Hey guys, thanks for waiting! I hope you enjoy the next chapter:)

Chapter 38: Crazy Enough to Work

After a parting kiss to Kiba and an admonition for him to stay safe in Akash, Lee strode with determination down the street, a collections of scrolls under his arm. "First things first!" Lee exclaimed. "I've got to visit Konohamaru and give him his mission assignment!" Just as he was about to speed away, he heard a most pitiful cry.

"Oi, Lee-san, please help me!" It sounded like a young girl. "I think I've broken my leg!"

Lee blinked. On one hand, he had an important mission to carry out; on the other, a child was in trouble. It would be most unyouthful to refuse to help! He should, at the very least, see what the matter was. "Where are you?" he called, hoping he could deal with the matter quickly.

"I'm over here," wailed the child, "behind the big oak tree!"

"I will save you! And if I don't, I will punish myself with one-thousand push-ups!" the green ninja bellowed. But as he rounded the tree, he saw a curious sight. "Saki-chan, is that you? Your leg doesn't look very broken to me..."

Saki's gaze snapped up to meet his. Lee had a moment to consider her whirling, sharingan eyes, before he passed out cold, landing with a thump under the tree.

Saki snorted. "That was too easy, Lee-san..." She took the scroll marked for Konohamaru out of his hands, and procured from her pack a quill and a bottle of ink. "Now, let's see how well I can forge Naruto's handwriting..."

#

"Tama?" Yuki called in disbelief as her summons materialized from the aether. "How can you be here too?"

Tama purred and rubbed her face on Yuki's shoulder. Behind her, Aya chuckled. "I suppose with all the excitement, we never did tell you the story of the summons."

Tama tilted her head and grinned. "In the beginning, there were only nin cats, many of whom were affiliated with the Uchiha. But when Madara achieved his eternal mangekyo—" here Tama spat on before continuing, "—he created cat summons from the nin cats through a genetic mutation."

"But what's the difference?" Yuki asked.

"Unlike nin cats, we are capable of traveling interdimensionally," Tama replied, puffing out her chest with pride.

"You two have talked about this interdimensional traveling thing a lot, and to be honest—I don't get it," Yuki grumbled.

Tama chuckled. "Hop on Yuki-chan, I'll explain while we travel."

With just a hint of trepidation, Yuki threw herself onto Tama's back. All at once, they floated through thick clouds, orange and pink like a sunset. The space was full of light, but she couldn't see much more than the vague outline of clouds. "This is the highest level that we'll be traveling through," Tama said, her voice sounding thin and airy. "Activate your sharingan."

Yuki did so and gasped: whereas before there had been nothing but diffuse light, now she saw an infinite number of shifting forms. They looked like shadowy birds flying through the clouds. Yuki mused, briefly, that the quality of the light here was akin to starlight: flickering, cold, but alive in a strange sense, as if the light was somehow breathing.

"Do you see them, Yuki-chan?" Tama said. "Those are the souls that hover above the earth. Some are on their way to the outer realms, where we cannot pass, and some are returning to earth." Yuki, too stunned to answer, stared the forms of light, moving in waves like schools of glinting fish.

"It's beautiful," Yuki whispered.

"Now hold on tight and watch what I do, because when you fight Madara, you'll have to fight him alone."

Yuki's hands gripped Tama's fur tightly. "What? Why can't you fight with me?"

Tama grimaced. "Madara has the key to our cellular structure—he can kill cat summons with just the blink of his eye. He's already murdered many of my clan..." the feline trailed off, sorrow tinging her voice.

"I'm so sorry," Yuki murmured.

"I am too," Tama replied gruffly. "That's why Amaya and myself are the only two cat summons available right now: Madara killed off the rest of our fighters..."

"Wait—Tama, are you Aya's summon too?"

Tama nodded. "We're about to hit the gate. Pay attention!" They approached a portal of blue light, pulsing like water reflecting the light of the moon. When they passed through it, the world around them shimmered and dissolved. After a sinking, lurching sensation, they found themselves in a land that had no sun or moon, though it was bright, and the colors were more saturated and real than anything Yuki had seen on earth.

"This is the land of dreams," Tama instructed, "where the spirits of the next world and souls of the living sometimes mingle. But we're not going to stay here long. We're going to go straight to earth."

Yuki really had a hard time grasping what, exactly, Tama meant by that, but she had no time to question as they approached another portal. This time, the circular light was silver, swirling like the eye of a storm. As they approached, they were pulled through by its force. Wind whipped back her hair and howled in her ears—then suddenly, they stopped, standing still in a shadowy world. Yuki blinked until her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and saw a familiar scene.

The moon hung low in the sky, and its pale light illuminated a scrub clearing. Yuki looked out towards the horizon and saw lolling mountains rolling until they met the sea. "Is this...?"

Tama nodded. "We're back in Akash. I'm in my full, physical form, but not you—you've left your body behind in the village. Regardless, I'm going to teach you how to phase in and out of this dimension. You'll be able to replicate the technique once you're back in your body."

Yuki squinted. "Tell me, why couldn't we travel dimensions when we were running away from that psycho with the arrows...back when..." She was going to say, 'back when Ryuu died', but she couldn't manage to get the words out.

Tama shook her head. "It would have killed you. You need to go through this kind of training first before you can phase out of time and space like I can. I'm sorry." Tama sighed and bowed her head.

Yuki exhaled sharply. "It doesn't matter, Tama-chan. Let's do this." She balled her hands into fists, strengthening her resolve to master the last jutsu she would need to finally finish her training.

#

Sasuke blinked. Where was he? For so long, it had just been darkness and pain, his soul truncated and his body invaded by Madara. But as he looked around him, he saw that he was in a world filled with light, though there was no sun or moon hanging in the sky, only the cold stars winking above.

"Sasuke?"

At the sound of his name, he whirled around to see his mother standing in a cool, green field. She looked just as she had when Sasuke's was young: her cheeks shone with silver light, and her eyes were dark. She smiled and took his nerveless hand in hers.

"Okaasan—am I dead?" he managed, despite the tightness in his chest.

Mikoto's smile turned sorrowful. "Almost, my son. Almost..." As she led him away from the clearing towards the mountainside, Sasuke marveled at how warm her hand felt in his. His eyes filled with tears of relief: finally, he was dead. He could be with his family again, leave the burdens from his life behind and regain everything he had lost as a child...

They traveled up a narrow path, their footsteps so light, they barely touched the earth. It was almost like floating. They were silent for some time, until Sasuke finally ventured, "I missed you, okaasan..."

Mikoto paused in her stride and kissed him on the cheek. "I missed you too, Sasuke-chan. Though I've always been looking over you. Don't you remember what I used to tell you about the dead?"

"Of course," he replied in a hoarse voice. "They become stars and watch over their friends and family..." Sasuke's heart felt light in his chest. His mother regarded him warmly, and he swore the light glinting in her eyes looked like starlight, cool, beautiful, with the promise of wishes and their fulfillment. Now Sasuke could become a star, cold and remote and untroubled, in a constellation of his family. He smiled widely.

"Don't be so pleased to die, Sasuke-chan," she murmured, and now Sasuke could see the sorrow clearly etched on her face. "You still have family on earth that need tending to..."

The truth hit him like a smack to the face. In this strange world, so brilliantly bright but dark at the same time, had he really forgotten about Sakura? And Yuki, Saki, and Takeo? Gods, he was such a bastard.

But she had no time to say anything more, because the slope they had been climbing plateaued, and before him stood a large gathering of shadows. Sasuke's breath hitched in his throat—

Everyone was there.

Fugaku emerged from the crowd, accompanied by Itachi. "Son," he intoned, his voice both warm and sad, "forgive us."

All around, the shadows shifted, and a thousand eyes looked at him, black and red and gleaming, shimmering like red stars. Sasuke met father's gaze and wept—he was the one who should be asking for forgiveness, not his father.

Itachi stepped forward and raised Sasuke's chin up, forcing him to look into his eyes. "Sasuke. Madara is going to pull you back to earth soon."

"What? But I thought I was...?" He wanted to say dead, but the word died on his lips. He wasn't sure what death was, if his family and clan were all here, alive, in this bright place.

Itachi shook his head. "Madara wants you to watch as he attempts to murder your family and destroy Konoha from the vessel of your body."

"Kami! I'm such a fool," Sasuke rasped, averting his gaze, the gravity of his mistake weighing down on him all at once.

Itachi placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Foolish little brother, stop blaming yourself. This was how it was meant to be. Now listen closely: when you see me again, you must fight Madara with all your strength. You can do this, Sasuke. You can finally kill Uchiha Madara and put all of our souls to rest."

"But ...what do I do?" Sasuke asked in a small voice.

However, just then the shadowy souls turned into crows, and Sasuke started falling, back into the familiar, burning darkness. Pain seared him and he parted his lips in a silent cry.

From the corners of his mind, he could hear Madara whispering, Don't die yet Sasuke. Stay here while I consume you and yours, yes, yes! Almost finished now... And then, the numb darkness overtook his mind and he knew no more.

#

Sakura grit her teeth, her brow beading with sweat. Beside her, Ino and Karin were looking equally green in the face. The rest of their team, Neji, Kiba, and Choji, didn't look much better off. Only Naruto seem unaffected from the hiraishin ride as he looked around him, his senses sharp, his eyes outlined in orange— a sure sign that he was in Sage Mode.

"Hokage-sama," Shino buzzed as he materialized from a cloud of bugs. "We've narrowed in on Sasuke's location. However—"

"That's great Shino—where are they?" Naruto interrupted, ready for action.

Sakura pushed Naruto out of the way and asked, "However what, Shino?"

Expressionless, Shino replied, "However, their location is surrounded by hundreds of edo tensei. They are all armed with various projectiles."

Naruto clenched his fists. "Karin, I want you to use your sensory techniques to find a possible back entrance to this location; Neji, keep your eyes open and join Shino up front. Kiba and Choji guard the rear. Ino, stick by me. Let's go!"

As they zeroed in, Neji hissed and motioned for them all to stop. "I count about five hundred reanimated corpses guarding some sort of cave," he hissed.

"Neji, can you see inside the cave?" Naruto shot back.

The Hyuga nodded. "Hold on. I see one person inside, but it's hard to tell who it is...they have this horrible light all around them, and their chakra is fluctuating wildly. What in the world...?"

"Neji, what is it?" Kiba grunted, anxious to know what they were walking into.

"It's like...it's like one body has two chakra signatures that are trying to mash into each other. I'm not really sure what's going on."

"Is it Sasuke?" Sakura demanded.

Neji motioned for them to be quiet as he strained his eyes to see. "The chakra is extremely unstable—it's impossible to get a proper reading. Would Sasuke have anything on him to identify—"

Sakura shoved her left hand in front of Neji's face. "He'll have a ring like mine, with the Uchiha crest. Can you see that?"

Neji pushed her hand out of the way and peered back at the cave. He did not respond for a long time as the veins around his forehead bulged and beads of sweat ran down his face. "Confirmation on the wedding ring. It's him," Neji finally answered, his voice grim.

"Karin!" Naruto ordered. "What can you sense? I can't sense a single thing past all those zombies."

The Karin nodded and closed her eyes, snapping open again in a moment. "It's Madara. I'm sure of it—no one else has such vile chakra. He's taking over," she replied, sotto voce. She put a hand on Sakura's trembling shoulder.

Naruto slammed a fist down onto the cold ground. "Karin, is there a back entrance?"

She shook her head. "The damn place is entirely surrounded by reanimated corpses. We're going to have to fight our way through. But remember, there's only one way to kill these guys, and that's to completely remove the heart, and even then you have to either incinerate it or smash it." She grimaced.

"Great!" Naruto cried, "What are we waiting for? Let's go smash some zombies!"

"Wait!" Karin shouted, grabbing Naruto by the collar before he could zoom off. "There's one important thing you have to remember—their blood carries the parasite!" Karin moaned. "Did you not pay attention at all in the briefing? You can't get too much of that stuff on your skin!"

Ino rested her forehead on Choji's shoulder, her eyes lined with worry. "How the hell are we going to kill those guys?"

Naruto grinned deviously. "We don't. We distract them and then kill them."

#

"Saki," Hoshiko moaned, "I think this is the worst idea you've ever cooked up. We can't leave the village, and we certainly can't go to Akash! In case you weren't paying attention, there's a zombie army heading this way, and we're supposed to protect the village!"

Cho shook her head. "I can't believe you altered sensei's mission scroll, sending him with the patrol to the outskirts of the village. Saki, you could get in a lot of shit for doing that..." the older girl murmured reproachfully.

"Guys! Don't you get it? My sister and father are going to be hijacked by some freakin' zombies and we've got to help them!" Saki shrieked, shooting them pleading looks.

Hoshiko's eyes softened. She put an arm around Saki and said in an undertone, "Saki, listen, I know you're upset..."

"But Hokage-sama, half a dozen elite jonin, and squads of ANBU are all out there looking for your family," Cho finished for her.

Undeterred, Saki flounced over to Hayato and shook him by the shoulders. "Come on Hayato, you're supposed to be a genius! I'll bet you can clearly see that the best thing for us to do is to leave for Akash right now!"

Hayato winced and pried himself out of Saki's grasp. "Um..."

"Hayato-kun, please tell Saki she's being unreasonable!" Hoshiko cried. She, of all people, knew that Saki's impetuous nature often landed Saki—and the people around her— in deep trouble.

All eyes were fixed on Hayato. He sighed, ran a hand through his dark hair, and muttered, "On one hand, Saki does have a point—"

"See!" Saki roared victoriously.

"What?!" Cho and Hoshiko cried, horrified.

Hayato rolled his eyes. "Can I finish, ladies?" He speared them all with a glare. Seriously, how in the world did he ever get teamed up with three girls? It was damned troublesome, as his father would say. "Saki, after all, is the only person who has successfully healed the damage done by the chakra poison; if Yuki and Sasuke have already been infected, Saki is the only one who can heal them by virtue of her sharingan."

Hoshiko shook her head. "I bet Saki could teach a byakugan user how to do the same thing..."

"Hey, that's a good point! I don't know why no one thought of it before," Cho murmured appreciatively.

Saki stuck out her tongue and countered, "Nah, mom tried working out the jutsu with Hinata. It was a no go." She looked over at her Hyuga teammate and shrugged. "But hey, I bet we'll get a chance to try it out with your byakugan if you would just agree to come to Akash—"

Hoshiko slapped her forehead. "Saki, you're being impossible."

Hayato, who had silently been raising his hand waiting for a turn, finally cleared his throat. "However, there are equally pressing reasons why we should stay in the village. If what Saki overheard in the Hokage's office is true, then it's likely the village will need us here. Logistically, our team is a medical ninja unit: Saki and Hoshiko excel in healing, closely followed by Cho. I'm here to protect you in battle, and paired with Cho, the two of us can cover your backs. We're also well suited to scouting missions, due to Hoshiko's byakugan, Cho's mind-jutsu, Saki's ability to weave complicated genjutsu, and my intelligence paired with my strength in wind jutsu."

"But don't you see, that also makes us the perfect rescue mission squad!" Saki moaned. "If we stay in the village, we'll just be escorting old people to the shelters and then be locked up ourselves. But if we go to Akash—"

Hayato wearily held up his hand. "Saki, there's just one problem with your plan. Even if we did want to go to Akash, it's a two or three day journey from here. How would we get there on time?"

At this, Saki grinned. "Oh, that part isn't a problem. We'll just henge to look like ANBU and get one of Naruto's clones to take us."

Hoshiko's eyes grew wide. "Saki, as you insane? If my dad is in Sage Mode, he'll see right through your henge!"

"Not if I cast a genjutsu," Saki countered triumphantly. As everyone knew, genjutsu was one of the Hokage's weaknesses.

Her three teammates stared at her in mute shock. Hayato finally broke the silence: "Well, that might work..." he offered.

"Hayato! Are you seriously recommending that we go to Akash?" Hoshiko moaned.

Saki stood up and fisted the air. "Hoshiko, this is our chance! We couldn't be there for Ryuu..." Here Saki paused, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "But we can be there for Yuki! And my for dad, and for all of our parents out there on the search and rescue mission! Come on guys, we can do this!"

Cho rose, her head bowed, her shoulders hunched. "I've already failed one teammate. I won't fail another... Count me in," she said, meeting Saki's gaze, her eyes flashing.

Hoshiko sniffled, thinking of her dead brother. "All right," she whispered, "count me in, too."

Hayato exhaled sharply and stood. "If we don't die on this mission, our parents are going to kill us when we get back..."

Saki elbowed him in the ribs. "Come on Nara, where's your team spirit? We can DO this!" Saki fisted the air once more and grinned. "Now, here's the plan. You let me know what you think, Hayato-kun. First, we..."

As Saki went on, Hayato nodded: her plan was absolutely crazy, true—but it was just crazy enough to work.

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