Chapter 80 - Arc XII: Devastated- Chapter 1

Yuji landed on one knee. He stayed there for a moment, trying to get his bearings. He had no idea what the hell had just happened. He opened his eyes slowly, trying to make sure he wasn’t dizzy or something. He swiveled his head, looking and listening for any threats.

A moment later, Sakura appeared next to him in a cloud of smoke. He immediately got up to help her, taking in his surroundings as he moved, staying in a low crouch.

“Ojousama! Are you okay?” he asked urgently but quietly.

Sakura coughed, looking up at Yuji. “I’m fine. Where are we?” She too was looking around, trying to get her bearings.

“Wish I knew.”

All at once, several creatures came running. Two elderly toads, small in stature, were leading a group of much larger others. And with them was Naruto!

Sakura immediately ran to Naruto. She hugged him, but he held her at arms’ length. He looked panicked. He held her hand and pulled her with him to Yuji, who was kneeling down to speak to the toad, whose name he learned was Elder Fukasaku. They were apparently arguing.

“Then you’ve got to send them away!” Yuji half-shouted.

“No can do, Yuji-boy. It’ll take more ‘n you got to take them down.”

“That’s not your problem or theirs! It’s mine! I-”

Naruto quickly briefed Sakura. Both of them were in tears. The situation here was dire. Mount Myboku was under attack. And worse yet, it was Sasuke’s Team Taka doing the attacking.

Everything was moving so fast. Yuji had been reverse-summoned before he knew what happened. Ditto with Sakura. Apparently, Sasuke’s group had come out of nowhere as well. The toads had erected some barriers that kept them at bay, but the consistent barrages were wearing the toads casting the jutsu down. Yuji created a clone to go help them while he stayed to talk strategy.

“They need to get out of here! There is a prophecy back home-” Yuji began, but was cut off by the old toad.

“Like you say, boy, that’s not my problem. My problem is Naruto-boy’s safety. And there ain’t no safer place th’n here, or I would’ve sent him away. I brought you here to help. Either help and accept my terms, or I’ll send you back. We’ve got no time to argue this.”

Yuji gritted his teeth, but accepted that he had no choice. He wasn’t dressed in his combat gear, either. He was actually all set to be going out with Shiroko, hence the reason for the western-style jeans, shirt, and the cross around his neck. He tucked the cross into his shirt and stretched a little to try to get ready for battle.

The barrier broke, and the melee began. Yuji rushed to the fore, smacking Suigetsu in the head as hard as he could as he ran by. Everyone else was engaged in battle. Yuji’s eyes were on Sasuke.

The prophecy says he and I are going to fight, and one of us is going to die in the process. It’s not going to be me. I’m sorry, Naruto-Dono; Sakura-Ojousama. Forgive me.

Yuji let his full power forth. The wings emerged from his back splendidly. His hair turned the color of obsidian, and his tattoo lit brightly, pulsing with energy. His shirt melted away in an instant.

In the next instant, Jugo’s second-state hand smashed Yuji hard into a statue, pinning him there. It happened so quickly and so violently that Yuji didn’t have time to react, save for use a quick fire jutsu that was squelched quickly.

“Yuji!” Sakura cried, taking a hard swing at Karin, while dodging the grappling Naruto and Suigetsu. Sasuke had lopped the legs off one of the toads, but was prevented from going for the coup de gracie by another toad striking at him with a huge sword.

Jugo was focused on the struggling Yuji so much that he didn’t even notice Sakura running up, her fist cocked back and glowing with energy. As she reached him, she planted her feet and swung for the fences.

Jugo flew off Yuji, and didn’t stop flying for nearly fifty meters. He lay still for the moment, but the look in his eyes was murderous. Sakura noticed from her chakra touching his that he was in extreme pain. Upon seeing Yuji, she saw why. Receding into his right hand was a sword of fire. He had stabbed it into Jugo’s arm and was aiming for a kill strike right through his arm to his head.

“Thank you, Ojousama. I- Look out!”

Yuji pushed Sakura aside just as a bubble of water surrounded him, beginning as a puddle at his feet then expanding upward. He kicked and punched at it, but couldn’t escape.

The battle gradually stopped as Sasuke walked toward Yuji. He bent down toward Yuji’s face, seeing him trapped in a Water Prison Jutsu that had used Suigetsu’s body!

“Naruto; Sakura- does this look familiar?” Sasuke asked, his voice flat and calm. “It’s just like Kakashi when we were in the Land of Waves.”

The blow was a good one, mentally. Sakura and Naruto did tend to dwell on the past, when Sasuke was just a troubled friend. Now, he was evil. Seeing it now, they knew it for themselves. He had never seemed so beyond redemption before as at this moment.

Sakura dropped to her knees.
“Sasuke, why…”

“Why the hell are you doing this, Sasuke?!” Naruto shouted, teeth barred. His nine-tails chakra was swirling, ready to escape. This rage…this sorrow…it fed the chakra. It made him feel good. Powerful. Naruto was ready…

Sasuke put his hand against the water, looking at the others.
“Yuji knows. He was going to kill me. Just like the prophecy says. Right, Yuji?”

Yuji didn’t answer, but knelt formally, his hands in a handsign. But he looked ashen and shaken. Not at all like his usual self. His stoic mask was cracked in a big way.

“You know about the prophecy?” Sakura asked. “How did you-?”

Sasuke rolled his neck, as if he wasn’t surrounded by enemies. He was relaxed. No sign of disturbance on his face at all.
“Orochimaru stole a lot of things before he left the Leaf. Anything having to do with me was taken. The Third Hokage had spoken about this prophecy to him, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. Orochimaru read the document himself, trying to find a way to take the power. And then he told me about it, once he learned who had inherited the Ten no Kishootsu abilities. He was certain that Yuji-”
Sasuke’s eye shifted to his prisoner.
“-would come to kill me. If he was smart, at any rate.”

Sasuke’s hand touched Yuji’s prison again, lingering on it.
“I needed to kill you, anyway.”

Electricity ran through the water. Yuji shouted, finally allowing water into his mouth. But drowning would beat this horrible agony! Death was fine at this point.
Then the pain stopped. Yuji slumped against the bottom of the bubble, conscious but clearly in horrible pain.

“That wasn’t full power,” Sasuke informed everyone. “But I can kill him. Or I can make him suffer. It all depends on if you’re willing to do what I say.”

Yuji was hardly conscious now, but he looked up and shook his head. He mouthed to the group, looking at Sakura and Naruto mostly.

Let me die.

Yuji’s head was getting more fuzzy with each passing moment. He was struggling to feel anything now. He knew he needed to be worried, or scared, or angry. This feeling of contentment was wrong. It went with asphyxiation, he knew.

He had to dig deep. There was power there he hadn’t used. If he could just force his chakra out in an explosion-

“AGGGHHHHHHH!”

Sasuke had cranked up the power, sending horrible power coursing through the water dome. Yuji heard himself scream. He began to panic, which was a good step in the wrong direction. If anything was worth than apathy, it was panic. This pain was useful. He had to make it useful. He had to…

“Come any closer and I’ll kill him,” Sasuke announced. “Naruto, only you can come forward. Everyone else, lay down your weapons and-”

Yuji’s chakra exploded outward. A blast of hot air shook the group.

But the dome didn’t break. Yuji lay at the bottom on his back. His arms continued to move feebly for a moment, but then he stopped moving altogether.
--
--
Genjutsu

Yuji and Sasuke stood across from each other in a big, empty space. They stood on plains of nothingness; shadows within shadows. The space existed as pure darkness. It was scary, even though both boys knew it was genjutsu.

“What are your terms, Sasuke? For letting them go?”

Sasuke charged forward, attacking Yuji’s image. Yuji caught his arm, straining with the effort to hold it. This was just a representation of Sasuke’s attempt to shatter Yuji’s genjutsu. Yuji held on against the more talented boy with all he had.

“Look, I don’t care about this prophecy. If I need to die, fine. But those two don’t. And neither do you.”
He shook his head as Sasuke jerked his hand back.
“That’s fine. Let me say my last words to them, and then you can kill me. And then you’ll feel big, right? For taking a hostage, instead of fighting me for real? I’m ready to face death. But you, Sasuke… You’re afraid of me and what I could do. You couldn’t beat me in real combat. But that’s fine- take the coward’s way out. Just like you did with your brother when you were a kid. You don’t scare me. You’re just a bully. And eventually-”

The space they were in changed. Now it was a barren wasteland, save for two giant double doors, padlocked and chained. The presence behind the door was unmistakably horrifying. Yet to Yuji, it was familiar as anything.

“Do you want to see what my life is like? Do you want to know what fear is? You’re safe inside your own head, so maybe you can’t understand just how terrifying it is to have no place that is safe for you.”

The locks came off the door. The door which held Yuji’s greatest fears. Even Sasuke was captivated by it. What did a fearless warrior fear?

--

Yuji broke free of Sasuke’s water prison in a burst of strength. He had left Sasuke back in the genjutsu world. Sasuke reacted almost instantly, stabbing his sword down. He caught Yuji’s left shoulder. Yuji was too wounded to dodge with his body. Sasuke lightning style ran through the blade, paralyzing Yuji‘s body. However, Yuji’s chakra soared, and his wings formed again. He let them take to the sky, moving only his chakra and not his body. He hung in the air, his body limp.

Jugo’s arm shot up and tagged Yuji hard across the chest. He free-fell the twenty-five feet to the ground, his wings curled around him protectively. He landed hard in a fetal position and did not move again. His wings sank back into his body.

Sasuke rushed forward, aiming to deliver the final blow. He had Yuji dead to rights. They both knew it.

It was an epic moment. The wounded warrior on the ground, utterly defeated save for the look of defiance on his face. The triumphant victor ready to deliver the final blow, holding his weapon above his fallen enemy.

What was not in the epic moment normally were the wounded man’s friends charging to rescue. Even Sasuke could not afford to ignore either Naruto or Sakura’s powerful attacks. His focus on Yuji had been absolute, so he could only react in a last-second way.

He backed off, leaping away, back to his group. This time, when he spoke, he ignored Naruto and Sakura. He looked directly at Yuji. Or what was left of him, anyway.

“…No prophecy dictates my life. But you’re too annoying to let live. Next time we meet, I will fulfill the prophecy and kill you.”

Sasuke and the others disappeared. Naruto shouted at them to stay put, but he had to choose between chasing Sasuke and saving Yuji’s life. The choice was an easy one, having spent two years with Yuji now.

“Come on; we’ve got to get him to safety!”

Sakura stabilized Yuji, but he wouldn’t regain consciousness for quite some time. Naruto picked him up, scared at how limp and defenseless Yuji’s body was. Where he wasn’t supported by Naruto’s hands, Yuji’s body bent backwards in a painful looking way.

His defeat had been total.

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