora boy asked me as Jiraiya got throttled.

I laughed awkwardly, patting him on the shoulder and steering him away.

How embarrassing.

Hinata ヒナタ

How embarrassing…

I scowled, arms crossed. Lord Jiraiya, when things calmed down, had vowed to win our forgiveness by sharing with the three of us an art certain to strike fear into the hearts of even the most formidable of enemies. When Tsunade had finished her work for the day, we had headed back to camp; for the length of the trip the toad sannin had not divulged a single detail of this grand art, no matter how eagerly Naruto and Lee pried.

"Ready, and… staaaart!"

Jiraiya's own 'Ninja Art' of Dramatic Introduction.

"Yosshu! The honorable whirlwind of rugged might, a lord of steel, descends to strike – a fiend of flashing silver heralds the undoing of all that is wicked!"

"Behold! The cunning fox moves as a wraith's shadow in the night! Foes shrink back in terror before his name – sinister and dashing, he materializes to strike!"

"Cower. The demon's flesh is wrought of steel; her bones, of adamant. Forgive the thirsting obsidian claw its strike, as it sheds your blood with otherworldly grace…"

"Unwavering in the face of danger! Blossoming before the crashing tides of adversity! Fear the Aoi Moujuu!"

"The Murasaki Kitsune!"

"And also, the Kurouga…"

Jiraiya's eyebrow twitched. My eyebrow twitched right back. Seated beside the old sage, Guy-sensei 'ooh'ed in amazement, clapping his hands approvingly. Naruto looked over at me, blinking, and whispered behind his hand.

"Hinata-chan, you forgot to pose again!"

I blushed and muttered something in feigned surprise.

"Naruto and Lee," Jiraiya said, smiling, "either you've had practice at this, or you're stinking naturals!" The two grinned, slapping a sharp high-five between them. "Hinata, on the other hand…" The man grimaced, and spoke at a deadpan. "Dreadful."

"Sorry, it looks like I have no talent for this after all. Can I go, now?"

Jiraiya sighed. "If you truly wish to give up on this special training, there's nothing I can do…"

"You're tutoring us in boasting and posing. And people are laughing at us!" I pointed out, indicating the fair crowd of snickering Leaf Loyalists that had collected off to one side.

I gagged as Lee caught me in a headlock, crying manly tears as his fist was held skyward. "My poor, adorable junior is having difficulty in our training! But do not despair, Hinata-san – I will stand by your side through this hardship!"

"A-actually, I'm fine with failing if it's at this. Really–,"

Naruto clasped my hand in his own between us, looking into my eyes with rapt meaning. "I won't give up on you, either! So don't worry, Hinata – we'll help you find your pizzazz! Even if your lines are little flat!"

Then their free hands rose, and the two of them pinched my lupine ears, one apiece, between thumb and forefinger, leaning in to speak in lowered voices.

"So shape up."

I laughed nervously, glancing between them and suddenly quite conscious of the headlock I was in. "Ah… guys–? Ita! Wait– itata! Don't pull on those! Not the ears – quit it! No fair, guys! Alright, alright, I give! I'll actually try–!"

A throat cleared; the two let up on their tugging, and I on my kicking of their shins, and we looked in the direction of a tall Sora man who had come from the direction of camp. He averted his gaze, evidently finding difficulty in keeping his straight face. "Um… they pointed us in this direction… said a lot of the leaders were over here…?"

"They are here," a familiar, low and slightly scratchy voice confirmed, and a gently smiling redhead stepped from behind the Sora-nin. The muscle where an eyebrow would have been quirked. "Are you bullying Hyuuga-san?"

"Never!"

"They are!"

Promptly sand was thickening in the air around us. They had only started to release me when twin pools of it burst outward, slapping them to the ground.

"Gaara-kun!" I exclaimed happily as he swept forward. He had changed as well; his stride seemed easy and sure, his back straight and shoulders strong. He could hold his head up now, it seemed, and was comfortable doing so – with cool eyes no longer perpetually haunted but bright and powerful. We met in a hug, and I planted a kiss on his cheek as we separated. "Someone with a whit of sense has arrived at last. You saved me." And if he'd brought any news, the others might even forget about pursuing the Art of Dramatic Introduction.

"How dare they go about pulling your ears…?" he said, mildly perturbed, and reached up to thumb and smooth them himself. I chuckled.

Naruto and Lee had gotten to their feet, and clasped forearms warmly with Gaara in turn. Once greetings had been exchanged, Jiraiya asked after news from the Sand. At this the Sora escort smiled. "Oh, he brought a bit more than news."

The envoy of the Sand beamed confidently. "Suna has…"

Gaara had returned, weeks prior, to his village; with his chin held aloft by determination, he had faced and spoken to so many who had scorned and feared him, to citizens, councilors, and lords, to share his experience of fighting alongside the Leaf Loyalists, and to profess in our army the power to bring a common enemy to justice.

And he had today returned, traveling ahead in the final stretch, to announce the arrival of the army he'd brought with him. With the addition of the Sand's force, which consisted of one jounin to every seven chuunin, the army's numerical strength was nearly doubled. In the next few days we welcomed a similar force from Mist, which had hardly chosen to forget Orochimaru's attempt at its conquest, nor our part in foiling his plan of attack; a few squads from Stone, as a show of good will and thanks for the safe return of a long-missing war hero freed from a Land of Rice prison; and a few more fighters from Cloud, sent to convey support for our mission and also, it seemed, simply to get in on a piece of what was happening here.

As it were, history was being made; the Godaikoku, Five Great Nations, were however temporarily to be represented in a single force. It was true that Orochimaru had made far too many enemies in his time, certainly – but it was said that it was the incredible tale of the birth of a loyalist army from the ashes of his conquest, the ability to believe that that ragtag army might succeed, and the impending action of such a force that would bring them all at once back to haunt him.

It was on a cloudless, cool day that a dozen of Soragakure's finest shinobi trekked down from the mountains, marking the final addition to the army. A meeting of commanders. Handshakes. Reviews of all pertinent intelligence. A plan of attack.

Finally, an address to a force of three thousand.

There was no more relaxing; we marched north at dawn.

War was soon to be upon us.

Naruto ナルト

"Hinata."

I'd found her standing on the northern hill, gazing into the distance. The girl looked back, hesitant, her pale face clear and beautiful in the evening moonlight. She blinked as I dug from my bag a small parcel. I held it out to her, and smiled warmly.

"You're fourteen."

She blushed. "Naruto-kun…"

"Don't tell me you forgot it again?"

"I didn't, but I hoped you had. It's only a day, the same as any other. Even more, it's the day before we march to war. Something like this isn't worth distracting you, even if… even if it might be my last–,"

"No!"

She started with the firmness of my voice. The gift thudded to the grass, and my arms enclosed her in an embrace. Scowling, I cupped her head in my hand, nestling fingers into short hair. My heart was beating too rapidly.

"Don't you say that, Hinata. Don't. I beg of you…"

"Naruto…" She tried for a moment to pull away. Then, stifling a sob, she buried her face in the crook of my neck. I shushed, rocking her soothingly side to side. Alone here, on a night before the storm, was one of the last precious chances we had, I knew – a last chance for her to show weakness, and my last chance to offer her comfort. In a few days we would make our hearts stone, and we would fight – as leaders who inspired courage, and enemies who inspired fear.

"Hinata… this is not your last birthday."

There will be many, many more … not on the warpath, but spent happily at home, with family and friends.

Hinata ヒナタ

By the thirty-first of December, we were nearing the heart of the Land of Fire, and our destination. Right on schedule.

Those few Sound and New Sound shinobi that had been encountered in the last few days had fled when spotted, without a thought of fighting. The snake was holding true to his bold words, it seemed; we had seen occasional scouts, but it was evident that no force would be coming out to greet us. It was to be a battle for the village, at the village, and tomorrow this loyalist army's forces would be the initiators of the day of bloodshed.

It was on such a night that I had found myself unable to sleep soundly, even within Naruto's arms; that I had headed alone for the eastern ridge that marked the edge of camp; that he had followed me, like a shadow in the moonlight, and stayed with me on the chill night. On my feet were the warm footwraps, of hide strips stitched on one side so meticulously with soft rabbit's fur, that he had made me for my birthday since I rarely wore shoes any more.

A breeze stirred, but I felt little of the mild cold, lying at his side with my fingers loosely twined with his between us. Here in the cool grass, with only the stars and moon above to see us, we spoke.

I couldn't understand, really, why it was so easy to put my thoughts to words. There were simply so many things I wanted to say, or wanted not to leave unsaid, things I had never thought of sharing but wanted now so eagerly to, and all came out lucidly clear. The flow of thoughts between us continued, rolling on like the smooth, sweet wind that danced, ebbed and flowed over the plain.

"For a long time, truthfully, I longed to become a medical ninja," I admitted slowly. I smiled meekly into the dark blue sky. "Along with finding a way to remove the Branch curse mark, it was my dream to be a healer, and now look at me – feared as a berserker. I envy you sometimes…"

"I never knew that," he said sadly, a thumb caressing my calloused palm. "Why didn't you? Learn to heal people, I mean?"

"Years of Juuken training tend to build up a difficulty in molding one's chakra into a restorative form. Healing chakra is the gentle, wafting warmth of life; Juuken chakra is the piercing, frozen fire of death. Only a few, geniuses even among Hyuuga at controlling their chakra, have ever managed to master both." And once, one of them saved my life… I held up my right hand; the pale scars on the back of the forearm were white in the moonlight. "After my chakra network injury I started experiencing these… sporadic, uncontrollable little jumps in my chakra flow, and that only rendered it harder for me to humor any dreams of performing the healing arts safely. Then I found out Tsunade-sama could have fixed it, actually, but… I guess it just wasn't meant to be anymore. I'm on this path now – the path of a Beast – by my choice, and I accept it."

"You broke away from what fate had drawn out for you, and against all odds became a fighter. Maybe it's something you should never have been forced to endure – but you pushed ahead without complaining, because it needed to be done."

I smirked. "The road of strife wasn't a kind one for any of us, but all this time, maybe before we knew it, the three of us had each other to lean on when we needed it most. We were able to bear it, together…"

"And now… we've come so far, haven't we? If you step back, and take it all in, it's almost hard to believe. A couple of years ago I was just hoping to pass the Academy graduation exam. All I could think about was being a super-cool ninja, and becoming Hokage." He laughed a little. "I never once thought that the life of a strong ninja could be anything but glorious. We've grown, and we've changed, for certain… but you're wrong about one thing, Hinata. Beast or not, you can save lives."

My gaze fell from the skies, and I studied his smiling face. A sparkle of starlight glinting off his eye, he turned his head to look toward me. "You save lives through love … through the kindness of your heart. Your power to forgive, to hope, and to keep believing in people well beyond the point that any other would… it's something I think only you can do."

"Naruto…"

He chuckled. "To think we've come so far … and to think, how far we may yet go. Everything'll change now, won't it? This time tomorrow, we'll have taken back our home… We'll be able to settle down, to live the lives of lawful shinobi, in a village."

Even though I made a sound of agreement, I looked down, hiding my eyes. "What… What'll happen, then? What comes next?"

"Hm?"

My fingers clenched in the soft grass. I looked away from him, uncertain, but this was another thought I found I needed to speak, however painful, if I did not want it gnawing away at me. "When we return … will things go back to how they were? Between… us?"

A hand reached across me, cupping my cheek and gently bidding me to face him again. I opened stubbornly shut eyes as I felt his forehead against mine, his soft breath on my face. In a moment he pulled back and opened his own eyes, his face firm, but indigo orbs ardent.

"Let's get one thing straight… I will never stop loving you."

His voice was but a whisper, stifled as it were, its volume smothered in the strength of the passion it contained. My heart gave a bump as I held his eyes; then, with a small 'oh,' I stroked his face with my hand and shut my eyes again, content to breathe his warm, spiced greenery smell as he ran languid fingers through my hair, brushed them down the back of my neck. My skin tingled beneath his hand.

"The journey may have brought us closer," he said, "but its end will not push us apart. Nothing can; that's what I'd like to believe. You inspire me, Hinata; we make each other stronger, in body and spirit alike. I'm a better man for having met you – you've taught me so much about myself, without even meaning to. I'm not letting my dearest one go so easily… Unless you'd like me to?" he asked, and I snorted softly, nuzzling my nose into the crook of his neck.

"Never… Oh, Naruto-kun, it's just so confusing," I breathed. "Traveling around like this, it's something we've almost never known for sure. 'What does my tomorrow hold?' But here, at the end … at last on the brink of certainty, it all seems so strange…"

He embraced me; then he rolled so that I lay on my back, and he above me, and cradled my face in his hands. I looked up at the blond, eyes filled with complete trust.

"You're apprehensive, love…?" he asked.

"I don't know, I don't know… What if… I mean, if things go wrong…" I slipped my hands behind his neck, draping entwined fingers lightly over him in something like an embrace. His hands brushed down onto my shoulders, offering a gentle squeeze, and I continued, spurred on. "I don't know what I'd do. Even after all we've been through together, there's just so much … so much more that I want to see with you… days, I want to spend smiling with you… things I want to experience with you, Naruto-kun…"

"Oh, Hinata…" There was a gentle burning in eyes half-lidded with longing. Lips parted, he lowered his hands to my sides, just beneath my arms, and bent to leave a trail of kisses smoldering along my collarbone, my neck; my breath pitched as each gentle press of his slowly passing lips, so warm against skin chilled in the night air, lit up pinpricks of sensation that melted ardently into my flesh, sank into it and brought it to blissful life. Was this what it was like, to ache for his touch?

The lips that indulged in the length of my neck, their caress soft as velvet, drew me in even as my head turned away with a hushed gasp.

"Are you uncomfortable?" he murmured, pausing.

"N-no," I managed in answer, finding myself breathless, and I furrowed my fingers into his hair as he continued. My eyes had shut as he reached my jawline, and I fell still as my parted lips yearned to greet him. He ministered only briefly to the flesh at the corner of my mouth before planting a final, melting kiss on my cheek, however, and then pulled away, slightly shaking his head. I was a moment confused, but could hardly feel disappointment before the expression on his face. He was beaming.

Naruto ナルト

I smiled down at her, suddenly joyous as she opened her eyes and sent a soft smile back. It was amazing – so amazing, to look into her eyes and know, every time, that I was loved.

"We're surviving this battle – you, and me, and everyone else. We're the heroes of the Leaf, Hinata…! And after tomorrow, we'll have everything – all the time you want – to share with each other." We touched noses, fondly, as I began to laugh with sudden mirth.

"Naruto-kun…!" She turned so that she was above me, her face aglow. "Yes… yes, you're right!" she said, softly, tentatively exuberant. "It's – it's all going to be okay now, isn't it? And we'll be…"

"Together, yes." I chuckled. "I really hope your dad approves."

"Of the great commander-hero of the Leaf? And if he disapproves, then – then, so what?" she said, almost breathlessly but smiling as if in discovery – self-empowered. "This is my life – our life – and I'll spend it with the person I'm meant to. I'm yours…"

"And I, yours," I pledged, my heart warm in my breast. "So… so you'll be with me, love? One day, you'll join me in union… and make of me a husband? 'Til death do us part?"

She was surprised for but a moment; the smile that followed was positively radiant. "Yes!" she whispered. "Yes… I marry you, I marry you, I marry you," she murmured slowly, kissing me with each one – sealing each soft reiteration gently between our lips. The third lasted longer, slow with the sweet warmth of passion, slow with the unconquerable love exuded from our hearts as it ran together and blazed inextinguishable, yearning to be cherished.

As we settled, she drifted off resting against my chest. I knew her slumber could only be peaceful, judging from the soft smile that graced her sweet porcelain face. Nuzzling my nose lightly into her hair, I rested my head on the grass and shut my eyes. I was content to face whatever the future might hold, by the virtue of one fact that spoke clear from my heart.

Come what may… As long as we have each other, we can survive…

Twenty-Five, Part Three: Zero Hour

Hanabi ハナビ

"You are strong."

"I am strong. I am a Hyuuga of Lightning. My prowess knows no limitations."

A single candle flickered in the stone room. We had risen before dawn, as had all of New Konoha. The day was to be a momentous one.

"You are gifted."

"I am gifted. I can stop an enemy's heart with a single touch. I can best opponents many times my own age and experience."

Candlelight dancing, the man paused to study me contemplatively, hands folded behind his back as shadows flickered across his face. My gaze remained steady, trained unwaveringly forward from where I sat as he proceeded to pace, stern eyes on me all the while.

"You are fearless."

"I am fearless. I can have no fear, for my duty is certain. Everything I do, I do because I must. No amount of peril can faze the resolute."

Footsteps rang down the hallway outside. My focus stayed pure, for all the activity of the underground world around us.

"You are prepared."

"I am prepared. I have devoted myself to training, and am prepared to fight and kill the one who has put my house in turmoil, if fate demands it of me, in the name of my village, my comrades, and my clan."

He nodded slowly. "You're ready."

"Hai."

I took the hand he offered, rising smoothly to my feet. If I really was the One that the prophecy needed to avert destruction, I was ready.

"Let us be off, then," Hiryuu, said. "Things will be starting shortly."

"Wait," Harumi said, entering the room. "I've brought it. Hanabi-sama, this is for you."

"What…?"

Neji ネジ

I stood with my head high, arms folded behind my back as I surveyed the sky above. A diffuse glow seeped through the shadowed, grey and white-dappled clouds, creating an indistinct quilt of alternating dark splotching, pale white, and silvered edges. The day was awakening chill and solemn, stale winds carrying softly on to stir in my cloak and hanging hair. At my back stood the Hokage tower; on its rooftop plaza, the Hokage himself. And before us, the whole of the Sound empire's might – twelve thousand shinobi stretching in block battalions down the broad main street, standing on rooftops, or lining the village wall as a strong front of uniformed bodies, awaiting our foes' approach.

"Today…" I observed, "will be a grand day indeed."

"You think so?" I watched from the corner of my eye as the speaker body flickered in nearby, and walked toward me, hands in his pockets and eyes on the wall. "I just came from up there. The spies' reports were accurate; their numbers are greater than we first predicted."

I wrinkled my nose. At such a time, despite the New Sound insignia that shone on his forehead, or the uniform black bodysuit and pale, white-grey vest that he wore, this one managed to look unbecoming. It must have been his posture. "You're scared, Uchiha? A few paltry forces from the other villages will not be enough to change the outcome today. We shall be victorious; Fate has ordained it."

He eyed me. "Lord Orochimaru's got something up his sleeve, doesn't he?"

"Quite the intuitive one." I smiled darkly, glaring ahead. "It won't be long now. We shall prove victorious … and in the wake of the necessary slaughter, we will take our first steps toward the New Age."

"The age of Sound's supremacy… but in case you've forgotten, you're not exactly a part of that picture."

I chuckled. "This strong body will become our Lord's vessel and sustain him on his noble path. I have already freed my people, named my successor. After today… after wrapping up a few loose ends… I will have fulfilled all that I am meant to do. It will be the highest honor imaginable to surrender my being and be reborn, as one with the name of a greater purpose."

"All for a greater purpose, huh?" He scowled. "Tch. Your faith is strong – I'll give you that."

"Haven't you faith?"

"I have plenty of faith in him making me stronger once you're out of the picture. I am a slave to no one's ambitions. My own purpose comes first."

"And this is the place for you to achieve it? Even if you despised us?" I smirked. This fellow… "To each, his own reasons," I said. I nodded in the direction of the wall. "Something is happening."

Naruto ナルト

We halted in our march. We were here, at the fore of an army – three hundred yards from the wall of our village. I ground my teeth.

"By day's end, the New Village Hidden in the Sound will be no more. We're taking it back."

"Yes," Lee said at my side, eyes stony. Hinata nodded subtly in agreement.

My gaze slid to my left, past Lee, who stood before Guy-sensei, and down the front line that stretched across the plain a step behind us – to Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou, to Baki, to the once-Sound four, then to many more of the shinobi of the Sand. To my right, beyond Hinata – Kakashi-sensei, Asuma-sensei, and Kurenai-sensei, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune, and more jounin of the Leaf. Then I turned my head to look back directly, just once, upon the army that stretched into the distance, and the interspersed standards – the most frequent of Leaf, Mist, and Sand – that flew.

It's time…

I heard the activation of Hinata's Byakugan. I left her to a moment of studying, and then asked, "Can you do it?"

She nodded. "I can."

My hand clapped onto her shoulder. "Just like we planned, then. You're up."

The village's great outer wall was lined with a rather intimidating barrier of unmoving Oto and New Oto-nin, the effect of whom seeming to make it just a pinch taller – and many times more dangerous. They stared us down from above, steadfast and uniform.

This strong façade wavered momentarily when they sighted a lone figure striding from the motionless body of our army, slipping her bow off her back and retrieving an arrow from her quiver as she walked. They suppressed whatever confusion they felt, however, as she stopped, notched the arrow, and took aim.

The puzzlement on their part was quite understandable. What were we thinking? What did one crackbrained archer think she could accomplish from such a distance and inferior height, and how could the rest of us be daft enough to let her try?

THWNG!

The arrow zipped off skyward, its optimal angle beginning to decline as it sailed. No doubt it would've soon leveled off, caught its maximum height, and gone on to hit the ground at least a hundred yards shy of the village gate.

The han'you maintained her form still, bow held out before her. White eyes not once straying as the arrow's angle of ascent gradually decreased, she flicked up two fingers of a right hand that still lay poised back where it had released the bowstring.

"Kai!"

And the seal that I knew to be near the head of the arrow, a seal packed tight with youki for the purpose of propulsion, exploded.

Neji ネジ

'A lone archer approaches' – such was what a chuunin had just reported. The distance? Nearly three hundred meters.

An archer? Alone? At a ridiculous distance and adverse height? The possibility of any effect was nonexistent; the fool would enter the range of our longbows on the wall first. The fact was as simple as the advantage of height.

I was scoffing at the chuunin's concern, and at our enemy's idiocy, when a man was launched backwards from atop the village wall.

He sailed and dropped like a stone, until soon all could see the arrow lodged deep in his eye.

In the moment of stillness that ensued, I would have heard a pin drop. I certainly did hear the distant, cracking thud of a dead body colliding with the ground.

Then an uproar began on the wall; the rigid columns of shinobi in the street stirred in uncertainty and confusion. I bit back my own bewilderment, activating the Byakugan. "Don't panic! Their range is not indefinite, fools! Hold your posit–!"

A bolt of darkness lanced well over the wall and split the grey sky in a flash of speed, trailing a lingering tail of energy in its wake. I saw the projectile zip within a meter of Lord Orochimaru's unamused face atop the tower – and lodge itself with a steely crack between the eyes of his carved stone semblance on the mountainside.

A fracture began to run, slowly, from the place the streaming arrow had struck.

Then the arrow exploded, bringing down the Fifth Hokage's face in its entirety. The village watched as the great mass of broken stone tumbled down the cliffside with a long and momentous roar, piling in a heap at its base.

I growled, teeth bared in outrage, and looked to Lord Orochimaru for a signal. He lifted a hand, nodding.

Eyes wild, I turned and swept my arm forward.

"ATTAAAAACK! !"

The main gate was heaved open, and the column of shinobi that filled the street raced out to meet our foes.

Hinata ヒナタ

My glower was steady, my jaw set as I stowed my bow, flashed a thumbs-up to those behind me, and continued forward. Unhurried strides did not falter as the gate opened, pouring out a steady flood of charging enemy shinobi. That's right… come on out here…

Mi, Hitsuji, Saru, I, Uma, Tora. Ookami.

I turned my head to spit the Fireball; Kurogiba swirled into being at my side, smoothly matching my stride as he took blazing form.

The Sound were a scant two hundred meters away. I picked up my pace, moving from a brisk walk to a jog as Naruto and Gaara caught up, and we sprinted together. I growled as my youki blazed to life, flinging inky patterns across my skin and lengthening my fangs and claws as my hair blackened. Gaara held his palms together as he ran, while Naruto, hair flecked with color and body blazing in an aura of raging violet, ran through five handseals of his own.

We were sixty meters from the approaching front of Sound forces – four, alone, with the army just beginning to charge well behind with Lee's command – when Kurogiba leapt in a bolt of flame, stripped of his medium, and crashed his spirit down upon me.

Teeth clenched, I hunched over with claws spread, beginning to pounce forward – and exploded into the combined transformation that rendered Kurogiba and I one tremendously large, black-and-white wolf. The head Sound battalion barely had time to falter before a sweep of the Shukaku's massive tail, emerging from an adjacent cloud of smoke, crashed across their ranks, scattering men easily as grains of rice. Emerging from the smoke of transformation alongside us was a titanic, purple demon fox, menacingly crouched with steam pouring from its fanged maw, and its charade complete with nine wildly whipping tails.

Prior to the time he would be called upon for his duties as envoy, Gaara had not sat idle; against our instruction, he had in fact strayed from the army for a time. During a few weeks of solitary training in the desert, self-imposed with the intent of learning control, Gaara's enigmatic soul had leveled with and in a sense befriended the eccentric Shukaku. Naruto, by contrast, had now summoned Gamabunta and transformed with him in the instant of the toad's appearance – a ruse that our enemies did not need to know of.

The fox snarled, batting a wiry arm at shinobi who tried to circle around us; with unexpected speed its claw lashed out, closed around a handful of them, and hurled them toward the village wall with devastating force, where some struck into a few of the shinobi, manning the walls, who assailed us ineffectually with shuriken. Growling and snapping in a show of malice, the violet beast took another handful and flung its captives to lethal heights. Our minds as one, Kurogiba and I lowered our head, sweeping it forward across a number of the ground force as they tried to fall back, and we darted to snag a few in our great jaws. We bit down until a crunch sent liquid streaming hotly into our mouth, running from our teeth, and spat them away again. The Shukaku, shrieking in glee at the banquet of destruction, leapt to crash down, belly-first, upon a sizeable throng of Oto-nin, and went sliding from a body slam that shook the land.

"Fall back!" a kunoichi was shouting. "We'll be slaughtered! Back to the village! The demons won't harm the village–!"

A flame bomb seared from our mouth, crashing explosively upon the heart of the bottleneck occurring at the gate. Twin air bullets were striking the wall, one from a fox and the other courtesy of a tanuki; their shockwaves shook loose scores of shinobi racing up it in retreat, setting them tumbling toward the fresh picket barricades, the long stakes our advancing forces had been meant to fall on, that stood at the foot of the wall. We as Kurohi crouched, and now sent a controlled blast of flame hurtling clean through the gate, straight up the main street where it razed those shinobi too slow to jump aside, until it weakened to disperse against and lightly char the front of the Hokage tower.

We raised our head, dripping crimson staining our mouth, as if innately drawn to the stench of depravity. We raised our head, and met the pair of golden and serpentine eyes belonging to the man who stood atop the distant tower, his black hair lashing back as embers rushed and swirled in the air before him.

Hackles raised, we inhaled. Our mouth opened and, without breaking eye contact, we unleashed a long and tremendous roar, a hellish utterance to be heard for miles around.

Such was the extent of the words that remained for the likes of him. He scowled and flickered from view.

"Heheheh! Now, then…" said the seeming Kyuubi no Kitsune, voice low and wicked. To the astonishment of not a few Sound ninja, it proceeded to crouch and leap – sailing in a single, grand motion clear over the outer wall; Kurogiba and I mirrored the action.

The landing was careful but smooth, our agility and the fox's sufficient in finding us places to put four paws apiece on solid ground rather than on homes or any other buildings. The fox had turned in the air so as to land facing back, and met the confusion of the shinobi manning the wall with a howling shockwave of searing wind; the beast's cry battered the air at a safe height above other structures and exploded out, hurling them away from the village. Those survivors who happened to land in any good condition, and who also managed to escape the Ichibi's wrath, might return if they dared.

Frantic words reached our sensitive ears from the shinobi who stood tensely around us. They cursed and swore; a man wondered how strongly the gods loathed them, to once more send these fiends upon them.

One wondered where our army had gone.

Others realized in surprise the considerable relevance of her question.

The fox smirked broadly, its glower shining and devious; this had been Naruto's plan, after all, for circumventing an otherwise-necessary direct assault that would have likely entailed a dangerous storming of the walls. In the chaos of our initial attack, little attention had been afforded for the actions of an army left to its own devices in the thick fog clouds produced by such large-scale transformations. The fact remained, now, that not a single other member of our force was anywhere to be seen, and as the knowledge flitted from ear to mouth to ear throughout the ranks of our disconcerted foes, their unease only escalated. This was the type of unorthodox scheme of ingenious artifice and psychological lambasting that could only have sprung from the mad mind of the Demon Illusionist, and an audience of twelve thousand had fallen prey to the trickster's finest scheme.

The purple fox spread nine drooping tails, fanning them out around it.

Then, with its deafening bark of 'Attack!' a horde of blurs shot from where they'd hidden all along its long-furred tails' lengths, as well as from our one tail and the shaggy fur of our underbelly, and our army's shinobi fell upon theirs with several thousand cries of war.

Naruto ナルト

Rather than release the henge and then dispel the Chief Toad, I had Gamabunta simply dispel first; this resulted in the release of our combined transformation, while ensuring the toad himself would not once be seen. The way I saw it, if our enemies could be daunted by the illusion that I had attained mastery over the Nine Tails – particularly the New Sound shinobi, who balked at its likeness – then so much the better.

Fog streamed and sifted around my spread fingers as I sailed from the cloud, knees bent and teeth slightly bared in a fanged smirk. My arms formed and 'X' before me as I fell, and I ducked my head as energy stirred and swirled across my skin. After a moment I swept my arms out with a yell, and at once a cracking shockwave of violet repelled a flurry of oncoming shuriken – and three tails of power sprung from the sleek vulpine shroud of solid energy that leapt to enfold me.

I landed near the shuriken throwers, slamming my hands to the street with a crash; my mouth opened, and a burst of invisible force blasted the group of Oto-nin, testing. The lot of them fell and tumbled, or slid on their feet.

A crouching New Oto shinobi, as he came to a halt, looked up from the arm he'd raised to shield his face, scowling. "Demon," he spat. "We will be the ones to destroy you…"

Sharp violet eyes cut to the side, and I took note of a new group of enemies, behind, as they spread to surround me. I clicked my tongue once, reaching to grip the naginata on my back before I spoke. "I regret to inform you of the imminent failure of this tactic of yours…"

"It's said you've got a smart mouth. Mocking us already, Murasaki Kitsune?"

"Not at all. The thing is, regular attacks won't easily get through to me in this form; ideally, you'd want a high-level shinobi to strike with some moderately powerful ninjutsu – the kind of jutsu that you generally avoid using when a lot of your comrades might get caught up in the crossfire. There are more of you, yes, but I do my best work when the concentration of enemies is high. So many fighters, so much confusion, and so many places to disappear…"

Scowling, he signaled to his men. "Get him!"

I bent my knees, the polearm extended to my side as a ring of shinobi leapt toward me. I'm sorry… for your captain's rashness.

I was sorry, but this was war.

"Kageken:…"

A bolt of wind shredded and eschewed the heavy cloth wrap that housed the spear's blade. Weapons were drawn back, ready to strike at me.

"…Soaked in Blood."

A graceful flicker of singing steel – a spattering storm of liquid crimson. The captain's eyes grew, his hands frozen in a seal as twenty-three hewn bodies were thrown at once away from me, and thudded lifeless to the ground. Whether he had thought ninja of their level capable of defeating me in this state or not, he had by no means imagined it would be decided so quickly. The fact remained, and would remain, that few enemies had witnessed the fully realized Kageken and lived to share their experience.

Before the jounin could blink I was before him, two fingers pressed above his heart as circlets of wind tumbled about my hand.

"It's unfortunate … but I'm not an opponent who can be overcome by quantity alone."

The jet of fire from his mouth was blinding and fierce. In the same moment that he scorched the air before him I was at his back with arm outstretched, loosing the pressurized lance of wind from two fingers behind his heart with a sure and resounding crack of force. I had vanished from the scene before the lingering, thinly solid and slightly luminous column of air passing through him faded, before his flame missile exploded forty meters away, before he even hit the ground.

This technique, this cloak-and-dagger style of fighting, was truly detestable. Against opponents like Uchiha Itachi, perhaps, it was necessary for a fighting chance; against the average shinobi, it all too often spelled a death preceding the victim's own comprehension.

My eagle eye sighted a group of New Leaf shinobi in ragged garb and green bandanas, fighting fiercely but near to being overwhelmed by almost twice as many foes. The Oto-nin, pressing their advantage, could not have expected to be in the next moment butchered by effectively invisible duplicates of a single, distant assassin's wind-shrouded blade. Those mixed up in direct combat with the Konoha-nin, finding the threat of their backup abruptly absent, were quickly overtaken by their foes. Another few Sound squads, waiting close by to assist them in finishing off the recently outnumbered group, failed to determine a course of action before being felled in one successive slash of my naginata, blasted backwards in a violent scattering of wind and blood.

"You alright?" I asked my gawking comrades; Izumo, Kotetsu, and some chuunin I could recognize were among them. They got their wits about them, nodded, and hurried in the direction of another skirmish, while I flickered from the site.

That the Sound's forces outnumbered the combined might of our army and New Leaf's meant that, inevitably, not all of their number could be engaged in direct combat at once. This numbers gap generated a recurring phenomenon throughout the fields of battle – that being, the physical space between fighting allies and idle groups of the enemy. This space was my crucial window to strike the hardest.

A low-strength Howling Kitsune Slice blasted across the path of some dozen Oto-nin who charged toward a smaller group of Mist and Sand, some of whom already lay unmoving in the dirt. The aggressors' momentum cut off, their formation buckling, the instant they were standing still… It was all too easy. The flung scythe of wind gave me just enough time to home rapidly nearer in a couple of substitutions before the two forces could meet – and for a single instant I stood in the faltering enemy's midst. I ran them through – was briefly extant in a crouch, blade extended, on the opposite side of them as corpses toppled behind me – took a rough breath, and was gone in a flash of violet. The speed of it all was insanity in itself.

Perhaps, when the battle was decided, I might be a healer.

For now, however, my role entailed assassination en masse. The reduction of superior numbers. Destroying as many as swiftly as possible, before they could think – before they could react – before they might determine a means of counterattack. None could strike at me, for I never stopped moving.

I enjoyed calling myself a wraith, a warrior dealing in shadows. In truth I was not so naïve. In these particular skills I had power – however terrible – and because I had duty, I was obliged to use it to its fullest. This I knew, and so I hardened my heart and surrendered to becoming a harbinger of catastrophic death.

I was a decimator.

Lee リー

A violet flash went glancing by, leaving three dead Sound shinobi dropping in its wake. An ANBU, alone in managing to dodge the blinding strike, swore and turned to flicker in pursuit.

So you can track his movements as well…? Then, naturally…

I shoved from the earth, vanishing to the eyes of those around me, and covered a distance equaling that of Naruto's substitution in a burst of whirring speed. In the same instant that Naruto materialized for a moment in space, and the ANBU appeared at his back, hands in an uncommon seal, my foot went crashing down – with the Sound elite's cracking skull beneath it.

Naturally, he would be going for the place Naruto was about to appear.

"THUNDERBOLT KICK! !"

CRASH!

We plunged together in a straight shot to the ground, where a ring of dirt and debris exploded outward. I caught sight of a blond wraith, looking back with violet eyes to flash a salute, and was curtly returning the gesture as my eyes lost track of him.

I drew myself to full height, surveying the enemies around me as I removed my foot from a puddle of gore. The handful of New Konoha-nin I had been fighting alongside quickly gathered at my back. My hand rose to a katana hilt as coolly glowering eyes locked onto an Oto squad leader across from me, standing uncertainly at the head of a group. His hands trembled, however slightly; after seeing the demise of the ANBU shinobi, he felt he could not best me. He would seek the aid of a stronger comrade.

Sure enough, his focus wavered – his gaze edged to the side, as if to search for help – and his throat burst in crimson as I halted in the midst of the group behind him, hand still resting on a sheathed sword's hilt.

The immediate reaction of one of the bewildered shinobi around me was to lunge toward me in retaliation. Disoriented, the thoughtless reaction of the rest was to follow suit, in panicked desperation. My eyes fell into shadow, my head bowed so that likely only my small scowl was visible as my arms crossed my body, as hands clapped smoothly onto twin hilts.

Shinobi of their caliber would not likely have seen the blades unsheathed – would perhaps not even see me move.

Iaidou.

In succession approaching instantaneity, a string of slashes gouged into their approaching ranks, a blur of humming light and phantom steel. My blades were sheathed as a ring of bodies was thrown away, and as crimson then rained about but did not touch my tall-standing form.

A shuriken glanced with a clang from the air, a scant foot from the side of my face. My eye settling on a scattered group of New Oto-nin, I slowly began to draw a blade. They recoiled from the cold might of my gaze.

Infinity…

I spun to a crouching halt, one blade low before me and the other extended upward behind snapping to shed vibrant streaks of red. The screams of the dying assailed my back.

I rose and leapt, eyes intense, a katana hilt rolling about the hand I drew back.

This… this is…

"ACCELERATE!" I bellowed, and as my hand dropped a man was torn from shoulder to side.

What must be done!

A new group, stronger, was descending upon me; I could read in their movements, in the very air around them, the level of their discipline, and their fair strength.

They attacked, one by one, and I dashed and danced, ducked and dodged from their strikes. Neat, quick and sure steps removed me from the course of furious attacks as the drawn sword parried and deflected masterfully in my defense; the sheathed sword, each time I grasped it, was Quickdrawn and flashing into the first opening, striking invisibly, deadly and true. One by one they engaged, chose to join the twin blades and their wielder in a tempestuous dance so tragically brief, and one by one, without fail, they were felled before my unflinching hand.

Both hands clapped at once onto the drawn sword's hilt and rose to turn its blade downward at my back, where it angled to lock with a clang against two striking blades. This one – he had been so fast that I had not had time to dodge. And…

"Hooked swords?" I gasped as my katana was wrenched from my grasp, slung aside to crash heavily to the ground. I whirled to face him, backing away and drawing the remaining sword – and a weight struck across my wrist from behind, knocking the weapon free.

"Got him, Onii-san!" a girl, with red hair similar to that of the hooksword-wielder, sneered. I had not detected her a moment ago, so she was swift. Within an instant of hitting my sword hand she now brought a tonfa baton spinning in her other hand cracking swiftly into contact with my side. I grunted, shuddering involuntarily from the strike, and a third tap, to the back of my shoulder, knocked me to my hands and knees. "Too bad – you're disarmed!"

Whap!

The shot intended for the back of my neck was caught by a straw sandal as I kicked up, and pushed away again as my other foot kicked into her stomach. My hands crossed each other beneath me, and I used the traction with the ground to spin my body and deliver a hefty kick to her face. She spun on heel, and swung again as I reached my feet and lunged. The tonfa met my strong, taped hand with a firm crack; I gave no sign of pain, and the wood casing buckled in my grip.

"I can manage," I said as I held her incredulous eyes. Stance spread, I ducked my head and drove a decisive fist dead into the New Sound kunoichi's face, throwing her backwards with a solid crack of impact.

"Sis–!" The redheaded man blanched and threw himself from the path of a grand Leaf Hurricane kick. I landed in a roll, snatching a weighty katana from the dirt, and rose to kick a stone with such ferocity that it surely singed the air. It sparked against his blocking sword, pushing it back and giving more resistance to deflection than he had anticipated. Just as it was repelled, the taller man froze as he felt the steel of my blade at his neck.

"Gomen nasai," I said. "You are not so skilled in the Art of War."

An instant of stillness. His hookblade lashed up against my sword, but this I had anticipated – and as the katana was swatted away from his neck a wakizashi was plunging into his back. I withdrew and, following through with the motion of the deflected katana in my grasp, whirled sharply in place. The longsword's blade came around, and with its smooth arc his head was cleanly separated from his shoulders, in a blow of mercy. Liquid warmth spattered my solemn face.

There was no rest. Not here, on the field of battle.

Forty yards, reduced to nothing. My sandal smashed into a striking New Oto-nin's face from the side, all of my ferocious force channeling into a vulnerable point just in front of his ear. I knew before he hit the ground that he would not get up. Landing, I looked to the battered, pale-faced tokubetsu jounin on the ground, who had tripped over the body of a fallen comrade.

"Be careful, Genma-sensei."

"H-hai… Lee-kun?" He blinked in surprise as I gave him a hand up. "Thanks."

My eyes rapidly surveyed the nearest battles around us. A few groups were faring well; a team of Iwa-nin summoned a pair of stone golems to head their charge upon a group of the Sound; three Suna puppet masters harassed their foes while keeping a comfortable distance; a ways off, a Sora-nin atop a hawk large enough for riding took out a Sound shinobi in a single divebomb from behind. The bird wheeled to attack another foe, talons rising, but the kunoichi they targeted unleashed an amplified screech that startled the bird into tossing its rider. The Sora kunoichi tucked and rolled, lifting her spear but stiffening under the brunt of a second soundwave. I chose, and raced to attack.

I had nothing but strength, speed, discipline, and skill. I had neither special abilities nor moves that could quite be called tricks – only a powerful body, one heart, two fists, three blades, and the razor-fine sense of danger, reaction speed, and feel for combat born of surviving countless battles, and having braved them without fear of death. Because of these things, I could readily fight on a level with the most formidable of shinobi.

Thusly, my role in this battle was to prevent my comrades from being killed, and to engage as many elites as I possibly and safely could. In such warfare as this, the strongest could lay waste to the weak if allowed to. I had been encouraged to edge toward a decimator's role as needed, to scatter the weak even if only as a trick to draw the wrath of the strong. In this way, as I came to my comrades' defense against enemy elites and they to theirs against me, stronger and stronger adversaries sought each other out, and upon meeting clashed until one died. My job would be growing more perilous as the weak faded, and as my presence as an elite in this battle grew.

Victory depended not only on numbers, but on whichever side's elites proved more successful in staying alive, alive to see another minute and to kill within it, as they battled their foes.

Whereas Naruto's task was to decimate the unsuspecting who would be unable to escape him – avoiding any with the strength to rival or even approach his own – my own lay in seeking out and occupying those stronger shinobi among the enemy, locking them in single combat to cripple their destructive potential, and terminating them with all affordable haste. This could leave subordinates rattled, and in turn could aid those like Naruto considerably. Brute killing, and surviving – this was my means of protecting my comrades now. It was what I was most able to do.

At one time, I had held, fostered, and striven for the dream of being a splendid ninja. At one time, it had only been about proving a point – everything, for that.

Now… now, I was no mere shinobi. Throwing myself into the endless slew of struggles, traveling the world with a sword in my hands, I had become a strange transcendence of my former dream.

I had fancied myself a warrior, in the purest sense.

And here at war, as a master of battle, I accepted the role of the counter-decimator. But there was no honor here; the strong were simply to die by my blade, before they might wreak devastation on the weak.

For I was an equalizer.

Hinata ヒナタ

In the guise of a True Henge, I raced down the village streets. It had been determined that my role today would not be to exhaust all I was worth on the front lines; I had someone to save my strength for, and a good prediction that, so long as that powerful someone knew that I was out here, he would be conserving his strength as well. My very existence could prevent him from adopting the role of a decimator or counter-decimator. With this – and with the acknowledgment of the political benefit the Leaf stood to gain in the aftermath should I particularly defeat him – my request to not have my strength allocated to the fields of open battle had been supported not only by Naruto and Lee, but the other commanders as well.

Nonetheless, I had one vital assignment to attend to before I sought that person out. At least with this appearance, I could reach my destination without incident.

Or so I'd hoped.

The little black ball that came sailing toward my path was intercepted by a yellow-gold, kunai-like projectile. I deftly skirted the resulting smoke cloud, stopping upwind of the site of the explosion to regard the figure that flickered loftily into my path.

"Nyaa-hm? I knew I smelled something foul! And look who we've found, scurrying so discreetly away from the battlegrounds with a squad of her own shadowing her. Looking to bust one last prison, are you?"

Sharp cat… I gave no indication, though, of having understood a word she'd said. I cocked my head to the side, giving a confused whine. It was worth a try; if my hunch was right, her sense of smell wasn't strong enough to identify me beyond a doubt.

The ANBU's confident smirk faltered. "Hey – come on," she muttered, "What is this? I know you're her… Unless…" She looked about, flustered. "I've really been talking to some random mutt?"

"Mraow!" The sleek black cat at her side evidently thought otherwise. Keen green eyes trained on me, it snarled, fur standing on end.

'It's got sharper senses than its master, then. Koinu, I think they're figuring us out.'

Hold on…

"Mrrrr…"

"Huh-nya? What's that, Mister Doumou-tan?"

Okay, now.

She shrieked, leaping aside with the scruff of an angry cat's neck in her hand as a jet of flame blasted from my jaws. It went barreling by, and a ways behind them the flames swirled and darkened, leaving Kurogiba to materialize at her back. The young woman looked rapidly between us, swearing. "Kuso! I knew it was you, knew it! It's not like you were fooling anyone!"

"You could've fooled me, in that regard," I retorted. In a puff of smoke, I left the form of a dark-furred wolf. "Kitten… If you're here for a rematch, I'm honestly in a bit of a hurry."

"Oh, no you don't," she snickered, pointing toward me with a hungry glint in her eye. "War is roiling just a heartbeat away, and with it plenty of enemies I could be tearing to bits right now – but I peeled myself away from the sweet temptation just to come after little old you, Wolfpuppy, so count yourself honored. You've caught my interest! And in any case, I can't just let prey I've already captured once roam free forever – it would be shameful, you see…"

"If you put it that way, I've got no choice. Of course I can't let you return to the battlefield if it means you'll harm my comrades…" My hands met in the sign of the Wolf. "Forgive me, but I'll make this quick; you're not on my agenda today."

She grinned, color rising in her cheeks. "Oho? I'd better be on the agenda! You're lighting a fire in me already, Wolfpuppy! But this time, you won't be getting your grimy paws on a single one of my lives–GWOHF!"

While she rambled, a moment of working my youki had partially transformed my feet and lower legs, most noticeably shifting the configuration of my heels so that they didn't rest on the ground. This canine structure was more suited to sprinting, and sudden sprinting at that, and with the space between us reduced to nothing I buried a fist in her gut. The silver kunai she'd been slipping from her trenchcoat dropped to the dirt.

Right hand withdrawing, I lashed my left palm clean against her chest.

For several seconds she was frozen, her body stiff. Then blood spilled from her lips, and she fell swaying to her knees, crumpled onto her side, and burst into smoke.

POOF!

I turned to see her emerging from a cloud of smoke behind me, her cat reduced to a sniveling kitten. "The hell! I wasn't ready–!"

"Well I AM!" I snarled, in one motion turning and leaping to smash a knee into her face. Did she... perhaps need a moment to recover?

Crakak–POOF!

This time she staggered from the cloud, pale and gasping. I grabbed hold of her arm as she tried to stumble away. "I told you, you're not on the agenda!" I began, but hissed as she swiftly drew a silver knife, holding it up and glowering threateningly.

"I swear, if you kill me one more time–!"

A blast of flame engulfed her, blazing by from behind. Kurogiba was more impatient than I was.

POOF!

She couldn't even keep her footing, this time. I caught the back of her trenchcoat before she could hit the ground.

"Koneko… How many lives do you have left…?"

She laughed nervously, looking sheepishly back at me. "Hehehe… Why do you ask–?" I hefted her up to height, locking an arm around her neck and planting the other hand above her head. "Wait, wait, you psycho! Not again! It's three, alright, three!"

"Three lives… and from the looks of it, using one takes a good deal of energy. Without any time to recover, if you keep repeating this so rapidly, you'll turn up as weak as the kitten that cat's been reduced to, won't you? So, do I go to the trouble of killing you three more times? Or, maybe…"

Kurogiba lifted the tiny cat by the scruff of the neck; the mewling creature was barely the size of the demon's nose. Koneko tensed in genuine panic, giving a feeble shudder in my grip. "N-no! Don't hurt Mister Doumou-tan! I've already put so much of a strain on him…!" She tried to glare my way, even while sniffling. "Do whatever you want to me, hurt me all you like, just… just…"

She yelped, toppling as I let her go. I held my hand out to Kurogiba, who passed me the kit.

Then I sat it next to the shocked ANBU on the ground. Sobbing, she shut her eyes and folded a trembling arm tenderly around it. "St-stupid dog… You're a brute, you know that? The a-absolute worst…!"

I shook my head. "I don't fight for the sake of hurting people, and I'm not about to kill someone who can't fight back. You just crossed me at a bad time and I really don't like cats."

"But you're not going to…?"

"You and the rest of the Nekozaki Clan were once Konoha shinobi, weren't you? Is it really that hard to believe?" I barked. I turned away. "I don't know how it works, but it's clear that your life and that cat's are tied; for your partner's sake, I'd hope that you might find a less reckless way to get your thrills. Whatever the case, you won't be able to impact the course of the battle for the village in the state you're in. Just play dead, and you should be fine."

She glared for a stubborn moment, and then shut her eyes. Not waiting for a further response, I turned and continued toward the New Sound Penitentiary, signaling for my squad to follow.

It was time to free the village council, and whoever else was imprisoned there. They'd been waiting long enough.

Neji ネジ

"U-uh…!" Eyebrows drawn inward, he clasped at his chest, hunching over, and looked up at me in horror.

"Does it hurt?" I asked dispassionately, withdrawing my palm and walking toward him again.

His eyes watered as he stifled a cough. "You s-son of a–!"

A boot met his face roughly. Another man flinched as his comrade shot past him, cracking into a wall ten yards further back.

"What about you?" I asked, and he shuddered. I stepped toward him, and he stepped back. "You thought that with eight halfway decent shinobi, you would be able to kill me?"

He shook his head, backing away. "M-mercy–ack!"

A blow to the gut interrupted his plea; before he could double over I was behind him, smashing an elbow into the small of his back. I pivoted sharply in front of him again, my cloak flaring, my foot extending as I spun. "The weak should kneel."

He howled, dropping as my kick landed with excessive force at the side of his knee. On hands and knees, face stark, he looked up just in time to see a straightened leg finish rising. Then my heel dropped, savage force shattering the Leaf emblem on his forehead, and all that lay beneath it, with a splatter of finality.

I surveyed my work, beginning to clean my claws as I glanced boredly over the bodies scattered at the site. I sighed. I could find more…

"Neji – Neji, come in!" a frantic voice crackled in my ear.

My hand snapped to a button on my wireless transmitter. "Tenten? Are you alright?"

"We need your help over here! At block C of the market district – this is bad, it's–ah–!"

I flinched as the radio gave a loud pop – and a hum of static.

"Tenten…?" I turned in the direction of the market district, fangs bared. With a growl I took to the rooftops.

I rushed there single-mindedly, skirting battles without a backwards glance. When I came upon the scene, I could only just wonder at the situation, and at the only three shinobi present, before I flickered into the path of the kunai Shino threw to catch the knife and hurl it back at him. He grunted in surprise, taking a step back as he dodged it.

"You're here," Tenten gasped behind me, lowering the knife she'd been preparing to deflect with.

I looked back at her, scowling as I smelled her blood. The shoulder of her vest was torn, and the shirt just beneath it darkened with wetness. At her side stood Ino, who glowered toward the insect user. Looking forward again, I realized the young man's forehead was bare; promptly my eyes found a New Oto headband left lying in the dirt.

"What is the meaning of this?" I demanded, fangs bared.

"He's turned," Ino said bitterly.

"Pretending to be our comrade, when he was just waiting for the right time…" Tenten said, as if still unable to believe it. She gripped her shoulder. "Then he tried to…"

My lip curled. "Traitor," I snarled.

The Aburame raised an arm; a dark cloud of insects rose around him, buzzing angrily. "There is nothing that I would say I hold against any of you, personally. It's regrettable that this had to occur in such a way, but the time has come for true shinobi of this village to fight in the name of the Leaf, or die trying!"

I scoffed. "Your sneak attack failed. You knew you couldn't defeat Tenten and Ino together; what kind of chance do you think you stand now?"

"I will fight to the last…"

"Hm. Very well, then. You will not need to fight for much longer."

Tenten drew her hands from tool pouches, three kunai knives in each. "We'll back you up."

I nodded, and charged with the two flanking on either side.

In the following second a number of things unfolded.

The swarm of kikaichuu reared, and shot toward me alone. This itself would not have been strange, but for the fact that Aburame's attack coincided with six kunai being let fly toward my back.

What? !

There was one direction to dodge.

Only as I passed in front of Ino, meeting cold blue eyes, did I notice her hands stretching out before her, fingers forming a ring as a murmur of incantation left her lips.

It felt like a blow to the head. Then my mind was effectively disconnected from my body.

"Shintenshin no Jutsu: Successful," was spoken in my voice. Seething, I mentally ground my teeth.

What is this? I asked. I wanted to laugh. What the hell is this supposed to be?! INO!

She bit her lip – my lip – as Shino walked up, pulling a rope from his tool pouch. After lowering the Yamanaka's vacant body carefully to the ground, Tenten looked toward me, bleakly unreadable, fingering the hilt of the dagger at her belt. 'We're sorry,' Ino thought, 'but we'd long since decided together that this was the only way. Tenten tried to keep hope for you, tried to understand your vision, but even she could only dream for so long…'

So, this is your solution? To kill me – put me down like a dog? Inwardly, I laughed. Unbelievable. Hehehe… You lot really are unbelievable. Filth… I laughed even more.

'Don't you even,' she cried. 'There's nothing… nothing funny about this. I told you already – it's the only way! You've become something twisted. The last thing we can do for you, as your friends… it's…'

"All right," Shino said, once my hands were tied tightly behind my back. Ino tested my strength against the binding, and nodded. Behind me, Shino wrapped an arm across my neck and held firm, but not firmly enough to obstruct my breathing – yet. I watched, intrigued, as Tenten unsheathed her dagger. "Remember," Shino said, "The second Ino releases him, you've got to do it. Do not hesitate, or…"

"I know, already!" she snapped, but she couldn't rid her eyes of her fear. "It just… It just feels so cruel…"

Who came up with this little ploy of betrayal?

The answer popped into Ino's thoughts before she could hide it: Tenten.

Oho? Interesting, interesting…

'Neji…'

"Tenten," Shino began. "If you would prefer, I can–,"

"No. No, it has to be me." She pressed the blade's tip just into my vest above my heart, and braced her hands to drive. Her feet spread, weight perfectly balanced. Her jaw set; her eyes, brimming with trepidation. "For him, I can at least do this much… I'm ready, Ino."

"Okay. On three."

Hmm… I flitted, insubstantial, around her presently dominant spirit. Ino… do you know what it's like, inside this rotten head of mine? Does your jutsu show you how it feels?

She ignored me, resolute. "One," she had me saying aloud.

"Neji," Tenten whispered, "I love you."

"Two."

I can show you, if you'd like… Why don't I treat you to a taste of my soul…? And what I feel – what I live – every day without cease, with every breath, with every passing moment. Here.

"Thr…"

It was quiet.

Shino shifted a bit, trying to get a look at my face. "Ino? You alright?"

Tenten was already on edge, breathing hard. Her eyes seemed to be having trouble staying focused. Sweat shone on her brow. The pause caused something already dying inside of her to wring itself even further, to keen in pain, crying just behind her brown eyes.

Then my mouth opened, and Ino screamed.

Shino tensed in alarm as the howl exploded, unyielding, from my throat. Tenten's eyes went round with utter bewilderment. Within my domain and my prison, I laughed and laughed and laughed.

The blood-curdling screech cut to an end as Ino's body started sharply where it lay. A smile twisting across my face, I lowered my thrown-back head as serpents tore viciously from my sleeves, deftly shredding and snapping apart the cord at my wrists before leaping to bury their fangs so hungrily into Shino's neck and arms.

"I'm baaaack," I sang darkly as I met Tenten's eyes, and the pressure mounting behind the knife at my heart faltered. Shino gasped her name as I sneered in scornful delight, and slammed a fist into her face.

Determined not to release me, Shino had been dragged with my movement; his hands were moving, nearly positioned to snap my neck when my elbow drove back and connected solidly with his gut. He yelled, but desperately tried to maintain the hold, as if he might still slow me down or restrain me. I drew forward again and delivered a second elbow of equaling viciousness. With this his strength gave out. Still facing away from him, I pressed the claws of right hand against his right side and turned, slashing open his front with a soft smile as I did, malevolently intent. Laughing at his contorted face and taut brow, at the sound that squirmed from his parted lips, I threw a sharp swing at his face. Shattered glasses sailed as he was knocked off his feet, and left to bleed.

"Hehehehe…!" I couldn't stop laughing; I bellowed in glee, as a focused burst of chakra from my every tenketsu tore so easily through the chakra-leeching insects that fought to swarm across my skin. I turned to find the Yamanaka trying to get to her feet. "So, what do you think? Glorious, isn't it?!"

"Y… you're mad," she breathed, dripping eyes unblinking in an ashen face. Wincing, she shuddered back down to her hands and knees and lurched, losing her stomach's contents to the dirt. I walked toward her, smirking as she wretched and shook, enfeebled.

"Mad, you say? It all depends on one's perspective. To you it's a terror; to me, a comfort." With a toothy grin I tapped a clawed finger to my skull; she backed away as I moved toward her. "It's not frightening, anymore, once you accept it. Actually, it's the only solace I've got."

"M-monster! Stay back!"

Fwn–smat.

"Hm?" I studied the knife that I'd caught before me – a knife that had grazed my cheek, from behind. "Funny… for some reason I thought you had better aim! Tenten! !" I roared, drawing my arm back.

"No–!"

Tenten paled, eyes wide, a hand outstretched as her knife thudded deep into Ino's chest.

The blond grunted in pain, mouth agape. Her eyes rolled back, and she fell flat, and fell still.

"Damn it!"

I smiled warmly, looking back to see Tenten charging toward me, dagger in hand, screaming as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"HAH!"

I hopped back from a lethal slash with my thumbs hooked in my pockets, and danced from a few more before my hand snapped to block at her wrist. I bared my fangs, and sent my boot clean into her gut. She lost her breath, blanching, and bent at the waist. Then, surprisingly, she stopped the slack bending of knees that had begun to give, rose, and swung her fist toward me.

CRACK!

The swing fell short, and she cried out, knees giving way as I snapped the wrist of her knife-hand in my steel grasp. The stubborn fierceness in her eyes crumbled beneath the pain, crushed as were her wrist and hand as I gripped firmly once more.

"What's this?" I observed. "Not willing to let go of this dagger, even now?"

Her breath was haggard. Her brow quivered above eyes screwed-shut, but her knuckles were white on the dagger hilt in her mangled hand.

"That's the problem with weak people," I mused. The wrist was released, and my hand snapped to instead firmly cover her mouth and nose. "You catch hold of these foolish notions, and do pointless things," I said, slowly lifting her up and off the ground. "You think to absolve yourself from your failure of those two by attacking me alone, without any hope of success?" I asked monotonously, free hand rising to brush the back of a few fingers over her temple. "And now you demonstrate your resolve by holding onto a knife you can no longer even hope to wield…"

My teeth clenched suddenly; my hand tightened until she whimpered.

"I thought I could help you," I hissed. "I thought I could bring you to understand the things I do, and the glory of my dream. But you always clung to the past… You seized command of my squad, drawing them into your coward's scheme. You worthless creatures dare to betray me, and you… You really thought you could kill me, and ruin everything…"

She shuddered, so weakly, toes twitching once above the ground. Her face was becoming tinged with blue, as she yearned undoubtedly for the bitter cold air around us.

"You, who said you loved me… There's nothing left for you. Look at yourself – traitor! Can you not see how powerless you are?! How powerless we all are?! Look at the fools you led astray, and for what? For some worthless drivel of right and wrong? Open your eyes and face reality – The weak don't have such a luxury!"

I was smiling as I spoke, frantic. Tenten's eyes had cracked open, and she was looking … at me.

Mournful.

"Do you pity me?" I asked, eyes narrowing as I held her gaze. My teeth ground. "Tenten… I have no use for you any longer."

I lashed my arm out, and flung her aside.

I left the traitors behind me without looking back. The lot of fools had taken enough of my time; there were more significant matters to attend to.

Twenty-Five, Part Four: Will, Passing On

Naruto ナルト

"Haa…!"

I drew back the naginata, chakra pouring down into its blade, and swapped forward whilst swinging to unleash a scythe of wind. Two shinobi before me were gouged across their backs; a third leapt in place, staring with wide eyes as the wave passed beneath his feet and felled the comrades beside him. Meeting my eyes as he landed, he growled in rage and formed a seal.

I dodged a flame bomb, and threw Shadow Slash after slash as the jounin anticipated my strikes and slung a flurry of fire jutsu my way. Dodging three more blazing bullets with flickering moves, I hacked a fourth with the radiant spear's edge. In the moments that fire sprayed past me, and my cape fluttered around me from my motion, one subtle hand abandoned the staff to draw a slender knife and, obscured from the man's view, left three short, adroit slashes unseen on the air behind me. The eyes I held snapped wide, his glower failing as three vital arteries were ruptured, and he crumpled slowly to the ground.

I ducked to the side, lifting one hand as a tagged kunai, thrown for my back, came sailing in. In the instant the flat of the flying knife brushed the tip of one finger, two Shadow Substitutions were made. There came the thunk of a knife landing in a man's back, riding on the very force with which he had thrown it.

As he fell forward, one of his squad barely had time to scream. Standing in my original position, I glanced back at them over my shoulder.

BOOM!

I ground my teeth. This power…

Two fingers tapped against the seal that adorned the tape dressing my left palm, but I did not catch the summoned weapon; rather, I was promptly, simply gone. The broadsword that slammed down was wielded by a New Oto fellow from my graduating class: one who'd cleared the Leaf's Academy exit exams, but failed his jounin mentor's evaluation. New Oto wasn't so picky about its troops, though, and he had evidently gotten a second shot at the dream of becoming a shinobi. I glimpsed him for but an instant, however. Twenty meters away, I watched his eyes widen in raw terror as his blade crashed down upon the paper bomb left fluttering in my wake. Then he was lost, engulfed in bursting smoke and flame.

This power…!

Three more New Oto-nin, having halted not far away, were looking unawares toward the blast cloud. A phantom glimmer of violet at their backs, and an explosion rang behind me as my feet skidded a ways off, as I tore off again.

I hate it!

I transformed into a blur of physical speed, striding rapidly on both feet and left hand, the streaming naginata clasped in my right with the spear shaft resting across my back and the bladed end tailing. I leaped and swapped forward, always forward, while the chaotic blur of motion broke down into crucial snapshots of focus within my mind's eye. I wrenched the spear-blade forward; two Oto-nin, one of whom almost managed to lay eyes on me, were felled as I passed at their backs and was gone again without breaking stride.

Why? Is it my fault that killing – butchering – has become something that comes to me so naturally?

I dashed forward, forward through the great expanse of the battlefield that was my home, weaving through fights with substitutions, leaving death in my wake, but never breaking my forward, striding momentum.

Is this the price of the skill I've honed…?

Leaping – the staff went cracking over the head of a chuunin. A blur of cleared distance – briefly coming into being, before a New Konoha-nin and in the face of two foes – and the bladed side whipped and lashed, opening a belly on my right, crossing a jugular on the left, in a single motion as I passed. The polearm was enlivened, rolling and striking from expert hands with abandon. Striding, powerfully wrenching, slashing – leveling the staff between one hand and the underside of the other arm and forming a one-handed seal, all while still moving forward at breakneck speed. A singular bolt of wind was loosed from the spear at my side, on a course sure and true to pass cleanly through a sprinting Sound kunoichi's heart, leaving her to collapse at the feet of the stunned Iwa-nin who'd prepared to fight her.

Are people with strength really the lucky ones?!

Five recognized and flickered into my path. They couldn't have stopped me, couldn't have barred my motion if they'd tried, but their challenge was clear: they intended to face me head-on. But the kitsune was a trickster by nature, a deceiver at heart, and in this battle my role was hardly to engage in honorable and glorious combat.

I stepped to give a flash of visibility several meters from their bracing formation. Then I leapt into an aerial flip, and with a pop of stringing substitutions had pressed the paper bomb in my hand to the back of the leader's neck, landed on my feet twenty meters beyond them, and continued on my way. Two fingers were poised in a half-Tora.

"Kai!"

And a shockwave rumbled against my back, already left so far behind me.

I was a fiend, a spirit that subsisted by riding the waves of strife and sowing cruel death as I passed, never once looking back. My role did not entail looking back; I surged on without concern for what lay behind, my only consolation the unnerving and frozen certainty that my will of destruction had done the job. I just had to keep going – to be as the fox, to strike and escape without being caught. I knew Tsunade and Jiraiya had taken over the fight with Orochimaru. The last I'd seen, Kakashi was facing Kabuto, whom apparently his lord couldn't have just let rest in peace. Lee, now with Gaara's support, was doing his damnedest to pick of enemy jounin. And wherever any of our jounin clashed with theirs, they clashed with vehemence.

I continued, slashing isolated foes, and leaving sly paper bombs – often undetected but scarcely escaped from – among those unfortunately cluttered enough for decent effect.

The bodies littering the earth, the streets and the fields, were so far more theirs than ours. Our first strike had been effective; our followup, overpowering; our coordination, superior. And for sheer speed of movement if nothing else, none could slaughter the weak at the rate that I could. So I tore ruthlessly on the assault, scattering despair, slicing and Shadowbombing without relent. We were winning – we were winning. Even if the mastermind himself could not be brought down, if this kept up, Orochimaru would have no other choice but to surrender. So I attacked.

So I materialized, relinquishing a paper bomb among a group of Sound headbands, when someone that I saw stopped my heart.

I had met the eyes of the New Oto-nin, if she could be called as much even for the insignia she wore or the knife put in her hands, standing shy of the level of my shoulders at full height and with eyes nowhere near quick enough to detect me. I met the unknowing eyes a foot from mine but for an instant, as a paper bomb danced from my hand – and then, without a thought but for the automatic, instinctive habit of escaping the range of the explosive placed, I found myself swapping away.

Then I pivoted and swapped backwards, placing my body between the bomb and Moegi just in time to shield the girl from the blast.

Th-they're attacking us with children?!

I yowled. At the third tail though I was, I typically streamlined the ungainly aura when I wore it – thinned and compressed it as much as possible – sacrificing some of its defensive capability in exchange for maximal mobility and speed. As such, the blast (that indeed took down a few shinobi further from the tag than the inches I was) was enough to shred a good deal of the translucent fox cloak and spatter pain across my front. The cloak promptly reshaped itself, but I'd taken the damage. My eyes were screwed shut; I heard the girl behind me shriek in alarm. And a crossbow bolt punched into my chest, its head cracking through the scapula to come splitting from my shoulder. I had stopped moving forward.

"Get him!"

This will be inelegant…! I thought, wincing as two shinobi blurred toward me. A staggering foot caught balance behind me before I could fall; a hand coated in violet chakra clenched at my side. One blurring form came into focus as a man as my fist connected with his face with a bang of impact, throwing him away again. I leapt sharply in place, my body tilting to the side as I spun into a kick that walloped onto the second attacker's head. He was stunned, and a backhand smash of claws sent him sailing as well. My hand snapped to narrowly bat down another crossbow bolt, and at once one of my three tails lashed to deflect a knife thrown from behind. I whirled, drawing my arm back – and flinched as the thrower shrank back, his hand tightly gripping the shoulder of a wide-eyed Moegi.

We were frozen as he held my eyes with a glower, a bead of sweat breaking down his face, falling from his chin.

They weren't attacking us with children.

They were attacking us from behind them.

A drop of sweat met the ground. As I appeared between them, his arm was shattering in my grip.

"Coward," I snarled, and rammed his skull with a devastating headbutt.

"N-Naruto-nii-san…!"

Moegi whimpered, stumbling in terror as I met her eyes. Something clenched painfully inside my chest as she looked upon me, upon the cloak of chakra I'd soaked in my enemies' blood.

"I won't hurt you…" I grumbled, kicking the dropped naginata into my good hand to stow on my back.

"Naruto-nii… It wasn't my choice!"

"I know," I said, and swapped away, for I was a target.

My palm smashed into the neck of the Oto kunoichi who'd been heading our way; her throat gave, and her knees were soon to follow. My clenching hand supported her weight as I swapped again. A crossbow bolt, just as it was being loosed for where I'd been, was instead caught by her heart. The archer before me gaped as I let his comrade fall at his feet. A dexterous quirk of my hand on a slim kunai knife, and his throat was slit.

I was off, appearing with the wind to sling the glinting knife between a New Oto-nin's eyes. But where I would have flickered through the group before, finishing it in a fell swoop that preceded my detection, I hesitated. My naginata was in hand, brimming again with the strength of the wind, but there was no way I could just slash through them all. What if there was another kid in this bunch – small – easy to miss? The cadence of slaughter had crumbled with a single encounter; I couldn't hit in broad strokes, not now. I'd begun second-guessing. And in a style that relied on approaching instantaneity, a heartbeat's requirement of precaution was crippling to my effectiveness.

I wove and darted through a group. My deadliness here went hand in hand with my mobility, but I had now to choose – stick around to deal more damage, or keep moving. Wind projected from the naginata with a jump, easily piercing a man's gut; I wrenched, and the lengthened blade of wind was torn from him and ran across a number more – to halt beside a charging boy's neck. I pulled away with a startled yelp. Someone's sword nicked my side.

Projected wind dispelling, the polearm turned in my hands as I sidestepped a six-year-old with a knife, tremendously disconcerted, and gave his chin a curt knock with the butt of the staff. Immediately I was forced to deflect the second slash of a man's sword, and spun from the path of the following lunge. Intensely red-violet tails slammed against his back as he passed, and I lunged in a flash of speed to cut past another with a downward slash.

Steel flickered in the corner of my eye, and I swept the blade swiftly around, its reach superior, to send it splitting across the last one's throat. It was only after the man crashed to the earth that I realized he must've been a bit tall for his age, for the youth on his face was unquestionable. By my best approximation, I'd just slain not a man, but a twelve-year-old boy.

I blinked, chest heaving for breath as I paused. My hands quivered. I had gone through so much chakra, done so much moving, racing, killing. Yet something inside me burned.

Genin and children on the front lines – this was the tactic our enemy resorted to. They knew we couldn't kill them – not intentionally. There were preteens, who might deal damage as their opponents faltered, and then there were those too small to even dream of hurting anyone, sent among the ranks to cause confusion, provide shields, and very possibly, to die. My heart was hammering, shaking me from the inside.

This is… madness…

I looked up at a boom; in the distance, a battered great toad was slamming one of a trio of giant serpents to the ground, as another lunged to bite its arm.

Mad…

My eyes refocused, and across the battlefield, across spear-wielding hawk riders and enemy archers, across a thousand clashing blades and flying stars, across roiling earth, clouds of mist, and voracious blasts of flame that countered dragons of white water – I saw the distant three figures engaged in a hostile dance, enmity glaring in their moves. I saw a stark-faced man slipping from the path of Tsunade's fist, a cold smirk on his face as he cackled something at his foes.

Smiling… He's…

The man landed on a rooftop. Whatever he was saying, he glowed with wicked confidence.

…Smiling, while…

I blinked wide eyes. The ground exploded at my feet as slicing violet light flashed tumultuously about my form. I inhaled, teeth parting as my lip curled.

"CHIKUSHOOOOOUUU! ! !" I yowled, so intensely that it boomed to echo on the air. Two hundred meters away, Orochimaru tensed, flinching a step as he was met by a buffeting wind.

And I was there in the shadow of my resonant voice, clawed hand striking toward a snake in human skin and quite intent on crushing his skull.

He leaned away, and even as his hair danced in the shockwave of the strike he landed a kick with great speed at my side. I was thrown, rolling once and sliding to a stop on all fours.

"Kukukukuku… Your tricks won't fool me a second time, Jinchuuriki," he scoffed, contemptuously tossing his hair.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya barked behind me. "Stand down! Do you hear me? You are not to engage! The two of us can handle him–!"

"I've had it!" I screamed. My breath was fast, so fast. The sounds of clashing weapons, the war cries and the anguished screams – all that I'd heard since the fighting broke out seemed to be crashing at once upon my ears, a roar of chaos, overwhelming and relentless. "It's this guy – it's because of this scourge that brothers- and sisters-in-arms of the Leaf are spilling each other's blood! I've had enough of this! I'll crush him AND his so-called 'ambitions' here and NOW! !"

"Big words, from a child," he sneered, as chakra swirled and condensed in the palm of my hand. "Are you perhaps done running away now?"

'Yes, gaki… Silly tricks are worthless against someone like this…'

The air cracked with pressure as whipping energy thickened around me, sparking with its blinding intensity. My teeth lengthened. I was gaining tails – the spectrum was shifting from violet to red.

'Perfect, perfect – at last, slough the guise of Shinobi that encumbers you. You may pretend to be a creature of esteem, a noble and elegant fighter… but even that is mere illusion, no matter how deadly its powers may seem…'

My body was burning. A strange exoskeleton, vulpine, was materializing above me, embracing my frame as yet another tail was sprung. I should have noticed, should've realized that the beast's energy was entering me faster than my body could tame it with my own.

"Then come over here! Strike at me, tiny kitsune!"

"Naruto!"

But my focus, the bastion of clarity I'd been for so long refining, was falling apart. It had met its undoing, powerless as it were before the raw strength of my desire to destroy the monster before me.

'There is no denying it… you are a savage…'

"What are you doing?! Snap out of it!"

'Now, become unstoppable with me…!'

"NO! If you transform here–!"

'Become the monster you ARE!'

"Gr… Graaaaooooooooooooh! ! !"

Everything – so many shades of red. Everywhere – pain, wild and maddening. The vessel's pulse pounding, his heart near to breaking within a crushing cage of power…

The boiling black sphere of solid power, spiraling in our hand – we would drive it through the madman's heart. Seven tails danced behind me as I growled in contempt, and launched myself forward. Kill – nothing to do but kill. All I can do, I shall become.

Arm, drawing back. Now – now one more exquisite kill, to settle them all. I must. Kill…

KILL!

"You can't honestly believe the children were my trump card, hmm?"

Seized.

I was still registering what had caught me, wondering what could have been strong enough to bind me, when the man in dull plate armor, glassy-eyed and glowering, slammed his broad palm into my chest. I yowled in outrage, but could not so much as give a thrash before he yanked his hand back, leapt away, and tore the insurmountable power clean from my body.

I choked out something of a gasp, eyes huge and bewildered as the solid cloak and all seven tails were banished in a quick, explosive flash. Falling, I blinked at the absence, at the mind I'd regained, and at the claws of wood that had sprung from beneath my feet and now tightened again to entrap and immobilize me. It was in such a bind, arms and head drawn back, locked in place and perfectly vulnerable, that I recognized unmistakably the one who'd so easily stripped me of the demon's power, and my jaw dropped in terror.

Standing at a great height before me, the ox of a man drew back a decisive fist.

"Forgive me!" he shouted.

M-move… I need to move… that is…

Sweat pealed down my cold face. He'd bust my neck.

Wait… but… h-how is it that I use my technique, again…?

I watched his strike close to kill.

Fourteen years… I'm still… so small…

"NO!"

The sound that surged from Jiraiya's lungs was only half a word, and half a thing made bestial with rage. A solid crack shook the air as the First Hokage's fist connected with the hands of the Sannin crouched before me.

The Lord Founder's expression was blank, if a bit perturbed as the livid toad sage swiftly grabbed his wrist in one hand, and drew back a rapidly shaping Rasengan in the other.

"Back off!"

CRASH!

The spiraling sphere in his hand faded; his arm slumped, falling short of a dull-red breastplate. I screamed out something like a protest, but all too late – much too late to do a thing, as the Second Hokage's foot plunged clean into the back of a shattering neck. The legendary ninja was dropped like a stone.

"Hyaa!"

The next event in this surreal progression was the crashing of a snarling Tsunade's bursting jump-kick into the blue-armored ghost's face, firing him a few dozen meters backwards.

"Even you are so careless, granddaughter?" The Founder wore a frown as he said this; he had narrowly dodged the projectile the second sannin had made of his brother, and now set a living mass of wood bursting toward her from the earth, morphing branches into skewers as they shot for her with deadly speed. She was in the air – she could not dodge.

No! Not her too…!

"Infinity!"

A timely blur of green, and the skewering branches were diced to their roots. Tsunade's feet met the ground, and she hopped back; before the First could pursue attack, he jumped away from the path of a vicious blast of sand that subsequently arced and reared in warning, and the man fell back to Orochimaru's side.

"Y-you guys," I stammered at a gasp. "Th-this is bad. It's…" It was what, exactly? A pair of undead Hokage?

Orochimaru cackled. "Sarutobi-sensei didn't manage to defeat them before he met his tragic demise… Unfortunately, he did manage in his last moments to use some jutsu that supposedly bound his own soul to the shinigami. As a result, the old worm won't be joining the party – believe me, I've checked…"

Lee's teeth clenched. When he looked at me over his shoulder, his face was severe. "So, what? Can you not get out of there on your own now?" He swung with a scowl, and the sturdy branches that held me were shattered by the pass of his blade. Free, I slumped to my knees, a hand at my gut as I coughed and gasped uncontrollably. My vision blurred momentarily; my body was cold. I needed to slow my breathing…

Gaara's hand met my shoulder tentatively and shook, though his eyes stayed forward and alert. "Please get up, Naruto-san…"

"I…?" I saw drops of water falling to the ground.

"What is wrong with you?" Lee cried. "Forget it, Gaara-kun! We do not have time. He is weak!"

I flinched at the word, teeth grinding as I glared, pitifully, up at my friend.

"D… don't s-s-scold hi-him… L…Lee…"

"Ero-sennin!" I yelped. "You're – how? That hit looked l-like…"

Tsunade was already at his side, hands aglow and eyes intent. "He lessened the impact at the last second by hardening his hair. If he hadn't detected the Second in time to do so, and if I hadn't knocked the man back before Jiraiya could suffer a second impact between the kick and the ground – lacking either one, he would probably have died instantly."

My fists clenched. I screwed up everything… Because I couldn't defend my own damned self, he…! "Kuso!" I grunted, shoving to my feet. "Pervy Sage… no, Lord Jiraiya. I'm sorry."

"N-no… we put t-too much on you… F-far… far too much…!" His voice was hoarse, barely detectable. "W-war is… Hell… After all you've already d-done, we w-were the fools to forget you're children," he managed, quick and hushed. Blood was pooling at his mouth. Tsunade's face was solemn as she focused on her work. I shook my head left and right, distraught.

"Just save your strength–!"

"Shut up for once!" he croaked, eyes shut. "Th-there's no excuse… as adults, t-to… to make you endure this…! And you, who I p-promised to watch over… I promised him, th-that I would…!" He panted for a few painstaking breaths. "L-live… live on, Naruto, and all of you! I feel I c-can entrust the… future… to you…" His teeth clenched, face briefly contorting. Then, having said all he needed to say, he fell still. Unconscious, from the pain.

"I'll help," I told Tsunade, moving to his other side. "You should fight, Obaa-chan. They need–,"

"Me?" She almost laughed, a bitter smile soft on her face as she remained focused. "I'm not so sure of that…"

"What're you getting at? This isn't the time to mess around! Obaa-chan…!"

"This man will probably be dead within the hour's end!" she snapped, head down. "You're a fine medic, Naruto…. but the only healer alive with a chance of saving him, from something like this…"

"It's you," I breathed, defeated. She gave a slow, silent nod.

"I know – I'm betting on a rotten chance. I know that even if I succeed, he won't be of any use in this fight, nor any to come, in all likelihood. I know that I probably ought to fight as well. But listen, Naruto. You were thinking I should fight because they need me, but it's not me that they need. They need a leader – their leader. And honestly, if I had to say which one of us is stronger at this point… I get the feeling that it's not whom you think."

"Granny…"

"I can't rightly ask any more from you than you've already given. Still… I've got one more selfish adult's request for you, Naruto. Even if you'll have to hate me for it, I'll accept it. Just once more… please… Fight."

"I…" I looked to Lee, and to Gaara, both of whom looked to me with uncertain hope.

"It's true that, as shinobi, we rarely have the luxury of choosing whether or not to fight, when, who, or for how long. Even so, you kids were forced to make these decisions all too soon, whether we appreciate it as we should or not. From the moment we recognized your potential, you've had power and responsibility continually being thrust upon your shoulders, perhaps at times without due consideration. We hang our expectations around your necks, simply because you only know how to reach them without complaint. Jiraiya realized this, and I see it now, too. I'm sorry.

"And in the very same sense, now… You've said you would crush that monster and his ambitions. You've said you would become the greatest Hokage, and now I'm holding you to it. Doesn't a man stick to his words?!"

I started; then my jaw set. That's just … cheap. Taking a breath, I clasped in one hand the crystal pendant of the necklace I wore. "You're right," I realized. "It's not fair at all. But…" I turned my head forward, eyes downcast, and walked to pass between Lee and Gaara. Pausing, I fell absolutely still. "Even knowing it, I can't hate someone for having high expectations. No more can I blame Ero-sennin for giving me the Rasengan… or for sending me to the toads."

This tranquility… it's superior, I found to my surprise, pulling the natural energy into my body. The fox's power and influence were blocked off from me, for the time being, but my ability to muster up, balance, and control this sublime force seemed to be reaping the benefits.

Sage Mode… My eyes slid open, and I stared down the shinobi who stood across from us.

"Kukuku… Finished chatting?"

I did not answer. Rather, I spoke for Lee's and Gaara's ears. "Guys… in terms of these odds…"

"What about them?" It was neither Lee nor Gaara who spoke that rejoinder, but it was a voice I knew. I smirked as Kakashi body-flickered into being behind us, moderately scuffed up but not letting any weariness show through his characteristic nonchalance. His arrival wiped the gloating smile from Orochimaru's face.

"You…"

"Yo! Yakushi Kabuto's been taken care of, if that's what you're worried about. And by the looks of things, we got here just in time for the good part…"

"We?" Lee echoed.

"Kakashi was a pain to keep up with, naturally…"

"Shikamaru!" I said, as the cool-eyed Nara youth and Mitarashi Anko fell in beside us. The strategist smirked subtly.

"Naruto, Lee, and even Gaara, huh?" He shook his head. "You sure know how to pick dangerous opponents… I hear you've grown stronger."

"The same of you," I answered, a glint in my eye. Now with the additions, we stood a fighting chance. "Stay on your toes, everyone, and prepare yourselves for the fight of our lives."

"We're up against Reanimation Ninjutsu here," Kakashi supplied. "The founders' will has been bound to Orochimaru's command; it's the only explanation. On top of that, we can pound away at them all we please, but superficial damage won't last. We don't win this fight until we can trap them or seal their spirits away."

"Right!"

Across from us, the two former Hokage looked on, glum. "It's a shame, Tobirama… but it seems we must now slaughter children of the Leaf and her allies."

The silver-haired Second Hokage nodded, and called out. "We're sorry, but you stand no chance of defeating us this way…"

"You think so?!" I said, sneering. This… this was what my training had been for, I realized – to protect my comrades, and my village, from the most powerful enemies who would threaten them. Fighting against shinobi like these, I needed not to fear my power. None of us did. We would focus everything we had on fighting, here and now. I stood tall, teeth showing through a cold grin. "I am Uzumaki Naruto! Against the men I've sworn to surpass… there's no way I'll be defeated!"

The Lord Founder frowned.

At my side, Lee sighed. "You are healing around what remains of a crossbow bolt."

"Huh–? Agh!" I yelped as the butt of a sword hilt re-broke my shoulder blade, forcing an inch of the bolt from the front of my shoulder. Grunting, I pulled the fragment free. "Thanks…"

"I am sorry for what I said before… Are you all right now?"

"Never better – and, I've decided," I said, flicking the litter aside before bracing the naginata in my hands.

"Decided?"

I nodded.

"After all, we have to grow up someday!"

With that I led our charge. This will decide it!

"Matte!"

Fwa-BOOM!

We'd all halted before the fireball came crashing to the ground between our group and Orochimaru's. It struck at an angle, tearing the rooftop and splashing in an angry spray of flame. Dancing remnants of the jutsu clung to scorched tile for but a few moments; then they rolled past, fading to reveal a black-clad figure rising to full height, and turning to face us – or more specifically, me.

What now…?

Sharingan eyes blazing, Sasuke smirked. "Naruto… I'm your opponent now!"

Kakashi swore under his breath. "It goes without saying that I'm a bit disappointed in you," he supplied, glaring.

"Hn? I could cry, sensei."

"How nice of you to join us," Orochimaru chuckled. "If you would, entertain the Nine Tails' brat while the good First and Second Hokage destroy the rest…"

"You, deal with me? In your dreams," I said, glowering at my old teammate. "I've already beaten you before!"

"Oi, Naruto…" Shikamaru began, but Kakashi spoke.

"There's no question you're strong, Naruto, but he would hardly need to defeat you. You're the utility player here; your offensive capability is enormous, but you're also skillful with complementing and protecting your team. If they split us up, and Sasuke is able to hold you in single combat, for even a few minutes… I'm afraid the rest of us won't last long. And if that happens, and you wind up alone against Orochimaru and his puppets…"

I clenched my teeth. "Then the war is lost…"

Kakashi nodded.

"Actually…" Shikamaru lifted a hand, but whatever he was talking about, we had some serious problems to focus on here. "The thing about Sasuke–,"

"We don't have time for this!" I shouted. "I'm sorry, but all I can do is crush you with everything I have! Sasuke!"

What happened next was truly strange. The Uchiha flinched, eyes unfocusing and refocusing again; he blinked, lips parted as if he ailed with some manner of sudden disorientation. Pupils dilated slightly, he slowly formed a seal, and shut his eyes.

"At last…" he whispered. "Genjutsu, release."

In the next moment his eyes snapped wide, and he wore an expression of shock, or even startled enlightenment. Then he seemed to regard all of us before him in a new light.

"So?" Shikamaru asked. "Did it work?"

Behind his two puppets, Orochimaru frowned. Obviously he was concerned that the Leaf Shadow knew something here that he did not. If anything, I suppose it should've been a relief to me that if anyone knew what was happening, it was one of us. Not to say I wasn't confused as heck right then.

Sasuke sent a familiar smirk my way, but there was no ill intent about the look this time. All eyes lay on him as he drew a sword deftly from the sheath across his back, and turned to raise his weapon toward an incredulous Orochimaru, his free hand in a half-Tora that ensured hostility was conveyed.

"What…?!"

"Hn. Too bad, ne?"

(Sasuke サスケ)

"What do you think you're doing?! Those vermin over there are your enemies – you belong to ME!"

"Not quite," Sasuke answered. "I'll cater to the demands of no one's ambitions but my own. After seeing what you've done to your pet Hyuuga, it's pretty clear that the two of us wouldn't see eye to eye down the road. Thanks for the training, though; if it makes you feel any better, this wasn't my intention from the start."

"Worthless ingrate!"

The one known as the last Uchiha shrugged, clearly unfazed. "You're probably wondering, now, how I've been getting away with lying to your face for so long. The answer's that I haven't been. Depending on how you look at it…"

"Heh," Shikamaru scoffed behind him. "Is it possible to lie, if you think you're telling the truth?"

He scowled briefly. "Nara… you've figured out quite a bit, haven't you?"

"Only theories up to now," the Hakage said, nonchalant.

"Hold on," Naruto said. "Shikamaru – what exactly just happened?"

"He switched sides. But in reality he's been doing quite a bit of that – haven't you, Uchiha? You've been playing a deadly game, without any breaks."

The Nara got a chuckle for this; Sasuke's attention, however, stayed with the shinobi he faced. "Still don't get it, Orochimaru?"

He jerked back his thumb, indicating a Sharingan eye.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is to hypnotize myself."

–"The following words will take effect when you state your loyalty, after which they will wear off when you have been alone for six minutes. You are only alone here, holding this mirror, to check your face. You will think nothing suspicious of it. More importantly, you are prepared to commit to becoming Orochimaru's student. You will take them up on their offer. You are willing to become Orochimaru's vessel in the future, because you will do anything for the power he can grant you. And above all else, you are loyal to New Sound."–

"I started to get better and better at it; conditions became more complex, as each given or anticipated situation demanded..."

–The red eye in the mirror, and the rapid slew of words.

"…and will wear off ten minutes after exiting his cell, but you will not recall these conditions. You know of nothing unusual that happens to Neji on the night of a full moon. His claims are mere efforts to conspire with you in his desperation, and you will not help him because ultimately you are loyal to New Leaf."–

"…At some point, though, out of fear I started to bury my true self, if one even existed during that time, beneath layer upon layer of confusion and self-imposed misdirection."

–"…After, you will break into his cell. You want to give Neji a choice to either accept the assignment or escape, because you don't want to see him transform and slaughter others against his will, or the joy our Lord Orochimaru will take in it. You are a bit rebellious to authority, after all, so this is a perfectly believable action for you to take. The plan you will lay out for Neji is as follows:…"–

–"You delivered word of his assignment, but Neji escaped independently, heedless of our Lord Orochimaru's wishes…"–

–"…And above all, you are loyal to New Sound…"–

–"You will not recall overwriting Neji's instructions for the attack. It is to be permanently forgotten…"–

–"You have discovered that the Sound really is striking New Leaf at 1200 hours tomorrow. And you are above all loyal to New Leaf."–

–"…will take effect when you state your loyalty…"–

–"…effective five minutes from now…"–

–"…as you cross Third Street…"–

–"…once outdoors…"–

–"…take effect when you spot the Great Oak…"–

–"…upon sighting Shikamaru, but will be negated in the event that…"–

–"At this point, you can no longer protect her, or any of them, from among them…"–

–"You will poison the food stores as instructed because… because, you are a loyal soldier of New Sound."–

–"Now that they trust you…"–

All of this, so much forgotten, made the boy's mind race with an almost alien degree of clarity. "I enslaved my mind – twisting it, overwriting it, holing it up and locking it into cage after cage – hiding things from myself and making lies into truth. But now I'm free; I'm free of the masks I became, and free of the perpetual terror of discovery. I can now stand in the open and fight, here where I know I belong!" His New Sound headband was torn loose; he cast it to the ground, and stomped so fiercely that he felt the metal buckle beneath his foot.

"He's done something, then, hasn't he? He's finished switching?" Naruto asked.

"Looks like it," Shikamaru said. "It was Naruto, right? When he said your name?"

Dangerously sharp, this guy… Sasuke nodded. "I knew that wherever I wound up, when the deciding battle began I would seek you out – and probably at a critical moment, as well. That's why, when things first started getting more convoluted, I devised the condition for a final release that would dispel every last layer of self-hypnosis.

"At the beginning of it all, I might have just been torn; I didn't know which side I should stand on. I had on the one hand New Sound, which offered power but would also stick me as an browbeating enforcer of your broken system, parroting ideals and visions I didn't care for. I had on the other New Leaf, boring as hell but where people were less unpleasant to be around. But…" He grinned as the self-proclaimed Fifth Hokage glared daggers.

–"Above all else, you are loyal to…"–

–"You are loyal to…"–

–"…to New Leaf."–

–"…to New Sound."–

–"You are loyal to New Leaf…"–

"Obviously, whichever side I hung with, I would do best thinking I was with it one hundred percent. I became the spy who scarcely told a conscious lie."

"It's more than that," Shikamaru asserted. "You might downplay your reasons for acting, but in the months since your defection to a New Sound whose administration offered trust and acceptance, you've been hard at work, haven't you?"

"Of course you would figure out it was me…"

"So," Orochimaru seethed, "After turning up clean in the results of every internal investigation… Behind that dull image of loyalty, you were the mole passing them information?"

"You knew it was from him?" Anko demanded of Shikamaru.

"Well, my instinct to trust him proved worthwhile, didn't it?"

"Of course it did," Mitarashi groaned. "You don't do anything by instinct. It's all logic this and numbers that…"

Shikamaru nodded. "At the end of the day, there's only so much that we leaders could do face to face with such debilitating odds. There's another person, standing right in front of us, who deserves due thanks for the survival of New Leaf. A hero of the shadows, who subjected himself to great personal risk and psychological pressure to quite possibly save us all…"

Sasuke winced at this. "I'm no hero, Hakage. There were far too many that I couldn't save. I've committed heinous crimes, taking lives in exchange for power in a game of trust and secrets. Whatever the purpose, I've still done my share of fighting for the Sound as well. I can't take back these crimes. Even so…" He set his jaw, lifting the sword before him again as a new fierceness poured into his stance. "All I can do at this point is use my own power in the name of the Leaf!"

"Heh…" He raised an eyebrow as Naruto came to his side, that naginata of his balanced loosely in his hands. "However insidious you claim to be, I've gotta say I feel better to be fighting alongside you again."

The Uchiha snorted. He had not forgotten his last clash with the knucklehead. "Just don't get yourself killed, dobe. Once this is done, I still have a score to settle."

"Teme," his former teammate muttered, though the corner of his mouth quirked upward to give tell of a grin.

Kakashi came to Sasuke's other side, and Lee and Gaara to Naruto's; Anko and Shikamaru stood not far behind.

"Looks like the fighters have all line up," Naruto remarked.

Orochimaru glowered. "It matters not. Make no mistake – you all will perish with your foolish ideals."

"I probably will go out fighting for the Leaf," Naruto retorted, leveling his naginata, "many, many years from now, after I've been a helluva better Hokage than you could ever dream of being."

"Grr… GO!" Orochimaru ordered. "Obliterate them, with no more delay!"

"Charge!" Naruto cried.

In this way, a battle of all battles began.

(Hyuuga Hiryuu 日向ヒリュウ)

"The time is upon us… The crossroads of fates innumerable are being splayed beneath our feet."

Hiryuu's hand had paused when the old voice drifted out and reached him before he could rap the wooden doorframe.

"Come, child, quickly."

The man – a Branch defector, and a Guardian – had raced here, a furtive shadow crossing through the all but abandoned grounds of the clan that had once been his home. Nodding at the attendant who stood vigilantly outside with hand resting ever upon a sword's hilt, he now slid the door open and strode into an austere square room. A cozy dwelling, it could only be described as the quintessence of peace.

The warrior dropped his head as he knelt before the wise one; for his Seer, he held naught but the utmost respect. "You are certain, then?" he asked evenly, though he knew the answer. "It must be now?"

"Yes… The one we've spoken of, the one whom destiny awaits, must face him now. She of pure spirit and rightful b-blood– urgh…!"

"Honored Grandfather, are you all right?!" Hiryuu demanded, usually stern white eyes wide as the old man wheezed and coughed.

"Forget about m-me, boy! You must go!" The fit subsided, but the ancient man's gravelly words fell quick. "But heed this g-guidance– You must not seek his redemption, for he is inextricably damned. He has chosen destruction, whether at the hand of the Savior or the Snake…!" He coughed, grasping Hiryuu's arm in a faltering grip as the younger man reached toward him in concern. "Go to her now, Hiryuu – go swiftly. Go!"

"H–hai!"

With one last look at the All-Seeing One, as if for strength, Hiryuu stood and tore from the room, past the cold-eyed and unwavering attendant, and leapt with great strength. Then, sailing in the open air, he gasped.

Murderous intent!

The energy chilled his bones. But he realized, before he could so much as look back, that Lord Hikaru had known the threat to be approaching. It was in fact likely the reason he had sent Hiryuu off with such urgency. He could not protect him.

–"Go to her."–

"Kuso," Hiryuu swore, and body flickered away.

Neji ネジ

A shishiodoshi by the pond was tipping to spill its contents. Unburdened, the bamboo tube fell back against its stone with a smooth clack, and began to fill with water again.

"Physical prowess aside, some would say that the proud spirit of a warrior, the admirable heart brim with courage and valor, is an exclusively inherent trait."

A breath of winter wind rolled across my form, across my ebon cloak and across the claws I bared, as I strode up the walkway.

"But should one hone and forge the spirit laboriously – should one truly struggle, and crawl brokenly through the muck…"

Silver-white eyes, resolute on my own. The metallic sigh of a longsword unsheathed.

"…Should one face the world in all its might and cruelty, bellow forth a roar of challenge, and beat and weather it back – and at last come to stand erect atop it, upon her own two feet…"

Clattering of a weapon disarmed. Struggle. A strangled cry, stifled. The attendant's body thumping to the ground.

"Is not such a one equally impressive?"

Chin held high, I brushed open the screen and stepped into the bumbling prophet's dwelling. "Cute," I remarked, a gentle smirk curling smartly across my lips. "What, pray tell, was that?"

The weathered old man smiled peaceably, though the light had faded from his sightless eyes. "The song of our savior."

"Oh? But the savior of the Hyuuga … is me. Babbling fool… you've grown weak, and blind."

"Even with all your Byakugan's prowess, blind is the one now standing before me. You have arrived; with your arrival, my Time; and with my time, the clarity, as the light at the end smiles upon me… I was wrong."

He was still smiling, as he said it. Forever at peace.

"Dear gods and spirits, I was wrong."

I lifted my claws, walking toward him.

"The wrong one… what have I done?"

My hand grasped his throat, to silence the smiling man forever.

Ssslshkt!

Hinata ヒナタ

Silent on all fours, I crept nearer. The prison guards had not detected me yet. But as I paused, in the shadow of a bush, a chill swept over me as something shimmered in my skull.

A… premonition?

A plump droplet of water landed at the edge of my eye, where it rested for a heartbeat, and then arced down my cheek.

Swallowing, I peered into the grey sky above.

Why do I feel this way…?

Hanabi ハナビ

I have no fear. I have no fear…

In the nice battle clothes that Harumi-oba-san had made me, I sat huddled in one of the fortified underground chambers deep within New Konoha, my head down – a shinobi, a guard, among civilians admittedly unlikely to come to harm here. I felt overdressed. When Auntie had found the time to make this robe with what little was available, carefully embroidered, fine-looking, and a comfortable fit, I would not know. I did feel that I had done little to deserve such a gift or the time that had gone into it. What had I done, truly, as they served me all this time? Unless…

Hope… even if it was only that I'd given them hope?

I shook my head, focusing. Each other shelter had only one chuunin guard, but this one, if I were included, had two.

I might not be here for long.

I have no fear.

When voices came from the entrance of the room I was on my feet immediately, Byakugan awakening. Identifying the arrivals, I relaxed what little I could. A man entered the room.

"Uncle, you've returned?"

He nodded solemnly, and lowered his head.

"Lady Hanabi… it is time."

The wise one had said nothing, then. It really was me.

Teeth clenching briefly, I gave a slow nod.

"Hai."

I… have no fear.

ナルト / リー / ヒナタ \ ハナビ \ ネジ

End Chapter Twenty-Five

PurpleFox10 (Ahri): ashe try shooting down lane

Kurouga1227 (Ashe): Ok

*Enchanted Crystal Arrow*

*FIRST BLOOD!*

[All] CagedNoMore (Vladimir): What's the range on that ult?

[All] PurpleFox10 (Ahri): lololol

[All] RuggedGreenBeast (Lee Sin): Global

[All] WhiteSnake1027 (Cassiopeia): ffffff

[All] Sharinganrox723 (Brand): o hey ashe our nid's in that brush

[All] KonekoNyaaa (Nidalee): my team sux

(–static–)

Shodai: So you can block my strikes? And here with your weak presence I thought you might shatter, or vanish in a puff of smoke…

Naruto: Witness the strength of my resolve!

Lee: Do not underestimate me, either!

Hinata: Familiar faces are encountered at the prison…

Neji: And the righteous Main House arrives at last to put me in my lowly place. Really, though, I was expecting someone taller… but...

I suppose this saves me some trouble.

Naruto: Next is Chapter Twenty-Six: Toward the New Age, Act Two. I'll settle it, with the power of Shuutansokudo!

Shishou - Master

Bushidou - way of the warrior/samurai; the samurai code of chivalry

Kyuujutsu - archery

Iie - no (previously mispelled 'ie')

Hidoi - terrible

Boku ga - 'Me?' ; in this case, 'I have?'

Sora - Sky

Iwa - Stone

Kiri - Mist

Doumou - whiskers

Shishi odoshi - deer-scarer; device meant to keep away birds and such. Particularly, a souzu is described in chapter.

Teme (which is actually 'temee,' now that I look at the kana, but I guess most fanfictioners cut ending 'e' syllable to avoid creating confusion on its pronunciation?) - rude way of saying 'you'

Holyyy30,000words. Well… 72 pages on word? Still 20 fewer than the longest, at least. ^^; We can always count on my estimating to be atrocious, can't we?

The next will be the shorter of the 'halves,' and its writing is almost complete. Instead of posting it as soon as it's done, I could wait in order to shorten the wait between it and the following one. Of course, I won't want to draw it out too long since it is so closely tied to this chapter.

More chapter songs, two by Two Steps From Hell: Naruto - Disappear, Orochimaru/the Sound Regime's corruption - False King. Outside the TSFH, I imagine L's Theme B playing when Sasuke makes his revelation. I don't know!

A few random points! First off, as you can probably tell, I have no idea how warfare works. Supernatural warfare, though, with ninja armies, might work a little differently, anyway. All the role stuff I made up as it seemed to make sense. If it's utterly crappy, please just try to suspend disbelief a bit on this one T.T Second note – I have no idea how many ninja these villages should have, either. Horrible estimating probably goes with failing to come up with reasonable numbers. I think I vaguely remember the manga saying the combined might of the Godaikoku having several tens of thousands of shinobi? That just seems like quite a few ninja. We're going with my numbers here, anyway (of course the Leaf army contains only a fraction of the full might of the Godaikoku, but with the numbers the manga gives mine would probably seem a paltry approximation, even taking this into account). As for relative numbers - the Sound army's got a good number, because they have not only all their own ninja but a good chunk of Leaf ninja who became New Sound-nin. Assuming New Leaf has some three to four thousand, and the Leaf portion of the outside army is almost purely elite ninja, I think the 'beating the numbers disadvantage' thing isn't so inconceivable.

On a third note – the return of the First and Second Hokage in this battle was planned well in advance, early in the fic's writing and before we found out that a man the First was as strong as is powerful enough to defeat all the... well, in the interest of skirting manga spoilers, let's just say he's kind of OP. *latelyeverythingevilisOP* Hashirama will be stronger than the average (modern) kage, but I don't think I'll be making him that strong, because good gosh. That was just ridiculous.

As always, how was the chapter? Best parts, worst parts? Naruto's now a Sage, and Lee has trained under samurai, but we'll really see how they use their skills in the fight next time. We had Hinata's scrap with Kurogiba, more Hanabi training, Neji the silencer of dissent... Three failures reunion, Lee and the solstice festival, Naruto and Hinata sparring, the Art of Dramatic Introduction, Gaara returning, army gathering, NaruHina fluff (why am I so sappy? T.T)... Oh, the first strike - the two arrows, then the demons attacking, and smuggling the army in their fur for a surprise attack - I spent a lot of time tweaking that scene until I was satisfied. I guess I really wanted to have them making a statement :P The real fighting begins, with Naruto and Lee adopting their roles. Hinata has a rematch with Koneko, but gets a strong first strike and snowballs from there, as successively revivals take more and more of her strength when she can't recover between them. Neji's fateful encounter with his team... Naruto, distraught, is baited by Orochimaru... How about Jiraiya's and Tsunade's words? Did the 'we used you without respecting you/made inconsiderate choices for you' idea make sense? I feel like what I was trying to convey something there, but didn't quite get it across in a way I liked. Thoughts on Sasuke, as his trick is revealed? And finally, Neji's last scene with Lord Hikaru? Should I even ask about Hanabi, or does no one give a crap about her anymore?

XD Well, please review! Liked it, didn't like it, tell me what you think!

Happy New Year,

-Hinata0321