Naruto had had to come to terms with the fact that he was fighting a losing battle very quickly.
Sasuke was already a level above him, and whatever drug Orochimaru gave him boosted his abilities by a noticeable margin.
Sasuke punched Naruto off of Madara's head and kicked him into the river below.
They both hit the water.
Sasuke fired a bolt of lightning at him, and Naruto narrowly dodged it.
Naruto wasn't anywhere near as smart, and Sasuke had recently made a habit of running circles around him when they sparred.
But there was one thing he had, one thing that he knew Sasuke didn't have any sort of answer to even after years of training side-by-side.
An unending amount of cannon fodder.
Naruto formed a massive horde of clones, numbering nearly three hundred, and made a hand seal.
Bird.
He fired a large wind blade at Sasuke, while popping all of his own clones.
He ducked, and Naruto took the opportunity to start throwing things through the smoke-screen.
A lot of things.
Shuriken, knives, senbon, javelins, the works.
Sasuke dodged most of them, but some were able to hit him.
The ones that didn't detonated, and while Sasuke could deflect the fire, the shockwaves remained.
Sasuke was hurled into Madara's shin, and black marks started to coat his body.
Naruto, in response, started sprouting tails.
One, two, three vermillion tails erupted from him.
Sasuke spewed out a wave of fire, which Naruto let engulf him.
Naruto rushed through the flames.
—
Choji huffed and nearly fell over.
This guy was strong. Really strong.
When his skin turned red, he instantly downed Ino and Shikamaru.
Choji had already eaten two Akimichi specialty pills, and the pain was unimaginable. No words could describe it.
"Hmph. Seems like your pathetic friends weren't good enough," the teen taunted.
Choji's anger spiked.
Choji reached into his pouch, and pulled out a red sphere.
If you eat this red pill, Choji, you will not survive. Don't do it unless...
Jirobo dashed at him.
Choji bit into the pill, and swallowed it.
...you have something that you're willing to die for!
Chakra surged within him, and he stopped Jirobo dead in his tracks.
"You made a mistake," he said. "You insulted my first friend. And for that, you're dead."
He flipped Jirobo onto his back and stood above him.
He tuned out the teen's babbles and cries for mercy and focused every last shred of chakra he could into his hand.
"I will never forgive you for what you just did. Even if you insulted me, took my food, left me to hang for a couple of hours, those I can forgive. But you've just crossed the one line I have. So take this."
He punched.
Jirobo's chest caved in, spraying bone shards and blood across the glade they stood on.
He felt queasy at the sight, and then turned away.
He panted, and then staggered back to Shikamaru.
He dropped down next to Shikamaru and placed a hand on his throat.
Still alive. Good.
His father's words echoed back to him.
Sooner or later, you'll find somebody who sees you for who you are, not what you are.
And when that happens, you treasure them with your life, you hear me?
Tears trickled down from his face.
A sharp stabbing pain formed in his chest, and he fell over.
I've... found that somebody... dad...
His heartbeat quieted.
And then stopped.
—
Hinata dodged another arrow from Kidomaru.
I hate long-range fighters so much!
Even though she could see exactly where he was, he kept darting away from her, kept summoning spiders and she was so sick of it all!
Her chakra supply was dwindling steadily, and her reserves, while sizable, weren't bottomless.
Sakura wasn't too much better, also working her way through her own horde of summons.
I really should've kept some of Naruto's clones with me, she bitterly thought.
She dodged another arrow, but it swung around and grazed her shoulder.
Those things turn?
It punched straight through a tree.
She punched a spider away and darted straight towards where she knew he was.
He was smart, yes, but also quite proud.
He'd think this a mockery of his archery skills, and shoot.
Sure enough, he nocked an arrow with six of his limbs and fired.
It punched straight through her gut, and nearly arrested her momentum.
She grabbed the cord and pushed as much chakra through it as she could.
Kidomaru seized up, the foreign energy shredding through him.
She ran towards him and jabbed at his core.
His chest exploded, and she immediately turned to where the others ran off to.
Sakura caught her, and began to run.
"Two minutes until the blood loss kills me," she whispered. Sakura nodded, and sped up.
---
Sayuri formed four clones, which all attacked Kimimaro.
He blocked a slash from one and blocked her back strike with his elbow.
He forced her back and dispelled a clone with a bullet.
He stabbed two others in the smoke, giving him enough space to fire a javelin at the last clone.
It leaned back and disengaged.
She jumped back in, blocking his slash.
She attempted to force eye contact and he glared.
He drew another blade from his shoulder, and slashed with both.
There was no opening, no space to block.
Perfect.
She had already seen it coming, and drawn a kunai.
She pushed his arms away from his chest and tried to stab him in the chest, wind sharpening the blade.
A step away from his heart, he sprouted bones all over his body.
Only her sharingan-assisted reactions allowed her to react, and she wove her way through the needles.
This, unfortunately, stopped her dead in her tracks.
She was cut across her body, and it broke her glasses.
She jumped back.
"Hey, my prescriptions aren't cheap, you know!"
"Then you should've considered that before getting in a fight with me."
She stared him in the face again, and he growled. "Stop that!"
She charged forward, chakra filling the blade again.
Most Jonin agreed that it was genjutsu that was the most dangerous out of the main three jutsu types.
Although it was commonly used as a distraction tactic, that was not what had earned genjutsu this position.
Every ninja was trained to tell when the world broke away from reality. Making someone's vision go black was a great distraction, but it wasn't subtle, and someone like Kimimaro would be able to dispel it without thinking.
Which he had, in fact. Twice.
What genjutsu was really feared for was for the little tricks. To think that the enemy's sword was just a little shorter, or maybe to make it sound like someone was calling their name, to make a tree branch look just a bit sturdier and longer.
Such things swung the tides of war.
So when Sayuri had placed a tiny genjutsu on Kimimaro, covered by a much larger, unrefined one, he didn't notice.
So he thought that she was just a little bit faster.
Half a metre away from Kimimaro, he sprouted his bones.
She wove her way through the bones, and stabbed the right side of his chest.
She slashed up and carved a very large gash in his torso, before stringing hand seals together.
Horse- Tiger.
She exhaled an impressive mass of fire that coated Kimimaro completely.
When she let up, he was not as dead as she'd hoped he'd be.
He started laughing, which quickly devolved into a rattling cough.
"Impressive. I understand why my master chose you," he wheezed.
"Remember, Sayuri. When a seemingly downed ninja starts complimenting you or starts laughing maniacally, that's when you should start worrying," Itachi had said, long ago.
"But you have spat upon his wishes. For that, you must die." As she watched, bone grew over his wound. His skin went dark brown and his eyes turned yellow.
He ripped his spinal cord out of his back and swung it experimentally before charging.
Sayuri gulped again. And she ran.
She hoped to lead him to the forest, where she'd be able to leverage her smaller frame to out-manoeuvre him.
Kimimaro refused to let that work.
He brandished his whip, knocking trees over while running after her.
She threw shuriken, kunai, daggers, senbon all over with reckless abandon. Kimimaro deflected the weapons that came close to him.
Soon enough, Sayuri was now standing on the only tree in a new clearing. The ground was littered with all sorts of thrown weapons.
Kimimaro wrapped bone around his right arm into a lance and jumped up to meet her.
She wove seals.
Bird- Monkey- Ram- Hare- Horse- Tiger-
She jumped down from her perch.
Dog- Rat- Ram- Monkey- Ram- Bird.
Hundreds of tiny blades whirred to life in her palm.
Kimimaro's eyes drifted, and his whip swung around and snapped the whole web of razor wire that she'd set.
Her face fell.
He continued to approach.
Some wire tugged on her ankle, and she jerked off her previous trajectory.
She winked at him.
Then she dragged her palm across his back, and ripped into his heart.
She looked in the direction that Naruto had run off in.
The ground started rumbling.
Her gut told her to jump, so she jumped.
That was a good thing, because a bone appeared right under her, and many more appeared around the area they fought in.
The clearing turned into another forest, made of bone instead of wood.
Is that it? Because that was insane. Easily a Kage-level feat.
Thinking that was a mistake, because her shadow clone shouted: "Behind you!"
She ducked, and Kimimaro was right above her, already preparing another swing.
She jumped away, but Kimimaro was already right under her, thrusting again.
The wire pulled her back, and she cut the steel.
She may have inherited the momentum of the reel pulling her back, but she was still falling.
Plans. Alright. It seems like he can go as fast as he wants while in the bones, but he slows down when he wants to attack. So what do I do about it?
She slashed the bone pillar right as Kimimaro burst from it. He thrust, and she found herself too slow.
Her sharingan, bleeding, showed her in vivid detail how she'd die.
Spinal cord crushed, heart and left lung pulverised in one second. Death approximately four seconds following.
No.
No. She could not accept that.
Her eyes bled and she uttered one word.
"Tsukuyomi."
Kimimaro fell over, limp. Sayuri swiftly ended him with a stab in the head.
In the reflection of her blade, she saw her eyes.
They were not normal sharingan. Three sickle blades, evenly spaced, tapered into the central pupil.
"The mangekyo," she whispered. "But when...?"
Sasuke ate the pill, and collapsed.
"Oh. I thought that he died."
She shook it off, and turned to where Naruto ran off to chase Sasuke.
She ran.
—
Naruto stabbed the water, and the water swirled into a massive whirlpool.
Sasuke was sucked into the drain, and the water condensed into a liquid prison.
Sasuke's eyes shifted into the Mangekyo, and he fired a blast of black flames.
He jumped out of the sphere.
Naruto's chakra flared, and the water split into dozens of dragons, which all converged on Sasuke.
A purple rib cage formed around Sasuke, which began to sprout arms and a head.
He's outdoing himself. He's close to the humanoid form.
Sasuke leapt out of his armour and charged towards him.
Naruto charged towards him, a rasengan forming.
Four, five, six, seven, eight tails fluttered in the wind.
The ninth tail sprouted, and they all combined into one tail, forming a solid cloak. It turned his skin blood-red.
The black markings on Sasuke's body turned grey, as did his flesh. His hair grew longer, and two wing-like appendages sprouted from his back.
A chidori blazed, and black flames sprouted in the black lightning.
The jutsu connected, and the shockwave it produced was enough to halt the waterfall for a good few moments. It pulverised the rock and was audible for kilometres out.
This also meant that it knocked the boys back, hard.
Sasuke was able to resummon the Susano'o to mitigate the damage, but Naruto was unable to.
The chakra receded, and Naruto drifted into unconsciousness.
Sasuke untied his headband and dropped it next to Naruto.
Then he flapped his new wings, and flew away.
---
"You guys okay?" Sayuri asked. "Where's Choji?"
Shikamaru and Ino looked down. That was enough of an answer.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"It's fine. You weren't responsible, and I made the call. Are you okay?"
"Yeah." She turned and saw Hinata and Sakura, limping in.
Hinata looked terrible. A massive, profusely bleeding hole in her gut.
She collapsed into the dirt. Sayuri rushed to her, and put a palm on her chest.
"Sukunabikona."
Her vision exploded in detail.
She could see all of Hinata's chakra network, the damage that she'd need to fix, and how to fix it.
She pushed chakra through her fingers, and Hinata's wounds began to close.
But with so little chakra, she couldn't do much.
Sakura placed her palm on Sayuri's back and pushed her own chakra into the technique.
Slowly, surely, the wound closed.
After nearly five minutes of this loop, Hinata no longer showed any substantial damage.
Sayuri shakily stood and turned back to the others.
"Hinata's stable. Let's go find Naruto."
The four jumped off the cliff to the Valley of the End, where they only saw Naruto.
---
Kakashi was relieved when he saw six chakra signatures on the horizon, despite them being the wrong size, shape, and number.
Shikamaru and Ino's eyes were red and puffy from crying, and Hinata was trembling.
In sadness or in rage, he didn't know.
Sakura glared.
Sayuri and Naruto both looked downcast. A trickle of blood dripped from Naruto's lip.
He sighed, and moved to console the remnants of his former team.
---
Naruto absently wandered around the half-broken Uchiha district.
"Hey, idiot."
Naruto whirled around, sword drawn.
"Damn, you still can't recognise my voice. I'm disappointed."
Naruto frowned. "Sasuke? The hell are you doing here?"
"It's a shadow clone. I thought I should tell you in person."
Naruto nodded. "Tell me what? I already know what you're going to be doing."
"In three years, I'm going to need you to leave Konoha. You and Sayuri."
"For how long? And is this to fight Itachi?"
"A couple of weeks. However long it takes to find him."
Naruto sighed. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. Alright then."
Sasuke blinked. "You're okay with that?"
"Are you trying to convince me to not let you go? Because I know exactly where you are, and I don't think that you'd like to find Kurama at your front door tomorrow."
"No, obviously not. But I absolutely do not deserve you."
"There are quite a few things that you have that you don't deserve." Naruto shrugged. He shooed Sasuke away.
"You better live, you hear me?"
Sasuke snorted. "I see that you haven't changed a bit."
"What do you mean? I've changed a ton! You're the one who hasn't changed at all!"
It took half an hour before the two stopped trading barbs and laughed.
"See ya." Naruto waved, and Sasuke dispelled in a cloud of smoke.
---
Sasuke looked at Orochimaru, confused.
"You look different from how I remember."
Kabuto hissed in his ear. "Careful. No matter who you are, Lord Orochimaru will kill you if you insult him."
The man was swathed in so many bandages that he couldn't tell what he was supposed to look like. The only things that were visible were an eye and his light teal hair.
"I was having trouble in the body department, so I got myself a new one! You, however, look much the same."
"Thank you. So, introductions."
"I don't believe that those will be necessary. I know what you want out of me, and I'm certain that Kimimaro briefed you on what I want out of you."
"Given that a motley crew of genin and chunin were able to take down your lieutenants and right-hand man, you certainly seem to need more capable fighters. If I recall, two of them didn't even make it out of the village." Sasuke touched the back of his shirt, which was torn. "Also, it was somewhat hot coming here. Perhaps if you gave me more appropriate clothing, I'd be more willing to do your fighting..."
"Cheeky, aren't you? Very well. I'm sure that Kabuto can accommodate your fashion sense. Now, onto what I was hoping to talk about.
If I recall, you possess the Mangekyo Sharingan, and have used it over the course of a few months. Think back to before you awakened it, and to your most recent fight. Do you notice anything? Perhaps some visual degradation? A blood-red that stains spots in your vision to invisibility?"
Sasuke nodded.
"Right. Well, you may be relieved to find out that there is a way to reverse and prevent this process.
I will tell you about what is referred to in the Uchiha's lost archives as the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan."
---
Hinata slapped Hiashi's strike away.
"You're getting better," he commented.
She wove into his guard and slammed her palm against his chest.
He deflected it and held a finger to her head.
"Unfortunately, it isn't enough. Keep practising."
Hinata nodded, bowed, and exited the dojo.
"Hinata!" Hanabi ran in. "Can you play with me?"
"Sorry, Hanabi. Big sis is too tired to play with you today. What about your classmates in the academy?'
"They're all so stupid though! And they don't like me, either!"
"And what about the other Hyuga?"
"They treat me too well! Like I'm some kind of princess!"
"Don't most girls your age want to be treated like that, though?" She smiled.
Hanabi pouted. "But it's always been like that! You're the only one that treats me normally!"
"That's true... tell you what! Big sis will let you play with her friends tomorrow. They'll treat you well, promise!"
Hanabi grinned. "Okay!"
She ran off.
"You should know better than to indulge her, Hinata." Hiashi stepped in.
"Father," she said.
"Yes."
"I will not allow Hanabi to turn out how I did. She will have a normal childhood, with friends, happiness, and family. She will not be drilled in the traditional way of the Hyuga."
"Tradition is what has made us strong," Hiashi said. "You may not understand, but she must be instructed as befits the progeny of a clan head. You know how others view shinobi and clans in this village. Can you imagine the scorn and mockery she'd endure if she didn't become a ninja?"
Hinata glared, but said nothing else.
She just hoped that Hanabi could keep her smile through all of this.
Unknown to her, a small puppet's eye swirled, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
---
Sakura stood in Tsunade's office.
"You want me to do what? Train you? Nuh uh. I'm not taking personal proteges."
Sakura stood her ground.
"Please. I'm not taking no for an answer."
The woman stood and sighed.
"Fine. Prove yourself, and I'll train you."
Sakura smirked. "Bring it."
—
Sayuri stared Danzo down.
"As you have requested that I train you, I will do so to the best of my abilities. I have been told to not use the standard Shimura training drills, as you are not in possession of the clan's bloodline. To begin, you will face a shadow clone." He slammed his cane down, and a clone appeared in a puff of smoke.
Sayuri rushed the clone down, blade drawn.
It raised its cane, and blocked the slash.
"Impatient, aren't you?"
She punched, and it sidestepped.
"Your strikes could use more refinement. I can read your moves perfectly." Danzo kicked, and she braced.
She was sent flying across the underground room they were in.
She hit the wall and cracked it.
She was sure that the loud crack she heard was one of her ribs, not the wall.
The clone continued to approach at a brisk pace.
She staggered to her feet and prepared to face the clone again.
He began to form seals with a single hand, so fast that she couldn't discern his movements without pumping more chakra into her sharingan, chakra which she couldn't spare.
She noticed the buildup of chakra in his lungs and made a seal.
Tiger.
The two fired elemental blasts of fire and wind at each other.
Danzo's jutsu won, and she had to duck under the wind blade.
Danzo flickered in front of her and grabbed her face.
"Let's test your genjutsu resistance."
The room ran red.
---
Jiraiya stood at the gate.
"Come on, Naruto! We don't have all day!"
Naruto walked towards him. "Yeah yeah, I got it."
Sayuri waved. "Bye, Naruto. Don't die."
Naruto smiled. "Stay alive."
The two hugged, and Naruto turned to the gates.
One went back to the familiar, and one charged into the unknown head-first.
Although their time hadn't quite come yet, they would be ready for when it did.
---
"Well, we haven't met like this in a couple of years, have we?" A man with orange hair said. His eyes were peculiar, concentric circles overlaid on a purple iris.
"As far as I recall, Pain. Why call us together in such a fashion?" A man asked while hunched over. under his cloak, a metal tail flexed. His silhouette flickered with static, and his outline shifted colours constantly.
"Yeah, what the fuck, man? I was killing people!" Hidan twirled his scythe. Like the others, he was also distorted by the technique they used.
"You're always killing people!"
"Quiet, all of you. I've called you all here to discuss our further operations."
They settled down.
"We will be finishing our last set of missions before we begin hunting the jinchuriki by next year."
Itachi spoke. "I counsel patience," he began. "We have almost no information on the four, five, six, and seven tails. The nine-tails left Konoha with Jiraiya a few months ago. The world is on high alert for us, and if we begin moving too early, our chances of success lower drastically."
"Your proposal, Itachi?" Konan asked.
"We should bide our time until we begin hunting. Accrue more funds, weaken the budgets of the hidden villages a little more, and collect information."
"I agree with Itachi." The man was large and stocky, and his voice sounded like stones grating together. "If we enact our plan too soon, we will end up shorn with little to show for it."
"Kakuzu, are you really suggesting that we need four years to-" the only blonde of the group began.
"Yes, Deidara, I'm saying we need four years. The hell is your problem?"
"You're stupid that's my-"
"And your art sucks, so-"
"It doesn't matter, I'm immortal-"
"But what about the rest of us-"
"ENOUGH!" Pain shouted.
They all jumped a little bit.
"Now that I have your attention," he said in monotone. "We will be taking time to track down the rest of the jinchuriki. Sasori, Kakuzu, I want you two to alert all members of your networks to be on the lookout for the four- to seven-tails jinchuriki.
When they are found, we'll begin."
Konan motioned to the others. "Dismissed."
One by one, their avatars flickered out of existence, save for two.
"Itachi, Kisame. Is there anything that you want to say?"
Kisame grinned. "Of course. The honourable leader of the Kiri rebel forces is requesting our presence to help defeat the Three Tails. Given what you just said, this may jeopardise our performance-"
"No. You take the mission, and seal the Three Tails. I'm confident that you two can do it. Just ensure that your purpose isn't discovered. If anyone, and I mean, anyone, asks for the Three Tails, kill them."
"Understood, Pain."
The two images flickered out of existence.
He turned to the new recruit. "As for you... we'll have to figure something out. You're quite useful, aren't you? Would you like to officially join the Akatsuki?"
The man nodded once.
-----
And so ends Part 1.
So, certain decisions that I made here, because I expect at least some comments asking about these and I don't feel like saying the same thing ten times:
1) Yes, Choji is dead. No, he's not coming back. The fact is, Choji did little to nothing following the Sasuke Retrieval Mission, and it would've been so much easier on the writing if he didn't survive.
Besides, I have plans for Shikamaru and what he'll do...
2) Yes, Sayuri defeated Kimimaro. He's much stronger (I hope that I conveyed that), but after he activated the Curse Mark and his intelligence dropped, she started running mental circles around him. In the end, he got outsmarted and wasn't strong enough to make up for the difference.
3)Yes, there's another Akatsuki member. I think that some of you may be able to guess who, but I'm not telling yet.
So, anyway, please comment and vote. Give me validation from meaningless numbers going up!
Oh, also, we're almost at 100k views!