In Spite of it all (BOOK TWO)

Chapter 25

Naruto POV~

"It worked." I said, breathing heavily as I lay on the ground. "Holy shit."

"Of course it worked, dobe. What did you think would happen?" Sasuke grumbled, also panting as he sat back against a tree.

"I don't know. I don't have a very good handle on the Rasenshuriken."

"Where did you learn a jutsu like that, anyways? It's powerful."

"I know, right? Kurama and I came up with it a while back, when we were theorizing on what would happen if I incorporated wind style into the Rasengan." I glanced at him, "Since we're on that topic, what the fuck is up with your eyeballs."

He blinked at me, as if now aware of the faint trace of blood still on his face. "Mangekyou sharingan."

"Oh. I see." Kurama had told me all he knew about Mangekyou sharingan. 

Sasuke nodded and stood. "So, what's your plan?"

"Hm?"

"I assume you have some sort of plan for this." 

I sat up as well, "Somewhat. The first part was to get the Hidden Villages on my side, to help deal  with the Akatsuki. From my place, I could feed them intel that they wouldn't be able to get otherwise, and they could use that to pick off the Akatsuki one by one. I also wouldn't have to worry about avoiding them and can focus on taking down the leaders, mainly Tobi." I ran a hand through my hair, "Speaking of which, I still don't know Tobi's main motive. He wants to do something big, and since he's collecting Tailed Beasts, it may have something to do with the Ten-Tails."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "The Ten-Tails?"

"You know the story of the Sage of Six Paths and the origin of the Bijuu, right?" he nodded, "Kurama says that if the Akatsuki are capturing the Bijuu, they may be sealing them into the Gedo statue and trying to revive the Ten-Tails."

Sasuke didn't respond for a moment. Then, he said, "What do you plan on doing?"

At this I stood up fully and brushed myself off. "Well, I found you. I can check that off." he looked at me quizzically. "Basically, once the Hidden Villages have decimated the Akatsuki, I can rally everyone up, along with the Tailed Beasts, and we'd take down Tobi."

"That's awfully vague." 

"Ah, well...not in my head?" I put my face in my hands and groaned, "Ah, shit, I should probably let the ninja villages know that I've escaped Tobi."

At the mention of the ninja villages, Sasuke looked away. I had a few guesses why, considering how he'd just fought and killed his brother.

"Naruto." at the tone of his voice, I paused and looked at him. He was still staring off into the forest, but he kept talking, "I need to tell you something."

And so, he did. He went on talking about what Tobi told him, about Itachi. When he was done, I was silent.

"That's..." I didn't finish that sentence.

"The more time that passes, the more I'm starting to believe it." he raked a hand through his hair, "I don't know what to believe anymore."

I didn't respond, instead walking over and sitting next to him against the tree. We sat in silence for a while.

"Whatever you do believe," I started, and Sasuke looked at me. He looked as lost as I've ever seen him. "Whatever you believe, there's nothing much you can do about it, can you?" I met his eyes, "All you can do is move on. Tobi could be lying, but you could confront the elders on this and get them to talk. By all means, at this point they don't have the right to withhold something like that. But besides that...the only thing left is to keep living the way you want to live. No one's going to stop you." I leaned back, tilting my head towards the sky.