AN: Chapter 22 is here. Long time no update I know, but you all know why. I hope this chapter is a good one for the comeback. Enjoy.
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A Gaze Eternal
The two of them took long, deep breaths, sucking air into their burning lungs. Ever so slowly, Naruto and Sasuke limped through the battlefield. Wet bodies. Burnt bodies. They were all scattered about no matter where one looked.
Despite all their efforts, Momoshiki had still managed to decimate a large number of their forces. This wasn't what Naruto had hoped for, but it was at least better than what could have been. Momoshiki could have killed them all. Without Sakura's healing and their comrades laying down their lives to give her time, Naruto was sure they wouldn't have recovered in time to fend off Momoshiki. Just thinking about how much they struggled for them made Naruto's heart warm.
He wasn't happy. He didn't have any reason to be happy about them fighting and dying. This surge of warmth he was feeling was more like respect for their bravery—their sacrifice. Naruto knew he would have done the same in their shoes. The Otsutsuki were dead and in his opinion, it was thanks to them. Naruto hoped they could all rest easy with that knowledge.
"Naruto, Sasuke!" The two boys stumbled into a turn, facing their right just as Sakura grabbed them up into hugs.
"This hurts, Sakura…" Naruto groaned, body tender. Sakura hugged them tighter and Sasuke sighed.
"I was worried," Sakura replied.
"Sorry…" Naruto mumbled. Sasuke gave his typical grumble. Sakura hugged the two of them for a little longer before she let them go. She looked the two of them over and grimaced. They looked terrible. And she told them as much.
"You two need to sit down and let me tend to you," said Sakura.
"We'll be okay, Sakura," Sasuke replied.
"Yeah. The rest of our forces need more help than us," Naruto added. Sakura took a step back from them and then she glared. Her eyes glinted in the afternoon light and looked more like an emerald fire than just a pair of irises.
"Sit. Down," Sakura ordered, dragging each word out as she clenched her fists. Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other briefly before they relented and began to kneel. And that's when the pain struck. The two of them grabbed at their chests, their faces contorting into twisted visages of pain. They grunted almost in unison as their knees gave out and they fell forward.
Quickly, they rolled onto their backs. Naruto felt that warmth from earlier moving from his heart through the rest of his body and suddenly he realized it hadn't been a feeling a respect. Something was wrong with him. And clearly Sasuke was suffering from it too.
"Naruto!? Sasuke!?" Sakura shouted as she dropped to her knees, panicking. She started running her hands over them, trying to diagnose them. What she found was appalling. Their chakra was attacking something within them… but what? She couldn't heal this. Sakura surged to her feet and looked about wildly.
"Tsunade-sama!"
Weiss stood, leaning against the far wall from the beds. She hadn't felt the ground tremble in some time now. Weiss desperately hoped the fighting was over. She still felt anxiousness all throughout her body from there mere thought of the battle outside. Weiss wanted Naruto to be okay more than anything right now. The young heiress took a glance over at Yang. She looked just as worried as Weiss felt, but she was probably even more distraught.
Her mother hadn't awoken and likely would not for a few days at the least. Stacking that on top of Naruto's battle was undoubtedly crushing. Weiss wanted to be next to her and give her some comfort, but her sister wanted to have a word with her. Thankfully, Hinata took Weiss's place. The Hyuga heiress was standing with Yang as the girl looked upon her mother, an arm wrapped around her for emotional support.
It took them such little time to get along… I wonder… Weiss's thoughts trailed off as Winter spoke.
"I wanted to speak with you."
"Yes?" Weiss replied.
"Do Hinata and Yang seem… closer than they should be to you?" Winter asked, looking to Weiss as she did so. That simple action caused her to miss Hinata's body stiffening. She'd clearly heard Winter's question and Weiss wasn't sure why her sister was being so reckless. Her only assumption was that Winter must be stressed and forgot that the shinobi had excellent hearing.
"Oh… do they?" Weiss replied, sounding less confident than she would have liked. Winter was silent for a moment, but Weiss didn't look at her. She didn't think she'd be able to keep what she was thinking out of her eyes. She wasn't as good at that as Winter, unfortunately.
"Yes… yes they do. Hinata has clear feelings for Yang's man. You'd think they'd be much less… cordial," Winter replied.
"Well, maybe they just didn't think it was worth it," Weiss tried.
"Worth what, exactly?" Winter asked.
"Potential tension…? I imagine it could have interfered with Naruto's training," Weiss replied. She hardly believed what she was saying herself. Winter certainly didn't either. Weiss could see her sister's eyes narrowing from her peripheral.
"Naruto was not around to be interfered with while he was training. Yang hardly saw him," Winter replied.
"Winter…" Weiss began.
"They are behaving suspiciously, Weiss. I know Yang is your teammate and your friend, but I do not think you should be around the two of them while we are here. Something is… not quite right," Winter interrupted.
"Don't you think it is a tad inappropriate to be discussing this right now, Winter?" Weiss asked. Winter's eyes flicked over to to the two of them at those words and her eyes widened a bit as red dusted her cheeks.
Seems she remembered their hearing, Weiss thought. Winter looked back upon her sister and this time Weiss turned her head to her.
"Be that as it may… my words still stand," said Winter. Weiss was just about to reply when the door to their shelter opened. Weiss's mouth clicked shut and she looked to the door. Shikamaru stood in the threshold. He was disheveled and dirty. Weiss spied patches of blood on his jacket and his pants legs. One of his arms was also in a sling.
Temari was the first person over to him, her hands coming up to prod him futilely. There was nothing for her to heal of wrap. His medical needs had been attended to. She was just fretting uselessly. With a tight frown on her face, Temari's hands stilled over his chest. She gripped his jacket, ignoring the still visibly wet blood that now counted her fingers and pulled him into a tender kiss.
Weiss looked away. Watching them felt like an intrusion of their privacy, despite the public display. She ignored the niggling thought in the back of her head that wished to be in Temari's place with Naruto and focused on what Shikamaru being here meant. The battle was over. And they must have won.
The nigh-tangible pressure that had once permeated the room lightened significantly. Weiss let a shaky breath past her lips and saw Yang and Hinata visibly become relieved. Weiss hoped they'd be able to see Naruto soon. While she knew she wouldn't be able show her care in the same way as his girlfriends, she still wanted to see him with her own eyes and express her pleasure at his safety.
Weiss heard Temari whispering something to Shikamaru in their native tongue, but even if she knew their language the woman had been speaking too low to be fully understood. It wasn't until the woman pulled away that Shikamaru spoke to them.
"The Otsutsuki have been killed and Hokage-sama has stated that you all be allowed to see Naruto and Sasuke… I'll warn you though, they aren't well," Shikamaru replied.
Weiss's stomach dropped.
Naruto opened his eyes to a world of inky black. There was a light source somewhere, he could tell. This blackness wasn't like the inside of his eyelids. No matter where he looked, however, he could see nothing but the same blackness. The last thing he remembered was writhing in pain on the damp forest floor next to Sasuke.
"What happened…?" Naruto wondered.
"I see… the fact that you are here must mean that you vermin defeated Momoshiki-sama…" said Kinshiki, Naruto whipped around as he leapt back.
"You? How!?" Naruto shouted. Standing across from him now, almost like a blinding light in the void, was Kinshiki. Naruto prepared himself to fight and dug deep in search of his chakra. His eyes widened.
"You have no access to your chakra here, Vermin," said Kinshiki. Though his tone was insulting and hostile, his face held no emotion.
"Where's here? What did you do? I know you died. Felt your chakra vanish within Momoshiki an' everything!" The smile Kinshiki suddenly offered him was of the most unsettling sort.
"Here? This is within the Kama."
"The Kama… and what's that, exactly?"
Kinshiki's smile turned sinister. "A seal. A seal with a… backup of my biological data and my soul. How has it felt for you? Since you defeated us? Have you enjoyed your life? Because this is the beginning of the end. The Kama cannot be stopped. It will overtake you and I will be reborn through your flesh. Rejoice vermin, your defeat of us will only bring us to new heights."
Naruto gritted his teeth as he wracked his brain for a solution. Will I be here until the process is complete? If not, is there some way for me stop this if I can examine the seal alongside Kurama? Should I… should Sasuke and I toss ourselves into a void between dimensions or something? No… that won't work. The Otsutsuki can just move freely through dimensions. That won't matter. Shit! Do I just need to die?
A hand came to rest on Naruto's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "I am afraid your defeat is permanent, Kinshiki." Hagoromo's voice filled the space.
"S-super sage gramps?" Naruto gawked, though he was more relieved than he could possibly show.
"Who are you!? How did you get into my seal?" demanded Kinshiki.
"Because this seal is already deteriorating," Hagoromo answered.
"What…? Impossible."
"Quite the opposite actually. You asked how long it has been since the battle with yourself and Momoshiki, yes? Naruto, why don't you answer him."
"Wha… uh… it's been a couple minutes I think," Naruto replied. Kinshiki's entire visage shifted from fury to astonishment.
"What? No… the seal hasn't possibly had enough time to overwrite him and allow this conversation!" Kinshiki shouted. Momoshiki smiled.
"Precisely. You Otsutsuki made a grave mistake. The boys you've fallen to are descendants of mine… they are the only people in this world who were capable of inheriting my power. A set of seals capable of sealing my mother, Otsutsuki Kaguya. These seals did not have infinite power, however. They've been draining with every use. Eventually, they would have lost access to the might granted by them… until you two came along.
"I designed my seal specifically to trap the likes of you. And though it requires both of them to seal away the might of a fully powered Otsutsuki, for them to seal the dregs of your fading souls? Child's play. You and Momoshiki, by putting your Kama on these boys, have unwittingly sealed your own fates. You've not just recharged my seals, you're overflowed them. All of your skills and knowledge will be given to these boys while you two will cease to exist. Naruto and Sasuke will be a new breed of Otsutsuki thanks to you… something more than you or I could have ever been," said Hagoromo, lifting Naruto's hand to show Kinshiki his sun mark. It glowed in the void and began to illuminate the space around them.
"No… this is inconceivable! Impossible!" yelled Kinshiki. Hagoromo smiled kindly at him. A kin he'd never known… yet no different from his mother in his eyes. Kinshiki could see the pity in the man's eyes and it infuriated him.
"Rejoice, Kinshiki… your defeat has brought Naruto to new heights," Hagoromo replied. With an unbridled yell of rage, Kinshiki ran at them.
The light from Naruto's had bathed the void in its golden glow and when the light faded none of them remained.
"How is he?" Raven asked. Yang stopped stroking Naruto's hand as her mother walked into the large hospital room he and Sasuke shared. Three weeks had already passed since Yang had been forced to see her boyfriend in the hospital, unresponsive and his condition unchanging. Tsunade had long ago declared that Naruto and Sasuke were out of the woods, but for whatever reason the two of them simply haven't woken up.
"Same," Yang replied curtly. She heard her mother sigh, but didn't really care. The two of them had been trying to repair their relationship as of late, what with Raven risking her life to trek through dimensions just to come and get her. Yang figured she could concede that her mother deserved a chance at redemption after that. Things between them had been shaky in the beginning.
Raven had woken up two weeks ago and the first three days or so had been tense for the two, but they'd managed to move past it. It wasn't until three days ago that their relationship had taken a turn for the worse again. Raven happened to have overheard Yang having a conversation with Hinata about Naruto and discovered her not so little secret.
Naturally, Raven had been against Yang sharing her man with anyone. They ended up arguing about it for hours in private. However, in her anger, Yang had asked why Raven thought she had the right to play parent after abandoning her before Yang had stormed out. The two hadn't spoken since.
"Yang, look… I'm… I apologize. For how I reacted. I was just surprised," said Raven. For a long moment Yang didn't say anything. She didn't even turn to look at her mother. Raven was beginning to think she should just come back later and was just preparing to leave her daughter be when Yang spoke.
"I was rude too…"
"It's… alright. You weren't wrong. I suppose I don't really have a right to lecture you. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, leaving you the greatest of them all, but I want to fix that. I got ahead of myself, though," Raven replied. There was silence again after that. And not the comfortable sort. Yang and her mother were still very awkward together. They just didn't know how to speak to one another. There was still so much they didn't know about one another, after all.
Regardless of this though, Yang could appreciate her attempts at trying to speak with her. Yang wasn't sure she was ready to tell her mother about any real details of her life yet, but Yang determined she could at least chat with her about Naruto. She'd be meeting him soon enough, after all. At least, Yang hoped so.
"Do… you wanna hear some stories about him? Hinata's been telling me some about how they all grew up here," Yang offered. Raven stepped toward her daughter and situated herself in one of the three seats at the side of Naruto's bed.
"That would be nice…" Raven replied. The two of them chatted with one another for the next few hours. It had started with Yang telling Raven about adventures Naruto had had, whether they be as a child in the village or out in the field as a shinobi. But eventually Yang had mentioned something Ruby had done that Naruto reminded her about and from there Raven was finally able to glean bits and pieces of who Yang was through how she spoke of her sister and some of her friends.
Externally, raven smiled and nodded where appropriate, but on the inside she was just sad that she'd missed so much of her daughter's growth. Yang was far from being a little girl anymore, and Raven hadn't had anything to do with it. It hadn't bothered her before, but now? Raven was beside herself.
"So… you were telling me about Naruto's first mission before we got distracted with Ruby's first day at Beacon," said Raven, trying to distract herself from her thoughts.
"Oh yeah! So they were just about to walk past these puddles whe—" Yang's mouth clicked shut at the sound of Naruto's groan.
"N-Naruto?" Yang asked, her eyes already wetting. She'd been so scared he wouldn't wake up despite everything Tsunade said.
"Yang?" Naruto croaked, his throat scratchy.
"Mom, can you go get Sakura? Hurry please!" Said Yang. Raven simply nodded and made her way out of the room.
"Where am I…?" Naruto asked.
"At the hospital in Konoha. I was so worried you wouldn't wake up. It's been three weeks sent your battle. I thought—I thought!" Her tears flowed freely now, one of them managing to splash onto his cheek near his right eye.
"Sorry Yang…" Naruto brought his right hand up to caress her cheek, wiping away her tears. Slowly, he opened his eyes despite the blinding light of the afternoon sun after being in darkness for so long. Yang stared into his eyes.
But what she saw staring back at her was a pair of ocean blue Rinnegan.
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And that's the chapter! The Kama has been addressed and Naruto now has the Rinnegan. So there's that. This is all setting the stage for that final confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke. I'd say that's what this chapter really is. Now, I already have Naruto's Rinnegan ability solidified. I think it fits him very well and is a unique idea I personally haven't seen on the sight yet. I'd be surprised if anyone could possibly guess what it is, but feel free to make an attempt in the reviews. I'll let you know if you get it.
In other news, I'm finally a married man now. That was a rollercoaster. Let me tell you. I'm happy though and since then I've gone on to start a podcast about Overwatch with some friends. Idk if any of you are interested, but if so look up "Endless Overtime Podcast" on apple, spotify, or google podcasts rn.
If there are any questions you all have, feel free to leave a review. If you want some sort of more in-depth discussion, then go ahead join the discord. For anyone who wants to come through and chat when I stream that would be appreciated. We can talk about anything from anime to fanfiction, to any topic that comes to mind. Currently wondering what to stream now though. What might you all be interested in watching? Anyway, that's it. Peace out.
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