Chapter Text
The cataclysm that was the climax of the fourth shinobi war was nothing but a memory on the wind at this point; razed fields and stretching gashes scarring the earth which lay below the god tree which had grown to dominate the horizon. From any vantage point in the elemental nations, it was impossible to miss the imposing skyscraper of a plant which had ended the world as it was. Out in one of those wartorn landscapes, a lone soul stared up at the bloomed flower, cerulean eyes raking across the outstretched petals for what was likely the thousandth time.
"It's pretty peaceful out here now, ne Kurama?" He spoke, a once-energetic and spritely voice having mellowed and smoothed down into a rather soulful croon. Whether that was from natural aging or whether it was from lack of use was anyone's guess. He received no response.
Naruto sighed, leaning back on a gnarled root of the very thing he was training his wistful gaze upon. The roots of the Shinju had subsumed the majority of the elemental nations at this point—Its relentless quest to reclaim all of the world's chakra having claimed the lives of pretty much every human who had survived the explosive end to the war. It had been a slow process. Day by day the tree claimed more and more, hunting down pockets of survivors like a bloodhound that'd caught a scent. Until finally, none remained. Except him, of course. Well, he wouldn't put it that way. Couldn't, actually. The only thing that kept the youthful-looking shinobi moving and waking up in the morning was the hope he was holding out that this situation could be remedied. That there was some way to reverse the process. After all, he'd checked in the thousands upon thousands of cocoons, and every man, woman and child was held in perfect stasis; all of them trapped under the Mugen Tsukuyomi. Of course, the chakra—the life energy which had been stolen from the tree by Kaguya all those years ago—was being siphoned off of every single soon-to-be corpse that was trapped by the Shinju. But it was a slow process, especially with what he'd done to slow it down. Slow enough that Naruto, the sole man immune to the effects of the Tsukuyomi, had enough time to wander the world for a few years and learn.
In solitude. He let out a sigh once more, grunting not from exertion but just because he could as he stood up from the root. "It should've been easy. After the bastard and I sealed Kaguya, the illusion should've ended…" He shook his head, shoulders tensing a little. If only he'd known that the Tsukuyomi required another rinnegan to counteract it, he would've been a bit more hesitant to beat Saskue into the ground once he trapped the Biju. It should've been so easy. Beat the idiot, and then once he'd repented and come back into the light, they would've undone the damage.
What Naruto hadn't accounted for was a rather petty, and extremely vengeful rabbit goddess who had somehow escaped from the sealing technique that he and the Uchiha had caught her with. One moment, he was reaching down to pick Sasuke from the floor, both bleeding all over with smiles on their faces; the next? He got to watch the breath leave the raven-haired shinobi's lungs. Forcibly expelled from his chest by the bone-spear which jutted right through his diaphragm. The breath stolen from him, the man hadn't even been able to get a word out before he withered to ash. The pale fingers that'd been clasped with Naruto's sun-kissed skin had faded away like ash in the wind. No. He was ash in the wind.
Suffice it to say, the Otsutsuki had experienced first-hand why you never wanted to see Naruto truly angry. With a sun on one palm, and a brand new moon settled on the other, the countless battles which followed would've been stuff of legend—had there been any other eyes to witness it. With the full power of the sage, the blond-haired ninja was more than a match for Kaguya. Time and time again he beat her to a pulp, ground her body down into the ground, and vaporised her no less than twelve times with a rasenshurkien. What he hadn't realized was that with every defeat, she would simply return. He soon discovered the reason. It was the Shinju itself. So intertwined with Kaguya at this point, whenever she was beaten, battered, and erased; the tree would simply grow her anew. At this point, she was simply an avatar of the tree, and the Shinju was an extension of her. And every time she came back? It was stronger than the last time.
He'd easily won their first jaunt. But now? All he could do was hide. It had become a game of cat and mouse, where he was most certainly the hunted-
The smell of ozone was his only warning before an explosion like a crack of thunder broke through the branch he was standing on. Only the hairs standing up on the back of his neck had given him the forewarning to sidestep, else he'd have been a red splatter on the ground from the palm-strike which had been delivered in the spot he was just sat in. Naruto flipped to a standstill a few hundred metres down, but before he could even react he was already beset upon by the vengeful goddess. His shoulder dipped to the left, slipping just under a pair of bone spears which he'd wager would've ruined his day had they hit; his heel pivoted, bodyweight dipping low to slide under another bone spear grasped in a pale hand—stabbing out of a portal which'd materialized right behind his head, and another right where his heart used to be.
"Jeez woman! Have you ever heard of playing fair?!" He yelled out, voice strained as he twisted his torso. Unfortunately, the glut of fire which'd been spewed from a portal above him had licked down the side of his chest, sending the smell of singed flesh into the air around them—but he didn't even react. His mind was elsewhere, entirely dedicated to searching out his one escape from this absolutely shitty situation. He kicked out to the side, deflecting another spear and brushing his shoulder under Kaguya's chest, enough to ram into her and send the woman flying a few kilometers away with a mind boggling force. That'd buy him a little time…
Nevermind, she was already back and from the look on her face she was pissed. Not a moment too soon, he locked onto what he was looking for. And right as a dozen spears slammed into the ground where he stood, intent on ending him on the spot; he disappeared in a streak of yellow.
"Hah! And don't you guys try anything again!"
Sounds of a crumbling wall punctuated that exclamation, along with the sounds of something burning a little ways away. She clapped her hands a bit dusting them off like she'd just finished tidying up a room. That, and the groans sounding out from the many bloody vilains she'd piled up, all beaten to a pulp.
The Nagoya port had become something of a localized warzone over the last thirty minutes or so; or, at least, the eastern side of it where some low-rate villains had been plotting their nefarious deeds. The tipoff had come a day before, and of course Rumi had to be there to thwart this! She was a hero… Which meant when she saw the opportunity to beat the crap out of a bunch of villains, she grabbed it with both hands and didn't look back. And, she supposed, helping take down the drug kingpin and smuggling cartel which had been dirtying the streets of Japan was a bonus. But, really, she was there for the fight…
"Maaaaan this was boring! None of them even put up a fight…" She grumbled to herself, the diminutive rabbit girl rather lazily kicking a piece of rubble across the warehouse she'd finally finished her fight in—the piece of detritus rocketing across the rather spacious interior and adding yet another hole in the corrugated steel wall of the building. She winced a little at the noise, before flinching again when a rather cacophonous crash of sheet metal crashing down against the ground sounded outside, along with the panicked yells of some villains who had been spared her knuckled justice. She'd come here for a fight! Something that could push her. The only real interesting brawl she'd found here was one guy who could turn his skin to metal. Which was cool, she supposed; but he didn't put up much of a fight, judging by the numerous suspiciously man-shaped holes that'd been punched in many shipping crates and warehouse walls.
She looked around a few more times, at the groaning pile of villains that she'd made in the middle of the room—all bruised black and blue and many missing teeth. She strolled up to the mountain of man, feeling some sort of internal satisfaction when they all winced as she approached, a few of them even going so far as to quietly and exhaustedly grovel through busted lips and swollen cheeks.
"Pleashe! No mowre!" Was the overwhelming sentiment from the battered bunch. She turned around ready to leave, body swivelling around only to be met with something she certainly didn't want to see. The director of the HPSC stood right in the entrance of the warehouse, silhouetted by the evening sun and flanked by a few agents and…
"Ugh… They even got you out here, Hawks?" She asked, calling out to the familiar man stood beside the rather irked bureaucrats who'd evidently traipsed all the way from Tokyo. The woman couldn't say why they were here, usually the big-wigs didn't leave their offices. That question, while not voiced, was quickly answered by the Number 2 hero who was dragged along with them, it seemed.
"Well. They received the same tip-off as you, and were happy to just send me. But… Well… When word of a multi-hour brawl that has caused upwards of a few million Yen in property damage and destroyed goods…" He finished his sentence by gesturing around them. At the burning palettes and crates, some shipping containers which'd been practically folded in half by her many axe kicks; and a few forklifts that she'd thrown at some of the gang members. All-in-all it seemed a picture of… Expense. One that she was sure would be very difficult to weasel out of. She was going to open her mouth, when one of the pencil pushers from the HPSC spoke up.
"And what he DIDN'T mention was how ALL of this will be coming out of your pay! How can you expect the public to look up to us if all you do is go around blowing things up!" The man yelled, seemingly becoming more and more frantic with each syllable that left his wobbly jowls. The man was portly, dressed in a black pinstripe suit that barely fit him. It was nicely tailored, that was for sure, the best money can buy. But you know what they say about makeup and pigs. Fortunately for her, she didn't have to listen to his tirade for long, as Hawks spoke up once more, a jovial tone cutting through the anger.
"Ah, well boss you see. There were reports of a very powerful villain being part of this group! Diamondskin Jones, I think he called himself. Or was it Dave? Either way, he was a big issue in the underground scene for a while. I am surprised Miruko here kept the damage to a minimum given the threat he posed!" The man spoke, bullshit dripping from every word but somehow put across in a way that seemed more genuine than anything Hawks had said all week. Rumi blinked a few times, ears twitching as she listened to him essentially covering her ass, as he was wont to do from time to time. They had a good camaraderie going, mostly from their shared devil-may-cry don't-give-a-fuck attitudes. They said what they think consequences be damned, and that had earned some mutual respect between the two top-ten heroes. She broke from her musings for a moment as he continued with his words. "So, I think instead of punishing Miruko for taking care of such a dangerous villain, we should just forgo her bounty on him, and give her standard pay! That'll help cover all the goods. And, besides, it's all insured!" He finally finished.
She could almost kiss him, what with how those turkeys in suits seemed to be mollified by his words, nodding along with a certain uncertainty in their movements. She watched as they turned to each other, muttering something under their breaths that she could very easily catch with the tall ears atop her head. Let's say, none of it was particularly flattering towards her; most of it was them talking about how smart they were for coming up with that, even though it was Hawks who'd done all the talking—And all the lying for that matter.
"Ahem!" The same turkey from before spoke up. He straightened his suit and stood with his back so straight it curved backwards, full of self importance as his pot-belly threatened to spill over his belt. "As Hawks said, we've decided that maybe our decision was rash, and that you should be… Congratulated for a job well done." He spoke, though the last sentence seemed to physically pain him to say, as his eyes flicked around the carnage. He looked like he was going to say something else… Before he practically jumped out of his skin at the sound of a giant metal beam falling to the floor with an almighty thundering crash.
Rumi cringed, not daring to turn back at the growing inferno behind her. She lifted her hand, a thumbs up matching the one Hawks was sending her way, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face… She tried to match his enthusiasm for the situation, but all that came out was a grimaced smile that looked like someone had a gun to her head. Another beam fell somewhere a few warehouses down, and the sounds of the fire brigade's sirens were closing in to their location from the nearby city. The HPSC guys looked mortified…
Those guys could've at least been fun to fight for all this trouble!
Another collapsing wall sounded out, along with a pummelled villain screaming "My leg!"
Today was not her day…
Somewhere on a different plane of reality, Naruto was really not having a good day. He hissed under his breath as he stretched his arm over his head, fingers gingerly rubbing the last of his healing salve over the burned skin on his flank. This was the last of the balm that Hinata had made for him, the cool gel almost immediately soothing and rejuvenating the seared flesh. The thought of the blue-haired girl sent a pang through his chest, but he wasn't exactly sure what the emotion was. It was certainly something, alright. The closest thing he could place it to was guilt. But it didn't quite make sense to him why.
The pain of rubbing the injured muscles on his ribs drew him right out of those thoughts. Usually he'd just use the sage's power to regenerate himself, but the last time he'd done that was when the crazy rabbit bitch had taken his entire leg off. He'd used Hagoromo's power then, after fleeing to safety. These were the times before he'd finally cracked the Hiraishin, and before he'd learned to suppress his chakra and presence down to the point even an ant stood out more. Needless to say, regrowing his leg had lit him up like a beacon. Like a flare in the desert. Like the fourth of July. Kaguya had beset him in mere moments. But, fortunately, having two working legs made running from her again much easier than the first time. So, for now? Traditional medicine and long recovery times it was.
BOOM
Well. Nevermind. Looks like the progenitor of chakra had found one of the booby traps he'd set up earlier. Judging by the Hiraishin marker that just disappeared, it was in Kusagakure. Man, he'd set that one up MONTHS ago! He was surprised that it'd taken this long for her to check there. Well, that'd definitely buy him a good few weeks before she reformed again. Something that was always welcome to the young ninja. The woman was absolutely relentless. Realistically, she wasn't even a woman any more; she truly was a force of nature. But, unluckily for her, Naruto was known as just that. And this? This posed a rather great opportunity for him. Bandages forgotten on the table, he flared his chakra. The burns melted away off his skin like nothing, reuvinating with healed ribs and flesh. The sage's chakra was certainly something to behold. The man stood up and disappeared in another flash, just like the one that brought him there.
He reappeared half-way across the world just a moment later, stood in a musty room laden with the stench of dust and death. His eyes took a moment to get used to the dim green torchlight that lit the mask storage temple. He looked around a bit, head craning left and right with his eyes flicking around the room. It'd become a habit for him during the war, where he'd been forced to grow up far quicker than anyone would've liked. The room was under the temple, a few hundred metres that'd been cut out of the rock by old Uzumaki earth-style users. Of course, the oni masks upstairs were decoys. A clan renowned for sealing wouldn't leave such dangerous artifacts on display.
He breathed a shaky sigh, walking forward to the altar where a body lay. One that was partially falling to bits. Naruto stood still for a moment, the weight of the decision he was about to make filling the space.
"Tou-chan." He said simply, staring down at Minato Namikaze's revived body. His soul had been pulled out of the Shinigami's belly already. Naruto didn't want to think about the punishment that would be awaiting him upon returning. The sunkissed ninja stepped forward at a measured pace, he'd gone over this in his head a million times already. It was hard to justify at first, but soon he'd come to realize this was the only way. If this worked the way he theorized it would; the way the old, dusty Uzumaki scrolls he'd dug up from Uzu no Kuni had suggested. Well. He hoped whatever afterlife would forgive him for this.
Naruto squared his shoulders, and set his jaw. His hand reached out to the mask that'd been placed by Minato's head. Lifting it and placing it down on the man's face. The room went silent, and a foreign weight settled over him. It was like an elephant was stood on his chest. Unnatural. Unholy.
"You already know what I want. And you already know my sacrifice." He spoke clearly, showing far more confidence than he felt. Inside he was a quivering wreck, face-to-face with death itself. It was a feeling he never wanted to feel again. A second passed. Two. His nerves were building. What if it didn't work? Or worse, what if it took him instead?
He didn't have time to spiral down that line of thought, as the pressure lifted; and all at once all of the torches went out. He was plunged into darkness, the only sound to comfort him in the unnatural blackness being his own breathing.
He stood in shock for a minute. More. Time just trickled past as he stood rooted to the floor, the fear gripping his heart still not abating. Had he failed? Had his only hope, his only way out; been a flop? The poor man's heart was hammering a mile a minute. Until, finally, mercifully, the silence was broken.
By laughter. Laughter that was not Naruto. Laughter that couldn't be heard by any other soul but the man stood alone in that room. Except, maybe not so alone any more.
He released the breath he didn't know he was holding. Ringing inside his head was that comforting baritone that he'd come to miss over the last few years alone. Every time he destroyed Kaguya, it'd bought him a few months at least before the chakra siphoning began again. But now? He was finally on the right track. In the darkness, tears trickled down his whiskered cheeks, and a cracking voice finally spoke up. "Kurama… Y' don't know how good it is to hear ya' again, p-partner."
Another beat of quiet followed, readily dispelled a moment later.
"Heh… What kind of mess have you gotten yourself into this time, brat?"
Months passed and a plan had finally been formulated that had even a tiny bit of a chance of working. It was still a longshot. A horribly long one, at that. Which was how Naruto found himself stood on top of the Shinju itself, right in the centre of them spread petals. It was an endless sea of rich reds and pinks, lush colours that he'd argue looked beautiful had they not belonged to the most horrific lifeform on the planet. He looked around a little, slowly. The boy, for all his bravado, visibly wanted to be anywhere but here. It was clear in the set of his jaw, and the way his eyes would flick side to side like he was watching a tennis match.
"Eheh. Are you sure this is a good idea, furball?" He asked, and it certainly wasn't the first. Whether it calmed his nerves to antagonize the Biju inside him or whether affirming the plan brought some semblance of calm to him was unclear; but once the Biju opened its mouth and started berating the shinobi for 'Asking the same question once every five minutes, yes the plan is good, you insufferable brat', Naruto seemed to visibly calm and get back to work. Under his feet, written directly onto the petals in chakra conductive ink, was a sealing matrix that'd make even the old Uzumaki masters blush. It was dense, wide, complicated and more importantly; interlinked. Even the furthest edges of the seal, which were almost a kilometer away on the far edges of the Shinju, interacted with the very centre. He really thanked his stars that Kaguya had bit the dust on that last trap in Kusa, else he'd never be able to get the time to make this without being killed immediately.
He stuck his tongue out in concentration, dragging the brush over the spot of ground right in front of him, an action mirrored by the five-thousand-odd shadow clones that were dotting about the plant, all of them working on their part. Really, it'd been a stroke of genius to use of clones to his ancestral homeland in Uzu no Kuni. He'd initially wanted to just scout the area a bit, to find out where his mother had come from, some connection to the people long past now he was alone. But what he'd found was a veritable goldmine of sealing information, only accessible by the Uzumaki blood. A few thousand shadow clones later and the spiral sealing techniques and seemingly endless kinjutsu had been absorbed into his thick skull—He found he had a surprising knack for the sealing arts, but then given his parents maybe it shouldn've have been a surprise. For a non-Uzumaki, the Yondaime was known far and wide for his prowess with seals. It really made Naruto pause sometimes. To think he was descended from a clan of sealmasters, born to two of them, and mentored by another; And that his entire life had been dictated by one seal or another. First the one on his stomach, and now the one on the floor beneath him.
The first had brought nothing but misery for his early life, and for much of that he had no idea it even existed. But, after struggling as he always did, fighting the tide of a world that didn't want him to succeed; that seal had brought him a steadfast friend and ally. Someone who would not turn their back on him.
And this one under his feet? Well. It was much the same. Except it would be returning all of the allies he'd lost to the very thing he was sealing away. A multi-layered dimensional seal with a filter-override set to seek out the souls of anything not the Shinju. He wasn't sure whether it'd work, or what the aftereffects of having their link from the Shinju cut off so abruptly; he didn't particularly have time or that want to think about that. Not as the last brushstrokes finished. And, with the big plant gone, the Tsukuyomi ought to end, nothing powering it any more. At least, that's what he and Kurama figured.
Naruto clapped his hands together, sweat beading down his forehead a little from the anxiety mounting. He'd checked, double checked and triple checked the formulae, to the point his tenant had threatened to come out there and activate it himself if the shinobi didn't stop lollygagging. But, it was finally time.
He slammed his hands to the tree, and all of the ink for miles began to light up. First, in a dull blue glow. It was in that moment, he felt the most ungodly pull at his chakra. It felt like someone had hooked up a vacuum inside of his stomach and was siphoning off everything he had. In almost a second his entire natural pool had been fully depleted, which prompted a panicked yell from his tenant. Not a moment later, a surge of golden energy seeped through the man's pathways, lighting him up like a Christmas tree as the sealing array turned a similar brilliant yellow. With the Biju now being fully reformed, his yin and yang incorporated into one, Kurama had a lot more energy to give than he did in the past. Enough to buy his host and partner time to draw up on his—the Kyuubi—father's strength. Once more, adding to the kaleidoscope of colour that the sealing array seemed to be intent on cycling through, it went a silvery white, darker bits sliding over it like the light of the moon had been distilled and condensed down into the ink he'd drawn.
The world rumbled.
Sweat was now trickling down his face like he'd just been out for a training session with Might Guy and his protégé; he hadn't felt this exerted in years. Even in his battles with Kaguya, running out of chakra was never something that was on his mind. It was usually avoiding dying to any one of the rabbit goddess' numerous lethal strikes. But this? He was already empty, and Kurama was getting there quickly. Before long, they were running on fumes.
But that's when he saw it. Or, more, he felt it. Across the land, the cocoons were opening up, depositing some delirious, very disoriented shinobi and kunoichi onto the hard ground. When he'd gifted the allied forces his chakra, the link had remained. And so one by one he could feel all of them waking up. One by one, the links returned. It was enough to make his heart swell, and for him to almost lose focus. For half a decade the man had been dreaming of this moment, and it was finally coming true.
"Oi, brat! Pat yourself on the back later, you need to focus. You've got a job to do." His tenant helpfully, if abrasively, reminded him. He nodded, eyes turning down and redoubling his effort as barred pupils stared into the shifting symbols right in front of him. It was the centre of the matrix which gave him a good idea how far powered it had been. But, he was finding it quite hard to read any of it. What with how his vision was swimming and the corners of his view were vignetting to black. Even with Kurama, Sage mode, Hagoromo's chakra and his own, this was far too much. He'd calculated it'd take a lot, but this was far too much for even him.
The feminine hand that rested on his shoulder seemed to redouble his efforts, though, reality snapping back into focus from sheer force of will. The masculine one too. He didn't even flick his eyes to the side or physically register Kakashi and Sakura at his flank, nor did he acknowledge the entirety of the shinobi alliance stood atop the tree. Thousands of eyes stared on his rapidly failing form.
A sense of Deja Vu washed over Kurama in that moment, as he watched from inside his container, mind able to focus on things other than the task at hand. For the first time ever, he thought that maybe, just maybe, humanity had a chance; as thousands of shinobi from all different walks of life joined hands. Enemies and brothers all clasping their fingers and linking their bodies. It'd taken a little while for the idea to catch on, and had some rather comical sights of people running around to find somewhere to link in. But, eventually, everyone joined. And it ended with Sakura. Almost immediately a quasar-like beam of chakra exploded off of him into the sky from the sheer energy being dumped into him. It was like someone had turned the lights on, like he'd been given a shot of adrenaline or someone had whiffed smelling salts under his nose. Naruto's eyes snapped to attention, looking around with a tear-filled gaze as the people of the world had come to his aid.
And, like that? The seal was complete. An unholy explosion sounded out from the root of the tree, and any unfortunate soul to be stood there would've been instantly vapourized. It was like a slash of silver energy had cleaved through the bottom of the plant all at once, cutting it off from its roots and anyone who may still have been trapped inside it. Joy sprung up inside him. It worked.
The sounds around him were not of joy. Panicked ninjas started screaming and shouting as the tree imploded, hundreds of men and women jumping off the petals to try to get some distance, He turned to his pink-haired comrade, a smile on his face that rivalled the brilliantly glowing moon above them, free of the everpresent pattern of the rinnegan once more. "Eheh… Looks like I did it! Take that, anyone who'd doubt me! I never go back on a promise!" He shouted out, sounding just as corny and cliché'd as he always did. And, usually, Sakura would punch him through a wall for saying kitsch things. But now? She just gave a slight smile and a nod, proud eyes resting on him alongside their sensei.
Immediately, a dread filled him. This reunion was missing one. It should've been perfect, but a certain bastard was missing. Naruto's stomach flipped in guilt. He averted his eyes from the pair, a grimace on his handsome face. "Uhm… Saskue. He- Kaguya…" He began to speak, his words not really falling out of his mouth, more stumbling out like Tsunade leaving the Hokage tower after she'd had one too many. His words were cut off, though, by a pair of slender arms wrapping around his chest and battered clothes. Cerulean eyes widened for a moment, shocked into silence as the now-much-shorter Kunoichi hugged his middle. She didn't say anything, and neither did he for a moment. The world faded away. There was no romance in this hug. That'd passed long ago in the land of iron, as he'd laid there in the snow. But it was warm, like a sister. And it told him everything was alright.
"Maaah, my cute little students." His sensei finally spoke up, breaking the moment. "We've got plenty of time to chat later. Maybe we should get off this thing?" He asked with the sort of gentle urgency he always had; belieing the gravitas of the situation as he gestured around at the rapidly wilting petals they stood on. The brilliant red colour was fading to a washed-out grey as they spoke, the chakra being drained from the plant to power the seal. The seal was designed to use the Shinju as the bulk of the energy. The unholy amount of chakra required from him was simply the jumpstart. It really made Naruto appreciate the monstrous levels of power this thing possessed. All of the energy in the world wouldn't even look like a mote of light compared to the veritable sun of the god tree. It was no wonder the Juubi had immediately overridden Madara's will. Even a fragment of its power was too much for any normal human to handle. Even Hagoromo had only stopped the ten-tailed avatar of the god tree, not the thing itself.
He broke himself from his musings, nodding and making to catch up with his friends who were almost ready to jump down.
Which is when he found out he couldn't move his leg. He frantically tugged at the limb, panic clutching his senses as he wheeled around as best he could. There, half-formed with gore dripping from her middle, was Kaguya. Or, at least, Kaguya's torso. It was almost enough to make Naruto want to vomit, the sight of where the woman had broken her chrysalis and torn half of her body off from the waist up, just to fight her last. He heard Sakura and Kakashi yell, turning to run back towards him, both of them having spotted the predicament. Before their eyes, the rabbit goddess' half-torn form slowly grew into the tree, becoming part of it from that severed waist, her grip redoubling as the still-vast dredges of the Shinju's power shot through her. Her hand turned to a root wrapped around his ankle.
"Punch it, Sakura!" Barked the silver haired ninja, lightning already crackling on his fist as he sprinted up at Naruto's position. It was a terrifying sight, doubly so knowing Kakashi had no Sharingan any more, so was essentially going in blind. But, as a testament to his Sensei's skill, his fist went right into the root of Kaguya's arm… And a sickening crunch was heard. The man screamed, his wrist having gone limp almost immediately upon impact. Not even a dent was made on the wood. Same with Sakura's axe kick which'd almost broken her leg. The smirk on Kaguya's face as she became encased in wood was not one that boded well for Naruto. Not at all. He suddenly realized. She wasn't able to stop it. She'd been beaten. And above all, she was a sore loser it seemed.
He stilled his struggles a bit, breathing levelling out. To the point Sakura and Kakashi wheeled on him to urge him to try harder. To kawarimi. To do something.
They were met with an overpowered Fuuton jutsu, blowing them clean off of the tree together. They'd be alright. Though he did catch the brief look of betrayal on Sakura's face before she went hurtling away. It stung. But, he supposed he wouldn't have to deal with the feeling for long. He reached to his stomach and pressed a palm to it, immediately thinking more about his partner than himself. Only to feel his arm yanked away by a chakra that wasn't his own. But this was not Kaguya this time. No, it was the golden chakra of his enemy turned friend. "Oi brat, you don't think you're going anywhere without me, do you?"
The baritone voice broke his composure at last, a sob breaking from the ninja's throat. It was like the entire weight of the world had pressed down on his shoulders at once, and where he was valiantly managing to keep it together, the declaration of the ninetails made it impossible. "You don't have to die with me you fucking idiot!" The ninja cursed, much harsher than usual. He couldn't understand why Kurama would sacrifice himself for nothing. He was finished, the Biju didn't have to be. But before he could say anything, a deep, booming laugh filled his head, essentially cutting off any words that would come from his mouth.
And that's when the tree sunk, the world falling out from under the ninja's feet, collapsing in on itself as his own panicked yells returned, along with those of his companion as they hurtled down towards the centre of the sealing jutsu which'd been opened at the base of the tree. A spiralling vortex of energy that resembled a black hole mixed with a rasenshuriken was slurping up every part of the tree as he hurtled towards it. His head passed ground level, and he was sure he heard a glimpse of the hundreds of voices calling his name as he rocketed towards the centre of the jutsu.
Even Kurama was yelling his last in his head. It almost made him chuckle at how the Biju sounded truly scared for the first time. Even hearing of the Shinju hadn't made his vulpine companion this pressed. Those were the last thoughts in the shinobi's head before he passed into the seal, and he knew darkness.
A blinding flash of white filled their vision, before nothing. Silence. The blackness of space greeted Kurama's senses, with a strange weightlessness. Was he dead? The Biju wasn't exactly sure, he'd never died before. Sealed, yes. Though that had involved sewers, chains, and one other time stakes through his limbs. That wasn't fun. But this? It was… Eerie. Even if he focussed his eyes on the inky void, nothing came to his senses. It was truly devoid of anything, a thought that really hurt his head. So this was the afterlife? It seems the place was overra—
"Ano… This can't be good."
His tall, rabbit-like ears twitched, and his face faulted. No. The afterlife would not be so cruel to shackle him with that idiot for all eternity. Surely not?! Unless this was hell…
"Ehh… Kurama, buddy? You still in there?" The voice sounded again from all around him, echoing off of nothing in the expanse of blackness.
Yep. This was hell alright.
"Can't I die in peace, you whelp? Why did I have to get saddled with the most obnoxious ninja ever born? For what karmic evil am I being punished?!" The Biju yelled out into the void, the latter half mostly to himself, though the bright laughter that was returned his way said that his partner had heard it.
The smart-alec retort was almost a given at this point, and Naruto was not one to disappoint. "Well, other than razing villages, killing my parents, tormenting me for years, unleashing your hatred on humanity every decade or so and also being an unstoppable killing machine, I can't think of much." He finished, a joking tone to his voice. It was always pleasant talking to Naruto. Not that he'd ever admit such a thing. He'd rather have actually died than admit that. But, the boy joked about things many people actually believed. From the ninja's tone alone, he could hear that the boy found the concept of Kurama being evil absurd, enough that it made a rather funny jest. He didn't have time to think or make any other retorts, though, as his partner spoke up. "Anyway. Enough of that… You're going to want to see this." He spoke. The Kyuubi tilted his head. What the fuck did that mea—
And the world was awash with colour and light once more. He could feel the brat sharing his senses with him. The smell of pine, grass. A stream a couple kilometers away, brackish water a little further. The ocean, almost within spitting distance. It was a cacophony of sense. But it lacked everything he expected. None of the blood, earth, ozone or fire that he'd expect from the war-ravaged land of the elemental nations. It was… peaceful? A calm breeze, the sounds of birds chirping and animals in the underbrush.
"Kurama."
It was a simple statement. One that halted him in his tracks. Naruto's voice was… Tense. What for? The Biju didn't quite understand, not immediately. But, he focussed on the senses more. On everything, the overwhelming feeling…
Oh.
There was not a drop of chakra in this place. Not in the trees. Or the air. Naruto's senses were prodigal, bolstered by his own. He could sense for hundreds of miles. There were people. Yes. But not a single drop of usable Chakra. His host shone like a beacon in the darkness. Oh. So that's why it was so black. As a construct of chakra, that was his primary way of sensing and interacting with the environment. No energy meant he couldn't detect it. But in the elemental nations? Everything had Natural Energy. Even the most inanimate of pebbles.
He paused.
"That cannot be good."
He cursed himself for accidentally parroting his friend. And then cursed himself even harder when he sensed the boy's lips turn up in humour, evidently not missing the repeated statement.