Here is the next chapter! Enjoy.
"How do you know those words?" El'kek didn't want to speak with a traitor, but that phrase was something she shouldn't have known. Unless... this was the traitor he was looking for, but he couldn't say, not for sure.
"You tell me, how do I know?"
"Don't act as if you're superior to me."
"Oh, I would do nothing of the sort, Puddle." The woman covered her mouth in faux surprise, and El'kek once again couldn't suppress the urge to show his teeth at her.
"How primitive. You pretend to be a god, yet you can't suppress the base instincts of an El'os. You really are the useless one."
"At least I can be called an El'os, you are worth nothing." That woman, enemy to her own race didn't deserve that title.
She laughed.
"If I'm nothing, then so are you. Or have you forgotten where you are right now?" She looked at him with a smile and silently mouthed a word.
'Traitor.'
He lunged.
He didn't get further than grabbing her collar when the cuffs on his hands glowed an intense blue. Instantly pain erupted as his body was burned from the inside out. He stumbled back falling against the side of the cell, convulsing, before the light of the cuffs faded. When did they get that?
"Prisoners, I will personally put in a request to move up your execution date if you two don't behave." The voice over the speakers cut off, leaving the room in silence.
Execution? His heart rate picked up at the thought that his last days would be stuck in a cell.
"Hey! What do you mean execution? You can't do this to me!"
"It's no use, they won't listen to anything you say."
El'kek looked back over to the woman.
"What do you mean, traitor?"
"El'sen. That's my name, use it. They can't take that away from me, no matter how hard they try." She muttered.
"Fine… El'sen. " Ugh, El'kek wanted to gag at calling the woman any form of 'El', but if he was going to get answers it was necessary.
"You're a traitor, so now you're a piece of trash that needs to be deposed of, just like every other El'os who disagreed. Or what? Did you think you were special? " El'sen let out a dry laugh. " I swear, we will kill ourselves before the Benu ever finish us off. We are not better than them, make no mistake. "
Her words struck him.
"How could you say that? The Benu have killed billions of us! We are not the same!" The screams from the video still haunted his dreams.
"Aren't we? And what have we done?" El'sen shouted, slamming her hands down on the floor. "Going to countless worlds, controlling the lives of real people, all to possibly get an energy source we know rarely appears? How many people have you killed for the cause? Look at yourself now, what do you have to show for it? Nothing!"
She sighed, her voice weak. "Absolutely nothing."
El'kek was silent for a moment before speaking.
"They aren't El'os."
"And we aren't Benu." She countered. "Yet we still struggle and fight for our freedom. How can they not do the same? No matter how we phrase it, we are just like the Benu. Monsters, horrible and ugly monsters."
El'kek could say no words, no matter how much his heart rebelled to what was spoken.
He felt numb.
After a while he spoke.
"They are ants, not people."
El'sen looked at him long and hard before turning her back on him.
"I've wasted my words."
El'kek didn't listen to her bitter comment, he just slumped back against the wall, cradling his head. For the good of the El'os, everything he did was for the good of the El'os. He didn't deserve this, they were ants not people. He was not like the Benu, he didn't destroy worlds or kill people.
Ants, they were ants…
.
Once she registered the words spoken, Sakura tossed whatever plan she had with the bet out the window.
'What are you talking about? Who are you? Where's Inner?'
'There is no time for this, so just listen carefully.'
'No! You will tell me who you are, how you got into my head, and where Inner went!'
"Oi Brat? Are we gonna do this or what?" Tsunade strolled up to her and dug her fist into Sakura's head.
Sakura nearly screamed in frustration.
"I don't have time for this you old bat! Kakashi-sensei, remove her from my sight!"
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out in horror, but the smile he failed to suppress on his face revealed his true feelings.
"Sakura-chan what's wrong? Is it Inner?" Kakashi-sensei swiftly appeared, tugging Sakura to the side, and knelt down on one knee to speak with her.
"Something's wrong, it's someone else, not Inner."
'Haruno Sakura, your Inner may have humored you with verbal quips but I will do no such thing. She has been captured, and we only have a short window of time to be able to free her before her execution. The only person who can save her is you.'
"Execution? What do you mean Inner is going to be executed?" Sakura exclaimed out loud, her surprise unable to be contained mentally.
Who captured Inner? The only person allowed to mess with Inner was Sakura herself.
'You will take control of your first Inner, infiltrate the Archive, and break her out of confinement.'
'First Inner? I only had on–'
'I will not repeat myself Haruno Sakura. You have two minutes before I pull your consciousness over to my side. Plan wisely.'
"Sakura?"
She turned towards Sasuke, who had approached closer with Naruto.
"Inner was captured, they need me to save her before she is executed."
"Who is they Sakura-chan? How do they expect you to save her?" Sensei asked.
"I don't know. The stupid voice wouldn't explain anything. I don't have much time before I pass out and they pull my consciousness to who knows where. I didn't know that was even possible." She said, checking the time.
"But what about the Chunin Exams? We can't do it without you."
Sakura considered Naruto's question. If she wasn't there how much would it mess up the story? That wasn't something she wanted to do. The only advantage they had was knowledge of the plot, and without her they would be lost, even more than usual.
But Sakura needed Inner, loosing her wasn't an option. She wouldn't let it end like this, not like she had much of a choice though.
"You're going to have to figure it out. I will try to come back as soon as possible, I know you boys are hopeless without me."
"We're not that bad." Naruto grumbled.
She snorted and glanced at her pocket watch.
"It's about time, oh and Sensei?"
He gave a bright eye smile.
"Yes Sakura-chan?"
"If you let my body touch the ground, I will make your life a living hell when I get back."
Sakura didn't have a chance to hear his response before darkness engulfed her.
.
Naruto watched Kakashi-sensei panic and quickly grab Sakura-chan's limp body.
"Yeah Sensei, you better not let her body fall, who knows what she will do to you." He sniggered.
"Oh what was that Naruto? You want to practice calligraphy tonight before our genjutsu lesson? Being the kind and dedicated Sensei that I am, I will allow that, but after the twenty laps you will be running." Sensei said, picking Sakura-chan up and slinging her across his back.
"No, no I said nothing Sensei hehe." He rubbed the back of his head.
"Dobe shut up, this isn't the time for your stupidity. Also, are we just going to ignore that right now?" Sasuke said, pointing to their third teammate.
Naruto inwardly cursed. It pained him to agree that the Teme was right, this really wasn't the time for him and his big mouth, no matter how perfect of an opportunity it was. Sakura-chan was down and they had a monster granny on the loose. He had to focus.
"Don't fret, my dear sweet gen–"
"Hey! Quit ignoring me! Kakashi, what the hell is going on?"
Tsunade placed her hands on both Naruto's and Sasuke's faces shoving them apart, and stepped through. The force of the push sent both of them careening into the ground. Naruto coughed out dirt, and confirmed that the granny was in fact, a monster, and looked at the blonde woman pulling on Kakashi-sensei's ear.
The image the two portrayed made him want to say something insulting, but with all of his being Naruto kept his mouth shut.
'So you can act like a worm, most impressive.'
'Oh bite me, old man.'
'And here I was giving you a complement you idiot. It seems your mental faculties are still low. How I long to be trapped in the body of my servant instead of yours.'
'Like Sakura-chan would want you. All you do is complain all day like the grumpy fox you are.'
'I can be pleasant if I want to.'
'Yeah right, and I hate people who lie to themselves. '
' I'm a god, not a person. And I don't lie.'
'Pfft, some god you are. It was nice when the chip blocked your voice, you know.'
Naruto ignored the supposed 'god's' complaints and focused back on the conversation.
"Now now, Tsunade-sama. There is a perfectly good explanation for this." Sensei said, hunched over so his ear wasn't being pulled as much.
"There damn well better be! If you don't start talking now I will rip you apart Hatake, mark my words."
"Leave Sensei alone!" Naruto said, rushing up to Tsunade.
"Oh Naruto, thank you but it isn't nec–" Kakashi-sensei started to say, "You might hurt Sakura-chan!" only to shut his mouth at the rest of Naruto's words.
Kakashi-sensei sighed.
"I will explain everything Granny." Naruto said.
"No," Sasuke cut him off. "I'll do it."
Sasuke kept his promise, telling Tsunade about the chips, their time in Wave, his brother, Inner, and their future plans. At some point during the conversation the black-haired lady, Shizune, showed up and stood next to her Master. Once the explanation was finished Tsunade looked at Team Seven blankly and rubbed her temples.
"Do you have any proof?"
"Look in the back of Sakura-chan's neck, her chip is still there. The ones you have will look just like it. Just don't take hers out, whatever you do." If that wasn't enough proof for her, Naruto wasn't sure what was.
Tsunade and Shizune shared a look and Tsunade motioned for her student to check. Shizune stood behind Kakashi-sensei and hovered a green-glowing palm over the back of his teammate's neck.
"It's there." Shizune said.
Tsunade swore. Without even looking she brought her hand up to the back of her neck, cut into her skin and yanked her chip out. After staring at it for a moment, she threw it into the trunk of a tree. The impact was loud and Naruto had to dodge as splinters of wood went flying in all directions. All that remained afterwards was a jagged stump.
Naruto vowed to never mess with Tsunade again in that moment.
"How far back did they control?" Tsunade asked quietly.
'Before any of you mortals were born.'
'Seriously?'
'Did I stutter, worm?'
"Kurama said before any of us were born." Naruto spoke.
Tsunade remained silent.
"What's our next move?" Shizune asked, staring at her own chip in her hand.
"We need to get Sakura-chan to a safe location, and figure out what we will do for the Chunin Exams." Kakashi-sensei spoke, hiking Sakura-chan further up his back.
"I can watch her, I just need to go to a local hospital to get some things. We don't know how long she will be unconscious for. The last thing we need is for her body to deteriorate." Shizune offered.
"We don't have Sakura-chan so we should stick as close to the story as possible, which was the plan anyways." Naruto spoke. "If I need to I can make a clone of her."
"That won't work Naruto." Kakashi-sensei shook his head.
Naruto pouted, he thought it was a good idea.
'Obviously not.'
'Oh shut up will you.'
"Any jonin would be able to tell. We need someone with impeccable chakra control who could hold a semi-physical transformation as her for days at a time." Sensei pointedly looked at Tsunade.
She pointed to herself.
"Me? You want me to be the pink brat?"
"You were going to guard us anyways, at least this way you will be closer. We won't let them control us any longer." Sasuke argued.
Tsunade looked from Team Seven to her student, and Shizune gave a nod of approval.
"For Uncle Dan." Shizune said softly.
Tsunade grasped the necklace around her throat as her eyes hardened.
"For Nawaki."
Tsunade stretched her hands over her head before placing them on her hips.
"So, what do I need to do?"
We end one arc this chapter and start another in the next. I have been looking forward to writing Sakura's bit, so I'm happy I got to this point.
I'm not sure when I will release the next chapter, but it will be on a Sunday, like usual.
Another short note today, but Happy New Year for those reading now and I will talk to you in the next one!
Thanks for reading!