Epilogue 2

Chapter 73

UZUMAKI KARIN

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

Her life had been one of pain and sorrow. Once upon a time, Uzumaki Karin had been a weak little girl, desperate, scared, and powerless over her own fate. Yet those days seemed so distant to her now.

And it was all because of a single person.

SHING!

And as she felt her chain collide with metal as she landed on the ground, protecting the Grand Shinobi Alliance members from that very person's attacks. She commanded her other chains to attack, and the person jumped back, and for the first time in over a year, she saw that familiar face again. Those eyes lacked the usual shimmer she had gotten used to, but the adoration in them was still the same despite everything.

Her body shook as her heart skipped a beat as she saw a smile appear on his face as their eyes locked onto each other. Karin wanted nothing more than to go up and hug him right there, to have those arms wrapped around her again, and to feel that love again.

She saw him smile, as she felt his eyes look her over, stopping for a moment as they focused on her right arm, the prosthetic one in place of the one she had lost that fateful day. Only then did he finally speak up once more.

"You have grown stronger princess," he said with a smile as he raised his sword once more. Karin wiped away her tears, getting herself ready for the incoming assault.

"I had to," she replied and she saw his lips thin at her comment as he finally murmured.

"I am sorry that you had to," and with those words he vanished once more. To regular shinobi it would have been impossible to follow his movements yet she was not an average shinobi.

She was Uzumaki Karin, the last Princess of Uzushio, and so she closed her eyes and let her senses expand. The adamantine chains followed her commands and soon the area was filled with sounds of metal grinding over each other as she parried his whizzing barrage.

She began to cycle through a series of handseals, and pumped chakra into the ground.

"EARTH STYLE: GREAT MUD SWAMP!"

And she felt the ground below her turn into a swamp, and for a moment he got stuck in the sand and immediately her chains were onto him. And she was sure she heard him whisper.

"AHH! Nice trick," but as she had suspected that it was not enough for he put his sword on the ground and she saw it heat shine as the swamp solidified and he vanished once more.

BOOM!

Her chains failed to hit him up. She herself jumped back just like him, both of them landing once more on the ground.

She saw his eyes narrow as he suddenly looked towards the side, and before she could blink his sword was coated with cackling lightning in a second before she heard a whizz.

"LIGHTNING STYLE: NARUKAMI'S WRATH!" he shouted as he swung his sword as a lightning coated arrow whizzed towards him.

KRING!

His sword cut through it in a single sweeping strike, making its pieces go whizz past him.

BOOOOOOOM!

And it was not the only one, as arrows coated with lightning continued to rain down on him, and he continued to dodge and swing his sword. And she saw him suddenly push his sword into the ground as he narrowly dodged one of the arrows before suddenly holding it and throwing it back with a spin.

She saw the arrow head the technique headed towards the location of its user, and sensed her barely jump out of the way as her own attack whizzed past her.

Shinso just stood there as he slowly took out his sword from the ground.

"You should come out and show yourself, Hinata," he said with a smile and moments later Shinso's old team mate landed behind her, her bow strapped to her back as she looked at him.

Karin had gotten pretty close to the Hyuga leader over the last year as both of them supported each other in their times of loss and grief. The biggest addition to the Hyuga would probably be the sword that was tied to her back.

She saw his eyes widen as a huge smile appeared on his face as he saw that.

"Is that what I think it is?" he suudenly spoke out and Hinata Hyuga nodded returning the smile, before turning to look towards her. And Karin sighed as she suddenly took out a similar sword from the storage scroll.

And she saw his eyes widen at that once more and she smiled a bit, as she gave him a nod.

"Shino has the last one. After they cleared the rubble," and her breath hitched a bit at that as she remembered seeing his battered body, remembered people telling her the circumstances of his death, but with a sniff she continued.

"They were able to recover your will, and gave me all the notes you had left."

It had been the day of the funeral, and she had been distraught, broken, yet then Shizune-san had shown up to console her, in the end handing her his last will. It had been just as she had expected as she had inherited most of the things, the biggest thing of note had been his manuals for techniques he had sealed specially for her. Seals that could only ever be opened by her blood.

She suddenly saw his body stiffen as his chakra thickened once more.

"It's the caster of Edo Tensei! He is trying to gain complete control!" and she saw him hold his sword with both hands as suddenly the ground around him began to crack up.

"You can break the seal, can't you!" she questioned frantically and he grimaced as he nodded.

"I am trying! But it's a bit more complex than I imagined! I am almost there! JUST BLOCK THIS! PLEASE! I BEG YOU!"

And Karin pumped all her chakra into her adamantine chains, and behind her Hinata had taken out her bow and was readying an attack herself.

"LIGHTNING STYLE: LIGHTNING ABYSS!" and with that he was whizzing past her. Karin did not back down she pushed all her chakra to her chins as she swung her hand.

"ADAMNTINE PRSION!" Chains erupted from the ground in front of her.

KRINGGG! There was the sound of metal grinding as his sword got stuck in her defense. She felt herself getting pushed back, her chains creaking under the sheer force of his attack. Though, she couldn't back down.

She couldn't and just as he had reached the last column of chains, she shouted.

"NOW!" Hinata got her signal and let loose her arrow.

"NINPO: NARUKAMIS ARROW!" and the huge amalagamtion of lightning took the form of a huge panther as it whizzed past her heading straight for Shinso.

She felt her last chain break. Yet Hinata's attack was already upon him by then.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

And she felt goosebumps on her body as her senses screamed at her to jump away, and she reflexively closed her eyes.

SCHING!

Yet the pain never came. She slowly opened her eyes and found a sword inches from her throat, her eyes widened as her heart thumped in her chest. Slowly she looked up to find him smiling at her. Her eyes widened as he gave her a small nod.

And then before she could think of anything, her body crashed onto his, wrapping herself around him, as she finally let go of her control as tears began falling from her eyes. She felt him drop his sword as his arms tightened around her as well, as she cried on his chest.

"Y..ou le..ft me! WHY? I was so alone. So scared! You should have saved yourself," she complained as he gave her a small kiss on her forehead.

"You broke your promise! You promised to never leave me! Yet you left! YOU LEFT!" she sniffed as she beat his chest. A though he just continued to hug her whispering quietly.

"I am sorry, princess. I am sorry!"

0000

YAKUSHI KABUTO

Yakushi Kabuto frowned as his conscious ness returned to him. He recoiled, as he felt those amethyst orbs staring at him.

"What happened?" came the question from the fake Madara as he walked out of the shadow, his sharingan shining bright red. Kabuto simply picked up the white marble piece off the board and ground it to bits as he replied.

"Just one of my Edo Tensei summons has broken out of my control and gone rogue!" the news seemed to have caught caught him off guard as Kabuto noticed him stiffen slightly at this.

"How? Didn't you apply the special control seals on each of your summons!"

Kabuto nodded at that as he explained.

"I had but he was a seal master and only used his chakra to modify the seal slowly without alerting me," he explained.

"Who was it?" came the subsequent question.

"It was Shinso Ken. That swords man from Konoha, and I believe he could be a problem because there was suspicion that he is a sage," and they all knew what a hassle that would be.

The truth was that they had their hands full with Lord Jiraiya himself, the Shinobi Grand Alliance gaining the services of another Sage would be dangerous, pushing them on the backfoot.

"It will not matter!" came the assured voice of Akatsuki's leader who suddenly stepped out of a shadow. But this wasn't the regular Pain, no it was Pain in his original body, he had let go of all his paths incorportating all six powers back into his own body. A body which Kabuto had nursed back to full health with extreme difficulty.

He saw the famed Rinnegan focus onto him and even after all this time he recoiled as he felt them lock onto him.

"Are the preparations complete, for distracting their main forces!" and Kabuto nodded as he glanced back to the only Edo Tensei coffin still left in their HQ.

"They are! He can be deployed at any moment!" with that Pain, no his name was Nagato, nodded before glancing at fake Madara.

"Have we found the location of the last three jinchuriki?" and masked man nodded.

"We have, though it is highly guarded and we will need to be quite careful in going there!"

Nagato closed his eyes at that, and Kabuto saw him grimace abit before he spoke out.

"Time has come for this war to end. The time for salvation is here. I shall capture the remaining tailed beasts and fulfill my destiny. This shall be the last war of Humanity!"

And with that he began to levitate as he suddenly began to fly towards the exit.

"It is time I take to the field myself!"

0000

BOOOM!

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