Uchiha's Enemy

Natsume held Son Goku's thumb as she stared up at the eye. She was currently standing on his palm while he adjusted his position. In order to get better leverage, he had carried her up the ruins and secured a stable launching point. "Are you sure about this?" he asked once again.

"Yes." Natsume didn't want to explain any more than that. She was already having some doubts, if Son Goku kept questioning her, she may back down. Hearing it once more, he grinned and twisted his body and pulled back his arm. She crouched and made sure to concentrate her mass to make it easier to throw. Despite being just a consciousness inside his mental space, her ears seemed to pop. She had only blinked once but was already soaring through the air.

The eye was getting bigger as she flew toward it. Natsume focused her Dojutsu power on breaking the genjutsu. The patterns on her eyes spun, causing the eye in the sky to begin shaking. She realized that her speed had barely decreased but the eye was just ahead. She drew her sword and focused her eyes on the tip of the blade. As soon as she made contact with the eye, she poured chakra into her dojutsu.

"Break!"

Natsume lost consciousness as all of her chakra emptied out. Her mind was pulled back into her own body as her sharingan deactivated on its own and returned to her regular state. Before she slipped away, she had noticed cracks appear across the sky. A slight smile appeared on her face outside as her Susanoo vanished. Her body fell directly onto Son Goku's face. Before Enma could react, Son Goku woke up and grabbed her.

Enma transformed back into a monkey and shouted while attacking, hoping to rescue Natsume. However, Son Goku placed a hand on his head and pushed him back. "Are you trying to rebel?" Hearing his voice, Enma realized something had changed. Enma checked Son Goku's expression and saw his eyes were back to normal.

"Great Sage, you are back!" He bowed in respect; his happiness couldn't be contained.

…

Natsume woke up on a beach. She looked around in confusion. The last thing she remembered was breaking the genjutsu on Son Goku. Natsume looked around and all she saw was the wide ocean, the coastline, and a sandbar. She tried climbing up the side of the sandbar and discovered another beach on the other side. Natsume slid down the sand and walked up to the water. It was black and she couldn't see the bottom. Out of curiosity, she reached out to touch it when a hand appeared out of nowhere to stop her.

"I wouldn't recommend that." A cool, clear voice said. She pushed away the hand and jumped to the side. "Relax, you're safe here. Well, as long as you don't touch the water." The identity of the man before her was very obvious. It was the same Uchiha that destroyed Mount Kakazan. Whatever she did to his genjutsu caused her to enter a strange place.

"I'm sure you have many questions. You are not truly here, but when your chakra mixed with mine for a moment, it created an opening. I pulled you into this world."

"You… how can you still be alive?" Natsume did have many things to say, but her first thought was why such a villain hadn't died yet.

"I am not alive; this is what remains of my chakra and consciousness that I left behind." The man shook his head with regret.

"Why did you do those things?" Her thoughts were jumbled up and she didn't know where to start, so the next question was vague. However, the man seemed to understand what she was asking.

"Originally, I was convinced that the secrets to greater power existed in Mount Kakazan. After memorizing all their ancient knowledge, I suddenly lost control of my body. That creature lied to me, controlled me, and ultimately ruined me. I would have eventually faded away in a few years, but I did not expect to sense a familiar chakra again."

"Zetsu!" Natsume said through gritted teeth. The man's brows rose, and he was shocked, but quickly regained his composure.

"Zetsu… so that's what it's called? It seems we have a common enemy."

"Zetsu is an enemy to all Uchiha!"

These words were said out of anger, but the man took them seriously. Something seemed to click in his mind and his mouth went slightly agape. "It can't be… The whole time?" He mumbled some things to himself and paced a few times. Natsume looked at him curiously and already imagined what was going through his mind because she also experienced that moment of realization herself.

"There is a reason that it had me destroy all that knowledge. There must be something in those scrolls that Zetsu doesn't want to exist in the world. I bet that creature never would have expected an Uchiha to make contact with me before I completely vanished." He created a hand seal, and thousands of pages of writing poured out of his body and straight into Natsume's. Eventually, the papers stopped appearing.

"Unfortunately, this is all I remember. It looks like our time is up as well." His body began to fade, and the world around them turned into just a single floating sandy island. Natsume blinked, and realized she was already back. The familiar cave ceiling gave her comfort. When she sat up, there was a large log filled with fruits next to her cot. She rubbed her stomach and the feeling of severe hunger hit her all at once.

"Natsume!" Saru entered the cave and saw her gorging on food. Natsume looked up to acknowledge him, but then returned to eating. Only after satisfying her hunger did she let out a sigh.

"Saru, are you okay?" She remembered him getting slammed into the wall but didn't see how badly injured he was at the time.

"It took a week to recover, but I am better now."

"Ah, that's good…" Her words trailed off as she noticed that his speech improved significantly. Saru saw her expression and puffed up his chest in pride. However, after her initial shock, the words finally registered. "A week? How long have I been unconscious?"

"Ah… tomorrow is your last day."