"Sure?" Madara asked with a sly smile on his face. "I am certain that the lives they live in the Infinite Tsukuyomi are infinitely better than the one they had here. Every single person in the new world feels as happy as they could be." He added as he stood up from his chair and walked toward his right, his footsteps knocking with a thumping rhythm. He walked toward the edge of the trunk of the God tree. He did not get too far. Each step sounded similar to a knock on a door, a wooden door.
"Now tell me Naruto Uzumaki, How am I wrong when all I did was stop the suffering, pain, and futility of this world, and replaced it with unending happiness?" Madara asked as he turned back from looking at the horizon.
"That's a big question, can I make sure I get things right before I answer?" Naruto replied.
Sakura did not expect Naruto to answer it without showing any emotion, or rather any negative emotion. He was asking it like he was talking to Iruka sensei and was trying to keep him from explaining more of the lesson so that they had less to study for the next day. When she heard Madara's question, Sakura thought about it and did not like what answer she came up with. She could not believe it, but small, almost unnoticeable fidgeting, and heavy breathing, made it very clear that she was pessimistic about Naruto's possible answer. If she could not think of a good counter-argument, would Naruto be able to think of one? She doubted.
Unfortunately for her, everybody present at the feast was overequipped to sense her despair. The four Hokage, Legendary copy-ninja, her teammates, and Madara Uchiha with his will incarnate, felt the pink-haired girls emotions. If she tried she could not come up with a worse possible set of people to hide her feelings from.
"Can a man in that dream become brawny?" Naruto asked after he gave a reassuring smile to Sakura. She did not feel any better.
"Of all things, why would that be a problem?" Madara asked in turn, slowly approaching Hashirama's side of the table.
"You said that no pain or suffering happens in the dream, no?"
"That is true."
"Then how can one become ripped if he can't exercise?" Naruto asked and felt a mental nudge on his head. At least Kurama got where he was going with this.
"Who said that you can't exercise?" Madara asked coming back near his chair, with a confused face. He used the small stroll to clear his mind and understand why Zetsu was trying to wake Obito. He could not think of a good reason.
"When you exercise you break your muscles, and when those muscles heal they grow, isn't that true?" Naruto asked.
Madara didn't look at him and instead kept glancing from one part of the horizon to the other, and in between checking what Zetsu was doing. He stood still. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"Isn't that right Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yes, That is how muscles grow." Kakashi answered.
Hearing the copy-ninja speak broke Madara out of his thoughts. Deciding that the excitement and adrenaline released after accomplishing his goal was the reason for him to get so agitated with Zetsu of all peop... things. He sighed deeply and sat down in his chair with a loud thud.
"Here is the question - Is exercise allowed in the Infinite Tsukuyomi? Exercise that allows pain, and if that much pain is allowed, where is the line that separates the good pain from the bad pain?" Naruto said, now fully capturing Madara's attention. "And if for some reason even that kind of pain is absent from the dream world, then what else is absent?" He continued, feeling the grasp he just got on Madara's thinking mind. "Can I train in any other way, aside from normal exercise? Can I have a... sparring match with Kakashi-sensei? Hmm?"
Madara did not answer for just a mere minute, but to the people sitting right across from him, it felt as if years had passed.
Sasuke in particular, with a smirk on his face, understood what must've been going through Madara's mind. If he said that that kind of pain was allowed, then he didn't really stop the pain and suffering as he boasted. But if that kind of pain was not allowed in the dream world, then the dream world was necessarily a cheap, limited copy of the real world.
Kakashi thought the same thing. Though he focused more on Naruto and his way of approaching the question. "And here I thought I could never teach him the double bind..."
"I... Do not know." Madara simply answered but what that answer implied was anything but simple.
"I knew it!" Naruto shouted with both of his fists in the air.
"You did?" Tobirama questioned.
"I hoped that he didn't know..." Naruto quickly backtracked his excitement. He could celebrate later. "Either way, You have to agree that whatever world you created is inferior to the real one."
Madara thought for a few moments and smiled.
"The pain of the dream world, whether as real or fake as the real worlds' is just that, a pain in the world of dreams." Madara began, and by the end of his sentence he nodded to himself as he continued "The amount of pain in the real world" he motioned around himself "is now near zero. Once all of you are gone, it will be zero, and that would make my words as true as they can possibly be."
"Oh, I see. So what matters is the sheer volume of suffering in the real world. Whatever happens in the dream world does not even matter, right?" Naruto asked as he reached for a bowl of ramen and put it in front of himself, on top of his empty bowl.
"That's right." Madara answered with a smile. He looked as confident as ever, but inside he was sighing with great relief. While Naruto managed to make him stumble, going back to the foundation of his philosophy always gave him the right answer.
What he didn't know was that he just walked into a trap.
"And where does this happiness you speak of come into the play?" Naruto asked, after inhaling half of his bowl, with such a mastery that one would be impressed by it, if that one was anyone but Madara Uchiha.
"The world they now inhabit is made specifically for what their heart desires the most. Wouldn't you be happy if you had everything you ever wanted?" Madara replied.
Naruto looked to his left. Saw his father sitting there, and imagined his mother sitting beside him. Then he looked to his left and imagined Sakura looking at him the way she always looked at Sasuke. Then he imagined himself with the Hokage's hat, and he also imagined forcibly taking it away from Granny-Tsunade and making her admit defeat. That would've made him happy for sure. But...
"I probably would be, very happy." He said with a solemn tone.
"See? That's what I am saying!" Madara finally spoke with triumph but it was cut short.
"But what if what makes me happy is to train every day until I simply can't anymore?" Naruto questioned "I know of at least two people who are like that. No exaggeration." He added thinking of the gentle green beasts of Konoha.
Kakashi chuckled at the mention of those two.
"No, forget that. You just said that it did not matter what happened in the dream world. So any happiness in there is just as pointless as any pain? No?" Naruto questioned and immediately saw Madara's smiling face slowly start to crumble. "You did manage to stop pain and suffering, That is true, but the problem is that you also stopped everyone from striving for happiness. So the net sum of your actions kinda... balanced out, which means that all you did was simply..."
"Take away the life of humanity in every possible way, except literally." Madara finished.
"Mhmm... I would have said it much more bluntly but yes, that's exactly what I was about to say." Naruto said as he saw the Rinnegan master's face morph into a face of confusion.
Madara was thinking about the stone tablet, about the plan that was written on it. It did not say how it would work in practice, and he had not considered it. All he knew was that stopping the suffering and giving people what they truly desired would work for the best. Hell would turn into Heaven. But now, a majestic crack has appeared in his reasoning. If he dwelled on those thoughts he would have to change something about his whole being, that was not easy, and he decided to do something else instead.
"Then tell me" He began, looking straight in the sparkling blue eyes of Naruto "What would you do if you had all the power? How would you solve the suffering of this world?"
Naruto did not answer immediately. He slowly finished his ramen. Slowly for him that is, he was eating faster than any normal person would, could, or should.
Sasuke was the most attentive he had been for the whole day. This was it. If Naruto provided a solution that would work just as effectively as his, then he would back it up immediately, considering that his plan would require Sasuke to abandon all bonds he has formed and had yet to form with people. Deep in his heart, he wanted to be free from the responsibility that his goal would require.
Sakura managed to calm down during Naruto and Madara's exchange. She did not know how, but Naruto managed to give her hope, once more. Now she was smiling at the blonde boy, watching as he wiped his mouth and returned the piercing gaze of Madara.
The four Hokage barely changed their positions. They were waiting for Naruto's answer just as much as everybody else did. This moment might as well turn the tide of the war, so they waited with bated breath.
In Naruto's head, the situation was not as peaceful.
"What do you mean you can't reconnect with the clone?! It has not dispelled himself yet!" Naruto asked in his mindscape and got a low growl from his furry friend.
"I already told you, I gave him the orders and left, I can not sense him, I can not reach him." Kurama shouted.
"How are we going to get the lower half of Madara's body here if he is not gonna help us out?" Naruto asked with despair and started running back and front.
"CALM DOWN!" Kurama screamed and the power of his shout tipped Naruto sideways and caused him to fall on the water-filled ground. "We just need more time, just talk to Madara for as long as you can."
"Oh man and how am I going to answer Madara!" Naruto stood up and immediately started fidgeting in place "I thought that helping people understand each other would bring peace to this world but I don't even know anymore..."
"He asked you what would you do to stop suffering, right?" Kurama asked after massaging his forehead. Naruto nodded. Kurama smiled "Well then you should answer the way Jiji did."
"If I had the same power as you do right now?" Naruto finally asked after he came back to the real world. Nobody seemed to suspect anything.
Madara nodded.
"Well... I'd probably, no I would certainly get rid of it. No man should possess that much power, there is just no way a man, any man, will have strong enough will to not abuse it."
"And how would you do that?" Madara inquired.
"Hmm... I would..." Naruto scratched his chin in a thinking man's pose and smiled deviously. "All that power is just chakra right?" Madara nodded again "Then I would split that power up in a dozen or so pieces. If I could I would make those pieces sentient, maybe even give them a personality, or let them develop one of their own."
"He he he... You'd do the same thing as the Sage of the Six Paths? Not very original of you..." Madara asked after a big laugh. "And let's say you do that, how is that going to stop the suffering in this world? Hmm?"
Naruto sighed deeply as he began "Ever since Pervy-Sage told me about that, I have not been even a little bit close to the answer. I hoped I would find the answer to it with Shion, and that's one of the things she tried to explain to me through the Demon Scrolls." he said and looked behind Madara, focusing on the sunlight that was very slowly creeping up on the sky. "Shion told me that no matter what you do, there is no way to stop the pain and suffering in this world. No man can do it."
Madara and Sasuke scoffed at the same time.
"That was my exact reaction when she told that to me. And I got a slap for it." Naruto quickly added, caressing the presumed place of the slap and neutralizing their opposition. "I did not have much time since that day to think about it. All the Akatsuki people, then the Pain invasion, then the Kage Summit, and now this... You could say that I was a little busy." Naruto chuckled at the end of his speech.
"And?" Madara questioned, knowing that there was a "But" coming.
"But now, reconsidering her words, and getting a new way to look at the world, it just makes sense."
"It makes sense that this world will always be filled with evil and there is nothing you can do about it, is that it?" Sasuke said cutting off both Naruto and Madara. The latter was about to ask something similar anyway, just with less visible rage, so he let it be.
Turning back to Sasuke, Naruto simply said "Yes. We can try and sometimes lessen it, but we can not stop the suffering as a whole." Sasuke opened his mouth to reply but he couldn't.
"Then who can?" Madara's voice boomed from the other side of the table. His words were both sharp and blunt at the same time, causing the air around the table to vibrate.
Naruto smiled like a maniac as he turned toward the Rinnegan master. He pointed his fingers forward as if he was shooting a water pistol at him and said "The Enemy."
As if they were in sync, everybody, except for Naruto, narrowed their eyes at this.
"The One those Demons were afraid of?" Tobirama was the first to figure it out.
Turning his water pistol fingers toward the Second Hokage, Naruto replied "Exactly!"
Seeing how everybody was waiting for elaboration, Naruto stood up from his seat, started walking slowly around the table, and began talking.
"Those Demons were planning against God. You know, the one who created everything. Not a God, not a being like the Shinigami, but the being that created or let it arise from the world he created. That God. One true God."
He reached the left side of the table, stopped right beside Hashirama, and put his hands on the table.
"It's funny when you consider that the only reason we know this much about Him is the scrolls exchanged by those who are planning to overthrow him."
"How do you even know the God is a He?" Sasuke asked, shaking his head at Naruto's fairy tales.
"Demons called him that way. God is a person. Probably more than one too." Naruto explained with a smile and turned toward Madara.
"The point is that when you die and go through the veil of darkness, that is not the end. This world is not the main world, nor will it be the last one. This world is like the ground and we are the seed of a magnificent flower. When we emerge, as in die, we will see the real world and not just the real world but the... the Ultimate Reality." Naruto finished without taking his piercing glance away from the Rinnegan.
Sasuke laughed out loud. "So what you are saying is that this world does not matter the same way the Infinite Tsukuyiomi does not matter? You are such a fool!"
"I have not seen a tree grow without enough time for the seed to take enough resources from around itself. Have you?"
Madara smiled at Naruto's response. Sasuke simply scoffed and looked at the floor.
"But even if all of that is true, that still does not solve the problem of suffering. Just what are we to do about it?" Madara asked the thing he needed the answer for.
"Well, that's the real question right there. Shion told me about various beliefs for dealing with it." Naruto said as he leaned on the side of the table. "Some people think that we will eventually get to see God come down on earth and make things right. That way even those who suffer the most, like the children who die in war, for example, will get the ultimate justice." Naruto began and saw Madara's eyes widen, just a little, almost invisibly, but still.
"That does make sense." Hiruzen said. Naruto nodded.
"There are others who believe that when we reunite in... wherever the veil of darkness leads, that's when we'll get the ultimate justice."
"Then why would a just God allow me in the same place as Hashirama?" Madara questioned. Naruto attempted to shrug but then stopped.
"Do you wanna know the most interesting part about the Demon scrolls?" Madara leaned in as Naruto got closer. "The conversation between the Demons abruptly stopped when they mentioned the arrival of the new force from the sky, along with a being. They were planning to use the force AND the being to their advantage."
Madara wanted to laugh at that but he got startled once more by now a familiar problem. Zetsu was exuding fear, discreetly but still. Looking back at him, and then at Naruto, he mused that Naruto somehow managed to scare his will incarnate.
Tobirama on the other hand once again felt the fear coming from Zetsu, and he even pinpointed the moment it began. That moment was when Naruto mentioned the being from the sky...
"Go back to your seat." Madara ordered, trying to figure out if his thoughts were true. And as Naruto pouted and slowly began to back away, That seemed to do it, and Zetsu went back to normal. Madara wanted to directly ask him what was going on but in front of his current audience, that was not possible. "You still have not answered my question."
"Because He is a good God, that's why. No, more like He is the goodness in and of itself." He said after reaching his chair. "It is weird how we think that the world works in a balance but that is not true." Naruto said after locking his eyes with Sasuke. "The good exists, and evil is its absence. Just like Light and shadow. You can have light without the shadow, but there will be no shadows without the light. Get it?"
"So we are just supposed to do nothing about the cruelness of this world?" Madara asked sarcastically.
"Nobody said we should not help people, and try to have less violence. In fact, we have to do that so that we grow from the seed into the tree."
"The more good one does the better the reward after death?" Madara asked even more sarcastically.
"Generally yes, but the reward is to simply keep existing, with God." Naruto answered and Madara was about to laugh again when he added "But ultimately no matter how much good you do, it's not enough to pay for the bad."
"Then how are we supposed to meet him if we can't be good enough? Don't you see the contradiction?" Madara said, this time seriously.
Naruto nodded slowly and said "That is a mystery. Maybe God forgives us straightaway. Maybe we get a second chance after figuring things out." he scratched his temple and then added "Maybe we get to ascend in the new world as more than just humans and help the humans in that world to find the truth as we try to do here. That could be our payment for not being good enough... The possibilities are endless. All I know is that If God is Just and Good, then whatever happens I'll be in good hands, even if all that lays in front of me in this life is pain and suffering." Naruto finished and looked back to Sasuke "Is that enough?"
Madara took all of this in. He had so many questions, even more than just a few moments ago, but without him consciously trying to, he made connections and saw that in some crazy way, it all could make sense.
Sasuke however, was not too convinced. It all sounded like a fairy tale to him. He often heard similar stories from his mother when he was a child. And now thinking about his mom and childhood reignited the fire that was quenched for some time now. He started thinking of a way to turn things around. Completely disregarding Naruto's words and his question.
"I am proud of you Naruto. We both are." Minato whispered to his son and causing both of their eyes to tear up.
Madara heard the whisper and quickly got upset. Upset that he could not have a child of his own, to be proud of. He spent all of his life and now it just... Did not even matter? No that can not be.
"It's time to tell me how you two got the powers. I spent my entire life trying to awaken the Rinnegan, and only with Hashirama's help did I manage to do it, and you can command the truth-seeking orbs as if you had the same power as me. Explain!" Madara demanded from both Naruto and Sasuke.
Naruto's excitement at possibly changing Madara's mind dwindled rapidly.
"Well when you pulled Kurama out of me, super Gramps sage came along, we spoke and he gave me this power to use it and stop you."
"Super Gramps Sage" Madara mumbled and examined every possible meaning of these three words. The gramps would certainly mean somebody much older than him, a sage could mean a wise man, and Naruto was the type of person to call anybody he likes super, so the only obvious choice was...
"How did you manage to give him this power?" Madara asked, looking straight at the Third Hokage.
Hashirama, Tobirama, Minato, Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke all looked at Hiruzen.
"I don't know what you mean..." Hiruzen answered with a baffled face.
"Wha..?" Naruto asked and when he realized what was going on he giggled. "What does Jiji have to do with this?"
Madara looked toward Naruto "Then who the hell is this Super Gramps Sage?"
"The Sage of the Six Paths." Sasuke answered, irritation barely hidden in his words. "Same thing happened to me after you stabbed me with my sword."
Now it was Madara's time to laugh. But seeing how both Naruto and Sasuke kept their serious faces, he stopped.
"Do you really want me to believe that you met the Sage of the Six Paths?" Madara asked.
"YES! He even said his name was... Hagaremo Osuzuki!" Naruto said.
"Hagoromo Otsusuki." Sasuke corrected with great irritation.
"Right! That!" Naruto said while nodding and smiling at Sasuke. "What would make you believe us?" Naruto asked the second Rinnegan wielder.
Madara seemed to think for a moment and then said "Nothing short of seeing him myself." with a sly smile.
Naruto nodded and checked in with Kurama who threw him out of his mindscape. No progress with his mission yet.
"How did you come up with a jutsu like that anyway?" Naruto asked trying to keep the conversation going and give as much time to Kurama and his clone as possible.
"The Infinite Tsukuyomi?" Madara asked and Naruto nodded. "It was prophesied by The Sage of the Six Paths himself that the peace in this world was never meant to be, which is why he devised a plan to achieve that goal. Do you understand why I don't believe you?"
"And why didn't he accomplish it himself?" Naruto answered Madara with a question of his own.
"He was on the deathbed when he created the jutsu and couldn't accomplish it himself, hence he left it for the next generations," Madara answered but was not satisfied by the reaction of the blond.
"Old man Second... What would it take to create a jutsu with a power to affect the whole world?" Naruto asked with a mischievous smile.
"Immense levels of concentration, Intellect, and power. Power at least as great as his is at the moment." Tobirama replied and pointed his finger at Madara.
"So if he was dying, would he be able to do it?"
"Most certainly not." Tobirama answered.
"How interesting." Naruto said and looked back to the two Rinnegan eyes.
"The most important aspects of The Stone Tablet were written for the eyes of the Rinnegan only. Very few people even knew the existence of the Rinnegan, let alone possess it. The only other person who ever possessed it was The Sage himself." Madara countered.
"And nobody else could possibly read and oh I don't know... alter it in some way?"
Madara shook his head with a smile. He won. Again.
"You want to prove that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was a lie eh?"
"Well if we were equipped to stop you from casting the jutsu by the same person who supposedly created it, then yeah that's true. Unless the Sage had a... a..." Naruto thought about it and looked at his sensei "What do you call it when Gai sensei acts normal and then super serious at times?"
Kakashi frowned for a bit and then answered "The split personality disorder, but that was just a joke." That was not a joke. Maybe a little bit.
"Yeah, that's right, unless the Sage was mad, either you or we, are wrong." Naruto said as he ignored the second part of his sensei's words.
"How are you going to prove yourself right?" Madara questioned, putting his hand on the table and his head on his fist.
"By disproving you." Naruto smiled.
"How can you prove that this jutsu was not the ultimate solution of life?"
Scratching his head, Naruto closed his eyes for a few moments and then said "Aside from it not being able to provide real happiness?" he paused and then continued with a sigh "Before we got to the vault, Shion showed me some of her favorite books. She's in that temple all the time and the only thing she has to entertain herself are books."
"How sad." Madara mocked.
"Yeah, Yeah. That's when she showed me her favorite quotes in her notebook. One of them was..." Madara leaned in "Anything that can not continue on indefinitely, won't."
Minato and Kakashi stopped themselves from laughing. Sakura chuckled. Tobirama didn't even flinch. Hiruzen had a small smile. But Hashirama laughed like he owned the place.
Sasuke simply shook his head and focused on the exponentially growing light coming from the east.
"And that means?" Madara asked.
"Well, if I was making a jutsu that is supposed to last for... What did you say how long?"
"For Eternity."
"Right, if a jutsu was not made to last for an eternity it will start to show signs of... decay." Naruto replied.
Madara only smiled and raised an eyebrow.
"So all we have to do to test that out is to wait for a few hundred years and see if something does not go as planne..."
On one hand, he stopped because that unimaginable fear leaked out from Zetsu once more, this was now what? a third time that happened? This can't just be a coincidence.
"You have something on your cheek..." He said as he recognized the small glow that appeared on Naruto's face as kanji. He got suspicious. Was this a trap?
Everybody looked at Naruto as he tried to wipe it off with a sleeve. The four Hokage recognized what happened and thought nothing of it, knowing that the seal Minato placed on Naruto's clone simply transferred onto the original after it dispelled. Until Naruto's eyes widened with shock.
Madara saw that too, Even Sasuke leaned in to see what was going on.
Naruto's shocked face was slowly replaced with a predatory smile.
The rest of the team seven was now shocked along with the four Hokage.
Madara was about to ask what the hell was going on but then he too, felt it.
Tobirama was the next one to feel the changes all around them. With wide eyes he looked at Naruto, then at Madara, and took great pleasure in seeing his baffled face.
Then one by one, Hashirama, Hiruzen, Minato, and Kakashi all felt it. And their faces were filled with shock.
"Will anybody explain what is going on?" Sasuke shouted, grabbing everyone's attention.
"That's not possible." Madara mumbled, driving Sasuke even more crazy.
"Not probable. Unless, of course, you are indeed... Wrong." Naruto sang...
Only then did Sasuke and even Sakura, who was rubbing her eyes to combat the growing need for sleep, felt it as well.
An explosion of life.
***
She was walking down the street, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Dan was as handsome as ever... He greeted her and offered his arm for her to grab. She gladly did.
Nawaki was still declaring how he would become the Hokage one day... He was getting faster by the day. He just ran around them with a cape on his back. His sensei and the Lord-Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was trying to catch him and bring him back to school.
Jiraya was still peeping on the girl's side of the bathhouse. She wanted to go and whack him into the stratosphere but decided to let him be.
This was perfect...
Until Tsunade started thinking and remembering her life. Thinking about her favorite people, she couldn't help but think about a blond boy, now a young man, whom she couldn't find anywhere.
As she looked at Dan in his eyes, they were replaced by the images of those same eyes but closed forever.
That couldn't be. He couldn't be dead!
Then Nawaki's funeral flashed in front of her eyes. She disposed of that thought out of her mind with lightning speed.
Then she remembered Shizune, who was there! But... the flashes showed her devastated face as she told her the fate of Jiraya.
But nothing happened when she looked at Hiruzen. He was smiling, acting like his old self. The only thing she saw in flashes when she looked at him was the image of... a blond boy.
Then all at once, she remembered every conversation she ever had with the said blond boy.
"Naruto!" She screamed as she experienced the pain of learning where she was and that everybody here was already gone from the real world. The burning tingles run up and down her body. She started to cry, but even crying hurt and when she checked, all she felt was a thick red substance coming from her eyes.
Then her ears started buzzing. Blood flew from there as well. She lost her balance and slowly fell to her side.
Dan simply stood and watched as Tsunade closed her eyes.
"No Way"
The scream Naruto felt was coming from one of the cocoons. That cocoon dropped to the ground with a thud.
Naruto ran up to it and using his kunai, he swiftly cut it open.
Tsunade pushed her head out of the cocoon and inhaled the greatest breath of fresh air in her life.
She looked disoriented for a few moments, while Naruto managed to cut off most of the cocoon out of the way and then helped her stand up.
When she saw his blue eyes and seemed as if she came back to consciousness, she hugged Naruto and almost broke his bones. Well, his bones would crack if he was the original. And he would surely be dispelled if he was not enforced with the Six Paths chakra.
"Are you alright? How did you manage to break out of that dream?" Naruto asked once Tsunade let him breathe.
"I don't know... but it was not a dream, that's for certain." Tsunade answered. "What's going on, I don't remember anything after the moon turned red..."
"I would gladly explain everything if I knew what was going on, and if I had the time to do so. but we need to bring that" He motioned toward the lower half of a body "to the trunk of the God tree, and quickly."
"What, why?" Tsunade questioned.
"I'll explain on the way." He answered and started running toward Madara's remains.
He barely stepped a few feet when he fell head-first into the ground. Something hit him, something heavy.
It was another cocoon.
"Another one?!" Naruto celebrated with fists in the air. He grabbed the kunai and started to free the prisoner.
Tsunade quickly run up to him and helped him.
This time the breath of fresh air was taken with much more vigor than Tsunade did just a moment ago. He seemed to be in a panic, but slowly he regained composure.
"Gai Sensei! You're back too!"
"Gai how do you feel?" Tsunade asked.
"Aa... Alive." Gai answered in his serious tone which was a rarity.
Tsunade looked up at Naruto and saw his amazed glance.
"I have to bring it to the trunk, You stay here and see if you can heal him and help anybody else who wakes up, alright?" Naruto said and stood up but Tsunade grabbed his hand.
"Did you forget who's the Hokage between us? I won't let you go to Madara by yourself."
"I am just a clone anyway, the real me is with Madara ever since the red moon." Naruto explained and took Tsunade's shocked face as confirmation to run toward the half-corpse.
"How long were we there..?" Tsunade asked with worry.
Looking at the emerging sunlight, Naruto shouted "Just about two hours."
"Madara... Is still alive?" Gai asked as he slowly stood up, Tsunade offered her shoulder for him to lean on.
"Yes, he is." Naruto shouted again with his head turned toward Tsunade and Gai... "Ugh, what now?!"
It was another cocoon that fell on his back. He tried to push it away from his body, but he got stabbed by the sword this girl apparently held in an awkward position. Why was she not carrying a scabbard?!
A stab alerted Naruto that it was time for him to dispel. But he still had the mission. So in his last moments, he shouted -
"Granny, bring the corpse to the trunk..." and he disappeared with a poof of smoke.
Tsunade quickly approached the cocoon and slowly used her own kunai and the sword itself to free the girl from it. Gai was helping her keep the cocoon steady.
"Are you alright?" Tsunade asked, but she got no answer. "You are Onoki's granddaughter, right?" The startled girl slowly focused on the blonde woman's face and after a few moments nodded slightly.
Tsunade started to search for any injuries the girl might have had.
A nudge from Gai alerted her to yet another cocoon falling to the ground. Then another. Then three at once. Ten at once. And it continued.
Tsunade looked toward the half-corpse, then toward all the new people who needed her help.
"We have to help as many people as we can and once enough medical ninjas are ready to help others, we have to bring that corpse to the trunk of the god tree."
"Right." Gai replied, looked down at his leg, ignored the pain, and began jumping toward another white bag of silk.
"What's your name?" Tsunade asked the newly awakened girl.
"Kur... Kurotsuchi..." She mumbled.
"Kurotsuchi, help me release this cocoon." she said as they made their way toward the next closest prisoner while helping her keep her balance.
One of the cocoons opened from inside and dozens of white snakes emerged from it. The man breathed in as he sat up and looked around. He saw Tsunade and Kurotsuchi stabbing a cocoon.
The long-haired man stood up. He made six hand seals and said "Serpent Infestation Justu!" in his head.
Much like the way he exited his silky white prison, The snakes released from many parts of the man's body quickly went around the battlefield and started destroying them. Each snake slid in and out of the cocoons, as a needle goes through cloth, but instead of mending it, they slowly dissolved them.
The first batch of snakes went toward a group of cocoons, one of which had a tail extended out. Every one of them was freed, but the cocoon of the red-haired girl exploded from inside, thanks to the golden chains that formed around her body.
The rate of people emerging from slumber grew exponentially.
Seeing Tsunade command a group of Leaf Shinobi to take care of the wounded, make another ninja carry the lower half of a corpse, and go toward the trunk of the God tree, the man approached her and said "I never thought I'd use that jutsu to... help people..."
Tsunade looked at his old teammate, smiled, nodded, and said "The War is not over. Follow me."
The man followed her. His subordinates followed him.