Found You
To his dismay, despite having entered their curse mark level two forms, the Sound Four were still on the losing end of the conflict. Their attempts to rally against Alice, Naruto, and the others floundered. Each time they tried to gain ground, they were thwarted by the Leaf ninjas displaying their prowess.
Sakon was grappling with Shino, struggling to find an opening to strike. Ukon had been separated for a while, a tactic only Alice could have devised. The twin had just managed to reach his brother.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Arthur caught someone's motion that he hadn't wanted to see. Just as Ukon lifted a hand to deliver a blow to Shino's defenseless figure, something happened.
A burst of chakra tore through the forest floor. Without warning, a figure emerged, clad in vibrant orange and shadowed by a golden aura. Naruto, in his Nine Tails Chakra Mode, materialized from the treetops!
"What the—?" Ukon gasped, seeing the surprise factor.
"Rasengan Barrage!" Naruto boomed, sending two compact Rasengans spiraling into Sakon and Ukon.
The twins were knocked back, caught entirely off guard as Naruto's attack landed perfectly.
Arthur then watched Naruto land, dusting off his hands, confident and cheerful.
"Sorry I'm late!" he announced with a grin on his face.
The momentum shifted in an instant, and Shino, Chōji, and Sakura stared at him in disbelief.
"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed in both surprise and relief.
Alice regarded the sudden appearance of the main character with a smirk. Her tone conveyed that she had sensed him not long before his arrival. "Took your time, didn't you?"
Sakura, recovering from her initial surprise, rushed to question him: "How did you get here? I thought you were at the tournament with everyone else!"
Naruto's grin turned a little serious. "Jada sensed your flying raijin paper was gone." His expression shifted slightly to concern. "She was worried this had something to do with Sasuke. So she used her jutsu to teleport me back to the Leaf Village to check things out."
Alice interrupted, asking, "Why didn't she just use her Mangekyō?"
"Yeah, well…" Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "She strained her eyes a lot the last time she used it."
That was when she had fought Arthur. When everyone remembered, not a single one of them dared utter his name.
"I get it," Alice remarked. "If she keeps using it, she'll succumb to the Sharingan's blindness."
As Naruto explained how he had learned about the situation, he mentioned "Granny Tsunade." That was his overall nickname for the fifth Hokage. She tried to prevent him from rushing off but failed.
"Jada would've teleported herself and others," he continued, pumping his fist, "but it would have used up too much of her chakra. Plus, she might not have been able to control where they landed. I had to use Kurama's help to make sure I got here quickly—I'll never let my friends down!"
As Arthur processed Naruto's words, he felt a little uneasy. Jada and the others wouldn't be on their way, but he had a feeling that anyone could appear now.
"But wait," Alice wondered, "Naruto, why doesn't she just teleport to you now?"
The Sound Four were simply baffled at Naruto's sudden entrance to intervene in their conversation.
"About that," Naruto said, grinning again. "After Kurama and I bonded more, the mark sort of went away on its own."
The main character might have seemed more mature and even more powerful than his counterpart, but that didn't make him any smarter. Of course, it wasn't his fault for not knowing.
"That's alright," Sakura said, reaching into her bag. "I still have…"
But when she scanned her belongings, she couldn't find it. Alice's eyes widened. How could both of their flying raijin marks disappear at a time like this?
Arthur was wise to have sealed and destroyed that paper.
With Naruto's involvement, this skirmish would surely come to an end real soon. Alice's team quickly gained momentum through their individual strengths.
The battle was dominated by her smart tactics. It didn't take long for her, alongside Naruto, to finish what they had started against the Sound Four.
Things were inevitably leading toward the curtain call. The Sound Four were falling one by one against the combined forces of Alice and Naruto. There were some flaws in their tactics, yet each member supported the others, hardly leaving any gaps for their foes to counter.
Not long afterward, the final blow landed, and the Sound Four collapsed, defeated. All of them had succumbed to their wounds and died except for Tayuya, who was merely unconscious.
The moment the battle concluded, Naruto quickly asked where Sasuke was. Chōji was skeptical, wondering how Naruto found them in the first place, to which the main character responded that was one of his new traits—he could sense negative emotions from a far distance.
"But I can't sense Sasuke anywhere," he added.
It was then that Alice turned her attention toward the area where she last sensed a presence lingering. She could feel him; she could feel Arthur just beyond the battlefield.
"Everyone, let's head over there!" she exclaimed.
As the team began dashing toward Arthur's location, Arthur gravitated toward their approach, deciding that hiding would serve no purpose.
He couldn't use the flying raijin, lest he risk endangering Sasuke inside. Would the seals around it even allow him to teleport with it? No point in trying just to waste chakra.
Then there was the fact that Alice's team was now comprised of a Nine-Tails Chakra Mode Naruto.
Things were looking very bleak. Yet despite it all, Arthur stepped forward, ready to confront them.
As he did, he was acutely aware of Naruto's unique ability—the capacity to sense negative emotions. Unlike any of the others, however, Arthur possessed no malice or malevolent intent that might give him away.
That was why Naruto couldn't sense him earlier. As for Sasuke, he was trapped in a seal that revolved around death. As powerful as this Naruto was, even he wouldn't be able to sense what was going on inside.
Arthur steeled himself, knowing these discussions in his head weren't likely to manifest. There was no way around it; he would need to confront the threat head-on.
It was ironic as he stood there in the open field. This land looked identical to the one Kimimaro had once found himself in.
If that was the case, the Valley of the End, the location where the two main characters had their first intense battle, wasn't far off.
As Alice and her team got closer, Arthur remained composed. He would most certainly try to hold his ground until the end.
Their footsteps were amplified as they approached, and he stepped into view—expressionless but mindful of the precariousness of the situation.
Naruto skidded to a halt, his face vacillating between anger and caution.
"We found you!" he exclaimed. "Where's Sasuke?"
"Hmph…" Arthur scoffed, tilting his back. "He's in that box… but you said 'found' as if I were hiding."
"You're a pretty big coward for leaving your teammates behind!" Sakura said.
"Clueless little girl," Arthur countered. "Who said they were a part of my team?"
"That's enough out of you!" Chōji said, swiping his arm. "Give back Sasuke!"
"Remember, Naruto," Alice whispered. "Sasuke's in that box."
Arthur met each of their gazes and calmly said, "Yes, he's in the box... But you can't have him."
The doggedness on Alice's face was deepening. This made Arthur wonder about this specific player.
She'd already proven herself to be an extraordinary tactician, more advanced than most of the shinobi he had personally encountered. And there was something odd about her, something that Arthur desired to know.
He couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Alice than met the eye.
Earlier, she had demonstrated an ability to lead her team with coordination, a level of tactical prowess that seemed beyond what would be expected from an ordinary person on Earth.
Maybe it wasn't so strange, given how immersed she appeared to be in this world. Perhaps the trials she faced alongside Naruto and the others had transformed her into something more.
How ironic. Wasn't that a common trope in many stories? The unassuming protagonists growing into their full potential through facing great challenges?
Yet something told him Alice's transformation wasn't that simple; there was a deeper, more complex layer beneath her character.
As Chōji and the others spread slightly apart, Shino stepped forward and said, "You're cornered. There's nowhere to run."
"Hmph…" Arthur scoffed. "What do you know about what I've been through?"
Annoyed at the dismissal, Alice added, "Just who the heck are you?"
It was understandable why she, of all people, would ask. Arthur's transformation as Kaito had never been seen or heard of in the original story.
"That's not the real question to ask," he calmly replied. "You should be wondering who really sent me and why I'm here in the first place." He deliberately paused to let them consider things. "Have either of you experienced war? Do any of you know what happens when declarations are made? There have been three major wars so far, none of which you've seen, but I'm here to tell you that a fourth one will come one day."
Alice felt the gravity of his statement linger long past the audible words. How could he have possibly known about the Fourth Shinobi World War? Who was he, really? What was this bigger mission?
Naruto felt concerned. If what Arthur suggested were true, then there was no way Naruto would let things go that easily.
Before anyone could respond to that ominous declaration, the box suddenly erupted with energy. Smoke exploded outward, creating a dense fog that obscured the vicinity.
Naruto and Alice instinctively activated their sensing abilities to see through the mist.
"Can you sense him?" Naruto shouted, only for his sentiment to give heed when he felt strong negative emotions swirling amidst the haze.
Alice's gaze cut through the fog, narrowing in on her target.
"He's there!" she barked. She could make out the figure long before the smoke fully dissipated. "Sasuke!"
When the smoke finally cleared, all eyes focused on the boy, who stood in a menacing pose, a dark aura radiating from him as the remnants of his curse mark transformation lingered.
His back was toward them, but Arthur could see his sadistic smile. That twisted smile. Arthur knew it all too well. Sasuke had once again succumbed to the darkness.
It was sad for Arthur since, because of the ritual performed, his connection with the Evil Flattery Technique had also been broken. This Uchiha was no longer under his control.
Yet something was strange. Both Arthur and Alice noted how drastically different Sasuke's appearance was from what they remembered.
Sasuke's body looked a tad darker and more muscular. His hair was also a bluer shade as opposed to the whitish-grey shade. The transformation seemed less about power and more about malevolence.
"Sasuke," Sakura whispered.
Even from here, Arthur could feel her despair—an overwhelming fear of losing him for real. It was as if the weight of her past failures flashed before her, the reminders of each time Sasuke had spiraled deeper into dark territory.
"Come on, Sasuke," Naruto suddenly said. "Quit messing around with Orochimaru's goons and come back to the village."
Although those words meant well, there was no denying the anxiety creeping up behind them.
As the moment tensed, Sasuke finally lifted his arms slowly to the sky as he let out a twisted cackle of laughter. It started small, gradually building up: "Ha… Ha-ha… Ha-ha-ha!"
The sound was dark; it wasn't just laughter; it was a celebration of the grim truth, an acceptance of the darkness which the Uchiha wouldn't relinquish.