Obito-Sensei

by Ser Serendipity

During the fateful mission to the Kannabi Bridge, Obito is too slow, and Kakashi ends up paying the price with his life. Years later, Elite Jonin Mangekyou no Obito is placed in charge of a very familiar genin team, determined to keep them safe in a world at peace. Or: Obito surviving wrecks everything, in twenty steps or less.

76. Taking Control

Obito-Sensei Chapter 73

Shows No Mercy To Their Enemies

A couple minutes before the sky went red, Sasuke was learning that Hinata had never watched tv as a kid.

"Never?" he asked, surprised despite himself. He'd known the Hyuuga clan was traditional, but never suspected it was to that extent. It wasn't his business to know.

"Well, not never," she said with a self-conscious blush, which was dangerously cute. "I've seen it at Kiba's home. But there aren't any in the compound. Some of the older members say that the radiation they give off is too distracting."

"Is it?" Sasuke had never heard of such a thing, but Hinata laughed it off.

"It's visible to the Byakugan, but only barely. I'm sure they don't mean it seriously." She glanced back, probably checking to see if Kurenai was still following them. They both had been shadowed by Hinata's sensei from the beginning of the date: an arrangement that had no doubt been made by both of their families. Even acting on their own initiative, their actions were being shepherded.

He kind of hated it.

"What about you?" Hinata's earnest question drew him away from his bitterness. "Did you watch a lot of tv?" She pondered for a moment, gracefully stepping around a man who wasn't watching where he was going as he carried a heavy box into a nearby store. The streets were busy, stores with greeters out front trying to call them in and avid shoppers everywhere. "Or still do?"

"I watched a little with my brother when I was little," Sasuke said, not even tripping over Itachi's presence. "Mostly nature programs and things like that. He didn't have time for it most of the time; sometimes he fell asleep in the middle. But I didn't mind. After he left…" He pondered the hole in his life and how much it had asked of him, and how little he wanted to draw Hinata into that. "I stopped. But I did watch a little in Rain. Suigetsu…"

He paused, and Hinata noticed. They stood there in the middle of the street, like stones that a human tide pushed around, before he started walking again, heavily breathing out the rock in his throat. "Suigetsu liked watching strange things. He usually made me after missions."

"Strange things?" Hinata asked with a cock of her head.

"Game shows, mostly," Sasuke said with a chuckle. "Rain has all sorts of domestic programs, and with its location it picks up signals from a bunch of neighboring countries. I dunno why he liked that sort of thing… There was this one where a mouse and a person had to go through a maze, like a race. Sized for each of them, I mean. I think it's broadcast from the Land of Earth. He was always rooting for the mouse."

"Did it win?"

"Yeah." His mouth was dry. "The mouse usually won. Most people are pretty bad at mazes, turns out."

"That makes sense," Hinata said with a little laugh. "Besides, for the mouse, I bet there was food on the line. It would probably try harder than a person who was just playing a game."

Sasuke had never considered that; he'd been happy just to watch a silly show with his friend without analyzing it. The rest of his life had enough analyzing. But he liked that Hinata saw it that way; it was another example of how she approached things thoughtfully, no matter how important they were.

"He liked movies too. Crappy action ones,," he continued. "The kind made by people too cheap to hire real ninja, so they would just use wires and stuff. I never really liked them, but…"

He paused.

"You don't have to talk about him," Hinata said, and Sasuke grunted, realizing he'd been holding his breath. "I understand."

"I just haven't thought about it," Sasuke said honestly, looking down at the road. "I dunno if that's disrespectful or not. But there's been too much happening." His eyes burned. "I don't think he'd want me to mope. He saved my life. But if I go back there, all I can do is…"

"It's okay," Hinata said, and then she stopped. Sasuke saw her hand open and close in the corner of his eye. "It's not…" She paused, watching him.

He wanted to grab it. Because of his insecurity or because he wanted to show he was grateful, he wanted to grab Hinata's hand. But Sasuke hesitated, not sure if it was the right thing to do. He didn't understand his feelings, or this date, or what was appropriate or why he wanted to cry all the time but felt that doing so would be pointless, and all that kept him from taking Hinata's hand.

Then there was a loud crack that echoed across the village, and he was out of time.

"What-?" Hinata looked up, and Sasuke followed her gaze as his Sharingan instinctually spiraled out. He saw the pulse of chakra that raced across the giant invisible dome that always enclosed Konoha before the whole thing flashed red, hundreds of individual lines of energy pulsing towards the center and colliding in a crimson lightshow.

Barrier incursion. A huge one. As the sky flashed red and people all around stared up in confusion, snow began to fall, the sky blanketed in red and white equally. The snow was artificial, generated purely from chakra, and filled his vision with fuzz.

Sasuke's heart sped up, adrenaline blaring through his body.

Barrier incursion. The village was being invaded. It had started snowing.

Sasuke wasn't sure if it was pure instinct or a cunning thought that his trained mind constructed before his soul could understand it, but a notion overwhelmed his body and left him twitching.

'It's Rain. It's Haku.'

"Hinata?" He asked out of a formality; her Byakugan was already active and no doubt seeing even more than him. She was standing stock still, absorbing a supernatural amount of information, her brow twitching as she focused. In his peripheral vision, Sasuke could see people start to panic. Kurenai was dashing straight at the both of them, shouting something into her shoulder radio.

"There's several hundred," Hinata said faintly. "Maybe more than a thousand." They were practically right next to the wall in one of the commercial districts, so Hinata must have had great clarity on what was beyond it. "Sasuke, it's-"

"Rain, yeah," he said, and Hinata gave him a surprised look as Kurenai came within twenty feet of them, her face furious. "We've gotta-"

Sasuke would never be able to say while his Mangekyo activated at that moment. It wasn't instinct, because despite his battle experience he still wouldn't have realized anything was wrong until it was too late, but it wasn't luck either, because his body acted on its own, forcing his eyes peer into the future without him having any say in the matter.

In the static world of the future yet to come, where everyone had vanished except himself, Kurenai, and Hinata, he watched a bearded man dressed like a civilian rush past him and Hinata, looking like another panicked person running towards the center of the village. He watched as the man, a shinobi who must have infiltrated the village and had been waiting for a hidden signal, jammed a blade through Hinata's throat. He watched Kurenai stagger back in shock as the ninja pushed the blade out and carved it across her eyes at the same moment. He watched himself react, too slow, firing a beam of fire through the man's heart as both Hinata and Kurenai fell.

The vision blew away like dust in the wind. Hinata blinked, no doubt seeing the blood trickle from his eye. Sasuke saw the ninja who would kill her in his peripheral vision.

His heart turned to ice.

Sasuke turned, his hand coming up. The ninja from Rain didn't have time to look surprised before it slammed into his throat. Sasuke squeezed, crushing his trachea, and swept his legs from under him as the concealed blade came out.

The ninja was strong. Probably a Jonin, and an experienced one who'd managed to sneak into the Hidden Leaf without tripping the barrier in preparation for the battle to come. Maybe he'd been following them for a while, recognizing the threat a Hyuuga could represent to the operation. All that told Sasuke that the man was a dangerous and clever opponent who'd launched his attack at the perfect moment.

But there wasn't a man alive who could have kept Sasuke from driving his heel down into the intruder's throat and snapping his neck, cratering the street below him. The blade spun across the ground, freed from twitching hands and Kurenai stopped it with her foot, staring at Sasuke in complete shock.

"They're already in the village, and they'll be coming over the wall soon," he grunted, and twisted his heel as the man gurgled under him. He felt more bones fracture, the spine finally giving way completely. "Kurenai, anyone on their way?"

"There's a counterattack being organized," Kurenai said, her surprised expression making way for determination. As she spoke, explosions bloomed across the top of the wall, and distant screams reached Sasuke's ears. "But it will be several minutes. And-"

There was a BOOM that shook the ground, and Sasuke spun just in time to watch the south gate in all its massive glory fly off its hinges about four blocks away, spinning up and away into the sky.

"Let's go," he said, unconsciously taking the lead, and Kurenai and Hinata fell in step behind him, running through the fleeing crowds towards the gate. Sasuke and Hinata weren't dressed for a fight; they'd worn nice clothes, not flak jackets, and didn't have a knife between them. Kurenai fixed that, flipping a kunai to both of them. A single ninja tool could be the difference between life and death.

It only took a moment for them to reach the gate, leaving the street and leaping up onto the rooftops to get a better view. Sasuke had expected them to have been dislodged by an Earth or maybe Wind jutsu, but there was no sign of anything like that. Instead, there was just a single tall man with long orange hair striding through the smashed open entrance with Rain ninja streaming in behind him. They were coming in over the walls too, hundreds of them, a human flood of malice pouring into the village and pushing north, east, and west.

Sasuke had put himself at the very tip of the spear, but he wasn't alone. Even if the main counterattack wasn't here yet, Leaf ninja had responded to the obvious invasion from every direction, dozens beelining for the gates. Even some of his classmates were here: Kiba and Shino rocketed in from the east, Akamaru howling as a vast cloud of insects darkened the air around Shino.

There was no moment to take stock, no pause of recognition from the Rain or Leaf ninja as the attackers crashed into the defenders. All at once, chaos exploded across the Hidden Leaf.

Sasuke launched himself forward, suicidally aggressive if not for his Sharingan. Kurenai and Hinata were still at his back, and he trusted his life to them without hesitation as ninja at his flank were brought down by invisible enemies or blown away by the Gentle Fist. He only had one initial target: the man who'd destroyed the gates. The chakra flowing through his body was barely human to the Sharingan; while he looked normal enough, the strength inside him was incredibly beyond superhuman.

"An Uchiha so soon?!" the man yelled as Sasuke charged him, ninja scattering out of the way as they leapt deeper into Konoha to spread mayhem. "Nice!"

He swung, not at Sasuke but at the ground below him, and his low punch carved out a shotgun blast of concrete and rebar. Sasuke didn't slow down, twisting between the debris and letting his momentum blunt the ones he couldn't dodge. The attack, lethal to most other ninja, was still just a feint: he could see the Rain ninja running through hand seals for an earth jutsu, some kind of containment technique. Most likely, he was intending to lock Sasuke inside an earth trap and kill him at his leisure.

So mid-spin, he threw the kunai Kurenai had given him. It wasn't enough on its own: the man caught it out of the air with a grin. But it slowed down his hand signals for just a fraction of a second.

That fraction of a second was all Sasuke needed to hurl the piece of rebar he'd caught out of the air himself. The Rain ninja cursed and spun out of the way as Sasuke leapt forward, his free hand coming up.

His whole body was wreathed in hungry chakra; an absorption technique that would steal Sasuke's own if it touched him. Sasuke jumped up, flipping over the man's head. The Rain ninja followed him with unerring accuracy, his mouth slipping into an ugly grin as he reached his hand out.

"Lion Fist!" Sasuke shouted, and the man's grin slipped.

"What-?" he asked, looking back as he realized Sasuke had never been the real threat, just a distraction.

It was far too late. Hinata came in like a shining purple bullet, burying the ferocious face that had covered her hand in the man's gut. He let out a yowl of pain and flipped the kunai he'd caught around to bury it in her head, and Sasuke kicked down with a primal yell. His blow knocked the knife out of the man's hand and sent it flying into the ground hard enough to stick there, bits of the shinobi's palm still stuck to it.

Sasuke landed on top of him as Hinata laid a series of brutal blows into the ninja's gut and chest, sending him staggering back with another cry of pain. Sasuke's hunch had been right: the chakra draining techniques had canceled each other out. As the ninja's hands came up to wrench Sasuke off his shoulders, Sasuke snarled and tumbled forwards.

There was nothing graceful or clever about it: he formed both hands into knives and dug them into the ninja's eyes. The large man bellowed in agony as Sasuke fell forward, feeling his fingers scrape against orbital bones. He pulled as hard as he could, and the cry of agony intensified as he crushed the ninja's eyes into paste.

One of Hinata's hands darted up, the Lion Fist falling away, and jabbed three fingers into the ninja's throat. The man gagged, his breathing cut off, and Sasuke kicked him away, tumbling to the ground and rolling away as the ninja staggered back.

"Sasuke, Hinata!" Kurenai shouted out, the unmistakable call of retreat, and Hinata and Sasuke fled side by side without looking; all around them Rain ninja were attacking imaginary enemies or screaming with false pain, but some of them were shrugging off the waves of powerful Genjutsu that Kurenai had been sending out to shield her younger comrades. The Jonin's face was pale, her hands running through a new handsign every second as she constantly ensnared and recaptured the senses of Rain ninja.

Sasuke had known that Kurenai was a master of Genjutsu, but seeing it on the battlefield with his Sharingan gave him an entirely new appreciation for Hinata's sensei. It was like playing a dozen instruments at once; the streams of red chakra pouring off Kurenai and into the bodies of the invaders were so thick that it made the air seem hazy.

While he and Hinata had been fighting, the battlefield had moved deeper into the village. Kiba and Shino were out of sight, hopefully still alive; the southern gate entrance was covered in injured, screaming men and women from both Villages, and still bodies being steadily buried by the constant snow. Sasuke and Hinata both scooped up a casualty as they ran, two young men in Chunin vests that Sasuke didn't recognize: one was missing an arm, and the other had been hit by a weapon or jutsu that had opened up his chest. Kurenai already had an older woman slung over her shoulder; a knife had gone right through the woman's cheek, and she was leaking blood all over Kurenai's vest, but despite that and two broken limbs she was glaring hatefully at the gate, still clearly ready to fight.

The blinded man was wheezing behind them, trying to shout something: Sasuke ignored him. They were cut off and without support now if another wave of enemies came, and judging by Hinata's face, that was about to be the case.

"Get deeper!" Kurenai shouted, turning and running with them as Sasuke and Hinata adjusted the ninja they were carrying, putting them on their backs. "The counterattack should almost be here! We'll pincer the ones that made it in!"

"Sensei, there's another one coming," Hinata said, stumbling over the last word. Sasuke looked over at her: blood was splattered on her face, but it wasn't hers. They were both unharmed. She seemed calm, calmer than he would have figured. Maybe, like him, this betrayal had turned her heart to ice. "He's…"

"Just one?" Kurenai asked, and Hinata nodded. "They held back an S-rank for the initial breach. Bastards. We need to get as much distance as possible."

Right, Sasuke thought. That was basic doctrine. You didn't commit all your most dangerous ninja to the initial attack, because battles between ninja had incredibly high attrition rates during initial contact. The slaughterhouse around the gate was proof of that. You sent some of them in after to clean up the survivors and secure a beachhead for further assaults.

But he hadn't thought of that in the moment, only in hindsight. No matter how strong he'd become in Rain, the gap in experience between him and someone like Kurenai was vast.

"His body is strange. I don't know what I'm looking at," Hinata said, and this time there was a tremor of fear. Sasuke looked over at her, and she locked eyes with him. "He's not… alive."

"Great," Kurenai groused. A Rain ninja came out of nowhere, hurling herself at them with a water jutsu turning her whole body into a dragon-shaped bullet, but to Sasuke she was going in slow motion: he knocked her through a storefront with a hasty roundhouse kick and they kept going, not bothering to stand and fight when they could be surrounded by more enemies at any moment.

Then all at once, the main battle was before them. Countless ninja were engaged in skirmishes everywhere Sasuke could see, battling each other with their bodies, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and summons. It was all too much to take in at once, even with the Sharingan, so he just followed Kurenai's lead as she charged straight ahead.

"Medics first!" she shouted back at them, leaping through an explosion of knives and diving into a tangle of shadows that shielded her from an enemy ninja. "Then-!"

A fragment of steel, moving so fast it was glowing red hot, sliced through her throat, and Kurenai gagged, blood erupting from her mouth. Hinata blanched, letting out a scream, and Sasuke's heart skipped a beat.

"Sensei!"

Kurenai didn't slow down even as blood gushed out of her throat, just pointing towards the backline of the ferocious battle, her eyes blazing. The meaning was obvious.

'Go!'

She charged ahead, even with her throat cut, and Sasuke and Hinata rushed after her as the battle raged around them. Enemy ninjas targeted them; friendly ninjas defended them. After a moment that seemed impossible to define or measure, they were through. Kurenai collapsed, but her shadow kept running, her body and the woman she was carrying gliding along the ground.

The shadow carried them all into a blasted building that had been a grocery store until about five minutes ago where many other wounded were laid out. The men they'd saved were lifted off their backs, and carried along with Kurenai to a corner covered in barrier jutsu and filled with serious looking ninja wearing both hospital garb and casual day outfits. Sasuke looked around, shaking his head and trying to center himself.

"Are you hurt?" a woman asked him; she had the same kinds of tattoos as Rin Nohara, but it wasn't her. Sasuke shook his head, looking over at Hinata as she answered the same question. The woman nodded.

"Good luck, then," she said, turning away to meet some new arrivals.

What they needed to do was obvious, but Sasuke hesitated, waiting to see what Hinata would do first. His home had been attacked before; hers hadn't.

But she didn't hesitate. "Sasuke." She turned, pointing back towards the cacophony of the battle. "Let's go."

They rushed back out into the snow, and as they did a voice echoed through their heads. The last time either of them had heard it had been the Chunin Exam, but today Inoichi Yamanaka was infinitely more serious, not sparing a single unnecessary word.

"Flying enemies are coming from the south and east. Counter-Summoners have been neutralized. Assist the-"

A roar tore through the air, loud enough to wipe away the sound of the battle for a moment, and Sasuke looked to the east. Through the buildings, he could barely make out a huge, dark shape near the Hokage's tower, looming over the skyline as the snow fell darker and heavier than before.

Inoichi began speaking again, his voice even more serious as it resonated through their minds and the minds of every Leaf ninja nearby. "Assist the Saindaime. A Tailed Beast has been unleashed."

A Tailed Beast. Sasuke hoped his mother could handle it, especially with Obito out of commission. He wasn't confident he would be up to something like that. Ninja that could fly seemed just as dangerous.

There were Leaf ninja everywhere and of every clan: Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Hyuuga, Aburame, Inuzuka, Sarutobi, some Uchiha, and every other great clan of Konoha was present in the counterattack, pouring towards the wound that had been torn in the Village and mercilessly slaughtering every enemy that got in their way. Choza Akimichi was leading the counterattack alongside his clanmates, a coterie of giants that crushed and squashed any enemy that dared to get close. Their size, strength, and speed were almost impossible to believe; watching one snatch up a fleeing Rain ninja and throw him so hard the man soared up past the glowing red barrier and out of sight, Sasuke found it hard to believe anyone could hope to fight them.

But then the flying ninja arrived. Just like Inoichi had said, dozens of figures in dark red cloaks hurtled through the sky, swarming the counter-attacking Akimichi like oversized gnats.

It took Sasuke a moment to understand what he was seeing. Long, impossibly strong strings of chakra bound the flying ninja together as they darted amongst the Akimichi, nettling with them blades of every type as Leaf ninja both on the ground and across the giant's bodies tried to shoot them down with Ninjutsu and ninja tools. But the flying ninja were fast, unbelievably coordinated, and only took two casualties as they finished their assault.

But actual ninjas, no matter how smart or fast, couldn't be that coordinated. Because the flying ninjas were puppets. Puppets that looked and moved like humans, but puppets all the same.

Sasuke understood puppet techniques, theoretically, though it hadn't been especially inspiring when he'd seen it before. But this was simply on another level. Whoever was controlling these bodies was inhumanly skilled and powerful, able to conduct two dozen fights by themselves.

No, he realized. More than that. More and more of the puppets were arriving, soaring down from the sky and picking off Leaf ninja like birds of prey. Dozens more; easily fifty were assaulting them, and more coming every second. Was it even possible for one person to control this many with such finesse?

It had to be, because it was happening.

As if to make a mockery of his previous thoughts, some of the Akimichi began to stumble and fall. Choza was the first, his face studded with countless needles from a bomb that had gone off in front of him and seemingly done only superficial damage. He collapsed, crushing a building beneath his bulk as Sasuke stared, and a cry of dismay went up from the defenders. The other Akimichi followed, until all but three of the giants had fallen.

Poison, Sasuke thought. It had to be. Nothing else could take down Akimichi with just flesh wounds. But every idiot knew that a clan with such command over Yang chakra had incredibly durable bodies; for a poison to affect them so dramatically, and when they were enlarged to boot, it had to be ridiculously deadly.

"Leaf Ninja!" The voice booming out behind him made Sasuke flinch in disbelief; he saw Hinata turn, but he kept his eyes firmly on the puppets, which had come to a stop floating above them all like a murderous parade, moving only to dodge attacks. Despite his age, the authority in the Third Hokage's voice could still make men move on its own. "All those below Jonin, fall back! Take the wounded!"

Hinata started to move, but Sasuke reached out.

He grabbed her hand, and she stopped.

Even in the middle of the battlefield, she stopped, and looked back at him.

"Stay," he said, not taking his eyes off the puppets. "You're strong enough. We'll need you."

Sasuke believed it with all his heart. The idea of watching Hinata die in this battle made him want to shrivel up and stop existing, but he'd seen her speed and strength and decisiveness. He said it both as her maybe-boyfriend and as a Jonin: they'd need ninja like her to win this fight.

She nodded, and she stayed, but she didn't let go of his hand.

As more and more puppets arrived, still in their holding pattern, Sasuke chanced a glance back. The Third Hokage was there, along with the Jonin Commander Shikaku Nara and forty or so other ninja, spread out across two neighborhoods. The Hokage was dressed for war, wearing traditional armor and wielding a huge staff. Sasuke felt his heart kick into overdrive. Even if it was a little childish, the Third Hokage was a legend, the God of Shinobi who'd mastered every jutsu of the Hidden Leaf and led it through two world wars. The idea of fighting alongside him was thrilling.

The last of the puppets arrived as Sasuke and Hinata backed out of the no-man's land they'd found themselves in, retreating to the line of mighty Leaf shinobi. One more figure came along with them, alighting on the rooftop beneath the floating army. He was cloaked and hooded, but under the hood the Sharingan could make out a young man with shaggy red hair. Sasuke squeezed Hinata's hand, and she squeezed back before letting go.

This was the ninja she'd seen, the man who wasn't alive.

Ninety-two puppets and their master against the Third Hokage, the Jonin Commander, three dozen ninja, him, and Hinata. Sasuke felt the air fill with an unseen electricity as the combatants took each other in. There was about to be a kind of battle he'd never seen before.

"Sasori of the Red Sands," the Third Hokage called out, and the puppetmaster shifted. The sounds of battle still echoed in the village, but the electricity filling the air seemed to bring a terrible calm to the shattered neighborhood. "The Land of Fire is rich. We cannot forgive you for those you have killed, but you are a mercenary first. Whatever Amegakure is paying you, we will triple it."

Sasori let out a boyish laugh, and the hairs on Sasuke's neck stood on end. The puppetmaster flexed, chakra pouring out of him, and his puppets laughed too, the chattering sound of wood on wood.

"I'm not here for money," the thing in a boy's body said, and then the puppets rushed forward in a wave of wood and steel.

The Third Hokage moved before anyone else, flinging out a single Fuuma Shuriken which became a wall of blades that sliced through several of the attacking puppets. Then, everyone else. The neighborhood descended into chaos, some of Konoha's best doing battle with the seemingly endless puppets. Sasuke and Hinata threw themselves into the fray, burning puppets to ash and cutting their strings with Juken. Attackers wielding blades covered in deadly poison came from every direction, but the Leaf ninja were vicious, shredding them to pieces with animated shadows, clouds of insects, fire and wind jutsu, and their bare hands. Some of the puppets fought back with more skill, jutsu of every kind erupting from their bodies.

Sasuke moved without thinking the whole time, destroying any puppet that dared to approach him or Hinata. He sliced them to pieces with scavenged weapons, fired burning beams through their hearts, and wrenched a head with a spiked tongue from its shoulders.

Then, quite suddenly, it was over. More than half of the ninja from Konoha were on the ground, some writhing and others still, but all the puppets were destroyed. The Third Hokage was in the center of it all, looking about with a disgusted look and then up at the puppetmaster. He'd smashed any puppet that had gotten close to him to pieces with his huge staff, and blasted plenty others from the sky with precise Earth jutsu. The ground around him had come alive with just a single hand sign and flung itself up in pinpoint spears and pillars.

Those who were poisoned weren't dead, Sasuke realized after a moment. Paralyzed, certainly, but not dead. Whatever poison coated the puppet's weapons wasn't meant to kill them immediately.

"Sasuke," Hinata said quietly. The Third and the ninja at his side were in a standoff with Sasori, and her voice carried through the deadly silence. "They're not just puppets."

She was right. Now that he understood, it was as plain to his eyes as it was to hers. The puppets they'd been smashing to pieces had chakra systems woven through their wooden bodies; they were filled with flesh.

These puppets were corpses.

"She's right," Sasori said with a grin. A dozen ninja flung themselves up at him and he danced out of the way, his cloak flapping as he pulled something from beneath it. "You're all lucky, you know. Very few people get to see my art in such detail."

There was a burst of smoke, and faster than Sasuke could believe three of the ninja who'd leapt after Sasori were torn to shreds by a storm of razors. He blinked, his Sharingan recording the moment in perfect detail. Another puppet had emerged, a large man with shaggy black hair and glowing yellow eyes. This one, Sasori was controlling alone.

As the rest fell back, the puppet opened its mouth and metallic particles began pouring out, filling the air around it with dancing sand. It had its own Ninjutsu, chakra that danced out and manipulated the particles around it to a fine degree.

It was just like Gaara, Sasuke thought as the Konoha ninja spread out, surrounding Sasori and his new puppet. He and Hinata stayed side by side, leaping up to a nearby roof and watching carefully as Sasori spun, taking in all his opponents with a mean grin.

"The Kazekage…" he heard several ninja mutter, and Sasori spread his hands like he was soaking up praise. He and the Third Hokage locked eyes with one another, and Sasori sneered.

"What do you think, Sandaime Hokage?" he said, and Sasuke felt his blood boil at the insolence in Sasori's voice. "Would you mind helping me make a matching pair?"

The Hokage didn't answer. At his side, Shikaku Nara spoke loud enough for everyone present to hear. No new ninja were arriving; Sasuke was sure their instincts were steering them away from this battle. Either that, or the rest of the village was doing bad enough that reinforcements couldn't be spared. He was so focused on Sasori that he'd even lost track of the Sanbi: right now, this shattered neighborhood was all of Konoha.

"Magnet Release," Shikaku said, his shadow writhing around him and racing out towards Sasori and the Third Kazekage. "Don't bother with weapons: Ninjutsu only. We'll have to overwhelm it."

"Good luck with that," Sasori said dryly, and his puppet lashed out with an arm as the ninja surrounding it began running through hand signs. At the same time, water began to rush through the streets, carrying away some of the paralyzed bodies as the ninja leapt atop it.

Somehow, Konoha was beginning to flood.

It was time, Sasuke decided. He needed to make the difference here. This was worth sacrificing his future for.

The future spooled out, and he watched as the Third Kazekage's arm split, and then split again, and again, and again, a fractal nightmare of seals from which hundreds of hands emerged, impaling a dozen ninja and scratching twice that, bringing low most of the Konoha contingent in mere moments with an explosion of bladed limbs.

The future shattered, and Sasuke blew out a fireball, hoping to catch the arm mid-deployment. A screen of iron sand interspersed itself, the fireball falling to pieces, and he shouted out a warning.

"It's going to split!" he roared, and trusting his word without thought the Konoha ninja scattered as the arm exploded out, hundreds of limbs racing towards where they'd been standing moments ago. Sasuke fell back towards Hinata as she leaped in front of him, spinning into a Kaiten that shattered the limbs intent on impaling him. She landed on the water without a ripple, her chakra the most focused it had ever been.

Sasori spun towards them, eyes narrowing as the Third Kazekage poured out more and more iron sand.

"You…?" he muttered, and then shrugged. Ninja began firing off Ninjutsu, shadows darting forward to immobilize the Third Kazekage, but Sasori hardly seemed to mind.

"Well, I haven't had an Uchiha puppet yet."

The Kazekage began fighting back, launching kunai from its mouth at an incredible rate and flinging out its restored arm, throwing blasts of iron sand that tore through concrete without resistance and gutted two unlucky shinobi that hadn't backed far enough off. The sand itself was suffused with the same poison as all the other puppets weapons, Sasuke saw; even a glancing hit could be fatal, and so much of the stuff was filling the air and forming into deadly geometries that even his Sharingan couldn't see a safe path towards the puppet.

Masked by its sand, the Kazekage brought its hands together, chakra practically exploding out of it as it began gathering energy. At Sasuke's side, Hinata gasped.

"Something's coming," she said, and Sasuke nodded. Should he look into the future again? He wasn't sure it would even help: the attack that was coming dwarfed everything else the Kazekage had done before. Sasori laughed as more Ninjutsu spattered against the shields of iron sand, failing to meet their targets. Shadows wrapped around him, but Sasuke could see that he hardly cared: his chakra strings moved practically of their own accord, even as his body was locked in place.

"Good luck!" he shouted, and then the iron the Kazekage had been compressing beyond imagination fired.

Sasuke realized what it was as his Sharingan traced out the path of the iron sand, which was fired so fast that it was impossible to follow with an ordinary eye. A theoretical weapon, the kind of thing that existed only in people's imagination, but made possible with the insane power of the puppet's Magnet Release: a railgun.

The compressed sand was fired in bursts, each shot obliterating a ninja in Sasori's line of sight. Apparently, he had no interest in turning any who were struck by the blast into puppets; those who were hit were nearly vaporized, whole chunks of their body vanishing on impact. As the Kazekage spun on Sasuke and Hinata, he realized he'd been right; even if he'd looked into the future, there was nothing they could do to dodge or deflect this kind of attack.

He tried to push Hinata aside, hoping it would be enough and knowing it wouldn't be, but in the moment before Sasori fired someone leapt in front of the both of them.

The Third Hokage. Sasuke saw Sasori's face twist up in annoyance, but it was too late; the railgun was already unleashed, and the iron bullet leapt forward at hypersonic speed with an ear-splitting screech, tearing a hole in the iron sand masking the puppet.

But the Third Hokage had already made hand signs, running through two dozen in less than a second, and flung his arms out with an angry shout.

The bullet veered off mid-launch, flung high and soaring off and beyond the horizon in an instant. Sasuke almost laughed. Had the Third Hokage always known how to mimic Magnet Release, or had he just figured out how in the course of the battle? Given the man's reputation, Sasuke honestly couldn't be sure.

"Nice!" Sasori shouted with a grin; the storm of chakra around the Kazekage dispelled, the puppet leering at them with its glowing yellow eyes. "That's what makes you worth having, Sarutobi!"

The Third ignored him. "Sasuke, Hinata," he said, not looking back at them. His staff was gone; Sasuke wasn't sure when he'd lost it. Beyond him, the Konoha ninja that were still alive, less than a dozen of them, desperately battled as the Kazekage as Sasori watched and laughed, perfectly guarded by his monstrous animated corpse. "You need to reach the puppet. I will keep him occupied."

"Us?" Hinata asked, voicing the surprise that Sasuke felt, and the Hokage nodded.

"With your eyes, you are the only ones who can. Its defenses are too strong." He drew a short sword in one hand, making one-handed signs with the other. "Too many have already died, but you mustn't hesitate. Go straight for it: I will protect you."

Sasuke reached back, and Hinata squeezed his hand. He knew it was the truth; there weren't any other Uchiha or Hyuuga left here. Sasori's puppets had killed the rest. Hinata would be able to watch every angle of attack, and he could predict anything he could see. They were the only ones who could get close without being shredded.

At the same moment, feeling each other's pulse, they flung themselves forward.

Sasori laughed and gestured, and as they entered the floating field of iron sand it began pulling together, forming a vast array of sharp, poison dripping spikes that expanded in every direction at once. The field would have been impossible to navigate for a normal ninja; it was instant death.

But neither of them were normal ninja. Sasuke forged ahead, dashing and flipping through the fractal deathtrap as the current surged under him; wherever it was coming from, the water was rising higher and growing faster. Hinata was right behind him, matching his moves perfectly. The field constricted, giving them less and less room. Iron spikes began to snag Sasuke's clothes, mere centimeters from cutting his skin. He shut out everything in the world but the Kazekage, pushing forward and feeling the Third Hokage's chakra resonate around him as the Hokage flung pulses of false magnetism into the field, keeping them alive for an extra moment.

The Third Hokage let out a grunt and Sasuke missed a step as fear flooded his body, the overwhelming sensation the iron field was about to crush and impale him. But even then, he and Hinata moved without fault, finding the one gap in the iron defense. It wasn't them doing it; their shadows moved without their consent, guiding their bodies in impossible patterns and flinging them through the final gauntlet. Beyond the field, Shikaku Nara was keeping them alive even as the Hokage faltered.

No, Sasuke saw as he was flipped head over heels, finally reaching the Third Kazekage. The Hokage hadn't faltered. He'd been impaled. In his moment of intense concentration, an iron spike had been flung out and pierced his gut. The Hokage had collapsed, curling around the wound as his body froze.

Sasuke let out a roar, flames bursting to life across his hands as he landed and lashed out at the Kazekage. The puppet danced back with a chattering laugh, flying up and away into the field of iron as Sasuke's flames fell short.

That was when Hinata arrived, leaping forward and slicing through one of the thick strings that held the Kazekage in the air.

The puppet buckled like a man having a stroke, and with another scream of effort Sasuke burst forward, burying both his flaming hands in the Kazekage's chest. The fire exploded out, burning through the puppet's body and meeting the iron sand that filled it. For a moment, there was an impossible resistance, and Sasuke thought he would be forced back and crushed.

Then his eyes burned and the flames surged forward like they had a mind of their own, exploding inside the Kazekage's body with the force of a bomb and blowing him back. The glowing yellow eyes were reduced to cinders and the puppet collapsed, smoke billowing from its open mouth.

All around him and Hinata, the iron sand collapsed, thudding to the ground with a heavy thump. Sasuke rolled to avoid being crushed, Hinata went the other way, and after a thunderous rain it was silent. He looked around, desperate to know what was happening.

Shikaku Nara and two others were all that were left standing. While he and Hinata had made their mad dash, the rest had sacrificed themselves to buy them time, even the Third Hokage. Where once there had been more than a hundred combatants, there were now only six.

Sasori was staring at him, and Sasuke had never felt more vulnerable in the presence of an enemy, prone on the ground as he was. The puppetmaster, now out of puppets, took a faltering step forward, his whole body shaking.

"Do you have any idea," he asked, "how long it will take to repair that?"

Hinata spun to her feet, and Sasuke did the same, kicking away the poisonous sand near him. "You won't get the chance," she declared, and Sasori sneered.

"You seem to enjoy each other's company," he said, and Hinata flinched back. "When we're done here, I'll make you a single puppet, back to back for an eternity. Would you like that?"

"Shut up," Sasuke grunted. "You're the last one, aren't you? Let's finish this."

Sasori narrowed his eyes. "Young people are so impetuous. I'm making a generous offer, you ingrate." His cloak fell to pieces, shredded by a hidden knife, and the man stepped forward wearing only sleek black pants, his chest bared to the world.

No, not a man. A puppet. A walking corpse. It was just as Hinata had said. She must have seen the truth with her Byakugan before even the Sharingan could devise it. Sasori's whole body was composed of lifelike lacquered wood, his living eyes set in a dead face that still twisted into sinister expressions. At the center of his chest a pulsing cube of meat sat, the living heart that drove his impossible and inhuman body. Sasuke could see the artificial chakra system it was creating spreading throughout the puppet's false body, like a web of veins embedded in the wood.

Sasori was a monster in every sense of the word. Sasuke felt his heart skip a beat as he fully took in the disgusting reality of their opponent.

"Don't you want to embrace immortality?" the monster finished, and Sasuke grimaced.

"You look more like a morgue to me," he spat, and Sasori grinned.

"Don't fret," he said. "You don't need to understand art to enjoy it."

He moved with lightning speed, leveling a hand as a nozzle emerged from it, and Sasuke and Hinata flung themselves aside as a great gout of flame burst from Sasori. The puppet laughed, sweeping his hand across the neighborhood and melting everything that it tracked across, evaporating great tracts of water into walls of boiling steam. Shikaku and one of the other shinobi managed to take cover behind an upturned piece of concrete, the flames melting through it but not fully penetrating, but the last shinobi, an Aburame, wasn't so lucky. The intense heat burst all her insects, and the woman went down in a melted heap, her limbs burned away in an instant.

Hinata rushed in to shatter the puppet, but huge razor wings sprung from its shoulders and began rotating violently, forcing her back before she could land more than a single blow. Sasuke saw the blast of Juken chakra ricochet off the thick puppet body, failing to penetrate and sever the artificial chakra system. They had to destroy the heart, he realized: anything else wouldn't be sufficient.

Hinata froze, chakra strings wrapping around her like invisible rope as Sasori rounded on her, but Sasuke charged in before Sasori could cut her to pieces, slamming a kick into the puppet's side and driving it back, barely avoiding having his foot removed in turn. Shikaku's shadow came in like a dark blade, trying to pierce the puppet's heart from behind, but Sasori's head rotated one-hundred and eighty degrees even as he drove Sasuke back with a sword that had emerged from his hand, and he spat a volley of poisoned needles at the Nara.

Shikaku dodged with a curse, but a single needle struck a floating shattered puppet that still had some of Sasori's strings attached to it. The puppet's hand twitched, redirecting the needle on a new trajectory, and it stuck into the Jonin Commander's thigh before his shadow could intercept it. The man reached down and ripped it out, and for a moment Sasuke thought he'd been fast enough.

Then he wobbled and collapsed, his spread out shadow fading amidst the snow stained red by so many Leaf ninja's blood. The last ninja stumbled back, his body studded with needles, and fell as well.

"Two left?" Sasori chuckled. "It's always nice to have a net gain." He rounded on Hinata, who was still trapped by his chakra strings. "And I'll have some particularly nice pieces this time around."

"Hinata!" Sasuke charged forward, and Sasori leveled his other hand at him, another nozzle emerging.

On instinct, the future spooled out. A blast of water emerged from the hand, a concentrated burst that reminded Sasuke of Sakura's Flowing Water Blade. The burst would be fired with such sustained force that it would cut right through him, bisecting Sasuke and then continuing on deep into the village. Sasori would sweep it to the left, and that single motion would cut through a fifth of all of Konoha, leveling buildings and slaughtering ninja without a hope of counterattack. It was a water blade of such length and power that it was closer to the Kazekage's railgun than any sort of Water jutsu Sasuke had ever imagined.

The future shattered, and Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks, running through seven hand signs in a heartbeat. Sasori's eyes narrowed, but the beam of water emerged nonetheless as Sasuke slammed his hands together, palms making contact and both hands forming a Tiger seal facing his opponent.

"Katon!" he shouted in desperation, pouring out the kai to intensify his chakra as much as he could. "Mekkyaku Eisō!"

A beam of fire burst from his clenched hands with all the speed and brightness of a laser and cleaved a path through the tide, evaporating everything below it before colliding head on with Sasori's waterjet. The puppet rotated his hand, intensifying the pressure of the water as a horrific shrieking and steam began to fill the air, Sasuke's and Sasori's chakra slamming into one another as opposite elements and obliterating each other with a frenzied intensity. Sasuke could feel his feet sliding back even with chakra reinforcement, but he grit his teeth and poured it on, draining all the energy he could from his body in an attempt to keep Sasori's attack from piercing through him and striking the village.

Sasori grimaced, twisting his arm in a way that would break it if he were human, and Sasuke desperately adjusted to keep his fire spear in line. The jutsu had to clash head to head; if he was off by even a fraction of a degree, the water spear would slip past and cut him in half. But even with the head-on collision, Sasori was forcing him back, and the spitting, boiling steam was drawing closer and closer to him, raising welts across his body. His hands were shaking with the effort of maintaining the beam: his Sharingan deactivated, his chakra racing away and he devoted everything to the desperate defense.

At the exact moment that Sasuke was sure his arms would fail and it would all be for nothing, Hinata spun. The Kaiten tore away the weakened threads binding her, and as Sasori's head twisted towards her in alarm, spitting more senbon, she leapt forward with a shriek of anger and buried the four fingers of her right hand in his exposed heart. Clear white chakra exploded from her palm, piercing straight through Sasori's body.

A textbook fatal blow from the Gentle Fist. As if the world had recognized the moment, there was a sonic boom and the thick clouds covering the village were blown away, banished by the importance of Hinata's strike and revealing a clear blue sky. Winter was gone, and the tide was receding.

But Sasori didn't fall.

The puppet staggered back, blood leaking down his chest. Sasuke didn't understand how he could still be alive, but he definitely was. One of his bladed wings lashed out, cutting Hinata across the chest and sending her tumbling back, and Sasuke's heart stopped. The wings were just as coated in poison as everything else; Hinata's body was already freezing up.

"Sasuke!" she screamed out between lips that were locking up. "Finish him!"

He barely had anything left. Sasori rounded on him, his movements slower but still unsettlingly fast, and Sasuke staggered forward, his attention split between the puppet and Hinata. She'd been poisoned. Hadn't that happened back in the Land of Waves too? How quick did it act? How quick did it kill? Did she have any immunity built up? Would she be okay?

How much of your future would you give up, if it meant she'd be okay?

Time stopped. The question was so simple and so painful that Sasuke rolled it around in his head for a long time, locked in that moment as a homicidal puppet advanced towards him with blood leaking from its exposed heart.

It didn't end up being much of a question.

His Sharingan future spooled out. He rushed in, trying to finish the heart off with a stab.

Sasori killed him.

The future spooled out. He fell back, trying to reach the heart with another spear of fire.

Sasori killed him.

The future spooled out, the future spooled out, the future spooled out. Seven times Sasuke looked into the future in as many heartbeats, and seven times Sasori killed him before he could land a definitive blow. His eye ached, blood wetting his cheek, and Sasori cocked his head.

"There it is again," the puppet said, and Sasuke clutched his head by instinct as a burning pain raced through his temple, spreading to his whole body. "That's the Mangekyo Sharingan, isn't it? I'm glad I left you for last. It's some sort of prediction technique, isn't it? I'll have plenty of time to figure it out when I'm stripping out your optic nerves."

For some reason, that gave Sasuke the flash of clarity that saved his life.

He flung his hand out, channeling the last of his chakra into the jutsu he hadn't relied on yet. A glittering purple Rasengan formed in his hand, rapidly spinning up into a handheld tempest.

"Cute," Sasori said. "Don't move too much. I don't want to harm your body."

"The prediction isn't the only technique I have," Sasuke said, and Sasori paused. He was an experienced ninja; his instincts had to be screaming at him not to recklessly approach the cornered beast that Sasuke had become. A huge spike on a metal hose quested out of Sasori's stomach, seeming to scent the air like a snake as it poked forward and looped over his shoulder, ready to shoot forward and impale Sasuke.

"Really? What's the other?" Sasori asked, sincerely curious. "That could be just as useful."

"Kagatsuchi," Sasuke said. "It doesn't do anything on its own."

The Rasengan in his hand began sparking, lightning piercing through it and destabilizing the perfect whorl of energy. Sasori watched it cautiously, ready to impale Sasuke the moment he moved. To the experienced ninja, it must have looked like a suicide technique; the second it was released, it would detonate in a storm of lightning, after all. When he'd used it back in the Land of Waves, that's exactly what had happened, taking his arm with it.

"All it does is guide my chakra," Sasuke said, and then his right eye burned as he jumped back and flung his arm forward in the same motion.

It was a quick-draw contest, right out of the crappy movies Suigetsu had loved.

Sasori was an S-rank ninja: the moment Sasuke moved, his spike was lunging forward to impale him. The Rasengan in Sasuke's hand distended, a beam of lightning as thin as a needle flying out of it and piercing right through Sasori's stomach, cleanly missing his heart.

Raiton: Rasenyarinage.

The Lightning Rasengan zipped forward, flashing along the line of lightning in the blink of an eye. It moved at nearly the speed of true lightning, and made contact with Sasori about a twentieth of a second before the puppet's stomach spike would have slammed into Sasuke's gut.

At the millionth of a second after contact, it detonated.

The Lightning Rasengan burst into a contained storm almost exactly two meters in diameter, expanding out into a sphere of shredding lightning that completely obliterated Sasori's body. The spike kept flying forward on sheer inertia, but without Sasori guiding it Sasuke was able to just barely slip out of the way, feeling the cold metal brush his shoulder as he half-dodged, half fell backwards to avoid it.

He would have liked to fall all the way, land on his face and leave it at that, but it wasn't done. Sasuke threw himself forward, following the path his Sharingan had shown him as his tingling hand, still resonating with leftover lightning, lashed out.

Lashed out, and caught the heart that Sasori had ejected from his chest right out of the air.

Sasuke straightened up, feeling the heart buck against him as strings of chakra squirmed out from it, wrapping around his hand and scouring the ground for a weapon to fling into him. He raised it up, bringing the strings farther from everything and squeezing it hard. The strings receded, and blood leaked out from between his fingers as he looked around, taking in the devastation that surrounded him.

He was the last man standing. Every other ninja had been brought down, and every puppet destroyed. The Third Hokage and the Jonin Commander were paralyzed, so still that he wasn't sure if they were alive or not; Hinata was the same, her slashed chest barely rising and falling as she sprawled out in the blood, snow, water, and splinters.

Sasuke looked up at the heart in his hand, feeling his face twist into an ugly expression.

The Sanbi was still rampaging in the distance, though another huge beast had landed on top of it and was wrestling it to the ground. A toad, he was pretty sure. The Beast had definitely been the source of the flood, but it was being pushed into submission. Did that mean the Hokage was back, or was Obito over there, fighting even without his Mangekyo Sharingan? Rain ninja were still everywhere, burning everything they touched to the ground. In less than a minute ninja from Konoha and Rain would probably pour onto this now quiet section of the battlefield to rescue or slaughter the helpless men and women floating across it. Sasuke was their only defense.

The heart spoke to him through his hand, the chakra around it vibrating the air like a dissonant whisper.

"You bastard," it said. "If I hadn't been trying to make you immortal-"

"That was your mistake," Sasuke said, baring his teeth. "You should have listened when we said we weren't interested."

He crushed the distended and disembodied heart in his hand, squeezing until his fingers broke through the fleshy cube that protected it and thick, dark blood ran down his arm in an endless stream. Sasori cried out, the sound fading as his chakra rushed away, and then was gone.

Sasuke's arm swung down, exhaustion pulsing through him solid smoke. He'd pushed his body to its limit just avoiding Sasori's attacks, and his eyes had taken their toll. A migraine was forming, like a knife steadily digging into his temple. He winced, bringing one hand up over his left eye and squinting.

It wasn't his imagination. Everything was a bit blurrier than it should be. Still clear, especially with the Sharingan, but like his eyes were perpetually trying to focus.

He shook his head. It didn't matter. He'd known what he was doing. If you knew the consequences of your actions, you didn't have the right to mourn them.

But still, as he staggered to Hinata's side he felt his breathing speed up.

He bent over her, examining the wound. It wasn't deep: Sasori had been trying to preserve her body as well. But her whole torso was locked up, as if in rigor mortis, and her arm could only shift an inch at her approach. She was in terrible pain, her lips pulled back in a wide grimace, but couldn't speak, only stare at him.

"I'll get you to a medic," he promised, and she watched him, obviously terrified. "I'll get everyone to the medics. They can fix this. I'm sure of it."

He wasn't sure of it. But the alternative was just giving up and watching everyone here die, which wasn't an alternative at all. So Sasuke stood up, getting ready to ferry the Hokage, Hinata, Shikaku, and all the other survivors to safety.

That was when he realized there were five Rain ninja approaching, moving slowly and cautiously as they surveyed the battlefield. He recognized one of them, a Chunin named Gabi who had reported to him at some of his shifts at the central tower in Amegakure. The girl clearly recognized him in turn, stopping alongside her comrades.

"Walk away, Uchiha," she called out. Sasuke barely kept a sneer from creeping across his face as her comrades spread out, unsheathing knives and eyeing the prone ninjas. They all knew he was still dangerous, but clearly thought five on one was winnable. They were probably right. "Even if you fight to the death, you won't save them."

"Try it," Sasuke barked, trying to fill his voice with every ounce of authority he'd wielded in Rain. "We're going to kill every one of you anyway."

The Rain ninja didn't take that well. They rushed forward, some attacking paralyzed victims while others raced directly for him, intending to overwhelm Sasuke with simultaneous attacks. Sasuke countercharged, the future spooling out once more even as his eyes ached in protest.

But the future didn't make sense. He came to a stop, trying to understand what he'd seen. Something metallic slammed into the water next to him, and he glanced at it out of instinct, diverted from the enemy for a fatal moment.

It was a three-pronged kunai.

Then, there was a flash.

###

Arrive.

Shadow Kunai Jutsu; Secret Formula Replication.

Unsheathe.

Move.

Stab through the heart.

Slit throat.

Stab through the eye.

Decapitate.

Throw. Create Rasengan. Shatter ribs, pulp organs. Catch.

Stab through the heart.

Decapitate.

Stab through the head.

Stab through the head.

Stab through the head.

Stab through the head stab through the head stab through the head stab through the head stab through the head stab through the head stab through the-

###

Forty two a minute.

Putting it in such a clinical, heartless way was the only way Minato Namikaze could be summed up.

Forty-two ninjas in one minute.

The speed and methodical nature of his practice of killing would be simpler to classify as a pandemic or natural disaster than the work of a human being. To say that a single man was killing, on average, forty-two highly practiced and devoted shinobi each minute was simply too difficult for most to wrap their head around. A single shinobi was the sum of years of difficult, expensive training, the product of ridiculously sharpened instincts, the foundation of military might. A single mediocre shinobi would match ten normal soldiers; a single well-trained shinobi could dominate a hundred normal soldiers.

For one man to kill forty-two such people a minute was why Minato Namikaze was the only man in history to be designated as something shinobi had no choice but to run from.

For one man to cut away, on average, seven-tenths of such a person's life every second with nothing but his chakra and a blade in each hand was simply too monstrous to comprehend.

Within a half-second of being reverse-summoned back to Konohagakure, The Fourth Hokage raged across his village, covering hundreds of feet every second and killing with every other beat of his heart. Even in his enraged, murderous state, Minato Namikaze's heart barely sped up, only going fast enough to enable his rampage and not any farther.

After his first seventy-eight kills, Minato took eight seconds to ensure the Sanbi would not range any farther.

He arrived at his student Obito's side. Obito, along with many other elite ninja, had been battling against the Sanbi, a living tidal wave that had flooded a significant part of the village. Asuma Sarutobi had nearly died in the attempt, while Iniochi Yamanaka had, along with nearly seventy others. The only thing that had prevented more casualties was Obito's summoning of Gamabunta, the chief toad of Myoboku, but the effort had been too much for him, and when Minato arrived, Obito was mostly unconscious.

It was simply for Minato to take over the burden of Gamabunta's summoning from his student. He told Obito that he was reliable, meaning it in his heart even though the effect was somewhat diffused by the blood covering the Hokage. Then he dropped another three monstrous toads on top of the Tailed Beast, including the guardians of Myoboku, leaving the Bijuu tied up until he could return to deal with it in a more permanent fashion.

Then Minato kept killing, following the blades he'd scattered across the village upon his arrival.

After his one-hundredth and twenty-fourth kill, Minato arrived at his wife's side, appearing next to Jiraiya the Toad Sage and observing the grisly tableau with a white face. He stayed there for forty-four seconds, lending his aid to repairing Kushina's seal and ensuring she would survive, though she had already slipped into a deep coma. He departed when Rin Nohara arrived, telling his student to save his wife no matter the cost.

Minato must have been further enraged by his wife's condition, because the rate of his killing sped up. Like a storm that had been kicked up into a hurricane, the natural disaster the Hokage had become began to claim the lives of forty-seven ninja a minute.

Four minutes later, the battle of Konoha had come to an end.

AN: Sorry for the wait; should be back on track. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!