Last time on Of Scrolls and Chains
Using a Shunshin to intercept the Blade. She heard two things at the same time as she opened her eyes again a squishing sound and Matatabis loud scream of NO!
Yugito looked into the eyes of her Biju, and both had tears visible. Matatabi was the first to say some words. "You know that I won't be able to heal this wound. Gito-chan?"
The blond nodded sadly. " I made that decision. As you know I would lay my life down for my family, but." she sobbed. "You are too. So.. Tabi. I want you to be free and join the others at Uzuamkis place you know?" The young woman now had tears running down her cheeks.
The Biju was moved deeply by this kind of commitment. "I thank you for that Gito-chan. I try to keep us here a moment. Just to say goodbye properly. I could have not asked for a better host." The big biju smiled even if the hellcat had a sad tone in her voice.
Yugito wiped her tears away and nodded. She put her hand on her seal before she unlocked she was interrupted by the Biju. "Just a moment Gito-chan. There is another way. If you open the seal this way I will just break free and kill you. I won't lie to you Gito-chan. There is no way of you surviving but you could use a hidden technique a Jinchurikii or their Biju have access to. Usually, the Biju would do so as we can reform and not really die. With you in the state you are in you could do it." Matatabi looked like she was a bit ashamed to explain that.
Yugito could only laugh at their expression. "Tabi. I am grateful that you gave me something to hold onto. I already told you that I want you to get out of this mess. I did what I had to do. Bee had saved my life once. After that, he helped me and introduced me to the Raikage as his new little sister. So tell me about this secret Jutsu."
Matatabi nodded and it was like she looked like she was proud of Yugitos decisions. "Well, Kurama has this big move, but the rest of us have the Exon Mode. It can supercharge you or me. Basically you give your whole chakra and lifeforce up to push everything into the other and supplement their primary element. The thing that makes Exon mode a bit of a weaker version of Kurama's super secret move is that if you invoke the Jutsu you can't stop it. There is no way out of it."
Yugitio nodded. "So that means as I am dying I could release you supercharged? You think you can get to Safety this way?"
Matatabi nodded. "I kinda freaked out as you were stabbed. So I may have screamed more loudly than I intended and my siblings may have heard everything." It nearly sounded like the hellcat was blushing a bit as she said that that had Yugito giggle a bit and why should she not? She was going to travel to the next plane why not go out with some laughter and a bang to get remembered? The two-tailed cat continued. "So I expect Naruto to move here. With his network of travel points, he won't take long. Longer than you have, unfortunately."
"Yeah, yeah I know. I am gonna die. Boo, hu. No use discussing spilled tea. You better explain how I start the fireworks" Yugito said a bit too energetic. Even the Hellcat had to blink twice at her nonchalant way of dealing with her impending demise. Shortly after Matatabi launched into the explanation.
Outside of the mindscape some seconds later saw Bee dealing with the nearest attacker as he looked at the bleeding Yugito. She was as good as dead and it was his fault. That hit was meant for him and she had pushed him out of its way, taking it instead. Now she was about to pay the price. As he was about to get back to her to pick her up it was a warning from the eight-tails that saved him from ending as a burning crisp. White hot flames enveloped the body of his former surrogate sister. He was rooted in place as the body of flames grew.
One yellow and one green eye looked around as the hellcat made out of white flames began to stalk as she sniffed the air like she was locking onto a scent. "Got you…" she said before a white-hot ball of flames shot out of her open mouth in the direction of the enemy camp. Bee could only watch as the hellcat began in her quest to decimate the enemies around them with lethal efficiency. It was like a deadly dance that the cat made of chakra did afterward. Enemies were incinerated or almost cut to pieces by the crack of whip lashes with one of the two Charka tails. Minutes passed without silence, the smell of burning wood lingered in the air and black smoke rose from various smaller fires.
Bee witnessed all of that and could not believe what he was seeing. "Get your shit together Bee." The Hachibi screamed in his mind, loud enough for Bee to wince and get out of his musings. Bee looked at the Hellcat after she had destroyed every opponent in her immediate vicinity. "Bee let me take over," The Hachibi said and Bee, still unable to comprehend what happened, partly out of guilt switched places with his partner.
"How long do you have left sister?" the deep voice of Gyuki came out of Bee's mouth.
"Long enough to see him arrive?" Matatabi answered. "I will join him, you know. It was her last wish. I hope it will be honored. You know that it was the right decision but we let our hosts decide. Now, she is dead because your stupid human thought it would be a good idea to let his attention slip in the middle of a battle." The last words had a deep growl in them.
Bee held his hands up in surrender. "You are right sister and Bee and I will talk about that. But not before we get out of here. I can feel somebody coming close. Somebody strong. Oh."
In the new clearing, a yellow flash announced the arrival of Naruto, who was already in his golden chakra cloak. He looked around and his golden red flame wings flapped once before they dissolved. He looked around and one look at Matatabi was enough for him to let his head hand for a moment. "I am sorry for your loss Matatabi. I was as fast as I could."
The cat nodded. "I know and you could not have done anything to change the result Naruto. She wanted to do it and go this way. I won't let her sacrifice be forgotten."
Naruto nodded. "I understand. I think I can help you out here." He concentrated for a moment. His markings glowed and got a pulsating effect afterward. He lay his hand on the ground. "Well," he said slowly and with his eyes closed. "It would have been strange if they had used a different strategy here. One Ressurection that is fighting with your Raikage. A strong one. The rest. Too easy." Before the others could ask Naruto flew through hand seals and poured chakra into the ground and trees started to grow before said trees captured the disguised white Zetsu before they got sucked into the trees ending the battles. Matatabis flames changed colors again. Back in the usual blue, she shrank herself down a bit before she jumped onto Naruto's shoulder.
"I may take a ride with you alright Naruto?" The much smaller and well even cuter-sounding cat sat on his shoulder.
Naruto gave her a quick nod and looked at Bee expectantly. The Biju and host had traded places again. "I never would have thought that it be like this." The usual funny rapper said remorseful. "Excuse my moodyness Naruto. You said the Raikage maybe needs our help" Bee tried to change the subject.
"Maybe, yes. You want to talk about it?" Naruto said slowly. He could feel how Bee's chakra network was erratic. His emotions were all over the place.
The sole remaining Kumo Jinchurikii looked thoughtful before he shook his head. "Not now. Maybe later. Can you lead us back, please? I am not thinking exactly thinking straight right now. Even now I am highly concentrating on holding back the pain. Even the eight-tails is helping at the moment so I don't accidentally draw in Biju chakra. As soon as I know the other part of my family is okay, I can focus on working through all of that." Bee asked Naruto with a forced neutral face. Even the hint of a small smile made a very short appearance before it was forced away by a neutral expression.
IT did not take the group long to find the last people still in battle. The Raikage and his reanimated father, if Bee was quite right in his assumptions were locked in a fierce and high-speed battle. Both had the famous Raikage thunder armor activated. The deep rumblings of thunder and occasional lightning rounded the scene quite nicely if you would be looking for a great picture to paint that is. In reality, most of those still around had established something like a big circle to observe. Naruto and the others jumped right into it. With his Mangekyou activated Naruto did not take long to gather enough information. It looked like Kabuto had only left him behind and gone away. He unsealed his blade and wanted to join the battle but was held back by Bee. "You can't go in there! On this level, nobody can match their speed."
Naruto looked at Bee. While they were quite fast to his eyes he still could use the precognition abilities of his eyes and to be honest, he had trained his eyes and body to adjust to the high speeds of the Hiraishin. He could handle this. Unsealing some Kunai he let them rain around the battlefield which led the two Raikage to pause their battle and the Reanimation looked at him. It was Kabuto's voice they all listened to in this moment.
"Ahh, Naruto. The boy who not only killed my master but also thinks he can play hero?"
Naruto blinked as he let Matatabi jump from her perch on his shoulder and sit down on the ground beside Bee before he looked at the reanimation. "I advise you to let the dead rest Kabuto. You don't want to invoke the wrath of the Shinigami."
The Raikage had joined Bee and ion hushed voices got updated by the last of Kumo's Jinchuriki. At the same time, the voice of Kabuto cackled. "You think I care about this entity? I, who has the power to receive thousands of famous ninjas in a heartbeat? Do you think that the Shinigami would not have done something already? Did I not use those souls to fight you?"
Naruto sighed and his Katana appeared right out of the seal. Golden chains erupted from his back. "You think the mighty Shinigami-sama deals with human matters himself?" The blonde chuckled. "Kabuto, you poor misguided human. You need to open your eyes and see." Naruto explained by showing him his Rinnegan eyes. The Third Raikage attacked using the lightning armor. Only to fail as he was pushed back by an unseen force. Blindly attacking again, he either met golden chains or the blade which was enveloped in wind chakra.
Without much of a visible strategy, the reanimation attacked again and again while Kabuto tried to get a rise out of Naruto. "Why are you running away? If you are so strong, and as you are implying, the Shinigami's enforcer why won't you come and get me? Why don't you show me the almighty powers the Shinigami grants his attack fox? Because you are a weak loudmouth!"
Matatabi in her kitten form looked at a Naruto clone that had appeared beside them as the main body fought the Third Raikage. Evading and defending mostly. Sometimes he cut an arm or leg just to bear another rant from Kabuto about how weak he was for not finishing it. "Say Naruto. What are you doing?"
The clone opened his eyes and sage markings were visible. "Hey Tabi. Well, Boss wanted me to collect some sage chakra in a different ratio this time. So I needed to focus for some time."
The hellcat looked intrigued. "And why is playing cat and mouse with him? I can't say if I should take offense to it, to be honest." The clone chuckled but shook his head.
"Oh, please don't take offense Matatabi." Just in this second Naruto had eliminated most of the body with a modified Rasengan that had burnt it to ashes only to watch the body reforming and enduring the rant after that. "I won't take long I think." The clones and the eyes of Naruto connected and the young man nodded as the clone waved at the hellcat and poof out in smoke.
"...Would never have thought that my master could be beaten by such a worm. Look at you fighting the Third Raikage and not having the guts. Would are you missing boy?" Kabuto said only for his voice to still as the third could not move anymore. Tree Roots that had chains wrapped around them held the Reanimation in place. Unable to move and gagged with tree roots he could only listen.
"Listen. Kabuto. You have broken the law of the death god. His reaper will come and claim your soul like that of your master before you. Nobody will escape the wrath of the death god. The dead are his domain and he will defend it." His sword was engulfed in pure white flames. "We managed to track you Kabuto. You may try to run but in the end, there is no palace to hide for you." With those words, his white flaming blade impaled the place where the heart would have been as his other free hand moved straight at the third Raikage's head extracting the Kommand Kunai with its seal still attached. The Human path had such nifty uses. He summoned a clone and gave him the Kunai. "You know where to bring that to." The clone nodded and with a yellow flash disappeared.
The Fourth Raikage moved towards Naruto. He noticed that the young warrior did not wear a headband. His eyes were quite unsettling. Those purple eyes with the white markings and black rings looked like they pierced right through him. "What did you do?"
Naruto raised one of his brows as he looked at the bulky man. "You lift alot do you?" He asked with an amused voice. Like this Naruto destroyed all the momentum the Raikage had built up internally for that conversation and had to take a step back and blink dumbly.
"Yeah, erm I do." He answered nearly stumbling over his words. The young man let his eyes flicker through its different states before they were just blue ones.
"So, let's talk?" Naruto asked and got some nods from Bee and the Raikage.
Meanwhile, four people sat together in an undisclosed meeting room somewhere in the nations. The one with the mask of a swirled design spoke first. "It is unfortunate and we can't use more of our wooden friends at the moment. But we managed to significantly weaken the Shinobi. Good work Shimura." He said with slight frustration in his voice.
"Well I go with Shimada nowadays but yes. We could reduce the forces by around thirty percent overall. Did we manage to gather enough residue to work with it?" The adult and healthy Danzo looked at Zetsu.
"Yes, we currently prepare the harvest of the absorbed chakra and the Jutsu to fertilize the seed of the god tree. As soon as it matures we could start with the next phase but before we would need the eyes that are currently with the failed project." Zetsu replied.
The man with the mask nodded slowly. "I will get them back, which leads me to our newest member. Your reanimations were beaten each and every time we used them as soon as this blonde troublemaker appeared. I hope you can provide more durable versions for our next phase. I may need a distraction."
Kabuto wore a long robe-like coat with the hood up his voice was silky but had a hint of madness in it. "You can be assured that I will provide the right kind of distraction. It may be unfortunate that I lost some of my pieces. But rest assured. I saved enough of them to not only provide a distraction but deal with enough of our adversaries."
While Danzo did not look convinced, the masked man and Zetsu nodded once before the masked man started talking again. "Good, I will make sure we have the right eyes for the plan." The masked man got sucked into a vortex. Zetsu sank into the ground and Kabuto with one last look at Danzo.
"Seems you have no use anymore old man." He chuckled. "Maybe you should think about retirement? In this new world old warhawks should maybe drink their sake and tell stories?"
Kabuto joked before he left too.
Danzo sat in his chair, calm and relaxed. Concentrating if he could feel anyone of his new "friends" it looked like he was alone. He unsealed his tea set and started to brew the leaves. The old man in his younger body took his sweet time to prepare the brew. As it was finished the smell of green tea filled the room. Danzo began to sip on his tea. He was joined a minute later by another person. "I assume they have no clue do they?" This person said.
Danzo sipped his tea again before he replied in a very calm manner. "No, they don't, we will have to lay low maybe but they think I have no use anymore so either they let some intel slip so that those foolish people can track me down or just outright kill me on their own." He sighed. "I don't think they will do so on their own, they will just let my location slip and let them deal with me and be done with it."
The other person sat on the opposite side of the table. Took the other cup and poured him some tea. "That is quite unfortunate but not that big of a problem. We researched quite the amount of things and sacrificed too much to let them catch up to us so close to our objective."
Danzo nodded "As soon as the ninjas wipe themselves to the brink of extinction we use our forces to take over and go beyond the wall." He sighed with passion and confidence as he took his next sip right after and the other person nodded once and also raised his cup.
Back in Kumo, they had gone to the Raikage Tower. Bee had excused himself as he wanted to prepare something for Yugito's burial ceremony. A sat behind his desk and looked at Naruto as the blond man that he needed to acknowledge saved his village and explained his next steps.
"... and because of that the Shinobi should finally meet up and move into the future. With the threat of Reanimations, those wooden puppets and this mastermind that also influenced the Daimyo only united we can make a stand."
"Even if I might agree with you. The Tsuchikage is no more and the others had endured the same or have small forces either way." A answered. "If you manage to meet with the others and convince them to leave their villages behind just for the possibility of us working together." He smashed his desk with his fist something that brought out a dramatic sigh from his secretary.
Naruto blinked once. That the Raikage smashed his desk was kind of excessive but if he ranked the reaction of the secretary just right, it was a common occurrence. "I can meet with the three others. Regarding former Iwagakure I can only say they isolated themselves. The other problem is the location to meet. But I have a solution for that and would pick you up."
A looked intrigued. "Well, where it is I may be inclined to take you up on that offer?" He said and as his secretary moved in with two men to replace the desk he stood up for a moment.
Naruto chuckled. "Your elders will know this place. You may too. You remember Uzushiogakure. I think it is time to Reintroduce ourselves to the world." With those words, the Raikage got an unreadable expression. It was not exactly clear if or if not he supported this but Naruto continued his senses picking up on the small change in the Raikages posture. "Let me tell you something though. It is my home. Last time you needed three whole villages with all their forces to attack a village full of scholars and some ninjas. This time…" He reopened his eyes showing off the Rinnegan. "You will encounter not only one but more than one Biju, fully trained forces, even more advanced seals, and lastly… me." He deactivated his Rinnegan again and his voice got cold and deadly in an instant. "I will grant you guest rights and won't let harm come to you. But If one of you thinks about attacking my family I will end you. Don't get me wrong. This is not a threat, this is a spoiler."
With those loaded words he disappeared into a yellow flash. The Raikage looked at Bee who just had entered. Without Matatabi that is. "Bee? Where are the two-tails? And did you get his last words?" The Raikage was still on his feet and Naruto's words had not calmed him down.
Bee noticed this without big problems and sighed. "I did and you should listen. Matatabi has joined Naruto. After she told me once and for all that Biju is not some asset we are allowed to relocate as we wish." He held his hands up in a pacifying gesture as the Raikage wanted to lash out verbally. "Hear me out, brother. Those last days? How do most of our forces treat Yugito and me? That opened my eyes. I can't blame Matatabi that she wants to be free."
"Are you serious? How many Biju hast that brat now? In the end, he is the one that had arranged all this to beat the big five." The Raikge raged.
Bee also got louder. "I don't know but you can be sure that they will not only join in the defense of the village of his ancestors but he alone would be able to crush our forces if he wanted to. He once promised Yugito and me protection if we ever wanted out. All he wanted in return was for us to treat our Biju fairly and not spread unneeded violence. No fealty, no submission just peaceful coexistence." He stopped as his brother wanted to say something but he just continued over him. "And I believe him. You have seen him fight. He could easily become one of the biggest threats the nations have seen. He just doesn't want to, because he has no reason to do so." Bee stopped and turned towards the entrance before looking back one last time. "Don't give him a reason. I didn't get to know Naruto as a person who makes empty threats, or as he called it, a spoiler." With those last words, Bee got out of the office leaving a fuming A behind.
A looked towards his secretary. "I want a full count of our forces and supplies. If this Uzumaki wants to play in the league of the big five I will gladly introduce the rules to him. He will…"
The Raikage was stopped in his words as three-pronged Kunai impacted on his new desk. A blinked. He had not sensed him, not even knew that the weapon was thrown. Maybe he should rethink his approach and listen to Bee. Listen to Bee? Okay, that was quite the opposite he usually did. All those rap verses quickly got on his nerves but his brother was quite serious wasn't he? Maybe just maybe?