Manicherryblossom33
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Now back to the present. Yaaay. I finally reached this part of the story! I wonder how mad all of you will be? Some of you guys are pretty clevr though, you might see through the twist I created! Don't worry! I prefer happy endings.
Please read and enjoy!
previous chapters:
Naruto Fanfic A future without you
chapter 40: Forewarning
SASUKE'S POV [KUMOGAKURE FOREST; BLIZZARD]
It happened in an instant.
One moment, Naruto had turned his back on Tsuna, and the next...
Sasuke sat on his knees, his arm pressed against a large boulder for support. His eyes were angry, dark, and his body felt cold and filled with adrenaline. There was a ragged sensation in his throat and each heartbeat was painful. He had not felt this way in a long time, but he understood.
He was vengeful.
Tsuna stood some distance away, his arm shoved almost completely through Naruto's chest, having produced a gaping hole where his heart should be. A moment passed in which Naruto looked stunned. He cupped his hands over his mouth and coughed up buckets of blood.
Tsuna stood behind him, his eyes like that of a satisfied hawk. Very slowly, he raised his free hand, grabbed Naruto's shoulder, and wrenched his arm free.
Naruto's head bobbed, and the light left his eyes, which remained open as he fell, sending snow flying through the air as he hit the ground. He sunk face-deep into the snow, lying still.
Sasuke grit his teeth, and stared at him. This... Wasn't... Real...
No, it couldn't be real. It was far too sudden, too simple. The surrounding environment was still intact, the man standing over Naruto was without injury. He couldn't be...
No of course it wasn't real. He would get up in a minute... yes, he would, he had to.
Tsuna raised his arm at the elbow, examining it carefully before throwing it out. Blood splattered across the snow and up a tree. He seemed irritated that the action hadn't cleaned his arm of all the blood. His narrowed, hawk-like eyes drifted back to Naruto and Sasuke felt his eyes burn as his sharingan activated.
Tsuna crouched low, his fingers burying themselves in the center of Naruto's blond, spiky hair, clenching his scalp. Pulling him just slightly out of the snow, Tsuna raised his free hand. His fingers were closed and flowing with very tightly concentrated chakra.
His free arm plunged forward, and came to an abrupt stop when Sasuke briskly sliced his arm off at the shoulder.
Tsuna kicked back, stopping approximately five feet away, and eyeing the bleeding stubby remant of his right arm, which lay petrified in the snow.
Sasuke mimicked the blood-flinging motion Tsuna had done previously and raised the snake sword, Mangekyo sharingan activated.
Apart from glancing blankly at his now dismembered arm and eyeing Sasuke in a slightly annoyed way, Tsuna seemed unaffected by his new handicap. He even seemed almost smug as he raised two fingers to his face.
Sasuke planted his feet on either side of the unconcious Naruto and flooded the blade with chidori. As he did so, he found that Tsuna had cloaked his body in a cloak of chakra that was thinner than hair and was concentrating a similar minute amount over the inside of his wound. Sasuke blinked, admitting to himself that he would not have seen such skillful chakra without the sharingan.
Such a miniscule amount of chakra distributed in such a fashion was unheard of and impossible. Not to mention unreasonably ignorant. It was like walking through the land of wind for five days without water, then drinking a drop of morning dew and being immediately cured of all the life-threatening factors of dehydration.
Sasuke's eyes popped as the chakra cloak became tighly packed, almost... solid.
He recalled Naruto's previous use of chakra whilst on their mission to Uzushio. How he had made it solid, yet shifty, like Gaara's sand. How he could ride it into the air or use it to write giant letters in air above him.
Chakra solidization.
Sasuke understood just in time to throw his head back, dodging an invisible slice of wind that Tsuna had produced with a wave of his good arm. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke whipped his head around to see the forest be leveled a good thirty meters' worth of trees and had barely a second's time to jump to the nearest tree branch before Tsuna launched a second blade of wind.
The tree in which Sasuke stood began to fall over, and Tsuna appeared before him via the body flicker technique. Sasuke was quick to act, attempting to slice through Tsuna when his sword was BLOCKED by Tsuna's wrist.
Tsuna twisted his hand around, aiming to grab the blade when Sasuke exhaled, producing a great fireball. It melted all surrounding snow and set fire to the leaves and branches.
The tree fell behind Sasuke, who had leapt off of it after using the fireball jutsu in order to rerieve Naruto before he could be incinerated. His freind was now sitting at the base of one of the trees, his back against the trunk and his head bowed. Sasuke wouldn't look at the gaping hole in his chest.
He eyed the surrounding area.
Left...? Right...? Behind...? Above...? Below...?
He couldn't sense his prescence. It was as if he had dropped out of existance. Sasuke KNEW that fireball hadn't killed him. Was he hiding...?
EYESIGHT REQUIRES A THIRD OF THE BRAIN POWER, YA KNOW. IT'S BETTER IF YOU CAN FIGHT WITHOUT IT.
Sasuke shook his head, and the memory of Naruto smugly bragging about being able to fight blindfolded. He'd said that after recovering from the guardian attack...
Sasuke forced the memory from his mind. He wasn't dead... He wasn't dead...
A wide puddle of water lay before him as a remnant of the fireball. The fire in the trees ahead was spreading to the rest of the forest, and the light glowed on the surface of the water. Sasuke watched as gale winds targeted the flames, carrying huge amounts of fallen snow, and subsequently quelched the flames.
Tsuna, having reappeared in the center of the water, crouching. He snapped, and the winds came to an abrupt end, and, Sasuke noticed, so did the snow.
Overhead, the clouds parted, seperating and moving on to pummell other sections of the forest with rain.
Sasuke glared. How was he doing this? It was one thing to produce wind style ninjutsu with a snap of his fingers, but to control the weather?
His mind jumped to another issue. He'd planned this. He'd initiated the random blizzard. It was more than likely that he inflicted those injuries on himself and waited for Naruto to come, knowing he would let his guard down around him.
Tsuna gave Sasuke a look. A look other enemies had given him since he'd defected, betrayed the Akatsuki and returned to Konoha. A look that made it abundantly clear he had no right to complain if someone hurt Sakura or Naruto or anyone else from Konoha.
Sasuke had grown tired of it. The past was in the past. He was different now. And anyway, it was true that he had tried to kill Naruto with his own hands repeatedly, without hesitation or care. But every action he'd taken had been direct.
He'd never attacked Naruto when his back was turned.
"You're wasting your time, protecting a corpse." Tsuna said.
Sasuke hesitated. He really couldn't care less what this guy had to say, but still...
"Why would you attack him?" He asked.
Tsuna remained stone-faced and silent, casting Sasuke a what-do-you-care look.
Sasuke waited. It was true he did not care, but he wanted to hear the answer so he could pass it onto Naruto, who would care.
"He would have stopped me." Tsuna answered simply.
"Stopped you from doing what?" Sasuke pressed.
Tsuna smirked, making one-hand seals for a minute and pressing his fingertips over his wounded shoulder. His dismembered arm flew back to it as if pulled by an invisible force and clapped into place.
Tsuna rolled his newly restored arm and shoulder and put his arms out in front of him, cracking his fingers.
"From taking your left eye." Tsuna answered flexing one hand and revealing three sealing stones, purple, blue, and yellow, each one larger than the next yet still able to rest in the pits between his fingers.
"What need do you have of the sharingan?" Sasuke asked. It was a more than reasonable question. He didn't seem to need it at all.
"We don't need it." Tsuna replied, as if this settled everything.
Sasuke's eyes flitted to Naruto and then back at Tsuna. Was this all? Or was there more to this person than his eyes could percieve?
Was it possible this person was like his previous self? Angry, crushed, and hurt? Alone, having cut off anyone close and gone off in search of power. Willing to sacrifice anything, and anyone. Hungry for some sort of revenge?
And yet, that was a pointless question. He would get no straight answers from this megalomaniac.
He would have to apologize to Naruto later...
"You know, I've got places to be." Tsuna told him, sounding devoid of emotion. "If you could just give it to me, then I'll go and you can carry that corpse to your allies in Kumo."
Sasuke hated himself for it, but he hesitated. This person made it clear that his previous attacks had been the tip of the iceberg. He WAS capable of taking SAsuke's eye, should Sasuke be lax or hesitant in battle. He looked like an idiot, but it was possible he was hiding a superior intelligence under all that spiky red hair...
In short there were too many unknown factors.
But these were Itachi's eyes. And as the sole-survivng Uchiha who was well aware of other sharingan being sold on the black market, it was his responsibility to defend them until the end. He had grown accustomed to them, and didn't like the idea of giving them up.
And on top of that...
"No." He declared, the snake sword crackling with lightning.
Tsuna smirked.
"Okay then..."
Sasuke flipped the blade over and plunged it tip-deep into the water. Lightning skipped across the pond, igniting any rees unfortunate enough to be within the water's diameter.
Tsuna had produced a bottle filled with red liquid and spun around prior to the attack, so that the red substance laced itself into a unique circular design when it hit the water. Sasuke had been scrutinous, but had not seen him weave any signs even with the sharingan activated. Which was impossible. With these eyes, he could even see Naruto weave signs, which was saying something.
His pupils zeroed in on the tips of Tsuna's fingers, places where the chakra cloak had become frigid, bubbly.
He made a mental note of this and braced himself as Tsuna leapt into the air, making a curve with his body as he tucked one leg. His speed was phenomenal...
There was an odd stabbing sensation in both eyes as the mangekyo pupils spun, causing a distortion in the dimension.
He was aiming for Tsuna's other arm, the one that had not been removed then restored. It was still soaked in blood.
If cutting his limbs off was pointless, then he would suck them away!!!
Tsuna sliced through the distortion with the side of his hand. SAsuke spotted several glowing light blue diagonals and arcs.
His blood ran cold as he saw the distortion vanish into thin air, and had barely enough time to deactivate his eyes before the distortion reached him. it quickly faltered and disappeared.
It worked, although part of his collar had been sucked away.
Tsuna clapped both feet onto the same seal he had drawn on thin air, kicking it at him.
Sasuke leapt to the side and watched one, no, ten, no a hundred trees be ripped from their roots and sent flying into the air as broken, splinted, chunks.
Tsuna followed by spinning sideways through the air like a top, his fingertips still fridgid. Sasuke saw a torrent of water rush at him as the entire pond rose up. He stood his ground, weaving signs and inhaling, holding his breath until the water was nearly upon him.
He produced a geyser of pepper-hot steam, and the torrent evaporated, creating a useful cloud cover.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he whirled. His snake sword deflected maybe eight dozen fragile needles. They cracked and shattered upon meeting his chakra induced blade. And yet it was obvious they would have pierced through his back like butter, and turned him into a human porcupine.
This is not going well, he thought. I need a strategy...
Remembering how Naruto had responded when seeing his summoning hawk talk and appear, he attempted to sheath his blade and felt a stiff, sharp pain awake upon his skin.
"Ungh." He groaned, looking at his fingers. They were dotted in ice, which was growing around his arms and hands as if alive.
He managed to sidestep away as a blade of ice attempted to run through his shoulder. Feeling his back hit the trunk, his world became very small.
Tsuna was spinning the ice-hilt in the palm of his hand, looking very self-satisfied. The blade came to a stop as he gripped the hilt.
Sasuke felt his toes frost over and made the sign of flames. Tsuna raised an eyebrow at him, but was otherwise expressionless.
He concentraated on flooding as minimal an amount of chakra as possible to cover his body, changing its nature to heat, and its form to a compressed thin, shape.
He winced as the chakra rebelled, becoming either too tight or too hot in some places, but it was barely painful. Like being poked in the ribs with a wooden stick.
There was instant relief as the frost melted away, evaporating in the heat of his new chakra cloak. Tsuna looked slightly shocked, but it immediately changed to hostility.
"Impressive." He said.
"Shut up." Sasuke snapped as his mind jumped back to his sparring sessions with Naruto in the woods. They had sometimes gone on for hours, or days, but that was what he liked to say as well: impressive.
This person was an unknown entity. If he was simply using stolen chakra nature to do all of this, then there was no telling what he could do to the rest of the world.
I'LL BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF ANYONE WHO TRIES TO RUIN THE PEACE!
Sasuke blinked, and bit into his thumb.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu..." He said.
This isn't for you, Sasuke thought. I am doing it because I feel like it. So...
He clapped his hand into the snow.
... DON'T BE DEAD!
Poof!
He hopped onto his partner's back and they flew into the sky, high above the forest.
Now I have a tactical advantage. Sasuke thought. With Takamana's* flight speed and strength, he can outfly a tornado and dodge lightning. WIth my sharingan, I'll be able to see whatever he throws at us.
POOOOF!
A sudden gust of wind forced Takamana back, and Sasuke shielded his face with his hands, his heart sinking as he heard a deep, earth shattering roar.
He dropped his arms, feeling a cold sensation rush up and down his limbs and churn in his stomach. A blazing geyser of blue flames erupted into the air, making him sweat.
Tsuna was airborne too, now. He was standing on a dragon about ten times the width of Manda and three times as long, as black as charcoal with bloodshot slits for eyes and horns atop his head as tall as the hokage monument.
"Impossible..." Sasuke thought for the third time that fight. A dragon? They were ancient creatures, no one had seen them since before the dawn of the rabbit princess, Kaguya Ootsutsuki. Their descendants, the giant snakes of Ryuchi cave, Manda included had claimed they had died out ages ago.
"Don't you get it yet?!!!" Tsuna shouted over the wind, his arms crossed. "Nothing is impossible for me! I am the dragon magician ninja, Uzumaki Tsuna! I will defeat you and take your left eye! Even if you are an Uchiha, you've been made soft by partner just like Gaara of the sand!"
Sasuke's eyes popped in surprise. Partner...?
HE'S MY COUSIN AND MY BEST FREIND!
"You call him you're partner?" He questioned.
Tsuna smiled. "He hates formalities."
Sasuke felt his eyes burn. He unsheathed his sword, raising it high enough so as not to risk electrocuting Takamana.
This person was nothing like his old self. He was nothing like anyone he'd met before...
WHAT DO YOU KEEP LAUGHING ABOUT, CLOWN?
HEHEHEH, ITS JUST COOL TO HAVE YOU BACK IS ALL.
Takamana soared up at top speed.
"I'll burn you ALIVE!" Sasuke shouted.
URI'S POV [KAGE BUILDING, KUMOGAKURE]
With the meeting put on hold, the five kage and Mifune proceeded to the Raikage's office while they awaited news from their escorts. The five of them plus Mifune stood together, looking out the windows at the blizzard in the distance which was bound to only a small region of the forest.
However...
"Did you see that?" Tsunade asked in a tone that made it clear that they would have to be blind not to see it.
"The snow stopped, and the clouds parted." Gaara answered.
"It's not unnatural for clouds to move and change shape. But at the speed it is phenomenal." Mei stated, eyeing the snow clouds suspiciously.
"Enlighten me. Is there a jutsu capable of controlling the weather?" Mifune questioned, to which all five Kage exchanged looks of concern.
"There's Sasuke's thunderclap..." Tsunade replied, "But that's more like USING the weather than controlling it..."
"Sasuke isn't a water-style ninjutsu user." Gaara stated bluntly. "I believe something like this would require that."
"You're wrong." Uri told him, earning six looks of questioning and annoyance. He stood apart from the six of them, some six feet away, arms crossed as he leaned against the window pane and examined the mini-blizzard without surprise.
"What do you mean?" Ay asked in a demanding tone.
"... It's stolen nature from an ice-style user." Uri explained. "Fuinjutsu masters are capable of stealing the essence of ice-style, fire-style, water-style, and so on. We seal the essence in scrolls, and then use it in battle by releasing the seal. This storm was created by an ice-style user who had fought against one of our own, who then sealed the storm in the scroll and released it here."
"WHAT?! ARE YOU PEOPLE ATTACKING KUMOGAKURE? I WON'T SHOW ANY MERCY!" Ay roared as the other kage held him back with arms and sand respectively.
"I am not attacking you." Uri stated, his eyes seething with an intense anger. "Nor, I believe, is Yuuki. However I happen to know the one who sealed away this blizzard, and as he imbued the seal with formula, he could have been the only one to release it."
But... No, it couldn't be possible... Not him... Unless...
"Formula?" Gaara questioned.
"Yes. There are three types." Uri answered, temporarily putting the thought out of his mind. "One are the chains customary to every seal. The second is like an invisible signature, written in chakra, and woven through the chains. The third is classified."
"What do you mean classified?!" Tsunade demanded. "Don't give me that! You said you would explain if I brought you before the gokage!"
"As I shall." Uri answered in a calming manner. "But for now, you should prepare yourselves."
"Prepare for what?" Enoki asked in a huff.
"That blizzard, I suspect, is a distraction." He reported grimly as he traced his index finger over the heart line of his left hand. "Given our standard strategies, I estimate that they will attack this building in approximately two minutes and forty-three seconds. It is pointless to post security around this building, they will get in. Your shinobi are too unfamiliar with their fighting style. Mami, Mako, Tomoya and the others will arrive via space-time ninjutsu and will raid this place via the ripple seal. They will do what they can to weaken this village, before moving on to the others."
"What?!" Tsunade screamed.
Uri approached her and held out his arms.
"Please release the restrainment jutsu you have cast on me." He requested, bowing from the waist. "I will help you protect this place from them to the best of my abilities, but if I cannot fight at full strength they will easily dispose of me."
"What?! You'll not release him, Tsunade, not if I have anything to say about it!" Ay shouted.
"Lord Raikage, why--" Mifune began.
"He's one of them!" Ay declared, pointing at Uri. "He could be in on this!"
"You're an unknown entity." Mei told Uri. "There's no way of guaranteeing that releasing you would be beneficial to us."
"This isn't my village. Releasing you here would be a violation of the treaty." Tsunade replied.
One minute left...
"If you do not release me, then you will all perish along with this village." Uri warned them.
"Don't underestimate kumogakure!" Roared Ay.
"We are powerful enough to protect this place. We will fight together." Mei told him.
"NO! You are all doomed if you do not release me!" Uri stated. "You're knowledge of their abilities is slim at best and you are in the dark about their individual fighting styles! And it is not an issue of power or numbers! You cannot defeat them! Your hearts betray your conviction!"
Thirty seconds left...
"Release me now, quickly! They are already at our doorstep!" Uri warned.
"He is right, relese him." Gaara ordered.
"Kazekage! Know your place!" Ay roared.
"There is no danger. He is not lying." Gaara explained.
Ten seconds...
"Release me now!"
Five--
BOOOM!
The building rattled as cracks raced up the windows and branched, breaking up the walls. The roof split as the floor sloped. Uri slid to the front wall, however the kage had glued themselves to the floor by concentrating chakra in the soles of their feet. Mifune had stabbed his sword into the wall and was using it as a handhold.
Uri's blood ran cold as a seal enveloped the floor like a deadly flower in boom. He had to act before it spun!
He dug his teeth into the palm of his hand, succeeding in producing a fair amount of blood. It dripped thickly over the floor, and by running his chakra through it he enabled it to skirt and spin itself into an equally powerful seal.
He managed to clap his hands together just in time, activating his own seal as the larger one began to spin. In a flash, the two began to disappear as if wiped away like steam on a bathroom mirror.
"Release your feet!" He shrieked. "Now!"
Thankfully, they listened to him just in time. They slid with ease down the sloping floor to the front wall moments before twenty harpoons pierced the floor where they'd been standing.
"What?!" Ay screamed in both surprise and rage.
"Such odd choice of weaponry..." Mifune commented.
The six of them reached out, clapping their hands against the wall to keep from slamming into it just as the floor dipped, now sloping in the opposite direction. Gaara lashed out with his hand, using it to whip the double doors open as well as catch the falling floor.
The seven of them jumped through the open door to solid ground and Uri quickly threw his head out the doorway, looking left and right. It seemed almost a quarter of the building had crumbled away.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
They were sent crashing into the wall by overheated gale winds produced from three consecutive explosions on the opposite side of the building. You could hear screaming as the villagers were being evacuated by jounin. As Uri thought, none of his clan were attacking the people. The idea was to weaken the enemy and cause a panic. It was an old tactic, one they had used since ancient times. But Mami was just the kind to use it.
"Come on!" Ay screamed, taking off down the hall. The other six followed him, passing other kumo ninja. Ay shouted orders at them to evacuate the village and guard the vaults. In a flash, they were joined by Killer Bee and his squad.
"Brother..." Bee said, but Ay's anger could not be quelled.
"We can't find the source of the explosions!" Samui reported. "They appear to be coming from outside, but their strength is twice that of a paper bomb, and their occurence is random!"
"It's like their popping out of thin air!" Karui continued. "Maybe their being dropped off the roof!"
They kept running as the floor beneath them shuddered.
"The mourning hall!" Ay roared.
They jumped down several flights of stairs and came skidding into a wide entry hall, which was filled with the ghastly screams and grunts. Uri's breath caught in his throat as blood splattered and dripped thickly onto the ground.
Rika was surrounded by men four times her size. But even as they surrounded her she was dancing around, plunging a single kunai though the back of their mouths, cutting their throats, slicing their stomachs open, stabbing them in the thigh.
Just as she leapt off the ground and started jumping from pillar to pillar, Momo clapped her hands to the ground and the chains of a meidum sized seal began to spin. Steam rose into the air and rushed down the throats of any full-grown shinobi who happened to be too close to her.
Sora appeared from beyond the steam, jumping from head to head, clapping his hands over their mouths as he went and trapping the hot air within with a containment seal. Unable to either inhale or exhale, the men's throats dried up like raisins. Blood dripped from their eyes and ears, and they fell dead.
Mina and Aoi were a duo, working as a two man team, werving in and out of each other's space like dragons. Mina was controlling beams of compacted light, sealed into rods and made as hot as the sun by increasing moving speed endlessly by trapping it within a closed space indefintely. The beams flew about, targetting groups of ninja several feet away and before Mina released the seals set upon them. This created a horrible explosion that reduced those closest to ash and those farthest to unrecognizable, deceased, human putty, with the environment around them lying in splintered, shattered rubble.
Aoi was using sealing chakrams, which she had previously placed up and down her hands and arms. Uri watched as she repeatedly jerked her arms, calling new chakrams to her palms before expanding them. Her wrists would flick, and the chakrams would fly away from her palms, zig-zagging through the air and passing through the waist lines of at least a dozen different shinobi. The victims would be absorbed into the seal completely, vanishing, and dying when they exploded moments later.
Koa was also surrounded, but in no danger of losing her life. She had attached an unbreakable reverse shield seal to both palms and knees, waving her arms about in a graceful yet deadly motion. At that moment, she succesfully repelled several quick-lime jutsus, a boulder avalanche jutsu, and a wall of kunai. She was killing far less people than the rest of her friends.
Midori had made three different sealing spheres (giant, transparent red, scorching hot spheres constructed from what could be a hundred or a thousand different fuinjutsu) and was directing them with gale winds produced from a scroll with wind nature trapped inside. The spheres swelled as they collected more and more shinobi, and grew hotter with each addition, eventually burning them alive. The other kumo ninja were attempting to avoid the spheres altogether, but Luna and Akane were dashing about, clapping their hands over the kumo ninja's shinobi sandals, and trapping them in place with permanent sticking seals, which were only removed by the shere power of the sealing spheres.
Uri's eyes flitted from one child to another. This was painful... and terrible... and all too real.
One look at the raikage told him that he had five seconds before Ay's confusion turned to murderous rage.
Acting quickly, he dashed to the center of the room, lighting up his fingertips with the symbols of rooster, dragon, or boar. Clapping his hands to the floor, he held his breath as an enormous seal enveloped every pillar, every wall, every inch of floor and cieling. The chains of the seal turned, speeding up to produce blinding white light. Uri felt an exponential amount of eyes on him, including those of the children, and looked up, meeting Rika's gaze.
She looked positively shocked to see him there, and on top of that...
Why was she crying?
He looked at her questioningly as the seal activated, and everyone within the room, the survivng kumo shinobi and the children, tensed and crumpled to the floor.
Uri swayed, uneasy after using nearly all of the chakra available to him. He cast a cautious glance over his shoulder at the five kage, Mifune, Killer Bee, and his team. They looked conflicted, to say the least.
Uri felt a rock drop into his stomach as the realization he had been avoiding since entering the hall finally reached the forefront of his mind.
The consequences of this... Would be... Severe...
He looked forward. Luna was nearest.
Getting to his feet, he approached her and fell to his knees. His much larger hand shook as he laid it over her tiny shoulder and pulled her into his lap.
This... Didn't make any sense...
Why would they do this? WHY?
"You surprise me, Uri."
His head whipped up at the sound of his own name. He looked around until he found Mako standing at the front of the room.
He was looking as solemn as ever, his arms crossed as he stared Uri down, apparenty disgusted. Uri kept a tight hand on Luna. Should Mako try to take her or the other children, he WOULD fight him.
Hot rage made his blood boil as his belly became hot.
"You... Do you have any idea what you've done?" He asked in a demanding, threatening tone.
Mako was unfazed. "Why are YOU upset? I thought you would appreciate this, after what happened before."
Uri grit his teeth. "That was an entire generation ago. These are peaceful times that took the ninja world whole millenia to achieve. And you! How dare you trample all over everything they worked for! They devoted their lives to this dream! Freinds and families were sacrificed for this! For peace!"
Uri's bellowing voice echoed off the walls, reverbrating through the hall. Outside, villagers were still being evacuated, and some of the mountainside buildings had caught fire.
"You actually think this is worth all of that?" Mako questioned, sincerely curious. "Why should we spare even one of these people? No one, in any of the five great nations, in any of the smaller nations, and in any of the nations lacking ninja villages, is there even one innocent person. Everyone has made it clear who they look out for. Whole clans have been annihalated, secrets have been stolen, war has been averted only through sacrifice which would have otherwise been uneccessary. These people are no good, Uri. As long as they exist, you, I, our clan, and those children won't be safe."
"You're wrong! They've grown since the war!" Uri argued. "They're different now! We don't have to hide anymore! We have a connection to Konoha! We can return, start again! The Uchiha--"
"And when the people of Konoha learn what we've done to their village hero, what do you think they will do?" Mako asked.
Uri flinched, at a loss for words.
"When the konoha vilagers, ninja, and council learn that we kidnapped him, lied to him, and tricked him, that we discriminated against him because of his father, that we were suspicious of him and oppressed him, they will return that negativity." Mako said, answering his own question. "Ill will towards us both inside and outside of Konoha will accumulate. Eventually, we will be shut inside a single section of Konoha, kept under surveillance, and eventually, once they have had their fill of our abilities, learned all the fuinjutsu we can teach them, then we wil be eradicated. It doesn't matter who their hokage is or what he or she may say. In the end, it isn't really up to him or her, but majority rule. The Uchiha tragedy proved that. They even had those of outside blood who had just happened to marry into the clan killed, and Sasuke was only spared because Itachi had allowed himself to be bent to Danzo's will. I know you, Uri. In truth, you are as angry as the rest of us."
"I am not so foolishly bitter!" He argued. "And we are not doomed! We will be under scrutinous suspicion for a while, perhaps. But Naruto is precious to them! He can persuade them!"
"It is because they care about him that they won't listen to a word he says." Mako replied curtly. "After being kidnapped and aiding us during our times of crisis, they will suspect he is being soft towards us. Just as they ordered Sasuke to be executed, the same fate lies in store for us."
"But he survived!"
"Because he fought back. As shall we."
Uri was fuming. "You... cannot seriously think you can win such a foolhardy battle. We are outnumbered! They have more supplies than us, a larger arsenal of skills!"
Mako gestured to the entire room. "Look what our children can do. All on their own, they can take down over a hundred highly trained kumo ninja."
"These children are chakra deprived! Had I not stopped them, they would be on the verge of death! Is that your plan, Mako?! To keep fighting until you die of exhaustion! You'll lead the very people you're fighting for to ruin!"
"Then the question lies in who can outlast the other. The childen are exceptional. We are gifted with a strong lifespan and vast amounts of chakra and knowledge of advanced medicine and medical jutsu. Frankly, it is the five great nations that are at a disadvantage."
Uri was trembling with rage. "You are... Insane. This will never work! You have to realize that! And even if it does work, are you really comfortable with killing mothers, fathers, and freinds? You can't do this! This is not what they would have wanted!"
"What the dead want is irrelevant. We have to protect our clan, because they are ALIVE. Do you want that child you're holding to end up like you? Do you want HIM to become Konoha's figurehead. Frankly, I would rather see him dead than on freindly terms with the scum who wiped out an entire culture and patted themselves on the back. And I think you'll find Tsuna agrees with me."
Uri winced. The blizzard... The parting of the clouds...
It couldn't be.
He got to his feet and looked in the direction of the storm. He did a quick search for Naruto's chakra signature. It had to be there... It had to be...
"What... What did you do...?" He asked Mako in a breathless voice filled with dread.
Mako stared back at him, and after a few moments, he sighed.
"You will thank me for this... Later." He said, and with that, he snapped his fingers.
Uri winced as he watched an invisible forcefield that had apparently been surrounding the room vanish. He looked at the five kage and Mifune and the others, who were rushing to him. At the same moment, two Kumo ninja, who Uri recognized as Cee and Darui from the Raikage's files, entered the room.
"Lord Raikage!" Darui said as he approached. "Everyone was safely evacuated. There were no civilian casualties. A few fires were started from ovens that had been left on during evacuation, but they're quickly being extinguished."
"It seems they only wanted to attack the raikage building, sir. Perhaps they were after your life." Cee suggested, looking around in well-suppressed horror. "What happened here, sir?"
"It's--" Karui began, casting Uri a cross look.
"No!" Ay interrupted, raising his hand. Uri looked at him. He was obviously conflicted. On one hand, he had just seen his subordinates be slaughted. On another, the murderers were children, who had likely been under Mako's control.
"No. Don't tell anyone what happened here! At least for now... Not until we've made sure of who's been killed..."
That would be a difficult job, as many had been killed in a way that left no whole corpse.
"Lady Tsunade," Uri held Luna out to her. "Please...?"
She seemed reluctant, but took Luna anyway. Uri looked around for Mako again, only to find that he had apparently vanished.
Everyone's heads turned as they heard an odd sound, almost like Kunai slicing through gale winds, only softer. Uri noticed him first, followed by the others.
Sasuke rode through the open doors on a giant hawk, his summoning creature Takamana. He landed precisely in front of the group gathered in the center of the room, and looked up, breathing heavily.
Uri felt a cold fist close over his heart as he noticed who else was on the hawk. Sasuke was half carrying Naruto on his back, with a head full of blond spiky hair hanging over his shoulder, completely still.
An unbearable silence overcame the group, which was only interrupted by Sasuke:
"Tsunade... Please."
URI'S POV
TWO HOURS LATER [KUMOGAKURE HOSPITAL, INTENSIVE CARE]
Uri waited with four of the gokage, Bee, and Sasuke. WIth Uri's teleportation jutsu, they were able to transport Naruto, the children, and the injured to the hospital. Medical nins had been waiting for them, and immediately set to work dividing everyone into hospital rooms and tending to them. Naruto was in no shape to be placed inside a sealing scroll, so Ay simply ordered anyone who happened to notice him to keep it quiet.
There was a comfy looking couch in the hall, but everyone was too anxious to be sitting in it. The four kage stood in a circle at one end, while Sasuke, Bee and Uri stood at the other.
Everyone looked up as Karui, Samui, and Omoi came running down the hall.
"Lord Raikage. Everyone has been stabilized, sir. And we've placed restrainment jutsu on the children." Samui reported.
"Good." Ay replied.
They froze, looking up expectantly, hopefully, as Tsunade opened the door and stepped into the hall. It clicked shut behind her, and she seemed to be gripping the knob for support.
Nobody needed to ask.
Tsunade bit her lip, shut her eyes, and fiercely shook her head.
Uri clenched his fists. He had already known, really. The state of the corpse had made it crystal clear, and yet...
His ears rang for several minutes as his mind raced, recalling that time in the land of waves, when he had found him, and the days leading up to being reunited with his surviving clan members. The training sessions, the glares that his family directed at the boy. Days in which the four of them, Tsuna, Yuuki, Uri, and HE had been together.
The ringing faded, and he noticed then that everyone was looking at Sasuke.
His face was blank, and his fingers loose. There was no vibe or tension to indicate any grief or contempt. He was simply...
"I see." He replied, and he straightened up, turning to leave.
"Where are you going?!" Karui demanded, whirling on him as he walked away.
"To find the others." He replied without looking at her. "There's a chance they're still buried in snow."
Uri almost told him that the kage escorts, Kakashi among them, were already searching for Sakura and the others. But for some reason, he didn't have the energy to talk...
"That's not what I meant!" Karui yelled. "What do you mean 'I see'?! What is that?! What's with that reaction?!"
"Karui--" Samui began.
"You're exactly what I've always thought you were, aren't you?!" Karui said,cutting across her. "'I see.' If it were an Uchiha lying in there, your brother, your mother, you'd be calling for blood and going off to collect heads! But that's all you give him?! After all this time, and everything he did for you, all he gets is 'I see'?! You're just as bad as them!" She flung her arm out, pointing at Uri. "You only care about your clan! The rest of the world can go to hell! Isn't that right? Admit it!"
Sasuke did not turn, nor keep walking. Uri watched him carefully for any sign that her words had stung even a little, but Sasuke was just...
A moment of silence passed, and he took another step, continuing to walk away.
"I bet it was easy, wasn't it?!" Karui screamed as she marched over to him. "You just stood by and watched him be killed, and you didn't make a sound, didn't even try to protect him! It doesn't matter to you! It never did! If it were you in there, and him out here, he would cry! Or go off after the person who did you in! But you're just fine with it, aren't you?!"
She lashed out, grabbing Sasuke's wrist. Both she and Uri flinched, as they noticed the slightest movement. A short, almost instant, tremor in his arm.
As soon as it had ended, he yanked his wrist free and sped off, taking a left turn into a desserted hall.
"Hey!" She yelled, still angry.
"Enough Karui!" Ay ordered, getting her to look at him. "We've got bigger issues at hand. If the Uzumaki want war, then we're in trouble. We need to gather intel, formulate strategies. Our respective villages need to be protected!"
"If Sakura Haruno and the others have been taken by the Uzumaki clan, then we need to rescue them." Gaara interceded.
"Leave that to me." Tsunade stated. "I can arrange for..."
Uri ignored her and stalked past Karui. Sasuke's expression... That look... Uri knew that look...
He took the same turn Sasuke had, but the hall was empty. He followed it and froze, remaining in the shadows.
Sasuke had entered a part of the hospital which was under construction and therefore, empty. Uri watched him back into a wall, head bowed low so that his bangs cast a shadow over his eyes.
Uri knit his brow. What was he doing?
Sasuke stood in silence for several minutes, perhaps even half an hour, before raising one hand and placing it, wrist-down, over his eyes. His fingers brushed through his hair and curled, gripping the black bangs.
There was an odd, low sound. It was so quiet, he almost didn't hear it. It sounded almost like gulping, as if someone around him was drowning.
Sasuke grit his teeth and clenched his fingers as droplets of water trailed down his face.
Uri's arms went limp and he bowed his head in grief.
How nostalgic...
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Naruto Fanfic A future without you
chapter 40: Forewarning
SASUKE'S POV [KUMOGAKURE FOREST; BLIZZARD]
It happened in an instant.
One moment, Naruto had turned his back on Tsuna, and the next...
Sasuke sat on his knees, his arm pressed against a large boulder for support. His eyes were angry, dark, and his body felt cold and filled with adrenaline. There was a ragged sensation in his throat and each heartbeat was painful. He had not felt this way in a long time, but he understood.
He was vengeful.
Tsuna stood some distance away, his arm shoved almost completely through Naruto's chest, having produced a gaping hole where his heart should be. A moment passed in which Naruto looked stunned. He cupped his hands over his mouth and coughed up buckets of blood.
Tsuna stood behind him, his eyes like that of a satisfied hawk. Very slowly, he raised his free hand, grabbed Naruto's shoulder, and wrenched his arm free.
Naruto's head bobbed, and the light left his eyes, which remained open as he fell, sending snow flying through the air as he hit the ground. He sunk face-deep into the snow, lying still.
Sasuke grit his teeth, and stared at him. This... Wasn't... Real...
No, it couldn't be real. It was far too sudden, too simple. The surrounding environment was still intact, the man standing over Naruto was without injury. He couldn't be...
No of course it wasn't real. He would get up in a minute... yes, he would, he had to.
Tsuna raised his arm at the elbow, examining it carefully before throwing it out. Blood splattered across the snow and up a tree. He seemed irritated that the action hadn't cleaned his arm of all the blood. His narrowed, hawk-like eyes drifted back to Naruto and Sasuke felt his eyes burn as his sharingan activated.
Tsuna crouched low, his fingers burying themselves in the center of Naruto's blond, spiky hair, clenching his scalp. Pulling him just slightly out of the snow, Tsuna raised his free hand. His fingers were closed and flowing with very tightly concentrated chakra.
His free arm plunged forward, and came to an abrupt stop when Sasuke briskly sliced his arm off at the shoulder.
Tsuna kicked back, stopping approximately five feet away, and eyeing the bleeding stubby remant of his right arm, which lay petrified in the snow.
Sasuke mimicked the blood-flinging motion Tsuna had done previously and raised the snake sword, Mangekyo sharingan activated.
Apart from glancing blankly at his now dismembered arm and eyeing Sasuke in a slightly annoyed way, Tsuna seemed unaffected by his new handicap. He even seemed almost smug as he raised two fingers to his face.
Sasuke planted his feet on either side of the unconcious Naruto and flooded the blade with chidori. As he did so, he found that Tsuna had cloaked his body in a cloak of chakra that was thinner than hair and was concentrating a similar minute amount over the inside of his wound. Sasuke blinked, admitting to himself that he would not have seen such skillful chakra without the sharingan.
Such a miniscule amount of chakra distributed in such a fashion was unheard of and impossible. Not to mention unreasonably ignorant. It was like walking through the land of wind for five days without water, then drinking a drop of morning dew and being immediately cured of all the life-threatening factors of dehydration.
Sasuke's eyes popped as the chakra cloak became tighly packed, almost... solid.
He recalled Naruto's previous use of chakra whilst on their mission to Uzushio. How he had made it solid, yet shifty, like Gaara's sand. How he could ride it into the air or use it to write giant letters in air above him.
Chakra solidization.
Sasuke understood just in time to throw his head back, dodging an invisible slice of wind that Tsuna had produced with a wave of his good arm. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke whipped his head around to see the forest be leveled a good thirty meters' worth of trees and had barely a second's time to jump to the nearest tree branch before Tsuna launched a second blade of wind.
The tree in which Sasuke stood began to fall over, and Tsuna appeared before him via the body flicker technique. Sasuke was quick to act, attempting to slice through Tsuna when his sword was BLOCKED by Tsuna's wrist.
Tsuna twisted his hand around, aiming to grab the blade when Sasuke exhaled, producing a great fireball. It melted all surrounding snow and set fire to the leaves and branches.
The tree fell behind Sasuke, who had leapt off of it after using the fireball jutsu in order to rerieve Naruto before he could be incinerated. His freind was now sitting at the base of one of the trees, his back against the trunk and his head bowed. Sasuke wouldn't look at the gaping hole in his chest.
He eyed the surrounding area.
Left...? Right...? Behind...? Above...? Below...?
He couldn't sense his prescence. It was as if he had dropped out of existance. Sasuke KNEW that fireball hadn't killed him. Was he hiding...?
EYESIGHT REQUIRES A THIRD OF THE BRAIN POWER, YA KNOW. IT'S BETTER IF YOU CAN FIGHT WITHOUT IT.
Sasuke shook his head, and the memory of Naruto smugly bragging about being able to fight blindfolded. He'd said that after recovering from the guardian attack...
Sasuke forced the memory from his mind. He wasn't dead... He wasn't dead...
A wide puddle of water lay before him as a remnant of the fireball. The fire in the trees ahead was spreading to the rest of the forest, and the light glowed on the surface of the water. Sasuke watched as gale winds targeted the flames, carrying huge amounts of fallen snow, and subsequently quelched the flames.
Tsuna, having reappeared in the center of the water, crouching. He snapped, and the winds came to an abrupt end, and, Sasuke noticed, so did the snow.
Overhead, the clouds parted, seperating and moving on to pummell other sections of the forest with rain.
Sasuke glared. How was he doing this? It was one thing to produce wind style ninjutsu with a snap of his fingers, but to control the weather?
His mind jumped to another issue. He'd planned this. He'd initiated the random blizzard. It was more than likely that he inflicted those injuries on himself and waited for Naruto to come, knowing he would let his guard down around him.
Tsuna gave Sasuke a look. A look other enemies had given him since he'd defected, betrayed the Akatsuki and returned to Konoha. A look that made it abundantly clear he had no right to complain if someone hurt Sakura or Naruto or anyone else from Konoha.
Sasuke had grown tired of it. The past was in the past. He was different now. And anyway, it was true that he had tried to kill Naruto with his own hands repeatedly, without hesitation or care. But every action he'd taken had been direct.
He'd never attacked Naruto when his back was turned.
"You're wasting your time, protecting a corpse." Tsuna said.
Sasuke hesitated. He really couldn't care less what this guy had to say, but still...
"Why would you attack him?" He asked.
Tsuna remained stone-faced and silent, casting Sasuke a what-do-you-care look.
Sasuke waited. It was true he did not care, but he wanted to hear the answer so he could pass it onto Naruto, who would care.
"He would have stopped me." Tsuna answered simply.
"Stopped you from doing what?" Sasuke pressed.
Tsuna smirked, making one-hand seals for a minute and pressing his fingertips over his wounded shoulder. His dismembered arm flew back to it as if pulled by an invisible force and clapped into place.
Tsuna rolled his newly restored arm and shoulder and put his arms out in front of him, cracking his fingers.
"From taking your left eye." Tsuna answered flexing one hand and revealing three sealing stones, purple, blue, and yellow, each one larger than the next yet still able to rest in the pits between his fingers.
"What need do you have of the sharingan?" Sasuke asked. It was a more than reasonable question. He didn't seem to need it at all.
"We don't need it." Tsuna replied, as if this settled everything.
Sasuke's eyes flitted to Naruto and then back at Tsuna. Was this all? Or was there more to this person than his eyes could percieve?
Was it possible this person was like his previous self? Angry, crushed, and hurt? Alone, having cut off anyone close and gone off in search of power. Willing to sacrifice anything, and anyone. Hungry for some sort of revenge?
And yet, that was a pointless question. He would get no straight answers from this megalomaniac.
He would have to apologize to Naruto later...
"You know, I've got places to be." Tsuna told him, sounding devoid of emotion. "If you could just give it to me, then I'll go and you can carry that corpse to your allies in Kumo."
Sasuke hated himself for it, but he hesitated. This person made it clear that his previous attacks had been the tip of the iceberg. He WAS capable of taking SAsuke's eye, should Sasuke be lax or hesitant in battle. He looked like an idiot, but it was possible he was hiding a superior intelligence under all that spiky red hair...
In short there were too many unknown factors.
But these were Itachi's eyes. And as the sole-survivng Uchiha who was well aware of other sharingan being sold on the black market, it was his responsibility to defend them until the end. He had grown accustomed to them, and didn't like the idea of giving them up.
And on top of that...
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"No." He declared, the snake sword crackling with lightning.
Tsuna smirked.
"Okay then..."
Sasuke flipped the blade over and plunged it tip-deep into the water. Lightning skipped across the pond, igniting any rees unfortunate enough to be within the water's diameter.
Tsuna had produced a bottle filled with red liquid and spun around prior to the attack, so that the red substance laced itself into a unique circular design when it hit the water. Sasuke had been scrutinous, but had not seen him weave any signs even with the sharingan activated. Which was impossible. With these eyes, he could even see Naruto weave signs, which was saying something.
His pupils zeroed in on the tips of Tsuna's fingers, places where the chakra cloak had become frigid, bubbly.
He made a mental note of this and braced himself as Tsuna leapt into the air, making a curve with his body as he tucked one leg. His speed was phenomenal...
There was an odd stabbing sensation in both eyes as the mangekyo pupils spun, causing a distortion in the dimension.
He was aiming for Tsuna's other arm, the one that had not been removed then restored. It was still soaked in blood.
If cutting his limbs off was pointless, then he would suck them away!!!
Tsuna sliced through the distortion with the side of his hand. SAsuke spotted several glowing light blue diagonals and arcs.
His blood ran cold as he saw the distortion vanish into thin air, and had barely enough time to deactivate his eyes before the distortion reached him. it quickly faltered and disappeared.
It worked, although part of his collar had been sucked away.
Tsuna clapped both feet onto the same seal he had drawn on thin air, kicking it at him.
Sasuke leapt to the side and watched one, no, ten, no a hundred trees be ripped from their roots and sent flying into the air as broken, splinted, chunks.
Tsuna followed by spinning sideways through the air like a top, his fingertips still fridgid. Sasuke saw a torrent of water rush at him as the entire pond rose up. He stood his ground, weaving signs and inhaling, holding his breath until the water was nearly upon him.
He produced a geyser of pepper-hot steam, and the torrent evaporated, creating a useful cloud cover.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and he whirled. His snake sword deflected maybe eight dozen fragile needles. They cracked and shattered upon meeting his chakra induced blade. And yet it was obvious they would have pierced through his back like butter, and turned him into a human porcupine.
This is not going well, he thought. I need a strategy...
Remembering how Naruto had responded when seeing his summoning hawk talk and appear, he attempted to sheath his blade and felt a stiff, sharp pain awake upon his skin.
"Ungh." He groaned, looking at his fingers. They were dotted in ice, which was growing around his arms and hands as if alive.
He managed to sidestep away as a blade of ice attempted to run through his shoulder. Feeling his back hit the trunk, his world became very small.
Tsuna was spinning the ice-hilt in the palm of his hand, looking very self-satisfied. The blade came to a stop as he gripped the hilt.
Sasuke felt his toes frost over and made the sign of flames. Tsuna raised an eyebrow at him, but was otherwise expressionless.
He concentraated on flooding as minimal an amount of chakra as possible to cover his body, changing its nature to heat, and its form to a compressed thin, shape.
He winced as the chakra rebelled, becoming either too tight or too hot in some places, but it was barely painful. Like being poked in the ribs with a wooden stick.
There was instant relief as the frost melted away, evaporating in the heat of his new chakra cloak. Tsuna looked slightly shocked, but it immediately changed to hostility.
"Impressive." He said.
"Shut up." Sasuke snapped as his mind jumped back to his sparring sessions with Naruto in the woods. They had sometimes gone on for hours, or days, but that was what he liked to say as well: impressive.
This person was an unknown entity. If he was simply using stolen chakra nature to do all of this, then there was no telling what he could do to the rest of the world.
I'LL BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF ANYONE WHO TRIES TO RUIN THE PEACE!
Sasuke blinked, and bit into his thumb.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu..." He said.
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This isn't for you, Sasuke thought. I am doing it because I feel like it. So...
He clapped his hand into the snow.
... DON'T BE DEAD!
Poof!
He hopped onto his partner's back and they flew into the sky, high above the forest.
Now I have a tactical advantage. Sasuke thought. With Takamana's* flight speed and strength, he can outfly a tornado and dodge lightning. WIth my sharingan, I'll be able to see whatever he throws at us.
POOOOF!
A sudden gust of wind forced Takamana back, and Sasuke shielded his face with his hands, his heart sinking as he heard a deep, earth shattering roar.
He dropped his arms, feeling a cold sensation rush up and down his limbs and churn in his stomach. A blazing geyser of blue flames erupted into the air, making him sweat.
Tsuna was airborne too, now. He was standing on a dragon about ten times the width of Manda and three times as long, as black as charcoal with bloodshot slits for eyes and horns atop his head as tall as the hokage monument.
"Impossible..." Sasuke thought for the third time that fight. A dragon? They were ancient creatures, no one had seen them since before the dawn of the rabbit princess, Kaguya Ootsutsuki. Their descendants, the giant snakes of Ryuchi cave, Manda included had claimed they had died out ages ago.
"Don't you get it yet?!!!" Tsuna shouted over the wind, his arms crossed. "Nothing is impossible for me! I am the dragon magician ninja, Uzumaki Tsuna! I will defeat you and take your left eye! Even if you are an Uchiha, you've been made soft by partner just like Gaara of the sand!"
Sasuke's eyes popped in surprise. Partner...?
HE'S MY COUSIN AND MY BEST FREIND!
"You call him you're partner?" He questioned.
Tsuna smiled. "He hates formalities."
Sasuke felt his eyes burn. He unsheathed his sword, raising it high enough so as not to risk electrocuting Takamana.
This person was nothing like his old self. He was nothing like anyone he'd met before...
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WHAT DO YOU KEEP LAUGHING ABOUT, CLOWN?
HEHEHEH, ITS JUST COOL TO HAVE YOU BACK IS ALL.
Takamana soared up at top speed.
"I'll burn you ALIVE!" Sasuke shouted.
URI'S POV [KAGE BUILDING, KUMOGAKURE]
With the meeting put on hold, the five kage and Mifune proceeded to the Raikage's office while they awaited news from their escorts. The five of them plus Mifune stood together, looking out the windows at the blizzard in the distance which was bound to only a small region of the forest.
However...
"Did you see that?" Tsunade asked in a tone that made it clear that they would have to be blind not to see it.
"The snow stopped, and the clouds parted." Gaara answered.
"It's not unnatural for clouds to move and change shape. But at the speed it is phenomenal." Mei stated, eyeing the snow clouds suspiciously.
"Enlighten me. Is there a jutsu capable of controlling the weather?" Mifune questioned, to which all five Kage exchanged looks of concern.
"There's Sasuke's thunderclap..." Tsunade replied, "But that's more like USING the weather than controlling it..."
"Sasuke isn't a water-style ninjutsu user." Gaara stated bluntly. "I believe something like this would require that."
"You're wrong." Uri told him, earning six looks of questioning and annoyance. He stood apart from the six of them, some six feet away, arms crossed as he leaned against the window pane and examined the mini-blizzard without surprise.
"What do you mean?" Ay asked in a demanding tone.
"... It's stolen nature from an ice-style user." Uri explained. "Fuinjutsu masters are capable of stealing the essence of ice-style, fire-style, water-style, and so on. We seal the essence in scrolls, and then use it in battle by releasing the seal. This storm was created by an ice-style user who had fought against one of our own, who then sealed the storm in the scroll and released it here."
"WHAT?! ARE YOU PEOPLE ATTACKING KUMOGAKURE? I WON'T SHOW ANY MERCY!" Ay roared as the other kage held him back with arms and sand respectively.
"I am not attacking you." Uri stated, his eyes seething with an intense anger. "Nor, I believe, is Yuuki. However I happen to know the one who sealed away this blizzard, and as he imbued the seal with formula, he could have been the only one to release it."
But... No, it couldn't be possible... Not him... Unless...
"Formula?" Gaara questioned.
"Yes. There are three types." Uri answered, temporarily putting the thought out of his mind. "One are the chains customary to every seal. The second is like an invisible signature, written in chakra, and woven through the chains. The third is classified."
"What do you mean classified?!" Tsunade demanded. "Don't give me that! You said you would explain if I brought you before the gokage!"
"As I shall." Uri answered in a calming manner. "But for now, you should prepare yourselves."
"Prepare for what?" Enoki asked in a huff.
"That blizzard, I suspect, is a distraction." He reported grimly as he traced his index finger over the heart line of his left hand. "Given our standard strategies, I estimate that they will attack this building in approximately two minutes and forty-three seconds. It is pointless to post security around this building, they will get in. Your shinobi are too unfamiliar with their fighting style. Mami, Mako, Tomoya and the others will arrive via space-time ninjutsu and will raid this place via the ripple seal. They will do what they can to weaken this village, before moving on to the others."
"What?!" Tsunade screamed.
Uri approached her and held out his arms.
"Please release the restrainment jutsu you have cast on me." He requested, bowing from the waist. "I will help you protect this place from them to the best of my abilities, but if I cannot fight at full strength they will easily dispose of me."
"What?! You'll not release him, Tsunade, not if I have anything to say about it!" Ay shouted.
"Lord Raikage, why--" Mifune began.
"He's one of them!" Ay declared, pointing at Uri. "He could be in on this!"
"You're an unknown entity." Mei told Uri. "There's no way of guaranteeing that releasing you would be beneficial to us."
"This isn't my village. Releasing you here would be a violation of the treaty." Tsunade replied.
One minute left...
"If you do not release me, then you will all perish along with this village." Uri warned them.
"Don't underestimate kumogakure!" Roared Ay.
"We are powerful enough to protect this place. We will fight together." Mei told him.
"NO! You are all doomed if you do not release me!" Uri stated. "You're knowledge of their abilities is slim at best and you are in the dark about their individual fighting styles! And it is not an issue of power or numbers! You cannot defeat them! Your hearts betray your conviction!"
Thirty seconds left...
"Release me now, quickly! They are already at our doorstep!" Uri warned.
"He is right, relese him." Gaara ordered.
"Kazekage! Know your place!" Ay roared.
"There is no danger. He is not lying." Gaara explained.
Ten seconds...
"Release me now!"
Five--
BOOOM!
The building rattled as cracks raced up the windows and branched, breaking up the walls. The roof split as the floor sloped. Uri slid to the front wall, however the kage had glued themselves to the floor by concentrating chakra in the soles of their feet. Mifune had stabbed his sword into the wall and was using it as a handhold.
Uri's blood ran cold as a seal enveloped the floor like a deadly flower in boom. He had to act before it spun!
He dug his teeth into the palm of his hand, succeeding in producing a fair amount of blood. It dripped thickly over the floor, and by running his chakra through it he enabled it to skirt and spin itself into an equally powerful seal.
He managed to clap his hands together just in time, activating his own seal as the larger one began to spin. In a flash, the two began to disappear as if wiped away like steam on a bathroom mirror.
"Release your feet!" He shrieked. "Now!"
Thankfully, they listened to him just in time. They slid with ease down the sloping floor to the front wall moments before twenty harpoons pierced the floor where they'd been standing.
"What?!" Ay screamed in both surprise and rage.
"Such odd choice of weaponry..." Mifune commented.
The six of them reached out, clapping their hands against the wall to keep from slamming into it just as the floor dipped, now sloping in the opposite direction. Gaara lashed out with his hand, using it to whip the double doors open as well as catch the falling floor.
The seven of them jumped through the open door to solid ground and Uri quickly threw his head out the doorway, looking left and right. It seemed almost a quarter of the building had crumbled away.
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
They were sent crashing into the wall by overheated gale winds produced from three consecutive explosions on the opposite side of the building. You could hear screaming as the villagers were being evacuated by jounin. As Uri thought, none of his clan were attacking the people. The idea was to weaken the enemy and cause a panic. It was an old tactic, one they had used since ancient times. But Mami was just the kind to use it.
"Come on!" Ay screamed, taking off down the hall. The other six followed him, passing other kumo ninja. Ay shouted orders at them to evacuate the village and guard the vaults. In a flash, they were joined by Killer Bee and his squad.
"Brother..." Bee said, but Ay's anger could not be quelled.
"We can't find the source of the explosions!" Samui reported. "They appear to be coming from outside, but their strength is twice that of a paper bomb, and their occurence is random!"
"It's like their popping out of thin air!" Karui continued. "Maybe their being dropped off the roof!"
They kept running as the floor beneath them shuddered.
"The mourning hall!" Ay roared.
They jumped down several flights of stairs and came skidding into a wide entry hall, which was filled with the ghastly screams and grunts. Uri's breath caught in his throat as blood splattered and dripped thickly onto the ground.
Rika was surrounded by men four times her size. But even as they surrounded her she was dancing around, plunging a single kunai though the back of their mouths, cutting their throats, slicing their stomachs open, stabbing them in the thigh.
Just as she leapt off the ground and started jumping from pillar to pillar, Momo clapped her hands to the ground and the chains of a meidum sized seal began to spin. Steam rose into the air and rushed down the throats of any full-grown shinobi who happened to be too close to her.
Sora appeared from beyond the steam, jumping from head to head, clapping his hands over their mouths as he went and trapping the hot air within with a containment seal. Unable to either inhale or exhale, the men's throats dried up like raisins. Blood dripped from their eyes and ears, and they fell dead.
Mina and Aoi were a duo, working as a two man team, werving in and out of each other's space like dragons. Mina was controlling beams of compacted light, sealed into rods and made as hot as the sun by increasing moving speed endlessly by trapping it within a closed space indefintely. The beams flew about, targetting groups of ninja several feet away and before Mina released the seals set upon them. This created a horrible explosion that reduced those closest to ash and those farthest to unrecognizable, deceased, human putty, with the environment around them lying in splintered, shattered rubble.
Aoi was using sealing chakrams, which she had previously placed up and down her hands and arms. Uri watched as she repeatedly jerked her arms, calling new chakrams to her palms before expanding them. Her wrists would flick, and the chakrams would fly away from her palms, zig-zagging through the air and passing through the waist lines of at least a dozen different shinobi. The victims would be absorbed into the seal completely, vanishing, and dying when they exploded moments later.
Koa was also surrounded, but in no danger of losing her life. She had attached an unbreakable reverse shield seal to both palms and knees, waving her arms about in a graceful yet deadly motion. At that moment, she succesfully repelled several quick-lime jutsus, a boulder avalanche jutsu, and a wall of kunai. She was killing far less people than the rest of her friends.
Midori had made three different sealing spheres (giant, transparent red, scorching hot spheres constructed from what could be a hundred or a thousand different fuinjutsu) and was directing them with gale winds produced from a scroll with wind nature trapped inside. The spheres swelled as they collected more and more shinobi, and grew hotter with each addition, eventually burning them alive. The other kumo ninja were attempting to avoid the spheres altogether, but Luna and Akane were dashing about, clapping their hands over the kumo ninja's shinobi sandals, and trapping them in place with permanent sticking seals, which were only removed by the shere power of the sealing spheres.
Uri's eyes flitted from one child to another. This was painful... and terrible... and all too real.
One look at the raikage told him that he had five seconds before Ay's confusion turned to murderous rage.
Acting quickly, he dashed to the center of the room, lighting up his fingertips with the symbols of rooster, dragon, or boar. Clapping his hands to the floor, he held his breath as an enormous seal enveloped every pillar, every wall, every inch of floor and cieling. The chains of the seal turned, speeding up to produce blinding white light. Uri felt an exponential amount of eyes on him, including those of the children, and looked up, meeting Rika's gaze.
She looked positively shocked to see him there, and on top of that...
Why was she crying?
He looked at her questioningly as the seal activated, and everyone within the room, the survivng kumo shinobi and the children, tensed and crumpled to the floor.
Uri swayed, uneasy after using nearly all of the chakra available to him. He cast a cautious glance over his shoulder at the five kage, Mifune, Killer Bee, and his team. They looked conflicted, to say the least.
Uri felt a rock drop into his stomach as the realization he had been avoiding since entering the hall finally reached the forefront of his mind.
The consequences of this... Would be... Severe...
He looked forward. Luna was nearest.
Getting to his feet, he approached her and fell to his knees. His much larger hand shook as he laid it over her tiny shoulder and pulled her into his lap.
This... Didn't make any sense...
Why would they do this? WHY?
"You surprise me, Uri."
His head whipped up at the sound of his own name. He looked around until he found Mako standing at the front of the room.
He was looking as solemn as ever, his arms crossed as he stared Uri down, apparenty disgusted. Uri kept a tight hand on Luna. Should Mako try to take her or the other children, he WOULD fight him.
Hot rage made his blood boil as his belly became hot.
"You... Do you have any idea what you've done?" He asked in a demanding, threatening tone.
Mako was unfazed. "Why are YOU upset? I thought you would appreciate this, after what happened before."
Uri grit his teeth. "That was an entire generation ago. These are peaceful times that took the ninja world whole millenia to achieve. And you! How dare you trample all over everything they worked for! They devoted their lives to this dream! Freinds and families were sacrificed for this! For peace!"
Uri's bellowing voice echoed off the walls, reverbrating through the hall. Outside, villagers were still being evacuated, and some of the mountainside buildings had caught fire.
"You actually think this is worth all of that?" Mako questioned, sincerely curious. "Why should we spare even one of these people? No one, in any of the five great nations, in any of the smaller nations, and in any of the nations lacking ninja villages, is there even one innocent person. Everyone has made it clear who they look out for. Whole clans have been annihalated, secrets have been stolen, war has been averted only through sacrifice which would have otherwise been uneccessary. These people are no good, Uri. As long as they exist, you, I, our clan, and those children won't be safe."
"You're wrong! They've grown since the war!" Uri argued. "They're different now! We don't have to hide anymore! We have a connection to Konoha! We can return, start again! The Uchiha--"
"And when the people of Konoha learn what we've done to their village hero, what do you think they will do?" Mako asked.
Uri flinched, at a loss for words.
"When the konoha vilagers, ninja, and council learn that we kidnapped him, lied to him, and tricked him, that we discriminated against him because of his father, that we were suspicious of him and oppressed him, they will return that negativity." Mako said, answering his own question. "Ill will towards us both inside and outside of Konoha will accumulate. Eventually, we will be shut inside a single section of Konoha, kept under surveillance, and eventually, once they have had their fill of our abilities, learned all the fuinjutsu we can teach them, then we wil be eradicated. It doesn't matter who their hokage is or what he or she may say. In the end, it isn't really up to him or her, but majority rule. The Uchiha tragedy proved that. They even had those of outside blood who had just happened to marry into the clan killed, and Sasuke was only spared because Itachi had allowed himself to be bent to Danzo's will. I know you, Uri. In truth, you are as angry as the rest of us."
"I am not so foolishly bitter!" He argued. "And we are not doomed! We will be under scrutinous suspicion for a while, perhaps. But Naruto is precious to them! He can persuade them!"
"It is because they care about him that they won't listen to a word he says." Mako replied curtly. "After being kidnapped and aiding us during our times of crisis, they will suspect he is being soft towards us. Just as they ordered Sasuke to be executed, the same fate lies in store for us."
"But he survived!"
"Because he fought back. As shall we."
Uri was fuming. "You... cannot seriously think you can win such a foolhardy battle. We are outnumbered! They have more supplies than us, a larger arsenal of skills!"
Mako gestured to the entire room. "Look what our children can do. All on their own, they can take down over a hundred highly trained kumo ninja."
"These children are chakra deprived! Had I not stopped them, they would be on the verge of death! Is that your plan, Mako?! To keep fighting until you die of exhaustion! You'll lead the very people you're fighting for to ruin!"
"Then the question lies in who can outlast the other. The childen are exceptional. We are gifted with a strong lifespan and vast amounts of chakra and knowledge of advanced medicine and medical jutsu. Frankly, it is the five great nations that are at a disadvantage."
Uri was trembling with rage. "You are... Insane. This will never work! You have to realize that! And even if it does work, are you really comfortable with killing mothers, fathers, and freinds? You can't do this! This is not what they would have wanted!"
"What the dead want is irrelevant. We have to protect our clan, because they are ALIVE. Do you want that child you're holding to end up like you? Do you want HIM to become Konoha's figurehead. Frankly, I would rather see him dead than on freindly terms with the scum who wiped out an entire culture and patted themselves on the back. And I think you'll find Tsuna agrees with me."
Uri winced. The blizzard... The parting of the clouds...
It couldn't be.
He got to his feet and looked in the direction of the storm. He did a quick search for Naruto's chakra signature. It had to be there... It had to be...
"What... What did you do...?" He asked Mako in a breathless voice filled with dread.
Mako stared back at him, and after a few moments, he sighed.
"You will thank me for this... Later." He said, and with that, he snapped his fingers.
Uri winced as he watched an invisible forcefield that had apparently been surrounding the room vanish. He looked at the five kage and Mifune and the others, who were rushing to him. At the same moment, two Kumo ninja, who Uri recognized as Cee and Darui from the Raikage's files, entered the room.
"Lord Raikage!" Darui said as he approached. "Everyone was safely evacuated. There were no civilian casualties. A few fires were started from ovens that had been left on during evacuation, but they're quickly being extinguished."
"It seems they only wanted to attack the raikage building, sir. Perhaps they were after your life." Cee suggested, looking around in well-suppressed horror. "What happened here, sir?"
"It's--" Karui began, casting Uri a cross look.
"No!" Ay interrupted, raising his hand. Uri looked at him. He was obviously conflicted. On one hand, he had just seen his subordinates be slaughted. On another, the murderers were children, who had likely been under Mako's control.
"No. Don't tell anyone what happened here! At least for now... Not until we've made sure of who's been killed..."
That would be a difficult job, as many had been killed in a way that left no whole corpse.
"Lady Tsunade," Uri held Luna out to her. "Please...?"
She seemed reluctant, but took Luna anyway. Uri looked around for Mako again, only to find that he had apparently vanished.
Everyone's heads turned as they heard an odd sound, almost like Kunai slicing through gale winds, only softer. Uri noticed him first, followed by the others.
Sasuke rode through the open doors on a giant hawk, his summoning creature Takamana. He landed precisely in front of the group gathered in the center of the room, and looked up, breathing heavily.
Uri felt a cold fist close over his heart as he noticed who else was on the hawk. Sasuke was half carrying Naruto on his back, with a head full of blond spiky hair hanging over his shoulder, completely still.
An unbearable silence overcame the group, which was only interrupted by Sasuke:
"Tsunade... Please."
URI'S POV
TWO HOURS LATER [KUMOGAKURE HOSPITAL, INTENSIVE CARE]
Uri waited with four of the gokage, Bee, and Sasuke. WIth Uri's teleportation jutsu, they were able to transport Naruto, the children, and the injured to the hospital. Medical nins had been waiting for them, and immediately set to work dividing everyone into hospital rooms and tending to them. Naruto was in no shape to be placed inside a sealing scroll, so Ay simply ordered anyone who happened to notice him to keep it quiet.
There was a comfy looking couch in the hall, but everyone was too anxious to be sitting in it. The four kage stood in a circle at one end, while Sasuke, Bee and Uri stood at the other.
Everyone looked up as Karui, Samui, and Omoi came running down the hall.
"Lord Raikage. Everyone has been stabilized, sir. And we've placed restrainment jutsu on the children." Samui reported.
"Good." Ay replied.
They froze, looking up expectantly, hopefully, as Tsunade opened the door and stepped into the hall. It clicked shut behind her, and she seemed to be gripping the knob for support.
Nobody needed to ask.
Tsunade bit her lip, shut her eyes, and fiercely shook her head.
Uri clenched his fists. He had already known, really. The state of the corpse had made it crystal clear, and yet...
His ears rang for several minutes as his mind raced, recalling that time in the land of waves, when he had found him, and the days leading up to being reunited with his surviving clan members. The training sessions, the glares that his family directed at the boy. Days in which the four of them, Tsuna, Yuuki, Uri, and HE had been together.
The ringing faded, and he noticed then that everyone was looking at Sasuke.
His face was blank, and his fingers loose. There was no vibe or tension to indicate any grief or contempt. He was simply...
"I see." He replied, and he straightened up, turning to leave.
"Where are you going?!" Karui demanded, whirling on him as he walked away.
"To find the others." He replied without looking at her. "There's a chance they're still buried in snow."
Uri almost told him that the kage escorts, Kakashi among them, were already searching for Sakura and the others. But for some reason, he didn't have the energy to talk...
"That's not what I meant!" Karui yelled. "What do you mean 'I see'?! What is that?! What's with that reaction?!"
"Karui--" Samui began.
"You're exactly what I've always thought you were, aren't you?!" Karui said,cutting across her. "'I see.' If it were an Uchiha lying in there, your brother, your mother, you'd be calling for blood and going off to collect heads! But that's all you give him?! After all this time, and everything he did for you, all he gets is 'I see'?! You're just as bad as them!" She flung her arm out, pointing at Uri. "You only care about your clan! The rest of the world can go to hell! Isn't that right? Admit it!"
Sasuke did not turn, nor keep walking. Uri watched him carefully for any sign that her words had stung even a little, but Sasuke was just...
A moment of silence passed, and he took another step, continuing to walk away.
"I bet it was easy, wasn't it?!" Karui screamed as she marched over to him. "You just stood by and watched him be killed, and you didn't make a sound, didn't even try to protect him! It doesn't matter to you! It never did! If it were you in there, and him out here, he would cry! Or go off after the person who did you in! But you're just fine with it, aren't you?!"
She lashed out, grabbing Sasuke's wrist. Both she and Uri flinched, as they noticed the slightest movement. A short, almost instant, tremor in his arm.
As soon as it had ended, he yanked his wrist free and sped off, taking a left turn into a desserted hall.
"Hey!" She yelled, still angry.
"Enough Karui!" Ay ordered, getting her to look at him. "We've got bigger issues at hand. If the Uzumaki want war, then we're in trouble. We need to gather intel, formulate strategies. Our respective villages need to be protected!"
"If Sakura Haruno and the others have been taken by the Uzumaki clan, then we need to rescue them." Gaara interceded.
"Leave that to me." Tsunade stated. "I can arrange for..."
Uri ignored her and stalked past Karui. Sasuke's expression... That look... Uri knew that look...
He took the same turn Sasuke had, but the hall was empty. He followed it and froze, remaining in the shadows.
Sasuke had entered a part of the hospital which was under construction and therefore, empty. Uri watched him back into a wall, head bowed low so that his bangs cast a shadow over his eyes.
Uri knit his brow. What was he doing?
Sasuke stood in silence for several minutes, perhaps even half an hour, before raising one hand and placing it, wrist-down, over his eyes. His fingers brushed through his hair and curled, gripping the black bangs.
There was an odd, low sound. It was so quiet, he almost didn't hear it. It sounded almost like gulping, as if someone around him was drowning.
Sasuke grit his teeth and clenched his fingers as droplets of water trailed down his face.
Uri's arms went limp and he bowed his head in grief.
How nostalgic...
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Now he's dead?
