Never Gives Up
A couple minutes before the sky went red, Naruto was asking his mom how to tell a girl you liked them. They'd started off talking about something else but the conversation had moved on, and Naruto had left the kunai on the table, ignoring it for now.
"I think Sakura already knows, Naruto," Kushina said dryly, and Naruto choked on his water.
"I didn't… I mean, I didn't say anything about Sakura!" he protested, and his mom rolled her eyes, settling back into the couch. They were both inside, Naruto sitting and rehydrating after the training session with the rest of his team. Unusually, his mom was wearing a vest and other ninja gear; Naruto hadn't asked why, but that had been more common for her lately. He figured it was due to things getting more tense; no one knew when things would get bad, only that they would.
"Ah, I must be thinking of a different girl you defected for," Kushina said, sounding deeply unconvinced. She had a wry, annoying smile, the kind she got when she was right and Naruto was wrong. "But alright, if you don't wanna talk about it that way, I get it, you know. Why the sudden interest?"
Why the sudden interest? Naruto had to ask himself the question, because he hadn't thought about it himself. He frowned to himself, taking small sips of his water, and eventually spoke.
"Cause I feel like I might not have the chance soon," he said, the honesty hurting his throat. "I almost died in Rain. I would feel really stupid if I died before I said anything. Wouldn't that just be a big wasted opportunity?"
Kushina stayed silent, watching him with a pained expression. Naruto found himself babbling a little, regret pouring out.
"I told Sasuke like, a while ago. After I got back from Ishima, and that was the same as now. What, I can only think about it when I almost die? How stupid is that? I can talk to him about it, but not her? What's up with that?"
"Sasuke's already your friend," Kushina said patiently. "But making the jump from friend to something more can be scary. You're worried that if you mess it up, the relationship won't be the same anymore. That's natural."
"Well, it wouldn't be!" Naruto said. "And what if she said she didn't like me back?! That would be even worse! Then I'd just feel like a complete idiot!"
His mom shrugged. "That's part of the risk," she said, before laughing. "You're being really cute right now, y'know. I wasn't sure when this would start happening."
"Shut up," Naruto grumbled, but his mom just laughed him off. "You're not helping."
"Well, I'll try to help then," Kushina said with a grin. "You tell them… by telling them. Maybe make a gesture if you feel fancy, but that's all there is to it."
Naruto huffed, completely unsatisfied with the answer. "How did dad tell you?" he asked, searching for something better, and his mom chuckled.
"He saved me from a squad of Cloud ninja," she said, and Naruto's mouth pressed into a line. "That was how he 'told' me, but it was when we were in the academy, and he didn't
do anything about it for almost a decade." She huffed, her expression almost identical to Naruto's. "What a jerk.
That I don't recommend doing, Naruto."
"That long?" Naruto asked, baffled, and his mom smirked.
"We both kept waiting for the other to make the first move," she said, "and thinking the other was smarter than they were."
"Like Obito and Rin?" Naruto asked, and Kushina shook her head.
"Not quite. What was happening there… It was complicated. Your dad and I were just dunces. We didn't figure it out until the Third War started, and that didn't make things any easier." She sat up and snapped her fingers. "Hey, that's actually a good lesson, I could sound like a smart adult."
"What?" Naruto asked, and his mother gave him a faux-intense look.
"Don't wait," she said. "Don't try to be clever about it. There's never gonna be a perfect moment, so just get the ball rolling and see where it goes." She paused. "And, frankly Naruto, even if I don't wanna say it, you're kinda right. You almost died in Rain, y'know. Both of you. As bad as that would have been for all of us, wouldn't it have been even worse for you to go with regrets?"
Naruto couldn't help but think about Kabuto's smiling, eyeless face, and he shivered.
"Alright," he said. "So just do it?"
"Just do it," Kushina confirmed. "Especially if you want to help her. Whoever this mystery girl is, she's been through a lot right alongside you. Love isn't a panacea, but it gives people strength. It helps them keep going even when it feels like they can't take another step. That's something the both of you could use right now."
Naruto stared at his mom, not sure if he should be relieved or scared.
"I didn't say I loved her," he said. Kushina smirked. There was a distant crack, but neither of them paid it too much mind.
"Right," she said. "You're just fifteen. You barely know what love is. But you sure turned red just now, y'know?"
As Naruto tried to muster up a witty comeback, red light suddenly shone down through the skylight above them.
Kushina looked up, her humor instantly turning to alarm. "The barrier?" she said, and Naruto remembered her words from a long, long time ago. "What-?"
As Naruto looked up as well, thick white snow began to fall on the skylight, obscuring the red light. He stared at it, his brain short-circuiting. Snow? In Konoha? In April? What? He'd only seen snow here once in his life, and that had been in January or something. Now that he was alert, he could hear it thumping down all around the house. How the hell-?
Was it an epiphany, or something greater than that, like a realization that came from the soul instead of his brain? Either way, Naruto froze, and his mother noticed.
"Naruto?" She stoodup and headed towards the front door, clearly expecting him to follow.
"Haku's alive," Naruto said, horrible conflicting feelings of relief and fear and jealousy, what the fuck, jealousy burning in his chest. "He's the only one who could make it snow like this. He's got a Bloodline-"
"I remember," Kushina said, cutting him off. "Naruto, I have to go. You know what I mean, right?"
"I'm coming with you," Naruto said, and though Kushina didn't stop talking she did start moving. He snatched the kunai up off the table and followed her, stowing it in his hip pack with the rest.
"If Haku is here, he's not alone," she said, and Naruto nodded.
"If Haku's here, he's probably trying to find Sakura," he said. "She'll need help. I need to find her first."
They started moving down the street; the snow fell thick, and Naruto could hear explosions in the distance. Smoke rosewas rising on the outskirts of the village. Rain really was attacking, he thought distantly: the Akatsuki had betrayed its principles of peace that Sakura had held up so highly.
But Naruto didn't really care about that. The only thing on his mind was getting to Sakura before Haku did. Would she defect again, or would she do something she'd regret if Rain's hypocrisy slapped her in the face? He genuinely wasn't sure, but the meaning didn't matter, only the action.
"You may have to fight Rain ninja," Kushina warned, the two of them picking up speed. His mom headed south-west towards where the sound of fighting was thickest. With a tremendous
SMASH the main gate to the village was thrown off its huge hinges, soaring through the air; Naruto watched as it fell just short of them and crushed half a neighborhood.
He put his hands together and another him appeared, diverting off towards the site of the impact.
"I'm ready to," he said shortly. Kushina nodded, seeing his resolve, and didn't ask again.
As they moved on, Naruto didn't see the first Rain ninja that attacked them until he was already dealt with. The man wore a flak vest and carried a spiked chain, and by the time Naruto heard him coming and looked over, the shinobi was already flying into the sky at several times the speed of sound. The
thwack of the Adamantine Chains striking him out of the air came a moment later, and Kushina growled, showing her extended canines. There were ninja everywhere, but some in the distance turned and fled: enemies realizing they'd run into the wrong ninja.
"Some of them are already this far in," Kushina said, holding out a hand and motioning for him to slow down. "They must be coming from all directions. Bastards."
"Why just rush in?" Naruto asked, feeling weirdly calm. He hadn't seen this coming, not in a million years, but now it was
happening, and he wanted to understand why. His knowledge of shinobi warfare didn't go far beyond what was expected at the squad level.
It was more than that though. Why would Rain attack, especially when his dad was trying to negotiate with them? Had they been tricked, or did they really think this was the right thing to do? Whatever the reason, Naruto wouldn't be able to accept it: not when it meant killing people in their homes, people who'd never done anything to the Nation of Rain.
"Infiltrators after VIP's," Kushina said, "like me. That and destroying infrastructure. They'll be outnumbered attacking us here." There were civilians and ninja everywhere, rushing past them in a panic as they moved, but Kushina's blazing red hair seemed to magically clear a path through the chaos. "So they have to do as much damage as they can, as quickly as they can, even if it means being separated from the main force."
"Do you think they'll send more people after you?" Naruto asked, and his mother nodded as they leapt up onto the roof of a department store. The snow began to stick to them both, deathly cold, but Naruto was running so hot he could barely feel it.
"I'm sure," Kushina said, and he grimaced.
That made things even simpler for him. If it was his mom or the world…
"Then we'll kill them," he said.
"Ahh," Kushina said, somehow giving him a grin despite what was happening. "What every mother wants to hear from her son."
More and more of the village was on fire, and Naruto made more clones, silently commanding them to head towards the damage. People were getting hurt, and some were dying, and even if he couldn't be dragged from his mother's side by a hundred people right now he still had an obligation to try to keep them alive.
It was just like Waves. But this time, he wouldn't have Karin to fix him if he emptied himself out. Now, Karin might even be an enemy, as insane as the thought was. Naruto's hands clenched into fists.
He wouldn't let it be just like Waves.
As he and his mom leapt over to the next building, Kushina held up her hand and brought Naruto to a stop. They landed, ankle deep in snow already, and Kushina stepped forward and dropped off the building into a courtyard set in the center of the mall, a square dotted with plants, benches, and a small fountain, all now choked in snow.
On the other side of the courtyard, four ninja wearing Akatsuki robes did the same.
They weren't the only people in the courtyard, not by a longshot. Civilians were still evacuating, with some Konoha ninja shepherding them. But even though a couple other Leaf ninja noticed the Akatsuki quartet, none of them approached as Kushina stepped forward and Naruto followed.
Naruto was witnessing something he'd never seen before. He'd been around high-level ninja before, hell, all the time actually. His sensei was one of the most famous ninja in the world, and so was his dad, and his mom. He'd met the Kazekage (well, cursed at him, which counted as far as he was concerned), seen Gaara unleash his Tailed Beast (twice), been in Waterfall while it burned, been obliterated by Itachi Uchiha (also twice), stood before the Rinnegan, and even survived a bomb that had killed a hundred-thousand people going off right over his head.
But even all that was nothing like standing between two ninja as ridiculously strong as his mom and one of the Akatsuki's commanders while they prepared to kill each other.
Their chakra clashed, whipping the snow in the courtyard into a frenzy. Kushina's hair rose like it had a mind of its own, and the killing pressure of both ninjas' energy bore down on everyone close to them with a fatal, irresistible weight. Their chakra carved a channel between Kushina and the Akatsuki's commander the two of them so focused on each other that the snow couldn't fall between them. Naruto was sure that if he stepped in front of his mother, the pressure, the killing intent, would have crushed him to a pulp.
"Kushina Uzumaki," Kimimaro Kaguya said, his face expressionless. He came to a stop about twenty feet away, practically chest to chest for ninja. "And Naruto Namikaze. How ideal."
Naruto's breathing sped up. Kimimaro Kaguya was here, the implications of which were really, really bad, but worse than that was the woman beside him.
Kagami Kaguya gave Naruto an apologetic grimace. For some reason, the first thing he noticed was that her scars were gone.
"Sorry, Naruto," she said, and her cousin didn't correct her. Whatever the situation, he was confident she would stay by his side. Naruto didn't respond. He was too busy analyzing the situation.
He didn't know the other two Akatsuki members, but they both immediately pinged to him as strange: a man and a woman, the exact same height, with the same gold eyes and black hair. Same haircut, even. Siblings, he thought, and if they were ninja he hadn't seen before that meant they had either kept a low profile in Rain or had been outside of the village most of the time.
If they had been sent after his mom, they were bad news.
"Akatsuki-" Kushina started to say, her whole body starting to glow gold, and then a tremendous roar flattened all sound and thought. The courtyard began evacuating even faster; no one wanted to be within a mile of the battle that was about to begin.
"Too late," Kimimaro said, speaking into the void left by the roar. Naruto craned his head, looking for the source of it, but the buildings around the courtyard blocked his line of sight. It had been so loud he couldn't tell the direction. "The Sanbi has already been unleashed. When you die, there will be no one who can seal it."
Kushina smiled. Red and gold chakra swirled around her, melting any snow that fell close; Naruto could feel the heat of his mother's aura from several feet away, and his foot slid back. It was about to start.
He tried to clear Sakura from his mind. He needed to be here, one-hundred percent. No matter how strong his mom was, it was two on four.
"It's just one Bijuu," Kushina said. "After I kill you, Minato will take care of it."
She
charged.
For a moment Naruto lost sight of her, only seeing the wake of steaming snow thrown up in her wake. A bone-shaking collision echoed throughout the whole courtyard, and the scene resolved itself; Kushina and Kimimaro had slammed into each other in the center, toppling over a nearby tree with the violence of their impact.
Kushina pushed forward, golden chains ensnaring Kimimaro as she went through the seals for a jutsu, but the Akatsuki commander pushed back, an immovable force against an irresistible object. Despite his arms and legs being wrapped in chains, he
pushed, and the invincible Adamantine Chains shifted, unable to fully hold him back.
Bones began sprouting out of him, long ones, spikes and spears and swords and plates of armor, and Kushina was forced to fall back or be skewered.
The Water Dragon she had prepared launched from between Kushina's hands wreathed in her red and gold chakra, and Kimimaro cut through it with the glaive that his arm had transformed into. Enough force to gut a building was split in half, and the cleaved jutsu continued on, slamming through the structures behind Kimimaro as the other Akatsuki members scattered.
As Kimimaro inexorably pressed forward, he lifted his hand and sonic booms began to fill the air; the bones of his fingers fired out the tips at an unbelievable rate, a barrage of bone-bullets that tore everything they struck to shreds. Kushina stood her ground at first, parrying in a frenzy of chain strikes that filled the air with countless ringing impacts, but she was forced back; one of the bullets made it through, skimming her leg and leaving a large cut. She started moving, rotating as Kimimaro increased his rate of fire, shredding large swathes of the courtyard and growing less and less human-looking by the second.
All of this happened in a little more than a second, which was how long it took for Naruto to snap out of his shock and focus on the enemies he had a chance in hell against.
He dashed forward, shocked to find there wasn't much hesitation in his movement. He didn't want to hurt Kagami, but the other two Akatsuki members were here to kill his mom: they were fair game. A clone appeared at his side, and a Rasengan in his hand. The siblings split, and Kagami leapt to meet him.
Bones sprouted across her body, pushing out from her skin. But instead of screaming and bleeding, she moved with incredible speed, like a real ninja. Plates of solid white snapped into place across her torso, arms, legs, and head, forming a literal skull mask. In a flash, she was armored from head to toe like an old-fashioned samurai, and a spear that had been one of her humerus was in her hands.
Somehow, her Bloodline Limit had been fixed. She could control and restore her bones like she was supposed to.
"Sorry!" she called again, stabbing out with the spear. Naruto spun past it and thrust his Rasengan into the haft, but even his jutsu couldn't shatter Kagami's ridiculously hard bones; could he even hurt her through all that armor? The counterattack sent her spinning, but she was light on her feet, dancing back with a series of jabs that spaced him out. "This really isn't how I wanted this to go!"
"Then leave!" Naruto shouted out, sparing a glance for the other Akatsuki members. His clone was after them, but they were doing a good job of evading it, springing around the courtyard to avoid its attacks but never getting too far from Kimimaro and Kushina. Kimimaro was ridiculous; with just a glance Naruto saw his mom slam him with her chains enough times to reduce a normal person to paste, wrapping him up and squeezing with catastrophic force after every strike,
and dump another Water jutsu on him. It was something similar to Sakura's Flowing Water Blade, a stream of compressed water launched from Kushina's mouth that carved through the fountain in the center of the square with zero resistance and struck Kimimaro in the neck while he was restrained.
But even that did jack shit. Blood spewed from Kimimaro's neck, but the jutsu couldn't cut through his spine, and the wound closed in the blink of an eye as he pressed forward, stomping down despite the invincible chains constricting him. His skeleton was just as tough as the Adamantine Chains!
Bones started erupting from the ground in the wake of the stomp, forcing Kushina back as Kimimaro thrust the chains off of him. Naruto stared, trying to understand what the fuck he was seeing from a medic's perspective. Kimimaro had planted his bones beneath the ground, and now they were coming back up.
Sure, yeah, bones are basically connective tissue, you can grow tissue, Naruto thought. That was the entire point of the Kaguya Bloodline Limit, rapidly growing and replacing all manner of body tissue. Kimimaro was probably just shooting what were basically 'seeds' into the ground when he stomped for his unbreakable bones to grow from.
But still, what the fuck? How much chakra did he have to do that so effortlessly? It was utterly insane.
The courtyard rapidly filled up with spiraling towers of bone whorling out of the ground, and Naruto leapt up the nearest roof, Kagami chasing after him. To his shock, his mother didn't immediately try to escape the sudden forest of bones; she stayed on the ground, roaring and throwing more attacks at Kimimaro as he relentlessly advanced towards her with another spray of bone bullets.
The Kyuubi's chakra boiled off of her so thickly it distorted the air, and Naruto saw something else he'd never seen before: a long tail of crimson chakra writhed out of his mother's back as a cloak of bubbling chakra covered her body, and then another. They whipped through the air like they had a life of their own.
Kushina screamed, her voice not entirely her own, and some of the bones around her shivered, hairline fractures racing across them.
"Wow," Kagami said conversationally. Naruto rolled aside as she landed where he had been, her spear driving down into the roof; she ripped it out with a flourish, rotating it around her body. She looked like she was having fun. That didn't help him calm down at all. "She really is a monster. I didn't think it was possible to damage Kimimaro's bones."
His clone still wasn't having any luck with the other assassins. Naruto licked his lips; it didn't seem like anyone was coming to help them. The forest of bones was spreading beyond the mall, piercing out into the village and bringing screams with it. "Kagami," he said. "Please. Just… just leave. It's like you said. Rain's like all the other villages. You were right."
"I can't." Kagami rotated, and Naruto rotated with her. His mother and Kimimaro were fighting so furiously down below that the mall started to crumble: the force of their clashes was like an earthquake rolling out through the village and shaking the building under Naruto's feet. "It's a little thanks to you, Naruto, but I've got some sense of honor. Rain gave me a lot, more than anyone else ever did. The Amekage cured me, perfected my Shikotsumyaku. I have to repay them for that." Her eyes weren't cruel behind her skull mask. That just made what she was saying worse.
"I saved your life," Naruto snarled, and Kagami nodded. "That doesn't matter to you?"
"I won't let my cousin kill you," Kagami said, looking genuinely apologetic. "But I won't stand in the way of his mission either. I'm sorry: that's the best I can do."
At that moment, Kushina screamed.
It wasn't in rage. Naruto's mom screamed a lot when she fought, always had, and he was used to her battle cries, even if the ones he'd heard today had been more genuinely furious than what she normally let out.
It was a scream of pain.
Naruto looked back, his blood freezing. Kushina was still struggling with Kimimaro, but the Akatsuki's commander had driven a bone-sword through her stomach, cleanly impaling her. Kushina's chains were wrapped around it, keeping the blade from being driven deeper, and she was tearing at Kimimaro's body with claws of crimson chakra, raking gouges in the ribbed armor he'd surrounded his body in and tearing out great gouges of flesh from his shoulders and chest. But all the damage Kushina was doing was repairing itself as fast as she could inflict it, and Kimimaro was continuing to press forward, more blades threatening to impale Naruto's mother. His whole body was covered in them, like he was a man who'd been built from swords.
In Naruto's moment of distraction, Kagami tackled him to the ground. Her body was unbelievably heavy, impossible to escape from beneath, but Naruto barely noticed.
Kushina had been stabbed. His mom had been stabbed. More than that, Kimimaro had stabbed her right in the seal. Had he done that on purpose? The imprint of the seal on her stomach, which Naruto had seen a couple times, was more of an afterimage, since the actual prison for the Kyuubi was totally worked into her chakra system. But the seal had been placed there in the first place because your core was where most people's chakra systems spooled out from; it was where physical and spiritual energy was molded and combined before being distributed to the rest of the body. Short of stabbing someone in the heart or the brain, damaging someone's core was the best way to disrupt the controlled flow of their chakra, and was the least immediately lethal of the three.
It came together for Naruto as he squirmed and twisted his head, seeing the two other Akatsuki members finally move in, leaping towards Kushina and dropping out of his line of sight. They were only getting involved once she was injured.
Kimimaro's mission wasn't just to kill his mom, and Rain wasn't here just to hurt the Hidden Leaf: they were here to erase it.
They were trying to unleash the Kyuubi in the middle of the village, right into the other Tailed Beast they'd already released. One Bijuu was a disaster, but two in the same place was basically unthinkable. And with his mom gone, the person who could restrain Tailed Beasts the most effectively with her Adamantine Chains…
Naruto started screaming, and Kagami pressed down on him harder. He couldn't move both his hands: it was nearly impossible just to get one under him, pressing his flat against the roof.
"Careful!" she said, like she was chiding him and not helping his mom's killers. "I don't wanna-"
The explosive formula spread out on the roof beneath them, and Kagami didn't have time to let go of Naruto before it went off. Naruto had made it a shaped blast, mostly directed downward, but the pressure wave still burst one of his eardrums and bruised the entire front of his body as he and Kagami plummeted into the furniture store below.
As they fell, Kagami lost her grip, and Naruto made a half dozen clones in midair. One kicked him away, sending him flying deeper into the store, and the rest landed alongside Kagami and dogpiled her with Rasengans and exploding pieces of furniture. As Naruto landed and rolled, he fixed his eardrum with a touch, and his hearing returned.
He was still screaming, which surprised even him. Naruto didn't wait to see how his clones were handling Kagami; he just spun and sprinted for his mother, body-slamming through the wall of the store and into the courtyard.
Kushina was pinned down in the center of the field of bones, which Naruto could still hear spreading outside. Stakes of bone had been driven through her arms and legs, fixing her to the ground, but her Adamantine Chains were still fighting back, whipping through the air with deadly force.
The Kyuubi's chakra burned around her with greater and greater ferocity, and a full three tails flared out around her body. The Bijuu's chakra was scouring everything it touched: both strips of Kimimaro's bones and Kushina's own skin were being peeled away by it, filling the air with evaporated blood and marrow.
The Akatsuki siblings had taken up position on either side of Kushina, sitting in the center of a jutsu formula that had formed around them. Naruto could tell at a glance that they looked similar but had different functions. One was forming a barrier which was spreading upwards and forming a box over the mall, while the other was attacking Kushina's seal. Ink snaked through the air like shrieking snakes, intertwining with Kushina's chains and dripping down ink down onto her body, while more sped along the ground, forming another circle of ink and chakra around her.
It was a seal-breaking jutsu. Naruto had no idea if it was a Hidden jutsu or a Bloodline or
something, but he knew enough about jutsu shiki and fuinjutsu to know that what he was looking at was a technique made to disintegrate containment seals.
Kimimaro was battling Kushina's chains, keeping them from killing either of the seal-breakers with precise shots of bone-bullets and manipulation of the forest of bones to shield them or intercept attacks. He glanced back as Naruto broke through the wall, expressionless.
"Well, that's impressive," he said, apparently untouched despite the horrific damage Kushina had inflicted on him moments before.
"Naruto!" Despite the agony she must have been in, Kushina's voice was still clear and full of authority. She twisted to give him a furious look. "You have to break the barrier! There's reinforcements here! You have to let them in!"
The barrier was practically opaque, but Naruto could see indistinct shapes outside it; one of the shadows rushed forward and there was a thrum of energy as it was thrown back by a blast of fiery chakra. Kimimaro fully turned to face him as the Adamantine Chains finally began to falter, weighed down by ink and starting to break apart. The chains were unbreakable, but his mom's chakra system was falling apart, and the seal with it.
His clones fighting Kagami were dying; there were only two left. As far as he could tell, he was alone against Kimimaro, Kagami, and both seal-breakers. But he only needed to kill one of them to even up the fight.
"It's pointless," Kimimaro said, raising his hand. The tips of his fingers split open, but he didn't fire immediately. "The barrier will only admit other Akatsuki members, and you will not touch Kon, Namikaze. Do not make me break my word to-"
Naruto broke into a sprint, and Kimimaro started firing.
He was faster than he'd ever been before. The situation drove him as high as he could go. He
had to save his mom; there wasn't another option. Naruto stayed just ahead of the spray of bullets, making clones and creating bombs as he went. The forest began filling up with explosions, dozens of clones causing havoc and hurling knives, explosives, and shuriken at the seal-breakers.
But Kimimaro intercepted everything. Naruto was faster than he'd ever been before, but Kimimaro was still faster. Nothing hurt him; none of the bombs could pierce his bone armor, and if the shockwaves affected him he didn't show it.
Naruto had never mastered elemental ninjutsu like Sakura had. Maybe that would have helped him here. All he had was his jutsu shiki, his Rasengan, his medical jutsu, and his clones. In any other fight, that would have been enough, but even the Rasengan couldn't seem to hurt Kimimaro. Two of his clones managed to get through while the man was distracted defending his comrades, and though they both smashed head-sized Rasengan into Kimimaro's chest and hip he didn't flinch; his body counterattacked, sprouting spears of bone, and both clones died without leaving a scratch.
Was he even human? In the eternity it took Naruto to cross the courtyard, leaping through his mother's flailing ink-covered chains and knowing in his heart they wouldn't hit him, the question was very real to him. The man from a near-extinct clan had brought down Kushina, brushed off multiple Rasengans, and grown what was probably a square mile of bones by now without showing any sign of fatigue.
Everywhere Naruto looked was white and red, snow and bone, blood and the Nine-Tails' chakra. The Tailed Beast's energy had filled up the whole barrier, and Naruto could feel his skin burning like he'd spent too long in the sun.
As Naruto passed his mom and bolted towards the shinobi creating the barrier, Kimimaro appeared midair in front of him with a vaguely annoyed expression.
"No," he said, and then he kicked Naruto in the chest.
The impact was a black flash, and Naruto was barely aware of being hit until he slammed through another store wall on the other side of the courtyard. Kimimaro wasn't as fast as his father, but it was close. He struggled to his feet, healing a fractured rib as he stood, but before he could charge again Kagami was on him, having finished off his remaining clones.
He dueled her through the store and then back out into the courtyard, spear and a bone shield against his Rasengan and a chakra scalpel he'd whipped out in his left hand. Naruto had never used one in combat before, but his mind was going a million miles a minute, and he'd come to the conclusion that what he knew how to use wasn't enough here.
He was out of his league. Even with another year or two of training he would still have been hopelessly out of his league. The barrier he had to destroy had many drawbacks: the person making it, Kon, couldn't fight, couldn't even move, and was stuck in the middle of it otherwise unprotected. It was obviously a huge strain: sweat was pouring down the woman's face. But despite those drawbacks it was horrendously powerful. The fact that no one had broken in yet was proof of that.
Kimimaro had said it would only admit members of the Akatsuki, probably with Kon having memorized their chakra signature, a similar process to the barrier that surrounded Konoha itself, and judging by the shadows blasting it from the outside destroying it would take a crazy attack. Maybe his mother could have done it, but she was about to die courtesy of a Tailed Beast ripping itself out of her. The only person who could have saved him was Obito, and his Kamui wasn't working.
He was about to die, and his mother was about to die, and Naruto realized that there wasn't really much he could do about it. He could have beaten Kagami, given time. A Rasengan to her jaw snapped her head back, obviously stunning and concussing her, and it bought him the moment he needed to scramble past her and rush forward again, this time towards the man breaking his mother's seal instead of the barrier's creator.
But there was Kimimaro, standing in between him and his mother's life.
Naruto was sure that no matter how hard and how long he struggled, he couldn't kill Kimimaro. From what he'd seen, he'd have to decapitate the man at the very least, and he had nothing that could do that. If his mother had been beaten by the Akatsuki's commander, he didn't stand a chance. And while Kimimaro was alive, he wouldn't let Naruto kill anyone else. The fight was hopeless.
He started screaming again, splitting his chakra into as many clones as he could. The inside of the barrier was boiling with the Fox's chakra now, so much that moving through it was like pushing through hot water. The seal was almost broken, but just
one clone had to get through and slam a Rasengan into
one of the other ninja. Kimimaro just had to slip up a
single time.
Just once.
There were a hundred and twenty-six clones; Naruto's fury and terror had summoned that many despite his injuries and exhaustion, and they went in every direction at once, tossing explosives and kunai and throwing themselves forward like living bombs, desperate to take down just one opponent.
In less than two seconds, Kimimaro had killed every single one of them.
Naruto fell to his hands and knees, panting and spitting up blood, and Kimimaro stopped in front of him, crossing his arms. Kagami came to his side without a word as Naruto collapsed, too drained for the moment to move. His mother had started to scream in pain; the demon was ripping itself out of her, and her skin was being shredded by its corrosive chakra.
"I'm going to kill you," Naruto said, glaring up at Kimimaro from the ground. "No matter what. I'm never going to give up on killing you!" He let his gaze wander, looking for the knife he'd thrown while his clones had been slaughtered.
It had bounced off Kimimaro's armored leg and lay nearby, just a couple feet from the man. Close, but not close enough. Naruto shifted, trying to draw Kimimaro towards him as he fished into his pack for another weapon. He only had a single shuriken left: it would have to be enough.
The Akatsuki's commander tilted his head, expressionless once more. The Kyuubi's energy whipped his hair around; the air was almost too hot to breathe. "Struggling towards the impossible is only a waste of time," he said. "If you survive the Beast's release, I hope you'll realize that, Naruto Namikaze."
Naruto tried to struggle to his feet, his legs shaking, but he was too weak. He didn't know how to win, but he couldn't accept defeat. He-
Saw a flash of pink.
He stopped breathing, unable to believe it.
Sakura burst through the barrier without a sound and dropped down into the courtyard directly on top of the ninja creating it, Kon. She looked more dead than alive, pale and covered from head to toe in blood. Her entire body was studded in deep puncture wounds, even her neck, and her Flowing Hail Blade was more red than blue. Naruto had no idea how she could be conscious with wounds like that, let alone moving, but she
was.
She was completely intent on the enemy in front of her, her expression bloodcurdling: Naruto didn't even think she'd seen him.
Kimimaro spun, alerted by a sixth sense despite Sakura's total silence, and raised his hand to shoot her out of the air. He had her dead to rights.
In the same moment, Naruto flung his shuriken with all his might and made a modified Rat sign with his left hand, his fingers twisting around each other like a distorted prayer.
It struck the knife near Kimimaro's leg as the man's fingers burst open, and he twitched towards the sound of metal on metal. The kunai skittered right into Kimimaro's ankle, ink spraying from it.
The same sixth sense that had turned him towards Sakura flung Kimimaro away from the kunai as Naruto channeled his chakra and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"
Kai!"
The Reverse Eight Trigram Seal on the knife that Naruto had stolen from Yui Tono a lifetime ago burst, and took the bottom of Kimimaro's right leg with it. The Kaguya's spray of bullets went wide, narrowly missing Sakura's head; one passed so close that it left a groove in her cheek, fresh blood joining the rest that caked her face.
Without hesitating or maybe even noticing her near-death, Sakura whipped the Flowing Hail Blade out and cut Kon's head in half.
The barrier collapsed, Naruto
pushed himself up with all the strength left in his body, and a dozen ninja plunged into the courtyard as Kushina screamed and the Kyuubi's chakra raged out of control, eight tails of chakra flailing in every direction and releasing burning energy up into the sky like a wildfire, tossing the reinforcing ninja away like dolls. Kimimaro and Kagami leapt to counterattack, firing spears as the forest of bones began to sprout new trees. The Akatsuki commander's leg was already growing back: the skeleton of a foot was there.
All at once, the ink-snakes constricting Kushina fell limp, the Kyuubi's chakra collapsed like a fire denied oxygen, and Kimimaro and Kagami stumbled, inexplicably clumsy. The veins and muscles worming their way down Kimimaro's fresh leg froze.
Naruto looked up and found Mikoto Uchiha plunging down towards the seal-breaker, her teeth bared and her blade up over her head, crackling with blue flames. Blood was
pouring from her left eye and coating the burned side of her face in red, but she stared unerringly down as her entire body vibrated with effort. The seal-breaker stood, obviously not understanding why her jutsu had fallen apart. She twisted to face Mikoto as she unsheathed a sword of her own, desperately bringing it up in a horizontal block as she leapt back to gain some distance.
Mikoto's burning blue blade passed right through the Rain ninja's sword like a hot knife through butter and bit into the woman's shoulder, carving a straight line down to her hip and exiting in a spray of superheated blood and steam. The seal-breaker collapsed backwards, the right side of her body falling away.
Naruto couldn't understand how Kimimaro had simply not shot her out of the air as he had so many of Naruto's clones, but when he looked over, Kimimaro looked just as perplexed. His fingers had split open, but nothing emerged.
Mikoto's Mangekyo Sharingan hadn't just suppressed the Kyuubi and the fuinjutsu restraining his mom: it had also affected the Kaguya's Bloodline.
However, the moment Naruto realized had happened, Mikoto grunted and collapsed, a hand coming up as her body shuddered and blood poured from her eye. Everything exploded into motion again. Both of the Kaguya's began moving at full speed, Kimimaro hurling a ball of bones that had been his wrist and fingers at Mikoto. She staggered back, and blue chakra flickered up around her as the bone-bomb exploded.
Ethereal ribs like nothing else Naruto had ever seen before burst into existence in front of Mikoto, deflecting most of the shrapnel. But the ribs fractured under the assault, and when Kimimaro leveled both his hands and fired a spread of bullets, they shattered completely. Mikoto was shot through the shoulder, the side, the leg, and fell with a cry of pain.
Naruto roared and charged, and now he wasn't alone: Sakura came in from the other side, filling the air with sonic booms as she struck out wildly with her bloodied sword, and the reinforcing ninja crashed into the courtyard.
Might Gai was at their head, his hands and legs covered in blood that wasn't his own. As the bone forest sprang to life and cut down several Konoha ninja, explosions of spines slicing through them and raising horrific screams, Gai threw himself into a flying kick with such force that the shockwave it produced blew Naruto and Sakura back a step, their attacks faltering.
He slammed into Kimimaro, and Naruto saw the man's chest armor crack before he was hurled away at supersonic speed, smashing through the walls of the mall and out of sight. Kagami's head turned, following her cousin, and six Leaf ninja slammed into her from every angle, a variety of ninjutsu and weapons blowing her off her feet. She rolled, bleeding from gaps in her armor, but managed to regain her feet and leap up and away. The reinforcements didn't immediately pursue, taking a moment to glance at Naruto and his mother.
Gai threw Naruto a thumbs up, but the enthusiasm of the gesture was ruined by his grim expression. His breathing was ragged and his blood rushed under his skin so quickly his face looked like a tomato; his muscles were practically bulging through his jumpsuit. He'd opened at least four Gates. "Well done, Naruto!" he called out. "Your mother-?"
The Kyuubi's chakra burst out once more, and Kushina was pushed to her feet by the force of it. Naruto spun on his mom, realizing he was still in danger. Some of the tails of chakra had vanished, but there were still six pushing out of Kushina's body, and her skin was boiling and tearing with the Tailed Beast's energy. Her eyes were wide and wild with pain; there was no recognition of him in them.
"Naruto!" Sakura screamed, her voice hoarse. "Get away!" The other ninja scattered, but Naruto ran the wrong direction: directly at his mother. Mikoto dragged herself off the ground and did the same thing, staggering and using her sword to balance herself. Sakura watched, obviously terrified, as Kushina snarled at Naruto's approach, the blood-red chakra around her hand forming into claws.
"Mikoto!" Naruto demanded. "Help her!"
He couldn't afford to hesitate; Naruto thrust his hands directly into the Kyuubi's shroud, immediately feeling the skin on them bubble and burst under the intense heat and pressure of the Fox's energy. He held back a scream and made contact with his mother's stomach, the source of the injury that had started the whole disaster.
Kushina's arms wrapped around him, burning his shoulders and back, but Naruto ignored it. He just started shouting at the top of his lungs, pouring his chakra into his mother and mending the terrible wound in her core.
"You're okay!" he said, tears streaming down his face from the pain. Kushina stiffened, and Naruto shut his eyes and opened the floodgates, unleashing all the chakra he had left and knowing it was his only chance. "You're okay, mom! You're okay!"
The wound closed, along with many of the injuries across Kushina's body as Naruto's chakra circulated through her. The Kyuubi's aura retreated as Naruto yanked his boiled arms out of it, his whole body shaking from the pain. He looked up at his mother, searching for that sign of recognition, but she wasn't looking at him. Instead, Kushina's gaze was locked on Mikoto's blood-soaked face.
He could hear the battle behind him: the Kaguya and the ninja led by Gai were fighting. Sakura was still there, faltering and barely keeping her feet. But in the middle of the forest of bones, Kushina and Mikoto stayed locked on each other as Naruto watched.
His mom's body started glowing, and Mikoto staggered back, collapsing and bringing her hand up to her left eye. The Kyuubi's chakra compressed, clinging closely to Kushina's body as the glow intensified. For a moment, Naruto thought it might be the Adamantine Chains reemerging: the chakra was the same golden color. But no chains manifested, and Kushina stayed locked in place, not looking at him.
"Mikoto?" Naruto asked, jerking towards her, but she raised a hand.
"She's…" Sasuke's mother said. "She's fighting. The Nine-Tailed Fox… it broke through the seal. She's…"
Mikoto collapsed, bleeding heavily from her wounds and her eye, and Naruto realized that he couldn't help her. He couldn't help anyone now. He'd given his mother everything he had, and his arms were badly burned by the Kyuubi's chakra; the pain was agonizing.
Sakura stumbled to his side, blood dripping down her arms and dappling the snow.
"Naruto," she rasped. "Is she okay?"
Naruto looked over at Sakura, unable to lift his fried arms despite how badly he wanted to hug her.
"I don't know," he said, tears running down his face. Pain, relief, fear, he couldn't tell. He looked back at Kushina, at a loss for what to do. The six tails were still behind her, but they'd frozen as well, flickering red and golden chakra coursing up and down them.
"Mom, please…" he said, hoping it would reach her.
"We need help."
###
Kushina had never been in a deathmatch for the fate of her soul, and she wasn't really enjoying it. In an infinite space that wasn't physical but was nonetheless fatally real, she and the Nine-Tailed Fox were locked in mortal combat.
It wasn't really fair, she thought. Even if she won, her seal was still sundered, and her own chakra would only be able to restrain the Kyuubi for a limited time. The odds that someone could repair it in the middle of the battle were pretty bad, even for someone like Minato, so this was basically it. Her clock had wound down; either she'd win and have a couple minutes to live, or the Fox would just kill her here.
But dying like this would mean unleashing the Tailed Beast on Naruto and the rest of the village, so Kushina fought out of her mind, assailing the Beast with countless spiked chains and pushing herself above and beyond the impossible.
IT'S OVER, KUSHINA. Six of the Fox's tails were restrained, but it still thrashed with mountain-sundering strength, lashing out at her with house-sized claws and firing small bursts of Bijuudama that she could only dodge. The battle was just their chakra struggling for dominance over her body, but for the both of them it was still physically happening; the only way their respective minds could conceptualize the deathmatch. Kushina's chains dug into the ground and pulled her across hundreds of feet of infinite terrain at a time, yanking her out of the way of certain death time and time again as she constantly attacked the Kyuubi.
RELEASE ME, AND I WILL SPARE YOUR HOME.
"Shut up, would you?!" she screamed back, trying to muzzle it with her chains. But she was hurt; she could feel the pain of her real body burned and pierced and bleeding from all the wounds Kimimaro Kaguya had given her, and they were all dragging her down and making her weaker by the second. The Fox reached up and ripped the invincible chains away from its face, and Kushina was jerked forward into its reach.
"I'm not letting you out, no matter what!" she announced defiantly, catching a claw in a brace of chains and hurling it back. The Fox snarled, a Bijuudama forming in its mouth again: an unavoidable point blank shot that would definitely finish her off.
"It's down to which one of us gives up first, y'know!" Kushina planted her feet, refusing to retreat and raising both her arms as she screamed out at the top of her lungs, putting every ounce of her strength into her defense as chains burst out of the ground all around her.
"
And it's not gonna be me!"
The Bijuudama screamed downwards and Kushina braced herself for annihilation, covering herself in a cage of chains. But being obliterated didn't come; instead, a hand settled on her shoulder.
The Bijuudama blew away like smoke in the wind and the Fox reared back, obviously enraged. Kushina didn't have to look to know who had come to her aid; she could feel Mikoto's chakra pouring over her, suppressing the Kyuubi's burning energy like cool water coursing through her veins.
"Kushina," she said. "I can't hold it for long. Can you win?"
"I have to," Kushina said, and Mikoto's hand fell away. The cage of chains burst out and snared the Fox from head to toe, driving it down and pinning it to the ground, but the Beast kept thrashing and roaring, shattering links of the unbreakable chains with its anger. Mikoto's chakra had already mostly faded; the burst of energy had saved Kushina from being overwhelmed, but the Fox was clawing back and growing stronger by the second.
But, Kushina realized, she was too. Burning orange chakra was exploding off her body, burning her core and racing along her chains, strengthening them even further. Her fatigue vanished; the pain of her real body faded.
Naruto, she realized. This was Naruto's chakra. Whatever was happening in the real world, he'd gotten the barrier down: he was healing her, and more than that, pouring every erg of chakra he had into her. Their energy was completely compatible; it was like Kushina suddenly had a second body, filled with more chakra than she'd ever dreamed Naruto was capable of.
"Mom, please…" His voice echoed through the endless space, and the Kyuubi stiffened, buried in golden and orange energy as the Adamantine Chains raced over its body and pinned it down completely, muzzling, blinding, and utterly trapping it.
"We need help."
Kushina slammed her hands down, the Fox almost completely sealed away. But before she finished the binding, she realized it was the wrong move.
Sure, seal the Fox, rejoin the fight. But with her energy occupied keeping the Kyuubi from breaking free, and just temporarily at that, she'd be useless against an opponent like Kimimaro Kaguya. The Akatsuki's commander was nearly invincible, and healed from what wounds he did take almost instantly. He'd pushed through her Adamantine Chains and skewered her despite everything she'd thrown him; left alone to run wild, he would kill an untold number of Konoha's ninja.
It was her job, as the village's Jinchuriki, to destroy enemies like him, and to use the Kyuubi's power to do it.
And right now, if she wanted to save Naruto, she
had to.
So instead of locking the Kyuubi off, Kushina placed her hand to the tattered remains of the seal on her stomach and twisted.
She opened it; ink began pouring out of her gut like it was an open wound.
YOU FOOL. The Kyuubi was muzzled, but one of its burning red eyes locked on her, the words resonating around the infinite space. The sky flickered between gold, black, and the color of blood. High in the air behind the Beast, the shattered moon it had been bound to crumbled and fell, titanic pieces of stone smashing to the ground and raising up earthquakes, a visual representation of Kushina's chakra system buckling under the strain.
WHY HASTEN THE INEVITABLE?
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?!" Kushina retorted. "The way things are, I'm dead anyway, y'know?!" She leveled her finger at the fox, and the chains around six of its tails tightened and
tugged. A ghost began to rise from them, an afterimage of the Kyuubi's life force. The Beast's eye went wide as Kushina began drawing its chakra directly towards her.
"So before I go, you're gonna give me something to fight with!"
FINE THEN, the Kyuubi snarled.
DROWN IN MY HATE.
Kushina seized the ephemeral chakra with her hands and began shoveling it into the hole in her core. What she was doing was insane, basically suicide. Replacing her own depleted chakra with the Fox's was certain death, and even if it worked all she'd have done was buy time. The Kyuubi's energy was infamously toxic, so she was basically pouring acid into her soul and hoping that it burned for long enough to fight Kimimaro with.
As the chakra came, the Kyuubi's hatred did too.
'I've always been a weapon!'
'Monster!'
'You're not meant to be a mother, Kushina.'
'We all know that means I have to be ready to sacrifice everything.'
'Stupid and kind and naive!'
Stupid! Stupid, stupid woman! Did you think you were special? Did you think you were going to do what no one had been able to accomplish before you, conquer the Kyuubi's hatred and take its power for your own? If it was possible, someone better than you would have done it!
Kushina crumbled, the boiling chakra hollowing her out. She was going to die like this, killed by her hubris and fried alive by the embodiment of malice. She didn't deserve to live; she'd always been a weapon for the village, a tool. Even Mikoto had known that fundamental truth. Her friend had been ready to betray her, and she'd accepted that.
Evil-!
Vapid-!
Loathesome-!
'I'm sorry for ever considering it.'
The crimson chakra flowing into her stopped, coming to a deadlock.
It wasn't true. It wasn't true! She'd had a family, a child, even though it had endangered the village; her one meaningful rebellion against her destined role.
Minato, Naruto… the one thing that had made her more than a novel bomb. As Kushina collapsed, the orange chakra covering her chains surged, pushing back against the Kyuubi's energy racing across them and into her.
Kushina opened her eyes, seeing two places at once: her inner world, where she was struggling for her life, and the real world. She was in the middle of the forest of bones, and the barrier was gone, white snow falling down all around. Naruto and Sakura were in front of her, Mikoto on the ground. They all looked like hell: Naruto's arms were burned and bleeding all the way up the elbows.
She'd done that.
No, that was wrong.
It was the Fox that had done that.
Kushina started pushing back, and in one half of her vision, the Fox shifted, its eye narrowed in hatred.
Is that all you've got, Kushina thought? Hatred? You think you can just burn me to death with that? You may be ancient, but you're like a little kid throwing a tantrum.
She felt herself falling away, her disdain for the monster inside her evaporating. Crushed beneath its rage and malice, Kushina started to feel nothing but pity. That's what the Nine-Tailed Fox was, under everything? Something lashing out in rage and drawing out the hatred in others? She'd been wrong: it didn't want a monopoly on hatred, it just wanted everyone to be as miserable as it.
YOU ARE DESPISED, KUSHINA! The Fox felt the shift in her chakra, its hatred meeting her pity and love and being reduced to raw energy.
YOU ARE FEARED. YOU ARE LIKE ME. ACCEPT IT AND DIE!
I have my son right here, and my husband is coming. He's probably already here. If I put my love up against your hatred, which would win, Kyuubi? Kushina shifted, the Kyuubi's chakra enveloped by her golden energy.
Unlike you, I'm not alone.
YOU WILL DIE ALONE!
Wrong. I'm not dying until Minato's at my side, until I can say goodbye properly.
Kushina roared with effort; without hesitation, she seized the rest of the Fox's chakra and pulled it inside her.
It still hurt, but now that she knew how to disarm it the pain was manageable. Naruto and Sakura staggered back, a golden glow playing across them.
THIS IS A MISTAKE, KUSHINA, the Fox hissed, its body withering as its chakra was stolen away. The chains tightened even further around it, completely obscuring its body and sealing its chakra. Kushina breathed out, feeling an odd peace spreading throughout her body; like the feeling of a bruise finally healing.
IF YOU WIN WITH STOLEN POWER, YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST.
Kushina twisted the seal on her stomach shut, feeling the broken configuration slot back into incomplete pieces. She blinked, and the inner world vanished.
She'd won.
"Mom?" Naruto stammered. He was covered in cuts and burns, but as Kushina made to move forward and hug him she stopped.
Her whole body was vibrating with energy. The Kyuubi's chakra had burst from her skin, a coruscating cloak of gold and crimson energy that played across her, constantly shifting in hue as her body struggled to process the Bijuu's energy into something that wouldn't melt her. She felt both fragile and invincible, like she was sprinting at full speed with a two-hundred degree fever.
Kushina had an overwhelming premonition that if she tried to hug her son, she might snap him in half.
Beside him, Sakura sagged, looking like she might fall over at any second. Her whole body was covered in puncture wounds; her neck had so many holes in it that Kushina was almost surprised her head was still attached. But standing next to Naruto, she still radiated danger, obviously ready to leap into action at any time. When had they both become such incredible shinobi?
"Naruto," Kushina said, forcing herself not to scream the words out. Even holding still was now becoming impossible. She held out a hand towards him, her arm rising so fast the air pressure ruffled both the kids' hair. "I'm okay. Get Mikoto somewhere safe. I'll stop them."
Naruto nodded, still stunned, and Kushina turned. She got ready to jump.
She'd meant to clear the buildings in front of her: instead, she smashed right through them.
She was
fast. If Kushina had blinked, she would have missed it. Her body was completely overflowing with power. Even though her Adamantine Chains were one-hundred percent turned inward suppressing the Kyuubi, the bipolar chakra coursing through her body and across her skin was utterly insane.
The village was still covered in flames and snow: in the distance, the shadow of a Tailed Beast loomed, an equally large creature grappling it. Around the mall, Konoha was becoming a boneyard on an unimaginable scale. Many of the ninja fighting Kimimaro and Kagami Kaguya had already died; the only two left were Gai and his student Neji, the both of them barely holding their own against the Kaguya and covered in dozens of wounds. The Green Beast couldn't release his most powerful techniques in the middle of the village, Kushina realized; even though he had gone all the way up to the Sixth Gate, he was still hamstrung fighting Kimimaro for fear of collateral damage.
Five-hundred feet away, Kimimaro leapt towards Neji as Gai was blocked by the other Kaguya, a shout of dismay on the Green Beast's lips as he realized his student was about to be skewered. Neji started to spin, but a bone burst from the ground beneath his foot and impaled it, pinning him in place. He stopped, facing certain death with grim determination as he struck out, intending to land a final blow as Kimimaro pierced his heart.
Kushina touched down, having taken in everything in an instant, and took a step forward.
It was a step that was too long, and took her too far. In the blink of an eye…
She was at Neji's side.
Kushina reached out, feeling like everything was going in slow motion, and gingerly caught Kimimaro's attack. She stopped the man who had pushed through her Adamantine Chains dead in his tracks.
The world seemed to freeze with him, all the ninja present staring at her without comprehension as the golden light she was filled with shone across them. Kimimaro dragged his unmarked face towards her, his expressionless eyes finally showing a hint of surprise.
"Kushina?" Gai whispered, and Kushina yanked up, feeling in her heart what the result would be.
She snapped the spear of bone protruding from Kimimaro's palm in half, marrow dribbling from both ends.
The Akatsuki commander leapt back: surprise had become alarm, and he and Kagami both gave themselves distance, obviously not understanding what was happening. Kushina wasn't entirely sure either, but there was an otherworldly sense of purpose filling her alongside the Kyuubi's chakra. She took a step forward, a normal one this time just to make sure she still
could, and the Kagami stepped back.
"Gai," she said, her lungs feeling like they might explode from the effort of talking normally. "Get Neji out of here. I'll make sure you can use everything."
Kimimaro cocked his head, but Gai moved without question; he ripped Neji from the bone that had impaled him and sprinted away, tearing through the snow and leaving gale force winds behind him.
The Kaguya's moment of hesitation passed; the moment Gai turned his back, they both leapt at Kushina, their bodies transforming into living weapons as bones burst from them and the ground.
Kushina struck back.
In her current state, there was no way she could use ninjutsu. She was confident in fuinjutsu, but felt in her soul that anything else would throw her off: just regulating the Kyuubi's chakra was more than enough of a challenge. So Kushina met the Kaguya clan's unbreakable bones with her bare hands, and broke them once again.
She moved like golden lightning, leveling the woman with a kick to the face that shattered her skull-mask and slamming a dozen punches into Kimimaro's chest, shattering ribs and leaving craters in his flesh. Blood flowed freely from the man's mouth, but he gave no sign of feeling pain; bullets burst from his fingers and spears sang in his hands, and Kushina was cut in three places, her blood flowing into her cloak and tinging it a darker red. She buried the bone she had snapped off deep in Kimimaro's chest, aiming for his heart, but the second the bone met his skin it was reabsorbed back into his body, his chakra breaking it down molecule by molecule.
He was barely human, Kushina thought. This man who had killed her had more in common with the Tailed Beast inside her than any ninja. His body was like clay that his chakra could freely mold and shape at will; it was no wonder he was walking off even her bone-shattering blows without effort.
If she wanted to kill him, she would have to completely destroy his brain. If he could regenerate that, there was nothing to be done.
Remaining oddly at peace, she dueled both the Akatsuki members for another three seconds, inflicting mortal wounds and receiving further lacerations in return. That was how long it took for Gai to return.
He arrived dynamically; a flying kick snapped Kimimaro's neck, the shockwave blowing away the snow for a hundred feet around, but as Kushina surged forward to try and take the opening the Kaguya danced back and nearly cut Gai's foot from his leg. His bone-sword bit into the man's ankle before Gai could draw it back, and Kimimaro slipped out of Kushina's grasp as their battle continued.
The Seventh Gate was open. Kushina had never seen it in person, but she knew enough by reputation to recognize the signs. Gai's body was vibrating as violently as hers, and sweat was flowing so freely and evaporating from the heat of his skin so quickly that it was bursting into a blue aura around him.
"
Ready!" Gai screamed, blood flecking his teeth, and Kushina roared and slammed her fists into the ground, making twelve hand seals on the way down.
She hadn't named the jutsu yet. It was similar to the one that had been her downfall just minutes ago, a four point fuinjutsu that sealed a large target area, a square with two-hundred foot sides. Kushina had envisioned it as a way of unleashing the Kyuubi on someone without endangering anyone else: in a way, that was similar to what was happening.
Normally, Kushina didn't accept her husband's suggestions for naming jutsu. But the one he'd pitched when she'd explained the new technique seemed appropriate now.
The Whirlpool Style: Critical Heaven Binding Unbreakable Death God Barrier burst out, sealing all four ninja in a square of golden light, blocking out the snow and, most critically, isolating the battle. Kushina roared out with everything she had.
"
Go!"
Gai leapt back and threw his hands out, fingers locked in an odd configuration as both the Kaguya converged on him, trying to kill the weaker target. His aura burst forward; the air pressure of his fists exploded outward, the roaring face of a tiger leaping forward and consuming both his enemies.
"
Hirudora!"
The attack blew both of the Kaguya away, and Kushina watched as the ultimate expression of taijutsu slammed into the ninja with enough power to level a town. The shockwave expanded, but Kushina crossed her arms and dug in and it slammed over her without uprooting her. Gai's raw strength, unfettered by any concern for collateral damage, swept through the barrier and destroyed everything in its path. He reduced thousands of square feet of Konoha, which had already been ravaged by the bones emerging from the earth, to dust.
The blast pressed against the barrier, and rather than fight it Kushina released the top of the square. The aftershock of the Hirudora burst from the roof of the barrier and rocketed off into the sky, blowing away the thick clouds that had hung over the village from the start of the assault.
With a single strike, Might Gai banished winter from Konoha.
He staggered back, blood gushing down his front; even when facing down something so unbelievable, Kimimaro had struck out and scored a deep cut across Gai's chest. His face was contorted in agony, and Kushina stepped to his side, knowing better than to touch him; he had torn his muscles to shreds with the force of his own attack.
"I'll finish them," she said, and then before the shockwave had finished rebounding off the barrier she leapt forward as Gai collapsed on his back behind her, an exhausted grin spreading across his face.
The Kaguya were ricocheting around the barrier like pinballs, slamming from wall to wall with the leftover force of the Hirudora. Kushina intercepted Kagami in the air; she was slower than Kimimaro, which meant she needed to go first.
The woman's eyes went wide behind her shattered skull-mask as she saw Kushina coming, but there was nothing she could do. Kushina smashed into her in midair, crushing them both into the side of the barrier and then rocketing them downwards like a meteor into the ground. The unthinkable force would have reduced a normal person to pulp, but Kagami was still in one piece when they hit the ground, scrambling as bones sprouted from her spine to pierce Kushina's chest.
So Kushina slammed her foot down on Kagami's back, firmly took hold of the Kaguya's left arm with both hands, and with a roar of effort tore it off.
Kagami froze, and then let out a shriek of pain, more bones sprouting and forcing Kushina off of her. But the bones were coming slower now: she didn't have infinite chakra like Kimimaro seemed to, and blood ran freely from her missing arm, her regeneration not instantly kicking in. It seemed that losing a whole limb had at least temporarily overcome her healing abilities.
Kushina leveled a building-breaking kick into the woman's side, and she flew the length of the barrier, slamming into the other golden wall and flopping to the ground with a distant thud. For the moment, she wasn't moving.
Kimimaro came out of nowhere, and Kushina barely avoided being stabbed through the head.
The Kaguya had become a full-blown monster. Despite the point blank Hirudora shattering many of his limbs and reducing one of his eyes to jelly, the Akatsuki's commander came ever on, forcing Kushina back step by step with relentless attacks. He had grown multiple spines that flailed like whips from his back, a grotesque imitation of her adamantine chains; his fingers had become long swords of bone that were covered in saw-teeth and spun like drills; he spat his own teeth in shotgun blasts, tearing up the ground and piercing Kushina in countless places, and constantly regrew them like a shark.
Her golden chakra flickered more and more wildly, and Kushina could feel it in her gut. The Kyuubi's chakra was getting less balanced the longer the fight went on: the invincible strength she'd felt in the beginning was fading. Unless she took the initiative and won,
now, the monster that looked like a man would defeat her again and move on to the rest of the village.
On to Naruto.
She roared with the Fox's voice and rushed forward, uncaring of the bones that slammed into her; they struggled to pierce her chakra cloak, her new resolve having reinforced it one last time. Kushina leapt up onto Kimimaro, her feet digging into his shoulders as she wrapped one hand around his neck and dug the other into his eye socket, gripping his skull and squeezing with all her might. He screamed back, his first sound of pain, and stabbed up at her, his swords lacerating her arms and his spinal whips scoring her in a dozen places.
Bones burst from his shoulders, stabbing into her feet, but Kushina just grit her teeth and pulled, pouring every ounce of strength she had into this one, final attack. Her cloak was more red than gold now. Her blood had colored even more of it, and the Kyuubi's chakra began breaking down, returning to its hateful burning state.
"Just
give up, would you?!" she screamed, and then she ripped Kimimaro's head off.
The sudden release sent her flying away, and Kushina crashed to the ground some distance from Kimimaro's body, cradling his head in her hands. Most of his spinal cord had followed it, having grown extra vertebrae to try and lock it in place. As Kushina watched, disgusted, nerves and veins began to wriggle off of the spine, a new body rapidly forming below the decapitated head.
Kimimaro was still watching her, his remaining eye alive and full of malice. Kushina looked down at it, overcome by horror despite herself at what she was seeing.
I give my life, the head mouthed, for the revolution.
With a spasm of revulsion, Kushina crushed Kimimaro's head between her hands, reducing his skull to jelly and splattering brain matter across the dust.
She panted, the last flickers of golden chakra flickering across her body, and wondered why her body was still screaming warnings at her despite the fight being over.
When she looked up, she barely had time to roll out of the way as Kimimaro's headless body thundered past her, a trail of bone-spikes exploding out of the ground where she'd just been.
Kushina couldn't help herself; she started laughing, a perfectly sane and definitely appropriate reaction. Kimimaro's headless body pursued her, and Kushina scrambled away, unable to believe what she was seeing. Did the man have another brain?!
However, slowly but surely, Kimimaro's body began to slow down. Kushina rolled, dodged, and dove, too exhausted to counterattack but just barely fast enough to get out of the way as the body pursued her, flinging boomerang ribs, slicing with swords, and firing yet more bullets from its fingers, and gradually the attacks became easier to dodge.
After about fifteen seconds of desperate dodging, Kimimaro's hands fell slack. The body stood stock still, not moving but not falling either, and Kushina stared at it, half-expecting it to grow another head.
It fell to its knees with a heavy crash, and blood began running from every pore, coating everything in red. Like an avalanche, the Kaguya's corpse toppled forward, landing chest down and lying still as an impossible amount of blood and marrow poured out of it and left it lying in a lake of its own fluids.
Kushina kept laughing, too tired now to move herself, and flopped on her back. She stared up at the sky as the barrier dissolved. It was all blue, not a cloud to be seen. There were still distant sounds of battle, but everything seemed muted and quiet, even her own heartbeat.
Her eyes started to slip closed. The last of Kyuubi's chakra flickered away, and now it was just her and her shattered chakra system struggling to contain the greatest Tailed Beast. It was like trying to hold up the sky, but Kushina did it anyway.
Holding down the Beast and keeping it from bursting out became the whole world, and Kushina fully closed her eyes. She shut out everything else, taking long, deep breaths and holding out as long as she could.
Even Minato probably can't fix this, she thought. I mean, it's fucked, y'know?
But I'll hold on. I did my job. I earned it.
I'll hold on long enough to say goodbye.
She lay like that, focusing on nothing but not being torn apart for an indefinable amount of time, until eventually a voice startled her and forced her eyes open.
"Don't you think it's a shame for a woman like you to have such a grim look on her face?"
Kushina dragged one eye open.
Jiraiya stood above her, arms crossed with a dour look. He sat down at her side, crossing his legs beneath him, and leaned forward and stroked his beard.
Kushina tried to speak, but she choked instead. Even the effort of keeping her eye open was dragging energy away from fighting the Kyuubi, and so she closed it once more, leaving her in muted darkness. She had no idea where Minato's master had come from, and could barely care. Everything else in existence was a footnote compared to the battle being fought inside her.
"Well, that's a fine mess," she heard Jiraiya say, as if from an incomprehensible distance.
"Just keep holding on, would you? I'll see what I can do."
