Opening - Love Deterrence by Nana Mizuki
X
On the morning of December 1st, the final day of the Fourth Shinobi World War, there was no wind. The sky was an unbroken blue sea without even a single thin cloud to be seen. In the wake of the night's blizzard there were dunes of untouched snow stretching as far as the eye could see, uninterrupted in all directions but for one span of broken and lightning-scorched earth, far off in the distance.
The sunrise painted everything in hues of warm golden yellow, not warm enough to melt the snow but just enough to make the day feel almost like spring. It was the ideal winter day, picturesque and perfect as if it had jumped from the pages of a book.
Such a shame that the world was about to end.
A sign of things shortly to come, the first shadow of the morning fluttered across the snow. The spell cast by that sunrise was broken now; the landscape had gone from a perfect immortalized image to a merely pleasant winter morning.
Through it flew an Oto-nin with wings shaped like horrible reaching hands. He wore the standard uniform of his village, including a cloth mask that hid all of his features but his dull brown eyes, squinted against the golden light reflecting off the snow. He was aimed steadily at the second of the Shinobi Alliance Walls, having passed the destroyed and abandoned first under cover of night.
He reached into a pouch behind his back and produced a fistful of shuriken. His mission was simple enough; he was to throw them to earth near the wall in groups according to their labels. Two were engraved with ichi, four labelled nii, and three marked with san. There was also a single kunai marked shi, but it wasn't yet time to use that.
The Oto-nin threw his shuriken in three handfuls as instructed, then watched them fall. The still air let them land in fairly neat groups, which he'd been told was important. Kabuto preferred to keep his minions out of the loop but it wasn't hard to guess what these shuriken really were.
Storage seals. On contact with the snow they broke open, producing nine polished wooden boxes with recessed hingeless lids. The Edo Tensei inside nudged forward and the lids fell neatly out of place, sending up soft splashes of powdery snow. This would likely be the final wave of Kabuto's attack, and certainly the grandest.
The Oto-nin recognized them all, resurrected Kage with only one exception. He unsheathed the marked kunai Kabuto had given him, ominously marked with the number of death, and wondered what could be inside that set it apart.
But that could wait. He would be there to throw it at Kumo, would be there to see it open. He soared forward with renewed speed in hopes of clearing the second wall before an alarm went off in response to the Edo Tensei.
Am I... forgetting something...?
He blinked. The Alliance wall ahead went blurry for a moment, out of focus, then snapped back to the way it should be. He slowed down in mid-flight, then shook his head and picked up speed again. Clearing the wall before he was spotted was important; it made the rest of his trip that much easier if he slipped by unnoticed.
No, I... I definitely have to stop! There's something important down there!
He stopped and swerved downward, aiming not far ahead of where he'd cast the three groups of shuriken. There was something there, something dark and shiny emerging from the snow. Now that it was in sight it felt that much more important; it overshadowed his mission, his safety, nothing he'd ever known was as desperately important as that shiny thing pulling him in.
He divebombed for it and folded his wings into fists as he descended, then snapped them wide open again just in time to safely land in the snow. Eyes wide and gleaming purple, he watched the thing rise up out of the snow and take the shape of a man. It took a step toward him.
Kneel. On one knee.
He fell instantly into place as commanded, furling up his wings again. He lowered his head instinctively, but the creature snorted in disapproval.
No, keep looking at me. He looked up again and saw its eyes were mismatched. One was a flat circle of yellow, the other a naturally curved eye colored violet with black rings. You're heading to Kumo, the creature noted, then the violet eye appeared to narrow slightly as he paused. You're carrying a kunai with a seal. Show me.
"Here." He offered up the knife without standing, and Zetsu plucked it from his hand to examine it.
This seal... it's not strong enough to contain a powerful chakra against its will. It's not an explosive jutsu or a Tailed Beast... so it's probably another Edo Tensei.
He handed the kunai back, and the Oto-nin tucked it carefully away. I've decided. We'll be going to Kumo together. Get up. He shot to his feet immediately, but hesitated before brushing the snow from his pants where he'd knelt. Zetsu hadn't told him to do so, but also didn't reprimand him for it. That's where this whole mess will finally end, it has to be. So let's go.
Zetsu stepped forward and dissolved to melt over the Oto-nin's body. The hand-wings of his Cursed Seal spread wide at Zetsu's command; he'd taken over their now-shared form completely and instantly. I won't kill you, he noted. The seal would probably stop working if I did, and then how would I get over those walls?
The alarm sounded then, a bit overdue but better late than never. The sound of Lightning Release thunder rolled over the fields of snow along with soft tones of frantic conversation in the distance. "...That might still be a problem," the Oto-nin offered hesitantly.
I wouldn't worry about that, said Zetsu, and the Oto-nin's right eye went dark as the liquid creature rolled over it. I won't even need the Six Paths for this; mirage genjutsu should be enough.
Zetsu jumped skyward, and the Cursed Seal's wings did the rest.
X
The Sixth Hokage didn't look particularly dignified when he climbed out of bed in the morning. Dead-eyed and slouched over, he wore a pair of pale blue pajama pants and a frayed sleeping cap meant to look like a black-furred creature nibbling on his head. He was shirtless and in fairly good shape, but his physique wasn't above average by a shinobi's standards.
On the other hand, the fluffy blond tail, whiskers and black rings through his irises did partially give him away.
He shuffled through a brown stone doorframe into a small kitchen with a decent set of amenities considering its size. He yawned and blearily clapped a hand over his eyes before opening the fridge to fend off its sudden light. After producing a carton of milk, he closed the door and frowned at it in his hand. "Wurr the hells'a expiry date on 'is thing?"
Check the cap, Kurama supplied helpfully.
Naruto did so and his frown darkened into a scowl. Thought so. It's gone sour.
Kurama growled deep in his throat. Put that down. There's enough life in it to have a chakra silhouette.
"...Nope," Naruto decided, his voice clearing as he fully woke up. "I want cereal, dammit. And I have super-healing and stuff, so it won't kill me if it's gone a little bad."
Naruto...
He poured a bowl of sugary cereal and doused it with the milk. "Shuddup."
Be careful what you put in your damn stomach! I live down here!
Still ignoring Kurama, he grabbed a chair and sat down with his meal. He brought the first spoonful to his mouth just as the solid stone door to his and Hinata's shared suite was caved in by a half-ton battering ram covered in lightning.
It was more courtesy than the Raikage normally showed. He much preferred tearing a hole through a wall, but this time had at least technically gone through the door. There was some small implication of growing respect there; a door would be easier to replace and so the Fourth had done the Sixth a favor.
Naruto spit out his food and fired himself backward with not a yelp but a full, drawn-out scream. His chair shattered between his back and the counter, and his breakfast painted the rest of the kitchen.
"Wake the hell up!" A roared, apparently to Hinata since Naruto was already clearly awake. "Kabuto's at it again!"
He quickly spotted the cane in the Raikage's off hand, but it took him another second to recognize it as Nagato's. It vanished through a Substitution, replaced instantly by its owner who landed unsteadily on his feet without it.
"I'm up, I'm up!" Naruto shouted back, crouching on the countertop with wide eyes and a slight tremor. "What the hell does he want now!?"
Hinata stepped into the room, bedheaded and wrapped in a blanket but wide awake. Nagato held up a basic but neatly scrawled map showing the names and positions of the incoming Edo Tensei. The writing was smooth and fine; Naruto saw it as the work of someone who practiced calligraphy but Hinata recognized it specifically as Neji's.
"He's sending previous Kage now, from Konoha, Kiri and Suna. Only our heaviest hitters can deal with this, and Kabuto made sure to write your names all over it. He's not exactly being subtle."
A snorted. "The world's supposed to end sometime this week. What good is subtlety?"
Nagato threw him a look. There was no doujutsu or killing intent to it, just a frown of stern disappointment.
Naruto squinted over the map he'd plucked from Nagato's hand when his fellow Uzumaki wasn't looking. "So they got tousan after all," he read. "No sign of jiji though; that's weird."
"Hokage-sama asked for his coffin to be locked with fuinjutsu," Hinata recalled, "And for only his ashes to be left in it. He knew the enemy had access to Edo Tensei when he wrote his will."
"So he left us with one less Bijuu-level killing machine to worry about," Nagato added. "Good man."
"As much as I'd love to reminisce over how much of a hardass Hiruzen Sarutobi was," A commented, "We have nine other unkillable Kage coming for our heads."
"We'll handle it," said Naruto. He lit up with a burst of orange light that quickly dimmed as his chakra settled into the shape of an ancient robe. A Truth-Seeking Ball flew out from the glowing inside of his sleeve and took the form of a saber. He took the weapon in his right hand and used the left to set aside his sleeping cap. "You guys are headed for Gaara and Yagura next, right?"
"We ran into Yagura already," A noted. "Kid's probably out there already."
"Alright... Hina-chan, I'll head out too. You should have plenty of time to grab your armor... maybe bring some breakfast too."
"Mhm," she nodded. "Good luck." He flipped a thumbs-up and vanished.
There was a moment of silence then, as Hinata went motionless to power up her Sage Mode. It was Nagato who broke it. "...It's starting to get to him, isn't it?"
Hinata opened her eyes, glowing white with a soft bluish tinge, and nodded solemnly. "This'll be his third time meeting them both. He's already been forced to fight his mother to the death, but now his father too..." she shook her head. "He keeps saying he's lucky to meet them at all, no matter the circumstances. I don't think he means it anymore."
X
He came to a stop at the peak of a snowdrift lit golden yellow by the sunrise, and immediately found himself regretting it. A flash of brighter yellow lit up just behind him even as he hit the brakes, and a kunai slashed deep through his back just before he moved again.
Naruto leapt away with another Empty Wind and turned mid-run to face his father. He kicked up a splash of white powder as he stopped and sized up the situation. This chakra cloak doesn't do much to protect me, but I still have senjutsu. Tousan's kunai was able to cut through me pretty easily, so he must have enhanced strength somehow.
Minato teleported again, this time appearing just ahead of Naruto in a crouch with his kunai drawn back. Naruto swept forward with his Truth-Seeking Blade to parry the blow, and in response Minato let go of his own weapon. He vanished and left it hanging in the air, just starting to fall to earth.
Naruto saw the golden burst of light behind his back, and his eyes widened as it was replaced by a surprisingly intense blue. He whipped the sword over his shoulder to catch the impact of a Rasengan taller than he was.
Minato reappeared and snatched his kunai back up before it even had time to hit the snow. The Rasengan biting against Naruto's sword started to destabilize with no one to keep it in check; and the Sixth Hokage flitted sidelong away from it to leave only the Fourth within its blast radius.
But Minato vanished as well, gone in a yellow flash. He reappeared by Kushina's side and only then did Naruto spot her, palms to the snow as she steadily channeled her kekkei genkai in an unseen and therefore worrrying way.
"You didn't mention the ears and tail," the Fourth commented.
"Those must be new," said Kushina. "He didn't have 'em when we met."
"What's it like in the Pure World?" Naruto asked suddenly, and his parents exchanged a glance. "Are you guys happy there?"
Minato stopped a split second before he was about to disappear again, suddenly held in an invisible grip of ice-cold steel. Connect your chakra with Kushina and stall Naruto. Talk to him. The words were an absolute command; there was no point in trying to fidget away. He took Kushina's hand and started to rouse the Nine-Tails; tongues of golden flame flickered up through the air around them both.
"I... really can't say. Our memories of the Pure World are locked away as we're summoned."
A disappointed frown momentarily crossed Naruto's face, but it was quickly replaced by a wide-eyed look of revelation. "You're lying!"
Crap.
"Just a second ago you said kaachan 'didn't mention' my ears! That means you talked with her after she got summoned, and you remember it!" He held the Truth-Seeking Blade out at his side and produced a multicolored Rasenshuriken at its tip, ready to swing forward and throw once Minato made his next attack. "What's really going on here!?"
"Actually," Kushina spoke up, "Akatsuki showed up to unseal me after you left, and then they summoned Minato too. So we were both in this world when we had that talk."
Naruto paused and began to frown again, now thoroughly confused. Kurama, are you getting anything from her?
No, the Nine-Tails admitted. My Negative Emotions Sensing is stronger than yours, but she didn't even twitch. She's telling the truth... but Minato is lying and he's not happy about it.
"Gah, fuck it!" she threw her arms up in the air. "Screw this vow of secrecy crap, I wanna talk to my son!" She tried to take a step forward but Kabuto's control held her in place. "We remember the Pure World, but we're not allowed to talk about it. Anyone who comes back through Edo Tensei is supposed to spout off the same cover story; it was Tobirama's idea."
Minato sighed. "This is a dangerous topic, Naruto. If the living world knew for sure what's waiting for them in the afterlife, they could take it for granted. If they heard it was a perfect heaven, they might want to die right away. If they think it's hell, or there's nothing after death at all, everyone would want to live forever. Think of Orochimaru for example. It's better this way... the living world knows there's an afterlife but they don't know anything about it. So they live their lives naturally and both worlds stay populated the way they should."
"So..." the younger of the two Hokage scratched the back of his head, "...you're saying you do want things to keep going that way? Keeping the populations balanced and stuff? So that must mean the Pure World can't be a bad place... otherwise you'd be telling me to pull an Orochimaru, ya know?"
"We need to change the subject," Minato answered quickly. "Why would you even ask about this, Naruto? Where's it all coming from?"
Naruto hesitated before he replied, looking uncomfortable. "...Did you guys ever meet a kid named Nawaki Senju, or an older guy named Dan Katou in the Pure World?" Minato and Kushina exchanged a wide-eyed glance. "Yeah, I thought so."
"They've been missing for three years, Naruto." Kushina made no effort to hide her concern. "There's been no sign at all... do you really know what happened to them? Are they safe!?"
"I brought them back... I used my Rinnegan together with Edo Tensei so we didn't need a living sacrifice, and then I used it again to bring them back to life for real." both of his parents went completely motionless with odd expressions Naruto didn't know what to make of. He fidgeted and pressed on.
"I haven't tried it since. I was scared... I mean, it's like you said. This is dangerous stuff to mess around with! I kept expecting the King of Hell to jump out of nowhere and eat me or something! Only death can pay for life, that kinda crap. But it never happened... and then when Akatsuki brought you back, kaachan... I thought of maybe bringing it up."
"But I was scared of that too. I was scared you wouldn't wanna come back; I was scared of what you'd think if you found out it was even possible. Your son, messing around with kinjutsu and bringing people back from the dead. If I had a kid, I'd be freaking out if they came to me with that, believe it! But I just can't keep it in anymore. This might be my last chance to ever talk to you... if I don't bring it up now..."
"Well. I didn't expect to hear anything like that today."
Naruto froze. It was Minato's voice, but distinctly not his words. "Maybe I should be going after your eyes instead of Sasuke's, if the Rinnegan can really do something that incredible."
"...Kabuto?"
"Yes?" Kushina spoke then, smirking identically to Minato. "What's on your mind, Hokage-dono?"
"How long have you been...?"
"Oh, I was listening the whole time. I took direct control of them while you were talking just now, but your parents are still here. They heard everything." Minato let go of Kushina's hand and the flickering embers in the air vanished. "They just can't answer you." They both took a step forward. "For the time being, you'll just have to guess at what they think of you."
The Fourth laughed. "You know, I've been getting really annoyed with how you all react to my Edo Tensei. I've tried breaking you emotionally, but instead you're happy to see your loved ones again despite the circumstances. But now... this is much better. From over here it looks like you're about to cry."
Naruto threw his Truth-Seeking Rasenshuriken, but both of his parents vanished with a yellow flash well before it could touch them. "And it gets even better. You're obviously upset, but I'm not even feeling any killing intent... and here's the icing on the cake, so to speak."
Golden flames lit up over both of Kabuto's bodies, tinged a darker brass color by the chakra of an angry Yin Kurama. "The whole time you were talking, you just stood there and let me arm Kushina with the Nine-Tails' chakra."
A giant hand of bronze-colored light wrapped around Naruto from behind. Minato jabbed the tips of Kurama's claws into his son's chest and squeezed. The younger Hokage cried out with the sudden pain, but his Six Paths Sage Mode saved him from being skewered or crushed.
Naruto called up the full extent of his strength and threw his arms outward, tearing open his father's grip so he could get away with an Empty Wind. In doing so he dodged a full-sized Tailed Beast Ball Kushina had just fired at him, and as he came to a stop he hoped the attack would keep going and hit Minato instead.
But the Kurama-shaped aura of darkened gold around the Fourth opened its jaws. It caught and swallowed the ball of black and orange, then gave off a brief burst of golden light as it teleported.
Behind you-
Naruto tried to dodge, but the scarlet beam caught him even as he started running with his movement jutsu. The Tailed Beast Ball scorched a trench through the earth and threw him along it, but he took control of his momentum by flying back in Minato's direction. The snow had been vaporized into a cloud of fog that blocked Naruto's natural sight, but the glow of his parents' chakra silhouettes was still clear as day.
He produced another Truth-Seeking Rasenshuriken and threw it from the tip of his sword, aiming for Kushina since she couldn't teleport as his father could. Seeing only the fox-shaped fiery glow through the steam, he aimed for its head and hoped that she would pilot her avatar from there as he did.
In response Minato appeared behind her within his own Nine-Tailed aura, its right hand on the left shoulder of hers. He moved away again just as quickly as he'd arrived, leaving Naruto's attack to tear through only air. They both emerged from the Hiraishin behind Naruto, towering above him and the cloud of fog around him.
Naruto twitched and made a move of his own in the only direction he knew to be safe. He flickered straight up just in time to dodge his parents' fists, which together blasted a crater into the ground he'd been standing on. He soared high over their heads and drew back his sword, then slashed forward thousands of times with it and his arm an amorphous blur.
Blades of metal and blazing orange light fell onto the Uzumaki couple like rain. Kushina held up her avatar's arms in a halfhearted attempt to shield herself, while Minato took a more direct approach and grabbed her for another teleport. They moved just under a mile east, but from such height Naruto saw them reappear and switched his aim accordingly.
He stopped swinging his sword to charge and throw a Truth-Seeking Rasenshuriken next, only half-expecting the attack to connect. To his surprise Minato turned to face the jutsu head-on instead of dissolving into golden light; he drew forth a Hiraishin kunai within the head of his chakra cloak and held it out to face the Rasenshuriken with both hands.
The disk of whirling colors struck Minato's defense and began to cave in as though being sucked down a drain. At the same time hundreds of orbs of chakra sprayed out ahead of the Nine-Tails' open mouth, tinted clear blue and thick dark red until they assembled into a single black-shelled orange orb just ahead of the vanishing Rasenshuriken.
Naruto dodged backward from the Tailed Beast Ball without thinking twice; it required next to no effort to float backward just far enough that it would sail up past him harmlessly. Normally he might have used the Empty Wind and crossed a greater distance, but he chose instead to stay put and keep up his attacks.
Incoming! Kurama bellowed from the depths of the Eight Trigrams Seal. Naruto's eyes snapped wide open and he glanced over his shoulder to see the multicolored Rasenshuriken where it had emerged from the other end of his father's space-time seal, on the ground far below and behind him.
He was struck in the lower back by his own jutsu, but he minimized the damage by shrinking it back into a ball at the last second. He pulled the orb around himself to his left hand even as his wound began to heal. The Truth-Seeking Rasenshuriken had vaporized his back through to the bone in an instant; any slower reaction might have cost him his life.
Minato appeared with the hand of his nine-tailed avatar stuck firmly to the shell of his Tailed Beast Ball just as it passed Naruto. The younger Hokage's eyes went wide and he brought up both Truth-Seeking Balls to form a simple shield just before Minato spun and slammed his attack home. It exploded into a city-sized ball of fire and appropriately matching force.
The snow on the ground was already blasted and burned away before Naruto hit it and kept going straight downward, blasted deep under the surface with his chakra shield following him in. The shockwave from the blast tore away over the ground and reached far enough to crash against the Alliance wall. It would have been vaporized by a direct hit, but the protective seals were enough to ward off the wind alone.
Under sunlight dimmed by a fresh black fog that filled the sky, Kushina's chakra avatar sprinted on all fours to the spot where Naruto had struck the ground. She plunged Kurama's arm into the earth and pulled it up again with Naruto clenched in her fist. Brilliant orange chakra poured off of him and burst open her grip before Kabuto could crush his prize. It solidified into the form of a slightly smaller, thinner fox with eight tails less than Kushina's own.
I'm done putting up with this, said Kurama in the back of Naruto's mind. Get in here, brat.
X
He hit the ground of his mindscape facefirst, sending up a splash of blood-red liquid confined to a neat round pool by the entrance of Kurama's lair. It was the supply of chakra the Nine-Tails often sent out into the physical world as a smaller body, currently not in use. He cried out before fully rising to his feet, the sound muffled into a bubbling hum by the liquid.
Fuming, he stomped into the dim cave and crossed his arms to match his glare. The Nine-Tails loomed in the darkness with its eyes alone glowing hellish red; Kurama was no less peeved than his host. "The hell's wrong with you, Kurama!?"
"Pull yourself together," the fox snapped. "You're getting your ass kicked out there, and it's only because you're letting it happen. You could've dodged that Bijuu Dama with your Empty Wind. Twice. You're holding back."
"Bullshit! I'm up against two of your Jinchuuriki here and tousan's even faster than I am. I'm going all out, believe it!"
"Maybe you're doing it subconsciously," Kurama growled, "or maybe not. But you're trying to draw this fight out either way. Let me guess... you're hoping your parents can break Kabuto's control long enough to finish your little heart-to-heart."
"Of course I'm hoping for it," the Hokage bit out. "But that's all."
The Nine-Tails bared its full collection of horrifying fangs with a grin. "You're being stupid. Even by your standards." Naruto opened his mouth to snap back but Kurama talked over him. "If you wanna talk this through with your parents, do it... but on your own time. If we win this war, summon them yourself."
"I'm too scared!" Naruto shouted back. "That's not hard to understand! Fucking around with life and death has gotta be dangerous. I managed it with Nawaki and Dan, but what if it goes wrong next time!? I've probably already pissed off the Kami, the Reaper, the King of Hell, I don't even know who. So next time I try casting Edo Tensei, what if something else shows up instead of tousan and kaachan?" he took a deep breath and let it out as a slightly shaking sigh. "I'm scared, Kurama."
"Yeah," the fox rumbled and lowered his head to the floor. He held his flaming left eye level with Naruto's entire body. "But are you that scared? It's your choice to make, Naruto. You're afraid, but you also want your family back. Which one is gonna control what you do?"
X
He opened his eyes, and with a roar he punched Kushina's chakra avatar in the snout. He blurred behind her with an Empty Wind just before Minato fell from the sky and crash-landed in his place. Since Kabuto was watching through the Fourth's eyes as well as his wife's, he saw Naruto call up a Truth-Seeking Ball and extend it into a sword scaled to match the hand of his fox avatar.
He slashed up and across her back deeply enough to cleave her cloak in half along with the body inside. His off hand darted in and plucked her from the air, but before he could seal her she spat out a Tailed Beast Ball and prepared to detonate it as a counter. He let go of her and the bomb to flash-step away, leaving it to blow her to bits alone.
Minato followed and lashed out with a huge Rasengan in each darkly glowing hand, but Naruto parried every thrust aside with the Truth-Seeking Blade and struck back with his left hand to grab Yin Kurama's throat.
He shot skyward with the Nine-Tails in his grip and reached the edge of the fallout cloud from Minato's Tailed Beast Ball before he teleported back to the ground. Naruto whirled back after him and raised his sword for a slash; Minato reciprocated by charging another Tailed Beast Ball on the distant ground.
"Truth-Seeking Rasenshuriken!" he roared and let his jutsu fly, producing it almost instantly with a swing of his sword. Minato's attack swelled to triple the size of his last before he fired it, and it clashed head-on with Naruto's own in the sky. The smaller jutsu hit the larger and cleanly vaporized a hole through it without slowing.
The Tailed Beast Ball destabilized and exploded in the open air, and the Rasenshuriken shot from within the fireball completely untouched. Minato dodged it with the Hiraishin and then paused with a frown as Kabuto took in this new information. He couldn't immediately think of a next move, and without a doujutsu Minato didn't see the next blow coming until it was too late.
A second Rasenshuriken fell from the sky, this time fixed to the tip of Naruto's Bijuu-sized Truth-Seeking Blade and twisted into a drill instead of a disc. It left behind no traces of Minato or his cloak as it passed, save only a tiny ingot of dark grey metal inscribed with twisted black script. Naruto reached for it with a hand of flaming orange chakra, but it vanished with a burst of yellow light.
He turned to face Kushina and watched the chunk of metal land in the palm of her hand. Clear as day his Rinnegan could see chakra pouring from it into her, but he also saw the brilliant blue-white comet aimed at her back and grinned. There was no time for her to turn or dodge; the vastly upsized Rasenyari met the back of Yin Kurama's head and exploded with force to match its size.
A tsunami blasted out across the ground from the point of impact and Naruto soared up to avoid it. The ground was liquefied in its wake, transmuted into a murky blue ocean with Kushina half-submerged at its center.
"That's new," Naruto mused. "Wow, Hina-chan."
The glowing gold Nine-Tails yanked itself free of the water and crouched low against its surface, ready to pounce in any direction. Its ears flicked back and it whirled on the dark figure rising out of the water. Kushina's eyes narrowed as she saw Hinata was covered in a shell of the murky water, dark and opaque enough to hide her body underneath.
She waved the ingot of metal in her hand but failed to teleport behind Hinata, much to Kabuto's surprise. She erased my Hiraishin seals here... Kushina shrugged and lowered her hand, and the Nine-Tails around her began scattering bubbles of red and blue chakra from its open mouth. In response Hinata dropped into a Gentle Fist stance and waited for the attack to fire.
From a distance, Naruto watched with wide eyes as the water behind Kushina flowed upward in absolute silence. It formed a single hand as huge as Kurama's entire body, and just as Kabuto was about to fire his attack it lunged forward and clamped down on the Nine-Tails' midsection. Kushina let go of the Tailed Beast Ball in surprise, and it blasted toward Hinata's water clone which voluntarily splashed apart as it approached.
The real Hinata soared straight up out of the lake and connected with a Rasenyari to Yin Kurama's muzzle. Kushina vanished with a yellow flash just as it started to explode, but Naruto watched for her to reappear and threw a Truth-Seeking Rasenshuriken when she did. She teleported again, this time to the very edge of the territory Minato had sealed, and warily kept both of her opponents in her field of vision.
Naruto flash-stepped to the surface of Hinata's jutsu, grinning with newly lifted spirits. He left his chakra avatar behind in the sky, and it crumbled into shards of light without him to pilot it. "Yo, Hina-chan!"
"Since when can she use the Hiraishin?" She exclaimed, just slightly panting. "Sorry I'm late, Naruto-kun. I did grab something to eat though."
His eyes lit up as she handed over an Alliance ration bar wrapped in silvery foil. It was no breakfast of champions, but it was a step up from a soldier pill and Naruto was starving. He barely remembered to say a customary thanks before ripping open the package. He tore off and scarfed down the first bite without chewing, and looked visibly heartbroken when a piece large enough to be the second broke off and fell into the lake at his feet.
He twitched slightly as he devoured the last of the bar, and his Rinnegan darkened from a slightly metallic orange to red that shone like blood. "That's two new jutsu you've used, both orders of magnitude larger than your usual moves. I can't help but notice you're a bit out of breath."
"Yeah," she nodded. "I've gotten stronger, but these new jutsu can use up all of my senjutsu chakra in two or maybe three shots. I can work around that by always keeping a second Sage Mode charge in this cloak," she waved her arm to display the white mist covering it, "But that still means there's a limit on how often I can use them."
"And you're open to attack for a moment between charges. You'll have to be careful of that." Kurama turned his attention to his other half where he could see it sealed within Kushina. "You asked about the Hiraishin... Kushina isn't using it, Minato is. He doesn't need hand seals to cast it, and therefore doesn't need hands."
Hinata's eyes went to the piece of steel in Kushina's hand. "That's his Edo Tensei tag? Why hasn't it started regenerating?"
"Minato won't be rejoining us for the rest of this battle. She's already drained all of my Yin chakra from him... and I want it back. Follow my lead; we're ending this battle now."
A hurricane of white mist exploded out of Naruto's Eight Trigrams Seal and swept across most of Hinata's lake. After it came a gale strong enough to push Hinata off-balance even with her Sage Mode still active; she instinctively raised a hand to cover her eyes and waited for the water under her feet to settle.
The wind completely scattered the chakra smoke to reveal the Nine-Tails in its full and terrible glory. Kurama held his tails extended out at his sides, having just used them to lash away the smoke from his arrival. Hinata had seen him in battle before, even sparred with him herself, but only now did she seriously consider the legends that claimed the Demon Fox could level mountains with a swing of each tail. She'd never seen him try it.
"I'm the strongest of the Bijuu." His eyes gleamed with scarlet fire and his voice shook like thunder. "Even now, with half of my power gone." He drew himself down into a crouch and streamlined his tails backward. "Watch me prove it."
Kurama was gone in an instant. In his place was a skyward explosion of chakra-laced water and a trail of the same mist leading toward Kushina. His speed wasn't quite on par with a movement jutsu and he was still visible as an orange blur at the head of the comet. Kushina naturally saw him coming and had enough time to teleport to his left.
Kurama swerved and doubled his speed with no warning at all. He smashed his right palm into the jaw of his Yin counterpart just before it could flit away again, and once it did he opened his mouth to begin charging a Tailed Beast Ball. A split second later, Naruto appeared in the air over Kushina with his chakra avatar active and his Truth-Seeking Blade poised to slice.
Hinata watched from a distance as the two Uzumaki flashed in and out of view dozens of times in a span of seconds, while she herself stood still and gathered her chakra in her right hand for another Kage-level ninjutsu. When it was completely overflowing with deep blue light, she stabbed it into the water under her feet and pushed. "Water Release: Lake of the Underworld!"
The pulse of her chakra shot outward through the water in every direction; it hit the shore of the lake and transmuted more earth into water to keep going. The lake soundly doubled in size until all three of the distant giant foxes were once again standing on it. Kushina's next attempted teleport failed and the Truth-Seeking Blade cut her chakra avatar in two.
Kurama spun, drew in a breath and opened his mouth to fire a scarlet laser as bright as the sun. Naruto jumped out of the way with the Empty Wind, leaving Kushina alone to be struck by the compressed Tailed Beast Ball.
It was a much smaller fox that emerged from the aftermath of the beam, pouring off blood and black smoke. Clad now in a Version Two cloak, Kushina sprinted on all fours directly at Hinata while simultaneously charging another Tailed Beast Ball.
Panting and drained of senjutsu chakra, Hinata steeled herself and swept both hands upward to raise a huge wall of water between herself and Kushina. Her attacker hit the wall and vaporized a hole through it to continue her charge, set to land a killing blow while Hinata was still vulnerable.
A storm of glowing orange blades poured out of the sky and hammered Kushina down into the water, courtesy of Naruto floating high above. Hinata smiled with relief and started dragging Kushina into the very bottom of the water with a wave of her hand. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw its depths light up with the orange light of an exploding Tailed Beast Ball; its heat vaporized a skyward path out of the lake and Kushina swiftly jumped through it.
She was blindsided out of the air by Kurama just as she emerged. With a ruby-red Rasengan in each hand he slammed into her with a taijutsu combo clearly inspired by the Gentle Fist. Naruto appeared behind her and joined in with a few rapid slashes across her chakra avatar's back, but then she quickly charged another Tailed Beast Ball and set it off at point-blank range.
It was much smaller than her previous efforts, but still easily powerful enough to pick up and throw Naruto and Kurama with its explosion. The Nine-Tails was swept under the water as his momentum slowed, but Hinata was there to provide a current that helpfully raised him back to the surface. He climbed to his feet and shook the water from his coat, annoyed but unharmed.
He glanced left and saw Hinata helping Naruto to his feet; her white aura was gone but her eyes were lit with the same glow. Since his chakra avatar had been destroyed by the explosion, Naruto armed himself instead with a Truth-Seeking Blade and Rasenshuriken.
For her part, Hinata brought her hands together and produced a Rasenyari with a swirling core five times her height by itself. The glow of senjutsu chakra left her eyes once again, but Kurama winced at the thought of being struck by that thing.
A grin split his face then, the likes of which had surely haunted Konoha's nightmares every evening since it was built almost a century ago. He spat out a Tailed Beast Ball slightly larger than usual and reached up to pluck it from the air. It began to spin as it met his palm and the turbulence melted off the black shell of the ball, exposing the swirls of magma-orange underneath.
"Bijuu Rasengan. And that's how it's done, brats."
Kabuto wondered whether the Nine-Tails was addressing Naruto and Hinata or the older Uzumaki couple. It was just an idle thought; the battle had been lost the moment Hinata countered his Hiraishin and there was no more pressure to strategize further. He could afford an idle thought or two now.
He never had a chance to even try dodging their next attack; the three Bijuu-level Rasengan variants appeared instantaneously to surround Kushina and tear through her chakra avatar like so much paper. He felt nothing through the Edo Tensei link; it was an annoying defeat but ultimately nothing to worry about.
That changed when Kurama snatched Kushina's seal tag out of the air, all that was left of her. His clenched fist sank into the metal and Kabuto realized something was wrong.
X
Suddenly he was standing on a seamless panel of glass that stretched to the horizon in every direction. Kushina was facedown at his feet, wrapped into a bundle of gleaming black cord and held still by it to do nothing but stare into the center of an impossibly huge whirlpool just under the glass.
The Yin Nine-Tails sat locked in a square brass cage directly behind Kabuto, which put him in the path of a furiously sprinting Yang Kurama. "Get out of the way!" Kabuto fled instinctively and let the monster slam its fist into the lock on the cage. "Push your chakra through," he roared at his other half, "now!"
Yin Kurama said nothing and dissolved into a bubbling mass of orange liquid that poured through the cage and took the vague shape of a fox's head. Yang buried his hand in the froth up to his wrist and pulled. Yin's own hand rematerialized and clung to Yang for dear life.
It was at this point that Kabuto's survival instincts begged him to do something. He kicked Kushina onto her back and willed away the cords wrapped over her mouth. "How do I stop this!?"
Kushina glanced in the direction of the cage, then back to Kabuto with a vicious grin. "Fuck you."
He ran his hands through his hair and in his panic he took the only course of action he could think of. He seized control of Kushina's Eight Trigrams Seal and tried to morph the bars into a solid wall of metal.
Both of the Nine-Tails' heads turned to him and glared with a thousand years' worth of ever-mounting hatred. Yang brought up his other arm and lit brilliant white the seal key he'd copied from Naruto, then mashed that fist against the lock.
It wasn't a perfect match, but the half-flattened bars bent and caved inward as Kurama tried to force the connection. He wedged his fingers into a tiny gap between the doors and heaved, his tails lashing wildly with the effort. "Chakra!"
Yin Kurama roared his answer and poured out all the strength he had to give.
The doors opened.
The two foxes both vaporized into a storm of red and orange froth mirroring the vortex below. The pane of glass between the red and blue began to crack at the base of the cage. The bent useless bars all vanished with no visible transition and left an open square through the glass. A gargantuan hand wrapped in deep orange fur emerged from the mass of chakra and sent out another spiderweb of glistening cracks as it met the glass.
The true form of the Nine-Tailed Fox finished its reassembly all at once. It was huge, over twice as tall as Yang alone had been outside. Its fur was thicker, glossier, its tails longer and bushier. Its eyes glowed red the exact shade of freshly spilled blood, and it was looking at Kabuto.
"You tried to stop me." It took a step forward, just one step with a single forepaw. The glass crackled from there to the edge of this reality in every direction; its claws curled in and pierced through to touch the frothing whirlpool. "I..." the fox paused, frowned and narrowed its eyes. After a moment its lips peeled back into a grin. "...I see you, KABUTO YAKUSHI. I'M COMING FOR YOU."
The glass broke into shards, and Kabuto fell.
Merry Christmas!