Chapter forty-one: Red Moon

"Hoshiko—where the hell did your dad's clones go!" Saki roared.

But Hoshiko's eyes were fixed on the battlefield and wide with horror. "My dad's been hit! He's— oh gods, he needs help!"

Hayato frowned and backed in closer to his comrades. "We've got to get out of this knot of zombies first..." They were circled by about twenty of the undead, their menacing eyes cold and lifeless.

Saki panted, pure panic rising along with the bile at the back of her throat. "We're goners," she whispered under her breath.

Just then, she felt something crawling on her arm. It was a small, glinting beetle. Saki's sharingan enhanced eyes darted around, noticing more black bugs crawling out from the sleeves of her compatriots. What the...?

Suddenly, the bugs flew into the air, swirled together and became—

"Shino-san!" Hoshiko cried, her white eyes growing wider.

The bug clone seemed to sigh heavily. "I've been tracking you for a long time. You do realize this is the last place you should be. Why? Because you—"

Saki's jaw dropped, and she blurted out, "But my genjutsu—it was perfect!"

The ANBU captain shook his head. "Hinata-sama overhead your conversation before you came to Akash." Here Shino sighed again for emphasis before continuing, "She was moved by your speech about Ryuu-kun, and so allowed you to come this far."

"Dad— he knew the whole time?" Hoshiko breathed.

Shino shook his head. "I never said that..."

"What!" she squeaked.

"Hinata told me to keep an eye on you four. I probably should have told Naruto, but Hinata swore me to secrecy..."

"So my dad didn't figure it out after all!" Hoshiko slapped herself in the face.
"But why on earth would she do that, Shino-san?" Cho asked in bewilderment.

Shino shrugged. "She said something about the will of fire, that it was important you kids take an active role in the combat...and that Naruto would have never let you leave Konoha. But I never thought you'd get out to the front lines." Shino pushed his glasses up further on the bridge of his nose and grimaced. "I really seem to have erred in allowing you to proceed this far. Unfortunately, as you four were racing for the front lines, the primary group of ANBU you left were ambushed, and I was distracted. Now. Please stand back," Shino finished just as the zombie hordes staggered closer, their groans filling the air.

The bug clone spread out his hands and a steady stream of insects zoomed around the clearing, descending like a black cloud on the advancing foes. In a moment, every single zombie in a fifty-foot radius collapsed in a twitching heap on the ground. Their companions further off gnashed their teeth and began stumbling forwards in outrage.

"What did you do?" Saki asked in awe.

It was Hayato who answered, his forehead wrinkled in thought. "You probably calibrated your bugs to devour the chakra vessels in the hearts, thus rendering the zombies powerless to circulate their chakra."

Shino nodded. "But the real reason you're all here—you're a team of medics, correct?"

"We need to retrieve my father, but it's too dangerous to get in the center of the battlefield!" Hoshiko cried.

"I think I have enough chakra to…" Hayato trailed off, inhaling sharply. He squinted, making the hand-signs for the shadow possession jutsu. A shadowy hand stretched out from Hayato's feet, snaking across the ground and weaving around the cluttered battlefield. The hand reached the Hokage, closed around his body like a dark claw, and deftly dragged in the Hokage's prone body forward.

The zombies stood confounded for a moment, then, with strangled cries, reached for Naruto. But Hayato was ready for them: thin black shadow spikes whipped back the enemy as the shadow hand zoomed back towards the Konoha nin.

"You three heal the Hokage," Hayato panted, wiping the sweat out of his eyes. "I'll guard your backs."

"Yes!" Saki roared, sharingan whirling.

"I'm afraid I'm just about out of chakra," the Shino's clone buzzed, "I'll send reinforcements in a moment. Hang in there, kids." And then, Shino's clone dissolved like wisps of smoke.

Naruto moaned on the ground, his teeth clenched and his face pale, but he had no wounds or any outward signs of major injury. Saki ground her teeth: she was low on chakra, but she knew she could do this. I just have to think about what I did when I healed Takeo: I have to focus on seeing the chakra imbalance. Saki strained her doujutsu to its limits, willing herself to get a closer look at the Hokage's chakra system, but it was a lot more difficult than when she had examined Takeo.

"His chakra," Hoshiko mumbled fearfully, "it looks like..."

"It looks like it's eating itself," Saki finished for her, her lips twisted in a scowl.

"Do you have any idea how to fix it?" Hoshiko asked tearfully.

Saki bit her lower lip. "I have no clue..." This was nothing like Takeo's infection. She bit her finger until she drew blood and slammed down her palm, summoning Katsuyu with the dregs of her chakra. But though the slugs covered Naruto's body and began trying to heal him, it was no use, and the slug had no idea what was wrong.

"I'm sorry, Saki-chan, everyone," Katsuyu said, her antennae quivering.

"We've got to be missing something here," muttered Saki, her jaw clenched.

"I have an idea," Hayato called, throwing explosive tags at the incoming enemies. "Cho-san, can you link us all together with your mind jutsu?"

Cho blinked. "I suppose I can try, but I'm not sure…"

"If we can all see what Saki and Hoshiko can see, perhaps we can come up with a plan together."

Cho nodded. "Ah. I'll try!" She formed the hand-seals and suddenly, Saki could see out of Hoshiko's eyes while simultaneously seeing her own, sharingan-enhanced perspective. It made Saki a bit dizzy, but she ignored the uncomfortable sensation on concentrated on the task at hand.

"It looks like the chakra from the Kyuubi is eating Naruto's natural chakra reserve," Hayato said. "Hoshiko, I want you to use your byakugan and take a closer look at Hokage-sama's internal organs."

"Okay," Hoshiko whispered uncertainly before focusing her eyes even harder.

"Whoah Hoshiko, it's like x-ray vision!" Saki called appreciatively as she saw a double image of what Hoshiko was seeing. But then, she gasped.

"His organs! It looks like they're dissolving!" Cho cried in horror. "What do we do?"

Thanks to the mind connection, Saki could feel the panic radiating Cho, and from Hoshiko in particular. She took a deep breath and replied, "This is no time to freak out. Let's stay calm and think of a plan?" She shot Hayato a pleading look.

Hayato crossed his arms, lost in thought. "They say that the Uchiha have the power to control the Jinchuriki. My dad mentioned something about it during the last war—"

"Spare us the details! What should I do?" Saki demanded.

"Try entering his mind with genjutsu," he replied, his voice surprisingly calm. "You might be able to control the demon fox and stop him from destroying Hokage-sama."

Saki paled. "I—I don't know if I—"

"Just do it Saki! You have to try!" Hoshiko interjected. Saki could feel her terror through their mind connection.

Saki gulped, then looked at Hoshiko, then back down at the Hokage. I have to do this! I have to! "Okay. Here I go!" Saki said with confidence she didn't feel. Gingerly prying open Naruto's closed eyes with her fingers, Saki took a deep breath and cast a genjutsu that she had learned from her sister—

And before her, a giant fox demon glowered down at her, its eyes blood red and gleaming in the light of a red moon.

Saki screamed.

#

Sakura saw the blade inching towards her, as if in slow motion. This is it then, some floating part of her mind thought. In the end, I was finally killed by Sasuke. She couldn't believe it. Sasuke wasn't fighting. He was giving in. He had given up her and on his family. She stood there, motionless, paralyzed with emotions she could not name.

She closed her eyes, no longer having the will to struggle. If Sasuke had given up, then so would she. They could be together at last, in death. Because the minute Madara stabbed her, that's when she would finally activate the death seal.

She couldn't bear it to leave this world without Sasuke. And she couldn't bear to live in a world where he would try to kill her again. They would die together and finally rest in peace, she resolved.

She was selfish, she realized, but she didn't care. Her blood would be his blood, and his blood would be hers. Their souls would rise together into the sky, becoming a pair of crimson stars; the soul of their tiny, unborn child would revolve around them like a half-formed moon.

She could hear Madara approaching and she squeezed her eyes closed tighter, anticipating, even welcoming, the end—

Instead, she felt strong hands grab her, and wind whipped her face. Sakura blinked, coming back to herself. Had Naruto come to save her? When she looked up, she expected to see his familiar whiskered face smiling down at her. Instead, she saw the pale face of a woman, her eyes red and whirling with the sharingan, her long black hair streaming behind her.

"Who—who are you?" Sakura blurted out.

The woman sighed and—was that a tear, glinting red from the glow of her irises? "Don't you recognize me? It's me…mom."

Sakura's mouth parted. The woman—who couldn't possibly be her daughter—put Sakura down and formed a series of rapid hand-signs. In a moment, her shadow clone popped into existence. The clone picked up Sakura's limp body and began to run in the opposite direction of the original, who headed right back to Uchiha Madara.

"Who are you?" Sakura repeated weakly, gazing up into the unfamiliar face.

"You have a birthmark shaped like a turtle right on your left shoulder. You have a weird fear of the clowns, and right before I left the village, you had been plucking out a few gray hairs by your temples. You complained that the drugstore didn't carry hair dye in the proper shade of pink," Yuki intoned wearily. "We really don't have time for a touchy feely reunion, mom. the Hokage is dying."

"What?!" Sakura shrieked.

The woman—was it really Yuki-chan?—winced. "That was my ear."

"What's wrong with Naruto?"

"I don't know. I was going to help, but then you decided to let Madara stab you." Sakura winced and recoiled from her, as if physically wounded. Yuki inhaled sharply. "Sorry. I know you and dad have a weird history. That must have been really hard for you."

They fell silent after that. Sakura strained to study the woman's face, as if to really confirm that it was Yuki, but tears clouded her vision, and she couldn't see clearly. She couldn't stop trembling, and bit her lip until it bled. I almost let him kill the baby… How could she have been so stupid, so irresponsible? Sakura curled up in Yuki's arms and squeezed her eyes closed, her heart contracting painfully in her chest.

Yuki halted. Through the blur of her tears, Sakura observed that they were on the edge of the clearing, the light of the rising red moon casting everything in a bloody light. What she saw in the red light broke her out of her stupor: she leapt out of Yuki's arms and hit the ground running, shock forcing her to move. Before her, bathed in crimson light, Saki stared blankly into Naruto's face, his eyes rolled up into his head. Regaining her wits, Sakura called, "What happened?"

Hayato was the first to meet her panicked gaze. "The Kyuubi's chakra is devouring Naruto's. It's the effect of Madara's poison. Saki entered his mind with genjutsu…that's when we lost contact with her."

Sakura sank to her knees and began assessing the patient, forcing herself to forget the cause of her former paralysis. On either side of her, Hoshiko and Cho were silent, each channeling healing chakra in a futile effort to ward off the fox's assault on Naruto's body. Yuki's clone strode forward, her eyes spinning. She knelt down by Saki and captured her sister's wide-eyed, unseeing gaze with her own.

#

Ino paced around the makeshift ANBU base camp when two very unexpected things happened.

First, all of Naruto's clones disappeared in multiple poofs of smoke.

"What the—" Ino muttered, but her train of thought was cut off as their group was suddenly surrounded by zombies: two large groups of zombies to be precise. "Oh no! That was our strategy!" she shouted before taking up a defensive position next to her husband. Apparently, the zombies weren't concerned with originality. Ino grit her teeth. We were going to sandwich the zombies between two groups of ANBU! It looked like the tables had just been turned.

Worst of all, it looked like even more zombies were coming up through the earth to join their comrades. Ino bit back a shriek when an undead hand emerged from the ground and a zombie began clawing its way up from the dirt right next to her.

"Where the hell is Naruto?!" Ino cried.

Next to her, Choji ran his sword through one of the undead, quickly followed by placing an explosion tag in the corpse's chest cavity. "This is bad Ino. This is really, really bad."

They were surrounded on all sides.

And the Hokage was nowhere to be seen.

#

Tsunade gazed out from the Hokage tower. So far, everything had been quiet in Konoha. The sunset was especially dazzling tonight: a sinking yolk of sun stained the low hanging clouds a brilliant crimson. But the sight didn't strike Tsunade as beautiful: in fact, to her, it looked like a bad omen.

Bad omens... With a start, Tsunade took that day's paper from a pile on her desk and compared it to her lottery ticket. The numbers all matched up. Tsunade had just won a large sum of money.

Her heart sank.

Next to her, one of Naruto's clones was picking its nose and admiring the sunset. It noticed Tsunade's crestfallen face and asked, "Hey, what's wrong granny—"

But the clone could not complete his sentence. Without warning, he disappeared.

Tsunade gaped in mute horror.

"Tsunade-sama! Naruto's clones have all just disappeared from the front lines!" Shizune shouted a moment later.

Tsunade clenched her fists, her fingernails digging into her palms. She strode over to her walkie talkie and roared, "Shikamaru! What's happening on the front lines?"

"Kchhh. I was just about to contact you Tsunade-sama. We've spotted hundreds of creatures rising up out of the ground about one-hundred meters from Konoha's gates."

"An army of undead," she breathed.

"Kchhh. Permission to attack, Tsunade-sama?"

It was silent for a moment on the line. Finally, Tsunade spoke. "Permission granted."

"Kchhh. Roger that."

Hinata, who had been silent up until now, turned towards Tsunade. "It's started then."

Tsunade nodded heavily. "You should get to the shelters, Hinata-sama. You're pregnant."

"Tsunade-s-sama? I-I…" Hinata began, then paused fearfully.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked, staring out of the window and gazing at the setting sun with mounting dread.

"I-I've d-done something awfully f-foolish..."

Tsuande sighed impatiently. "I'm going to have to lead an army soon. Either spit it out or go to the shelters—we don't have time to screw around."

"I allowed Team Five to go to Akash!" she blurted out.

Tsunade simply stared at her for a moment before roaring incredulously. "You WHAT?!"

"I-I..." Hinata took a shuddering breath before continuing, "I a-allowed them to go. I thought…I thought that N-Naruto—" She broke off with a strangled cry, then inhaled sharply. W-What's happening out there?" She turned to Tsunade, horror-struck, her face as pale as her wide white eyes.

"I don't know," Tsunade replied after a pregnant pause. "Naruto's clones were supposed to be our line of communication..." And now in all likelihood, Naruto was injured. Or worse.

Tsunade raked her hands through her hair. The situation was more dire than she thought.

#

It seemed that Saki had been screaming for an eternity before the demon fox snarled at her and snapped at her feet with his wicked teeth. I've got to capture his gaze! Saki thought wildly as she dodged the fox's attacks. But every time she thought she was close to ensnaring him in genjutsu, the beast's chakra flared and momentarily blinded her, deflecting her jutsu.

Damn it! I'm an Uchiha! I should be able to dothis! She thought fearfully, dodging the fox's malevolent chakra.

Except that Saki was seven, and had just spent the entire afternoon ripping the hearts out of zombies and lighting them on fire. To be honest, she was running on pure adrenaline at this point. Having had absolutely no experience on how to control rabid tailed beasts, Saki was rapidly coming to the conclusion that she was completely out of her league here. But she was not going to give up. She wove the hand-signs for fireball jutsu, shot kunai and shuriken at the beast, but she was starting to tire. Already, her arms were scored with multiple burn marks, and blood dripped from her leg.

I think you need the incredibly powerful and version of the sharingan for this to work, Saki thought mournfully as she (barely) dodged the fox's claws again. Time for me to get the hell out! However, when Saki tried to disperse the jutsu she had used to enter into Naruto's mind, she found that she couldn't leave.

"Damn it, fox! Let me out of here!"

The fox commenced to cackle, a laugh which sounded like pure evil to Saki's ears. It sent shivers down her spine, and cold sweat formed on her brow. Behind her, she heard a groan, and she swiveled to look behind her—

And there was Naruto, his body pale and floating helplessly under dark, murky water. That's it! If I can just wake up Hokage-sama—

However, as soon as she had the idea, the fox swiped at her again and tore a bloody gauge in her flesh. With a cry, Saki backed away and funneled healing chakra into her torn arm, but much to her horror, the flesh would not heal.

Just as she was about to throw care to the wind and dive down towards Nartuo's body under the waves—because after all, if she had been injured by the fox, she was probably already infected as well, so she might as well use her dying breath to save the Hokage who was probably the only one who could deal with this mess anyway—a hand grabbed onto the back of her dress and hauled her out of the dark pool.

"You'll kill yourself if you go down there in your condition," a strange woman growled at her. Saki blinked and stared into eyes that mirrored her own, irises blood red and spinning. Saki noted that the pattern on her eyes was different than commas, but yet was somehow familiar..

Saki continued to blink in confusion as the stranger healed her arm: the nasty gash was gone in a matter of moments. "The poison Madara used was specially formatted for Hokage-sama," the woman intoned in a gravelly voice, "you need not worry about being infected too."

"Y-Yuki? Yuki-chan?" Saki mouthed incredulously. She would know this healing chakra anywhere. Growing up, Yuki and Saki often had to practice their medical ninjutsu on each other at Sakura's insistence.

The older girl grinned. "Yuki-san to you."

Saki open and closed her mouth, but no words came out. Finally, she managed, "The fox! What did you...?"

Yuki shrugged. "I told the damn thing to sit down, shut up, and behave."

"What! I just busted my ass to—" Saki, who at this point was fuming, but Yuki broke in.
"You need the mangekyo to truly control the fox," she said matter-of-factly. "Listen, Hokage-sama's brain is no place for us to have an argument. I'm going to haul his body up, and then you're going to help me get him out. Okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, Yuki dove into the dark waters of Naruto's mind. Saki crossed her arms and huffed, "Geez. She may look different, but she's still a freaking pain." Saki colored slightly, supposing that she shouldn't complain too much. After all, Yuki had just rescued her sorry ass. And then, the strange reality of the situation hit her: why did Yuki look so much older? And where the hell did she just come from? And how could she—

But Saki had no more time for her thoughts. Yuki surfaced with Naruto, the latter looking dangerously pale. "Saki, break the genjutsu! Now!"

"But it didn't work before—"

"DO IT!"

Bossy as always, Saki inwardly moaned while she tried her best to dispel the genjutsu. This time, it worked.

Saki blinked rapidly, finding herself staring at a sputtering Hokage, and with horror, she realized that he was coughing up blood.

"Cho-san! Use your mind-jutsu again and plug us all in! Like you were doing before!" Yuki ordered.

Cho looked at the stranger questioningly, but Saki spat, "Do it Cho! It's my idiot sister! Trust me!"

If the situation hadn't been so dire, it was likely that Yuki would have smacked her younger sister. As it was, the Hokage was vomiting a river of blood, and there wasn't much time.

Saki felt vaguely nauseous as she was connected to five other people's consciousness, each with a different perspective on Naruto's condition. With a start, she realized that her mother was connected to her as well, but she forced herself to concentrate on the matter at hand, instead of wondering when and how Sakura had joined them.

"Focus! I need you all to look through my eyes," Yuki barked.

Saki closed her own eyes and was surprised to see the vivid detail that was Naruto's system, as perceived through Yuki's eyes. It did not look good; his body looked like more like a mealy apple with worm holes than a proper body. Yuki spoke again, "I've suppressed the fox's chakra for now; the genjutsu should hold for about twenty-four hours. In the meantime, the fox's chakra won't devour the Hokage's anymore, but it won't help him repair either. I need you four to feed him chakra and repair his organs as best you can until we can work out an antidote. Now!"

With a collective grunt, the four medics did as you were told. As they worked, Sakura asked, "What about you?"

Yuki shook her head. "I'm just a clone, and I've about used up all the chakra I have. You all stay here. I'm going to take care of Madara."

"That's suicide! Yuki—" Sakura tried to protest, but she was cut off.

"Mom. I'll be fine. I'm not going in alone." And with that, her clone was gone in a puff of smoke.

"What the hell does that mean?" Sakura hissed between clenched teeth.

"Mom!" Saki shouted, sweat covering her face as she worked on mending Naruto. "Just trust Yuki. She's gotten us this far, hasn't she?"

"Please. Please, let's focus on my father," Hoshiko whispered.

The other three nodded and continued their work while Hayato silently kept guard over them, though he sometimes broke the quiet to give advice on how to approach the situation. Saki silently thanked the spirits for putting the Nara genius on her team as she funneled the very last drops of her chakra into the Hokage's body.

Please, Naruto-sama, please be okay.

#

Somewhere, in the deepest recesses of Madara's consciousness, Sasuke watched his hands reach out to murder his wife.

And when a dark blur ran before him, her mane of black hair trailing behind her like a storm cloud before she disappeared with Sakura in her arms, Sasuke could not find it within himself to be relieved, because here he was, again, as he was that day when he had almost stabbed Sakura in the back.

This was unforgivable.

He was truly unredeamable.

He had given Madara his hands, his body, the ability to kill and murder. It was Sasuke's hands that held the knife. Even if he ever got out of this alive (which he doubted he would) he would never forgive himself.

He had almost destroyed his wife and child, the two most precious things in the world.

Sakura, why? Why didn't you kill me? Why?

A moment later, the woman with long dark hair, pale skin, and red swirling eyes was facing him. And when he looked into her eyes, he saw a pattern that he had come to know so well in the past: it was the geometric design of his own mankegyo sharingan, with a few differentiations.

The woman who stood before him was his very own daughter, Yuki.

No! He wanted to shout at her to run away; instead, she stood with grim determination, her irises spinning. If Sasuke still had a heart of his own, instead of being locked in the prison of his own body, he imagined that it would be beating wildly right now.

Sasuke's lips parted, and words that were not his own spilled out:

"Uchiha Yuki. What a pleasant surprise. It's no bother at all that you've squirreled away your mother, because your death alone will definitely help to bring out the next evolution of my doujutsu." And with that, his-mouth-that-was-not-his-own turned upwards in a sinister grin, and his hands gripped a poison kunai, once again aiming it at a loved-one's heart.

Yuki did not move.

And somewhere, in the corner's of Madara's mind, Sasuke wept.

Thanks for reading lovelies:) Please review!