The Last
"Alright brats," He grinned, "I'm your guest lecturer for today, I'll be taking you through some,"
"Naruto senpai!"
"Drills today," The cheering was probably something he was never going to get used to, even though it'd been months since the Fourth War was finished, the villages at large still regarded him as a hero. Which he wasn't. They acted like he'd solved the problems himself. Which he hadn't. Sasuke got a fair share of the limelight too, make no mistake, in fact the village was an almost even split of adoration for the brothers. But Naruto was able to somehow edge out a lead over his ravenette brother, due to his sunnier disposition. Sasuke got admirers for being cool and looking good, Naruto got them for being tough and helping everyone. Kurama had enjoyed the spotlight when they'd finally cracked the seal array needed to give him a small physical form. That had been enough headaches for a month and then some. Sliding his foot on the ground he smiled, "Right, this is going to be the easy stuff, my brothers and I were did this around your age, ready?"
"Hai!!" Lifting his knee up, he left his shin and foot to dangle,
"One," Straightend his leg formed into a kick, "Two," His foot planted back on the ground, "Three," His fist moved forwards in a punch, his torso twisting with the movement, "Four," The sequence was one of the first the trio had learned, a basic chain of movements for a swift opening attack. Sasuke had practised so much that it had become his signature opening move in their first few spars. "We're going to keep doing that until you can do them without a thought, even if it means you're exhausted, got it?"
"Hai!!"
"Good," He clapped his hands together and turned his back, "With me, one! Two! Three! Four! Back to the start," His feet were back together and arms slack by his sides, "One, two, three, four!" A pair of whistles from the side of the courtyard they were drilling in. "Keep it up guys and don't slow down," Jogging to the source of the noise, he smiled at a platinum blonde and a pinkette stood the other side of the chainlink fence. Smiling warmly he leant on the fence, "Ladies, what brings you round here?"
"Don't know about Sakura, but I'm enjoying the show," Ino teased, "Still can't believe we managed to convince you to get rid of the jacket,"
"Hey, nothing was wrong with my jackets, it was just time to switch up styles,"
"You mean the orange showed your blood too well," Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Still, I think this suits you better," He wore a black jacket, the cuffs rolled up at his wrists, on his left arm was a red band with the Uzumaki crest on it. His signature orange colour remained on his pants that ran midway down his shins. His new open toed sandles now had guards the came up to meet his pants. His kunai holster still sat on his right thigh and he know had a dark green Uzumaki crest on the latch. A reference the the one that had taught him just how to throw kunai and shuriken. He wasn't the only one with a changed style though, Sakura had changed her outfit again. The elbow and knee pads remained from her last outfit and the red colour had survived the change too, but the pink skirt like attachment had been removed. Instead her top now dropped down past her waist and hung over her thigh, reminscent of her first outfit. A black sash wrapped around her waist. The final piece was her hitai-ate which was back to being used as a hairband as it was before the war. Ino however, had remained true to her style, a purple crop top and a long skirt drapped down to her ankles. Shin high guard from her open toed sandals along with fishnet wrappings for her elbows and knees. A singular bang fell over her right eye, the rest of her hair was put in a high ponytail, held in place with her hitai-ate as always.
"You look more mature, especially with your haircut," Said kunoichi teased. That was right, Naruto recently got a haircut, making his normally explosive yellow hair more cropped and buzzcut. Apparently it made him even more of a heart throb, if the lasting glances and squeeling stares were anything to go by. He rubbed the back of his head while grinning, "We were thinking of going out to dinner to celebrate the Rinne-festival tonight,"
"Yes, absolutely, with pleasure, yes," He nodded, hitting his head on the chainlink. Both women giggled at him. With a pout he rubbed his forehead to rid himself of the disorientation.
"Cool, Gaara, Hinata and Karin are joining us as well, they've decided to spend a few days here for the festival, Rasa can't leave the office just yet," Sakura grinned,
"Gaara's coming? Alright! I should get back to teaching the rugrats now, honestly you'd think after everything Tsunade did, they wouldn't need basic drills," The duo rolled their eyes at him,
"Don't be like that Naruto, remember, we needed those basic drills at their age, you managed to teach us," Ino shook her head,
"Because the academy failed you, Tsunade said,"
"We get that, but maybe they're doing more theoretical work before they start physical training, remember waterwalking and treewalking doesn't just happen, we did need to think about it for a long time before we managed to do it perfectly," Sakura slid a hand through the fence, grabbing his jacket and pulling him against the railing. "Go easy on them alright?" They took turns kissing him through the gap before she let him go, "The dinner is tonight, dress casually,"
"You got it! I'll see you tonight babe, babe," Both smiled at their petname, he turned and walked back to the group, who had paused to watch the last of his encounter, "Hey, I said don't slow down, let's go from the top! One!"
He embraced the man happily before pushing back and holding his shoulders. "Gaara, it's good to see you again man,"
"It's only been a fwe weeks Naruto,"
"Still, it's nice to meet up outside of missions,"
"Agreed," The blond grinned and moved to another redhead.
"Karin, you look great,"
"Back at you cuz, finally rid of that moptop," He pouted at her teasing comment before smiling at the violet haired member of their party.
"Hinata, Kami it feels like it's been ages," Embracing her in a hug as well, he stepped back and grinned at the trio, "Come on, I'm just the advance party, we gotta get to Ichiraku's! the others are waiting there for us," The quartet began moving through the village, Naruto put his hands behind his head and grinned in his regular manner. Hinata was looking around the place wildly, interested in how much everything had changed again. Karin was already trying to figure out who was meeting them in the conglomerate of chakra she could sense while Gaara kept his impassive face. Until of course, Naruto slung an arm around his shoulders, joslting the red haired man. "Did we ever get you Ichiraku's Gaara?"
"I don't recall,"
"Aw man, you've been missing out, it's awesome, best ramen in Konoha, maybe even the world!" They arrived at the ramen shop and were greeted by Sakura and Ino.
"Sasuke should be here soon," Ino smiled, "He'll be happy to see you again Gaara,"
"Likewise, the ravenette was a promising fighter when we crossed paths during his training those moons ago,"
"Wait, you ran into Sasuke and Orochimaru? When?" A hand was waved,
"Oh, about two years after his depature, I had to go on a mission for father with Temari, Kankuro was too busy teaching Izuku puppetry, we ran into the duo on our return, they said they were about to visit the last few labs and hideouts, Sasuke asked for a spar to measure how much he'd grown, Izuku's Shadow Clone could only do so much before their skills went stale, his speed was almost enough to beat out my Sand Armour, in fact I had to remove it in order to keep up with him, he seemed very proud of it at the time,"
"Then he came back and Izuku had to kick his ass out of Tobi's genjutsu,"
"How is Obito these days? I've hardly seen him around,"
"He's doing alright, he and Rin finally got a place together, somehow they moved in next to Kakashi and Anko and none of them realized until the morning when they all set out for work,"
"Rin and Anko are still working? Kakashi's last message to Father was," His eyes widened as he realized what he was saying, "Ah, nevermind, you didn't hear anything,"
"Oh Kami, Anko's pregnant ?!" Ino hissed, "No wonder she's been doing less field work for T and I," Gaara seemed to pale, Sakura put a hand to her forhead,
"And Rin's been putting more effort into surgery and less chakra heavy techniques, holy shit it makes so much sense now!"
"You heard nothing," Gaara insisted "You especially didn't hear that Kakashi is excited to be an Godfather and terrified of being a father!"
"We didn't hear shit captain!" Naruto saluted with a grin, "Ooh all the pranks I c-," A hand cuffed the back of his head.
"I don't know what you just said dope, and I don't wanna know, just don't try it," Sasuke grinned before moving past his brother and hugging Gaara. "It's good to see you in good health Gaara,"
"I can say the same Sasuke, Tayuya, you look well,"
"Thanks Gaara, I've been working on my taijutsu lately since somebody gave me a cold and I can't play the flute with a sore throat,"
"Should you not avoid strenous activity while ill anyway?"
"That's what I keep saying, but no," Temari waved a hand before snatching her brother into a tight hug, "I swear all redheads must have a stubborn streak a mile wide,"
"It is nice to see you too Temari," Gaara grumbled, eyeing Sasuke, who shrugged indifferently. "Shall we beg-," He was interrupted by a group of puppets ensaring them,
"Did Kankuro come-,"
"These aren't Kankuro's puppets," Temari looked around, they all got into a battle stance. Naruto snapepd his fingers and suddenly he was out of the ill fitting orange hoodie and shorts, in his gear from earlier in the day. He whispered a thanks to Izuku for teaching him the changing seal he so often employed. As the puppets all began charging forwards, the group fought. Each one broke into splinters upon a single strike, none of them heard Hinata softly gasp as a different figure arrived and thrust a chakra sphere into her chest, causing her to fall to the ground. They did notice however, Gaara yelling,
"HINATA!" And the figure leaping to the rooftops carrying her. "Girls can you?"
"Get moving, we can handle these twigs," Ino barked, Gaara, Naruto and Sasuke jumped after it and began to give chase. They fell into a V formation with Gaara up front. As they approached the edge of the rooftop, Naruto and Sasuke leapt, bouncing between structures and destroying any puppets that came to intervene. Gaara charged straight ahead, continuing his charge as sand flew from his gourde and made a runway to the next rooftop. The trio charged together back in formation.
"Sasuke, let's give it to him," They overtook Gaara and held out a hand each, the wind began humming as lightning shrieked.
"Rasendori-Shuriken!" As the figured leapt off the rooftop, the jutsu followed, moving underneath their feet. Naruto's hand stayed out as Sasuke swapped places with the jutsu, hovering just underneath them. His attack broke an arm into splinters, causing Hinata to slip from their grasp. Gaara sped ahead and jumped onto a cloud of sand, flying to catch her. Naruto threw the jutsu again, as Sasuke kicked the figure into it. The puppet was ripped apart as the jutsu raced skywards, fizzling out into nothing instead of exploding as it used to. Sasuke caught himself with Susano'o before coming down the to the roof. Gaara landed with Hinata in his arms, stepping from the cloud of sand. The trio looked between each other grimly before a fourth presence landed on the rooftop. Naruto and Sasuke got into position to cover Gaara before the figure stepped into the moonlight. Neji looked pale and panicked,
"It's Hanabi, she's been kidnapped,"
Tsunade was waiting for them in the morning, refusing to talk until everyone had calmed down and slept for a few hours. "As you undoubtedly know, Hanabi Hyuuga has been kidnapped, taken from a training room in the dead of last night, Hiruzen is already going to get Izuku and Katsuki, who will be accompanying you on your mission, luckily last night Sai was able to see and follow the rogues for a certain distance, he'll be leading you to wherever you need to go, however Squad Seven is to deal with this recovery mission, Sai goes no further than the sightline of the area,"
"I'll go too," Hinata stepped forwards, "I know I,"
"Very well Hinata, I understand why you would wish to go, any further,"
"I'd like to go too if that is alright," Gaara raised his hand, "I know I am not a Konoha shinobi, but,"
"I'll send word to Rasa, he won't disagree, you have five minutes to pack, starting ten minutes ago, you need to leave now," Naruto smirked and held out a hand,
"Everyone's packed Aunty," Six bags appeared in his hand, they were dolled out and slung onto shoulders.
"Good, start moving, I'll brief Izuku and Katsuki when they arrive, expect them to reach you by sundown," The six turned to leave as Hiashi entered, supported by two Hyuugas of the branch family. Naruto slowed down and strained his hearing as the two conversed.
"You did not tell them?"
"If they knew another Otsutsuki had appeared, they would want to wait for Katsuki and Izuku, we can't afford to, not with the meteors coming," Meteors, what? Walking besides Sakura, he leant to her ear.
"Did you hear that?" She nodded as they reached the door outside. Sai unrolled a scroll and began drawing.
"This can't be good," They climbed onto a drawing of a bird, brought to life by Sai's jutsu. Sai had his own along with Sasuke as Gaara and Hinata climbed onto another together. The four illustrations took to the air and began glidingaway from the village. Sai led them over forests, nobody talking until they reached a lake.
"I lost them around here, let's look around," Sai looked over his shoulder. Everyone nodded,
"Gaara, take care of Hinata,"
"With pleasure," The four birds divided into different directions. Naruto and Sakura looked around as much as they could, both had a Shadow Clone back home harnessing Nature Energy for Sage mode.
"Ready?" He looked over his shoulder as the pinkette nodded. They both dismissed their clones and felt their vision increase. Naruto gained orange highlights around his eyes while Sakura's were a lilac purple colour, their pupils became flat lines as they scoured the area. Neither of them could find anything. A geyser of sand erupted into the sky behind them and they looked at each other. The bird they were riding turned around mid air and flew to the sand, landing just shy of the duo. "What did you guys find?" Hinata lifted her hands, a chunk of snow nearby had been moved, meaning whatever they found had to have been partially buried by snow.
"It's Hanabi's kunai," It indeed was a kunai, with a small charm attached to one end. Sasuke and Sai landed nearby, "We need to keep going in this direction," Everyone nodded as the images took to the sky again. They flew on for several minutes of tense silence, everyone staring and straining their eyes. Sakura's arm squeezed Naruto's side. Looking at her over his shoulder, she nodded in a direction. Following her gaze, he shouted to Hinata as they passed a roaring waterfall.
"Hinata! Do you see that? Over there!" He pointed as the Byakugan wielder looked to him before moving down to the target, "There's something glowing, down in that cave!" They all began veering to it. "It's just radiating chakra," Naruto mused as they grew closer.
"A lake?" Sasuke stared at the glowing blue pool. The cave was titanic in size, miles taller than any of them thought. Naruto looked up and pointed.
"What's that? On the ceiling?" Everyone gazed upwards, their vision still adjusting to the darkness of the cave. He squinted before realizing that it was a carving. "It's, the ninja letter for A, why would someone carve that all the way up there?"
"It could mean this is the beginning," Sakura mused, "I mean, doesn't make it any less ominous but still,"
"That's not the only freaky thing," Sasuke voiced, recapturing their attention as his hand dipped into the water, "My hand's still bone dry," As he lifted the appendage out of the water, they all watched wide eyed as the liquid ran off his hand, leaving not even a shimmer of a trail. Naruto stared at the water before taking a few steps back, "Dope," The ravenette slowly warned him. It came too late however, as the blond broke into a sprint and leapt headfirst into the water. It was oddly warm as he swan down. He couldn't see a base, so he kept swimming downwards. Peering over his shoulder, he could see the others swimming after him, Sakura ready to smack him upside the head, Hinata and Gaara looked confused and Sasuke, his face hurt the most. He just looked disappointed. Naruto frowned and looked back where he was going. The water seemed to finally stop at,
another opening?
Hesitantly he stretched out a hand, sure enough it passed through the water's end and into warm air. Breaching the surface, he kicked out and soared to the nearest piece of ground. Which happened to be a floating orb of stone. Looking back he watched the others break the water and join him. They all looked around in confusion as Sakura took a moment to slap his shoulder.
"Honestly, did you even consider that you might've drowned?"
"But, I can swim?"
"Not the point Uzumaki, you could've at least thought about what you were doing," His arm wrapped around her waist as he rested his forehead against hers, "You're right, I'm sorry, I won't do it again," Giving her a quick kiss, he looked around, "Now if we could figure out where we are,"
"It looks like some sort of bridge," Gaara mused, getting a few looks, "Obviously not a bridge bridge, but given the fact it's in the bottom of a spring in a cave, hidden from literally everything, it must be a passageway of sorts, probably to some hidden base,"
"Exactly what an Otsutsuki would want," Sakura whispered to Naruto, who 'hmmed' an agreement. "The question is, where?"
"Well, there's only one way we can find out," Sasuke shrugged, "We keep going that way," They looked up(?) in the direction they had faced after leaving the lake. More miniature moons hung in the space, hovering between and around green spheres. In one move, the group leapt upwards and began to move again.
"Alright class, you've each got a piece of paper, if the world was ending, who would you like to spend it with?" Naruto looked at Iruka smiling. They were in his old classroom, the first classroom he'd been in at the academy. Five years old, barely a year into his training with Sasuke and Izuku. The former of which was sat in the classroom with him, the greenette wouldn't be joining them for another two years. Current Naruto stood in the very back, looking at everyone in front of him. Predictably everyone began scrawling out a name. Until a paper plane gently glided out of the open window. "Naruto! You were supposed to write on that!"
"It doesn't matter Iruka-sensei, the world isn't going to end," His younger self replied confidently. Oh, if only he knew what was coming.
"I know but if it was," The teacher put his hands on his hips,
"But it's not,"
"Say if the moon began falling to earth,"
"If the world was ending, I'd wish meat was falling instead of the moon!" A much younger Choji jokingly cried. Laughter rippled around the class before Iruka looked back to Naruto.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Who would you spend it with?" Current Naruto sighed as he remembered the moment of clarity the child had had in that moment. It was a moment that had forever stuck with him.
"Nobody," The class had fallen silent at his word, "It's not like anyone's gonna spend it with me is it?" Sasuke had grassed him out to Itachi that same afternoon, that began the whole case of the Uchiha's coming over to help him eat healthy. "I don't even know my own folks, who's going to spend it with me? Even they don't want to since they ditched me to some orphanage," That was wrong and he knew that it was wrong now, ever since he'd learned his heritage he'd known. Izuku had made a point that he would, even when they were five, Naruto had been a brother to him. The blond smiled as he remembered Izuku reminding him he had a house of people that would happily spend doomsday with him before he left for Musutafu. "I have nobody to write down Iruka-sensei, so please don't get mad at me for not writing a name,"
"I would," Current Naruto looked to his left, to see Sakura, current Sakura, stood there with a light blush. "I'd spend doomsday with you, even if it meant we had to fight and stop it," She walked over and smiled at him. "I couldn't think of anyone either, so I just wrote down my grandpa, he was nicer than dad, I don't talk about him because he died when I was nine,"
"Sasuke wrote Itachi,"
"Predictably,"
"Shisui spent three days moping until Izuku came for training and told him that he would've chosen him," Gently he held her in his arms for a few minutes while they listened to the scratchings of pencils of the other kids while young Naruto stared at the empty table. Sakura stifled a giggle before looking at him.
"You know this is a genjutsu right?" He nodded, "I'm trying to get you out of it right now, so sorry,"
"Sorry fo-," She promptly kneed him in the crotch.
He woke up inside one of the green bubbles, Sakura kneeling by his side with a hand on his head, the others looked down at him concern on their faces. Together they all left the bubble and jumped between moons. "Naruto," The pinkette spoke quietly as they jumped together, "Did, did you really think like that?"
"For a time," He admitted, "That evening Itachi showed up at my apartment with Sasuke in tow and cooked us both dinner, next morning they were around for breakfast, rinse and repeat for many days, it took me ages to convince myself that they actually cared, especially when no-one else did, but that was then, this is now, I have two beautiful girlfriends, who are kickass kunoichi, a clan strong enough to be its own small army, my parents back, cousins, uncles, aunts and brothers," While in the air, he maneuvered in such a way that caught Sakura on his back. Instincively her arms wrapped around his neck as his hands supported her thighs. "I have my family now and I won't let the world ending change that," Her chin rested on his shoulder.
"You'd rather find the guy threatening the world and kick him in the nuts,"
"I slipped in training one time," He sighed as he rolled his eyes, "Obito didn't forgive me for a week and Kakashi nearly cried from laughter, dad actually did," She giggled lightly,
"I remember Rin offered to hold an ice pack and then a healing jutsu when he suggested it was a bad idea,"
"Obito nearly passed out from the fever and I remember we thought Kakashi was a closet-pervert,"
"Nothing about that man is a closet-pervert, which reminds me, next time we have a family dinner, keep them on opposite sides of the table, footsie I can handle, what I witnessed that dinner? Never again," She shuddered on his back, causing Naruto to pre-emptively change subjects before any sort of image could be comprehended.
"So, when we get back, do you and Ino want to go for dinner somewhere? Other than Ichiraku I mean,"
"Naruto Uzumaki, are you suggesting we go and get something other than ramen for dinner?"
"Well, I mean, Sasuke told me about this place in Suna that Temari took him and Tayuya to, Karin's told me about the same place, apparently it's really good, and Rasa still has that transport kunai in his office from the summit, we could go once this whole thing has been solved?"
"Sure, sounds like fun, Ino would love a holiday in Suna, work up a tan," They joined the group.
"It looks like another spring of sorts," Gaara stared up at it. Naruto was beginning to get vertigo, "Sasuke and I will go first, Hinata after, Sakura and Naruto last, whoever did this targeted both Hinata and Hanabi, it stands to reason they'd haev more chance going into their territory," Everyone nodded and jumped away. Sakura climbed off his back as Hinata reached the water. The duo jumped up and began swimming upwards, his hand habitually reached for a kunai as he noticed the explosions coming from the air above the water.
"Giant crab!" He yelped, diving back down into the water and grabbing Sakura's wrist. Turning yet again to the surface, he kicked off as hard as he could, shooting up from the water. Several Shadow Clones jumped with him. "Sakura,"
"Got it!" Twirling in the air, his clones distracted the monterous crustacean with a range of Rasengans. As he spun, he gripped onto Sakura's arm tightly, building up speed. Her other arm reared back with a fist, "Now!" He threw her at the creature while it screeched and fought the others. "CHA!" The armour crumpled under her strike, the legs buckled as the body hit the floor and went further, eventually getting stuck in a crater. They all regrouped and looked at it.
"Must be a gatekeeper," Gaara mused, "I mean this place looks like where those green orbs are made, so this thing probably made them and guarded the exit,"
"But where's the exit?" Hinata kept looking around, "I mean, I can't find, anything," Sasuke pointed,
"Well, it came from that direction, so we should probably try that first,"
"As good a starting point as any," Naruto shrugged and the group moved out.
Wherever they were, it was nowhere on earth. The cave mouth sat behind them as they overlooked the sapphire expanse. Ocean stretched out as far as they could see. A sun shone above them, unmoving in the sky. "Where do we go from here?" That was the million ryo question wasn't it? Naruto gazed out over the sea. It seemed to curve upwards at the horizon and he could see an island hanging there on the blue. As if the clouds hovering lazily past didn't block it from view.
"Just, just what is this place?" He murmured, the island was dark green and covered in wildlife, squinting, he could just about make out the hints of buildings. "Let's head over there, it's bound to have something we can use,"
"Great idea, only problem," Sasuke stood beside him, "How the fuck are we going to,"
"Language," Everyone perked up at the familiar voice. "Jeez you guys, couldn't even wait for us? Had to leave Sai on his lonesome," Naruto whirled round,
"Izubro! Katsuki!" The two men stood at the entrance to the cave. Izuku had his arms crossed and a small smirk, Katsuki was leaning on the rocks with a foot up, regarding the group. "Glad you guys finally arrived,"
"Please, you think it'd take us long to find you guys, Sai was going to burn out the seals on the kunai he pumped so much chakra into them, Tsunade filled us in on everything and we came as soon as we could, Sai's already on his way back to Konoha now," The greenette strutted past the group and looked over the cliff, "Ocean's surface is warped,"
"Yeah, we don't know how, or why,"
"Any idea on the sunlight underground?" Katsuki walked over, everyone shook their head,
"Probably man made then," Sasuke grunted,
"I don't know any jutsu that could make an artificial sun," Izuku put a hand to his face and looked up at it. "Naruto, you saw something?"
"On the island over there,"
"I can see something too," Hinata nodded, "It looks, well I can't see much but it looks like ruins,"
"Right, let's set up camp for the night and move out first thing tomorrow," As if waiting for his words, the sunlight began dimming, until it became a moon. Fake stars flittered into existence. They laid out bedrolls and started a fire. Sakura and he laid down in a sleeping bag with the pinkette nuzzling her back into his chest as his arms draped over her waist.
"We'll be okay right?" She whispered, looking over her shoulder at him, "We'll get back to Ino?"
"Of course we will," He smiled softly, "We'll get back and I'll treat you both to that hotspring spa you've been talking about, out in Kumo," Squeezing her lightly he leant into her neck, "I'll make sure we both get home, I swear,"
"Yeah, I know, goodnight Naruto,"
"Goodnight Sakura,"
They spent a full day travelling over the ocean, getting to the buildings as the sunlight began dimming again. Luckily it was still light enough for them to do a preliminary search and set up a safe place to rest and eat. Izuku divided everyone to search, with everyon except him in pairs. Sasuke and Katsuki found a few rusted kunai discarded on the floors of some houses, leading them all to believe wherever they are, was once a ninja village. Naruto and Sakura were slowly descending down a dark stairwell when Sakura ducked and darted into an empty room, frantically grabbing at her hair. "Stupid cobwebs," She grunted, trying to pick out the offending object. Smiling softly, he ran his fingers through her hair, gently pulling out the webbing. "I think we should pause for lunch,"
"Sounds like an idea to me babe," As he continued cleaning her hair, she pulled out several ration bars and used a small fire jutsu to light a campfire. They sat down once he'd gotten rid of all he could, opening some scrolls to unseal skewered fish and cooking them over the fire. She leant her head on his shoulder and chuckled. "What?"
"Just, reminiscing, remeber the chuunin exams?"
"How could I not?"
"It was the first time I'd ever been forced to eat something, instead of pressured into going hungry," His face soured at the reminder of her parents, "You told me about how Izuku force fed you fish and Sasuke pork, do you think he ever forced Katsuki to do it while they were out training?"
"I don't know," His arm curled around her shoulders. "But I'm just glad we both eat it now, honestly all the sushi I never would've tried, brings a tear to my eye,"
"My heart bleeds for you," She teased, "How did you and Izuku recognize I wasn't eating anyways?"
"We both went hungry a lot, back before he moved in anyways, and a while after that before he began shopping on his own, remember they all hated me back then, a few still do,"
"And they're all still idiots, you're amazing and anyone that doesn't realize that can kiss my ass,"
"I'd prefer it if I was the only one that got to do that," He grinned, before she went pink and smacked his chest playfully, "Sorry, sorry, just, if you set me up like that I'm going to take the shot, but yeah, Izuku recognized it first, during a training session, your arms were wobbling too much for the exercise and you were going rather pale, he told me in code so you wouldn't realize we were on to you, after that it was just figuring out how to get you to eat more,"
"Which you did at the tower in the forest," She grinned, "And I never looked back, well, after I moved in anyway,"
"About that, why did you come to our house anyway? Ino's much closer to you and she was your bestfriend even back then when you were, 'competing',"
"Ugh, Kami, don't remind me, I don't know how we were ever that petty, but I didn't go to her because, well, it's a bit embarassing but, I felt safer with you, honestly, even back then you were this shining beacon of warmth, I knew after you sucked the poison out of my hand on our way to the Land of Waves, I would always be safe beside you, now if only it was the same the other way around,"
"I am safe with you, it's just, well, I'm not going to die when I'm next to you and Ino, but I'm not afraid to get hurt if it means protecting you two,"
"Even though we're two kick ass kunoichi?"
"Especially because of that, I'm just a knuckleheaded ninja, now you and Ino? You are both one of a kind in your fields, all of your strength comes from you, I just got lucky to have Kurama with me, otherwise I'd have never gotten to where I am today,"
"Naruto Uzumaki, don't you dare talk like that about yourself," She kissed his cheek, "You are incredible, both as a shinobi and a boyfriend, don't you let anyone tell you otherwise," They ate in silence for a few minutes. Putting his empty skewer down he got to his feet,
"Right, I'm going to take a leak," Walking towards another staircase he put his hands in his pockets,
"Thank you for announcing that," Sakura giggled,
"Thank you for-, GAH!" His imitation was cut short as he walked face first into a spider's web, causing him to lose balance and go crashing down the stairs, ending in a heap at the bottom. "Ow," Laughter echoed down to him as she slowly found him, "I'm glad my pain amuses you," He grumbled as he tried to move, sitting up he grunted in pain.
"Easy there hotshot, you've probably bruised your back with your impression of a rubber ball," A warm feeling on his back and he smiled gently, "Sure showed those stairs whose boss,"
"That's enough out of you,"
"Sorry, feeling better?" Her hands moved away and Naruto found himself missing the warmth. "Naruto?"
"Hm, yeah, sorry, much better,"
"There you two are," They looked over to see a small window by the cieling, Sasuke was on all fours looking in at them, "Come on, Izuku's found something," They crawled out of the space and followed the ravenette through the ruinous streets, finding Gaara and Hinata in a backstreet, the grounp began to head to Izuku and Katsuki, who were found in a catacomb area. From the limited light of the doorway, they could see small mounds going either side and far into the darkness.
"This can't be a good sign,"
"We've been looking for something for three days, we're five days in a seven day mission, this is more than anything else we've found," Izuku nodded, "But it still answers nothing about where they could've taken Hanabi,"
"You mean where the Otsutsuki are hiding don't you?" Naruto asked quietly,
"How did you-,"
"I heard Hiashi and Tsunade as we were leaving, something about not waiting for the meteors and not waiting for you two before we started," Putting his foot down he craked his fingers, "So tell us, what the hell is going on?" Izuku sighed before holding up his hand, in his palm was a picture of the earth with a ring of orange around it. The ring was divided into chunks counting down to zero. Five of the eight were a brighter orange, Naruto swallowed thickly.
"Right now the moon is moving out of its orbit, we don't know why, but as it falls, chunks are breaking off and crashing into earth, at the end of the seventh day, the moon will be on a crash course and we won't be able to stop it, Tsunade and Kakashi can't help but think there's a link to Toneri Otsutsuki, the man who kidnapped Hanabi and the moon falling, Kami knows what it is but," He shrugged, "So the seven of us have to figure out what and how to stop the moon falling as well as saving Hanabi Hyuuga," His fist hit the side of the wall, "It's been five days and we have nothing, except a ghost town and a crypt of bodies," Gaara let out a sound of shock, they looked over to see him grabbing a fallen Hinata. "What happened?"
"I-I, saw something," She murmured, "I don't, something about a Tenseigan?"
"Shit!" Izuku turned and stormed out of the room, Naruto shot an apologetic look to Hinata before charging out to see Izuku sending an army of all types of clones.
"What was that about?!"
"The Tenseigan is a dojutsu Hamura Otsutsuki had, he used it to control the moon into orbit after he and Hagoromo sealed away Kaguya, fuck it makes sense! Toneri took Hanabi to take her Byakugan and use it to give himself the Tenseigan so he could move the moon! Shit!" Naruto stepped backwards,
"What?"
"The Tenseigan is considered a myth because it's a dojutsu no human clan has, even I can't really use it, legends in the catacombs of Iwa suggest that an Otsutsuki implanted with a Byakugan of the Hyuuga will be blessed with a Tenseigan, it's also the name of a superweapon used by the homura's descendants in a clan civil war," His head fell, "I'm sorry Naruto, I'm just, I'm on edge, this is the first time I've left them for longer than a day since school started,"
"They'll be okay Izubro,"
"And if they aren't?" He blew a raspberry, "Thanks,"
"Come on man, they've got you're three boys and the rest of your students, plus little Eri, she'll kick ass with the best of them, already can,"
"I... It's just weird y'know? Not being able to cover them,"
"Hey they have to fly solo at some point, why not now?"
"You make a compelling case, now," Izuku took a deep breath and grinned, "What do you think we should do next?" Sasuke appeared at the entrance
"Well, call me stupid but I think there's something weird about the distortion of the sea, I mean look, you can see where we left the cave out there," He pointed out to the blue expanse, "The horizon curves upwards, not out of sight, we must be underground,"
"True," Izuku rubbed his chin, Naruto watched as the sunlight bounced off the ocean's surface.
Wait.
"I think we should investigate up there," He pointed to the hanging yellow orb, "Call me crazy but if we're underground, shouldn't we check out the weirdly accurate source of light?" His brothers both looked at him and then up into the sky. Both began grinning.
"Naruto you fucking genius,"
The inked birds flew up towards the sun. Two things stood out to Naruto as they grew closer, number one they could actually look at the sun and number two, it was getting bigger. "Remember the plan guys, we're going to face a lot of hostiles!" As if on cue, they watched a hole open up on the side of the orb and several puppet birds flew out to meet them. "Sasuke, Naruto go!" Both boys leapt off their drawings and glowed, Sasuke was caught in his Susano'o while chakra form Kurama floated in the air. They began to fight the veritable army of wooden dolls. "Katsuki, your turn!"
"Now we're talking!" The ash blond leapt into the air, caught in his own chakra construct.
"Gaara, safety net!"
"Right!" Sand flew out and began forming clouds around the sidelines of the battle, ready to catch anyone should they fall. As they all fought, Naruto watched his greenette brother weave between the enemies. Leaping from his ride to a puppet and clasping his hands together. The rider froze as Izuku called out,
"Everone, form up, we're going into the heart now!" Gaara, Hinata and Sakura fell into line behind Izuku as Naruto, Sasuke and Katsuki formed a protective line behind them. The enemy puppets kept firing small chakra blasts in rapid succesion but only a few actually hit. A green flicker in front of them and Izuku reshaped a truth seeking orb to be a shield. "We're landing, now!" The group dove towards the nearest solid ground and quickly dismounted. Katsuki and Sasuke hit the ground running as Naruto turned around the hurl a new jutsu at the remaining airborne enemies.
"Tailed Beast Rasen-shuriken!" Falling backwards he blinked to Izuku's side as the explosion rocked the very air around them. They charged down the hallways as legions of puppets descended on them. sakura led the charge destroying the wooden assailants with a single blow. As they pushed through the corridors, Izuku peeled off with Gaara and Hintata, turning sarply down another corridor and disappearing. The gour of them kept going as he followeed the large chakra source deep in the building. If they were luck it would be the tenseigan and they could destroy that before confronting Toneri, if it was Toneri, they could easily juste him out and then hunt for the Tenseigan. Either way they would stop the moon approaching and then be able to put it back into it's rghtful place. bursting through a largest of double doors, Naruto saw Toneri walking down a staircase the other end of the room The four didn't hesitate, instead charging with, as Izuku says, reckless abandon. He dropped down the stairs several at a time, to the point he was almsot falling down them. Sakura and Sasuke were sprinting down the walls while katsuki ran above them on the ceiling. The exit came into sight and they didn't slow down. Sasuke broke out first, leaping from the wall and spinning in midair. Katsuki followed him and the ravenette boosted his brother in midair. Naruto kept his pace as Sakura threw herself from the wall and glided past him. The four surrounded the Otsutsuki on the small pathway. Naruto gave himself a minute to stake in the enviroment. A cavernous orb, filled with golden pathways. A large orb sat inside of a golden ring in the middle of the area, the ring itself seemed the centrepoint for the pathways. Making an educated guess, Naruto guessed that was the Tenseigan superweapon thing Izuku had told him about. "We have you four to one Toneri, stop the moon's approach, now,"
"You can't beat me, not now that I have the power of the Tenseigan!" The pale skinned man turned to face Naruto, grinning madly. Yeah, that wasn't offputting. "I'll destroy the failed world of the Six Paths Sage and rebuild a perfect world as told by Homura's prophecy!"
"He's more of a loon than Madara was," Sasuke muttered. Izuku's hand was on his shoulder,
"We found Hanabi, her eyes, oh, you already know," The blond shook his head, "Oh, well, her eyes were taken, they're currently in his head," Ah, yeah, checks out. Toneri frowned. "We'll be taking those back now,"
"You can't stop me, human,"
"Wanna bet?" Gaara growled, sand already swirling to attack. Toneri got reaady to attack before Naruto looked over his shoulder, Izuku nodded and the blond grinned. Sasuke's Chidori screamed to life, forcing their opponent to move Naruto and Sakura filled the space and kept him on the back foot, herding him away from the orb. Gaara helped by creating walls of sand to force Toneri back, Izuku, Katsuki and Hinata stayed back. The greenette nodded and the four fighters kept making Toneri retreat, little by little they were foring him from the area. Eventually he turned to flee, leaving the four to give chase. As they left green, orange and purple light bathed the walls.
They knew Toneri had wanted to fight them outside. It was an obvious strategy, especially since they'd been in the heart of his operation. fighting around that would've risked failure, and no self respecting ninja would ever risk failure with a quick battle. Drawing the attackers away and then unleashing the stronger attacks was an infinitely better plan. They weren't expecting him to suddenly glow white and light green. A giatn rock golem appeared out of nowhere and it took Naruto giving Kurama his chakra avatar to hold it off. Toneri unleashed the smae energy attacks his puppets did, but in much faster and more explosive volleys. Naruto took an opening as Gaara was blasted away to strike. A golden Rasengan in his hand. Toneri reacted in due course however, holding his hand up and firing not a volley, but a beam. A beam that was bigger than Naruto. Which struck him and carried him directly to the ground, and then through the ground. "Naruto!" Sakura yelled out, darting over to and grabbing him in middair. They landed on the side of the crater Toneri made. At least it shouold've been a crater, except they could see the night sky. And the moon. It was really big now. Had it always been so blue? Where those clouds?
Wait.
No.
"Son of a bitch, we're on the moon!" They watched as Gaara was flung out of hole, using his sand to anchor himself and land on the surface. Behind them the light grew dimmer and Sasuke seemed to cheer. The three lookd over to see the fake sun slowly breaking apart and turning into nothing. A flash of green light.
"Oh mother fucker!" Izuku's voice rang out as he also took in the surprise. "Alright, let's take this to the surface, the less damage we do to the insides the better," Naruto opened his mouth, "Because the exit is in there and we need to keep that from being destroyed," the unasked question was answered. "Sasuke, Katsuki on me!" The duo landed nearby, neither vocalising the shock on their faces as they saw the planet they called hom hanging in pain sight. The group began leaving and found gaara naer the ledge.
"Where's Hinata?"
"Getting Hanabi out of here, she's on a drawn bird headng directly for the pathway, we just need to snag Toneri's eyes and the mission is done," Izuku grunted, "The moon is moving back in position by itself, now we can either nuetralize Toneri or knock him out and take the eyes back,"
"Without the Tenseigan he can't get to earth or control the moon, so either way he's trapped here, killing him might be a mercy in this case," Sasuke summarized, "I say we just knock him out cold," The group shared a nod. Izuku grinned and turned dark green.
"Alright, everyone let's get the bitch," He disappeared in a flicker, Katsuki and Sasuke shared a look before their Sharingans screeched and turned to live, Sakura cracked her knuckles and charged off. Gaara held his fist up and the two bumped the backs of their hands together, unleashing their level two chakra cloaks, both turning dark red with pure white eyes. Everyone charged off and attacked Toneri. Izuku's truth seeker orbs met with his, allowing Toneri to deflect Katsuki and Sasuke. Sakura and Hinata combined their attacks to hit the grey rocks and throw off his balance. Letting Gaara and Naruto get close and both deliver a powerful punch. Gaara's struck his gut while Naruto's landed in his face. The Otsutsuki was launched backacross the surface before Izuku overtook his ragdoll body and caught him by the neck. His face was blank as the chakra cloak faded. "Glass cannon much?" Izuku chided, "Seriously, for all your talk it took two well places punches to put you out of comission? Good grief," a clone appeared and removed Toneri's eyes, storing them in a pouch which was then securely sealed into a scroll. "Mercy kill?" He asked out to the group, Sasuke and Gaara nodded their heads, Sakura and Hinata seemed hesitant to agree, Katsuki shrugged,
"Just make it quick," Izuku's eyes fell to Naruto, who had yet to speak.
"I don't know, I mean, leaving him up here on his own seems like a fate worse than death, but can't we just take him back to earth with us and have him stand trial or something?"
"He threatened to wipe out the planet," Sasuke shook his head, "Not just Madara's Infinite Tsykuyomi plan, but actually kill the entire population of humans, plants and animals, and we're going to let him stand trial?"
"From what I can gather, it's possible he's been misled," Hinata lifted her hand slightly, "There was a fight between two sides of the clan that lived in the village we saw, they used the Tenseigan weapon to defeat the other side,"
"It's very much likely the winning side was the one who wanted to wipe out the earth," Izuku nodded his head, "Right, we'll take him back to earth, if we can explain the situation and he changes his mind, we'll give him a trial period to adjust to our way of life, if he remains steadfast that the world should be ended, we'll have him stand trial and executed, sound fair?" Naruto nodded, Sasuke and Gaara both pursed their lips, but didn't argue, Sakura and Hinata relaxed and agreed while Katsuki huffed,
"Can we go home now?"
"Alright Hanabi, how many fingers?"
"Three?"
"What's the poster there say?"
"Uh, hungry? come to Ichiraku's, check out our new barbeque range,"
"And can you look outside?"
"Yeah, it's a bit bright but I can manage," Tsunade sighed and stood up straight,
"Well, there's nothing wrong with her eyes, she'll need a few hours for them to adjust back, I wouldn't be surprised if she has a few pains while the chakra is overridden, otherwise she's clear to go," Naruto nodded in thanks, "Now is there a reason you came to see me Izuku?"
"Just need you to sign something, an Elder in UA has, shall we say, commandeered supervision to make sure I am taking care of my body, when I last saw her I had several shards of glass removed from my back, along with her checking my skeleton to find out my self-healing hasn't been perfected, she said the only way I got to go on this mission was to make sure I took care of myself, you signing this proves I remained unharmed during our mission," Said greenette handed the Hokage a slip of paper.
"Someone managed to get you to do that?"
"She's an elder, but she swings her cane like a weapon of someone a third of her age, even the heroines I work with fear her wrath if they come to unnecessary and avoidable harm, and when combined with the only person who can identify when I am truly injured, decieving her would only satand to get me more of a beating after she heals me," Naruto held back a giggle. "Katsuki doesn't need one as his missions don't involve fighting armies, he doesn't get hurt half as much as I do,"
"That reminds me, do you need help with ROOT again?" Their few weeks excursion hadn't resulted in much, even after Izuku killed Danzo in their confrontation, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had to call the mission off since it was taking too long. Of course they had been made aware of Izuku's torture before leaving
"No, I fear that everything will come to a head soon, hopefully the next you see me I will have Danzo ready for his official execution, at worset I shall still be hunting him and the remaining cell of ROOT," He took the note back from Tsunade. "It's been fun working together on a mission, even if it was only for a week, if felt like we were young again," Naruto nodded, remembering how much they'd gone through together.
"Honestly if felt like the Land of the Waves all over again," They chuckled together before Izuku snapped his fingers.#"You still have White Zetsu around right?"
"Uh, yeah I think so,"
"Zabuza and Haku, I'll let you know when I can help, but it's possible,"
"You really think so?"
"They aid I couldn't bring mom and dad back, since when has impossible ever stopped me?" That was a fair point, Naruto conceded with a grin.
"Man I'd love to get ramen with them if we can then,"
"Hold on boys, if you bring them back, they'd be wards of the Uzumaki clan, meaning you'd be in charge of doling out their punishments,"
"They were already executed Tsunade, I'd argue they've served their punishments," Izuku shrugged, "Plus I have three wards in Musutafu that were previously criminals, Zabuza and Haku already wanted to repent when they died, I think we'll be okay reviving them," she sighed,
"Very well, just notify me so that I can talk to them about the ground rules we'll put in place," They both nodded before leaving the office. Katsuki, Sakura and Ino were waiting outside.
"So you two really can't stay?" Ino pouted, "Not even for lunch?"
"We promised to be gone seven days, if we stay any longer we'll fall behind on studies," Katsuki shook his head, "And I'm pretty sure Izuku's trouble sense is going off,"
"Will you guys bring Eri back soon though? She's so cute,"
"I'll bring her once I've cleaned up whatever mess they've made, though I have a suspicion it's going to be more than one," Izuku shifted his eyes around in suspicion. "But we will visit again soon, hopefully you won't be needing us for a mission though," He smiled, "I'm sorry we didn't get much time to catch up Ino, next time I'll bring the whole group for a gossip alright?" She grinned and nodded her head. "With that said, take care you guys," They shared goodbyes and both were suddenly gone.
"So," Ino turned to Naruto, "What's this about a visit to a spa in Kumo and a holiday in Suna?"