Crow's feathers - Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 64 The point of no return

The Raikage growled when Madara flitted out of the way again. This  fight was taking too long. Even without his Sharingan, the Uchiha was a powerful enemy. The tailed beasts gave him strength.

Madara smirked and formed a few hand seals. Large rocks started rotating and flew towards his attackers. One particularly large rock flew at the Raikage, but before it could hit, Hiashi Hyuuga jumped in front of him and performed Kaiten. Debris flew in every direction.

The Raikage nodded at Hiashi in thanks.

Madara smirked and immediately formed other seals.

Slowly the ground changed to quicksand. He let out a dark laughter. “Do you still think you can defeat me?” He watched as the alliance sunk deeper into the ground. “You should have surrendered when you still had the chance. We could have settled things peacefully, but you decided to defy me.”

“We will never submit to you!” the Raikage growled and he formed a lightning sword.

One of the other ninja struggled with a jutsu to turn the earth back to normal.

“Then you will die!” Madara said, “but first I’ll take the Eight Tails and add it to my collection.”

“That I’ll have to see. You’ll never take Octo from me,” Bee pointed at Madara. “Ready Eight? Cuz here we go. Just sit back and enjoy the show.” He formed a few seals and tails appeared.

“No Bee!” the Raikage shouted.

Madara smirked. “Finally, it emerges.”

***

“Sensei?” Lee asked carefully, “do you think Taryn-sama will be alright?” He tried to sit up, but it cost him a lot of effort and he fell back into the pillows.

Gai scoffed. “You should focus on healing, Lee. That girl brought it upon herself. Stubborn, foolish, selfish…”

“She’s not selfish,” Lee said stunned, remembering how upset she had been after the encounter with her former teammate and the worried look on her face when she thought about her students.

“You don’t know her like I do, Lee.”

“How well do you know her, sensei?” Lee asked quietly, “have you ever done missions with her?” He looked at his hands. “Perhaps she has made mistakes in the past, but it wouldn’t be fair to hold it against her now. You always tell me that everyone deserves a second chance. Doesn’t she deserve one too?”

“Lee…”

“She called you a good friend,” Lee continued and he looked at his sensei, “so she can’t be all bad.”

Gai stared at him surprised. “She did?”

Lee nodded. “She protected me against her own teammate. That can’t have been easy for her. I’m just worried about her.”

“Don’t worry,” Gai comforted his student, “that girl has more lives than ten cats combined.”

***

“What can you tell us, boy?” the Tsuchikage demanded of the young dark haired shinobi in front of him.

Sai didn’t flinch. He was used to reporting and Danzou had been far more intimidating.

“Don’t be so harsh,” the Mizukage scolded the older man, “let him report. There’s no reason for bullying.”

“It’s alright,” Sai assured her. The rest of his unit had been excused and were either tending to their injuries or getting some well earned rest. Kankuro had been called to the infirmary where his sister lay still unconscious. The medics seemed to fear for her life. Haru had taken one of his summons to the infirmary. The dog  had a nasty slash in his side.