Start Again M*therf**kers

Location: Uzushiogakure Ruins - Final Standing Compound

“Kaguya…”

The white-haired being’s face stretched into a bloodthirsty grin as she took in his pallid complexion and obvious bone-shaking fear. But the fear didn’t come from a place of being scared of the deity, no…he feared for the lives of his people who had finally settled down and made a life on the island of Uzushiogakure these past three years. With that thought driving him, Naruto activated his chakra cloak and slammed his chakra-infused palms against the ground which activated the seal he had hidden there in secret from everyone else on the island, except a select few. From the epicenter, thick black lines extended outwards –straight lines, curved lines, swirls, and kanji intermingled with each other to create one of his finest works yet.

“Uzumaki Hiden: Suiageru no Kusari!” (Uzumaki Hidden Technique: Siphoning Chains)

Thousands of golden chakra chains emerged from the seal and latched onto the goddess’ impressive form. Kaguya cried out from the shock of the sudden action and the unexpected pain that came from it. Her head struggled to swivel from one side to the other but she saw how some chains bit into specific parts of her body while the rest bound her movement to a complete halt. Then all of a sudden, the chains briefly radiated an angry red color before tightening even further on her body, and then her chakra began to leave her body.

Naruto grinned as Kaguya’s power steadily began to drain –it was being sapped right out of her body and into the seal through the chains. This had been the best idea that he, Shikamaru, and Hinata could come up with that didn’t involve directly fighting with the goddess. Naruto was proud to say that the idea originated from his own mother’s adamantine sealing chains that had even held Kurama hostage. He had tweaked the concept of the sealing chains so that instead of them erupting from his torso, they would extend from a seal that was channeled with his chakra. It also helped that he held a remnant of his mother’s chakra in his body from Kurama’s seal, which made it easier for him to actively form the chains.

Uzumaki Hiden: Suiageru no Kusari was designed in such a way that the main and more heavy-duty chains would basically bite into the tenketsu points of the target, much like a snake that would bite a person and won’t let go. Or like that creep Orochimaru.  After that, the rest of the chains wrap around the target’s body, essentially stopping all movement. The chains, dubbed as ‘snakebites’, would begin to siphon all of the target’s chakra through their tenketsu points and it didn’t release the target until every bit of chakra was sucked out.

Draining Kaguya’s chakra had been Hinata’s idea.

'It isn’t a full-proof plan and the chains could probably snap if Kaguya got too testy but at least it’s working.’ Naruto thought, ‘It also stops her from absorbing any chakra.’

Kaguya’s previous serene and smug expression dissolved into something furious and ugly, “How dare you?!”

Naruto smirked smugly, even as his heart beat a mile a minute in worry for his people, “I dare.”

An enraged screech spurted from her rose-colored lips, it echoed and thundered at the same time –the eternal night seemed to resonate with her anger and give forth under it, casting streaks of lightning across the sky. Suddenly, thousands of White Zetsu clones emerged from the ground, groaning and screaming as they clawed their way through the dirt of Uzushio’s island. Some staggered on their feet, some crawled on their hands and knees, some scraped their bodies across the ground –all different ways to move yet they all had one destination.

Him.

'Wait, what the actual fuck?!’ Naruto screamed as the sight registered in his mind, ‘We’re on a goddamn island in the middle of the ocean! Where in the ever-living hell are they popping out from?’

Kurama’s eyes narrowed as his snot twitched in annoyance, ‘It must be that thrice-damned God Tree.’

‘What does that stupid tree have to do with anything?’ The blond grumbled at the old fox while trying not to lose his absolute shit over the literal army of zombies stumbling towards him.

‘Think Naruto!’ The unexpected serious tone of the demon caused Naruto to sober up, ‘The God Tree has spent the last seven, almost eight, years soaking up the chakra from this world. It spread its roots across the planet, looking for us and any residual chakra throughout that time. And from what we know, that stupid tree can spit out any number of clones as long as it has chakra and the necessary number of bodies.’

“Ahh…shit.” Naruto cursed outwardly as Kurama’s words turned in his mind, “We’re fucked.”

‘Yes, Fishcake. We’re fucked.’

Kaguya smirked evilly at the incarnation of her grandson –so much like her son, “Are you finally ready to admit defeat and surrender quietly?”

Taking in a deep breath, Naruto’s head shot up in a flash which allowed his stormy cerulean eyes to meet the Rabbit Goddess’ pale lilac ones, “As if! My name isn’t Uzumaki Naruto for nothing!”

‘Let’s do this, Kurama!’

“I’m not gonna give up, dattebayo!”

‘Ready when you are, Fishcake!’

Naruto’s eyes burned an angry scarlet red as a smirk full of teeth spread across his whiskered face, “Come at me, bitch!”

Heavy panting breaths tore from his lungs as he tried to suck in more air, his vision was blurry and he was sure that he was bleeding severely in multiple places. He gripped his stomach where most of his blood loss was coming from as he jerked from one side to the next, looking for a familiar blond kunoichi. He had lost her in the chaos after their little island had been overrun with White Zetsu clones. He had to find her. He couldn’t lose someone else. He couldn’t lose her!

‘Come on! You’re a Nara! Use your goddamn brain and think!’

Shikamaru took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and his grievous thoughts, he had to be rational and clearheaded, otherwise, he was either going to do something stupid or break. They had lived on the island of Uzushiogakure in relative peace –a barrier had surrounded the island, it was impossible to break and made the island itself impossible to remember. It had been a seal born from Naruto’s ingenious and unpredictable mind which completely blanked out the island from memory and sight of any who didn’t explicitly have permission to know about Uzushio. It hid them for three years –too long in Shikamaru’s opinion, and people had become complacent as a result. It wasn’t like they had stopped planning for Kaguya’s eventual arrival and the ways to deal with her but the process had taken longer than they anticipated. Their people had settled on Uzushio and built lives and families even as despair ravaged the world outside the barrier, they hadn’t been in a rush to defeat the Rabbit Goddess.

‘No matter what, Uzushio was always temporary…’ Shikamaru thought grimly, ‘The goal has always been about getting rid of Kaguya first…everything else came last.’

An explosion from the center of the makeshift village rattled the island, sending dilapidated buildings crashing to the ground. Dust and smoke clouded the air, filling his lungs to the brim which caused him to hack out body-numbing coughs. More blood spilled from his wound as he hacked out a series of gut-wrenching coughs, before Shikamaru steeled himself, tightened the grip he had on his abdomen, and continued further into the chaos. He could see his fellow shinobi battling the clones that had surged up from the ground –some were protecting whatever loved ones they had left, some were attacking blindly as if begging for death to take them away, and some were crying out while staring at the rubble that had probably crushed one of their precious people.

“I…” The Nara rasped out, “….have to find…Ino…!”

Shikamaru and Ino had bonded as tightly as a brother and sister would after Chōji’s…death. He hadn’t been able to watch his teammate –his family, he was supposed to protect them, why didn’t he protect Chōji, now Ino was going to di–waste away before his eyes so he stayed away. The Nara would forever resent himself for never staying beside Chōji until the moment he took his last breath. He had been a coward, too scared to watch his friend die so he abandoned him. He left his friend to die alone because he couldn’t handle the pain of losing him. But Shikamaru wasn’t going to let that happen again –he owed that much to Ino and Chōji.

“INO!” He cried out, his voice breaking from his desperation, “INO! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Shikamaru could barely hear his own calls for the kunoichi through the crumbling buildings, explosions, and screams. There was utter chaos. Any procedures they had put in place towards making sure everyone was safe from Kaguya when she would eventually find them had shattered when her stupid army invaded, some using her techniques –the numbers were steadily increasing as the minutes ticked by. Even after Naruto had Kaguya pinned down and defenseless, her power and knowledge extended to her Zetsu clones.

They were her ‘will’ after all.

“Heh…we never had a fucking chance…” The Nara scoffed dully under his breath.

Whatever else comment that Shikamaru was going to say was promptly cut off when an utterly violent and enraged shriek ripped through the chaos, causing everything around him to come to a halt. For a few minuscule moments, it felt like the world had been drowned out, it felt like the world had stopped turning on its axis –it was ominous as if waiting for something to happen.

And something did.

Thick roots broke through the blood-splattered ground, hovering proud and menacing in the air around the shinobi and the clones. The Allied Forces –what was left of them –had stiffened at the sight of the plant structures, they had seen these things before and it had haunted them, whether awake or asleep. After all, it had been the same thing that had swallowed their loved ones and spat out White Zetsu clones.

Shikamaru felt shivers run down his spine when the flexible roots suddenly hardened into points and took on a more threatening position as if getting ready to strike. Several shinobi recognized this as well and took a defensive line in front of the others, bringing up walls of earth to, at least, slow down the attack. Then like a clock that started ticking once more, the world started spinning again and the roots descended –their rage an echo of their goddess’.

Just as the sharp-tipped roots reached the walls, intent on piercing through the earth and the soldiers, a golden light blurred onto the battlefield. With large resplendent arms protruding from his chakra cloak, their Kage had arrived just in time to stop all the roots from even scraping the walls. The shinobi all seemed to let out a sigh of relief simultaneously at their Kage’s impeccable timing and without command began to herd the other indisposed shinobi off the field and towards one of the camps, where their Head Medic-nin –Sakura –surely was. Shikamaru breathed out a heavy sigh of relief, resisting the urge to laugh like a maniac at his luck of barely grazing by with his life.

“I’ve got this! Leave! NOW!” Naruto called out –it was probably a clone, Shikamaru surmised since the seal was still being powered otherwise Kaguya would have decimated the island in an instant.

The Nara closed his eyes to gather his wits once more and continued to trudge through the blood, smoke, and fallen debris, looking for any tell-tale sign of pale blond hair and blue eyes. His mind had centered, drowning out all sound as he searched high and low, through cracks and crevices for the girl that had been with him his entire life. He couldn’t lose her, even if it meant watching her die because he was too weak to save her –he would take it. Shikamaru wasn’t going to let another of his loved ones down…not like Chōji.

Just as he was about to switch his attention to some other area to search for the blond, he heard a distant shout. His head snapped sharply in the direction of the sound, his long brown hair –freed from the usual Nara pineapple style –whipping through the air from the sudden movement. Shikamaru strained his ears, waiting for another call as the world around him grew quiet and dull. His dark eyes narrowed on a specific point in the mass of destruction when he when heard the cry once more –it was distinctly female.

“INO!” Shikamaru called out as he dived towards the unstable tower of rock, forgetting his impairment as his worry took over.

As he drew closer to where the voice had come from, the Nara could distinguish the calls properly, “HELP! I’M HERE! SHIKAMARU!”

Cursing internally, the man dropped to his knees near the almost encased structure and shouted, “Ino! I’m here!”

“Shikamaru! Oh thank the Sage, I-” A sob cut the blond girl off as her throat closed up in her fear and relief –she had been certain that she was going to die there, alone and forgotten. Ino knew she should have taken her Nara into account.

“What’s going on?!” Shikamaru’s voice was bordering on hysterical as he tried to find a way into the building.

The structure had been recently built for their food storage and since food was basically like gold to them, the place constructed to keep it safe had been reinforced quite a bit. They had their troubles with hoarding and the occasional thief no matter how much they trusted each other so this served as the best way to ensure that it remained secure. However, if anyone got stuck in there, it was like a goddamn death sentence and with how unsteady it was at the moment –it would crush anything inside if one wrong move was made.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit…!” Shikamaru bit his lip, stalling the curses before they could reach Ino.

“I-I saw some kids trying to hide in here…” He heard Ino’s voice warble as she spoke –he didn’t even know if she was hurt inside there, “I…I got them out just in time but some of the concrete caught…shit-my leg…”

Shikamaru cupped his mouth with his decidedly not-bloody hand as the implication of the statement settled in, “Alright, alright…er-can you move your leg at all or is it-”

“No, no…” Shuffling and cursing filtered through the rock as Ino spoke, “-it’s still here just trapped under a fallen piece of one of the walls.”

Choosing to ignore that piece of information, the Nara perked up at the thought of an entrance into the crumbling storage structure, “Where’s the broken-off wall?”

“Ahh-erm-it’s a bit covered up but there's a small hole here for air.” Ino paused as if realizing what she had said, “Shika, please don’t pull a Naruto on me and crawl inside this very clearly unsafe building.”

“Nope,” Shikamaru stated smugly as he discreetly made his way to the small hole and began to crawl through it where the blond was, hopefully, not dying, “I’m pulling a Nara and deciding that everything else is too troublesome so I’d rather stash myself away in here with you.”

“Shikamaru!” Ino chastised as his head popped into the building, followed by the rest of his body –he could only barely hide his grimace of pain from how his actions caused his injuries to burn and ache which, sadly, she had caught, “Oh Sage! Are you hurt?!”

“Maa, it was too much work to have to worry about my problems and finding you, Ino.” Shikamaru tried to brush aside the woman’s panic –he didn’t want her to get worked up over his wounds when she was hurting as well.

Ino huffed out angrily at his ‘don’t-care’ attitude, “You know that was cute when you were younger, now not so much, aho.”

Scrambling further inside, Shikamaru crawled carefully toward the incapacitated kunoichi with one hand. His other hand was pressed against his stomach as a steady stream of crimson dripped from between his fingers and onto the dirty floor. He took in her injuries and tried to come up with some kind of plan to try and get her out of there. It looked like a slab of concrete had fallen and crushed her right leg from the thigh to the foot –there was so much blood, it didn’t look like the leg could even be saved from how flattened it was. Ino’s face was set in a tight grimace –she really was amazing, to take so much pain without crying out, she was so strong –as she used medical ninjutsu to stave off whatever bleeding and pain she could and from the profuse amount of sweat, it seemed like she had been doing it for a while. He knew if he managed to even move the stone off of her, the bleeding would start up again and possibly cause more blood loss, he couldn’t let her die like that. There’s also the fact that it would be hard to move out of the structure without further damaging her condition, and even if they managed all of that, walking out there would be a nightmare.

Shikamaru clenched his teeth tightly, muffling a groan in his throat as his abdomen gave a twinge of pain from his army crawl. His other injuries, minor but still painful, were pulled taut as he scraped his body off the floor and plopped himself next to a pallid Ino. He knew that his own wounds that would hinder any progress they made and he wasn’t about to ask Ino to heal him. As Shikamaru’s thoughts continued, his fists tightened and his mind struggled to find any other way to save the woman next to him.

“No need to look so grim, Shikamaru…” Ino whispered when his silence dragged on for too long, “I’m not getting out of this one.”

“Fuck…” He cursed as he tapped his fingers on his thigh, “I’ll…I will find something, Ino. I’m not going to let you fucking die with the food supply.”

Ino snorted at his words, “You’re not letting me do anything, Shika. But you know…Chōji would have loved this –dying in the food supply would have been his dream come true.”

Shikamaru grimaced at her choice of topic, “Ino…fuck…”

The both of them fell quiet after that –each in their own heads as they digested their circumstances. Ino let out a near-silent sigh as she dropped her head further back, wincing slightly as the movement caused her leg –or what was left of her leg –to shift weirdly. She had always thought she would have at least survived to see their stupid time travel plan take off, even though it still sounded like bullshit to her. The idea had been appealing, if not crazy when she first heard it three years ago but the actual logistics of it had been a nightmare. Naruto and Shikamaru had deduced that the definite power, the chakra, needed to exceed anything they had ever seen. Heck, even their resident Bijūu container of the freaking Kyūbi said that his chakra at its best would be just barely enough, and that would be only to send back one person. The decades they want to transcend and the number of people they want to send required more chakra than they had anticipated, and no one was willing to go alone.

‘Naruto hadn’t heard a single word on trying to send back just one person…’ Ino hummed in thought –she could understand his reasoning though. She couldn’t imagine surviving with her sanity intact if she had to go back into the past and see all of her ghosts in the flesh.

But they had gotten a mostly solid plan on how to travel back. The worst they would suffer was that it didn’t work or they die, which wasn’t something so horrendous that they would actually scrap the idea.

“Ahhh, we won’t be going back after all, huh?” Ino groaned with a pout on her lips. No matter how stupid it sounded, she had been looking forward to the time travel bit of their plan.

“At this point, no one’s going back,” Shikamaru mumbled as he thought back to their elaborate plan of changing the future by going back to their less-than-pleasant past.

The blond shook her head while letting out an unladylike snort –chibi Ino would be throwing a fit if she could see her now, “No…those three will most definitely go back.”

“While I have the utmost faith in their abilities, the theory of time travel is volatile at best.” Shikamaru didn’t even bother to hide his sarcasm towards his Kage and team, “I told Naruto that there’s probably a 0.1% chance that it would work, especially with how specific he wanted everything to be.”

“You know that’s enough chance for them,” Ino smirked at the Nara –she knew they would find a way.

“Sage, help us if those three manage to end up in the past…” Shikamaru groaned when he realized what would happen if Naruto and his merry band of idiots ended up in the past, all alone with no supervision, “There won’t be a future left when they decide to utterly decimate the past.”

“Ahh, Sakura will keep them in check.” Ino waved away his concerns with an indulgent smile on her pale face.

He stared at the blond woman with a dry expression, “Are you hearing yourself?”

“Sakura is a responsible adult, Shikamaru.” The blond kunoichi defended in a posh tone, “She’ll be able to keep the children in line.”

“Or become the problem entirely…” The Nara muttered under his breath, “Ah, Ino, it seems you need some medical help. The concussion you got from Sakura banging you too hard is coming in effec-”

Slap!

He was abruptly cut off when Ino’s free hand met the back of his head in a loud and very concerning slap. Shikamaru bit his lip, drawing blood, to stop himself from yelping in pain as his chin drove into his chest from the force of the hit. The blond woman’s eye twitched at the man’s utter audacity, the words replaying in her head almost made her want to hit him again. She wouldn’t, otherwise, his HP would deplete.

“I have no idea what Temari saw in you, aho!” Ino shouted as an angry flush spread across her cheeks. It was a wonder how she still had enough blood in her body to blush so heavily. Embarrassment really pushes the body to do amazing things, huh.

“Troublesome...seems like the blood loss is loosening my tongue…” Shikamaru sighed in exasperation while rubbing the back of his sweaty neck with his free hand. He knew not to test any of the women in his life, they all were terrifying in their own right and they all hit like a fucking freight train on steroids.

His head thunked against the wall behind him as he remembered all the plans, contingencies, and escapes, they had put together if they had ever made it back to the past. He had made sure that Naruto and everyone else had revised it over and over again, in case he had died before making it back. While Shikamaru didn’t have much confidence in the plan working, he knew their blond idiot would find a way to make it work. His motto to ‘Never-Give-Up’ was a blessing and a curse wrapped in a particularly ugly bow –he’s pretty sure that bow is Sasuke. Sage-knows, the only man that can keep Naruto sane and in check was the Uchiha. Then again, those two drive each other mad so they were basically made for one another.

Shikamaru grimaced when blasts neared their location. He could hear and feel the destruction outside their little world, so he knew this structure wouldn’t hold for long –it didn’t seem like the island would hold for long either.

“If they do fuck up the past bad enough…” Ino muttered into the silence, it sounded as if she was voicing her inside thoughts, “…then this wouldn’t become our future.”

“Hmm…” He hummed in silent agreement –maybe a Team 7-fueled past would lead to a better future for all of them.

“…Anything is better than this Shikamaru…”

The man in question sighed in response –too tired, too drained, he just wanted to sleep, when was the last time he had just relaxed with some cloud-watching –before glancing at Ino out of the corner of his eye, “I don’t know…a future where those idiots are ruling sounds like a goddamn nightmare. They’re all so troublesome.”

Ino chuckled weakly, she had stopped trying to heal herself earlier when it proved to just be a waste of chakra, “I could see them doing that…trolling the five nations for the fun of it. Sage, Naruto would be bouncing back and forth.”

“Yeah…” Shikamaru nodded as he thought back to their slightly unhinged blond Kage, “…as much as he loves Konoha, I don’t think he’ll feel the same about them if he does end up in the past.”

Suddenly the blond kunoichi straightened her spine as a thought struck her –she gritted her teeth at the aborted movement but continued with her point without pause, “Shit…! Imagine if he decided to go and adopt all of us!”

Shikamaru raised an incredulous eyebrow, “What?”

“You know…we all know about Gaara and his…father…” She swallowed, remembering the redhead’s blank face when he told them about his shitty-ass father, “Naruto said he was going to adopt Gaara as his first order of business!”

“Naruto can barely take care of himself and wants to take care of a whole other human being.” The Nara snorted fondly at the thought, he knew better than to actually think like that about the blond. Naruto was someone who cared deeply for his friends, his precious people, and he would make sure they were safe and loved.

“Sasuke and Sakura would be there.” Ino pointed out demurely.

“You think Sasuke can take care of a child, a baby –a baby Gaara at that.”

The blond kunoichi grimaced at the images that came to her mind at that, “I see your point.”

They both knew though, that Naruto had always wanted a family. Of course, he was satisfied with them as his family but he would never reject the thought of having kids –whether they were biological or not.  Naruto was an orphan who had craved familial connection for so long, especially after he had been denied something so basic. It made them sick just remembering how he was treated by the village. They had always been reassured by Naruto that he didn’t hold any grudges, since it just wasn’t something he did but nightmares and insecure thoughts flared up a lot, especially when things got too much for him.

Naruto deserved to be happy. He deserved to get to have the family he wanted with anyone he wanted, even if that person was Uchiha Sasuke.

Shikamaru pressed his lips into a thin line, his mind drifting, “Naruto would be a good father.”

“Yeah…” Ino smiled gently as her eyes crinkled softly at the corners, caught up in thoughts of cherry blossoms and children with jewel-green eyes, “…I think so too.”

Their tender moment was cut off unexpectedly by the ricochet of a blast from another area of fighting which reached their building. The structure wobbled as dust and sand rained from the roof, the little entrance that Shikamaru had entered through was slammed closed with a flying piece of debris which only served to tilt the whole building on itself. Without any other thought, Ino and Shikamaru clasped hands tightly –their blood smearing together in a crude form of a pact to stay together through all this chaos –as they waited for the inevitable. The blond woman was shaking, she had never imagined herself dying like this –she had refused to imagine any sort of death for herself but nightmares were shitty assholes that did that for her. Ino always thought she would have gone down fighting on the battlefield, not trapped in this godforsaken place. She was helpless –useless, useless, useless, just like back then, and now Shikamaru is going to die here with her –and she was scared. Ino wondered what her father –did Choji feel like this, was he terrified, he died so slowly, he must have been terrified –had felt before he had died, did he feel like how she was feeling, so petrified of what awaited her.

‘I’m scared…’ Ino thought as she watched the building slowly cave on itself as the attacks got worse and worse, ‘…I’m scared…’

“Hey, Ino…” Shikamaru’s voice snapped her out of her intrusive mind.

Shivering and scared out of her mind, the kunoichi still turned her head towards the man –he had grown up to be such a good person, from that lazy boy who only wanted to cloud watch to such a strong man, he was her brother, her family –he had such a sweet and reassuring smile on his face. Ino felt herself relax like she knew things were going to be alright even as the world collapsed around them. Shikamaru would protect her, he always tried to do his best for them –Chōji had never blamed him for not wanting to stay, not even once, he had understood the pain it would have caused him.

“You would have been an amazing mother.”

Tears pricked her eyes at his words as her lips trembled –he always had amazing intuition, he was a Nara for reason after all –her mouth opened as she spoke, “Shika, we never blam-”

Boom!

Her sentence was cut off as an unexpected blast landed on the unstable haven which caused the roof to cave in almost instantaneously, rocks and barbed metal followed, crushing everything in its path with no mercy.

Their hands never let go, even as the world crashed down on them.

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique)

Naruto had a positively vicious grin on his face as he stared down the bound goddess unflinchingly; a three-pronged kunai appeared in his bandaged right hand while his other channeled a constant stream of chakra into the seal on the ground. Numerous shadow clones appeared –no puffs of smoke or sounds or spikes in chakra, he had to learn some decent control since they were basically fugitives in Kaguya’s world. They appeared as a defensive line around him, Kaguya, and the seal, preventing any of the clones from interfering and trying to free the Rabbit Goddess.

“The three of you need to make sure the others are safe.” He whispered to a cluster of clones that had formed behind him before handing them the kunai –they immediately followed his orders and moved into the village.

“YOU CAN’T KEEP ME DOWN FOREVER, NARUTO!” Kaguya shrieked as she struggled in her chained prison, it only served to make the fangs bite further into her body and the metal tighten even more around her.

“Not forever…” Naruto rasped out, his glowing red eyes shadowed by his long blond bangs, “Just until you die.”

The goddess’ pale lilac eyes widened at his cold, bloodthirsty expression before her mouth dropped open and a horrendous screech erupted from her lungs. The world seemed to stand still as the sound reverberated throughout the island –the very air seemed to have frozen, stiff with fear at the utter fury pouring from the enraged goddess. Every living creature in Kaguya’s vicinity had turned to her, eyes widened in shock and terror and they waited for her next move, and they weren’t kept long as hundreds of tree roots shot straight out of the ground.

“Fucking shit!” Naruto cursed as the swaying roots took center stage, curling around and up Kaguya’s body, trying to free her of the restricting chains.

‘Kit, it’s the God Tree.’ Kurama murmured in his mind, his red irises gleaming as he narrowed his eyes at the scene, ‘You need to get your shadow or spare some clones to prevent those things from freeing her.’

“Stop calling him that!” The blond shouted in embarrassment, his cheeks flushing a cheery red, then turned to his clones, “Redirect! Stop the roots!”

“Yes, boss!”

Several clones burst into a golden light simultaneously, they had activated their own Kyūbi Chakura Mōdo (Nine-Tails Chakra Mode) and while it took a severe amount of chakra to keep the mode steady and still feed chakra into the seal, it didn’t completely deplete his reserves. There was a humongous reservoir of chakra in the seal but he was wary of using it since it was Kaguya’s power. She could possibly turn the technique on him so he wasn’t going to chance it. The clones sped towards the wiggling roots, slicing through them with the utmost efficiency that would have made his younger self gush. While that was happening, Naruto turned his attention back to a seething Kaguya, who was visibly clenching her jaw from the pain the chains were bringing upon her body.

‘This isn’t a definite solution since we can’t actually kill her with the seal but it does serve to weaken her so that we can easily seal her.’ The blond thought while eyeing the goddess for any suspicious movements.

All of a sudden, Kaguya stiffened as her hair fanned out behind her and hardened into needle points, the veins around her lilac eyes bulged as she stared hard at him. Naruto frowned at the goddess’ actions, he knew that she was sufficiently drained and wouldn’t be using any attacks, especially while she was bound –it was the reason why she was relying on clones and the God Tree. The blond knew that Kaguya could still assault him even as she was, but that would just serve to bleed her of her chakra more which she clearly didn’t want.

‘That is…unless…’ Naruto’s eyes flickered between blue and red before they widened when he spied the small smirk on the goddess’ reddened lips, ‘…that was all a distraction.’

‘Ah, fuck.’ Kurama did the honor of echoing his feelings.

With the ferocity that Naruto only knew came from her, she launched her needled hair at him while he cursed explicitly. Several clones dropped their tasks and positions, and raced towards him –they acted without command and tried to shield him from the attack. The Togebari (Rabbit Needle Hair) tore mercilessly through his shadow clones, they cried out from the sudden pain and disappeared on the spot without being given the chance to stop the barrage. Naruto grimaced as he was bombarded with his clones' memories, feelings, and phantom pain all at once and then braced himself to be stabbed severely (by hair of all things!). He couldn’t stop powering the seal –she was forcing him to choose between his well-being and keeping the seal activated which was stupid.

Naruto wasn’t going to let her go, even if the fucking Sage, himself, descended from the heavens and told him to do so!

“Fuck, this is going to hurt like hell…” The blond winced as he bent down, left hand still on the seal, to cover all his important bits.

‘I’m sure that doesn’t include your dick, Fishcake.’ Kurama stated dryly.

Naruto squawked at the fox’s words, ‘As if! That’s the most important part, Kurama!’

‘To the Uchiha maybe…’

The blond blushed furiously to the tips of his ears –the stupid demon fox was really trying to pick a fight with him now, ‘Shut it, furball!’

Kurama just rolled his eyes at his container’s behavior, ‘Needles front and center, Fishcake. Cover up or get impaled.’

“Crap!” Naruto cursed and curled himself into a ball, forgetting the irritating fox in his head in favor of trying not to get skewered.

The deadly swoosh of the needles shooting through the air caused shivers to crawl up and down his spine. While he liked himself more without multiple holes in various parts of his body, he couldn’t give up now. He couldn’t surrender to her –not when so many people were counting on him. He had discreetly sent a few clones to check on the rest of the island, he wouldn’t put it past the witch to attack the others while he was indisposed. Hopefully, they had gotten there in time before any more damage could be wrought.

“Are you going to stay like that the entire time, Usuratonkachi?”

The blunt drawl and utterance of the fond derogatory nickname snapped Naruto out of his inner thoughts and towards a face that only a mother could love –and him, for some reason.

“Sasuke…!” He breathed out in relief, he had never been so happy to see the brooding man as he was now.

Taking in the Uchiha’s hovering position with a barely concealed gleeful grin, Naruto waggled his eyebrows suggestively at the dark-haired man which only made Sasuke wrinkle his nose in disgust. The blond pouted as his partner’s usually sour face, twisted into an expression of complete repugnance as if merely breathing the same air as Naruto was going to give him an untreatable disease. The Uchiha bastard should be thankful he had Naruto in his life!

‘Urgh…just surrender me to the bitch already.’ Kurama snorted loudly, his snout turning away from them in revulsion, ‘I’d rather be shoved into that shitty statue than watch you and the Uchiha scum fall into your creepy mating habits. ’

Naruto just grinned unrepentantly at the irritable demon, knowing that his blasé shit-eating attitude would only serve to piss the fox off even more. He turned his attention away from his fuming tenant and towards his partner, who was steadily growing more annoyed with Naruto’s lack of care for the situation they were in. The blond blinked in surprise before his eyes immediately darted towards the purple-glowing skeleton surrounding the both of them. Sasuke hadn’t had enough time to bring out his fully-formed Susanoo when Kaguya had launched her attack so his avatar’s skeleton had been their only protection.

“Huh…fast as ever, teme.” Naruto snubbed as he tried to peek over Sasuke’s shoulder to try and get a snapshot of the captured goddess –the double meaning of his words made him snort.

The dark-haired man briefly closed his eyes to gather himself as he resisted his –very tempting –urge to grind the blond’s stupid face into the ground with the heel of his boot, “And you’re still an insufferable idiot, dobe.”

“Hey!” Naruto exclaimed in offense, “I resent that statement! I’m plenty smart –more smart than you!”

“Case and point, right there,” Sasuke said blandly, rolling his eyes in exasperation –he really needed to go back in the past and smack himself for ever thinking that Naruto was a viable partner.

‘Seize your lovers’ quarrel, Fishcake. We have better things to worry about than the Uchiha’s premature ejaculation problems.’ Kuruma clicked his tongue at the men’s lack of awareness and tact –really, the idiots were in the middle of a battle with fucking Kaguya, not frolicking through the dandelions!

Naruto snorted without shame.

Sasuke’s eye twitched as if he knew exactly what the demon fox had said.

The last Uchiha breathed out a very loud and heavy sigh to calm himself, lest he decided to do something that was clearly ill-advised since the fate of the world rested on his idiot blond’s shoulders. Maybe he could get away with a bit of maiming –after all, they needed him alive, not whole. The dark-haired man cursed his bloodthirsty mind for the unwise suggestion. After all, any harm to Naruto’s person would probably have Shikamaru and Gaara on his ass.

‘Or Sakura…’ Sasuke shuddered and discarded that train of thought.

“How far along is the seal?” The Uchiha chose to ask instead, he kept Susanoo at his back since Kaguya was a sneaky bitch and would probably stab him in the back –literally –should he falter, even if she was restrained.

Naruto huffed out an exhausted breath. Sasuke didn’t know how long he had been powering the seal but the sweat sliding down his temples indicated that it had been a while, “Not even halfway there.”

He muttered a few very colorful expletives under his breath, “Is it the God Tree?”

“Yeah…” The blond bit his lip in thought –the man was an absolute idiot but he wasn’t completely stupid and Fūinjutsu was a subject he excelled at so Sasuke was going to take his word when it came to sealing Kaguya, “…the seal isn’t designed to hold this much chakra and the failsafe made it so that the excess would flow back into the earth. The God Tree took years to amass the amount of chakra it has now but the process is getting faster. We’re basically feeding it chakra through Kaguya which will eventually go back into her.”

“So we can’t drain her dry?” Sasuke asked, his mind pulling up countless backup plans they had designed.

“No…” Naruto’s cerulean eyes darkened into a deeper and more intimidating royal blue, “…we’re gonna have to weaken her considerably then seal her. There’s no way to successfully kill her at this point, otherwise, we’d be here ‘til we die.”

Sasuke sighed as he ran his right hand through his hair, ruffling his dirt-filled locks –he was so damn tired of everything, he just wanted it to end, there wasn’t any goddamn point in fighting anymore, they were all going to die anyway –before coming to a resolve, “Alright, get her weak and kept her that way. The more chakra she throws around, the better for us. I’ll locate the God Tree and start hacking away at the focal points.”

Naruto nodded his head, his eyes solemn with dark bags decorating his face which made him look like a distressed panda, “Okay, take a clone with you and my chokutō as well.”

The blond shifted his bandaged right arm on the ground, not letting go of the seal, just repositioning it as he activated one of the storage seals under the cloth wrapped around his limb. Using his left hand, Naruto ripped his chokutō out of his arm fiercely, not caring that he destroyed the bindings that kept his pale Mokuton arm from sight. Sasuke took the sword from his partner with a dark look in his eyes. His hands didn’t retreat immediately; instead, they hung in the air for a moment before stretching out to tap his fingers twice against Naruto’s straining shoulder.

Naruto swallowed heavily at the searing bottomless black eye of his lover –his own azure eyes imploring.

“Oi, teme!” Naruto called out when the Uchiha was just about to leave, his voice suspiciously wobbly as his hair shadowed his face from view, “Don’t destroy it. I like that one.”

Sasuke just raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the blond, “Hn.”

From the moment that Gaara had been born, he suffered.

His mother’s death.

His father’s cold indifference and anger.

His siblings’ absolute fear of him.

The villagers' avoidance, fear, and hate toward him.

And his uncle, Yashamaru’s betrayal and eventual death at his hands.

So Gaara knew pain.

He knew fear.

Anger.

Hate.

Sadness.

But Gaara also knew happiness.

Love.

Fleeting as it had been, especially as the world crumbled around them.

The redheaded shinobi huffed out an exhausted breath as he circled his sand back around their group, picking up stray bits of sand that had scattered in the aftermath of his attacks. He couldn’t afford to waste his main weapon –Uzushio was a rock, floating in the middle of the ocean that would be lucky to even see a grain of sand. And while Gaara had learned to limit and control himself when it came to his sand, this was pushing it, especially with the number of enemies attacking them.

“Temari…” He grunted out, feeling his body shake under the constant strain.

It could have been minutes or even hours since Kaguya attacked –since she shrieked and sent her weeds to do her dirty work –but Gaara was certainly experiencing the strain of chakra exhaustion. He needed to let his sister know so that she could get the others away and to the rendezvous point. They had split up their huge group into sections under the command of their strongest, Naruto and Sasuke, who were currently taking care of Kaguya. While Sakura would have fitted easily into that formation, she had opted to remain with the rest of them, sighting that her teammates weren’t that incompetent. She was the best option to go to, especially with the way things were turning out.

“Temari!” Gaara called out once more when he didn’t get a reply.

“WHAT!”

The redhead barely blinked at the unrestrained anger and frustration that was basically pelted at him by his older sister. Taking a chance, Gaara deigned to glance backward and towards his sister who was swinging her giant fan around like the maniac she was. He never knew how his father saw his siblings as sane, not when he came out fucked up as he was. While he could blame Shukaku for the significant amount of damage to his unhinged mind –the redhead realized, after a few years of being close with his siblings, that it was just genetics.

“You need to guide the others to Sakura.” Gaara stated calmly, even as his breathing sped up to keep up with his mounting weariness, “I won’t be able to keep this up forever.”

At that, Temari finally turned her attention towards him, even as she batted away a White Zetsu clone with a swipe of her fan. Other clones were swiftly hacked into paper-thin pieces with the sharp blades of her ever-powerful wind. She had been training with Naruto and learned the delicate art of utterly decimating her opponents from him –say what you will about the slightly ditzy blond man but he knew his stuff. There was a thunderous expression on her face, the scar that ran diagonally across her face and over her left eye –blood, blood, blood, only blood, where was Kankuro, this was wrong, it wasn’t supposed to be like this –only served to make her more terrifying. It made him pause in his actions to further encourage her to leave him with the enemy and find safety.

It reminded him of that time when Kankuro stole her food.

“The hell are you spouting, Gaara…” His older sister drawled out in a dangerous tone.

A shiver wracked down his spine. Gaara had a feeling that he should give his back to the White Zetsu clones instead of his beloved sister. Sweat dotted his temples and forehead, rolling down the sides of his face as he considered his options before him. He had been trying to make sure his sister and their comrades were safe, they were his first priority beyond getting rid of Kaguya, because what was humanity and salvation when there were no humans left? However, it seemed like he made a grave mistake. Trying to protect his sister by sheltering her had been his first option, especially given what Gaara knew about her. However, it seemed to be the wrong decision because while that was something he could have, maybe, gotten away with before the war –it was different now, they were different now…Temari was different now.

Gulping down the sudden collection of saliva in the back of his throat, Gaara's mouth opened and closed as he tried to come up with a reason for being an absolute fucking idiot, “You need to reconvene with Sakura…I’ll be staying to make sure that you get there safely.”

Temari’s right eye twitched.

‘Or I could just throw myself into a White Zetsu horde to save myself from the demon in front of me…’ Gaara thought morbidly, he was sure that Shukaku would have agreed with him.

That would surely be a mercy compared to what his sadistic sister had planned for him.

“Stop talking bullshit Gaara before I get angry.” Temari calmly stated but by the stormy look in her eyes, she was way beyond angry at this point and he knew that anything he said would trigger her.

Kaguya’s invasion or not, Temari would not hesitate to put him in the ground if he pushed her.

“…I can’t let you die here Temari.” Gaara admitted begrudgingly, his teeth clenching so hard that the creaking and scratching of them rubbing together could be audibly heard, “You deserve…so much more than to be killed and forgotten in this place. You have a future to look forward to.”

The redhead turned back to his task of containing the White Zetsu, while he could have easily killed them, that would have taken too much of his chakra reserves. He wanted to keep being in this fight long enough to see Kaguya defeated, or at least see his sister to safety. Gaara couldn’t suffer the pain of losing another one of his precious people after he had already failed to save so many people already. It was the least he could do, trying to save his sister, especially after what happened to Kankuro-

Swish!

Gaara heard it before he felt it, even if it was a wisp, but it was so fast and then he was staring at the artificially colored night sky, his back throbbing from the pain of how hard he hit the ground. He stayed in that position even as they were surrounded by enemies, he didn’t want to get up –for some reason he felt so tired all of a sudden. The crunching sound of feet trudging across the battlefield, smashing debris and gravel underfoot, alerted him of his sister’s approaching presence.

Maybe she’d have mercy on him if he played dead.

‘…If I was really dead, she’d probably resurrect me and kill me herself.’ Gaara deadpanned in his mind.

“Get the fuck up, Gaara.”

Gaara barely turned his head to acknowledge his sister’s words as he continued to stare at the starless sky. His mind urged him to glance a few centimeters to the right at the bright and very hypnotizing full moon, but he steeled himself – tempting as it was…he’d rather die than be trapped in that genjutsu. Temari’s foot nudged into his side, it was hard enough to make him wince but not leave any bruise, as she called out for him to stop fucking around and to get up.

“What’s the point, Temari?” Gaara instead said in his monotone voice, “We’re all going to die at this rate and you refuse to leave with the others, so might as well give up now.”

Temari heaved out an exasperated breath, “Please don’t tell me that you’re going through one of your Sasuke-level brooding moods, now, of all times.”

Gaara was silent.

The older blond-haired girl sighed as she dropped down next to him, her legs crossed as her eyes roved over the swirling sand around them. The sand had formed a dome around them, attacking and defending against any and all enemies outside the protective bubble. It was a powerful technique of Gaara’s but it consumed a lot of chakra and he definitely would have run himself into the ground if she hadn’t been there. So while her brother held the fort so-to-speak, Temari had been charged with getting rid of most of the clones. However, everything went to sage-damn hell when those roots sprung out from the ground. They had been taken off-guard, their initial defense weakening quite considerably in their sheer terror and shock which made Gaara push himself even harder to keep them all safe. While one of Naruto’s clones had managed to help them get rid of the God Tree’s roots, the damage had already been done and Gaara paid the price for it.

And now, it seemed like Gaara had finally run out of gas.

“You know that I can’t leave you…” Temari stated bluntly, she did not waste time beating around the bush.

“Logically speaking, leaving one behind raises the percentage of the rest surviving.” The redhead replied drolly. While Gaara never had any problems when it came to his emotions, this was somehow especially hard to say.

“As if we give a fuck about logic, Gaara,” She scoffed as her nose wrinkled in disgust like she smelled something particularly disgusting, “We’ve defied human logic years ago, so don’t talk about shit like that.”

Gaara sighed as Temari continued to spit out vitriol while digging her short teeth-bitten fingernails into the hard ground –she was likely carving out his name. His head lolled to the side as he took in her hunched form with slightly glassy eyes. It was completely stupid and impractical to leave themselves like this, wide open to the danger that surrounded them. They were in the midst of war yet here they were…sitting on the ground splattered with the blood of their comrades, twiddling their thumbs.

“You need to leave, Temari,” Gaara said in a voice that held no arguments.

His sister just raised a disbelieving eyebrow, her words biting and callous all the same, “If you think that I’m going to listen to you, you’re abso-fucking-lutely wrong.”

“Temari…” He hissed out, his voice low in warning –he was being serious, “You have more than yourself to worry about.”

Temari froze for a moment. Countless emotions raced across her mind and Gaara watched the emotional upheaval in her somewhat watery eyes. For a moment, time seemed to flag as his sister considered his warning with the utmost seriousness, weighting the life of one person –her brother, his mind supplied –against dozens more. It was only for a moment and Gaara hated every second of it. Gaara hated that he was burdening his dear older sister with such a choice. Temari shouldn’t have to choose between saving her last surviving brother and their people.

Yet as Temari’s eyes hardened over, Gaara knew that her mind had been made up.

“Please…” Gaara whispered softly, trying to convince her to turn and run –to abandon him and save herself. It was a futile effort. Temari was a stubborn woman and once she made her mind up, anyone would be hard-pressed to change it.

Taking that as her cue to stop fucking around and to speak civilly, Temari straightened her spine and held her head up high, she refused to be cowed by her little brother about saving herself and leaving him to die all alone. Even as despair ate him up on the inside, Gaara smiled softly at the change in his sister’s demeanor –she looked so regal and strong, he was sure that if he hadn’t taken the hat then she would have made an amazing Kazekage to Suna. She wouldn’t have taken any of the elders’ bullshit lying down and would have given them as good as she got, even more so in her case –she was vindictive like that.

“Temari…” Gaara sighed with a small fond smile on his normally stoic face, “…you are…so strong and I…am so proud of you.”

Her breath hitched as she took in his saddened yet happy expression, glistening tears gathered in the corners of her eyes but refused to fall. The blond woman bit her bottom lip hard to stop it from trembling –she was having such a hard time controlling her emotions. Temari had learned that from Gaara and from her experiences because crying never helped anyone, it just served to make her weak and she could never afford to be weak.

The redhead huffed out an exhausted breath as he turned his attention back to the sky, “I am sure…that Kankuro would have thought the same thing.”

A choked sob escaped from her throat without warning.

‘Low blow, Gaara…’

The redheaded man huffed out a breath as he lifted his upper body off the ground and heaved himself to his feet. His sand had kept them safe for the duration of their little heart-to-heart but he knew that the clones were closing in. Gaara knew he wouldn’t be able to keep them safe forever so he had to make sure that Temari and the others go away first. Rolling his shoulders to relieve some of the tension and constant ache, he lifted his hands, willing the sand to do his bidding as he planted his feet firmly into the dirt. The discarded grains rose and gathered to form spikes before shooting forwards, nailing every target he had set his sights on.

His attention was stolen when he heard the crunching of gravel as his sister took her place right beside him, Temari smirked at him –her eyes were red and swollen –and said, “Well if that idiot had any kind of thoughts like that then I’d label him as an imposter and kill him myself.”

Gaara snorted.

“I’m not leaving you, Gaara.” His sister spoke eventually as she stared at the scrambling clones, “Not ever and, definitely, not like this.”

“I can never win with you…” The redheaded man deadpanned at his headstrong sister. It was a blessing and a curse and served to give him grey hairs -Gaara was in his twenties, and he wasn’t supposed to be grey yet.

Temari scoffed and flicked her wrist. It was sassy and it got rid of an errant clone, “I’m your sister. You’re not supposed to win against me.”

“It’s a wonder how the Nara even tolerates you, Temari.” Gaara snubbed his sister, pretending not to notice how her eye twitched at his words.

Temari clicked her tongue at him, “If anything, I tolerate that lazy ass –barely, at that.”

The redhead was quiet for a moment, his mind occupied with everything that had taken place over the years –the people they loved and lost, the people they found and built lives with, the people who stayed against all odds –before he smiled. It was small –barely noticeable, but it was equal to a grin for Gaara, “You still love him though…”

Temari’s face screwed up for a bit, as if considering his statement, then her expression relaxed –albeit unwillingly –as a gentle smile lit up her face, “…yeah.” She whispered.

Back-to-back, the pair of siblings took their positions before Gaara lowered the dome of sand around them just a bit. It was enough just for the both of them to take control of the situation and prevent the clone from getting close to the other shinobi, who were haphazardly drawing a transportation seal on the ground. Gaara and Temari weren’t going to spend what little time they had left trying to encourage their subordinates to fight and not run away. That was Naruto’s job, not theirs. If they wanted to fight then they should fight. People shouldn’t be motivated to fight for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Working simultaneously and like a well-oiled machine, Gaara and Temari moved together and they struck down their enemies with ease. It wasn’t like the White Zetsu clones were particularly hard to deal with, at least not for them; it was just the number that overwhelmed them, it didn’t help that some of them were using ninjutsu as well. Temari’s fan cut through the clones cleanly, every movement of hers was precise and unwasted as she danced around them. Gaara was as cold and unfeeling as ever when it came to fighting, his gaze unwavering and blank as he waved his hand, commanding his sand to crush the clones into a pulpy mess.

Temari swung her fan in a huge arc which decapitated the last couple of clones that had been advancing on some injured shinobi. Just as she was about to put her weapon down, the ground hedged upwards and cracked before more roots bursts through. Every single person stiffened, their bodies tightening up in fear as they stared at the plant structures dancing in the air to an unheard tune –Naruto had just hacked those things down. Several ninjas could be seen holding themselves while crying, some had slit their throats with their own kunai and others were completely blank. Gaara sent a worried look in his sister’s direction, his stoic mask cracking under the visible fear and distress he was feeling.

His mouth opened to call out for Temari when roots stopped moving and stiffened, then sprang towards them. Kaguya’s roots were definitely out for blood and Gaara knew that they wouldn’t rest until they were soaked in it. He clenched his fists as he glanced at his peripheral, noting how most of the soldiers had laid down in surrender, not even bothering to protect themselves against the assault. Even the ones that were supposed to be drawing the transportation seal had given up. Temari was as fierce as ever as she slashed the roots with her fan and her wind.

“Please don’t die…” Gaara muttered under his breath, his voice almost pleading as he steeled himself and prepared to fight for his life and for the life of his family.

From the moment that Gaara had been born, he suffered.

He knew pain.

He knew fear.

Anger.

Hate.

Sadness.

But Gaara knew happiness.

Love.

He knew the comfort of his siblings and friends.

He knew and felt love through them.

And as much as that happiness was fleeting and that love was waning…

Gaara would still fight.

He would fight to protect what he had left even if it killed him.

Gaara never wanted to go back to that life filled with such sadness, hate, pain, and anger so he would gladly die if it meant keeping what he had now.

‘The Hyūga Princess…’

“Switch!”

Hinata shouted as she launched herself at the enemy, swapping with one of her fellow comrades who looked on the edge of unconsciousness. The brown-haired man took two leaps away from the deformed clone at the last minute, which gave Hinata the perfect opportunity to sneak under the enemy’s purview and attack with a well-placed Hakke Kūshō (Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm). The White Zetsu choked from the strike and flew back from the force of her hit, slamming into a horde of congregating clones on its way. Not pausing even for a second, Hinata launched Mizu Hari (Water Needle) at the surrounding clones that had decided to gang up on her, accurately hitting their tenketsu points which caused them to stall.

‘She’s the Heiress?’

Changing back to her previous technique, Hinata battled up close and personal with the clones, taking them out of commission as she slammed her palms against their chests which caused them to crumple to the ground –dead. The dark-haired woman spun around on her heel, solid and confident and graceful all at once, and struck out at the clones converging in on her with open palms. Hinata had successfully taken the attention off her comrades and made herself a target –now all she had to do was keep them occupied while the others regrouped and thought of a better plan.

‘She’s so weak…’

As she continued, Hinata’s movements sped up to match the increasing number of enemies that were swarming in from somewhere. Her derisive thoughts only served to make her fight harder, to push further because she wasn’t weak –not by a long shot. She had not been weak in a very long time. No…Hinata hadn’t been weak, she wasn’t that small naïve child anymore, vying for the attention of her father, of her clan…of Neji-nii-san.

‘I shall pray for the Hyūga Clan if she ever takes over.’

Like all things, as the world changed around her, Hinata changed and adapted as well. She had made herself stronger so that she could survive in this new world that Kaguya had forced on them. Hinata had pushed, and pushed, and pushed –and even when she felt like she would die from the sheer amount of pain and exhaustion she was feeling, the dark-haired woman pushed even further.

Because Hinata was not weak.

Hinata would not let anyone get away with protecting her…not again.

Not after Neji-nii-san.

‘Hinata-sama…’

Neji had always stayed so formal, even when he was dying. He had spoken of freedom, the one thing he had longed for, for so long. His fading gaze filled with such delight and contentment that it made her ache just thinking about it. Birds had dotted the sky that day, flying high above the chaos and destruction when Neji breathed his last breath.

The dark-haired woman swiped her stretched-out arms, palms facing the enemy, in opposite directions, the force of her chakra blowing away the deformed clones into the few ruined Uzushio buildings left. They were on the outskirts of the island –Hinata had been patrolling with a group of shinobi when Kaguya invaded –so their surroundings were scarce of any obstructions, save for a couple of old structures from when Uzushiogakure had still been thriving.

Hinata would save herself and protect others…never again will she turn into that weak little girl.

Not after Shino-kun.

‘Hinata…s-survive…please…!’

Hinata had seen Shino’s face that day for the first time since they met. He was so pale –paler than those of the Uchiha clan –it served to make the blood dripping down his face more distinct. Hinata had seen Shino’s smile that day for the first time since they met. He had always designed to keep his mouth covered but his smile had been so beautiful, even in death, that it brought tears to her eyes. Hinata had seen Shino’s eyes that day for the first time since they met. Dark round sunglasses had covered them for years, they had been a warm brown color that reminded her so much of family and the feeling of being content.

Hinata had closed those eyes when Shino’s chest failed to rise once more.

The Hyūga woman quickly ducted under a vicious clawed swipe from a lone clone then slapped her palm against its chest which sent it flying into a broken slab of concrete. Hinata leapt back to try and put some distance between her and the enemies when she was accosted from all sides. Taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she sprang into the air just as the clones, to her left and right, reached her and delivered a spilt-kick which sent both clones sprawling –Hinata had coined the little trick from Sasuke. As the dark-haired woman was descending to the ground, she grappled the shoulders of the clone in front of her and used it as leverage to smash the back of her heel against the chin of the White Zetsu clone –it had been trying to sneak up behind her. Without wasting any of her movements, she twisted around and flipped over the last clone, slamming its shoulders into the ground on the way.

Hinata rolled her own shoulders to ease the sudden tension before cracking her neck to get rid of the sudden kinks. Just as she was letting out a sigh of relief, the clone of the ground started to shuffle awkwardly. Hinata barely blinked before she rammed the heel of her boot into its skull –the pure force of her hit turned the clone’s head to mush in an instant.

No…Hinata was not weak and she would never be weak ever again.

Not after Kiba-kun.

‘HINATA!’

Kiba had screamed so loud for her, crying out for her as he tried to buy time for her to leave. Hinata could still hear his voice to this day –in her dreams and nightmares –as if it had been ingrained into her very soul. Huh…maybe it had been because she could never forget that day. She screamed so loud…holding his body in her arms while everyone circled around her –just like Neji, they all leave, why are you protecting me, I’m so weak that they all died trying to save me! –she remembered Ino and Sakura holding her. Hinata didn’t know how long she had been crying but she later woke up in a different compound –no Shino and Kiba in sight.

That had been the day that she stopped being so weak.

Shaking away such inconsequential thoughts, Hinata focused her attention back on the physical enemy that had suddenly appeared in front of her. She had managed to shave off a good amount of Kaguya’s clone forces –at least the ones she had sent after them, she didn’t know about the others –which would give them ample time to strategize on what to do next. Hinata knew that getting into contact with Naruto and Sasuke would be a fool’s errand. The clones meant that Kaguya was on the island which her blond friend and his boyfriend were probably taking care of. Sakura would be the better option but she wasn’t anywhere near the other woman’s medical station, which was located at the epicenter of the village. 

“We could use Shikamaru right now…” Hinata murmured under her breath before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly –she needed to calm down and take stock of the situation first.

Turning away from the carnage she had created, Hinata faced her fellow shinobi who had rallied up behind her as backup after she had taken the frontline of their battalion. They were grim-faced and panting from exhaustion, but she could see that they were not deterred. They had all been taken off-guard by the sudden invasion, not expecting the sheer volume of the attack all at once but they had adapted quite fast under Hinata’s orders.

They would follow Hinata into battle without question.

“Alright…” She stated softly, her eyes glancing from left to right, taking in the soldiers in front of her, “Is there anyone injured?”

Several people squirmed for a moment before raising their arms in accordance with Hinata’s question. They didn’t want to cause any problems by withholding information about their health, especially if they wanted any of their plans to work out. Hinata nodded in acceptance, spying a few shinobi crouching on the cracked ground while holding their heads.

Clearly, some were worse off than others.

“Did Sakura take all of the medic-nin or did some stay with us?” Hinata asked calmly while her mind raged over a solution –she couldn’t afford to lose it in front of her comrades, it would just serve to lower their morale.

“Fuji and I stayed, Hinata-sama!” A dirty blond-haired woman shouted firmly, the shinobi beside her were nodding resolutely.

“Heal them.” Hinata stated with a small smile while swishing her hand towards the more severely injured soldiers then turned to the shinobi at the front, “We need to draw up a plan, right now.”

The black-haired man’s eyes widened briefly at being addressed but he regained his composure quickly, and nodded solidly at Hinata, “HAI!”

The Hyūga motioned toward two other people before breaking off from the group and leading them further away, “We have a bit of time before another wave hits. The plan is to retreat.”

The shinobi gathered looked taken aback by her declaration then frowned deeply which made her raise her eyebrows in question, “You disagree?”

The brown-haired ninja, with scars decorating her small face, reared up, dignity and pride flaring, protests flying out of her mouth before she knew it, “Hinata-sama, we must stay and fight! We cannot retreat now, not when we have already taken down so many of them!”

“There is no guarantee that Kaguya would only be sending in her clones, Shibi.” Hinata chastised, the woman choked on her words when she realized that her commander knew her name, “She has proved to be unpredictable time and time again. If we don’t retreat now, especially now that we have the means, then we might be faced with something much bigger than we can handle.”

The black-haired man, Koichi, cleared his throat which gained their attention, “With all due respect Hinata-sama, this is the perfect opportunity for us to clear away Kaguya’s forces. This could potentially help us gain the upper hand in this war.”

The underlying derisive tone of the word ‘war’ did not go unnoticed by any of them –after all, this wasn’t so much a war but a mass extinction of all life in the world.

Hinata hardly blinked at the brewing anger, but she did give Koichi a moment to collect himself before addressing the most concerning issue she had. “And if we encounter the Jinmenju?”

The three shinobi surrounding her stiffened in fear. Their eyes widened in horror as they remembered the destruction wrought by those disfigured amalgamations. Hinata felt a nugget of guilt squirm in her heart for scaring her fellow comrades but she wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything for them. There was always a chance that Kaguya would unleash her truly dreadful creations on them once again.

Shibi visibly straightened her spine, her resolve overwhelming her apparent fear, before she faced Hinata head-on, eyes boring into pale lilac, “Then we fight. I’m not running away again.”

Taking confidence in Shibi’s sudden strength, Koichi nodded his head in agreement, his eyes never wavering in the face of what could most definitely lead to his death.

Hinata bit her lip in contemplation as she stared intently at them. She hardly wanted to gamble the lives of her comrades on such odds, especially with the uncertainty surrounding the Jinmenju, “What do you think, Jin?”

Jin blinked, his expression calculating as his eyes slid from one shinobi to the next. Something seemed to change within the cold depths before he regarded his captain, “We should stay and fight, Hinata…-sama. I-We have been running for many years. This could finally be our chance to fight back and take Kaguya down.”

Jin’s eyes lowered, debating whether or not he should continue speaking before looking back up, “I don’t believe in much. But I do believe in you, Hinata-sama.”

Hinata’s breath hitched in her chest as the man’s form converged with the image of Neji-nii-san. For a moment, she almost thought that her beloved cousin was there, right in front of her. Despite all his faults and hers, their rocky relationship, and their rivalry –Neji had made it known that he had loved her and he had believed in her before he died. Hearing the heartfelt confession from a fellow shinobi, someone under her command, made Hinata’s heart hurt from the soul-crushing sadness, awe, and fear. It was hard, to have someone believe in her wholeheartedly. Hinata wondered whether this is what Naruto felt whenever they all looked at him.

Hinata took in her comrades’ tense forms and stubborn resolve.

“Okay…” The Hyūga woman sighed in exasperation –looks like they all took after their Kage, “But we need a solid plan. None of you are dying in my watch, alright.”

They smiled with indulgence at their commander, their hearts warming at the sight of Hinata’s kind smile and fond eyes –she had always taken extra care of the people she led, and this just proved that they had made the right decision.

“YES, HINATA-SAMA!”

“Would you please stop calling me that already?”

Neji-nii-san…Shino…Kiba…

They had all taken care of her until their last breaths.

Hinata would not let that happen again –this time she would be the one doing the protecting.

“Come back here, you fucking cowardly shitweasel!”

Sakura’s face was set in a fierce look of anger and determination as she stared down a White Zetsu clone. It looked like it wanted to be anywhere but near her –which was commendable, especially for something that wasn’t supposed to show any emotion. Not that she cared much for its opinion, if anything she reveled in that healthy dose of fear that she brought out in people –enemy and ally alike. Her katana was at her side, gripped loosely in her right hand, and while she wasn’t making a move to even seem intimidating, she still looked pretty terrifying. Maybe it was because of the blood decorating her face or her jagged long hair filled with dirt and grime or the black lines running from the purple jewel on her forehead or the absolutely fucking deranged grin that was spread across her feminine features.

‘You never know…’ She hummed in thought, confusion coloring her mind –she wasn’t even attempting to be scary.

Shaking away her distractive musings, Sakura turned her attention back to her enemies who had thought that it would have been a good idea to attack her medical station, “Hey, bakayarou…”

Several medic-nin, who were taking shelter behind the frightening woman, flinched back at the venomous tone of the words that she had spat out. They were all intimately familiar with the pink-haired kunoichi’s temper and utter no-nonsense attitude –after all, they had seen her take down their Kage and his second-in-command numerous times with complete proficiency. Sakura wasn’t a woman anyone could easily mess with and when it came to her work, it was all hands on deck for her.

“Ready to die?”

A chilling glint sharpened in Sakura’s olive-green eyes, it almost seemed like it was glowing from her anger. Not even shifting her stance and positioning, several senbon slipped silently into her free left hand and were launched with stunning accuracy. The pink-haired woman was a medic-nin first and foremost –she knew the human body like she knew her own chakra coils, she knew the body’s weak points and its strengths, she knew how to cleanly kill her opponents without breaking a sweat, she was a beast in her own right.

So Sakura knew that all her marks would hit because she was just that good.

The enhanced senbon blasted through the air with such speed that it looked like it had disappeared into thin air –that is, until it was firmly embedded in her targets’ tenketsu points. Sakura had recruited Hinata’s help for that, the Hyūga had helped map out all 361 tenketsu points on a person’s body –particularly the clones’ bodies. The needles were lodged securely in the joints, forcing all movement to come to stop and that was when Sakura struck. The kunoichi had distinctly made her katana out of stronger material, the kind that would be able to withstand her strength and impeccable chakra control. Because as much as she loved decimating her opponents with her bare fists, she loved hacking them into tiny pieces even more.

“Fuck yes!” Sakura hollered loudly, an excited gleam in her eyes as she swiftly ran her katana through the clones as if they were butter.

Heads were easily separated from the bodies, the force of the swipes causing most of them to fly off in the air and land in some other location. Sakura didn’t bother with playtime and went straight for the kill without mercy, she wasn’t waiting for them to come and attack her people –she wasn’t going to lose more of her people, she wasn’t going to lose more of her loved ones, she had to finish this quickly, and then she could find Ino.

Sakura’s thoughts were moving a mile a second, her ability to think on her feet was amazing and something she had adopted from their resident unpredictable blond bombshell. She moved from one target to the next without stopping. She knew that every strike of her katana would hit so she didn’t have to worry and while she would have preferred to have someone at her back –the kunoichi was confident, not stupid –Sakura would have to make do for now. Just as her sword plunged into the last clone, she heard an ear-shattering scream pierce the air which stopped all movement. It was immediately followed by the ground rumbling as hundreds of roots –sage-fucking-damnit, it was the God Tree! –shot up into the air.

Sakura’s head swiveled toward where she had left the other shinobi. She had left them to fend for themselves, they were able to protect themselves and she wasn’t going to babysit them, even if it pained her to do so. However, all she was met with was screams of anguish and terror as the roots mercilessly tore through the soldiers under her command. Crimson red coated the roots, dripping and scattering the lifeblood of her people through the air and onto the cracked earth beneath her feet. Tightening her grip on the hilt of her katana, Sakura moved with a burst of speed, causing the ground to crack and then shatter under her feet, leaving a crater in her midst. The kunoichi put much more force behind every slash of her sword, her control wavering as her eyes passed over the dead bodies littering the grounds that had been her medical station.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Sakura screamed as things continued to slip from her hands –this wasn’t supposed to have happened, they had planned for every outcome but this was utter bullshit!

Even as she lopped off the roots, more kept popping back up like fucking cockroaches, which made her job all the harder. Sakura loved a good challenge but she didn’t want it if it came at the expense of her comrades. Some of the shinobi were too afraid to even fight back, their memories of the God Tree and complacency in the temporary peace coming back to haunt them –it left them at the mercy of the roots, Kaguya’s fucking weeds. The pink-haired kunoichi moved faster, trying to cut a way through for the soldiers so that they could flee to the transportation seal that they had hidden in one of the Uzushio catacombs.

“If you can’t fight then leave!” Sakura shouted angrily, her movements not even jerking.

Numerous shinobi hesitated for a bit before stealing themselves and their resolves. They would stand with their third-in-command because as much as she terrified them, she loved and protected them. They weren’t cowards. They were soldiers of the Allied Forces, under the command of the greatest Kage they had ever known –who was probably fighting the Rabbit Goddess with his everything. They had family and friends to protect, and they would gladly lay down their lives for that.

“We are with you, Sakura-sama!” One ballsy shinobi shouted as he threw himself into the fray, a strong fire jutsu leaving his lips.

Countless other ninjas charged in with battle cries after the man, they weren’t going to run away –not when their superiors were staying and fighting with everything they had so that they could have a future. Power-filled words left their lips, unleashing elements of destruction toward the encroaching roots and some leftover White Zetsu clones. Although their hearts were overflowing with fear, the shinobi were steadfast in their actions as they sliced through their enemies. Their kunai were held tightly in their strong grips, never faltering even as they were mowed over by the immense amount of roots that had gathered around them.

A garbled screech halted their movement for a moment as the shinobi turned their attention to the new threat. Several people stumbled in horror, faces twisted in complete fear as the abomination moved closer with stumbling steps. It was huge. It wasn’t moving fast at all. Yet, it was the faces that they saw in creation that made more than half of the gathered shinobi gag and throw up. The expressions were frozen in fear, eyes widened and mouths gaping as if they had died mid-scream –they probably did.

It was that mistake that cost the shinobi their lives. The thing’s – the Jinmenju’s –mouths split open even more before a deadly beam shot out and devastated the fear-stricken shinobi. Bodies were speared through, limbs were blown apart and scattered across the air, and blood spurted from the dead like geysers before they all dropped to the ground in pieces. None of them even had a chance to scream.

Sakura moved in the blink of an eye. Her katana sliced through the amalgamation cleanly, spraying ichor everywhere before the two halves of the monster crashed heavily onto the ground. The Jinmenju had been powerful even to wipe out half of her platoon without even moving its fatass a couple of steps, but it wasn’t as powerful as her. She had taken to the monster with no mercy, anger pumping in her veins and guiding her actions.

The chief medic-nin’s heart screamed and raged at the sight of her comrades' decimated bodies. Their momentary halt from the Jinmenju had cost them their concentration and then their lives. She couldn’t think and regret it. She couldn’t stop and mourn. She couldn’t do anything other than slash her katana back and forth, left and right as the number of adversaries increased every second. She couldn’t think about Naruto and how he was faring against Kaguya. She couldn’t think about Sasuke and how he was making sure their knucklehead didn’t kill himself doing something stupid. She couldn’t think about Gaara and Temari and how they had been breaking every single day since Kankuro died. She couldn’t think about Hinata and how she had been overworking herself to the point of exhaustion. She couldn’t think about Shikamaru and how he was killing himself with his overwhelming guilt.

She couldn’t think about Ino and how she was managing all alone without any sort of backup.

Sakura refused to think.

“FUCK OFF ALREADY!” The pink-haired kunoichi screamed in frustration, anger, and mounting fear.

Without thinking about the consequences, Sakura channeled her finely tuned chakra into her fist and slammed it into the hard dirt ground. The island floor stalled for a bit before completely shattering, causing the entire floating rock to shake rapidly. Ruins barely holding on and the buildings they had constructed in the three years they had stayed on the island crumbled to the ground, giving rise to dust clouds that clogged lungs and blinded eyes.

Sakura huffed heavily through the destruction, hoping to the Sage that she had managed to deter the roots and clones even if it was for a little bit. As her rapidly beating heart slowly started to calm down from the rush of adrenaline, she turned towards the shinobi that were fighting alongside her. A shuddering breath escaped her lips as her eyes widen in shock, disbelief, and fear –all of them, so much blood, why, you were supposed to think, no, please, crushed, all of them, blood, blood, blood –the sight that greeted her would be burned into her soul for as long as there was life in her body.

“Fuck…” Sakura gasped out as she took in the results of her reckless actions, “Shit…fuck…fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

With each word that escaped from her mount, Sakura took a step back and away from the carnage that her actions had inadvertently caused. She shivered as she noticed the man who had initially spoken up and called her ‘Sakura-sama’ crushed under a heavy-duty wall. His brain matter splattered across the ground, and his left eyeball had escaped its socket and was lying just a few centimeters away from his body. The blue iris was staring at her, the accusation –was it actually there, or was she just going insane –taunting and mocking her. The other shinobi that had followed his lead was lying dead in a similar fashion, various parts of themselves flattened in ways that they would have not recovered from, even if they had, somehow, managed to survive.

“Ino…” The name left Sakura’s lips, desperation dripping from it, “...Ino-sh…she’ll know what to do. I have to find her. Ino. Ino. Ino.”

Not bothering to give the dead bodies of her comrades another look, Sakura turned and left in search of her best friend and lover.

“ARGHHHHHH!!!”

Naruto screamed until his voice was hoarse and then some more as Kaguya’s pesky roots attacked him once more, roughly piercing straight through his body causing blood to gush and splatter on the seal below him. The blond jinchūriki had been able to evade them using his clones and as immense as his chakra reserves were, even he couldn’t constantly keep up with her movements. He couldn’t dodge all of them while keeping a hold of the seal –especially when he was continuously using his chakra cloak with multiple clones added on top of that.

“Come on, come on, come on…!” Naruto chanted under his breath, his mind not registering the pain his body was experiencing.

Kaguya smirked even as blood dribbled from her red-painted lips, “Just wait Ashura, when that cursed boy returns, I will revel in your absolute suffering as I rip his heart from his body while you watch.”

The Rabbit Goddess was immortal to a fault but she could still be weakened if people were smart enough to realize that –which, as grating, as it was to admit, these mortals did. Chakra was her lifeblood; it was what made her so powerful, what kept her alive for so long despite being part of the Ōtsutsuki Clan. These mere mortals were taking that away from her, trying to bring her on the same level as them, as if that would make her any less powerful. When she finally broke free of these damned chains, she was going to slaughter the lot of them while their precious Kage watched helplessly.

‘Starting with Indra…” She thought gleefully, ‘…such a foolish boy that one was, much like her own grandson.’

While Naruto was distracted by the overwhelming flurry of roots from the God Tree, Kaguya chuckled silently as she extended her palms as much as the chains let her, pushing further even as the snakebites clenched harder on her body. The goddess had isolated a pool of chakra away from her main chakra points that were targeted by the chains –she wasn’t a human so her biological make-up was different –which she had specifically saved for this moment. Kaguya wasn’t someone who placed all her hopes on one attack but this had to suffice because, as much as she hated to acknowledge the wonders of the human race, Naruto’s seal was severely draining her. She knew that it wouldn’t be long until she was weakened enough so that they could seal her in that damned moon once more.

‘Curse those sons of mine!’

Kaguya willed her chakra to move and the familiar feeling of it gathering near her bones was disconcerting and comforting all the same. It had been such a long time since she felt such intimacy with her chakra, it reminded her of the times before she ate the God Fruit. Kaguya’s hardened bones began to slowly protrude from the base of her palms, so as to not alert her captor and then without warning, they shot out silently. She had tried to make them as small and thin as possible, almost like senbon so that she could easily take out Naruto’s shadow clones and any shinobi that had stayed behind. Kaguya would have loved to deal with each of those useless humans and copies personally, using the most painful methods, but she was limited to long-range attacks.

Kaguya smirked and thought, ‘Not for long…’

One by one, the soldiers were struck by Kaguya’s bones –the impaled subjects began to deteriorate, their bodies quickly turning ash grey before they collapsed into nothingness, the wind carrying off the remains with the rest of the debris. Naruto’s shadow clones were put through the same treatment, her technique Tomogoroshi no Haikotsu (All-Killing Ash Bones) ate away at them at the molecular level. Several cries of shock, fear, and pain erupted from the soldiers, which alerted their Kage to their misfortune of being targeted by the Rabbit Goddess in the chaos.

Naruto’s head which had previously been swimming with thoughts of Sasuke’s well-being and Kaguya was interrupted with desperate cries emitting from all around him before his mind was assaulted with memories from his clones –memories of them being eaten from the inside out and disintegrating into dust. A shaky breath escaped his lips as his head whipped from left to right, as much as he could without letting go of the seal, and saw the battlefield devoid of people which he so clearly heard not a moment ago.

‘Where…where are…they…?’

‘Fishcake…’

The blond man shook his head as he tried to deny was what so clearly evident, “NO! They…weren’t supposed to be here! I-I-I told them…I told them to leave!”

‘Naruto…’

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Naruto cried out as he turned to face the bitch-goddess in front of him, only to be confronted with a smug smirk –she was reveling in his pain, “FUCK!”

Kaguya let out a sadistic cackle as a sick expression overtook her pallid features, “I can’t wait to see your expression when I rip your precious Uchiha to shreds before your eyes. I’m sure it will be even more delightful than the one you’re wearing now.” She purred darkly.

Naruto’s breathing quickened as images of Sasuke’s maimed body flashed through his mind –not one image was the same, each taking on a different form but all with him dying horrifically at the hands of Kaguya. For all Naruto knew, the last Uchiha could already be dead and the bitch was just fucking with him, giving him hope that Sasuke would be back only to get ripped from his arms once again. He knew that his partner was strong, he would never doubt that but many of his strong precious people had already died when everyone thought they would have survived –whether during the war or by Kaguya’s hand.

‘Naruto…’ Kurama called out, yet the demon fox’s voice sounded so very far away as if the blond was underwater with no way out.

‘Everyone…-!’ His mind cried out while his heart ached something terrible, ‘Where…everyone-…are they all-’ He whined loudly at the thought. The sound was high-pitched and filled with overwhelming grief and pain.

‘NARUTO!’

The shout echoing from deep inside him snapped him out of his borderline violent panic attack. Naruto’s cotton-stuffed ears cleared to the sounds of fighting –swords clanging, jutsus flying across the battlefield, explosions in the distance –before his eyes, and then his mind registered exactly where he was and who he tied down. Taking in a deep breath to calm his erratic heart, Naruto forced his brain to work properly so that he wouldn’t get caught up in Kaguya’s machinations again.

‘Come on!’ The blond desperately shouted at himself, ‘Get a hold of yourself, Naruto! Now is not the time to lose it!’

The blond Kage used his free hand to slap his whiskered cheek hard. It was strong enough that it felt like he’d been punched by his darling pink-haired teammate. Naruto’s cerulean eyes fell shut and he squeezed them tightly enough that he started to see black spots behind his eyelids. Naruto needed to ground himself, to think before he acted –because as much as his recklessness endeared him to people, he couldn’t afford to do something stupid right now, not with so many people counting on him to keep Kaguya contained.

‘I…just have to wait for the others to get back and then we’ll be able to get rid of her…’ Naruto thought steadily, his racing mind finally slowing down as he tried to convince himself that his oh-so-clever plan had already crashed and burned.

When Naruto felt himself sufficiently calm down, did he take a chance and open his eyes but he kept his head bowed. He didn’t want to alert Kaguya for round two on his deteriorating psyche. Naruto glanced at the trapped goddess under the shadow of his long hair, and noticed that she was still watching him –there was blood escaping the side of her mouth and her eyes looked weary but the bloodthirsty smirk on her face was as wide as ever. Cursing himself for losing composure at such a drastic time, Naruto took his situation into account.

‘Sasuke is still taking care of the God Tree,’ He thought to himself, ‘Sakura had been working overtime at her medical station with a few of the newer attendees before Kaguya invaded so she should still be there. Shikamaru had been under orders to rest after being injured in a raid. Gaara and Temari had been training with the other shinobi and Hinata had been on patrols with a group of shinobi under her command.’

‘Kit, you just need to contain her until the Uchiha gets back.’ Kurama intervened, his posture projected calmness but the swishing of his tails gave up his apprehensiveness –the demon fox could never lie without his own damn tails betraying him like that.

“Al…alright, alright…” Naruto breathed out before his head shot up, a fierce expression on his face, “I just need to make sure this bitch is where she needs to be.”

Kaguya, obviously not counting on Naruto’s mental strength, especially with how things were turning out, shrieked at his –not broken, broken, broken, he was supposed to be BROKEN –rage-tinged eyes. His mouth curled into a snarl as the Rabbit Goddess struggled in her bindings, not registering the pain it caused. She wasn’t even bothered that her image was breaking, that she was the one breaking in front of her enemy.

“LET ME GO!” The white-haired being screamed at the top of her lungs –the sound acting as a signal for the God Tree to do her bidding yet nothing responded in turn.

Kaguya’s demeanor crumbled in realization before her eyes flared with fury which she, once again, directed at the source of all her problems. Her breathing sped up in conjunction with her mounting anger and sudden overwhelming panic, her chest heaving up and down at a rapid pace that even Naruto found himself wondering whether she was going to die from a heart attack.

Maybe it was the reflective tightening of his muscles, the way his feet dug into the dirt beneath him, his other hand reaching for his signature three-pronged kunai from the storage seal tattooed on his arm – it all grounded Naruto for something that his instincts could obviously sense coming.

“I’LL KILL YOU, NARUTO!”

Kaguya burst out, her head shaking and jerking from side to side –reaching for something around, something inside her –then with a sudden increase of chakra, which Naruto knew that she couldn’t possibly have, the Rabbit Goddess’ hair rose and latched onto the chains and a with a familiar chakra release technique, Kaguya ripped the siphoning chains from her body. Naruto managed to cover his face from the sudden rush of chakra, the air rippling from the power, carrying with it dust and debris.

“Fuck…!” Naruto shouted from where he was still crouched on the ground, his hand still holding onto the –now useless –seal on the ground.

Naruto watched as Kaguya cried out from the anticipated pain that her actions caused and then plummeted from where she had been suspended in the air. Her limp form crashed to the island floor, the ground shattered causing Uzushio to rumble from the force of it. Naruto used to sleeve of his cloak to wipe his face of any dirt, making sure his eyes weren’t obstructed now that Kaguya had gotten free. Naruto’s eyes narrowed in on the figure not so far from where he was standing. He watched as the goddess curled into herself before straightening her body out.

‘Kit…’ Kurama warned as he kept his attention firmly on the being that had cost them everything, his tails swishing to and fro anxiously.

“I know Kurama,” Naruto whispered under his breath.

The blond Kage stood up, his bone creaking and muscles stretching awkwardly from how long he had been hunched over the siphoning seal. Kaguya was slowly getting up on her end, using her shaky bleeding arms to push her upper body off the ground before painfully attempting to get to her feet. Her legs trembled with every move she made –she had not expected to be so wholly affected by such methods created by mere humans. However, Kaguya knew that she had to retreat otherwise she would be done for.

Maybe Kaguya should not have underestimated her grandsons’ incarnations so thoroughly.

Naruto’s narrowed eyes widened into shock and anger as Kaguya began channeling chakra to her feet. It was likely an attempt to get away before Sasuke could get back. A stream of curses poured from the blond-haired man’s mouth as he stalked towards the goddess –his steps gaining speed as he pushed himself to catch her before she fled. Naruto willed a Shadow Clone to appear, who then formed a Rasengan (Spiral Chakra Sphere) in his bandaged hand. With a sudden burst of speed, Naruto pushed off the ground, the force of his power leaving a crater in its midst, and shot toward the goddess with complete accuracy.

Kaguya’s eyes flared with fury as she turned around to face Naruto head-on before taking on a very familiar stance, she absorbed chakra from the air while raising her right hand at one rapidly approaching Naruto. With an evil smirk pulled on her red-painted lips, her Yasogami Kūgeki (Eighty Gods Vacuum Fists) manifested a barrage of chakra fists and unleashed them on Naruto. As the fists moved towards their target, Kaguya gathered more chakra into her body –it felt like she had taken a bite out of the sweetest of fruits after a famine. She knew she couldn’t let Ashura’s incarnation capture her in those dreaded chains again. Kaguya would finish him and Indra off right now if she had to, even if she was lacking a significant amount of power.

The blond-haired Kage dispelled his Rasengan and managed to evade the attack, narrowly escaping a few of them that almost hit too close for his comfort but he was taken off-guard when Kaguya appeared right in front of him. The Rabbit Goddess struck out at him with a predictable amount of viciousness, aiming for his tenketsu points with her Byakugan activated. Naruto managed to block and evade her attacks, redirecting them away from him with chakra-filled palms as he steadily tried to create some distance between them. Naruto channeled chakra into his right foot, pushing himself off the ground and into the air which effectively allowed him some reprieve from Kaguya.

Kaguya shot up from the ground, floating in the air across from Naruto. Her previous calm and collective demeanor were replaced with something feral –more animalistic. Her pristine, almost perfect, appearance had been shattered, leaving behind something that was gunning for an end solution without thinking of the consequences. It seemed like Naruto had really pushed her over the edge with the siphoning seal if he had managed to break her composure in such a way. The both of them stared at each other for what seemed like forever –not moving an inch, waiting for the other to move first so that they could respond in kind. Suddenly, Kaguya dashed towards Naruto, killing intent amassing around her, with her chakra-infused fist extended at him. The blond man managed to catch the fist with his own, causing a blow-back similar to the one from all those years ago –he remembered silver hair drenched in blood, a deep void where something was supposed to be, a still chest, blank eyes –Naruto pushed back against Kaguya, which forced her back this time.

‘Kurama…’ Naruto called out, his mind racing on how to keep the woman occupied until Sasuke got back.

The demon-fox huffed out a heavy sigh before speaking, ‘You just need to distract her. She’s weaker, at least weaker than she’s supposed to be so you’ll be able to manage with how you are now.’

“Alright…” Naruto murmured before huffing out a short breath of irritation, “HEY KAGUYA, YOU STANK ASS BITC-”

“Shannarō!”

“…eh?”

That was all the warning that Naruto was given as Kaguya’s head snapped to the side.

‘3…2…1…’ Kurama huffed out a countdown, a smirk curling on his lips.

“EHHHH?!?!!?”

Naruto –he wouldn’t have winced if he had a chance –barely blinked before the Rabbit Goddess’ body followed the motion of the attack, her limp-noodle form sailing across the sky and crashing to the worn-torn ground like one of Lee’s dead weights. A pink blur darted after the pale form like some avenging god with a bone to pick –who knows, maybe his teammate really was some god, she certainly acted like she was one. Naruto watched with blank eyes as his darling teammate –che, as if, that woman was the reincarnation of the fucking devil –pummeled Kaguya into the dirt, sparing no expenses with her punches.

Naruto was sure that Sakura wasn’t even allowing Kaguya a second to breathe.

“Sakura-chan…!” The blond man gasped out, his eyes lighting up in delight as he continued to watch his pink-haired friend beat the absolute shit out of Kaguya.

Sakura let out a war cry before diving elbow-first, straight into the Rabbit Goddess’ shaking form. When the hit connected, Kaguya was driven into the very rock that was the island of Uzushiogakure which caused the surrounding area to crack and shatter. The impact of the blast sent debris flying through the air, and the backlash of power picked everything up around them and tossed it about. Naruto managed to cross his arms over his face but the potency of Sakura’s punches sent him reeling from where he was floating in the air.

“WOAH!” Naruto stuck his arms out in a T-pose to regain his balance.

‘The pink brat sure is something, Fishcake…’ Kurama chuckled as he watched the scene below with amusement and viciousness glinting in his red eyes.

Before Naruto could reply, the Kage was alerted of another’s presence emanating from behind him. He spun around while leaping back to put distance between himself and the –most likely –threat, the seal on his arms activated respectively which allowed him to pull two chokutō out of his arms. The straight swords gleamed under the light of the bright moon, the left one held forward threateningly while the other acted as defense and held nearer to his chest. His immediate response came just in time too as a dark murky portal swirled open, a dark very plant-like form slipped through which only served to make him tenser.

“Sasuke…?” Naruto breathed out as a brilliant smile stretched across his face as Black Zetsu fell to the ground unceremoniously to reveal his emo boyfriend.

The man in question sneered at the downed plant. It looked like the Uchiha was seriously considering forgetting his holier-than-thou pride and spitting on the unconscious –probably dead –thing. Sasuke’s cloak was shabbier than usual since his hair was littered with more dirt and grime than when Naruto had last seen him. Overall, he just seemed more pissed off than usual. Not that Naruto could blame him –anyone that came into contact with that shitty plant, came out ten times angrier and revenge-y.

“That filth tried to kill me while I was getting rid of the roots at the God Tree.” Sasuke clicked his tongue in annoyance. It had been a minor inconvenience fighting Black Zetsu but an inconvenience nonetheless.

Naruto snorted before sobering up from his brief spout of humor, “How much did you cut away?”

“All of it.”

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

“All…of it…?”

“All of it.” Sasuke reiterated with a blank look, not bothering to snark at the blond man for making him repeat his words.

“All of it…” Naruto nodded as he pressed his lips together in fake contemplation while his mind raced.

‘What the actual fuck?!?!?’ The blond man freaked out in the safety –totally debatable on that due to the thousand-year-old sadistic demon fox in his head –of his mind, ‘Who the hell casually admits to completely skewering the God Tree?!?!’

‘Hmpf! Of course, it would be the Uchiha scum, with their blatant posturing and overconfidence! The whole lot of them probably overcompensates with outrageous displays of power to cover up the fact that they suck at fuc-!’ Kurama ranted and raved, not pulling any stops as he vilified the Uchiha Clan over and over again with his vitriol.

Some of the stuff the old fox spouted even caused Naruto to burn a bright red –and he had suffered under the tutelage of Ero-sennin and his constant acts of perverseness. As much as Kurama was a dignified demon of absolute power, all hats were off when it came to the Uchiha Clan.

“What happened to Kaguya?” Sasuke instead chose to ask when the silence had bordered on uncomfortable, even for the Uchiha.

“Sakura.”

The subtle shift in Sasuke’s position would have flown over many people's heads. On the other hand, Naruto knew the black-haired man like he knew his favorite ramen recipe so he knew that the other man had shivered in response to his answer. Every person in their group reacted similarly when it came to their resident cherry blossom –some were more conspicuous with their fear than others but they all reacted the same in the end.

Sasuke cleared his throat softly, the drifting wind carrying the sound to Naruto’s ears, “Then all we have to do is wait.”

“Yup!” Naruto chirped, popping the ‘p’.

And wait they did.

All the while, Naruto and Sasuke played spectator to the outright beat-down that Sakura served on Kaguya’s pasty ass.

When the sounds of screaming and fighting stopped, Naruto and Sasuke shared a look –filled with raised eyebrows and questioning noises. Someone had to check up on their demon of a teammate and neither one of them wanted to do it. Naruto made wild, overdramatic gesticulations towards the area where Kaguya had been getting her ass handed to her. Sasuke just stared at him blankly, although Naruto could see the underlying irritation, before rolling his eyes and turning away from him. The Kage squawked at being dismissed as if he was a mere annoyance then moved towards the other man –who was sulking on his stupid hovering black plate.

“Come on….!” Naruto whined as he roughly shook Sasuke’s shoulder.

The dark-haired man just grunted, “Hn.”’

“Don’t hn me!”

“Stop that, dobe!”

“Then stop being such a teme, teme!”

Before they could devolve into a childish game of rock-paper-scissors for who would get the esteemed position of taking on such a task, Sakura made her presence known. In the most violent way possible, but then again, she wouldn’t be Sakura if she didn’t.

Naruto should have taken the forewarning ringing in his mind –in the form of one cackling fleabag –a little more seriously because the next thing he knew, the blond man was facing the ground which was rapidly approaching. The back of his head was aching something furious and Naruto knew that he would face-plant if he didn’t stop his sudden descent. The blond-haired man wiggled his arms in the air to try and right his position –if he was going to fall, at least let it be on his feet rather than his head, he probably already had a concussion from Sakura’s monster strength, he didn’t need another one –and pushed chakra into his feet.

Naruto crashed onto the island floor, his chakra-covered feet taking the blow, which caused the ground to fracture under him. The sudden rise of the dust almost made him hack out a lung from coughing but at least he was in one piece. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Naruto brought his hand towards the throbbing pain at the back of his head. The Uzumaki pouted as he tried to rub the pain away.

“Sakura-chan…!” He whined which only made his head pound harder.

The gentle tap of boots against the ground next to him made Naruto put up his guard almost immediately –he wasn’t about to get K.O’ed by Sakura a second time without putting up a fight first. The blond-haired man fumbled slightly before crossing his arms over his face protectively before turning to face the other person, only to see Sasuke staring at him with a raised eyebrow, a superior and amused smirk plastered on his pale face.

Naruto gawked at the dark-haired man’s unruffled appearance, “Aww man, how come Sakura-chan didn’t hit you?!”

Sasuke’s face burned slightly at the question before he turned away and mumbled something into his shoulder.

“Huh?” Naruto asked when he failed to hear what the other man said.

The Uchiha groaned audibly this time before facing him again, the red staining his cheeks was brighter than before, standing out against the pale white of his skin, “I said that I…dodged.”

.

.

.

“HAHAHAH!!” Naruto burst out into boisterous laughter, bending over at his waist while clutching his stomach.

“Shut. Up. Dobe.” Sasuke enunciated slowly, his voice settling into a deep growl.

Naruto just snorted in answer –as if that was going to scare him –before chortling out, “Ya know that Sakura-chan is gonna just try harder to grind your face into the dirt, teme.”

“As if she can do that.” Sasuke snubbed in annoyance, sniffing before turning his face away from the blond man.

Just as Naruto was going to hurl an insult at the overconfident Uchiha’s head, a sickly sweet voice intoned from behind them, “What was that, Sasuke-kun~”

Naruto let out a very-manly scream, his soul jumped before his body could even react. He swerved around to face the very real –more real than Kaguya at that point –threat. Sakura was smiling at them, it was that fake smile similar to a doll’s but her eyes gave away her ire. Her olive-green eyes were burning with righteous anger, a hint of guilt and overwhelming grief tinting the edges. Naruto garnered that her fury went beyond Sasuke and him fighting. The blond man knew at that moment, he didn’t want to know the reason why that particular expression was on Sakura’s face. Naruto knew that he wouldn’t like it.

“B-Before that…” Naruto intervened before either could speak. He didn’t want a bloodbath between his closest friend and boyfriend, “Kaguya?”

As if on cue, Sakura’s expression darkened considerably –her fake smile was morphed into something more vicious, more sinister that it made the two men beside her shiver visibly, “If she wasn’t immortal, she would have died nine times over already.”

Naruto winced at the venom leaking from Sakura’s words, “Alright…do you think we can seal her now?”

“Yep!” The pink-haired woman chirped –seriously, it was so fucking creepy how quickly her moods changed like that!

Naruto eyed Sasuke from over the shorter woman’s shoulder, before motioning his head towards Sakura without being obvious about it. The dark-haired man just raised an eyebrow, his expression devolving into something smug and evil. Sasuke cleared his throat, quickly announced that he was going to take care of Black Zetsu, and then fled like the motherfucking coward he was.

‘What a fucking bastard, am I right Kurama?’ Naruto pouted as he relayed his thoughts to his tenant.

Kurama just let out a frustrated groan, blabbing on about finding another container that wasn’t as much of an idiot as him –hah! As if the fleabag could find someone as awesome as him!

“Anyway!” Sakura suddenly said while clapping her hands together cheerfully, “Let’s go see how she’s doing.”

That was all the kunoichi said before she started strutting towards the downed goddess –who looked like she was having the most amazing time trying to get her legs to work again. Naruto gulped audibly, he could literally see the killing intent wafting of his female compatriot and he decided he wanted nothing to do with it. Before he could psyche himself out, Naruto followed demurely after Sakura, keeping himself at least two steps behind her in case she decided to blow. When they finally reached Kaguya, did the blond-haired man take the goddess’ injuries into account, and only one word could describe the state she was in: brutal.

Naruto whistled and thought, ‘Shit…Sakura really did a number on her…’

‘Unfortunately, she’ll survive.’ Kurama drawled out dryly.

Kaguya shivered and groaned as she tried to lift her body off the ground, “How dare you…” She spat out.

The Rabbit Goddess’ left leg was bent awkwardly in the opposite direction while her right one seemed fine but there was significant bruising coloring her skin. Her right arm looked like it had been mauled while the left was completely gone like it had been blown off, leaving tattered clothes and an empty socket. Her face was covered in dirt and her hair was in disarray.

Kaguya looked fucked and not in a good way.

“I’ll kill you all!” The Rabbit Goddess shrieked as she suddenly threw herself at Naruto.

Naruto stood stunned for a moment before he batted her away as if she was some fly –that genuinely shocked the blond Kage because it couldn’t have been that easy. Kaguya had still been powerful, even when she had most of her chakra sucked out of her body and there had been some chakra absorption technique that she had been using during their fight.

“I blocked her tenketsu points.” Sakura revealed in a blasé tone, her eyes shining as she stared at the lump on the floor, “While fighting her, I blocked most of them. Hinata would have done a better job but we needed a way for her to stop gaining the chakra we took from her.”

There was a sad edge when the kunoichi spoke about their resident Hyūga –it was a tone that Naruto couldn’t stand, it was a tone that they all used so frequently when referring to their precious people, it was a tone they all used when talking about the dead. Naruto’s hand tightened into a fist, his nails digging deep into the skin of his palm and he was sure that if Kurama hadn’t been healing him, his hand would have been filled with blood. Abruptly Kaguya’s sneers turned into derisive laughter, her voice pitching a note higher the longer she went on. The sound was grating and made Naruto gnash his teeth together tightly –he had to hold himself back from punching her lights out.

“Hehe…your precious people…” Kaguya cooed deviously, “Such weaklings…!”

Sakura stiffened up beside him so quickly that it alerted Naruto that something wasn’t right and for the first time since Kaguya invaded did the blond-haired man use his senjutsu to locate his people. Silence fell amongst the three of them, except for Kaguya who was muttering on about her sons and humans being weak. Naruto searched the island, spreading out his senses, and looked top to bottom, the outskirts, and the bunkers and came up with nothing.

A stuttering gasp left his mouth as Naruto tried to come to terms with what he learned –it felt like someone had punched him in the gut repeatedly every time he failed to sense the chakra signatures of his people, his precious and close friends. Kaguya obviously figured out his dilemma as she cackled with glee. Her pale eyes were filled with such vicious amusement like she had been waiting for him to discover the fact that all of their people had been slaughtered.

“I told you that I’d rip everything away from you!” Kaguya screamed out, her hair flaring out in anger.

Naruto’s vision started to blacken around the edges as his breathing sped up, and his hands clutched at his chest, fearing his heart would explode under the sudden strain. His breaths came out in short puffy bursts and his palms were sweating heavily. The world around him seemed to dull like he was drowning in the ocean with no air and no light. Naruto stumbled slightly on his feet as he tried to forcibly calm himself down –he wasn’t supposed to let her get to him, why, why couldn’t he sense them, she was lying, she was a liar, they weren’t gone! –and just as he was about to kiss the ground, a solid form materialized behind him. Immediately Naruto latched on, he drew himself against the warm body, hiding his face in their neck as he tried to match his breathing with the other person.

‘Why…?!’ Naruto cried out in his mind, ‘Why does this always happen?!’

‘I’m sorry kit.’

When Naruto finally managed to pull himself together, he pulled himself free of the other person -Sasuke, he realized -and faced Kaguya with an uncharacteristically blank look on his face. The blond Kage’s normally bright blue eyes had dulled significantly, he looked dead on the outside and probably felt like that on the inside. Sasuke clenched his teeth tightly and looked away from the subdued man that he loved so very much –the war and Kaguya had taken so much from all of them but Naruto loved and felt so freely and wholly. He was so affected by every single death; he mourned for every shinobi and always held himself accountable for their deaths. Sasuke always wondered how Naruto managed to not break every single time yet he knew that this might have done it.

‘Please…don’t take his smile away.’

“I can’t wait to see what expression you’ll make when I rip your precious Sasuke to pieces!” Kaguya screamed out again which caused Naruto’s breath to hitch, “Then I’ll tear that pink bitch limb from limb for ever thinking she could best me!”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” The blond Kage intoned slowly before he walked over to the Rabbit Goddess and backhanded her so hard that she flopped back onto the ground.

Without waiting for the goddess to get up again, Naruto spoke in a chilling voice, “Sasuke, activate the seal. We’re gonna seal her.”

Obviously, that was a trigger for the Rabbit Goddess because she shrieked loudly, the same shriek that brought about the God Tree roots yet they, predictably, didn’t appear. Kaguya scrambled away, screaming curses and false bloody promises, from the looming trio as they descended on her without mercy. Naruto tore the cloth wrapped around his paler arm, the palm of his hand glowed a bright yellow-orange while Sasuke’s remaining hand glowed a bright blue –almost white –color.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” Kaguya howled one last time before Naruto and Sasuke’s hands touched her body, activating the sealing technique that the Sage of Six Paths had given them.

“Rikudō: Chibaku Tensei!” (Six Paths: Planetary Devastation)

Kaguya screamed as the seal activated, her body morphing into a shapeless thing as the wind picked up around them, dragging rocks and fallen debris toward her. Naruto and Sasuke jumped away before they could be caught up in the sealing technique as well –the floating rock growing and shaping into a sphere, a new moon. The light above them was also fading, the brightness dulling which signaled them the release of the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Just before the last of the cracks could close up, Sakura kicked the unconscious form of Black Zetsu into the rock with Kaguya. They all watched passively as the sealing technique was complete and the new moon drifted back into the sky where it was supposed to be.

Naruto noticed the difference immediately, the air felt less oppressive, and the unnatural sky from before seemed lighter, like how a true night should feel. An aborted chuckle left his throat which turned into a full-blown cackle, his voice was raspy and his body was tired but Naruto didn’t stop. His chest felt like it was going to explode with how many emotions he was experiencing at the same time –joy, shame, grief, contentment –it was a mixed bag. Naruto’s knees hit the ground before he knew it, his chakra cloak dispelling with his unstable emotions, his hands were clenched tightly on his knees as his sporadic laughter died down into sniffles.

Naruto was so tired at that point that he couldn’t even will himself to cry anymore.

“Naruto…” Sakura rasped out, her throat closing up as she searched her mind for what to say.

The blond-haired man was quiet for a moment before he spoke up, his voice hoarse, “What she said…was it..?”

The kunoichi’s hand clamped tightly onto her other arm, her blunt dirt-filled nails cut into her exposed flesh bringing blood to the surface. Sakura shook slightly as unbidden memories assaulted her mind, taking her back to when she had been scouring the island for their friends. The pink-haired woman had initially been looking for Ino and Shikamaru–broken, broken, blood, she was, oh, sage, so much blood, both of them –when she had come across their friends in various states. Sakura had found Hinata and her squadron –impaled, all of them, how could so many roots fit in such a small body, dead, all of them –on the outskirts of Uzushio. Gaara and Temari –gone, gone, gone, parts, so many, why –had clearly been trying to retreat by the failed teleportation seal. Sakura trembled when she remembered the condition she had found Ino and Shikamaru in, the deaths of her comrades weighed heavily on her mind.

‘It’s all my fault…’ She thought numbly.

“Heh…I’ll take your silence as confirmation.” Naruto stated bitterly before forcing a smile on his face, “Alright! Plan B it is!”

Sakura’s heart broke as Naruto pushed past his grief –he was always doing that, one day he was going to break –and stood up from where he had been kneeling. The blond man activated the seals on his arms and started pulling out various instruments –his sealing equipment –while humming loudly. Sasuke’s face was pinched as if he wanted to say something but was forcing himself not to. His lone arm limp and bleeding at the shoulder, it tapped into her healer instincts and she suddenly wanted to heal that physical ache of his. Naruto crouched on the ground before raising his left arm and slashing his palm using a kunai without flinching. While he began to use his own blood to create, what was probably, the time travel seal, Sakura spoke up.

“Naruto…” She breathed out, her heart thumping a tattoo against her ribcage, “Naruto, you can’t just push this off.”

The sounds of brush strokes dragging against the cracked ground stopped, indicating that the blond man was listening to her, “I’m so thankful Sh-Shika made me revise all of his plans.”

Sasuke sucked in a gasp while Sakura cupped her mouth with her hands.

“Naruto, it’s not healt-” Sakura cut herself off when he caught the steel look in Sasuke’s eyes and realized that pushing the blond would only make him retreat further.

“Anyways, I’m gonna need your guys’ blood for the seal to work!” Naruto called out, not bothering to face them as he spoke.

Sasuke moved toward his boyfriend without hesitation, Sakura followed a few seconds after.

“Here…” Sasuke grunted, as if in pain before his entire arm fell off.

.

.

.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Sakura and Naruto screamed simultaneously –the previous tension dissipating as they stared at the Uchiha in horror.

Sasuke stared at them with blank eyes, “You wanted blood, there’s blood.”

“I asked for blood!” Naruto shrieked and jumped to his feet and started to inspect his oblivious boyfriend, “I didn’t ask for your fucking arm, Sasuke!”

Sakura marched up to the stoic man and shuffled herself in between the two of them then began to poke and prod at the area where Sasuke’s remaining arm used to be. Without asking the man, the kunoichi tore off his cloak so she could get a better look and noticed the deep jagged lacerations –like someone tried to saw the Uchiha’s arm off and failed…kind of.

“How long were you like this, baka?!” Sakura’s infamous temper showed itself as she whacked the man over the head.

Sasuke just grunted from the hit before speaking, “Zetsu got a lucky shot while you two were with Kaguya.”

“Lucky shot?” Naruto asked incredulously, his own temper making itself known in the face of the Uchiha’s indifference, “It’s not a fucking lucky shot if he took your fucking arm!”

Sasuke, at least, had the decency to look guilty, although he didn’t outwardly show it –his eyes reflected it and they were well-versed in reading the man after so many years together. Naruto trembled slightly before dragging the dark-haired man into his arms, squeezing tightly and not letting go as he buried his face in the other man’s neck. Sakura shook her head in disappointment as she crossed her arm over her chest then moved to Sasuke’s side and began to heal his…other stump.

“Man…I always wondered how you two got freaky with Sasuke missing one arm but now I definitely want to know.” Sakura mused out loud which made Naruto snort and Sasuke burn a cherry red.

When Sakura managed to stanch the bleeding did she speak again, “Are we still doing the whole time travel thing?”

Naruto lifted his head at that and bit his lip in contemplation, “Um…we still have Sasuke’s arm so we could probably reattach it after we arrive. Or we could steal some of Shodaime-sama’s cells and create new ones for him.”

“I’m not talking about that, but that does solve over armless Sasuke’s problem,” Sakura laughed slightly at the screwed-up look on the Uchiha’s face, “I’m talking about what we’re going to do once we’re there…in the past.”

The blond Kage tightened his hold on his boyfriend as he thought over Sakura’s question, “Sh-we drew up as many plans as we could have if we ever took this route.”

“Alright…” The kunoichi sighed, “…are you sure you want to do this now?”

Naruto was quiet for a moment before he stuttered, “…y-yeah.”

That was all the confirmation that Sakura needed before she whipped out a scalpel and slashed her palm. She squeezed her hand into a fist which allowed the blood to run over her clenched knuckles and steadily drip onto the seal. As if the seal had been waiting for her, it radiated a bright blue hue which signaled that it was activating. Grabbing a hold of her boys, Sakura pulled the both of them into a bear hug and smiled brightly even as tears streamed down her face.

“See you guys on the other side!”

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“H-Hey guys! I have ears! And a fucking tail!”