I apologize for being so late with this chapter. I know I promised the final 2 chapters in December, but life got in the way, and it also didn't help I had writers block as well. But I should be able to post chapter 20 sometime this month so please stay tuned. Also please comment and review. Thanks for your time and enjoy chapter 19.

Chapter 19

Send in the clones

Keiko and Kagome opened their eyes, they were still in the cabin after the others departed to fight Toma. They shook off whatever damage they received.

"We're alive?" Keiko asked, looking over at her partner.

"Yeah, looks like it. I guess everyone must've gone off to who knows where."

Both women wiggled free from their bonds and stepped outside. They sensed a huge rush of chakra around them. It was like a rush of water beneath their feet.

"That must be where they ventured off to, to do battle with Master Toma." Keiko screamed, "What do you think we should do?"

Kagome thought for a moment, remembering what Keiko had said about running off and living their lives on the road. Living their lives, carefree, and full of peace.

"I think we should go, Keiko, I remember you told me that we live our lives since we have this second chance. So let's do it." She said.

There was something that changed, Keiko shook her head no.

"Keiko, did you hear me?"

Her partner looked over and gave her a reassuring smile, "I heard you Kagome-chan, and I think we should help them out."

"Are you insane? We can leave this place and go to Sand Country or wherever you want."

Keiko held her hands and looked into her eyes, "I believe it'd be better for us to assist them, we can officially atone for the chaos we caused the girl and her friends. If we live past that then we can go around the world. If not, then let's embrace death together."

Kagome let out a reluctant grunt and laughed, "All alright, you win. If we leave now, we can help the one named Naruto."

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Naruto and the others face off against Toma and his gigantic hoard of molten clones. Each of the Konoha Ninjas went to fend off the rock men while Naruto, Sakura, and Kai went against Toma. This was the first time Toma and Kai had spoken to each other since he was sealed in that cave so many years ago.

"Why? Why did you do all of this?" Kai asked.

"Kai, you are so predictable. Why wouldn't I want to do this? You stupid kid, it's because of the power that bird has. You think I would have stood by and allowed him to contain all that amazing power that makes the nine-tailed beasts look like a bunch of harmless kittens?"

"And for all of that, you needed me?"

He laughed at his nephew, "Not necessarily, it was a way for me to torment the son of my foolish brother. You were just a poor sucker that got roped in by my recommendation to the old codgers of the family council. And it was a plus, killing them before they found a replacement."

"You are such a heartless bastard." Sakura screamed out to Toma, all he could do was laugh.

"Please my dear, it won't matter in the end. After I extract the remaining essence of Ashimaru from you. You will never have to worry about me or anyone else again." He scoffed at Sakura.

"Like I'm going to allow that to happen. Come on guys, let's end this fight. Once and for all." Naruto growled.

"Big talk, but let's see if you can back that up." Toma bellowed.

On the other side of the battlefield, Hinata and Neji were doing everything in their power to take down clone after clone. Shikamaru held in place about 4 golems with his shadow possession jutsu. Kiba and Choji crashed into some more, Kiba with his Fang over Fang jutsu and Choji expending his limbs to crush them. Ino whipped a few exploding flowers to some that were anchored with Kushina's Chakra Chains, with Itachi and Tsubaki hitting some powerful water jutsu.

They may have destroyed the clones, but much to their shock and dismay… more would rise from the ground. And it looked like their numbers doubled.

"You have to be kidding, how are we going to stop these things?" Ino shrieked.

"We have to keep on fighting Ino-san." Hinata said.

They began to glow a bright red, indicating the magma flowing from their bodies. They charged Shikamaru informing everyone not to let them touch. "They are pulsating magma from their bodies so be careful."

"You got it Shikamaru." Kiba said, with Akamaru letting out a bark.

Choji lifted a huge slab of earth and slammed it on top of about six clones. With Kiba going underground and drilling through a few more clones. Itachi leaped onto the ground, he proceeded to fly through a flurry of hand signs and unleashed a torrent of water, wiping out a swarm of the golems. Kushina unleashed a few chakra chains, piercing through some more, with Ino letting out a storm of exploding flowers. Hinata and Neji blew more of them away with them with the eight trigrams. But no celebration can be found, with more of the earth golems once again generating from the ground.

Each new creature created quite an uncertainty for Shikamaru and the others. "It's just never-ending."

Naruto and the the others were not fairing any better, the fight against Towa was getting fierce. All Towa could do is laugh with each successful deflection. His eyes were laser-focused on Sakura, hoping to at least grapple her for a short minute to extract the last of Ashimaru's power. He made his first attempt before Naruto kicked him aside. And tried again, but Kai swatted him away with his sword.

"Now come on, sooner or later you will weaken and I'll finally achieve my full power." He laughed.

"Naruto, Kai, we have to think of some way to thwart him." Sakura said.

"It's a tough one to think of, how do we stop him?" Kai asked, this caused Naruto to try and think of something.

"Don't worry guys, I'll think of something." He tried to assure them, but Towa began his assault again.

He rushed in and Naruto sprung in with a few of his shadow clones. One clone tried to sweep his leg, but Towa bashed the clone with an elbow strike. One other clone managed to lay a punch across his cheek. But with the new power surging through his body, he felt no damage and struck the clone with a headbutt.

But it was a distraction, Naruto appears right behind him. In his hand was a fully powered Rasengan. "Time to send you for a ride, RASENGAN!" Naruto sinks the jutsu into his gut, sending Towa flying 50 ft. He crashes into a cliffside.

Sakura and Kai ran up to Naruto, to plot out another round of attacks.

"Are you alright Naruto?" The pink-haired ninja asked.

"A tad bit winded, but feeling pretty good."

"There has to be some way to deal with my uncle, but how? Do you have a plan Naruto?"

"To be honest, I can't plot anything out at the moment. I was hoping one of you would think of something." Naruto said, letting out a small chuckle.

Sakura for a moment began to plot something of her own though. "Naruto, Kai, I think I might have an idea. But for this to work, I need to run a sort of beta test of my true intention."

"Alright Sakura, let us in on your plan." Kai and Naruto said in unison.

On the other side of the battlefield, it was getting quite dire. It seemed like a fruitless fight as more and more of the constructs kept rising from the ground. Shikamaru looked all over his surroundings and tried to pinpoint some sort of weak point to at least lessen the influx of these powerful enemies.

Then it caught his eyes, whenever a construct would be destroyed the ground where they were flooding in began to glow. It had to be a seal that was the cause of this massive headache. He relayed the information to the others.

"What do you think we should do?" Ino asked.

"Simple, destroy the ground and the seal should follow." Shikamaru answered, looking at Choji and Kiba. Both nodded and began to destroy the surrounding area, completely eradicating the seals.

"Alright, now let's take these things down." Itachi said, with Kushina and the Hyuga cousins joining in.

With each volley of attacks, the army of golems began to crumble. With no seals to create more, it was now easy to do. There were a good 30 of them still to take down, but for the ninja on hand, it shouldn't be that hard of a task to do.

Toma broke free from the cliffside he was launched into by the Rasengan. He quickly made his way back to where they were waiting for him. Toma flew like a phoenix and soon appeared where he once was. However what he found was a sight to behold, there were now three Sakura's looking at him. This caused him to laugh.

"Simple illusion jutsu, really cute kids. But I have to applaud your pathetic attempt to hide her."

"Why's that if I may ask?" One Sakura asked.

"It's simple really, Ashimaru's chakra is quite easy for me to detect. All I have to do is channel my acquired chakra and feel out the area. Then all this effort to cloak her from me is all for not."

"Then shut up and try." Another Sakura said.

"Yeah, if your so confident in trying to locate your prize then lets see if you can play out this game of hide and go seek." The third Sakura shouted.

"Alright, if you three insist." He said with a laugh. He closed his eyes and began to radiate a black aura that consumed his entire body. Normally, this would locate the remaining power from Ashimaru in Sakura. But there was a problem. He felt nothing around him, it was like Ashimaru was hiding her power from him and there was nothing he could do. The look on his face said it all, shock and loss.

"What's the matter, can't find the little birdy?" All three Sakura said in harmony.

"What gives, I should be able to pick the real Sakura out of you three. But instead, I feel nothing from you three. What did you do?"

Then all three Sakuras began to speak at once again. "It's simple Toma, I had Naruto and Kai transform into me and Ashimaru knew that you'd act like a bloodhound and try and locate her life force so she is cloaked. Which means that if you want to find her you will have to pick the real Sakura from us."

"No problem, this should be no problem." He said before he started to transform his body. The dark chakra that he consumed began to envelop his body and his body mass began to grow out. His eyes changed into a black coloring, his muscles bulked out, his ears became pointy like an elf's, and his teeth became serrated. He was now transformed.

But before he could launch his attack, One Sakura deployed the final part of the plan… A gigantic mass of Sakura appeared around them. Naruto must've created shadow clones and they all transformed into her. The three Sakura blended into the gigantic crowd.

"Now comes the tricky part there Toma, try and find me but I have to warn you that this will be like finding a needle in a haystack." They all said as Toma wasted no time to humor their request. He charged towards the army of Kunoichi and began to wipe out hoards and hoards of Sakuras.

It started with a dogpile covering him, but a burst of black chakra destroyed a few dozen of the clones. Then he systematically began to attack one clone after another, each attack causing them to poof into the abyss.

Toma was doing this with such glee, he knew sooner or later it'd come to an end and his goal would be completed. His eyes caught sight of about 10 left.

"The three of you must be in these final batches of clones, so how about I just blow you all away." He said, gathering a huge amount of chakra for his ultimate attack. The clones lunged at him before he unleashed the huge chakra into one gigantic burst… "HELL FIRE STYLE: BLAZING PULSE JUTSU!" This blew the clones away with a fierce wave of black flames. However there was a penialty to using this jutsu, the chakra drained from his body. But no worries is what he thought, he looked around and hoped to catch sight of the pink-haired kunoichi.

His luck shined like a lone star in a Barron night sky. He saw Kai, Naruto, and Sakura on the ground. He figured the wave knocked them out. Like a hungry wolf lurking towards a wounded deer, he slowly approached Sakura.

"My beautiful young kunoichi, I do say that you did your best to thwart my plans. But all for not, now brace yourself this just might sting a bit."

He lunged his hand and grabbed her by the throat and a surge of black chakra began to flow into his body. He could feel his body begin to absorb the remaining presence of Ashimaru from Sakura. He laughed so loud, it was an ear-piercing cackle.

"I feel it, it's so amazing. The power, the unobtainable power, I have the phoenix in my possession." He shouted to the heavens. All the while Sakura was writhing in pain.

In his sight, as he felt the power fleeting from Sakura caught sight of the two Sakura on the ground disappearing and catching Naruto on the ground, but the other Sakura who he assumed was his nephew didn't appear.

Toma released his grasp on the Sakura he was absorbing. He looked at his hands and noticed that nothing had changed. "What the hell? I should be more powerful, Ashimaru's power coursing through my veins… What's going on?"

Sakura stood up and smiled at him, she grabbed onto Toma. Toma struggled to get free as she bashed his face with her forehead. He staggered back and she slammed her hand onto Toma's right arm. He looked over and saw that the object placed on his arm was a seal. It quickly took effect, and a rush of lightning surged throughout his body. He screamed in pain as he tried everything in his power to remove the tag but to no avail. His transformed state began to weaken as the seal began to absorb the essence of Ashimaru from his person. It didn't take long for the tag to siphon all of that power and revert him.

He dropped to his knees, panting like he ran a triathlon. "What did you do to me?" He bellowed.

Sakura reverted to reveal that it was Kai in disguise. "Simple Uncle, we managed to take back what belongs to Sakura." He said removing the seal from his arm and throwing it to Naruto.

"Here you go Naruto, I believe this belongs to Sakura."

Naruto caught the seal and combined it with the other seal that Tsubaki had given them before this battle. "Alright Sakura-hime, are you ready?"

"Hell yeah Naruto, bring it on." She said with a smile. But before Naruto placed the seal on her, Toma stood up and with the remaining chakra he had at the moment formed a blade of chakra and pierced Kai in the back. Kai let out a painful yell, Both Naruto and Sakura looked at their friend being impaled by Toma.

"Stupid fool, you should have just been a good little boy and allowed me to take what is mine. Now Sakura, do me a huge favor and surrender to me or I will kill this piece of trash."

"Sakura, what should we do?" Naruto whispers to her.

"I'm thinking Naruto." She answers him.

"Sakura, you must not give in to his demands. You have to fuse with Ashimaru, my life is meaningless if you give it back to him." Kai pleaded to her, leading Toma to press the chakra blade deeper into his back.

"What do you think how we should approach this Sakura-hime?" Naruto said as Sakura plotted something.

"I don't know Naruto, give me a moment." She answered, fearing for her new friend and how to go about this.

Chapter 20: The Final Battle

Coming later this month.