The Angel's Ambivalence [Naruto]

No Return

"The saddest word in the whole wide world is the word almost. He was almost in love. She was almost good for him. He almost stopped her. She almost waited. He almost lived. They almost made it."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It didn't make sense at first. It was almost as if time had frozen, as if the world itself had come to a complete halt around me, leaving nothing but Madara, myself, and the katana between us.

Except Madara wasn't Madara anymore.

Madara wasn't in front of me. Ryuu was. Madara wasn't staring at me. Ryuu was. Madara wasn't bleeding to death. Ryuu was.

Ryuu.

I couldn't understand it. All I could do was stare into the emerald green eyes that mirrored my own, eyes that I'd gotten used to, eyes that belonged to the person I loved most in this world.

But then the owner of those eyes coughed up blood, and time started once again.

"... Ryuu?" My voice was barely a whisper, a sound more broken than anything I'd ever made. I was speaking as if I was a child once again, a child who was absolutely terrified, and in that moment, that was exactly what I felt like. I felt like a child who was having an awful nightmare, only this time, I wouldn't wake up. I couldn't wake up, because this was my reality, the reality in which I'd just fatally injured my own twin brother.

"Heh... Nice shot, sis..." Ryuu muttered, and then his body swayed, and he was falling, katana and all. I caught him before he could reach the ground, gathering him in my arms and trying my best to make him comfortable. I stared at him, completely immobile, as my eyes took in the sight of him laying there, wounded and broken all because I'd been stupid enough to fall for Madara's little trick.

There was so much blood. It was everywhere, forming a pool around him and soaking the ground beneath us. It spread through his clothing and stained his pale skin red. I was left wondering how on earth a person could bleed this much, how a body could take this much pain and somehow still endure. His hands were pressed against his abdomen, covering the wound, but they did little to stop the bleeding. It was such an awful sight that for a moment, all I could do was sit there and stare, momentarily stunned, as I tried to make sense of the situation. I couldn't even feel the chakra rod that I knew was still sticking out of my shoulder, despite the fact that I knew that there was blood was dripping from the wound it'd created. My injury was so insignificant compared to Ryuu's, compared to the wound I'd personally inflicted upon him.

As I sat there, I attempted to figure out how things had ended up this way, how this situation had turned so completely horrible in only a matter of seconds. I remembered creating a barrier to separate Ryuu from Madara and I while I battled the Uchiha ancestor. I remembered Ryuu breaking that same barrier, joining our fight before vanishing from my sight. But most of all, I remembered Madara's single Rinnegan eye, boring into mine when I'd been holding Sasuke's dead body in my arms.

And suddenly, it all made sense: genjutsu. That was why everything had felt so off while I was fighting Madara. That was why it'd seemed like Ryuu had completely disappeared during our battle, even though I knew that he would never willingly leave me alone in a situation like that. Madara had warped reality using genjutsu, making me believe that I was fighting him when I was really fighting my brother.

And I, someone who was never good at countering and seeing through genjutsu, despite my kekkei genkai, had fallen right for it.

"... I can fix this," I announced suddenly, snapping myself out of my daze, except I didn't sound like myself. My voice was shaking and sounded hollow, as if I was on the brink of snapping. But I wouldn't do that, I couldn't, not when my brother still needed me. "I know I can. I have Saiki's chakra, now. It'll help me."

"Minxie..." Ryuu called my name, but his voice was so quiet, so unlike him that I refused to acknowledge it, because my twin brother was not meant to ever sound that way. He was not meant to ever go through this, especially not when he was still only seventeen years old.

"Sakura taught me enough medical ninjutsu," I continued, as if he hadn't spoken, "She says I just have to concentrate for it to work. I know it'll work now. I just- I-I need to stay calm. I can do this. I can fix this."

"Minxie... Stop..." His voice was pleading now, and it was then that I noticed how pale he looked. I mean, he'd always been pale, but never deathly pale, not the way he was now. It was as if his face had been completely drained of all color, and I couldn't accept that. I wouldn't accept that.

"Be quiet," I snapped at him, harsher than I'd intended to be, "I'm going to fix this." I rummaged through my bag, trying to find bandages and growing frustrated when I couldn't find any. "I will fix this. I will, I just have to focus and- Where the hell did I put the bandages!?"

"Minxie, just stop." He grabbed my wrist, surprising me with his strength. I didn't think he'd be able to do much in his current state, but he'd managed to completely halt my movements. I was so stunned by his action that I didn't even fight back. I merely blinked at him, questioning, but his eyes were unrelenting, as if he'd already accepted a truth that I was still fighting. "We both know... That you can't heal this..."

"Shut up," I hissed at him, ignoring the tears that were gathering in my eyes and beginning to blur my vision, "How can you say that? You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do. And you sure as hell don't get to leave me, either! Do you understand me? I will be so mad at you if you leave me. I won't forgive you for it, not ever. You don't get to check out, Ryuu, not now. You are not leaving me alone. Please, please don't leave me alone."

"You won't be alone, Minxie," He promised, and he was being so sincere and looking at me with such honesty and love that I wanted to burst into tears right then and there, because every single move he made screamed that this was goodbye. And I'd had enough goodbyes to last a lifetime. "You'll never be alone... Even if I'm not here physically-"

"NO!" My voice changed again, this time sounding hysterical. It was especially frightening because I could never remember myself ever sounding like that before. I'd never had a reason to, but now I did, and I hated every second of it. "Don't talk that way!" And finally, the tears fell from my eyes, spilling down my cheeks. I ignored them, reaching out and brushing his hair back and out of his eyes. His hair was the only part of him that didn't seem to be drowning in blood. "You just need to hang on a little longer. We'll find another way, like we always do. I just- I need a little more time. I-I can- Lady Tsunade." I immediately looked up, whirling my head around in search of the blonde Hokage. "She's here now. She can heal you, I know she can-"

"She can't, Minxie," He muttered, his voice tired and a bit strained.

I blinked at him, momentarily stunned, before continuing, "But her regeneration jutsu-"

"Only works on her. And even if it did work on me, there wouldn't be any point. The Allied Forces have been taking a beating. We both know that. Not even the Hokage has enough chakra right now-"

"Then she can take mine!"

But Ryuu only shook his head slightly. "She can't fix this, Minxie. No one can." He sounded exhausted, now, and I finally seemed to notice the weary look in his emerald green eyes, as if even speaking was starting to hurt him too much. "... It's okay."

"No, it's not. You can say that it is, but it's not." Slowly, it was starting to settle in. As I stared down at him, literally watching the life drain from his face, an awful thought struck me: I can't save him. A wave of helplessness washed over me at the realization of a truth I had been trying to deny for so long, my heart practically throbbing in agony. "... Does it hurt?"

He let out a short, quiet chuckle, and he smiled, one of those rare smiles he only ever showed around me. "... Not nearly as much as it's hurting you, I'm sure."

"... This is all my fault," I whispered, the guilt of that fact weighing heavily on me, all at once and without warning, because this was all my fault.

"No, it's not," Ryuu denied, and it was exactly what I expected him to say, which made everything hurt even more. Because even when he was lying in a pool of his own blood, my brother was still putting me first, reassuring me and protecting me even when I was the monster responsible for his injury.

"I did this to you, Ryuu!" I exclaimed, my voice rising in volume only to crack hopelessly as I broke into sobs. "I'm the reason you're lying in a pool of your own blood! I.. I'm the one who..."

"You didn't know, Minxie. Madara timed his genjutsu perfectly. There was no way you could've known," He insisted, and although he made sense, I didn't believe him. The phrase 'it's all my fault' repeated and echoed over and over again in my mind, like a twisted mantra that I had no power to deny because it was true. There were so many things I could've done differently, things that could've changed our current situation. But I had done everything wrong, and now, it was going to cost me my brother.

"I didn't know it, either... He used the same trick on me, right after I broke out of the barrier you made. I thought I was fighting him... When I was really fighting you, but..." His chest heaved painfully, but he continued on nonetheless. "I'm actually glad for this... Because if you hadn't been faster than me... Then I would've injured you, instead. And that's something... That I wouldn't be able to survive..."

It was surreal, hearing this terrible situation being reduced to nothing more than a matter of timing. And in a way, he was right. Both he and I had been placed under the same genjutsu. We were both tricked into believing that we were fighting Madara when we were really fighting each other. If he had only been a split second faster than me, then I would've been the one with a katana lodged into my stomach right now. It could have easily been me, and in that moment, there was nothing more that I wanted in this world than for it to have been me instead.

Why couldn't it have been me? It should've been me.

"... But you will," Ryuu continued, again surprising me with the strength of his voice. He was determined to tell me this, to convince me that I wasn't responsible during his final moments. I wanted to tell him that nothing he said would change my mind, but I remained silent, listening to his voice and praying that it wouldn't be the last time that I did so. "You will get past this, Minxie. You have to. You still have to end this war. And you're going to be fine... Even without me, because you're a survivor, sis."

Survivor. The word echoed in my mind, but I felt no real resonance. Indeed, I fit into the category well enough. I'd survived burns, stabs, and supposedly fatal wounds to several areas of my body. I'd survived having my heart broken, becoming a dragon warrior, discovering my Dark side.

But I would not survive losing my brother.

It was surprisingly easy for me to accept that truth, far easier than it was for me to accept that I couldn't save Ryuu. Even now, when I could practically feel him growing weaker and weaker, as if part of me was dying, too, there was still a part of me that was in denial. It couldn't be possible that there was nothing I could do. I was not the girl that did nothing as the people she loved were taken from her, yet here I was, doing exactly that.

I wrapped my arms around my brother more securely as tears leaked out of my eyes, and he relaxed in my hold, his head leaning on my lap. His hands were still covering his wound, and I knew he was more concerned about me seeing it directly than about him losing blood. I reached out one hand and placed it over his, noticing distantly that it was already dried with blood smears from when I'd held it over Sasuke's heart. Briefly, I wondered if my hands would ever be clean again, but then I supposed that it didn't matter when I'd already lost so much. What was a little dried blood to a girl who was holding her dying brother in her arms?

My other hand went to run through Ryuu's hair, doing what little I could to make him comfortable. It was a pathetic effort on my part, one that made me hate myself all the more, but he seemed to appreciate it. He lightly squeezed the hand that was covering his, interlocking our fingers in a gesture that we'd done often, whenever one of us needed to know that we weren't alone.

I felt my heart break in half when I realized that once he stopped breathing, I really would be alone.

"... Are you scared?" I asked quietly, because I was absolutely terrified at facing the world without my brother by my side, and I would completely understand if he was afraid of dying. My voice still sounded hollow and broken but somehow less hysterical than before, although pieces of my heart were torn apart every time I thought of losing him.

Ryuu smirked a little at the question, and I realized how silly it was for me to ask, because he was Ryuu, and Ryuu was never afraid of anything, or so he had everyone believe. But I was not everyone; I was his sister who knew him better than anyone else, and that was precisely why I had asked.

My twin brother paused, considering his answer for a few seconds, his breathing growing more and more ragged, an awful development that broke my heart because it was impossible for me to ignore and write off as if it was nothing. Because I knew that such breathing would eventually slow to a stop.

"No... I'm not afraid. Dying... Dying doesn't scare me." His fingers traced the lines of my palm gently, leaving a trail of fresh blood, but it didn't bother me. I'd do anything to have him hold my hand a little longer. "Leaving you does. It scares me... That I won't be able to protect you anymore. It scares me that I won't be around to keep you safe."

Although my vision was growing blurry from all the tears that were falling from my eyes, I couldn't help but smile at his words as something in me shattered, because of course that would be his answer. Of course his answer would center around protecting me, because that was who my brother was: my protector, my family, my best friend. And how could I lose all those things at once without falling apart completely?

"... I'm so sorry, Ryuu," I whispered helplessly. There were so many things that I was sorry for, so many things that warranted an apology. I had so many people that I needed to apologize to: to Rin, because I was the reason that she was going to lose the person she was in love with; to Ryuu, because he didn't deserve to die protecting me, the Jinchuriki sister that he'd been cursed with; to my parents, because I had failed at protecting my family, which was the one thing in this world that the Takeda clan expected from its members. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I love you so much."

"I love you, too, Minxie. Don't be scared." And there he was, dying in my arms and still worrying about whether or not I was scared. As if I needed another reason for my heart to hurt even more than it already did. "... I need you to promise that you won't let Madara win. Promise that you'll end this. Promise me, Minxie."

"I will," I assured him, smoothing my fingers through his soft, chocolate brown hair once again. My voice was rough from all the crying, but I knew that he could hear me, and that was all that mattered at that point. "I-I promise."

"And Rin." His hand squeezed mine as he spoke her name in a voice so tender and loving that it made me sob even more, because now, he would never marry Rin or have a family with her, and that was all my fault. "Tell Rin- Tell her that-" He coughed, and blood sputtered out of his mouth before he could finish.

"I will," I promised again, "I'll tell her everything. I'll tell her how brave you were, and how you didn't want to leave her. I'll tell her how much you love her, and she'll know. I know she will."

"Thank you," He spoke gratefully in a small voice, and I realized that I was not the only one who he was afraid to leave. He feared leaving Rin alone. He loved her so much, and I hated myself because I was the reason he wouldn't be with her any longer. But now my brother was thanking me in a quiet voice, sounding more like a child than he ever had before, and I knew that I had to be strong for him, even if my heart was splitting at the seams. "... It doesn't hurt anymore."

And that should've been a relief, knowing that my brother was no longer in pain. But if he couldn't feel it anymore, then that meant he was so much closer to leaving me, and that hurt more than any wound ever could. "I love you, Ryuu," I whispered into his hair, because I'd never said it enough and was only realizing that now, when it was too late and when he needed to hear it the most. "I love you so much."

He smirked a little, his eyes somehow still miraculously open, "... You said that already, idiot."

I tried to laugh, but I was so terrified and heartbroken that all that came out was a strangled sort of sound that was closer to a sob than a laugh. "Sorry." I didn't specify as to what I was sorry for. We both knew just how many things I was sorry for, and listing them all would take time that we just didn't have, not anymore. And knowing that hurt more than anything, because I used to think that time was limitless until now, when it wasn't.

"Don't be. It's nice... To hear it again..." His voice was so quiet that I had to strain my ears to hear it, despite how close I was to him. His chest was barely moving now. "I love you, little sister... And for the record... Coming back to Konoha with you... Was the best decision I ever made..."

And those were the last words my twin brother would ever say to me, because a moment after that, his eyes fluttered shut. I didn't have to check his pulse to know that he was gone, now. I felt him leave me in every sense of the word, like a part of me had died, too. Ryuu was my twin, my other half, and without him, I'd lost a part of myself. The portion of my heart that my brother had once occupied was gone now, too.

And I knew that after this, I would never be the same, because no one can live with only half of their heart.

Tears were still streaming down my face, but my hands didn't tremble when I reached out to remove the katana from my brother's stomach. I did so gently, not wanting to disturb him or hurt him, even though the rational part of me knew that he couldn't feel anything. He would never feel anything ever again. But I could feel everything, and it hurt. It hurt so much that I forgot to breathe and ended up gasping from the lack of oxygen. Once the blade was removed, I threw it to the side. I didn't care where it landed, so long as it was away from us.

I sat there for a few moments, taking in every one of my brothers features and knowing that I would never see them again. The possibility of forgetting any part of him, even the small aspects, was absolutely unbearable, despite the fact that it was also impossible. I would see him every single time I looked in the mirror for the rest of my life, and the features we shared would haunt me forever, because this was all my fault. I had done this to him.

"Ryuu...?" I knew it was a lost cause, saying his name again. The rational part of me knew that I wouldn't receive an answer, but as usual, it was outweighed by the more irrational part of me, the one that was still in denial that any of this was real. And it was that part of me that became completely shattered when I didn't hear anything in reply, because I finally registered that I would never hear my brother's voice ever again.

Suddenly, a surge of memory hit me, shocking me out of my sadness, even if it was for only a few seconds. The memory belonged to the shadow clone that I'd sent along with Gaara. At first, before the memories hit, all I felt was an acute sense of dread. I knew that something horrible must've happened for my clone to disappear, and as my clone's experiences were transferred over to me, I suddenly knew what that horrible something was.

Naruto's heart had stopped beating.

Naruto was dead. Sasuke was dead. Ryuu was dead.

A sob broke through me, a terrible sound, shattering the silence that been so haunting for so long. It shouldn't have been possible for me to lose so many people at once, and the pain that struck me at their loss was so unbearable that I was surprised my heart hadn't already collapsed from all the strain.

Distantly, I realized that the rest of the world around me had gone silent, too. The war, the fighting, I couldn't hear any of it, much less see it. It was like I'd traveled to a completely separate space, where the Gedo statue and the Edotensei and every other part of this mess just didn't exist. I briefly wondered if I'd ever be able to hear or see any of it ever again. I wondered if I'd ever want to. But then I decided that none of it mattered because I'd never been in this much pain before.

It was as if the floodgate that had been keeping all of my emotions at bay suddenly burst open from too much pressure, and all of my sadness and grief came tumbling out, hitting me all at once and without warning. The grief I felt at the loss of my brother was immeasurable and overwhelming, a force that I would never be able to overcome. And that feeling, along with the grief that accompanied the loss of Naruto and Sasuke, was enough to convince me that I would never ever be okay again.

Someone screamed, an awful, broken sound. It took me a few moments to realize that such a sound had come from me.

But that didn't matter, either, and suddenly I was sobbing again, my face buried into my brother's chest which no longer drummed with a heartbeat. I didn't look up, I wouldn't look up, because I didn't want to know what the world looked like without my brother in it. Because a world without him, without Naruto and Sasuke, wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth anything.

"So he's finally dead now, huh?" Hearing Madara's voice made me freeze, as if the blood in my veins had turned to ice. "That took quite a while. You Takeda sure are hard to kill. Although I suppose you'd know that better than anyone, considering it was your blade that killed your brother."

He was right. My katana had ended my brother's life, but I'd only done that because of genjutsu. Genjutsu that he'd cast. Madara.

"I warned you what would happen if you kept resisting me. I tried to be fair with you, Minxie, but you just wouldn't allow it. You're even more stubborn and difficult than Akira. I wish I could tell you that making you kill Ryuu was nothing personal, but that wouldn't be completely true. Indeed, I would've spared you both for Akira's sake, since you're her family, and in another life, you could've been my descendants as well as hers... But you have as much of Akio's blood in you as you have hers, and quite frankly, I hated that man almost as much as I hated Tobirama."

Madara continued to speak, but his words didn't really register with me. I heard them, but I wasn't listening, not really. I'd retreated back into the one place where I could really feel comforted, the beautiful and peaceful landscape that my father Hasashi had created for me after he'd sealed Saiki inside of me.

But that landscape was not beautiful anymore, nor was it peaceful. It was desolate and barren, the fields of grass reduced to black dust beneath my feet. The sun was gone, as were the bright flowers and gentle breezes I'd enjoyed so much. There was nothing left here but darkness. Nothing left in me but darkness.

I gave up on standing, hunching over the ground instead as I covered my face with my hands. The ground was cold and uninviting, but I was too tired and too broken to care, much less to move. I finally noticed that Saiki was with me, blue eyes looking down at me with sadness, an emotion that I'd never expected to see there. I curled up against its large paw, the fur there becoming my only source of warmth in the barren wasteland that was now my mind as tears spilled out of my eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Minxie," Saiki whispered gently, as if it was trying to comfort me but somehow knew that doing so would be futile, because after everything that had happened, I would forever be a broken, irreparable shell of the girl I once was, and Saiki had to know that, too. "I am so sorry this happened to you."

"... I can't do this anymore," I muttered, not quite sure who I was speaking to, or why I was even speaking at all when I felt so empty. What words were there left to say for the dead? "I can't, I won't, not without Ryuu. They're all dead, Saiki. My clan, my parents, Neji, Naruto, Sasuke, Ryuu... They're all dead, and it's because of me. I couldn't save them. I can't save anyone. It hurts too much... Please make it stop. Please, please. I just want it to stop." My voice cracked as another sob broke through me, my plea becoming a silent one.

"... I'll make it stop for you."

Slowly, I looked up, unable to recognize the voice. I knew it didn't belong to Saiki, so who else could it be, when Saiki was the only other being that ever occupied my mind? I remembered Aya, the mind pixie I'd encountered once before, but the voice I heard now was far too deep to belong to her. I looked around, searching for the owner of the voice, but I saw no one. And then, finally, I saw it: shadows beginning to gather in the distance, shifting in form and approaching us slowly. Saiki growled at the sight, and I placed a hand on its paw, trying to figure out what was going on.

The shadows continued to spread across the space, growing darker. They were pure darkness, I realized, but darkness had no voice, so how could it speak to me at all? Where was it coming from?

But then they shifted once again, forming into the one person I needed now more than anyone, the person I'd thought I'd never see again.

"... Ryuu?" I whispered, blinking a few times to make sure I wasn't imagining it. But sure enough, there stood my brother, surrounded by shadows yet looking exactly as I remembered him. His brown hair was messy, and his emerald eyes were bright, but there was no wound in his abdomen anymore. He was okay again. Healthy and uninjured. Whole, like I could never be again without him.

"It's me, little sister," Ryuu confirmed, his voice that deep and rich tone that I knew so well, something that I ached to hear again if it meant he was somehow still with me, if only for a few moments. "I'm here."

"But..." My voice trailed off, and I shook my head, broken fragments of the awful memory of losing him coming back to me and making my heart ache. "No... I saw you die. You're dead."

"No, I'm not," He denied softly. "I'm with you. I'm always with you. And you're in pain." The shadows around him continued to extend throughout the clearing, but he didn't pay attention to them. He didn't seem to feel threatened by them, either, as if he knew that they wouldn't hurt him. His emerald eyes were locked with mine as if I was the only person who mattered to him right now. His voice was patient and comforting as he spoke to me, "I can help you, Minxie. I'm here."

I stood up, beginning to walk towards him without really thinking about it, but Saiki growled threateningly, making me halt in my movements. I turned to look at the winged leopard that I'd gotten to know so well, wondering why it sounded so defensive. It was just Ryuu with us. What did I have to fear from my own brother?

"This is a trick, Minxie," Saiki stated coldly, bright blue eyes narrowed at Ryuu, as if it was prepared to attack him at any given moment. "It's not real. Your brother is gone. You know that. You saw it happen, you felt it happen. This is Ten-Tails' chakra, trying to get you to give in to it. It's trying to change you, to make you into a monster."

For some reason, the word 'monster' seemed odd to me, as if I couldn't really decipher its meaning. The tailed beasts were supposed to be monsters. Saiki was supposed to be one, too, but it wasn't. None of the biju were, either. The term 'monster' was relative, and I wondered if it could really be applied to Ten-Tails, when I'd faced much worse than him. The only monster I could think of right now was Madara, because he'd robbed me of the people I loved.

Or maybe the real reason Saiki's words seemed so strange to me was because I knew that nothing could possibly be more monstrous than me, the girl who had killed her own brother. So how could Ten-Tails' chakra turn me into a monster when I already was one?

"I am real," Ryuu insisted, and the shadows around him swirled and darkened, almost as if they were emphasizing his words. They whispered in low voices, but I couldn't decipher what they were saying. "... We all are. And we need you."

I blinked, and suddenly, my parents were next to him, along with Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, and Itachi. My heart soared at the sight of them all there, all together, all right within my reach. Nothing was amiss with their appearances. They all looked the same, without wounds on their bodies or sadness in their eyes. They were smiling at me, encouraging me to walk forward, and I felt my feet leading me to them because it had been so long since I'd last seen them, and I had missed them all so much.

"That's it, sweetheart," Mom encouraged gently, that beautiful smile of hers lighting up her pale face. It amazed me that even when she was shrouded by darkness, she still managed to look so bright. "Come over here."

"We want to help you," Dad continued, smiling reassuringly, "And we will, if you let us."

"We've missed you so much, Minxie," Naruto said softly, and my heart clenched at the soulful look in his blue eyes. I was never able to say goodbye to him, and now, I wouldn't have to. I wouldn't have to because we could be together again. Even when he was encased by shadows, he still looked so warm and inviting, as if no amount of darkness would ever be able to change him. "And we want you to be with us, at our sides."

"You've fought so hard, and I am so proud of you, Minxie," Itachi said, smiling at me, and it was such a familiar gesture that it made my heart ache. I'd always wanted him to be proud of me, and now, he was. He always would be. "But you don't have to fight anymore."

"We know how much you're hurting right now, but it doesn't have to be that way," Neji promised. His Leaf headband covered his forehead, preventing me from seeing the symbol that was once branded there, but I couldn't think of a time when I'd ever seen him look so free.

"You don't have to be alone anymore," Ryuu finished, taking a step towards me and reaching out a hand to me. "I promise. Take my hand, Minxie, and everything will be okay."

"So what are you waiting for?" Sasuke inquired smoothly, his lips tilting into that familiar smirk of his that I knew so well, a gesture that I'd never missed more than I did now. "Get over here, loser."

Every word from them made my defenses weaken. The more they spoke, the less attached to this world I felt. It was as if with every word, they plucked apart the strings that held me together, the ones that made me who I was. And with those strings gone, darkness was able to flood in quite easily. I'd been keeping it at bay for so long now that it was liberating to finally let it in. Ten-Tails' chakra -the chakra that had been Saiki's in the first place and had spread through my veins and turned them black- filled the empty spaces within me, gathering in the void that I used to call my heart.

But it didn't seep into my heart, not yet. It merely swirled around it, waiting patiently for my decision. Waiting for me, the way Ryuu, my parents, Naruto, Sasuke, Itachi, and Neji were.

"No!" Saiki snapped, standing up and growling defensively at the people I cared about, the ones I knew would never hurt me. "Listen to me! They do not want to help you, Minxie! They aren't real!"

"What has Saiki really done for you, Minxie?" Ryuu questioned calmly. "Saiki's never cared about you, never loved you, not like we have. Saiki can't help you. It can't take away your pain, but we can. Look at us." He gestured to the six people around him, people that I'd loved so much only to have them taken from me. "We're all together, now, and we're happy. You can be happy, too. Just take my hand, and all of your suffering will be over. I'm your brother. Don't you trust me?"

I wanted to roll my eyes at him, because of course I trusted him; he was my brother. I trusted him with my life. But still... What if he wasn't? What if this really was all a trick, the way Saiki said? What if I couldn't come back from this?

But then I realized that without Ryuu, there wasn't anything left for me to come back to. Even if this was all a trick, even if this was Ten-Tails' chakra playing with me, it didn't matter. It didn't matter because I was so desperate for my brother to be alive again, so pained by losing him, that I didn't care what happened, as long as I got to see him again, even if it was only for a moment. Because more than anything, I wanted to believe that Ryuu was still alive. I wanted to believe that he was in front of me right now, ready to comfort me and rid me of all this grief and loss.

And so I did. I believed him. That belief led me forward, until I was standing right in front of him. The shadows passed over my feet, tugging on them, beckoning me forward. They passed over my skin gently, swirling around me, welcoming me. I'd expected them to feel harsher, the way it'd felt when Ten-Tails' chakra had first scraped at my veins, but they didn't.

And that was strangest part of it all: it didn't hurt.

"Finally," Mom whispered, tears gathering at the edges of her turquoise eyes, "My sweet girl. You're finally here with us. I've waited for so long."

"We're a family again," Dad said, grinning warmly at me. He wrapped an arm around Mom and placed a hand on Ryuu's shoulder. He looked so strong, so confident, as if his family was all he would ever need. "Just take your brother's hand, sweetheart. Everything will be all right."

"No..." I turned to Saiki, noticing the drop in volume and the sudden sleepy quality of its voice. Saiki was no longer standing. The winged leopard had been forced to the ground, resting on its hind legs, its head lowered onto its paws as shadows fluttered over it. The sight made my heart ache, because Saiki was suffering, too. I didn't want us to suffer anymore. "Minxie... You won't be able to undo this. There are some things in this world that you cannot come back from. If you welcome the darkness, there will be no return. You don't want this-"

But I did, and as the darkness embedded itself further in my veins, Saiki began to want it, too. Because a world where Ryuu was dead while Madara still lived wasn't a world at all, and fixing it was my job as well as Saiki's. And that was why, when the darkness began to take over, neither I nor Saiki objected to it, because it cradled us more than the light ever had.

I took Ryuu's hand, and the world went black, but I wasn't afraid of the darkness this time, because it was a part of me, and there was nothing I had to fear from myself. My potential for darkness was dangerous, of course, but it had always been there, hidden beneath the surface of who I was. And it was true: maybe I wouldn't survive this.

But neither would Madara.

Third Person's POV

The Allied Shinobi Forces were in disarray, scattered across the battlefield haphazardly. When Minxie had joined them, it'd seemed that things were finally looking up. She'd single-handedly destroyed the wooden statue that had sprouted out of the Divine Tree, saving several lives in the process. Although she had left soon after, looking extremely distraught as she did so, the shinobi weren't worried. With the removal of the larger threat, they were able to focus on the strange masked man who could wield mokuton jutsu, and with only one enemy left to face, they'd believed victory was close at hand.

What they did not expect, however, was for the Divine Tree to morph its roots into yet another imposing and powerful statue, this time one with dozens of pairs of hands that attacked the shinobi ruthlessly, latching onto their chakra and stealing it. The mokuton user, too, had proven to be a challenge, for even after several minutes of battling, they were no closer to defeating him.

With their chakra reserves dwindling, the shinobi were forced to take defensive positions, hiding behind large masses of displaced rocks that formed a wall between them and the Divine Tree. So far, only Minxie and the Edotensei Third Hokage proved capable of facing the enemy, yet only one of them remained; the other had gone off to face an even deadlier opponent.

Rin, as one of the Allied Forces' strongest earth-style users, was relatively close to the front line of their battle formation. She was responsible for putting up the earth walls that separated the rest of the shinobi from the roots of the Divine Tree, but after having them up for so long, they were starting to weaken. She, like everyone else around her, hardly had any chakra left, but she was determined to use the last of it to strengthen the earth walls. Even if the walls were broken, they would at least provide some form of defense from the enemy, even if it was for only a few minutes.

She made hand signs without really thinking about it, her movements still sharp and deliberate despite her dwindling chakra. She was in the middle of raising up another earth wall when she felt something off. From the moment that the war had began, Rin had been paying attention to everyone's chakra signatures; after all, it was her job as a sensor shinobi to confirm everyone's location and condition.

Recently, however, she'd been so distracted by the enemy in front of her that she hadn't even noticed the fading of three particular chakra signatures. But by the time she did, the sudden absence of one of those chakra signatures was enough to make her feel like her heart had stopped beating. She froze, pale lilac eyes wide, and a tiny crack appear in the earth wall she'd created.

Seconds later, a wooden branch shot out at the earth wall, piercing it sharply. The crack in said wall grew at the impact, and before Rin even knew what was happening, the wall came crumbling down. Her instincts took control before she truly understood what had happened, and she jumped out of the way, avoiding what would've been a fatal strike of a mokuton-based technique. She landed gracefully on her feet, quickly crouching behind one of the more fortified earth walls.

Mitchell, who had been close by enough to witness Rin's predicament, quickly went over to her to check on her. "Rin!" He moved so that he was sitting beside her, their backs leaning against the earth wall, quickly glancing over her form in search of any visible injuries. "Are you okay?"

Rin was breathing heavily, digging her nails into her palms as a way to regain her composure. "I'm... I'm fine," She answered, although the shaky tone of her voice made it clear that she was anything but fine.

"You don't look fine," He muttered, his violet eyes narrowing at her haggard form. Sure, no one in the Allied Forces was in top condition right now, but the white-haired girl beside him seemed to be in even worse shape than everyone else. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," She replied, shaking her head. "Nothing. I just... It's just that..." She shut her eyes, her hands trembling slightly, a gesture he wouldn't have even noticed if he hadn't been watching her so closely. "... I can't sense Ryuu's chakra anymore."

Her words caused a heavy silence to fall between them. Mitchell knew all about Rin's sensory abilities, and if she could no longer sense Ryuu's chakra, then that was certainly not a good sign. And she, of course, knew that particular fact better than anyone, which was why she currently looked so worried and distraught, considering how much she cared for the Takeda male that could potentially be in danger at this very moment. Mitchell could see it in the tenseness of her shoulders and in the way her nails dug unforgivingly into the palms of her hands.

However, although he shared her worry about Ryuu's current condition, Mitchell decided not to voice his concern. Instead, he tried to remain positive, something that he was truly never good at. He usually left the positive-thinking up to Kylie, but the blue-haired girl was somewhere else right now, off healing anyone that she could with what little chakra she had left, with Josh by her side and watching her back. However, Mitchell was willing to try to remain positive now, even for a few seconds, if it meant Rin wouldn't look so hopeless and broken as she did right now.

"... Maybe he's out of range," He suggested, wanting to believe that he would be proven correct. But the suggestion was a long shot, and they both knew it without having to say it. "That happens, right? I mean, it's possible?"

"... It could be," She muttered distractedly, in a voice that told him she didn't really think so. "I mean, it's strange, but I suppose it could be... I just... I just have this really, really bad feeling."

He didn't blame her. He, too, could feel that something around them was different, that something horrible was occurring, if it hadn't done so already. He reached out his hands and placed them over hers, gently opening her tense hands, which were clenched into fists. The usually pale skin of her palms had reddened from where her nails had dug into it. Smoothing his fingertips over the irritated area, he held her hand lightly, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She tried to smile at the small gesture of comfort, but her unseeing eyes were still clouded over with worry.

"... Ryuu's chakra isn't the only one that's missing," She added quietly, after a moment of silence. "I can't sense Sasuke's chakra anymore, either. And Naruto's... His is there, like it's approaching us, but it feels like it's getting weaker, even though it should be the opposite if he's coming towards us. And Minxie's chakra... It's changing, but not for the better. I can hardly even recognize it now. Something happened to them, to all of them. I just don't know what."

"Luna would. I mean, that's her specialty, right? She's here somewhere. She can tell you what's going on with them, if her visions will allow it. I'll cover you. Just be careful, all right?"

She sent him a grateful smile, the best one she could manage with the unpleasant feeling of dread that had coiled around her heart. "Thank you." Without sparing another second, she stood up and went off in search of Luna. She located the seer's chakra rather easily and immediately went to it, going as fast as her legs would carry her.

A few feet away from where Rin once was, Reyna, Takeshi, and Dai shared a worried look. They'd heard Mitchell and Rin's conversation without really meaning to, but what they'd overheard troubled them greatly. All three of them remembered just how reckless Ryuu had been acting at the start of the war. From the moment the fighting had started, he'd encountered several close calls, although someone always managed to save him before his condition became too dire. Now, however, the trio worried if perhaps that cycle had been broken, and Ryuu's life was in greater danger now than they'd ever thought possible.

"... Go," Takeshi said suddenly, making both of his teammates look at him, but his ice blue eyes were only on Reyna as he spoke. "I know you want to, so go after Rin. Find out what's happened to Ryuu. Help him, if you can. Just take care of yourself." Beside him, Dai nodded in agreement.

Their redheaded teammate shot them a grateful smile, although the gesture felt more like a grimace with how worried she was, "Thanks, you two. I'll be back as soon as I can." She stood up and quickly hurried after Rin, who she knew had probably already sensed her following.

Somehow, Reyna knew that they wouldn't be going anywhere good.

~*~

Things were going fantastically well for Madara. Naruto, Sasuke, and Minxie had just made things so simple for him, so easy. By defeating Obito, they'd unknowingly helped Madara orchestrate his own resurrection. He'd faced some trouble trying to steal the tailed beasts once again, courtesy of Minxie, Ryuu, and Gaara, but that was a matter of the past. Not even the current Kazekage and present Takeda twins would stand in the way of his goal. Ten-Tails would rise again, and this time, Madara would take his place as its rightful Jinchuriki.

Everything was falling into place, just like he'd planned so many years ago. Not only had he managed to kill two of the world's long-awaited saviors -Naruto and Sasuke- but he'd also managed to trick the third savior -Minxie- into killing her own brother. His resurrected childhood friend and the woman he was in love with -Hashirama and Akira, respectively- were both also effectively incapacitated, as well as their troublesome siblings, Tobirama and Hikaru. He had no one left to oppose him, neither among the living nor among the dead.

With all nine biju stored within it once again, the Gedo statue flooded with power and opened all of its eyes. It shifted before transforming into the enormous and monstrous form of Ten-Tails. Without waiting a second longer, Madara made hand signs, effortlessly becoming the creature's Jinchuriki.

The effects of his actions were immediate. Madara's entire being gained immense power, his chakra changing as well as his appearance. His hair changed color, turning from black to a pale white. The metal plate that appeared on his forehead had two small horns poking out of it. He wore a cloak with the comma-shaped markings of the Sage of Six Paths, and he carried a black staff in his hand, one that formed an incomplete circle at the top. Six black spheres hovered behind him, surrounding his back.

Now that Madara had successfully become Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki, his power was the same as that of the legendary Sage of Six Paths. And unlike Obito, Madara had no intentions of letting that power be stolen from him, much less from a bunch of teenagers. He would complete the task he had long since endeavored to accomplish: casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi upon the entire world.

Brandishing his staff in his left hand, Madara turned to face Minxie, who sat several feet across from him. She was leaning over her brother's corpse, her face hidden from view. Dried blood covered her trembling hands. Her shoulders shook with sobs, and although Madara couldn't see her face, he knew that her eyes were filled with tears. After all, she'd just lost the only family she had left in this world, and by her own hand, no less. It was indeed a tragedy, but Madara knew that it would be worth it in the end. After all, that was how he had planned it to be.

Indeed, both Minxie and Ryuu were just two of the many pawns in Madara's elaborate scheme, and the two of them had exceeded his expectations brilliantly. Their birth was certainly no secret -after all, it had been foreseen by a prophecy- and Madara had made sure to inform Obito of just how valuable those two particular Takeda would be in the future, when said prophecy finally came to pass. As a result, Madara had prepared Obito well, telling the younger Uchiha exactly what he was meant to do in terms of the Takeda siblings.

Obito had recruited Ryuu into the Akatsuki at a young age, severing all of his attachments to others except one, the one he would always have to his sister. Furthermore, when Minxie returned to Konoha, Obito had allowed Ryuu to go with her. The twins had always believed that they'd outsmarted him, that they'd managed to evade him and slip away to return to their home village, but that wasn't the case. Obito had never looked for them, not because he couldn't find them, but because he didn't want to. He wanted them to remain together in the same place, thus allowing the two siblings to continue their journey together and strengthen that unbreakable bond that all Takeda had with their families.

And it was that bond, Madara knew, that would break Minxie and lead her into the darkness once Ryuu was dead. Because Minxie would never fight for a world without Ryuu in it, and if she wasn't going to save this world, then surely, she would destroy it. Driven by darkness, she would split this world at its seams and sever its axis, making it so much easier for Madara to cast his Infinite Tsukuyomi. That was precisely why he had avoided killing her, because she was of more use to him alive than dead.

Madara had been counting on the bond that Minxie and Ryuu shared from the moment he'd been resurrected, and sure enough, he wasn't disappointed. The new generation of Takeda twins were closer than ever before, exceeding the bonds of previous generations before them, and that was exactly what Madara had wanted. They'd remained together and fought him together, making it simple for him to destroy them.

Killing Naruto and Sasuke had damaged Minxie immeasurably, enough to get her to let her guard down. And with her practically exhausted chakra levels, the brunette hadn't been able to put up much of a fight when Madara trapped her within a genjutsu. In fact, she hadn't even realized she was under genjutsu until it was too late. Similarly, Ryuu hadn't noticed the genjutsu he was under, either, which was to be expected, with the way he'd been overusing his eyes from the moment the war began. Both twins had been severely weakened after facing Madara alongside their ancestors, and as a result, neither one had been able to notice the Uchiha's genjutsu, much less undo it.

After that, it'd been a fifty-fifty gamble as to which Takeda twin would emerge from the genjutsu alive. Madara had no doubts that it'd be Minxie. After all, she was the faster twin, the Jinchuriki who beat all odds and somehow always managed to endure until the end. And sure enough, she'd been the one to survive, just as he'd anticipated all along. Now, it was only a matter of time before she fell to darkness and became the perfect weapon for him to use. All she needed was a little extra push, one that Madara was more than happy to give her.

"So he's finally dead now, huh?" Madara began, looking down at the broken girl with a smirk on his face. "That took quite a while. You Takeda sure are hard to kill. Although I suppose you'd know that better than anyone, considering it was your blade that killed your brother."

The effect of his words was immediate. Minxie's body froze, her blood-stained hands stilling on either side of her brother. She didn't look up, but Madara knew that she was listening, and at the moment, that was all he needed her to do.

"I warned you what would happen if you kept resisting me. I tried to be fair with you, Minxie, but you just wouldn't allow it. You're even more stubborn and difficult than Akira. I wish I could tell you that making you kill Ryuu was nothing personal, but that wouldn't be completely true. Indeed, I would've spared you both for Akira's sake, since you're her family, and in another life, you could've been my descendants as well as hers... But you have as much of Akio's blood in you as you have hers, and quite frankly, I hated that man almost as much as I hated Tobirama."

Akio. Just thinking of that man made Madara's blood boil. The Uchiha had always expected for Hashirama to be the one to come between him and Akira, especially with how close she and the Senju were, but in the end, that hadn't happened. Instead, Akira had forsaken him for a complete nobody, a man who wasn't worthy of her in the least, who was as unremarkable as one could possibly be. In his new world, Madara would be sure to correct that. Akira would be with him, the way she was always meant to be, and they'd live together happily, with Izuna at his side.

"You know, Minxie, now that I think about it, you and I have something in common," Madara spoke lightly, "Now, we've both lost brothers because of this world, this hell, that we live in. I know you'll help me fix that. Isn't that right, little leopard?"

Minxie didn't answer him. She didn't look up, didn't even move. It didn't even look like the girl was breathing. She still hadn't bothered to remove the chakra rod from within her shoulder, and Madara doubted that she could even feel it anymore, despite the fact that the wound was still dripping with blood that leaked out of her shoulder and down her arm. Her face was still hidden from him, buried against her brother's lifeless chest. It was almost as if Madara's words fell upon deaf ears, as if the girl herself was no longer attached to this world and never would be again.

And that was precisely what Madara wanted. After all, he knew that the best way to manipulate someone was by using the darkness in their heart. It mattered little if there wasn't any darkness in that heart to begin with; he could always create some, and Madara had a talent for bending unfortunate situations to his favor.

Thankfully, Minxie didn't have that problem. As the Prophecy Child, she possessed an equal potential for both light and darkness. Up until now, she'd only ever relied on her potential for light. She loved unconditionally and profoundly, but when darkness finally took over, that love would be transformed into an equally unconditional and profound hatred.

Like Obito, Minxie's compassion and capacity for love made her the perfect pawn. Unlike Obito, however, Madara wouldn't allow her to fail him. She would do what Obito could not and successfully plunge this world into darkness.

Speaking of Obito, the younger Uchiha still possessed Madara's left eye. Madara intended to recollect that eye, of course, and reunite it with its original owner. He figured he'd might as well get started on that task now, since Black Zetsu had yet to return with his missing Rinnegan. He wondered just what could be detaining the plant-like creature; not that it mattered much once Madara chose to involve himself. He was more certain now than ever that he'd be able to take on anyone without consequence.

Besides, it didn't look like Minxie would be moving anytime soon, so Madara wouldn't miss much if he left her now. He had no doubts that when darkness awakened in her properly, she would follow right after him. So for now, he would be patient and wait for her to come to him while he got back his left eye.

Before he got around to that, however, he wanted to see Akira one last time. The Takeda matriarch was, as expected, exactly where he'd left her, pinned against a rock formation by the chakra rods that he'd placed in her body. Hikaru lay on the ground near her, with Tobirama a few feet away from them, both men incapacitated in a similar fashion. All three of them glared at Madara upon seeing him, but the Uchiha only had eyes for Akira, and hers was the only gaze he met as he approached them.

"Where are they?" Akira demanded the second her emerald green eyes caught sight of him. Even when she was trapped and defeated, her voice was still strong, a tone that always demanded to be listened to. It was one of the reasons Madara had fallen for her in the first place. "Where are Minxie and Ryuu?"

"You have a one-track mind, Akira. You're always so worried about your family," Madara mused, shaking his head. "Shouldn't you be congratulating me on my accomplishment? It's not every day you get to encounter the Sage of Six Paths."

"There was only one Sage, Madara, and you are not him, no matter how much you delude yourself into thinking so," She stated, without hesitation. "I'll ask once more. Where are Minxie and Ryuu? What did you do to them?"

He stepped over Sasuke's body, not bothering to spare the younger Uchiha a glance as he made his way over to her. "Oh, Akira, what I did to them is of little importance. I think you should be more concerned about what they've done to each other."

She frowned, clearly not understanding him, but as usual, he wasn't going to make matters easy for her. He kneeled down in front of her, taking a strand of her hair into his hand. He pressed the curl between his fingers, oddly gentle in his movements, although he'd been the one to trap her there in first place.

"... What are you talking about, Madara?"

Instead of answering her, he evaded her question, meeting her gaze without moving his hand away from her hair. "You know, Hikaru always used to boast about how powerful your clan's ocular kekkei genkai was... But it seems that neither Minxie nor Ryuu are any good at seeing through genjutsu. It's such a shame, really, considering their lineage, but I'm not disappointed. In fact, I'm glad. The two of them did exactly as I'd intended them to."

Upon realizing the implications of his words, Akira's eyes widened. She had an awful idea about just what Madara had done to her descendants, and she truly did not want to believe something so horrible. She shook her head, "... No. No, you didn't. You wouldn't dare to do such a thing."

"Wouldn't I?" He smirked at her. "You're mistaking me for a compassionate man, Akira. I can assure you, I am no such thing." She glared harshly at him, her sharpened canines appearing as she bared her teeth at him, a familiar sight that made him chuckle. "Relax, love. Your clan will not perish today... Although I can't say the same for this world."

"You will not succeed in your goal," Hikaru declared, glaring up at the Uchiha who was kneeling in front of his sister. "You think you've won this war, but you haven't. Men like you never win for long."

Upon hearing the voice of the Takeda male, Madara sighed. He released the strand of Akira's hair that he'd been holding, letting it fall back against her shoulder before turning to face her twin brother with a bored gaze.

"And who is there left to stop me?" Madara inquired. "You, your sister, and even the famous Senju brothers are trapped. None of you will be able to move a muscle with those chakra rods binding you, much less stand against me. Sasuke is dead. The Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki may not be dead yet, but he will be soon enough. And now, even your precious twin descendants have destroyed each other. There is no one left in this world who can stop me. Although I suppose you three should've known better than to rely on children during times of war."

"Children whose deaths you had a hand in," Tobirama accused, fixating his own glare upon the Uchiha. He wasn't as close to Madara as Akira and Hikaru were at the moment, but he could still hear the Uchiha just fine from his place on the ground. "And one of your own bloodline, no less. You fool yourself into believing that you're the savior when all you really are is a tyrant."

"Call me whatever you'd like," Madara said, "I am still the man who's going to change this world for the better." He returned his gaze to Akira, brushing away the strands of hair that had fallen into her face. "I just wanted to see you once more. The next time our eyes meet, we'll be in the peaceful, bloodless world you've always wanted, the one we dreamed of and decided to create together."

He leaned forward, placing a kiss on her forehead. She wanted nothing more than to rip him away from her, because he had no right to be so close to her when he was nothing more than a stranger to her now, but with chakra rods embedded into her skin, all she could do was glare harshly up at him. He stood up after pulling away, sending her one last smirk as he began his journey to where he knew Obito was.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, love... I have a genjutsu to cast."

~*~

Meanwhile, unlike their temporary allies, whose chakras were low and whose hearts were weighed down by worry, Scarlett, Luna, Orochimaru, and the remainder of Team Taka were far better off than the rest of the Allied Forces, mainly because they'd arrived to the battle much later than everyone else. Their chakra reserves were still surprisingly high due to their lack of actual fighting, and none of them were tired in the least, although both Karin and Luna had opted to sit down, crouched behind the rock formation that served as their only shelter. However, they had yet to make a move, knowing that if they approached the Divine Tree carelessly, they would most likely have their chakra drained from them and die, something that none of them were in a rush to do.

"Uh, Lord Orochimaru?" Suigetsu called, turning all eyes to him. "Shouldn't we be doing something about the statue and the weird masked guy that are trying to kill everyone?"

"Not yet..." Orochimaru muttered, his snake-like eyes narrowing at the masked man that stood atop the newly formed statue. There was something strange about the cloaked figure, something that reminded him eerily of the experiments he'd done so long ago involving the First Hokage's cells. The former Sanin began to wonder just who exactly was behind that mask, if there was anyone even there at all. "We'll do something, but only when the time is right. For now, let the Third Hokage deal with it."

"We wouldn't even be in this mess if Minxie hadn't ditched us," Karin remarked bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest from her seat on the ground. One of her wrists still had a shackle around it, courtesy of her recent escape from Konoha prison, and the metal rubbed at her skin whenever she moved. She ignored it, continuing, "I mean, seriously, who defeats the enemy only to disappear two seconds after?"

"She did leave rather suddenly," Jugo added neutrally, glancing down at his red-haired teammate. "She didn't even get a chance to check on everyone else's conditions before she left... It's unlike her."

Although Jugo usually wasn't very opinionated on matters like these, he did find it strange that Minxie had left so quickly. He wasn't nearly as familiar with her as Sasuke was, but from what the orange-haired man had come to know in his brief time around her, the brunette was extremely caring and kind-hearted. She'd expressed genuine concern for him even though he'd tried to kill her when they first met, something that she'd forgiven him for rather quickly, because she too had struggled with seeing herself as a monster. If she showed such concern for someone like him, then he doubted that she would leave without knowing if the people she truly cared about were okay or not.

"I'll say," Karin huffed, rolling her eyes. She, too, was familiar with the brunette's overly caring ways. "I'm surprised we can't already hear her whiny voice worrying about everyone from here."

"Hey, leave hot stuff alone," Suigetsu defended, waving his hand dismissively at his fellow Taka members, "She wouldn't have left unless she had a good reason."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're right, fish-boy," Scarlett said, making Suigetsu roll his eyes at the new nickname, "There's no way my righteous and selfless little Doppelganger would just abandon everyone here. Something must've happened."

"I agree," Orochimaru said. "But the question is, what? What would make her leave when-"

A sharp intake of breath cut him off before he could finish. Everyone turned to the source of the sound, which happened to be Luna, who was sitting on the ground a few feet away from Jugo. Her entire body had stilled, and her eyes had widened in horror. She dug her fingers into the ground beneath her, nails scraping against the rocky terrain.

Scarlett realized what was happening immediately. She quickly took action, pulling Jugo away from Luna and giving the golden-eyed girl some space. The Doppelganger's voice took on a strangely gentle tone, one that no one else had ever heard her use before. They failed to realize that Scarlett was speaking that way only because she was being careful; she did not want to startle Luna when she was already falling into a vision, a state that always left her more fragile than usual.

"Luna, what is it?" Scarlett questioned carefully, without stepping too close to the seer. "Come on, Lu, don't disappoint me. You can hold this off long enough to say something, anything, to let us know what's going on. Fight it."

Miraculously, Scarlett's words seemed to reach Luna, for the girl seemed to physically struggle to gain some semblance of control over herself. Her breathing was shaky, her words clipped, but she managed to say, "They're going to die, Scarlett... They're all going to die!"

Luna's outburst surprised everyone around her, making them exchange confused and apprehensive glances. They had no idea who she was talking about, but the way she said it made them sure that things were about to get really, really bad, assuming that they hadn't done so already.

"Who?" Scarlett demanded, trying her very best to keep her voice gentle and soft -something that she was definitely not good at- and ignoring the questioning looks that Orochimaru, Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo were all giving her. "Who's going to die, Luna?"

Luna tried desperately to answer her, the three names forming on the tip of her tongue. She knew exactly whose lives were in danger, but it was almost as if something was clutching around her throat, preventing her from getting the words out. The awful sensation continued, dragging her further and further away from reality, until she was practically forced to give in to the unseen force that dictated when she would succumb to her visions. Said vision took reign once again, and she lost the grip on herself that she'd been fighting so hard to keep, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. Her shoulders slumped, and her body became limp, her head hanging forward at what looked like an uncomfortable angle.

"Ugh," Scarlett groaned. "Of course you had to go all trance-crazy on me before you could finish telling me what you saw. It never fails." She ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head, but she didn't speak again. There was no point in it; she could clearly see that Luna was already gone, lost somewhere in the throes of seerdom, where Scarlett couldn't reach her even if she tried.

Indeed, in all her experience with Luna's visions over the years, the girl slipping into a trance before she could say anything relevant to the situation had been a constant. Scarlett began to wonder if this was nature's way of screwing with her. They'd given her a seer for a best friend, only to have that very seer slip into a trance before she could answer any important questions. Luna would always say enough to make Scarlett curious and sometimes worried, and then she'd completely avoid satiating those feelings by speaking in riddles instead, ones that were usually given in a creepy, sing-song voice that seemed to rhyme at the end of each sentence.

"Uh, Luna?" Suigetsu called carefully, an eyebrow raised as he took a step towards the seemingly unconscious seer, "Are you-"

Scarlett shook her head, extending a hand out to stop him before he could get any further. "Don't approach her right now. It's not safe. Every time she goes into one of her seer trances, her chakra flares up to protect her. If you get too close, it'll think you're a threat and fling you away, literally." After all, that was just the nature of Luna's chakra whenever she underwent a particularly important or vicious vision; it looked out for her and protected her when she was too consumed by her visions to do so herself.

Suigetsu didn't argue with Scarlett, and he wisely chose to take her advice. After all, she was Luna's best friend, so she was definitely more familiar with the whole seer thing than he was. And, quite frankly, he wasn't in any mood to be attacked by a seer's stray chakra, especially if it had a tendency to be violent and harmful.

Suddenly, Luna's body began to move once again, although her movements were strangely slow and sluggish. She was no longer the bright and cheerful girl they were used to; her demeanor had been replaced with a more solemn and eerie one, one that didn't belong to her. When she looked up, they could see that her pupils were gone, leaving behind only the liquid gold color of her irises that suddenly looked as unsettling as it did enticing.

"... This is creepy as hell," Suigetsu muttered under his breath, grimacing as he took another step back. He was so freaked out that he was half-tempted to seek refuge on the other side of the rock formation; surely, whatever enemies he faced there couldn't be as bad as whatever Luna had in store for them.

"Oh, it'll get worse, trust me," Scarlett assured, refocusing her attention on her best friend, who was most definitely going to say something that would probably ruin her day. Not that she was having quite a spectacular day, either; after all, she was in the middle of a war. No one was really having a good day right now. "Just wait for it."

When Luna opened her mouth, she spoke in a lifeless tone, her voice taking on an unsettling, sing-song quality to it, "Her decision, once made, changed it all." Her nails once again scraped across the dirt, and it was only then that they noticed the chakra that had traveled to her fingertips, allowing her to draw on the stone ground beneath her. She drew a yin and yang symbol, her movements now precise and deliberate, although perhaps not quite fluid. "And now to neither dark nor light shall this world fall."

Several things about the situation made its observers extremely uncomfortable and disturbed, perhaps even a little frightened, in Suigetsu's case. Out of the lot of them, only Scarlett had witnessed Luna undergoing a trance before, and not even she was used to it yet. For all Luna's light laughter and joking, her voice now was terribly blank and dead, something straight out of a horror movie. She looked straight ahead, as if she was gazing right into all of their souls. She continued to draw on the stone beneath her, yet she didn't look down once, as if her hands had a mind of their own.

"But such a choice came at an unimaginable price." Her voice continued, and so did her drawing. Quickly, she drew three slashes across the yin and yang symbol she'd just drawn. Upon closer inspection, one could tell that the three slashes actually looked like claw marks. Said claw marks looked like they had completely done away with the yin and yang symbol, shredding it into nothing. "And now the girl's greatest strength has become her vice."

"For family, she'd die, and for family, she'd kill," Luna continued, unblinking. She made the claw marks extend longer, reach wider, until they completely consumed the space in front of her, as if there would be nothing left but destruction in their wake. "And with her love turned to hatred, this world may be brought to a still." Luna's golden gaze was piercing, as if she was looking not at them but through them.

"Yet she is not alone, for two fellow saviors will rise." Without looking down, she continued to engrave symbols into the ground, forming a perfect circle and a half-moon shape side by side. "Two children of prophecy, saved from their almost demise. Their combined power, originally grouped as one..." She connected the two shapes, forming one circle, with equal parts light and dark. "... May reverse her state, in which the darkness has won."

The chakra emitting from her fingertips carved into the ground, this time forming lines instead of shapes. They looked like letters, but they weren't written in a language that anyone around her could understand. "A team reunited will come together as a key. And from an old threat, this world shall be free. Yet there is no such evil as a mother once scorned for her power. And such a return will bring forth destruction till the fated final hour."

Suddenly, she gasped, and the spell was broken. Her body slumped forward, her hands shooting out to catch herself before she faceplanted with the floor. She blinked, raising her head up slowly to look at the people around her, who were staring at her with shocked and apparently freaked-out looks on their faces.

When Scarlett met Luna's gaze, she noticed that the seer's pupils had returned to her eyes, and she knew that the girl's trance was finally over. The Doppelganger, knowing that it was now safe to do so, approached Luna, kneeling at her side and helping her so that she was sitting upright once again.

"... Scarlett?" Luna muttered, clearly disoriented, as she usually always was whenever she slipped into once of her vision-trances. "What... What just happened?"

"You spoke a bunch of riddles and pretty much scared the crap out of all of us while doing so," Suigetsu answered bluntly, before Scarlett could say anything. When his fellow Taka members and Orochimaru turned to raise their eyebrows at him, he let out a begrudging sigh, "Okay, so maybe it only scared me... But still, you guys can't deny that it was weird as hell. And coming from me, the guy who's made of water, that means a lot."

Scarlett rolled her eyes at him, returning her attention to Luna. "You got taken over by one of your visions and slipped into a trance. It was... Creepier than usual."

"As much as it disturbs me that you have a usual creepiness level, I have to admit it, the rhyming part is what really freaked me out," Suigetsu announced thoughtfully.

Luna's eyes widened at his words. "Wait, what? I was rhyming?" She frowned. "I... I only ever do that if I'm voicing a prophecy, but that... That wouldn't make any sense, not now."

"And why wouldn't it?" Orochimaru inquired. "From my experience, seers are supposed to be the messengers for all prophecies. The fact that you just slipped into a trance means that there must be another prophecy, one that has yet to come to pass."

Although Luna was greatly disturbed at the fact that Orochimaru had experience with seers, she wasn't really surprised, although she did feel a rush of sympathy for whichever seers had been unfortunate enough to cross paths with the snake Sanin. Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she shook her head and focused on the issue at hand. "Yeah, but this is the Final Battle. There aren't supposed to be any more prophecies... At least, not until after this mess is over."

"That was before Minxie made her decision," Scarlett reminded, her crimson eyes narrowing as she tried to make sense of their situation's most recent developments. "When she changed the prophecy by saving my life and Kylie's, she made it void... But I don't think fate is ready to let her off the hook quite yet."

"So you think the girl mentioned in the prophecy is Minxie?" Suigetsu guessed.

"Well, unless you know of any other girls who have decided the fate of the world and possess both shadow and light chakra," the Doppelganger said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "There's no doubt about it. Minxie's the one mentioned in the prophecy."

"But she's not the only one," Jugo put in. "Luna mentioned two other saviors, along with two evils and a reunited team."

"I did?" Luna said, her eyes widening slightly. "I can't remember a thing..." She shook her head, her eyebrows furrowing in frustration. "I hate it when this happens. I can never recall any of it, even though I'm the one who said it in the first place. What else did I say?"

"Something along the lines of darkness, death, and destruction. You know, the usual doom and gloom that never fails to make a guest appearance in our lives," Scarlett answered, smirking wryly. "But nevermind any of that right now. Before you slipped into your trance, you said that three people were going to die. Who are those people?"

"I..." The seer's voice trailed off as her golden eyes read over the inscriptions written on the ground in front of her. She recognized the handwriting and language almost immediately: it was her own, written in the secret seer dialect that she knew so well, but that wasn't what made her eyes widen. What made her eyes widen were the three names she'd written down in a line, like a message of death for the world to see. "Oh, no..."

"Luna, who is it?" Scarlett questioned impatiently. "Who's going to die?"

In the end, it wasn't Luna who answered Scarlett's question, but Karin. The redhead gasped, clutching her head in her hands as tears began falling out of her eyes. "N-No... No way! It can't be!"

"What is it?" Suigetsu inquired, raising an eyebrow at his suddenly distraught teammate.

But Karin didn't answer him with full words. All she could do was stutter out, in a strained and choked up voice, "Sa- Sa..."

"Something's happened to Sasuke?" Jugo guessed, stepping closer to the crying redhead.

"Seems I should step in sooner rather than later..." Orochimaru muttered, glancing back at the enemy that was still hindering their progress.

"It's not just Sasuke that's in danger," Luna spoke up, her golden eyes sorrowful as she read the names she'd written, "Him, Naruto, and Ryuu... They're all going to die."

"What?" Upon hearing the two new voices that had joined them, they all looked up to see Rin and Reyna. By the shocked and pained looks on both of their faces, it was obvious that they'd caught the end of the conversation.

"What the hell do you mean Ryuu's going to die!?" Reyna demanded, stalking forward to stare down at Luna angrily. Briefly, Reyna wondered how she could even manage to put on a front of anger when she felt like she couldn't even breathe after what the seer had just said, but she didn't bother to question what she knew was her own defense mechanism. "What the hell happened!?"

"... I-I don't know," Luna answered, looking down guiltily. She could feel tears brimming at the backs of her eyes as her own sense of uselessness washed over her. "All I know is that he's one of the three that dies. I didn't see how."

"You're a seer!" Reyna shouted, taking yet another threatening step forward. "Are you seriously telling me that you don't know anything else!? How useless are you!?"

Luna winced at her harsh words, a single tear escaping her eye and gliding down her cheek. A part of her wanted to fight back, to stand up for herself, but how could she, when everything Reyna had said was completely true? "I-I... I just... I'm so sorry..."

Scarlett chose that moment to stand in between the redhead and the seer, daring the hotheaded kunoichi to make another move. Her tone was icy as she growled, "She's not your slave, you mutt. Take another step towards her and you'll be the next one that dies, prophecy be damned."

Reyna shot Scarlett a fierce glare, one that the Doppelganger didn't hesitate to return. She clenched her fists at her sides, trying her very best to keep her temper in check when she wanted nothing more than to rip apart anyone close enough to her. Just anything to distract her from the awful grief and fear that were hovering above her heart, threatening to crush it.

"I wasn't talking to you, Doppelganger bitch, so stay the hell out of this." Reyna turned her glare to Luna, practically seething as she spoke, "Ryuu's in danger, and we need answers, now! Seeing is supposed to be your thing, isn't it!? So how the hell can you not know what-"

"Enough, Reyna! Leave her alone!" Rin exclaimed, pulling Reyna back by the arm. Reyna glared at her and made a noise of protest, but Rin didn't have time to deal with the redhead. All that mattered now was Ryuu. The Mori heiress took a deep breath and steeled herself, her voice surprisingly calm despite the worry and dread that she felt lodged within her heart. "Luna, where's Ryuu?"

"And where's Sasuke?" Karin demanded, after pulling herself out of her state of shock. Now, she was on her feet. Tears were still streaming down her face, but her expression was obstinate and determined, as if she was ready to face any enemy that stood in her way. "Can you take us to them?"

Luna nodded in determination. "I can. I will, I promise." She stood up, looking past the earth barrier at the statue and the mokuton user that were blocking their path. "But we'll have to get past them first."

"Not a problem," Reyna said surely, summoning her staff. The weapon transformed into two golden whips, which she held in each of her hands. "We'll clear the way!" She jumped into the air, Karin and Rin immediately following after her, with the others trailing a short distance behind.

Karin was, surprisingly, the first to attack, and she did so with a new ability that surprised everyone around her. Chains extended from her body, a testament to her Uzumaki clan lineage. They wrapped around the wooden statue, immobilizing it and shocking those around her, especially Suigetsu and Jugo. Reyna followed up by wrapping her whips around each of the statue's arms, wrenching them off with little effort. Rin finished their attack by using her fans to send powerful gusts of wind that sliced the statue in half, destroying it completely.

The masked man, upon realizing that the girls might actually get past him, quickly went to attack them. He created wooden sprigs that pierced Karin's body, but with a bite to her own arm, she healed the wounds quickly, while Reyna and Rin gracefully dodged the rest of his attack. Suigetsu shot two miniature water canons out of fingertips at the masked man, blasting him backwards. Orochimaru appeared behind the masked man and latched onto his neck, leaving a curse mark there that rendered all of his abilities useless.

Jugo caught Karin gently, glancing at the blood that stained her clothes, "Are you all right, Karin?"

"I'm fine! Don't worry about me!" Karin exclaimed. "We've got to get to Sasuke! I can't sense him anymore!"

"This way!" Luna shouted, sprinting ahead of the group, with Scarlett right beside her. "Follow me!"

None of them needed to be told twice as they hurriedly followed after her, racing across the rocky and unstable terrain. Rin frowned when she sensed a chakra that was unfamiliar to her.

"... There's someone else over there with them," She muttered, her eyebrows furrowing. "I don't know who they are. I can't recognize their chakra."

Karin blinked, sensing the same dreadful chakra that Rin had. "Neither do I, but we need to hurry!"

"Why?" Orochimaru questioned.

"Because this chakra is unnatural," Rin answered, surprising everyone.

Karin nodded in agreement, "And it has a really nasty feel to it!"

The former Sanin sighed, glancing at the the two sensory kunoichi that were sprinting forward at high speeds. "Then I suppose we'll need to hurry even more. We don't know what this stranger might do to Sasuke, or to Ryuu."

Apparently, his words had a greater effect than he realized, because Karin, Rin, and Reyna all raced ahead of the group, each of them rushing towards the person they cared about most.

"Karin!" Jugo called after the Uzumaki. "If you keep running that fast, then you're going to collapse! You're not fully recovered yet!"

"Same goes for you, snow princess," Scarlett added casually. "I don't particularly care about what happens to the hotheaded mutt beside you, but I highly doubt that Ryuu will be pleased if you collapse from exhaustion before you even make it to him."

"Assuming he isn't already dead," Suigetsu muttered under his breath. Scarlett glared at him, smacking him upside his head and making him wince. The piece of earth that suddenly rose up in front of him and knocked into him assured him that Rin, too, had heard his words and was not the least bit pleased by them. "Jeez, nevermind!"

"They're just up ahead!" Luna announced from her place next to Scarlett.

She only hoped that they wouldn't be too late.

~*~

Akira was anxious, more anxious than she'd ever been before. If she actually had the freedom to move, then she would probably be pacing back and forth in worry, but of course, that wasn't the case. Madara had made sure that she wouldn't be able to move at all when he struck her with those black rods of his. She supposed it was his way of punishing her for all the wrongs he felt she had done to him. He knew better than anyone how much she hated to feel powerless, and yet he'd purposely forced her into a state of powerlessness, making her hear the struggling of her two descendants as they battled him and leaving her unable to do a single thing to help them.

But then the struggling and fighting sounds had come to a halt, an eerie silence falling over the battlefield. Madara had joined them only seconds later, looking like a completely different person with a chakra that felt a hundred times more powerful than his usually was. He'd informed her of the unfortunate fate of her descendants, and then, after kissing her forehead, he'd gone off to cast his Infinite Tsukuyomi, leaving a very worried and very angry Takeda woman behind.

Akira hadn't wanted to believe Madara at first, but the haunting silence that followed his departure seemed to prove his words true. She knew how bad of a state Minxie and Ryuu had been in after facing Madara; both had been completely exhausted, with practically all of their chakra gone. She'd believed, at that moment, that Madara was their biggest threat, but what if she'd been wrong? What if their biggest threat was actually one another?

"I think you should be more concerned about what they've done to each other."

Madara's words echoed in her mind, serving as a painful reminder of what awful fate possibly awaited the only living members of her family. He knew just how much Takeda clan members cared about their families, and more than that, he knew just how damaged one would become at the loss of a sibling. And with his powerful Rinnegan, casting a genjutsu to trick Minxie and Ryuu into killing each other would be no trouble at all. It was a terrible possibility that Akira didn't want to believe, yet one that she knew was most likely true.

She gritted her teeth, more angry at herself than she ever had been before. Madara had been one of her dearest friends, yet she'd failed to stop him when she had the chance. She'd always known what kind of man he was, yet she'd fooled herself into believing that he could change. She'd moved on and dared to happy with her life, without even bothering to know whether or not he was truly dead. And now, decades later, the world was paying for the grave mistake she had made. Even Minxie and Ryuu, her own descendants who shouldn't have had to deal with any of this in the first place, were paying for it, too.

She squinted at the place where she knew they'd been last, desperately trying to figure out what was going on, but from her place on the ground, she couldn't see a thing. Tobirama and Hikaru were both stuck in a similar predicament. All they could do was wait, hoping that somehow, they'd be able to tell what had occurred and wishing that it was the exact opposite of what they were thinking.

They got their wish when they heard steps approaching them slowly. Akira squinted, her eyes settling on the shadow that was making its way towards them. The figure looked completely unfamiliar, and Akira had trouble recognizing it at first. Her emerald green orbs widened when she realized that the figure was Minxie, only she didn't look like Minxie anymore.

The Jinchuriki girl had completely transformed in appearance. Her body was surrounded by chakra, a sight that they'd grown used to after fighting alongside her, but this chakra was not the bright one that usually accompanied her transformation. This chakra was darker, denser, clinging to her form like a malevolent and imposing shadow. It was colored black, accented with a bloody crimson color as it bubbled and swirled threateningly with every step she took. It extended into a long tail that flowed behind her, and it formed into cat ears at the top of her head and claws around her fingers.

A pair of black and red chakra wings were coming out of her back, patterned with scales and spanning out far behind her. The black dress she now wore was long and tattered at the ends, darkened in color like the rest of her chakra now seemed to be. Her fingernails themselves had extended into razor-sharp claws. And her eyes... Her eyes were the most unsettling part of her transformation. They were colored black, with no pupils nor irises. Her eyes were empty, void of all light and emotion, two pools of darkness that shouldn't have belonged to her, and yet they did.

Although Minxie's transformation was both terrifying and worrisome, her new appearance did not draw Akira's immediate attention. Instead, the Takeda matriarch was staring at the lifeless body that Minxie was carrying in her arms, the corpse of Ryuu Takeda.

There were several moments of silence as Minxie closed the distance between herself and the Edotensei trio. Even more silence followed as the three stared in shock and horror while Minxie gently placed her brother's body on the ground, a few feet away from where Sasuke's corpse also remained.

No one spoke, all of them too saddened and shocked by the turn of events to say a word. Surprisingly, it was Minxie who broke the silence, her voice a cold monotone that didn't belong to her, "... Where's Madara?"

Akira couldn't believe what she was hearing. Minxie had just returned with Ryuu's body in her arms, and she was asking about Madara's location? Where were her tears, her anguish, her sadness? Where was her emotion? "Minxie... What... What happened?" And yet Akira already knew, because Madara had warned her of what exactly her descendants had become. Ryuu was now a corpse, and Minxie... Minxie, if someone didn't stop her, was now going to become a catastrophe in all forms of the word, a disastrous bringer of chaos and strife.

"It was genjutsu," Minxie answered blankly, not looking away from her brother's pale, lifeless face. "Madara made us think we were fighting him when we were really fighting each other. And now Ryuu is dead." She stood up slowly, walking over to Akira. Effortlessly, she began to pull out the chakra rods that kept Akira trapped. Although the rods were meant to restrict chakra, they seemed to have no effect on the new dark chakra that Minxie was emitting, because she was able to touch them without a care in the world.

"Minxie... Minxie, I am so sorry," Akira told the younger Takeda sincerely, her green eyes watering with empathy. Because she knew better than anyone what it was like to lose your twin brother.

Minxie's black, pupil-less eyes bore into Akira's searching emerald ones, unfeeling. "Where's Madara?"

Akira, Hikaru, and Tobirama all exchanged disbelieving looks. This was not the Minxie they knew. This was another person entirely, one who was more of a monster than a human. The voice she was using did not belong to a grieving sister. It belonged to someone who felt nothing at all and who never wished to do so again.

Regaining his composure faster than the two Edotensei Takeda siblings, Tobirama spoke up, "... Why do you want to know where Madara is, Minxie?"

"Because I'm going to kill him," Minxie answered simply, without a moment of hesitation, as if that answer should've been obvious to them from the start. "And in order to do that, I need to know where he is. So where is he?"

"Minxie..." Hikaru hardly knew what to say. He hadn't known her for very long, but he was completely sure that this was not normal behavior, especially not for a caring and gentle girl like her. He definitely wasn't a fan of Madara -in fact, he was actually completely okay with killing the Uchiha, since it would most definitely solve all of their problems- but for Minxie to be the one behind Madara's demise? It didn't seem like her at all.

Akira was sitting in front of Minxie, so she was able to completely take in the younger girl's new form. Her eyes darted to the black veins that had sprouted along the insides of Minxie's wrists, traveling up her arms. And all at once, Akira realized what had happened. She'd felt this dark chakra before; it belonged to the Creator, but the chakra that resided in Minxie's wrists belonged to Ten-Tails. Both chakras, initially belonging to the same entity, had grouped together within Minxie and united as one, transforming her into the emotionless being she was now. The two forces had always been within her, constantly battling each other for dominance, but currently, the darker force was the victor, and it had taken over her completely. And the trigger, the thing that had made her fall to such darkness, was the death of the person she loved most: her twin brother, Ryuu.

And this, Akira realized, was exactly what Madara had wanted. He had purposely cast his genjutsu on Minxie and Ryuu, knowing that Minxie would emerge as the survivor and then, upon realizing what she had done, give over to the dark force that had been beckoning to her for so long. Madara had taken advantage of her potential for darkness and had manipulated the prophecy to his will, forcibly turning Minxie into the weapon he needed, the person who could be the world's destruction.

Except, now that she thought about it... Something was off. Minxie appeared emotionless and detached, but she hadn't done anything inherently evil yet. She didn't seem to particularly care about the world around her, but she wasn't going out of her way to doom it, either. And right now, she wasn't going to help Madara the way he'd wanted her to. Right now, all she wanted was to kill him.

Akira couldn't decide if that made things better or worse.

"The veins on your wrists..." Akira said slowly, "... That's Ten-Tails' chakra, isn't it?"

"It was," Minxie replied, glancing down at the intricate pattern of black veins upon her wrists. "But it's mine, now." As if to prove her point, the veins faded, leaving behind only her pale skin. She looked up at Akira once more, "Where's Madara?"

Akira took a deep breath. Minxie didn't look unstable, but Akira knew just how powerful the Creator's chakra could be. Regardless of how blank she seemed, Minxie was still capable of destroying everything around them, and Akira was in no hurry to set that rather unfortunate outcome in motion. But that didn't mean she could just let Minxie wallow in darkness, either, especially not when that wasn't her true nature. She cared about the younger Takeda, and the last thing she wanted to see was Minxie losing herself to darkness.

"... Minxie, listen to me," Akira began. Her voice was steady, cautious, for she knew that Minxie was more vulnerable now than she ever had been before. And with the Creator's darkness now so clear in the living Takeda's form, Akira knew just how little it would take to set Minxie off. "I know how you're feeling. Trust me, I do. But this world cannot withstand any more hardship. Do not force it to endure your rage. It won't be able to withstand that. Please, try to remember what you're meant to do."

"Meant to..." Minxie repeated the phrase in a strange voice, as if it was completely foreign to her. A moment later, as if she'd realized its meaning, she scoffed, "I'm so tired of that phrase, Akira. 'Meant to.' Was this meant to happen? Was I meant to lose my brother?" She shook her head. "Don't bother answering that. I know you don't have the answer I'm looking for. No one in this world does. But I know that I was meant to end all of this, and I will... By killing Madara."

Akira blinked, taken aback at the girl's insistence. "Minxie... That's not like you. That's not who you are."

"Then who am I?" Minxie questioned, tilting her head as if she truly no longer knew the answer, and realizing that made Akira's heart ache, because the girl had gone through so much, had lost her twin brother and then lost herself, too. "A sister? I can't be, not without Ryuu. So does that mean I'm a savior instead? Because I failed in that department, too. Am I the Prophecy Child, then? I didn't fulfill the prophecy. I have done nothing but ruin everything." She looked up, her eyes serving as reflections of the black and starless night sky that they gazed upon. "So maybe that's who I should be for a while. Destruction."

"No," Akira insisted firmly. "Ryuu wouldn't have wanted that. I know Madara took him from you. I know that you can't forgive him, but you don't have to do this, Minxie. You can change this world's fate, the same way you changed the prophecy. You have the power to fix this. You can change Madara-"

"But I don't want to change Madara," Minxie interrupted in a quiet, eerily calm voice. "I don't want to help him. I don't want to save him. All I want... Is to see him dead at my feet." She blinked, as if she'd been alerted to another presence somewhere far away. "... Found him."

And then she was off, taking to the sky with her wings propelling her forward, an ambivalent angel now turned into an angel of death.

~*~

Naruto was dead.

Well, he was supposed to be, at least, so one could only imagine how surprised he was when he woke up, feeling disoriented and confused but not quite dead; at least, not yet. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to his surroundings. He quckly realized that he had no idea where he was, but he knew that this was not where he was supposed to be.

"Where... Where am I...?" He wondered aloud, without receiving even his own voice's echo as a reply. "Am I dead...?"

"And what makes thee think that thou art dead?" The sudden voice jolted Naruto out of his strange state, and he sat up abruptly. Briefly, he noted that he was surrounded by water, although his chakra was keeping him suspended above its surface. However, he forgot all about his location as he focused on the man who had spoken and was floating in the air with his legs crossed.

Naruto didn't recognize the man, but his first thought was that the stranger was completely ancient. He had dozens of wrinkles across his face, yet his hair and the beard that hung from his chin were still a light shade of brown. He wore a white cloak with comma-like symbols bordering the neckline, and a black staff floated behind him. All in all, this man was one of the strangest-looking people he'd ever seen, and that was saying something, considering all the strange people Naruto had encountered in his lifetime.

"Thine viewpoint on death differs much from that which prevailed in my time," the stranger continued, seemingly oblivious to Naruto's look of confusion. "To so easily replace oneself with the term 'death'... Thou must gain mettle, o new one."

Naruto didn't know exactly what 'mettle' was, nor did he particularly want to find out, either. What he did want to know, however, was exactly who this geezer was and why he'd decided to seek him out. "Uh... Who the hell are you?"

"Quite a precise question for this place, but... I am quite uneasy over whether thou shalt be able to connect my name with my actions as a herald," the old man replied. "I am he who shall achieve peace and order... My name is Hagoromo. On the other hand, I had foreseen that thou wouldst end up in such a state as this."

Naruto squinted his eyes, not having a single clue as to what the older geezer was saying in the first place. The only thing he was able to decipher was the man's name. "Hagoromo, huh... Look, I don't really understand you, but I really can't stay here, so I'm gonna have to- Wait, your eyes!" Naruto's eyes widened as he noticed the purple glow of the man's gaze. "You have the Rinnegan!"

"Thou dost appear to possess observant eyes," Hagoromo noted. "All that remains is for thee to comprehend thy circumstances. Thou hast not yet died. This place is thine inner mind. I understand thine haste, but rushing right now shall accomplish naught. Furthermore..."

"Okay, look, I don't know why I'm here or why you're here, but I have no idea what you're saying, old man!" Naruto shouted irritably. "Can't you speak using easy, normal words!? Not even old man Third Hokage used to speak like this, and he was ancient, too!"

Hagoromo got a thoughtful look on his face. "Hm... It seems that over the passage of time, cultural traditions and notions have brought about significant change. Each time I cross time and meet a reincarnate, I have come to sense greatly the difference between myself and the other... I was also able to formally regulate and learn new words, however... I now see that I must speak simply, taking into account current idealistic and materialistic thinking..."

Naruto's eye twitched, and he stood up, flailing his arms around in exasperation. "Gah, would you just shut up already!? I don't have time to be sitting around and listening to some weird old geezer, especially when I can't even tell what you're saying! I mean, seriously, are you an alien or something? Because sure, you seem super-dignified, but..."

Hagoromo cleared his throat before speaking in a much different manner than before, "Uh, that's a bit much, doncha' think!? An alien? Seriously? Ahaha! Well, maybe that ain't too far off, so anyway..."

Naruto was so surprised by Hagoromo's sudden change in demeanor that he almost fell over. He was so completely horrified that he shuddered, taking a step back, "W-What did you just say?!"

Hagoromo frowned. "You still fail to understand me...? You must be denser than I thought. To think that mere conversation would pose such a complex challenge for you..."

Naruto laughed nervously. "No, no! That was fine just now! I finally get you! I was just shocked 'cuz your speaking style shifted so much! But the thing is, your words don't match up with your face at all, so it's kind of super creepy... How about you just dial it back a touch and be just a bit formal? 'Cuz otherwise, you come off kinda dumb, old man... Uh, no offense."

"Now you're the one who's going too far," Hagoromo stated dully, making Naruto sweatdrop. "Dumb? Really!?" He sighed. "Well, considering how I was talking, I guess I can't blame you for thinking that. Is how I'm speaking now better?"

Naruto nodded, grinning brightly, "Yeah, all right! That's perfect! I can finally talk with you! So, anyway, who exactly are you, gramps? If you know a lot about this place, I want to know how to get outta here! I've got people out there waiting for me, ya know! Oh, man, when Minxie finds out that I'm all right, she's probably going to kill me all over again for worrying her... Not to mention I left her alone to deal with Sasuke and Madara. What if she tells Sakura, too!?" He visibly paled as he imagined all the horrors that awaited him once he got out of here, courtesy of his caring yet violent girlfriend and pink-haired teammate. "... Crap! I need to get out of here now and explain what happened! Before the two of them team up and beat me into next year!"

Hagoromo gave the blonde an odd look, wondering exactly how two teenage girls could possibly be that frightening, but he didn't let that strange rant deter him. "Although that does seem rather unfortunate, I have some things I need to tell you first. I am someone from the past, someone already dead. A monk who wanders through this world as chakra, crossing generations, ascertaining the course of the ninja creed... As I told you, my name is Hagoromo, and I am the founder of the ninja creed. I am also known as the Sage of Six Paths."

"Huh!?" Naruto exclaimed, recognition in his eyes. "You're that Sage of legend that Pervy Sage and Nagato told me about!?"

"Ah, so you have heard of me before?"

"Of course I have! You're the one who created ninjutsu, right?"

"Ninshu, not ninjutsu. My ninja creed was something meant to birth hope. Do not confuse it with ninjutsu, which breeds conflict." Hagoromo dipped the end of his staff into the water below him, creating ripples that converged to reveal the reflection of a brown-haired man wearing a cloak that was identical to his own. "Naruto, you are my son, Ashura's..." He let the image fade, deciding not to confuse the boy just yet. "Well, I'll get to that later. In any case, right now, a lot of conditions have lined up, allowing us to meet here. There are things I must entrust you with."

"Ashura...? Entrust?" Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but then he shook his head. "Quit spouting nonsense and lemme outta here!"

"I understand your haste, Naruto, and I apologize for this, but you leaving here is not something I can affect," Hagoromo stated seriously. "That depends on the actions of those outside. I can only relay things to you. Right now, trying to rush won't make a difference. Thus, I'd rather have you listen to me... No, you must hear this. First, about my mother and my sons..."

He dipped his staff into the water again, and this time, the image of a regal-looking woman with sweeping, long white hair and horns at the sides of her head came to the surface.

"My mother was named Kaguya Ohtsutsuki. She came to this land of yours from a faraway place in order to claim the fruit of the Divine Tree. The chakra fruit of that same Divine Tree... Is the same one that you have seen in this war. When she consumed the fruit, she gained power and subdued the war of this land, bringing peace out of chaos."

"Where'd Kaguya come from?" Naruto asked curiously, tilting his head. "Was she stronger than you?" He laughed a little at the thought. "I guess all moms can be scary!"

"It matters not where she came from... But indeed, my mother was powerful, more powerful than any other," Hagoromo confirmed. "Some people called her a rabbit goddess, others called her a demon... They worshiped her and feared her with equal measure. Later, Kaguya would birth two children... I was one of them. We brothers, to atone for the crimes our mother left behind, battled Ten-Tails and sealed it inside of me. And, later, we did the same to the Creator."

The water rippled again, forming the faces of two brown-haired males dressed just as the Sage was now. One had Sharingan and longer hair, while the other, the one the Sage had called Ashura, lacked the Sharingan and had shorter hair.

"Then, much later than that, I also had two children of my own. I named the elder Indra, the younger Ashura, and taught them both ninja creed. But there was a huge difference between the two. One possessed genes containing my powerful chakra, and one did not... This manifested in the most extreme manner. In short, Indra, my eldest, was exceptionally gifted, while Ashura, my youngest, was not."

Naruto glanced down, a knowing look on his face. "So Ashura wasn't born powerful... Even though his dad was the Sage of Six Paths."

"Indeed... No matter how exceptional both parents are, there's no guarantee that their child will inherit outright either of their abilities," Hagoromo confirmed. "Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Just as it seems to have been in your case, Naruto, in regards to yourself and your own parents. You truly are quite similar to Ashura, in your actions, as well as your situation."

"My actions?" the Uzumaki repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Indra and Ashura walked different paths. Indra possessed strong ocular powers and senses from birth, and was called a genius. He always did everything by himself, leaning only on his own strength, and came to understand that his powers were different and special. He believed that power can achieve everything," Hagoromo explained. "On the other hand, nothing ever went well for Ashura from the time he was a child. He couldn't do anything on his own. In order to obtain the same power as his brother, he needed the cooperation of others in addition to his own effort. While struggling through training, the power of bodily chakra awakened within him, and he attained power rivaling his brother's. He came to understand that he was able to become strong thanks to those around him. He believed that it was love that can achieve everything. Needless to say, my sons were extremely different, and they were always at odds with one another... But I began to have hope for their cooperation when Hitomi came into our lives."

Again, the water rippled, this time forming the image of a young woman with long hair colored a dark purple, almost black. She was pale, with delicate features and a kind smile. But what really caught Naruto's eye was the bright, golden color of her irises.

"Hitomi's power was not like our own, yet, like Indra, she too possessed gifted eyes. She was a seer, the first of her kind, and the most powerful one to ever live. Perhaps it was that power that drew both of my sons to her in the first place, power that exceeded what even our own chakra could achieve... She possessed the kindest heart we'd ever known, and she brought my sons together more than I ever could. They both came to care for her with equal measure. She guided them, and in many ways, she guided me, as well, for she was wise beyond her years. I believed that in her was the solution to their rivalry... But the peace that she established between them was short-lived, something that I take responsibility for.

"You see, I thought I caught a glimpse of new possibilities within Ashura's way of living, within his philosophy of love as the driving force to achieve all things. I partitioned the power of Ten-Tails that was inside of me, named each of the pieces, and believed that the bond known as cooperation was true power. I then named Ashura leader and guardian of the ninja creed, thinking that Indra would cooperate with Ashura, the way he had when Hitomi was around.

"... But I was mistaken. Indra did not accept my decision. And thus, from that day on, this interminable conflict began."

"But you said that they'd finally started to get along!" Naruto exclaimed in disbelief. "Hitomi's the one who brought them to that, right? So why couldn't she stop them from fighting all over again?"

Hagoromo smiled sadly. "Like you, Naruto, I expected Hitomi to put a stop to their conflict... But that was a burden too heavy and too impossible, even for her. She was a pacifist by nature, and although she had always been sympathetic towards Ashura's cause and believed in his ways... She would not stand against Indra. She tried to stop them from fighting, telling them about the bloody and endless conflict she had foreseen, should they continue on such a path, but my boys were quite stubborn, and they would not relent, not even for her. They wanted her to pick a side, but she refused to do so. She had foreseen that, no matter who she ended up choosing, their war would not end, and neither would the constant carnage.

"It was around this time that the seal I had placed on the Creator began to weaken. It was a seal that required the sacrifice of life energy, and although my brother and I had given portions of our life energy to maintain it, it would not last forever, not without another source of life energy to keep it going. Soon, it would unravel completely, returning the Creator to its full power. Hitomi knew that if either Indra or Ashura gained control of that power, the results would be catastrophic. The world would never know peace again. And still, my sons were insistent that Hitomi should choose... And it was that insistence that made her choice for her. In the end, in order to prevent future conflict about her powers and her allegiance, and to keep the Creator at bay for generations to come... Hitomi took her own life."

The image of Hitomi rippled, disappearing from the water and leaving Naruto to stare, wide-eyed, as the Sage hung his head sorrowfully. "That... That didn't end the fighting, either, did it?" Naruto inquired quietly, already having a good idea as to what the answer was.

"No, it did not. While Hitomi's sacrifice did manage to keep the seal binding the Creator maintained... It also drove Ashura and Indra further apart. They blamed each other for her death and completely disregarded her wishes, and their conflict continued. Even today, although both of my sons have been dead for many years, their chakra still remains, as does their endless fighting."

"It almost sounds like being haunted by a ghost," Naruto muttered thoughtfully. "So... Their chakra's still possessing someone, even now?"

"You, Naruto," Hagoromo stated, expecting the blonde's eyes to widen, but Naruto remained still, his arms crossed over his chest. "Ashura has reincarnated as you. These eyes of mine can clearly see his chakra clinging to you right now. And, considering your lack of surprise... Perhaps you've actually sensed Ashura's presence within you? If that's the case, then you must already know... Who the reincarnate of Indra is."

"It's Sasuke, isn't it," Naruto answered rather than questioned, because it was the only logical explanation behind their rivalry and their friendship. "... Right? And if Sasuke's Indra... Then Minxie must be Hitomi." Because he knew that self-sacrifice was as second nature to Minxie as it had been to Hitomi.

Hagoromo nodded in confirmation. "Indeed. Indra's chakra has reincarnated into Sasuke, while Hitomi's will lives on in Minxie... Although it seems you were already aware of that. Sasuke and Minxie share quite a lot in common with Indra and Hitomi, respectively, just as you share a lot in common with Ashura, Naruto. It's customary for all reincarnates."

"You made it sound like there's been other, er, 'reincarnates' before us. What happened to them?"

"The reincarnates before you were Hashirama Senju, Madara Uchiha, and Akira Takeda. Hashirama was Ashura, Madara was Indra, and Akira was Hitomi. And you already know how they ended up, don't you?"

Naruto nodded. He was all too familiar with the complicated past that Hashirama, Madara, and Akira had shared. The three of them had wanted to create a world of peace together, and yet now, Madara had returned to destroy it all, with Hashirama and Akira powerless to stop him.

"However, Madara created a certain problem before his death. He was so obsessed with power that he stole some of Hashirama's, which caused the merging of Indra and Ashura's chakra and resulted in the attaining of some of my own power. That is how he awakened the Rinnegan. I'd always believed that one of the reincarnates would end up doing something like that, which is why I left behind that stone tablet, with guidance on reforming one's thinking... Although it appears to have been meaningless. If Hitomi couldn't change my sons, then how could a mere tablet do so? Even Akira, who achieved a better balance between Hashirama and Madara, was ultimately unable to reconcile them and end their conflict. All these years, and my sons still continue to quarrel."

"So you've been watching your kids fight over and over again, since even after they died?" Naruto inquired.

"... Yes. I suppose you could say that." Hagoromo sighed. "Through my ninja creed, I preached that chakra is power that links individuals. I truly believe that chakra should not be something that amplifies any single person's strength. Even after she brought an end to the war, my mother Kaguya ruled over the world by herself. But her power eventually made her arrogant, and people came to fear her for it. She, who was once called the rabbit goddess, became feared as a demon. If power is concentrated in one person, it will run wild, and that person will become possessed by it.

"The current Madara is a perfect example. He's become just like my mother. He's obtained Ten-Tails' power and is getting close to my own strength level, and is even trying to obtain my mother's power. The Infinite Tsukuyomi doesn't just cast genjutsu over you. It keeps you trapped inside genjutsu dreams, so that the caster can use your individual power while keeping you alive. You're attached to the roots of the Divine Tree and turned into living slaves. That's the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

"Mother possessed the Sharingan as well as the Byakugan. She used her ocular powers to cast that jutsu upon the entire world. If all chakra were to be reunited into one again, a new chakra fruit would take shape. That must be prevented at all costs, or this world will come to an end. Naruto, I would like you to stop Madara. Your nature is so unlike that of the previous reincarnates... I feel like that will be the key to a better future."

Naruto looked down, a small smile on his face. "Thanks for still believing in us, old man, even while the world you've watched over for so long has gotten all messed up like this."

The Sage's eyes widened in surprise, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words. "Naruto... Don't thank me. I have no right to it. If the current world desires Indra's, or rather, Mother's way of doing things, then I'm the one who's selfishly trying to go against and stop it. Even in terms of how the biju are being used... Not for maintaining peace, but only as weapons... Perhaps my way of thinking is naive."

"Nope!" Naruto said brightly. "You aren't wrong about anything, Super-Gramps!"

"That's right, old man!" They both turned to see the biju Shukaku rise out of the water, his chakra solidifying powerfully.

Naruto turned, his eyes widening at the apperance of Shukaku. "Whoa, hey, aren't you Gaara's Shukaku? What are you doing here!?"

Surprisingly, it was not Shukaku that answered him, but Eight-Tails, who appeared next. "Obito took away a piece of each of our chakra from Madara. He knew exactly which bijus' power you lacked."

"A lot's happened outside, but Obito managed to get me back to you," Kurama's voice said, and sure enough, his chakra appeared as well. "Now you've got the chakra of all nine biju within you, Naruto! The promised time has finally come, old man!"

Hagoromo nodded. "You're right, Kurama. It is just as Hitomi prophesied all those years ago... 'A blue-eyed youth who can name nine beasts and frolic among them.' That's you, Naruto. You truly seem to have the ability to win others' hearts. You managed to summon my soul, and you accepted that Ashura has reincarnated within you. Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuki, and Kurama... It appears the day the Child of Prophecy, the Savior, shall change the world has finally arrived."

And suddenly, to Naruto's surprise, all nine of the tailed beasts were sitting around him and the Sage of Six Paths, their chakra as powerful and imposing as ever.

"Naruto, I must ask you... What do you want to do?" the Sage questioned. "What is it that you seek for the aftermath of this war? I'd like to hear your honest thoughts and opinions."

"Well... Maybe I am a lot like this Ashura guy. Sure, unlike him, I may be dumb, and sometimes I'm a brat, and I really don't understand a whole bunch of things... But I do know what comrades are, and I want to protect them," Naruto announced firmly. "That's all I want."

Hagoromo stared at Naruto before nodding. In another place far away, he was having a similar discussion with Sasuke, who had also made his own intentions clear. And now, all that was left for Hagoromo to do was leave the rest to them.

"Long ago, I entrusted everything to Ashura and didn't pay any attention to Indra. I gave Hitomi the impossible task of reconciling them, when I myself drove them apart... And it ended up destroying all of them. My mistakes were the source of their calamity. But this time, I'm going to do things differently. Extend your dominant arm... From this point on, Naruto and Sasuke, what you both shall do, and what shall transpire after that, is up to you."

"You know, old man... I don't think Hitomi blamed you for anything that happened. Yeah, she didn't get around to reconciling your sons, and neither did Akira... But I know Minxie, and she doesn't believe in failure," Naruto announced proudly, a knowing grin on his face as he raised his right arm. "And yeah, Sasuke and I might not be real brothers... But I really believe that we can make peace. 'Cuz, even after everything... We're still pretty good friends."

And, for the first time in what felt like centuries, Hagoromo let himself break into a genuine smile.

~*~

Luna's prediction, as expected, was correct. After a few more moments of fast-paced running, the group finally reached their destination. At the head of their formation, Karin, Rin, and Reyna were the first to encounter the stranger whom the girls had sensed earlier, and they found that even now, they couldn't recognize him. He was sitting beside Sasuke, a strange tubular mass sticking out of his stomach and flowing into Sasuke's heart. It was a strange sight that made Reyna's eyebrows furrow, because the Uchiha looked dead, and she couldn't tell if the stranger next to him was helping or not.

"What's going on?" Rin questioned, only able to sense the scene and not see it. All she felt was the malicious tinge to the stranger's chakra, and the notable absence of Sasuke's.

"I don't know," Reyna muttered. "This guy's hovering over who, I'm guessing, is Sasuke. I have no idea what he's doing, but it isn't exactly pleasant to look at."

"Hey, who the hell are you!?" Karin demanded. She didn't bother to wait for answer, too incensed to care. "You know what? I don't care! But I want to know exactly what you think you're doing to Sasuke!"

"Relax, Karin," Orochimaru said calmly. "That's Kabuto."

The redheaded Uzumaki's jaw dropped, "What!? But his chakra's completely different from how it was before! How can he be Kabuto!?"

"Well, he did take in senjutsu chakra as well as all sorts of other people's chakra," Orochimaru reminded easily, shrugging. "So I can't blame you for not recognizing him, Karin. I wonder if his chakra has a nasty feel to it because he still possesses some of mine?"

"That's the most logical thing I've heard you say since you came back to life," Scarlett muttered bluntly, resting a hand on her hip. He shrugged again, not bothered by her statement.

"Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto greeted calmly, his eyes flickering up to meet his former teacher's gaze. "It's been too long. What have you come here to do?"

Orochimaru stared at his former medic quizzically. "I could ask you the same question, Kabuto."

"You don't intend to absorb Sasuke when he's down, do you?" Suigetsu questioned suspiciously. "Because that'd just be uncool, and Karin will most definitely kill you for it."

"You bet your ass I will!" Karin shouted. "Are you the one who hurt Sasuke, huh, Kabuto!? Stay the hell away from him, you creep!"

"Suigetsu, I have no desire to steal Sasuke's power anymore," Kabuto spoke rationally. "And Karin, I have nothing to do with Sasuke's defeated state, although I am the reason why he hasn't stopped breathing yet."

"... You're helping him, aren't you?" Luna guessed, glancing at the strange tube-like structure connected to Sasuke's heart and resisting the urge to shudder. "You're bringing him back with... Whatever that creepy thing poking out of your stomach is."

"That's right," He confirmed. "With my medical ninjutsu and cells from the First Hokage... Plus a suggestion from the Second Hokage himself, I just managed to stop Sasuke from dying."

The newcomers glanced to the side, finally noticing Tobirama laying on the ground a distance away from them. With his face falling apart and his body pierced by chakra rods, he looked nothing like the powerful Second Hokage they'd been expecting to see again, but he did at least look proud to have helped save Sasuke's life.

"I suppose you being here now means that you escaped Itachi's Izanami," Scarlett spoke up, drawing Kabuto's gaze to her. "Bummer. That ended way too fast. I figured you deserved at least a decade of being trapped in the Izanami after all the crap you've pulled recently."

"Heh, I can't argue with you there," Kabuto muttered, smirking slightly in amusement. "A while ago, I stopped acknowledging myself. I didn't know who I was. That allowed Lord Orochimaru to give me easy answers and to use me, making me lose myself even more. But through the Izanami, Itachi helped me realize that I am none other than Kabuto. I now know where my true home is."

"So you had an epiphany," the Doppelganger finished for him, rolling her eyes. "How unnecessarily heart-warming. Now, before you start crying about rainbows and the beauty of your true home, why don't you tell us exactly how any of this ties into you helping Sasuke? Because although I'm glad that you've stopped summoning dead people to fight us, I'm also a little confused, since Sasuke's kind of an ass. And, what's more than that, he's rude. Totally not someone you'd struggle to save, especially since he helped Itachi and I defeat you in the first place."

"I'm aware of Sasuke's... Particular personality," Kabuto said, after pausing to search for the right words. "But I don't want to lose my home, which Itachi helped me realize. And Itachi, who wanted to protect Sasuke even in death... His feelings have pierced my heart quite strongly. Saving his little brother is the least I can do, after what he helped me realize."

"Hmph, that's all nice and decent for you to say now, but you're the moron who joined up with the fake Madara and started this war!" Suigetsu exclaimed. "This mess is partially your responsibility!"

"That's right... Both Obito and I thought we'd lost our place in this world and dragged everyone else into this," Kabuto said. "But I know who I am now... And what it is that I must do. I will save Sasuke... Although I wish he wasn't the only one I can help."

Reyna frowned. "What do you mean the only one you-" The words died in her throat when Kabuto moved out of the way, revealing the motionless body that lay in the distance behind him. She couldn't see his face from here, but she had a feeling that she already knew who it was. "... No."

"I'm sorry," a female voice said, and only then did they notice Akira there, her emerald green eyes sorrowful as she looked at them. Beside her, her twin brother Hikaru mirrored that same sorrowful expression. "I'm so sorry. But it's just..." She shook her head. "It's too late."

Tears pooled in Reyna's eyes, but she didn't let them fall. She wouldn't, not until she saw his face. She had to be sure.

She stepped around Kabuto and Sasuke, approaching the body slowly. When her turquoise eyes finally landed on the face of the corpse that lay defeated behind them, she collapsed beside it. A strangled sort of cry escaped her lips, and a stream of tears fell down her face right after.

Luna let out a small, almost inaudible gasp, feeling tears fall out of her own eyes as she stared at the horrible proof of the one vision she'd never wanted to see come true. "Oh, no... No..."

When Rin heard Reyna's sobs and Luna's whispers, she wasted no time in storming forward, right over to where Reyna was sitting. Her feet brushed against the soft material of clothing, but she didn't stop until she was kneeling beside the body, her legs tucked underneath her. Carefully, she brushed her fingertips with his, jolting away when she felt how cold he was.

But she wouldn't believe it, not yet. She extended her arm, reaching for his neck, and she froze when her fingers made contact with the cold metal of an amulet shaped into the visage of a dragon, an amulet that she knew all too well. She'd traced it and held it between her hands hundreds of times before, when she and Ryuu would spend lazy days lounging around together. She remembered the amulet's shape distinctly, because she'd always complain about how it would bump her chin whenever he leaned down to kiss her.

She froze, her entire body stilling as her muscles tensed, because this wasn't real. It couldn't be. Ryuu couldn't be dead, not so soon, not before she got to say goodbye. But how could she sit there and deny it, when the proof that he was gone was right in front of her? There was an emptiness in her heart that she hadn't noticed until now, a void feeling that confirmed what she couldn't see herself. Perhaps a part of her had known the truth all along, and she just hadn't acknowledged it until now. A tear slipped out of Rin's eye and down her cheek, but she was so numb that she couldn't even feel it.

Luna's own golden eyes had pooled over with tears, and she started towards Rin, having no idea what she could say to make this situation better but knowing that she had to do something. Before she reached the snow-haired kunoichi, however, a glint of metal caught her eye. She walked towards it and leaned down to get a better look, her eyes widening when she realized that the object was Minxie's katana. It was laying on the ground between two rocks, discarded as if it were unwanted, which surprised Luna. She couldn't think of a day when she'd ever seen Minxie without the katana resting proudly on her hip. So why had she left it behind now?

Luna picked up the katana from the ground, and the vision that flashed before her eyes once her fingers grabbed its hilt was answer enough to her question. She blinked, back in reality once again, and she was so shocked that she almost dropped the weapon. "I don't... No, that can't be right." But then she saw the sad look that Hikaru and Akira were sharing, and she knew that what she had seen was exactly what had happened.

Scarlett was going to ask what Luna had seen in the first place, but the seer surprised her when she spoke again, "... He tricked them, didn't he? Madara tricked Minxie and Ryuu... He made Minxie do this."

Slowly, Reyna raised her head, her voice raspy from her tears, yet her turquoise eyes still managed to burn with a strange mixture of anger, hopelessness, and disbelief, "You're telling me... That Minxie did this to him?"

"It wasn't her fault," Akira stated quickly. "It was genjutsu that Madara cast. He did it on purpose, because he knew what losing Ryuu would do to her."

"... She chose not to be a weapon," Scarlett muttered, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she frowned. "So now Madara's forcing her into becoming one, anyway."

Hikaru nodded solemnly. "We saw her a few minutes before all of you got here, and she's changed drastically. She has to be stopped. There's nothing that can be done for Ryuu now-"

"No," Reyna hissed, cutting him off. "We are going to help him. I don't care how, but we're going to do it! Because Ryuu isn't- He can't just be- No!" She held back another sob, her fist slamming into the ground beside her. "He does not get to die this way. I won't accept it." When she looked up, she directed her gaze to Orochimaru, "You. You're Orochimaru, aren't you? One of the Sanin? You were dead, and now you're not, so fix him."

"Kabuto was my medic," Orochimaru said blankly, after looking at the redhead for a few moments. "If there's nothing he can do for Ryuu, then I most definitely can't do anything, either."

"Bullshit." Everyone blinked in surprise at that, staring at Rin in disbelief, hardly able to connect such a word with her at all. For one thing, she'd been so eerily still for the past few minutes that they'd almost forgotten that she was there. But to hear such a thing come from someone as innocent-looking as her? It was definitely a strange sight.

Numbly, she turned her head towards Orochimaru, somehow knowing exactly where he was even though she couldn't see him. Her pale lilac eyes were unsettling as they stared blankly into his, her soft voice sounding surprisingly dull as she spoke, "You are one of the most notorious criminals from our village. You evaded death for years and even came back from the dead, and you expect me to believe that there isn't a thing you can do to help him? No forbidden jutsu, no seal, no anything?"

Orochimaru stared at her, taking in her haggard appearance. She had the regal and fragile princess look that everyone had described, but right now, with tears streaming down her face and her voice sounding empty, the image didn't seem to do her justice. He wasn't an empathetic man in the least, but it was clear to everyone just how broken and desperate she was right now. She appeared detached and deathly still, but he had a feeling that if she didn't get the answer she wanted, then she was going to do something reckless that would put them all at risk.

"I returned from the dead because of the curse marks I left behind," He explained finally. "That was the only reason I was able to succeed. Saving Ryuu... That's not something that's within my power, Rin." His eyes flickered over to Akira and Hikaru, who, with their faces cracking and rods sticking out of their bodies, looked nothing like the legendary Takeda twins they were supposed to be. And, to the Mori heiress' dismay, neither of them offered any alternatives.

Instead of shouting angrily, like Reyna proceeded to do, Rin only nodded mutely, returning to the eerie silence and stillness that didn't suit her. Her fingers brushed Ryuu's again, and although she flinched a little at how cold they were, she still clasped her hand around his, locking their fingers together. She stayed like that for a few moments before getting up swiftly, pulling out her signature fans as she did so.

Scarlett raised an eyebrow at the kunoichi's retreating figure, calling after her, "Where are you going?"

Rin didn't look back to answer. "To fix this."

"How the hell are you going to- Are you insane?" The Doppelganger quickly stepped forward and grabbed Rin's wrist as she realized the snow-haired girl's intentions, pulling her back. "Going after Madara isn't going to fix this! Not even Minxie and Ryuu could take him down. What the hell makes you think you stand a chance?"

"I know I don't stand a chance," the Mori heiress replied blankly, "But I don't care."

Scarlett was half-tempted to slap her. "What the hell? You know, snow princess, you're a lot of things, but I didn't think you were suicidal! Going after Madara is going to get you killed, moron. Do you really think Ryuu would have wanted that? Do you think he would've let you just-"

"It doesn't matter!" Rin shouted, startling the rest of them into silence. "It doesn't matter because he's gone! So what does it matter if I go after Madara? That's better than sitting here and doing nothing! I need to do something, anything, so I'll stop feeling like this! Because I can't do this, Scarlett! I can't feel like this! The guy I love is dead, and I can't- I won't-" She cut herself off with a frustrated cry and swung her fans, creating a gust of wind that slammed against a rock formation and broke it into hundreds of tiny fragments. Her anger, however, was short-lived, because she ended up sobbing, dropping her fans and collapsing back to the ground, hunching over as she held her head in her hands with tears falling down her face.

Scarlett stared down at the sobbing kunoichi, unsure what exactly what she was supposed to do now. Normally, she would've rolled her eyes at such a display of emotion, but she'd never hated Ryuu, and she could understand the pain that his death left behind. She met Luna's knowing golden gaze, a moment of understanding passing between them. Luna seemed to receive Scarlett's unasked request, because she put Minxie's katana down, and the next second, she was beside Rin, wrapping her arms around the mourning snow-haired kunoichi.

Scarlett didn't join them, because no matter how much time she spent around the Konoha ninja, comforting people would never be her thing. Still, she reached out and placed her hand on Rin's shoulder, a gesture so brief that Rin was almost convinced that she'd imagined it, if it weren't for the words that followed, "... You're not going to throw your life away, Rin. You're not going after Madara."

"She's right. You're not going after him." The sudden voice caught them off guard, and they all turned to see Sasuke standing up, completely healed and good as new, as if he hadn't been on the verge of death only seconds before. There was still dried blood on his chin, his chest, and the back of his shirt, but he was no longer fatally injured. "I am."

"Sasuke!" Karin cheered excitedly, grinning up at the newly healed Uchiha. "You're alive!"

"Heh, I was wondering what was taking you so long, Uchiha," Suigetsu grinned. "Karin here was crying her eyes out. Hell, even Jugo looked like he was ready to burst into tears."

Ignoring Suigetsu, Jugo nodded at Sasuke. "It's good to have you back, Sasuke."

A few feet away from them, Scarlett stood there, for once feeling actually surprised. Sure, she'd been expecting Sasuke to resurrect any second now, but since when did he have the Rinnegan? Exactly what had Kabuto done when he'd brought him back? His teammates might not have cared about his new appearance, but she certainly did, and she planned on finding out exactly what went down while he was starting to die. She raised an eyebrow at his new ocular kekkei genkai, "What the hell happened to you?"

"Doesn't matter," Sasuke answered, lifting up his left hand and glancing down at it briefly. There, they could clearly see a crescent moon marking on his palm, one that definitely hadn't been there before. "All that matters is that I feel stronger, now."

"Well, with a Rinnegan and a Sharingan, I sure would hope so," the Doppelganger muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Maybe now you'll actually be useful."

Sasuke purposely ignored her, instead taking the chance to look at the scene around him. The terrain was a complete mess, with chakra still lingering in the air, a sure sign that a difficult battle had taken place only moments before. He remembered that Minxie had been with him only seconds before he'd 'died.' She'd brushed his hair back and held his hand and asked him not to leave her, but now, she was nowhere to be found, which confused him.

"... Where's Minxie?" He asked, as he headed over to Akira and grabbed one of the chakra rods that was retraining her. He was able to pull the rod free without it binding or affecting his chakra.

"She went after Madara, and you need to follow her. Although I appreciate it, you can't afford to waste your time on me," Akira said sternly, making him stop his movements, although she did spare him a sad sort of smile as a greeting. "I'm of no use to you in this situation. You need to free Tobirama. He's the one who can take you to them with his Flying Raijin jutsu. Besides, in a little while longer I should be able to get myself out of these. For now, you have to hurry. Minxie won't be wasting any time, and right now, you and Naruto are the only ones who can stop her."

Sasuke wasn't going to argue with her. He'd already noticed Ryuu's corpse laying around them, and if the Takeda male was truly dead, then it was no secret that Minxie would be, quite literally, going out of her mind, considering just how attached she was to her brother. Sasuke had never seen her shadow chakra activated full-force; he'd only seen glimpses of it bleeding through her in the past, but those memories were enough to convince him that reasoning with her wouldn't be easy.

So that was why he did as Akira directed him to, going over to Tobirama and freeing the Senju from the chakra rods. When he was done, he turned back to her, "What do I have to do?"

"My amulet and Hikaru's," Akira answered quickly, her tone slightly rushed, because time was certainly not on their side. "Minxie and Ryuu wear them now. Long ago, I used them to seal away the Creator. If you connect both pieces together, they'll form a key that should work in a similar way. It'll slow Minxie down, sealing her movements long enough for you to drain away the dark chakra that's taken ahold of her. You know how to channel chakra into objects, don't you? You'll drain away Minxie's dark chakra and put it in the necklace of the Doppelganger, the way I did when I stopped the Creator."

At the mention of the Doppelganger, Scarlett looked up, her hand instinctively wrapping around the necklace that hung around her neck, "You want me to give up my necklace?"

"That's the only way any of this will work," Hikaru told her seriously. "That necklace is the only thing that can hold that kind of power. If Sasuke just removes that chakra from Minxie and lets it roam freely, it'll manifest in the worst way you can imagine, and then we'll have even more problems. That's why Akira made the necklace in the first place, to prevent that from happening."

Seeing the expression on Scarlett's face, Akira gave the younger girl a knowing look. The Takeda matriarch could tell that the girl was hesitant about giving up something she believed made her stronger. "Losing the necklace won't affect your power, Scarlett. The strength you've obtained from it is yours now, and you're not going to lose it. But right now, Minxie needs the necklace more than you do. Actually, the world needs it more, because if something isn't done about her, then she's going to destroy it all."

Scarlett stared at her for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and relenting. "Fine, I get it." She tugged the necklace off and handed it to Sasuke. "You better not break it, Uchiha."

"Somehow, I think I'll have more important things to worry about," Sasuke replied, taking the necklace from her and ignoring the way she scowled at his remark. His eyes flickered over to Ryuu's dead body, where he knew the amulet he needed was. Normally, he would've grabbed the amulet without hesitation, but with two sobbing kunoichi leaning over Ryuu's body and blocking his path, he didn't exactly know what he was supposed to do. He doubted that either of them would let him get close enough to grab the amulet in the first place, and he'd never been good at dealing with crying girls.

Surprisingly, Rin sat up before he could do anything, and she lifted Ryuu's head and gently removed his amulet from around his neck. She walked over to Sasuke, then, her movements somehow graceful despite how heartbroken and in despair they all knew she was. She took Sasuke's hand and opened it, facing his palm upward, before placing the amulet in his hand.

When she spoke, her voice was surprisingly strong, despite the tears still coating her face, "Save Minxie. End this war." She closed his hand so that the amulet remained securely in his palm. "... And kill Madara."

Sasuke had never been particularly close to Rin when they were genin. After all, she hadn't been in the Academy with the rest of them, and it was only after he'd left Konoha that she actually became part of their group. But despite that, right now, he understood her, which was why he nodded, slipping both necklaces into his pocket. "I will." He turned and went to stand beside Tobirama, who grabbed his arm lightly. "Let's go."

And then the two of them vanished, finally ready to end the war, once and for all.

~*~

Madara hadn't expected much resistance when he reached Black Zetsu, so he was sufficiently surprised by Guy's strength. Madara was prideful, but he gave credit where it was due, and he didn't deny that Guy was the strongest taijutsu expert he'd ever faced.

Of course, Guy wouldn't hold that title much longer, considering he was currently dying. His final move, instead of killing Madara, had only managed to severely wound the Uchiha, and now, after having opened the eighth and final chakra gate located around his heart, Guy lay defeated at the base of the Divine Tree. Practically all of his bones were broken, and bits of his skin had already begun to disintegrate into ash.

Despite the fact that Madara was currently missing an arm and a large piece of his rib cage, he still managed to laugh. "Haha... You almost killed me just now! But it seems you've reached your limit. In gratitude for giving me a good battle, I'll finish you off... Before you turn to ash on your own!"

With that, Madara shot one of the Sage's black spheres towards Guy, expecting it to kill the taijutsu expert. However, before the attack could hit, Naruto appeared and kicked the sphere away, right back towards Madara.

Madara, who had only just finished regenerating his missing arm and rib cage, quickly dodged the sphere when it came back towards him. Ignoring the explosion that sounded behind him, he narrowed his eyes at the blonde shinobi who was, indeed, alive and well once more. "... You're supposed to be dead, brat."

Naruto laughed. "I guess you're just not as powerful as you think you are, huh, Madara? You must be losing your touch, old man." He grinned over his shoulder at the Uchiha, quickly kneeling beside Guy and placing a hand over the older shinobi's failing heart. With that simple motion, he managed to stop Guy from dying, and when he turned back to Madara, his pupils had changed shape, both Kurama's power and the power of senjutsu bleeding through him.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, Madara frowned, "... You seem different from before."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "I'm still trying to figure it out myself... But I think I can change everything now!"

Madara, however, wasn't going to let Naruto change anything, not now, when everything was going so well for him. He summoned the black sphere again, forming it into a chakra rod, but before he could attack with it, Naruto was in front of him, punching him roughly into the tree behind him. Madara's back collided with the bark of the Divine Tree, and he was so surprised that he barely had time to dodge Naruto's next attack: a senjutsu-powered, lava-style Rasen-Shuriken that he most definitely should not have been able to perform, and yet he did.

Madara tried to use his Limbo ninjutsu to change the trajectory of Naruto's attack, but to Madara's surprise, Naruto completely evaded the jutsu. The Rasen-Shuriken knocked into Madara head-on, and Naruto got out of the way just as it exploded, cutting down the Divine Tree as it did so.

As the tree began to fall, its base severed completely, Naruto grabbed Guy and rushed over to Gaara and Lee. Madara placed his hand on the tree before it touched the ground, and then it disappeared, shocking the onlooking shinobi.

"The tree vanished?" Gaara said, his eyes widening. "What did Madara do to it?"

Lee was going to reply, but then he saw Naruto approaching with Guy in tow, and tears filled his eyes at the awful condition of his sensei. "Guy-sensei!"

"Don't worry, Lee!" Naruto assured. "He's gonna be just fine! He isn't gonna die!"

"You healed him, Naruto!?" Lee exclaimed, completely shocked. "But he opened all eight gates! This should not be possible!"

Naruto placed Guy on the ground gently. "I know, but right now..." He glanced at the circle symbol engraved onto his right palm. "I feel like I can do all sorts of impossible things." He stood up. "Gaara, Bushy Brows, make sure you protect him, okay?"

Gaara nodded, a proud look on his face as he offered his friend a smile. "Naruto... I look forward to sharing a drink with you once you're Hokage."

Naruto grinned at his old friend. "Right back at 'ya, Gaara!" He jumped into action, shooting a grin at Kakashi when he passed him. Naruto finally stopped to look up at Madara, who had floated into the air and was staring down at Naruto.

"Regardless of what power you've gained, you cannot take me down," Madara announced. "I am essentially completely immortal now... I have obtained eternity. And you will not get in the way of that."

Naruto laughed, grabbing his father's kunai and placing the weapon between his teeth. He tightened his Leaf headband around his forehead. "You idiot! I'm not taking you down..." His chakra mode reactivated, this time with the Sage's black spheres surrounding his back, just as Sasuke appeared beside him. "... We are!"

Sasuke looked up at Madara, his new Rinnegan glinting, "Your time has come, Madara."

"Hn... It seems that you've awakened the Sage's senjutsu, Naruto, while Sasuke awakened one-eyed Rinnegan," Madara noted, glancing down at them. "However, I've got both those powers, remember?"

"Doesn't matter," Naruto said strongly. "We're still going to defeat you, no matter what!"

Madara looked like he was going to say something else, when suddenly, he blinked, and a smug smirk spread across his face. "You're welcome to try. But tell me, boys, exactly how do you plan on defeating me when you'll be too busy fighting her?"

Naruto and Sasuke had no idea what he meant, until they felt a dreadful and dark chakra flood the clearing, one they didn't recognize. They turned, their eyes widening when they noticed Minxie suddenly floating in the air above them, looking completely unlike herself in every way she possibly could. Sure, her hair and skin were still the same, but her chakra had transformed and darkened to the likes they hadn't seen since the Chunin Exams. The wings that kept her floating in the air were scaly and crimson, accompanied by claws on her fingertips. But the most troubling part of her were her eyes, void of all color except black and lacking both pupils and irises.

Minxie was looking right at them, but she didn't seem to see them at all. They were expecting some sort of acknowledgement, maybe even a sigh of relief at the sight of them alive and well once more, but they received nothing of the sort. She merely glanced at them momentarily before turning to the other Uchiha who, like her, was also floating in the air. "Madara."

"There she is," Madara greeted with a grin. "What took you so long, Minxie? You kept me waiting."

"... Minxie?" Sasuke tried to get her attention by calling her name, but she didn't look at him, even though he knew that she heard him. He frowned slightly. He didn't like the way her chakra looked, nor did he like the way it felt. His hand drifted over to the necklaces that were tucked safely into his pocket as he remembered what Akira had told him. Minxie was too far away for him to use them now. He needed to get closer to her.

Naruto, who hadn't been informed about Minxie's transformation like Sasuke had been, was completely shocked as he stared up at the brunette. "Minxie, what..." But, to his obvious surprise and dismay, she didn't look at him, either.

"Isn't she lovely?" Madara inquired, grinning at Naruto and Sasuke. "No brother, no emotions, and best of all, no conscience. She's everything I wanted her to be and more."

"What the hell did you do to her!?" Naruto demanded, glaring at him. "And where the hell is Ryuu!? What did you do, you bastard!? Answer me!"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Naruto. I didn't do much of anything. Minxie chose this all on her own," Madara answered. "Although, if we're being honest, I did give her a little push... Who would've known that making her kill her brother would break her and lead her into the darkness?" His Rinnegan glinted with amusement as he let out another chuckle. "Oh, that's right, I did!"

Naruto growled threateningly, "You bastard-" He stepped forward, but suddenly, a black wall of chakra rose up in front of him, stopping him. He looked up at Minxie, whom he knew had created the barrier, in shock, "Minxie, why are you..." But Minxie didn't look at him. It was almost as if he hadn't spoken to her at all.

"Good job, Minxie," Madara said, glancing at the brunette with a smirk on his face. "Now, why don't you go ahead and kill these two while you're at it? Then we can work on reversing your decision and ending this world once and for all, just the way you want to."

Minxie turned to Naruto and Sasuke, glancing down at them with a blank gaze. She didn't blink as she lifted her hand and gathered chakra in her palm, beginning her first set of hand signs. But then the space around her swirled, and suddenly, she was behind Madara, shoving a Chidori-illuminated hand through his abdomen.

The sudden and unexpected attack shocked Madara, who turned to face Minxie with an incredulous look, "What the hell are you doing, brat!?"

"I thought it was obvious," She replied, her tone perfectly blank. "I'm killing you." She started up her Chidori once again, the lightning sparking an ominous purple as it electrocuted his body.

Ignoring the jolts of pain, Madara reached behind him and grabbed her wrist. He broke away from her, spinning around in the air to face her with a glare as his stomach worked to heal itself. Her turning against him was not part of his plan, and he wouldn't stand for it. "Why would you kill me when we both want the same thing? We're on the same side, Minxie! We want the same thing for this world!"

"That's where you're wrong. I don't want anything for this world. It's meaningless to me now," She said. "The only thing I have left to want, Madara, is your death." As if to prove her point, she vanished once again, reappearing behind him and aiming a punch at his head. He dodged it with ease, noticing a second too late the kick she sent to his stomach, which still hadn't finished healing. She followed with another punch, this time to his jaw, and, wrapping her hand around his throat, she threw him head-first into the ground, right where Naruto and Sasuke were standing.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly moved out of the way in time to see Madara collide with the earth. He was barely on his feet when Minxie flew towards him, chakra extending from her hand like a sharpened blade. He tried to move out of her line of fire, but strangely enough, his body did the opposite, and her attack hit him, anyway. His sleeve was torn and his arm was cut open as she passed him.

He cursed under his breath, forced to flee and put some distance between them. He knew that she was good at taijutsu, but he hadn't expected her to be this good. And why was his own body disobeying his commands? Was this a new skill of hers? It'd account for the injuries she was suddenly able to inflict upon him. Although right now, she was fighting with a ruthlessness she never had before, one that was all her own. He'd been counting on that ruthlessness after Ryuu's death, but he'd certainly never meant for it to be directed at him.

She slammed her palm into the ground, creating several cracks along the earth's surface. He flew back into the air just as the ground began to open underneath his feet. She quickly flew into the air after him, her chakra wings fluttering rapidly as she created a Rasen-Chidori in her palm. From the ground below, Naruto dragged himself out of his dazed state and jumped into action, flinging a chakra rod at Madara. The Uchiha swiftly dodged the rod, which caused Minxie's Rasen-Chidori to miss as she flew over him. Taking advantage of her miss, Madara grabbed her other arm and threw her back to the ground.

The impact of her fall, combined with her jutsu, was powerful enough to shake the earth and create a crater there. Naruto and Sasuke were quick to join her on the ground, but Madara wasn't planning on wasting any time. He made hand signs and shot two shadow-style blasts of lightning at them. Naruto stood in front of Minxie and tossed a chakra rod to stop the lightning before it could reach them, while Sasuke somehow managed to vanish into thin air, slowly discovering the new abilities that his Rinnegan provided him with.

With the attack effectively stopped, Naruto quickly turned to Minxie, reaching a hand out to help her up, "Hey, Minxie, are you okay-" She hissed before his hand could make contact with her skin, and his eyes widened as his hand fell uselessly back to his side. She pushed herself to her feet, her injuries healing within a matter of seconds, before she turned away. "Hey, wait! Don't go! We'll stop Madara together!"

"No, we won't," She refused, turning back to look at him with her new, unsettling, and blank gaze. "This is my fight. You're going to stay out of it."

"Don't be stupid." The two turned to see Sasuke reappear beside them, but his gaze was only on Minxie as he spoke. "No matter how strong you are, you won't be able to take him down alone. So stop being stubborn and let us help you."

"You want to help me?" She questioned, taking a step towards him and meeting his gaze. "Then stay the hell out of my way." And then she was in the air once again, propelled upward by the wings on her back.

Naruto was so shocked that for a moment, all he could do was stand there, gaping as the wind from her departure blew through his hair. His girlfriend had just, very literally, hissed at him, and then flown right by him, as if he didn't matter to her at all. This wasn't the first time he'd seen her ruled by her anger and dark chakra, but now, it seemed that this time was completely different, because Minxie actually recognized them. She knew exactly who they were, knew that they had once mattered to her, but she just didn't care. And perhaps that was the most frightening part of it all: that there was a part of her, however small, that was in control, one that actually wanted to take the life of someone else.

Naruto couldn't imagine how horrible losing Ryuu was for her, but Minxie was not a killer. This was not who she was. He wouldn't let it be. So, snapping himself out of his daze and steeling his resolve, he started forward to go after her and try to talk some sense into her. However, Sasuke appeared in front of him, blocking his way.

"Sasuke, move!" Naruto exclaimed, once he realized that his former teammate was still blocking his path. "I need to go after Minxie! She's not herself-"

"I know that," Sasuke interrupted, cutting him off. "... Akira gave me a way to stop her."

Naruto's eyes widened at the news. "Seriously? Then what the heck are you waiting for?! Come on, I'll help-"

"I didn't say we were going to use it yet," Sasuke interrupted once more, his tone surprisingly calm, despite his absolutely ridiculous suggestion.

The blonde could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Are you crazy!? If we don't do something to stop her, then she's going to kill Madara!"

"And that's exactly why we aren't going to stop her yet," Sasuke said logically. "Killing Madara ends this war, Naruto. It prevents the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Why would we stop her when that's exactly what we need?"

"Because that isn't who she is!" Naruto shouted. "You've never seen her like this before, okay!? But I have, so trust me when I say that it's not good! That's why we have to stop her! Because if she kills Madara, then she's going to lose herself completely! And I refuse to let that happen!"

Sasuke shook his head, glancing up at the sky, where Minxie and Madara were still battling. "You don't get it, Naruto. That doesn't matter to her, not anymore. Without her brother, she has nothing left to lose."

Naruto was stunned into silence. Why did it suddenly feel like Sasuke understood something about Minxie that he didn't? He was going to reply, when a roar distracted them both, followed by a loud explosion. Naruto's eyes widened as he looked up, just in time to see a dark orb of chakra flying overhead, "Wha-? Was that a biju bomb?!"

"Damnit..." Sasuke swore. "There's more than one. Minxie's not concerned about where they land."

And he was right. Moments before, Minxie had decided to abandon taijutsu in favor of ninjutsu, resorting to biju bombs instead of other attacks that Madara would end up dodging. She created them quickly and effortlessly, paying no mind to where they landed. Her instincts had taken over her completely, and right now, every instinct she had was telling her to kill Madara. She didn't care what happened to anything or anyone in the process. All that mattered was ending the man who'd taken so much from her for so long.

Perhaps that was why she didn't even notice when four of the biju bombs she'd made flew off course after Madara knocked them away from him. One was headed towards Kakashi, while another was headed after Guy, Lee, and Gaara. The last two were flying towards the rest of the Allied Shinobi Forces. Naruto stopped the first two by impaling them with chakra rods and sealing them in place before they could explode. Sasuke got rid of the last two by changing their trajectories with a fire ball jutsu. They collided with the terrain in the distance and exploded, shaking the ground once more.

Madara and Minxie, who were both still floating in the air, didn't feel the impact at all, too engaged in their battle to notice. "I'm going to give you one last chance, little leopard," Madara warned her, "Reverse your decision. Join me and abandon this hell. What do you have here for you? You have no family left. Your brother is gone. So really, what's keeping you here? Absolutely nothing. So just stop fighting me, Minxie. Just give in. Don't make me have to kill you."

"You already did." She lifted her hand, and a burst of chakra emitted from it. The chakra was dense, composed of pure darkness, a force that even Madara had trouble withstanding as it converged upon him. He fell to the ground as the chakra tore at his flesh. "Don't you remember that, Madara? You killed me when you took my brother from me."

She floated to the ground slowly, her chakra doing most of the work for her, without her even having to make hand signs. Madara tried to absorb the chakra she sent at him, but it was useless. The chakra only grew more powerful and destructive as he tried to subdue it. He attempted to move, but one look from her empty eyes was enough to spark a strange red chakra that stopped all of his movements.

How the hell is she doing this? Madara thought. She can't be changing reality. That's Akira's skill. But Minxie... Another wave of what was now her toxic chakra distracted him. Again, there was a subtle flash of red, this time from her hands. He grunted in pain as one of his arms was torn off, ripped right out of its socket. With Minxie's chakra practically suffocating him, he couldn't regenerate the limb, either. It seemed that every time he tried to move, his body wouldn't obey him, and he'd be pulled along in whichever way her chakra directed him.

She approached him slowly, every step she took more threatening than the last. She encircled him, like a leopard surrounding its prey, her eyes black and soulless as they stared down at him. Even the slightest movement of her hand was enough to start up that strange red chakra once more, tearing at his skin over and over again.

"Do you have any idea what that was like for me? For me to lose the one person in this world that I couldn't live without? Do you know what that felt like?"

Her voice was no longer eerily calm as it had been when they'd first started battling. Her voice was darker now, laced with malice and coated with undeniable rage. Venom seemed to drip from her every word as she forced him to his feet with her chakra and a lifting of her hand, standing right in front of him as her gaze locked with his.

And suddenly, Madara realized what was happening. The red chakra that was now part of all of her jutsu, how his body would move against his will, all because of a simple movement of her hand... She's not controlling reality, He thought. She's controlling me.

And then, before the realization even had a chance to sink in, she plunged her hand through his chest, wrapping it around his heart. He gasped as his eyes traveled downward, noticing the blood that poured from the wound and fell onto her pale wrist, but she didn't seem to mind the messiness. If anything, she seemed to enjoy it, a sickening sort of satisfaction clear on her face. Without a moment's hesitation, she moved her hand again, ripping his heart out of his chest.

"... It felt like that," She hissed at him, watching the life fade from his eyes. His body hit the ground as she stood over him, holding his heart in her blood-stained hand.

A long moment of silence followed, one that not even Naruto could break, with his wide eyes staring at the heart that his girlfriend held in her hand. Something in the air shifted, something he couldn't recognize. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it, and he knew that something awful was about to happen, something worse than what he'd just witnessed.

Sasuke, apparently, could see it clearly, because the next second, he was shouting, "Minxie, get away from him!"

Minxie was going to turn to look at him, but before she could, a chakra rod impaled her, driving clean through her abdomen. Her eyes widened, and suddenly Madara was in front of her, holding the chakra rod that was piercing her body, completely unharmed even though she'd ripped his heart out only seconds before.

"No..." She muttered, a thin trickle of blood escaping from her lips. "You were dead. I killed you."

"You didn't really think that would be enough to kill me, did you, sweetheart?" He questioned, grinning at her. "I'll admit, you had me cornered, but your technique is nothing compared to mine." He smirked as she watched his heart disappear from her hand, vanishing into a swirl of shadows, as if it hadn't even been there at all. "You're strong, Minxie, I won't deny that, and truthfully, I don't want to kill you... But I gave you more than enough chances. And if you won't live in my genjutsu world, then you'll just have to die in your real one!"

He wrapped his free hand around her throat, prepared to finish her off, but suddenly Naruto and Sasuke were attacking him from both sides and forcing him to release Minxie. Sasuke caught the injured brunette and picked her up into his arms, ignoring the way she hissed at him and taking her away from the scene, regardless of her protests. Meanwhile, Naruto jumped at Madara, ready to attack with a chakra rod of his own. Again, an invisible force seemed to block his attack, shielding Madara before Naruto could do any damage.

Madara countered with another blast of lightning, which Naruto dodged with only seconds to spare. Setting Minxie down on the ground, Sasuke hurled his katana at the strange figure that was serving as Madara's defense. The blade flew past Naruto and completely missed its mark, and the blonde was knocked backwards.

Naruto skidded across the ground, managing to steady himself at the last second, "Sasuke! It's headed your way! Something I can't see is running around and protecting Madara!"

"I know," Sasuke muttered, his eyes narrowing. "I can see it just fine! It's... A second Madara. It looks like it's his shadow, but it can attack us all the same. He substituted in his shadow when Minxie pulled out his heart. That's why she couldn't really kill him. Physical attacks have no effect on his shadow."

He'd noticed it the moment his Rinnegan had seen Minxie rip out Madara's heart. That was why the heart she'd been holding had disappeared altogether in a swirl of shadows, because it hadn't been in this realm in the first place. Sasuke, being the only one who could actually see the second Madara with his new Rinnegan, had tried to warn her, but it seemed that he'd been a second too late.

He glanced at Minxie, expecting to see her still crouching on the ground, but she was already on her feet once again. She removed the rod from her stomach with ease, throwing it to the ground and ignoring the blood that poured out of the wound left behind. The bleeding only lasted a second, however, before stopping as the wound healed itself.

Madara's gaze narrowed at her. He'd expected the injury to slow her down at least a little, but it seemed that the Creator's dark chakra had maximized her healing abilities, and as far gone as she was, pain didn't seem to register the same way for her, either. And now, he also had to deal with Naruto and Sasuke, who were already learning the trick to his Limbo jutsu. Indeed, Naruto couldn't see the version of Madara that existed in the realm of Limbo, but he could sense it, while Sasuke's Rinnegan allowed him to see it clearly.

"Hn... So your Rinnegan lets you see my shadow self, doesn't it?" Madara questioned, glancing at Sasuke. "Well, if that's the case... Then I think that left eye of yours will suit me quite well. In fact, I might as well steal it right now!" He charged at Sasuke, summoning a chakra rod into his hand, when suddenly, the younger Uchiha's katana was stabbed through his chest, halting his movements.

"You're welcome to try," Sasuke challenged. His gaze flickered over to the katana that was impaled through Madara's chest. "That's not enough to kill you, either, is it?" In response, Madara effortlessly removed the blade and threw it to the ground, while Sasuke let out a sigh. "I didn't think so."

Still, the attack hadn't been completely useless. He could clearly see that Madara's shadow was, however briefly, also affected by the chakra-charged katana, meaning that the Sage's chakra could also affect the shadow Madara. That, at least, gave them a chance to defeat him. "It seems your shadow returns to your body after a fixed amount of time," Sasuke decided, after a few moments of contemplation. "Naruto, listen up. If and when his shadow emerges again, you go after the shadow. I'll take on the visible one. Minxie, you can-"

"No," Minxie refused, not even bothering to look at him as he spoke. She was staring intently ahead at Madara, swirls of red chakra already manifesting around her fingertips once more. "I already told you, this is my fight. The two of you are going to stay out of it."

Sasuke scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. You tried to defeat him on your own once already, and you almost got yourself killed. We're going to defeat him together, whether you like it or not."

"I don't take orders from you." She finally looked at him, her gaze flickering between him and Naruto. "Consider this your final warning. If either one of you get in my way, I won't hold back."

"Would you just snap out of it already!?" Naruto exclaimed, having heard enough of it all. He couldn't stand to hear her sound so empty, to see her acting like a complete stranger. This was not the girl he knew and loved, and he wouldn't let it be. "This is not the kind of person you are, so stop acting like it!"

Her voice was detached as she spoke, a monotone that couldn't belong to her, and yet it did. "That just it, Naruto. I'm not acting. I'm not anything right now. All I want is to see Madara dead. Now, move. You're blocking my way."

But Naruto wasn't going to give up easily, especially not when it came to her. "I know you're angry, Minxie. I know that you're in pain, and I am so, so sorry about Ryuu... But killing Madara won't bring him back! Do you think Ryuu would've wanted you to do this? Do you think he would've wanted any of this? He'd hate seeing you this way!"

"You think any of that actually matters to me?" She inquired, tilting her head slightly. "What Ryuu would've wanted means nothing now, because he's dead. So what do I have to gain from going along with his wishes when he isn't even here anymore to see them granted? I couldn't save him, but I can kill Madara. So no, Naruto, I'm not going to kill Madara because Ryuu wanted me to. I'm going to kill him because I want to. And I won't let anyone get in the way of that, not even the two of you." She lifted her hand slightly, which glowed with her new, red chakra. "I won't say it again. Move."

It was frightening to see Minxie this way, to see someone so compassionate and kind turning into a mere empty shell of her former self, but Naruto wasn't scared of her, not really. He had no sure way of knowing what she was going to do or how she was going to react, but he wouldn't give up on her without a fight. And he had faith that, no matter how much darkness had taken over her, she would never intentionally hurt him. He shook his head firmly before speaking, "We're not going any-"

The rest of his sentence was abruptly cut off as Minxie moved her hands in opposite directions. His entire body seemed to follow that same movement, and before he even realized what was happening, both he and Sasuke had been flung in opposite directions, their bodies hurtling through the air as if they'd been seized by an unknown force.

Sasuke grunted in pain as he slammed against a tall rock formation before falling roughly against the ground. He'd lost sight of Naruto in the midst of all the chaos, but he figured that the Uzumaki was most likely in the same situation as he was.

So that's Minxie's new power, huh? Sasuke thought, pushing himself to his feet. The Mind's Eye to control people's minds, the Heart's Eye to control their hearts, and that red chakra to control their bodies... Damn, I forgot what a pain the ass she could be.

He was hoping not to have to use the necklaces so soon, believing that maybe Minxie going after Madara wasn't such a bad thing after all, but it seemed that things were even worse than Akira had described. If Minxie was far gone enough to stand against him and Naruto, then she definitely needed to be stopped, even if they had to use force. Of course, with her new dark and strangely toxic chakra, stopping her was easier said than done.

Once Sasuke was back on his feet, he went off in search of Naruto, using his Rinnegan to teleport back to the blonde's side. He found the Uzumaki laying on his back, just beginning to steady himself once more. The blonde looked dazed as he lifted his head, "She threw us with her chakra. Literally." He looked up at Sasuke, half-impressed and half-disbelieving, his blue eyes wide. "When the heck did she learn how to do that?"

"Just now, apparently. She must've awakened that ability when she gave into her dark chakra," Sasuke replied. "Looks like we'll have to stop her after all."

"Oh, so now you agree with me!?" Naruto barked with a scowl. "I told you this was a bad idea from the start, but did you listen to me!? Of course not! Because you're the oh-so-great Uchiha who's never, ever wrong-"

"Are you going to complain for the next few minutes, or are you actually going to let me tell you how to stop her?" Sasuke interrupted, a bored look on his face. "Because I really have no problem with leaving you here and dealing with her myself."

Naruto scowled at the Uchiha once more, but he didn't protest. "Fine, but I don't care about stopping her. I want to know how to save her."

"Akira told me that when she battled the Creator, she used Ryuu and Minxie's amulets as a key to seal it away," Sasuke explained. "Then she drained part of its dark chakra into the Doppelganger's necklace and separated them." He withdrew the necklaces from his pocket, and Naruto's eyes lit up in recognition. "You recognize them?"

"Of course I do. Minxie and Ryuu used them to form the key to the Creator's seal when we were on the Jinchuriki island in Cloud, before the war started, and Scarlett stole back the Doppelganger's necklace the day she came to Konoha," Naruto answered. "But if the Creator's already been sealed away, then how will they work?"

"Akira said that they're still programmed to act as a seal. If we link Ryuu's amulet to the one around Minxie's neck, then we should be able to immobilize her long enough to drain away all of her dark chakra into Scarlett's necklace," Sasuke replied. "That should be enough to save her. Or, at the very least, stop her. We just need to keep her still long enough to link her amulet with Ryuu's. The seal should activate right after."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Naruto inquired. "In case you haven't noticed, chakra rods don't work on her. She just removes them and keeps going, like some sort of emotionless, ninja zombie. I'd be proud of her if she wasn't all murderous right now."

"The Sage gave you his senjutsu, didn't he? We'll start with that, and then work on the rest later," Sasuke decided, tossing Ryuu's amulet to the blonde. "Just get this connected to her amulet. I'll take care of channeling her dark chakra into Scarlett's necklace. That should be enough to bring her back to normal."

Naruto frowned slightly as he caught the amulet in his hands. He knew that he needed to have hope about all of this, but somehow, the idea of relying solely on the amulets made him doubtful. The amulets were definitely powerful, but so was Minxie, something that had never been more true than it was right now. "... And if it isn't?"

Sasuke paused for a moment before answering, "Then you better hope to hell she cares about you more than she does about killing Madara."

"... Cares about us, you mean," Naruto corrected, his eyes flickering up to meet Sasuke's. The Uchiha didn't reply, so Naruto took it as his queue to continue, "I told you, I've seen her like this before. Normally, she wouldn't hesitate. She could've killed us back there, but she didn't, and that's because there's a part of her, somewhere deep down inside of her, that still cares about us. And that's exactly why we're not just going to stop her. We're going to save her, because she'd do the same for us if we were in her place. And you know that as much as I do."

Sasuke didn't say anything for a long time. Eventually, he let out a sigh, shutting his eyes momentarily. "... If this is going to work, Naruto, then you can't hold back. You can't let your... Feelings for her get in the way. If you want to save her so badly, then you're going to have to hurt her."

"Trust me, that won't be a problem," Naruto assured, getting to his feet with a determined look in his eyes. He shot a smug smirk at the Uchiha, "After all, you're my best friend, and I still kicked your ass when you were being an unreasonable idiot, remember?"

Indeed, Sasuke remembered their clash at Final Valley quite well, although he also remembered that Naruto hadn't exactly managed to save him that day, either. The Uchiha kept that thought to himself, deciding not to bring it up. If that was what Naruto had to tell himself to steel his resolve against Minxie, then so be it, because he had a feeling that the brunette was going to make stopping her -or saving her, as Naruto had corrected- extremely difficult.

And clearly, stopping was the last thing on her mind, because the second Naruto and Sasuke were out of the way, Minxie had flown right back up into the air and lunged at Madara, who'd been watching their little exchange with something akin to satisfaction. That satisfaction was short-lived, however, because when she came back to attack him only moments later, she was even more ruthless than before. She obviously wasn't in full control of her actions, but Madara had to admit, she was certainly interesting to battle with, almost as interesting as his spars with Akira used to be.

This time, however, Madara made sure to keep his distance, knowing that a taijutsu battle with Minxie wouldn't go over well for him. Instead, he resorted to ninjutsu, shooting a series of fireballs at her. She deflected the attacks with several large water waves, soaking the terrain and creating puddles along the ground. She met all of his lightning-style attacks with her own Chidori, and before he even knew it, the lightning had struck him, and she was pulling both of them back to the ground.

They landed on their feet, and Minxie immediately made hand signs, allowing dozens of tall, sharp wooden spikes to spring up out of the ground. Madara jumped onto a nearby boulder, avoiding the spikes and leaping from rock to rock. She was in the middle of making hand signs for another jutsu when three chakra rods were hurled into the air at her. Forgetting her previous task, she lifted her hands and stopped the rods in midair with her red chakra. She moved her hands to the side, and the rods followed, impaling themselves into the ground at her feet instead.

She didn't even have to look to know that Naruto had joined her on the battlefield. "I thought I told you to stay out of this."

"I wish I could," Naruto told her, blue eyes brimming with sincerity. He was standing a few feet away from her, and slowly, she turned to face him. "But I won't let you do this to yourself."

Minxie's expression, despite his words, remained unchanged. "And I won't tell you to move again."

"That's okay," He reassured lightly, sending her a sad smile. "I wouldn't have listened to you, anyway."

The next second, Naruto appeared in front of her, another chakra rod already extending from his palm. He slashed at Minxie with it, but she blocked the blow with her hand and caught his free fist with the other. She lifted her leg, dealing a swift kick to his abdomen that made him stagger slightly away from her. He managed to remain on his feet, and she lifted her leg once more, ready to send another kick, this time to his head. However, he was prepared, and he caught her leg and threw her to the ground. She, as expected, landed right on her feet, her head snapping up as she met his gaze and hissed at him.

"You told yourself you wouldn't fall to the darkness again, remember!? You promised yourself!" Naruto exclaimed. "You have to remember! Please, Minxie. I don't want to fight you."

"You sure could've fooled me." In a second, she shot back up into a fighting stance, her hand darting out as her red chakra surrounded his body and seized ahold of it. She moved her hand, and he was slammed into a nearby boulder, feeling his shoulder dislocate at the impact. He blinked, and suddenly she was in front of him, her hand lashing out to grip his wrist. She slammed his arm against the boulder, forcing him to drop the chakra rod he held in his hand.

He summoned a burst of senjutsu chakra to his aid, using it to push her away from him, but he didn't let her get very far before he grabbed her arms and twisted them behind her back. She hunched over slightly, and, as he held her over the water, she was able to see her own reflection in one of the puddles that remained from the water jutsu she'd used earlier.

"Look at yourself!" Naruto shouted. "Is this really the kind of person you want to be!?"

She growled, slamming the back of her head into the front of his and forcing him to release his grip on her. She spun around quickly, her red chakra already pooling into her hands. She tried to move him with it once more, but he'd been anticipating such a move. He stabbed a chakra rod into the ground and, as she made him fly past it, grabbed it and used it to swing his body back around to her, slamming his foot into her side. She was kicked backwards, her hands darting out to break her fall as she flipped herself over.

She was barely standing upright when he grabbed her arms and slammed her as lightly as he could into the same boulder that she had once kept him pinned against. He knew that he was supposed to be using Ryuu's amulet to subdue her, but he wanted to at least try talking some sense into her first, and he wanted to do so without hurting her. After all, she'd spared his life and Sasuke's. There had to be some part of her that was willing to listen to reason. He just had to try hard enough.

"I know you're angry, Minxie," He told her, keeping his voice soft as he tried his very best to let her know that he empathized with her, that he understood, and that he was waiting for her to go back to normal just so that he could be there for her. "I know you want justice, but don't mistake it for revenge! It won't change anything! And it won't bring Ryuu back, either!"

Apparently, his words did nothing to quell her fury, because she placed her palm against the boulder, and out of its surface came several piercing branches of wood. Naruto had to jump back quickly to avoid them, and before he could even catch his breath, she was swinging her leg at him. He caught her ankle and used it to lift her up slightly and throw her to the ground, making her land on her back against the earth below them.

He didn't give her any time to recover as he summoned another chakra rod and aimed it at her throat. She caught the rod between her palms as he stood above her, crouching slightly over her form as he pinned her beneath him, keeping her in place. He reached into his pocket and brought out Ryuu's amulet, knowing now, after his failed attempts at conversation, that there was no other way to bring her back without using it.

"I'm so sorry..." He muttered, inching towards her with sorrowful blue eyes. "But this is for your own good."

Her eyes widened a fraction at the sight of the amulet in his hand, and suddenly, in a soft, breathless voice, she whispered, "Naruto..." And the way she said it, in such a lost and confused voice, despite the emptiness of her eyes, was enough to make him hesitate, because right now, she sounded just like the normal Minxie would. She sounded defenseless and fragile and human, and all Naruto could think was that he needed to protect her somehow, to help her.

He blinked, taken aback as his eyes widened at her sudden change in demeanor. "... Minxie?" He whispered back, hardly able to believe it himself. Had his words finally gotten through to her? He eased up a bit, putting less pressure on her body and lifting the chakra rod slightly away from her throat. "Minxie, hey, I'm here..." But that was precisely what she'd been waiting for. In seconds, she was shoving him forcefully off of her and punching him across the face. His ears began to ring as her fist made contact with his head, and Ryuu's amulet fell from his hand, clattering against the ground.

Naruto blinked rapidly, trying to get the ringing in his ears to subside and ignoring the dull aching in his head. Minxie didn't give him much time to recover as she leaned over him, locking her knees on either side of his waist and wrapping one of her hands around his throat. His own hands went up in an attempt to pry hers off, but the brunette wasn't budging.

Her gaze was blank as she looked down at him, shaking her head in what he could only assume was disappointment, considering her lack of real expression. "I warned you about what would happen if you got in my way. You should've listened to me, Naruto. You should've known better."

Her grip on his throat tightened, and he found himself struggling for breath. Every single one of his instincts was screaming at him to release the Sage's chakra from within his body, to fight back, but he refused to listen to them. Because even when Minxie was like this, no matter what she did to him, he would never let himself hurt her. "Minxie, please..." He choked out, one of his hands making a futile attempt to remove her iron grip around his throat. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Ryuu's amulet laying on the floor beside him, and he desperately reached for it, his fingertips brushing against the metal but not quite able to grab it. "Please don't... Please stop..."

But Minxie wasn't going to listen to anyone right now, least of all him. She didn't even hesitate as she lifted her hand, extending her sharp claws. "Goodbye, Naruto." And with that, she brought her hand down, but before she could slash her claws across Naruto's throat, a hand caught her wrist, halting her movements. She barely had time to register that it was Sasuke who had stopped her before he took her by the wrist he held and slammed her roughly into the ground, her back hitting the floor once again as he pinned her underneath him.

Naruto coughed as her hands released his throat, gasping in an attempt to gather as much oxygen back into his lungs as he could. Although he was only just beginning to breathe properly again and still had black spots clouding his vision, he didn't hesitate as he reached for Ryuu's amulet and, without waiting another moment, turned on his side and connected it to Minxie's.

The effects were immediate. Once the two amulets were close enough to each other, they interlocked with a distinct click. The emerald stones on the eyes of the dragon and the leopard carvings began to glow brightly. Black sealing marks spread across Minxie's skin, starting around her neck and extending to her arms and legs. She tried to tear the amulets apart and away from her throat, but her efforts were useless. Her hand tensed and froze up before it could reach the amulets, the rest of her body following suit as the seal became fully activated.

A gasp escaped her throat as she felt every one of her muscles constricting painfully, and she lost whatever control of her body that she'd once had. Naruto quickly sat up and brushed her hair away from her face, trying to make her as comfortable as he could, although he knew that it was a longshot. There was no way she'd be comfortable with losing control of her own body, but he knew that it had to be done.

"Shh, Minxie, it's okay. You're gonna be okay," He cooed, trying his best to soothe her. He watched Sasuke remove Scarlett's amulet from his pocket and, after making a hand seal, the Uchiha began to siphon away Minxie's dark chakra into the ruby necklace. It was the same process he used whenever he ran his Chidori through his katana, although the chakra he was siphoning away now was much heavier and darker than he was used to dealing with, which made his job harder, but not impossible. Naruto wasn't touching the chakra, but he could feel how dense and powerful it was from where he was sitting. It both felt and looked incredibly toxic, like a poison that was colored black, and Naruto wondered how Minxie could ever withstand having something so truly awful inside of her in the first place.

It seemed impossible, but as more of her dark chakra was drained away from her body and into Scarlett's necklace, Minxie slowly began to return to normal. Her claws retracted, becoming her usual nails once again, and her eyes, once empty and black, now had a spark of that nostalgic emerald green that she'd been missing for what felt like too long.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief as he witnessed her transformation, grinningly knowingly at Sasuke before leaning closer to Minxie and taking her hand into his, because finally, she was returning to her old self. "All of this will be over soon," the blonde reassured her in a whisper. "Just hang in there for a little longer, Minx. Everything's going to be okay, I promise."

But it seemed that Naruto had spoken too soon, because suddenly, a thin, sharp blast of lightning came shooting their way. Naruto and Sasuke quickly evaded the jutsu, but it seemed that they hadn't been the lightning's target after all. Rather, the blast was aimed at the amulets around Minxie's neck, and when they'd dodged it, they'd accidentally allowed the lightning to hit its true target. It blasted a hole into the ground, which Minxie promptly fell into. Her and Ryuu's amulets were snapped apart by the jutsu, clattering uselessly to the ground. Scarlett's necklace was also discarded, falling into the newly-made crevice along with the brunette. They hadn't seen it, but they knew that the necklace had to have been turned into ash the second the lightning had made contact with it.

"You should've known better than to make promises you can't keep, Naruto!" Madara exclaimed with a proud laugh, and Naruto and Sasuke looked up to see the elder Uchiha floating above them. Lightning sparked from his palms as an after-effect of the jutsu he'd just launched at them. "Without those amulets, your precious Minxie will never be okay again."

Naruto crawled over to where the amulets had fallen. He found them in a smoking heap a few feet away. They'd emerged from the blast mostly unharmed, but neither Ryuu nor Minxie's amulet was glowing any longer, despite the fact that they'd fallen next to each other. Whatever sealing properties they possessed were no longer of any use to them, especially when Minxie didn't even have at least one around her neck. Scarlett's necklace was nowhere to be found.

The blonde let out a growl, looking up to face Madara with a harsh glare. "Do you have any idea what you've done!?" He shouted. "Don't you get it!? You can't control Minxie's power!"

"And now, no one can," Madara announced proudly, a smug smirk on his face. "Not even the two of you."

Naruto growled again and got to his feet, summoning a chakra rod in each of his hands. Before he could charge at Madara, however, another blast distracted him. A rock flew through the air, apparently having been punched away by Minxie, who'd just emerged from the hole Madara's jutsu had created. She was breathing heavily, with smoke surrounding her and cuts decorating the skin along her arms and legs. But instead of returning to her normal self, she'd remained taken over by her dark chakra. They'd managed to drain parts of that dark chakra away from her, but Madara had stopped them before they could get rid of the rest of it, and it was the remaining portion that was still present in her system and controlling her now. Her fingernails had become claws once more, and the emerald green spark in her eyes had faded, leaving behind those unsettling black and pupiless orbs that were enough to destroy any hope of her coming back to them.

Minxie stood up slowly, her chakra healing her wounds until her skin was smooth and whole once again. Naruto gripped the chakra rods he held tightly in his hands as he steeled himself for the battle that was sure to come. Letting out a deep breath, he took a step forward, prepared to face Minxie once more, but this time, it was Sasuke who stopped him.

Confused, Naruto turned to the Uchiha, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. "Sasuke, what are you doing?"

"Madara won't allow us to bring Minxie back to normal. He finds our situation too amusing to do that, and he doesn't want to lose the weapon he's worked so hard to create," Sasuke stated, ignoring Madara's knowing grin, because it was no secret that Madara was truly enjoying watching the two of them fight against Minxie. "You go after him. I'll deal with Minxie."

"What? No way!" Naruto refused. "We're supposed to save her together! That's what we agreed on!"

"As long as Madara's still running around, then we won't be able to get close to her, much less save her," Sasuke deadpanned. "And quite frankly, Naruto, I don't think you have what it takes to do either."

The Uchiha's words were so surprising that Naruto could only stare at him for a few seconds, dumbfounded, as they finally sunk in. But once they did, the blonde felt a surge of anger gather in his chest, "What the hell do you mean I don't have what it takes!? I'm the one that told you to save her in the first place, moron! How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not giving up on her!? You can deal with Madara, but I'm going to save Minxie! I can't just let her-"

"You want to save her, but you know you won't hurt her, not if you can help it," Sasuke interrupted. "And kindness isn't going to help Minxie, not the way she is now. She needs to be stopped, and that means we'll have to hurt her." Naruto opened his mouth to protest, because of course he knew that, but Sasuke cut him off before he could, "You already let your feelings for her get in the way once before, and you hesitated when you shouldn't have. That hesitation almost got you killed. If you really want to save Minxie, then you'll have to let her go. And you might hate admitting it, but you know that I'm right."

Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at his sides, wanting nothing more than to snap at Sasuke and call him a clueless jerk, but a part of him knew that the Uchiha was right. Despite the fact that he knew Minxie needed to be stopped, even if they had to use force, Naruto would never willingly hurt her, not even if it was for her own good. He'd fight Sasuke without even thinking twice about it if it meant he'd be able to knock some sense into the Uchiha, but he couldn't do the same to Minxie, not when he'd promised that he'd never, ever hurt her. It was the one thing he'd never be strong enough to do.

But Sasuke wasn't like Naruto. He had no misgivings about fighting Minxie if it meant that she'd go back to normal. Hurting her, Naruto knew, wasn't something that Sasuke had ever had a problem with, not if it was for her own good. After all, if their past was any indication, the Uchiha had quite a lot of practice at it. Sasuke would hurt her a thousand times over if it meant she'd be safe, a fact that Naruto was slowly realizing. And, in the end, it was that fact that ended up making his decision for him.

After a few moments, the blonde let out a resigned sigh, relenting, "... Okay, fine. We'll go with your plan. Just... Try not to hurt her too badly, okay? Because I will totally kick your ass if you do." He glanced at Minxie, who let out a low growl in response, baring her canines as her dark chakra bubbled dangerously around her. "... On second thought, she might just do that herself."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Just get going already, idiot."

Naruto chuckled, "You know, you're really lucky we're fighting your crazy ancestor, otherwise you ordering me around would really be ticking me off." He looked up at Madara, who had, for some strange reason, been watching their little deliberation with something akin to amusement in his gaze. "Hey, jackass with the horns! Down here!" And then he leaped into the air, facing off with the elder Uchiha without a moment of hesitation.

Sasuke glanced up briefly, watching Naruto and Madara begin their battle, a series of jutsu already beginning to crash around them. "... Hn. Good." He returned his gaze to Minxie, whose now-black eyes had narrowed considerably. "Now that just leaves you. So, tell me... Are we doing this the easy way, or the hard way?"

She didn't bother to grace him with a response. Instead, she let her actions do the talking, disappearing and reappearing behind him, a Rasen-Chidori glowing in her palm that she quickly aimed at him. However, instead of making contact with his chest, her jutsu made contact with the ground where he'd once been standing.

"... The hard way, huh?" She blinked, hearing his deep voice echo behind her. She didn't have to look to know that his Rinnegan had teleported him right out of harm's way, allowing him to evade her jutsu. "Can't say I'm shocked. You never did make things easy on yourself, Minxie."

When she spoke, she did so in the same moking tone he used with her, his first indication that something about her had changed from before. "And you never did know when to shut up, Sasuke." But just like that, the conversation was over, and she was swinging her right arm at his head, claws extended and ready to strike. He gripped right arm before it could make contact with his reaching out to grab the other when she made a move to punch him with it, too. He held both her arms away from her body, rendering them useless, but she didn't seem to mind, because in one swift motion, her wings fluttered, and she was soaring upward, flipping over him and pulling her arms from his grasp.

While she was still in the air, she shifted her body slightly so that she'd land overhead of him, locking her legs on either sides of his shoulders. Her red chakra flowed into her hands, solidifying into a thin chord that she immediately wrapped around his throat and pulled on, effectively cutting off his airways as she strangled him. He grunted and took several steps backwards, until he had successfully slammed her back against a nearby rock formation. With her grip on his throat loosened, he was able to reach behind him, grab her, and rip her off of him, throwing her across the battlefield. She didn't get very far before she, as expected, landed right on her feet, pausing momentarily to send him a glare.

"What's the matter, Minxie?" Sasuke taunted, his Sharingan and Rinnegan seeming to glow in the darkness that surrounded them. "Giving up already?"

Minxie's eyes narrowed as she growled, "You wish." She charged at him, then, her fist flying at his face. He caught it with ease, just as she blocked a similar punch he'd thrown at her. They faced off with taijutsu moves for a while, seeming to move in sync rather than against each other. For every kick she threw at him, he threw a punch equally as forceful. They blocked each other's moves without even seeming to think about it, as if they somehow were able to anticipate them all along.

Although Minxie had always been the better taijutsu-fighter -after all, her training with Guy had been no joke- Sasuke was no pushover, either, and unlike her, he wasn't being directed by rage. This was a new development he'd noticed right away when they'd started fighting. She may have still had her dark chakra in her system, but unlike before, she wasn't emotionless. Now, she was irrevocably and undeniably angry, her rage manifesting with every punch she threw at him, which was enough to convince him that the amulets hadn't been completely useless after all. They'd done enough to bring back some semblance of human emotion. Granted, anger wasn't exactly a positive emotion, but it was more than he'd been expected. And, more importantly, it was something he could work with, something he could use to bring her true self back to the surface.

His calm demeanor while they were fighting only made her anger spark even more, which was exactly what he'd been waiting for. She growled, lunging forward to throw a rather reckless and predictable punch, and that was what allowed him to finally grab her and spin her around, twisting one of her arms behind her back as the other struggled uselessly to extricate herself from his grasp.

"Just stop it, Minxie," He told her, his grip unrelenting as he kept her in place. "Don't you get it? If you keep this up, the only person you're hurting is yourself."

The brunette was breathing heavily as she hunched over, her gaze trained on the field in front of her. "You of all people should know, Sasuke... I'm pretty good at handling pain!" And then, in one swift motion, she snapped the arm he was holding in his grasp, breaking her own arm in the process. She felt her bone shatter and hissed in pain, but her rather reckless and painful action allowed her to stand to her full height. With her unbroken arm, she slammed her free elbow into the side of his face, using his moment of distraction to reach behind her, lifting him up effortlessly and flipping him over, throwing him to the ground.

Once he was away from her, she glanced down at her left arm, which was now bent at a very awkward angle. Hissing slightly in pain, she grabbed the arm and snapped it back into place, knowing that her accelerated healing was already working to mend the bone she'd broken herself.

A few feet across from her, Sasuke was just beginning to sit up, a bruise decorating the right side of his face while blood trickled out of his nose. "... You're right. You are strong, Minxie, you always have been, which is why I know you're going to snap yourself out of this."

"You don't know a damn thing about me," She snapped, a scowl overtaking her features. "So don't act like you do."

"I know you lost your brother," He countered, slowly getting back on his feet and standing upright. "And I know that you want to make Madara suffer the same way you're suffering right now. But you're mistaking revenge for retribution, and that never ends well. Take it from me."

"So now you're going to preach to me about revenge? You, of all people?" She let out a humorless laugh. "Wow, you must be pretty desperate if it's come to that. Do I really scare you that much, Sasuke? Come to think of it... This is the first time you're really experiencing this side of me, isn't it? Does it frighten you, seeing me like this? It frightened Naruto. It frightened everyone: Sakura, Kakashi, Shikamaru... None of them saw it coming. So, tell me, does it scare you, too? Is that why you keep getting in my way?"

He scoffed. "You're giving yourself far too much credit. I'm not afraid of anything, least of all you. What I am is realistic, and I know that you need to be stopped."

"But that's what I don't get. Naruto, at least, I can understand. He thinks he can save me from everything, including myself, regardless of what I've become..." Her voice trailed off as she glanced down at her hand, bits of red dust swirling in her palm before she met his gaze once again. "But you're the one I can't figure out. You want Madara dead as much as I do. So why are you standing in my way?"

"Because I know how this ends, Minxie." His reply was simple, his tone curt. "And killing Madara won't change the fact that your brother's gone."

His words had the exact effect he'd known that they would. She froze almost immediately upon hearing them, her body tensing up visibly. When she spoke, her words were nothing short of a warning, her tone icy, "Don't. Don't bring my brother into this. He has nothing to do with this."

"He has everything to do with this, and you know it," He stated. "You lost him, and you can't handle it, and now you're going after Madara because you think it'll make you feel better."

"Shut up," She commanded, glaring at him.

"Why? Because everything I've been saying so far has been completely true?" He questioned, not bothering to stop, not when he knew that he was finally pushing her. "You're exactly the kind of person you swore to yourself you'd never become. You're just like me now, Minxie. In fact, you're even worse than I am, because you've actually fooled yourself into believing that you're doing the right thing."

"Shut up!" She shouted, her temper apparently finally reaching its limit. "Just shut up! Don't talk anymore, nothing!"

She attacked quickly, then, making hand signs and shooting a series of wooden springs at him, but with her rage guiding her and making her move recklessly, it wasn't difficult for him to avoid the jutsu. He appeared behind her, grabbing her arms and slamming her into a nearby rock formation, causing the stone and gravel to dig into her cheek and split the skin there, drawing blood. He was close enough that his voice was directly above her ear when he spoke, "Come on, Minxie. You can't honestly be this weak."

She let out a frustrated growl, summoning her strength and pushing herself slightly off the rock formation. Flowing chakra to her feet, she kicked her body upwards and ran up the wall of earth, flipping over him and freeing her arms in the process. The second her feet were on the ground once more, she aimed a chakra-charged punch at his head, which he avoided by vanishing. Her attack hit the rock formation instead, causing a crack to split along the rocky structure before it broke into several pieces.

She quickly spun around, knowing without even have to look that he was already behind her, a Chidori chirping in his palm. She grabbed his wrist and twisted it away from her, trying to steer the Chidori off course, but it still managed to nick her shoulder blade, drawing blood. She retaliated with a Chidori of her own, aiming it as his abdomen. Lightning flashed along both of their bodies, paralyzing them momentarily and causing them to stumble apart.

Shaking off the paralysis as best as she could, Minxie charged forward once again, jumping and, using Sasuke's thigh as a foothold, flipped herself into the air, slamming her foot into the side of his face and sending him into the ground. She landed a few feet away from him, using her hands to spring her back upwards so that she was standing upright. Sasuke didn't let her enjoy the small victory for long, because he immediately grabbed hold of her ankle and pulled her to the floor, her back roughly making contact with the earth.

Sasuke got to his feet before she did, making hand signs and aiming a large fireball at her, one that wouldn't miss, considering how close they were to one another. Minxie knew she had no hope of dodging the blast, so she made her own set of hand signs and created an earth dome that rose around her and encased her within it, shielding her from the flames. She tunneled beneath the ground using earth-style ninjutsu, expecting to land a surprise attack, but Sasuke's Sharingan and Rinnegan were hard to fool. He spotted her chakra with his eyes before she even emerged from beneath the earth, and the second she appeared above ground, he made new hand signs and sent a wave of fire at her, the orange flames lighting up the night around them.

Minxie quickly countered with a water jutsu that she aimed blindly at the flames, hoping it would hit. The smoke that resulted from the collision of the two jutsus created so much smoke that it became impossible for either of them to properly see one another. If they both hadn't had some form of ocular kekkei genkai, then they both would've been blinded by all the smoke. However, while their vision wasn't impaired, it did become difficult for either one of them to breathe properly, what with all the smoke that was filling their lungs at a rapid pace.

Not letting the smoke-covered battlefield deter her, Minxie made another set of hand signs, forming several tall boulders across the terrain out of the earth below her feet. Without waiting another moment, she summoned her red chakra to her hands and seized hold of Sasuke, lifting him up into the air and slamming him into the boulders she'd created. He collided with every single bit of rock she'd formed, like a chain of never-ending dominoes that she'd managed to bend to her will. She finally released him when he crashed through the last set of boulders, allowing her red chakra to fade from her fingertips.

Minxie pulled herself out of the earth, her lips curling into a satisfied smirk as she stood up and took a few steps forward, her wings extending out of her back. Even if, by some miracle, Sasuke had managed to survive all of that, there was no way he would be in top-fighting condition. That meant that, regardless of how much he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to get in her way. All that was left for her now was to deal with Naruto and then kill Madara, once and for all.

A slight cracking sound, however, made her pause. She blinked, and when the smoke finally cleared, she saw a strange form curled into a ball, one that glowed with an achingly familiar purple chakra. But then that form uncurled, revealing its skeletal appearance, with Sasuke standing at its center, uninjured, and only then did she realize that it was his Susano'o. Her eyes widened, but before she could even process what had happened, the Susano'o shot an arrow at her. She dodged with only a second to spare, the arrow impaling itself into the spot where she had been standing only moments before.

The Susano'o drew another arrow along its bow, pulling the string back, and Minxie quickly summoned her red chakra to her hands, intending to halt its movements before the arrow could be fired. However, to her complete surprise, her red chakra clashed uselessly against the Susano'o, doing nothing to halt its movements, and before she could even begin to understand how that was possible, another arrow flew at her. This time, her attempt at dodging the blow wasn't as successful. She managed to avoid the arrow for the most part, but it skimmed her arm, slicing her skin open and drawing blood. The wound seared with Sasuke's chakra, causing her to hiss in pain as she covered it in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

Creating a small split in space, Minxie vanished, taking refuge behind a large boulder as she attempted to gain control of herself and assess the situation. She knew that her new technique was impossible to counter, so why wasn't it working on Sasuke's Susano'o? The Susano'o may have been used for ultimate defense, but it was still susceptible to dark chakra; practically everything was, so what made Sasuke any different? There was no way he should've been able to escape her dark chakra, unless... She peeked out from behind the boulder, and sure enough, she found that there was chakra gathered around the feet of Sasuke's Susano'o, allowing him to stick to the ground and rendering her new technique useless. The chakra he was flowing to the feet of his Susano'o gave him the perfect foothold, and, more importantly, would allow him to withstand her jutsu.

She wondered why she was even surprised at the realization. She supposed that if anyone could ever manage to counter her new jutsu, it'd be Sasuke. After all, he was a far more analytical fighter than she and Naruto were. He'd probably already thought up dozens of counterattacks to her jutsu, which meant that she couldn't let this fight drag out longer than she needed to, otherwise it'd never end. She prepared herself to hit him with a jutsu of her own, but he ended up making the decision for her, the arm of his Susano'o lashing out towards her, piercing the boulder she was leaning against and wrapping around her.

The Susano'o lifted her into the air effortlessly, keeping her in place, even as she tried to loosen its grip on her body. It brought her up to its center, where Sasuke was waiting. Blood was trickling out of his lip and his nose, and bruises covered his face, but other than that, he was uninjured. "Just remember," He told her, meeting her gaze evenly, "I'm doing this for your own good." And without giving her a chance to reply, he made his Susano'o slam her back into the ground before picking her up again. He repeated this process several times, until her vision became so blurry that she could hardly even see her own hand in front of her face.

For good measure, Sasuke led his Susano'o to slam her against a tall rock formation one final time. When he looked at her, he saw that her pale skin was littered with dark bruises, and blood was trickling from the right side of her head and the corners of her lips. Her breathing was ragged, and her head had slumped at an awkward angle. She coughed, a sputter of blood leaking from her lips, but despite the fact that she was injured and clearly in pain, she refused to let him win. Minxie lifted her arm and, with a force of will that was so familiar to him, slammed her hand against the hand of the Susano'o that was trapping her. Immediately, wooden roots began to flow past the hand of the Susano'o and up its arm to the rest of its form, piercing it and wrapping around it. Black chakra in the shape of a leopard that only Minxie could've summoned followed quickly after, and before Sasuke even knew it, he felt his Susano'o shatter, and both he and Minxie found themselves plummeting to the ground.

This time, however, it was Sasuke who landed on his feet instead of Minxie. The brunette fell rather roughly back to the ground, sitting up to briefly cough up another sputter of blood. She glared at Sasuke as he approached her, sliding herself backwards and away from him, "Stay the hell away from me."

"No can do, princess," He denied easily, resisting the urge to smirk as she snarled at the word 'princess.' She never did like being called that, because she never wanted to feel like someone who needed to protected. He stood in front of her and grabbed her, lifting her to her feet by the throat. "All you have to do to make this stop is go back to your old self, Minxie. Just do that, and everything will go back to normal."

"No!" She snapped at him, her hand lashing out to wrap around his throat as well. That left them in a tangle of limbs as they held one another in place, neither one wanting to be the first to back down nor give in. He reached behind her and grabbed a fistful of her hair, forcing her head back as she let out a hiss of pain. She brought up her knee to his stomach, and they both quickly released one another, separating.

But Sasuke wasn't going to let her go that easily. He immediately reached for her once again, but she side-stepped out of the way, giving herself enough time to wrap her hand around his throat and slam him into the boulder behind them, her iron-like grip threatening to crush his throat. "What is wrong with you!?" She demanded, glaring at him. "Why won't you just leave me alone!? I don't want to be saved, damnit, and I don't deserve to be! So why the hell can't you just give up on me already!?"

Sasuke let out a cough, his own hands reaching up in an attempt to pry hers away from his throat, but she wasn't budging. "Because you never gave up on me," He told her, and the reply was so simple, so quiet, yet it was enough to make her eyes widen in shock. "And you can kill me for it, but I refuse to let you make the same mistakes that I did. I refuse to let you be this weak."

"Don't you get it? I'm a monster now!" She exclaimed. "You can't fix me! No one can!"

"I don't have to fix you," He countered logically, still struggling for breath. "You'll do that yourself, like you always do."

She shook her head furiously, but he could feel her grip on his throat loosening ever so slightly. "You can't know that! You don't! You don't know... You don't..." She continued to shake her head, to try to deny all of his words, but he could tell that her emotionless facade was already beginning to crumble. He could see it in her eyes, eyes that were once empty and yet were just beginning to come to life once more. The dark chakra he'd drained from her had been enough to restore her anger, and throughout their fight, he'd continued to push her, exposing more of her emotions as she did so. Her rage was turning to surprise, her surprise to disbelief, her disbelief to denial. All she needed now was one final push, and he knew exactly how to make that happen.

Carefully, he extended his hand, reaching out to brush his fingers along her cheek. The gesture was, apparently, not what she'd been expecting, because her eyes widened and her body tensed up slightly, but he didn't let that deter him. He placed his fingers underneath her chin, making her look directly into his eyes, the comma-like symbols within his single Sharingan eye beginning to spin.

She blinked, and suddenly, she was no longer in the clearing but in a completely different location, one that was completely blank with nothing but white space around her. The space shifted again, and images began flashing past her at a speed so great she couldn't even truly see them before they were gone, replaced by others. Genjutsu? She wondered, as the images continued to whirl past her, and it was only when they began to slow down that she started to understand what was happening. No... These are Sasuke's memories. She blinked again, startled when she saw images of herself scattered amongst the rest. These are his memories of me.

And all at once, those memories flashed before her eyes, flooding into her mind as she relived the past three years from Sasuke's eyes. She saw the two of them meeting in the Academy, saw them becoming genin, watched their introductions and felt how annoyed they were by each other. She watched that annoyance transform into friendship as they went on missions together, and that friendship, in turn, transformed into something more as time went on. She felt his shock and disbelief when she protected him from Zabuza, felt his gratitude when they had each others backs in the Forest of Death, felt his pride when she beat Rin during the Chunin Exams. She relived their first kiss by the ramen shop, their group dinners with Naruto and Sakura, their tragic attempts at trying to see what was underneath Kakashi's mask. She watched him kiss her goodbye on the night he left the village, felt how much he regretted it as he told himself he was doing the right thing. She saw them reunite two and a half years later, watched him fight with Ryuu, saw herself holding him after Itachi's death without ever truly realizing how much that meant to him.

The memories continued to flash before her eyes, every moment, good and bad, that they'd ever shared together. She saw their many arguments, felt his frustration at her, his regret that he could never be what she deserved. She saw Obito tell him the truth about the Summit and about her and Naruto, felt his betrayal and heartbreak at the revelation that had made him so distant from her. She saw herself screaming at him, saw him holding a Chidori over her heart, felt both of their shock and disbelief at his own action. She saw herself punching him after he'd announced that he was going to become Hokage, felt his nostalgia at fighting alongside her again during the war and his need to protect her, even now. She saw him telling her how sorry he was as he died and knew how much he meant it, saw herself forgiving him without realizing how much he needed it. She saw every moment up until now, every word, every promise, that made up their past and who they were now. In his eyes, she wasn't a monster or a curse or a killer; she was just Minxie, a source of guidance, of light, of hope. And he had never stopped seeing her that way, not even now.

And then it was over, and they were back in the real world once again, Minxie pinning Sasuke to a rock formation with her hand wrapped securely around his throat. Her eyes had widened impossibly, and she was staring at him with an emotion he couldn't identify, an indescribable expression on her face.

"... I do know," Sasuke spoke quietly, meaning every word, after a few long moments of silence. "And now you know it, too. That's who you are, Minxie. Now, you can accept that, or you can run from it. It's your choice." His eyes met hers as they shared a look that neither one of them knew how to describe with words, only that they'd never expected so much to be conveyed with so little. "But the Minxie I remember was too strong to ever run from anything."

And that had done it. He literally saw the darkness fade from her expression, replaced by something wholly human and remarkably Minxie. A single tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek, and she loosened her grip around his throat, releasing him and bringing her hand back to her side. They stayed like that for a few moments, neither one of them saying a word, and then she lifted her hand and brought it down, claws extended. However, instead of aiming for him, she plunged her claws into her own right thigh, forcing herself to the ground as she collapsed with her legs tucked underneath her. She withdrew her claws after a few seconds more, and Sasuke watched as they retracted, leaving behind her blue nail polish-painted nails. Her chakra mode receded until she was left wearing her usual attire, consisting of an off-the-shoulder top and shorts, and when she finally looked up, her eyes were no longer black and pupiless but a rich, emerald green.

Although she appeared to have returned to normal, Sasuke wasn't convinced of her full return to sanity. He took a careful step forward and looking down at her. "... I see you've finally stopped being an unreasonable idiot." Her eyes flickered up to meet his, but there was no longer any irrational anger in her gaze, no blank look that concerned him. He extended a hand out to her. "Are you ready to let us help you defeat Madara now?"

Minxie didn't answer him with words, but she didn't have to. She simply took his hand and allowed him to help her up, which was, in itself, all the answer he really needed. Suddenly, Naruto appeared, or rather, crashed down in front of them, landing in a smoking heap upon the ground. He looked dazed for a few moments, but when he saw his two teammates staring down at him with confused expressions, he shot them a grin, "Hey, you two. How ya doin'?"

The blonde blinked, and only then did the sight of Minxie, her eyes emerald green once again, register in his mind. When he finally realized that she was back to nomral, he forgot all about his fight with Madara and immediately ran towards her, lifting her into his arms, "Minxie! You're yourself again!" He hugged her briefly before pausing and looking her over for injuries, his eyes widening a fraction when he noticed how bruised and battered she was. He glanced at Sasuke and found that the Uchiha was equally as bruised, which made him wonder exactly what had transpired while he'd been away fighting Madara. "Damn, the two of you look like hell. I take it I missed an interesting fight?"

"Something like that," Sasuke replied. "Where's Madara?"

"Probably at least a thousand yards away from here. I kind of got carried away with the biju bombs, I guess," Naruto admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "But I doubt that was enough to defeat him. He's probably on his way back to us right now, which means the two of you need to get healed as fast as you can." He turned to Minxie, brushing her hair out of her face so that he could see the bruises and cuts along her skin properly. Gently, he waved his hand over her and manipulated the Sage's chakra within him, and sure enough, all of her wounds were completely healed.

He turned to Sasuke, prepared to repeat the same process, but the Uchiha shook his head. "Don't bother. The chakra the Sage gave me will take care of my injuries."

Naruto nodded, fighting the urge to laugh, because of course Sasuke would still deny his help, even after all this time. Some things, he supposed, would never change between them. He looked at Minxie, whose eyes were still downcast, an expression he couldn't identify on her face. "Hey..." He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Listen, about Ryuu-"

"Don't," She interrupted instantly, cutting him off. The look on her face had hardened, and her muscles tensed, as if she couldn't even bear to hear her brother's name. "I know you want to help, but just don't. I can't let myself think about that right now. Because if I do, I'm going to fall apart again, and I can't afford to do that until this war is over. So please just don't."

It hurt to know that he couldn't help her, but Naruto understood where she was coming from. She wasn't ready to talk about Ryuu yet, and pushing her to do so when she clearly didn't want to would do more bad than good. He would respect her wishes no matter what. He only wished that there was something more he could do to help her, but it seemed that this sort of loss was something she needed to deal with on her own.

"Naruto, Sasuke..." Naruto blinked in surprise, not expecting her to speak again. She finally looked up, meeting each of their gazes evenly, her eyes sincere as she spoke. "... I'm sorry. I never meant to fight you, or put you in danger."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Naruto replied easily, smiling reassuringly at her. "You don't have to apologize for any of that, Minxie."

"But if you really want to make it up to us, then you'll help us get rid of Madara," Sasuke added bluntly, making Naruto's eye twitch.

"You baka! Quit being such an inconsiderate jerk! She doesn't have to make anything up to us!" Naruto exclaimed, causing Sasuke to roll his eyes in response. Naruto's eye twitched once more, but he did turn to give Minxie a sheepish a grin. "... But helping us seal away Sasuke's crazy ancestor would be greatly appreciated."

Minxie nodded, her chakra swirling around her. She activated her chakra mode with ease, her chakra wings rainbow-colored once more, just as Madara jumped down in front of them. Upon seeing the Uchiha, Minxie felt her fists clench at her sides, that feeling of rage already beginning to bubble in the pit of her stomach once more, which Sasuke noticed right away. She was no longer a threat to them, but that didn't mean that her goal had changed. It seemed that there was still a part of her that wanted to end Madara once and for all. Sasuke only hoped that she'd be more inclined to listen to reason now than before.

"Hn... It seems you've managed to tame our little leopard, Sasuke. Congratulations," Madara taunted, chuckling when he heard both Minxie and Naruto growl lowly at him. "If only you'd been born earlier than Obito. I would've chosen you as my successor instead... Although you probably would've ended up disappointing me just as much as Obito has."

Sasuke didn't bother to grace that comment with a response. Instead, he addressed his teammates his spoke, "Listen, his shadow is still clinging to his body. Naruto, get a Sage jutsu ready; I don't care which one, just make it something that seals movement. Minxie, get a jutsu with both light and dark chakra in it." The blonde and the brunette did as he directed them, summoning the selected jutsu to their fingertips. Sasuke created a Chidori in his palm. "All right. Both of you, shoot your jutsu right at me. I'll take care of the rest."

It was certainly an odd request, but Naruto and Minxie didn't question it. Instead, they did as Sasuke asked them to, shooting their jutsu at him. The space around them shifted, and before they could even blink, Sasuke had teleported them so that they were surrounding Madara, all of their jutsu hitting him at once. Madara's eyes widened as lightning and orbs of light and darkness encased his body, the marks from Naruto's sealing jutsu spreading along his skin and keeping him in place.

"Naruto!" Sasuke exclaimed. "That jutsu the Sage of Six Paths gave you... You know what I mean, right!?"

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed. "This is the moment when I-..." His voice trailed off as he blinked in surprise, noticing something jump into the air and away from them. "... Uh, where'd he go?"

Sasuke blinked, his Rinnegan realizing what had happened immediately. "He substituted in his shadow!" He turned around in search of Madara and spotted him flying in the sky rapidly away from them.

"I'll hold the shadow down!" Naruto exclaimed. "You and Minxie go after the main body!"

Minxie didn't need to be told twice. She immediately took to the sky, flying rapidly after Madara. Sasuke searched for a spot to use his Rinnegan to teleport to them, but it seemed that both Madara and Minxie had already flown out of his eye's range. He cursed to himself. Madara must have already been figuring out that Sasuke's Rinnegan had limits, and he was deliberately using his blind spot against him and taking Minxie with him.

"Sasuke, hurry!" Naruto shouted, just as the Uchiha took off after Madara and Minxie. "He's heading towards Kakashi-sensei!"

Minxie was right on Madara's tail, the two airborne shinobi flying rapidly towards Kakashi. Madara gritted his teeth as he looked behind him, noticing that the brunette was gaining on him fast. He had to get rid of her before he reached Kakashi. He spotted a maze of close-together rocks and smirked, flying directly into the maze. He weaved a complicated pattern between the rocks, slowing her down. When she was right behind him once again, he suddenly swerved to the side, rounding a corner and catching her by surprised. She slammed into the rock formation as he raced ahead of her, smirking as he glanced behind him and noticed her falling to the ground.

With Minxie no longer following behind him, Madara raced full speed ahead towards Kakashi, whose eyes widened in surprise as he finally noticed the Uchiha racing towards him. Before Kakashi could even get a word out, Madara had leaped forward and snatched Kakashi's Sharingan right out of his eye socket. He placed the Sharingan in his own empty, left eye socket, grinning as he felt the power of it flow throughout his body. He turned, and suddenly Sasuke was behind him, his chakra formed into a thin blade that resembled a katana. He slashed at Madara with it, slicing the elder Uchiha's body in half, but it seemed that he was too late, for Madara, with Kakashi's Sharingan, was able to use Kamui and vanish into the alternate dimension, where Sakura and Obito were waiting.

Minxie finally got back to her feet and appeared beside Sasuke and Kakashi, her head whirling from side to side as she searched for Madara. "Where the hell is he?"

"Gone," Kakashi answered, clutching his left hand over his now empty eye socket to stop the bleeding. "He stole my Sharingan and used it to get to the Kamui dimension. He must be going after Obito."

Before either Minxie or Sasuke could respond, Sakura suddenly appeared before them. The pinkette landed in front of them with a surprised squeak as the space around her swirled. She looked up, surprise taking over her features as she spotted two of her teammates and her sensei in front of her. "Minxie? Sasuke? How did I..." She looked around, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Sakura," Sasuke muttered. "What are you doing here?"

"Obito took her to the Kamui dimension when they were healing Naruto," Kakashi answered. "Sakura, what's going on over there?"

"It all happened so fast, I don't really- Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura gasped as she finally noticed the condition of, or rather, her sensei's lack of a left eye. "What on earth happened to your eye!?" She quickly got to her feet, rushing over to him. "Here, let me see it!"

Kakashi uncovered his eye socket, allowing Sakura to properly examine it. "Thank you, Sakura. It all happened in a flash... Madara stole my Sharingan. But that doesn't matter now. What happened to Obito? I know Madara had to use Kamui to teleport himself there."

"I'm not sure," Sakura murmured. "I blinked, and suddenly, I was out here. Before that, Obito asked me to destroy his Rinnegan. He said that if Madara got ahold of it, then terrible things would happen. He said that only with both eyes together can the true power of an ocular kekkei genkai be released... That's why he wanted me to destroy it, so that Madara wouldn't get to it."

"Let me guess," Minxie began, already knowing the answer, "You ended up back here before you could destroy his eye, huh?"

Sakura looked down, nodding solemnly. "... Yes. Obito must've used his Sharingan to teleport me back here at the same time Madara used Kakashi's to get into the Kamui dimension. He saved me, but... We're in big trouble. When I last saw him, Obito had reached his limit. He could barely move... Which means Madara's going to get Obito's Rinnegan!"

"When he shows up back here again, Madara will have both of his Rinnegan," Sasuke stated. "We have no idea when he and Obito might emerge again... Keep your guard up."

"Hey, guys!" Naruto greeted, jumping down in front of him. "And Sakura, you're here, too!"

"Where's Madara's shadow?" Sasuke questioned.

"I immobilized him with Six Paths rods and left him with a shadow clone," Naruto explained. He glanced at Kakashi, taking note of his sensei's condition and going over to stand beside him. "Hey, Sakura. Let me try something first?"

Sakura blinked in confusion, because she knew that Naruto didn't have any sort of medical experience, but she knew him well enough to trust him, so she stepped aside, allowing him to take over. "Uh, sure, Naruto. Go ahead." Naruto placed his right hand over Kakashi's eye, his chakra flowing to the palm of his hand. "Naruto, what're you trying to do?"

"Shh, just watch," Naruto directed, shooting the pinkette a reassuring smile. He removed his hand from Kakashi's eye. "Okay, Kakashi-sensei, try opening that eye now." Kakashi did as he was told, and, to his complete surprise, a new eye had materialized in place of his old one, as if he hadn't even lost it in the first place.

Sakura gasped, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. "No way!" She exclaimed. "How'd you do that, Naruto!?"

Naruto tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Er... It's kinda hard to explain, but... I sort of took a part of Kakashi-sensei and then kinda... Um..." He waved his hands around. "You know, I just made it happen."

Sasuke let out an irritated sigh. "I was just telling everyone not to let their guards down, Naruto."

"Huh? But this is the first time I'm hearing that, believe it!" Naruto protested.

"Knock it off, Naruto!" Sakura scolded. "And you still owe me an explanation as to how you're suddenly able to recreate body parts!"

"He has the Sage's chakra now. It lets him do all sorts of things," Minxie answered. "But that doesn't matter now. Madara took Kakashi-sensei's eye and went to where Obito is. Next time we see him, he'll have both of his Rinnegan."

"Say what!?" Naruto exclaimed, aghast. "No way!"

"And that's exactly why we have to keep our guard up," Sasuke continued, picking up from where Minxie left off. "With both of his eyes, his power will be amplified. We have to stop him as soon as he returns."

The four teens continued to deliberate, going over battle strategies and trying to formulate a proper plan, Kakashi found himself feeling nostalgic. As he sat there, watching his students -or, as he liked to call them, his minions- interact, he found himself remembering the first time he'd ever met them. They were quite a strange bunch, definitely the most dysfunctional students he'd ever had, albeit the only ones he'd ever kept around long enough to get to know. Their interests and dreams had varied almost completely, making Kakashi decide right away that he had his work cut out for him; that much he'd been able to tell only seconds after their introductions. Even now, the memory of the fateful day he'd met them was still fresh in his mind.

Kakashi prided himself on his uncanny tendency to be late for every single event in his life, so of course, the day he was supposed to meet his new team of genin was no different. He'd been about four hours late, and already, his four young students-to-be were disgruntled and irritated. The poor things had no idea what was in store for them, considering that Kakashi had no intentions of correcting his lack of punctuality anytime soon.

The four genin were a rather incongruous bunch, from what Kakashi could tell, which explained why they'd been placed on the same team in the first place. The Academy officials always liked to place opposites on the same squad, believing that would create a balanced team.

Kakashi had led his new students to a lounging area on the roof, and the four sat on the steps in front of him while he leaned against the metal bars behind him. "Alright," He began, seeing no point in wasting any more time, seeing as they were already four hours behind schedule. "Why don't we all start by introducing ourselves? Basic things... Your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future... Stuff like that."

"Why don't you start?" the short boy wearing orange questioned, his loud voice echoing through the air. Kakashi knew that this boy was the Jinchuriki of Nine-Tails, but was still a far cry from being a good student, according to what the Hokage had told him.

"Yeah," the girl with pink hair agreed, "You're a mystery to us, after all."

Kakashi placed his hand on his chin, pretending to think about it. "Well, okay. My name is Kakashi Hatake. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like talking about his likes or dislikes, and my dreams are none of your concern. However, I do have many hobbies..."

The four genin in front of him sweatdropped, apparently unsatisfied with that response. Sakura complained lowly that all they'd really learned was his name, but Kakashi didn't draw attention to it. He merely ended their complaints by clearing his throat and saying, "Alright, let's start with the blonde."

"Sure! My name's Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen, especially when I'm treated to it by Iruka-sensei! I hate waiting for it, though... My hobbies are... Pranks and jokes, I guess," Naruto introduced brightly. "My dream... Is to become Hokage and finally earn respect!"

Kakashi was left mildly surprised by Naruto's introduction. Despite his obvious obsession with ramen, he had quite the dream, which would no doubt prove to be interesting. The resemblance between Naruto and Kakashi's former sensei, Minato, was suddenly very clear. "Okay... Next." Kakashi glanced down expectantly at the pink-haired girl sitting beside Naruto.

"My name's Sakura Haruno," She began. "My likes, well, it's a certain person, a boy actually, uhh..." She smiled to herself, a blush spreading across her cheeks. "Nevermind. I hate... Naruto." That remark was followed by a fierce glare at the blonde, who hung his head in dejection at her words. "My hobbies are... Heh... My dreams..." She squealed to herself, most likely lost in a day dream starring the silent Uchiha next to her, judging by the starry-eyed glances she kept sending his way. It was clear that Sasuke was the object of her affections, and she wasn't planning on giving that up anytime soon.

Kakashi was rather horrified by Sakura's introduction, although he should've known to expect it. Girls her age were more interested in love than they were in ninjutsu. And, to Kakashi's dismay, he had not only one girl on his team, but two. Clearly, the Hokage was trying to ruin his life. Kakashi only hoped that the brunette kunoichi would prove to have a different mindset, otherwise Kakashi might as well resign as a sensei right there and then.

"I think that's enough, Sakura," Kakashi interrupted lightly, to spare the rest of the group any further torture, considering that Naruto was mirroring his own horrified expression while the brunette genin had scrunched up her nose in obvious distaste. "Next." The command was directed at the stoic last of the Uchiha clan, who hadn't moved a muscle since the introductions began.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha," the raven-haired genin said monotonously, his dark eyes fixed into a glare at the space in front of him. "I don't find a point in talking about my likes, because there is basically nothing that I actually do like. Hobbies... I don't care about. Dreams... That's just a word. What I want to do is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to grow stronger and kill the person I hate most."

All was silent as his words weighed on his teammates, each of them having a different reaction. Naruto visibly paled, silently praying that Sasuke wasn't talking about killing him, while Sakura stared at Sasuke in complete awe. The curly-haired brunette that completed their team remained unimpressed by the Uchiha's words, rolling her eyes.

"And that, ladies and gentleman, is the wonderful ray of sunshine on our team," She remarked sarcastically, leaning back against the wall.

Kakashi couldn't help but smirk at her words, and although Sasuke shot her a glare, she wasn't shaken. "Well, then... Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself," the silver-haired man said, crossing his arms over his chest.

And, thankfully, Minxie didn't disappoint him, her cat-like emerald green eyes determined as she spoke, "My name is Minxie Patterson, but I prefer being called Minx. I like having fun and adventuring, because I just love doing stuff that no one else has done before. I dislike fangirls, judgmental people, and people who are mean to my friends. My hobbies... Are drawing and writing, I guess. I don't really have as much a dream as I do have a goal. I plan on finding out how I got here, and figuring out the whole mystery of why I'm here."

A little while after that fateful day, however, Kakashi began to accept that the four of them were quite possibly insane. Sure, all shinobi had some kind of crazy in them, but Naruto, Sasuke, Minxie, and Sakura seemed to have quite a lot more crazy than anyone else he'd ever met -especially at their age- and that was saying something, considering he'd met more psychopaths in his lifetime than he was comfortable with. Initially, he'd wondered if the Hokage had been playing a cruel joke on him by assigning him Team 7, as if it were revenge for all the previous teams he had failed. Because really, there was no way he could possibly turn any of those children into ninja, much less good ones.

I mean, really, what did he have to work with? A lovesick fangirl with breathtaking anger issues; an obnoxious moron with an annoying ramen obsession and an even more annoying catch phrase; a homicidal and antisocial Uchiha with a revenge fetish; and a sarcastic yet impulsive smart-mouth who would probably trade them all for a cookie or two. These were definitely not the kind of minions he wanted to be remembered by, unless he was trying to break the record for 'World's Most Unlucky Sensei.' And really, he wasn't paid enough to put up with them in the first place.

Now, however, things had changed. Kakashi's little minions were all grown up. Sakura... Was more violent now than ever, and her anger issues, backed by her now monstrous strength, were sufficiently terrifying, but she wasn't nearly as lovesick as she used to be. Naruto... Was still kind of an idiot, and was probably thinking about ramen at this very moment, but it was clear that he'd be able to reach his dream of being Hokage. Sasuke... Was still very much antisocial, although his revenge-centered tendencies seemed to have toned down a bit; not like one could ever really tell with him, anyway. And Minxie... Well, she'd only gotten more sarcastic and impulsive with age, and Kakashi was pretty convinced that the girl was crazy, but she did turn out to be an extremely powerful kunoichi.

Actually, come to think of it... Maybe his students hadn't really changed much at all. They were taller now, sort of? Well, in Minxie's case, just barely, not that the girl could ever really help her short stature that left her standing at a lower height than the rest of her teammates. Maybe they'd done something different with their hair? Well, whatever the case, they'd changed, at least a little. Yet their team dynamic remained, as if not even time could displace it.

Kakashi was well aware that Naruto had long since surpassed the Hokage. Although he was often labelled as an idiot and was widely known as Konoha's knucklehead ninja, the energetic Uzumaki had a good heart and was undeniably charismatic. He had a talent for drawing people to him and making them want to follow his lead. The blonde was now acknowledged by all those who had once resented and excluded him, and he'd gained complete control over Nine-Tails' power, mastering it to an almost unimaginable degree. Time and time again, Naruto had proven himself, managing not only to defeat powerful enemies but also to change their hearts. He'd become a hero in his own right, which no one could deny. Yet even while they were at war, attaining the title of Hokage was still his dream. Kakashi somehow knew that Naruto would never give up until that particular dream of him was achieved.

Sakura, Kakashi knew, was no longer the lovesick little girl she used to be. She, too, had come into her own strength as a kunoichi, and she would no longer allow herself to be left behind, not by Naruto, Sasuke, or Minxie. Now, the pink-haired kunoichi was not only running after her teammates but also standing beside them, proving her own capability. Kakashi had a feeling that she still loved Sasuke, but he also knew that she now loved him on a different level. Sasuke had tried to take her life, yet she still cared for him. She wouldn't cut him off, no matter what happened, for she believed it was her duty to save him from the darkness, a burden that she wished to relieve Naruto and Minxie of, since they'd been shouldering it for so long. That was just the sort of kind-hearted and generous girl Sakura always had been. She was also devoted to looking out for Minxie and Naruto in whatever ways she could, although sometimes her affection was displayed through a few well-placed punches to their heads that were often met with shouting protests on their parts- or, in Minxie's case, an ever-present eye twitch and sarcastic comment or two.

Kakashi had never once doubted Minxie's skills as a kunoichi; the girl was a powerhouse, especially now, and she definitely lived up to her Takeda lineage. She had long since achieved her dream of discovering her reason for being in this world, and more than that, she'd found a new family. She still had a knack for sarcasm and eccentric thinking, but she'd grown up to be a strong ninja with an even stronger heart that somehow still endured despite facing constant hardship. Kakashi knew that regardless of everything that had happened, she still had a place for Sasuke in that loving heart of hers, just like she had a place for the rest of their Team 7, although certainly not in the same regard, for Minxie had always been forgiving to a fault. Indeed, the past few years hadn't been easy on her, but they hadn't managed to make her cruel, either, although recent events -the death of her brother, in particular- had come quite close to doing so. Despite her recent slip-up, however, Kakashi believed that she'd be okay; after all, Minxie was far stronger than she gave herself credit for.

And then there was Sasuke. As a genin, the Uchiha's dream and goal in life was to kill Itachi in order to avenge his clan. It had been a rather obsessive quest, one that was most definitely unhealthy for him, yet nothing had been able to sway him from it. But now, Itachi was gone, and Kakashi had no idea where Sasuke was headed or what he wanted. He'd been the Uchiha's sensei, yet he couldn't understand him at all. Even now, Kakashi was at a loss when it came to Sasuke. He had no idea what the young Uchiha was after anymore. Did the old Team 7 even matter to him at this point? It was hard to believe that he could just throw away all the memories they shared, yet he'd done so once already, by abandoning them all to join Orochimaru. So what had happened to make that change? Had a change even occurred? Why exactly was Sasuke aiding them in this war? There were too many unknowns in this situation, and Kakashi didn't like surprises. More importantly, he knew that if they were going to win this fight, then they couldn't afford any uncertainties, especially where loyalty was concerned.

So, knowing it was best to tackle this potential issue now, Kakashi spoke up neutrally, "Sasuke... What is your current dream? What exactly are you after now?"

It seemed that Sakura shared Kakashi's misgivings, because she too turned to the Uchiha, an almost apprehensive look on her face as she quickly added, "... Why did you tell us that you were going to become Hokage? What's the reason behind it?"

Neither Minxie nor Naruto felt the need to add to their teammates' questions, but both Jinchuriki turned to look at the Uchiha as well, curious yet almost suspicious looks on their faces. It was clear that despite Naruto's initial support, he was still skeptical about Sasuke's intentions. Minxie, too, shared that same skepticism, although that was to be expected, since she'd made it perfectly clear to everyone that she didn't trust Sasuke from the moment he showed up; she may have forgiven him -mainly because he'd been dying at the time- but trusting him was a different matter entirely.

Sasuke, as expected, didn't answer their questions. He seemed to be thinking about something else entirely, his gaze on the ground beneath them.

Knowing that he probably wasn't going to get an answer anytime soon, Kakashi sighed, relenting. "I don't normally believe in things like fate, but I do believe that the five of us being reunited right now isn't a coincidence." That admission caused Sasuke to meet his former sensei's gaze, still not saying a word. "Look, if you don't want to tell us what you're thinking right now, Sasuke... That's fine. We won't force you to tell us. But regardless of everything that's happened... We were all still a team once."

Kakashi's words hung in the air, a brief silence falling over the usually loud and lively Team 7. The space in front of them began to swirl, signaling the highly dreaded return of Madara to the battlefield.

"Do you four remember your very first mission, the one with the bells?" Kakashi questioned quickly, trying to get his words out before Madara appeared, because once he did, they'd certainly be too busy fighting the Rinnegan-user to speak at all, "You haven't forgotten that lesson, have you?"

It had been their first lesson, the one that had become a core part of their team dynamic, something that was still a part of them now, even if they didn't realize it. Because, as Kakashi had learned from Obito many years before, 'shinobi who break the rules are scum, but those who don't care for the lives of their comrades are even worst than that.'

"No..." Minxie muttered in response, with a slight shake of her head as her cat-like eyes narrowed at Madara's materializing figure.

"Nope!" Sakura announced, clenching her fists at her sides.

"Hmph..." Sasuke grunted, resting his hand on the hilt of his katana. Kakashi could only assume that it was the Uchiha's way of saying 'no.'

"Of course not!" Naruto proclaimed loudly, his chakra buzzing powerfully around him, "Teamwork is the key!"

"In that case..." The swirling space in front of them finally stabilized, and Madara appeared, with Obito standing behind him. The former Uchiha leader looked at them smugly, a smirk on his face. Now, they could clearly see that he had two Rinnegan eyes instead of one, the purple orbs glinting dangerously. "... Dying together can also be considered teamwork, eh?"

Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of his sensei's former teammate standing beside Madara. Obito still had Black Zetsu attached to the left side of his body, and the Rinnegan eye he'd once had was gone, taken by Madara only moments before. "Obito!"

Zetsu chuckled, "Sorry, but Obito is long gone. I've taken over his body now. It seems he was hoping to have his mistakes rectified and be redeemed. He was praying in his heart, like a child, that he could just leave the future to all of you... How convenient that would have been for him, don't you think? That he could've helped us start this mess and then just walked away from it all? Just like a spoiled little brat."

Madara's gaze shifted from side to side as he took in each member from Team 7, the only people who were currently standing in the way of his ultimate goal. His Rinnegan eyes were so piercing that Sakura visibly shuddered, her resolve faltering a little as she took a slight step back. And how couldn't she back down in the face of eyes as powerful and imposing as the ones that were looking right at her, seeking out her weaknesses?

She spared a glance at her teammates. Minxie, Naruto, and Sasuke were standing bravely in front of her, the way they always had been. Unlike her, they didn't seem frightened or worried. They weren't cowering or shaking. They were standing with their backs to her, ready to face whatever threatened them without even the slightest hint of doubt. When they'd fought together against Ten-Tails, Sakura thought that things had changed, that she'd finally caught up to them and was able to stand as their equal.

She looked at the ground, her fists clenching at her sides as the diamond seal in the center of her forehead began to glow with chakra. She wasn't going to let her teammates leave her behind again, not even when they were facing someone as powerful as Madara. So, without even giving them a chance to stop her, she charged forward, "I'll be the diversion. You three, follow me!"

Naruto's eyes widened as the pinkette charged forward, "Sakura, wait!" He tried to grab her arm, but the medic was already sprinting forward and leaping at Madara, despite the protests of her teammates behind her. Madara didn't even blink as she charged towards him. He merely extended his arm a little, meeting her in the air and driving a chakra rod through her abdomen. She ignored the injury and lifted her fist, but her punch was met with an invisible wall that blocked her attack.

Minxie, Naruto, and Sasuke suddenly jumped into the fray, appearing beside their pink-haired teammate. Naruto wrapped his arms around Sakura as he pulled her away from the scene, kicking one of Madara's shadows away in the process by flowing senjutsu chakra to his feet. Minxie aimed a punch at Madara's head, but she too was blocked by one of his shadows that pushed her backwards. She landed safely on her feet a few yards away, while Sasuke was also sent skidding backwards as his Chidori-charged blade was was also blocked.

Naruto placed Sakura safely on the ground and removed the chakra rod from her stomach, causing the pinkette to wince in pain. "Sakura, you okay!?"

"I'm fine, Naruto. The seal on my forehead takes care of any of my injuries," Sakura assured. "You don't have to worry about me."

"What the heck were you thinking, charging at him by yourself like that!?" Naruto exclaimed. "And right when we agreed to be a team, too!"

She shot him a sheepish smile. "Sorry for worrying you." She glanced at Sasuke, but the Uchiha wasn't even looking at her. He'd seen her injured, and he wasn't even fazed, as if it didn't matter to him at all. And right when she'd thought that he was finally starting to care about them again... She held back a sigh and glanced at Minxie instead. She was expecting Minxie to scold her the way Naruto had, but the brunette wasn't looking at her, either. She was glaring intensely at Madara, a dark look in her eyes that made Sakura shudder, because the last time she'd seen that look, Minxie had almost killed Kabuto.

Sasuke scanned the area around them, "Naruto..."

"Yeah, I know," Naruto muttered, having already noticed it. "There're more of them this time, right?"

Sasuke nodded in confirmation. "He has four shadows surrounding him now."

"Indeed," Madara agreed. "But I've grown tired of this farce. I have other plans in mind." He flew into the air, lifting his hand into the sky. The chakra he gathered formed into dozens of compact black spheres. He brought his palms together, casting his jutsu, and that was when all hell broke loose. Each sphere came with its own impossibly powerful gravitational pull, uprooting hundreds of rock formations and bringing them into their cores, gathering to form several compact circles. The ground rumbled and shook as Naruto, Sakura, Minxie, Sasuke, and Kakashi struggled to stay upright.

Naruto could hardly believe his eyes at the giant, rock-encased orbs that were floating in the sky above them. He'd seen this jutsu before, and it had not been fun to experience at all. In fact, it was probably one of the most fearsome jutsu that he'd ever faced. "They're way bigger than the ones Nagato made... And there's a lot more of them, too!"

"Don't be distracted by what's above you!" Sasuke shouted. "His shadows are still here on the ground with us!"

"But he's not," Minxie muttered, her gaze narrowing as she glared up at Madara's floating form.

Sasuke's gaze immediately went to the brunette beside him, and his eyes widened slightly as he realized exactly what she was about to do. "Minxie, don't you dare-" She didn't wait to hear the rest of his warning, instead choosing to fly up into the air after Madara. Sasuke let out an irritated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Oh, for the love of God, it's like I'm talking to a wall."

"Ironically enough," Kakashi began, his tone surprisingly light despite the fact that dozens of meteorties were about to crush them, "I think she'd say the exact same thing about you, Sasuke."

Sasuke was going to reply, but he didn't have a chance to as the wave of meteorites Madara had created suddenly began falling to the ground. "Here they come!" Naruto shouted, as his teammates braced themselves.

"The shadows, too!" Sasuke added, noticing Madara's shadows charging towards them as well.

Naruto quickly made hand signs, creating four shadow clones. "Leave the shadows to me! You go after Minxie and Madara!"

Sasuke nodded, activating his Susano'o and flying into the air. While Naruto's shadow clones dealt with Madara's shadows, his original created a biju bomb Rasen-Shuriken, tossing it at one of the meteorites and destroying it, causing large shards of rock to rain over them. Sasuke's Susano'o sliced through the meteorites with its sword, but it seemed that there was no end to them, and no matter how many he destroyed, he still couldn't find Minxie in all the chaos and debris.

Madara flew above it all, ignoring the shouts and explosions sounding from the ground as he faced the moon in the sky. He removed the metal plate upon which his horns were attached, exposing his forehead and shutting his eyes. As he focused his chakra, a slit formed in the middle of his forehead, opening to reveal a third eye -a Rinne-Sharingan- which he reflected right at the moon.

Sasuke had just finished destroying another meteorite when he felt an overwhelming chakra surge into the air. He looked up, and his eyes widened as he saw the reflection of a Rinne-Sharingan upon the moon, knowing that it could only mean one thing. Madara had been trying to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and by the looks of it, he was successful.

Sasuke knew that now that Madara was launching the Infinite Tsukuyomi, there wasn't much time left if he wanted to escape the genjutsu. He wasn't sure if his plan would work, but right now, it was their only chance. He needed to find Minxie, get her away from Madara, and return to Naruto before the genjutsu was fully launched. He forgot all about destroying the meteorites and instead focused on locating Minxie. He spotted her in the air, her brightly-colored chakra wings lighting up against the dark night sky. A Rasen-Chidori was in her hand, a jutsu that, once it struck Madara, would be a fatal blow to his heart. And this time, with his shadows all on the ground, he wouldn't be able to evade her attack. And that was precisely what she was counting on.

Minxie was so caught up in landing the finishing blow that she hadn't even noticed the Rinne-Sharingan reflecting upon the moon in the sky, nor did she see the chakra rod that Madara had in his hand, the one that he was going to plunge through her heart the second she reached him, and from this angle, neither one of them would miss their targets. But Sasuke did see it, and that was why he flew forward and wrapped his arms around Minxie, stopping her before she could reach Madara.

The brunette was so surprised by Sasuke's sudden appearance that her eyes visibly widened. And, when she finally realized that he'd stopped her from killing Madara, she became, as expected, completely furious. She turned slightly in Sasuke's arms so that she could look at him, her eyes fixated into a glare as her Rasen-Chidori chirped uselessly in her palm, "Sasuke, what the hell are you doing-"

"Not now!" Sasuke snapped at her, tightening his hold around her as he directed his Susano'o to fly back towards the ground. She tried to escape his hold, but he wouldn't let go, and while they were both suspended in the chakra of his Susano'o and shooting back to the ground at an incredible speed, there was little she could do to remove him. She did, however, yell at him the whole way down, calling him every awful name she could possibly think of, but he didn't hear a single word. He was much too focused on getting the two of them back to Naruto before the Infinite Tsukuyomi began.

Naruto had just sent a series of biju bomb Rasen-Shurikens at the meteorites when he spotted Sasuke and Minxie heading towards him in Sasuke's Susano'o. Minxie looked incredibly angry, but that wasn't what caught Naruto's attention. What really surprised him was the look of apprehension on Sasuke's face as he rushed towards them with Minxie in his arms. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he'd seen an expression like that on Sasuke's face, and that was enough to make him worry. A chorus of explosions sounded as the Rasen-Shurikens hit their targets, enveloping the battlefield with a bright light, but even that wasn't enough to deter Sasuke's rushed advances.

"Jeez, teme, are you out of your mind!?" Naruto shouted to the Uchiha, once he and Minxie had arrived within earshot. "Don't head down here so quickly! I could've hit you with a Rasen-Shuriken-" He was cut off as Sasuke's Susano'o landed heavily and ungracefully on the ground, shaking the earth beneath him and making him, Kakashi, and Sakura stumble. "Hey! Land more softly, would ya!? Just because I have the Sage's chakra doesn't mean I'm immune to pain, ya know! And Kakashi-sensei and Sakura are here, too! Would it kill you to be a little considerate!?"

"Just shut up and stay still!" Sasuke commanded. He had no idea if his plan was going to work, but right now, it was their only option. So, with not even a second to spare, his Susano'o crouched down and wrapped its wings around him and the rest of Team 7, effectively trapping them inside and blocking out the light from Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Sasuke knew from Naruto's complaints and Sakura's questioning that they were all extremely confused by his behavior, but he was much more focused on what was happening outside of his Susano'o than he was on them. His Rinnegan could see past the barrier that the Susano'o provided, and he watched as the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast upon the entire world. The roots of the Divine Tree flowed throughout every square inch of the planet, wrapping around every person they came into contact with. Shinobi and civilians alike were encased into cocoons and attached to the tree, leaving no living thing untouched by the genjutsu.

And yet, inside Sasuke's Susano'o, Team 7 remained unharmed. Sasuke's plan had ended up working out perfectly. Just as he'd suspected, his Rinnegan-enhanced Susano'o was able to counter Madara's Infinite Tsukuyomi, which had also been cast with a Rinnegan. So long as they remained within the wings of the Susano'o, they would be able to escape the genjutsu altogether.

Sasuke finally let himself relax a little, returning his attention to his teammates, and it was only then that he noticed that he was still holding Minxie, his arms wrapped securely around her in a strangely protective way. He was a bit surprised by his own actions, but before he could release her, she forcefully pushed his arms off of her and removed herself from his grasp.

She turned on her heel to face him, her face contorted with rage. "What the hell was that!?" She demanded, glaring harshly at him. "I had him, you moron! I was literally two seconds away from ripping Madara's heart out -for real, this time- and you got in the way!"

It took Sasuke a few seconds to remember what she was talking about, but when he did, his tone was simple. "I got in the way because you were being careless. Madara knew you were heading for him. If you were paying attention, then you would've noticed his counterattack. He was going to kill you, Minxie. If I hadn't stopped you, then you'd be dead right now. Or, at the very least, trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi."

"You think that matters!?" She snapped at him. "At least that way, he'd be gone, and then none of us would be in this mess!" Her words made the eyes of her teammates widen in disbelief as soon as they heard them.

"Minxie..." Naruto looked shocked, his normally loud voice a mere whisper as he spoke her name. He looked like he was at a complete and utter loss, just like Kakashi and Sakura were. Not even Sasuke could believe what he was hearing. And how could they not be shocked, when Minxie, who usually fought as hard as she could, had just admitted to not caring about whether or not she died?

The brunette ran a hand through her hair, ignoring their shocked looks as she tried to reign in what was becoming her very dangerous and out of control temper. It'd be a shame if they'd escaped the Infinite Tsukuyomi only for her to go crazy and kill them all in here. She knew that with Ten-Tails' chakra still lingering within her system, that outcome was extremely possible, and she certainly didn't want to let it become a reality.

"I could've killed him. Yeah, maybe I'd be dead right now for doing so, but Madara would be, too. And then all of this crap would finally be over." She shook her head, her eyes narrowing into a glare at Sasuke once more. "But you just had to interfere. You just had to stop me."

"I saved your life," He told her, glaring right back. He was trying his best to keep his tone neutral, but he was getting frustrated with her. Why was she complaining about him saving her? Since when was protecting her a bad thing? "How about, instead of yelling at me, you show me some gratitude?"

"You want gratitude?" She questioned incredulously, letting out a humorless laugh. "Well, here it is. Thank you, Sasuke. Thank you for forcing me to live in a world where my brother doesn't exist anymore. Thank you for preventing me from keeping my promise to him. You've succeeded in making me miserable once again. Congratulations. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Another silence followed, equally as deafening and awkward as the first, yet Sasuke didn't think much of it. All he could so was stare at Minxie, who was still glaring at him unflinchingly, as he focused only on her eyes and the startling discovery he made in them. Her eyes, usually striking pools of emerald green, were harsh now, eyes that didn't suit her. Eyes that were void of the hope she was so often remembered and counted on for.

Apparently, she'd had enough of staring at him, because she scoffed and turned away, crossing her arms over her chest as she stubbornly faced the walls of Sasuke's Susano'o instead. "It doesn't even matter now, anyway. The Infinite Tsukuyomi's already been cast."

"No..." Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief at her words. Without even thinking about it, he started towards the edge of Sasuke's Susano'o, not sure what exactly he was going to do but knowing that he needed to do something, anything, to prevent the rest of the world from falling under Madara's genjutsu. Because the rest of his friends, his teachers, and hundreds of innocent shinobi were still out there, and Naruto couldn't leave them to fend for themselves against something as awful as the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Sasuke stopped Naruto's advances by placing a hand on the blonde's shoulder and pulling him back. "Don't. You can't go outside right now. Without my Susano'o around you, you'll be bound up in the Tsukuyomi. Plus, Madara's shadows are still outside. If he beats the two of us and Minxie, then it's all over. We need to bide our time."

"And what good will that do?" Minxie snapped. "The Infinite Tsukuyomi was the be all end all, remember? Now that it's been cast, anything we do from here on out won't mean a damn thing."

"Of course it will," Naruto argued, frowning slightly at her. "It always will. This war isn't over."

"He's right," Kakashi agreed. "We can't lose hope, not yet."

Minxie scoffed. "Sorry that I'm not inclined to be hopeful anymore, sensei. Turns out that killing your own sibling is a pretty damn good reason to give up hope."

"Why are you acting like this?" Naruto demanded. "You got rid of your own darkness, Minxie. I saw it happen! So why aren't you past this already?"

"Past this?" She repeated, glaring at him as she turned around to face him. "You think losing Ryuu is something that I can just get past!? In case you've forgotten, Naruto, my entire family is dead now because of me!"

Naruto blinked, taken aback. A feeling of guilt began to bubble in the pit of his stomach, because that was certainly not what he was trying to say. "... I didn't mean it like that."

"Then how the hell did you mean it!?" She snapped at him. "What, am I not good enough for you anymore? Am I too damaged, now!? Is that it!? Well, then, maybe you should've just let Madara kill me after all!"

"Minxie, stop it!" Sakura shouted, tears pooling in her green eyes. "You're scaring me!"

"What do you want me to do, Sakura?!" Minxie exclaimed, turning on her heel to face the pinkette with a harsh glare on her face. "Pretend like everything's okay!? Act like we're all fine and dandy when I killed my own brother!? Well, I can't, and I won't!"

"That doesn't mean you have to act this way!" Sakura countered, bringing up one of her hands to her heart. "Ryuu wouldn't have wanted you to-"

"It doesn't matter what Ryuu would've wanted!" Minxie shouted, cutting her off. "It doesn't matter because he's dead, and it's my fault!" Her words stunned the others into silence, but she wasn't done. "Yeah, Madara cast the genjutsu, but I'm the one who drove katana into his stomach. I'm the reason he's dead, and that's on me. And nothing you or anyone else says is going to fix that or make it better. So could you just stop?"

Naruto was at a loss for words. "But... You came back to us..." He muttered, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Yeah, I did. Just in time to see Madara place the rest of the world under genjutsu," She muttered bitterly. "We started an entire war in order to keep that from happening, but it happened, anyway. Everything we've done, all the people we've lost... None of that even matters anymore because Madara still won." The bitterness in her expression faded, leaving behind a softer, more hopeless look that made her look all the more human, because despite everything, she was still just a kid who wanted this nightmare to be over. They all were, with the exception of Kakashi. "We're supposed to be the saviors. Tell me, who have we saved besides ourselves? What good is it being a savior when all you're good for is watching the people around you die?"

She looked at the ground, then, but that gesture couldn't hide the tear that had escaped out of her eye and trailed down her cheek. She may have been yelling at them, but they knew that it wasn't out of scorn or hatred. She was just tired and broken and lost. Because regardless of how strong she was and how many jutsu she knew, at the end of the day, Minxie was still only human.

Naruto closed the distance between them and placed a hand underneath her chin, making her look up at him. She didn't shy away from his touch, allowing him to meet her eyes, and the sadness and utter despair he saw in those pools of emerald green was enough to make him wince. "I'm sorry," He told her quietly, but genuinely nonetheless. "But this battle, this war, it isn't over yet. It isn't over because we're all still here. And we will fix this together, the way we always have. We will save everyone, not because we have to, but because that's who we are. That's who you are." He brushed her tears away with his hand. "So just have a little more faith in yourself, all right? Have a little more faith in us, in our team." He placed a loose curl behind her ear. "... Besides, we can't let the world end yet. We still don't even know what Kakashi-sensei looks like underneath his mask."

It was probably the most ridiculous thing he could've said, given their situation, but somehow, it was exactly the thing they all needed to hear, because the next second, they were all smiling. Even Minxie, who had resigned herself to never feeling any kind of positive emotion again, found herself joining in. The smile on her face was hardly one compared to her usual bright expression, a gesture so small that they hardly even noticed it, but it was there, and it meant everything. It meant that there was still some kind of hope, for her, for them, and for the world.

Kakashi chuckled, shaking his head and deciding to keep the lightheartedness going for a little while longer. After all, it was no secret that they all needed it, especially right now. "Not even in your Infinite Tsukuyomi dreams, kid."

"Oh, come on!" Naruto whined, facing his silver-haired sensei. "All these years together and you still won't even give us a peek?"

Kakashi merely shrugged. "It adds to my mystery."

"Yeah, right," Naruto snorted. "I bet you're just ugly." Suddenly, he began to grin smugly. "Hey, I'm stronger than you now, old man. Who's to say I won't just take off your mask, anyway?"

"You're welcome to try," Kakashi said easily. "However, need I remind you how well that worked out for you last time?"

"Hey, it's not our fault you wear, like, five of them at once," Minxie muttered. It was a far cry from her usual, cheery tone, but they knew she was trying, and it was enough to make them start smiling all over again.

"They keep my face warm, thank you very much," Kakashi defended.

"Or they just hide your beaver-like features," Sakura suggested brightly, with a light shrug of her shoulders. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out one day."

"Not likely, but I do appreciate your ambition," Kakashi said. He turned to Minxie, "And I'm glad to see that smile again, kiddo. I was almost worried you'd lost it forever."

"I was, too," Minxie replied truthfully, looking down at her feet. "Honestly, I can't feel much of anything right now. It hurts too much to do that, but..." She lifted her head, and the golden flecks in her emerald green eyes shifted together and formed a second iris around her pupils, signaling the reactivation of her Mind's Eyes. "I'm going to control it. I have to." Quietly, she laced her fingers with Naruto's momentarily, giving his hand a light squeeze as the most subtle and genuine 'thank you' she could muster.

The small gesture was enough to have him grinning for the next few minutes, but, for good measure, and knowing she'd be able to hear him now that her Mind's Eyes were activated, he thought, Anytime.

"And you will," Sakura reassured, dragging them both out of their thoughts. Her jade green eyes were sincere as she spoke, as if she didn't doubt what she was saying even for a second. "I know you will." She placed a comforting hand on Minxie's shoulder, sending the brunette a supportive smile. "But this fight isn't over yet, and we have to focus on that." The pinkette then turned to the Uchiha near them, who had been surprisingly quiet throughout their entire exchange. There was a look on Sasuke's face that she couldn't decipher. His eyebrows were knotted together, and he was frowning, whch concerned Sakura, but she knew better than to ask about it. "... Sasuke, what's going on outside right now?"

"What difference does it make to you?" Sasuke inquired, the sudden harshness of his words surprising the rest of his former team. "There's nothing you can do about it."

Sakura immediately looked down, feeling whatever bit of hope of their team reconciling shatter instantly at his harsh words. A sense of sadness washed over her, one that made her want to crawl into a hole and disappear. Naruto looked about two seconds away from punching Sasuke in the face for being so rude to her in the first place, but it was Minxie who ended up speaking to the Uchiha, her eyes narrowed as she spoke, "Why are you being such an ass?"

"I'm telling the truth," Sasuke stated simply, "If the rest of you can't handle that, then that's your problem, not mine."

"You know, I'm starting to think that the only one here with a problem is you," the brunette snapped, stepping in front of him so that they were face to face. "So why don't you just-"

"Enough, you two," Kakashi intervened, quick to quell the argument that was brewing between his two strong-willed and ill-tempered students. The last thing he needed right now was for Sasuke and Minxie to be at each other's throats, especially when Naruto already looked like he was ready to join in and smack some sense into the Uchiha himself. "We won't be able to end the war out there if the two of you are set on starting your own in here."

His words, apparently, were lost on Sasuke, because the Uchiha didn't even turn his head in recognition. Minxie, at least, listened to him and backed off, although she did scoff and roll her eyes a little.

Kakashi cleared his throat, continuing once again, "Listen, Sasuke, about what you said earlier... You're missing the point. Naruto, Minxie, and I want to know what's going on outside just as much as Sakura does. In order to properly strategize our next move, Sakura should also-"

"Kakashi, you're no better than Sakura right now," Sasuke interrupted, cutting his former sensei off before the man could finish his sentence. "So be quiet for a bit. I'll direct from here on out."

Naruto's eye twitched. "Hey, asshole! Quit being like that, would ya!? We agreed to be a team!" He exclaimed, scowling slightly at the Uchiha.

Kakashi sighed. "No, Naruto, Sasuke's right. I'm pretty useless right now. With his Rinnegan, he's the only one who can analyze what's happening outside. So he ought to be the one to take command of Team 7."

Minxie scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest, "If that's the case, then we might as well surrender now." Sasuke shot her a withering look, but she only shrugged, not bothering to apologize.

Naruto looked completely baffled. "You can't be serious, Kakashi-sensei! I mean, I really doubt that Sasuke's better at planning and strategizing than either Sakura or you! Although maybe he is better at it than Minxie and I are... No offense, Minx." He shot a sheepish smile at the brunette, who looked ready to protest, but Sasuke cut her off before she could.

"In any case," the Uchiha began, "You all know that Madara's launched the Infinite Tsukuyomi. It's a powerful genjutsu... Everyone outside has fallen under its spell. We might be the only ones not affected."

Naruto frowned, "So then everybody outside is...?"

"... Trapped inside a dream," Sasuke finished solemnly.

"How long will the jutsu last?" Minxie inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Since it seems to use the moon's light, I assume it'll last as long as the light does," He answered. "I can't speak for everyone else out there, but once the moonlight fades, it should be safe for the five of us to go back outside."

Waiting for the moonlight to fade was easier said than done. They wanted nothing more than to get back out there and end this war once and for all, but they couldn't risk getting trapped within Madara's genjutsu, so they were forced to be wait and be patient, despite how anxious and on edge they all were. Sakura tried to spur up a conversation in an attempt to distract her tense teammates, but that wasn't easy to do when the silence around them felt so haunting.

After what felt like practically years of waiting, Sasuke blinked, lifting his head slightly as he stared past the wings of his Susano'o. "... The moonlight's gone. It's time." He glanced at Minxie and Naruto. "You ready?" The two Jinchuriki nodded in response, and without sparing another moment, Sasuke allowed his Susano'o to open its wings and reveal the outside world once more.

Although the moonlight had long since faded, it still took some time for their eyes to adjust from the darkness of Sasuke's Susano'o, which began to recede until it disappeared, leaving behind only the members of Team 7. Across from them stood Black Zetsu, who was still clinging to Obito's unconscious and dormant form.

"Tch... So that Susano'o really didn't let the light through, huh," Black Zetsu noted. "Congratulations. You five are the only living humans on the planet who haven't been trapped by the genjutsu."

"You haven't been affected, either," Naruto said. "But once we're done with you, you're going to wish you had been!"

Black Zetsu chuckled. "I did say only living humans... And I wouldn't be too sure about that, Jinchuriki."

"Sasuke, how do we wake up everyone from the genjutsu?" Minxie questioned, turning to glance at the Uchiha on her right.

"Rinnegan genjutsu can be dealt with using Rinnegan," Sasuke replied. He paused for a moment, thinking it over, "... Well, probably."

The brunette let out a long, irritable sigh. "How reassuring," She drawled out sarcastically.

"Either way, Sasuke's left eye is necessary if we want to finish this war," Kakashi put in.

"I won't let that happen," Black Zetsu announced. "All that's left is to get rid of you guys."

Suddenly, Madara crashed down from above, landing in front of Black Zetsu in a crouched stance. "Which I, the savior of this world, shall do."

"Madara," Minxie hissed, chakra already beginning to swirl around her fingertips as she tensed to attack.

"Easy," Sasuke warned her, his Rinnegan glinting as he examined the space around him, unseen to his teammates. "We're surrounded by four of his shadows. Don't do anything stupid." The brunette certainly didn't look happy about it, but she relaxed her posture a little, which was more than he was expecting, since he knew just how reckless and impulsive she could be.

"I won't let you do anything else," Madara said, getting to his feet as his fingertips brushed against the ground. "I just severed the karmic cycle of this world. I freed mankind from their suffering, their pain, and their futility."

Naruto gritted his teeth, unable to even stand hearing such ridiculous statements, much less believe them. "But it's all just a lie! Nothing in this world is real! All you've done is force everyone into a dream!"

"Naruto..." Madara spoke solemnly. "You're the one who's interfering with everyone's happiness. Enough with this sideshow. I've turned hell into heaven. Just wake up... It's all over."

Naruto was going to counter with another reply, but he never got the chance to, because suddenly, Black Zetsu was standing behind Madara, plunging his hand through the Uchiha's chest as Team 7 stood by in shock. The turn of events surprised everyone around them, especially Madara, who hadn't anticipated such a betrayal from the being that was supposed to be the product of his own will.

"Wrong, Madara..." Black Zetsu chided in a sing-song voice, ignoring the blood that dripped from his fingertips. "You are not a savior, nor is this the end of things. How can you say that you, unlike Obito, are able to completely take advantage of and manipulate others? Isn't it presumptuous to think that you alone are different from everyone in this world... My dear, dear Madara?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Zetsu!?" Madara demanded. "Stop this at once! You can't do this to me! I created you! You are my will incarnate!"

"Wrong again, Madara..." Black Zetsu chimed lightly, letting out a chuckle. "My will... Is Kaguya's!"

"What the hell's going on!?" Naruto demanded, hardly able to believe what he was witnessing. "I thought they were on the same side!"

"They're having a falling out now?" Kakashi asked incredulously.

"No... That's not it," Sasuke muttered, his eyes narrowing. "It just said that it's Kaguya's will."

"Kaguya...?" Sakura repeated, her eyebrows knotting together in confusion.

"Who's Kaguya?" Minxie asked, not taking her eyes off of Black Zetsu, who still had his hand plunged through Madara's chest, where his heart was supposed to be.

"The one the Sage of Six Paths mentioned," Sasuke answered. "Kaguya was his mother."

Naruto's eyes widened as he recalled Hagoromo's description of his mother, Kaguya, the rabbit goddess who had been so powerful that the entire world had once cowered in fear of her strength. "No way... So does that mean...?"

The blonde didn't get to finish his thought, because suddenly, Madara began to scream in agony. Dark veins spread from Black Zetsu's arm all throughout the Uchiha's body, covering him from head to toe as his chakra rose to new, practically impossible heights.

"What the hell's happening to him!?" Naruto shouted over Madara's screams of pain. "His chakra just got way more powerful!"

"I don't know!" Sasuke shouted back, quickly scanning the area around them with his Rinnegan. "All of his shadows have disappeared, too! Something's up!"

Minxie's eyes widened as she felt a surge of energy pool into the ground. "Oh, crap!"

With hardly a second to spare, she extended four chakra arms and grabbed each of her teammates as she soared into the air and lifted them with her, just in time for a large, powerful wave of chakra to shoot up from the ground. The earth around Black Zetsu and Madara exploded as chakra seeped through it, shooting rocks into the air. Team 7 escaped the impact with barely a second to spare, and Minxie deposited them safely on the ground after putting some distance between them and the suddenly large and imposing wave of chakra.

"Is he absorbing all of this chakra that erupted from the ground?" Kakashi asked in surprise, narrowly avoiding the debris that was flying through the air.

"Looks like it!" Sakura confirmed. "But where on earth did all of this thick, dark chakra even come from!?"

"Probably from those trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi!" Sasuke replied. "He has to be taking it from them!"

"This is really bad!" Naruto exclaimed. "This chakra's way stronger than even Ten-Tails!"

"There's no way his body can handle this much chakra at once!" Minxie shouted, as Madara's body began to grow and bulge into a round shape right before their eyes. The man looked ready to combust, what with all the chakra that was flowing into his body at once. "If we don't do something now, he'll explode, and that much chakra will blast the world to bits before we can even wake anyone up from the genjutsu!"

"Naruto, Minxie, go!" Sasuke shouted to the blonde and to the brunette beside him. "Stop them before they move!"

Summoning a chakra rod from the black spheres behind his back, Naruto nodded, "Got it!" He rushed forward towards Madara and Zetsu, with Minxie following closely behind him, a Rasen-Chidori already gathered in her palm. Sasuke vanished and reappeared beside Madara and Zetsu, a Chidori chirping from his hand. Before the three teens could even touch the large, pulsing form that Madara had become, three large locks of what felt strangely like hair wrapped around their forms, halting their movements.

"What the..." Minxie threaded her fingers through the strangely soft substance that was forming a cage around her. It seemed to grow stronger beneath her touch, pinning her arms to her sides as an incredulous expression came across her face. "Is this hair?"

"It won't budge!" Naruto exclaimed, trying unsuccessfully to remove the large locks of strangely strong hair that were restraining him. "And since when is Madara's hair white!?" Indeed, instead of the dark locks they were expecting, the hair binding them now was white, a hair color that certainly didn't belong to Madara at all. Then again, with his body on the verge of exploding, they'd expected some degree of change, anyway.

"Three little ninja flying into the fire," Zetsu taunted them. He was crouched atop Madara's now much larger form, the black substance that leaked from his arm spreading across the surface of Madara's body. "I'd call you brave if you weren't so stupid. I suppose I'll just steal your chakra right now while I'm at it."

The three teens struggled furiously as they tried to escape Madara's clutches, but their efforts were futile. The strange substance trapping them felt more like iron than hair, and it kept them in place, pinning their arms to their sides and encasing their bodies.

"Damnit!" Naruto swore. "If we don't stop him now, he'll drain everyone else's chakra and ours, and they'll die!" Sasuke and Minxie didn't reply. They only struggled even harder, knowing that the blonde was right, but again, their efforts yielded no results.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to kill anyone at all," Zetsu assured, grinning widely at them. "Even when Kaguya previously cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi upon the world, she left those people alive... In order to form them into her soldiers."

Sasuke frowned. "Soldiers...? What the hell do you mean?!"

"Heh... You seem to be denser than Itachi," Zetsu noted with a laugh, upon seeing the dark look that came across the Uchiha's features at the mention of his late brother. "Think about it. Can you use ordinary civilians in combat?"

Minxie's eyes widened in realization, and she stopped struggling momentarily as she realized the meaning behind his words. "No... You turn them into White Zetsu!?"

Zetsu laughed once more. "You see, that's what I've always loved about you, Minxie. You're so much more than a pretty face! I knew you'd be the one to figure it out. After all, Itachi taught you well." She glowered at him, but he merely smirked widely back at her. "What's left of those who were under the previous Infinite Tsukuyomi... That's what the White Zetsu are. They become transformed, slowly, over time."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Then you're saying everyone's gonna end up as those white plant things!?"

"That's the plan," Zetsu confirmed, giving them one final smirk before beginning to recede off of Obito's body. "And you three are next!"

It seemed impossible, but with Zetsu gone, Madara's body was able to grow even more. With the strange locks of hair keeping them in place, Naruto, Sasuke, and Minxie could hardly dodge the debris that was still flying all around them.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed. "He's super large now!"

"It's because his body can't tolerate the amount of chakra he took in!" Sasuke shouted.

Minxie nodded in confirmation, still struggling futily to remove herself from Madara's grasp, "At this rate, he's going to explode!"

Without Zetsu there to support him, Obito's body was released, and he crashed somewhere into the ground below them. Naruto, Minxie, and Sasuke braced themselves for impact as Madara's body continued to bubble dangerously, but it never came. Confused, they opened their eyes only to discover that the Uchiha ancestor's body had begun to shrink back to normal size. His body shifted slightly as he transformed, and suddenly, a regal-looking woman was left in his place.

Minxie's eyes widened as she took in the appearance of the woman she'd never seen before. The newcomer had a royal look about her, with her dainty, regal features, and her long white hair was straight and flowed down her back and past her robes. The nails on her fingertips were long and sharp, and two horns poked out the sides of her head. In the center of her forehead was the same Rinne-Sharingan that had once been in the center of Madara's.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto called. "Isn't she the one who the Sage spoke about!?"

Sasuke nodded slowly, "Yeah... Kaguya Ohtsutsuki."

At the sound of their voices, Kaguya looked over at them. Her eyes narrowed into a glare at the sight of the three teens around her, and she released them, forcefully throwing them into the ground with her hair. Their bodies collided with the earth painfully as they got the wind knocked out of them.

"Sasuke! Naruto! Minxie!" Sakura exclaimed, as she turned in search of her injured teammates.

She started towards them, but Kakashi stopped her, "Don't, Sakura!" She froze in place, just as Kaguya passed by them, her hair and robes swishing around with her movements. Just the feel of Kaguya's dark, practically limitless chakra was enough to make Sakura shudder, and the woman didn't even have to speak.

"These two..." Kaguya muttered as she approached Naruto and Sasuke, who were crouching on the ground. Chakra flowed to her eyes, and Minxie gasped inaudibly at the veins that appeared around her orbs. Kaguya, whose chakra was already so powerful, also possessed the Byakugan. "They're Hagoromo and Hamura's... No. They're Indra and Ashura. Then it was Hagoromo who gave them the jutsu... And you." She looked at Minxie, her Byakugan piercing. "Hitomi's will lives on in you... But your chakra, it's... It's Saiki's." Her eyes narrowed slightly as a frown came across her delicate features. "... I believe you have something of mine, girl."

Minxie frowned, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. She'd never heard of anyone named Hitomi before, and she certainly didn't have anything that belonged to Kaguya. The woman was the origin of all chakra. How could Minxie possibly have something that belonged to her and not even know it? The brunette's muscles still ached from being thrown to the ground, but her chakra was already relieving the pain. She glanced briefly at Naruto and Sasuke, who were on either side of her, but they didn't seem to understand what Kaguya meant, either, although Minxie was clearly more confused now than they were. She'd ask them about it later, but right now, she had to focus on the woman that stood before them, hovering in the air. She had no idea what Kaguya was going to do, but she knew that she had to be ready for anything.

Kakashi stepped forward slightly, his gaze on Kaguya as he spoke, "... What exactly are your intentions?"

The woman was silent for a few moments as she glanced back at the silver-haired man briefly. Her voice was void of emotion as she spoke, but somehow, she managed to sound demure, "This place... This land is my precious nursery. I cannot let it be damaged any further." She glanced at the destruction around her, at the ruined terrain that would likely never look the way it once had ever again. She almost seemed sad to see it in such a desolate state. "... Let us stop fighting."

Her words shocked all the members of Team 7. There they were, already preparing for another long and tiresome battle, and yet this woman wanted to do the exact opposite of that. She had somehow appeared from Madara, the one who had started this mess in the first place, and yet unlike him, she wanted to stop fighting. Was it possible that her intentions weren't hostile, the way they'd expected them to be?

"... Huh?" Naruto asked in confusion, so surprised that he could hardly even form a sentence. He glanced at his teammates, who were all mirroring his confused expression. "You... You want to stop fighting?"

"Yes, I do," Kaguya confirmed softly. She paused for a moment, and when she spoke again, her voice took on a much darker and more final tone, "... Here, that is. I'll just kill you all somewhere else."

And then suddenly, the space around them shifted, the air grew thick with heat, and they were all plummeting towards the pool of lava below them.

~*~*~*~*~*

Hey, guys! I know this chapter is super late, which I'm really sorry about, but I've just been really busy lately with school and all that. It's my senior year, so I'm going through the dreaded college process and crying internally, but I'll survive. This chapter was also pretty grueling since it had so many fight scenes, which is to be expected, since they are at war right now. I still can't believe the war took so long to be over tbh. It was actually only about two days, but it dragged on for like a billion chapters. Unbelievable.

Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this chapter! I know I played with everyone's feels with that cliffhanger in the last chapter, so I apologize for any tears that I may or may not have caused. And I also apologize for any further feels that this chapter might cause, because really, even I started tearing up while writing this. The question still stands, though: what exactly is Ryuu's fate? Is he dead? Is he alive? Is he just 300% done with the ninja world? We just don't know. Well, I know, but I won't be telling anyone, so there's that. It's part of my evil writer aesthetic.

In other news, we finally got up to the part where Team 7 battles Kaguya while the entire world is trapped in genjutsu, which, of course, is going to be another giant mess. Our poor characters really do need a long vacation after this, because really, with all they've been through, they deserve it.

I'll be replying to comments in the last chapter within the next few days! I meant to get around to it earlier, but I've just been really swamped with schoolwork. I did read quite a few of them, though, and you guys are honestly just so sweet. Your comments really do make my day.

As always, I thank you so much for your votes, comments, and continuous support! You guys really do make this story possible. I'm not sure when the next update will be out, but I will attempt to make it happen soon. I hope you guys stick with me to see how this story will end!

Love you guys, and talk to you soon!

-dawnofdelia xoxoxoxo