(Sips drink while at laptop and smiles). Hello, friends. It's been too long! Several things have happened. A lot of them not good. Several plans of mine fell through and right now I'm back home. Also, getting this chapter up was a major pain in the ass. First, the document became corrupted, so I had to start from scratch (since then, I've been sure to keep a back-up copy). Then, just a few weeks ago, my laptop fizzled out on me. It's fixed now, but it certainly did not help matters.

But that's okay. Because our beloved manga has FINALLY come to an end (types to read conclusion for the first time) and it is WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!? (breathes deeply, staring at computer). Uh...I'm going to need a minute.

(Puts up technical difficulties sign, sounds of lasers, Godzilla roaring, explosions...)

(Pushes back to show town in ruins...) Well, that went way south to put it mildly! No doubt you'd like to hear my thoughts, but why don't we start with something positive first! This chapter! Please read and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto...although I probably should at this point...

The sun was halfway through dusk on Tigre Island. The sky cast a beautiful orange hue. For many, this would be a sight to see. However, no one on the atoll was paying attention, for the samurai had just finished an intense battle with a group of artificially created ninja.

Hyouike collapsed on her knee, using her sword as support as she breathed heavily. She only suffered minor wounds, but it had been a long time since she had to push herself so hard for so long. "Commander!" she called. "Are you alright?"

"Alright!?" her superior yelled. "You call this alright!? Half our men are dead and nothing to show for it!" he yelled in rage.

Hyouike slowly stood, sympathizing with the commander. "At least we've avenged them. All we can do now is continue with our mission..."

Suddenly, a hand erupted from the sand and grabbed her ankle. "EEEEKKK!" Hyouike pulled her leg away in horror and raised her katana, prepared to sever the seemingly zombie hand.

"Hyouike, wait!" a muffled voice from below said. "It's me!" Suddenly, a familiar face rose from the sand.

"Yuji!?" Hyouike exclaimed. He was sporting minor cuts of his own, and seemed to be in pain. "Yuji! What happened to you!?"

She reached down to help him up, and noticed the passage behind him. "I barely got away in time..." he whispered.

"Yeah, no thanks to me." Shiguri said underneath. Hyouike noticed a seemingly man-made hollow tunnel underneath the ground where he stood. Behind him was an old man, a woman and a boy her age.

"What happened?" Hyouike asked.

Shiguri threw some explosive kunai at his pursuers. None found their mark, instead only hitting the wall. Fortunately, that's just how the chunin planned it. The projectiles exploded, bringing the structures on top of his pursuers and blocking their path while he got away.

"Yuji!" Shiguri called through the mental link. "I'm almost there! Hang on!"

Shiguri dove through a window, minding the shards of glass trailing him, as he landed on a hard concrete floor. He turned around, trotted down the hallway between the two sides, and found Yuji fighting 2 kunoichi on the beach. Or trying to; he was clearly getting overwhelmed. Shiguri was about to help, but noticed an iron mesh cocoon to his side. "Shiguri!" he heard Yuji call through the link. "There's a family inside the mesh! Get them out!"

Shiguri ran to the side with the seal, and pulled it off. Anyone else who would have attempted to open it would have been electrocuted by the seal, but recognized Shiguri's chakra. He unfolded it, revealing the family inside. "Hey." he said. "Stick with me, and you'll be fine." The strangers nodded nervously, as Shiguri pulled a scroll from his back. "Yuji; you ready for the switch?"

"It's...oof! It's about time!" Yuji called mentally in between punches.

Shiguri ran up to the beach, crouching down so the two enemies would not see him so easily. He then tossed the scroll towards where Yuji was falling. It rolled across the beach and towards Yuji. Faster than most human eyes could see, Yuji pulled a substitution jutsu, the scroll activating and producing a body identical to Yuji. It was a false body made out of gelatin and various animal meats (that Yuji had the time to make such a thing creeped out Shiguri to no end.) He quickly escaped as the two believed they finally caught their prey.

Yuji nearly collapsed into Shiguri. "Shit, come on Yuji! The medic needs to be the last one alive!" He hissed as he slung him over his shoulder. Fortunately, Yuji managed to get his feet going and keep up until they got to the Utoxas.

Tsunami was about to call out to him upon seeing his state, but Shiguri hushed her. Yuji seemed to get his second wind, as he helped himself off Shiguri. "We need to get out of here. That fake corpse won't have them fooled for long."

Shiguri nodded, and ran to the other side of the beach. Without calling the jutsus name, he created a tunnel underground. "Everyone, inside!" he urged them as they all filed in, hoping by disappearing completely they would dupe them into thinking they had vanished...

"I couldn't get far, though." Shiguri continued to explain while Yuji tended to his wounds the best he could. "I curved the tunnel to look like we went under the sea, but..."

Suddenly, two figures landed before them. Izanami and Izanagi stood before them, weapons drawn. "That was quite clever." Izanami said.

"You almost had us fooled." Izanagi finished.

"Almost." Izanami added as they took slow, deliberate steps forward, like a predator that had cornered it's prey with no chance of escape.

"Shit." Yuji and Shiguri got ready in fighting stances. "Hyouike, protect the family. We'll hold them off."

"No, you're hurt!" Hyouike protested as she pointed her sword at them defensively. "I can't let you fight in your condition!"

"We're all in the same boat, Hyouike!" Yuji protested. "You were barely good enough to fight all these ninja! And I've a feeling these two girls are a caliber above the rest of this dead fodder!"

"Wow, thanks for letting me know that." Shiguri said sarcastically.

"Do as I say; we'll be fine." Yuji insisted. Reluctantly, Hyouike backed away, and placed herself in front of the family. The other samurai followed her lead, seeking to protect each other.

"So..." Shiguri began to ask. "...feel any better?"

"A little...haven't had enough time to heal." Yuji reluctantly admitted.

"Well, that's just swell." Shiguri said, rolling his eyes.

The two pair of ninja stopped a good distance away from each other, then leaped into the air...

Taka was now on top of Iori, still chained to the floor. The girl vainly tried to push him off, but he held her still. "Don't fight it. I'll have to make it rougher if you do..."

Iori was fighting back tears, refusing to believe the worst thing that could happen to a person was happening to her. Her free hand frantically searched the floor, and felt the handle of her kama. "Ahhh!" She screamed as she brought it across Taka's face.

"AHHH!" Taka gripped his face, and the chains around Iori disappeared. Instead of attacking, Iori made a break for it. Taka removed his hands from his face, revealing a scar across his eye. "Huh. I'll need a good story to go with this."

Before Iori was out of sight, Taka held out his palm and squeezed his fingers. Iori suddenly felt her entire body bound as she fell over. "What the-!?"

"That last slash got my blood over your body." Taka explained. "So, cutting me will just make it that much worse for you."

As he took his time approaching her, Iori trembled. "Naruto-sensei...Dad...anyone! HELP!"

Kakashi saw a bright light in the dark tunnel. Kakashi heard enough stories to know what this meant. "I guess I bit the big one." Kakashi thought sadly. Though he was sad he failed to defeat Susanoo, he was optimistic about the world he left behind. "Naruto and Sakura will take care of everything. A jonin couldn't have asked for better students. Naruto...Sakura...you've both become so much stronger than I could have ever imagined. I'm proud of you both."

He felt himself coming towards the light, but a voice caught his attention. It became louder...and clearer , by the second. "Kakashi! Kakashi! WAKE UP!"

The light suddenly blinded him, and Kakashi's vision blurred. As it focused, he saw he was still in the white room he battled in. "I...I'm alive?" He was feeling...well, he still felt pretty lousy, but he wasn't in severe pain and was fairly lucid, and felt himself improving by the second. He slowly turned to the side to see his healer, and saw..."Susanoo!?"

Indeed, it seemed his killer was using medical ninjutsu to heal his gaping wound. Instinctively, he made himself sit up and tried to stab him, but Susanoo held him down. "Kakashi-sensei! It's me!"

Kakashi was about to believe he had lost his mind, but then the answer came to him. "Ino!?"

"Ino" nodded. "What are you doing here!?"

"It seems our missions are somehow intertwined." Kakashi said. "But that's not important right now. Ino, Sakura and Naruto are here too. They'll need your help!"

Kakashi stood, but nearly collapsed as he felt light-headed and dizzy. "Careful!" Ino shouted, holding him steady. "You're out of immediate danger. But you've lost a lot of blood. I've sewed your organs together, but the connective tissue is still fragile. Overall, you're in no condition to fight."

"Well, I'm afraid I don't have much of a choice right now, Ino." Kakashi wheezed as he got his last kunai. "How much longer can you hold him?"

"Not long." Ino said. "You'd better go hide right now. I'll take care of Naruto and Sakura."

Kakashi sprinted as fast as he could, noticing he was needing to support himself with his free hand. "Oh...Ino is right! But Susanoo is not going to give me much of a choice...I'll have to fight back!"

Susanoo's eyes suddenly started to twitch. His facial expression changed from neutral to cringing. His body moved like it was weighed down by lead, as he brought his hands to his temples. He thrashed his body, as if trying to shake something off. "Get...Out...OF MY HEAD!" A trickle of sweat broke across Susanoo's skin as he just stared ahead and panted deeply. He moved his arms uncertainly, as if he didn't believe he was in control again. "I'm me again." he said in relief. He looked behind the walls. "I suppose I should pursue her...but she's probably gone by now." He sneered as he walked straight ahead. "No matter. I hope you've caught a second wind, Kakashi..." He slowly activated his Jinton armor, the demonic aura once more surrounding him. "...you'll need it."

Ino escaped into a seemingly vacant hallway. "Okay." She concentrated, using her family jutsu to make note of the chakras in the immediate area. On the beach, she found the samurai, her borrowed chunin, and some others. It seemed to be tense, but she figured they would be fine. She then focused on 4 others above her. They were familiar..."That's got to be them!" One was seemingly exploding, another was fading fast. "Oh no...I've got to get to them...before..." Suddenly, she sensed another chakra. This one was still strong...yet, it was also filled with overwhelming fear. Ino wanted to ignore it, but she couldn't run by and do nothing. Fighting her base instincts, she made a decision. "Naruto, Sakura...hang on, just a little bit longer!" She threw an explosive kunai onto the roof, blowing a hole open. She threw another onto the next floor, and as she took flight, threw another onto the floor after that...

"AHHHH!" Naruto bared his fangs and red eyes, pulling his arms past the shuriken that kept him embedded onto the floor. Before he could break free, two more pinned him down.

Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi were both bewildered and terrified of what they saw. "Brother, what's happening!?" Tsukiyomi cried. "It's like he's...transforming!"

"I think you may have hit the nail on the head with that one, sister!" Amaterasu agreed. "It seems like melee weapons won't work...I'm not sure he's even feeling them! So..." Quickly, he made the signs for the standard Goukakyuu jutsu. He shot the fireball, and Naruto took a direct hit.

"There." Amaterasu said with certainty. "No one can survive a direct hit from..." He realized he spoke too soon, as Naruto remained struggling, this time surrounded by red chakra. "Impossible!"

His eyes were now the color of blood, his new fangs even larger, and his skin was peeling off, revealing something dark red underneath. "Wait!" Tsukiyomi cried. "Your technique worked! His skin is burning!"

"No." Amaterasu disagreed. "Whatever's burning him, it's not from any fire around here. Something from inside seems to be burning him! And this chakra..."

"Yes..." Tsukiyomi agreed. "Yet...he's holding himself back. Look!" Indeed, Naruto was violently thrashing his head from side to side. It was as if he was at war with himself. "With such terrible power, why does he resist this change?" Tsukiyomi wondered.

It took all of Amaterasu's discipline to prevent himself from showing any sign of fear. "Sister...I believe we may have to go all out to destroy him. I'll need your help with this one."

"Yes." Tsukiyomi agreed as she scooted closer to her brother. "Let's finish this one, here and now!"

Sakura continued to lay motionless and splayed on the floor. She hoped against hope that Tsukiyomi had somehow missed with her strike, but nothing in her body except her eyes moved. She could feel the flames getting closer too...yet she did not dread the idea of a slow and painful death. Even if Naruto had rescued her, she'd be of no more use than a mannequin. He would stick with her through thick and thin, but this? She couldn't bare to put him through this. "Naruto...I hate to say this...but it looks like this is it for us. Please don't cry for me; this way...we'll both be free. I know this will be hard for you, but I know you'll find someone who will love you as much as I do now. I'll never forget the kindness you've always shown me, Naruto. So please...live. Live for me. I'll watch over you, always." She could only hope some part of what she assumed to be her final thoughts would somehow reach Naruto as she resinged herself to death...

"No." she overheard Amaterasu say. "Whatever's burning him, it's not from any fire around here. Something from inside seems to be burning him! And this chakra..."

"Yes..." Tsukiyomi said. "Yet...he's holding himself back..."

Sakura put two and two together and her eyes widened in shock. "Oh no..." Naruto was transforming again! And with Kakashi elsewhere, there was no guarantee the transformation could be prevented. And if Kyuubi broke free, that would mean the end of all of them. Not just Naruto.

Now, Sakura had a new determination to get her body moving. Her brain went into overdrive, firing every neural pathway Sakura could think of. Still her body remained motionless. "Come on! Move it!" she screamed to herself. She focused all of her will power...and all she could move was her middle finger's joint.

"Shit! Not good enough!..." Before she panicked, she realized something. "Wait a minute...I broke that finger..." Indeed, she clearly remembered it bending the other way during the fight. But in that moment, it was fine. "Something's off here..."

She thought back to the beginning of the fight. Amaterasu separated them through the black flames, and then Tsukiyomi sprayed a green mist from her mask all over the area. Then there was the instant when Tsukiyomi revealed her own strength. Why would she wait? She could have possibly ended the fight right at the beginning, but instead chose to toy with Sakura. Even for a powerful ninja that would not be a wise decision. And that durability to resist her own strength...she and Tsunade could focus their chakra on certain parts of their bodies to prevent severe blunt force trauma, but Tsukiyomi seemed to be resistant all over her body. Such a technique should have been impossible! And then there was how her enemy was slowly gaining an advantage over her. "Could this whole thing-?" Sakura was almost too nervous to think it. She didn't want to hope only to have it crushed again. But more than her personal comfort was at stake as she focused on the chakra in her body. She felt it, how twisted and disturbed it was. By all means, this was a flimsy hypothesis at best. But she would give it a try anyway. Somehow, with all her strength, she muttered one word. "Kai..."

Tsukiyomi once more pinned Naruto to the ground with two kunai as he tried to rise again. "That's it! I'm out of shuriken!"

"Me too." Amaterasu confirmed. "Quickly! Together now!"

Tsukiyomi joined her brother as they began weaving handsigns. "Katon!" they shouted in unison. "Sogouryuka no Jutsu!" A fireball composed of two lion heads barreled towards Naruto.

By all means, there was no dodging this one. However, a fast figure came into it's path, only shouting one thing. "Shannaro!"

The two clones felt the floor shake violently just as the fireball blocked their sight of their target. When it exploded upon collision with the wall, they noticed the area where Naruto lay was replaced by a large hole, most likely created through some sort of blunt force . The two raced over and inspected it, seeing no one down below. "Impossible!" Tsukiyomi cried. "She broke out of my genjutsu!"

"Calm yourself, Tsukiyomi." Amaterasu ordered. "They're both still wounded."

"But, to break a genjutsu like that-!"

"I will hear no more of this!" Amaterasu roared. "We will track them down and end them. They've only bought themselves a short reprieve."

As Amaterasu jumped down, a trickle of sweat went down Tsukiyomi's head. "If she figured out that trick...she may have figured out the rest..."

Iori tried to crawl away like a caterpillar, but with the chakra chains anchoring her, even that proved to be impossible. Soon enough, Taka was upon her. Seeing that she was helpless, he easily flipped her over so their eyes were facing each other. "I'm not letting you off easy. I'd like you to remember your first time."

Iori tried to hold back tears as Taka brought a kunai to her throat, keeping it close but not cutting her. He then ran a hand along her side before getting serious. Iori couldn't tell if he was smiling because he liked what he felt...or because he liked watching her squirm. Taka then reached under her shirt, finally reaching her breast.

Before she could scream, suddenly the floor next to them exploded. Iori felt the chains disappear as Taka's concentration was once again interrupted. From the hole, someone very familiar to Iori jumped up to meet them.

"Ino-sensei!?" Iori exclaimed. "What are you doing here!?

"I could say the same about you." Ino said coolly. "And if you're here on a mission...you're ill-prepared for it."

Iori breathed deeply as she took advantage of her transient freedom to move away. "I'll explain later!"

"Fair enough." Ino conceded. She didn't show it, but she was angry at Iori. She could see that Iori was not here on any mission. Which meant she ran away from the village. Naruto and Sakura already had to put up with one friend going rogue. She didn't want to think of what a second doing that would do to them. "But right now, I have some questions for this one."

Taka got his bearings straight, and got a look at Ino. "Well..." he said, rubbing his chin, clearly admiring Ino's beauty. "And who might you be?"

"I suggest you give me answers. Because I'm asking the questions here." Ino declared. "I know you have Dandelion somewhere. Tell me where and you'll make this easier for yourself."

"Heh. Had I known I could have such beauties come to me for free, I wouldn't have bothered with buying whores through those yakuza scum." Taka muttered, ignoring her.

"Great." Ino moaned. "He's even more of a creep than I imagined."

"He killed my mother." Iori explained. "And he can bind you with his blood."

The first statement got to Ino more than the second. It felt like Sasuke all over again. "Iori." she commanded her. "Stay there. You've done enough."

"But-!"

"Do as I command!" Ino snapped as she got a kunai ready. "I need him alive."

"Well..." Taka said sneering as he readied himself for battle as well. "I can tell you where the person you seek is. But, you must do something for me."

Ino's eyes narrowed. "You are truly the epitome of depravity." She charged, the two clashing with their weapons.

Inside Naruto's mind, he struggled, fighting off the Kyuubi's evil chakra. He flailed about in the water as he batted aside the tendrils, but the toll of the battle left him mentally as well as physically exhausted.

"Give in." The Kyuubi teased him from beyond his cage. "You know you want to."

"No, I won't!" Naruto yelled.

"Really? After they crippled the one you love?" Kyuubi continued to tease. "They should have just killed her. What will she have to look forward in life now?"

"I'll find a way! I'll make her happy!" Naruto pleaded as he wrestled with a chakra tendril.

"You keep telling yourself that. But you know you feel differently." Kyuubi growled. Suddenly, a tendril sneaked behind Naruto's back and "stabbed" him. Naruto felt himself enveloped in the dark chakra. "Yes, give in. I can give you the power to make them pay..."

Naruto was feeling the overwhelming need to kill. No...to murder. Just as he felt himself slip away forever, he heard something. A voice, calling for him. "Naruto..." It sounded familiar. "Naruto..."

"S-Sakura-chan?"

"NARUTO, WAKE UP, YOU BAKA!"

Kyuubi heard it too as he began to feel his power wane. "No! Impossible!" With sheer strength of will, he felt Naruto push back his power, and soon, he was gone. Kyuubi calmed down, and lay back down in the floor of his cage. "I suppose it was a bit premature to assume I'd be free today." Kyuubi huffed. His maw cracked a demonic grin as he let that thought mill. "No matter. There will be other opportunities soon."

Naruto's blurry vision was going wild on him, before finally focusing. The first thing he saw was Sakura's battered but still beautiful face. "S-Sakura-chan!" he cried as he stroked her cheek. "You're okay!"

Sakura smiled sadly as she put his hand down. "It was a close call for both of us, Naruto."

Naruto noticed a small piece of paper fly into his face. Pulling it back, he recognized it as one of Jiraiya's seals. "Did...did I...?" He had trouble asking out of fear.

"Don't worry, I got to you in the nick of time." Sakura assured him.

Naruto tried to form the words. "How is this possible? They said..."

"That's what they wanted you to think. The both of us." she clarified. "The whole thing was a genjutsu. Tsukiyomi sprayed a gas that dulled my senses and made me easy to manipulate, believing I still had my strength when in reality I was drugged to my normal level of strength. The drug made me unable to recognize it, that's why I was duped so easily. You almost transforming snapped me out of my stupor to realize something was off. I broke the genjutsu, and here I am, back on my feet."

Sakura suddenly winced, as she hunched over and grabbed her back. "Sakura!" Naruto shouted as he steadied her by the shoulders.

"She didn't do any lasting damage." Sakura assured him. "But it still stings. And I don't have enough chakra to heal it."

"I know I rarely say this, Sakura-chan...but I think I'm outclassed. I started out even with my opponent...but as time went on, he got better than me..."

"That was a trick too." Sakura declared with certainty. "Amaterasu surrounded you in flames. He used the heat to dehydrate and exhaust you quicker than normal, while he remained in good form; I think he may have trained in extreme heat that even we are not used to. Nonetheless, it was the same strategy as Tsukiyomi. They've been making us believe we were the inferior ones!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed in clarity. "It's all been a trick." Realizing how parched he was, he noticed a water tower in the corner of his eye. He struggled up, knocked over the tank and dunked his head inside to drink the relatively cool water.

"Careful!" Sakura held him back. "You could risk poisoning yourself if you drink too fast, and we're going to fight any second now! I can't have you do that with a belly full of water!"

Naruto pulled his head out in relief. "I know; I'm fine." he gasped as he let go of the tower shakily. He then gave his cocky grin, smacking his fists together. "I guess this is round two. We better make this count."

Sakura nodded, beaming with the same confidence as Naruto. She then noticed Naruto pulling out a scroll. "Naruto? What is that?"

"Well, remember the other night when we were camping out and I went out on my own, and I never told you why?"

"Hmm."

Naruto grinned as he prepared for the two ninja to confront them at any second. "This is why." he growled with anticipation.

Ino and Taka brought their kunai together as they got in close. Quickly, Ino kicked Taka to the side, sending him sprawling. Ino leaped into the air to impale him, but Taka cross-blocked her wrist and kicked her away as well. He threw several shuriken her way, which Ino jumped away from easily. Quickly, Taka weaved signs, and Ino, anticipating a frontal attack, did not pay attention to her back as a vine wrapped around her throat. "Ack!"

Taka was about to choke the life out of her, when Iori suddenly came barreling towards him, rasengan in hand. "Let her go!"

However, she felt her arms press against her sides and fell over on her face, realizing the chains had been activated again. "Now now, little girl. You'll get your turn soon enough." Ino wasted no time in cutting free from the vine and charged Taka again. As the two dueled, Ino kicked his head and as he reeled, managed to cut his arm with her weapon, small droplets of blood splattering on her own arm. "Aargghhh!" Taka quickly regained his composure, bringing up his kunai to guard. "Quite a fighter you are. I like that."

Suddenly, Ino felt something pull her arm down. "What the-!?" Chains formed out of nowhere as they bound her, while they extended to bind her legs.

Taka quickly got behind her, pulling her other arm towards him, smearing more of his blood on her and bound it with his Jiton chains. "You were warned." Taka said nonchalantly as he looked her over, confident in his victory.

"Well, you have me." Ino said, refusing to show him any sign of panic. "So now what?"

"Well, by all means I should kill you." Taka said as he closely inspected her figure. "But...it's such a waste. I think I'll at least have some fun before I have to do the smart thing."

"Don't you dare touch her!" Iori shouted as she struggled against her chains.

Taka quickly sprinted over to her, and kicked her in the head. "Quiet, you little bitch! Your turn will come soon enough! That's a promise!" He regained his composure and calmly walked over to Ino, smoothing his thinning hair. Ino remained as defiant as ever as he stroked her cheek, then her legs.

He began tracing a trail towards her breasts when Ino said "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Really?" Taka chuckled.

"You might regret it."

While Taka was busy harassing her, Ino was making hand signs with the hand bound behind her back. "Really?" he asked. "I'd like to see you try that." Taka challenged her.

"So be it." Just as Taka touched her, a vein in Ino's forehead bulged. Sure, it was from anger...but it was also from her concentrating her power as she activated one of her signature jutsus. Taka jumped back, gripping his head in pain and screaming deliriously. Ino and Iori were freed once more, the later wasting no time in running at the vulnerable Taka and nailing him with a powerful side kick to the head. Taka tumbled, and stood shakily.

"Care for another round?" Ino challenged him, twirling her kunai. Taka, seeing he was dealing with an unknown with the blonde girl, bolted the other way and leaped out of a window, shattering the glass. "Well, that's one way to make an exit." Ino looked above to see the sprinklers. Using her shuriken, she hit each one of them and let the water loose, cleansing their bodies of Taka's blood. "That should take care of the chain thing for now." Ino said.

She noticed Iori stare out the window intently. Perhaps it was best to sever their connection for now. "Iori, enough. Your sensei is here, and he's in trouble! We need to get going!" Ino commanded her.

"Go! I'll go after Taka!" she shouted.

Ino's brow furrowed in rage. "Did Naruto teach you nothing about comradere?" she shouted as she grabbed her arm. "We're going!"

"LEAVE ME!" Iori shouted with bestial rage, her hair forming streaks of silver and sporting fangs. Ino let go in shock, and Iori pursued her prey.

Ino took a deep breath, and resolved to leave Iori to her own devices, for better or for worse. "So be it." Ino said as she ran the other way to reach her original objectives.

Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi sprinted down the hallway, expecting to have to track their prey somewhere in the flaming halls. It surprised them when they saw Naruto staring directly at them at one end. "Not trying to hide?"

"No point. You would have found me anyway. Besides, I need to pay you back for all the wounds you gave me." he smirked.

"In case you've forgotten, I am your superior in every-"

"Nope. Sorry. The game is up flame boy." Naruto quipped.

Amaterasu's brow twitched. "So...you figured it out?"

"Well, Sakura did anyway."

"Of course." Amaterasu said. "Since she broke out of her genjutsu, it's only logical she'd also figure out your sudden...being out of shape."

"More or less. You'd never have a chance otherwise."

"Debatable. But I've had enough talk." Amaterasu got in a fighting stance, Tsukiyomi following his lead. "Ready whenever you are."

"I'm not sure you're ready for this." Naruto pulled out his scroll...and summoned the biggest sword the twins had ever seen.

"What a weapon!" Tsukiyomi exclaimed with awe.

"Not just any weapon..." Amaterasu corrected her. "That's the Zanbatou of Momochi Zabusa...demon of the mist! The Kubikiribocho! But where did he get it!?"

Just then, he noticed that Naruto seemed to be shaking slightly. Suddenly, the blade collapsed on the floor, throwing Naruto off balance. "Ugh...I forgot how heavy this thing had to be!"

Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi could only stare in shock. Then, Amaterasu seemingly broke character...he chuckled. The chuckle became full blown laughter, his sister joining in with him. "You fool!" Amaterasu declared. "You picked a weapon that you cannot even wield! Your grave robbing was for nothing!"

Naruto struggled with it, and raised it once again. "Okay. So I don't have the raw strength Zabusa once did. But I'm going to make the best use of it that I can!"

Before the twins could get ready to attack, they sensed something from above attack them. The two jumped away as Sakura's kick came crashing down on the floor, once again leaving a good-sized hole in the floor. "Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she prepared to jump away from an attacking Tsukiyomi. "I can't believe you!"

"What!?"

"You actually took that thing!"

Naruto looked away and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah..about that..."

"How could you do that to someone's resting place!?"

"I...I did ask permission." For a brief moment, only silenced followed between the two. "Kind of."

"You didn't even ask me!"

"Because I knew you would react like this!"

Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi only stared at the bickering couple from their hiding spaces. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Amaterasu asked in bewilderment.

"Who cares!? Let's take them down while their guard is down!"

"Agreed."

The two separated to attack their respective opponents. Amaterasu closed in on Naruto with a kunai, while Tsukiyomi prepared to knock Sakura out with a punch. However, both were in for a surprise. A kage bushin grabbed Amaterasu's wrist and flipped him over, while Sakura simply vanished and left Tsukiyomi punching the wall. She only made a small dent; Tsukiyomi quickly ran down the hall to find her.

"You were faking it." Amaterasu stated as he lay on his back, still in shock that they still had their guards up.

"No. We just know better than to let our petty arguments get the better of us."

"So I see." Amaterasu kiyupped back up...and attacked. Naruto blocked with the Zanbatou's handle, still having trouble moving the blade. "You should let it go. You're grounded so long as you hold onto it." Though he still failed to cut Naruto, he pressed on with his attack.

"What, and let you take hold of it?" Naruto grunted. "I think not." Naruto kicked up, hitting Amaterasu but nothing to do lasting damage as the clone shrugged it off. Naruto finally lifted the massive blade off the floor and swung. However, Amaterasu simply ducked and sweeped Naruto off his feet. Naruto quickly defended himself with some shuriken, but Amaterasu rolled away. "Damn!" Though the blade was heavy for Naruto, at his peak he would have been able to make SOME use of it. As things stood now, though, his exhaustion truly made it a useless weapon. Still Naruto wouldn't give it up. Amaterasu would take it and make it his. Besides...if he gave it up now, he would have taken it for nothing. He owed it to Zabusa to make what use of it he could.

Naruto quickly stood up and pointed the sword at his opponent, halting his advance. Amaterasu got ready for another fireball...but Naruto neutralized him with a smoke pellet to the mouth, and used the opportunity to vault over and kick him. Not wanting to let him get back up on his feet, Naruto quickly created a kage bushin that appeared under him and tripped him up, causing him to fall flat on his back.

Frustrated, Amaterasu kiyupped back up and followed through with a stream of fire, which Naruto blocked with the massive blade. The blonde ninja seemingly swung it recklessly around, ripping apart walls and the floor above them, Amaterasu dodging each stroke easily. "How sloppy of you. I suppose this all has a hidden meaning?"

"As a matter of fact...it does."

Amaterasu looked around him...and realized that their fighting area had suddenly become a lot wider. "You...you really weren't aiming for me, were you?"

"No. Well, I was kind of hoping that I could tear some tendons, but yeah, that wasn't my goal. Just needed more room to swing this damn thing." Naruto struggled to lift the sword up and pointed it at Amaterasu.

"It still won't matter if even under the best conditions you still can't hit me."

"I've got a solution for that." Naruto grinned. Tucking the handle under his arms and elbows, he put his hands together in the sign of the tiger. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" Two clones appeared at his side and helped him with the handle.

Amaterasu sweated. "This...this is not going to be like our previous rounds."

Tsukiyomi sprinted down the halls. To some it would seem that she was eager to find her prey. But the truth of the matter was that she was desperate, and afraid. "I can't fool her again, and I'm out of weapons...can I really beat her?" she wondered. She was one of the most powerful kunoichis she had ever faced; it was only because of the spell she placed on her earlier was she able to do any damage. And to break out of the spell...she couldn't think of it! Not now! "If I give up inside, I'll never beat her."

Suddenly, she felt her shin pull against a wire, and she rolled with it. The wire triggered a bomb that shot shrapnel everywhere; had she stood still she would have been torn to shreds. "Not coming out to fight me directly?" she yelled, taunting her. "Your injury must have be bad. That's no surprise; I may not have broken your back for real, but I'm sure I sprained a vertebrae or two."

Sakura wasn't far from Tsukiyomi; she used her camouflage genjutsu to hide, making sure to stay just out of her peripherals. She wasn't about to engage her in direct combat, however; she used up most of her chakra to heal Naruto, and didn't have much left in her. Probably enough for one devastating punch, but the odds of such a blow connecting were too slim to risk. "My only hope right now is to stall her!"

Another fireball, presumably from Amaterasu, flew down the hall, forcing Tsukiyomi to take cover. "Damn it, Amaterasu! I could have been killed!" She then noticed a piece of paper fly in front of the flaming floor. "That's not..."

Tsukiyomi back flipped away as an explosion rocked the hall. A second too late and her face would have blown off. Tsukiyomi was about to make a retort, but she saw a slight distortion of light in front of her. One would have mistaken it for the heat escaping the fire. But it was not a simple wave; it clearly took the shape of a person. "There you are."

Tsukiyomi ran forward, tracing the faint vibrations from Sakura's foot steps. Tsukiyomi suddenly leaped into the air and side-kicked Sakura, breaking her genjutsu as she fell to the floor in a heap. "I admire your courage. But I do abhor your stupidity." she growled, clenching her fingers as she prepared to simply tear her flesh apart.

Sakura quickly reached into her pocket and stuffed what seemed to be rose petals into her mouth. Using the necessary hand signs, she suddenly breathed a pink mist out of her mouth and into her predator's face. "Idiot! My mask filters all..."

Suddenly, she felt her body lose strength and shake. She stumbled as she struggled to retain her balance, and finally collapsed on all fours, breathing heavily as if she over exerted herself. "The poison doesn't affect you via your respiratory system; it's through your skin. Dokuhana no Jutsu." Sakura quickly retreated, aware that it was only a temporary effect. Even if she attacked Tsukiyomi, the masked kunoichi would likely still have been able to defend herself. Quickly, she ducked into an office space that was somehow still intact despite the destruction all over the building.

Hiding behind a desk, she hoped Tsukiyomi wouldn't find her, but Sakura had a feeling she would regardless. "Great; what am I supposed to do now?" Suddenly, she heard an explosion. At first she feared the worst from it, but quickly calmed down. Wherever it was, it was far away. But it was loud enough to get her attention. "What could have caused that?"

Tactically it was a dumb move. But Taka had no choice; with so many plans going down the drain, he couldn't afford to start from scratch. "I only hope the notes survived!" He made his desk tough and extra durable, but not even he could have anticipated a full-fledged attack on his office.

Finally, he reached what remained of his office, the desk teetering dangerously over the edge. Quickly, he righted it and put in back on what remained on the floor and got to work. He pulled open a drawer, and was relieved when he saw all the papers inside intact. "Yes!" He quickly pulled them out, glancing over the details. Of course, he didn't understand any of the technical terms, but any scientist worth his scrawny weight would. He heard the rumbling below, and sweated a bit. "T-they're still going at it!?" Taka was sure to make his elite three as powerful as Kakashi at least. And he thought nothing of his two former genin. Naruto was praised for his courage, not fighting prowess. And Haruno...well, she was just there. "I guess a lot can happen in a decade."

Suddenly, a sharp kunai not only knocked the papers out of his hand, but tore them to shreds as well, blowing them into the wind. "NOO!" Taka nearly wept as all his notes became random scraps of paper, slave to the wind. He turned around to see his offender, and he went from angry to seething in a matter of milliseconds. "You..."

Iori stood before him, planted to the wall and facing him horizontally. "Do you realize what you've just done!?" Taka yelled.

"Should I care?" Iori only twirled her kamas, smiling smugly.

Of course causing him some minor displeasure would make her happy. Taka sneered. "Fine. I was originally planning to give you the same fate as your mother, but fortunately for you, you're not worth it. But I can always find someone else to use."

"I won't let you; your madness ends...HERE!" Iori charged as her weapons trailed behind her.

Taka did a cross block, figuring that Iori was simply blind with rage. "I'll get my blood on her...and this time, when she' bound, I'll hang her from the ledge!" However, Iori got right in his face...and nailed him in the forehead with the blunt end of her weapon. "Ahh!"

The unexpected impact caused Taka to fall off the ledge. Quickly, he attached himself to the wall, only to find something else incoming. "Edan!" A stream of flame grazed Taka, grazing his arm and causing him to cry out in pain. Finally, Iori lunged at him, sending both tumbling through the air as they traded blows. Iori made sure not to cut him, and opted for his mid-section as opposed to anywhere else that bled easily. Unfortunately, in her current state, precision was difficult. She hit a rib too hard, causing Taka to cough blood on her. Though it took him a moment to realize his opportunity, he wasted no time in activating his Jiton. Iori felt chains wrapped around her tight; at this speed, if the chains anchored themselves, she would be broken in half.

Instinctively, she threw a shuriken that actually managed to hit him between the ribs. Taka screamed in pain; his concentration broken, Iori felt herself freed and quickly stuck herself to the wall. She bumped against one of the windows, cracking it but quickly stuck herself to the next window. She found Taka running along the side. He was slow; and like an eager predator, Iori pursued him.

"Whoa!" Yuji back flipped out of the way as one of the twins brought her ninjato down where he once stood.

"You think you can defeat us as you are right now?" Izanagi taunted him.

Yuji smirked. "You two? Not a chance! But with my friend on the other hand..." Izanagi turned to see her twin sister kicked up into the air by Shiguri, who followed after her. Shiguri quickly engaged her with a kunai, which she countered with her own. "...I'll be able to take you on just fine." Yuji smirked as he got into a guard stance, taunting her.

Izanagi growled. "I'm going to enjoy this." She charged, swinging her sword at him. Yuji performed a daring move, charging right into her. Just as she was about to slice open his jugular, Yuji flipped over her. She managed to scratch the ridge of his nose, but Yuji paid it no heed. Instead, he landed on her back, and wrapped her sword with another of his wires. He pulled it up, locking it in the air with ease despite her resistance. Before she could twist it, Yuji lunged forward and chopped it, breaking the blade in half.

"OW!" Yuji hissed as he gripped his bleeding hand.

Izanagi grinned sadistically. "A brave move. But half a blade is all I need to rip your throat out!" She charged...but Hyouike suddenly blocked her path, grabbing her broken blade.

The two briefly struggled for dominance. "I won't let you!" Hyouike shouted as she grabbed her wrist and threw Izanagi over. Though the ninja landed on her feet, she lost her blade in the process. Quickly, she looked over her new opponent.

Despite her skill, she was exhausted, no doubt partially responsible for the large amount of corpses littered on the beach. Her armor was broken, and Izanagi knew more than one way to take a samurai down, with or without a weapon. "I'll gut you like a little fish!" Izanagi charged, slipping a scalpel from her gauntlet into her palm. Though Hyouike was prepared to defend herself, Izanagi could clearly see that she would not see the attack coming.

Fortunately, fate intervened in the form of Yuji, who stood between them and grabbed her wrist. Before she could react, Yuji slammed his elbow into her, sending her sprawling into the ocean. "Yuji!" Hyouike breathed. "That was incredible!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Yuji sighed as he stayed on guard. "That was a powerful blow, but it's not all I'm normally capable of; I used up most of my strength just holding back."

"You held back!?" Hyouike asked in surprise. "Why!?"

"It's because of them." Yuji said, pointing to the family that the remaining samurai were defending.

"Sorry." Inari squeaked.

"Not your fault." Yuji clarified. "But at the time we were fighting at the foundation of those ridiculous buildings. If I went all out...I'm worried I would have brought down the whole thing and killed us all."

Hyouike's eyes widened in disbelief. "No way...you're that strong?"

"Under normal circumstances. But in holding back, I allowed myself to be injured and use what chakra I had to heal myself from any critical injuries; I have enough left for one final, devastating attack." Yuji breathed deeply as he turned back to the shore. "Here she comes; you better protect them."

Hyouike nodded, and reluctantly joined the rest of her samurai siblings. Quickly, Izanagi ran across the water to engage Yuji with ninjutsu. Yuji noticed she was slow; that elbow must have done more damage than he had thought. "Are you ready for this!? Goukakyu no Jutsu!" Izinagi fired a fireball from her mouth, hoping to quickly incinerate her enemy.

Yuji jumped away from it with ease. "Thanks; it's getting rather chilly out here!"

Izanagi got onto the sand and chased him, preparing explosive kunai. "Try these on for size!"

Yuji rolled across the sand as explosions pursued him. "My pants better not be on fire!" Yuji fired another wire, trying to ensnare the kunoichi, but she leaped over it with ease and managed to kick him across the face. She went in close to stab him, but Yuji countered with an upward arm-sweep followed by a side-fist to the ribs.

Izanagi jumped away, rubbing her chest. It felt like he managed to make a good bruise. "He barely even touched me!" She looked up to see Yuji arm himself with kunai, ready to take her on without fear. "He's confident...and I have a feelings he's holding back. Until I make a wrong move..." Izanagi then summoned a windmill shuriken from the tattoo on her back (still covered by her black garb). "Well,why don't you try this!"

Yuji nearly screamed when she threw it at him. He couldn't help it; those things were deadly! Quickly, he jumped sideways over it, clearing it. Or so he believed. "Gotcha!" Izinagi pulled a cord, and the blades of the shuriken exploded. One grazed Yuji across the leg.

"Ahh!" Though his leg wasn't badly damaged, it still hindered his concentration and movement.

"The upper hand is mine now!" Izanagi charged, engaging Yuji in hand-to-hand combat. Though Yuji managed to block most of them, Izanagi managed to land a good uppercut to his chin. She then followed through with a low-kick to his wounded leg, causing him to scream out in pain. Izanagi followed through, grabbing him by the throat. Yuji quickly went with the motion of her wrist, ensuring she did not rip out his trachea. So instead, Izanagi threw him back, sending him sprawling.

"In what world could you have ever hoped to defeat an Uchiha?" Yuji chuckled slightly as he struggled to stand. "What's so funny?"

"You really think you are an Uchiha?"

Izanagi activated her sharingan. "Are these eyes not proof enough?"

"You may have the blood, but in the end you're still some puppet with no soul!" Yuji shouted back. "My village's history with the Uchiha may have been spotty during my time, but at least they were able to make their own choices, for better or for worse! What of you!? Do you serve your master just because you were told too!?"

"Isn't it the same for all ninjas born in a village?" Izanagi asked sarcastically.

"No; you're wrong!" Yuji denied.

"Oh?"

"I may be bound to serve my village now, but I had to earn that title, and I did it of my own free will! I chose not out of some sense of honor or duty! I chose to become a shinobi to protect my home and my friends!"

The two only stared at each other. It was clear that Yuji hit a nerve with Izanagi. "And if you choose to leave them?"

"I doubt I ever will."

"But if you do...the penalty is the same as mine: Death."

"Well...yeah." Yuji replied, scratching his head. "But...if you feel you have to leave, you should do it."

"What!?"

"If that's what's truly in your heart because you're not happy, just do it. Yeah, it's a great risk...but who's to stop you? I can't say I identify with missing nin, but those that escape to do what they want or need...I kind of respect them for that. They accept the consequences of their actions and move forward. Yeah, most are bad...but I've seen enough to know that's not the case all the time."

"Well, it's not so simple for me." Izanagi spat back.

"Yes. It is. If you're willing to take the risk." Yuji then extended his hand. "Come with us."

"What!?"

"My sensei has close ties to the Hokage. If I explain your situation, I'm sure we can find you a home."

"And my siblings?"

"From what I hear, such a move...especially with Uchiha clones...will be...challenging. But I give you my word, as long as I, my sensei and my friends are alive, we will help all of you find a future, if you're willing to trust us."

Izanagi seemed to consider it for a moment. She relaxed...then tensed again as she aimed her fists at Yuji. "The only future for me is here."

Yuji sighed as he got into a proper guard stance as well. "I'm sorry you feel that way."

The two squared off...and Izanagi charged. "Wait for it!" Yuji told himself. "No matter how she attacks, wait to counter exactly...and finish her!"

Izanagi then pulled out a scroll. "Bet you weren't expecting this. Baku Hagane no Jutsu!"

Suddenly, an assortment of bladed weapons came flying out of the scroll. "SHIT!" Yuji ran forward, bobbing and weaving away from all of them. He got a few cuts here and there, but overall Sakura's evasion training, even without his kekkei genkai to aid him, was really paying off in this situation. "I probably should have requested for TenTen to give me a few pointers as well! This is most definitely her thing!"

Yuji was running straight for a giant spiked-mace ball, and jumped to avoid becoming a human pancake. Just when it seemed he was in the clear, Izanagi came into his view, about to spew a fireball at him. "NOW!" Quickly, Yuji fired one of his wires to the side. Before he was pulled away, he fired another set of wires, this one set up like a bolo. Yuji escaped the flames, though his leg still caught on fire. The bolo wire, however, nailed Izanagi in the chest, snaring her up perfectly. Yuji doused his flaming leg in the sand, and sprinted forward. "Sorry!" He lunged...and nailed Izinagi in the sternum.

"Ack!" Izanagi coughed up blood as she was sent into the ocean, a splash reaching two stories rising into the sky.

"Forgive me..." Yuji whispered as he relaxed from his attacking stance. He then turned around to look at Hyouike, who was staring in apprehension. "Whew...that...was...tough..."

Yuji suddenly felt sweat trickle down from his face as he hunched over panting. "Hold, on, Yuji!" Hyouike said running towards him.

Suddenly, a loud splash erupted behind Yuji, as Izanagi emerged from behind him. "..THE DEVIL FUCK!?" Izanagi got him in a choke hold; Yuji resisted, but felt most of his strength being sapped away. "I put everything I had into that one blow! How did she survive it!?"

"You were half-right about one thing." Izanagi said as she tightened her grip on Yuji. "I'm not an Uchiha! At least, not a pure-bred! You see, our creator gave us a bit of his blood; it turns out the two really sync well together. Me feeling I was about to die must have activated it; it formed a protective layer of chakra around me!" Izanagi briefly loosened her hold as she suddenly vomited blood. "You still did a lot of damage!" she choked out as she desperately tried to hold on. "It was only enough to protect me from a fatal blow...it feels like my ribs are on fire." She spat out more blood as she squeezed harder, actually raising Yuji into the air. "But that last move cost you all your strength, didn't it? You put up a good fight...but victory is mine!"

Yuji heard none of this, as he desperately tried to think of a way out of his predicament. In this position, none of his escape techniques would work, and his arms were out of reach of his weapon pouch. The only thing he could reach was his medicine pouch. "They weren't intended as weapons...but it should work!" His medicinal pouches mostly carried antivenin. However, that too could become a deadly poison if it was used in excess of the venom in someone's blood. In Izanagi's case, Yuji assumed she had none. "Hope this works!"

Yuji picked out a random vial, and stabbed her in the abdomen. "Ahh!" Izanagi yelled. "You fucker!" She threw him down into the sand, her arms around his own and her foot at his throat.

"No effect!" Yuji thought in despair.

"Farewell..." Suddenly, Izanagi felt her stomach churn. "Ugh, now's not the time for stomach flu! I'll just finish the job and..." The churning came back, this time much stronger than before. "What's wrong with me!?" Her strength left her entire lower body, and she felt...well, that would probably be inappropriate to describe. She suddenly released and backed away from Yuji, clutching her stomach and kneeling, breathing deeply. "No! Not like this! NOT LIKE THIS!" She mentally screamed as she tried to fight her body's sudden need. "Can't...hold it...any longer!"

"CURSE YOU!" she screamed as she rushed into the ocean until she was neck deep, Yuji only looking in a mix of relief, surprise, and confusion.

"What the...?" He took a look at the tube he used, using a flash light to see exactly what he used. "Oh...OH!"

"Yuji!" Hyouike came running after him. "Are you alright?"

"Not really, but it's better than dead." Yuji groaned as he popped his bones and straightened his back.

"So...you poisoned her?" Hyouike asked curiously.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Though, I think real poison that would stop her heart or something would be preferable to her right now."

"Huh?" Hyouike looked behind Yuji to see Izanagi still in the water alive. "Why isn't she attacking?"

"I intended to inoculate her with antivenin...excessive medicine is just as deadly as poison. But..." Yuji blushed slightly. "...I got my vials mixed up."

He held it up to Hyouike, making sure she could see it. "Magnesium Sulfate?"

"Yeah. It's used as a cathartic."

"A what now?"

Yuji sighed. "You know what laxatives do, right?"

"Yeah." Suddenly, Hyouike's eyes widened. "Wait...you don't mean..."

"This is worse."

Hyouike began to blush as she realized just what Izanagi was doing in the water. "W-What in the world were you doing with that stuff!?"

"In case someone ingests poison, just inject this right into the GIT and out it comes...along with other unmentionables." Yuji shrugged.

Hyouike just stared at him. "T-t-this is the Yuji I fell for?" she thought in disbelief. She was brought out her thoughts as Izanagi began to make her way back to them and drew her blade. "She's recovered! Get ready!"

"Recovered?" Yuji asked, no sign of worry on his face. "I doubt it."

Izanagi finally made it to shore with what little dignity she had left. She held a kunai, staring at Yuji with the most intimidating face she could. "Let's..." she panted. "...go." Hyouike then noticed from little light she could see the kunoichi was quite pale, and her legs were trembling.

"No." Yuji then walked over, pinched her cheek and jumped away from a slash. Izanagi instantly fell over face first, while Hyouike noticed the skin was still stretched. "You're completely dehydrated. You've simply got nothing left in you. And even if you went and got a proper drink, you wouldn't have nearly enough electrolytes to reverse the process." Izanagi tried to stand and attack again, and collapsed back into the sand, this time out for good. "Tie her up." Yuji asked Hyouike. "She's no threat now."

"Shall I..."

"No." Yuji said in an usually stern manner. "I'm taking her back to Konoha; I'm going to show her there is always a possibility for a new future. She's a slave...just like the other ninja here. And...like Dandelion-sama."

Hyouike slowly nodded. "I...I understand, Yuji. I'll abide by your request."

"Thank you." He looked further down the beach. "I'm going to watch Shiguri, just in case."

"You can't help him!" Hyouike shouted as she grabbed his good arm. "Not in your condition!"

"Actually, I still can." Yuji said with certainty. He then fell to one knee and winced. "You're half-right though; I probably shouldn't." Yuji slowly smiled. "Still, knowing Shiguri, I shouldn't worry."

"He's stronger than you?"

"Stronger?" Yuji asked, perturbed. "Debatable." he replied as he straightened his back. "But yeah; he's pretty bad-ass." he said with confidence.

Shiguri blocked a kick by Izanami, but was sent tumbling into the sand. Izanami followed through with a kusarigama and bound Shiguri with it's chain. "I've got you now!"

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Shiguri suddenly dissipated, and Izanami realized she had been had with a bushin.

"NO!" Quickly, she jumped back before Shiguri could nail her in the chin when he burst out of the sand. He quickly twisted and threw his shuriken at her. Izanami countered with her own, the sharp pieces of metal harmlessly bouncing into the sand. The two ran forward and tried to attack each other with their fists, hoping to finish the other with hidden blades in their hands. However, both locked the others' wrist and they were in a stalemate. "Not bad." Izanami noted. "But you can't win."

"I hear that all the time." Shiguri sighed. "Besides, you had to double-team Yuji when he was protecting someone else. It took the two of you to bring down someone I know wasn't even giving it his all."

"WHAT!?"

"Did you not look at what's going on behind us!?" Izanami averted her gaze, and even in the darkness, she could see her sister passed out in the sand, Yuji apparently triumphant. "No..."

"Just because I teased you about not being aware about what's around us does not mean take your eye off the ball!"

Suddenly Shiguri head-butted her, breaking her nose and causing her to stumble. "AAA!" she screamed in agony. She lashed out with her kunai, managing to scratch Shiguri's leg, but failing to do significant damage. "I will avenge my sister!" She lunged forward with taijutsu, managing to elbow Shiguri in the stomach and sending him falling in the sand with a back-knuckle. She leaped to finish him off, but Shiguri was already a step ahead of her, summoning a dragon tongue from his wrist and slashing her face. As Izanami felt the cut on her face, her eyes narrowed. "You..."

"Oh, don't get your panties knotted in a bunch." Shiguri replied curtly. "It's an improvement."

"YOU BASTARD!"

Izanami charged with two kunai, the two duking it out with bladed weapons. Izanami made a surprise attack when she threw one of the kunai past Shiguri's shoulder. "AHH!" It didn't penetrate him, but the scratch was enough for a distraction. Izanami was upon him, kicking him in the ribs and knocking him down. Shiguri may have been caught off guard, but he was far from beaten. "Doton! Deiryuu no Jutsu!"

Izanami felt the ground beneath her turn thick and pasty, sinking to waist level. "Shit!"

Shiguri leaped towards her, armed with his own kunai. However, Izanami was not beaten either. "Goukakkyu no Jutsu!"

A fireball rushed towards Shiguri, who briefly panicked. "Shit! Doton! Ensenkibooru no Jutsu!" Shiguri summoned stones buried beneath the earth to surround him, but it was too late. The fireball hit him head on, knocking him back into the sand; had it not been for the rocks, he would have been burnt completely black. Izanami quickly leaped out of the mud hole and nailed Shiguri in the stomach, causing him to cry out in pain, and continued to pound on his face. "You think you could win!" she yelled as she continued to punch his face. "Did you think you could ever win!?"

Suddenly, Shiguri caught her other fist. Izanami tried to move forward, but her fist was completely immobilized by him. "You think it matters what I think!?" Shiguri yelled. "It's not a question of if, just a matter of when! And I'm going to win!" Shiguri kicked her off and got back on his feet, dragon tongues ready once more. Not wasting any time, he spun like a dancer, the sharp tongues flailing wildly. Izanami blocked with her kunai, but she could not come any closer without risking ensnarement. "Chicken?" Shiguri taunted.

"No! But you will be dead at my feet!" Izanami jumped over the arc of the dragon tongues. Shiguri realized what she was doing, but could not change his trajectory in time. Izanami brought down a kunai into his head...and Shiguri suddenly transformed into one of the corpses on the beach. "Substitution!" Izanami realized.

"That's right!" Shiguri burst from the sand once more and nailed Izanami in the stomach. As the kunoichi was gasping for air, Shiguri acted quickly to end the fight. "Doton! Kanate no Jutsu!" Before she could get away, a stone hand ensnared Izanami. But not before she could fling one more kunai from her sleeve, and Shiguri, for all his talent, couldn't see it coming. "Ahh!" Shiguri fell to his knees as the kunai buried deep into his shoulder. He breathed deeply as he tried to soothe the pain. "This...I better call Yuji over."

Soon enough, Yuji was by his side. "I don't have a lot of chakra; we're going to have to do this the hard way." he told him as he inspected the wound.

Shiguri only gave a grim look. "...you serious?"

"Afraid so." Yuji got out another vial (making sure to get it right this time) and gripped the end of the kunai. "On three, okay?"

Shiguri cringed. "Okay...1..." Suddenly, Yuji yanked it out and smeared the ointment into his wound. "OWWWWW! What the hell was that!? You said on three!" Shiguri yelled.

"It's worse if you wait." Yuji said nonchalantly as he got out a thread and needle. "That should disinfect and numb your wound. Now I've got to stitch it up."

As Yuji got to work, Izanami struggled to get out of the rock's hold. "I'll get you for this! You'll pay for what you have done to my sister-"

"Your sister's alive." Yuji said, not looking back for even a minute.

"Impressive." Shiguri noted as he distracted himself from the small but still irritating pain of being stitched back together. "How'd you do it?" he asked. Yuji, at first, said nothing. "Yuji..." Shiguri prodded him.

Yuji sighed. "Fine. I got her to take a monster shit! You happy now!?"

Shiguri and Izanami, were, to say the least, stunned silent. Then, Shiguri began to chuckle. Soon that chuckle became full-blown laughter. "Yeah, that sounds like you!"

Yuji only growled. "I am so going to throw hydrochloric acid in this wound if you don't shut your pie-hole right now!"

Izanami, of course, only looked away in embarrassment. "I guess I was the lucky one of us..."

"Hatake Kakashi..." Susanoo growled as he walked down the hallways, his spectral skeleton still active. "Come out come out wherever you are..." The chakra skeleton behind him seemed to walk with his steps, despite apparently having no legs. The room had gone completely dark, but his sharingan eyes allowed him to see clearly. "You know you can't hide from me...not for very long anyway..."

Then, he stopped. A wire was blocking his path, to which Susanoo only smirked. "Really? A trip wire? THAT's the best you can do?" Susanoo looked at it, and smirked again. "Fine. I'll humor you." His exoskeleton formed a sword, and cut the wire...and nothing happened. "Uh...something must have went wrong there..." Carelessly, he slung his hand over his shoulder, the spectral chakra skeleton following his action with it's sword...and suddenly, after cutting another wire just slightly above the ghoul's, the lights went off blindingly.

"SHIT!" Susanoo covered up his eyes, and that would prove to be a mistake. Kakashi leaped down from above the roof, his kunai crackling with electric chakra. He pierced the exoskeleton, digging his way through until he reached Susanoo's main body. The blade managed scratched Susanoo's face across the eye, a devastating move to even the best ninja. "AHHHH!" In retaliation, Susanoo batted him away, causing Kakashi to sprawl on the floor. "That...was impressive." Susanoo admitted as he recovered, revealing a still-bleeding scar travelling across his eye. "But that's not nearly enough to stop me."

"I'm not trying to stop you." Kakashi replied as he forced himself back up. "Not yet anyways." Kakashi threw down a smoke bomb, making for yet another quick escape.

"Hmm." Susanoo smirked. "Hit and run tactics, is it? Can't say I blame you..." Susanoo moved forward, looking for any trace he could of the copy nin.

Kakashi hid behind a table, waiting for the right moment. "Okay then. Come on..." He then pulled out a scroll. He didn't anticipate this attack to do much damage...but he hoped it would at least buy him the time he needed to find a weak spot. "Here goes..." Quickly, he made the necessary hand-signs. "Kuchiyose! Doton! Tsuiga no Jutsu!" He slammed the scroll into the floor, as the kanji inside somehow flew out and bore itself into the floor.

Kakashi tried to make a break for it before he was found out, but the spectral hand belonging to Susanoo ripped the metal desk off the floor. "There you are..." Kakashi only hoped his summons could break through the steel floor in time. Susanoo brought his sword down, which Kakashi jumped to avoid as it made a nice-sized hole. "I've enjoyed this game of cat and mouse, but this is getting quite old. So..." He raised his sword, preparing to skewer Kakashi, now on his back. "I'm going to put an end to this..."

Suddenly, a low growl came from the hole he opened up. Susanoo turned around to get a better look. "What was that?" Suddenly, large hounds erupted from the hole and attacked Susanoo.

"The first attack was only for me to get a sample of your blood." Kakashi explained. "And now they've got your scent."

"You think these mangy dogs can hurt me!?" One leaped upon his spectral form and latched on, only to be batted away. He swung at some others, most of which dodged his sword. However, one clamped down on it's wrist, pulling him down and off-balance. Before Susanoo could recover, the others grabbed on and forced him to his knees.

His center of gravity gone, Susanoo was now helpless. But only for a moment; a moment Kakashi would be sure not to miss. "I'm going to end this now, Susanoo!" Quickly, he made the hand-signs necessary for his Raikiri. As the lightning took hold, he charged.

"That won't work!" Susanoo shouted. "Not with this-!" Suddenly, one of the dogs snapped at his chakra exo-skeleton. It couldn't penetrate it, but the dog stretched it to it's limit just as Kakashi approached. If the Raikiri hit at that moment...it would shatter. "NO!" Susanoo quickly deactivated his exoskeleton, causing the dogs to to fall over rolling from the sudden loss of opposing force.

In the chaos, Kakashi lost his balance and tripped over one of his dogs. "NO!" He thought he was a goner for sure now...however, the finishing blow never came. Instead, Susanoo retreated to the other side, looking exhausted as he hunched over and sweat trickled down his skin. "Mark my words, Hatake Kakashi. You may have forced me into a draw this evening...but I will be back to finish you. And when I do, I'll be sure you'll have suffered more than you could have imagined." He threw down a smoke bomb, disappearing from sight.

Kakashi, realizing that he was out of danger for now, propped himself back up and dispelled his summons. Slowly, he walked towards the wall, where he leaned against it and slid down to a sitting position. Breathing deeply, he waited. "Naruto and Sakura...if I survived this, I've a feeling they will be okay."

"Ino!?" Sakura exclaimed. Indeed, her friend was right in front of her.

"Shhh!" Ino said, shushing her. "I assume you want to live!?" Sakura nodded sheepishly. "Okay. Hold on." Ino put her hands up in the snake formation, concentrating. Then, explosions rocked the building; none were very powerful, but they were loud enough to make noise that warranted attention. Both could hear Tsukiyomi leap in the direction of one of them, and hoped that she would investigate the others as well. "That should distract her for now. Where are you hurt?" Sakura bent over, pointing to her back. "Okay then."

Ino got behind her, and applied her healing chakra to her back. "It's not too bad..." Ino noted.

"Yeah. But she made me believe it was; that's the scary part about her." Sakura said. "And what are you doing here anyway?"

"It seems our missions are intertwined." Ino explained. "I'm looking for a missing person, and I believe we may have found her captor. And it seems you're opposing him for some reason as well."

"Long story." Sakura replied. "Just focus on fixing me. And I'll have to take out the one chasing us as well."

"Okay." Ino agreed.

Just then, the footsteps got closer to them. "You had me fooled for a minute." she called down the hall. "But I can sense the chakra being used. It looks like you've gotten some help."

"Shit." Ino suddenly ceased her ministrations. "I've repaired most of the bone; you should be able to do the rest yourself, and recover your chakra!"

Suddenly, she ran straight for Tsukiyomi down the hall. "Ino!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I'll buy you some time!" Ino replied back.

Before an argument could ensue, Ino jumped forward with a double kick, engaging Tsukiyomi. "Well, hello there!" Tsukiyomi replied as she blocked her attacks. "I don't think we've met before!"

"You'll get to know me soon enough!" Ino exchanged a couple of more jabs with her and managed to scrape her face with a roundhouse.

"Oof!" Tsukiyomi quickly recovered. "Not bad." she acknowledged. "But not that great either." Tsukiyomi activated her sharingan, and began to take it up a notch. The two engaged in a contest of sticky hands, both blocking and trying to grab hold of one another. However, Tsukiyomi proved to be too much for Ino, and grabbed her in close. She then proceeded to jab her in the kidney repeatedly. Ino gasped and coughed up spit, unable to take the onslaught. Quickly, she jammed her palm up into Tsukiyomi's chin. However, the clone's mask protected the nerve and she did not relent. Ino, realizing she was left with no other choice, slipped a razor from her sleeve and jammed it into Tsukiyomi's shoulder.

"AHHHH!" Tsukiyomi slapped Ino away as she pulled the unwanted intrusion out of her flesh. "You are all just full of surprises aren't you?" She grabbed Ino by the hair, trying to pull her towards her. Ino held onto a wall in a desperate attempt to resist. "This is the way it's going to be? I'll pluck you bald!" Suddenly, Ino slashed her long hair, throwing Tsukiyomi off balance and on her butt. Quickly, Ino activated a jutsu she hadn't used since her first chunin exam. The hairs tangled Tsukiyomi's wrist and neck, restraining her. Ino wasted no time and made a break for it. "Ahhhh!" Tsukiyomi retrieved the discarded razor and sliced the hairs apart. "Now I'm really going to kill you!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that to my friend."

Tsukiyomi looked to her right to see Sakura standing right there, ready to fight. "You-!" Tsukiyomi exclaimed. "You should be injured!"

"We're both medics." Sakura explained as she slammed her fist into her palm. "And I'm not going to let you get away with this!"

Sakura charged, throwing shuriken. Though Tsukiyomi dodged, she saw Sakura's knee come at her. Tsukiyomi avoided this too, the knee leaving a dent in the wall. "It seems you still haven't fully recovered." Tsukiyomi noted.

"Half-true." Sakura agreed. "I have enough chakra in me for one more finishing attack...and I'm saving it for you. And this time, no genjutsu is going to stop me."

Sakura pulled out a kunai and ran at her again. She slashed and slashed, Tsukiyomi dodging each time. Though she managed to punch Sakura in the gut, the pink kunoichi threw a smoke bomb into her face. When it went off, the sting was too much for her to take, and she closed her eyes. Realizing she was vulnerable, she blindly cartwheeled away; the swoosh she felt in the air suggested Sakura had tried to attack her just now. Quickly forcing her eyes open, Tsukiyomi counter-attacked by tossing a burned office chair. Sakura rolled away and closed the gap between them. Tsukiyomi charged as well, hoping to slit Sakura's throat with the small blade she retrieved. Sakura saw the attack coming, jumped on her opponent's shoulders and flipped away, knocking Tsukiyomi off-balance. Tsukiyomi was about to say something threatening, but then noticed a scrap of explosive tag float in her face. "Oh sh-" Tsukiyomi didn't finish her sentence as she rolled away from the explosion, the tag catching fire and burning everything in it's path. Tsukiyomi quickly scrambled back to her feet as Sakura leaped from above and tried to impale her with a kunai. "Enough!" Tsukiyomi screamed as she blocked with a cross-block and threw her off. "I'm ending this!"

Tsukiyomi suddenly released a chain from behind her body, which entagled Sakura. "Oh no!"

Quickly, Tsukiyomi pulled, sending Sakura flying towards her. "Burn in hell!" Tsukiyomi unleashed the scythe, preparing to behead Sakura. She aimed her scythe on her neck...and suddenly instead of a swift cutting motion, the blade delivered a sickening echo, as Sakura suddenly transformed into an office chair. "NO!"

Before she could say anything more, the real Sakura ran right behind the object, fist cocked back. "SHANNAROO!" Sakura's fist landed, blowing clean through the chair and caving in Tsukiyomi's sternum. The force was so great that her mask flew clear off as both combatants went flying through the wall...

"That should do it!" Yuji exclaimed as he finished his stitching. As the two sat down to rest, Inari approached them. "Hey." Yuji said, looking behind him.

Inari bowed. "Listen...I just want to thank you both. For everything you done for me and my family."

"Don't sweat it." Shiguri said, waving him off. "Naruto-sensei would have our heads if we didn't..."

Inari's eyes widened. "Y-your Naruto's team!?"

"Yeah. Forgot to mention that." Yuji chuckled. "Though I got my medical training from Sakura-sensei, obviously."

Just then, they heard something blow from the building above. The three boys looked up to see exactly what was falling. They could only make out two figures, one black and one pink. "Wait a minute..." Yuji said as his eyes widened.

"Is that...Sakura?" Shiguri questioned.

Once they saw they were half way to the ground, they quickly ran in the opposite direction and grabbed Inari. "EVERYONE, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" They ran...and dove once they felt the shock wave coming.

As the dust settled, Inari looked up to see a crater where they once stood. In the middle, Sakura hunched over panting, her fist embedded in another woman's stomach. "It's..." she wheezed. "...amazing..." she panted. "...you're still alive..."

"Jiton..." Tsukiyomi wheezed. Suddenly, she coughed up a huge amount of blood. "Never could use it's full potential. But it saved me this time."

"Not for long..." Sakura picked up a sharp piece of debris, preparing to finish her off.

"No!" Tsukiyomi shouted, though her voice was dulled by the damage she had taken. "Mercy...please..." Sakura's eyes widened, and her hand trembled. She should finish her off here, she told herself. But the look in Tsukiyomi's eyes...she was truly beaten. Finally, she let the sharp piece of debris go, and nodded her head. And what happened next surprised her: a single, solitary tear trailed down Tsukiyomi's eye. "Thank you." she whispered.

Before anymore could be said, Sakura heard someone run up to her. "Sakura!"

She turned to see Yuji. "Yuji! Shiguri! What are you two doing here!?"

"Long story." Yuji replied. "And I imagine it's similar with you...hold on..." Yuji ran past her to check up on something. "Oh good. Looks like you're okay." Izanami was still stuck in the now disconnected Iron Hand, trembling with fright from the near death experience.

Meanwhile, Inari himself was trembling. He knew Sakura was strong; she was a kunoichi after all. But that...that was unlike anything he had ever seen. "Inari!" Sakura called. "What are you doing here!" she asked as she ran up to hug him.

Inari flinched for a moment, fearing being crushed to a pebble, but relaxed upon realizing that she was not using anywhere near her full strength. "W-we were kidnapped..." Inari said. "He freed us." Sakura turned to Yuji, who rejoined them. "Is this true?"

"Well, yeah..." Yuji replied nervously. "...I didn't know what else to do. It didn't seem right to just leave them."

Sakura smiled, and rubbed his head. "You did very well." she said.

Yuji slowly smiled, and snickered. "Well, if I didn't, I still wouldn't be here..."

"You forgot to mention the part where you defeated your opponent by sending her to brown town!" Shiguri suddenly mentioned, ribbing him.

Yuji hung his head in shame. "I swear I'm going to kill you one of these days..."

Sakura looked at him shocked...then began to chuckle. She suddenly clamped her mouth, but failed to contain her laughter and doubled over. "You certainly do take the best parts from Naruto and me..." Then, they both heard Tsukiyomi moan. "Shit! Yuji, come help me!"

"I'm a little dry on chakra..." he moaned as he trailed after her.

"So am I! Now hurry up! I went a bit overboard, and we need to save her!" The two rushed to her side to save her life...

Naruto charged with the Kubikiribocho and swung, but Amaterasu simply flipped over it. "Edan!" He shot a stream of fire, which Naruto blocked with the massive sword. Quickly, one of his clones grabbed him by the ankles, much like he did with Sasuke at their first battle, and swung. Like a tail, the ladder of clones and sword sliced apart the flaming office while Amaterasu desperately dodged. Naruto returned from his previous swing and nearly took off Amaterasu's head, but he ducked in time. However, he noticed his shoulder was bare and bleeding. Amaterasu growled at him. "You think you're hot stuff!? I'll show you hot stuff!"

Amaterasu made a beeline for him. Instinctively, Naruto raised the Kubikiribocho, but in doing so, he left himself vulnerable. Amaterasu punched him all over. He then tried stabbing him, but Naruto managed to block with his own kunai in time. Naruto kicked him away, but did not sick his clones on him; he needed them to wield the weapon. "It's ironic, isn't it?" Amaterasu said as he wiped the blood away from his mouth. "You need that weapon just to stand a chance against me, but in order to finish me, you need to let it go. Quite a conundrum, isn't it?"

Naruto only smirked. "Nothing I can't handle!" Something slid from Naruto's sleeve onto his hand. Naruto threw it on the ground, covering the whole area in smoke.

"And what are you going to do now?" Amaterasu asked sarcastically. "Even if I can't see you, I'll hear where the blade is coming from!" Suddenly, someone attacked from the side. Amaterasu kicked the clone away as it disappeared. Another leaped from below, under his range of vision and clocked him with an uppercut. Amaterasu flip-kicked him away, also causing him to vanish. Another got him from behind, this time managing to to stab his shoulder wound. "AUUGGGHHH!" Amaterasu destroyed it with a back knuckle, but the damage had been done. Amaterasu felt his right arm hang limply; now he was at the disadvantage. "I've still got the Jiton...when he comes at me with his blade, I will block it! And counter!"

The smoke and flames began to clear, as something came charging right towards him. It was blue..."What is this!?" Naruto, being pushed by his last bushin and charging straight at Amaterasu with the blade acting as a lance, came into his circle. But the blade wasn't by itself; swirling blue chakra surrounded it. Recognizing the danger, Amaterasu acted accordingly and tried to counter. "Katon! Gouryuka no Jutsu!"

Amaterasu launched the dragon-head of fire, but feeling his originator had enough momentum going for him, the Naruto bushin leaped over him with his own rasengan and took the fireball for him, destroying both, while the real Naruto and his weapon continued forward. "Take this! Rasenkyou!"

Amaterasu desperately activated his Jiton, but the swirling chakra around the blade pierced through it with ease, and cut into Amaterasu's flesh. "AUUCK!"" Amaterasu coughed up blood as he was pinned against the wall. Feeling his life and strength pour out of him, Amaterasu glared at Naruto. "Well done...well done...you've won." He coughed up more blood as he finished his sentence. Naruto let go of the weapon, making sure he was pinned.

"Hold on." Naruto said, raising his hand. "My teammate's a medic. I'm going to get help."

Amaterasu looked at him stunned. "You...you're a fool. I'm the enemy..."

"...only because you weren't shown another way." Naruto completed for him. "I'm going to find Sakura-chan now. She'll fix you up."

"If she does, I'll only come after you again..."

"Then so be it." Naruto proclaimed, sticking out his fist. "I'll beat you again. And again. And yet again! Now sit still and don't pass out!"

Amaterasu looked at him stunned, and looked down at his damaged torso. A slight smile formed on his bloody lips as the effect of Naruto's mercy began to take hold. "Perhaps the world is not as cruel as Tigre says..."

Taka finally reached the very top of the building. Quickly looking at the the chaos below him, he realized nothing could be salvaged, except his life. Pulling away a tarp, he revealed a hang glider. "I don't know what I'll do now...I guess I really should have saved some of that money..."

Suddenly, an explosive kunai latched on to the fabric. "NO!" Taka tried pulling off the tag, but too much had smoldered away by then. Taka ducked as the whole thing went up in flames.

"No escape." Iori's bestial voice said. "No escape for you now!"

Taka flung his shuriken randomly, hoping to catch her in the neck. Instead, he caught a sai to the knee. "Auugghh!"

"NO ESCAPE FOR YOU NOW!" Iori was upon him, pummeling him with wild punches and kicks, not staying too close to him this time for his blood to get all over her.

"Damn!" Taka screamed. "My bloodline isn't the only thing I know!" he screamed. "Futon! Tsujikaze no Jutsu!" Opening his mouth, a small tornado erupted, blowing Iori over the edge. Taka was about to shout in celebration, when he noticed Iori vanish in a puff of smoke. "NO!"

Suddenly, a blue ball burst from under the roof as it grazed Taka's arm, the real Iori jumping right through. The elder felt his shoulder and arm go numb, while Iori's rasengan remained. "You may get blood on me." Iori growled. "But it won't matter when you're dead!" Taka crawled back in fear as Iori edged closer to him. He hit the edge, unable to back away further.

Taka looked at her in fear...then, he began to laugh. "What's so funny!?" she demanded.

"Nothing." Taka said, still laughing. "It isn't funny, but I'm laughing anyway! You've achieved your revenge! Mommy and Daddy must be so proud! You and your friends destroyed every asset I've worked so hard to steal...and yet, it will be your demise!" He made a hand seal before Iori could react. "It may not have worked on Susanoo...but I've no doubt it will work on everyone else!"

Just then, the island came alive with lights and explosions...

"There." Sakura announced as she cut off a stitch on Tsukiyomi's arm; their battle had left a deep cut in one of her arms. Had Sakura and Yuji not tended to it, it could have come down with a dangerous infection, or the muscles inside would undergo rapid putrefaction. "That should take care of the gash. Now we need to set her ribs in place."

"Right." Yuji answered as he began to unravel some bandages.

"This is going to hurt a lot; we don't have any analgesics, and I don't have enough chakra to inhibit your somatic receptors." Sakura informed her nemesis turned patient.

"It's alright." Tsukiyomi wheezed. "I'll manage." As they got to work, Tsukiyomi gripped Sakura's wrist. Though the medic's first instinct was to defend herself, she held herself back and looked into her eyes. "No one has shown me kindness like this, aside from Amaterasu. How can I ever repay you?" A slight tear fell from her eye.

"It seems she's always felt alone...just like Naruto has..." Sakura huffed as she got back to it. "Truthfully, I don't know, and I'm not sure I care. But we can discuss it once we have you out of danger."

Tsukiyomi, content with the answer, let her go as she got to work. Suddenly, she felt pain, but not how she expected it. It was...it was like she was burning from the inside. She tried to contain her scream, but she couldn't hold it in. "AHHHH!"

Sakura immediately knew something was up. They barely even started; something else was causing her pain. But what? She frantically inspected her body for an answer. However, it seemed Yuji noticed something himself. "Uh...Sakura? What kind of disease or injury can possibly cause your body to glow orange?" Yuji asked worriedly. "And why does it feel like I'm sticking my body in an active oven?"

Indeed, Sakura noticed the temperature spike around them, and now the orange glow was covering Tsukiyomi's entire body. "Oh no..." Tsukiyomi began to gurgle in pain, some of the sand beneath her was turning to glass. "Tsukiyomi! Hold on! I'll save you!"Sakura shouted as she desperately tried to use all her training to find a solution. Her glow, however, was only becoming more intense.

Yuji's kekkei genkai reactivated, and it was going crazy. He had to fight his natural reaction to just jump out of there on his own. Finally, he grabbed Sakura and ran away from the area. "Tsukiyomi! Tsukiyomi!" Sakura shouted, though it seemed Tsukiyomi was in too much pain to even hear her.

"Everyone!" Yuji shouted. "Duck and Cover!" As Yuji hit the beach, a bright white explosion of flame erupted, rocking everyone on their feet. Yuji and Sakura were about to get back on their feet, but then the entire building began to explode, floor after floor. "What the hell is going on!?" Yuji screamed.

Sakura quickly realized her two most important people were still inside. "Naruto! Ino!"

"Sakura! Sakura!" Naruto called as he ran down the halls. He couldn't find her anywhere; it was hard to find a trail, considering the whole floor had become a wreck. Naruto didn't know whether to feel relieved or panicked; after that incident from before, he didn't know what he would do if he discovered the worst. "Damn it, Sakura! This isn't funny anymore!"

Just then, a massive ball of fire erupted from one of the rooms. "Sakura!?" Naruto ran over, but took cover when another fireball exploded from above him. "Shit!" Naruto abandoned his vest as it caught on fire. Then, fireballs from everywhere erupted. Naruto made a hasty retreat back, hoping that Sakura was no where inside the building. If nothing else, he had to save Amaterasu!

He reached where he left him...and was horrified. Amaterasu's skin was glowing like a flaming ember, and he was crying out in pain. "Amaterasu!" Naruto ran over, desperately trying to think of a way to cool him down. However, Amaterasu pushed him away, his mere touch feeling like a hot iron. Then, he too exploded, the Kubikiribocho flying and embedding itself into the wall right next to Naruto's head. "Tigre...he's killing them all!"

Suddenly, Naruto felt the building begin to sway, and he realized it was time to go. "Shit!" Naruto quickly pulled the sword out, and ran down the hall. "Sakura...I hope you're safe!" The fire trailed behind him, right on his heels...

"I can't let you go in there!" Yuji shouted to his teacher, though truth be told he desperately wanted to run in too.

"They're still in there! I've got to get to them!" Sakura shouted.

Yuji held her back in a full-nelson; a very bad technique for ninja, but in their panicked states it was all Yuji could think of, and Sakura was too focused on Naruto to use the most obvious of counters. Suddenly, someone ran out of the windows. He landed perfectly on his feet...and stopped, dropped and rolled like a mad man, a large sword buried in the sand next to him. "Whew!" he suddenly gasped. "I think for the next mission, I'm going to request Ba-chan to send me somewhere cold! Dattebayo!" he breathed as he lay into the sand.

"Naruto!" Sakura ran over to him, finally released by Yuji.

She hugged him close, and Naruto winced. "OW! SAKURA-CHAN, FIRE! BURNS!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Sakura quickly released him and eased him back down to the sand. "I'm out of chakra right now! You'll just have to endure!"

"No problem. I'll manage." Naruto wheezed. As Naruto sat down on the sand, ignoring his stinging back, he spoke. "Sakura-chan...I'm sorry."

"What for?" she asked, her concern focused on him.

"I couldn't save him." Naruto replied sadly. "He just...blew up."

A single tear traveled down Sakura's cheek. "Don't blame yourself. It was the same with my opponent. Tigre...he's using them as weapons and killing them all."

Suddenly, they heard someone scream. "There's someone at the top!" Sakura exclaimed, looking towards the skyscraper that was now leaning dangerously close to the other side of the island..

Naruto tried to rise, but his body was officially kaput now. "No...not like this..."

They could still faintly hear the screams. "It sounds like whoever it is, she's struggling!" Sakura exclaimed worriedly.

"She'll fall if we don't do something!" Naruto yelled.

Yuji took a few deep breaths...and ran towards the flaming building. "Yuji!" Sakura shouted. "You're exhausted!"

"And if I do nothing, someone is going to die! Someone who needs help!" Yuji jumped onto the wall, ignoring the flames and ran up. Just when it seemed he was about to lose his grip, he fired his wires, and hoisted himself up, first one story, then two, then several.

Iori managed to stop her fall by digging a kama into the building's top floor. The grip, however, was tenuous at best. What's more, it felt like her shoulder had been dislocated from the sudden force of the explosion. "Uhnn.."

Despite her injury Iori tried to hoist herself up. Just then, Taka stood above her, with his sneer growing as he looked down on her. "Hey there." Iori struggled to push herself up faster, but her body wouldn't cooperate. "Give your parents my regards." he hissed.

Suddenly, he kicked the stone holding Iori, and gravity took her. "NOOO!"

Iori flayed her arms helplessly, as she fell victim to gravity. No verbal thoughts were going through her head, not even vengeance. However, the images of important people flashed before her: Sakura, who had always been like a sister-figure to her and helped her with growing up in ways only another woman could. Shiguri, his attitude and wise-cracks were a bit rough around the edges but he was always there for her. Naruto, who had become the brother she never had and replaced her father in her life, taught her everything she knew. And then...Yuji. His stupid grin, his unkempt but cute hair, his generosity and how he stuck by her side, even when she didn't want him.

A single tear fell from her eye as it was carried with the wind. "What have I done?"

Suddenly, some force from the side grabbed her and saved her from the short-cut to the lobby. "GOTCHA!"

Iori closed her eyes as she felt herself being carried parallel to gravity before the air all around her stopped. Tentatively, she opened an eyelid, her other following soon after in surprise at the face before her. "Yuji!?"

Yuji had picked her up bridal style as he found a stray outcropping of rock to land on. "Hey." he breathed.

"W-what are you doing here!?"

"Me?" Yuji asked. "I'm on a mission. What are YOU doing here?" Just then, the rubble above them creaked. Yuji looked up, seeing trouble was about to come down upon them. "Uh...I think we'll have to discuss this later."

"Agreed!" Yuji leaped as a huge piece of concrete fell where they once stood. Quickly, Yuji pulled out a kunai and jammed it into the wall while pressing his feet against the surface, slowing their fall as much as he could. "Yuji! Use your chakra!" Iori shouted in panic.

"Can't! I'm all out!"

Iori looked down as the whole building began to come apart. "Oh shi-"

"DUCK AND COVER!" Naruto yelled. Quickly, he covered Sakura and the others followed his lead.

The building came down; the shock wave was terrible; dust was everywhere, and Naruto felt his ears ringing like mad. For the longest time, he felt frozen; a part of him believed that he had died a painless death. Eventually, though, he managed to overcome his shock and move. He was trembling like mad; a building the size of a small mountain coming down...that was not an experience he wished to repeat. "Sakura?"

Sakura coughed a fit. "I, I'm fine...I think..."

Naruto got a better look at his surroundings; it seemed they escaped being crushed by the skin of their teeth. Naruto pulled out a kunai, and jabbed at the wall. Being made of plaster, he actually managed to pierce it, and make a hole large enough for them to get through. "Come on." He took Sakura by the hand, and lead her down. "HELLO!?" he shouted. "IS ANYONE STILL ALIVE!?" Naruto felt something fly in his face; he instinctively swatted at it, but then remembered something. "A wasp...must be Shiguri's! But what is he doing here!?"

"Find him first, Naruto. Ask questions later!" Sakura reminded him.

"Right!"

Naruto followed the insect as best he could through the maze of rubble, until he came upon an earthen bubble-like structure. Cautiously, he tapped on it...and someone spoke. "Password!?" a familiar voice shouted.

"Password! What password!? It's me, Shiguri!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"Just messing with you, sensei." Shiguri replied from the other side. "I didn't think I could manage it, but I saved everyone. Well...everyone down on the beach with us..."

"You did what you could." Naruto said.

Suddenly, he felt himself black out and loose balance, if only for a second. Sakura supported him. "Naruto!?"

Naruto shook the cobwebs in his head. "Must be the air here. Hey, Shiguri! Can you let us in!?"

"Not without risking everything around us caving in! Hopefully, someone will notice my other wasp..."

Just then, loud explosions rocked the ceiling, causing Naruto and Sakura to kneel. It was still dark, but by the strong current of wind, they could see that someone had allowed fresh air in. "Whew!" Yuji and Iori stood above them. "Thank goodness for summons and explosive tags!"

Naruto surveyed the damage as he and the survivors looked around. Smoldering rubble littered the area, and the next-door building looked like it would fall over at anytime if they did not hurry out of there. "I'm glad you're safe, sensei!" Iori exclaimed.

Naruto turned to Iori. He was about to give her his usual smile...then began to frown slightly. "Iori...what are you doing here?" Iori tried to answer, but no words would come. "What are you doing here!?" Naruto repeated, his face looking increasingly stern. "Where's your hiate!?" Iori tried to mumble something, but nothing came.

"Naruto." Sakura told him firmly as she gripped his shoulder. "First thing's first." Naruto only stared ahead at Iori...and nodded reluctantly. "We need to find Ino and Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura may not have sounded as urgent as she meant to, but after the whole tower collapsing ordeal, no one could blame her; just the experience alone could suck the soul out of you. Besides...given the force with which the buildings came down, the two were not very optimistic, though they did their best to remain hopeful.

As they began their blind search, Sakura suddenly swayed and fell to her knees. "Sakura! You alright!?" Naruto yelled as he shook her.

Suddenly, Sakura grabbed his wrist and stood. "Naruto, it's me! Ino! I used my Shintenshin no Jutsu to take control of Sakura because you probably wouldn't hear me otherwise!"

"Glad to see you're alright, even though I don't approve of the way you got help!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Trust me, there's worse things I could do now that I'm in Sakura's body." Naruto just stared at her in utter shock, as Sakura/Ino suddenly gripped her head and began shaking it. "I WAS JOKING! IT WAS A JOKE!" Finally, she/they calmed down. "Sorry. The girl doesn't have a sense of humor at times."

Naruto chuckled. "Well, have I got some stories for you, I-"

Suddenly, Sakura's/Ino's fist came out of nowhere and clocked him in the face. "THAT'S PRIVATE!"

Apparently, even when possessed Sakura would find a way to lash out at him if he got out of line. "Ow..." Naruto moaned as he struggled up. "Why don't we just make this less awkward for the three of us and tell me where you are."

She/they slowly turned her/their head as she/they did a slow scan of the area."See those pipes sticking out there?" Sakura/Ino indicated to her/their right. "I can see you from there; I think I'm in pretty deep. You'll need strong hands, but be careful. One wrong move and the rubble will come crashing down on us."

"Us?"

"Kakashi-sensei is also with me. I did what I could to heal him."

"Thanks, Ino! You're the best!"

Suddenly, he embraced Sakura/Ino and kissed her. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, BAKA!"

Out of nowhere, Naruto was once again uppercutted into the air, and came back down for a very rough landing. "AH! S-Sorry, Ino! I forgot-"

"IT'S ME, YOU ASSHOLE!" Sakura yelled.

"S-Sakura-chan!?" Naruto looked at her frightened. "WAIT! If it's you I kissed, what's the big deal!?"

"It's me NOW! That was Ino you kissed a moment ago!" she yelled as a vein in her forehead popped.

"But it was your body..."

"Not my mind!"

"I'M SO CONFUSED!" Naruto yelled as he tugged at his hair.

From their respective imprisonment, Ino and Kakashi looked on at the bickering couple. "They're not going to get us out, are they?" Ino groaned.

"When hell freezes over..." Kakashi sighed.

Naruto growled as he and Sakura cleared a huge stone with all their might. "And...THERE!"

The rubble fell down the pile, allowing Naruto and Sakura a good look at Ino and Kakashi below. "Took you long enough." Kakashi coughed.

"You're welcome." Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "How is he?"

"He's out of mortal danger." Ino affirmed. "What happened out there?"

Naruto sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if we told you. By any chance, did you bring Yuji and Shiguri with you for whatever mission you had out here?"

"Yeah. I needed some assistance and they were available." Ino answered.

"And Iori?"

"She wasn't there when I came to get them. I don't know what she's doing here." Naruto cupped his face as he breathed deeply. "What? You didn't bring her here yourself?" Ino sighed. "It's just as I thought..."

"Don't worry about it. We'll deal with it when the time comes." Naruto assured her, giving her a false smile.

As Naruto and Sakura helped Kakashi up, Kakashi motioned them to stop. "Wait. Sakura, there's something I need you to see."

Though he was greatly weakened from his last battle, he was fit enough to walk. He led everyone down a hall that by some miracle survived the collapse. Finally, he led them past the caved-in steel doors. Inside were broken glass and what seemed to be fetuses in decay. Yuji himself was on the verge of losing what was left in his stomach, despite his medical training. "What kind of sick maniac collects unborn babies!?" he shouted.

"How horrible..." Sakura whispered. "...he raised all these babies just to be part of his army. They were truly nothing but tools to him." she growled in disgust.

"Yes." Kakashi affirmed. "...and you're about to see the source of them all."

Finally, he stopped in front of a glass tube. Inside was the emaciated Uchiha Obito. "This is him? The one you told me about?" Naruto whispered in shock and sadness.

"It is." Kakashi sadly confirmed.

"He's alive?"

"Technically." Kakashi sighed. "Sakura, I need you to check him out. Just in case."

Sakura nodded, and climbed up the tube. She found a hatch, and opened it, falling into the solution to inspect him. It stung, probably due to the preservatives inside, but she endured. She would only have a limited time to make a diagnosis as she ran her hands up and down his body, especially without her chakra to help. Finally, making the best inspection she could, she swam out.

As Naruto helped her down, she confronted Kakashi. "It's hopeless, Kakashi-sensei." she reported reluctantly. "So many bones are broken and reformed improperly, his pulse is incredibly faint...if he could regain consciousness, he should have come out of it years ago. He's most certainly brain-dead."

"He's not under any medication?"

Sakura nodded negatively. "No. Nutrient transfusion, artificial respiration and waste extraction only. They've been keeping him alive and nothing more. I'm so sorry...your friend is gone."

Kakashi hung his head low. "I understand, Sakura." He looked straight ahead to Obito. "Sakura, could you get everyone out of here? I need some time alone."

Sakura nodded. Naruto however, widened his eyes in shock. It seemed even he caught on to what Kakashi was about to do. "Kakashi! You're not seriously considering...!"

"Naruto!" Sakura gripped him firmly, and pulled him away. "Let's go. Let Kakashi have his peace!" Naruto was about to protest further, but the look Sakura gave him told him this was not up for negotiation.

Once the room was empty, Kakashi finally spoke. "Hey." he said. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" Obito's prone form said nothing. "A lot has happened." Kakashi continued, scratching the back of his head. "Most of it...wasn't pleasant." Kakashi sighed as he continued. "Shortly after you died, Rin went looking for you. I...I told her about your feelings. I figured you deserved to have her know how you felt about her at least. But she felt incredibly guilty that she ignored you. She went looking for you..." Kakashi breathed deeply. "I'm sorry. I couldn't keep my promise to you. She died. If only I kept what I knew to myself, she would still be alive and make a family of her own."

Kakashi breathed deeply before he continued. "Minato-sensei is also gone. He and Kushina had a kid. Crazy, isn't it? But somehow the Kyuubi found the village and attacked. He died sealing the beast inside his own son. I became so ridden with guilt I threw myself into ANBU for years. During that time Kushina went missing. I don't know what happened to her; she's probably dead too. And your clan...one of them went rogue. Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that. But, that individual killed all the Uchiha except one. They're all gone. I'm sorry"

A tear rolled down Kakashi's sharingan eye. "I've failed you. I promised you I'd protect everything you held dear, and I failed you. I want to beg for your forgiveness, but I know better than that. However, there is one thing you should know. Your sacrifice was not in vain. We may not have been able to protect those closest to us, but we have insured our village's will of fire continues. Our comrades have grown and fathered children of their own, and now we are more prosperous than ever. That old lady, Tsunade? She's Hokage! Weird, huh?" Kakashi chuckled underneath his mask. "And then there's Naruto. Minato and Kushina's son. He's a lot like you. He can be an idiot, rash, and loud. However, when he wants to be, he's clever, brave, and the strongest shinobi I have ever seen. I wish you could meet him. The two of you would get along really well."

Kakashi sighed. "I don't know what else to tell you. I've been trying to live my life as you would had you been in my place. I'd like to think I've influenced everyone for the better." Slowly, he then reached into his pocket. "There is...one more thing. I've a letter, from Rin." He unfolded the crumpled envelope. "I never read it all these years. I promised her I wouldn't until I found you. I don't know if you can hear this...but we probably won't have another chance. Are you ready?" Of course, Obito was as unresponsive as ever. "Okay. Here goes..." He opened it, and began.

"Obito,

If you are reading this, it means you really were alive after all this time. Unfortunately, it also means something has happened to me. I am sorry we were not reunited the way I intended. But there is so much I want to say, so this will have to do.

Kakashi has told me of your feelings. When he did, it was like a blindfold came off my eyes. The way you would say hello to me, seek me out for help whenever you were hurt, smile at me...I could not believe how blind I was to all of it. It must have hurt, seeing me eagerly pursue Kakashi. Worse, was that you nearly gave your life for both of us. You have no idea how horrible I felt, abandoning you underneath all that rubble. I kept blaming myself for what happened to you; if only I did not get captured! And now, you have one less eye. Perhaps this is for the best; after all I've done, after how much I've failed you, I don't know how I could face you. All your suffering was because of me. Now, there's nothing more I can do for you.

However, allow me to leave you with these parting words: You are the best friend I ever had. You made our team a joy everyday, and I always looked forward to seeing your goofy face. And then, there was your dream. Your dream to become Hokage. It inspired me to be the best medical ninja I could be, and I wanted nothing more than to see you achieve your dream. I wanted to help you make your dream a reality. You are the kindest person I have ever known; come what may, no one else could ever be more qualified than you for Hokage based on that alone. And now, going over this, I may have realized that I had feelings for you as well. I always thought that Kakashi-kun was cute; but he didn't move me the way you do. Now that I have had time to think about it, I wanted to be noticed by him...but I didn't want to be WITH him. Knowing this now breaks my heart. I can't imagine going on without you now. That was why I had to find you.

And now, it's over. I'm sorry I came to rescue you only for us to switch places. But please, don't ever give up on your dream. You will grow strong, you will lead our village to greatness, and I know you will find more friends and new love. Come what may, never give up. And know that even though I may have realized it too late, I truly do love you. I will, now and forever.

Love,

Rin

The tears fell from both of Kakashi's eyes freely as he slowly looked up from the wet and crumpled letter, to Obito's face. As he let it fall, he finally spoke."I'm so sorry. You two deserved each other. And you deserved to become Hokage just as Minato-sensei and Tsunade-sama did. If I had helped you sooner, we would all be together. I would have even gotten Rin to go out with you." Kakashi stopped his mumbling. "I can't give you your dream. But...I can bring you to Rin. You ready?" Obito, remained silent. "Of course. How silly of me." Kakashi said as a sad grin formed under his mask.

He walked behind the tube, and pulled at the huge power cord. It came off the wall, but Kakashi did not stop there. He then took a kunai and smashed the control panel to his vitals the best he could. Soon, he apparently flat-linned. "I'm glad you didn't have to wait much longer." Kakashi did everything he could to keep himself from collapsing on his knees in anguish. "Goodbye forever...my best friend and brother."

With that he left, doing everything he could to keep himself from looking back, lest he regret what he did.

Obito suddenly took in a sharp breath and pulled his eyes open...yes, his EYES...and continued to take in some of the purest air he ever felt as he struggled to fill his lungs to full capacity. "W-what happened? Where am I? I'm alive?"

"Welcome home, Obito."

Obito turned to his side to see Rin kneeling next to him. "Rin..." Obito said, smiling. "You''re okay!" Rin only smiled as she closed her eyes.

Obito's happy face then became confused as he sat up. "Hey..." he asked, looking around. "Where's Kakashi? And Minato-sensei?"

Without another word, Rin cupped the back of his head and hugged him close. "Don't worry...we'll see them again soon..."

Obito, still confused, but at peace and confident he would find the answers in due time, slowly hugged her back...

Naruto and Sakura looked behind them to see Kakashi emerge from the pathway. "Is...is it finished?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi only nodded solemnly. "Let's go." he said. "Our mission is complete."

Naruto and Sakura didn't have anything to say. The mission itself was a failure. They still didn't know who provided Taka the means to clone. The clones themselves could not be saved. And they had learned the fate of their sensei's friend...nothing good came of it. And then...Iori...

"Hey!" Ino grabbed their attention. "YOUR mission may be over! But mine isn't!"

"Yeah." Yuji agreed. "We came here looking for Dandelion-sama..."

"Isn't that a relative of the Damiyo's?" Sakura asked.

"She is?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, you really need to keep up with politics if you want the Hokage seat..." Sakura said as she put her fingers to her forehead. He got the ninjutsu part of Hokage down, but the politics...

"Well, he probably wouldn't keep her here...she'd be a distraction during work..." Ino then looked to Tazuna. "Hey! Do you know where Tigre lives?"

Tazuna nearly stumbled for an answer. "Uh...yeah! He has a villa on an atoll a few miles east of here! But, it's probably not safe..."

"He won't be heading there." Kakashi said. "He knows that we may go after him, and if we do, that would be the first place we'd look. Not to mention he's not in the best of shape right now."

"Neither are we." Naruto added. "We better head back to shore somehow, and get a boat."

"How are we going to do that?" Yuji asked. "I don't have enough chakra to walk on water, and I doubt anyone else here does either."

"True." Naruto agreed. "I may have enough chakra for one summon though..."

He bit his thumb and performed the summoning, bringing forth a giant toad. "Hey boss!" The toad replied jovially. "What can I do you for!?"

"I need to you to take as many people on your back as you can and to the island that way!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing in the direction toward Wave Country. "We may have to make another trip or two! And no going under! Got it?"

"Sure thing!" Gamakichi replied as he flattened himself as much as possible. "All aboard!"

The girl mumbled to herself a lullaby her parents would sing to her. She was too old for such things normally, but after the near nightly torture, she was left with little alternative to comfort herself. Suddenly, the door opened. She mumbled faster, hoping her tormentor would go away.

"Dandelion-sama!"

That was a woman's voice. Surely, she must have been going mad! She slowly looked up, worrying that she had finally lost it. But indeed, a blonde woman, without restraints or Tigre next to her, approached her. "Who...who are you?"

Ino kneeled to her level. "I'm a ninja of Konhagakure. Your uncle hired me; we even worked with your royal guard."

Dandelion only continued to tremble. "How...how long-?"

"I'm afraid now's not the best time to answer that question. We need to get you home..."

"No!" Dandelion shouted, grasping her temples. "I can't go back. Not after..."

Ino hushed her on the lips, giving her a sympathetic look. Ino hoped against hope that she would reach her in time before the unthinkable happened. But unfortunately the realist in her was proven right. "We'll deal with it when the time comes. But your family misses you. And I'll make sure they accept you no matter what. Okay?"

Dandelion weakly nodded. "The men who captured me..."

"They're incarcerated now." Ino continued to assure her.

"And...him?"

Ino sighed. "He won't hurt you again. One way or another." That was not exactly comforting, but Ino couldn't lie to one in such a fragile state. Still, Dandelion decided to accept her offer, as she reached for her hand. Ino supported her on her wobbly legs.

As Ino guided her out of the basement, Naruto and Sakura looked on in sadness. "How could someone do that to an innocent woman?" Naruto asked Sakura.

Sakura sighed. "We're talking about a man who killed and exploited many. Does this surprise you?"

"Guess not. But I can't imagine anyone being this evil. Not even Orochimaru."

Sakura nodded weakly. "I wonder where Taka is now?"

Taka huffed as he reached a beach. It seemed he reached one of the outlying islands; he didn't dare go back to Wave now, but he could at least be safe here temporarily. "Whew...made it!" He plopped down into the sand, breathing deeply. "Now what?" he thought. "Everything I worked for...gone!"

Despite it being dark, he could see a silhouette block his view of the stars. "Reflecting on how your life has fallen apart?" a familiar voice said. Taka jumped away and got into a defensive stance, despite his exhaustion. "Wish I could sympathize. I never really had a life until tonight. If anything, despite a few minor setbacks, I'd say mine is just beginning."

"Susanoo!" Taka hissed. "The hell are you doing here!?"

"Kakashi drove me away." Susanoo said. "I'd imagine that little girl did the same to you." Taka hissed, remembering that now he was at a disadvantage. "It's rather refreshing to see you tremble in fear before me." Susanoo said as he slowly approached him. "You should be. But, fortunately for you, I'll hold off on that for now."

Taka did not move, but he was willing to hear him out while remaining on the defensive. "Our benefactor has returned." A man in a black cloth approached from behind Susanoo, and Taka got just a good enough glimpse under the hood.

"You..." Taka growled.

"Nice to see you again. You've put my notes to good use, I see." he said, seemingly casting a glance at Susanoo. "But, it looks like you're at the end of your road."

Taka nodded slightly. "What do you want now? I can't pay you..."

"I don't want your money. However, I may have use for you two..." he began, the shadows hiding his grin...

Naruto and the rest of his comrades were ridden with exhaustion, and had taken sanctuary in the Wave government embassy. But that didn't stop Naruto from questioning his kunoichi student. He was the type of person to get things done the instant he could for his comrades, no matter how shitty he was feeling. From her, he learned the truth. Naruto was not one known to get furious, except maybe in the heat of battle. But Sakura could see from the look in his eyes he was doing everything in his power to refrain from slapping her. She couldn't blame him entirely. After Sasuke, the idea of a dear friend abandoning the village had affected both of them deeply. She only hoped that somehow this would have a happy ending.

"So..." Naruto began as he breathed deeply. "If I'm understanding this right, you just decided to leave for Vines on whim, attacked their current leader and then interfered on a mission just to get your revenge. Am I right?"

Iori, sitting across from him, twiddled her fingers. "Well, you were interfering on a mission too..."

"Irrelevant!" Naruto yelled. "Answer the question!"

Iori sighed sadly. "Well...yeah. I guess I kind of did..."

Naruto huffed, and looked away. "Unbelievable." He got up from his chair and walked away, pacing. Sakura looked on sadly.

A part of her wanted to sympathize with Iori, but she couldn't deny her actions and agreed that she needed to be disciplined accordingly. "You remember what we told you about our teammate, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"This is different!" Iori insisted.

"I don't see it." Naruto growled. "If anything, I'm seeing more similarities between you two. You both lost someone precious to you, and at the first opportunity, you BOTH abandoned your home and your comrades! And now, you may have just caused an international incident!"

"Well, maybe if they didn't kill my father..." Iori growled.

"WHO WAS AT FAULT FIRST IS NOT RELEVANT!" Naruto shouted. "What happened to you was terrible! But you have a new life in Konoha! WITH US! And you now you risk prison, if not worse! What about whoever you hurt back in Vines!? How many innocent ninja did you have to go through before you got to your targets!?"

Iori mumbled. "Well...I put most everyone else to sleep using my butterflies...I did not wish for anyone not directly involved to be hurt..."

Naruto breathed deeply. "Well, at least this situation is not COMPLETELY unsalvageable..." He looked out to the sea through the window. "Either way, it's out of my hands now." He then looked to Iori. "We'll return home...and we'll let Ba-chan decide. Right now, I'm...my head isn't in the right place right now." With that, he walked over to the couch and helped himself to a spot on the couch to sleep on.

Iori looked at him sadly, and nodded. Sakura gave her a sympathetic look as well, but this was Naruto's job to discipline her. She couldn't say anything honestly to cheer her up. For now, they needed to let things take their course...for better, or for worse. It was going to be a very stressful walk back home...

That same time, Kakashi explained everything to Tazuna, as both men found themselves unable to sleep due to the day's ordeal. Somehow, the conversation lead to Sasuke...and the truth of his fall from grace."So, Sasuke's a rogue now?" Tazuna asked as he poured himself a drink from the bar behind the desk.

"Yes. It's unfortunate." Kakashi sighed as he leaned back against a couch, politely declining his offer for a drink. "I devoted so much attention to him at the cost of my other students just to prevent it. I wonder if I only made things worse?"

"You can never predict the paths in life one takes. Especially those of troubled souls." Tazuna said before downing his drink. "And after having your family killed, just about anyone would do whatever means it took to kill the person who did it." He gripped his cup tightly. "If Tigre did anything to my family, and I had the insane power you ninja did, nothing would stand in my way..." Tazuna sighed in disappointment with himself but showed no sign of surprise. "Wow. Vengeance really is such an easy thing to slip into."

"True." Kakashi sighed. "Ever since his attack, we haven't heard from him, either in Fire Country or the other nations. Many times,I wonder if my actions were more out of guilt for Obito as opposed to my responsibility as his teacher."

"I guess you'll never know." Tazuna said with sympathy. "You'll just have to live with it and move on. Besides, you still got Naruto and Sakura, right? You still helped them in the very end, if not most obviously, and that should be enough."

Kakashi looked out the window. "I guess. I just wished I had showed them earlier that I cared."

Finally, morning came. The Wave government had launched a full-flung investigation into Tigre's organization, business, and contacts. Tazuna had a feeling the council would suddenly get a lot smaller, given how much Tigre supported the elections of several members.

Most important of all, Team Kakashi and Tazuna decided to have a final farewell. "It was good seeing you again." Naruto said to the family. "I only wish we didn't have to be here on a mission and spend some quality time together."

"Hey. You can't help what happens." Tazuna said. "What happened here wasn't your fault. Something would have gone down eventually; if anything, I think you and your friends actually lessened the damage."

Naruto sighed, finding it impossible to argue with him. "Sorry about your bodyguard." Kanto had taken down a few of the ninja that kidnapped the family, but ultimately fell victim to them.

Tazuna nodded sadly. "A good man. Fought to the bitter end to protect us." Tazuna sighed. "Well, all we can do is give him a proper burial."

Sakura nodded sadly. "It seems there's trouble wherever we go..."

"The same could be said of anyone." Tazuna assured her. "You're ninja. You're going to see the worst of the world where you go. And just because you solve problems in one place, doesn't mean it will last forever. Evil...evil is like a natural disaster. It comes and go, and all you can do is minimize the damage." Naruto and Sakura didn't want to agree with that point of view, but they saw too much to deny it's validity.

Inari, meanwhile, twiddled his thumbs as he slowly approached them. "It was nice seeing you again, Naruto."

"You too, Inari." Naruto replied, smiling slightly and rubbing his head. "Sorry to put you through all that."

Inari nodded, and looked to Sakura. His blush seemed to turn blood red...and suddenly he embraced Sakura. "You were awesome out there!" he practically shouted.

Sakura was stunned, but slowly returned the hug, smiling in understanding. "Thank you, Inari. And don't worry; you're a good person. You'll find the right girl for you eventually." She leaned down slightly to place a kiss on his cheek. Inari turned beet red, but nodded in understanding, thankful for at least that.

Sakura then turned to Ino. "Ino, will you be coming with us?"

"Sorry. I'd love to, but I've got to escort Dandelion myself. She's rather...sensitive." Sakura nodded, understanding with what that poor woman went through, it would be hard for her to deal with public places. "Don't worry though, I'm releasing Yuji and Shiguri back to Naruto. I think it's for the best."

Yuji and Shiguri sighed. "Predators. Ruining girls for everyone." Shiguri groaned.

"True that." Yuji agreed.

Since all the ninja were too tired to walk, Tazuna instead ordered a large cruise ship for them. As the boat took off, Naruto waved back to them. "Goodbye everyone! We'll meet again!"

"You take care of yourself, you hear!" Tazuna yelled back.

"Oh!" Naruto just remembered something as he was about to walk away, and practically ran back to the edge. "I SAW THE BRIDGE, OLD MAN!" Naruto yelled back. "YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE! BUT THANK YOU!"

By then, the boat was out of Tazuna's hearing range. But he got the message as he smiled. "You're welcome, kid. I thought you'd like it." he smiled sadly. "We'll meet yet again someday. I just know it."

As the shore began to disappear, Sakura smacked her fist in realization. "Wait a minute! Naruto!" she turned to him. "Aren't you forgetting something!?" she shouted.

Naruto looked at her perplexed. "Hmm?"

"The sword! Zabusa's sword!" she exclaimed angrily.

Naruto's eyes widened. "Oh!" He smiled and held up his hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm actually taking care of it right now."

At the same time, Naruto was running through the trees in the forests of Wave, and happened upon the two graves of Haku and Zabusa once more. Naruto fell to his knees in exhaustion; as a clone, he had even lower stamina, and with his host still not having fully recovered yet, he was practically running on fumes.

"Hey." he panted to the two. "Sorry to bug you two again. We were kind of in a hurry, so the real me sent me instead." He pulled out a scroll and summoned the Kubikiribocho. "Your sword..." He groaned as he lifted it up, careful not to cut himself and bring it to the place where it was buried before. "...I return." He stabbed it back into the earth, the giant zanbatou digging into the earth with ease like a katana into its sheath. He took a deep breath as he dropped on one knee. "It's quite an awesome weapon. But it's not for me. Still, it helped a lot."

As sweat trickled down his face, he got out his last words before he vanished. "Thank you, Zabusa. Haku. When I wielded it in battle, it was like I could feel you two at my side. I hope that you two are doing good on the other side. I'll see you two again; hopefully, not too soon." Finally, the clone vanished, and a gentle breeze passed over the grass and trees, as if the spirits of the two were sending him a heartfelt farewell.

Naruto sighed as he leaned against the rails of the ship. He had certain...needs. But duty came first, which for him was making sure Iori would not escape from her room. Thankfully Iori was more of a combat ninja than a stealth ninja (not that she was bad at the later). Even with all that had happened, Naruto doubted that she would try to sneak away again, but he'd be a fool to blindly trust her now. "Hey." Kakashi approached him, reading one of his books again.

"Hey." Naruto answered, still staring ahead.

"Listen, Naruto. Why don't you go to your room?" he asked nonchalantly.

"I'd love to, but I need to keep an eye on Iori..." Naruto sighed.

"Naruto, go see Sakura. I'll look after Iori."

Naruto began to protest "She's my student. I-"

"Naruto." Kakashi interrupted. "You're frustrated, you're high-strung, and you're exhausted. Go; get some rest. You've earned it." he insisted as he leaned against the door, still reading Icha-Icha. It looked like he wasn't taking it seriously at all, but those who knew him knew better.

Naruto wanted to protest, but his mental exhaustion and...other desire...overrode his sense of selflessness. He sighed, and bowed towards Kakashi. Eventually, he reached the room that was designated to both him and Sakura. As he turned the knob, he heard Sakura moaning from inside.

Suddenly alarmed, Naruto slammed the door open and pulled out a kunai, ready for the worst. Finally, he traced the source of the noise...to the shower. Naruto sighed in embarrassment. Those were moans of pleasure, not distress. Sakura herself briefly stopped, startled at her unexpected company, though not entirely embarrassed. After Naruto summoned a clone to run behind and lock the room, he simply gave a sly grin, urging her to continue. It had been a while since Sakura put on such an erotic show for him, and assured there would be no more interruptions, she happily continued for him.

After she was finished, she stepped out of the shower and walked over to embrace Naruto, who had stripped down to his boxers by now. After a chaste kiss, Naruto asked "Missed me?"

Sakura nodded. "I wasn't expecting you. I thought you'd be looking after Iori..."

"Kakashi is looking after her." Naruto said as he kissed a trail on her neck. "I want you." he moaned as he gently pinned her against the wall.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

After a long session...or a couple, neither was really sure when or how the tryst ended that night...the two clung to each other tightly as they relaxed and settled onto the bed. "I'm glad you're alright." Naruto said. "I nearly lost it when they told me you may never walk again..."

"I'm glad YOU'RE safe." Sakura interrupted. "You went through quite a fight."

"Yeah." Naruto sighed. "Story of my life."

As Naruto traced small circles on her back, Sakura decided to ask a question. "So...just how mad are you at Iori?"

Naruto sighed. It was uncomfortable...but he supposed he had to talk about it. "To be honest, I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm angry. After Sasuke, knowing someone dear to me ran away from home...it does feel like another betrayal. And I'm angry she put herself in danger by herself..." He took another deep breath as he gathered his thoughts. "Still, after hearing her story...I can't deny I sympathize with her. And more than anything, I'm just glad she's safe."

Sakura nodded. "So...what are you going to do now?"

"For now, I'm just going to let Ba-chan decide her fate. I know it won't be anything too harsh. She'll know what to do. After we've both calmed down and give each other space, I'll be able to talk to her more calmly." Sakura nodded in satisfaction. "You were afraid I'd be worried about how she disgraced me or something along those lines, weren't you?"

" A little." Sakura sadly admitted. "It's not you, just demons from my own past."

"I understand." Naruto said, bringing her close. "Don't worry. She's not going to hurt my reputation, and even if she does, I'll endure and rebuild. Her actions are her own and have no bearing on me."

"Well, in case the worse happens, just know you won't have to do it alone." Sakura smiled.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan." The two finally fell asleep in each others arms, content to enjoy the closeness and forget about the crap they had to go through. But as usual, more was coming...

Wow...just, wow. Didn't see that one coming.

You know, I've heard things from a lot of fandoms on how their OTPs did not become canon...Harry Potter, Avatar, etc...and in a lot of those, I was surprised at how bad people took the outcome in the romance department in all these works of fiction without considering everything else positive, or that the author had clearly intended to go one way and even if they didn't, what they did come up with was still quite satisfactory.

BUT THIS! My problem isn't the fact that NaruHina and SasuSaku became canon as much as it was THE ROAD GETTING TO THERE. Even though I was drawn to NaruSaku almost instantly when I first started reading the manga, there were moments in Part 1 where I was okay with the other two happening if that was what Kishi wanted to happen. They both could have easily been developed. But NO! He kept bringing Naruto and Sakura closer, enforcing all the positive points of their relationship (platonic or not), and ignored Hinata for most of Part 2. What moments we did get between the two did not feel like genuine love. Not to mention their two biggest moments in the manga together, the confession and the hand-holding, they were then trounced by a NaruSaku moment (the hug and the comparison to Kushina, then the CPR). And then the dreamworld in the tree...it's like he's saying those dreams came true (consistency, gentlemen! Kishi never heard the word!). Then there was SasuSaku, which as time went on, became increasingly negative and toxic and should never have happened! And the time Naruto and Sakura had together, plus the themes, you expect me to believe this was all a red herring!? Here's the thing: Red Herrings don't last for more than 10 years! They are normally very short and when the truth is revealed, the audience should be able to go "Ah yeah." It's like Kishi is more interesting in trolling then developing his story, which I would never do to my readers (if for any reason I am, please let me know). What's more, if two people were not meant to get together at the end, it shouldn't make one or both look worse for their choice of a romantic partner.

And in spite of all of that, I did have to step away from the shipping and ask myself "Well, despite not getting my preference, surely this is an otherwise satisfactory ending?" After thinking about it for a while, I realized...no, not really. For one thing, the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke was a HUGE disappointment to me. The first half was nothing but talking and flashbacks, with both characters stepping out of their god forms almost immediately (yeah, a few people would think of that as a positive, but that phase of the battle should have been longer and better choreographed). While the 2nd half was quite good and intense, it felt like we were missing something before hand (though I did love the fact that their final battle resulted in permanent physical consequences). And after that, it was literally Kishi going "That's it, I'm done!" Orochimaru and Kabuto just upped and disappeared along with Team Taka. We got no solution to the problems of the ninja world. Then a mere decade and a half later we see an improbable growth in technology, Kishi cheaply advertising the next generation of kids (most of which are designed lazily; the only one that looks somewhat decent and creative to me is Salad) with no regard for the characters of his previous generation. The final chapter is called Naruto Uzumaki if I remember correctly, yet he's barely in it and when he is his jovial personality is completely gone. It's also suspicious to me that Kishi didn't even have the two canon couples together in his final chapter; it would have been nice to at least give me an idea on how these characters have changed (or regressed, depending on your point of view), at least sell me that they're making these relationships work somehow! The chapter tells me nothing about how the ninja system has changed. What's more, we didn't even get to see Naruto's ascension to Hokage, how awesome would that have been!? And there's no Team 7 reunion! Well, maybe in 699 but that's more implied than shown! It would have been cool to see Naruto and Sakura, though nothing more than good friends at this point, prepare a welcome back party for Sasuke and have the three reminisce over their time as children and watch their own kids, having faith that they would create an even better era! But no! Just more advertisement to let us know they exist! Boruto is nothing more than a carbon copy of Naruto (and good god, that awful hair!) when he has no reason to be! And perhaps the biggest offense of all...Naruto is NEGLECTING his own kid! He doesn't even apologize for not spending more time with him, he just says he has to endure it! Naruto had a past shaped by being lonely, and suddenly he thinks it's okay for someone else, let alone his own son, to go through the same thing!? I'm also loving how this implies that somehow he's giving his wife and daughter his time but not his son! This is an easy fix for Naruto, he can make copies of himself! He has the ideal super power for dealing with a busy schedule! And there's no reason for him to have a busy schedule if the world is at peace! There's no reason for us to believe that he deserves the job other than the apparent fact he's good at paperwork or something! Even putting personal preferences aside, this is just a cheap, cheap way to give a happy ending that leaves so many questions unanswered and to bait audiences into the Last, which is another problem! All the important stuff (whether it's good or bad) should be in the damn manga! Ten years from now, if someone was to get into Naruto and they reached the end, they're going to be so confused! You can do this with FMA 2003 and Gundam 00, because the conversion is from TV to Movie. You can still get them on DVD or digital means! But this is just an awkward jump that simply does not work!

Then there's The Last. I haven't seen it, but I read the spoilers since I wanted to know what the hell happened, and oh boy, was this a mistake. We all write fanfics that focus on romance in a non-romance series, but that doesn't mean the creators should go down the same path. Maybe if it was a filler season it could work, but as a two-hour movie? No! Not to mention the contrived method of getting Naruto to fall in love with Hinata, and his "closure" with Sakura...I'd imagine this has been done to death, but if the key to hooking up Naruto and Hinata was genjutsu, was there any real point in killing Neji? And I'm sorry, but this villain is worse than Kaguya. For the last movie, you have the motivation for the antagonist to get the girl? Jesus...

And then Naruto Gaiden, where apparently Kishimoto remembered "Yes, Naruto CAN make clones!" and yet Boruto still hates him. And this plot point with Salad...you're really doing this, Kishi? Oh look, Akatsuki is still around! But hey, it's difficult for sequels to come up with original plots! Look at Legend of Korra, where the Fire Nation...wait a minute.

To describe this mess if I may, I'm going to quote Nostalgia Critic."This is NOT jumping the shark. This is jumping the shark, coming back, SHOOTING IT IN THE BALLS, RAPING IT, EATING IT'S FLESH, CONSUMING IT'S SOUL, MOUNTING IT'S HEAD ON THE WALL...AND DOING THE SAME THING TO 12 MORE SHARKS JUST TO BE SAFE!

As for looking back on the series overall...I'd say it's pretty good, but very flawed. I didn't hate the war arc like many other people (although that also had it's fair share of problems), but it did get crazy towards the very end. It was clear Kishi was tired of this series and just wanted to end it, he rushed through quite a few things. And the final chapter seemed to be more about pleasing the loudest fans then concluding his story. In fact, I'd say Kishimoto was trying to do too much at once, which made many elements of his story suffer. To his credit though, he did keep most everything connected to build his world and make you wonder what would happen next. But at the very end, it just becomes a mess. Kishimoto doesn't have a solution to the problems in his world, but just conveniently claims that the problems are somehow solved. The character roster was for the most part handled a lot better than most other franchises that get this big, but the development of many characters and the world suffered (mostly the main characters). Unfortunately the ending brings up another big problem, and that is that Kishimoto can't write female characters beyond loving certain characters and his usage of them in fighting is limited. Many have defended this as being a cultural thing or a trope in shonen, to which I call bullshit. There have been many series before Naruto that showed women being heroic and having characters more complex then loving a man. And those that didn't were at least honest enough with how they treated their characters. With Naruto, Kishi shows women with powers and enormous potential both in character and power, but does not capatalize on it for some odd reason, while other successful works have. It's really mind-boggling. And yes, while I acknowledge that Japanese are more conservative with relationships, if Kishi really believed that women can't change their feelings once they fall in love, why did he have to keep teasing that Naruto would get the girl and why did he keep giving Sakura EXCELLENT reasons to move on? Why didn't he at least TRY to justify SasuSaku? In the end, Naruto is an entertaining action series with fun characters and a journey with great potential, and when it gets it right, by god does it get it right, but ultimately is unable to follow through with its promises and the negatives really hurt the series in the end, the conclusion especially which brings out the worst parts of this series.

And my response for the most common defenses of this atrocity of an ending:

Naruto is happy! Can't you be happy for him!?

Just because the main character is happy doesn't make it a good ending. I mentioned the lack of plot, themes and cheap marketing, which is what this final chapter really is. There are also other characters that concern me, mainly Sakura and Sasuke...and the Gaiden unfortunately proved me right about them being unhappy. Goddamn it, Kishi. I already hated the path to making this couple canon, and you're just proving me right!

It was Kishi's decision!

Just because it was Kishimoto's decision does not mean it was a good idea or free from criticism. If people don't like it, they have every right to say they don't.

You're just salty because your OTP isn't canon!

First off, this implies you only liked the ending BECAUSE your OTP became canon. After the Gaiden started, if this is the direction he wants to take the series I'm actually kind of glad my OTP didn't happen. The ending had a lot of other problems as I mentioned, and many other people who don't care for NaruSaku think this ending is crap. There are even a few NaruHina and SasuSaku fans that did not like this ending, for similar reasons as the rest of us and know their OTPs did not deserve to become canon through these means. They agree that Naruto and Sakura should have had at least proper closure. The more logical NaruHina fans hate how Naruto has been revealed to be a scumbag the whole time and Hinata turned into worthless pairing fodder. The more logical SasuSaku fans hate how their ship is portrayed in canon, how Kishi failed to show any positive elements between the two. And they especially hate what's become of the Gaiden. They hate Sasuke having forced a child on Sakura that may not be hers, how he's never been home since Salad was born, how he's forcing both of them to live under financial stress (though why Naruto doesn't just put her to work escapes me) and not made ANY effort to contact them. I'd have been okay with it if Kishi put some real effort into this ending and have the time Naruto and Sakura spent together MEAN SOMETHING. There were good ways to end the series without the two becoming canon...this wasn't one of them. To be honest, if I did ship the canon couples, I wouldn't have been satisfied either (it doesn't bother you that so far we haven't seen any of them interact?)

Take pity on Kishi! He worked hard on this manga and deserves a break!

The way things are going now, as far as I'm concerned, he should have stayed on break a little longer. Look, I understand. Being a mangaka, even a succesful one, is brutal and difficult. I respect anyone who is able to commit themselves like that. But no one is perfect, and if they deserve criticism they should get it. I sympathize if he was exhausted, but if that was the case he needed to stop adding in so many plot points and spend more time wrapping them up! If he planned a sequel, that's fine but the ending of the first should have been able to stand on it's own, without being dependent on the Gaiden!

The majority are satisfied! Deal with it!

And how do you know? Make no mistake, with a franchise like Naruto I'm well aware that there will be many fans who will continue to support this series; it's the same with all franchises. But to say the majority like it is a statement that is impossible to verify! Sales wise, I'd imagine 72 will do better than the other volumes have in a while (due to the most vocal fanbases getting what they wanted) but I personally doubt that it will reach the peak that Naruto initially did when the manga really became a best-seller here. The sales in Japan for the final volume were average at best despite the ending and extra stuff, and then there's everywhere else around the world. The ratings for the Naruto anime have continued to decline, and are no longer in the top 10. The Naruto manga itself didn't make it to the Top 50 best in a poll. The ending lost to five others that ended that same year. And just because the majority may have liked it does not mean those who didn't don't have an invalid opinion. And with time, who knows what the opinion will be? Time can really change how people view certain franchises, and sometimes opinions can even flip.

This was planned from the beginning! It was clear!

Just because this was planned from the beginning does not make it good if everything else before it does not support it and if this really was his plan, all I can say is the execution was lousy. And no, it was NOT clear. If it was, why did Kishi need to do interviews to explain it, for months, may I add? Why did he keep changing his answer on when he decided on NaruHina? Why did the voice actors claim that he told them these couples would happen since the beginning and yet express surprise at the outcome when promoting The Last? Long story short, if you have to explain something that made people go "Huh?"...it can't be good.

It's shonen! You're asking for too much!

I don't care what genre it is. When I get invested in a story or see it going a certain way, I expect it to pay off in some way. If Naruto didn't touch on the politics of the ninja world, I wouldn't have held it against the series. If it didn't spend much time on the side characters, I wouldn't have minded too much. If the romance was way underplayed than in canon or completely non-existent (think DragonBall), the whole OTP thing wouldn't be a big deal to me (I wouldn't even HAVE an OTP if that were the case). Naruto tackled so many complex ideas, but none of them paid off in the end. Kishi stepped into it, but couldn't commit. If he was uncomfortable doing any of these things, he shouldn't have gone down those roads in the first place. As long as he came up with something, even if I didn't agree with it, I would have at least respect his effort. A good example is History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. It KNEW what kind of manga it wanted to be (though it could have toned down on the fanservice), it didn't try to be super complex, and the romance between Kenichi and Miu was well-done and delivered on that! It delivered on the fighting! And what could have been interpreted as a complex problem wasn't given an easy answer. Just the protagonists giving their own belief and show they will continue to fight for what they believe in. That's all you need to do! Even a simple story can be good! If you want to try a complex one, that's cool too! Just make sure you resolve those issues the best you can (read Full Metal Alchemist, Kishi!)

Naruto has went downhill for a long time now!

How in the world is THIS a defense!? That's just even more reason to criticize it!

Naruto and Sasuke would be cruel if they did not return the girls' feelings!

And have you considered THEIR feelings? If we actually had moments where Naruto was thinking more of Hinata or Sasuke regretting how he treated Sakura, this wouldn't be an issue! But Naruto continued to be infatuated with Sakura, and Sasuke just plain did not like anybody!

Sakura's love for Sasuke has been her defining trait! Her changing that is like asking Naruto to give up on ramen or for Shino stop using bugs!

By that logic Naruto giving up on Sakura is also a betrayal of his character. His love or crush was also a defining trait of his character. This is why we have something called character development. A trait that defined a character can help them evolve into something else. It doesn't betray what the once were, it is just a stepping stone to help them on the path they need to be. Many characters across fiction have started out one way and changed overtime. What's more, Sasuke made Sakura look weak and pathetic. That is not a character trait you want sticking around. A negative trait is used to help the character on a journey to overcome that, which obviously didn't happen here.

And you know, despite this disaster, I am cautiously optimistic. It's clear from the interviews that something went wrong, and many Japanese fans have not received the conclusion well it seems. Not to mention how Studio Pierrot, despite their Hinata bias, did some NaruSaku stuff of their own in fillers, openings and endings. The OVA where an apparently dead Naruto is cradled in Sakura's lap. And the ending to one of the video games where Naruto and Sakura stare at each other in a way that does not feel platonic AT ALL, and Naruto's parents pushing him towards her. I think someone should be able to figure out based on all this that something is a bit off. Maybe one day, someone will make some kind of alternative ending or sequel. It's starting to become more common over there, with the Rurouni Kenshin reboot short, the alternate ending to Zeta Gundam, the new DragonBall series, the new Evangellion movies and the success of the first Full Metal Alchemist series...it could happen. Not for a long time, but you never know what the future holds. But for now, the path for the franchise has been decided, and for better or for worse, it has to follow through with that path until someone else decides to hit the reset button.

For now, I shall leave you all with some of my favorite quotes and discussions from some fans regarding the ending. There's a lot of them, and these are rough paraphrasing, but I'd like to think I got the main points across:

NaruSaku Podcast (Nov 8th):

"Now, about the chapter[s]. Regardless of how many bad things people have said about those chapters, like the whole Kakashi eye Obito transfer spirit thing, Madara with no eyes, or with Bleach, Aizen's defeat, Full Bring Arc, or the parts in the Blood War which I hated...or Fairy Tail's asspulls, like Happy surviving an explosion...or the arcs I consider bad, like One Piece's Fisherman Island and Punk Hazard and the parts I do not like such as Ussop's silly face thing with sugar, or whenever a big villain gets one-shot, which has been happening a lot lately...But no matter how much I disliked a chapter from any of those four manga before, never before did I have a manga chapter that I wanted to rip, shred and burn to pieces. I felt like a middle finger to fans of the series, because it contradicted everything the manga was leading up to."

"While Naruto became Hokage, he became a complete asshole to his son, a complete neglectful father, which none of us had envisioned him to be."

"It was truly the ending that destroyed her [Sakura's] character."

"People were already having their spirits broken left and right, but for what?, I asked myself. You look at those images, and see right away, that not ONE of them makes sense when you break down and analyze them. Besides, anything, and I do mean ANYTHING, released through 4chan automatically has its credibility put into question. This should have been an immediate red flag, that something wasn't right. Then Chapters 699 and 700 came out that eventful Thursday. After reading them, I had two initial thoughts. One: Much like when the Green Mighty Morphing Power Ranger appeared in Dino Thunder, wheras I like the fact that he shows up with the correct gold shield, they completely fucked up his helmet and gave him ridiculous silver stripes. Much like when that happened, I like the fact that Naruto became the Hokage, but they completely fucked up his character, in every which way, shape, or form, to the point where it just became pointless! He has the title, but that's it! There is nothing to suggest that he even deserves this, because everything screams that he should show SOMETHING to deserve this, but nothing ever comes up! So for me, this demonstrates an inconceivably hollow victory, that to me, should not be celebrated but mentioned in passing."

"The second initial thought I had after reading these two chapters was that not only was Naruto fucked up as a character, but so was everyone else, except MAYBE Shikamaru. Even everyone's children has been screwed with! Why after 15 years of making a very decent story does everyone get screwed over in the end!? It MAKES NO SENSE!"

"But now that I've had the chance to sit down and properly gather my thoughts, I am here to say that I am not here to talk about the ending. No, that has been done to death. What I am here to talk about, is WHY I don't like this ending. No, wait. "Like" isn't a powerful enough word. It's too soft, and it implies that there might be something halfway decent for another person to spot. No, I'll talk about why I HATE this ending!"

"I HATE this ending more than any I have ever seen, read or listened to! It shows that women will never progress being a housewife, even though we have seen housewives being active in kicking ass! It shows that if everything else fails, you can just take the easy way out and just live a life of mediocrity! That you are doomed to repeat generation zerax again, and again, and again! That there is absolutely no way to prevent history from repeating itself! This ending just makes me wish I was NEVER a Naruto fan! But to wish for that is to deny all the fun and enjoyment I had while reading this manga and watching the anime, and that is something I will not do. It would be fucking cheap of me to do that right now."

"I never went through the whole outburst that Season 2 of Digimon took place. As you know, this is already similar to what happened to Naruto."

"699 and 700 happened. First of all: WHY? Why did you have to this route!? You realize, your story is connected to all arcs! There is a reason that One Piece could get away with this, because every story is very very lightly connected. Your story is connected to everything, because it's always focused on Team 7. When you get to 699, you went 180 and your ending messed up the entire series, or in this case at least Part 2. It's pretty much saying Part 2 didn't exist until the very end."

"I'm thinking 'This ending could be bad.' Like real, real bad if they start changing characters. And when you go from the last half of 699 to the last chapter, it did!"

"People have been telling me it's as bad as Mass Effect 3's ending. You know, I don't think so anymore. I truly don't think so. Here's the thing. ME3 only messed up the path, and the reasoning behind of your choices. That's it! Sure, it was still lackluster...But here's the thing, it didn't destroy characters. It only messed up the path, and the reasoning behind your decisions. THIS ruined paths, themes, and characters! THAT's the problem! You FUCKED the characters! You completely 180'd at the final minute! And here's the other thing, you put an invisible bubble shield that nobody can notice and go 'Shit! She's right there!' Clearly, you don't want them to react. Clearly you just want to say 'Hey, you know what? War is bad, people are dead, move on.' Is that really what you want to tell us!? Is that really where you want!?"

"And why does Sasuke have to be the end closure? WHY? 699 has Sasuke monolouging, you know why? Because this is his story. FINE! But here's the thing! 700 did not give me a monologue; it didn't give me too many highlights of Naruto! All it tells me 'Hey, he's the Hokage now!'...in a time when Hokages probably shouldn't exist. 'Cause everything changed so much where Konoha became New York...wait 20 years and we'll probably get an Advanced Warfare storyline!"

"This series would have actually been saved had Naruto went Kevin Spacey from Advanced Warfare and just went all dictator-ship! This would have been saved! It would have been interesting, because clearly, you didn't make it interesting in 700!"

"I didn't get the ending I want, or what the series wanted, or what it needed. You just went 180 to please the fans. A lot of other reviewers said the same thing, that '700 was just to please the fans, even though a lot of things don't mix'."

"Like, how the hell did Ino and Sai even happen? You tried to find a way to escape, and you found a way to escape, by doing a timeskip. In other words, you don't want to explain, BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT'S HORSESHIT! And then you expect the movie to do more explanations!"

"I wouldn't be surprised if there's another bubble shield or mute charge in front of Naruto and Sakura. Why? Because they can't communicate anymore! Apparently, everyone just lost their mind! Apparently, when Sasuke did that stab to her heart, her heart was connected to her brain, so her development just disappeared!"

"I would like to think that during the final flashback that we see in the series in terms of Sakura, Kakashi would say 'You had just witnessed your final flashback, because from here on out, we're hitting the reset button.'"

"Naruto literally went OOC and the one thing on his mind is Sasuke. Look, I really appreciate the whole bromance thing. I get it! But why does Naruto have nothing else to say except 'Hey, here's your headband, and we're brothers to the end!' That's cool and everything. But there's no more to it! Next, we have Naruto already being Hokage and attending a meeting. That should not have been the final chapter at all. There was no theme, no lesson learned. Just 'Naruto went through hell, but he stopped the war, so thank you!'. Is that really what you want to tell me!?"

"I expected a Full Metal Alchemist ending. FMA ending gave a good moral lesson, because that's what they do! That's what a writer would do! And you didn't do that! You just said 'He saved the day. He went through hell.' That's fine, but you've got to give us a lesson! You didn't make it into anything with emotional impact, you didn't! All you did was give us all the fanservice in the world, and brush off a whole bunch of other things!"

"This felt like this could always be alternated! I decided this route, because I don't know! Maybe I just fucking don't care! You could change the daughter of Naruto and just have her not be Naruto's kid. Or just have no kid and just have Hinata pay tribute to Neji. It's such an easy way to alternate this whole thing! That's what makes it so stupid! That's why something about this ending does not feel right."

"I can't say that Kaguya is completely made up, but I can say he didn't do a good job with it. And that's the problem. When he didn't could job with it, that just told me more out of nowhere was going to happen. And it did!"

"The ending didn't only chose the path. It chose the characters' characteristics, their dignity, their personality, everything about them."

"You're giving some characters the idea like 'Hey, you know what? You deserve a happy ending. Why? I just need to do that so you don't feel bad for yourself.' " Then you be like 'How is only one pairing that's obvious in terms of story base is the only one that gets canon?' And that's ShikaTem. Everyone else it's like "Let's flip a coin or that stick thing that South Park claims they get their ideas for Family Guy.' Cause that's what you did! How are we supposed to know about Chouji and this other girl!? How are we supposed to know Ino and Sai is supposed to happen? Look, I don't have much against it, but it did come out of nowhere. And the problem is, you're saying all the dreams in that dream world [infinite tsukiyomi] will come true! Just had to asspull it, right from the soul!"

"Let me ask you this: Did you really, plan this, Kishi? Cause you can say 'No, I really didn't. I just said fuck it', then I'll show some respect. Why? Because at least it makes sense!"

"I recapped this whole fucking manga. And I see nothing but NaruSaku is gonna happen. You can't even tell me what's the explanation on the Yamato line!? You can't tell me about the hints, all the parallels! It's not bullshit, you know it's not bullshit, and you know it's not even a red herring! You pretty much have Jiraiya, Minato, and Obito LOOKS LIKE FOOLS!...compared to Naruto."

"Here's the thing! Naruto's never given up, right? So why is one aspect okay?"

"When you do 699 and 700, you destroy the meaning of arcs, one by one."

"By the way Team Taka just disappeared! That's a good way to make SasuSaku happen, right? Because you gotta neglect people in order to satisfy! Because you keep neglecting people, no one will notice that you worked hard on this particular relationship, so why not just keep neglecting!?"

"I can't say the series itself is terrible. It has a bad ending. This canon ending you're going to go for...according to the movie The Last...if you're going for that route, than that's a minus two points already. I was hoping you were thinking straight. Sadly, he didn't think straight. If he did this because he didn't care or was forced to because who knows, it only tells me two things: DON'T be successful. Don't be incredibly successful in a corporation that would tell you what to do and make sure you're leaving with their premise. If Kishimoto wanted this ending...if he truly wanted this ending...it tells me that you should not focus so much of the development on the relationship. Because it could all handle by the end."

"If I give you Chapter 3, fast forward to 450, and then show you the ending at a random spot, you're going to be so confused and go how the fuck that happened."

"This series could have been one of the better ones. But the problem is that the ending really, really, really hurt. And I'm not talking about the pairings, not just the pairings! Just the whole reason behind everything."

"If this was your decision, if this was really all yours...it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard for anyone heavily disappointed with your work, to read your next work. Stuff like that can stain for a long, long time if not forever. There's a reason why some mangaka never recovered. Because their past work really, really hurt their reputation. And it's funny, because the 4th databook stops at 691. Because they know that 692 and up, it's going to be a lot of stuff that's going to be completely off the chart and off your radar, because you never see it coming."

"As for the movie...I don't care. I can't see it. Cause even though we've got Shonen Jump out here in America or however else the other countries get their manga, you decide to show that development only in Japan [for now]. Good move!"

"There's always something that's going to fuck you up, to screw you over. And Kishi has demonstrated that through asspulling. We saw this, this was why we [NaruSaku fans] were all confident. We thought we got this in the bag. We got this, and he just deliberately said 'fuck you'. This asspull will do us justice. And you got to always be afraid of that. If you find a manga that's super obvious in terms of pairings, go with confidence. But if you're going to go for another pairing war, I can't stop you. But you should remember that an asspull can in fact happen at anytime. And it's funny how he did it at the very end. Because if he did it in the middle, God knows that he's going to go down Bleach Fast."

"Do I still like it? Yeah, I guess. It could've been more. It should've been much, much more. But the ending really hurts everything. More effect than Mass Effect, no pun intended."

"We're getting to the CPR scene [in the anime] and you can literally say, there is no point to it! There is no point to any of this!"

"How do you think Kishimoto came to this conclusion? What was the rationale? Because if you say 'Oh, he wanted money' or 'He wanted to continue the series', he could have done that through other ways, he didn't need to end it like this. [After various interruptions] If this was the editors, why did they do this? Didn't Road to Ninja make more money than any of the previous Naruto movies?"

MAVCAST:

"One of the worst manga endings in years."

"This is hyperbolic, but we were expecting a bit more."

"I've seen fanfiction written better than this."

"I was in complete denial from the spoilers, the I read it is canon, I read it, and yeah...I was very disappointed...very, very...I can't even put into words how disgusted I am with Kishimoto now."

"After the Pain arc, it just went downhill, telling myself 'It's got to get better', but everything just kind of blended together."

"The reason we think this ending is so poor is because it undid what attracted us to the series in the first place, the character growth."

"A lot of Bleach fans have said that Bleach should have ended after the Aizen arc. The Pain arc is basically the Naruto version of that."

"There were moments where it could have recovered, CONSTANTLY, but it never did."

"To say that I feel betrayed at 699/700 is a massive understatement."

"For me, this series goes out with a whimper, instead of a bang that it should have."

"For me, this just cemented his legacy, or lack thereof, that he will never be one of the all-time greats. Everything from here henceforth, will never reach the height that Naruto did, and he will never reach the pinnacle of Rumiko Takahashi, one of my favorite mangaka ever."

"Naruto aside, which was a smash hit that ran for too long, truth be told, his brother is a better mangaka. His art's a bit better, and he's a much better planner."

"Let's get the elephant out of the room, because we're known in the fandom for being NaruSaku fans. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that has zero to do with why I think this ending is a piece of bullcrap."

"I'm okay with NaruHina from a moral standpoint. It's from a narrative standpoint I have a problem with it because there was not enough time to back it up."

"A new databook was just released, and it's already contradicting the ending. And it's like 'Okay, just how quickly was this planned out. WHEN was this planned out, and so on.' It's a dangerous slippery slope for manga to keep doing this."

"She's [Sakura] literally gone back to 13 years old!"

"She's not even involved in their final battle! Everything since the beginning of Part 2 hinted that she was going to be pivotal to that!"

"Knowing that the pairing was not super popular, why would you throw that kind of bait in there?"

"Basically what this is saying is that Sakura had her crush, and she never got over it. And if you're in that position, where you have a crush on a bad boy, don't get over it."

"The message that Kishi sent, intentionally or unintentionally, to any little girl or young woman reading the manga, basically says 'Girls, if you love a bad boy, even if he has tried to kill you 3 times, keep on loving him. He'll come around.' If I was a woman reading this, I'd be insulted."

"I don't care how much you think women operate on emotion, which is a traditional view, no amount of emotion is going to override logic when a guy has tried to kill you that many times."

"Some might say this [Sakura's treatment] is counter-balanced by Hinata, but no, not really. She's hardly in the series, she and Naruto barely interact, which defeats the entire purpose of a bond or relationship. If time was spent developing the two and showing their growth, this wouldn't be a problem! I'd be 'Okay. It's not my preference. But it makes sense!' But with how it's done here, it's just hastily slapped together! And that's not fair to the pairing, it's not fair to the characters. It should be a solid romance between them that's more developed than just a few words between them."

"People ask 'How can we bash Sakura for not getting over her crush but admire Naruto for doing the same?' They're completely different. Naruto never gives up on Sakura because he genuinely cares about her, he wants her to be happy, and is willing to take the backseat for her happiness. There's a huge difference between that which is more selfless about it, and being willing to accept that maybe she doesn't like me that way, and what Sakura does, which is a one-way abusive relationship."

"Sasuke turned way too fast from psychopathic lunatic to zenned-out 'I'm so sorry'"

"There is now way Sasuke should have been let off this easy. He became a missing nin, from which you would think from their apparently non-existent court system that they would kill him...there's not a jury in the world that would have bailed Sasuke out like that."

"Sasuke should have died in that battle, and I stand by that. Look, I get what you're trying to do, with that forgive and forget thing, but the problem is that he's stepped too far where you can do that and have it be practical. I get that it's a manga, I get that it's fiction, the problem is that it's not consistent with what he's done in the past."

"The thing that people forget is how many people he actually killed. He's instrumental to the entire war starting."

"It would have been more fitting for Sasuke to redeem himself by taking a bullet for Naruto during the final battle, and redeem himself for starting the war."

"He starts a world war, and he gets off scott-free. Think about that for a moment, won't you?"

"Even now, to this point, he [Sasuke] is still belittling Sakura."

"There's not enough development for Sasuke to make this work."

"Even the Jedi Council couldn't even get away with that [comparing the Kages turning Sasuke]! They got their butts handed to them by Anakin, and that's not even great storytelling! Still more competent than this! That's pretty bad!"

"It's [Chapter 700] literally the worst doushinji to become canon."

"This is literally a cheap marketing ploy to get you to watch The Last and to pick up the mini-series."

"Her purpose [Hinata] throughout the entire manga was pairing fodder."

"We have Sakura who was going to be a medical ninja, surpass Tsunade if she didn't already. Now, she's married to Sasuke Uchiha, the man who tried to murder her three times just to remind everyone, they have a daughter, and now she's just a housewife. So remember girls! If you have dreams, and you want to be a strong independent woman, just give it all up! And become a housewife, and squeeze out babies!"

"Literally every bit of Sakura's character development from Part 2 is thrown under the bus, and I don't know why! Maybe it was the love for Part 1 with everyone screaming 'Why can't we go back to Part 1!? Or maybe because Kishimoto knows that he's going to piss off the majority of his fanbase that he went with NaruHina or SasuSaku and needed the kids for the spin-off..."

"One of the biggest changes that's happened in the past 5 years is that Seishua has become a very globally minded company. We get releases in America day of release, which used to be unheard of. So, Naruto is now more popular outside of Japan than within Japan, so something tells me they said [to Kishimoto] that he needs to appeal to the broader fanbase, that these are the characters they like together, and this is how we're going to make money off the sequel, because within Japan, Naruto's popularity has begun to wane quite a bit. I wonder why?[sarcasm]" "Gee, could be because of the awful piss-poor writing?"

"This is the reason I'm so furious with NaruHina and SasuSaku becoming canon. Neji, one of my favorite characters, he got killed off for basically NOTHING! Except for being fodder for NaruHina to become canon. He was the catalyst to NaruHina becoming canon if you want to think of it that way. So, one of the most incredible characters in the manga, in my opinion, gets killed off for nothing. THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE! He was one of my favorite characters and they basically killed him off for nothing. And they're placing flowers on his grave, and I'm like 'Oh God, this is really happening.'"

"I would have been so much happier if we had no pairings at all. Just Naruto becoming Hokage, and that's it."

"Yeah, at this point I'd prefer no pairings either. If you were really desperate for a 3rd part, you could hint at who got together but not be concrete about it and go into the far future...actually, that would be more interesting, because then you could have Future Naruto!"

"We got what we deserved, because we put too much faith into the manga system. We put too much faith in Jump, expecting their creators to do better than this. I keep referencing Bakuman on this podcast for a reason. If you want to know why this happens in manga, why it goes through long stretches where the writing can be so piss poor, and why all of a sudden it will shift and the tone so constantly shifts. The manga industry is a mess. If you think western comics are bad, at least you have the excuse that these are characters that have been around for a while, so you've got to be careful with them. This is different, this is an original work by the creator, that is forced to bend over backwards to whatever your editor feels will make more money. I'm not saying that NaruHina and SasuSaku are necessarily the results of the editors. It's possible that Kishimoto planned this and all the NaruSaku hints were the result of executive meddling; that's possible too. But basically, what I'm saying is that if you read Bakuman, you'll find that this crap happens very often. In a lot of ways, I'm surprised that manga [Bakuman] exists, and that it was published by Jump. It's a really good series, but it does show the messier side that you don't hear about often in manga."

"He [Kishimoto] went through editors like I go through popcorn."

"I think Kishimoto has a daughter, and I really hope he takes a good look in the mirror and realizes what kind of message he's sending to his daughter."

"It's possible that he ended it the way he did just to create this 3rd part."

"We followed this manga for 10 years, and what we basically got at the end was the manga version of 500 Days of Summer. Apparently, that is one of Kishimoto's favorite movies and after reading these last two chapters, I believe that whole-heartily."

"Kishimoto, I hope you're happy with yourself, and I hope you'll never write another manga again. I know that's not the case since Part 3 is confirmed. I hope it gets killed in the sales department..."

"I usually don't wish ill on anyone's creative endavors, but in this case, knowing that all of his other attempts to get something off the ground have failed. He's tried to get several one-shots off the ground but they never did. That's probably why Naruto dragged on as long as it did."

"On a scale of 1-5, I'm giving this ending a 1.5"

"I don't do numbered scores, because numbered scores I think are stupid. You can't take things like characters, plot settings, story duration, put them into a blender and come up with a number. BUT, I would like to paraphrase a quote from one of my favorite movies, Billy Madison. Assuming you've seen this movie, you know where I'm going with this. Mr. Kishimoto, what you have just written, was one of the most insanely idiotic things I ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response, was there anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone that has read this manga is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. Good day to you, Mr. Kishimoto. And that's my mic drop."

"So Kishimoto, screw you. I'm never going to read another one of your manga again, and I just want to get back all of my money and time that I wasted on this piece of garbage!"

"I don't know what you got out of this. I got a middle finger!"

"As a media creator, I'm taking this as a lesson. Even this ending is a lesson, for people who are going into the media industry. If you're going to plan something, plan it. Stick to your guns, because it's going to work out better. You don't need to be throwing people through the ringer like this, without definitive endings to anything that can perceived as in the way."

"This is one of the reasons I love Fairy Tail, because Hiro Mashima, and I will say this right now, Kishimoto won't even be on the same level as Hiro Mashima, because he's had a successful work before his current one. Hiro Mashima is very straight forward with his planned couples that are most likely going to happen. Natsu and Lucy. Gray and Juvia. Jellal and Erza. And you can tell this is the direction he's going. He's not going to pull a red herring, he's not going to jerk us around and have Lucy flirt with Gray a little bit, you basically know what you're getting into with this."

"And even if you're going to play with the love triangle angle, which is totally fine, there's nothing wrong with doing that, you need to be more clear which way you're going to lean and make it to a point to which there is no questioning which way the dice are going to fall. You need to be more deliberate with that, because fact of the matter is, like it or not, Kishimoto put WAY too many teases on NaruSaku. If you put on a number scale, the number of teases of NaruHina to NaruSaku, NaruSaku trounces it. IT DOES! On the numbers. Even if we do look at it as platonic, that's a problem. The platonic relationship has more time spent on it than the quote on quote romantic relationship. That's a problem, I'm sorry! If your main character is spending more time, more meaningful time, I stress, with the character that's supposed to be his sister essentially, there is a problem with that. I'm not saying Hinata had to be all over it. I'm just saying you needed to spend more time on developing that relationship, so that it would mean something, instead of something that's cobbled together towards the end. And that's something that people as media creators need to look at and say 'Yeah, I'm not doing that.'"

"I don't mind the love triangles so much, as long as you spend equal time with the guy at the center of the triangle, whether it's a guy and two girls or a girl and two guys, make the center individual spend equal time with both prospects. That way I can see the girl ending up with this guy for reasons ABC, and I can see the girl ending up with this guy for reasons XYZ. That way, no matter who she picks, I'll be cool with either one, because I can see where they're going with this. Now, I may have a preferred pairing. I may prefer the girl to go with option A rather than option B, but if she goes with option B, I can say 'Okay. That still makes sense.' But with NaruHina and SasuSaku, none of this makes a darn bit of sense!"

"You can't just shove it [pairings] to the side. You can't just be like 'Oh, I'm going to have it in there but not really touch on it', NO. People latch on to characters. This series got as popular as it was because of the characters. You need to spend time on having characters relate to each other and react to each other, that way it's going to feel natural. You need to have an intention between these two characters, you've got to be a little more deliberate about it."

"Kishi, never write again. Do us all a favor, never write again after Naruto. It's clear you are not fit for this industry, because let's face it. If you cannot write anything outside of your biggest hit and be successful..."

"My advice to Misashi Kishimoto: Take a break. Take a good look at it, take some time off, recharge and IF YOU CHOOSE to come back to manga, you're going to have to really look at what's going on right now in the manga space, and probably have to plan a lot more in advance, perhaps try something a little different."

"Life goes on. I'm very disappointed in Kishimoto. I hope he never writes again. I don't want him to die, I don't want him to be maimed. I don't want anyone to go to his house and light a bag of dog-turds on his front door. I don't want anything like that to happen, but I just hope he never writes again, because I feel completely betrayed by this."

Revanant Wings:

"Now just what in the torgus balls does Kishimoto have against women in his own respective series!?"

"I had honestly thought the other big time reviewers would touch upon this [Sakura's regression], but to my dismay and utmost surprise, they freakn' didn't! They were too busy with nostalgia attacks to see the fallout with this!"

"Seeing Sakura revert back to her twelve year old self was sad to look at. It's outright preposterous that she would still hold a candle for this guy. I mean, come on! Just six chapters ago Sasuke clearly said he was not interested!"

"Look SasuSakutards. An abusive relationship is an abusive relationship. No amount of sugar-coating could ever change that."

"And for Sasuke to use the Itachi poke on Sakura is total blasphemy."

"Kishimoto's senseless endeavor to make us hate the character of Sakura is all encompassing!"

"Also, why did Kakashi become the Hokage? I mean, it's cool and all, but why would she give up her position for no reason when it is needed the most right now? It plays no special role in the story except holding the seat for Naruto in the upcoming future. It just feels unnecessary. I mean, maybe if she had died, it would have been understandable, but that isn't the case."

"This movie [The Last] is not about Naruto. Rather, the role in which Naruto plays is a pawn in the scheme of a grand master marketing corporation. The real main character of this movie...is a scarf."

"[Hinata's] sister is kidnapped, and just like any good sister out there, she'll drop everything and knit a scarf for her beloved."

"Sasuke appears in this film for like what? Two or three minutes? So much for the best character of the series."

"It's just that this movie is not about Naruto. It's not even about HIS love story. It's all about Hinata and her own love story. Naruto's own feelings aren't even taken into consideration. And just when you think this movie couldn't get anymore ridiculous, Sakura drops A BOMB."

"Goodbye Naruto's development. I've known you well. But seriously. Anyone thinks this is a good direction for Naruto, seriously needs to get themselves a reality check."

"You're tellling me this [Naruto's feelings for Sakura] was all a hoax? All for the sake of rivalry? Do you know how this degrades Naruto as a character? It makes him look like an asshole! What kind of savior mopes around when the world is about to be destroyed all because some broad dumped him? What kind of kind of cashew brained asshole preaches about people lying to themselves when he's been doing the lying for seven years or so? God forbid the main character stays likable after all! The amount of character contradiction in this movie is just utterly sickening."

"You know, we've been having some fun with this movie. Branding it on terms like 'The Last Bullshit'. The Last Retcon. The Last Scarf. The Last Naruto-kun. The Last Abomination and etc! But trust me, this is a movie that has earned those titles accordingly. It's a movie more interested in scarfs than character development, a cash-in movie more interested in genjutsus than depth, and a protagonist who's motivations and attitude can never once be mistaken for that of an actual scumbag!"

Sogouryuka-Double Lion Flame

Dokuhana-Poison Blossom

BakuHagane-Explosion of Steel

Deiryuu-Mudslide

Ensenkibooru-Stone Ball

Kanate-Iron Hand

Rasenkyou-Spiraling Lance