Much apologize for the lack of new chapters. But with work, writing an actual book, doing Naruto d20 and 5e D&D. My entire summer has been pretty full. But with that said, the Naruto d20 I'm running with my friends is slowly coming to an end so I can focus on this and hope to post a new chapter next month. So please I ask to review, any input would be appreciated.

Chapter 17

Extraction Completion?

The dust soon settled where the area Kushina and Itachi were. Kushina sat up from the mound of dust and dirt covering the Uzumaki woman and she dusted herself off. She was surprised to find herself unscathed from the attack from the new enemy. She looked around to hopefully find the Uchiha prodigy.

"Itachi, are you here? Please let me know if you are around."

As soon as she called out for him, he answered her by rising from the dirt as well. Under him was Keiko. She was also unharmed but knocked unconscious.

"Will she be fine?"

"Don't worry about her, she'll be fine. My only concern is you… are you alright lady Kushina?"

"I'll survive, but do you think that could be the one after Sakura?"

"My thoughts exactly, we should find Naruto and Sakura and see if they have encountered our new visitor."

They headed out to find Naruto and hopefully, they haven't got into a fight. Itachi placed Keiko in a safe spot so she wouldn't get hurt.

Kai soon awoke from his injury. Ino, with tears in her eyes, wrapped her arms around him.

"Thank the gods you're alright Kai."

"I know Ino, that was horrifyingly painful."

Tsubaki and Ino helped him up from the ground and he stabilized himself. Kai noticed that Tsubaki was panting, hard. She saw the worry in his eyes.

"I know you're worried about me Kai, but you have bigger fish to fry. You should be able to go against this threat."

"But Tsubaki-Sensei!"

"You two help your friends, get going now!" She yelled at her student. Kai reluctantly left with Ino in tow.

Tsubaki dropped to her knee and spat out some blood. She knew extracting some of the elixir from her body to help Kai was risky, but she had to help him recover.

"Kai, I don't know how much that brought the reaper to my doorstep. But you and your friends must defeat this threat."

On the battlefield, Sakura and Naruto were not faring any better against the man in the cloak. With a combination of the previous fight, and the strength of this enemy. Both ninjas were spent. Naruto tried his basic combinations with his clones, firing multitudes of them at the man but were being dispelled easily and without any effort by the man.

Sakura then tried with Ashimaru's power flowing through her veins, she charged in launching herself at him. The kunoichi's powerful punches could easily deal with any lower-powered ninja. But this man kept deflecting her punches, even nailing her with a punch. She caught sight of an ominous glow coming from his hand. It was weird, every time he came close to grabbing her it would cause her to lose her energy.

"Sakura, what's up? You seem weaker than before?" Naruto asked the kunoichi.

"I think that if he were to grab me that would be how he would take Ashimaru."

The man began to chuckle, "Keen observation my lovely, not to brag about your impending future, but the moment I latch onto you with my hands then I will be able to pry that phoenix from your puny body."

"Then try, but I have to warn you I'm a lot stronger than I look." She yelled in defiance.

"Sounds like a challenge, fine little girl as you wish."

The man took his turn and came at Sakura and Naruto, Sakura grabbed Naruto by the arm and spun around. Naruto laid on a few kicks on the man but it was unflinching to him. He asked her to release his arm. Using her strength she threw him as far as she could. He conjured up a few more shadow clones and they began to whip up a Rasenshuriken. Sakura tried to keep the man distracted long enough for Naruto to prep the move.

She would dodge most of his offense, bobbing and weaving each of the movements of his hands so he wouldn't land any type of grapple.

"HOLD STILL YOU LITTLE NAT!" He shrieked, as he got nailed by a perfectly placed kick. Sending him staggering backward.

Suddenly she heard Naruto's call, "SAKURA-HIME… MOVE NOW!"

Sakura darted away as he screamed, "WIND STYLE- RASENSHURIKEN!" The jutsu flew once again and nearly hit Sakura, but missed her by only a few inches. The man would then get smacked hard by Rasenshuriken. It looked like the man was being torn to shreds, and that would be followed by an explosion.

Naruto and Sakura looked over the damage, and for a moment they breathed a sigh of relief. There was a problem, there was nobody.

"I don't believe it, I thought for sure you got him!" Sakura said as Naruto looked as well.

"Damn it, he's got to be around here somewhere."

Suddenly something would catch them unguard, Two giant hands would grab both Naruto and Sakura. The two ninja tried to wiggle and break free, but the hands completely restrained them.

The cloaked man laughed and could only enjoy watching them squirm. "Good ol' Earth Restraint jutsu."

"LET US GO NOW!" Naruto threatened him, but the man could only swat him on the back of the head.

"Shut your mouth boy, and hold your tongue to your future emperor. Because once I extract Ashimaru from your pink-haired princess I will become the ruler of this world."

"YOU'LL NEVER GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Sakura screamed at the cloaked figure as placed a hand on the top of her head.

"I'm afraid my dear, I just did."

And with that remark, he began his gruesome technique. The pain Sakura was feeling was as bad as what Kai was feeling earlier. It was like she was going through the extraction ceremony all over again but this time it was ten times worse. Sakura could feel Ashimaru start to depart from her body.

"Sakura, I will try to find a way to remain. However, this could mean the end of our partnership."

"Ashimaru, I'm trying to break free. I am, but it's so hard."

The cloak soon flies off the man as his body slowly changes, and Sakura's life force is starting to fade. All Naruto can do is sit and watch as the love of his life is slowly dying. He is feeling so helpless, that he has to try to help Sakura with every ounce of his being.

Though a slow process, the chakra that Ashimaru gave her was being sapped. The black streaks in her pink hair were fading. Her screams were pure horror. It was like he was napping her life force. She was screaming for help, but she and Naruto were immobile.

"Almost there, so close to taking all that delicious power." He gloated, licking his chops. He was overly confident that Ashimaru's power would be his and his alone. Little did he know that something was about to happen.

Red, ominous chakra began to envelop Naruto. The anger that he felt that this fool would harm Sakura began to overtake him. As cracks began to form on the earthly hand that had him in a solid grasp.

"I should have at least 95 percent of the bird's power, just a bit more," he said, with a gleeful giggle. But this broke when he sensed the demonic aura that was coming from Naruto.

A mighty roar came from Naruto, as his eyes glared at the man. They were red and slit, his teeth were razor sharp and the whiskers on his face were more defined. He let loose the evil red chakra and the earth hand that held him prisoner broke into pieces.

The pieces flew with such velocity that they hit the man right in the face, breaking his hold on Sakura and sending him flying. He landed on his and saw the feral young man standing in front of the young girl, like a guard dog.

"Foolish boy, thwarting my plans like that. Just who the hell do you think you are?"

Like a flash of lightning, Naruto appeared in front of him and slashed at the man's face. Blood oozed out from the marks.

"I see you mean business, very well boy. Guess I'll teach you a valuable lesson… learn your place and grovel before my feet."

Black fire healed his face and he swiftly transformed. His body became more muscular and his hair and eyes turned black. Naruto sadly looked at Sakura, who was still unconscious. Even as a feral demon, he still saw the girl he fell in love with and kissed her on the cheek. "Sakura-Hime, my mom, and everyone will be here soon so stay safe and I'll try to come back soon." Both he and the mysterious man vanished.

Kai and the others stopped in their tracks, they felt different waves of changing chakra. One felt like the wearing of chakra, while the other felt evil and sinister. Kushina knew the other wave very well.

"What the hell is going on?" Ino said, trembling like a cat on an ice block.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Kai answered.

Kushina took off with the others behind her. They soon arrived and saw Sakura in the grasp of a giant rock hand. Kai and Itachi broke her free and Ino caught her best friend and gently brought her down.

"Sakura… Sakura!" Ino screamed, shaking her friend to see if she would awaken.

"naruto" was all the pink-haired girl would say.

"She's weak, but she's alive," Itachi said, doing a quick observation.

"If she's alright then he must've failed right?" Kai asked. Noticing Kushina looking into the distance. From what she could observe was the clash of two powerful forces. One was the man who resurrected her, and the other was Naruto.

"Lady Kushina?" Kai asked the red-haired woman.

"Naruto is fighting over there." She answered.

Kai could feel it as well, he wanted to help his friend but the chakra Naruto was immiting was horrifying to say the least. But he thought to himself "screw it."

"Ino, stay here with Sakura. We'll go and see if Naruto needs our help."

"Alright Kai-kun, please come back to me safe." He gave her a very passionate kiss as they headed to the fight.

Naruto and the mysterious man were in a fight for their lives. Naruto slowly grew another chakra tail going to 3, while the man was deflecting all of his attempts to try and hit him. He would hit him with a few demonic claws and burn him. But with Ashimaru's healing aura making those attacks useless, the man was unstoppable.

"Nice try freak, but I'm still in this fight." He said, delivering a swift kick to Naruto. Knocking him down from a cliff.

The man flew through some hand signs and fired a jutsu at Naruto, "Magma Style: Volcanic Fury Jutsu!" As the earth around the Jinchurrichi turned into lava and crashed right into him.

"Hell yeah, down you go." He celebrated.

But the celebrations would have to hold because Naruto was out of the ring of fire and roared with fury, as he leaped into the air and lunged right at his throat. But the man smacked him away and fired another jutsu, "FIRE STYLE: PHOENIX HELLSTORM JUTSU!"

A torrent of fire reigns down on top of Naruto, sending him crashing into the ground and burning him to a crisp. As soon as the smoke cleared, Naruto was out like a light. The man soon lifted his hand in the sky and a giant fireball appeared. He had a very sadistic sneer on his face.

"Time to finish you off once and for all, Fire style: Supernova Jutsu!" He threw the jutsu at the blonde ninja. Before the fireball could hit Naruto, Itachi appeared and deflected it with a powerful fireball of his own. "So, the mighty Itachi Uchiha. Guess I should be honored to be graced by one of the last two Uchiha."

Kushina went right to Naruto's side and checked on his vitals. He was breathing and looked to have suffered quite a bit of damage. Kai helped her lift Naruto and looked at the man in the sky, his eyes opened wide to see who the man was. He may look different but he knew exactly who he was.

"It can't be… no it just can't."

"Who is this Kai?" Itachi asked.

"Uncle Toma, but how?"

The man let out a sinister laugh at his nephew's reaction. "Well Kai, it has been quite a while hasn't it? I'm surprised you survived the attack on the citadel so many years ago. But we can talk about things later when you observe me taking over the world." He began to charge up another supernova but something weird began to occur.

"What… where's the flame? Why can't I charge up another Supernova?"

A voice shot back at Toma's half-assed attempt of trying to annihilate the three ninja, "You were always so weak Toma. But I'm not surprised really. Always looking to take shortcuts." He recognized that voice and saw that it was Tsubaki.

"What in god's name are you talking about vile witch?"

"You tried to steal Ashimaru from Sakura after she awoke, in hopes of becoming more powerful is a pathetic way of going about it. Especially since you don't have all of her power."

"What are you talking about?"

She looks over at Naruto and laughs, "It seems that in your ignorance and wanting to crush this young man, you only managed to garner around 95 percent of Ashimaru's presence and power. To become more powerful, you will have to absorb all of her power."

He was shocked, he couldn't believe that Sakura still had some of Ashimaru in her. He looks at her with fury and flies at them. But he would be blinded by a white veil. As soon as the veil was lifted, they were gone. He couldn't sense any of the ninja in the area. He was so furious, he fired off fireball after fireball in anger.

"THAT VILE STUPID WITCH… I'LL MAKE HER PAY!"

At a secluded cabin, Kushina places Naruto and Sakura together and lets them sleep. Ino is by Kai's side and he's trying to understand what just happened. Itachi and Tsubaki stood in the next room where Itachi would ask her a few questions.

"I think I know what your about to ask me Uchiha."

"No mystery there Tsubaki, who is this Towa, and what is your connection to him."

"Long time ago I grew up in the same village as Towa and Kai's father. I was the one who taught them everything there was to know about seals. While Kai's father was the smartest of the two, Towa was lazy and always wanted to cheat his way to success. I left the village shortly after Kai's father sealed Ashimaru in the stone, so I don't know the details to how he conned his nephew into going into the cave. But that's all I know."

"Interesting story if I do say so myself. But now the big question is how do we take all that power from him and seal it back into Sakura."

"It might take me a bit, but I think I can cook up a powerful seal and get back on track." She left and went into her room.

Kushina watched as the two teens were resting, both holding each other's hands. She saw the black tips on her hair and breathed a sigh of relief that Sakura survived. Itachi entered the room and sat right next to Kushina.

"How are they?"

"Resting peacefully. As Tsubaki stated, Sakura has some indication that Ashimaru is still with her so It's nice to see that.

She sat and looked at her son with heartbreak in her eyes, "Sakura told me that during their last mission he became so mad that he became a four-tailed demon. And today he almost did it again."

"I remember seeing him tapping into the Kyubi's chakra months ago."

"I hope I can find a way to quell him so he doesn't do it again."

Itachi looked at the sleeping girl next to him, "She's the key, I believe we can count on her the next time it happens."

"Do you think so?"

"Maybe or maybe not. I think we can count on both of them."

"I hope so Itachi. I sure hope so."

In the room where Kai and Ino were staying, it was silence. She let him process this revelation but it was still hard to believe. She stroked his pink hair in a very soothing way, he grabbed her hand and held it tight. Right now she was his bedrock and he needed her more than anyone in his life. The silence was a massive relief for them. They didn't need to say a word at this time.

She continued to kiss and hold him. He was sobbing and she held him like a child, whispering calming noises in his ear. And they would stay like this for the rest of the night, none of them getting an ounce of sleep.

The next morning, a knocking at their door awoke the entire cabin. Tsubaki burst through her door, mad as a bear that got stung by a bee.

"Coming, I'm coming."

She opened the door and saw a group of ninja. Kai and Ino entered the room to see who their guests could be.

"Did anyone call for reinforcements?"

Ino's eyes lit up and she saw that it was Shikamaru and the others. It looks like the party is about to start.

NEXT TIME: Prelude to a final fight