Opening - Love Deterrence by Nana Mizuki
X
Stretched out on a bed of warm white sand, Kabuto laid motionless with his eyes closed and his hands tucked under his head. Relaxing in a comfortable position and tuning out his surroundings made it just slightly easier to watch and guide the Edo Tensei on the front line. Bathed in the light and heat of the bonfire at the center of his lair, he wore a subtle smile.
"Mariko-chan," he called, "bring me one of the Oto-nin with a Heaven seal. As long as he can fly, I'm not picky."
He heard and felt the sand shift, closer to him than he expected. "May I ask why?"
"I just need someone to deliver a few things for me, that's all." His smirk widened just a bit. "Just a few little deliveries, but I need them moved out tonight."
He didn't see her nod. "I'll be right back." The blood vessels over his temples dilated and he watched through his eyelids as she stepped out into the frigid night. The stars overhead gleamed with stunning clarity in the wake of the storm; together with the full moon they afforded more than enough light for a ninja to see by, doujutsu or none.
He was left alone in the room with Orochimaru then, a situation that called for at least a trace of caution. He kept his Byakugan active at its default fifty-meter range and watched his pet snake sulk by the wall. Orochimaru sat resting his arms over his knees and his head over his arms, not asleep but not quite alert. His mechanical hands clicked as he shifted his fingers idly. He sat as far from Kabuto as he could, across the fire and with his back to the wall lined with coffins.
The fire crackled and the wind whistled over the entrance; if not for them there would be total silence within the lair. Several seconds passed and Kabuto decided to speak up first. "I can only imagine how boring it must be to just sit there while I have all the fun," he prodded. "Aren't you at least curious what I'm doing with the Edo Tensei right now?"
"I can guess." Orochimaru lifted his head and his eyes shone gold-orange in the firelight. "You don't like to push your control to the second level, which means you give your summons explicit orders transmitted as actual sentences instead of controlling every move they make. You mostly stay out of the way and let them fight the way they would in life... and right now the order you've given is to wait for Sasuke-kun and his allies to engage, then kill them all. Am I on track so far?"
"That about sums it up," Kabuto's smirk widened, eyes still closed. "Aside from a few directives I set up in advance for all of my puppets, even the ones in stasis."
"So right now you're just watching through their eyes and waiting for Sasuke-kun. I'll be quite honest, Kabuto... that doesn't sound very fun at all. In fact, it sounds more like you're bored too."
He would have replied, but a swell of chakra in the air to his left drew his attention. He opened one eye and peeked in the direction of the anomaly even though he could already see it. "...I was a few seconds ago, but this looks more interesting." As he spoke a swirl of black shimmered out through the air, and with it came a glimpse of a familiar Mangekyou Sharingan.
Obito took a step forward and the rest of his body solidified in Kabuto's hideout. His feet only sank into the sand once he had completely materialized. He no longer bothered to wear a mask since his identity had been exposed regardless, and the purple and white outfit he wore showed no trace of Akatsuki's sigil either. "You and I need to have words, Kabuto."
The Otokage gave an exaggerated sigh and closed his eyes again. "Let me guess. Madara isn't happy that I summoned his little brother?"
"If Madara knew about that, you would already be dead," said Obito with a glare. "At least you had the common sense to send Izuna out while Madara's still busy."
"The way you say it implies you're not going to tell him when he gets back," Kabuto grinned.
"I might, unless you cooperate for the next few minutes."
He laughed. "Just so we're clear, I have contingencies in place to keep you all from killing me. As an example, if you kill me all of my Edo Tensei will switch sides and help the Shinobi Alliance kill you."
"I guessed as much." Obito's mismatched Sharingan and Mangekyou spun slowly, patiently. "Let's be clear, Kabuto. You and your zombies are a sideshow to distract the Alliance, nothing more. That's why I'll tolerate Izuna, and why I'll tolerate the fact that your current forces have a golden oppurtunity to breach into the Alliance wall and they aren't taking it."
Kabuto's eyes peeked open then, and his smirk shifted into a slight frown. "So you were watching the battle."
"I'll cut right to the chase, Kabuto." Obito gestured out to his sides with both hands disarmingly. "I need you to carry out a simple task for me, and it needs to be now."
Kabuto climbed to his feet and brushed the sand from his back, a look of intrigue on his face. "Oh?"
"Draw your Sword of Kusanagi and stab me through the heart."
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed rather than widened. A trap? No, it's too obvious. There's no way Kabuto would just attack him, which means Obito wants some kind of other result...!? He looked up just in time to see the tip of his Kusanagi pierce through Obito's chest and emerge slick with blood through his back. Impossible... what is that idiot thinking!? He can't expect Obito to just die like this!
"Izanagi," said Obito, and he vanished in an instant with no visible transition of any kind. He was there one moment, gone the next and left behind only a wash of blood dripping down the length of the extended Kusanagi. He reappeared a few feet to his left with the hole in his chest gone, his purple and white robe uncut and clean of blood.
On the other hand, his left Sharingan eye had gone solid white with a mundane resemblance to the Byakugan, but with none of the otherworldly power always present in the gaze of a doujutsu. But whether with two Sharingan eyes or one, the suspicious glare he aimed at Kabuto was no less threatening.
"You were remarkably casual about that."
"I can see the seal wrapped around your heart," Kabuto answered and drew back the length of his extended sword, still stretched out on his back in the sand. "In case you were wondering, it's broken now."
Orochimaru settled back into his seat, frowning. A seal over his heart... how could it get there? What did it do? Obviously it was in his way, but how exactly, and who put it there? Madara?
"Well. That's really all I came here for, so..." Obito turned toward the entrance of the hideout and took a step forward. "I'll leave you to your meddling for now, Kabuto. You aren't in my way yet, but try not to push your luck too far."
Space twisted and swirled in toward his Mangekyou Sharingan, sucking in the rest of his body and leaving it for last, a jewel of red and black surrounded by slices through the fabric of reality, slices that showed a dimly lit otherworld through them, beyond them but in what direction beyond was impossible to say, to even comprehend. Such was space-time jutsu.
Then Obito was gone as if he had never arrived, but for the blood on Kabuto's sword and dripping down through the sand.
"My," Orochimaru commented. "You certainly took that in stride."
"I wasn't sure he had a plan of his own," Kabuto admitted, "but I had a solid hunch. It wasn't surprising to hear him ask to have that seal removed."
"A plan of his own?"
"Don't pry, Orochimaru." The Otokage's voice went sharp, but after a moment he relaxed and closed his activated eyes once more. "Then again... there's no harm in me telling you this much. Obito intends to steal away the Ten-Tails the moment he gets a chance, so he can carry out the Eye of the Moon instead of Madara. The seal over his heart was an obstacle to that."
"Him too?" Orochimaru sounded truly surprised. "First Zetsu, then you and now Obito, of all people. Is everyone plotting against Madara?"
"I prefer to think of it as plotting under him. Making amendments to certain aspects of his plans, while going along with his orders for the most part. In Obito's case, the Infinite Tsukuyomi gets cast as it should, only he does it in Madara's place. I'm thinking of a way to see through the jutsu no matter who casts it, and if that falls through then so be it. But as for Zetsu... I don't know, and I'd rather not talk about my guesses."
Unsubtle as it was, Orochimaru took his cue to drop the subject.
X
He hadn't yet decided whether this night would turn out to be a good one or bad; he didn't have enough information to go on. But what he'd already seen indicated that the next few hours of Mangetsu Hozuki's unlife would, at the very least, be weird.
The sky above was clearer than it had any right to be, the stars shining brighter than he had ever seen them, not a single wisp of cloud to hide the full moon or the huge strip of stars and dark nebulas that was his view of the Milky Way. The ground was quite flat here with no hills or trees to block the horizon, in fact there was only one structure that marred an otherwise perfect view of the sky, as perfect as one would get from sea level at least.
That structure was a wall as high as a mountain range, and certainly stretching as long. It reached from one horizon to the other, its ends out of sight because the almost-flat ground was still curved at least to follow the arc of the planet's surface.
Mangetsu started to wonder just what the hell he'd missed during his time in the Pure World, but this was only the start of the weirdness.
He stood amid a field of scorched and broken earth, beyond which an endless expanse of snow could be seen. The implication wasn't hard to see; someone had let off a jutsu that called for at least Kage-level power and his best guess was that a Jinchuuriki was involved.
A glance of his shoulder had shown him the source of the sounds of frantic retreat, an army of white-shelled things that definitely weren't human.
Between them and him were six more Swordsmen of the Mist, one wielder for each of the famed weapons despite only four of them present to be wielded. Kiba, Nuibari, Shibuki and Kabutowari were accounted for; Samehada, Kubikiri Bouchou and Hiramekarei were absent and in his hand was a sword with no legends to its name.
But that wasn't to say the weapon was poorly made. It was a huge greatsword with proportions not far short of Kubikiri Bouchou, but with a double-edged blade of red metal almost, almost dark enough to be called black. The handle was plain, the only guard to speak of was the gargantuan width of the blade itself.
Mangetsu was truly gifted with this sort of thing; just the shift of the weapon in his hand told him it had been bound with a seal that let it hit as though it weighed vastly more than it should, while still feeling nimble enough in his hand.
He guessed that the process of the seal's application had also damaged the metal; there was no reason otherwise that it should've been covered in worn dents and craters, its edge weathered down and eaten away by the damage. The blade looked as though it had floated through an asteroid belt for a few hundred years, and yet the hilt was like new.
It was an odd design, but clearly a well-meant attempt at replacing Hiramekarei's capacity to hit with all the force of an upturned mountain. He could appreciate the gesture, even if it too was weird.
He turned back to the huge wall-
-instinctively slashed upward with the red-black greatsword and caught the even more massive Samehada-
-and his little brother greeted him with an utterly upbeat grin and said as though he hadn't just tried to kill the elder Hozuki, "Hey niisan. Long time no see!"
Weird. It's not like Suigetsu to run into a fight like this alone... he's gotta know how that'll turn out for him...
In a flash of blue light Ameyuri Ringo arrived next to the Hozuki brothers, her twin swords lit with electricity and raised to stab. Mangetsu felt the weight of his new sword shift just slightly, as Suigetsu sprang back off the blade with a deft shove of his own Samehada. Ameyuri's first attack hit only air, but she shot after him to try again without pause.
This time he went to parry her instead of fleeing; Kiba met Samehada for the first time in years in a single blur of silvery blue lit by Ameyuri's lightning. Suigetsu held his ground well enough against her one-on-one. With her smaller stature Ameyuri had focused her skillset on speed instead of strength, but Suigetsu matched her pace and his Samehada hit far harder than Kiba's lighter blades.
But he was outnumbered. Kushimaru Kuriarare was the first to step in, with his Nuibari extended forward in a lunge from Suigetsu's left. He stepped back and hauled Samehada up then smashed it down on Nuibari's slender length, pounded it and its wielder both downward and off-balance. The tip of the huge needle pierced into the rock and dirt as easily as any Lightning Release; Suigetsu jumped up and perched on its diagonal length while further trading blows with Ameyuri.
Kushimaru let go of Nuibari's hilt and produced an ANBU ceramic kunai to slash at Suigetsu. The Hozuki scion hopped aside, but that was all Kushimaru needed to take up his sword again. With it he joined Ameyuri in chasing Suigetsu back with a flurry of stabs and slashes; against two of the Seven Swordsmen at once he would begin to lose ground.
Ameyuri landed the first hit; it was just a shallow cut to his wrist and he liquefied on impact, but she poured a surge of lightning down the length of the blade and he felt that much, yelped and took a deep jump backward. But he rallied, shook off the jolt and appeared before Kushimaru in a blur.
He was well past Nuibari's tip, inside Kushimaru's guard where the legendary weapon would do no good. He locked his off-hand around the giant needle while Samehada swept upward and ripped the thin swordsman apart. Ash and shredded paper filled the air before him, and he turned back to Ameyuri knowing that the blow would only slow Kushimaru down. He couldn't permanently injure an Edo Tensei with Samehada.
But he was grinning wider than ever before in his life, because in his hands he held two of the Seven Swords.
"He has a movement jutsu!" Ameyuri called and took a single leap backward to rejoin the other Swordsmen. A cloud of ash followed after her and reformed into Kushimaru, scowling under his mask. "That little shit took my sword!"
"Join the club," said Kisame, fists clenched in wrath.
Mangetsu simply smiled. Way to go, little brother... "...Let's go."
With his right hand Suigetsu held Samehada at the ready as a defense; his left hand he pulled back and aimed the tip of Nuibari dead ahead for a stab. He knew what was coming and braced for it as best he could.
Mangetsu arrived in front of him with Kiri's original version of the Pulse Step, and drove the eroded edge of his greatsword into Samehada's wrapped length. Suigetsu meant to hold himself in place with tree-walking chakra, but instead Mangetsu's blow tore the ground under him apart and sent him flying with pieces of it still attached tp the soles of his feet.
He kept a firm grip on both swords as he sailed through the air, even until he slammed into the Alliance wall and exploded into a misty splash of water. He reformed frantically and snatched up the weapons again, eyes wide and limbs shaking with adrenaline. This is my only chance. I'll never get to try this again!
Kabutowari's hammer appeared in the air before Suigetsu's head, its wielder Jinin Akebino just behind it. Suigetsu caught the swing on Samehada and lashed out in return with a stab from Nuibari, but his counter was caught on the side of Kabutowari's axe end.
Kiba's lightning scorched the ground it passed on its way to Suigetsu, a carpet of crackling light laid over the earth like grass. At the same time Jinpachi Munashi made his presence known by jumping high in the air behind Jinin, where he swung Shibuki in a long arc through the air and let off a sheet of connected explosive tags to fly forward in the path of his slash.
As both attacks drew near, Samehada patiently began to speak. You cannot win in this state. Fuse with me.
I haven't taken a shot at Kisame and Juuzou yet, Suigetsu argued. I'll never get another chance to fight the Seven Swordsmen all at once under my own power. Just gimme a bit more time!
He shoved himself sidelong with the Empty Wind, tearing open his back against the Alliance wall as he went. It was water instead of blood that streaked over the length of stone he'd crossed, and the missing layer of his back would reform given time, but it would cost him no small amount of chakra to materialize the replacement water. Still, his dodge had been successful; Kiba's lightning and Shibuki's explosives both struck a blank stretch of stone instead of him.
He reappeared in a crouch facing Juuzou Biwa from a solid distance, Samehada held over his right shoulder and Nuibari aimed dead ahead. Juuzou prepared to meet him and raised the sturdy nodachi he'd been given to replace Kubikiri Bouchou; at a glance it looked to be made of ceramic painted midnight-blue. However, the edge of the blade gleamed with lime-green light and Suigetsu suspected there was more to its composition than ANBU ceramic.
He vanished and Juuzou felt Nuibari pierce his chest immediately. As an Edo Tensei he felt no pain; without it he wasn't distracted from realizing Suigetsu had made a mistake. Attacking someone during a movement jutsu was a tactic reserved for Kage-level fighters with bodies as strong as solid steel; Suigetsu didn't have that kind of durability and an impact like this would likely rip his arm clean off his body.
But then Juuzou felt Nuibari's hilt slip through him entirely, leaving the steel cord trailing the pommel to fill his wound instead. Suigetsu appeared behind him and grabbed Nuibari as it emerged; he had let go of the weapon entirely during his movement. He came to a stop and gave a light tug on the sword, calling, "Kenjutsu: Razor Unmaking!"
The cord running through Juuzou's chest splintered apart into the individual strands of ninja wire that had been wound together to make it. They all curled away in different directions and wrapped around Juuzou, tightening and locking into place once they were done.
Suigetsu pulled, and Juuzou spilled apart into dozens of pieces leaking ash and paper.
That was at once foolhardy and impressive, Samehada commented. Do you plan to try it again instead of taking my power?
Nah. Kisame would be ready for it, so I'll just gut him the old-fashioned way. He flickered away and arrived directly in front of Kisame, surprised to see him unarmed. He raised Samehada high over his head and aimed it to completely destroy Kisame when he brought it down, but the sword's previous wielder reached up and stopped it with his bare palm.
"I know that jutsu," he growled. "That's Zabuza's Pulse Step variant... I want my sword back, you damn brat."
This has gone on long enough, said Samehada. Suigetsu tried to stab Kisame next with Nuibari, but he caught that sword as well by its edgeless length. Take my power, or Kisame will disarm you. I'll even help him do it.
Suigetsu grinned. I got what I wanted; now it's your turn.
"Backup!" he screamed, then tightened his grip on Samehada and felt it begin to crawl up through his arm and fill his whole body with teeth of steel.
With a bloodthirsty cackle, Juugo hit the ground running and grabbed Jinpachi Munashi by the face. He picked up the towering swordsman and smashed him skull-first into the cold hard earth. For a moment all eyes were on him, but then a torrent of white mist and white-crested waves burst upward around Suigetsu and sent Kisame flying. This demanded another shift of attention from the other five swordsmen, which Juugo promptly took advantage of by throwing Jinpachi's limp headless body into Ameyuri. He lunged after them both and started stomping them into a single puddle of ash, laughing as he did.
Now, what to do with you... Kisame took well enough to the form of a shark, but you're different. Ah... I'll just mix a few things together for you then.
Suigetsu could feel Samehada's metal teeth gnashing at him from the inside out, in his stomach, his bones, his veins. He could feel it all but there was no pain, only the brushing sensation as the pieces of his innards were pushed past each other by the still-moving fangs of the monster.
There. That should do.
The biting and tearing inside him stopped; all the teeth were gone as though they had never been there and his body was again one solid piece under his skin.
Go fight the Seven Swordsmen. Have your fun.
He curled his clawed hands tight around Nuibari, and the swirls of seaspray around him vanished and bared his new form to the light of the moon. A huge grin full of steel fangs split his face and he glanced around at the Seven Swordsmen, including the two Juugo was gleefully mashing into a paste of ash and dirt.
Nuibari shot out and struck the hand Kisame raised to catch it; in his excitement Suigetsu disregarded his sword's lack of a proper edge.
The hand wielding it had a set of oily black claws gleaming brighter than the green-black carapace that covered the palms, the wrist, all of Suigetsu's body in place of skin. At the joints it was segmented like the shell of a lobster; larger unbroken pieces of it bore a tesselated pattern like that of a turtle. His head had changed shape as well, reached forward to replicate the snout of some horrid predator.
A solid crest of polished black horn extended from his skull evoking a hammerhead shark, but his gleaming purple eyes sat normally on his face rather than at the ends of the horns. A huge grin split his face, a grin filled unmistakably with Samehada's own teeth.
Zabuza looked away from the thing in time to block a swipe from Kabutowari's axe; he dodged the follow-up from the hammer and flitted behind Jinin with the Empty Wind for a counter. Jinin flipped back the hammer end of his weapon and knocked Kubikiri Bouchou aside as he spun.
Juuzou and Kushimaru lunged in with the ceramic blades they'd taken up to replace their original swords, and Zabuza retreated with another Empty Wind that cut short his next attack on Jinin. He looked around at the battlefield, memorizing it to prepare for the Hidden Mist Jutsu he was about to cast.
Three of the Seven Swordsmen were engaged in battle with him, and Juugo was currently making easy work of two more. Suigetsu, or what used to be Suigetsu, now stood opposed by Kisame and Mangetsu. Those two had been the strongest of their team in life, but now they were without their favored weapons and pitted up against... that.
It was almost enough to disappoint Zabuza that he wouldn't get to watch, but he had more important concerns. The stage was set, the actors in place and all that was left was to dim the lights.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu."
X
"Say... you look kinda familiar, ya know..."
The kunoichi ahead of him was wrapped up in a heavy black cloak with a hood, casting a shadow over her whole body. She was looking back at him with blue eyes full of light, despite the black sclera and cracks in her skin that marked her as a lifeless Edo Tensei. Her scarlet hair was unmistakably Uzumaki, and cut just long enough to pass her jaw. It was styled forward over her left eye, hiding it completely.
"...I'm Nozomi." it was a simple, blunt introduction. "What's your name?"
"Yosuke," he answered reflexively. "I had a great-grandmother named Nozomi Uzumaki. Do you think maybe...?"
"Mhm," she nodded and turned to face forward again. "It's easy to test. What were your parents' names?"
"Hiro Uzumaki and Nao Hagoromo."
"Yep. I'm Hiro's grandma... he was really mellow as a kid, ya know. He didn't get worked up over the usual kid stuff."
Yosuke gave this some thought. "This is just weird." He held up his hand and channelled some chakra through it to produce a mirror of polished steel with his Asura Path. "I was in my thirties when I died, but I look like a teen now. And if you had grandkids, you must've gotten pretty old too."
She huffed and crossed her arms. "That's just rude."
He looked past her, Rinnegan eyes narrowing. "Whoever we got sent here to fight, they're coming. And there's a whole army of 'em. How strong are you?"
"When I was this age," she held out her unwrinkled hands to look down at them without her cloak in the way, "I was one of the strongest of the Uzumaki." She reached under the cloak and unsheathed a broad-bladed arming sword, holding it low at her side.
Yosuke simply held out his right hand and pushed. An orb of swirling golden liquid grew steadily and hovered in the air just under his palm, then in a flash it extended out into the shape of a stave five feet long. An overly long and wide blade of the same metal grew out of one end, counterbalanced by a smaller orb on the other. Bronze was the metal of choice for Yosuke because steel required a proper forging process to reach its full strength.
He twirled the glaive with both hands and levelled its tip at the oncoming army, which he could now see were all kunoichi with identical scarlet hair and matching silver chakra silhouettes.
"They're clones," he breathed. "We're up against another Uzumaki... but how could she possibly have this many clones? They're sure as hell not genjutsu, and I've never seen anyone keep up this many elemental clones!"
Nozomi hummed thoughtfully, but there was no hint of concern in her tone. After all, she was already dead. "Building an army of genjutsu clones would take tons of chakra control, but elemental clones call for capacity and control, and the requirements scale up faster and faster the more clones you wanna make. I think we're looking at a new type of clone entirely, one that takes tons of chakra capacity but not much control. That's the only jutsu I can think of that could do this."
"A jutsu like that..." Yosuke's eyes gleamed violet with interest. "It must have been made by an Uzumaki, or at least for an Uzumaki. That would be the perfect jutsu for our clan."
The enemy arrived through a linear red blur, visible enough to just barely track her from where she'd left the front line of the approaching army. It was an unusual effect, indicating that she might be just learning a movement jutsu for the first time, or otherwise she was fast enough with her natural sprinting speed to cross the battlefield as an amorphous streak. Both possibilities made her a major threat.
She was indeed an Uzumaki, but her hair was slightly spiky instead of perfectly straight and her eyes were the same scarlet rather than ocean-blue. She was dressed unsually lightly for the cold weather; a leather jacket with elbow-length sleeves worn unzipped over a sleeveless black shirt that exposed her belly. Over that exposed skin were dozens of scarred-over bites, all from clearly human teeth. It was an eerie stigma she bore, but if she was willing to leave the scars exposed it could only mean she wasn't ashamed of them.
"Yo," she greeted with a broad toothy grin and a lazy wave. "I'm Karin. Look, I'm just gonna say it... if Kabuto handpicked you as his Uzumaki summons, you must be pretty strong. So I'm sorry about this, but we're not gonna fight... I'm just gonna skip that and seal you right away."
She aimed her hand straight out at her side and ejected a single chakra chain from her palm, a brilliant silver construct that snaked through the air and formed a loop surrounding her, Yosuke and Nozomi. Its ends reached around and meshed together to create a single spinning loop that floated without support in the air around the three Uzumaki.
This is a real Adamantine Sealing Chain... Nozomi glanced around, gritting her teeth. Damn! If she can use her chains to seal as well as attack, we need to finish this fast! She shot forward with her arming sword poised for a slash. It's just one chain now, but if she builds up this jutsu...!
Karin made no move to dodge or block the sword, and it connected with her neck with no trouble. Nozomi decapitated her with a single slice, and for a moment the severed head and body remained upright and corporeal before her. But then she dissolved into a puff of white smoke, which didn't surprise Nozomi. The girl would've been fast enough to react and survive the strike, but she chose not to.
The army of her clones all held out their hands and shot one chain from each, which looped once around the spinning circular chain before extending high into the air above Nozomi and Yosuke. As that core chain spun, it carried along the vertical ones and turned a blank stretch of itself to face Karin's army and be filled with more chains. Within seconds, the two dead Uzumaki were surrounded on all sides by what appeared to be a tornado of silvery metal.
"And now..." the true Karin gently swept her hand through the air toward the tornado, and all of its links began to fuse together as a single mesh of chainmail rather than individual strands of metal. "...that's two down."
X
In his previous battle, Izuna Uchiha chose not to make any use of his Mangekyou Sharingan and paid the price with his life. At the time it seemed a reasonable decision; all but one of its jutsu permanently brought him closer to total blindness and the last ate away at the rest of his body instead.
Now as an Edo Tensei, his memories of the Pure World were locked away for the time being. He knew decades had passed since his death, but it simply didn't feel that way; in his mind he'd been killed in battle by Tobirama Senju mere days ago. The taste of defeat was fresh in his mouth, and since he didn't need to worry about going blind this time he intended to make quite liberal use of his doujutsu.
He didn't see the pitch-black shape of the opening portal against the similarly dark Alliance wall, but through his Mangekyou Sharingan he saw the violet swell of chakra that opened it and held it in place. He narrowed his eyes and frowned slightly; he knew the portal was already open but it was impossible to see into it.
He waited until the first of his opponents stepped fully out of the portal, then began to size him up. It was a young Uchiha with an active Mangekyou Sharingan, wrapped in a shell of the same purple chakra as the space-time jutsu. It was unmistakably Susanoo's basic stage, which meant the boy intended to win this battle even at the cost of his sight.
He wore a heavy black cloak over a sleeveless shirt and loose pants of the same color, and the only notable armor he wore was a pair of metal shinguards. In his hand was what looked to be a sword made out of flowing water. Izuna blinked; the boy actually had quite a resemblance to himself as a teen and wore his hair in exactly the same style.
That portal is a Mangekyou jutsu, he realized, that's why his eyes are already bleeding. The question is... how much experience does he have with those eyes? Has he advanced his Susanoo past that level?
The next arrival was another Uchiha with an active Mangekyou, this one older and dressed in a charcoal-grey robe that covered whatever other equipment he carried. He notably didn't appear to own any long weapons; a sword at least would've been visible on his back since he wouldn't keep it under the zipped robe. As with the younger Uchiha, he too was armored by the basic layer of Susanoo in a red-orange tone.
Izuna stopped and his eyes widened slightly. Both of them were wearing the metal headbands Hashirama had designed to identify Konoha ninja.
"Every time Kabuto sends an Edo Tensei, no matter who they are," the younger one spoke up, "they always want to strike up some kind of conversation. I get that, especially in your case. You've been dead a long time and it'd be nice to catch up. But we need to put that on hold for a minute."
Izuna's third opponent stepped out of the wormhole and it closed behind her. With bright pink hair and green eyes, she certainly didn't look to be an Uchiha and she didn't have an active Susanoo like the other two.
She held a white cloak slung over her shoulder, but she'd already taken it off and now she dropped it at her side. The rest of her outfit was leather; a pair of greenish leggings with chainmail over her thighs along with a slim-fitting sleeveless red shirt. She wore one of those headbands as well, but tied around her waist with the metal piece sitting over her right hip. This left her forehead bare, along with the violet diamond-shaped seal centered on it.
"I'll cut right to the chase," said the younger of the two boys. "Can Kabuto see and hear us through your eyes?"
"...Yes," Izuna admitted with a slight wary frown.
"Good. Kabuto, I'm talking to you now." Sasuke's eyes narrowed and swirled. "Your trick worked and we got your message. If it's a fight with Taka you want, you've got it." A cold smirk crossed his face. "Just let down your illusions and barriers so we can see your hideout... and when we come for you, be ready to die."
There was a pause while Izuna listened to Kabuto's answer, looking thoughtful. "...Kabuto wants me to tell you that fight won't be necessary if I kill you here."
"True," Sasuke replied. "But your chances don't look very good."
Izuna's eyes narrowed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you shouldn't get cocky. I'm not saying it to sound threatening, it's just advice."
"Hn," he answered lightly with a shrug. "It's good advice, I guess." A bit of blood trickled from both of his eyes. "Amaterasu. Blaze Release: Flame Control."
Izuna glanced down with a start as the first of Sasuke's attacks landed, a pool of ink-colored flame spreading out over his chest. At his second command it settled into the rigid shape of a blade that ran him through. He jumped back and grabbed the front of the dark purple robe he wore in battle, tugging it open so he could slide out of it.
With his chest bared along with the black flames piercing it, he wrapped the still-burning robe around his arm and punched a hole into his chest. Ash and black flames showered out of his back and he broke away what remained of the burning material before pulling his arm back out and swinging it aside. The robe flew away and took the last of the flames with it.
He looked up to see Sasuke and Itachi guarded by fully activated versions of their Susanoo, weapons already raised. Sasuke held his bow fully drawn and nocked with one of his normal violet arrows instead of a more powerful one using Amaterasu or Chidori. Itachi held out the Yata Mirror to guard himself and Sakura who stood between the two Susanoo; she reached behind her back and produced an eggshell full of poison to throw.
She lobbed it up in an arc over the top of Itachi's shield at Izuna, who watched it approach and threw a shuriken to shatter it in midair long before it reached him. Poison... He turned his attention next to Sasuke's arrow as it left the bow, along a path that not only aimed its tip at Izuna but also struck his shuriken from the air and blew a hole through Sakura's poison dust.
The projectile was fast, but Izuna's Mangekyou Sharingan was up to the challenge. Like Sasuke's, it gave him enhanced agility that helped him dodge the arrow. It shot well past him and ripped a gorge through the cold earth at his back. Sasuke drew back his bow again and this time nocked an arrow of black flame, while at the same time he locked eyes with Izuna and channelled Amaterasu directly.
Hellfire lit up Izuna's face for only the briefest of moments before it winked out.
What!? "How did you stop Amaterasu?"
"You cast it over my eyes. Make a guess." Izuna whirled and leaned to the side as he did, just barely dodging the punch Sakura had aimed at the back of his neck. He glanced around for the shuriken he'd thrown at her egg, confirmed it was gone which meant she had used a mere Substitution rather than a more formidable movement jutsu. His last battle with Tobirama had taught him well to be wary of those.
He backpedaled away from two more punches, and then lashed out in return with a kick Sakura caught on her own shin while reaching behind her back with both hands. She brought them forward while twirling a kunai in each; they settled into a forward grip and she struck at Izuna with them instead of her empty fists.
His Mangekyou whirled back and forth between her blades and a low kick she threw into her onslaught; he dodged them all but she was closing in.
Then he made the mistake of drawing a kunai of his own and trying to parry her. Her kunai met his and pushed it through his hand as smoothly as air, it was reduced to ash up to his wrist and her slash continued through to carve through his face just above his upper jaw. It was hardly even an inconvenience to an Edo Tensei, so he counted it a lesson learned the easy way and took a long jump back so he could challenge her with ninjutsu instead.
She lunged ahead and vanished, outstretched fist first into a black void that was only visible where her body was passing through it. He realized it was Sasuke's space-time portal viewed from the back, and there was only one obvious reason he could have to stop her next attack. He turned, and sure enough Sasuke's black arrow was already halfway through the air to him. It was too late to dodge, but he had other options.
Sakura jumped out of the black portal and landed in a crouch within the violet Susanoo; the other end of the wormhole hovered parallel to the ground rather than upright like a door. "You sure took your time letting that one off."
"Hn," he shrugged. "I just wanted to see you thrash him for a bit."
Again the flames of Amaterasu dimmed and withered away to nothing, and this time there was no mistaking it. A wash of clear liquid swept through the air and quenched the flames as it passed, then it evaporated and left Izuna facing them within a ribcage of burgundy-red chakra. "Maybe my memory is a bit fuzzy after I've been dead for so long, even though I don't really feel it. But just in case, I'll test it."
His Susanoo grew out further, first the rest of its skeleton and then the extra layers of skin and plate armor. With its two right hands it wielded a greatsword that was tremendously oversized even for a Susanoo, and in its upper left it held a thin dagger. The lower left hand carried what looked to be a chalice whose purpose none of the three Konoha-nin could guess.
Its armor was sleek and close-fitting, styled similarly to the designs of bone Kimimaro used. Its wearer was disproportionately thin, but also well over three times taller than Sasuke's and Itachi's chakra avatars. Both of the Uchiha brothers and Sakura felt the chills and tremors of fear as it looked down at them.
"Hn. I had it right; your Susanoo are oddly small."
Please Review!