"He's gone!" Naruto exclaimed.
"But where did he go?" Kiba asked as we all looked around.
"He just disappeared. Escaped right out of here," B said.
"Naruto! Above you!" Kakashi shouted.
I looked up to see the air warping and quickly knocked Naruto out of the way as Obito crashed down to where he was merely seconds before.
"Naruto. You're only fighting defensively now," Obito pointed out as I straightened myself out and Naruto did too, "protecting everyone. Is there any meaning to all of this?"
"Hey, Naruto, you don't need to use your chakra on me, Choro, Ren or Inoiché," I told him lowly, "we have stored up quite a bit of chakra. We can protect ourselves."
He looked to me before nodding. The chakra left me, and I noticed off in the distance, Choro's body had lost its glow too meaning Inoiché and Ren probably lost theirs as well. Naruto seemed to gain a bit more life after losing the four of us.
"You're only growing weaker," Obito continued.
"And you're only growing more annoying," I retorted, "shut up."
I placed my hand on Naruto's shoulder and infused some of my chakra with his. Only about 5% so I didn't lose too much.
"I bet you can't understand since you only want to be alone, but the truth is-" Naruto began running along with a bunch of other shinobi, "-it makes me happy to have everyone with me right here by my side!"
I pulled out my chakra metal trench knives and spun them around in my hands. It's been a while since I've used these properly in a fight not against reanimated zombies. Smiling, I joined the charge.
"Just seeing them all gives me strength," Naruto exclaimed. Everyone went to attack but Obito evaded by disappearing,
"Shadow strangle jutsu," I called, sending my shadow to grab the shinobi's legs or arms, and pulling them away from each other so they didn't hurt one another.
"He ran off?" Kiba questioned before we all looked up to see Obito now stood on a rock towering over us.
"If the pain of your comrades deaths is part of your bond then there's really no need to protect them, is there?" he asked.
"What the hell, you snivelling bastard?!" hell yes Naruto, go throw around those insults, "that's exactly the kind of thing I hate about you! That's not what I'm talking about, idiot. I'm saying that I can endure any amount of pain if it involves my comrades! I mean that I don't want to give them up."
"We don't want to give you up either, Naruto," I messed his hair up and looked up to Obito, "didn't you used to want to be Hokage or something? Why would you change so drastically to wanting to take over everything in such a way?"
"You haven't been through what I have," Obito narrowed his eyes at me.
"Yeah, yeah, the overused motive of villainous beings - the past," I rolled my eyes, "if I let my past define who I was, I'd probably stood over there with you. But I'm not, am I? I didn't let everything I went through, saw or heard about damage me."
What an idiot.
The ten tails started screaming and the walls holding it together broke away. The ten tails now free from its confines.
"Damn!" I threw my hands over my ears as a high-pitched sound reached my ears, "what the hell is that noise?!"
"Because you severed the link between the ten tails and me, it can't be controlled now," Obito said as he turned to look at the beast.
What?
... that means we have a rampaging tailed beast on our hands now?
My mind flashed to the village sixteen years ago when the nine tails was released.
"This... this isn't good," I frowned before a sudden surge of white light engulfed us all. I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt myself being pushed back little by little by the pressure behind the chakra that was being expelled.
What's going on?!
Suddenly, I was thrown off my feet and brushed backwards.
"I got you," I heard Choro call as I landed against something.
The ten tails was still screaming, the weather was going wild. Tornadoes and lightning destroying the land around us. Water flooded into the area somehow and I found myself clinging onto Choro's sleeve.
"This is too much!" I shouted over all the noise before it finally all subsided.
Naruto was now left to being his normal self, no nine tails chakra around him.
I watched as the ten tails put its hands together and began to grow.
"It's compressing chakra," I stared forward before launching forward.
We all blocked Naruto from everyone else. Ren took to behind Naruto and began healing him, Sakura hovering around beside him.
Choro and Inoiché dropped down beside me, Choro looked exhausted, now not in his oversized form.
"That blast was crazy," he mumbled.
"I think the next one is going to be worse," Inoiché stated, "the ten tails' chakra is totally off the grid. It's crazy."
"Great. Just great," Choro rolled his eyes, "what's it doing now?!"
My gaze landed on the ten tails, it's mouth was opening wider and wider until its tongue rolled back and became some kind of ball in the entrance of the beasts mouth.
It started to open up.
Ugh-- that's disgusting.
It continued to open up, layers and layers until it became like a flower... kind of? Like a flower but gross?
A ball of chakra formed, growing larger and larger until it was too big for any of us to do anything about.
"Hey, Shikarei-- you know what we can do, right?" Choro said, I nodded as I watched the ball of large destructive chakra charging up.
"You guys, it's time we show the world what Ino Shika Ren Cho can actually do, don't you think so too?" I looked at my three teammates, they all nodded.
"Hey-- what're you four thinking about?" Shikamaru looked at us in worry as Ino and Choji walked over, Ren forced Sakura to take his place before he walked over she was watching us in confusion.
"Well," Inoiché looked at us, "we're going to stop that thing."
He pointed to the mass of destructive chakra that was beginning to grow.
"What? How?" Choji asked us, we all shared a look and I sighed.
"Look after Himari for me, will you," I looked at Shikamaru and he seemed to get it.
"No!" he shouted, this got the attention of the ninja around us, "you can't! Don't do this!"
"Come on, what's the life of four compared to the life of hundreds?" I asked him, "you know better than anyone that on a shoji board you have to sacrifice pieces on the board to protect the king. Did Asuma tell you who the king was before he died?"
"He did but--"
"Then you know who we're fighting for. Who I am fighting for," I said, "a little girl with black hair and beautiful brown eyes."
"Shikarei. It's getting bigger," Ren said.
"Right," I nodded, "we'll start with my eyes and then we'll absorb that and throw it all away."
"Separate directions?" Inoiché asked.
"Separate directions," I confirmed, "Choro--"
"I know," he nodded before clapping his hands together, "expansion jutsu: full expansion!"
As Choro began to grow larger and larger, myself, Inoiché and Ren all took to his shoulders. We connected to all of our chakra and made it merge into one. Around us the chakra became visible, the colours were merging together, red, yellow, pink, and black.
"Guys, I want to say before we do this that I love you all," Ren said, as Choro finished growing, he towered over even Uncle Choza by a good couple feet.
"Me too. It's been a goddamn pleasure knowing you all," Inoiché said.
"You're going to make me cry," Choro chuckled as he began walking forward.
"Well then, let's go out with a bang, shall we?" I grinned at my three best friends and family. They all nodded.
"Right!" they all shouted as Choro's walk turned into a jog, then into a run that shook the ground below us, some of it even cracking.
"Formation: Ino Shika Ren Cho!" we all shouted as Choro jumped up, he threw the three of us and then shrunk down to his normal form, the beautiful wings of the Akimichi clans secret jutsu appearing on his back as he flew alongside us.
We let out a battle cry as we got closer, throwing my hands out, I activate the eyes of time, feeling the burning through them as blood seeped out the sides. I winced as the cover of blue that plagued my vision began flickering, the occasional brown and red flashing into my vision where it was once blue before it went blue again.
"Now!" I shouted.
"Ino Shika Ren Cho style: divide and disperse!" we all shouted as we threw our hands forward again. Our combined chakra all surrounded the mass of red, a blinding light began to crack through the chakra being created by the ten tails.
"We'll leave the future of our clans in our siblings hands," Inoiché's voice echoed through my head "they're probably more qualified than us anyway."
"It's time for us to step down. It's Sakura, Ino, Choji and Shikamaru's turn along with Naruto, Sasuke and everyone else's turn to turn this world upside down," Ren added in, "shame we can't apologise to them again. Wish I got to speak to my dad and mum one more time. Tell them I love them and all that."
"I feel that," I hummed, "now come on. Let's do this shit."
"Right," I heard all three guys chime in before the connection broke right after. It felt like my body was being torn apart. All of my chakra was gone, but so was the chakra the ten tails was creating.
Shikamaru... Naruto... Sasuke... everyone... beat these bastards until they regret ever wanting to attack our home and our friends and family. Make us proud.
Shikamaru's PoV
"Shikarei!" I shouted as the chakra exploded; beads of bright lights shot through the sky creating a shooting star effect.
"Inoiché..." Ino dropped to her knees as Choji just stared up into the sky, he tugged on my sleeve.
"T-tell me my big brother isn't dead, Shikamaru," he croaked out, "please."
"I-I..." I didn't know what to say.
"Ren..." I heard Sakura say before her face hardened, "they've given us an opening."
She turned to me and gave me a determined look.
"Come on! Think up a strategy!" she exclaimed, "Come on, Shikamaru!"
She's right.
I took a deep breath in and levelled out my emotions as my gaze landed on the ten tails beginning to recharge.
"Ino," I turned to my blonde-haired teammate, "I need you to connect me to someone--"