Opening - Love Deterrence by Nana Mizuki
X
It was lost, disoriented. All around were flashes of light and noise, all moving and disappearing; nothing around It was consistent enough for It to keep track of where It was. There was a sense of enormous loss here, but It couldn't remember what exactly It had lost. It couldn't remember anything, and yet It remembered remembering. Perhaps that was it; It had lost its identity.
There was something ahead of It, a shape of black and orange light that kept moving around but at least kept a single shape. It focused on the shape, watched it in relation to the chaos around Itself. It began to see It was being pushed back, and with that realization It became aware of a constant pain across Its whole body, faint but still noticeable. The lights were attacking It somehow.
It recognized the shape; the memory was dim and distant but still there. The shape was a threat, it was The Enemy, it was a thing to be hated. The Enemy had a name, no, two names, but It couldn't decide which was right. Was it Hagoromo, or Naruto? It couldn't be both, could it? It should have only one name...
And then It thought, did It have a name? Could It remember?
Did the names even matter?
X
Naruto hacked at Obito with his Truth-Seeking Blade over and over again, never letting up for an instant. The new Jinchuuriki flew backward with every blow, marred by huge slashes across his body spilling bright red blood, but the wounds healed as fast as Naruto could make them. The sword alone was useless against Obito, so he switched tactics and reshaped the tip into a Rasenshuriken with five brightly colored blades.
He stabbed forward and met a solid wall in place of Obito's chest; for the first time his strongest attack had been blocked. The Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki stared at him from behind a wall of black and orange; there was hate in his Sharingan eyes but also confusion. Naruto shivered; he saw the flicker of human intelligence in those eyes, preceded by blank animal instinct that looked absolutely wrong on a human face.
"Naruto," the creature decided. The tone of its voice could only be from a decision, as though it hadn't been sure of his name until then. "Naruto."
The elemental ninjutsu from the rest of the Alliance poured in a bit more, even as Obito's defense swelled up and shoved Naruto back with an orange-glowing wall. Lightning and flame, flashing white prisms and orbs of brilliant blue, boulders and blasts of cutting wind, all of it crashed down on the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki and he hardly noticed.
"Backup!" Naruto called over the din of battle. Kurama was the first to answer; a flash of golden light burst out of Naruto's chest and tore through his chakra cloak. The Nine-Tails appeared with its claws already stretching out toward Obito, who just barely seemed to register his presence and floated back beyond his reach. Then Kurama began to fall, straight down into the ocean without Naruto's levitation.
Far below, Gaara lifted one hand away from the twisted scraps of wood holding him afloat. A tendril of soaked black sand burst up from deep underwater and caught Kurama, but almost immediately the Nine-Tails' weight proved to be too much. Let me take care of this one, Shukaku called, his voice still much too loud in the back of Gaara's mind. All of your sand is soaked anyway, and you couldn't help Kurama even if it was bone dry. Let me out!
The Kazekage hesitated for a moment, but then dipped his free hand under the frigid winter water and twisted open the Eight Trigrams Seal. A stream of light sun-baked sand burst from within, screaming with laughter as it soared up and swept over Kurama in an instant. For a moment the Alliance could hear the Nine-Tails roar in alarm, but then the sound was cut off and the shape of the fox was visible once more.
Ignoring gravity, the Nine-Tails floated still within a shell of golden-brown sand hardened into armor. Its eyes and teeth were visible through Shukaku's protection, and in its hand appeared a slender sword of the same material. "I got this idea from Madara," said the One-Tail, its voice ringing directly in Kurama's ear. "Between that and how much you already hate me, you can't be in a good mood right now."
"I don't hate you," said Kurama. Shukaku's sand twitched, clearly expressing surprise, and the Nine-Tails grinned. "Not quite. Let's do this."
The Nine-Tails lashed out, and landed a slash of the sword into the side of Obito's head. It was an impressive display of speed and force that sent the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki flying away, but it was plain to see that there was no lasting damage. Obito turned and shot back through the air toward Kurama, armed only with his bare hands and the Truth-Seeking Balls floating just behind them.
The clash in the sky grew steadily faster and more violent; great shockwaves cut through the air from every exchange of blows and shook up the ocean below. As with Gaara, the other remaining members of the Alliance vanguard only stayed afloat by clutching gnarled, malformed scraps of pale wood. Orochimaru floated with the largest of these, his arms draped loosely over it while his restored hands desperately strung seals together.
"I can't do it!" he called over the roar of the water; the confession didn't come to him easily. "I can't control it!" He gave up and wrapped his hands around the scrap of wood, eyes shut and mouth set in a scowl. The scattered pieces keeping the Alliance afloat were originally intended to be a vast three-masted ship, but the jutsu slipped through his fingers and failed catastrophically.
It should be so simple; it's just a Zetsu clone's Wood Release! I could see it if I'd taken the First Hokage's cells, but this just isn't fair!
"Kazekage!" Gaara looked up to see Oonoki floating above him, soaked and disheveled but still safely airborne and holding out a hand. It took him two tries with the violent sway of the water, but he locked his hand around Oonoki's wrist and was hauled abruptly out of the ocean. "You still have more of that black sand, don't you?"
Gaara checked for his wakizashi and was relieved to find it hadn't fallen from its sheath underwater. "I do."
"Hurry up and unseal it all!" he called over a crack of thunder. "Make an island, and I'll take over from there!"
The Kazekage nodded and drew his weapon without really thinking about the gesture. He swept the tip at the surface of the seething ocean, and as he did a bolt of lightning split the sky nearby. It struck the water and split apart into innumerable thousands of smaller tendrils; Gaara flinched away and thought of the lightning striking the rest of the Alliance. But the water diffused the shock and it just barely stopped short of touching the stranded shinobi.
Gaara's black sand dipped under the surface and pushed the Alliance ninja up to safety, but in doing so it became drenched and heavy. He held the sand steady, held it together as a single amorphous island over the water, but it was too much effort to sustain for long.
But then Oonoki floated downward with Gaara in tow. They set down on the mass of black sand and the Tsuchikage clapped his hands to the rough cold surface. Gaara felt a pulse of chakra run through his sand, and then the downward pull of the ocean was completely gone. The Kazekage himself seemed to stand slightly taller in its absence, eyes wide with surprise. "You made my sand lighter," he realized. "Light enough to float even with this much water in it..."
"All you have to do now is hold it together," said Oonoki, "and we won't drown. On the other hand, we still have to worry about that." He looked up as Naruto rejoined the battle against Obito, and it was clear to see that the Jinchuuriki was reacting more to his attacks than Kurama's. Obito met Naruto's sword with a misshapen club hewn from a Truth-Seeking Ball, exchanged a few short blows and then kicked the Hokage in the stomach. As before, he was thrown violently back across the Land of Lightning.
But this time he stopped well short of where he could have flown. Out of nowhere Hinata appeared in his path, held aloft by a thin aura of levitated water. She braced her shoulder against his back as a brake; they both cried out from the impact but stayed within range of the enemy. "I've got your back, Naruto-kun!"
Despite the gravity of the situation, he briefly giggled at that. He took up a defensive stance against Obito, who now absentmindedly traded blows with the armored Nine-Tails. "This is starting to look pretty bad, ya know."
She nodded and glanced down at her hands, still bleeding though not profusely now. "Madara cut through the fuinjutsu on my gloves; I'll have to use hand seals for ninjutsu again."
He sighed. "Great..." with a glance down toward the violent ocean, a grim smile cut across his face. "But if we get him down toward the water, you can still grab him, right?"
"I can try." she worked her wounded hands experimentally, and winced at the pain but managed a Horse seal. "At least I'm sure I can still cast."
"I'll get close and try to push him downward, then you grab him with a big water jutsu and hold him under as long as you can. We'll work with that!"
Obito held up his right hand, and Naruto's sword slammed down on it with all of his weight behind the swing. The mirage in front of Hinata only vanished after he drew the weapon back and landed a second slash, which Obito also caught. The Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki wielded a Truth-Seeking Ball with each hand, flowing through holes in his palms to armor them with a thick black shell.
Naruto pushed forward even so, and Obito floated back as he parried each swing. Naruto soared up in an arc over Obito's head, his sword still a blur between slashes as he moved. Obito followed his opponent's movement and still continued to catch every swing of the Truth-Seeking Blade, but in doing so he left his chest unprotected.
Kurama lunged in to capitalize on this with a swing of his own sword, a perfect horizontal cut across the Jinchuuriki's chest. Obito looked vastly surprised for a split second, as though he'd completely forgotten about Kurama the instant Naruto rejoined the battle. Then he flew backward, and at such speed it was impossible to see the look on his face.
Naruto appeared behind him in mid-flight, his sword held high with both hands. Obito caught the edge between his black-armored palms, bringing it fully to a stop. But as the two shot backward at a dizzying speed, Naruto's Rinnegan flashed orange with a tremendous surge of chakra.
"Shinra Tensei!" he roared, and the sword pushed down again. Obito's trajectory changed abruptly and completely, backward to downward with even greater speed and force. The ocean impossibly caved in as he struck it, then he augured through and sent waves of violent force through the water. The shockwave produced great empty bubbles of space under the surface, vacuums which quickly crushed themselves back out of existence.
Then the ocean fell still in a great circle around the point of impact, smooth and solid as glass. Hinata clasped her bleeding hands together in a Snake seal; her eyes were closed and her whole body shook with the effort of the jutsu.
The surface of the water visibly sank as Hinata crushed it down. At the bottom of the sea Obito's chakra shone brilliant orange; it was plain to see that he was fighting back. The light flashed momentarily brighter and a shallow ripple disturbed the pristine surface of the water; a split second later the Jinchuuriki burst through it.
With a cry of fear, determination and exertion all at once, Hinata caught him with three thick tendrils of water. His upward flight slowed, stopped, and she hauled him back down under the surface. Naruto flickered into being directly above where Obito was held, though nowhere near the bottom of the ocean as before. He drew up his sword and it bloomed open into a multicolored Rasenshuriken, which he threw without pause squarely into Obito.
X
The dull impacts that had shoved him around had hurt, regardless of whether they dealt lasting damage. But this was orders of magnitude beyond that, and though he couldn't remember, he guessed it was worse than any pain he'd felt in his life. It felt most like a cutting pain, though it also burned and bludgeoned him at the same time. His body and the nerves within were vaporized, regenerated and vaporized again in the passing of the attack.
But with the pain came a sort of alertness, awakeness, as though it were rousing him from a deep sleep. He wondered why, what logic there could possibly be to that. Surely he had already been quite awake. Yet he felt the chill of heavy warm blankets slowly falling away, felt sunlight touch him through a shell of dark, and he felt that somehow he was being held by something, and its grip was now loosening.
He didn't feel safe.
What was happening? Where was he, who was he? He could feel the relevant information bubble up from deep inside his mind, only to be sluggishly pulled down again. For a split second he almost remembered everything, then lost the thought, found it and lost it again in an irksome cycle.
He looked at himself, saw his arms and legs cocooned in vast masses of bone-white tendrils tugging at him. The pull was overpowering; he marveled that his body hadn't completely burst apart yet. He knew at once that this was the source of the false cozy feeling he'd been smothered in, and now the Enemy, Naruto, had weakened its hold with his last attack. He had to pull free, had to remember-
And then he did. A vivid memory returned to him with perfect clarity, a photograph of four people. A beautiful brown-haired girl, smiling. A silver-haired boy, masked and solemn. Above them a young man, blond, cheerful... and lastly...
Obito Uchiha. That was the name attached to the memory, the name of a black-haired boy, smiling behind a pair of orange goggles. That's who you are. Go on, remember it all. The tentacles fell away from his right arm; in the dark void ahead he saw that same photograph materialize, and he reached out. He nearly took it; his fingers just fell short of brushing the paper's edge.
But there was something wrong with it, a hint of discord between himself and the boy wearing goggles. A distant scream, a feeling of dread, a faint urge to do anything but touch that photograph. He pulled his hand back, just a few inches. It couldn't be him; that smiling boy could never have survived this long in this hell, and so he knew he was someone else.
But who? The voice wasn't an internal monologue, it was the tone of the clew of writhing things around him. They answered his decision, challenged it even before he could speak it aloud. There's no one else you could be. You are Obito Uchiha.
But the tendrils, also an Enemy, were weakening while he grew stronger. A smile crossed his face, and it was a cold hostile one. There was one answer that could break him free of the monster's grasp, and now he had it. Even better, it was the truth.
"I'm no one," he declared. The tendrils no longer held him, rather now they were pinned to his body, to his will. Within the Ten-Tails, he turned from prisoner to pilot as he spoke. "No one at all."
Tobi opened his eyes.
X
The surface of the ocean around Gaara's island, already violent, rose up into a wall of dim blue as Naruto swatted Obito into it via the Rinnegan. He seemed not to have noticed the Alliance stranded below him. Gaara watched as the wave grew higher and closer; he thought of raising a wall of sand to match it. But he had neither the strength nor the material to do so, and he thought of no other ways out.
An arc of bright orange soared over his head, splashing apart on contact with the wave. Steam filled the air and covered the entire floating island; the Alliance flinched back from the sudden heat. But when it passed, the mass of sand was guarded on one side by an upward slope of rough grey stone. It wasn't clear whether most of the threat had been blocked or evaporated, but regardless the Mizukage had saved their lives.
All eyes quickly turned to her; she stood near the center of the island with her hands clasped in a Tiger seal and a wisp of black smoke rising from her lips. "I still have chakra left," she noted, "but I think we need a better defense than this. Does anyone here know a good barrier ninjutsu?"
Some distant memory tickled the back of Gaara's mind, just as Orochimaru began to speak. "We'll need better than good for this," he replied, then strode toward Mei and the direct center of the island under her. "You, the Tsuchikage, Jiraiya and Tsunade, stand at the edges of the island. Kazekage, reshape it, make it perfectly square. Move; we don't have much time!"
The Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki, meanwhile, burst up from the depths of the ocean and was quickly dragged back down by another ninjutsu from Hinata. A spike of adrenaline cut through Orochimaru as he glanced in that direction, and although a second tsunami hadn't yet risen, Naruto could be seen in the sky above Obito with a Rasenshuriken in hand. "I'm going to cast a ninjutsu using your chakra!" he called, hands meshed together in a blur. "If you put up any resistance, the jutsu will fail and we'll die!"
All four of the shinobi, the Sannin who knew Orochimaru and the Kage who'd only heard of him, all tensed at that. If they allowed him to cast the jutsu, there was no guarantee it would produce the barrier he promised them. If he chose to cast a suidical attack instead, it would be through their chakra and applied to their bodies.
Across the ocean, Naruto threw his strongest attack toward Obito. There was no doubt that it would produce another tsunami, and they had a moment to realize it just before the water began to rise. The choice was clear, to surely die under that wave or to merely risk dying at Orochimaru's hand. All of them but Oonoki closed their eyes; he alone kept watch on Orochimaru even as he surrendered control of his chakra.
Orochimaru's flickering hands came to a stop clapped together. "Four Red Yang Formation!"
Then there was light, vivid red light that gave off an odd sense of calm. On all four sides the black island was guarded by gleaming red walls, translucent and thin but high enough to pierce through the heavy clouds above. The sound from outside the barrier was muffled though not completely muted. The approaching tsunami struck the barrier and washed harmlessly past it, the splash of its impact was dulled and quiet.
"Don't move, and don't try to cast any other jutsu," Orochimaru instructed. "The barrier needs a constant flow of chakra from all four corners." He showed a smirk of cold satisfaction. "As long as you stay put, nothing they do over there should be able to reach us."
Just as he said so, Obito reappeared in the sky level with Naruto, Hinata and Kurama. For a moment they had felt safe, but now that moment had ended as quickly as it had began. The Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki stood firmly on the open air, draped in a coat of some material that appeared halfway between skin and bone, and it was surely a part of his own body.
With a priestly staff wrought from a Truth-Seeking Ball, its head bearing several rings of the same orange-black, Obito gestured in Naruto's direction. The Alliance collectively braced for some cataclysmic attack, but nothing happened.
"Thank you, Naruto." His voice resonated with an eerie, deep undertone to match Naruto's own, and seemed oddly sincere. "The Ten-Tails' power nearly overwhelmed me; I think it would have if you hadn't struck me with that attack."
"Why the hell would you thank me for that?" Naruto bit out. "We're fighting! The world is ending because of you; don't thank me!"
"This world is ending," he corrected, with a tone that was almost gentle. "This world, this horrible world full of suffering and hate and death. You're the Hokage; by now you must have seen some of it and heard much more. Humanity deserves better than this." He smiled after a moment, and Naruto gaped at the sheer audacity of it. "I can do better."
He took a step forward through the sky, which seemed to be a pointless formality. "Yes, this world will end, and it's no great loss. I know you want peace just like I do, Naruto, so I have to at least offer... if you stand down now, I'll cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi and you can be there with the rest of us. No one has to die today."
Naruto's grip tightened on the Truth-Seeking Blade. "You must have felt it by now, right? I've been trying to tell you the whole time, the Infinite Tsukuyomi just won't work! It'll kill everyone you cast it on!"
"It won't be Kaguya Ootsuki casting it this time," said Obito. "The Ten-Tails' power is mine now, and I'll make it work." He watched with his Sharingan gleaming vivid red, but Naruto clearly didn't soften his stance. "You won't put down that sword... I can't say I blame you." a sad smile crossed his bone-white face. "I've done horrible things to get this far. What's one more murder on top of it all?"
Then his left hand appeared just behind Naruto's back, dripping blood with the arm behind it running through the Hokage's chest. He brought up the antiquated ring-tipped staff in his right hand, drew it back and aimed its tip like a spear at Naruto's head.
Naruto brought up his sword and stabbed it through Obito's incoming wrist; at the same time he grabbed Obito's left arm with his own off-hand. The staff came to a halt well short of Naruto's temple, but with the tip still aimed in that direction. Obito reshaped and stretched out the black-orange-chakra; the weapon grew longer and thinner as it reached for Naruto's head.
The Hokage pulled back, but the arm through his chest kept him from fleeing. He just barely managed to lean his head back to avoid losing it; Obito's weapon skipped over his forehead protector instead of killing him. The headband pulled free and fell toward the ocean below, its leaf insignia melted away, the orange cloth turning brown and smoking.
Faint orange light swelled up in Obito's left wrist where Naruto held it; the limb was torn apart from within by a Truth-Seeking Rasengan. He pulled back the stump at his elbow, gently spilling bright red blood, and quickly dodged away from the Rasengan still active in Naruto's free hand. The Truth-Seeking Blade slid back out of the stab between the bones of his forearm, taking with it a bit more of Obito's blood.
He never had time to prepare for his next attack. From far below, a blurred shape of deep blue light shot straight upward and smashed into his chin. The Rasenyari held its shape rather than exploding immediately, and carried Obito and Hinata further up into the sky. When it did explode, both of them were thrown apart but Hinata emerged unscathed from the blue shockwave, somewhat out of breath but otherwise whole.
The one thing we need to damage him is senjutsu chakra. She produced a second Rasenyari, though she was growing slightly lightheaded with the loss of chakra. I don't have the same mix of chakra as Naruto or Obito, but it doesn't matter. I know he felt that attack...!
Her eyes went wide and adrenaline flooded her body. She ducked frantically under the swipe of Obito's staff, and saw it for a feint only a moment too late. The Jinchuuriki's knee drove hard into her sternum and threw her back up to her full height, and then Obito kicked straight ahead with the same foot. She felt something crack with the impact, and then a moment later it cracked again as she struck the surface of the ocean.
She might have panicked over her unknown injuries, might have worried about drowning with her body so damaged, but there was no time for it. She blacked out as she hit the water, and thought of nothing.
X
The Alliance collectively flinched with Hinata's crash, and then the sky above them was lit by a strobe of scathing orange light. Naruto and Obito both flickered in and out of sight with matching speed, trading cataclysmic attacks of matching color that turned the stormy sky as bright as the sun. "Sasuke, Itachi!" Sakura called. "Can you two see what's happening!?"
"Not even close," said Sasuke, sounding disturbed. "Naruto showed me he was fast enough to trick the Sharingan and leave an afterimage, but this is way beyond that."
Itachi continued to stare skyward, his red eyes rapidly flicking back and forth. "I'm not doing much better," he admitted. "But I can see that they're fighting close-range, with a sword and a staff as before... if they could move this fast all along, they must have been holding back until now."
"Both of them?" Sasuke blinked. "Why would Obito be holding back as well?"
Orochimaru turned his own doujutsu skyward with no real effect. He could already see in that direction, and could make out nothing amid the orange flashes. "Naruto restrained himself in hopes of communicating with Obito through ninshuu, as he did with Pain. That sounds right to you, doesn't it?" Sakura nodded. "Yes... and Obito has been thinking much the same, hoping to convince Naruto into submission. They're two sides of the same coin."
"How do know that?" Itachi asked. "You don't know either of them well enough to deduce that."
"No." Orochimaru's lips twitched, not quite a smile but the sentiment was the same. "I read their lips with the Byakugan before they started this madness. Aren't you supposed to be a genius prodigy?"
"You guys missed something," said Sakura, a tightness in her voice while she stood with her back to the Alliance. "Naruto just kicked it up a notch, and that's because he has to end this quickly, otherwise Hinata's gonna die." She pointed to where Hinata floated in the distance, facedown and still. "We need to get to her."
"I'm not lowering this barrier," said Orochimaru, voice like ice. "I'm sure that under conventional morality, it's wrong to put all of our lives under severe risk for a mere chance at saving one woman. In fact, she may already be dead."
Her eyes narrowed and her right hand curled into a fist, but she kept it low at her side as she considered the consequences of attacking Orochimaru. The barrier would fall and not be raised again, and it would take time to reach Hinata regardless. With water-walking chakra it would be possible to use movement jutsu over the ocean's surface, but unless she killed Orochimaru with a single blow it would still take too long.
She startled slightly as she recalled the jutsu's weakness; all she had to do was call on Tsunade to step away from her corner. But even as she opened her mouth, Sasuke climbed sluggishly to his feet. He reached behind his back and produced a tiny red pill that he held up to display. "No one do anything stupid," he spoke up for all to hear. He popped back the pill and chewed as he spoke, new chakra flooding his body so he could stand straighter. "Sakura, go get Hinata and bring her here. Yomotsu Hirasaka!"
A black portal tore open the air in front of her, though Sasuke swayed on his feet with the effort. She wasted no time in diving through, since there was no telling how long he could hold it in place. She pulled Hinata from the water; her clothes were soaked and heavy but it was nothing compared to her enhanced strength. Adrenaline filled her as she whirled back toward the portal, wondering if it might close before she reached it, but then she dashed through and was safe again.
Even as she set Hinata down on the ice-cold sand, she lit her right hand with soft green light and pulled it steadily away from her patient. A stream of water floated out of Hinata's open mouth and was flicked aside; meanwhile Sasuke fell back to his seat and closed the wormhole, once more exhausted.
Sakura knelt over Hinata and put two fingers to her throat. She couldn't feel a pulse, and the pale blue pigments around Hinata's eyes were gone. With it went the senjutsu chakra that turned her body hard as steel, allowing Sakura a choice between CPR or ninjutsu which would otherwise be blocked.
She lit her fingers with a modest spark of golden-yellow Lightning Release, drew back her hand and jabbed it into Hinata's sternum. Her whole body twitched where it lay, but she didn't move and didn't breathe. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath, then cast the jutsu again and this time held her hand in place over Hinata's chest. She kept the electricity flowing, forced Hinata's heart to beat a second and third time, and then let the light die.
Hinata drew in a shallow, whistling breath, her lungs not quite full after Sakura pulled the seawater from them. Her eyes opened; she stayed where she lay but she was alive. "Don't move," Sakura commanded, and swept a glowing green palm over her abdomen. "You're in bad shape, and you're lucky I didn't try CPR on you."
She stayed still, but activated the Byakugan to watch the battle. Even higher above the clash between Naruto and Obito, she saw Kurama hiding within the thunderclouds and waiting for a chance to sneak-attack the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki. She could see an unmistakable swell of chakra, built up and stored in the Fox's closed mouth.
"This barrier," she murmured. "Can it survive a Tailed Beast Ball?"
"Absolutely," said Orochimaru, also looking skyward. "From that range, we should be perfectly safe." She looked in his direction and saw a tightness on his face, a subtle hint of fear.
Naruto and Obito became abruptly visible once more, near the low ceiling of the thunderheads. From Obito's hand flew the ring-capped staff, pulled from his grasp by a flick of Naruto's sword. There was a hook-shape grown forward from the tip of the blade, no doubt meant to catch on Obito's weapon and pull it away. The Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki looked surprised, though not afraid.
At once, Kurama charged out of his cover, teeth bared under the helm of sand covering the rest of his face. Obito glanced upward and raised his left hand, and with it a Truth-Seeking Ball that expanded into a circular shield between himself and Kurama's mouth. The Nine-Tails willingly smashed headfirst into the wall and reached past it with both hands, clapping them together on either side of the Jinchuuriki.
And the crushed Tailed Beast Ball he had spat into his palm exploded, sending all three combatants flying in different directions. Kurama was first to emerge from the orb of flame; the surface of Shukaku's sand armor was now melted into a sticky shell of glass. He hissed at the heat, but for now there was still sand between his fur and the glass. He stayed airborne and uninjured.
A grin of triumph crossed his face, but he knew the attack wouldn't kill Obito and so he stayed on guard. "Naruto!" he called. "Hit him now!"
There was a flicker of movement before his eyes, and he moved far too late. Obito materialized in a crouch on Kurama's snout, his palms laid on the bridge of the Fox's nose. He met the gaze of the Sharingan and was frozen in place, unable to look away. "That's enough out of you," said Obito, his doujutsu whirling rapidly.
"GET OFF OF ME!" Kurama roared, twitching slightly as he fought against the chakra invading his system. "I WON'T GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN!"
Obito frowned and his Sharingan stilled; the genjutsu didn't stick. "...If you insist," he murmured, and tightened his grasp on Kurama's snout. Abruptly and with tremendous force, he twisted the Nine-Tails' head and listened for the snap of his spine. Kurama's body went limp inside the shell of Shukaku's sand, and then Obito let him fall.
He turned and raised a hand between himself and Naruto's incoming slash, catching it with a twisted length of orange-within-black chakra. The weapon continued to grow and spiral further outward, producing a narrow double-helix shape that would more comfortably fit a Tailed Beast's hand than his own. "That just leaves you and I, Naruto."
For a split second his Rinnegan narrowed, and then he vanished leaving Obito alone in the sky. "What'll it be this time?" He adjusted his grip on the spiral sword, glancing left and right with his Sharingan swirling. "A cheap shot at my back, or maybe a speed mirage to surround me? Or will you attack from a distance?" There was silence in the air around him; he couldn't catch even a glimpse of Naruto. "I know your tricks; there's only so much you can pick from."
As if to challenge his claim, the air was suddenly filled with orange light. From all directions came vast crescent-shaped blades of chakra, converging on Obito before he could react even with the Sharingan. All aligned like wedges of an orange, they struck home and sliced through his toughened skin. He cried out in surprise and even pain.
As the blades fell away wet with his blood, Naruto appeared in the air above him and swung his arm downward, firing a black-orange Rasengan between the Jinchuuriki's shoulder blades. The attack detonated and launched him forward and down.
He stopped his momentum abruptly and poised the Sword of Nunoboku ahead of himself; Naruto's next stab toward his heart was caught between the twin coils of chakra. "Enough!" he snapped, and a spherical shell of the same substance manifested around him. It expanded to engulf the great length of his weapon as well, pushing Naruto's own out of it, then continued to grow with tremendous speed. His opponent was forced back to a more manageable distance, and then the bubble of chakra popped, disappeared.
He lashed out with the spiral sword, a great downward chop that Naruto foolishly brought up his own weapon to block. Their blades met and Naruto's gave way; he was thrown down along the arc of the swing, into the ocean and then into the ground beneath it.
X
The Alliance watched all of this with growing dismay, including Hinata now upright and with a renewed Sage Mode. As Naruto soared back into the sky, she spoke up. "I need to get back out there."
Sakura glanced in Tsunade's direction, keeping her options in mind. No one noticed. "Do you have a plan?" she asked. "Because honestly, I think it's a bad idea for you to go up there and just hit him with a Rasenyari again. That's not gonna cut it."
Hinata hesitated. "...You're right." she turned her gaze on the still form of the Nine-Tails, floating catatonic on the water as she had moments before. "But Naruto still needs backup, and I do have a plan."
Sakura nodded, looking up to the sky filled with violent flashes of orange. Naruto abruptly reappeared, flying back as a ragdoll from a direct hit of Obito's weapon. The Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki also stilled, his left arm outstretched to charge a Tailed Beast Ball over his palm. "Sasuke. Any chance you could open one more wormhole?"
He shook his head, but he was seated behind her. "No. I barely managed that last one."
"Then I've got no choice." she turned toward the center of the island and saw Orochimaru facing her, hands raised in a Ram seal. His heart clearly wasn't in the gesture, and his stance lightened more when he saw her looking in Tsunade's direction. This barrier will fall if any of the casters step away from their corner, whether Orochimaru allows it or not. All she had to do was say it, and Tsunade would comply without hesitation. Hinata can leave, and then we'll cast the barrier again.
Oonoki lowered his hands from where they touched the glassy red wall. The entire construct crumbled apart and vanished, even under the hands of the other three casters. All eyes turned on him with no small amount of surprise. "Come on; you must've all picked up on that. If I hadn't done it you would have." He turned an annoyed look on Hinata. "Now get out there! What are you waiting for!?"
She nodded and shot off in the direction of the stirring Nine-Tails. "Kurama!" she called, and the Fox's eyes opened and focused on her. They glowed surprisingly bright red in the shade under the thunderstorm. "Neither one of us can help Naruto alone. I'm not strong enough, and you can't put a scratch on Obito without senjutsu chakra. We need to team up."
Kurama's tails swayed, sending ripples through the water under her feet. She heard his neck crack, still only partially healed. "I don't know just how you think that would work. It's not like I can give you all of my chakra; that would mean making you a Jinchuuriki."
"I don't need all of your chakra. My body probably couldn't handle it; Hyuuga tend to have small chakra pools. But give me what you can, and I'll add natural energy to it."
For a moment the Fox simply watched her, red eyes bright and set in a face dimly lit. "I don't like handing off my chakra so casually. It feels like being used, and I'll always have my pride. But I'm not stupid; I know what needs to be done. Without us, Naruto will die and the world will end." He sighed, a gust of warm wind strong enough to push her back just slightly. "Come closer. Touch me and I'll do the rest."
She took a step ahead and laid a hand on his snout, where the One-Tail's sand swept away from the fur for her. At the same time Kurama glanced up, watching the sky fill with a brighter surge of orange light. Naruto, keep it together. Hinata's on her way; give her an opening and she'll do the same for you.
Before any real reply came, the Nine-Tails felt a hint of frustration through his link to Naruto, a tone of aimlessness. Then that feeling evaporated, replaced by realization and solemn certainty. Yeah, I know what to do.
He and Obito reappeared at once, with the slender Truth-Seeking Blade wedged between the curls of the Sword of Nunoboku. The tip of the saber was just inches from Obito's face; with a snarl Naruto reshaped it and made it grow longer. The Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki pushed his own sword aside, taking Naruto's with it. The two blades moved to his left, instinctively away from the more precious Mangekyou Sharingan in his right eye.
The blade painfully gouged across Obito's left temple, but failed to damage the transplanted Sharingan as well. Naruto's grimace became a feral grin, and he lunged forward with a Rasengan in his left hand. Obito grabbed his wrist and stopped the attack short of his face, but following a simple rhythm, Naruto made his next move with his opposite hand.
The Truth-Seeking Blade bent ninety degrees, once again aiming its tip at Obito's skull. He just barely saw this out of the corner of his eye and leaned back, letting the stab miss him again. He turned his gaze back to Naruto's left hand just before the second Truth-Seeking Ball shifted from a Rasengan into a slender dagger.
"Predictable," said Obito, and his left hand made a fist crushing through Naruto's arm. The hand holding the dagger fell away from the two fighters, and Naruto screamed as the stump gushed blood. Obito swung the Sword of Nunoboku, and Naruto's weapon was dislodged by the swing. The sharpened tips of the helix tore a deep gash down Naruto's torso. Rather than halting his backward flight, he added his willing levitation to it and retreated faster. He clutched the stump of his left arm to his bleeding chest.
Below them, Hinata watched the battle with a Byakugan glowing hellish red. Now! Came the roar through her mind, carried by Kurama from Naruto. This is it, Hina-chan; we won't get another shot! Obito soared headfirst after him at full speed, the Sword of Nunoboku still at the ready.
Jump, said Kurama.
She jumped, and instinctively raised her right hand wielding her last and greatest jutsu. There was no sense to it; she knew she would never reach Obito at such distance, but the certainty in Kurama's order made her do it regardless. And then she was there, level with the two Jinchuuriki, her attack slamming into the bridge of Obito's nose.
A shaft of vivid blue light, filled along its entire length by not one Rasengan, but seven identical ones. The cores of the jutsu glowed a dangerous brilliant white, humming with the amplified speed of their rotation, and they gave the sense of swirling in time with each other. There were flickers of red chakra coursing through the blue, holding it together, for there was no way she could have managed it on her own. In those seven spheres lay exactly seven times the chakra her body naturally held, focused and sharpened into a single shot.
From head to toe she was stinging, as if burned, though surely no attack had hit her. She couldn't hear the threatening hum of the jutsu in her hand; she was deaf, hearing only the echoes of a high scream from whatever Kurama had done.
Obito reeled, thrown upward and off-balance by the impact. But he didn't fly off into the distance, and the Rasenyari held its shape after striking home. He was still alive, and even whole excluding his face, which was gone. The skin of it, the muscle, his eyes in their sockets were shredded away, and the bone under it was visibly eroded out of shape.
She only had a moment to see it, then she was back on the ground and the burns over her body were sharply more painful. "W-What did you do!?" Alarmed and disoriented, it took her a moment to realize she hadn't heard herself speak.
You know, when we were created, the Sage of Six Paths gave us all something special. Shukaku has his sand, Matatabi her blue flames, and so on. His voice was clear, the only thing she could hear. We can all heal ourselves, even though I'm better at it. But the Sage gave me a Wind Release, and I find a use for it now and then.
With her body covered in friction burns, her ears filled with the echoing scream of the wind that had shoved her where she needed to go, Hinata watched Naruto brake in his flight. There was a fraction of a second where both he and Obito were still, and he held the Truth-Seeking Blade to his side at arm's length.
She saw distant motes of orange light, wrapped in swirls of five other mingling colors. Teal, yellow, tan, blue, red. Thousands of these bright lights burst into existence around Obito, and from all sides they shot inward and struck him. They were Truth-Seeking Rasenshuriken, every last one, and Hinata's breath caught in her throat when she realized it. Obito couldn't dodge; his eyes were completely gone and his other senses wouldn't be much use after the blow he'd taken to his head.
It was ridiculous, she knew, but she was shaken and dismayed through to her core at the sight. Kurama noticed, as she knew he would. You're upset, said he. Why the hell would you be upset?
The sky was filled with a swell of light, brighter than the sun and broader. She turned off her Byakugan and closed her eyes, a move she wouldn't have made against a Tailed Beast Ball. I've wanted to be as strong as Naruto since I was ten, she replied. And I really did it; I kept up with him even after he became the Hokage. But there's no way I can match that. She resisted an urge to look up at the light, blinding as it was. And now I have to wonder when this happened, how long he's been holding back to avoid hurting my feelings. Was it since the Land of Waterfalls? Or was it when he finished his jutsu at the Kage Summit?
The Nine-Tails didn't answer, not immediately. Together they stood in silence and darkness, Hinata's ears still healing, her eyes closed. I understand, he noted, voice oddly quiet. When I was your age, I wanted to be the strongest of the Bijuu. I wanted it more than anything, and I had my reasons for it. My case wasn't like yours, but I still get what you mean.
She smiled. Don't worry about me; I know we've got bigger problems right now. The light began to dim, but just slightly. She kept her eyes closed to be safe. If we survive this, I'll probably mope about it for a while. But for what it's worth, I think it won't matter how strong Naruto or I am in a fight after today. One way or another.
She only realized Kurama's chakra had healed her ears when she heard Naruto standing beside her, completely out of breath. She jumped and opened her eyes, confused. There was silence except for his panting, but the sky was still full of orange light.
She looked up. Almost to the horizon, the storm clouds had been burned away by his jutsu. The sky was perfectly clear above them, still lit orange but by a brilliant sunset. Not quite directly overhead, the moon was full and faintly visible.
"That was everything I had," he admitted, and she saw it was true. He still held the Truth-Seeking Blade, and the arm behind it was still wrapped in a sleeve of black chakra. But his face was pale, slick with sweat. His eyes were wide as was his mouth, and the Rinnegan was gone from them. The robes of his Six Paths Sage Mode flickered; pieces of it simply vanished for a few moments and left holes through which his tattered clothes could be seen.
He slumped behind the sword, and the tip of it levelled out as if to point ahead. "The son of a bitch is getting up," he panted. "I don't believe it!"
Obito lay facedown, his body barely recognizable, but he was moving. His left arm was gone to just short of the elbow, leaving him with a stump there of less than half his wrist. He moved that arm anyway, shoving the exposed bone and marrow into the ground as an anchor to push himself up. The skin even past that point of his arm was gone, up to his shoulder and then even further.
She could see his ribcage in his chest, see which bones were broken and which had already healed. His legs were both gone to the knee, and his right hand was torn off as well. There were a few patches of snow-white skin on his body, smeared with blood as well, and only a few. He used the most intact limb he had left in a sluggish attempt to rise and fight again, but got nowhere.
She looked down, away from the horror, and saw earth under her own feet as well. The Ten-Tails had raised a flood, but it had steadily drained away over the course of the battle. She was left standing on soggy, abused ground, but ground nonetheless.
Obito slumped back down again, and for a second she thought he might have died. But a Truth-Seeking Ball rose from where it lay by his right hand, and it unfurled into a tight black cocoon around his broken body. It stayed there for a few long seconds, and then crumbled into bits of black material, light and fragile like sandstone.
Whole once more, he shoved himself to his feet, swaying wildly as he did. He locked a single grey-black eye on Naruto, and kept his transplanted second Sharingan closed. He too was visibly spent, and the absence of his doujutsu spoke volumes more than his breathlessness. But still he held up a hand and produced a second Truth-Seeking Ball, and through it the ancient shakujou of the Sage of Six Paths.
"We're not done yet," he spat. There was no Sharingan in his open eye, but there was still a hateful light to it. "Not even close."
"Thought so," Naruto sighed back, and fell into a low kenjutsu stance. It was indeed a falling motion, a slump; there was no dignity to the gesture. "If that didn't kill you, what the hell will!?"
"Nothing," said Obito. "I'm gonna win, and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi and save the world, and until I do there's nothing that'll kill me!" he clasped the staff with both hands, teeth bared in anger and determination. "Get over here and let's finish this, Naruto!"
"There's no need."
A hand touched down on Obito's shoulder, and he went still as stone. Madara stood just at his side, with his armor scratched and battered and his gunbai gone. "It's already finished." Obito glanced at him warily but didn't move against him; it was clear that Madara was nowhere near as spent as either of the Jinchuuriki. Hinata and the Nine-Tails were still a threat, but they wouldn't be enough.
Madara's hand left his shoulder, and touched down on the seal over his back. Adrenaline spiked Obito's blood and his eyes went wide, but he stayed where he stood. He couldn't move; his body was simply ignoring the orders he sent it.
The Rinnegan glowed softly, locked on the core of the seal under Madara's palm. The sword in Obito's hand dissolved into caustic black mist that swirled around him, intent on catching Madara with it and forcing him away. But in a perfect spherical bubble around Madara, the air stayed clear.
In the back of Obito's mind he wondered which Path Madara was using to rip free the Ten-Tails through its closed seal. He thought it might have been the Preta Path to absorb their chakra, but that wouldn't be enough. Perhaps it was the Human Path, and he was grasping the Tailed Beasts as disembodied souls rather than masses of chakra.
Regardless, the seal was cold as liquid nitrogen across his back. The lesser chill of mere solid ice flooded out from there, filling his chest and working down along his arms and legs, now only at his shoulders and waist but still spreading. He fought and got nowhere.
He tried Kamui, tried to retreat completely into a dimension of his own. But his Sharingan was inactive and he couldn't turn it on; the chakra in his body refused to flow. In desperation he tried Izanagi, but failed again for the same reason.
Even against the cold reaching toward his hands and feet, a raging fire filled Obito's blood, a will to fight on. The black mist whirling around him redoubled its force, and a scream of defiance ground out between his gritted teeth. He realized that Madara must have laid a second juinjutsu somewhere other than his heart, a weaker one to simply paralyze him. He guessed it was on the back of his head. He was weakened now, enough that it held him with or without the Ten-Tails' world-ending power.
But he would fight regardless. The bubble of protection around Madara began to shrink, slowly but surely. Madara grimaced and his Rinnegan flashed brighter, but he didn't even slow down Obito, who might have grinned if he could move. They were equal now, each as close to a horrible death as the other. Madara tugged on the seal holding back the Ten-Tails, while at the same time Obito crushed down on the Deva Path's defensive bubble.
If he managed a few inches more, he would have scorched off the top of Madara's head. The skull, and the brain within, and it would have ended with that. Madara would die and stay dead. But the cold reached his fingertips and he knew the seal had been opened. All of the strength left Obito's body, as did the binding juinjutsu that held him still. He started to fall forward, but to his eye it was in slow motion.
"Obito!"
He looked up. That shouldn't have been possible with the seal still binding him, but that thought barely crossed his mind. And then because he was distracted, he went on falling and hit the ground at the same time as the body of the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki, to which he was no longer attached.
Rin stood over him and offered a hand. He took it without thinking, and she helped him to his feet with no noticeable strain on her arm. She looked as he remembered her, but her clothes were casual civilian wear rather than the shinobi gear he'd seen her die in. A simple violet shirt and black pants, with shoes instead of the sandals ninja preferred. No weapons, no headband, no hole in her chest. She was smiling, but it was a heavy sad smile.
"You... you really made a mess, you know that?"
"Yeah," he murmured, not trusting himself to say more. He nearly choked on that one word.
"I was watching the whole thing," she went on. Her smile brightened slightly. "I know you were gonna clean it up. Or at least try, I mean."
He saw the world through a light film of orange. It took him a moment to remember why, and realize that he was the same height as her, just a child. A boy who couldn't possibly have survived the strain of holding the Ten-Tails. He threw his arms around her and began to sob like a baby.
She patted him on the back, and she laughed. "Got some dust in your eyes again, huh?"
"Yeah," he said again and nodded, his chin brushing her shoulder with the motion. "Rin how a-are you here?" He said the words in a rush so his voice tripped over them as little as possible.
She gently set her hands against his shoulders, and he took it as a sign to let her go and step back. "There aren't as many rules in the Pure World as you might think. There's no reason I can't say hi, now that you're..." she trailed off.
"Dead." He looked at Tobi's body. "I'm dead."
"Yeah." she looked down slightly. "I know it must be hard for you. It was for me too." she glanced at Madara and Naruto, both apparently frozen in time. "We can stay here if you want, and see how all of this ends."
He looked over his shoulder. "I don't know who to root for now." he lifted his goggles to wipe the tears from his eyes. "But yeah, I think I should stick around until the end of it."
Rin smiled. "Come on. We'd be better off watching from a distance, right?"
He turned to follow her. "I missed you so much, Rin."
X
Madara took a step forward, a step over and past Obito's body. What appeared to be white cloth began to grow out over his body, starting at his collar. The armor he already wore disintegrated piece by piece at its touch. He was wrapped in a robe of stark white, which developed a collar and lapels of contrasting black. At the ends of his sleeves and in a ring about his neck were black magatama markings.
"And now the hard part's out of the way," he said with a voice even and cool. "I won't bother with the Alliance; they can go to sleep with the rest of the world. But I'll have to finish you two off, won't I?" He locked eyes with Naruto, who reactivated his own Rinnegan as a countermeasure against any genjutsu Madara might try. "You look terrified. Don't be; I'll get it over with quickly."
He stopped, and the swell of chakra that would have cast a Rinbohengoku stayed still within his remaining eye. There had been no warning, he'd sensed nothing until Naruto had glanced past him. He looked over his shoulder, the motion slow and patient, and saw Zetsu's liquid body flowing out of the ground from the waist up, his hand laid across Obito's back.
"I've pieced together some of your story," said Madara. "I understand you've been playing this game for a very long time. So I'm curious why you wouldn't wait a minute longer and let me move away from Obito."
With one of Madara's own Rinnegan, Zetsu stared back at him. His face betrayed nothing of his emotions or his intent. I'm not afraid of you. I don't have any reason to be. Madara chuckled at that, and brought down the full force of his Deva Path. It was matched perfectly, exactly by the other half of his doujutsu, forming a bubble of protection around Zetsu as Madara had done moments before.
The chakra of the Ten-Tails, he murmured. A stable mixture of blue, red and green chakra... there isn't much left. His liquid form began to flow over Obito's corpse, concealing whatever he was doing to it. But it's enough.
"We have to stop him," Naruto breathed. Without thinking he blurred ahead into the confrontation, and was caught in midair by the Deva Path. "Madara! Let me go; you have no idea what'll happen if he pulls this off! We have to stop him!"
"Hn," said Madara, and nothing more. He looked back toward Zetsu and watched patiently. "Go on. I'll kill you when you're done, but go on."
Zetsu did show a hint of emotion then; he could make no facial expression but there was a clear shine of surprise and fear in his eye. A host body with the full mixture of chakra, and a Rinnegan eye. They're so shabby, the things I've brought you... his voice sounded almost heartbroken. A thousand years and this was the best I could do?
He sighed. It doesn't matter now; it's over either way. Wake up, Mother.
A smooth black surface spread out over the ground from under Obito, sharp-edged and square. He fell through it, slowly as though sinking into deep water, and another matching portal opened at a safer distance from Madara.
For a time nothing happened. Madara watched the portal with an expression almost serene, and Naruto struggled against the Deva Path holding him. He tried focusing chakra to his own Rinnegan and pushing back with Shinra Tensei, but he was too late already. Something hard and sharp rose up from within the wormhole, a pair of horns tinged a light tan color.
The pale woman who emerged from the portal was beautiful; that was objectively true. But just at a glance, Madara saw something deeply wrong with her. Her two Byakugan eyes, wide and keen, were impossible to meet without flinching. She hadn't yet moved, but when she did that too would be disturbing to see. Kaguya was terrifying, elegant in the same way as a slender sword promising to impale and kill.
The portal under the open hem of her kimono vanished. She lowered slightly and stood on solid ground. The soggy muck left behind by the flood didn't touch her; her robe stayed pristine white as it brushed the dirt.
She was shivering under that robe. Her face was naturally pale, but it gave the impression of being slightly more so now.
Madara took a step toward her, then another. She registered him as a threat, and her gaze snapped toward him as though pulled by a magnet. A third eye opened over her forehead and glared at him, full of red nested rings and nine matching tomoe. All that you have belongs to me. Madara looked away from that eye, but continued his approach steadily. You will now return it.
"No." He came to a stop within arm's reach of her. She made no move against him, simply went on glaring. He could see the chakra within her, and it wasn't enough to overcome the Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki. He laid a hand over that red eye that was enough to make even him flinch, and he found her skin was cold like ice. "This is my job now, not yours. But I'll let you help."
Kaguya's form lit up with a brilliant white light, which twisted out of shape and flowed into Madara's palm where it touched her forehead. The light went out and she was gone. Zetsu watched this helplessly from where he lay next to her, half-risen from a puddle on the ground. When he spoke it was barely a whisper. You have no idea what you've done. He rose taller with a single green eye alight with hate. I promise you'll die the worst kind of death for this. You can't hold her.
With the same hand that had sealed Kaguya in with the Ten-Tails, Madara flicked his fingers into Zetsu's head and gripped his eye. He made a fist around it, and the black liquid splashed down in obedience of gravity.
Then he turned back to face Naruto and Hinata.
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