CHAPTER TWENTY
Betrayal!
XXX
Deathly silence.
A flash of light.
Raw vibrations in the earth.
A rush of chakra.
And then, the sound. A loud bang at first, followed by a slow and steady rumbling as chakra was released into the atmosphere.
XXX
"Hey, Naruto…"
"Yeah."
The Uzumaki looked down to stare at the curly black mop Kaede called hair. He was surprised she was even awake. They'd been lying there for at least thirty minutes just listening to the sound of rain hitting the window. The constant pitter-patter of drops on glass. The howling of the wind as it ripped through the tall buildings. The mist slowly moving across the window. The gentle red LED lights piercing through the fog to illuminate the pair. It was the perfect somniferous mix to fall asleep to.
"What do you wanna be when you grow up?" Kaede wondered.
"I haven't been asked that question since I was like ten," Naruto looked out at the window to think for a bit, "Crazy enough, I wanted to be Hokage when I was younger."
"Oh? And what happened to that dream?"
"I don't think criminals of the state can become Hokage, so I feel like my chance to accomplish that has gone out the window," he said.
"No way, I say don't give up on your dreams. Anything is possible. Nothing's impossible," she was shut up by Naruto gently slapping her face.
"Shush, I'm supposed to be the motivational one here," he said before chuckling to himself for a little while. He figured he'd return the question to her, "What about you? What do you wanna be when you grow up?"
"If I grow up…"
"When…"
Kaede looked up at him.
"When I grow up… I wanna be famous."
"Famous?" Naruto looked down at her. Kaede looked up at him with a cheeky smirk on her face, "That doesn't really sound like something you'd want."
"Of course, I want my name in the history books," she said, "I want to be like Hashirama Senju, or… or Madara, or the Third Raikage. I want everyone to know my name before I even enter a room. I want my name to mean something."
"Well, first you'll have to leave Kiri for your name to mean something to other villages," Naruto recommended, "Or maybe become the next Mizukage."
.
.
.
"Yeah. Hey, Naruto. What do you think happens to us when we die?"
"I feel like that's a complete 180 from 'what do you wanna be when you grow up'," Naruto erupted into laughter. Kaede punched his arm.
"I'm being serious, plus it was your question from earlier that's got me thinking about this kinda stuff."
"My question from earlier?"
"About whether I fear death or not," she explained. "Now answer my question."
"Okay, okay, stop punching me," he said, grabbing a hold of her tiny fist. He yanked her by the fist to pull her closer, "I think… I think that when we die, we're given another chance at life. You get a second chance, one where you get the opposite of what you got in the previous life. If you suffered in your first, you'll be rewarded just as much in your second."
"Do you really think that?"
"Yeah, of course. At least that's how I was raised. Why? What about you?"
"… I was taught there was no afterlife. That this was it. Nobody is waiting for us, nothing waiting for us, but nothingness. Not darkness, not light, just nothingness. I hope you're right. I hope there's another side," Kaede said, a bit panicked.
"… Uh… yeah… I hope so too."
XXX
The dark red cloud looming over everything swelled at the top to form a mushroom with a ring around the centre. The dirt and debris that'd been picked up by the earth-shaking explosion finally began to rain down on them. The dirt. The rocks. The trees. The sand. As the dust of war began to settle, the heavenly turtle with spikes running down its shell and three tails swinging behind it slowly lumbered into the ocean. They couldn't let it get away.
The Battle for the Three-Tails had begun.
And if it wasn't for Karura's Will, it would've already ended.
Gathering so much chakra to prevent such an explosion from absolutely destroying them on a molecular level had taken a lot out of Gaara, but at least they were alive. The woman's sandy figure had absorbed most of the explosion by forming two massive hands around them and her torso in front of them. The sand she'd used was so hard, that it sparkled like gold. They'd been spared from the heat and raw energy of the explosion, but the second shockwave still managed to throw them all back.
Naruto crashed into a tree and just lay there.
Gaara shook him violently, "Get up! Get up and fight!" he demanded. Naruto's vision was too blurry, his hearing too distorted, and his mind too foggy to listen to what the Sand shinobi had to say, let alone, fight a completely transformed tailed beast. It was useless and Fuu was the first to point it out.
She grabbed Gaara by the forearm and yanked him off the Uzumaki.
"There's no time! Hotaru, keep watch over Naruto! You and I will seal this thing in Hinata, ssu!" Fuu yelled.
"We'll… just the three of us?"
"Fuck yeah! These scumbags tried to kill us with their jinchuuriki, so we'll take their jinchuuriki away from them!"
"Yeah?" Gaara nodded before turning to Hinata. What were they doing? They were about to take on one of the strongest creatures in the world dressed in bikinis and wetsuits. But they had no choice. They had to make a stand. "Yeah!"
"Yeah?" Fuu turned to Hinata.
Hinata swallowed hard before looking just beyond the dissipating mushroom cloud at the turtle that was slowly turning to face them. Its singular red eye bore daggers into her soul. It was now or never. "Yeah!"
"Yeah!" Fuu yelled before looking over her shoulder at the creature. "We'll have to weaken it first, but when it's weak enough, Gaara will hold it down with a Magnet Release Sealing Technique, and I'll shove it in Hinata," she extended her arm, "Yuugure on three."
"Yuugure?"
"Yuugure on three, ssu!"
They put their hands in the middle. Hotaru placed her hand on top.
"Yuugure!"
"Yuugure!"
"Yuugure!"
"Yuugure!"
Fuu turned to face the creature, "Let's go!" they all charged in unison. A column of chakra came down from below and caught Fuu. Gaara lifted Hinata and himself off the ground using sand.
"The sand here is heavier than the sand from my gourd, it'll be difficult to move as freely," Gaara told her.
"Will that be a problem when it comes to sealing it up," Hinata wondered.
"Of course not. I'll have to use the Grand Sand Mausoleum Seal. As heavy as the sand is, with so much of it at my disposal, surely that'll have to work. We'll just have to find a way to hold it down first, so I can gather the required sand."
Hinata looked down at the massive creature as they hovered around it. She looked back at Gaara before returning to the Three-Tails, "Do you think we'll be able to even hurt it?" she wondered.
Gaara stopped to look at her, "Just follow my lead, and victory will be ours. Don't overcommit yourself though, by the end of the day you'll be a jinchuuriki, so you'll need as much chakra as possible."
Their little moment was interrupted by Fuu erupting from the column with her Version Two cloak and four wings. She charged into the turtle. It dragged her below the surface using volumes of water.
Gaara sent Hinata around the creature to assault it from two angles.
"Give it everything you've got!" he told her.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" she let out multiple balls of fire as she passed over it. They all hit its shell and turned to steam. It looked up to her. Hinata's speciality was close-quarters combat. Get her in a one-on-one situation and she'd probably come out victorious, but considering she was dealing with a creature more than 50x her size, that type of combat was not a viable option.
Gaara attacked next, "Sand Shuriken!" he released a constant stream of demon wind shuriken-shaped sand projectiles.
They did nothing.
Two chakra arms broke out from below the waves to lift the turtle into the air before flipping it onto its back. The actual flip itself almost took out both Hinata and Gaara as the beast made one last swipe to try and clean their clocks. It missed. It slammed back into the ocean, wrapped in deathly red chakra arms. Waves lifted up from the impact, crashing onto the shoreline. If it wasn't for Hotaru using a Water Wall to counter the incoming waves, Naruto would've been swept into the ocean.
"Now we can attack its soft underbelly," Fuu noted, rising out of the ocean.
"I don't think you know how turtles work!" Gaara said, floating past her. "No use letting this opening go to waste though. Hinata, let's hold it down in the meantime!" he said before going through the dog, horse, and bird hand seals, "Wind Style: Immense Breakthrough!"
A column of wind nailed the tailed beast to the sands below.
It let out a beastly bellow.
Hinata did her part too, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" she said before releasing the flames as a constant stream.
The Three-Tails wrestled the techniques to try and get back up.
Two more chakra arms broke out from below to pull it back down, pinning it to the seabed. Gaara looked across to Fuu, who'd landed on the beach and dug her arms into the sand to hold the creature down. It wasn't working.
They needed more.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" the winds grew more intense, scarring the creature's shell.
Hinata got the memo. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" the stream grew stronger.
Suddenly, coral formed around the turtle, creating a gap between the techniques, the chakra arms, and its hard shell.
"Oh no," Fuu gasped.
The Three-Tails boosted itself into the jinchuuriki, sending her flying through the forest, crashing through trees, and eventually being stopped by a boulder. That hurt.
It berated both Hinata and Gaara with bullets of water. The One-Tails jinchuuriki tried to block with a shield of sand, whilst Hinata stopped the momentum of all incoming bullets with precise Gentle Fist hits. Following in their footsteps from earlier, Isobu intensified the speed and power of its barrage. The barrage of water quickly turned Gaara's sand to mud, weighing it down. It also physically overwhelmed Hinata but she had one more trick up her sleeve.
Gaara fell into the ocean, meaning it was just Hinata vs the turtle's water barrage.
"Protective Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms Guard!" she absorbed the barrage for as long as she could, but she was up against a tailed beast after all. She got hit by a stray bullet which curved in mid-air to strike her from the side.
She hit the water and landed on its surface, channelling chakra to her feet to stay up.
She got back into the Gentle Fist stance.
The Three-Tails curled into a ball with its spiky shell aimed at Hinata.
"Shukaku…"
The single-tailed tanuki reached out of the water and formed a ramp using the sand below. The One-Tails launch its spiky brother over Hinata and into the ocean.
"Choumei…"
Light exploded out of Fuu's orifices. A little sprinkle of scale powder. A flash of light. The single-tailed, six-winged bug formed over the forest. As its wings vibrated behind the creature, Fuu finally realised just how smart the Three-Tails was. It had dragged them into its playground. Shukaku was much slower in the water and if Choumei got hit with even one wave, he'd be sent crashing into the water.
They couldn't just brute force it. They needed to think of a way to bring it onto the beach's sands and weaken it on dry land.
"AHH!" Hinata let out a bloodcurdling scream before deactivating the chakra in her feet, so she'd sink into the water.
Choumei looked up, "Shit." The Three-Tails was gathering negative chakra and positive chakra from the surrounding air and collecting them into a large purple sphere. The Tailed Beast Bomb. "Gaara!"
Before it could launch the technique, Shukaku built an entire sandcastle around the turtle. Gaara, always one for the theatrics, created a multi-tiered castle with a little village at its base. He decorated the castle with brick-textured walls, a drawbridge surrounded by a moat, four large towers around the main castle, and a flag on top with Shukaku's face. He lifted the Three-Tails up to place the turtle at the top of the tower.
That wouldn't be enough and Shukaku knew it.
Just before the Three-Tails released the technique, he destroyed the back half of the sandcastle, tilting the turtle. It blasted the sphere into the sky as it fell into the water.
Shukaku Claws reached out to try and hold the turtle down, but they were too slow. It rolled itself into a ball again and burst through the castle walls, collapsing the entire structure behind it. Sand went flying as the Tailed Beast Bomb went off, the shockwave lifted the surrounding water and dust, covering the battlefield.
Choumei braced for impact.
The turtle exploded out of the dust cloud and rolled towards the flying bug.
Hinata erupted out of the water with a precise chakra punch to the turtle's shell, disrupting the tailed beast's path enough and sending it crashing into the sand.
Perfect. They had it exactly where they wanted it. "Wind Style: Air Bullet!" Choumei launched orb after orb of highly concentrated air blasts.
"Wind Style: Air Bullet!" Shukaku did the same.
The Three-Tails panicked.
A water whip wrapped around Shukaku's neck. The tanuki clawed at the intangible obstacle. Another did the same to the base of Choumei's body. Both tailed beasts were flung into the ocean at incredible speeds. Sand went flying in one direction. Scale powder went flying in the other.
Gaara emerged from the sand, just as Fuu did from her pile of scale powder.
They were both exhausted, but the Three-Tails was on the beach. A third of the job had been done, it was all about weakening and sealing it now.
"Shukaku…"
"Choumei…"
And then, both tailed beasts were back in action. The two back-to-back controlled-tailed beast transformations were going to hurt in the morning, but they had no choice. They had to seal the Three-Tails here and now, no matter what it would take.
XXX
All Hotaru could do was stand on the sidelines and watch as these two massive behemoths tried to take on a tailed beast that was at least twice as tall as both of them combined. She paced back and forth as anxiety took over.
"Come on, Naruto, snap out of it," she yelled, finally losing it, and grabbing the Uzumaki by the hoodie. She shook him violently, but he was so deep in his own thoughts that he wasn't even looking at her, let alone acknowledging her presence.
"Step aside. Let me try," a voice said, pushing Hotaru away and grabbing Naruto by the collar, "Wake up! Wake up Nine-Tails, come on! Your friends need you!" Hotaru's eyes widened. This man. "It's not working… Zetsu! Do you maybe have like some smelling salts or something, that usually works for me?"
"You're an idiot, Tobi," a second stranger said from behind a tree.
They were Akatsuki. The man shaking the life out of Naruto was slightly shorter with a high-pitched voice and an orange spiral mask over his face. The second was definitely not human. His face was half-black and half-white, the two colours split down the middle with a huge Venus's Flytrap mouth surrounding it.
Tobi, the masked man, pointed to himself and asked, "Me? What did I do?"
"You gave away our location before we could get any more information."
"What? Did I really? How? We have the Nine-Tails right here. No one's watching. Let's pick him up and go."
"And the girl?" Zetsu asked.
"The girl?" he looked back over his shoulder at Hotaru. "EH! The girl!" he yelled before covering his eye with his hand.
"What are you doing?"
"She's in her underwear."
"It's swimwear."
"Really?" Tobi lowered his hand to get a good look at her, "What's the difference?"
"Well, material for one, if you… I'm not going to describe the differences between underwear and a bikini to you, Tobi!"
"Sorry! Sorry! Uh… heyyy… you know, we're not supposed to be seen, so could you please… like… turn the other way?" Hotaru was frozen stiff by fear. What should she do? They were part of the same organisation that got her sensei killed. "Look at it this way, if you don't turn around, I'll have to kill you and I really don't want to kill you because I've got like this whole pacifist streak going with Konan and I don't really like to lose, I'm on 742 days, so-."
"Just kill her!" the Venus Flytrap demanded.
"AH! Yes, sir!" he saluted before fully turning to face Hotaru.
Tobi approached at high speeds.
"Water Style: Water Shuriken," without any actual weapons on her, she had to improvise by launching a barrage of shuriken made of water. The young kunoichi watched as they all passed clean through the shinobi. He ran past her and came to a halt.
"Huh? Did… did my attack miss?"
"Maybe? But mine didn't!"
Hotaru looked down at her belly. He'd strapped a paper tag to her.
In a panic, she clawed at her stomach, rolled it into a ball, and threw it off. The explosion still launched her through the trees though.
"I distracted her, let's get out of here before she comes back!" Tobi screamed, running past Naruto and his plant-like partner. He froze mid-stride when he realised the man wasn't running with him. "Uh… Zetsu?"
The half-and-half man looked back at his masked partner, "What's wrong with you? We already have the Nine-Tails in our possession. With the Three-Tails, One-Tails, and Seven-Tails engaged in combat as we speak, odds are they'll tire themselves out, we'll kill the Hyuuga brat and get out of here with four tailed beasts in tow."
"But my streak…"
"I don't give a single fuck about your pacifism streak, now kill that girl!"
Another barrage of shuriken whizzed past the pair, "Eh?" Tobi looked over to his right just in time to see Hotaru's foot in his face. She passed right through him. "What?" the masked man followed her with his eye as she leapt into the trees.
She threw out another barrage of shuriken from all angles.
They all passed through Tobi. "But she's so fast."
"Shut up and get down to business," Zetsu pressed his hand against a tree. Hotaru watched as he merged into the thick tree trunk, leaving just her, Naruto, and Tobi.
XXX
After all this time, Naruto finally floated to the water's surface. He exploded out of the murky brown water in a coughing fit whilst clutching his chest. Everything felt warm and still. The atmosphere felt heavy, with air so thick it was hard to breathe in. The Uzumaki let himself collapse back onto the water, which was now ankle-deep with concrete flooring just below the surface.
He hadn't been here in years.
His lifeless blue eyes slowly trailed upwards until he locked eyes with the demonic fox's sole visible red eye.
"Am I dead or something?" Naruto wondered.
"Of course not."
"Then why have you brought me here after all this time?"
"I'm here to tell you to snap out of it."
"…" Naruto sat up. His brow furrowed, "Why would you of all people be trying to intervene, I thought you liked seeing me in pain."
"I do… but you're making me look pathetic in front of the other tailed beasts."
"Why should you care? They know that you promised not to help me until I kill Sasuke or whatever. Hell, I don't even think that's possible anymore since we've been running around hiding for three years. He's probably become Orochimaru's vessel or something. Either way, why should you care what they think?"
"Oh, come on, runt, we both know I've failed to keep up with the promise I made all those years ago. I saved you from the Uchiha's genjutsu and on multiple occasions over the last three years have healed your wounds and supplied you with enormous amounts of chakra while you were training. My existence is dependent on your living, so of course, I have to care about you and how others see you. You are the Nine-Tailed jinchuuriki after all, as long as I am trapped within you, what you do affects my reputation," ripples of water ran across the room as the Nine-Tailed Fox lowered its head onto its forearms, "Plus, I can sense negative emotions, so your depressing outburst, as fun as it is to watch, woke me up."
Naruto finally propped himself up and rose to his feet to stare at the giant fox's faint silhouette. "If you can sense negative emotion, could you sense Kaede's pain this whole time?"
"Of course."
"So, you knew she was a jinchuuriki?"
"Fuck no, everyone feels pain, runt. Unfortunately, the hurricane of negative emotions that swirls around someone's head is no indicator of their lifestyle… exhibit A, you. You have nearly the whole world trying to fuck you over, but I still can't convince you to kill one lousy Uchiha."
"So, in a way, you're basically a sensory type shinobi?" Naruto wondered.
"… Yeah… you could make that comparison. I'm better than a sensory type, but if that's what you need for your feeble mind to understand my power, then sure…"
"Then can you at least sense if she's still alive? Do you still sense her inside that thing, like when Gaara and Fuu transform into their tailed beasts?"
One of Kurama's ears perked up. It swivelled from left to right, clockwise and then counter-clockwise. He let out a soft sigh, raising more little ripples across the water, "Not at all, kid. She's gone. That wasn't any normal transformation after all. Anyway, that's what happens when a tailed beast is separated from their jinchuuriki. It's game over. There's nothing we can do… except… kill those who wronged us…"
"It's really not the time. If you just brought me here to remind me about all the people that I have to kill to satisfy your bloodlust, then you can send me back to the real world because I'm not hearing it," Naruto scoffed before turning his back to the beast, "I couldn't save Sasuke, I couldn't save Utakata, I couldn't save Kaede. I'm 0/3 on my mission to save the people who are precious to me. I'm tired, Fox. I want to go home. I want to go back to Konoha. I don't want any of this freedom nonsense anymore. I want the devil I know over this new devil I don't. I want it to be all over."
"Don't make me have to be a motivational speaker, you runt… okay, fine" Kurama groggily got back up onto his feet as Naruto turned to stare up at him. He towered over the Uzumaki. With one last snort, he began, "Orochimaru, the Akatsuki, and this village. That is why you lost those people. Orochimaru was the one who tricked Sasuke into becoming his vessel. The Akatsuki were the ones who killed Utakata. Kirigakure was the one that sealed Isobu in Kaede in such a manner that she'd go off like a bomb if they wanted her to. Nothing you have done has caused this. What have you done? You've given Gaara the chance to know what friends are. You've freed Hinata from the shackles of Hyuuga family tradition. You've helped Fuu learn what lies outside the walls of the Hidden Waterfall. You've given Han a new appreciation of the people around him. You've shown Yugito that she's more than just a trained killing machine. Oh, and that new one… her, I'm sure you've influenced her in some way. The Three-Tails said it herself, perhaps in another world you could've left Konoha and lived a fruitful life, or you could've stayed in Konoha and been treated like a human being, but you don't live in that other world. You live here, in this one. And in this one, you have to get up and fight, because the Akatsuki are here and if you don't move… they will kill you and, more importantly, me!"
Naruto's eyes widened, "They're… here?"
"Yes… and as I said before, all you can do now is kill those who wronged you. Defeat the Hidden Mist Village by saving Isobu and taking their sole remaining tailed beast away from them. Defeat the Akatsuki by protecting the remaining eight tailed beasts. And defeat Orochimaru by killing that snake no matter which body he's wearing. Now then… take my strength and go. Allow me to rest."
XXX
"Water Style: Water Wall!" Tobi was stopped in mid-air by the jet of water spraying out of Hotaru's mouth. She went through a few more hand signs before, "Lightning Style: Emotion Wave!" she electrocuted the water, thus electrocuting Tobi.
The masked man collapsed.
Hotaru landed next to him with chakra threads at the ready.
Two hands clasped around her ankles. The unconscious Tobi dispelled to reveal a hole in the ground, "Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu!" Tobi announced, crouching in front of Hotaru before patting her on the head.
She was shoulders deep in the dirt, "You rat!"
"No, it's a mole, it wouldn't make as much sense if it was called Hidden Rat Jutsu because rats don't dig holes. Wait… Zetsu! Do rats dig holes?"
"I'll kill you!"
"I'll be the one doing the killing here, and I promise to make it quick," he said before diving back into the earth, "Minefield Great Plain Jutsu!" he yelled, placing numerous amounts of mines around the battlefield, some visible to Hotaru, others embedded deep in the earth. "It's all set… shit. No! Not again! Wait!" Tobi yelled, trying to pull himself out of his final hole.
Hotaru went out with a scream. The explosion consumed her, drowning out her cries. It swallowed Tobi whole too. It shattered trees. Demolished the surrounding rock. And lifting huge plots of earth into the sky along with sand. Tobi sprinted onto the beach to dive into the ocean. The technique had set his trench coat on fire. "Too much gunpowder!" he made a mental note for next time, "Oi! Are you okay? No! That's good!" He yelled before returning to this charred section of his trench coat.
The earth shuddered behind him, kicking up dirt. Tobi looked back over his shoulder. How on earth did she survive that? Hotaru, breathing heavily with sweat pouring out from every pore, rested her head on Naruto's chest. Her life had just flashed before her eyes. If it wasn't for him… she'd be nothing but chunks of meat by now.
"Thanks." Naruto dropped her onto her feet. He didn't say anything. "Don't underestimate him," Hotaru warned. Finally, he looked back at her over his shoulders. The Uzumaki's eyes were still cerulean blue, but his pupils had gone from solid black lines to constricted black vertical slits.
"I won't, now find a place where you'll be safe," Naruto replied.
"What are you going to do?"
"What Han always tells us to do when our backs are against the wall… fill the battlefield with as much tailed beast nonsense as possible."
Hotaru did as was instructed and abandoned the two battlefields. She did one last check to make sure everyone was okay. She looked back just in time to see Shukaku grab and Choumei bite two of Isobu's three tails. Together, they flipped him over themselves and into the forest to stop him from scampering into the ocean.
"I'm sure they'll be fine," she said before disappearing into the forest.
A column of red chakra came down from the heavens and slammed into Naruto. The shockwave almost knocked Tobi off his feet. "Whoa! Okay, wait, let's not get too carried away here… I was just… I was just joking when I tried to blow your friend up, it was a…" Tobi's ramblings were interrupted by an ear-splitting roar that launched the man into the ocean.
Naruto gave chase.
Tobi reared his head.
Naruto was hovering over him, four tails flowing around him.
"SHIT!"
The explosion sent water in every direction.
Naruto looked down. He'd missed. Tobi was making a beeline for the beaches. "Zetsu! Zetsu! I'm tagging you in!"
Massive red arms emerged from the waters and chased after the masked man, growing in size as they neared him. Tobi panicked and dived into the water. Naruto looked around.
"Yoo-hoo!" he popped up.
Naruto smashed him into oblivion.
"Yoo-hoo!" he was somewhere else.
A chakra fist came down on him there too.
"Try again!" Tobi wrapped his hands around the jinchuuriki's ankles and dragged him down to hell. Naruto tried to coil his tails around the Akatsuki member, but he missed. The tails seemed to slip right through him. Tobi swam to the surface. Naruto propelled himself upwards.
Tobi jumped out of the water.
Naruto followed him up and out.
Tobi dived back in.
Naruto still gave chase.
Tobi dived out.
Naruto came up too.
Tobi jumped back in.
Naruto was being played for a fool. The next time the masked man jumped out, he even made dolphin clicks to prove his point. The jinchuuriki slid to a halt. Tobi continued to dive in and out of the water until he reached the shore. He turned around, gave the Uzumaki a thumbs up and yelled, "Bang!"
The explosive tags rose to the surface.
Naruto ran on the water. The explosions went off behind him.
Eventually, they went off so quickly, that he couldn't avoid them.
He rolled onto the sand.
"Chair shot!" Tobi came out of nowhere to smash Naruto upside the head with the steel chair. As the jinchuuriki was trying to get his bearings, Tobi ran around the beach with his hand cupped around his ear. "Oh yeah, brother. No one expected the Tobimaniac to hit a jinchuuriki with a chair shot, but here he is to entertain the millions…" he was cut off by Naruto's hand wrapping around his throat. "Zetsu! Zetsu! Zetsu, help!" steam emanated from the masked man's collar.
Naruto slammed him into the earth. "Uncle! Uncle!" Naruto crushed the annoying mercenary under his fist. "Time out! You know this is all scripted, right? You don't have to choke me for real."
The jinchuuriki's mouth cranked open to reveal a mini–Tailed Beast Bomb.
"AHHH!" Tobi screamed.
His screams were drowned out by the explosion. The dome of energy surrounded the pair and spread out, levelling a section of the forest, and even knocking the tailed beasts off their feet.
Nothing remained of Tobi.
Naruto turned to look at the tailed beast battle going on between Shukaku, Choumei, and Isobu. It had gone from an all-out flashy war to a close-quarters test of strength. Shukaku had better control of his sand on dry land and Choumei made sure to abuse his aerial advantage. They were hammering Isobu into the earth because they knew the moment he stepped foot back into the water, it'd be hell getting him out.
"Peekaboo…" someone covered Naruto's eyes. He swung wildly. His claw passing right through the masked man. Tobi grabbed the beast's wrist. Steam emanated from that point as the toxic-tailed beast chakra met Tobi's gloved hand, "This battle's over, unfortunately, goodbye" he said as space and time began to collapse in on themselves. Spiralling around his mask to suck the jinchuuriki.
The four-tailed jinchuuriki turned to smoke.
"Huh? A Shadow Clone? When did he?"
"Na!" a kick square to the chin. Tobi lifted into the air. He wasn't high enough. "Ru!" another kick. "To!" a third.
The real Naruto emerged from behind him. When did he have time to revert back to his regular form? "I must…"
"Uzumaki Ba… what?" Naruto passed right through him. He hadn't missed this time. He was sure of it. The back of his leg just passed cleanly through the middle of his abdomen.
The Uzumaki crashed into the sands. The masked man did the same. They were both breathing heavily, "Just in time…" Tobi said aloud, "That's what I get for underestimating a jinchuuriki. I need to finish this battle quickly before… huh?"
His train of thought was interrupted by Shukaku and Choumei dispelling. Isobu had managed to crawl its way back into the water, but barely.
Gaara from above. Fuu from the left. Hinata from the right.
"Lightning Style: False Darkness!" Gaara released a spear of lightning that sent him flying higher into the air. The spear pierced the turtle's shell, electrocuting it while it was standing in the water. The Three-Tails lumbered back onto the sand. Still shaking.
Hinata next. "Fire Style: Searing Migraine!" the Hyuuga heiress fired a small fireball. Upon contact, it exploded. The technique covered such a wide area and raged with such intensity that it dried the turtle up, exhausting it.
Last one, "Wind Style: Pressure Damage!" the kunoichi turned the fireball into a raging firestorm. The winds and fire raged on. Twisting and turning. Flipping the turtle onto its back and sending it crashing into the forest.
A triple combo.
Gaara landed. This was it. "Grand Sand Mausoleum Seal!" sand rushed in from all corners of the beach to bury the Three-Tails in a pyramid. Sections of the beast still protruded out. It wasn't enough. He needed more. He drilled his hands into the sand and expelled every last bit of chakra he could. It came from the beach. It burst out of the ocean. It came flying in from different parts of the village. Large slabs of rock exploded from the nearby cliffside and were crushed into a fine powder, just to form three more tiers of the pyramid. The jinchuuriki expelled so much energy that blood began to trickle from his nostrils, "Shukaku!" Gaara applied the final touch. The cherry on the icing on the cake. The sealing marks running along Shukaku's body poured out onto the pyramid. When they locked together. The seal was complete. "Fuu!"
The mint-haired kunoichi drilled four of her fingers into Hinata's abdomen. "Sorry, Hina-chan," she said before running across the shore with a trail of green chakra threads following her. She jammed the hand into the pyramid to complete the seal. "Yin Style: Quadruple Elemental Seal."
Hinata's blue chakra ran up the threads just as Isobu's red chakra ran down them.
They met in the middle. Fusing together to transfer Isobu's essence into Hinata.
Hinata took the Three-Tails into her body.
They had a new jinchuuriki.
Gaara could pass out in peace as the sand pyramid collapsed to reveal that the Three-Tails was gone.
"Success," Naruto commented.
"No matter…" the Uzumaki looked back over his shoulder. Tobi's jovial personality had been replaced by a more sombre tone. His voice went from a high-pitched shriek to a deep bellow. "I'll just have to take the girl with me. Right after I break every bone in your arms and legs," he was standing up a few metres from the jinchuuriki.
Naruto got up too.
This guy… his aura had shifted so suddenly.
He had to think his next technique through. With the other three jinchuuriki in such a vulnerable state, he had to finish this battle off here and now. With his next technique. He had to use the Rasengan.
But… every technique he throws goes right through him.
The other three had played their part. The Three-Tails was in Hinata. Now it was his turn to defeat this masked man and weaken the Akatsuki.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A second Naruto appeared.
The clone charged.
"A clone? Do you only have one technique outside of your tailed beast stage?" Tobi wondered. The clone swung. He went straight through. Tobi materialised, turned, and kicked the clone out of existence.
Naruto's eyes widened.
The man's sole visible onyx eye had been replaced by the Sharingan. Worst of all, it was the three tomoe Sharingan. Who was this man? "If that's all you have to offer, then this is going to be quick."
A column of chakra came down from the heavens to obliterate Naruto. He emerged from the crimson dome covered in the dark red chakra with four tails.
"Boring! Your techniques bore me! I expected so much more from the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails!" Tobi commented. He prepared to charge, "I'll take you out just for being an embarrassment to the jinchuuriki name."
He charged.
Naruto did the same.
Tobi swung.
Naruto pulled his claw back.
Tobi planted his foot.
Naruto stepped on it.
They passed through each other.
They rolled for a bit then got up.
Tobi stared at the jinchuuriki, "Was that an accident? Or did you step on me on purpose when you noticed I'd get to you before you got to me?"
Naruto growled.
"No matter… it won't work again!" Tobi charged.
Naruto charged again.
The attack to decide it all.
Naruto pulled his fist back.
Tobi reached forward.
Both their feet were far behind them.
Tobi's fingers were inches away from Naruto's body, whereas Naruto's fist was still being pulled back.
Tobi materialised.
Suddenly, he was blinded.
"Fuck…" Tobi's eye trailed down to Naruto's foot. He'd dug it under the earth. That first attack was just to gauge Tobi's reaction time. He didn't have time to go intangible this time. He didn't even have time to look over his shoulder at what was about to hit him.
"RASENGAN!" Tobi was nailed to the earth as the technique landed. He grasped at thin air. The Naruto standing in front of him was just an amalgamation of tailed beast chakra. A mirage. The jinchuuriki had used the liquid movement afforded to him by the Version Two cloak to transfer his real essence underground, through the sand, and pop up behind Tobi. How was he such a fool?
He heard the whispers of a distant voice in his ear, sending chills running down his spine, "I call this technique the Flying Raijin Level Two…"
"Damn it!" Tobi didn't even have any sand to cushion the impact since Gaara had stolen it all. His body was crushed between a rock and a hard place, a technique that continually tore at his skin, grinding everything it came into contact with, with tiny needles destroying his body on a cellular level. This was hell. How did he fall for this again?
"Don't you ever threaten my teammates again, do you hear me, dattebayo?" Naruto roared, the tailed beast cloak draining off his body and returning to his seal. "Go back to your hideout and tell the rest of the Akatsuki that your life was in my hands! Tell them I let you live so you could return with a message. I'm done running away. Tell everyone, tell Itachi, tell Kisame, tell your leaders with the orange hair, tell all of them that Naruto Uzumaki's going on the offensive from now on, dattebayo! And that he's not stopping until their blood coats my fists!"
Space began to bend around the severely injured Akatsuki member. Tobi could only groan as his skin started melting off from the power of the technique. Naruto gave him one last kick as he disappeared.
He just stood there breathing heavily.
"More of that, and I might lend you my strength more often, runt." Kurama's eye closed shut.