The Temple of Izanami: Destiny's End
In the Forest of Graves, Yuu traced a finger along the petrified cheek of the Raikage. It was rough, scratching against his skin.
Even the ground had hardened to stone. He let out a low whistle. "Who would've known," he said to himself, scraping a foot along the rock.
It was really too bad they had lost both twins in the process.
Three out of five Kages were now dead, but the Jinchuuriki had other plans, it seemed. Yuu hummed thoughtfully. Whether or not Tsutomu had been telling the truth remained a mystery. One final Uzumaki clone had escaped the forest, and now there were multiple trails.
There'd been sightings apparently. An old man in some village Yuu couldn't remember the name of had seen a blonde kid at his village market, all mysterious and cloaked. The local police had arrested and detained him, only to discover he was not Naruto Uzumaki. There'd been a riot. Another woman claimed Naruto Uzumaki was holing himself in her inn.
All the Task Force found was an unstable, stocky man who'd dyed his hair a shocking shade of dandelion yellow, claiming to be Naruto Uzumaki, and begging to be taken into custody. They'd left him, wallowing and wailing, at in the inn while the innkeeper raged and begged the Task Force to escort the man out of her building. Naruto was in Rain Country. Naruto was in Grass Country. Apparently, Uzumaki had also been sighted in Suna, at a local pub a while back.
There was no way to know if any of it was true.
Similar sightings spread like a plague, and a huge pain in the ass. Uzumaki was everywhere. Here a hero, there a villain, a coward on that corner, a hidden vigilante by the next. To add to it, a young man rumored to have a likeness to Sasuke Uchiha had been sighted in a little village called Iwa, but the Uchiha was the last of the Task Force's worries, and the criminal would be brought down in time, if he truly wasn't dead.
The only place left for ghosts and cowards to hide was the Temple. Word of a talking beast had reached his ears, but it was not surprising; The Toad Lands had been ravaged-
"Sir, the Brotherhood's at the Temple."
Yuu stopped his train of thought. He hummed again. "The Brotherhood," he repeated slowly, fixing an eye on the bisected stone remains of the Hokage.
"Yes. We have a man down."
Yuu frowned. "Then it appears we have found Uzumaki at last. Perhaps we will finally come to know his secrets." He turned to his comrades with a knowing look. They scattered.
He was dying.
Naruto could feel it, inching over his feet and crawling up his leg, like a snake, strong as a demon's hold and God, oh God, it was over.
"You can't kill us! Not like this!" He shouted, thrashed, enraged, vicious. Around him the world turned to stone, gray and dead. No, no, no! He wouldn't end like this. And in his desperation he suddenly felt detached, like there was nothing to root him to the ground. It frightened him, to feel like he was nothing, nothing more than mist rising up from the ground. He wondered why he couldn't feel the child inside of him. Like there had never been anything there.
The world groaned as the forest's tomb spread. He struggled. It was useless.
Not like this. He wasn't dying like this-
Naruto started awake, woke to dark eyes hovering above him, watching him closely, like he was a storm brewing over the mountain.
"Just me," Sasuke said quietly. "Just me."
Sasuke was gripping his hand, Naruto noticed in his haze, and he looked away from the fingers twined around his palm, releasing himself from Sasuke's hold with a wince. He could almost see the heat rising off his skin. He closed his eyes, took a breath.
The last thoughts of his clone came rushing into his mind. He saw Tsunade gouged by trees. He saw Neji struck through the chest. He saw Hinata snatched up by a toad and swallowed as she screamed for her dead kin.
He saw Gaara. If I don't see you again…Thank you, the vision whispered, and Naruto groaned. He could see the smirk, the sad smile, a final goodbye. He wished he could have spoken to his old friend.
It would be the last time, in nearly twenty years, that he would see Gaara, see many of them, again. But Naruto didn't know this. And so he only resolved to do something about this sacrifice. That soon, as soon as he was able, he would act. And he was restless, so restless his skin began to itch, and it was like there was a bomb tucked away inside. Tick tick tick, and if he didn't do anything about it soon, he'd explode. He couldn't sit here. had to-
"Relax," Sasuke was saying, and Naruto grit his teeth, tried to calm his racing heart and the angry heat that threatened to tear into his consciousness. The anchor was Sasuke's hand, cool against his own once more, and Naruto thought he could remember two red eyes, swirling above his own, from some time ago.
Look at me, Sasuke had said once. Naruto looked. He wondered how his father had handled his mother, and wondered if if had felt anything like this. Like looking into eyes that rooted your rage. Their eyes locked, and Sasuke sighed, sliding a thumb over the cut of Naruto's jaw in a tired, familiar way. Like he'd always been doing that.
It was then that Naruto remembered he couldn't act at all, not now, and he looked away resentfully. Later, he would lie awake and wonder about that stab of resentment, of guilt, because he had chosen this path himself.
A red moon will still rise, the Great Elder had warned.
Against Sasuke's silhouette, Naruto could make out the walls of the room they were in, gray in the dark. The snores and sometimes-moving bodies of refugees that covered the floor of the offering room for Izanami. The goddess's statue stood overhead, ever-seeing eyes set in stone. She was beautiful and frightening and mysterious. Just like death, just like birth.
The child moved, and the Kyuubi rumbled. Sasuke's hand was still cool against his, and Naruto was grateful for that.
"Tsunade's dead," Naruto ground out. Sasuke was silent, but he didn't move his hand. It was better than someone saying, Oh, I'm so sorry, and Naruto sighed deeply. Somewhere a child cried, mewling for its mother. Naruto watched Sasuke glance around the room.
There was nothing to say. Only a knowing look to spare. A touch. A bridge that connected them both and offered a little reassurance. Naruto took it.
"Hey," he said after a while, and Sasuke's eyes flicked over to him. Sasuke was tense, sitting on the edge of the mat like a gargoyle waiting for the sun. Naruto sat up with him.
Finally Sasuke said, "Maybe we shouldn't be here." His eyes were still on the mother and child in the far corner. "Maybe we can't hide like we think we can. I don't want to hide. Sometimes I think about how we're here, and not out there."
Naruto threw a blanket over their shoulders, his hand resting heavily on Sasuke's. "Like I don't understand that?" he asked with a grim grin. The old man snoring beside them made a choking sound in his throat before rolling over, foot kicking out to bump Sasuke in the knee. Naruto bit back a laugh when Sasuke glared grumpily, taking a look at themselves.
They were huddled under a blanket, all doom and gloom and still looking like women, while those around them dreamed of a safe place.
But Naruto knew better than to dream they were in a safe place. He looked over at Sasuke, and there were things he wanted to ask, wanted to know, before it all went to hell. He thought of the boy from Team 7 who he used to know, the quiet boy with his vendettas and his unwavering loyalty when he felt there was something worth fighting for. The boy who understood. Who acted.
He watched Sasuke out of the corner of his eye. This night felt achingly familiar, and Naruto wondered what it was, what it could be, that made him feel as though he couldn't lie still, as though the quiet in the Temple was too loud. Then he knew.
It was the moment of rest before something happened. That heartbeat of silence, right in the middle of life or death, where nothing moved, only waited for you to take a step. It was the creeping sense of foreboding that made the hairs on his neck stand on end, that instinct that something sinister lay just ahead, waiting.
He wanted to pull everyone close. Sasuke close.
Sasuke still hadn't moved from his spot on the mat, and Naruto thought, not for the first time, what he would do should something irreparable happen between them. As it had already nearly happened twice. More than that. That thread that kept them together, that kept Naruto watching Sasuke like he was someone who would eventually have his shadow trailing behind him instead of bathing him in black intent, would eventually wear thin if someone did not give in. And Naruto kept holding out his hand, waiting for Sasuke to take it.
But if, when the day came, Sasuke didn't take his hand? It was a dark thought. A hurtful one.
Naruto did not think he had another time left. It was like staring off the edge of a cliff before he jumped, knowing it was going to happen anyway. And maybe Sasuke could feel this as well, this one final statement, this you better show me what this means to you, because he was watching Naruto too.
"You know if you pull shit," Naruto began, staring at Izanami's statue, "I'm gonna kick your ass." It made him feel like something hadn't changed, even though everything had. Everything, it seemed, but the bonds he'd made.
Sasuke laughed quietly. "I'd like to see you try."
"No, you really wouldn't."
Sasuke looked back at him, and Naruto met his eyes in a challenge. "I could be anywhere right now," Sasuke said, "But I'm not. I could go tracking experiments and watch them bleed until I felt enough blood had been shed for the Yamagatas. But I'm not." He sounded almost bitter.
"Instead," he continued, "I'm here, not able to sleep, because you have nightmares and that fool's snoring." Sasuke jerked his head toward the old man, who kicked out at Sasuke again. Naruto snickered.
"Been watching me sleep this whole time then, huh? Creep." Naruto laughed a little, and Sasuke rolled his eyes, but there was a playful edge to it.
"Don't have to," Sasuke quipped, "You move so damn much as long as I got a foot in my stomach or an elbow in my rib I know you're good." They both grinned, looking away from each other to chuckle, Naruto lightly shoving at Sasuke's shoulder.
They sat in companionable silence for a moment, shoulder to shoulder, and Naruto remembered days back when they were younger. Nights camping out for missions, sharing tents, grumbling irritably because it was raining and it was freaking cold and there was nothing left to do but huddle close to each other and pray it made them a little warmer.
Stop touching me, Sasuke would say, and Naruto would poke him just to get a rise out of him until Sakura threw her shoes at them (well, mainly just at Naruto). But when they slept, and they woke too close, Sasuke never said a word. And neither would Naruto.
It felt like that now. Close, close enough to feel the warmth of Sasuke's skin brushing against his own. There were things to say to each other that were left unsaid, but Naruto and Sasuke already knew them.
"What do you think it would have been like," Naruto whispered, and he felt rather than saw Sasuke watching him, "if I hadn't pulled Susano'o from you at all? What would have happened if we'd just kept going?" They were thoughts he wasn't sure if he was ashamed of. But, as he still seethed over the deaths of that day, he couldn't help but wonder. The floor was cold beneath his feet, and he pulled the blanket around them closer.
Sasuke was quiet. "We would have kept fighting. Maybe you would have had to kill me. Maybe I would have killed you. And when I finally would have woken up…" he trailed for a moment. "And when I finally would have woken up, I think I really would have lost my mind." His voice was quiet, too controlled, and that was how Naruto knew it troubled Sasuke greatly.
"Remember when you asked me what I would do, back on Mount Myoboku?" Naruto continued. Sasuke waited for him to continue. Naruto took a breath.
"I've always thought there was more to fate, you know? That there was more than just two strict paths to choose from. There has to be. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing anymore, 'cause everything looks so bad, and I just want to fight, and I'm so fucking mad…" He shook his head. The child had stilled inside him, as if it was listening, hanging on every word echoing through his body.
"I've only ever wanted to do the right thing. For everyone. You know? The world can't just be black and white. Sometimes, I wonder what would have happened if I didn't grow up thinking like that. Sometimes I think, if that had happened, me and you would have been different. I wouldn't be here. Not with you."
Sasuke watched him closely. Naruto didn't meet his eye. He stared at his hands, too long and thin to be his. He wished he could shake the henge off.
"Do you think it would have been better that way?" Sasuke asked finally, lowly. Naruto chanced a glance at him, but Sasuke wasn't looking at him. He ignored the cold plunge his heart took in his chest. He gathered himself.
Naruto smirked. "Gettin' moody on me?" he teased, and it felt kind of good to have a reason to smile, when inside he was still processing Tsunade's death. It didn't seem to be computing, but he didn't say any of this. Not yet. For now, he held onto his anger, his determination that he would do something about it. Sasuke hung his head, but he hid his grin and shook his head.
"You're still waiting for me to prove that I'm not who you think I am. You're waiting for it, but you still won't let me go." Sasuke surprised him by saying. Naruto paused, the tired grin slipping from his face. He felt himself bristle in defense, and the two stared at each other in that challenging sort of way that made them fighters to the bone.
"You want me to let you go?" Naruto asked seriously, a hard edge to his words. And he thought I don't need this now. And he didn't. Sasuke was silent, still. Naruto wondered if, somehow, this was his way of going through repentance.
Well, it was really fucking annoying.
Naruto huffed. He leaned back on his hands, letting the blanket fall from them. His head lolled on his shoulders and he closed his eyes. "You know, I thought about letting you go once. But…then I remembered when we were younger. Stupid shit. Like how we could beat each other bloody 'cause you were such a little ass, but after we'd just laugh at how stupid we looked and talk about how we'd get each other next time. Or those times when you'd be right there, pretending you didn't give a damn, but you always had my back anyway. You knew how to make me feel like I was part of the team. Like I had a real friend." He stopped, catching his bottom lip between his teeth in thought. He smiled a little.
"And it never stopped," Naruto said quietly. "It's always been you. Don't know why. Scared me to death at first after you left. I couldn't understand it. But I could understand you. And I guess that's all that mattered. All that matters now."
He sighed again. "Until you try and actually pit yourself against me," he said, so low he saw Sasuke tense, "I guess I'll wait and be ready. Doesn't matter what happened or what could have been different. I've never left you behind before, not gonna do it now, not when I know there's more to you, always has been, or I wouldn't be here now, would I?." It's what he wanted Naruto to say, but Naruto meant it anyway. It meant there's more to you. I think I know you that much, that I'm willing to gamble I know how this ends.
Sasuke didn't deny it.
"I told Fukasaku," Sasuke began, "that I couldn't honor our agreement."
It caught Naruto off guard. He was silent, stumbling over words in his head, trying to figure out what he was feeling. Pained at his assumptions, angry at the thought that the agreement had existed without his knowing in the first place, sad, hopeful for Sasuke. Hope that things, at least between the two of them, could heal completely.
And Naruto backed away from that cliff's edge. Just a little.
"There are few things left to me, few people I care about," he stopped to look Naruto in the eye. "And there are few things I won't do to ensure you stay alive." His words were brutal, almost desperate. He didn't have to say you're all I have left, and Naruto wasn't sure what to say himself.
"When this war is over," Naruto started to say after a few beats of silence, roping his arm around Sasuke and daydreaming of somewhere quiet, somewhere away from it all, "we're going to go on vacation somewhere nice. Then I can be the one worrying about how I'm going to survive another day of your mood swings." He snickered, avoiding the punch to his shoulder.
Sasuke snorted. "Us? Vacation?" he drawled, hunching over with his elbows on his knees. Naruto chuckled.
"Seriously! Once Madara's freaking ass is kicked, once the kings are appealed to, our names are cleared, and we see all our friends again. We'll go. But, eh, only for a little bit 'cause someone's gotta be Hokage." He laughed when Sasuke sighed. "Somewhere nice, quiet. Warm, but not too warm. Maybe with mountains in the background."
"Mountains?" Sasuke repeated.
"Mountains. Somewhere quiet. You know, relaxing." Naruto echoed as Sasuke pulled him down gently to rest on his chest. The boobs were a little hard to get used to ("geez! Can't even make a nice, pillowy rack? Disgrace! They're, like, hard man boobs!"), and Sasuke snapped at him to lie still after a minute of rearranging himself and complaining. ("Well then lie down on the floor and see if I care," Sasuke had huffed). Naruto shook his head, lying still. He could hear Sasuke's heartbeat, steady like a drum. Ba dum ba dum ba dum.
He tried to sleep. But it didn't work. All he could see if he closed his eyes was the Forest of Graves. The arch that held Tsunade's body suspended in midair. Comrades turning to stone. He couldn't afford the anger of it all. Not now. Not yet. He swallowed it down.
"Yeah," he whispered, against Sasuke's chest. It was hitting him again, square in the chest, the memories of the Forest of Graves. It made him feel heavy, tired, made his eyes sting. "Somewhere quiet."
"Sounds nice," Sasuke murmured, voice tinged with sleep. Naruto fiddled with a stay string on Sasuke's shirt. The anger was pumping through his veins like a drug, like a drum roll; steady, steady. He pinched the string until his fingertips turned white. Their mat on the floor seemed hard. Uncomfortable. Like the mat had molded into the stone floor. It made him want to move, but if he moved, he'd lose it.
How did you do it when you had me? He'd asked his mother's apparition once. How did you fight this...rage?
Inside him, the Kyuubi sighed in pleasure. There is no fighting it, Naruto. Only the rage. For a moment, it felt like the rage, the sorrow, the dread of what was to come, was all there child kicked suddenly, and Naruto released the string with a breath.
You're alright, he thought, as if the child inside could hear his thoughts.
"Naruto," he heard Sasuke say, and he leaned his head back, eyes darting up to meet Sasuke's.
"She chose to die that way."
The anger in his blood pulsed. "Do you think," Naruto said slowly, carefully, "That I'm doing the wrong thing?"
He'd been afraid to ask for so, so long. He'd held back.
Sasuke studied him. "Do you?" he asked back, not much help. Naruto glowered at him through the dark, his eyes tracing Sasuke's silhouette. He wanted Sasuke to say It's alright. Everyone needed it once in a while.
"Well, you're helpful."
Sasuke frowned. "Stop it." He reached out to grab Naruto wrist tightly, lock eyes with him, and the Kyuubi in his chest swore, retreating.
"What was it you were saying?" Sasuke asked him again after a moment, giving Naruto the time he needed to gulp down a breath. "We'd go somewhere quiet? What else?"
Sasuke was trying to distract him, Naruto knew, and there was a part of him that didn't want to be distracted, didn't want the attention now. Only wanted out. Wanted up. Wanted to fight.
But the tug in his chest wanted Sasuke to keep talking. Wanted the child inside him to move again and force him to remember the path he'd taken.
"Quiet," Naruto said again, voice muffled against Sasuke's chest. He ran fingers lightly up and down Sasuke's arm, lost in thought. He grinned despite himself when he noticed where his fingers eventually stopped.
"So no one can hear us." He ran his fingers teasingly up Sasuke's thigh, but halfheartedly. Wouldn't that be something? He wondered, retreating back into his thoughts, his hand curling to his side. Away from the world, just for a little while. Away from the mess. A time to rest. Just for a little while...Just for a little while...
Sasuke scooted closer, but the snoring geezer from earlier kicked out again, a large foot hitting Sasuke square in the back and making him grunt in a way that clashed with his feminine disguise. Naruto let out a loud burst of laughter before clamping his mouth shut. Sasuke grumbled. Naruto grinned mischieviously, and the seriousness of their earlier conversation seemed to dissipate, turn the aching tug in his chest into a need for a reason to smile.
He needed that.
"Pfft. As long as you're around, no place is quiet," Sasuke suddenly said, referring to Naruto's earlier vacation daydream.
"I can be quiet if I have to!" He looked around apologetically after someone tossed a blanket at his head with a hiss, "shut up, some of us are trying to sleep!" Sasuke snorted, fending off a half-hearted punch to the shoulder.
"Yeah right. Bet you can't not talk for five whole minutes. And you call yourself a ninja," Sasuke challenged, rolling onto his side to pin Naruto with laughing eyes. Naruto huffed.
"Whatever, bastard, I can be-"
"You're losing."
What? Bastard hadn't even said go! Naruto cheeks filled with air from all the words he kept himself from spouting, and he shook his head. Sasuke grinned, and Naruto thought this is what it needs to be like. Just like old times. He ached again as he thought of familiar faces, now gone forever. Gone in an instant.
He'd never see her again.
The mirth from earlier seem to pop like a bubble. Sasuke seemed to notice, dark eyes watching, always watching, a little too closely. It was as if sometimes Naruto couldn't hide. And maybe Sasuke couldn't either.
Sasuke opened his mouth, as if to say something, as if to break the melancholy spell, when he noticed monks padding through the halls, lanterns bobbing in the dark. He paused, and Naruto watched curiously. The monks spoke in hurried, hushed voices. Sharp and tinged with fear. Naruto and Sasuke were silent in their corner as the monks began to shake refugees awake. The night was still and quiet. Whatever evil had lurked into the temple walls had yet to wail.
And so it began.
"How long were we here for?" Naruto muttered as he waved away a hand Sasuke offered and rose. "A day?"
"Long enough," Sasuke grumbled as they stepped over bodies, pausing to kick away the foot of the sleeping old man. They slunk away before they could be seen.
They rounded a corner like shadows playing on the stone walls, avoiding the lanterns' rays of light, careful not to wake others. Swiftly, softly. They reached an offering table, and Naruto nudged a small body with a toe. Fukasaku was curled by a vase. The toad started awake, choking on a snore.
"What? What is it?" he croaked, reaching for his staff blindly, but Naruto knelt beside him, shushing him.
"Something's happening."
Fukasaku looked dubious, still blinking back sleep. "We've barely been here a day. The Temple is the safest haven we could hope for-"
"Maybe we shouldn't have come here in the first place, I told you, old toad, the safest place for him-" Sasuke began to argue, and he and the toad locked eyes. Naruto sighed.
"Look, let's just-"
A piercing wail bounced off the Temple walls, and its tenants jerked awake, some with a scream. Children began to cry, the people began to panic. It spread like a virus. Before long, the entire offering room was reduced to refugees scurrying in its walls like rats caught in a cage.
"What is it? What is it?" a little girl yelled, hands clamped over her ears. Naruto hurried over to try and calm her and her mother. What is it? What is it? they kept asking, and all he could do was tell them it's alright. You're going to be okay. Because he himself didn't know.
He wondered what monsters lay waiting for him beyond the temple walls, and the Kyuubi hummed in satisfaction. Naruto looked to Sasuke, and in that moment, Naruto knew his answers, just from the glint in Sasuke's eyes. He looked away.
"That's enough! We need to stay calm!" Naruto tried to shout, helping the monks with frightened women and children.
"LISTEN UP IF YOU WANT TO STAY ALIVE!" a voice yelled, and Naruto was surprised to see Sasuke standing on top of the offering table, Fukasaku by his side. He looked imposing, important, up on that table. At the base of Izanami, he could have been a messenger, a warrior sent just for the people.
A monk was quickly relaying something to him, white-faced and ashen. A hush fell over the people. They waited as if the knives had already pricked their backs.
"Enemies have been sighted outside the walls," Sasuke relayed. There were gasps, prayers, a few sobs. "If you'll all cooperate, we can get out of here safely. There's a tunnel that leads to the underground tombs and catacombs. Line up, single file, and we'll get you out of here and wait out the fight. But anyone with ninja or combat training skills are urged to stay. We could use the help."
The people assembled quickly, and Naruto felt himself guided, tugged, pulled. Before long his fingers found Sasuke's
"Stay close," Sasuke said, and Naruto winced when another ear-piercing wail burst through the halls.
"I bet that one is going to be a bitch to deal with," Naruto grumbled, imagining what jutsus the creature might possess. They watched a group of monks armed with only staffs hurry down the halls, faces set like Izanami's stone.
They were fighters.
But were they enough?
"Sound wave attacks?" Sasuke guessed as they wove through the halls, the wailing echoes bouncing off marble, carrying into the depths of the Temple. The torches that lined the walls flickered, the the hall seemed vast. Like the maze of a cave opening up before them. All the while, the eyes of Izanami followed the footsteps of the people hiding behind her walls.
Naruto shivered. There was more to the temple than he'd seen, and he began to wonder if they would need to exit the halls to access the tombs when a monk finally spoke.
"Through here! Hurry now!" a monk called, quickly working to unlock a small metal door hidden by another offering table. It was in a wide, open room that sat supported only by marble beams and a small altar.
The monk's hands shook as he tried to unlock it, as another scream carried through the halls. The door slid open with a hissing creak.
"It-it hasn't been accessed this way in years," he explained quickly. "you will need to crawl inside. The tunnels will open up. Women and children first." He guided people inside wordlessly.
Naruto forgot his feminine refugee disguise as he helped usher others inside. He met the eyes of the woman and her two boys from earlier, and she looked upon him with gratitude. He saw the ashen faces of the women from the cart. Nagisa, wasn't it? Her arms cradled her stomach. It was only when his arm was caught and he was told to head inside that he blinked, looking down.
Of course.
He wasn't going to turn around to fight.
"You and your friends are the last," the monk said quietly, watching him with curious eyes, as if he could see the true face behind the glamour Naruto wore.
"You are safe here. I promise."
Naruto hesitated.
No one had stayed behind to fight.
Sasuke gripped him by the elbow with a whispered "come on", and Fukasaku tugged on the hem of his cloak with a "Now, now." He felt himself pushed forward, and he landed on his knees in the crawl space, his hands scraping against the rough rock surface of the floor. Fukasaku hopped a little ahead. Another wail, and Naruto nearly turned around, nearly cried "wait!" or "Maybe we can do something!" but Sasuke's grip was strong, and the monk slammed the door shut.
He was swallowed in darkness. Disorienting, total darkness. There was nothing to follow but the sound of his and Sasuke's breathing. The air was close. Warm. Too warm.
In. Out. In. Out. Gasp. Try to breathe.
He reached out for the door, clenched his jaw, slammed it with his palm. "There's no one else out there, is there?" he asked lowly. There was silence behind him. He thought of the Kages, of Gaara, of the Rookie nine. There hadn't been enough there either.
Now too many were dead. Too many had been dead. He'd had too many of these moments. Too many...
"Naruto-boy," Fukasaku said gently. "This is the path we have chosen. I promise you. You will get to do right."
Naruto shook his head, and Sasuke took his hand. "You asked me earlier if you were doing the wrong thing."
Naruto stared into darkness, waiting for him to speak. He watched the refugees cry, swarm, push against the blocked exits. He closed his eyes, as if he could bury the anger.
"You're wrong if you think there's only one way to help them."
It was all he needed. He turned to follow Sasuke.
Together, they gathered the groups, and slipped into the tunnels, down the throat of the tombs
Open it. Open it now, the snake urged, and Norio reached a hand slowly, slowly, like his fingertips would touch the very lips of God. The snake's tongue tickled his ear as it peered over his shoulder, pearly head nearly bobbing in excitement.
He and the snake had slipped away while the Brotherhood stayed above ground to fight the ninja who'd appeared suudenly on the Temple's borders.
He was bathed in darkness. An inky, terrible black that washed out this underground world like a sea. A torch flickered feebly on the stone ledge above him, bathing the tomb in ruddy light that splashed at his feet.
Before him stood a stone tomb. With a grunt, he braced himself, pushing away the stone slab that covered its top.
He cursed, a little out of fear, a little out of disgust, once it fell away. He backed away until he hit a wall hard.
There was a face in that tomb, and its eyes were open and red, spinning, spinning, like they never stopped.
The eyes of an Uchiha.
This is it, Norio. Our destiny, the snake hissed. We must destroy it. And then, we will find Sasuke the Jinchuuriki. We've come so far. Already, the war is turning in our favor. Laws are being passed true to the Brotherhood's wishes. And if we cannot kill Uchiha and Uzumaki, you can be sure the ninja will do it for us. We're close. So close.
Norio gripped his dagger and whispered Saiyuri's name. He crept towards the tomb, raised the blade, and looked at the Sharingan eyes. He closed his eyes.
The blade never came down.
"Norio? Norio, is that you?"
Suddenly the dark was gone, and Norio was standing in his living room, looking out at the rain. He blinked. The drops streamed down the glass in tiny rivers. It was just as he'd left it. That chair which used to be his father's sitting by the window. The bookshelf, lined with all of Saiyuri's drawing journals and spattered with stains from charcoal and paint. The same old damn rug he hated on the floor. A hard lump formed in his throat. He turned his head so quickly his head spun.
"Norio," Saiyuri said again, wrapping her robe about her tighter. She was just as he'd left her. Pale, pin-straight dark hair that fell in a plunge down her back. Almond shaped eyes that held the world. Voice lighter than the raindrops.
Their baby, still snug in her belly.
Norio nearly choked on his breath. His eyes stung. He hurried to her. "Saiyuri," he whispered, stunned, amazed, about ready to fall to his knees and weep, gather her in his arms so tightly he'd never let go.
She giggled as he came to her. Touched his face with warm fingers. "Norio! Why are you looking at me like that? I didn't know you'd be home today. What is it? What's wrong?"
He started to cry. He couldn't help it. He held her close. "Oh, Sai. Oh, Sai. I've missed you so much. So fucking much." He buried his nose in her hair. She smelled like jasmine. Clean. Just like she always had.
"Baby. What's wrong? I've always been here. It's okay now." She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed his cheek with soft lips.
"Tell you what," she whispered, "I was just taking a nap, and it's about lunch time now. I'll go make you that fried chicken you love so much. We can eat it and watch the rain. I think there's some lightning. You can tell me about your mission."
He didn't want to let go.
But he did, slowly, so slowly her hair ran through his fingers like sand as she turned. She headed to the stove, starting to hum a song, poured oil in the pan.
Norio was mesmerized. A part of him, a very small part of him, told him to wake up. But maybe it had all been some horrible nightmare. Perhaps he'd been trapped in a genjutsu during the mission, and his head was still a little fuzzy. But now he was home. With his Saiyuri-
"Norio. Stop watching. It isn't real."
His heart leapt into his throat and he pulled a knife, eyes widening at the figure who stood beside him.
He was a man Norio had seen before. Tall, sickly white, hooded, half of his face glittering with pearlescent scales and golden eyes that looked reptilian.
"Snake?" he wondered, and the figure grinned honey-slow. He thought the teeth looked sharp.
"It's just a dream, Norio. A genjutsu. We need to get out. Remember the mission."
Norio looked over his shoulder. His wife was cooking now, and he could smell the oil, the chicken. She was singing tunelessly, words he couldn't hear, and then he realized where he was.
"No," he whispered, "not again." The door burst open, and he watched, fascinated, horrified, as the monsters slinked into the house like shadows.
"They're not here for her, Norio." A hand clasped his shoulder, and Norio looked to the hooded man.
"You are not a messenger of God," he said slowly, but he couldn't find the anger within him to care. He looked to Saiyuri once more, wanted to fall into the image of her. All he had to do was go to her. He could leave it behind. All of it. This terrible, terrible world. Walk with Saiyuri to the porch and watch the rain fall, the lightning blitz across the slab of gray sky.
"It's true, I'm no snake. Just a man. But I am here," the man whispered and suddenly he was closer, as if he'd always been by his ear, "to bring you to your destiny. To avenge your wife and child. I am here, Norio, for you. Come, before it is too late." He had a hissing voice. Soft and light and persuasive.
"I can't leave her here," Norio heard himself say, and Saiyuri looked to smile at him. Grin.
"That is the point. If you don't leave her here, you will die. That's the aim of this jutsu. Think of it like a fly trap. Once you've traveled deep enough down its throat, it'll swallow you whole. You must leave her. She isn't really there. Now focus. I told you there was a small path to follow. Can you see it?"
Norio struggled to tear his eyes away and listen. The monsters were still shadows, playing along the wall beside her. But beyond them, if he concentrated hard enough on the floor, he could see something odd.
It was barely perceptible. And if he'd had no one to tell him to look for it, he would have never guessed it was there. Would have never noticed the small anomaly in the illusion of his home.
But that was the point of an illusion, wasn't it?
It was as if, at certain points, if his eyes followed the exact path he had rehearsed over and over until he slept dreaming of it, he'd see the tiniest bit of the real floor and walls of the tomb peeking out. It was blending in with the hardwood floor near the table. It was swirled in with the wallpaper on the kitchen wall. It was on the welcome mat near the door. Each point was a part of the pattern, the path to follow.
But suddenly Saiyuri was calling his name, and the points to the path disappeared as he looked to her, watched the monsters on the wall. They swirled at her side, trying to reach for her, arms like tendrils of smoke peeling away from the wall to attempt to pull at strands of her hair.
"They're going to kill her," he rasped out fearfully. He'd forgotten what he'd been looking for. Couldn't conjure up the image. All that mattered was Saiyuri. Someone caught his wrist like a vise.
He tried to remember. He thought of the name Sasuke Uchiha and demon child and Jinchuuriki and war.
"No, Norio. She's already dead. There is no one here but us. You must understand. Remember your real wife. Remember how she died. Remember how we must find the Jinchuuriki and end this reign of terror."
Suddenly a bubble of voices chorused through the house. Norio spun on his heel, looking for the source, knife drawn.
Over here, over here, over here!
Snake hummed thoughtfully. "See? It's not real. You're hearing voices from outside the illusion. What an interesting turn of events. There should be no one else here…"
"Norio," Saiyuri called, "Norio come here. Come talk to me. I've missed you."
He took a step forward. Her smile seemed to glow.
Snake's hand clasped his shoulder, halting Norio in his tracks. "No, Norio. Remember the path. She isn't real."
Norio hung his head. "I'm sorry sweetheart." He looked to the floor, to the first pattern.
"Norio? Norio?" Saiyuri called, louder now, fearful. He took a ragged breath, Walked to the second point. The third.
"Norio!" Saiyuri's voice rose in pitch. He didn't dare look at anything but his feet.
"Norio! Norio look at me! What are you doing? Where are you going?" She was sobbing now.
She isn't real. She isn't real.
One more step. Another. He was close to the last point, at the door.
"Norio, look at me."
"Keep your head, Norio. Don't look," whispered Snake. Norio's heart squeezed in his chest.
"NORIO!" Saiyuri screamed.
He looked.
The shadows coiled around her like snakes, fangs bared. Squeezing, squeezing, squeezing.
"They're killing her."
"She isn't real!" Snake was furious now, and his eyes promised death as punishment for disobedience.
"They're killing her!" Norio howled,
"She's already dead!" Snake gave a violent push towards the next point and Norio stumbled.
Suddenly Saiyuri was gone. He was alone, alone, alone, in the middle of a desert. He heard a sharp intake of breath. Snake was still behind him, appearing like an apparition.
Norio gasped to regain his breath, a handle on his emotions. "Where are we now?"
Snake's eyes narrowed. "Never mind. Look for the next set of points."
"Kabuto," came a voice, and Norio was amazed to see Snake falter. Turn paler than he already was.
Kabuto? Norio thought. It must have been Snake's real name. The name Norio never knew. He should feel angry. Betrayed, fooled, cheated, because this man had played him all this time, but Norio couldn't muster the strength to care.
If it meant Sasuke's death, the Jinchuuriki's death, it didn't really matter who Snake really was. Whatever Snake wanted at the end of all of this, he could have, for all Norio cared, as long as his promises were carried out. There would be another time for revenge.
Maybe afterward, when Kabuto felt safe again, Norio would kill him for his deceit. But later, later. There was another man seeming to walk out of the sun, materialize and ripple like a mirage on the had the eyes and smile of a snake, and long, black hair. He walked forward like something alien and ruthless. A kill in each step.
Norio tensed. The next point was just beyond him, but now Kabuto was frozen.
"It has taken you long enough, Kabuto. i was beginning to fear you would never come."
"Orochimaru." Kabuto's voice was wrong. Small. Almost boy-like with wonder and hint of something black that made Norio's skin crawl.
Did he look like that when he'd seen the illusion of Saiyuri? he wondered. He shook his head, looking over his shoulder to hiss, "Now look who's the fool. The next point is up ahead. That man is standing right by it."
Kabuto said nothing. His face was blank.
"Will you leave me here alone, Kabuto? After everything you've risked to see me again?" came the silky voice of the man Norio didn't know. Kabuto still said nothing, still didn't move.
Norio grabbed him violently, shoving the knife under his chin to snap him out of it. "Move it!" he snarled, and Kabuto blinked.
"Right. Of course." That sly hiss of his had returned.
Another chorus of voices blasted across the desert sands like a wind. Over here, over here, over here, and Kabuto seemed to wake up a little more.
"There shouldn't be anyone in the tombs." There was a hint of doubt in his voice.
"It doesn't matter. We're almost there."
Over here, Naruto-boy, over here the wind sighed and Norio paused before his foot could hit the next step.
Naruto. The Jinchuuriki.
The apparition bent on tempting Kabuto began to speak again. "Kabuto. Kabuto come to me. We have much to discuss. So much I need to tell you." The illusion was taking hold again and Norio struggled to find the points.
The sun was setting up ahead, and against its red glow another figure appeared. Norio gripped his knife tighter.
"Over here. Over here," the voice called, and Norio saw Akira, no! Sasuke Uchiha. There he was, grinning a victory grin, arm hooked around a handsome blond young man. They stood in the afterglow of the sunset, and both pairs of eyes glowed like rubies.
"If it is revenge you want, Norio," Sasuke said with an ever-blooming smirk, "Then we're waiting over here."
The blond man laughed. "Over here, Norio. We're waiting. Or have you forgotten what we've taken from you?"
"Your wife," said Sasuke, and he and his companion stood on the sands like gods of chaos.
"Your cousin and his family. Your comrades, your best men, your wife's little brother," said the blond man.
"Your unborn child."
"We wanted war," said the Jinchuuriki. "now give us yours." The wind blew again, and carried more voices.
This way. If the rumors prove true, we need to get the refugees to the center of the tombs, They'll be safest there! the wind howled. Norio blinked, confused. The image of Sasuke and the Jinchuuriki rippled for just a moment.
"This way, Norio," Sasuke and the Jinchuuriki called. "Or will you stand there and watch us claim this war?"
Rage, horrible, soul-eating rage licked at Norio's thoughts. Then fear. Suddenly, he wasn't sure what was real. He couldn't move. He couldn't see the points, couldn't remember which step was the next one.
"Kabuto," he hissed. "What is happening? What is real? I thought you said those voices we heard earlier were from outside the illusion."
There was no answer.
Norio turned, cursing when he noticed Kabuto straying to the man called Orochimaru.
"That's it," the man hissed, "Just a little closer. So I can see you better. I've waited for you for so long, Kabuto…"
Kabuto drifted closer.
"Kabuto! Hey! Snake! Fuckin' hell." Norio drew his fire lancer, looking to the figures in the west. "Sick of this shit!" he screamed, aiming for Akira and the Jinchuuriki. He fired. Once. Twice. Three times. The shots rang out loud and piercing.
They stood on the horizon laughing. Norio took a step towards them. Then another. Another still. He fired again. And again.
Wait. Listen. What was that? the wind whispered. Norio almost pulled himself away to look over his shoulder. Almost.
"Over here, Norio, over here!" they cried menacingly. He drew up the lancer to fire again. This time, the Jinchuuriki fell, rolled in the sand while Akira howled and turned into vapor.
Norio waited for the body to turn to dust. It didn't. He laughed. He shot it again. And again, and took more steps towards it, until he could kick it with his foot.
His foot met flesh and bone and blood.
He laughed harder. Spit flew past his lips and he hunched over, chest aching. "That easy! it was that fucking easy!" He bent down to rub blood between his fingers.
It was so real. It was real.
Tears slipped past his cheeks along with his laughs. "I did it," he gasped. "I did it! It's over, oh God, Saiyuri, it's over."
"Now it is."
Norio paused, looked up to stare into spinning red eyes and a murderous face. He said, "I just saw you turn into dust."
Sasuke Uchiha raised his sword. "That was an illusion, Norio. Only a dream."
"But I killed him."
Sasuke shook his head. "No."
The illusion broke, and there was darkness, a tomb, a lone flickering candle. A woman was before him, but her eyes swirled red, a halo of ruddy light around her. She could have been an angel of death, Izanami herself, in all her beauty. Behind her, a toad and a buxom blond looked on quietly, faces set in masks. Norio looked down at the body of a man he didn't know, bleeding and wide-eyed by his feet. He rubbed his fingers. They were slick with blood. Blood that wasn't the Jinchuuriki's.
The woman swung her sword, but Norio saw Sasuke Uchiha in her eyes.
"Akira," he said in a growl, a challenge, "Of course you are here to kill me. You will never change."
Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction and he brought down his sword. Norio rolled, and sparks flew like lightning as the sword hit the stone floor. There was movement, a scream, and Norio noticed refugees, an entire crowd being led, slinking in the shadows. He shook his head.
They were herded back with a croak of "hurry now! hurry!" and Norio watched the blond wait, defiant eyes trying to lock with Sasuke's red ones, but they never met, and her eyes watched Norio's with a killer's grace. A ninja's eye. He licked his lips.
The Jinchuuriki.
"Come!" the toad cried, and suddenly she disappeared along with the others, swallowed by the darkness.
"Why do you kill everyone you touch?" Norio admonished, thinking of what lay ahead, and Sasuke's disguise rippled with his rage. For a moment, Norio saw Akira. They circled each other slowly, two wolves watching the other's throat with their teeth.
"I am," Norio said, "the only one who cared enough to bring justice to those like Eiji. Like Kanako. Like the children. Yet, you would foil me. Yet, you would spit on their memories."
It worked, which surprised him. Sasuke launched himself forward like fire, all rage and no control. Their swords met. Norio parried, threw his weight and watched Sasuke skid backward, whirl, then charge. His sword point met only musty air, and Norio kicked, laughing when his foot met flesh, and Sasuke hit the wall. Norio charged, but his target was quick, vanishing with a blink, and suddenly Sasuke's blade came crashing down from the right, and the blades met again. This time the woman's face fell completely, and Norio saw the face of the young man he thought he'd known.
The boy was fast. So incredibly fast, and Norio's blood soared.
"Ahaha! Now" he laughed, sparks flying off the length of his blade once more as they slashed, parried, struck, caught each other in a death grip, jabbed again.
Not once did Sasuke use his ninja jutsus, which Norio found interesting.
"Will you not finish me off easily? Use those eyes of yours? Or are you trying to be honorable?" he taunted, yelling as their blades clashed once more. He grimaced as held it, sweat beading on his brow, muscles trembling.
Too long, he realized with mounting apprehension, this fight was lasting too long. They were both beginning to tire. Gashes on his forehead, on his arms, were beginning to sting, to ache, the blood making the hold on his sword slick.
Norio molded chakra to his blade, slashing through crumbling rock when Sasuke darted out of the way
Blood hit the ground, and Norio smiled. Sasuke stood rigid, tall, the slash to his chest beginning to bleed.
"You're tiring, Akira," he clucked, charging again, but something hit him from the back, and he fell with an oomph.
"I think you're done, old man," a young man's voice taunted, and Norio grunted as he felt the body use him to leap off of.
Sasuke sounded annoyed. "I was handling this."
A blond man appeared by his side. Young, as young as Akira, bright yellow hair, a crooked grin that spoke of strength and victory. Ah yes, this was him. This was the Jinchuuriki. Norio staggered to his feet, regaining his breath.
"Doesn't take a lot to make one of me," the blond shot back, hands behind his head, "and besides, who would I be if I let you take all the glory? You can't hold me back from this."
Sasuke grinned tightly, brandishing his blade. "Well then, let's see who can get him first."
His friend smiled, a baring of teeth before a fight. "Pssh. Always gotta make this into a competition, don't ya, bastard?" grumbled his companion, but he smiled still, a kunai twirling expertly in his fingers. His smile broadened, eyes locking on Sasuke for only a moment as he said, "Betcha I win."
They struck, and Norio remembered thinking they moved like an extension of one another, a limb from the same body.
At the last moment, as he blocked a hit from Sasuke and avoided a kick from the JInchuuriki by catching his ankle and sending him flying backward, the Jinchuuriki used the movement to his advantage, a kunai slipping from his hold with deadly accuracy. Norio saw it coming out of the corner of his eye, but his feet were planted firmly on the ground, holding off Sasuke's blade. He thought I can't block it. His shoulders shook with the effort.
Saiyuri was waiting for him, and Norio sighed, closing his eyes tightly, waiting for the kunai to split his skull.
The kunai never hit.
A hiss sounded in his ear, and Norio opened an eye. He grunted. "So you decided to come out of there alive," he said to the snake with the kunai between its fangs. It swayed on his shoulder.
"I thought you were dead."
The snake only hissed in answer, twining itself around his neck. Sasuke and the Jinchuuriki paused, panting, eying the monster around his neck.
"Kabuto," Sasuke hissed.
Norio took a fighting stance, took a breath, looked to the snake hissing on his shoulders.
"It's over, Akira," he said, "And if we don't kill you now, the nin will. Either way, we've won" But at the moment as he made to charge, eyes locked on the JInchuuriki, something happened. A rush of wind, splitting pain, a voice low in his ear.
"This time I won't leave you alive!"
He couldn't say what, or who, it was. Never would.
It killed him before he could take another breath.
Kabuto could almost smell him. The clean, antiseptic smell that burned his nostrils but hid a hint of citrus. it made him think of labs, of cold metal examining tables, of icy lips and cool fingertips. Finally, after so long alone. Finally, after so long dreaming of this moment-
"Sick of this shit!" Norio yelled, and Kabuto jerked away from the pale white fingers of his old teacher, just before their skin could touch, before the apparition could ensnare him in a death hold. Orochimaru's eyes grew wide and angry as his hands clasped nothing. Kabuto looked over his shoulder, and cursed. The winds whispered like voices once again, and Kabuto paused as he heard Naruto-boy crawl over the sands.
They were here. Naruto was here, somewhere close by. He frowned. The voices were piercing through the illusion. It was beginning to blend into the technique, Kabuto realized uneasily. If he didn't act soon, he'd never be able to decipher what was real, and what wasn't. And already, the path to reality was thin enough, difficult to see.
He whipped his head to Norio. "Norio-!"
But it was too late. The man had lost his mind to the illusion, and he shot after apparitions of Sasuke and Naruto, firing his lancer at them. Kabuto raised a brow when one actually fell, but he looked away and looked to the points.
Just two more. He took a step.
"Kabuto, Kabuto…" the voice was so achingly familiar, so wonderfully real. It took nearly all his strength not to look.
"Stop this, Kabuto. That is enough. There is nothing for you out there. But here? Here lie your dreams…"
He reached the last point, toes curling in the warm sand, and looked out across the sea of gold and red-washed sky. The setting sun was glowing garnet. Kabuto could hear Norio laughing, laughing like a dying man who'd found the secret to everlasting life. He didn't look. Norio had done his part. Norio had always been a fool whose mind had already been consumed with revenge. He'd brought Kabuto's last plans to fruition.
His deed was done. With this final step, Madara would perish, the Leaf would be able to finish Naruto and Sasuke, and maybe, Kabuto might embrace death.
"One day, Orochimaru," he whispered, reaching for the sun. "One day."
The illusion broke suddenly, and Kabuto found himself momentarily surprised. He hissed as his serpentine body reared. He was coiled on the chest of the corpse. He struck, pearly fangs gouging into the spinning eyes of Madara Uchiha's corpse.
In the candlelight, the shadows played, and someone screamed.
Swords clashed, a clone of Naruto's appeared to fight, and Kabuto's fangs tasted of dust and malice. He struck, over and over over, until the eyes stopped spinning, until they began to sink. He was satisfied, and he wondered when Madara would return, if Madara had been affected by Kabuto's truths at all.
The clang of metal jarred him from his thoughts.
Kabuto could taste the blood in the air with his forked tongue, thick and metallic. It was time he returned to Norio's side. It wouldn't do to have the brute die yet. Tonight was the night, he knew. It was the night Sasuke and Naruto would see the tide of the war shift. With a lunge and a hiss, he caught a kunai in his teeth, milliseconds away from piercing Norio's skull.
"I thought you were dead," Norio panted as Kabuto curled on a bloodied shoulder, kunai still between his fangs.
Sasuke eyed him like the animal he was. A starved predator out for blood as he whispered his name, "Kabuto." The Jinchuuriki's clone widened his stance, and on another night, Naruto and Sasuke might have looked formidable. Daunting, even.
But all Kabuto could see were the dead boys they both would become once the night was over.
Kabuto would have chucked if he could have. He could not die yet. There was still the matter of Madara.
"It's over, Akira," Norio began, but all at once, three things happened. A vortex opened, much to Kabuto's horror, right in Norio's middle, as Madara emerged, slipping out of time and space to materialize by the tomb.
Norio fell away in two, and as Kabuto cursed his ill luck he was struck as Madara grasped his head with a heavy hand, venom dripping uselessly from his fangs as his mouth was forced to open wide.
He could see the clone summon ten more clones, and Sasuke's blade sizzled blue. Kabuto looked into Madara's still spinning eye as his spine cracked.
"This time, I won't leave you alive."
In the caves, Naruto began to realize, in horror, that he had been led to the slaughter. Ahead, someone screamed.
"I don't want to die. I don't want to die!"
Cursing under his breath and shaking away the shock, Naruto pushed his way through the group inching through the catacombs. A man in the front was losing his nerve, hyperventilating. He was blocking the narrow path. Someone had begun to kick him, others began to shout. In the dark, all Naruto could see were silhouettes, angry outlines looking for light.
"Don't leave us in here!" a woman pleaded, but her cries went unheard, as the exits were sealed. They'd been so close. The lights ahead had boosted the refugee's spirits, made them laugh and sigh in relief, until the little dots of light had begun to disappear.
They're sealing us in, Fukasaku had raged, and Sasuke had sprinted ahead wordlessly.
"Wait, wait!" Sasuke was running for the exit, but Naruto couldn't find him in the black. One by one, the lights extinguished like snuffed candles. The refugees wailed.
"No!"
Suddenly darkness reigned. Children screamed, and Naruto could hear fists banging solidly on rock. Flesh that made no impact. He wondered if one of those fists were Sasuke's.
Naruto clenched his own fists, tightly, until what little nails he had bit into his skin. "The Guardian nin must be here already, calling the shots," he guessed, trying to see the reasoning. And suddenly,badly, he longed to get out of the tunnels, to face the ninja who had just taken the lives of comrades. He could feel the fire, burning under his skin.
He had to get out of here-
He took a breath and zoned in on the screams of those around him.
Fukasaku sighed tiredly beside him. "Bastards," he muttered, "They're ensuring your capture, if you're really here. Gives them time to go and fight and return for you. We can't let this happen. There must be another way." He paused, sifting through memories. Fukasaku, after all, knew the Temple well
"Naruto, there should be another exit, if it's not sealed off or naturally caved in. It's centuries old-"
Naruto was only half-listening, Fukasaku's voice distant as he shouldered his way past the crowd, to the man at the front, who was causing a scene. Someone was shoved into him. He pushed them away. A fist went flying. Naruto ducked.
"Stop! If you want to get out of here we all need to cooperate! I said stop it, dammit!" Naruto shouted, pushing his way through, peeling people away to reveal the man trying to dig away at the rock with nothing but his bare hands. He'd turned around and hit someone with a rock who'd tried to placate him. His victim groaned and dropped heavily.
Another voice wailed as Naruto snatched the man roughly, shaking him by the shoulders, tired of it ("You need to fucking calm down, hear me?"), and when he tried to throw a punch, Naruto cursed and knocked him out cold with a quick hit after catching his fist. A voice he thought he recognized rose in pitch.
Naruto turned, but he had a hard time making out faces. There was a writhing black mass of people behind him.
He couldn't see, but suddenly a blue light illuminated the cave, and he turned to see Sasuke, electricity chirping and licking up his arms. It startled the people, and they shrank away from him.
He had abandoned his disguise.
They screamed. "The ninja are in the caves!"
"Enough!" Sasuke shouted, and Naruto hurried over to his side.
"There is an exit," Naruto continued, remembering what little Fukasaky had just told him, "But we need everyone here to cooperate. Do you understand?"
There was a murmur of agreement, and Fukasaku came hopping to the front.
"There isn't much time," he said, and Nauto already knew.
"Alright, let's go!"
It was painstaking, it was slow, but the children kept stumbling, and the elderly needed guiding hands, and at one point, the woman Naruto remembered as Nagisa wailed.
"We need to stop! We need to stop! Please!" her mother shouted, and the group halted, having come to a fork in their road. The path split off down two different tunnels. Fukasaku contemplated, when Naruto and Sasuke were approached.
"Please, my daughter cannot walk any farther-"
It was the Wind woman. Naruto squinted, as if he might be able to see her better.
"Then we'll carry her," Naruto absolved, done with the conversation, already looking to Sasuke, but the woman shook her head, grabbed at his sleeve.
"No, no, you don't understand, the labor pains have come too early. We can't keep moving her like this!" She was desperate.
There was a groan, a murmur, the refugees began to speak. A woman claiming to be a midwife stepped forward, helping the pained young woman to settle on the stone floor. Naruto winced as she cried out.
"We can't just leave her like that. We'll carry her-" Naruto repeated, but the Wind woman was having none of it.
Sasuke intervened. "What else are we supposed to do? The nin won't want them, and the Brotherhood has never attacked bystanders, as far as I know. They want us. Let them help her, let those who can't go any farther rest. They'll be fine." Others were beginning to contemplate staying in the caves. Those with infants, very small children. An old man who needed a crutch to walk and a blind woman.
"But-"
It was then Fukasaku made his choice, gesturing to the right, and Naruto grudgingly left those who wanted to stay behind.
The path down the tunnel was like a mouth of broken teeth, jagged edges of rock and uneven steps gouged into the cave floor. The ceiling began to hang low, and before long, everyone was in a crouch. It became blacker than black. Only Sasuke's electricity and a quick torch Fukasaku had managed to keep the tunnel aglow with a little light.
"Over here, Naruto-boy, over here!"
Soon, they came to another hole in the path. A small tunnel.
Naruto grunted. "One at a time," he instructed, and they helped a man forward, Fukasaku hopping ahead of him. They paused at the mouth of it, waiting to hear that the two had gotten through safely before sending the women and children. Slowly, the group disappeared, one by one, to the other side. Eventually, just Naruto and Sasuke stood.
"Go," Sasuke urged, and they looked at each other for a moment, glowing blue with the hum of Sasuke's Chidori. Suddenly it was dark, and Naruto felt a hand on the back of his neck, breath on his cheek, a forehead against his. Naruto nodded, turned, and crawled down the tunnel, Sasuke close behind.
There was a heavy silence as soon as he pushed through. The air had changed from cool and damp and smelling of rock, to warm and close and smelling of mold and decay. He wrinkled his nose, finally able to stand upright, and that was when he felt it.
The disturbance in the air, the presence of power.
He looked for the group snaking their way down. "Wait!" he cried, and Sasuke shot forward.
Then a yelp cut too short, a shout from Fukasaku, and Naruto could see a light overhead. Just a pinprick of orange in the dark. He skidded to a stop, eyes widening at what he saw.
One of the refugees was dead on the floor, throat cut, and before him, trembling with the after-effects of a genjutsu, Sasuke before him, was Norio, the leader of the Brotherhood.
It was unexpected.
He saw Sasuke's sword rise, felt Fukasaku tug on his arm, and not once did Sasuke look at him.
He couldn't leave Sasuke here to do this alone-
"Come!" urged Fukasaku, and cursing, remembering those frightened ahead of them, Naruto turned.
They were already screaming. "The Brotherhood's in the caves! They're using the caves!"
"Just go, go!" Naruto urged, and he helped Fuksaku guide them along an edge. When he reached its end, he grit his teeth, formed a couple seals, and watched clones poof into existence.
"Go. You know what to do," he growled. They took off without a word. Naruto looked in the direction they fled, even though he could not see.
"Naruto!" Fukasaku called, and Naruto turned. He would not be left out of this fight. His fingers reached for the kunai in his sleeves, like a reflex.
They didn't get much farther up the ledge before the exit crumbled in a cloud of dust and rock and mold. Rising from the murky clouds, eyes gleaming orange and minds already lost, were Madara's cursed soldiers.
A/N: This last half is really long. Too long to put in one chapter. I'm going through it, if I see any more errors in this update, I come back to fix them. Spot anything weird please go ahead and tell me. This half alone was over 11k words long. I'm alternating between two other fics right now, Born This Way and Lilies, so I'm just gonna keep the next update for Fortune next weekend again. um, guess it's Sunday today, so Sunday. I'm off to work on another chapter of Born This Way tonight since I think that's due Thursday? Can't remember which day I updated, and since I just updated Lilies. Whew! Lots to do!
Preview for next week:
It was laughable really, Madara thought as he deflected shuriken, caught another with a tag on the wicked point of his kunai and hurled it in the opposite direction. The boys darted away, and the tomb filled with light as it exploded. He leapt nimbly, avoiding a rasen-shuriken and watching the destruction in its wake as he landed.
There they were. The duo. Senju. Uchiha. Sasuke. Naruto. Together.
Madara sneered.
...
The fight with Madara is upon us! What will come of this? There have been so many different plans, and each one keeps failing before it can come to fruition, so we'll see what happens! We have the Guardians at the Temple searching for Naruto, and they've sealed the refugees in to fight the Brotherhood and prevent escape. However, from a few chapters back we know Madara realized someone was in the tomb, and now we've got everyone there for a huge fight. All these different sides are gonna clash! Geez! Maybe we'll get some team-ups?
Bonus snippet so you know it's there. From the chapter 'Birth of A New Age'. I can only show so much, or you'll know what happens before I get there :
The rain fell harder. The wind pulled at the trees, and up the road, in the little house the farmer knew, a demon tried to break free.
It happened in the kitchen, the fight, and there was blood on the floor to prove it. Every room lay empty, forgotten, except the kitchen. The lights were out, and only the erratic spark of lightning made the house glow blue.
It was quiet in the kitchen. Too quiet, and Sasuke knew that.