Chapter 43: Sacrifice

~ Sasuke POV after releasing Reanimation Jutsu ~"Sasuke, before I go, there is something more I must say to you. I must tell you the truth." Itachi says me after we released the reanimation jutsu. His glowing body is disintegrating and he is struggling to walk towards me."Master Sasuke, use it now!" Haitaka suddenly appears next to me, and I snap into action. I pull out the black scroll that Ami gave me months ago and open it. Her direction said all I had to do was touch the seal and say his name, and it would activate."Itachi..." I look at my brother, "You have been offered a second chance. Forgive me, but this is not a choice you get to make. I will have my brother back." I say, and throw my hand down onto the seal. "Itachi Uchiha!"The seal activates and glows a bright blue, then the seal spreads over the entire room. Itachi's body is trapped from moving. Out of the seal, a rogue ninja appears, held in stasis, not dead but also no longer alive. My eyes widen slightly, I didn't know there was someone sealed in the scroll, but I have feeling Ami didn't tell me for a reason."Sasuke, what have you done?" Itachi asks me in shock."I have an ally who helped me see there was a path other than blind vengeance. She helped me find a better purpose. She has looked out for me ever since you left, and has been my light. She prepared this, for you." I tell him sincerely, watching as the life force of the rogue is transferred into the disintegrating body of my brother, making his body become real and whole once again. I watched as the darkness around his reanimated eyes fades, and I can see the moment that he comes back fully to life."How is this possible?" Itachi asks me, looking down at his completely alive body as the ritual finishes, the rogue falling dead to the ground."I do not fully know, I have just learned not to question Ami, her knowledge is abnormal." I tell him with a chuckle, walking over and putting a hand on his shoulder, feeling how real he is again."Ami? The Hyuga girl from that time..." He breathes out. "Her mind, I saw inside of it once. It was unlike any other I have been inside. She did this?""Yes. But now, there is something we must do in order to aid her this war. I need my comrades, and I need that woman." I say, pointing towards Anko. Thankfully, not even a minute later, Jugo and Suigetsu arrive. I release the seal on Anko with Jugo's help, and bring the piece of Orochimaru out of her that lives within the curse."You don't need to explain." Orochimaru says as he appears. "I have been watching." He goes on to threaten to kill me again. Itachi watches him closely until Orochimaru relents and says he won't. I hand him the scroll that will summon the former Hokage, the ones sealed within the reaper spirit. I hand it to him, and command him to bring them forth.He uses a special transportation jutsu and takes us to the outskirts of Konoha, in the old ruins of the Uzumaki temple. We go inside, treading carefully on where we step, and collect a mask from the wall. We then go inside of Konoha, to the Uchiha compound, and head to a secret underground room I didn't even know about, but Itachi says he did. Orochimaru starts to summon the Death God. He gets his arms back, and revives the four former Hokage. Jugo released his sage jutsu on me, and several Zetsu came out of me that I didn't know were there. Orochimaru uses four of them to act as the host bodies for the reanimated Kage's.The four reanimated Hokage stand around talking for a moment, before I grow tired of their blabbering."Enough of this." I say, ending their discussion. "I don't care about what you have to say. There is a war going on, and I have already been shown the meaning of being a shinobi by someone who is out there fighting in that war. I brought you here because she needed you out there, so we need to head out at once. No more delays." I order."Ah, the boy is doing this for a girl." The First says with a smile."Sasuke, Itachi. You two are together?" The Third asks us hesitantly."Yes. And I have nothing to say to you. You are dead and gone, and so is the poison you inflicted on this village. Ami and I already killed Danzo, but you were just as bad as him for being complacent with his actions." I say to him with a glare, and Itachi places a hand on my shoulder to stop me.1"I can feel the battle. There is something horrible there." The Fourth says, looking off into the distance. "We should leave at once. I can transport us all there." He says confidently and quickly. I nod to him, and walk over to him so he can transport us.We arrive on the battlefield, the giant beast of a monster is trapped for now between two mountain like boulders. I look around, trying to find Ami to let her know I've arrived. When Itachi lightly touches my shoulder, pointing me in a certain direction, I look and see what he does. My eyes widen at what I see. Something is wrong, I can just tell it when I see her brother hugging her tightly."Ami!" I scream out, running to her side.~ Ami POV, a few minutes ago ~"Neji, come with me and prepare for a missile!" I call out, and grab my brother as I see the 10 tails about to launch a beast bomb at Naruto in the distance. I lock onto my marker on Sensei, and transport us there."Twin Missile Inferno!" He and I call out as we step in front of Sensei, who is being held up by Kakashi. We launch out the attack at the monster's head, throwing off the bomb, making it fly over our heads and go off into the distance."Ami! Neji!" Sensei calls out to us. "That... that was... Such a youthful entrance!" He says loudly with pride.Soon behind us, every division makes it on site and joined in setting up combined jutsu's to attack the ten tails. The ten tails is easily deflecting the attacks, but the forces are focusing on throwing off the two leader's senses."Kakashi, has the situation advanced as planned?" I ask him, going to stand with him as Sakura starts to heal him and Sensei."No, I'm not getting through to him at all." He tells me quickly."Keep trying, just be ready for Black Zetsu. The timing will be everything." I tell him firmly. Our plan is for him to catch Black Zetsu in the special sealing scroll we made based on what we found in the Kagura temple. We already have less casualties than in the show, but still almost half our forces have been killed, according to the latest update from HQ. But we'll have lot more if Black Zetsu is left to run free.The ten tails changes forms then and starts to attack with a bigger tailed beast bomb. I recognize the form it's in, and rush to Neji's side. The tails it has now are shaped like long arms. This is the shape it is in when Neji dies in the show. Kakashi is taking the lead and ordering the Earth style users to throw off its balance. The beast starts to fire shots off randomly, but it clicks that those aren't random shots at all."Ino!" I call out behind me to where she is nearby. "Listen carefully and don't question me! Inform your father at HQ immediately to do Plan Phoenix! There can be no hesitation!" I yell at her firmly, then redirect my attention."We have to do another one, aim at its mouth!" I call out to Neji. We're both tired from the last missile, but we can still make a difference, even if it's a little one."It won't make a difference against that attack!" He counters to me."It won't, but maybe we can redirect it. Those shots aren't random!" I yell back over the noise of the distant explosions and the beast's roars. He nods to me, and on the fourth bomb sent off, we strike."Twin Missile Inferno!" We both call out, and launch the explosive missile under the monster's chin. It throws the projectile off by maybe one degree, but hopefully it is the one degree needed to buy HQ time. I hope HQ listened to Ino and don't try to be martyrs. I won't know if it's successful since the Phoenix Transport jutsu the barrier corps made will both transport them away and erase their chakra so they appear dead and won't be targeted again. We all watch in horror though as everyone gathered realizes the beast was aiming for HQ.The beast starts to flail its arm-like tails around, sweeping through the gathered shinobi easily. The gathered Konoha shinobi are all feeling the loss of Shikaku and Inoichi, because as far as we all know, that bomb hit them. I can only hope it didn't, but since there is no guarantee, I have to assume they fell to that attack.I can see an arm flailing over towards the Aburame's, and my eyes widen in horror as I watch it tear through several of them. I have my eyes activated, and my heart breaks as I see the fallen body of Shirotsu, my mark on him now the only source of chakra coming from his body as his bugs all died trying unsuccessfully to block him from the attack."Shirotsu!" I scream out, and transport to his body. "No!" I cry out, holding one of my best friends dead body in my arms. It hurts, right in my heart, to feel this pain of loss of someone that I was so close to. I want to scream in anger, I want to attack the enemy, I want to cry in loss for my friend, but my attention can't stay on my fallen friend for long.The tailed beast does another swing of its tail, and I can't get out in time to avoid the rubble that is flying around. I get hit painfully away from Shirotsu's body and stuck under a huge boulder, trapping my leg and knocking my headband off. I start to use all my strength to break through the boulder, ignoring the pain, knowing I only have seconds before the beast switches tactics. Fear of losing another important person in my life fuels me then, giving me the strength to move past the pain. I send pulsing waves of Gentle Fist and wind chakra, and shatter the boulder holding me down. My leg is now broken and bleeding from being crushed by the boulder, but I can't feel the pain, refusing to allow myself to feel it. I transport back to Neji, who looks at me in concern."Your leg!" He calls out in shock, seeing my mangled leg."It's not enough to stop me now, I'll be fine." I say confidently. "I did just fight with no legs earlier today, I can handle having only one.""Together!" Lord Hiashi calls out to Neji and me as we jump in front of a weakened Naruto who is still grieving from the loss of those at HQ. We all use a Rotation and slap the incoming arm away from Naruto, defending him successfully. "Don't just stand there, Naruto. This is war, and people die. But if we are defeated and lose this war, then everyone will die.""Ino and Shikamaru's fathers are shinobi, they might say they are glad to have died before their children." Neji says to Naruto. "Just like our father did." He adds sadly as Sakura jumps to Naruto, starting to heal him."Naruto, you are crucial to ending this war, so until you are healed and able," I say, trailing off and noticing Hinata joining my side."We must protect you!" She says confidently, looking like a proper Hyuga leader in this moment, her stance perfect, her eyes strong and determined, her voice unwavering."Show them why the Hyuga are the most powerful clan in Konoha!" Lord Hiashi calls out proudly to us.The beast's arm-tails all raise up, spikes forming in its fingertips, and we Hyuga begin to use Rotation to block all the incoming spikes from hitting Naruto while he enters Sage mode. Naruto finally gets into it, and sends off several Rasen Shuriken attacks to destroy the spikes in the arm-tails. Neji and I are too low on chakra to do another missile attack at this point, and my movements are slowed because of my leg."Thanks for buying me time, you two." Naruto says breathily, clearly still exhausted. "But I can't keep relying on you two geniuses forever! It's my turn now!" He launches a few more of his large attacks before falling again in exhaustion.I look up and see the spikes appearing from the beasts fingers, aiming for Naruto with a targeted shot. I watch as first Hinata, and then Neji jump in front of him to be a human shield. I don't think at all, I know exactly what I will do now. I've known for 18 years what I would do in this moment. I use my Flying Death God jutsu one final time, and appear in front of my brother, facing him as I take the spikes in my back that he would have received. Right after, Kitsuchi uses a massive earth attack to trap the beast so it can't attack or move anymore."Ami! No!!!" Neji screams out in realization of what I just did. "No, not you, no!!""I couldn't watch my big brother get hit." I choke out over the blinding pain as he catches my falling body. I repeated the same words he once said to me when he took an arrow for me years ago, in our first big fight we had when he saved my life. The spikes, there were two, pierced through my stomach, my lung and my spine. They were fatal shots, and I know there is no coming back from this attack. But Neji is alive, my first person I ever truly cared about in all my existence, my best friend, my brother, will live on to see another day now."Ami, no!" Naruto calls out, running over to me as well. "Medic! We need a medic here!""Neji..." I breath out, knowing this is my end. "Thank you for being my best friend all these years. You helped me realize what it means to have a friend. Don't... don't worry about me. I'm so... so sorry I never told you the truth.""Ami, please don't go. Please hang on." Neji says desperately to me, tears in his eyes."You... you have to live. Live a good live, full of happiness. Make your own destiny." I tell him, my hand reaching for his. He takes it and grips it firmly, but I can feel him shaking."Naruto." I say softly, and the blonde boy leans closer to me to listen. "End this war. Don't give up hope, you are the light we all need. Show them what hard work can do.""Ami!" Sensei and Lee both yell, coming to join me. I smile to them both, my full team now surrounding me along with most of my friends who are watching solemnly."Thank you both for bringing me out of my shell. You've taught me to be a more accepting person and shown me values in friendship I never knew I needed before." I whisper out to them. I turn back to my brother who is holding me in his arms. "Please tell Sasuke I'm sorry I never got to hear his words. Don't let him fall to darkness." I choke out, feeling my airways blocking. I start to feel a tingling sensation along my forehead, and know that the curse seal is releasing, sealing away my eyes, but releasing me as well. "I love you, Neji." I whisper out my final words I can make.Just before I feel the last of my consciousness fade away, I hear his voice calling out my name. I'm sorry, Sasuke, I would have liked to know what would have become of us, but I wish you happiness, and pray you don't fall into the darkness you have in you. I smile up to the clouds, seeing birds flying together in the sky. I smile at my death because there are so many people here that care about me, and that I care about in return. I never had this in the last life, I never had comrades and friends who would go into war alongside me, and I with them. I never had someone I cared so much about that I would die for them. I can rest now, knowing that they will be ok after this war, that Sasuke and Naruto will end this with Kakashi. I close my eyes as I feel the cloudy darkness of death taking over me, taking one last look into all my friends eyes who have gathered around me. I am so thankful to have gotten to know all these wonderful people.