Kishimoto is ending the Naruto Manga in 5 weeks, and you can expect me to do the same. My ongoing fics will be complete by Mid-November!

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Chapter 46: Allies

"Oi, they're over here!" Karin shouted. The billowing smoke made her cough, but she forced herself to take another deep breath to shout again. "I can sense them!"

Blindly, she groped her way through the blinding clouds of dust and black smoke, running as quickly as she could—then stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh. It's you," she grumbled as she came closer to Sasuke, not bothering to conceal her scorn at seeing him for the first time in ten years.

"Sasuke!" Came Sakura's frenzied call. She ran forward and flung herself down by Sasuke's side, crying hysterically.

"Sakura?" he managed in a weak voice. "Are you all right?"

"Sasuke," she cried, ignoring his question. "I'm so sorry!"

He blinked, his eyes not quite meeting her gaze. "What? Why?"

"I almost killed you! With the death seal! I—"

With all the strength he could muster, he raised his hand and put it over her mouth. "Enough. You aren't the one that needs to apologize. I…I never wanted to hurt you— any of you." His voice cracked. "I'm sorry…"

Sakura buried her face in his chest and wept. Yuki, who was still sitting on Sasuke's other side, smiled bittersweetly.

Naruto and the rest of the Konoha nin emerged from the thick smoke. Saki rushed over to her father and knelt next to Yuki, staring down at her father in stunned silence. Naruto carefully lowered himself down from Choji's supporting shoulder. "Oi, teme, you almost got me that time."

"Naruto?" Sasuke breathed. "Thank Kami." He looked towards Naruto, but not quite at him.

Naruto gave a forced laugh and gently laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Your eyes have turned white, Sasuke." He waved a hand in front of Sasuke's face, but he did not flinch. "Can't you see?"

"Hn." Sasuke turned away, his expression stoney.

Yuki looked at her father and opened her mouth to question him, but just then, Aya's voice boomed in the clearing.

"Listen up, Konoha," Aya called, stepping forward from the concealing smoke. "This is all very touching, but while we're here dilly-dallying, your village is busy being over-run by zombies. Unfortunately, they're going to keep on attacking, even though Madara's out of the picture."

Naruto swore. "Shikamaru was right, after all. But I don't think I can Hiraishin myself, let alone anyone else in my condition—"

"That's why I'm here." She took another step forward, her hands planted on her hips. "I can transport you all to Konoha. But…" Aya paused dramatically and grinned. "I'll need you to sign this little piece of paper first." She shoved a scroll into Naruto's lap.

"What? What is this? Some kind of waver?" Naruto ventured.

"Hardly," she replied dryly. "Sign it with your blood and you agree that Konoha will protect the village hidden in the Aether, and furthermore, that none of the Konoha nin will ever come into our territory uninvited. As an extra bonus for agreeing to our very generous terms, I'll even heal the rest of your wounds, Hokage." Aya finished with a little bow.

"Do it," Yuki said. "Please, Naruto-sama. In the past, Konoha tried exterminating members of the village."

"What? Why would they—"

"Because they were largely Uchihas escaping the Konoha-orchestrated Uchiha massacre," she interrupted impatiently. "Please hurry and sign, Hokage-sama. The village needs you."

Naruto's mouth parted in surprise, but Yuki was right, even if he didn't quite understand what she was talking about. In any event, Yuki had just saved them all from certain death, and she seemed to know these people and trust them. He would trust them too.

He bit his finger and scrawled his signature. "Well," he said, rolling up the scroll, "healing would be nice…?"

Aya nodded and squatted next to the Hokage. "Yuki, do you have any chakra left?"

"Yes," Yuki lied.

"What about you, Uchiha the younger? Yamanaka? Hyuga?" Aya asked of the three genin.

"Um, hello?" Saki grumbled. "Uchiha the younger?"

"I'm actually an Akamichi," Cho answered apologetically.

Hoshiko raised her hand. "Uzumaki," she offered with a blush.

Aya just smiled and gestured for them to all take their places around Naruto's body. Ino and Sakura shared a look; it seemed as though they were not invited. Sakura supposed that was all right though. She couldn't quite manage to stop crying, and she didn't want to leave Sasuke's side.

"You," Aya said, pointing to Cho, "use your mind jutsu again to 'plug everyone in,' as you so aptly put it. Everyone else, get your doujutsu ready."

Cho surreptitiously handed Saki and Hoshiko soldier pills. When her eyes met Yuki's gaze, she winked. "I knew you'd be all right, Yuki-chan."

Yuki rolled her eyes. "Seems like everyone is pretty comfortable called me Yuki-chan, now that I'm back," she complained, though she was smiling.

Cho scoffed and then activated her jutsu. Everyone else followed suit. "Good," Aya called. "Now I want everyone to look through Yuki's eyes."

Yuki started at that. Why her eyes? Aya was clearly the senior member of their party. However, Yuki did not question her sensei's judgement. Instead, she concentrated chakra in her her tired eyes. Saki, who was sitting next to her, brushed Yuki's hand with her own and offered her one of Cho's soldier pills. Yuki gratefully ate it and soon, her vision cleared.

"Aya-sensei, it looks different from the original chakra virus..."

Aya nodded. "See if you four can figure it out without me."

Saki bit her lower lip. With her sharingan spinning, she muttered, "We've been looking at this all day. What could we possibly have missed?"

"Yuki," Aya ordered, "use your mangekyo."

Yuki bit the inside of her cheek. "I gave it back to Itachi," she replied quietly.

"No, the other mangekyo."

"Right. That one." Yuki took a deep breath, then her eyes swirled with the intricate pattern of the mangekyo.

"Geez, you're such an over achiever Yuki. You had two supped up mangekyo sharingan at once?" Saki breathed, incredulous.

Yuki ignored her and studied the body of the Hokage. "Oh." She blinked. "Everyone, look right here," she said, pointing to the dark spot in Naruto's system. It was so easy! The answer had been in front of them all along.

"Oh! Instead of Madara's chakra infecting the host's system, this virus infects the Kyuubi. I can see the darkness." Saki said.

"We just need to remove that black haze and then wake the Kyuubi," Yuki replied. "Everyone, follow my lead."

And soon eight hands were scattering the cloud of dark chakra that had bound the fox demon, and Naruto's chakra smoothed out once again. "Watch out," Yuki warned. "I'm going to release the fox from the genjutsu I placed him in. There might be an unstable chakra integration, and I want you all to steady it."

And with that, Yuki made the simple hand-sign for "kai," and the fox woke up with a hum. It wasn't a rough transition like Yuki feared; all those long years of Naruto being in harmony with the demon spirit had ensured that. Soon, the Kyuubi chakra was restored and began healing Naruto's organs. The four kunoichi each released their respective bloodline limits and fell back with weary grunts.

"All right! I'm good as new!" Naruto chimed as tried to get up—and stumbled to the ground again.

"Idiot," Sasuke muttered, "take it easy."

"Oi, teme, you're the one who put me in this sorry state!" Naruto whined.

Sasuke flinched at the remark, but he gave a forced smile. "I suppose I did."

The Konoha nin rose, Sakura and Yuki supporting Sasuke while Choji and Cho steadied the Hokage.

"Great," Aya proclaimed, grinning. "Looks like we're ready to open the portal."

But Karin held up her hand. "Wait." The red-strode over to Sasuke and glared at him.

"Just so you know, Sasuke-kuuuuun," she hissed, "You. Are. An. Idiot." And before anyone could move to stop her, she punched him in the stomach with a loud thwack! There were indignant cries of protest, but Sasuke, wheezing, raised his hands to stall them.

"I guess I deserved that," Sasuke gasped. He sputtered, then took a shaky breath and held out his hand to Karin. "I'm sorry, Karin."

Karin harumphed, crossed her arms over her chest, and shoved her glasses up on the bridge of her nose. "And fucking thank me for saving the life of your son, you worthless slime."

"You—you what?"

"The chakra virus," Sakura murmured, "Takeo was infected and—"

"Hey, I did all the work!" Saki protested.

Sasuke smiled softly and ruffled Saki's pink hair, making her blush. "Thanks. Karin. Saki-chan. That's the reason I left the village. If I didn't, Madara said he was going to kill Takeo..."

Karin punched him in the arm, although this time, it lacked any real force. "Enough of that, idiot. Madara's dead. Save the sob story for your mission report."

Sasuke exhaled sharply and looked at Karin with his unfocused eyes. "Forgive me, Karin."

She huffed. "Fine." She crossed her arms again and turned away from him.

Sakura started to laugh then, a sound that rang like a bell and lifted the gloom from the battlefield. Her laughter was contagious, and soon they were all laughing. All, that is, except for one. Yuki was the only one who remained silent, staring at them quizzically. Saki muffled her giggles long enough to whisper in her sister's ear how Karin was some kind of ex-girlfriend to their father, and then her mouth twitched upwards in a grin as well.

Aya cleared her throat. "Okay then." She smiled her iconic grin once more. "Are you guys ready to kick some zombie butt?"

There was resounding "Hells yes!" in response.

"Company one!" Aya shouted. "Accompany us to Konoha!"

From the middle of the air, a dozen shinobi materialized, each one of them with sharingan whirling and strange curvilinear weapons in their hands. The Konoha nin mostly had their mouths agape at the Akash ninja who had just appeared out of thin air, but Yuki and Sasuke remained expressionless.

A tearing sound resounded in the clearing as Aya opened the portal, its bright blue-white light illuminating the clouds of dust and smoke all around them. Then, they were all gone in the blink of an eye, the only thing left in their wake the roiling black smoke, like a cloud of acrid incense rising towards the starry sky.

#

The Konoha historians would later write that it had been Naruto who had Hirashined the various and sundry ninja onto the Konoha battlefield. In fact, there was no golden flash that accompanied the Hokage and his company, but instead a pale shriek of the wind, a rip in the fabric of the air, and a blinding blue light.

"What the hell is that?!" Temari shouted, her blonde hair matted down to her head with sweat as she blasted out the chest cavity of one of the undead.

Suddenly, incredulous voices rang out, louder than the sounds of battle: "Hokage-sama! Hokage-sama!"

However, said Hokage-sama only smiled, gave a perfunctory wave, plopped himself down on the battlefield, and began meditating. Sakura shook her head. "Sure Naruto, I'll guard your back," she grumbled. "Thanks for asking. You just sit in the middle of the apocalypse and meditate, no problem."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Pinkie, why don't you and the kids get inside the walls? You all have done enough. We'll," and here Ino gestured to herself and Choji, "watch Naruto's back."

Sakura didn't have the energy to protest. "Come on kids," she ordered, "inside the gates." Sakura put her arm around Sasuke and supported him.

"But mom—"

"Saki. Not now," Hoshiko whispered to her loud-mouth companion.

Ino rolled her eyes and restated, "You kids have done enough. More than enough. Now get inside the gates before you're grounded for the rest of your lives."

Yuki turned towards Aya. "Let me fight, sensei," she asked in an undertone.

Aya shook her head. "You are still depleted from the jutsu. Rest now; we'll take care of the this." She spared Yuki a smile and cracked her knuckles. "Don't worry. I'll find you before we leave."

Yuki, weary beyond words, merely nodded. Aya gave her a silent nod of understanding before she and her troops bounded away, becoming black blurs on the battlefield. Zombies dropped like fat flies wherever their shadows flitted. But instead of feeling joy at the war's imminent end, she felt something akin to lead settle in her stomach. "Before we leave..." Yuki repeated under her breath. Aya was going to leave her here?

But there was no time to muse further, as Sakura, holding a hobbling Sasuke, led the children out of the battlefield and into the gates. As soon as they were in, they were all taken to the medical tent. The nurses poked and prodded Yuki (who was fine, damn it!), while she took in the chaotic scene in the medical tent: the rest of team five were also being examined while Tsunade-sama and Shikamaru were interrogating Sakura. Sasuke hung limply on Sakura's arm, staring at nothing.

Otousan is blind, Yuki mused with certainty. If it hadn't been the while ovals of his eyes, bleached of any purpled rings, it was the memory of Ryuu sucking his jutsu back through his (her?) palms that cinched it for her. Without a doubt, Sasuke was blind. Yuki felt guilt creep into her blood like a poison: she was the reason Sasuke's sight was gone, after her mother had spent so much time and effort replacing it.

As if in answer to her thoughts, Sasuke's head snapped up: his white eyes met her gaze and he smiled sadly. Can he…? But just then the damned nurse tending her broke her line of sight, and insisted that Yuki lay down.

"You've lost enough blood to kill a horse," she huffed. Yuki thought was absurd, and told her so. What was wrong with Konoha nurses?

But finally, after much cajoling and a glare from her mother, Yuki did lay down. It was then that reality came crashing down on her: she was back in Konoha. She had aged five years in the space of five days. Madara was dead, and the Uchiha underground was teaming up with Konoha to kill zombies...

It was that last part that really caught her attention. She knew from her extended stay with the Hill People that they did not trust Konoha ninja, Yuki being a small exception. She also knew that while Aya had a disarming and almost silly outward demeanor, that inside, she was a shrewd leader.

Just what was Aya thinking?

#

Shikamaru finished smoking a cigarette, snuffed it out in the ash tray, and lit another one. "Oi, Shikamaru," Naruto whined from behind his desk, "no smoking in the office."

Shikamaru speared him with a glare then took one long, deliberate drag. "Naruto," he countered, smoke pouring from his mouth, "you didn't read this document before you signed it, did you." It was not a question.

Naruto's cheeks pinched. "Um... Well you see, Yuki told me it was okay, so—"

"Yuki," Shikamaru hissed. "Told you. That it was. Okay."

"Aw, come on Shikamaru," Naruto protested, "we were in a pinch, I had a leaky Kyuubi in my guy, Konoha was overrun with zombies—"

Tsunade, who had been silently gazing out of the wide windows of the Hokage tower, snorted derisively. "Shikamaru. It doesn't matter. He's already sighed it with his blood. There's no going back." Tsunade pursed her lips thoughtfully and then continued, "Well, you could break the contract, but then apparently, Aya will reactivate your chakra virus, curse your bloodline, and wage war against Konoha."

Naruto shuddered. "No way. Akash ninja are like, totally scary. I'm not messing with them."

Shikamaru took another deep drag from his cigarette. "Then it can't be helped, Hokage-sama," he replied with more than a trace of annoyance when he uttered Naruto's title. "We'll have to agree to the terms of the contract."

"Oi, Shikamaru, you look like you just swallowed a turd. It's not that bad—"

"Let's see, idiot," Shikamaru spat he took the scroll and began to read. "Point one: no Konoha nin will ever step foot inside of Akash nin territory, on pain of death. However, Akash nin shall be able to visit Konoha with or without permission."

"Yeah, that's not the greatest for security," Naruto mumbled, "especially not with their instant transport jutsu thingy…yeah."

"Point two: Akash ninja shall have stationed within Konoha one ambassador at all times. This favor will not be returned."

Naruto waved defensively, "Oh, come on! Their ambassador—"

"Spy," Tsunade added blithely.

"Will be Uchiha Yuki. She's all right," Naruto continued, glaring at Tsunade. "So it's not that bad of a—"

"Point three: Konoha shall swear to protect the safety, anonymity, and territory of the Village Hidden in the Aether. Of course, there's no clause stating that they'll come to our aid," Shikamaru added causticly. "And finally, point four: all persons in the prison system who have finished divulging all information of importance are to be offered the option of asylum and rehabilitation in the Village Hidden in the Aether."

"I don't see why that's a problem Shikamaru. So they want to—"

Shikamaru banged his head against the wall and cursed. Since the head of the Intelligence Department was too distraught to reply, Tsunade did it for him. "Naruto. Giving over your prisoners of war—including dangerous rogue ninja—isn't the best tactic for village security."

"Especially if the Village Hidden in the Aether ever wanted to attack us!" Shikamaru shouted. "You've basically signed a contract making us the subservient vassals of a village hitherto unheard of! And you're handing them our prisoners on a silver platter! How do you know we can trust these people?"

Naruto rose from his seat and began to pace. After walking a few laps between his window and his desk, he slammed a hand into the wall, causing the plaster to crack. "It's the village's own damned fault for the Uchiha massacre," he seethed. "It's just Konoha's bad karma catching up with us." Naruto had already spoken with Aya that morning about the history of the Village Hidden in the Aether, and in fact, Aya was waiting for him in the other room. After he met with his advisors, they were to shake on the deal, and Aya was going to go through the prison and take whomever volunteered to start over in a new village.

Shikamaru stubbed out his cigarette and lit yet another. "This is political suicide," he grumbled sullenly from a thick cloud of smoke.

"We're doing what's right," Naruto shot back. "Besides, Aether came to our aid in this last war. If not for their contribution—"

"Interference," Shikamaru muttered.

"—Then we'd all be dead, and Madara would still be going on a rampage from inside Sasuke's body." Naruto shook his head, forcing himself to smile. "I'm done debating with you. I'm meeting with Aya now and giving her a tour of the prison system." And with that, the optimistic Hokage was gone, closing the door behind him with a loud thud.

Shikamaru glared at Tsunade. "You didn't seem to argue against this agreement very much."

The former Hokage shrugged. "It's a bit harebrained, but I think Naruto's doing what he believes is right." Tsunade smiled, then continued in an undertone, "And I believe in Naruto."

"Tch." The genius exhaled a large plume of smoke, but despite himself, he smiled too, then stubbed out his final cigarette.

#

"So. You're leaving then," Yuki whispered, having finally been released from the medical tent by the overbearing nurses.

Aya nodded brightly. "Madara is gone, zombies are dead, Konoha is our ally. Looks like my work here is done!"

"Will you...visit?" Yuki asked hesitatingly.

Aya shook her head. "Not in the physical plane. But we'll continue your training in the dream world."

Yuki stared at her a moment. "You mean, while I'm sleeping?"

"Yep. So don't miss me too much. After all, you are our new ambassador to Konoha," she replied with a smile.

Yuki sighed heavily. "You mean spy."

Aya shrugged. "Anyway..."

"Take me with you!" Yuki blurted out.

"Sorry Yuki-chan. Our village is comprised solely of people who are against using violence, this latest zombie war being the only exception we've made since the village's inception. You know, since it would be really problematic if everyone in the world became a zombie and all." Aya tittered nervously at her own joke, then sighed. "Besides, you have your family to look after here."

Yuki looked up from the ground and into Aya's charcoal eyes. "Can't I ever come back?"

"When you've come to a crossroads in your life, when you are ready to give up your role as a ninja of a certain village, to relinquished your status as a killing tool in the hands of a Hokage... Then yes. But I think you have more to learn in this world before you join us again." Aya strode forward and crushed Yuki in a bear hug. "Be well, little sister." She stepped back, and Yuki was surprised to see that Aya's bottom lip was quivering. Before Yuki could cry out, there was a whirl of darkness, and Aya was gone. Her squad, who stood around her in a semi-circle, followed suit and disappeared in darkness as well. Yuki shivered, feeling suddenly abandoned.

"Yo, Yuki-chan!" Naruto called joyfully, stepping forward and clasping her on the shoulder. "We've got some things to discuss as per your role as Akash ambassador!"

"You mean spy, Hokage-sama," Yuki murmured as she walked back towards the village gates.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about enrolling in the upcoming chunin exams." He shot her his brilliant smile. "After all. I think you're more than qualified."

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