However this did little to affect their team work, one of the best strategies they had was where two Uchiha women would use fire style on water below causing intense steam to rise and then lightning was all that was needed and a whole horde of Narutos would disappear.
The affinity used on the battlefield from Paul's side was very limited considering Narutos had the wind and water sword which would absorb and reuse their own jutsus on them if they matched the affinity of blades.
Every time the clones numbers came to hundred they would use the damned shadow clones justu again making even more copies.
The real one was nowhere to be found with a naked eye or even the sharingan.
A gale of natural wind Breezed through battlefield all wind demon's blades glowed a bright white the ones which were being used by the clones who were using their blades to try and hack the chains suddenly released a whole dragon made of wind the dragons clamp their big jaws on the chains tearing them up and finally breaking the chains.
The chakra avatars screamed most satisfyingly Paul screamed. The twenty wind dragons didn't stop though five of them had the chains in their mouth and they continued eating it pulling more and more in their mouths.
Amatarasu and Uke Mochi were gone, the movement chains snapped, they disappeared screaming murder for everything good.
Rest moved and clashed straight into Paul sending the Tsukuyomi avatar who took five of the giant dragons made of wind down with equally big Earth bullets , none the less crashed into the earth structure Paul had built with the earth blade.
Meanwhile all at once the women fell down like puppets without strings; the mass of clones had been almost gone, only a hundred remained.
The silence was loud in the clearing. Narutos didn't even breathe. Quickly clones checked the women's breathing and heart rates. Thankfully they were breathing, Narutos quickly removed their own jackets and put them around the women's bodies.
The real Naruto, still eyeing the downed giant, gestured to his clones to take the women to Tazuna's. Narutos each made four clones just to guard them as they obeyed and left the clearing carrying the much taller women like ants.
With the priority gone Naruto made more shadow clones —ten more clones popped into existence now with the earth blade. That ten three blade welding clones made them more.
His clone at konoha had nearly given him more twice as much chakra then his regular self and with the chakra he got from the nine tails chakra was still not a problem well it was considering he had to use nine tail's chakra very fast the swords helped a lot without them using so much his clones would've popped from the nine tail's chakra itself instantly—it was like the swords knew what chakra to use first.
The swords were something —no wonder Paul wanted these so much.
That was the thought that echoed through Naruto's shared consciousness as the wind dragons tore through Paul's chains, as the women fell, as the battlefield transformed from chaos into something almost like hope. The blades—the Water demon's blade and the Wind demon's broadsword—had been fighting with him, not just for him. They'd been burning through the Nine Tails' corrosive chakra like it was kindling, leaving only his own. Leaving only what was his.
The real Naruto, hidden somewhere in the chaos of clones and water and steam, felt the shift. The burning was gone. The screaming in his veins had quieted. And in its place—
Power. His power. For the first time since he'd woken up on that altar, since Uke Mochi's tongue had licked the seal from his stomach, since the Nine Tails' chakra had flooded back into him like a tidal wave of fire—
He was himself.
What are you? Paul had asked. The question hung in the air, unanswered, as the Tsukuyomi avatar pulled itself from the rubble of the earthen structure.
"Hey retard, I know who I am and what you are." Naruto shouted.
Paul's face was drained of color. "You can't. You don't even know what you're—"
"I know enough." Naruto raised the Water blade. The blue light that pulsed from it was brighter now, brighter than it had any right to be, brighter than anything made by human hands should be able to hold. "I know you're not a priest. You're not an apostle. You're just a guy who found something he couldn't control and decided to become its slave instead of fighting it."
"I had fought!" Paul's voice cracked. "I fought for years without these gods for a life ! Then I gave everything to—"
"You gave it, other people." Naruto's voice was cold. Cold as the water that had frozen in the air around him, cold as the wind that was beginning to rise from the broadsword on his back. "You gave women. You gave Uchiha. You gave my family. But you never gave yourself. You just... fed. And fed. And let them eat until there was nothing left of you except this."
He gestured at the clearing. At the place were avatars, the women were. Then at Paul himself.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said. The words came out steady. Certain. "And You're not a vessel of gods. You're just a hole. And I'm going to close it."
Paul's laugh was broken now, his ribs grinding against each other, his face half-covered in dust and blood. "You think this is over? You think cutting a few chains—"
"I think you're running out of tricks." Naruto's clones were moving, not to attack, but to form a wall between him and Paul's remaining forces. The women were gone—carried away by clones who'd already vanished into the treeline. Tsunami and Inari were safe. The Uchiha women, Fūka, Fuen—they were safe too, for now. "I think your gods are tired. I think you're tired. And I think—" He raised the Water blade. The kanji on its surface wetted with blue water. "—you don't have anything left to throw at me."
Paul's face twisted. For a moment—just a moment—something flickered in his eyes. Something that might have been fear. Or respect. Or hunger, still hungry, always hungry, even when there was nothing left to eat.
"You don't understand," Paul said. His voice was quiet now. Almost gentle. "You think this is about winning? About losing?" He straightened, ignoring the grind of bone against bone, the blood that dripped from his mouth. "This is about feeding. About preparing. About—"
"About making more vessels?" Naruto's voice cut through the clearing like a blade. "About filling yourself up with people who can't fight back? About calling it worship so you don't have to call it what it is?"
Paul's eyes went wide.
"You're not a priest," Naruto said. "You're not an apostle. You're just—" He searched for the word, the right word, the one that would cut. "—empty. You're so empty you have to fill yourself up with other people. Other souls. Other lives. And when you ran out of room, you started looking for more."
The silence that followed was absolute. The Avatar seemed to smile.
"You think I wanted this?" Paul's voice cracked. "You think I chose to be hollowed out? To be made into a vessel for things I can't even—" He stopped. Swallowed. "Your father did this. Your demon father and his demon bitch." His body start to dissolve.
Tsukuyomi's smile widened. "Thank you demon. Now he is where he should have been."
"What!-" Naruto asked.
"You heard the boss. Brat you said I never gave them anything right?! I'll prove you wrong. Now I'm giving him... me." His voice was drowning.
Somethings in Naruto's mind clicked.
He looked at the chakra avatar who claimed to be a god.
His clone at Konoha had read about these kinds of things the native religions in the land of fire.
This particular god Tsukuyomi was from a pantheon older than the sage of six paths. The Avatar matched the description of the god.
This wasn't a god. This wasn't a god at all, it needed those bodies to sustain his form; it was weak without Paul.
Most of all it hadn't used Anything which wasn't some common jutsu sized up and powered up.
He remembered. Amatarasu threw fire at him. The goddess of the sun— was throwing fire balls. Imagine that, then the goddess of food throwing water at him—His water blade had absorbed like a sponge.
"You're no god nor was any of those people..." Naruto said his attention directly to the self proclaimed moon god.
"Brat...looks like my beating has caused you mental retardation HA!" Paul's voice was of victory.
Naruto's eyes narrowed. The pieces were falling into place now, clicking together in his mind like the mechanisms of a lock he hadn't even known he was picking.
"You're no god," he said again, ignoring Paul. Louder this time. Certain. "None of you are."
The clearing held its breath. The clones—the hundreds still standing, the thousands that had fallen and risen again—felt the shift in their shared consciousness. Not confusion. No doubt. But Understanding.
Paul's dissolving body jerked. His face, already half-lost to the chakra consuming him, twisted into something that might have been fury. Might have been fear. "You don't know what you're—"
"I know you need them." Naruto's voice cut through the clearing like a blade. "The bodies. The souls. The bloodlines. You can't exist without them. You feed on them. You're not gods. You're parasites."
The Water blade in his hand pulsed. The kanji for water glowed brighter, and for a moment—just a moment—Naruto could have sworn he felt something—answer. Something deep in the steel. Something that had been waiting.
"Parasites need hosts," Naruto continued. He took a step forward. The clones around him moved with him, a wall of orange and black, of borrowed bodies and borrowed time. "Gods don't. Gods are... more. You're not more. You're less. You're so much less you have to eat people just to look like something you're not."
Tsukuyomi's face—that cold, serene mask—rippled. For a moment, the perfect features seemed to slide, like oil on water. Like something underneath was trying to get out.
"You know nothing, " the voice that came from its mouth wasn't soft anymore. It was sharp. Hungry. Desperate. "We are eternal. We are— "
"You're a story," Naruto said. "Pretending to be something people made up a long time ago. Something that got old. Got weak. Got hungry." He raised the Water blade. The blue light caught in the steel, caught in the eyes of every clone standing in that clearing. "And now you're so empty you have to wear dead people to talk."
Paul's scream was the loudest yet—a sound that was almost human, almost not. His body was dissolving faster now, his arms already gone, his chest caving in on itself.
Tsukuyomi's form blazed brighter. The chakra that made up its body pulsed, swelled, grew until it dwarfed everything in the clearing. Then it shrank the chakra form and looked more humanish and more but real it was still the same height as before.
"You ate him?!"
"Not yet." The former chakra Avatar turned around parting his hair to reveal an eye and mouth. Which spoke.
"Remember my name.... Demon offspring...my name is Paul... Given to me by the gods whose I am now a part of.... handle this 'trick' of mine." The voice was clear but slowly surely getting weaker.
Tsukuyumi turned to face him. His pink and glowing eyes stared at him, the real one among the clones... like he was a bowl of ramen.
"I don't like being out numbered..." Tsukuyomi's foot came down on the earth and a wave of earth spikes—more like mini mountains —swam to the horde of Narutos Sharks.
"ARE YOU STILL GONNA PRETEND THAT YOU'RE A GOD ? FROM THE FAIRYTALES ?" Naruto said as he jumped over the spikes which taller a house, slashed with his wind blade pouring a massive amount of chakra which formed a massive wind hurricane which soon added the water on ground and even the massive chunks of Earth.
The massive Strom hit the form of Tsukuyomi head-on, the Strom seemed to pass through it like it wasn't it —even there.
Earth broke from under the feet of Narutos—a giant hand revealed itself. They all knew that hand, many Narutos lunged at the hand striking before thinking. Blood gushed forth wherever they struck.
However the hand didn't even flinch if anything was more aggressive— soon another hand appeared flanking Narutos at their back.
Naruto realised something— 'those are his hands so his mouth would be...' as if on queue—Tsukuyomi's head bust forward, his mouth wide open eating a clone like he was a light snack.
Two Narutos stuck their earth blades in the ground channeling chakra causing two house sized dragons made of dirt and rock shot at Tsukuyomi who grabbed them by their necks and slammed them on the where Narutos were still charging more attacks.
The real Naruto—who was charging head-on —was pushed away as the dragons turned weapons were brought down.
The real Naruto crashed where the bodies of the bandits once lay. He got up shaking, observing the battlefield once again trying to think of a way to defeat this monster.
Suddenly the form of Tsukuyomi vanished and reappeared with a hand corked back and before Naruto could even react —it stuck home smashing Naruto Earthen cart.
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Tazuna's house was in chaos.
The clones arrived in a staggered wave, each one carrying a burden more precious than the last. Inari was first, his small body trembling in the arms of a clone that was already beginning to flicker at the edges. Tsunami came next, still catatonic, still staring at nothing, but breathing. Alive.
Then the women.
Fūka was the first through the door. The clone carrying her had wrapped her in his own jacket, but her red hair spilled out like a warning.
Fuen followed, black hair tangled, pale face streaked with dirt and something that might have been tears.
The Uchiha women came after them, two of them, their Sharingan eyes dimmed to nothing, their faces slack with exhaustion. And finally the brown-haired woman, tall and hollow, her fingers still twitching as if reaching for something that wasn't there anymore.
"What in the name of—" Tazuna's pipe clattered to the floor. He was on his feet before he knew it, his old legs carrying him toward the pile of bodies the clones were laying out on his floor. "What happened? Where's the original?"
The clone carrying Fūka set her down with a gentleness that belied its flickering form. When it straightened, its face was Naruto's face, and he was tired. The kind of tiredness that came from watching something break and trying to hold it together anyway.
"He's still fighting," the clone said. Its voice was already fading, the chakra that held it together burning out like a candle at the end of its wick. "He told us to bring them here. To keep them safe."
Inari was crying. Not the quiet tears of a child who had learned to be brave, but the deep, shaking sobs of someone who had seen too much and understood too little. He was clutching the arm of the clone that had carried him, his fingers white-knuckled, his face buried in its jacket.
"Is he going to alright?" Inari's voice was muffled, but everyone heard it. Everyone felt it.
The clone hesitated. For a moment, its face flickered—Naruto, then someone else, then Naruto again. When it spoke, its voice was soft. "He made a promise. And besides this isn't the first time he's fighting Remember? He said he'd catch up and the boss will believe it!."
"But—"
"He made a promise." The clone's hand came up, cupped Inari's face, wiped away tears that kept coming. "And Naruto Uzumaki doesn't break promises."
It smiled. It was a terrible smile, full of pain and hope and something that might have been fear. But it was real.
"We'll go now, boss needs all the chakra he can get, one of us will remain here though." One clone said.
"I will stay. I don't have much chakra anyways." He nodded as the rest of the clones puffed away.
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The impact shattered the earthen cart into a cloud of dust and clay shards. Naruto's body carved a trench through the debris, through the mud, through the wreckage of what had once been Paul's altar. He came to rest against a half-buried stone, his ribs screaming, his vision swimming in shades of red and white.
Get up.
The voice wasn't his own yet it felt like it was. It came from somewhere deeper. Somewhere that had been waiting for this moment since the seal was licked away.
Get up, me. That thing isn't a god. It's a leech. And leeches can be cut.
Naruto's fingers found the Water blade. The hilt was warm in his grip, pulsing with a rhythm that matched his heartbeat. The Wind broadsword on his back hummed, a low, keening note that vibrated through his spine.
"You're still alive." Tsukuyomi's voice drifted across the clearing, soft as falling snow. The thing wearing Paul's dissolving body took a step forward. Then another. Each footfall sent ripples through the mud, through the water still pooled across the battlefield. "Impressive. Most vessels shatter after the first hit."
Naruto pushed himself to his knees. The world tilted, righted itself. His clones were gone—every single one, popped by the shockwave or swallowed by the earth or simply... gone. He was alone. Just him and the thing that had eaten Paul.
"You really think you're a god?" Naruto's voice was raw. His throat tasted like copper and ash. "You're just a hungry ghost wearing dead people."
Tsukuyomi paused. Its pink eyes— bled into red, now, but hollowed out and burning with something that wasn't human—narrowed. "You know nothing of hunger, child. You've been fed your whole life. Chakra. Power. A demon in your belly to keep you warm at night."
"You mean the thing that's been trying to kill me since I was born?" Naruto laughed. It hurt. Everything hurts. But the laugh was real. "Yeah. Real feast."
He dragged himself upright. Just to look up the giant heel kick which was about to strike him.
Behind the cage the nine tails smiled soon it'll be free sure it'll need to reform but without any Uzumakis in Konoha he would be free he'd just need to kill the Uzumaki and that senju woman brat just saved and perhaps he'd kill those Uchihas too.
'Huh is this it ? At least this is a death I'm not ashamed of..' Naruto thought as he felt the clones chakra fill his body.
'they are safe...and I'll MEET WITH THEM AGAIN BELIEVE IT'
"Say your good bye lunch." Tsukuyomi's voice rang through the place as his foot crashed on Naruto—but met nothing but an earth spike the size of Tsukuyomi's whole leg.
And it did not show any mercy; it tore through Tsukuyomi's leg bones and muscles alike.
"You FUCKING DEMON! I JUST GOT THIS BODY!!!" Tsukuyomi's voice was like a storm.
The clones were gone. Every single one had popped, their chakra flooding back into him in waves that made his veins burn and his heart stutter. But he didn't need them anymore. Not for this.
The spike of earth parted to reveal Naruto, he noticed that Tsukuyomi's face wasn't twisted into pain rather it was fury.
'Those stupid little swords...of his' Tsukuyomi thought, already thinking about a plan to declaw the meal.
The hum of the giant Storm was still in the battlefield and Naruto noted that.
'If I can absorb that and reuse it on him with his leg like that I might be able to get this over with.' Naruto thought it was really risky considering it had water and earth elements mixed in. 'What if I herd him do it ? If I could make him get it with it would be good too'
Tsukuyomi dashed forward at mighty speeds, his wounded leg leaving a trail of gore and blood before Naruto could even react. It stuck , smashing Naruto again on earth.
Then with two—giant fingers it stabbed both of Naruto's arms.
Naruto was no longer able to feel his arms all in a flash of moments.
"Foolish child.."Tsukuyomi's voice rang through the area. The satisfaction in that voice was palpable , he raised his foot—the very same still torn open.
Naruto heard a voice.
'Let it go'
Man's voice.
'We are not going to die for this thing to eat our precious people are we?'
His vision blurred eyes filling with blood so was his lungs his ribs had caved in every thing hurted.
The broken torn foot slammed down—but this time there was no mountain of a spike.
Tsukuyumi laughing stopped "what's happening-"
Three massive golden hands burst through Tsukuyomi's leg; they all flexed like roots tearing the leg even more—then Tsukuyomi's form was pushed straight into the Storm, then it exploded.
Tsukuyomi's body shot back to Naruto's location and it was caught by more arms —Then a cluster of heads, three of them which were the head, was an Oni with sharp big teeth.
Tsukuyomi's two arms to help him the both giants wrestled briefly as the new golden avatar got up to its full height, Tsukuyomi's gaze locked to Naruto's form.
Naruto's arms hung useless at his sides. He couldn't feel his fingers. Couldn't feel the swords that had slipped from his grip, the Water blade lying in the mud, the Wind broadsword half-buried in the wreckage of the altar, alongside earth one. But he could see. Through the blood in his eyes, through the haze of pain that threatened to pull him under, he could see.
The boy was footing in that chakra avatar of what seem to be a demon—the boy was in where the demon's heart would be, his body was healing visibly Tsukuyomi would not let that happen—Tsukuyomi opened his mouth a earth forming in it and shot it straight to the demonic chakra construct.
It crashed back on to the ground. Naruto finally opened his now healed eyes everything hurt, more than ever he noticed he was in a chakra thing and by the chakra he knew it was his—he had made it a disparate attempt at a defence against the heel kick of Tsukuyomi—he had let go all of his usable chakra and this was the result a bloodline he didn't know he had, and it hurts like hell and more.
Three small chakra hands inside the protection of the golden demon Naruto was in—brought the sword to him Earth and Water blades growled as if whispering to him a secret.
On instincts Naruto's hands—now fully healed moved gripping the water and earth Naruto crossed both swords in a 'X' stands let loose a massive amount of chakra in them what came wasn't Earth or water style it wasn't even mud it was wood—a root to be precise it stuck Tsukuyomi's from in grip taking roots on his body and digging through flesh and bones alike.
Tsukuyomi screamed in pain for the first time,"WHAT!? HOW DO YOU HAVE THIS BLOODLINE!!"
Naruto didn't answer—couldn't answer that one attack had felt like he was on his way to meet his parents— but he willed the demonic chakra construct to move and it moved by its jaws unhinged —all three with a sickening crunch.
"Die" Naruto thought and the golden demon's began working tore through Tsukuyomi's flesh biting and chewing , Tsukuyomi tried to get away from it and was unsuccessful.
The predator was now the prey and it was getting eaten.
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Naruto's clone was out of Tazuna's house on the rooftop looking at everywhere while extending his senses then suddenly chakra busted forward from him up jumped down the chakra was taking shape he was getting memories of the original without a single thought he unmade himself
Leaving the house without a Naruto clone.
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The golden demon's jaws worked with a rhythm that was almost organic—bite, tear but didn't swallow, it had no stomach, the blood filled its mouth, a forbidden strew of bones , muscles and organs of a "god" who once wanted to eat Naruto . Tsukuyomi's form, which had towered over the battlefield moments ago, was shrinking. Not collapsing. Being consumed.
Naruto floated in the center of the construct, his body weightless, his vision swimming within the Avatar. The swords in his hands—Water and Earth—were singing. Not with words, but with something older. Something that remembered when the world was new and bloodlines were just beginning.
If Naruto wanted he could easily will the chakra avatar to stop eating the helpless being who once claimed to be a god he didn't he had willed it because it was a fitting death of a creature to be chewed up and thrown out who ate livin' to breathe—Naruto was the one actually willing it happen.
"Is this... me?" Naruto's voice sounded strange. Hollow. Like it was echoing through a space much larger than his own throat.
The construct didn't answer. It couldn't. It was him. All of him. The parts he knew and the parts he'd been hiding from the very moment he gained consciousness.
Tsukuyomi's screams had stopped. What came from its mouth now was something wetter. Something that might have been words once, but had been chewed past meaning.
"You think this saves them?" The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. Not Tsukuyomi's. Not Paul's. Something in between. Something that had been waiting in the spaces where gods die. "You think eating me makes you like me?"
"I'm not eating you because I'm hungry," Naruto said. The words came from him, but they were heavier than they should have been. Older. "I'm eating you because you're poison. And poison doesn't go away. It just... moves."
The construct's jaws closed again. Tsukuyomi's arm came off with a sound like tearing paper.
"You'll become us," the voice whispered. "The hunger doesn't stop. It just changes hosts. You'll wake up one day and there won't be anything left of you. Just eating. Just the—"
"You're wrong." Naruto's voice was steadier now. The swords in his hands were warm. Alive. "You ate people because you were empty. I'm full. I've always been full. Of ramen and pranks and people who annoy me and people who—" His voice cracked. Just for a moment. "People who believe in me."
The construct's heads lowered. Three mouths, three throats, three ways to swallow something that had been eating for longer than Naruto had been alive.
Tsukuyomi's form was barely visible now. Only the head was visible to Naruto—the chakra avatar picked it up.
"Please." The word came from the core. Small. Humans. Terrified. "I don't want to go back to being nothing. I don't want to be empty again. I don't—"
Naruto closed his eyes.
He thought about Fūka's face when she blinked. About Fuen's hand reaching for something that wasn't there. About the Uchiha women with their empty eyes and stolen Sharingan. About the brown-haired woman, tall and hollow, her fingers still twitching for a life that had been eaten out of her.
He lowered it in his mouth.
He thought about Paul. The man who had been empty for so long he'd filled himself with other people's souls. Who had called it worship because calling it cannibalism was too honest.
"I'm not sorry," Naruto said. And he meant it. "But hey you don't get to keep being hungry. Not anymore."
The construct's jaws closed. All three at once.
Naruto then willed The demon to go away cutting the chakra of the jutsu the pool of blood fell on top of earth a mix of Tsukuyomi's whole body blended to a red strew. He strapped the Wind demon's blade.
Then Water and then Earth.
And finally sat down.
Just thinking "what have I become" he said softly
The clearing was silent.
His clothes were torn, his skin was muddy, his chakra felt non-existent.
But he was standing. He was alive.
Naruto was alone in the mud and the blood and the wreckage of Paul's altar.
He looked at his hands. They were shaking. Not from fear. Not from exhaustion. From something he didn't have a name for. Something that felt like happiness.
The sun was setting. Properly setting, the way it did after a long day. Gold and pink and the kind of blue that made you remember the sky was endless.
He was alive. Tsunami and Inari were safe. The women—his family, maybe, or something close enough to matter—were breathing. The monster that had been eating people was gone.
The wind picked up, tugging at his hair, drying the blood on his face. Somewhere in the distance, a bird started singing.
Naruto took a step. Then another. Toward the tunnel, toward the path home, toward the people who were waiting for him to come back.
Behind him, the altar was already crumbling. The swords were quiet. The bodies—Paul's, the bandits', the ones that had been eaten and the ones that had been used—were already becoming earth again.
But the chains Naruto had broken left imprints on the mud of the battlefield like they were still there. Lying in the mud. Five of them. Red and green and orange and magenta and cyan— Naruto could picture it, And for a moment, just a moment, they gleamed in the night.
Then they were dust. And Naruto was walking.
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Wing men to save one's dignity!
Naruto Omake: Operation: Stop the Step-Father
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Alt Title: Kiba & Shino: The Ultimate Wingmen (and Home-Wreckers)
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The Forest of Death, shortly after Orochimaru's attack. Team 7 is a mess. Naruto is unconscious, recovering from the Five Elements Seal. Sasuke is unconscious, bearing the Curse Mark. Sakura, exhausted and terrified, is the only one standing guard over her two downed teammates.
The tension is shattered by a rustle of leaves. Team 8 emerges, led by Kiba with Akamaru on his head, Shino's silent presence behind him, and Hinata, who is trying very, very hard not to look at the unconscious blonde.
Kiba sniffs the air, a wide, toothy grin spreading across his face. "Well, well, well. Look what we found, Akamaru. Team 7, dead on their feet. Or… dead asleep." He steps forward, dramatically holding up a Heaven scroll they'd acquired from a different, less fortunate team. "I bet you guys are missing a scroll too, huh? And you've got no one to fight for it."
Sakura immediately jumps into a defensive stance, kunai in hand. "Kiba! Don't come any closer! I'll—"
"You'll what?" Kiba interrupts, gesturing to Naruto and Sasuke. "Knock yourself out carrying them both? Look, I'm not a monster. We'll trade."
Sakura blinks. "Trade? What do you want? Food? Medical supplies?"
"Nope." Kiba's grin turns sly. He points a finger directly at the unconscious Naruto. "Him."
A beat of silence.
"…What?" Sakura whispers, her brain short-circuiting.
Kiba clears his throat, adopting the tone of a seasoned merchant at a shady stall. "See, it's like this. You want our Heaven scroll to complete your set, right? But you also lost your Earth scroll, which we also just happened to find. So, you need two scrolls from us. That's a premium service. The price is non-negotiable."
He holds up one finger. "Seven nights per scroll. That's fourteen nights total." He gestures from the unconscious Naruto to the now violently blushing Hinata, who looks like she wants to be swallowed by the forest floor. "His time. For her. Starting tonight. He stays by her side. Under her watch. As her… personal guest."
Sakura thought she had died and gone. Those words were something else.
Sakura stands guard over her two unconscious teammates, exhausted and terrified. Team 8 emerges. Kiba makes his offer.
Sakura blinks. Once. Twice.
"…Let me get this straight," she says slowly. "You will give us both scrolls—the ones we need to pass—in exchange for… Naruto spending time with Hinata?"
Kiba nods, arms crossed. "Fourteen nights. He stays with her. No take-backs."
Sakura's gaze drifts from Naruto's unconscious, whiskered face to Hinata's crimson, steam-venting one. Then to Sasuke's beautiful, cursed-mark-covered, completely immobile form beside her.
A slow, dangerous smile spreads across her face.
"Deal."
Kiba blinks, thrown off by the instant agreement. "Wait, really? No arguing?"
"Kiba." Sakura's voice is serene. "You could ask for my mother's secret dumpling recipe and I'd hand it over with a bow. Take him. Please. In fact—" She gives Naruto's prone body a little nudge with her foot, rolling him slightly toward Hinata. "He's all yours. Enjoy."
Hinata makes a sound like a deflating balloon.
Kiba exchanges a glance with Shino. This was easier than expected.
"I'm just saying," Sakura continues, already dragging Sasuke's unconscious form toward a more secluded, romantic spot under a tree, "if you need extra nights? I'm open to negotiation. Maybe a permanent arrangement? I'm very flexible."
"You're trading your teammate like a coupon," Kiba says, mildly disturbed.
"I'm securing the mission objective," Sakura replies, fluffing Sasuke's hair and arranging his limbs into a pose she considers aesthetically pleasing. "Now if you'll excuse me, Sasuke-kun needs his rest. In a peaceful, quiet, Naruto-free environment."
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You guys won't believe how hard it is to compress what I write anyways. I'm glad it's not going too past the 10k words limit we've set.
Yes I've reused the same filler characters. Trust me I'll do them justice.