Wish Upon the Night Sky (Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 58

Kakuzu was distracted, killing the clones that were attacking, giving Naruto the perfect opportunity to hit Kakuzu.

But the strangest thing happened. Just as Naruto's Rasen Shuriken was a centimetre away from Kakuzu's chest, it faded away into nothing.

"Did he hit him?" Ino asked, a hopeful smile on her face.

Yamato paled. "... He missed."

In a fit of panic, Usagi jumped forwards.

Activating her Deva path, she pulled Naruto's body towards her.

The thing is, as soon as she did that, her body started convulsing. She collapsed to the floor, clutching at her chest as her body trembled. Naruto fell to the ground as her jutsu deactivated, pain making her unable to continue using the Deva path.

"Usagi!!" Ino ran towards her, laying her friend down with her back on the ground. "Shit, Usagi!" Pumping chakra into her hands, Ino held them over the redhead's heart.

The thread that Kakuzu had used to wrap around Usagi's heart... she hadn't managed to remove it, it had only snapped off.

Kakuzu still had control over her heart, and he was determined to steal it.

Usagi had a plan, an idea on how to remove this thread, but she had to wait another 54 seconds before she could do that.

"Naruto, your jutsu-" Choji started speaking, but the blonde interrupted.

"Let me do it again!" Naruto said. "Just once more, I'll decide this with my new jutsu!"

"This is an Akatsuki member!" Choji said. "Now that he's seen your attack, he knows what to expect. Let's work together."

Naruto shook his head. "Teamwork is important, I know that... but right now I need to do this. Kakashi-Sensei told me, I'm the only shinobi that can surpass the Fourth Hokage. I need to do this."

Usagi, despite the amount of pain she was in, smiled and gave Naruto a thumbs up.

"Thanks, Usagi." The blonde grinned, glad to have the approval of his teammate.

Yamato sighed. "Alright. But if anything goes wrong we're jumping in."

Naruto jumped back into action.

Usagi's smile disappeared as he ran off. 23 seconds to go... could she make it?

"Usagi..." Ino was freaking out. There was only so much her medical ninjutsu could do. With a continuous pressure squeezing her heart, she couldn't keep Usagi alive much longer. "Usagi, I can't keep you..." She choked on the words. How was she meant to tell her friend she was about to die?

Blood trickled from the corner of Usagi's mouth. She was blinking back tears as she bore the pain of her heartbeat forcefully fading.

Choji and Yamato glanced towards her, concern written all over their faces. "Ino, is she alright?"

A tear fell from Ino's eye. "She... She's..."

Usagi, with what little energy she had left, dragged her finger along the dirt next to her, writing a short message in the ground.

Look away.

Her 23 seconds were up.

Usagi activated her Asura path, turning only the skin in her arms into armour.

She pushed Ino away, and in a split second plunged her arm right through her own chest.

Tears fell from her eyes as her small hand tugged the black thread off her heart.