This chapter is a lot of action. Prepare for a lot of fights. ***Canon Notes*** As we all know, I started this story two years ago. A lot has happened in the manga since, such as Tailed Beast Mode and such, that I didn't know would happen when I began this. If we go along like canon, Naruto knows who his parents are already in this story, which means he should already have access to Tailed Beast Mode. Remember this story begins when the war is nearly over. So you have to assume all that stuff with Naruto already happened. Also, remember I take liberties for the sake of the story. The Tailed Beast mode scene is kinda mixed with my own headcanon
EDIT: Again, don't have betas, apologize. Some little things I meant to add in again were added back in. Details.
Destiny's End part II
It was an unexpected development, Madara had to grudgingly admit, and even the crack of Kabuto's spine did little to appease him.
So this had been Kabuto's final trick, had it? Kabuto had always known how to make things...irritating.
He would have never imagined the scientist would have found an actual path through the Sharingan's illusion (let alone worm his way into the Feudal Lords' laws!). It was just as well this secret died with him. It was an exploitable weakness. Worse, he had little time to wonder about the full extent of this damage and its effects.
How ironic that he should wish for Kabuto's talents now.
Madara had had to put up with Kabuto longer than he cared to, though a dark part of his mind whispered its frustration, its anger at Kabuto's demise. Why, he wondered. Why had Kabuto still turned, still fled, when he could have had so much more?
Madara would be alone on his throne, and maybe he was always meant to be. The thought made him restless.
"You've spent all these years hating Hashirama. All these years you've hated and plotted, and it was your own clan who worked against you, who forced you out!"
There had been days Madara wanted to believe it. But then he'd look around. Stare at scarred hands that weren't his, feel his soul trapped in a body that was never his, and his hatred would grow, throb like a heart. He was here because of Hashirama; he was here forced to live life like a villain in order to make a statement, a better world, because Hashirama had driven him to a corner like an animal.
Madara wouldn't be swayed. It had taken some time to examine the medic's snakes, to formulate a sly plan. To capture the snake-spies slithering from Kabuto's room and disengage them before Kabuto could realize something was amiss, learn to woo them (it had taken a couple tries and a lot of patience), into submission so he could make a bold move and ensure Kabuto could not act, once he was sure he had everything he needed from the scientist.
With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the snake into the tomb with his body, laughing at the thought of Kabuto rolling over in death, appalled to be put to rest in the same stone that held Madara's corpse.
Naruto and Sasuke pulled his grin tighter. There was an animalistic speed in the way they reacted to his presence, some inexplicable communication that made them seem like a unit instead of simply a fighting pair. Clones burst into existence, and the Mangekyo burned red.
Madara ran a finger along the stone lip of his tomb contemplatively.
"We do not need to fight," he said, "One more time, Sasuke." He enjoyed the way the boy's face twisted, "I will extend a hand in friendship one last time. Take it, and you can all find a place in my brave new world."
What a beautiful lie.
The Jinchuuriki's clone laughed and threw a Rasengan in his face.
"I do not think you understand," Madara tried again, sidestepping it and watching stone crumble. His eyes were ruined, but Obito's good eye was not, nor was the other eye he had so carefully hidden behind his mask, just for moments like these.
"There is no turning away from me. You will find yourselves quite miserable."
They didn't surrender.
In the dark of the tombs, the only light was that of the sparks raining down from blades and kunais and sharp bursts of flame from katon jutsus.
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. Then the dust cleared, and he saw them again.
There they were. The duo. Senju. Uchiha. Sasuke. Naruto. Together.
Madara sneered.
He could see it. The clear cut path to victory. There was no need to work too hard; the world was at stake, and who was here to defeat him? Mere children! He leapt forward with a laugh, and Sasuke met his speed with his sword. It lasted only a few seconds. Sparks. Clashing metal, sword to kunai, before Madara kicked the little fool in the jaw and heard him grunt and stumble back. But Sasuke didn't fall, and as soon as he swayed, a clone was there to pop up with a fistful of Rasengan at incredible speed.
Madara flitted away, like a blip of static on a television screen, but when his feet touched stone a second later, an odd pain lanced through his jaw.
How curious.
He raised a hand to his mask, gloved fingertips tickling the side of Obito's scarred face. Warm blood painted his fingertips. The fabric of his mask had been ripped away to reveal half of the face he hid behind.
Real anger churned his gut. How annoying. His original eyes must no longer have been spinning,
Another unexpected development. He would have benefited from his original body when the time had come, had he been able to take advantage of Kabuto's reanimation jutsu before he'd had to take precautions against the rogue nin. Even so, the treachery wouldn't stall him for long. Madara still had secrets, secrets no ninja could hope to discover, and Sasuke, all that was left of the clan's legacy, had never been taught
His skin stung, he realized belatedly. Like hundreds of tiny needles were burrowing into his cheek bone. He grimaced.
"Well done," he admitted, but not to the boys. To the snake in the tomb who'd made it possible. What a bastard move. Pitting everyone against each other at just the right moment; if Madara wasn't careful, someone would die, and then Kabuto's plans would succeed, even if it meant the smallest of victories.
The boys' eyes widened, and they realized, Madara knew, that their opponent was now as solid as they. Before they had been hoping on chance; he could tell how they had been timing their attacks, probing, studying, experimenting with how far they could push, just to see if Madara's feet ever really touched the ground; even a split second could allow an opening.
But his feet had never touched the ground. Not until now. Now, at least, he'd get a bit of a challenge. He was mildly surprised the clone hadn't ceased to exist. Its brothers had vanished into thin air quite quickly.
Madara straightened, and tore his mask away. "Well," he said, "I never imagined you'd scratch me."
The boys said nothing, only waited, tense. Some unspoken course of action was silently decided upon, with nothing but the smallest of nods, the slightest narrowing of eyes.
"It could have been different for you. But no matter. Come now, Sasuke. It's time you learn what it is to be an Uchiha. To see the power you could have had." He circled them, and they only watched. Waiting for some kind of opening? A signal?
He turned suddenly, sensing a disturbance in the stagnant air, a rush of power. A clone nearly surprised him, rushing at him with a Rasengan, but Madara only watched the clone slide through him, deftly sticking a kunai through the back of its neck as it passed. Then it was gone.
"Well?" Madara insisted, and he laughed, forming seals. "Is that all you have?" He yelled then, his palm hitting the stone. The ground ripped, groaned, shifted, and the boys took staggering steps back, eyes wide, as a beast rose from the stone floor with a roar.
Madara smiled. "You're out of your league, boys."
"Uchiha," the monster before him whispered, and its head jerked on its neck, so quick, so unnaturally, Yuu hissed in disgust before plunging his kunai deep into its jugular, ripping his weapon back with a grunt.
He kicked the creature away, and it curled on its side as it died. But among hundreds, this small death didn't make a dent.
Night had come, but wisps of cloud hid a sea of stars. It sucked away the moonlight, made the darkness pooling on the ground inkier, heavier, made the shadows easier to hide in. The torches on the Temple grounds splashed ruddy orange light over the offering grounds, but the light didn't bring the peace the Sun God and his wife of Life and Death promised.
The push back was subtle, but enough to make Yuu clench his jaw as he fought. It was chaos. It was a mess.
it was all-out war.
The Brotherhood's arrival had caused mass hysteria inside the gates after a few innocents fell after an ensuing struggle between a member and a Guardian nin, who hadn't anticipated the possibility of being shot at. He'd zipped away with a second to spare, only to bring death to a woman waiting in the line. Collateral damage. Unfortunate, but not nearly as unfortunate as the rest.
The resulting stampede was mind-blowing. Hands that clawed at the walls until nails bled, children ripped from mothers, small groups who were keeping their heads attempting to fight through the chaos. Orphans trying to scale the walls with nothing but bare hands, feet, and a little charged chakra. The worst were the ones who fled into the ditches on the side of the road waiting to pickpocket corpses. It was irritating to fight through; but a welcome distraction on the Brotherhood's end, who used the crowds to their advantage. To complicate matters even further, a group of warrior toads had suddenly poofed into existence, devastating any man or woman who dared labeled themselves as foe. Yuu stayed out of their way.
Yuu had had to send chakra charged senbon through the forehead of some fool-in-the-way to kill an elusive leading man with one shot. And the sudden arrival of a wave of experiments charging down the hill like lions did little to shape the battlefield.
Now his allies were stretched thin.
Yuu smiled grimly as he leaped, bringing a heavy foot down on the head of another monster. He broke its jaw, and some masked comrade he didn't recognize fell on it once it hit the ground, allowing Yuu to sprint away. In the air he activated his earth-style, and grotesque hands made of rock and dirt popped out of the earth to squeeze a few experiments and an unlucky Brotherhood member.
The groans and screams seemed to reach to the moon, and Yuu ground his teeth. He flew past a civilian screaming for help, reaching as if he might be able to snag his fingers on Yuu's cloak.
His cries for help were cut short, and Yuu kept on running. There wasn't time to cut his way through the battlefield, to stop and lend a hand to every sob story or frightened face he saw stuck in the teeth of the war.
And they would thank him for it later when the war was done and over, because it didn't matter now. What happened outside of the Temple mattered little to what was happening inside of it. The monks had been forced to seal away the refugees they were protecting in its walls. It made things a little easier, given that the tombs were locked away with doors imbued with a sealing jutsu. Now Yuu's target was currently winding through the underground tunnels, with no way out, and he would wait there patiently, until Yuu was finished with this madness-
Pain lanced through his side, and he skidded along the ground, swallowing dirt and grass as he rolled. He shook away his confusion as he regained his footing, fingers biting into the grass to try and an anchor himself.
Something hot was spilling down his side. Yuu groaned, reaching over to pull a stinger from his skin, to dab his palm uselessly against the puncture wound, as if that might halt the flow of blood. Using a water-style, he quickly removed as much of poisoned blood as he was able before it could spread, watching it flow out of his side in a bubble to pop and splatter on the grass. At least it would give him a little more time. He silently thanked the medic nin who'd taught him that trick.
He rolled the stinger in his fingers curiously, looking up to see the beast it belonged to stomping toward him, pushing through fighting nin and civilians like a velvet curtain.
Beautiful.
It had the squashed face of a beast that used to be a man. Its orange eyes bulging out of its sockets. It said, "Uchiha," as all of them had been hissing.
It seemed Sasuke Uchiha topped even Madara's hit list.
Yuu felt a muscle in his jaw tick, then with careful precision, imbued the stinger with his own chakra, hurtling it at his foe. It was a fast attack, quicker than he could blink, and so effective that stinger should slice through bone and come out clean. Yet the stinger bounced harmlessly off the ugly, gray forehead of his target. The creature's eyes followed the stinger, staring at it stupidly.
Yuu stomped his foot. He didn't have time for this!
"Come on, ugly," he said, and the creature roared. It was a hulking thing, nearly popping out of its skin in muscle and cord-like veins, stingers sprouting out its shoulders like spiked pauldrons, its head nearly dwarfed by its deformed torso. He could see the curse seal spreading on its skin like a virus.
It charged, growing spikes on its knuckles. Yuu darted away as a mighty fist crashed into the dirt where he'd been seconds before. He activated another earth-style jutsu, watching as the creature was yanked down to his chest in a sinkhole he'd created.
It was supposed to have given him enough time to turn and keep on running, but instead, his target cracked through the ground with brute strength, pulling itself out of the trap and splitting the ground enough to make it shift under Yuu's feet.
He swayed a little, leaping into the air again and deciding he wasn't going to get much farther until he took it out.
Time to go for the eyes, he thought with a sigh, since the rest of it appeared to be protected by unnatural armor.
He began to build up chakra in his palms as the creature tore after him, but before Yuu could begin to charge up his senbon and send them flying, the ground broke.
At least, that was Yuu's first thought.
The rift he'd created in the ground, deepened by his enemy, tore completely open, and suddenly a pair of hands reached out of the ground to grip the brute's ankles. It toppled with a grunt.
"You ruined my opening!" Yuu yelled in frustration, landing on the back of the brute with enough strength to stick it farther in the ground. It fell with a yowl, disappearing underground, and Yuu looked up to face his unlikely ally.
He sent senbon hurtling between the eyes of Naruto Uzumaki. He disappeared with a pop! and another took his place, and another, and another, climbing over each other like a makeshift ladder onto the grounds.
"Calm your shit!" the clones yelled at him, all in nearly perfect unison, and they began to swarm, aiding the fallen, attacking the experiments, and Yuu watched, amused, as a brotherhood member took a shot at the clone, as if it was the real thing, only to be grabbed and upended, held by the ankle, berated ("You dumbass, I just saved your life!"), and slapped over the head with his own lancer.
Yuu snorted.
"And how," he said, directing his attention toward another clone as it dove a kunai through the eye of the brute when it surfaced, "did you manage this? The caves were sealed especially to keep you in. It couldn't have been easy to break through to the surface."
"Well it was funny actually," said the clone, yelling as he engaged another opponent (a Brotherhood man), and sent him flying with a well-aimed kick, whirling around to punch another so hard in the jaw his head whipped to the side and he fell like a stone, out cold.
"There we were, running through the tunnels, trying to find a way out since some smart-ass decided to plant a sealing jutsu on the exits, and the ceiling started to cave in. Thanks, by the way." The clone turned to fell another experiment with admirable speed and strength. Yuu ignored him.
If these were mere clones, Yuu was in for a treat when he came to the real one.
"You're an idiot to show yourself. Now we know you're here."
The clone shrugged, fighting its way through to a boy. "Then what are you waiting for?" it asked, scooping up the boy and handing him to another clone, who spirited off with the kid.
The clone turned, eyes dark and amused. "Come and get me, frog boy. Don't be shy."
"You're one to talk. No one's seen or heard of you in months," Yuu hissed through clenched teeth. The clone prepared itself to fight, but instead, Yuu feinted, then used the cover of a smoke bomb, confusing his opponent just long enough to drive a single senbon in its eye and drop down into the tunnels unnoticed.
He signaled his team through the radio as he fell, relaying the location and request for backup.
Uzumaki had been found!
He hadn't noticed the arrival of Konoha nin at the scene (how they had become aware of the battle was beyond Yuu), the crackle of Chidori to the left that cut a man's cries short. It could only have meant the arrival of the Copy ninja Kakashi Hatake and his team, and if he had noticed, Yuu might have realized the shadow trailing behind wasn't his.
Naruto gripped his kunai. The experiments swarmed around the group like hornets, fell from the hole in the ceiling, landing heavily on the stone. Uchiha, the creatures chanted like a war song. Uchiha, Uchiha, Uchiha!
There were so many. And they kept coming.
The clones burst into existence once more, making a formation around the refugees like a shield. Some recognized him.
"It's Uzumaki! He's here! That's who they're after!"
But no one dared move. And no one cried out against him.
"Damn them," Fuksaku seethed, and he and Naruto shared a glance. The clones began to fight. Rasengans burst in and out of existence, kunais flew, deadly chakra that acted like venom shot through the dark. Naruto hung near the center, as close to the fray as he dared, barking orders and letting kunai fly.
Then a child stepped into the circle.
"Uchiha!" a little girl screamed, orange eyes blazing as she ran for the crowd, and Naruto's stomach plummeted.
"No…"
But there were more of them, and he started to see them everywhere. Over there, a boy no older than ten, skin mottled and teeth sharp. He bit like a rabid dog. Twins who couldn't be any older than he was, melding into each other to form a monstrous hulk who spat globs of venom.
He'd never seen children used like this before. A little boy fell to the floor, throat slit, the result of a refugee grown bold, and Naruto shouted, his anger running hot.
"Don't kill them," he growled, and only the clones understood.
"There's nothing you can do for them," Fukasaku said, but Naruto ignored him. The humane thing to do, he remembered others saying. It was only the right thing to do to put them out of their misery.
Naruto disliked killing. He'd killed his first man at fourteen, an enemy nin who would have taken his life if Naruto hadn't acted, and he'd remembered the way the life seemed to bleed out of his eyes, slowly, so slowly he could see it. And he'd known, without having to check for a pulse, when the enemy had died. He hadn't slept that night.
He did what he could to prolong the inevitable, make the enemy turn around or surrender, or just cracked them over the head. But lately, there was no surrender, and he knew that, bitterly accepted it. Ao would have never let him leave his bedroom alive if he hadn't done something about it. The experiments he'd killed before knew no shame and never hesitated. Some he'd never even finished, just left to bleed on the road.
But using children…goddamn.
He thought of his own child.
Not much different, eh, boy? the Kyuubi mused in a growl, pleased by the raw power and rage of the fighting child soldiers. It was thinking of the child. Naruto swallowed.
Shut up, he thought acidly. The girl finally clawed through the barrier, and a clone disappeared. Naruto sighed.
"Dammit."
He cracked the girl over the head with the handle of his kunai before she could slice into him, refraining from a fatal blow. Ahead, Fukasaku split the twins apart forcibly with a water jet that left them shrieking, and again, the clones worked quickly, attacking pressure points and leaving them passed out on the floor.
The water jets were pushing the crowds of cursed souls back.
You could use me, Naruto, the Kyuubi went on. You know you could. Loosen the chains, just a little. You could turn the Rasengans into Bijuu bombs, and every clone would be able to feel it. More effective. Catastrophic. How long has it been? How long has it been since you've tasted that kind of power? You're afraid you won't be able to control it in this state, and you're probably right. It laughed.
Naruto ignored it, though he thought he could hear the clinking of chains, subtle beneath the cries of the fight. The Kyuubi quieted after a while. More children came running at him, swarming like ants. He turned around to the refugees, shouted at clones to start taking them to safety; they weren't going to break through that easily.*
Imagine, the kyuubi rumbled as he shouted, and Naruto looked around him, saw bodies fly, children squeal, and civilians attempt to retreat. It was as if the world had slowed, just for him. It'll be stronger than this. Powerful. Soon. Oh yes. Soon. But for now, you need me, and I need you. I will not fall prey to the eyes of Uchiha, and you would sooner die than see your own taken by him. Sasuke could use the help...to stay alive.
In his head, Naruto saw the demon's eyes widen and glow gold. Naruto yelled as a chakra bomb exploded, shielding his eyes with an arm. He thought of Sasuke as the blue light blinded him. One of his clones had perished, and he could see Sasuke in his mind, with no one to aid him but a single clone, eyes spinning red, a monster rising from beneath the cave floor and bones slipping out of tombs. He thought of the child he'd wanted to save from Kyuubi's influence. He thought of the people boxed in at the Temple with no way out. Guardians on one side, the Brotherhood on the other, and Madara in the last corner.
Was there any other way?
Fukasaku was saying something, but Naruto couldn't hear. It sounded like have to get you out of here now, there's no other way! and Naruto, are you listening?
You need me, his mind whispered, and Naruto ground his teeth together.
It was right.
The Kyuubi paced restlessly, a leering grin splitting its mouth, jowls dripping, the shackles that bound its ankles clanking. It had ideas, Naruto knew, but Naruto had other plans. He grinned up at it.
It's going to be alright, he thought, and he needed that confidence.
"Naruto!" Fukasaku cried, but Naruto was already glowing gold.
Sasuke could feel the pain beginning to pick at his temple. Sharp, throbbing, it sped down his temple to his jaw, made him wince and his vision blur. He yelled, bringing down his electrified sword with a hefty blow, slicing through the corpse of some long dead pacifist the monks used to revere. Madara had risen an (unwilling) army from their crypts. The others crumbled into dust, swallowed by Amaterasu.
That, as Sasuke was beginning to discover, was the power of the Rinnegan. More crawled out of their holes, scraping along the ground and moaning for rest.
"Damn it!" the clone cursed, punching through another skeleton. Ahead, the creature Madara had summoned moaned like a dying thing. It stared at them through eight bulging and bleeding eyes, baring gray teeth from a lipless, too-wide mouth that looked as though it had been hacked into its face. It was an ugly beast; its skin seemed to have been sloughed off long ago, leaving nothing but the thick cording of muscle behind. Spikes sprouted from its shoulders. It stood hunched at its master's side, flicking away opponents with a nimble flick of its wrist and a pained roar.
It had eaten Amaterasu's flames. Sasuke's mouth tasted like ash with the thought. Briefly, he wondered about Naruto.
"What the hell is that?!" the clone cried, eyes narrowing. He looked worried. Sasuke didn't blame him. Again, he wondered about Naruto, if Fukasaku had led him to the exit. He wondered how pissed Naruto was.
Sasuke grimaced, carefully tucking away thoughts of Naruto. "Maybe a summon? Something unique to the Rinnegan?"
He'd been less than pleased when Madara's mask had fallen away, revealing a twisted face he didn't know, and a purple ringed eye he quickly came to despise.
The Rinnegan had an infuriating habit of seeming to absorb techniques. Without whatever illusion Madara had on himself, the destruction of his eyes had stalled him somewhat, but it did little to slow his steps. It was then Sasuke realized the illusion didn't account for all of Madara's tricks.
He came to realize why Kabuto had coveted the remaining bodies of Pein. He crouched into a fighting stance, the clone at his side. They tore through more rising bodies, interrupted in their sleep.
"Please," a dead monk begged through a skinless jaw, "End this tragedy." Naruto's clone apologized before making his head roll.
"We can't keep this up forever, Sasuke. We gotta find a way around this, he's gonna keep 'em coming and we need enough chakra for that freaking thing!"
Sasuke studied Madara out of the corner of his eye. Madara was definitely using a ninjutsu now, as opposed to a genjutsu (Sasuke wondered if the genjutsu had been a doctored form of Izanami) earlier. Sasuke had been thinking about it as a whole from the wrong angle, which annoyed him. While most of Madara's ghostly presence could be attributed to the older Uchiha's own homemade technique, without it he was solid and mortal, but he was still slipping through time and space.
Another trick he didn't know.
What Sasuke did know, though, was that an opening for opportunity had been created, and it was the best he could hope for at this point.
The clone seemed to realize this too.
"We need to get the bastard when he solidifies," he muttered. The clone was watching Sasuke out of the corner of his eye as they fought the demonic monster that been summoned. It was beginning to lash out with the rusty chains that hung off its body.
Chains that didn't just kill when they hit. They devastated. Sasuke's heart began to pump wildly; he'd been waiting for this. He tore through a chain.
"So," the clone began conversationally as it ducked and Sasuke spat a fireball. The beast roared and reared, swallowing the damn thing whole. Sasuke pretended not to hear. He was starting to get angry, trying to decide how best to hit the beast.
Madara just stood there, looking amused, like a little boy who was the only one lucky enough to have candy in the whole fucking playground.
The clone kept trying to speak. "The Uchiha bastard was pretty fucking pissed when-arrghh!" He tumbled away, words forgotten, narrowly avoiding destruction from chains that lashed like whips. The chains gouged the ground. Sasuke glowered at him.
The clone shrugged. "What? Just wanna know if you got anything to add. Last time I checked, I don't know jack shit about the Sharingan, and this bastard goes ghost on us, I can't get a hit, and you're the one with the Sharingan. I'm just sayin', it'd be pretty fucking nice right now if we had a better plan than just standing here on the defensive!" He leaped away when another chain came crashing down.
"Shut up and fight," Sasuke said, wordlessly communicating with the the clone for their next move. It was what was best about fighting with Naruto; he just seemed to get Sasuke (and vice versa). The clone nodded, Sasuke breathed fire to the beast's side, causing a few eyes to swivel madly onto him, and Naruto's clone laughed as it distracted the beast, aiming a quick kunai for one the beast's eyes underhandedly. It struck true under the cover of their attacks, and the beast howled, taking a staggering step back. It was their first hit on it. The boys winced. Madara looked intrigued.
"Okay, whatever, I'll shut up," then in a mutter the clone added, "You're pretty damn lucky we love your prickly little bastard ass or I'd-"
Sasuke raised a brow as they darted backward, having heard.
"Love me, huh?" he replied, smug, the fight roaring in his veins and making the world shine in startling clarity. He relished it, riding a fighter's high.
The clone sputtered. "Wha-? Aw, shut up and fight, bastard."
Sasuke grinned. It was the type of grin he bore when victory was in sight, when Naruto gave him a run for his money in a fight, when he could see the end and knew he would walk away after.
It was Naruto he thought of waiting at that end, and he struck a little harder.
"I have an idea," Sasuke said suddenly, gasping as he avoided another chain. The clone looked over at him, but the hesitation sent him flying. Sasuke cursed, but it didn't disappear, just groaned.
"But it's going to take a while, and even then, it's a last resort shot." He helped it up, and together they swatted away another chain.
"I'm risking my ass fighting with you here, and you're not gonna say what your plan is? Great, I'll just, you know, stand over here while you keep the ideas to yourself!" the clone complained.
"You can't risk your ass if you're not real," Sasuke grunted. The clone comically jabbed a finger at him, looking affronted, and opened his mouth to shout obscenities (after they successfully avoided mortal peril, of course), but no more was said. Because before the clone had time to say "aw fuck you!" he suddenly yelped and twisted away, ducking just in time to avoid a needle charged with chakra. It hit the tomb behind him and cracked it.
Sasuke's eyes swiveled, and he cursed violently. The fighter's high began to lose its edge, and Sasuke thought of Naruto. Suddenly, the distance was too great, and the beast and Madara obstacles that were taking far too long to kill. His heart pumped painfully.
What was Naruto doing? Was Fukasaku enough? Had they found a way out of the caves?
"Well, well, well," said a masked figure, laughing at the beast in the room as he strolled inside. A chain came lashing toward him, but a stone hand reached out of the earth and caught the chain, yanking down hard, making the beast squeal and lose its footing. The cave rumbled and jolted with its fall. Sasuke's brow furrowed in a sneer.
Impressive.
This was a Guardian, and Guardians, as Sasuke knew, were dangerous bastards. His grin tightened. The clone had become silent.
"And who," asked Madara, "Do I have the pleasure of meeting?"
The Guardian was silent for a moment, watching from behind the eyes of his frog mask. "Madara Uchiha," he breathed "This is a treat. I am Yuu."
"Yuu," Madara hummed, "Your earth style is...interesting."
"Thank you," Yuu said humbly, and by then the group was slowly circling each other. The beast roared. Yuu paused to form the seals for his Earth style, Sasuke aimed to get rid of him, and the clone began to glow like fire.
Sasuke paused. The clone looked down, examining its hands. A cold dread gripped Sasuke's gut.
"Shit," said the clone, stunned, and that was when it disappeared, taken out by a rock golem that squeezed it into oblivion.
Sasuke threw small shadow shuriken and whirled away, narrowly avoiding being crushed. There was no time to worry, or wonder what the hell that dobe was trying to pull. Did he not trust Sasuke to come out alive or get this done without a little power trip?
The hell was Naruto thinking-?!
This time the beast cocked its arm back, then sent its fist hurtling for the ground. Somewhere, Yuu bit back a pained curse after falling for the shuriken illusion, and Sasuke eyed him coolly when their gazes met, Yuu plucking the shuriken stars out of his shoulder.
"So the rumors must be true! Uzumaki and Uchiha, working together!" the Guardian called with a sneer, yelling when he attempted to get another golem around Madara, who laughed and simply stepped outside it. The Guardian moved with his rock fist, sending it crashing into the beast instead.
Blood began to drip to the floor from its ruined jaw. It made a pitiful sound, something between a whine and a howl, and sent both fists toward the nin. Sasuke merely sidestepped it, letting Yuu drain a little more chakra by impaling the beast's fists on spikes of rock, splintering its knuckles. It screamed.
"But which one is it?" he asked, and Sasuke ignored him, quickly sending out trip wires with a flick of his wrist after evading a hit from the beast. But Yuu's eyes were elsewhere, distracted by a genjutsu of Sasuke coming in behind him.
"Maybe you're terrorists?" Yuu wondered, then fell face first with a loud smack, the wires cutting into his ankles and yanking him mercilessly forward. The mask cracked and fell away, revealing black hair and a smooth, boyish face. Yuu spat blood. He rolled just as a chain crashed down.
"Maybe you're just rogues."
Sasuke filled his lungs with air, activating a katon jutsu. Yuu watched the fire eat along the wires, cackling as it sped toward him. He cut himself free, but not before sending senbon hissing through the fire at breakneck speed, and they flew toward Sasuke glowing molten orange. Yuu smiled at Sasuke with red teeth.
"Or maybe you're lovers?"
Sasuke howled as the senbon gouged into his eyes, but then he fell away in ash and flame. Just a clone. Sasuke laughed as he dropped in at Yuu's side, twisting his leg in the air to deliver a kick to the side of Yuu's face, sending him sprawling. He threw a tagged kunai, but Yuu escaped it.
"Maybe," Sasuke said, lunging.
The earth cracked where they had stood a second before as the giant dug its fingers into stone.
"You're making this irritating," huffed Yuu and formed seals. Snake, Dragon, Horse, and others, Sasuke followed the seals with spinning eyes as he sped forward, avoiding the giant. Madara seemed content to sit by and watch his opponents do each other in, no doubt amused.
Yuu seemed to have no interest in temporarily teaming up, and even if he did, Sasuke didn't doubt it would make watching his back even more unnerving. He was getting antsy, tired of the fight. Crucial time was slipping through his fingers, and he had no idea where Naruto was, if he needed-
His thoughts broke away as hands shot out of the cave floor, but this time, whole bodies followed, until entire golems were standing. Four of them. They stood upright with a crack and a cloud of flint, faceless, baring sharpened stone kunais that grew out of their palms. Three of them turned their attention toward Madara and the beast.
Sasuke imagined something made out of stone might take a little more force than an average clone.
He swung his sword, sparking with Chidori, but instead of decapitating the golem, he only slashed its neck, leaving a glowing shallow gash made by the heat of the electricity.
He grimaced. Alright. A lot more force.
Sasuke leaped backwards before it could deliver a blow powerful enough to cave his skull in. But, he noticed, the golems moved more slowly, and couldn't leap or bound away. What was more, the move seemed to have cost Yuu a considerable amount of chakra, and Sasuke noticed a slight limp to his step, and his right eye was swollen shut.
Weaknesses he could take advantage of. Sasuke couldn't activate anything large like Amaterasu just then to take out Yuu quickly. He hadn't yet recovered from his last use of it, and his temples throbbed painfully at the thought. He cursed his timing, and wished he had saved it.
In a sudden burst of energy, he decided on a risky move, but if he executed it right, he'd take out a couple eyes (a head if he was really lucky) and Yuu altogether. The Mangekyo spun, and Sasuke knew he had seconds. But in that moment, Madara decided to step in, seeming to realize something interesting was finally about to happen.
He charged chakra to his feet, scaling the wall and sprinting over the ceiling, escaping the hefty throws from the stone golems. The beast reared and clawed at him, trying to grab Sasuke, but it was too slow, and the golems were pestering it into a rage.
Chains shot from the sleeves of Madara's cloak, and Sasuke twisted away. The beast reached for him, and he fell from the ceiling, flipping, landing on its wrist and running down its arm, his own arms glowing blue with Chidori. He leaped, and Madara laughed as Sasuke was seemingly absorbed.
But no! It had been an illusion the entire time!
The real Sasuke suddenly yelled,, slipping through Madara and sending dragons of electricity towards the beast. Three eyes were snapped off, and the other dragon raced for Yuu, who had believed the genjutsu for a moment too long.
Before he died Yuu threw a charged kunai, and as Sasuke watched it draw closer in slow motion, he realized he wouldn't be able to move in time as Madara chains came for him yet again. But before it could hit, the kunai disappeared, and figures entered the tomb. Three glowing gold, one with pink hair, one wearing a familiar mask, another riding an ink foodog, and the last few wearing ANBU masks.
With a yell and blue glowing fists, Sakura decimated the remaining stone golems that had turned their attention on the group. Yuu's death did little to compromise their existence.
Sasuke sighed a little in relief, joining them on the defense.
"Look who I found wandering the tunnels," said a clone with a laugh. At the clone's side, Kakashi's own Mangekyo spun, and he locked gazes with Sasuke. Neither moved, the tension spiked, and Sasuke looked away. Sakura stared at him, wide-eyed but silent. The others kept a wary eye open. Sasuke ignored them. He narrowed his eyes at the clone.
"Naruto-" he started, staggering a little, but the clone held up his hands.
"Everything's fine as long as we're still here," it reminded him. That did little to calm him, but Sasuke nodded.
"Well now," said Madara, startling everyone, and Sasuke raised a brow. Madara was clutching the side of his face with a hiss, blood seeping through his fingers from a fresh gash.
Did I nick him after all? Sasuke wondered. He cast a glance over the people gathered beside him. Kakashi had become very still. Sasuke frowned when he blanched, wondering what he knew, but when Kakashi began to talk his voice was steady.
"Sasuke, tell us what you know," Kakashi pressed. He seemed to be ignoring the fact that they hadn't seen each other, without death threats, for the past few years. Sasuke made an exasperated noise in his throat.
"Tch. That isn't much. But his illusion fell away. You can hit him now. He absorbs techniques though, and seems to be using a space-time jutsu to get away before you can hit him. That giant is protecting him. Somehow though, I must've managed to get him. That cut's new. Just don't know when it happened, but maybe we can find a way to duplicate it."
Kakashi hummed, noticing the cut on Madara's face.
"If we can get the head off that thing," he murmured, and Sasuke snorted.
"Been trying. The most I've been able to do is gouge out eyes."
"But," Kakashi chimed in, holding up a finger, making Sasuke feel like he was thirteen again, which he didn't appreciate.
"I have Kamui. It's what I did to save you from that kunai. The technique uses the Mangekyo to transport objects to different dimensions." He fiddled with his hitai-ate, looking over at their their opponents grimly. Sasuke scowled, staring at Kakashi's Mangekyo eye.
"I'll rip off the head this way. Take it, the rest should go," he finished, and Sasuke grudgingly had to admit it sounded like a fine plan.
"Alright, but we should distract him. And I know there's a period of time he solidifies. See that cut on his cheek? Wasn't there before."
Kakashi hummed thoughtfully again and said nothing.
"Naruto-" Kakashi began, and a clone grinned.
"On it!" A rasengan unlike Sasuke had ever seen was beginning to form, blue and purple and buzzing. It looked ominous. It made him take a step back and Sasuke didn't even know why.
Then he knew.
It reminded him of the bombs the bijuu made. It reminded him of death. A clawed hand made purely of chakra held it, raised behind Naruto's clone like a chakra tail. It surged forward toward its target. While Madara avoided it, another clone snuck up behind, attempting to get a hit on Madara while its brother clone was sliding through him.
It was a decent plan, but it didn't work, and Madara sensed the second clone. getting rid of him first.
At that time, Kakashi was kneeling, eye wide, and Sasuke watched in morbid fascination as the head of the beast began to twist and contort, like it was being sucked through a vortex. But as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
Sasuke cursed, and Kashi grimaced.
"Not so fast," chided Madara. "But you efforts are beginning to bore me. I think I'll take my leave and leave you to the statue. There's nothing left for me here now, and what I want, I'll have in due time." He began to ripple away, and Sasuke yelled, but suddenly, the vortex stopped, and Madara stood solid on his ground.
"Gotcha," Kakashi whispered, and Madara swept an irritated gaze over the gathered group. Kakashi rose.
"That eye isn't yours," he growled. Madara cocked his head. Sasuke's eyes swiveled back and forth between them, as curious as ever. Kakashi leaned closer to Sasuke and a clone to whisper.
"I have the other eye."
Sasuke started, understanding beginning to dawn on him. Kakashi's Mangekyo came from a dead Uchiha teammate, and by Kakashi's earlier reaction, he had known the man the body had once belonged to.
"That's him," Sasuke whispered, not having to explain who him was. The clone looked back and forth between them, its face pinched.
"We share the set of eyes, so our dimensional plane is linked. When I saw Obito's face and you explained that the cut on his face wasn't there before...it must have happened when I transported it. When he used his technique next, it slashed him. Though I didn't realize it until he stopped my Kamui on the statue's head. If we go for a hit again-"
"You absorb the technique, and it'll hit him once he activates his own," Sasuke finished, pleased. The clone sighed, twisting a finger in its ear.
"What?"
"Just go for another diversion," Sasuke quipped. It pulled a face at him.
"So sensei and Madara-" It made a gesture with its hands like it was adding two and two together.
"Kakashi has the other eye that belongs to that body," Sasuke explained patiently. The clone seemed to give up and it shrugged.
"Whatever, I'll go in for the hit." This made it grin, and another brother clone began to fidget at the idea, grinning ear to ear.
"Alright!" it said with a fist pump, and Sasuke looked away. The last thing he needed was the clones realizing he'd smiled. He'd never hear the end of it.
Distancing himself from the group, his eyes spun.
If Kakashi's plan didn't work, they needed a backup, and Sasuke's adrenaline spiked as his eyes quickly mapped the movements.
The clones went in for the kill, bijuu bombs bright. Madara, who seemed exasperated at the idea that he now had to get his opponents out of the way to leave, grudgingly engaged in battle. He took a clone with practiced ease, then let another slide through him completely. It slipped through him, but the moment its feet touched the ground, and Madara eased back onto the cave floor, there was a pop, an agonized grunt, and Sasuke watched as an arm flew away, useless, as the area by Madara's shoulder exploded.
It hadn't killed Madara. But they'd hit him! The relief and excitement was palpable.
But the arm slowly slithered across the ground, back to its owner, and like puddy coming back together, the arm reattached itself.
"Maybe you can try that again," said Madara.
Well. That complicated things.
The chains rattled.
"A little more, Naruto," the Kyuubi urged quietly. Its eyes were wide, and its knife-like claws were curled around its prison bars. It was salivating. Behind its prison, the demon fox was hunched, straining against the steel chains left by Kushina what felt like so long ago. It had been too long. Too long since it had needed to strain against its restraints, that sometimes Naruto hadn't even noticed his mother's touch.
"A little more."
Naruto stared up at it. He could feel the power slipping through his veins, the merging of himself and the Kyuubi. It was almost like a high, a trip, and he just needed a little more to do this right. He was clenching his jaw so hard his teeth began to ache.
A part of him didn't want to stop.
But he could feel it; the anger, the evil chakra lurking beneath, and its burn was making him sweat. If he wasn't careful, he'd slip. Tailed Beast Mode was easier to do when hs seal wasn't weak, when the Kyuubi's influence didn't bother him like it did now. It was dangerous. It was risky. Maybe it was stupid. He could hear the child's heartbeat, fast and strong like a gallop echoing through the prison.
But he'd begun to realize there was little else to do. The enemies they were up against were legendary. Sasuke and others couldn't do this alone, and the clones would be of more use to everyone if they had access.
"A little more." The demon spoke in a trance, as if drugged, teeth bared against the steel.
The tug between host and demon intensified, and Naruto bit his cheek. Carefully, he wove his way around it. It had always been difficult to do, and it was harder now.
"No," Naruto whispered. "That's enough."
The fox eyed him quietly. "More, you fool, or would you wish us dead?"
"It's enough."
The demon thrashed, snarling. "You'll kill us all."
Naruto turned away from it.
"Come back here, whelp!" It rattled the bars, and the prison grew loud with the heartbeat and the sound of the Kyuubi raging. Naruto kept walking, reaching for the veil between his consciousness and reality.
"You think you're so clever! Getting me to relinquish just enough before severing our tie. Oh, hoho, you think you know the bond between host and demon so well. You can't do this without me! You can't control the current of this power without being fully merged. Uzumaki! Stupidity runs in your veins, your mother was just as infuriating!" It was desperate now, and the chains bit so deep into its skin as it fought the pool on the floor began to darken with blood. "Leave and you will die! "
Naruto opened his eyes.
The surge of power hit him like a brick wall, and he grunted, catching himself from falling down to one knee, as the chakra around him rose and flickered like flame. HIs hands were raised, as if he could pull on the strings of what he'd done and tug it back. A few clones paused to look back, faces slack.
They knew what this meant.
"NO!" Fukasaku cried, staggering. Naruto clenched his fists, fighting down the current.
This will kill us! The Kyuubi howled. You need me to control this power-
He tuned it out, and instead focused on the sound of hearts beating, on memories of Sasuke and his comrades. He thought of his mother saying you have to be strong. For everyone. The world was washing out gray, his heart was beating too fast, and the sounds of battle dimmed to nothing, until all he could hear was his own breath.
The child moved desperately inside him, as if it were frightened.
"Naruto!"
He clenched his fists, and the world grew brighter, louder, and he gasped. Then there he was, standing in the circle, surrounded by clones and the odd refugee who's stayed behind. The experiments were pushing in, and Fukasaku was staring at him, wide-eyed, speechless.
Naruto brought his hands to his and exhaled, and the gold glow vanished, leaving him tired but unharmed. Like candles, the clones began to glow, one by one.
They hit like a tidal wave, pushed back the wall of soldiers with yells and bijuu bombs and rasengans. Up above, it was the same, and everywhere as ninja and Brotherhood and even toad battled, someone was watching Naruto Uzumaki fight.
"Let's go," he said suddenly, as a clear path to exit was available behind them now. Fukasaku scrunched his brow, looking back to see the remaining refugees take the cue to leave.
"How did you do that?" he wondered. "You shouldn't have been able to survive the transformation to Tailed Beast Mode without being fully merged, and if you had fully merged-" he shook his head, as if the possibility was too ghastly to consider, and it probably was.
Naruto had known he wouldn't have been able to keep his head fully merged.
"You took a risk," he scolded.
"It's war," reminded Naruto, "and if I hadn't, we'd be dead one way or another. C'mon, we have to hurry. Sasuke and the others are just ahead." He was going off memories of fallen clones.
"Others?" Fukasaku repeated, Naruto was already hurrying, leaving the soldiers to a sea of clones.
There had been something to gain by forcing Kabuto to study White Zetsu, and that benefit manifested itself in the arm Madara hadn't lost.
He was growing impatient now.
Kakashi possessed Obito's other eye as fate would have it, and had discovered the link shared between the two eyes. With Kakashi alive, Madara couldn't teleport away as easily, since all Kakashi had to do was keep an eye on him and negate it once he activated it. With the link they shared, it might not be as easy to do in the Copy ninja as he'd originally hoped.
Taking Obito's body had come with its own risks. He mulled it over thoughtfully. To make matters slightly more difficult, Naruto had somehow managed to control the Kyuubi's chakra despite the state of his seal.
The child, Madara guessed, must be incredibly powerful. The thought made the wait for its birth that much more tedious.
The clones, who hadn't been able to power-up past the infamous Sage mode, knew how to hit, and had bijuu bombs in possession. They were now a threat, and with each passing second, they became more of one.
Ahead of him, the statue he'd summoned was lashing out again, but the pink-haired ninja and the quiet Sasuke replacement, plus a few ANBU, were engaging it and keeping it busy. Madara watched curiously as a nin with a lizard mask leaped back behind the group to avoid a crushing blow, eyeing Sasuke pointedly.
That one had an agenda, Madara guessed, but lost interest quickly. He summoned his chains. He was tired of this, and he felt the ache deep within his Rinnegan eye, as if it could feel his next move. Before, there hadn't been reason to pull from his reserves. Now there was.
With a roar, he summoned his back-up plan, and he relished the looks of disbelief, of horror, that registered on the gathered nins' faces when Obitio's body disfigured itself further. Jagged protrusions shot out of his back, his skin twisted and hardened, and he could feel the power, and it made him angry. Angry, because for all this form was worth, it was incomplete.
Kabuto had admired it from afar once, when Madara had decided to indulge him with the secret he'd kept so guardedly. So this form is still lacking the demon chakra it needs for you to bring the Ten Tails back, he'd observed. It would seem the child will do more than provide enough means for you to perform the Eye of the Moon plan. You really do plan to rule the world. He'd been awed.
"Do you like it?" Madara asked through gritted teeth. "The incomplete form of the Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki." He said no more, didn't have to, only summoned a bijuu bomb and hurled it. It wasn't at its complete strength. It couldn't do the same measure of damage as Naruto's, but it was sufficient, and incredibly powerful. As the group scattered, a hole was torn through the crypt, and a few ninja died cutting the group's numbers in half, Madara summoned another, forming it in his palms with clenched teeth.
Sasuke and a clone charged ahead recklessly. Madara snapped his chains, slipping the power of the bomb down the steel. He whipped it again, and the chain tore through the cave so forcefully, the gouge it created gave way to a new tunnel beneath the crypts.
And this was only a taste of power!
Someone came up behind him.
Maybe another day, Madara might have been surprised at the speed at which Naruto's clone suddenly appeared. The one he'd been concentrating on charged with Sasuke, but another had burst into existence behind him quite suddenly, roaring some nonsense about justice and spitting mad. As Madara twisted to avoid the clones' deadly hits and avoid the link with the Kamui, his eye found Sasuke's eye opening, bleeding, activating Amaterasu.
Madara's own eye spun, and when the black flames exploded into existence, angrier than any inferno from a pit in hell and destroying a clone in the process, Madara quelled the flames with a raised hand and a wicked grin.
"You've tried that before," Madara reminded him patiently, "And it didn't work."
Sasuke's blade gleamed in the gloom, and Madara met him with a laugh and a shower of sparks.
He kicked the boy in the jaw, twisting and flitting away from the clone who attempted to to bore a hole in him with Rasengan.
When his feet touched the ground, a curious sensation gripped him as he gingerly lifted a hand to his face. He couldn't say what it was, but his gloves came away with slick blood, the side of his face searing.
How infuriating.
"You think you can hit me," Madara raged, instantly quelling Amaterasu once again. The Jinchuuriki's clone came forward.
"It's not too late," he said, outstretching a hand.
Madara grinned bitterly. "It was always too late." He leaped, met Sasuke's blade in a shower of sparks, this time going for Sasuke's throat with the chains. He avoided the Rasengan to the face, choosing a devastating kick to the ribs for the clone, but it only skidded across the ground.
"You'll pay for what you've done!" a shout came from behind him, and Madara met the clone sneaking up on him head on, bisecting it with a clean strike from his chain. Its face twisted, but then in his peripheral, he noticed Sasuke's eye open.
Amaterasu!
The black flames howled, but Madara was faster. The bone-eating fire disappeared. The Jinchuuriki outstretched a hand.
"It's not too late."
Madara spat as he spoke, breaths growing ragged, "It was always too late!" He prepared to fly forward, but he stopped. It was happening again: the odd sensation that he'd been here before-
Madara cursed.
"You were not supposed to know these secrets," he said to Sasuke's apparition. The boys were silent.
"How," his voice trembled, "did you come to learn of Izanami, hmm? I would love to hear the tale."
Sasuke's apparition said nothing.
"You are no god, Madara," came an amused voice Madara knew. He whirled, eyes narrowing in rage when he spotted Kabuto.
"Kabuto-!" he growled, readying to rid himself of the apparition. Kabuto's ghost only laughed. "You're done for."
"No-"
"It is not too late, Madara." Madara recoiled, looking up into the face of Hashirama Senju. He outstretched a hand, smiling sadly.
"Come," his ghost ordered. Madara backed away. His soul seemed to twist in rage in place of the heart he didn't have.
"I'm still waiting, Madara. After all this time..." He was waiting beside Naruto, both offered hands. Madara glowered.
"It's too late, Hashirama."
Madara looked at the Jinchuuriki's outstretched hand. Had he been any less of a man, Madara had no doubt he wouldn't have discovered the secret until it had been too late. He would have fought for eternity, raging at Hashirama and the boys, like a fool. Like others who paid the price for activating Izanami like idiots had. It was why it existed. To give someone a glimpse. To attempt to stop them with reason.
But Sasuke wasn't after reason.
And Madara Uchiha was more than a man, and Izanami would do little for the resistance.
"You are a fool, Sasuke," he muttered, reaching for Naruto's hand, "You would sacrifice an eye for this, hoping for a moment to catch me vulnerable, no doubt. It's a decent move. Maybe you'll keep me still long enough to tear out my throat and as a bonus you'll keep my consciousness locked away to forever battle and never win. And It's because you know you wouldn't be able to defeat me otherwise."
He took the Jinchuuriki's hand.
"You know I'm stronger."
The illusion began to fall away.
"Madara," Hashirama whispered, and he didn't fall away, didn't fade like Izanami. Madara's breath caught in his throat, and he yelled, gripping the chains on his wrist.
"I'll kill you again." He struck at the ghost, but it stood unharmed. He hit again, and the figures of Naruto and Sasuke grew closer. He simply activated Kamui, and they began to slip effortlessly through him, harmless.
And while Madara slashed, and the boys kept hurtling through him, something unexpected happened in those crucial milliseconds.
A horrific blade of wind and black fire crashed down like a vendetta from the gods. The boys, Uchiha and Uzumaki, were together, watching from afar, and Madara thought the ultimate statement to the spirits of those long dead.
Hashirama held out his hand said "Come, Madara. I have been waiting."
For a fraction of a moment, Madara was still, and Sasuke felt the vision in his right eye leave. It was an odd feeling. He hadn't imagined he'd have to use it, but here he was. As it happened, his earlier, disastrous trip to Konoha had also included a theft of scrolls from the Naka Shrine. He'd kept it hidden away, saving it for a moment like this.
Naruto's clone was stunned, but Sasuke had specifically ordered him to not as questions, to just move.
Earlier, it had smiled and said, "Hey, Sasuke, Amaterasu could use a little kick, eh?"
Sasuke had smirked. "I like that," he agreed, and the clone had formed a Rasen-Shuriken, one of his newer forms for the ninjutsu Naruto had been fiddling with while he had nothing else to do. It was massive, and with the Kyuubi's chakra, a formidable weapon. Sasuke ignited it with Amaterasu. It was a beast of a ninjutsu, and Sasuke felt a little hope.
It was a risk. And a risk was all they had. He imagined Naruto at the end of the road, at the end of the fight.
It was all he had.
"Now."
They moved, in sync, together, and when Madara's eyes opened, Sasuke used the Mangekyo to create a duplicate of himself and hide him and Naruto's clone from view. But something was off. Madara was hitting at something they couldn't see.
"I'll kill you again!" he raged, but then he caught sight of the illusion, and faltered. Now was their chance, and Sasuke's heart leapt into his throat. If the illusion was correct, Madara imagined Sasuke and the clone running through his middle, and if Kakashi was correct, that meant the rest of Madara was solid.
"He's only teleporting the parts of himself that are under attack. The rest should be solid. Go, we'll take care of the statue. But Sasuke," he'd said, and Sasuke had turned. "Unfortunately, this changes little." Sasuke had only grunted, but he'd understood. It was a warning.
He was still a criminal. He and Naruto reared back and threw.
As the shuriken sped through the air in those final moments, Sasuke thought of his father, his mother, Itachi saying one last time, Little Brother. He thought of Kanako and Kaoru and Emiko and Eiji. Flashes of them that flitted through his mind in quick succession. He thought of Naruto saying this cycle of hate needs to end, something he'd said once while they debated over the war. Naruto grinning and saying I'm a fighter and there doesn't always need to be do or die situations. He thought of them together, chest to chests, and Sasuke thought you're all I have left.
He thought of Kaoru falling through the lake and grumbling I'll never get it right! then beaming like he was on top of the world he'd gotten it. Later he'd said Don't ever leave. It's like having a brother again.
You're a good boy, Akira, he remembered Eiji saying and Kanako had ruffled his hair and smiled at him. He thought of telling Naruto once you can make yourself feel like shit, or you can mourn their losses and be grateful they were willing to risk their lives for you. You can respect their memory by realizing their were fearless and loyal!
He stepped closer to destiny's end. Was this it? he thought, the end of his vendetta? Think of the end, he thought as the seconds bled away, Naruto is there.
Their faces beamed at him. Itachi, Kanako, Eiji, Kaoru, Emiko, Mother, Father and then there was Naruto, still here by his side.
Sasuke whispered, to them all, "This is for you."
The shuriken went for Madara's neck, and by the time the Uchiha saw it, it was too late. Sasuke exhaled.
Madara's head rolled, his body went up in flames, and the cave grew silent.
Denbei was stunned.
Madara Uchiha was dead, and the heroes of the evening were the world's most wanted. He laughed sadly. What a shame.
Tsutomu had died for this. He closed his eyes against the memory of his kunai ripping across his teammate's throat. He hadn't had a choice. Tsutomu had chosen his fate, and Denbei had had to deliver it.
Yuu had died for this, too, and Denbei had had to stifle his anger when he'd rolled over his teammate's dead body. He wouldn't fail them.
It was as if the group was too superstitious to call it a victory. They stared ahead as the statue crumbled away, as the body disappeared.
"Where is Uzumaki?" Denbei asked finally. "We must make sure the Guardians do not find him. They'll be here soon." That much was true. He'd learned Tsunade had ordered her ANBU to keep Uzumaki alive at all costs. It seemed to be the quickest most believable excuse.
Sasuke Uchiha was stumbling. His right eye had glossed over white and blinded. He was weak. A clone grabbed his arm, shouldering him.
"I'll follow," Uchiha was saying, but Denbei shook his head.
"We'll manage." He tried not to slip away too quickly after the clones, having been given an okay from Kakashi, relayed that Naruto was creeping up back through the tunnels, on his way to the Temple.
"We'll get him, meet back at the Temple." With that he was and two oblivious ANBU were gone.
What a day, and it was just getting better.
Denbei waited almost a mile before he attacked the unsuspecting ANBU. He drove a kunai through the throat of the man, and the woman put up a good fight, but eventually Denbei pinned her and swiftly broke her neck. He left them there.
He'd have Uzumaki before Uchiha knew what happened anyway. He carefully concealed his chakra.
He sped along, and there they were not long afterward, crawling out of a tight tunnel. He saw the face of Naruto Uzumaki contort, and maybe it was because there were bodies littered there. A few experiments had gotten into the caves. There was a toad with him too, tugging gently on his hand.
They hadn't detected him.
Denbei didn't think. Only threw.
Fukasaku stopped when he exited the small tunnel and sighed deeply. Naruto wasn't far behind, and he wriggled free, only to freeze.
The refugees they had left, with the girl who'd gone into premature labor and her mother, were lying dead on the floor, mutilated. The stench of their blood made him gag.
Dead experiments were lying face first on the ground, but one still twitched. The Wind woman on the far left was still alive, barely, clutching at a bleeding chest.
"My daughter…" she whispered, wild-eyed. But then she grew still and silent. Her her daughter lay not far from her, a hole in her stomach, unseeing eyes watching something Fukasaku couldn't see.
Naruto shook his head. He was tired. His thoughts were whirring. Too much was happening. "No. No." He kept one hand on the wall behind him, looking sick.
"Naruto-" Fukasaku tried to say.
"I kept saying we could carry her. Maybe if we hadn't left her, the others wouldn't have stayed," Naruto began, but stopped, swallowed. Fukasaku pulled gently on his hand.
"Let's go."
"NO!" someone shouted, a voice Naruto knew. Sasuke's voice. He paused again, heart skittering in his chest. Sasuke was here-? He looked up, but it was already too late.
He saw the kunai coming for him in slow motion.
Death was coming, Fukasaku knew. It was a terrible moment, because he knew there was no time to stall it, and for one sickening second, he thought if he did nothing, something would be done.
The demon child would be dead in one swift motion.
But he looked at Naruto, and saw Jiraiya. Saw the boy he'd grown to love like a son, and he didn't think twice. There was no time to. He thought of Shima as he leaped, and how the Great Elder had said, you'll know what to do when the time comes, Fukasaku.
The kunai hit, and in the haze, Fukasaku saw the nin who threw it killed by Sasuke's blade.
He met Uchiha's eye and he found he had no regrets.
Naruto stared at the little toad by his feet, pierced by a kunai. The point was sticking out of his back under the shoulder blade. His webbed fingers were tugging at it reflexively, and Fukasaku gasped, eyes bright.
Slowly, painfully, he knelt by the toad sage's side.
"I could have blocked it."
Fukasaku shook his head. Little torches in the caves the refugees had made spilled weak light on the toad, and Naruto noticed how pale he was becoming, how quick the blood was spreading. It was happening too fast. His breaths were catching in his throat, his hands were shaking. The Kyuubi was rumbling, the child was kicking, and Naruto didn't know what to do. He cradled Fukasaku's head.
"No. No, Naruto-boy, it's alright."
Naruto hadn't realized he was crying. "It's not supposed to be this way."
"Nothing ever is," the toad said with a dry laugh. He grimaced. Someone was running over. Sasuke, Naruto realized numbly, gripping him by the shoulders, whispering his name. He thought of the grip on his shoulder, tight, grounding. He held onto the feeling, if only to keep him a little sane. He realized his right eye was gone, but he was too tired to ask questions.
Naruto stared at Fukasaku and thought of all the spite he'd harbored, and the guilt settled on his shoulders like lead. But he didn't know how to say it. "I'm sorry," he ended up saying, but Fukasaku just shook his head.
Kakashi sensei was there, he noticed, but after everything he'd seen that day, it was hard to be surprised. Sakura and Sai were edging closer, too. Sakura hurried over, hands glowing green. She stopped after a few seconds.
"Keep going," Naruto urged. Sakura was silent. "Keep going," he said again. She looked at him.
"I…" she didn't finish. She didn't have to. The toad glanced around them.
"We have to leave, Naruto," Sasuke said gently. "The Guardians are coming." Naruto shook his head numbly.
"Can't just...leave him here."
"Yes you can," Fukasaku rasped. "You have to get out. Kakashi, come here," the toad beckoned. Kakashi took a step forward, and Naruto tried to process it, all of it, Tsunade and Fukasku and others, but all he could feel was Sasuke's touch and Fukasaku's cooling skin.
A plan was being formed. Kakashi nodded and said that'll work.
"Naruto, Sasuke, see those boys over there?" Kakashi pointed. Naruto looked. Sasuke didn't. "Take their clothes. And here," he produced a kunai. "Hurry up and shave. They've taken account of the refugees here."
Naruto stared. The boys were Daisuke Hara and a blind refugee named Akira. He had met them on the cart he realized belatedly. Just a couple of days before. They'd been alive. It bothered him more than it should have. Maybe it was just the thought of looking at the death toll. Someone was dragging the traitor nin's body over. Naruto couldn't tell who.
Sasuke's hands were in his hair. His fingers took hold of locks and began to cut. He nicked Naruto once, apologized, but Naruto didn't feel it. A trickle of blood slipped down to his chin. Then he was bald and running a curious hand over the top of his hand wondering why now, of all moments, he wanted to laugh. Sakura was hacking away at Sasuke's hair until there was nothing left.
It rushed forward too quickly. They were changing into robes and shirts, Sasuke tying bandages over his eyes, and Naruto didn't take his eyes of him once, as Kakashi gently wrapped the side of his face, as if he'd been injured. Something was trying to burst out of him, but Naruto didn't know what. The memories of fallen clones were rushing through his mind. Finally, he couldn't contain any longer.
"I don't want to run."
No one listened.
"I DON'T WANT TO RUN!" he yelled, and everyone stopped.
"Madara is dead," Kakashi said suddenly, but Naruto already knew. "And the war might be over, the laws are still in effect-"
Naruto shook Sasuke off, who wandered over to place a hand on his shoulder once more. "We can't let them win like this," he said violently. The others paused.
Kakashi clasped Naruto on the shoulder. "I promise you, both of you," he looked at Sasuke, "There will a time when we will gather, and we'll make this right. I promise. But for now you need to go. You're still wanted men."
Fukasaku's throat began to swell, and Kakashi's Mangekyo spun. The toad croaked, the sound echoing off the cave walls, and before long, the bodies looked different. It was Naruto now, on the floor dead, with a hole in his belly. He stared at the dead version of himself. An illusion, he knew, and it made him strangely numb to look down on it. A very clever illusion. A dead Sasuke was not far from the dead body of Nagisa that had been tailored to look like Naruto ("there are still those who know of the child," Kakashi had explained). Daisuke and the Guardian nin turned into a slabs of rock.
"By the time it wears off no one will ever know." With that Fukasaku shuddered and died, and Naruto gently removed his hand from under the sage's head, watched Fukasaku's head loll against the stone.
The world was slipping away again, turning into something he didn't recognize, and angrily, he turned to face the group before him. They knew the look in his eyes, and they didn't say anything, only nodded.
Goodbyes weren't said, but they were felt, and then Sasuke was tugging him forward.
"I'm holding you to that promise Kakashi sensei," Naruto said, and his old teacher only nodded seriously.
"Wait for my summon," he said.
Sasuke was gripping him again, pulling him towards something unknown, and it made him think again. Made him look forward, made him resist the calls of the demon inside him.
Ahead, Naruto could see the first pale rays of daylight. It was coming closer, Naruto realized. A new dawn was fast approaching. Sasuke's grip on his wrist tightened, and Naruto kept moving. Sasuke kept him anchored as they ran, and Naruto was beginning to think that maybe, he always would.
The Jinchuuriki is dead! The Jinchuuriki is dead! He's killed the Uchihas! The war is over! Word spread like wildfire, and the sun rose on a day of rest. The grass smelled sweet, like it hadn't just been sprinkled with blood, and the morning was warm, the sky clear. Refugees whispered and wept for the end of the war and held their loved ones close. Those lucky enough to have survived the caves went on with proud and exaggerated detail about the strengths and powers of Uzumaki. One man even claimed to have seen Madara Uchiha himself. He was was sitting in the grass on the Temple lawns, watching a pretty nurse bandage and stitch a gash on his bicep.
"You're so full of shit," said the woman he was trying to impress (she hadn't bought the tough guy act when he'd whimpered as she stitched him up, so he'd changed tactics). She didn't even look up from her work.
"Am not. Saw his mask too. Orange and one-eyed, just like they said."
"Uh huh," she said with a roll of her eyes. "But I really saw Uzumaki. He saved me." She smiled softly, and the man snorted.
"He saved a lot of people, and he was kinda everywhere," he said offhandedly, and yelped when she finished his last stitch too tight.
"There you go!" she said with a too-wide smile. "All fixed. Best get on your way if you want out of the mountain range."
"But the line is so long," he complained, uneasily looking toward the gate. "They're interrogating everyone."
"Just a precaution," said the woman with a shrug. "The Brotherhood's men are also being rounded up."
Her patient made a face. "Still, they found the bodies, why do they need to check who we are?"
The woman didn't answer, only shooed him away to make way for a woman carrying a child with a broken arm and burned skin. The death of Madara had sapped the strength of some of those infected by the curse seals, and the man uneasily avoided those who had come at him like rabid dogs only the night before. He watched the girl gently laid on the blanket on the grass and say her name was Emiko. She could have a sweet face once you got past the burns on her cheeks, he decided, and wondered if she'd get better.
With that, the man grumbled, mourning the loss of his nurse's pretty face, and halfheartedly shouldered his bags. He cursed and sadly shook his head when he saw the line out of the Temple grounds. He dropped his bags, stuck behind two bald kids who seemed to have suffered a few injuries. They didn't talk much, only stuck close to each other, heads bent toward the other like one of them had something to say.
It took all day!
By afternoon, he was at the gate, and nearly praying his thanks. The guards at the gate stopped the boys ahead of him, a book with all the recorded refugees before them. Those who couldn't be identified were being pulled aside. It was nothing too upsetting, and everyone was able to see these questionings (and often craned their necks to get a good look), as they happened in line. A few had already happened, and not long after, those in question were always released, save for the thief whose cloak nearly exploded with all the odds and ends he'd collected, as well as some important ninja thing he'd taken off an ANBU body.
Not that he had anything like that, of course.
"State your names," the guard droned, bored with his post.
"Daisuke Hara," said one of the bald kids in a voice that rasped slightly. Everyone seemed to be hoarse today. Beside him, the other boy drawled, "Akira." The man almost laughed. No last name? Surely this kid was going to be pulled aside. The guy said something else, quietly, and the man frowned as the guard, who'd begun to look a little more interested like he always did before he pulled someone aside, suddenly blinked, and gave them the go ahead.
The blind one gripped the shoulder of his friend, and the two set off, close together, never once putting a distance between themselves, even as the road opened up and the world grew wider beyond the Temple walls. He suddenly wished he had a traveling companion to help heft these stupid bags!
He tried to slip away along with them, but the guard suddenly shook his head and blocked his path.
"State your name."
Apparently, as Genku Iwate learned, not even retired bandits got to leave the Temple walls that day.
"Aw come on! I'm not even in the business anymore!" he cried as he was apprehended, much to the amusement and curiosity of the onlookers, "You let that other kid go without a last name! Hey!"
"Everyone beyond the wall was cleared to leave," said the guard. "I promise you, Iwate, no one with a history is getting past this wall today. Just a precaution as we investigate the scene." And he tapped his bingo book, much to Genku's dismay.
Little did Genku, or the guard, know that two of the world's most wanted young men had just strode out of the Temple walls together.
A/N: Sorry this took like two weeks instead of one. Also, So much for my "breaking up chapters so they're not huuuuge and easier to read" read. In its entirety, Izanami was almost 100 pages long. Why I thought for a second I'd put it all in one chapter back when, I have no idea. I'm sure everyone is like, WHERE'S THE BABY.
Next chapter :) The Birth of A New Age