Nel here! 1000 years of death for me for taking so HORRIFICALLY long to get back to this fic to finish it out. Forgive me! I did a proofread through the whole story and rewrote some of the story but hope all of you still like it and enjoy the last few chapters, they will be coming out over the next few weeks. I PROMISE. No more lengthy hiatuses. =] Since I did so much updating please let me know if anything is off! Reviews welcome!
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Madara looked up at Naruto from where he stood in the center of the boat, unmoving, as white zetsu surged from the seafloor onto the crescent island and the back of the turtle. Some of them crushed beneath chucks of rock that had fallen to the ground when Naruto's Rasen Shuriken had torn through the side of the island, but for everyone crushed ten more replaced it. Guy, Kakashi, and Yamato had all already begun engaging the army from the shoreline and the back of the turtle.
Releasing a battle cry B came flying down from the temple entry landing in the center of a swarm of white zetsu, fists flying. Naruto remained at the top of the temple locked in a staring match with Madara, neither one had moved yet, both observing the battle that raged on before them.
"It's to early to engage him." Sasuke said from his squatting position beside Naruto. "And ranged attacks are useless with his abilities, they'll go right through him."
"They're all alone down there." Naruto said through gritted teeth, eyes still locked on Madara. Holding back in a fight wasn't exactly his strong suit. More than anything he wanted to fly off the top of that mountain and fight Madara, or whoever he was, but Sasuke was right, they had to hold back for now, draw him in, and then close the trap. But he could a least provide some cover for the ones on the front line. Observation, strategy, that was Sasuke's strength, his was brute force. "You're watching?" He said without looking at Sasuke.
"Yes, but…" Sasuke started to interject but Naruto raised a hand and stopped him.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. It just means I can focus on something else. Rasen Shuriken!" Naruto began creating smaller versions of the giant Rasen Shuriken he had thrown earlier and began raining them down upon the white zetsu, carful to miss his teammates. All the while Madara just observed.
"He thinks we are just going to tire ourselves out on the army and then he will be able to take you and B with barely a fight." Sasuke stated flatly.
"Well he's got another thing coming!" Naruto responded angrily as he continued to barrage the enemy. His impatience growing with every minute he stayed on the temple's peak.
Meanwhile at the boat Madara called to Kisame who was stationary in the water beside the boat. "Keep an eye on things while I go fetch Kabuto." With that he vanished. Kisame broke into a toothy smile and started to make his way to the shore. His sword was hungry. As a reached the shallows a voice behind him caught his attention.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Suigetsu stood a few feet away from Kisame with the water to his back.
"Who the hell are you?" Kisame growled over his shoulder without turning around.
"Let's just say I'm a collector" Suigetsu drew his sword. "And you have something I want." He charged Kisame.
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"Where'd he go?" Naruto shouted angrily has he continued to hammer the enemy below him. His brow shown with a light sheen of sweat, his hair tousled from the wind.
"I don't know." Sasuke replied. "But I doubt it's good."
"Do you think he's retreating?"
Sasuke snorted as he stood up. "And leave the army? No. Which is good, we need him here if we are going to finish this." He turned. "This is my chance to get into a better position, create a few shadow clones, I'm going to head down there. Stay put. We need him to show his full force before we fully engage. We can handle things for now, just keep laying down cover." With that Sasuke jumped down from the temple. Naruto let out a frustrated yell.
"I hate this!" He put his frustration into forming his jutsu. "Multi shadow clone jutsu!" Clones spread out into the ever-growing battlefield. Naruto watched as a shadow passed over the battle, he looked up and saw Sai circling overhead keeping an eye on the progress, ready to bring the rest of the team when the opportunity presented itself. In the meantime, he was laying down aerial attacks to provide more support to the few who were currently fighting on the ground. Despite there only being four of them they were making quite the dent in the army that was still flowing forth from the ground. Despite everything Naruto couldn't help but smile, they could win this. Some of the strongest shinobi alive were here, they would sink the entire island before they let this Madara wannabe escape. His smile vanished when his opponent reappeared on the boat with Kabuto at his side. This was not going to be good.
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"Are you ready?" Madara looked over at Kabuto. Kabuto responded with a curt nod of his head. "Do it." Madara stepped out onto the water and began walking towards the temple. Kabuto broke off and headed to the closest portion of the island. As soon as he hit land, he placed his hands on the ground.
"Reincarnation jutsu." Coffins began to popup all over the island scattered throughout the battlefield. One exploded out of the ground directly next to Guy.
"Kakashi! I don't like the look of this!" Kakashi briefly glanced over at Guy and gave him a nod as he kicked a white zetsu off the turtles back and into the water. "There's something ominous about them!"
"I agree, you should get away from that thing before…" The rest of Kakashi's sentence couldn't be heard over the sound of the coffins opening all over the island. For a single moment the battle stopped as people began stepping out of the coffins. "No…" Kakashi whispered under his breath.
"What kind of despicable jutsu is this?" Guy cried out horrified.
"This is definitely not good." Yamato added his opinion to the mix.
"Yo, this is not good bro, it's time we stopped going slow and put on a show! YOW!" With a yell Killer B transformed into his beast form and the battle snapped back into motion as fierce as ever. Naruto watched from the temple top with horror as some of the strongest shinobi to ever live stepped out of the coffins, his eyes locking onto one in particular, his father. His face contorted with rage, he looked up to the sky and locked eyes with Sai. It was time. Sai sent messenger birds flying out to where their allies where hidden on the other side of the island mountain range, they were going to need them.
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So, this is what you had up your sleeve…Sasuke thought to himself as their new enemies exited their coffins. He slowly listed off the names of each person in his head as he saw them. Minato Namikaze, Orochimaru, Hashirama Senju, Mu. He stopped for a moment when he saw the next one. Itachi Uchiha. He felt his blood starting to boil as more people exited their coffins. Hiruzen Sarutobi. Jiraiya. Deidara. The fact that they would stoop so low disgusted him. Reanimating the dead and using them against those they cared about, nothing was lower. The last one caught his attention as well. "Madara Uchiha, so you really are dead. So, who's under that mask?" Sasuke was out of time to contemplate. He briefly looked over his shoulder at Naruto still on the top of the temple, definitely not Madara was still making his way towards him like he didn't have a care in the world. Sasuke grimaced at his arrogance. This would certainly make things more difficult, but it wouldn't be enough. He started making his way to Kabuto.
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Naruto continued to watch his enemy approach as he provided cover. Every step bringing them closer to the inevitable, closer to finishing this. He couldn't help but wonder who this opponent really was. Since Madara Uchiha had just stepped out of a coffin and confirmed that he wasn't the one under that stupid orange mask, he was at a loss for what to call him, so he settled on an insult.
"Hey ugly! What are you waiting for? Or are you scared?" He suddenly vanished and reappeared right behind Naruto, planting a firm kick into the center of his back. Naruto went flying over top of the battle and landed in the bay. He climbed onto the surface of the water. "That bastard. Multi shadow clone jutsu." Clones appeared covering the majority of the surface of the water within the crescent island. "Let's do this." He charged towards the temple where his nemesis stood, it was like a really dangerous game of king of the kill. He, along with his clones, reached the temple within seconds shuriken, kunai, punches, and kicks were all flying but the clones were no use against Sharingan. Tobi evaded with incredible speed while quickly delivering counter attacks. Clones puffed into smoke all around him, but he could still tell where Naruto would attack from and he would block whenever he got close. Naruto came sliding to stop after his last block threw him back. They stared at each other until Naruto heard someone land behind him, he spun around and come face to face with Minato.
"Naruto…" His voice was laced with pain. "I can't stop. This…this jutsu…I'm completely under its control, I have to fight you."
"I know dad. I'm sorry things turned out this way, that after everything, the most time I will get to spend with you is fighting you." He clenched his teeth, damming up all of his emotions. Behind him Tobi let out an evil laugh.
"Daddy, hm? I should congratulate Kabuto for his genius. I should have seen the resemblance." Tobi sat down. "I'll enjoy watching this."
"You bastard!" Naruto went to charge him, but Minato teleported to block his path.
"Well what are you waiting for?" Tobi asked casually. "Kill him." With pain in his eyes, Minato charged his son.