Pre-Chapter A/N: So here we are back on our regular upload schedule. Sunday and Tuesday/Wednesday. I've put systems in place to ensure we don't fall behind again so yay. I look forward to stress-testing them as the madnesses of life stack up (We're over two weeks in now and life is really hitting. We're still on schedule though(more or less– does this count as Wednesday or Thursday? I haven't slept so I count it as Wednesday), so things look good!). To celebrate the scale of our achievement, we've got a cheeky little discount for the whole month (code: MAY01) on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga). Next four chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
The wind around Minato—the sandstorm that the Kazekage had created, all of it was disturbed in one violent motion. The shockwave from the explosion forced him backwards, the heat of it nearly searing his skin. Only his chakra saved him. The jutsu had hit harder than he had expected. All his and Sensei's experiments in controlled environments had never yielded something like this. He had spotted Uzume moving the second his jutsu had begun to form. She had been heading for Mikoto, he knew. Sensei called the Susano'o the ultimate defence. She would save her, he knew. The Kazekage was dead. There was no way he would survive that.
That meant Minato's only business here was making sure that he himself was not added to that death tally. His chakra, so sapped from a single jutsu, roared to his aid once more. He would sleep for days after this perhaps. The wind armour shielded him from the worst of the heat and the shockwave's effects. He allowed it to push him back to a point. It was best to land far out of the blast zone. His landing was slow as the winds in the air, now surprisingly still, guided him to the ground.
The sand was barely disturbed as his feet made contact.
"Great breakthrough," he muttered, splaying his fingers out wide. The gust blew away all the sand that obscured his vision—kicked up in the explosion. Minato felt something make contact with his armour. He looked down at his shoulder, shocked to see what looked like liquid glass dripping down his armour. Without the wind armour, that would have hurt something fierce. More and more drops fell, deflected and held back by the armour to prevent them from doing any damage.
And then he began to walk. He could see a crater in the distance, the small depression in the otherwise flat field. Glass lay at the edges of the crater, spreading for several feet around it. To the left, he could see the wisps of chakra flowing upwards as Uzume's Susano'o was dispelled. And then he stopped sensing her chakra. The clone had dispelled it. It had run out of chakra? Most likely. He walked forwards to meet Mikoto on her path towards him.
"What was that?" she asked, her own chakra flared around her to hold off the molten glass that fell upon and around them.
"Something Sensei's been helping me with," he said. She hummed.
"Always knew you were the favourite, but can't believe he's been holding back on me this much," she said.
"Wide-range destructive jutsu aren't even your style," he said, chuckling. Whatever she would have responded with was left stuck in her throat as they felt Uzume's chakra again. She was running towards them.
Far faster than they had ever felt her move. It said something that she had entered into Mikoto's range, and then Minato's, so quickly that there had been virtually no difference between their moments of awareness.
"Move," Uzume said barely a second later, landing right between Mikoto and him. They twisted, obeying before thinking it through, and it was good they did, as the sand their feet had been underneath rose in an array of intricate tendrils, each one well woven like a rope and grasping at them as they ran. There could only be one source of that kind of control over sand. The Kazekage. But if the Kazekage still lived, then who had Minato hit with his jutsu? Nothing? A clone?
The sands and winds roared in their wake before Minato felt his body be seized by a force beyond his control. Uzume's purple aura formed around him, and he realised that he was being brought along in the Susano'o this time. The ribcage formed in a matter of seconds, and beyond his control Minato was taken into the air. He marvelled at the sensation of weightlessness that came with being carried like this. There was no platform he was affixing himself to. It was like Uzume's chakra was creating a magnetic field that held him taut. For all he knew, that might as well have been the case. With the Susano'o they covered ground even faster this time, but the desert itself was on the chase. Uzume juked and twisted here and there to prevent their opponent from being able to predict their next move.
And then the ground itself began to rise. Their entire area for miles and miles began to rise into the air. It should not have been possible, but Minato was quickly coming to learn that at this level where he sought to play, impossible was a guiding word and not one that warded you off from pursuit. What people did at this level was impossible. It was just a matter of whether you could deal with the level of impossible at play.
And Minato was quickly beginning to find that he could not deal with the kind of impossible that just lifted a substantial part of the desert like it was nothing. Uzume, however, could. The edges of the risen sand began to curve upwards, forming a dome with them in the centre. The Kazekage was trying to trap them. Uzume reacted like it was any other Tuesday. Wings sprouted from the back of the spectral armour that kept all three of them safe as she flew straight upwards, aiming to escape the dome before it fully formed. Wherever it was the Kazekage was, he could clearly get a very good idea of what was going on, as the dome began to rush to close even faster than before. Not the entire mass moving at once now, lighter, more porous pieces of sand moved first, trying to create a thin layer that would then be thickened by the rest of the sand that followed in its wake.
The sun was blotted out as the dome had nearly closed itself. An extra pair of arms grew from Uzume's Susano'o; in each one lay a crossbow.
The crossbows were thrust forwards, and then with a flash that seared itself into Minato's eyes, the roof of the dome parted to reveal the clear blue sky. Uzume banked, turning their upwards flight into a sideways one. The dome they just escaped broke apart into hundreds of grasping tendrils. Each one moving so quickly that it was a struggle to keep track of their paths and approach. Uzume was more than equal to it, though. Her red eyes burned as they flickered from one direction to another. Everything those eyes saw, they probably instantly catalogued in detail that he would not get even with minutes of staring.
The triangle pattern that made up her Mangekyou Sharingan spun as she flew. They were moving so quickly that the ground beneath them had become a blur. Minato noticed it shifting still, though. Multiple walls rose ahead of their path, aiming to block them off. Uzume dodged what she could, and those crossbows destroyed what she could not. Minato had so many questions he wanted to ask—starting with what had happened in the temple—but the strain on her face as she ferried them out of the Land of Wind convinced him to hold his thoughts for the time being.
"Almost there," Mikoto's lips barely moved as the words cut through the quiet.
Looking ahead, Minato could spot it as well. The splash of greenery that marked the beginning of the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Rivers. The Kazekage was like as not to stop chasing them the moment they were out of his territory, and if he did not, it was not like he was the same existential threat in a land surrounded by trees and rivers as he was in the middle of the desert. The only problem was that particular weakness was not one they could take much advantage of. How were they going to convince him to leave the place where he had the power of a god to face them on more neutral territory?
The border began to get closer and closer, and then the sand that lay there began to stir, rising into a wall so massive that it encompassed the land as far as Minato's eyes could see. Uzume's crossbows shot out, but this time, the lightning was absorbed by the sand with barely an impact. The wall was still intact, and they were about to crash into it. Uzume re-orientated herself quickly, pulling up and beginning to fly upwards parallel to the wall. The wall itself rose as they did so, making a wall that soared so high into the air that it made no sense. It kept going until Uzume dove through the clouds and above them. There, the wall stopped, not growing any further.
Uzume flew above it and finally left the Kazekage's domain. The wall itself began to shift as they passed. Minato turned back, expecting some attack, only for the wall to have been manipulated into spelling out the kanji for "Stay Out".
Uzume banked once they had crossed the border and turned back towards Suna. But unlike what he would have expected, she did not reverse course. She did not take them right back into Suna. Instead, she turned again with fire in her eyes. They were still in the Susano'o and were now heading in a different direction, deeper into the Land of Rivers, but at an angle. A direct course for Konoha, he reckoned, but why? She couldn't have stolen the tool already. Best Minato could tell, they resisted sealing of all kinds, and if she had it on her person, it would be quite obvious.
"What happened?" he asked. Uzume did not answer, face set like stone and eyes pointed directly ahead. The Sharingan within them had stopped spinning now that she was no longer in combat, but the intensity with which her eyes burned remained roughly the same. Perhaps she had not heard him.
"Uzume-san. What happened there?" he asked her again.
"I lost," she said.
"What?"
"Are you deaf, boy? I lost," she said.
"But what does that mean? How did it happen? What happened after you left us? When did you even leave us, and how?" he asked.
"When we were engaged by the puppeteer, I used the relationship between him and his puppets—the chakra strings—to plant a genjutsu within him to make him call for reinforcements. It must have been something he was already going to do because of how easily it took root. When he did, I replaced myself with a clone and began the journey to the Wind Temple. I trusted the two of you to deal with the puppeteer—or at least not lose. And then my clone would have helped you retreat while dragging the Suna nin out of position with a prolonged chase. That way I would have been able to invade the temple and find the Chalice. The only problem with that was that the Kazekage was there. He was in the temple itself, and he was the one with the Chalice. I fought him for it, but it did not matter what I did. Nothing could pierce his defences, nothing could force him to move, and he had so much chakra that he could fight for days and not even feel it. It was a bad match for me. I couldn't harm him, and it wasn't like his sand could do much to harm me either, but a stalemate favoured him because the whole of Suna would fall upon me while we fought. So I took the nuclear option. I held the temple hostage and told him that if he did not give me the Chalice, I would destroy the temple. He called my bluff. There is no more Wind Temple. But after that, there was no other way to get it from him, so I chose to retreat before the Suna shinobi would bury me in bodies. I have no desire to die as the First Raikage did, surrounded by inferior opposition and worn down to exhaustion."
"He beat you," Mikoto repeated. The shock in her voice was palpable.
"He did," Uzume-san confirmed, not looking anywhere near as bothered as he would have expected. In fact, as she spoke about it, excitement had travelled into her voice.
"And that does not bother you?" he asked to confirm.
"Why would it? I've always known that I still have room to grow. Shori's stronger than me, but he doesn't count. To know that there is someone out there other than him who can fight on my level makes me feel good. It makes me so fired up. I have room to get even stronger, there is another level for me to reach, and I will," she said. Well, that was admirable, Minato thought. Not fully logical, but admirable.
"And the lack of the Chalice doesn't matter anymore?" Mikoto asked, and Minato silently thanked her for doing so. They needed to confirm that Uzume would not do anything to endanger them, herself, or the village any further. She just scoffed.
"Doesn't matter anymore. Shorirama will make do with an even better gift," she said.
A better gift?
"An actual challenge. I know he's been getting bored with no one out there that he thinks can actually beat him. Someone exists out there now, and informing him of it is the best gift he could possibly receive."
"But you said the Kazekage could not hurt you, and Sensei is stronger than you, isn't he?" Minato asked.
"Did you notice anything when you fought the clone?" she asked, confirming his suspicion that what they had fought was a clone, while asking a question he didn't know where to start with. What didn't he notice in that fight?
"He never tried to kill us," Mikoto cut in.
"Exactly. It would be better to say that he would not harm me rather than saying he could not. Before I destroyed the temple, I gave him several openings, but he took none of them even though I know he saw at least a few. After I destroyed it, he actually began to try, and even then it was to capture me, not to kill. He fought to capture, and I could not beat him. If Shorirama can get him to fight to kill, then he will get one for the ages," she said.
"And you're okay with that? Giving away your fight?"
"Only matters if Shorirama wins. If he doesn't, then I can still get my fight later on. And if he does, what does it matter? That's what we do for the people we love, no? Give them strong enemies," she said. Minato was tempted to reply that no, he did not actually think that that was what one did with those they loved, but he would let it be for now. All that mattered was that they had escaped without causing a war. That was a win in his books.
XXXX – THE FOURTH RAIKAGE
He hated hospitals. He hated them more than he hated any other type of building in all of Kumo. They had three of them, and it felt like each of them was just a den of sadness, misery, and hopelessness. This was where he had spent weeks at a time until his mother had died. This was where his innocence had been taken—where he realised that his father who he looked up to like a god was anything but. He was just a man. All the muscles, all the power, and he had been helpless to do anything but watch as Mother wasted away day by day.
Ay cleared his thoughts of all that. He was not here for his mother, and he was not here for a hopeless situation either. D would be fine. He had already received the medical report before deciding to visit. He knew there were some people that would consider it a sign of him being a bad friend, but D was not one of them. D understood. He knocked on the door, hearing his friend's voice speak the words "Come in" with a softer tone than he was used to hearing from him.
He pushed the door open and was met with his oldest friend cloaked near from head to toe in bandages. Multiple torn muscles, dislocated bones, ruptured tendons, and most importantly, a strained chakra network. Everything that could possibly be wrong with his friend was wrong with him now, and A was not pleased. Looking at him, lying there, looking so pathetic brought that same feeling of anger and disappointment back to the forefront. Being in the hospital had taken his mind to other thoughts, but now that he could see him face to face, it all came rushing back.
"Why would you do this to yourself?" he asked. If it had been an enemy that had done it, he would have sworn revenge and might have even been on the warpath, but he would have understood it at least. This? This he could not understand.
"Do you think we could have beaten the Nibi without me using the Eight Gates?" D asked the same question A had wondered at. Because he could not deny the fact that the anger he felt was not just aimed at D. It was his own weakness that caused this. He had been too weak to be there for his father when he had fought the Butcher, and now he was too weak to prevent his friend from being forced to use a suicide technique for victory. Victory against an enemy that A himself had courted.
"Where did you learn it?" he asked.
"After the blonde one—Namikaze—beat me like I was nothing, I started looking for ways to get stronger. I found a mention of it in an old scroll, and C was able to puzzle it out for me," he said. A breathed out harshly, swallowing the urge to scream. He had promised Mabui. No damage, no yelling in the hospital.
"C will hear my displeasure for permitting this foolishness. As for you, D, that technique is now declared forbidden. It is an S-rank Kinjutsu. Use will be punished with death," A said.
"If the time comes and I need it to save your life, I will use it, A. You are my friend," he said. A just scoffed and turned around.
"Worry about yourself," he said, slamming the door behind him. The glass viewhole at the top cracked, and A muffled a mental curse before putting it out of mind. He had training to do. He would never be so weak again.
A/N: Just a brief check-in with the Kumo boys to round things off. Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early. Discount available with the code MAY01– have fun.