Naruto Shippuden - part 32

Madara held back a hiss of pain as his blistered skin healed. The remains of the lava elemental had been thrown over his Susanoo and even though it hadn't physically touched him, it's heat had been enough to make his skin burn and singe what remained of his clothing.

"What's wrong Madara? Is this all that the mighty Second Six Paths can muster?" Naruto's mocking voice came from above him, looking down on his enemy with dark amusement.

The blond was standing on a rock in the middle of a steaming pit of cooling lava, which he had apparently used a water technique on. He was now just as topless as Madara, his coat having taken too much damage to keep itself together and his right pant leg was also ripped while the left was sporting enough holes to indicate that it would soon fall apart. His Kusanagi was nowhere to be found, as Madara had managed to blast it away with the Deva Path earlier in the fight, which just about made things even, since Naruto had ripped the gunbai out of his hands with brute force and hurled it away just before that.

In spite of the sad state of his clothing, Naruto looked perfectly fine except for several streaks of dried blood and a lot of dirt smudges. His hair had long since come unbound and was whipping wildly in the strong winds generated by the conflicting temperatures that their battle had caused.

The Valley of the End had long since been blasted into oblivion and fires now flickered everywhere, creating an ominous atmosphere because of the dark storm clouds that blocked out the sky.

How can he have this much power? Madara asked himself in frustration.

Despite having the Rinnegan, Naruto was still clearly able to muster more raw power and even worse, aside from a rare few instances, he'd avoided using any techniques that could be easily absorbed. Had it not been for the Hachibi's chakra to supplement his own, he would be critically low by now, despite his naturally massive reserves.

His Doujutsu was honestly the only thing keeping him in the fight, without it, exhaustion would have long since left him unable to measure up. Fortunately for him, he did have a Doujutsu and the chakra he was constantly draining from the Hachibi worked well in restoring him, leaving only some physical exhaustion that he could ignore.

Still, it didn't help him actually win, it only kept him in the fight. The real problem, Madara knew, was Naruto's Senjutsu. It made his techniques so incredibly powerful, the same as it had done for Hashirama. That, along with the fact that he was the Jinchuuriki for the combined power of eight Bijuu, was just making him too much to handle even with the Rinnegan and the Hachibi. He didn't even know how the hell the blond was staying in Sage Mode all the time, since it was supposed to require stillness in order to gather natural energy from what he could recall.

What he needed was to achieve Sage Mode as well. He technically knew how to do it, having observed Hashirama entering it more than once, but he had never done it before, as he hadn't wanted to risk accidentally killing himself, nor had he ever before so desperately needed the power boost.

Knowing that he needed it now, he jumped away from his opponent and prepared to attempt achieving Sage Mode. He went still in exactly the same way as he had used his Sharingan to copy Hashirama doing and sensed for the natural energy around him. To his dismay, he found it to be unnaturally thin. Seeking deeper, he drew on the faint power he could sense and felt relieved when he was able to draw on it.

In his inexperience with Senjutsu, it took him much longer than he would have wished and he nearly turned himself into a tree when he drew too much, but was fortunately able to save himself by flooding his coils with chakra absorbed from the Hachibi to counteract it.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, but didn't try to follow as Madara jumped away and took a position of focus with his hands clapped together. His face showed shock though, when he felt Madara pulling the life out of the ground.

It was slow and weak, not even close to the kind of pull that Naruto himself could exert, but it was worrying nonetheless that Madara had apparently figured out how to do it. Naruto was relieved to note that at least the Uchiha didn't seem aware of what he'd done, showing that it was likely an accident that had resulted from the fact that Naruto had already drained all of the ambient natural energy from this place months ago. He'd actually learned to sort of reverse the process by which he'd first absorbed natural energy and converted it into life force. Nowadays, if he wanted to stay in Sage Mode, he simply converted his life force into natural energy and bypassed the need to draw it from nature. He'd gotten so good at it that he could do it even while in motion as long as he wasn't using his chakra for anything at the time.

If all went well, then Madara would never even realise what he'd just done. The world seriously didn't need an Uchiha with the ability to suck the life out of everything.

Naruto waited patiently for his Uchiha opponent to enter Sage Mode, knowing that the man's self control was likely going to snap in sheer frustration if he was pushed much further, which was exactly what the point had been of dragging this fight out.

After all, it wasn't as if Madara would have been able to keep up with him if he opened the eight gates, nor would it have been fatal to him, as he could easily draw on the life force of the Gedō Mazō inside him, which was now Xanna's physical body, to keep it from being particularly damaging.

Madara had no idea why Naruto had given him so much time to enter Sage Mode, but he would make him regret it. He now sported the exact same sage markings as Hashirama and his Rinnegan had turned into twin pools of rippled, molten gold.

"Lets see how you deal with Hashirama's ultimate technique Naruto!" Madara called out loudly to his opponent.

"Oh, you mean this one?" Naruto called back and readied himself to use the same technique that he figured Madara was going for.

"Senpō: Mokuton: Shin Sūsenju(Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands)!"

Two identical wood constructs rose, towering far higher than even the previous Susanoo and lava elemental had.

Madara was infuriated to note that Naruto's was about twenty percent bigger than his.

"ARE WE HAVING FUN YET MADARA?" Naruto yelled from the top of the titanic wood construct he had created.

"I'VE BEEN HAVING FUN SINCE WE STARTED NARUTO!" Madara yelled back from his own, slightly less titanic wood construct.

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The four differing shinobi armies had long since decided to retreat to a safer distance, but they could still clearly see the incomprehensibly huge wood statues as they rushed at each other.

The Kage and their entourages, which Gaara was at this point using his sand to levitate, were close enough to hear the two monstrously powerful shinobi roaring their battlecries from atop their respective statues as they charged at each other.

None of them could really think of anything to say at this point, far too stunned at how far the battle had escalated, so they just watched in numb silence.

The two wood statues smashed into each other with an echoing crash as the countless hands collided against each other but in the end only succeeded in a feat of mutual destruction. At the same time, techniques of all elements spewed forth from the smaller heads surrounding the main head of the statue. Though Naruto wasn't able to use any lightning release techniques, as none of the Bijuu Xanna had absorbed had that particular affinity, nor had he ever trained it. It was only a small matter though.

All in all, it didn't take more than twenty seconds or so before both statues were in ruin and everything was obscured by a thick curtain of sawdust and regular dust kicked up by the collision.

A couple of minutes later, once the dust had settled somewhat, they could only see Naruto hovering in the air and looking around as if searching for something. All in all it appeared as if Madara had finally been defeated.

A was just about to suggest that they confront Naruto when Madara appeared right in front of the blond in a burst of speed, his hands linked together into a strange mechanical cannon. Naruto had only a moment to look surprised before a bright beam of chakra was fired from the cannon right in his face and blasted his head off.

Everyone was stunned at the sudden turnaround and fully prepared to charge at the Uchiha when C spoke up. "Wait! I can still sense Uzumaki's chakra!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Madara breathed heavily as he stared at the headless body of his enemy, unable to believe that he'd actually won. He'd hidden on the ground and suppressed his chakra, waiting for the opportunity to strike, just as Hashirama had done to him during their battle so long ago.

Except that he used the Asura Path chakra cannon to the face rather than a sword to the back.

His sense of victory was shattered when Naruto's headless body didn't fall to the ground, but instead rapidly regenerated a new head and even grew new hair.

"BAHAHAHAHA! The look on your face! Did you actually think you won?!" Naruto asked, laughing hysterically at the stupidly stunned look that Madara was sporting.

"HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!" Madara screamed, his imperturbable calm snapping due to all the frustration he'd built up over the course of this battle.

"My wife took over the Gedō Mazō and that statue is immortal. With Xanna having a tight grip on my soul, keeping it anchored to herself and with her being sealed in me, I'm immortal too. As long as my body isn't damaged to the point where she can't regenerate it fast enough to prevent herself from being expelled from the seal, I will never die." Naruto explained with an amused grin at Madara's thunderous expression.

He decided to twist the knife just a bit further. "Unless you suddenly managed to blast me to pieces, I'm just going to keep beating you down until I get bored and I know that you don't have anything that could do me that much damage, so you're just going to have to accept the fact that you're too weak to win."

Madara growled furiously at how he'd been played. There was absolutely zero chance of victory for as long as the Bijuu was keeping the blond's soul bound to her. He might as well have been throwing fire Ninjutsu at a forest fire for all the effect all this fighting had done. Naruto was still as fresh as ever thanks to the fact that he was being willingly supplied with infinite chakra and restorative life energy. It was actually very similar to what he'd used to keep himself alive when he'd been an old man, but on completely different scale.

Naruto was wrong however, he did have something that could damage the blond's body enough to expel the Gedō Mazō and kill him. Apparently the blond had never learned that he'd sealed the Hachibi into himself and if he could hit him with a Bijuudama, then he would definitely die.

Naruto had still been chuckling and completely dismissing Madara as a threat when the Uchiha suddenly slammed him towards the ground with a powerful kick and then instantly transformed into the Hachibi, charging up a Bijuudama almost before the transformation was complete.

He relished the look of fear on the blond's face as he fired the Tailed Beast Bomb at him, taking it as confirmation that his thoughts were correct. He watched with glee as the destructive black ball approached the ground, knowing that Naruto wasn't fast enough to get away from it.

In his frustration, he momentarily forgot about the fact that Naruto had never explained anything during the course of the battle and yet he had freely volunteered the secret of his immortality.

"You FOOL!" Naruto's powerfully chakra enhanced voice suddenly roared triumphantly from the side, with thick, Outer Path chains piercing through the chakra formed body of the Hachibi right after.

Madara could feel the Bijuu's chakra being pulled away from him and he tried to prevent it, but it was no use, the pull exerted by Naruto and Xanna was much more powerful and the Hachibi was quickly ripped out of him and into Naruto's seal, where it was devoured by Xanna.

As Madara fell to the ground with his chakra network reeling from the forced extraction, he dazedly tried to figure out what had happened. It only took him a few moments to remember that Naruto knew how to teleport with the Hiraishin, but hadn't used it even once during the entire battle.

He remembered being a bit confused about that at first, but as the battle dragged on without even a single use, he'd cautiously assumed that Naruto didn't have enough skill with the technique to use it in combat, which was what Zetsu had said as well. Clearly though, Naruto had mastered the technique sufficiently to use it in combat...he'd just been keeping it as an ace in the hole for the exact trap that had just cost him the Hachibi and with it the battle, which had gone on for so long that Madara had more or less forgotten about the Hiraishin.

He must have been planting markers over the battlefield the whole time, just waiting for me screw up and summon enough of the Hachibi's chakra for him to latch on to, which meant that he knew I'd sealed it into myself. Madara thought to himself.

He recalled what the blond had said to him when they'd last seen each other, when he'd killed the man's loved ones.

You should have stayed dead Madara. The next time you see me, I will be a god and death won't be enough to save you from me anymore.

It would seem that those words had come true.

Naruto stood some distance away, now robed in a high collared, white haori decorated with magatama markings, which he knew was actually made completely of chakra. In his left hand he held a black shakujo, formed of the malleable chakra of the Juubi and over his right shoulder the hilt of his sword was once again visible, apparently having retrieved it while Madara hadn't been looking. His hair was now a shining white and there were horns growing from the top of his forehead. Over his shoulders hovered the Truth-Seeking Balls, all of which were the markings of a perfectly controlled Jinchuuriki of the Shinju.

The only thing missing was a pair of Rinnegan eyes, without which the power of the Juubi should have torn apart any seal it was placed in, no matter how powerful. Though Madara figured it wasn't likely to happen if he understood properly that she who was once the Kyuubi had replaced the original Juubi and that Naruto had somehow gotten her to marry him.

Madara slowly picked himself up from the ground, the Rinnegan having already mostly repaired his chakra network, and prepared to face the end. He knew that Rinnegan or not, there was no hope of victory now, though it would appear that there had never been any in the first place. Still, he would not die like a coward, no matter how hopeless it was.

Ninjutsu and Genjutsu would be utterly useless and the only Taijutsu based technique that Madara could think of that might be of use would be the Eight Gates...which he'd never learned as he'd considered it useless due to the damage suffered by anyone using it. The only thing that might work would be Senjutsu...though considering the fact that Naruto was far more experienced in its use, it was unlikely.

Still, it was better than doing nothing and he was still in Sage Mode.

With that in mind, Madara called forth a swarm of Senjutsu charged roots with the Mokuton and sent them to attack Naruto.

Naruto reacted only by raising his empty right hand and forming a Rasengan. He easily added wind to it and created several seals on it.

"Fuuton Hijutsu: Senpō: Rasen Tatsumaki(Wind Release Secret Technique: Sage Art: Spiralling Tornado)."

Naruto didn't personally consider the basic Rasengan to be a very useful technique, seeing as he could punch hard enough to kill most people in one blow. It was however, an excellent base for forming extremely powerful elemental techniques.

When he'd first attempted to add wind to the Rasengan, he'd gotten the Rasenshuriken out of it. A powerful technique to be sure, but Naruto hadn't liked its one-shot nature. To this end he had enhanced it with certain seals until he'd gotten the Rasen Tatsumaki.

The tornado was completely self contained and allowed not even a single wind gust or blade to escape, causing it to look like a pure white twister of wind so thick you couldn't even see through it. The Rasengan hidden inside it kept powering the whole thing and a space-time seal imprinted on it allowed him to both remote control it and continue supplying it with chakra to prevent dispersal without having to actually be anywhere close to it.

Madara watched with a blank face as the tornado that Naruto had summoned went through his summoned tree roots as if they weren't even there. Not even the sawdust escaped from the tornado, instead becoming captured inside and even then only visible as tiny particles that just barely colored the otherwise white wind.

The technique was even more impressive because Naruto could apparently freely control it, which he did to great effect as it completely eradicated his attack and then took up a position some distance away.

Madara was a bit confused by that, as he had expected Naruto to send the tornado at him and he'd been prepared to absorb it with the Preta Path. His confusion reached new heights when he launched a blast of blue fire at it.

Just before it collided with the tornado, Madara recalled why it was a bad idea to use fire techniques in an area with a lot of sawdust in the air.

Dust explosion.

Thanks to the seals that were part of the technique, the dust explosion was a bit more self contained than it would have been otherwise, but it was still incredibly powerful.

Madara groaned in pain as his body informed him that it was quite badly burned, but not dead yet. Opening his eyes, he saw that Naruto was already standing over him and reaching to place one of his clawed hands on his chest.

"Why didn't you just kill me?" The Uchiha asked, doing his best to hide just how much pain he was in. If that explosion had happened any closer to him, he would already be dead. He had some healing ability even without the Hachibi, but not even close to enough to make him combat worthy within any reasonable time span.

"We still need the divinity held in your eyes, the divinity stolen from the original Shinju by Otsutsuki Kaguya when she ate its fruit despite being specifically told it was forbidden. The divinity used by Otsutsuki Hagoromo to defeat the Juubi and spread the power of chakra to those who had no right to that power. You thought yourself to be the successor to the Sage of Six Paths and now you will die in returning the birthright he stole."

Upon saying that, Naruto placed his hand on Madara's chest and began drawing out the man's life force, while Xanna pulled away his chakra.

When they were done a few seconds later, Madara was a shriveled looking old man whose eyes looked as if they'd evaporated out of his skull. He was still alive though.

How do you feel? Naruto asked his wife while she finished absorbing the Rinnegan's power.

Like a goddess. Hurry up and finish him so that I can get out of here. She demanded impatiently.

Naruto smiled at her words and gathered chakra into his right hand again, forming what he needed easily with Xanna's help.

A clear chakra crystal took form, exactly the same type as the one currently hanging around his neck, except for the fact that it didn't have any Mokuton chakra in it to give it a greenish tinge.

"You know Madara, after you killed my girls I thought long and hard about what kind of terrible vengeance I could exact on you for that. I realised after a time that there was no need to get overly creative. I will imprison your soul inside this crystal, where you will suffer absolute sensory deprivation until the day I see fit to release you. You will see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing, taste nothing and touch nothing, but you will be perfectly aware of every mind-numbingly empty second of it. You stole the time that my girls still wanted to spend in this world, so in return I will steal your rest in the afterlife."

"I just wanted to...save the world...from its suffering." Madara managed to croak out in between his gasps for breath.

Naruto sighed and shook his head. "I can't believe someone as idiotic as you managed to cause so much trouble. But I suppose that without you, my wife would have remained a demon instead of ascending to divinity, so thanks for that."

Having no more to say, Xanna helped pull the defeated man's soul into the chakra crystal, turning it black. Once it was done, Naruto fitted it with a cord and hung it around his neck. It wouldn't do to lose it, since he did after all plan to release Madara one day...once he stopped being so pissed at the man.

Now get me out of here.

Please wait just a moment longer, there's only one more thing i'd like to do first. Naruto said pleadingly.

Impatient, but perfectly willing go along with it after everything that he'd done for her, Xanna assented. She was easily capable of breaking out of his body by force, but that would kill him.

Naruto sent a feeling of gratitude towards her and focused the vast chakra at his command into the earth, causing the devastated valley to quickly become green and lush with life again.

He could sense the Kage coming down to confront him, as well as the other shinobi gawking over the edges of the valley, but he ignored them. There was still more to do.

Extending his awareness towards the west, where the deserts of Wind Country were, he moved to do something about that. It was impossible to connect to the lifeless sand, but he could start working from the edges.

Had anyone been there to see it, they would have seen the outer edges of the vast desert become earth and then sprout grass, along with the occasional tree. The line of fertility moved inwards at ever greater pace once Naruto got the hang of it, until everything except a small patch of desert was transformed into a place that was more suitable for life.

"Naruto?" Jiraiya asked uncertainly, not knowing what to expect of his strangely transformed godson.

"Suuup?" Naruto drawled and directed a lazy look towards his godfather once he was done playing god in the distant desert.

"Are you...ok?" Jiraiya once more asked uncertainly.

"Hang on a second, I've got to get my wife out of this seal." Was the response before Naruto turned his attention back to the seal on his gut, though he quickly turned back to his godfather to say one more thing. "Don't panic."

Jiraiya was confused and tried to verbalize it. "Why would I..."

At this point Naruto had opened the seal and Xanna extracted herself as quickly as was safe, until the towering form of the Ten Tails loomed over the entire valley, its single, massive, rippled crimson eye that contained 3 tomoe on each ring spinning hypnotically.

Nobody really noticed, but Naruto lost his horns and his hair turned blond again, though he kept the white haori.

"...panic." Jiraiya finished with a very unmanly squeak and tried to backpedal so fast that he fell on his ass.

The other Kage were in a similar predicament as they stared at the gigantic form of the One Eyed God uncomprehendingly, ignoring the distant parts of their mind that were gibbering incoherently.

Nobody said a word. In fact, large portions of the observing shinobi forgot to breathe because they were hoping so hard that it wouldn't notice them.

The only person there who wasn't scared shitless(aside from Xanna at least) decided that the situation deserved a deadpan comment.

"That is one...BIG...chicken."

The newly Juubified Xanna moved in such a manner that everyone instinctively classified as 'affronted' and made a noise in her throat that sounded horribly loud.

Someone screamed something to the effect that it was going to fire a Bijuudama and passed out.

Xanna fired something alright, but it wasn't a Bijuudama. It was a gigantic wad of spit that landed directly on Naruto and completely drenched him.

"Ewww, fucking gross." Naruto shouted, wringing out his hair. "Seriously?! I make you a goddess and the first thing you do is hawk a giant loogie at me?!"

The Ten Tails shrunk slowly until Xanna was back in human form, though there were some differences. For one thing, her hair was now the same shining white that seemed to be the default for the Juubi and she had some fairly large horns growing from her head, which were rather reminiscent of Kaguya. She was also seven feet tall. Other than that, she was pretty much the same, with dusky skin and slitted crimson eyes.

"You should feel honored, not everyone gets spat on by a deity you know." She said haughtily.

"Yeah, I'm just thrilled and why are you suddenly seven feet tall anyway?" He grumbled and made a clone to blast him with water so that Xanna's 'divine spit' was washed off.

"I'm a goddess now, I need to be able to properly look down on everyone, which of course means that I need to be tall enough to do so." More haughtiness. "I'm not sure about the horns and the white hair though."

"Hey, those horns are sexy and the white hair contrasts beautifully with your skin and eyes." Naruto asserted. He could already imagine how hot it would be to grab those horns while getting a blowjob.

Xanna hummed consideringly at that, but any further banter on the subject was interrupted by the hesitant and polite voice of Mei Terumi.

"Ah, excuse me, but could someone explain what the situation is right now." She was still somewhat subdued after what they'd all just witnessed, but it would be best if everything was cleared up as soon as possible. She was also hoping that the ongoing war could be ended here and now, since all four Kage were present. Kirigakure was sick of war.

Two pairs of slitted eyes focused on her, both owned by individuals far more powerful than her, but she refused to cower, which gained her an approving nod.

"I suppose an explanation would indeed be in order, but listen well and do not interrupt me. I have little tolerance for idiotic questions."

Her voice carried easily to every corner of the valley, allowing every single shinobi that was present to hear it.

"In an age long past, the Old Gods were puzzled by the endless wars that the humans of this world engaged in, so they decided to conduct an experiment. They transported a large group of them to this continent, where the original Shinju once stood alone. They did this, because the humans of this world had long since lost all faith in deities and the Old Gods thought that perhaps being in the presence of the God Tree would allow them to realise that there were things greater than them out there, that their wars were meaningless."

"For a time, it worked and the Old Gods moved on, satisfied with what they'd done. However, eventually the humans got used to the presence of the God Tree as humans are wont to do and began warring anew, while simply treating the Shinju as an unimportant landmark."

"In time, Otsutsuki Kaguya-hime came to be and she was desperate to end the constant bloodshed. With this goal in mind, she approached the Shinju, intending to eat the Chakra Fruit which had grown from it, in spite of it being forbidden. A stone tablet had once stood there, warning away those who would seek to eat the fruit but Kaguya ignored it, feeling that she knew better. By eating the fruit she gained immense power, power enough to bring the humans of the time to heel with ease. Unknown to her at the time, she had been pregnant when she ate the fruit and the power that she had gained was further concentrated inside her son, Hagoromo."

"Eventually she gave birth and prepared to raise her son after she completely subdued the world. Years later, the Shinju finally became aware of the theft of its power and took the monstrous form of the Ten Tails, which you saw me assume earlier, in order to reclaim the power stolen from it."

Everyone blanched at the thought of having that gigantic monstrosity hunting them, unable to imagine the slightest chance of survival against such a thing.

"Hagoromo eventually defeated the Juubi by sealing it inside himself, after which he became known as the Sage of Six Paths. His mother was dead by then and he decided to spread the power of chakra to the people of the Elemental Nations, thinking that through it, he could link the spirits of all mankind together so that they would not need to fight wars."

"Hagoromo was an idealistic fool. Mere years after he died, people had begun to use chakra as a weapon of war, until eventually the various shinobi clans came into existence. Before this happened he split the Juubi into the nine Bijuu, of which I was once the Kyuubi. The shinobi continued to war for thousands of years and eventually refined their Fuinjutsu enough to be capable of sealing a Bijuu inside a human to create Jinchuuriki and predictably use them as weapons of war."

Everyone present heard the scorn in her voice and the Kage shifted uncomfortably, knowing that the last sentence was aimed mostly at them, being that they were the leaders of the various Hidden villages who had possessed jinchuuriki.

"The formation of the Hidden Villages did not really change this. This way of things was only broken when Uchiha Madara, having gained the power of the Rinnegan, sought to remake the Ten Tails and use its power to cast the world into an eternal illusion, believing that it was the only way to bring peace."

Muttering broke out among the masses of shinobi who hadn't been aware of that yet, but they quieted down once Xanna resumed speaking.

"As you saw, my former Jinchuuriki Uzumaki Naruto took exception to that plan and defeated Madara, making me the new Ten Tails, as well as restoring most of the power that had been stolen by Kaguya. In the meanwhile, you idiot humans were busy killing each other for whichever foolish reason and would have been robbed of your free will without ever realising it if not for him." No need to confuse the sheep by telling them that Naruto was also her husband, they were barely keeping up as it was.

More uncomfortable shifting. They remembered quite well what kind of villainous reputation Uzumaki had gotten, but in the end it turned out that they owed their freedom to him.

"We are leaving this place and you are free to continue killing each other if you so desire. But before I go, I will be taking away your ability to use chakra."

Everyone developed stunned looks at the blunt declaration, unable to imagine a life without chakra, but Xanna continued speaking before anyone could say something.

"Know that I am only informing you of this as a courtesy due to the fact that Naruto is part of your species, I will accept no objections."

"We aren't going to just let you take our chakra!" Stubborn old Onoki snarked, seconded by A.

"SILENCE! This is not a debate!" The new goddess snarled, causing a bolt of lightning to rip through the sky and making them back off warily. "Attempt to contest me again and I will take your lives as well."

"May I ask a question Xanna-sama?" Gaara asked politely. He knew that combat would be useless. Nothing they had could possibly match the horned goddess, not to mention that Naruto would certainly also be against them as well.

"You may." Xanna said with a nod of her head, finding the young Kazekage to be refreshingly polite, all the more so considering the fact that Shukaku had been doing his level best to drive the young man insane a mere few years ago.

"Is there any way that we could convince you to allow us to keep our chakra?"

"Firstly, it is not your chakra, it is my chakra" She said sternly before continuing." and you have no argument to give which would convince me to allow you to keep it."

"My apologies, we have all simply become used to calling it our chakra." Gaara apologized. "Your words imply that there may have been the possibility of an argument that would convince you to allow us the continued use of your chakra?" He finished questioningly.

"Perhaps, had you used it for something other than senseless war, but that opportunity has long since been wasted. It has been millenia since humans have gained the power of chakra and all that has been done is to find ever more destructive ways of using it. Had mankind wished it, they could have used it to turn this continent into an unrivaled paradise, but it is clearly not in your nature to be satisfied without conflict."

Gaara was silenced by that. He had no argument against her logic, having experienced many cruelties in his short life for the exact reasons that she had stated.

"What about Medical Ninjutsu? It uses chakra to heal, if you take chakra away from us that will also be gone." Jiraiya said, remembering Tsunade and her desire to spread the knowledge of Medical Ninjutsu.

"And how many injuries has Medical Ninjutsu healed that were not caused by chakra in the first place?" She retorted scathingly, finding the argument rather stupid.

"Not many." Jiraiya answered weakly. He was tempted to mention Senjutsu, but on second thought realised that it had been used mainly for war as far as he knew, so he doubted that argument would fly.

"Will our people survive?" Gaara now asked simply, seeing that the sins of their ancestors weighed too heavily to sway her. He did not want to lose the ability to use chakra any more than anyone else did, but he would not throw away the lives of his people in order to rail at her defiantly.

Xanna inclined her head in confirmation.

"Kazekage-dono, you can't just be giving up like this!?" A demanded, having recovered some of his confidence after his earlier near death experience.

"I am Kazekage and as the Kazekage it is my duty to protect my people, not sacrifice their lives for the sake of my pride. If I must give up the use of chakra to protect them, then I will do so." Gaara stated firmly, gaining him an admiring glance from Mei. He may be young, but he clearly had the strongest conviction among those gathered here. Even she had balked at the idea of losing her chakra and had considered fighting...at least before she recalled the earlier battle between Naruto and Madara.

"I agree with Kazekage-dono, that is the duty of a Kage. Also, It would be foolish to commit to a battle that we cannot win Raikage-dono, unless you believe yourself capable of doing battle on the level that we saw earlier, or perhaps even greater?" Mei said, supporting Gaara's decision. She hadn't come out of a civil war only to get her people killed trying to battle a goddess.

A grimaced and grumbled, but couldn't claim that he would be capable of anything near that level. That final wind technique alone would have been enough to slaughter armies, and that was just Uzumaki.

With an unhappy sigh he jerked his head down in an angry nod and went silent.

Onoki was still looking mutinous but his granddaughter spoke up before he could say anything.

"Aw, come on gramps, don't be so stubborn. It won't do Iwa any good if we all get killed here."

"Be quiet Kurotsuchi! I'm the Tsuchikage and I get to make the decisions!"

Everyone stared at the short old man expectantly.

"I can't fly without chakra, do you have any idea what that's going to do to my poor back and hips?"

Xanna narrowed her eyes at the old man, starting to lose patience with his stalling.

Onoki felt the pressure that was pushing down on him start to become suffocating and he knew that he needed to make a decision right now.

"Oh fine!" he snarked and began to look rather sulky.

The various rank and file shinobi that had been observing from a greater distance heard everything and were reluctantly forced to agree. They were dismayed to hear that they would be losing their chakra, but there was nothing quite like watching two men throwing around techniques powerful enough to kill them all ten times over and then seeing the gigantic monstrosity that was the Juubi to put things in perspective. What were they going to do? Throw kunai at it?

Xanna nodded and spread her awareness through the earth in order to pull away their chakra gently enough that she did not kill them. It would knock them out though.

"Wait! Just one more question!" Jiraiya piped up, having just thought of something.

"Jiraiya, I swear if this is going to be one of your stupid perverted comments, I'm going to kill you myself." Naruto snapped at his godfather.

"No no, nothing of the sort." Jiraiya fended off. "I was just wondering what would happen to the summon clans."

"Oh, them." Xanna said blandly, having completely forgotten about those guys. "They will also lose their chakra but remain as they are. Future generations however, will be no more than regular animals, as they should have been. The summon clans are an aberration that came into existence through means unknown to me, but the chakra they use also belongs to me and will thus return to me."

Jiraiya nodded, not really surprised by that and not feeling particularly sympathetic either. The whole baby killing deal still left a sour taste in his mouth.

"By the way Gaara, I left a gift for you in Wind Country." Naruto said to the young Kazekage.

"A gift?" Gaara asked curiously.

Naruto was very much tempted to be mysterious about it, but then he wouldn't see the look on his face. "I used the Mokuton to turn the desert into fertile grasslands and forests."

Gaara gave an honest smile at that. "Thank you Naruto, that will make life in Wind Country much easier."

Naruto leaned towards the redhead and whispered into his ear. "You impressed the sexy Mizukage earlier, if you play your cards right you could totally tap that."

Gaara gave the blond a very deadpan look, not at all concerned with sex right now.

"Perhaps we should consider making an alliance after this." Mei murmured. "Adjusting to life without chakra will be difficult and it makes no sense to continue waging war against each other."

There was a general mutter of approval before Xanna cut in.

"I commend your effort even if it is likely to fall apart within a minimum of three generations, now if your are all quite done with your chattering...?"

Everyone sweatdropped at her pessimism over their ability to create a stable peace but nodded that they were ready.

"You will fall unconscious just before it is complete and you will stay unconscious for a few hours. When you awaken your ability to use chakra will be gone and you may experience symptoms such as lethargy, weakness and depression if you were heavily reliant on it." Xanna stated, once more causing sweatdrops.

They might also be suffering from headaches because of the slight mind controlling Genjutsu she'd used on them to make them more agreeable to the idea.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, I guess that's that." Naruto said, gazing at the armies of unconscious people that were now chakraless.

"Indeed."

"Did you get all the ones that weren't here too, civilians and all?" He asked curiously.

"Naruto, I am a goddess," She said patronizingly. "of course I did. I even took all the chakra out of the various weapons and other chakra imbued objects in the Elemental Nations."

Naruto looked up at her(something which he still hadn't gotten used to) in exasperation. "Don't you think you're taking this 'I-am-better-than-you' attitude just a bit too far?"

"You only ascend to divinity once husband, and I am going to milk it for all it's worth." She retorted. "And don't think that I don't know what you were thinking about doing with my horns."

Naruto grinned and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"I can bring them back you know. I have the power now."

He sobered instantly, knowing perfectly well what she was talking about. He really was tempted to ask her to do it, but...

"I...don't think that would be wise. They've been dead for months now and I get the feeling that resurrecting those who've already passed on is a bad idea."

"You are quite correct, it is a bad idea. They would not remember the afterlife, but you would not be doing them any favors by bringing them back, that I can guarantee." Xanna said with a knowing air.

"You mean you can look in on them?" Naruto asked in shock.

"Naruto, I am a goddess." She said slowly, as if speaking to a particularly dim child "I can do just about anything."

Naruto rolled his eyes at the superior tone but took comfort in having confirmation that his girls were happy where they were. He was sure that he would eventually find other cute little sisters to cuddle and he could rest easy if he knew that they would be happy even in death.

Karin was still out there, but she was scared of him now, which was a bit depressing but he was sure that Jiraiya and Gaara would take care of her for him.

"So...you said we were leaving this place? Where are we going?" He asked, changing the subject.

"You will see, but before that, I have two more things to do in this land."

"Huh? Which two things?" He asked curiously.

Instead of answering, she moved to kiss him, which he was more than eager to do. After a few seconds of a passionate kiss where he had the novel experience of needing to bend his head upwards, he felt his chakra leaving him.

You still have some of my chakra beloved, I will be taking that from you. Her voice echoed in his mind just before he lost consciousness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Xanna made her way through Kusagakure, once more looking like a six foot redhead without horns.

Having a physical body made it somewhat less malleable than a pure chakra one, but as previously noted, she was a goddess now which was all the explanation that needed.

It was amusing for her to think that the horns and white hair were like her tails had once been though. The resemblance to Kaguya aside, she did rather like the horns and white hair and it wasn't just because Naruto had complimented them. She supposed that she could also have Rinnegan eyes if she wanted them, but she knew that she could also just open the third eye on her forehead to access those powers, not to mention that it came with a Sharingan to boot.

Spotting the cave that she was looking for, she made her way inside without hesitation and easily navigated the shortish maze until she reached a larger area where she sensed her quarry.

"Kyuubi, what brings you here?" Jashin asked warily as he stepped out of the shadows. That she would approach him so confidently after what happened at their last meeting was setting off alarm bells. Something was different about her

"Oh, I just felt like visiting my only big brother." She said airily, walking around the cave and making a show of inspecting the walls.

"Big brother?" He asked in confusion, his solid red eyes blinking. He might technically be her big brother, as they had both been born of the Juubi and he had been first, but she'd only ever seen him as something that was beneath her. This was some really odd behavior from her.

"Yes, I need you for something."

"What would that be?" he asked and circled around her warily.

Before he could blink she was right in front of him, but now her hair was white and she was sporting horns.

"To eat you." She stated with a wide grin and impaled her hand through his chest and started draining the life and chakra out of him. "I've already eaten all of my other siblings you see, but I still felt hungry."

Jashin didn't get a chance to reply as he felt all the excess life force that he had spent so long gathering being taken from him.

Xanna shook out her hand after the demon collapsed into dust. "You had a decent plan Jashin. Get enough life force and then use it to absorb some Bijuu until you could get your hands on the Gedō Mazō and use that to become the new Juubi, it's just too bad that you were so damn slow about it. Besides, It would hardly be fair to leave you here with a bunch of humans who aren't able to use chakra."

She cocked her head when she felt something from a corner of the cave. Making her way over to it and grabbing it, she discovered that it was another chakra crystal, very much like the two that Naruto had around his neck.

"Honestly, aren't these things supposed to be rare?" She asked herself rhetorically, amused at how many of them she was seeing lately.

"So you've made yourself a soul anchor have you Jashin? Now you'd just have to wait for a gullible enough human to come in here and you could regain physical form by possessing them. How clever of you."

She crushed it in her hands. "Or maybe not."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto woke up, feeling rather dazed and unnaturally heavy. It didn't take him more than a few seconds to recall what happened just before he'd passed out.

Xanna had taken away his chakra.

"Finally awake are you?" The voice of the very woman he'd just been thinking of drifted towards him.

Sitting up, he noticed that he'd been sleeping on a bed that looked as if it had grown out of the ground and it was so soft because of the moss under him.

Turning towards her, he saw the she saw lounging on a throne that was also grown from the ground and lined with soft moss in all her white haired, horned glory.

"What's going on and where are we?" he asked calmly.

"We are on an abandoned island several hundred miles off the coast of the Elemental Nations."

"Okay...but what's going on? Why did you take away my ability to use chakra?" He didn't call it his chakra, having remembered the way she admonished Gaara.

"Can't you guess Naruto? I've been using you all this time. I needed a powerful human champion that would allow me to reach my apotheosis and you were perfect, so blindly loyal. All you needed was the occasional pat on the head or spreading of legs." She said with amusement.

Naruto looked stunned and had some trouble breathing, his mind reeling over what he'd just heard.

That couldn't possibly be true could it? They had so many good times together, like the dates where they would mess with people and their wedding and the honeymoon and that late night talk when she'd cried at the thought of losing him.

That couldn't all be fake could it?

Taking a deep breath to calm down he went over everything once again, ignoring her amused gaze.

Once he considered it from a somewhat calmer perspective, he reached the only possible conclusion.

"Liar." He accused.

"Oh? You sure figured that out fast. How come?" She asked with a smirk.

"Well for one thing, too much random stuff happened that you couldn't have possibly planned and for another, I know that your feelings were real." He said with certainty.

She sighed. "So true, I was lying."

"Why?" He asked dryly.

"To get my revenge on you." She retorted smartly.

"For what?" He asked incredulously.

"You called me a chicken."

"You hawked a giant loogie at me for that already!"

"I was very insulted."

Naruto groaned and let it go. "Alright fine, did you just take away my chakra to play a cruel prank or was there some point to it and why isn't your voice all chakra enhanced like usual? And did you get shorter again?"

"Now that I have a physical body it is much easier to speak normally, not to mention that it makes for good practice when we eventually find ourselves among people again."

Naruto nodded at that. It made sense.

"And yes, I lowered my height to 6'4'', seven feet was a bit much."

Naruto gave her a 'No! Really?' look.

"As for your other question...It wasn't your chakra, it was my chakra."

Naruto was just about to say something to the effect of 'you know what I mean' when she spoke again.

"But if you eat this, it will be your chakra." She said and produced a strange, bulbous looking pod that didn't look very appetizing if Naruto was honest with himself.

"What's that?" he asked suspiciously.

Xanna sighed at how dense he was being and put the strange thing into his hands. "It's the Chakra Fruit you idiot, what else could it be?"

"And you're just giving it to me?" he asked, mildly shocked.

"No, I want you to polish it real nice and then give it back, of course I'm giving it to you!" She raised her voice slightly at the end, exasperated at his dense behavior. "Why are you being so stupid right now?"

"I don't know, maybe I'm brain damaged and I can't think properly without chakra." He said dryly, scoring an eyeroll from the former demoness.

"Anyway, will there be any side effects from eating this thing?" He said and poked it somewhat dubiously. It wobbled.

"I'm not sure actually." Xanna said with an amused tone of voice. "Since I'm giving it to you willingly and your body is already used to having chakra, you'll probably be the closest thing to a true god that a human can be. Additionally, you may or may not grow horns like me."

Naruto looked intrigued. Those horns were awesome.

"And your hair might turn white."

Well that wasn't such a big deal. He did like his blond hair, but white was cool too.

"And you might turn into a she-male."

Naruto almost dropped the fruit.

"The fuck woman?! Don't make jokes like that!"

Xanna waved off his irritation with a smirk and continued. "The one thing that I'm sure will happen is that it will bind all of your chakra to your soul, even the physical half and then bind your soul to me. That way, you can never truly die as long as I exist."

"Sweet." Naruto whispered, but then had a thought. "Wait, does this mean that all that research into the Edo Tensei was for nothing?"

"Yes."

"And all the people I killed for it?"

"Completely pointless."

"Well at least they were bad people." Naruto said mostly to himself after a momentary pause to contemplate the senseless waste of life.

"One more thing before I eat this."

"Yes?" She said a bit impatiently. Why couldn't the damn blond idiot just eat it already so they could get to the sex?!

"What will we do afterwards?"

"We're going to spend a nice long time finishing off our honeymoon on this very island and then we're going dimension hopping. Before you ask, no we are not going to the other continent on this world. The humans there developed weapons so powerful that they wiped themselves out with them, so there is literally nothing to see there."

"You can dimension hop?" He asked in amazement, setting aside the rest of her statement.

"Naruto, I am a goddess." She said scathingly.

"You know, I really think I'll be able to appreciate that attitude of yours more when it's aimed at someone else." Naruto mused.

"Just eat your fruit so I can fuck the stupid out of you. You obviously turn into a moron if you don't have sex regularly." She commanded.

Naruto did the only thing he could.

He ate the fruit.