Chapter 2 Start
His chest feels heavy.
He tries blinking away whatever is in his eyes to no avail. The fog won't go away.
Naruto tries to move and fails. His arms and legs won't do what they're told.
Panic consumes him. The oppressive darkness scares him.
Days of hiding. Days of running from one safehouse to the next, only for the enemies to find them and destroy everything. Every time they move, more of them are lost in the open. The other Academy kids lie cold next to him before they run again.
Now, he's the last.
The last safe place crumbles down on top of him. He's trapped, struggling to breath, eyes weak and heavy and heart full of unimaginable fear.
"Kaa-chan..." Naruto coughs weakly.
He tries to struggle his way out.
Panic overtakes any sense he may have had.
Pushing and pushing, trying to get the rubble to move off of him. He starts breathing fast and shallow.
"Kaa-chan!" Naruto cries out, begging for her to come and help him.
"Hear that?" A voice he doesn't recognize asks.
"Under the rubble. Be quick about it, these Uzumaki are merciless."
Naruto freezes. His big-blue eyes squint as the smoke is sucked into the vacuum of his hiding place and the slabs of stone are moved off of him effortlessly.
"There you are." A man with a white uniform and dark skin draws his sword. The other looks down at him contemptuously, kunai dripping with blood and beige outfit stained.
Running on pure fear and instinct, Naruto rolls back into the rubble and finds a hole to crawl through.
His tiny legs don't take him far.
The Kumo Shinobi grabs him and lifts him up by his neck.
Naruto's vision goes blurry. He can't breathe and his face turns red.
Not a moment more of hesitation, and the Kumo Shinobi stabs his sword straight into Naruto's stomach.
And he feels the Maelstrom inside lash out in anger.
Crimson chains launch from his chest and cleave off his assailants' arms.
The Iwa Shinobi reacts quickly as the dismembered one screams in pain. Sharp, jagged rocks turn into spears on his arms, and he aims a fast punch at Naruto's head.
His arms and legs are swiftly removed, not by Naruto's chains, but by an Uzumaki Sentinel armed with a halberd.
Naruto can barely hear over the blood pumping in his head and the screams of the two enemies.
"You're an Uzumaki, boy!" The Sentinel grabs the handle of the blade and rips it from Naruto's stomach, causing him to keel over and scream. "It takes more than one wound to put you down! Now RUN!"
The hulking Sentinel takes kunai in his back to shield Naruto before the wound closes on its own.
Naruto's chains retract into his body. He looks on as the Sentinel carves through enemy after enemy, taking wounds and healing nearly instantaneously.
His rescuer is pierced in every direction by various Shinobi. And still, he stands tall.
Golden Chakra embers pool out of his wounds before they transform into a swirling, glowing ink.
The ink spurts all over the six Shinobi assaulting him.
"I can't move!" One of them howls while straight black markings appear on their skin.
The Sentinel smiles, blood pouring from his mouth, and turns to Naruto.
"Run."
Naruto takes the advice and sprints as fast as he can.
The Sentinel absorbs the fear of his enemies with glee.
"Ura Shishō Fūin(Reverse Four Symbols Seal)."
Manami and Ashina stare down the invasion assault leaders.
"Uzumaki. A joke that you fight so viciously in the face of your inevitable end." Sandaime Raikage states with a vicious grunt.
"Our wildlife will enjoy feasting on your macerated corpse when I am finished with you." Manami's monotone is betrayed by her wild blue-eyed stare of blatant bloodthirst. "There is no Jutsu that can protect you from me. No beast. No Shinobi. I alone, am the end of your bloodline."
Monstrous roars sound in the long distance. A rumbling march slowly approaches.
"Heh," Sandaime Tsuchikage grins, floating in the air and defying gravity. "You are weapon, Akaimajo, but even your species cannot defy the might of this union."
"You truly believe that those pitiful beasts will help you?" Ashina stands tall and mocks their weakness.
"There is still hope for your kind. Surrender and some of you will be spared." Onoki offers menacingly.
"The Uzumaki do not negotiate with our lives. We fight to our dying breath, and drag anything in our way down with us."
"Very well." Onoki arcs his fingers, as if he expected this exact answer. "Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu(Dust Release: Atomic Dismantling)!"
A glowing white cube rapidly expands to surround Ashina and Manami.
Ashina doesn't grin or scoff, he merely taps the ground with his foot.
"Inton Kyuuin(Yin Release Absorption)."
Onoki's Jutsu vanishes, leaving behind only small white wisps, an afterimage signifying the nullification of such a terrifying technique.
On the ground, curving up and down the slopes of collapsed walls and buildings, is a white cube. It would seem that the Jutsu had been sealed into the ground before it could detonate. Maintaining the same size across, the white glow emits from the ground and casts upward shadows into the unforgiving blackness of the evening sky.
As if it had a mind of its own, the sealed Jutsu skates across the landscape, leaving a beam of light in its wake and off into the distance toward the bestial howling in the distance.
"You march upon my village," Ashina growls. "You slaughter our innocent. Men, women… children. There is no negotiation. There is only death."
The Jutsu unseals, and the Jinton expands out and turns the Shinobi reinforcements into nothing more than dust.
"We must finish this quickly, Raikage!" Onoki roars.
Onoki forms a few hand signs, appearing to spit out several mud-like globs that cause the ground itself to shift and come alive. Enormous stone golems become bipedal. Large and menacing, but far too slow.
Ashina expected more.
He feels his old and ailing body failing. But there is one thing about him not so decrepit and rotted.
The Maelstrom within whirls into life. Flaccid chains creep from his skin, melting and becoming a golden armour. His body may fail, but his Chakra will carry him the Uzumaki to victory. The melted chains become an armour of Barrier-Ninjutsu.
"Destroy the Raikage," Ashina orders Manami. "I shall dispose of the Fence-sitter and his juvenile beasts."
Manami lets the tiniest smile tilt her lips.
His lips are cracked and sting. His mouth is dry and foul after three days of no water and food. His legs wobble and he loses his footing every few steps, but he keeps going.
He still runs.
But he hears crying.
Crying is good. It means someone is alive.
Leaping over a decimated food cart, he promptly trips. His legs are weak, unable to keep him up.
He is caught before he can sprain his ankle again.
"Up, up!" A hushed feminine voice whispers to him. The baby in her other arm continues crying loudly.
'If you keep crying, they'll find us.'
But at least they have a moment to prepare.
Everything feels so loud. Like he can feel people nearby. Like he can hear the tiniest sounds.
The woman props him up and gives him her canteen.
"Slowly! Or you'll throw it back up."
Naruto doesn't listen. He greedily gulps as much as he can, and when he feels the need to vomit as she foretold, he puts all his might into keeping it down and re-swallowing what comes back up.
"Shhh, Karin-chan, shhh!" The mother tries to no avail.
Hiding the sound with Kaa-chan's Fuinjutsu won't do anything. Civilians don't know how to hide their Chakra.
Another building explodes. The upsweep of dust flies down the street. The mother shields her child.
"Why are you doing this?! We never hurt anyone!" A despairing man, a civilian asks desperately.
"You could. And that is enough." Is all he gets before a Kumo Shinobi fires a beam of light into his forehead.
The man falls lifelessly.
Another occurrence, not far away.
A woman holds a tiny body in her arms, screaming in anguish as the little Chakra slowly dissipates into nothing. The child, a boy, with no chest left after it had been carved away by something cruel and jagged.
Naruto feels the Chakra. Keiji. From his class. Dead in his Kaa-chan's arms.
He stares blankly into space for a while, even as the mother who gave him water tugs on his torn sleeves.
"Naruto-chan, we have to go!"
Running is useless. They keep catching up.
But... he could do what the Sentinel did.
Just buy a little time so Karin-chan and her Kaa-chan can run away and find somewhere safe.
He turns slowly as though his head were a puppets'.
Karin's mother seems to understand.
"You'll die, Naruto-chan."
Naruto tries to answer with a rasp. But his throat is still too dry. He doesn't know what's come over him. But it's not fair. Nothing about this is fair. But people have already given their lives for him. The Sentinel, his Academy Sensei', and he has no idea what happened to his dad and Kaa-chan is nowhere to be seen either.
It's not fair, and he can't run anymore.
"Run." Naruto manages to get out, coughing. His mouth is so dry that the inside of his throat splits and tiny flecks of blood come out.
Karin's mother has her priorities straight. Protect her baby. She stands up immediately.
"Die well, my brother Uzumaki." She gives him one elongated kiss on his forehead.
She runs, holding Karin tight to her chest so as not to shake her around.
'Be the Maelstrom.'
Naruto wants food. He wants water. He wants Kaa-chan and Tou-chan. He wants this to be a dream.
He wants to kill every last man responsible for this.
"This one's young enough." A Kumo female looks down at a shivering girl, frozen in fear.
She looks about eight or so. Not old enough to have developed the Uzumaki-crazies yet. Maybe she can be groomed into something more agreeable for Kumo. When she's old enough, she'll be able to spawn a few decent potential Jinchuuriki.
"We only need a few. Hurry things up."
"Yeah, yeah." She replies, eyes still darting around the room.
These people are tricksy. They have a habit of defying expectations. No-one expected this invasion to last three days over the few hours it was meant to.
"C'mere, girl. I'll keep you safe." She lies to the child.
The girl with dark eyes shakes her head violently and keeps a kunai pointed at her.
"We really don't have time for this." She slaps the kunai out of the small and clumsy grip. The following pitiful whimper is promptly ignored.
A childish roar behind them distracts them momentarily. A tiny boy runs in, halberd in two-hands, and stabs it straight into the groin of her male partner.
He screams and her eyes widen. She drops the girl, pulling her own kunai out and lunges at the boy.
"Naru-chan!" The girl screams.
The boy is like a rabid dog. A glowing, crimson chain projects from his chest, too quickly for the Shinobi woman to dodge.
It didn't do much though, slapping off her chest ineffectual before the chain snakes its way around her to lock her in place.
"You got spirit, kiddo." She tries shaking off the chains and substituting.
It doesn't work.
"What?"
The chain drags her to the ground, their vicious glow reflecting off his cold, blue eyes.
'Fuck, why can't I use my Chakra?!' She squirms, increasingly anxious and panicked.
The chain pulls her closer. The boy mounts the chain like it's a child's toy in a park.
His soulless eyes send shivers through her. She kicks, she shunts, but nothing works to give her her Chakra back.
Tiny hands reach down to her eyes.
"You little cunt!" Her partner gathers the last of his strength and dignity to chop down at the boys' neck with his sword.
Another chain launches from his back, spearing through her partners skull, leaving hims suspended off the ground as blood pours out and over the boys' hair and clothes.
And yet, the child doesn't say a word. His fingers pinch, and she howls as her eyes are ripped from their sockets.
He knows what those Chains are capable of.
Sandaime Raikage deftly dodges with his lightning-enhanced speed. He is agile, but only from side-to-side and forwards-and-backwards. He can dodge all he wants but the moment he goes in for the killing blow, that chain would nullify his Chakra. Though as brief a second it may be, he knows not what hell she could bring in that second.
They're too slow to catch him though. So a temporary stalemate.
"Ufufufu..." Akaimajo giggles. As if she thinks she's winning.
'Look at this place, Red Witch. You lost the moment we arrived.'
He doesn't want to be distracted. Distraction causes death-by-Uzumaki.
Akaimajo doesn't so much as weave a hand-sign, but traces a glowing-red finger through the air.
"Chōetsu-tekina no Mai: Daiichimaku: Hi(Transcendental Dance: First Act: Fire)."
Her voice is a whisper that carries on the wind. Red wisps fly from her finger and take shape into a massive crimson seal, sitting in the air in front of her.
The Raikage expected a flurry of fire, but got only floating embers.
They are far faster than her chains although-
"Pathetic. You think a few lights can pierce my Lightning Armour?"
Tiny fire pelts with no effect on his Jutsu.
The Uzumaki woman doesn't falter her sinister smile.
"Dainimaku: Kaze(Second Act: Wind)."
Her seal transforms its pattern. In an instant, thousands of wind needles erupt from it instead.
They shred his armour. His eyes go wide, darting sideways to avoid the linear strike.
Only they chase him, curving through the air like a swarm of vicious hornets, streaking around unnaturally. He cannot avoid it, but so long as he keeps up his speed, she will fail to land a killing blow. It would appear that the fire's only purpose was to tag his Chakra, making her Jutsu target him regardless of where he went.
"Daisanmaku: Rai(Third Act: Lightning)." She intones again, growing gleeful.
The wind needles on his skin, not quite having penetrated all the way through, glow and sink into a more familiar feeling. His lightning armour returns.
"Stupid woman!" The Raikage launches himself at her, directing energy into his index finger to blitz her into pieces.
Only to fall over, paralysed, and his armour sputtering out once more. His body spasms uncontrollably and gains a blinding migraine.
"Ara-ara, Raikage." Akaimajo mocks. "It would appear that you have fallen on hard times. Allow me to acquaint you with a peaceful death."
She kicks him onto his back.
"Daishimaku: Do(Fourth Act: Earth)."
He feels something horrible wrong as his skin dries out and wrinkles. His lips crack and his mouth becomes so dry that he can taste the sea water with his laboured breaths. The ribs previously visible under his muscular and defined torso begin to sink, as does the rest of his body.
The Raikage rapidly loses all function in his body.
"I developed this as punishment. For those who are strong but dare to infringe upon the Uzumaki. Suffer, as your nerves betray you, as your organs turn to dust, and you are swept away by the unforgiving sea. Daigomaku: Sui(Fifth Act: Water)."
He feels nothing but pain as what is left of his insides are churned by water, everything not his skin or his brain are minced by the mini rapids within him.
His last lucid thoughts before the water gushes from every orifice, carrying the dust that was once his organs, was that he hoped the Uzumaki would be forever cursed and die miserable, lonely deaths.
Ashina's Chains spear through every golem, picking them up and tossing them around as a child would with a toy.
He can't keep up forever. He and Manami are the last line against the Kage and those beasts.
All he could do was hope that Konohagakure would rescue whatever survivors had already managed to flee.
Onoki flies up, and Ashina doesn't quite know what to do about that. Flying is a rare ability, befitting a Kage.
He hears the roars again and the monsters come into full view. A giant monkey of Four-Tails, and an equally demonic-looking creature of Five- Tails emerge from the horizon.
The sun is rising, barely. If he does nothing, then what remains of them would be gone by the full morning.
Ashina conjures all the strength and Chakra remaining in his weak old body.
"Uzumaki Hiden: Kagurasuzu(God-Entertainment Suzu)."
His golden Chakra leaks away and becomes a pillar of light. Hissing, it splits and forms two gilden platforms with glowing bells dangling from them.
They ring only once before the light vanishes.
Onoki, sensing his opportunity, flies down and caves Ashina's chest with a fist of pure earth.
Ashina falls to his back, not bothering to breath.
"Now what did you think that would accomplish?" Onoki snarls.
Ashina gives only his dying smile.
Naruto dashes through the streets while holding his classmates' hand. She grips tightly and can't find the energy to cry and run.
"Hey brats!" An Iwa Shinobi spits a glob of lava at them. Naruto ducks and pulls the classmate down before they get hit.
Now, it seems as though they've run long enough. And they cannot find the energy stand back up again.
A golden wave washes over them.
Its pleasant feeling is lost on them, feeling only that death awaits them now.
The Iwa-nin and his comrades all hear hissing from their pouches.
"What the fuck?"
One chances a peek into his pouch. Only to acknowledge too late that all of his explosive tags are set to detonate.
"Aww fu-"
Naruto and his newfound rescuee duck as body parts go hail through the streets.
Roshi and Han continue to smash around in Bijuu form, tired of killing fleeing civilians. Their rampage stops for a brief moment, seeing a golden aura expand and glide across the landscape beautifully.
The wave only just passes them before it dissipates.
It only takes a second to realise exactly what it did.
They both grunt as their Bijuu transformations halt, feeling the seals holding the beasts in fail for a moment.
Roshi considers himself lucky that he doesn't carry explosive tags around him like the rest of the reinforcements, watching as a rain of blood and guts become a fine mist in combination with the dirt and sawdust from the foliage.
It only worked for a mere second though. Enough to destroy one-time-use seals. Not enough to stop the more passive nature of a Bijuu Transformation.
They march onward.
Manami dashes to the central tower.
She knows time is short. There is nothing left of their home.
All she can do now is buy time for whoever managed to flee.
Keeping her son in her senses, she focuses on one last effort to recover what is left of them to impart onto her son. So that he may live on, so there may be even the slightest chance of the Uzumaki rebuilding in the long-distant future.
She scampers in through the towers' broken windows, finding a seal on the floor of Ashina's office.
Ashina's Jutsu doesn't affect things of Uzumaki-make, after-all.
Manami unseals a large scroll, slings it across her back and makes a break for it.
She's getting tired. She can barely stand anymore after three days of fighting and no sleep. She just runs and runs and fights, one singular goal in mind.
Protect her Maelstrom.
Finding his Chakra is easy, so blaring and strong and angry that it worries her but he can, and will learn, to look after himself and what is left of their kind.
The hot wind rushes against her already dehydrated skin, until the briefest wind cools her from the beautiful sea.
She feels peaceful for a moment as she lands in front of her son.
"Naruto!" She lunges at him, pulling him into her tight and unrelenting hug.
He fights in panic for a moment. She holds him tighter and cries, unknowing of what he's been through for his horrible battle.
Naruto nearly slips into unconsciousness but snaps out of it.
"Kaa-chan..." He sounds so tired, so dead, unlike his old self. He cannot muster the will or even the fluids in his body to cry.
"Listen carefully, my precious son. You and a few others are all that remain. I will buy you time to get out of here, so you can live and be free! Take your friend, run as far as the wind will take you, find shelter and food, never go to sleep hungry, never give up on whatever dreams take over your soul, never forget what has happened here, and never stop fighting! My son, my Naruto, I will be with you in spirit for as long as you live, but just live!"
He keeps on panting but hangs on every word she says.
She puts the scroll on his chest, and it vanishes in a puff of smoke. A black seal forms over his heart, with the signature pattern of the Uzumaki engraved in it.
"This is the history and practices of our Clan, use it for whatever you see fit. All that is left of us is within you now."
"Kaa...chan-"
There is nothing remaining of his energy.
But a mothers love for her child will never dissipate.
He grabs his jaw, and forces him to bite her arm.
The Maelstrom within agrees with her choice, funnelling as much of her life force as she can into healing her son, to give him the slightest chance of escape.
She traces seals over him and the little girl, folding their Chakra with seals to make them indistinguishable from the environment, for only a little while. Hopefully, enough time to find somewhere to hide.
"Naruto," Her eyes lock with his. She despairs at the blood caking his body. "Eat well, fight well, love well, die well. I love you, with every fiber of my being, for eternity. Now go!"
"I... love... you~" He slurs out.
"Don't forget that love. Don't forget, you are my Maelstrom."
Manami turns away, holding in her tears. Only one thing matters.
Protect.
Onoki scouts Uzushiogakure from above. The sunrise makes things infinitely easier to pick off survivors.
Phantom sensations tingle his skin. He turns in paranoia.
The Red Witch collides with him before he can even react. Chains launch downward to the ground, and one through his lower back.
Her chains pull them down to the cold ground, streets running with blood, and Onoko is forced to powerlessly collide with the earth.
His back shatters.
It is painful beyond reckoning.
With what little power he can after the chain retracts forcefully, he aims his Jinton at Akaimajo.
She is too exhausted to dodge and her legs are dismantled from the knee.
And yet she crawls, bloodthirst on her wretched countenance.
"Time to die!" She screams.
Lava meteors descend on her in a nick of time, setting her body ablaze.
Han lands and begins to smash her bones with his enhanced Boil-Release punches.
The Red Witch becomes a mottled caricature of what a human might be.
And still, she looks up.
"We will have vengeance." She whispers, bald and scarred and deformed.
What remains begins to glow, and Roshi grabs Onoki before she sends herself off with one final, catastrophic explosion of power.
Chapter 2 End