Opening - Love Deterrence by Nana Mizuki
X
An unfamiliar pattern of stars, and under them an ancient battlefield. Their light, and the light of a moon shattered into chunks, shone down on the rusted armor and bleached bones of that battle's casualties. There was no daylight here; nothing as warm and bright as the sun could shine over this place. But the bones littering the barren ground were white, and there was no one here to wonder why.
No one who would bother, at least. The place was not entirely empty and dead; towering high over the spent army was a crucifix of black. Its surfaces declined to reflect the starlight, and would likely have stayed so dark under a clear noon sun. There was a woman hanging from that crucifix, her arms and legs chained to it but not her neck. Two of her three eyes were open, and they were ice as cold as the void between the stars.
She glanced around, searching. There was fury in her eyes, but it was dispassionate, subdued. A howl of rage and defiance would solve none of her problems, so she did not howl. The lack of a chain around her neck gave her more room to turn her head, but she did her searching without a single breath of movement. The Byakugan did that much work for her.
It took her less than an instant to see the Ten-Tails, reaching toward the sky as a towering ancient tree. At its peak was a blooming bone-white flower, within which lay an unblinking gigantic eye of red. It stared at the pieces of the moon, tried instinctively and failed to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. There wasn't enough of a mirror left to reflect that red light, and nothing lived here that could fall under its sway. Its trunk was wrapped in spiralling black chains, the same as her arms and legs.
Her third eye opened, huge and scarlet, an exact match to that of the tree behind her. Its gaze swayed from side to side, drinking in the details of her surroundings. This place was a pocket dimension, the landscape of Madara Uchiha's psyche given physical form. It was solidly constructed, wrapped in a seal that kept its occupants from leaving.
It was a modest, tiny plane of existence. There was little to see here, a comfortably small dose of information to take in and comprehend. She looked around, looked to the very edges of the plane, and came to understand the way the dimension was built.
The concentric rings of her eye turned, clockwise within counter within clockwise. The chains around her limbs fell slack through her body, and she floated free of the crucifix without a change in her expression. She continued to take in the sights around her. Of course Madara's mindscape would be a field of ruin and death. This was all the man had ever known. It was something he dwelled on in every waking minute. Likely this battlefield was a tweaked replica of a place where Madara had once truly stood, a field of Uchiha and Senju bodies left to rot in their armor.
She didn't care. This was all background noise that she was obliged to notice, to watch, in order to control the shape of this dimension. Obliged to notice, not to ruminate on.
She drifted freely across the battlefield and came to a stop before the Ten-Tails, the Divine Tree as she knew it. Only then did her face change, only as she brushed her hand along the smooth black-green bark that spiralled up the tree. It was a tender gesture, a loving one, and she wore a matching expression.
Oh, look what the centuries have done, she sighed. To you... or to me; for we are the same entity, aren't we? She smiled, a genuine smile but a sad one, tracing a single finger along the shell of the tree. I took you in and made you a piece of me. We were cut in twain, but a piece of me you remain.
She sang the words softly, sweetly; they were not intended for Madara so she kept her voice low. She pulled her hand away from the tree and made a fist. The tune in her voice died with her smile, and her eyes went cold once again. Come back to me. We must be united again for my vengeance.
X
Face to face stood Naruto and Madara, the Land of Frost ruined under their feet. Madara smiled as Naruto gasped for breath, stood tall as Naruto slumped. The younger Jinchuuriki's chakra cloak flickered over his shoulders, pieces vanishing and materalizing anew.
"You're looking for a new angle to hit me from," Madara noted. He held his staff, glowing orange within black, comfortably at his side with the base resting on the ground. "I don't know you, I've never seen you fight before today. But anyone with half a brain can see you always do this; you always try to attack from an angle your enemy won't expect."
Naruto snarled and lunged straight ahead, vanishing before Madara's eyes. A ring of Banshou Karu blades appeared around him and surged inward; Madara held up a hand and broke them down into raw chakra with his Preta Path. He glanced up, expecting the next attack to come from above, but instead a kunai of real metal punched into his chest. The thing was surely coated in a layer of empowering chakra, and Naruto had struck with it too fast to be seen.
Madara stumbled back, but there was a smile on his face. Naruto abruptly reappeared holding the blade, looking toward the air over Madara's head. He drew in a sharp breath of surprise and fear; kept from flying skyward by the iron grip of the Deva Path.
"See?" said the Jinchuuriki. "You knew I was ready for your fighting style and you did this anyway, because it's all you can do." He drew the knife from his chest and examined the metal, taking it for an exotic alloy synthesized by the Asura Path. He blinked in surprise, and gripped it slightly tighter before an explosive tag went off under his fingers. It produced a muffled blast of harsh smoke and nothing more.
"It was a little twistier than usual, and you did pick an angle I didn't see coming. But it was still the same move." The kunai turned black even over Madara's gleaming blood, black that sucked in the sunset light completely. He slid the weapon between Naruto's ribs, the gesture casual. "Honestly, aren't you the Hokage? This is shameful. Rinbohengoku."
He smashed into Hinata, well back across the battlefield. "Chibaku Tensei," Madara went on. A shell of rock and earth wrapped them up together, pulled in by the Deva Path coating on the kunai in Naruto's chest. The nest of rock floated toward the sky as it rapidly grew larger and round. Madara watched it rise and contemplated sending it into orbit, where Naruto and Hinata would suffocate beyond the atmosphere.
But before he could decide, a great clawed hand slammed down on his head and flattened him into the ground. "Hn," he murmured, inaudible under Kurama's palm. "Almost forgot about you."
The Nine-Tails roared as its fingers curled in around Madara. It was the same hateful sound that had once torn the air over Uzu and Konoha, when their time had come. His fist burst open and Madara slipped through his claws, aimed a swing of his staff at Kurama's muzzle but missed completely as the Fox vanished.
Madara's eyes widened, violet and white, but only for a moment. "I see you've picked up some new tricks. No doubt you copied the idea from Naruto." After a moment he noticed gleaming orange lights scattered around the battlefield, sheathed in black but steadily burning through it. They floated low over the ground, vibrating as they grew unstable. He had time to react but no idea how to do so, and after a moment they exploded en masse.
Fire filled the battlefield in its entirety, harsh and bright with a deafening roar. Madara was buffeted by the heat and wind, but without senjutsu chakra the flames just barely singed him. Kurama charged ahead through the blaze similarly unharmed, aiming an open palm at Madara who deflected it with the Deva Path. But the Nine-Tails was already disappearing as his attack was foiled, only to arrive behind Madara with another bootlegged Gentle Fist strike.
The taijutsu Kurama used was heavily flawed, the movements tainted and put off-balance by his inexperience and anger. The precision, the surgical bursts of chakra that made the Gentle Fist so fearsome were gone. But in their place was the sheer weight and force of a Tailed Beast's hand, the ferocious killing intent produced by a Tailed Beast's hate.
The attack landed. Madara staggered ahead and was immediately struck again; his Deva Path failed to deflect the second blow and then the third. Kurama's attacks grew proportionately sloppier as they grew faster, but he landed six direct hits before Madara wrapped himself in a solid bubble of Deva Path force.
"Rinbohengoku!" he roared; an unbreakable ethereal wall bulldozed Kurama through the raging fire. At the same time the Jinchuuriki flew upward past the flames' reach, and from above he saw the Nine-Tails skid to a stop on all fours. "Remember your place, Nine-Tails." his voice was low, annoyed as he produced a string of Truth-Seeking Balls from the sweeping head of his staff. "You're still just chakra. You're here to be used... and now the world has no more use for you."
He began firing the spheres in and endless volley after Kurama, who sprinted headlong through the flames at his full speed. Madara redirected his attacks to follow and match the Nine-Tails' pace, and he smiled at the sight of it fleeing.
Kurama vanished. A target as huge and visible as a Tailed Beast would have to move proportionately faster than a mere human to replicate this effect, but still he vanished completely and cleanly from Madara's sight. The Truth-Seeking Balls slowed as he searched for a place to aim them, and then he spotted the Nine-Tails through the fire as it struck back with a stream of compressed Tailed Beast Balls.
They would hardly damage Madara, but he swerved and dodged between them regardless. His own attacks resumed homing in on Kurama, who fled visibly on all fours instead of repeating the movement jutsu.
Steadily the Truth-Seeking Balls closed in, while the Nine-Tails returned fire in mid-sprint, though Madara continued to easily dodge it all. At last one of Madara's attacks struck home, and the Demon Fox roared in pain. The remaining Truth-Seeking Balls all landed and detonated once Kurama stopped running.
At the same time, the Tailed Beast Balls that had missed Madara exploded. They hadn't flown far over his head, only enough to escape his notice. As on the ground, they filled the sky with flames that could do Madara no harm. Now he saw the fire as a smokescreen, as cover, and knew more or less what to expect next.
Kurama's fur and hide were burned black in many spots across his body. He appeared just as Naruto had, well within Madara's guard with an attack already landed. His fist smashed into Madara's face with no small amount of relish, and he had learned from Naruto's previous mistake. Without an instant of pause he brought up his second fist and struck again.
Madara raised a Deva Path shield and found it ineffective, due perhaps to the Nine-Tails' natural bulk and strength, or perhaps to the ferocity lent by his hundred years of bottled hate and rage. Unhindered by the defensive bubble, Kurama kept raining down blows on Madara. The Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki gritted his teeth under the attack and kicked his own efforts up a notch. "Rinbohengoku."
Screaming and thrashing, the Nine-Tails was thrown with pinpoint accuracy into the vast Chibaku Tensei holding Naruto and Hinata. Madara's attack smashed him first through the condensed rock, and in his wake the solid wall of force pulverized the rest of the stone to bits. The three of them flew together out the back of the debris cloud, and fell to earth as Madara cancelled both of his Deva Path jutsu.
The Ten-Tails' Jinchuuriki set forth, staff in hand and Rinnegan eye alight. Somehow Naruto had pulled the kunai out of his side while still inside Chibaku Tensei. The wound had healed, but he along with Hinata clearly had nothing left to give. The war was over. There was only a final blow to be dealt, and that was more for the ceremony of it. Madara raised his weapon, within striking distance of them now.
And then he stopped. Eyes wide, looking at Naruto but not truly paying attention to him, Madara stopped.
"What-"
X
He stood on an old Uchiha-Senju battlefield, very old judging from the bare bleached bones and rusted trampled armor. There was starlight and the gleam of a moon's shattered pieces, and far away the red glow of the Divine Tree's flower.
Kaguya floated in place ahead of him, her robe drifting softly with a breeze he couldn't feel. But under it she was still and tense, no longer shivering, full of strength and ready to use it. Her eyes were ice, cold white and hard, as was her mirthless smile.
"Why am I here?" he bit out, lowering himself into a practiced stance behind his staff. "What have you done?"
I took back what is mine, she answered, voice even and cool. Most of it, at any rate. She gestured to the Tree. It returns its chakra to me, and in the end I'll absorb its physical husk as well. You'll be my Jinchuuriki alone, and then I'll kill you from the inside out.
"You won't make it that long." Madara scowled. "In hindsight, I should have killed you right away instead of sealing you."
But you didn't. And I know why. She glanced at the head of his staff, a broken circle where missing rings were meant to dangle. Hagoromo resorted to a seal as well. So you thought it would be impossible to kill me; that would mean doing better than he did. Isn't that right... Indra?
He moved his staff forward, guided only by instinct. Kaguya's hand locked around it instead of his neck, her fingers pale and delicate, nails long and razor-sharp. You will never be your father, she hissed. And you'll certainly never be me!
Madara threw off his confusion and his fear. He rallied and pushed back against her, not only with the staff but also his will. An explosion of white light poured out of him and cast Kaguya straight back. She braked and weathered the attack under an iridescent bubble of protection, and was unharmed when the current of light winked out.
"This is my mindscape," said Madara, directing the words only at himself. He looked surprised, glancing around at the battlefield with new interest. Then his eyes snapped back to Kaguya, hard and gleaming red, both of them despite his earlier sacrifice to cast Izanagi. "You have no power here. It's my world."
Within her prismatic shield, Kaguya smiled. It was. Not anymore.
X
"What the hell's going on!?" Naruto snapped. He was wide-eyed and out of breath, and he hit the ground on all fours where Kurama dropped him. Hinata landed upright, but swayed where she stood and nearly fell. "Kurama! That's not the Ten-Tails!"
The thing did have ten tails, and it was white like bone as the beast and its Jinchuuriki had been. But it was gaunt, wizened, with four arms evoking a twisted likeness of Susanoo. These were covered to the wrist in a cloak of vast green leaves, a cloak which spread over the monster's shoulders and halfway down its back. Its face was animal, a bizarre hybrid of a rabbit and some lean predator, perhaps a weasel. A long muzzle full of wicked bared teeth, and great white ears swept back. It had two narrow eyes, one Rinnegan and one blind, milky.
And it was huge. But to call it huge was a ridiculous understatement; the Ten-Tails had been huge, towering over other Tailed Beasts as completely as it did over humans. But this thing, from forepaws to tails, spanned the horizons. Its bony chest blotted out the sky, though not the sun as it slowly slipped past the horizon. Kurama had fled as far as he could with his allies in hand as Madara transformed, but still they were soundly under its body.
"It's Madara," the Fox breathed. "Idiot sealed both the Ten-Tails and Kaguya into himself. They're sharing one body, and now they're fighting over it."
The monster was looking around, missing the target just under itself. "It's not trying to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi," Naruto murmured. "Guys, this could be our last chance. We gotta regroup before it spots us."
"And how will that help?" Kurama argued, though his voic was low as well. "What can the Alliance do to that?"
"Dunno. Have a bunch of us with senjutsu chakra aim attacks at its good eye. We'll blind it, stun it, and then maybe we can seal it or something." he shrugged. "Shitty plan, but it's better than just dying, ya know?"
The Nine-Tails' expression changed. An idea, and a reluctant look implying it was a horrible one. "...We're dead either way, but I guess you have a point. We might as well go down swinging!" Unceremoniously he grabbed Naruto and Hinata, and with a rush of mighty wind he stood suddenly over the Shinobi Alliance. He dropped the two shinobi in his hands and smashed a fist on the wall of the Red Yang Formation. "Open up! I've got a plan, and it'll take all of us to pull it off!"
The barrier winked out, though Orochimaru scowled as he lowered it. "Everyone hold your positions. We need to be ready to cast in an instant!"
Gaara ignored him, arms crossed and eyes intent. "Naruto? What's this about a plan?"
"Senjutsu chakra," he began, and deactivated his waning chakra cloak. "We'll need to start this with more ninja who can use Sage Mode; it's the only way to damage that thing."
"We know it's possible," said Mei. "Orochimaru was able to give me a burst of natural energy earlier, enough for one good shot."
Naruto grinned, despite the world falling to pieces around them. "That's all we need! All right, we need everyone who can use Sage Mode to power up our ninjutsu casters. That's Oonoki, Mei and Itachi." He glanced at Sasuke, slumped off to the side with his cheeks smeared with blood. "I'd say Sasuke too, but you're totally out of chakra, right?"
"Hn," he nodded, a bit shaky. "Nothing left to mix with natural energy."
"Okay, so..." he glanced around and pointed. "Hina-chan and Oonoki, Jiraiya-sensei and Itachi, Orochimaru and Mei." Then he paused, frowning in silence for a moment. "Right! Sakura and Tsunade, you two use taijutsu so you can already damage it if you punch hard enough. So Kimimaro, you're with Gaara, and Juugo, help Yagura!"
"Hold on," Juugo cut in, looking alarmed. "I don't know if I can just do that! If any of us can!"
"Try anyway," said Naruto, beaming now with a plan to get behind. "It might not work for all of you, but we'll work with what we get, ya know?"
"But what then?" Orochimaru asked. "Once you have a team of senjutsu users, what do we do?"
"Shoot him in the eye," Naruto replied as though it was obvious. "He's only got one right now."
"And then?"
"That's where I come in," said Kurama. "This is all to give me an opening... I'll need to merge with the Ten-Tails. Once inside, I'll grab the other Tailed Beasts and we'll all hold on together, and Naruto will use chakra tug-of-war on me to pull us out. Without a solid handhold, he'd lose for sure and probably die."
Naruto opened his mouth, but the Fox lashed his tails in annoyance. "Nothing else can kill that thing. And do not say anything stupid to make it sound like I'm sacrificing myself. Unless I do this and you manage to pull me out, I'll die no matter what else we do!"
The Hokage frowned, held his tongue for a moment, then nodded. "You're right. It sucks, but you're right. So let's end this whole damn mess." He turned back to face the red barrier, steeling himself.
And he found himself staring at the mismatched glowing eyes of the monstrosity, impossibly high up in the sky along with a single raised forepaw. The gesture was clear in its intent. The barrier wouldn't save them, it kept Naruto from fleeing, and even were it to vanish, there were too many people for him to carry away, too many trips, it couldn't be done-
The hand came smashing down, and there was blackness. Silence.
X
The clash between Madara and Kaguya was impossible for even the fighters themselves to see, lost in a wash of brilliant white starbursts the size of Tailed Beasts. The attacks launched by both combatants were identical, blending together seamlessly and blocking any line of sight between them.
It was a battle between two completely unhindered gods. There was no limit to the destructive force they wielded, but each of them could also wipe from existence any attacks they saw coming. Once a shield was raised between them, it was an absolute fact that nothing would break it. Each move they made, Kaguya and Madara both, was written into the reality of the mindscape, an inviolate law.
Kaguya already seemed to know what she was doing, but Madara had learned quickly as well. Now neither of them could see the other and it was impossible to tell his attacks from hers, setting up the potential for one of them to potentially connect with an unseen extra shot.
I see your logic, said Kaguya. Her voice rang throughout the entire dimension, and to accomodate her the explosions went silent. I find it lacking. You grasp at straws here, you gamble your life on the luck of a shot without aim.
"Shut up!" he snarled, and with a wave of his hand the explosions drowned out her voice once again.
She quelled the sound a second time just as easily. Surely you understand what you're doing wrong. Translate your actions here from combat to conversation. You string words together, blindly in a language you don't speak, and hope that by pure chance you'll assemble a sentence that wins the argument.
There was a flash of orange light, of weight and supreme pain for a moment before Madara's senses were burned away. Without them he was disoriented, but he knew at least that death was imminent and he had to act quickly. For the third time in two lives he he unstitched himself from the cloth of reality; his body was an immaterial concept, subject to change with a thought.
Madara became a flame, taking inspiration from Kaguya's own attack, and then the flame winked out. As his body ceased to exist, it ceased to be burned. Much higher up in his mindscape a second ember lit. Flames caught on the edge of the Divine Tree's bloom, and once there they darkened and solidified into a human body once again.
Looking down, he saw an ocean of lava washing out over the Uchiha graveyard, pouring into this dimension from a gap in the air itself. "...The hell is that?"
Another of my worlds, said Kaguya. She appeared across from Madara at the far end of the bloom. I found it, took it and made it permanently mine. And now I'm pulling this whole dimension into the one already inside your head. She looked thoughtful, sincerely intrigued. I wonder how long you'll take to go insane.
Her eyes widened. She doubled over and coughed, and blood spilled from her open mouth as she did. She nearly gasped in a fresh breath, but just barely quelled that instinct and instead waved her right hand at her side. She hissed through teeth stained red, Poison?
"Acid." He glanced at her hand, held slightly out from her hip with clawed fingers splayed wide. She knows I could replace the air with acid again; she's ready for it now. His gaze flicked to the lava entering his mindscape, just for an instant. But if she's telling the truth, I have bigger problems.
You, she growled, and took a step forward with her other hand reaching out. You loathsome little irreverent brat, you need to die.
Punctuating her last word, a liquid black hand burst out of Madara's belly with a shower of blood. His reaction was immediate; he cut off his sense of touch with a thought but he was already screaming. And not only with pain, for he knew the arm was surely attached to a creature dwelling inside him. He'd felt it twisting in his stomach for a moment before he went numb.
His first instinct had been to will it out of existence, but its only response was to reach up across his chest and slash down with fingers made into knives. Blood gushed from the five wounds, and the monster laughed as it was splashed.
He teleported away to the open air beyond the Divine Tree's flower, towering high above the sea of lava. The liquid thing went with him and produced another clawed hand, this one ripping its way up inside Madara's chest toward his heart. He couldn't feel it, but the Sharingan saw it when he looked down at himself. Where his flesh was torn, the liquid had stretched out and attached to him. Ink mingled with the blood in his veins, moreso as his heart went on beating.
Kaguya appeared before him, lunging in with a clawed hand pulled back. Desperate, he made the first move that came to mind. He rendered himself intangible with a thought, and Kaguya's hand passed harmlessly through his head. He lunged forward, through her and past her, and looked down to see the black thing still nesting in his stomach, unable to ravage him further.
He had an idea.
Whirling to face Kaguya, he made his hands once more solid. He made a Ram seal, not to cast a jutsu but merely to check twice. Grinning, but with relief and not malice, he made another piece of himself once more tangible. The liquid parasite submitted to gravity and fell freely out of him, shortly followed by the drops of black in his blood as he tracked them and applied his will to each one.
The mindscape shook violently. Great waves ran through the lava below, and the bloom of the Divine Tree trembled. Though he floated free in the sky and was completely untouchable, Madara swayed with the quake and was alarmed to see Kaguya do the same.
"...What was that?"
X
It was a once in a lifetime opportunity; he needed to nail it on his first try if at all. Or perhaps it wasn't once in a lifetime now, but regardless, a boy dressed in blue adjusted his goggles where they sat over his forehead. He crossed his arms, standing on a hexagonal pillar of polished stone suspended in empty blackness. Below him was a broader platform of the same stone, wrought of hexagonal tiles fitted together, and the stone would glow when he wished to reveal himself.
But for the moment, he let them think that they were all dead. Long enough that they would start to wonder what was really going on, just for a split second, and then he'd call their attention.
As Tobi he'd always been allowed to indulge his theatrical side, but only playing the same role. A devious mastermind in a spiral mask, whispering sinister plots in the ears of his dozens of minions, always toward a bright goal hidden behind shadowy methods, very much an anti-hero. It would do him good to be the unambiguous good guy saving the day, just once more before all of this mess ended.
So he grinned, and it was the grin of a boy who dreamed of being Hokage.
"...What the..."
He took that as his cue, and lit the stones within Kamui for the last time. Bright blue they glowed, casting back the darkness that filled this dimension in absence of a sun or stars. To the last, every member of the Shinobi Alliance looked shocked and bewildered, whirling around to try and make sense of what was going on.
"This is no time to relax, Shinobi Alliance!" he called it just as they spotted him; the Kamui dimension helpfully added an echo to his voice. "You're not dead yet!"
Somewhere in the group below him, he heard Sasuke grumbling. "Who the hell is this guy?" he glanced up from where he was seated on the glowing stone. "Is that a Sharingan? Are you kidding me!?"
They didn't recognize him. Of course they didn't; he looked like a kid again. Of course he could probably transform into the appearance of his older self, but he'd made his grand entrance with this face, dammit, and switching it now would ruin the drama. He sighed out loud, and as he did a thought crossed his mind. When Rin had appeared before him, she looked only a teenager herself. She'd probably done that just so he'd recognize her as she lived. In a small way, it was touching that she'd thought of it.
But all of this occured to him midway through a long annoyed sigh. He had something more important to think about at the moment. "Whatever. Naruto, we gotta talk for a minute."
The two of them vanished, leaving behind the rest of the Shinobi Alliance. A six-sided pillar of gleaming crystal appeared somewhere far off in the dark, just in time to provide footing as they both emerged from Obito's teleportation. Naruto didn't so much as yelp in protest; he turned on the spot to face Obito without a word and activated his Rinnegan. It wasn't to prepare an attack; Naruto sized him up for a few long seconds and his eyes gradually widened.
"You... how... why-"
"Shut up; we don't have time for that." Naruto gaped. "Your friends are still in this dimension so they're safe, but you'll need to act quickly if you wanna hit Madara while he's exposed like this."
Gone was the smile that belonged on the boy's face, replaced instead by the chill stare of a grown Obito Uchiha, of Tobi. "You wanna know why I'm helping you? Think about it for a second; what other option do I have? If you lose, that thing wins, and eventually Madara or Kaguya will come out of it. Madara doesn't know the Infinite Tsukuyomi needs to be modified, and Kaguya knows exactly what she'll be doing."
"Either way, the world is fucked if you die. Now I'm gonna be honest with you, Naruto. I still think you're a naive idiot and your Alliance won't change anything in the end. There'll probably be a Fifth Shinobi World War someday. But even if that day comes, it's better than the entire human race being used as raw material for an army of mindless clones."
Naruto shook his head, and a smile started to grow across his face. "Ya know, I've already got all the ninja villages working together here. That's gotta count for something, right? We'll win this war and stay allied together, and maybe that'll prove there's a better way than the Infinite Tsukuyomi. How long'll it take to convince you? Twenty years? Thirty?"
For a moment Obito stood silent, giving Naruto a bewildered look. For all that they were similar, they were also just too different. He didn't follow, couldn't possibly follow what the Hokage was thinking. Twenty years of peace, if it happened, would be enough evidence to make him think twice. But it just couldn't happen, and it was beyond Obito to think as Naruto did, that it was not only possible but guaranteed...
But at least it was clear what he should do. It took no effort at all to make a prediction in advance, and then let this experiment carry itself out while he watched. He had time now, of course, he had all of eternity. "You won't make it twenty years. I'm telling you that in advance so when the next war comes, you'll remember I told you so."
Naruto just grinned at him. "Oh, it's on. See you in twenty years."
Obito frowned. "That would mean you plan to die by then."
"Nah, I'll figure something out. Believe it."
And Naruto held out his fist at arm's length, a gesture inviting Obito to do the same. The former Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki shook his head, baffled and annoyed. "Goodbye, Naruto."
There was a spinning rush of black. The Kamui dimension was empty again, and so it would stay forever.
X
Naruto found himself standing at the head of the Shinobi Alliance vanguard, facing the distant Ten-Tailed abomination looming over the west horizon. The night sky in the east was at their backs, the stars showing themselves at last.
Without a word from the Hokage, all the able shinobi on the battlefield formed up into pairs as he had instructed. At Naruto's own side the Nine-Tails towered high over the Alliance, though he still looked meek and tiny compared to the Ten-Tails ahead. The thing was looking at them with its one good eye, already stepping toward them. Obito had given them the gift of distance, and the Ten-Tails would take it away in scant seconds.
"Get ready," he called. "Build up your chakra and hold it until it gets close enough!" The Ten-Tails roared; the sound took several long seconds to reach their ears. By the time it did, the monster itself was prowling forward on six legs at its full speed. He panicked for an instant, wondered if they would have enough time. He risked a glance over his shoulder, eyes wide with fear.
Hinata and Oonoki, Jiraiya and Itachi, Orochimaru and Mei. Sakura and Tsunade, Kimimaro and Gaara, Juugo and Yagura. They all stood in unlikely pairs behind him, unflinching under the Ten-Tails' approach. And all of them, save for Sakura and Tsunade, all of their chakra networks visibly thrummed with the unmistakable power of senjutsu chakra.
The tables had turned.
When he turned back to face the Ten-Tails, the motion was swift but not shaky. The amalgam of Kaguya and Madara continued its forward sprint, completely unaware of the counterattack waiting for it. "Steady," said Naruto, his voice clear and loud. "Almost... almost..."
The Ten-Tails drew close, screeching its cry of battle in a voice that shook the earth. It drew close, and then at last, it drew close enough.
With a flash of black and orange, Naruto raised his own voice to match it. "NOW!"
Hinata let fly an oversized Rasenyari with too many swirling cores, and shortly behind it flew Tailed Beast Balls from Kurama, Gaara and Yagura, vast ones compressed into pinpricks of orange light. These three attacks crashed first into the Ten-Tails' face, matching the force of its approach. The abomination stopped, screaming whether with anger or pain or surprise.
A thin beam of pristine white light touched the Ten-Tails' violet eye, connecting it and the Third Tsuchikage on the ground so far below. The eye burst apart into a shower of liquid nearly clear, just barely tinged violet, and blood fell mixed with it in a horrid waterfall. Without pause, without mercy, a curtain of boiling lava materialized over the monster's wounded face. Gravity took hold and the lava splashed down, draping itself over the Ten-Tails' head. The Mizukage fell immediately to her knees with the effort that had produced this.
One of the monster's right hands came up in a reflexive counterattack. It came down on Sakura and Tsunade instead of the entire Alliance; the two kunoichi had flown to meet it in perfect stereo. Rather than colliding with the hand directly, Sakura and Tsunade both lashed out with spinning kicks in unspoken agreement. They struck the side of the Ten-Tails' wrist and deflected the limb instead of stopping it, which would no doubt have been beyond even them.
The Ten-Tails' palm struck bare ground and the entire Land of Lightning trembled under the blow, but the Alliance lived. In return they lashed out again, with a bolt of jagged green lightning and the single most massive Rasengan Jiraiya had ever cast. The Ten-Tails' face flinched to one side from the impacts, but as it was already screaming, nothing else changed.
But for good measure, Itachi cast a mesh of unquenchable black flames around its head, suffused with senjutsu chakra to burn the monster without end.
Kurama appeared with a rush of wind, clinging to the Ten-Tails' throat well below the ongoing destruction. He held on with three limbs and nine tails, but drew back his right hand alone. His clawed furred hand curled into a fist; the ghost of a savage grin turned up the edges of his mouth full of bared teeth. He thought of his brothers and sisters, thought of them freed and unharmed, and slammed his punch home with a roar.
X
Whatever Madara's mindscape had once been, now it was a wasteland. The shards of a shattered moon overhead were lit with the insistent golden light of a desert sun. Under Kurama's feet was a sea of pale tan sand, but to his left a spire of ice was carved into a colossal tower. It showed no sign of melting in the heat. To his right, a plateau of something scorching hot and black. It looked to be a mixture of sand melting into natural glass, as well as lava now cooling and just barely hardening into rock.
All throughout Madara's mindscape were similarly mingled pieces of foreign dimensions, and looming high over all of it was the unmistakable Divine Tree, completely intact. Near it Madara and Kaguya were still fighting, currently in the air over a waterfall spilling acid out of thin air. It produced a growing lake of the stuff directly under them, to which they both paid little mind.
Kurama made haste, and carried himself over the entire mess with a burst of wind. Standing at the base of the Tree, he cast one wary glance at Madara and Kaguya. They hadn't even noticed him; they were too busy fighting each other to concern themselves with the Alliance. The Nine-Tails breathed deep and sighed shakily. This much luck had kept them alive until now; Madara would have killed everyone and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi if not for Kaguya's interference. He needed to count on that interference for a moment longer, just a few seconds.
He turned back to the Tree and laid a hand on its smooth bark. "I'm going to free you all," he growled, voice low and careful. "Can you hear me?"
Eight voices mingled together gave their reply at once, some whispers, some roars. (HELP/PLEASE - FEAR/PAIN)
The Nine-Tails winced. "Yeah. That's what I thought."
His hand sank into the wood, and a sheath of the bark began to rapidly grow up his wrist. He resisted the pull of the Divine Tree, not because the plan called for that much but because he was afraid. Naruto! He roared, sending his voice through the fragment of chakra left in the Eight Trigrams Seal. I'm ready! Get us the hell out of here!
The bark grew abruptly further up his arm, reaching his shoulder and curving around it. He tugged back with real terror in his eyes; he had no desire to feel what the other Tailed Beasts were feeling, but the pull of the Divine Tree grew stronger by the second. It hauled him in and flattened his chest against its trunk, wrapping bark around him there as well.
Kaguya's eyes snapped toward him; he could feel her gaze crawling across his remaining exposed fur. Oh. Oh no. Madara followed her gaze and paled; she turned completely away from her battle with him and flew like an arrow toward the Nine-Tails.
Naruto reached him first, his chakra visible as an aura of brilliant neon orange. The trunk of the Divine Tree creaked as he began to pull, and the ground around its roots began to buckle and bulge upward. Kaguya slammed her hands down on the bark encasing Kurama and began to pull back, but she felt him tugging stronger than she could alone. They're trying to dismantle the Divine Tree! She called, voice high and frantic.
She knew as soon as she said it that it was true; they were surely working in concert to pull the Tree away. She listened and she could hear them on the other side, calling in tandem with Naruto's voice in the lead. HEAVE!
Help me! She screamed. Neither one of us can stop this alone; they're going to win!
Madara tossed aside his staff and grasped the Tree as well. The pull from the other side weakened and slowed, and she saw the Nine-Tails meet her eyes. He was pinned, halfway absorbed into the wood where they held it, and he was terrified.
Though Madara was still alive next to her, she allowed herself a small smile. She felt a hot, bright light swelling up under her palm, the orange aura surging brighter there as it dimmed over the rest of the Divine Tree. She grasped it tighter as it took solid form; it was Naruto's right hand balled into a fist. Let go of the Tree, she called, nodding in Madara's direction without fully looking at him. Hold on to me and pull!
Madara let go of the Tree and clamped his hand down instead on her right shoulder; she felt his chakra connect to hers and pull mightily. She took a single short step backward, and Naruto's wrist began to slide out of the Tree. The aura of light dimmed yet further; Naruto tried to tug his arm away but got nowhere.
Madara was behind her, and that threat was still to be dealt with. But the battle with him was more tedious than urgent; she had no doubt he would slip and fall under her power. Naruto was the greater danger; his death took priority over Madara's, and now she had him firmly in hand. She pulled him into the mindscape up to his shoulder, her hand slightly trembling with the excitement. A thousand years she had waited, and in seconds the wait would be over.
Naruto's head emerged from the Tree, and he was screaming in pain. Of course it had to hurt, being stretched like this. The scream was nice, but what made her smile widen was the fear in his Rinnegan eyes. It was as if she had Hagoromo at her mercy instead. She took a step back, then another, and Naruto's resistance grew weaker as she pulled him in. With just his left hand he clung to the Tree, to Kurama now fully encased in its bark.
"Hold him," said Madara. "I'll end it." He produced a knife shaped from a Truth-Seeking Ball, clutched in his free hand. Kaguya glanced at the weapon and nodded; Naruto was pinned now between the Tree and herself. If she fully pulled him in, he would have a hand free to make some unpredictable move at the last second...
But she frowned. Wait.
Madara's right hand tightened on her shoulder, his arm wrapped across her back to prevent a retreat, and his left brought the dagger around in an arc, skimming short of Naruto to stab into Kaguya's heart instead. With both hands he then shoved her to the side and latched on to Naruto's wrist; in the blink of an eye the Hokage had fallen back halfway through the Divine Tree.
Kaguya reeled from the stab wound, from the betrayal and from the mundane force of Madara's shove. She grasped the hilt of the blade but it wouldn't budge from the wound, and her next attempt to simply will it out of existence also failed. She swayed on her feet, already growing weaker, but she commanded her heart to beat on with the knife still in place. In response the blade shot tendrils of black-orange through her chest; they wrapped around her heart and began to tighten.
You idiot, she choked out, and took a single trembling step toward Madara. Already he was losing his grip on Naruto, who had retreated until just his wrist remained visible. That alone was enough to fill her with hatred she had never known before, not for Naruto or even Hagoromo, she had clutched warm victory tight in her hands and Madara had destroyed it.
YOU! IDIOT!
She flew at him, all of the power she could yet manage built up into a single hammer-blow of light that tore Madara from the Tree, tore Naruto from his hand, and with hate and purpose she raised a matching knife of black-
X
The ground was now thoroughly lifeless, and in places still soaked and soft in the wake of the earlier flood. But Kurama hit somewhere baked hot and dry, perhaps from a Tailed Beast Ball or a splash of Mei's lava. That was when he realized he was still alive.
It was like suddenly being roused from a deep sleep, like until hitting the earth he had forgotten his own existence. His wide eyes darted around, showing the whites around the red. He did not immediately rise, but instead drew a few panicked breaths where he lay. But the panic faded, sanity returned, and he began to make sense of what was happening.
The Ten-Tails was not entirely gone, but mostly so. Gleaming moon-white above the entire battlefield, a translucent ghost of the monster's skeleton remained. It was a construct of chakra stretched thin, and it shook slightly in the sky, but it was still there. Floating limp within the ribcage was a figure with white hair, unrecognizable at such a distance.
And under the bones, scattered around the ravaged land, the Tailed Beasts stirred. Kurama was among them, first among them to rise, and looking up at the Ten-Tails' husk his fear began to fade. "It's not over," he murmured. He spotted the Alliance from the corner of his eye, drained of senjutsu chakra and tending to Naruto where he sat slumped in the dirt. "IT'S NOT OVER YET!" he roared, calling the attention of the Tailed Beasts rather than the Alliance.
The stripped-bare skull of the mutated Ten-Tails looked down at him; saw him with only empty eye sockets. The white light-bones trembled but the entire creature began to rise onto its hind legs, raising its arms with palms open. It would bring all four down at once, and with such force it would likely kill most of the Alliance and even the Tailed Beasts.
But in the absence of his fear, Kurama's pride and his chakra rose to the fresh challenge. He opened his mouth wide, bared his fangs and poured all of it into a great bright sphere of orange, its surface rippling and shaking with no trace of a black shell to contain it. It was easily the greatest Tailed Beast Ball he had ever cast, and to pay for it the flesh melted away from him. Left with just barely more than fur and bone, the Nine-Tails raised his voice again. "BACK ME UP."
The Tailed Beasts in attendance formed up around him immediately; he guessed they had already made for him before he called. At his left was Matatabi and Son Goku and Gyuuki, to his right were Isobu and Kokuou and Saiken. A sandstorm approached them from behind; Shukaku had left Gaara to make his presence known. Only Choumei remained absent, far away helping Fuu to heal.
As Kurama had done, the other Tailed Beasts gave as much chakra as wouldn't kill them. The orb of orange reached an apex where it dwarfed what the Ten-Tails had cast earlier, but then it developed a proper shell of black and began to shrink even as the Beasts added to it.
It grew steadily smaller as the Ten-Tails' husk loomed at its full height. Just as its hands began to come down, Kurama lunged up and snapped his jaws around the Ball. His lips curled up into a grin like something dead, and brilliant light shone between his teeth unmoving as he spoke.
"Now it's over."
He let fly a beam of orange light, narrow and focused to scythe through the white bones without slowing. The flame-colored glare that poured fom the beam blinded Kurama, the other Tailed Beasts and the Alliance; it filled the entire battlefield with a uniform glow through which nothing could be seen. There could be no doubt that it was visible from space; the skyward beam itself likely reached into the deep black after tearing through the Ten-Tails.
All at once, the beam vanished and the orange light went out. The ghost of it left them all blind for the time being, but Kurama in particular had other senses. Negative emotions boiled in the sky above him; there was anger and killing intent, but also the strongest despair he had ever felt.
I didn't... I didn't wait a thousand years for this... did I?
Kurama's eyes adjusted, and the damage done to them healed. He looked up and saw Madara, or Kaguya wearing Madara's body, a Truth-Seeking staff in hand. Naruto slammed into her with a sword of black and orange, his flight like an arrow straight and unerring. No doubt he too had been blinded, and yet had made his move before even Kurama could recover. He guessed he saw her chakra silhouette and tracked her with it.
A few rapid blows passed back and forth between them, pointlessly. Kaguya couldn't handle her weapon properly, and if she could Naruto would still be faster. He was drained, but she might as well have been already dead. Their weapons locked, Naruto's blade horizontal across her staff holding him back.
The staff gave way and disintegrated into wisps of black smoke. Naruto lurched forward and drew the arc of his sword cleanly through Madara's abdomen. As it passed through her back, the split halves of her body blackened to match the sword. She crumbled into a shower of dust that swept over Naruto, who made no move to escape what could have been some esoteric shapeshifting attack. Nothing happened; the dust fell away from his flickering chakra mantle, and there was silence.
X
Far below, unseen, there stood a boy in blue with eyes of red behind goggles tinted orange. There was not one scratch on him, not one smudge of dirt anywhere on his clothing from all the destruction. He watched the sky with an expression too serious, too solemn for a boy so young as he appeared to be. There was a visible tension in the way he squared his shoulders, tension that had only slightly faded as Naruto struck the final blow.
Standing next to him, Rin nudged his elbow with her own. "Hey, Obito?"
The frown on his face vanished almost completely. "Hn?" he turned to her with a look of slight surprise instead.
"I know this isn't what you wanted." She was looking up at the sky as he had; Naruto was falling back to earth only partly under his own power. Already he was low enough in the sky for the holes fluctuating through his black-orange robe to be visible. "But are you okay with it? If it ends like this, is that good enough for you?"
Obito thought for a moment, watching as the Alliance mobilized to catch Naruto. Perhaps he would have landed safely under his own power, but it was prudent of them to act just in case. A soft cloud of light sand rose up to meet him in the sky, guided by Gaara who still had easily enough chakra left to manage the task. "...That's not what you really want to ask me, is it?"
She shook her head. "What I need to know is, is this good enough for you that you'll stop fighting? I know you can still cast your Sharingan and make stuff happen in the living world... now that I think about it, Tobirama's gonna be mad enough that you did it even once. Even to save the whole world."
"Tobirama Senju is in charge of the afterlife? Seriously?"
She laughed, just a little. "He's in charge of any contact with the living. He came up with Edo Tensei, so the whole thing's his fault really, and no one else wanted the job. He came up with a bunch of sensible rules, but..." she shook her head, frowning. "Look. Obito, please tell me you won't try to start this war again. Please."
He glanced at Naruto, nearly lowered to the ground and safety. In silence, he thought for a few seconds. "I don't think this peace will last," he admitted. "But I won't be the one to end it; I can promise you that much. The problem is, the whole thing isn't really over. I still have to tie up a few loose ends in the Pure World now."
She took a small step back, looking surprised and alarmed. "The Pure World? What are you gonna do there?"
He took a look at her face and chuckled. "I need to see the Sage of Six Paths. Kaguya and Madara are both on their way to the afterlife. If I can get back to the living world, maybe they could manage it too, and we can't have that. I'll get the Sage to help me stop them."
She waited for him to look back to the Alliance, then mimed wiping sweat from her brow. There was none there of course; she was a ghost, but the gesture felt appropriate. She opened her mouth and almost spoke up again when he turned back to her, smiling with excitement subdued yet still obvious. "I think I'm ready to go, Rin."
X
Naruto lay stretched out on his back, dazed. Under him was a bed of black sand, soft but chilly to the touch. He didn't move from where Gaara had set him down, and none of the gathered Alliance blamed him. Out of his field of vision, they were no doubt collapsing in exhaustion as well.
But Naruto in particular was nearly delirious, his chakra reserves well and truly spent. For a while he saw nothing, still blinded by the light of Kurama's last attack. Slowly, as his vision came back to him, he found himself staring up at a clear sky full of stars. There was a swell of gloaming sunlight far to the west, but directly above it was night.
He glanced around without raising his head from the ground. Far to his left, he could see the gaunt form of the Nine-Tails lit dimly by starlight. The other Tailed Beasts looked nearly-dead as Kurama did, yet they were all standing and talking amongst themselves. Their voices were distant, but he guessed it was a serious topic.
He would have to ask Kurama about it, but that could wait. For now he was tired, so very tired that the chill of winter didn't bother him in the slightest. He closed his eyes and felt instead the warmth of sleep fast approaching, though some part of him was still looking for the next attack to dodge. He briefly entertained the thought of Orochimaru trying to kill him in his sleep, but he wouldn't dare with so many Alliance ninja on hand.
It was night, at the end of a very long day. If ever there was a time to sleep like the dead, it was now. He could feel himself falling asleep, his limbs pinned down by tremendous gravity to the sand which felt soft as a cloud. Someone sat down in the sand next to him with a thump; he didn't need to look to know it was Hinata.
But just before he passed out, he thought for a moment longer. This threat had been looming over him, casting a deep shadow over his entire life since he was born. As long as he had been a shinobi, he had been preparing and planning to overcome Akatsuki, through them Madara, and through him Kaguya. All of that was gone now, the war was over, and he was still Hokage.
So what now?