Chapter 669 - 669: The End is Only a New Beginning

Kakashi bowed deeply to them in turn.

"The truth is that you did not miscarry after being cut down by Madara, Sakura," Kakashi said, looking her straight in the eye. "You produced three viable embryos."

Sasuke and Naruto stared at her in shock.

"Then, then…" Naruto spluttered, flustered. "Does that mean, ya know… I'm gonna be a dad!?"

Upon hearing these words, Hinata went weak at the knees and fell into a dead faint, but the others ignored her, too shocked by the revelation to realise that one of their number had collapsed.

"Diapers, baby clothes, a pram, a nursery… times three!? Gyah, there are so many things to get ready! I'm so not ready for this!" Sakura rattled off in a panic. "Kakashi-sensei, does giving birth hurt more than being cut in half!?"

Kakashi repressed the urge to tsukkomi, How in the world would you expect me to know that?

"The reason I was there to protect you when you awoke in the hospital was because I had failed to prevent certain people from extracting your eggs," Kakashi went on. "When you assumed you had miscarried, I deliberately refrained from correcting you so that you could dedicate your full attention to the war… but mostly, I just wanted your unborn children to live."

He took a deep breath.

"I imagine it might have been possible for you to track down your children at the time, had you known," he said. "I'm sorry for making that decision on my own, and I accept full responsibility."

Sakura's vision began to blur with tears, her immense breasts bouncing to the rhythm of her quiet sobs. Naruto simply stared at Kakashi, slack-jawed and too shocked to speak. Sasuke's eyes turned scarlet, his emotions in complete turmoil…

"In order to atone, I'm ready to chase Madara to the ends of the earth," Kakashi said calmly. "With Lady Mei's help, I'm certain I'll be able to navigate the islands of the Land of Water effectively… and perhaps even venture beyond them, if need be."

Sakura sniffed, wiping away her tears with the back of her sleeve. She'd always believed that Kakashi was one of the very few adults whom she could always count on, whom she could fully trust to have her best interests at heart… but now, she knew better.

This damned village…

People always seemed to care more about the stupid place than the people who lived in it. Those fools worshipped an ideal that could never be realised… Lady Tsunade, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei… even herself, they had all fallen into the trap that was the Hidden Leaf Village.

A meat grinder for children and their dreams… but what about her? For all her power, Sakura was still just a young woman who hadn't even had her twentieth birthday yet, let alone her eighteenth. She needed protection from those who would abuse her, too…

"Hatake Kakashi, Jōnin of the Hidden Leaf Village, I hereby order you to seek out Madara and report his every action to me," Sakura choked out. "I hereby banish you from the Hidden Leaf Village and strip you of all privileges afforded to you as a shinobi of Konohagakure. Until such a day comes when Madara meets his end, you are forbidden from returning home."

Kakashi went down on one knee and inclined his head. "I gratefully accept those orders, Milady."

"W-wait, that's too cruel! I get that what Kakashi-sensei did was wrong, but you can't keep him from coming back!" Naruto piped up in dismay. "The Hidden Leaf Village is supposed to be our home, ya know? To all of us!"

Sasuke was beginning to feel queasy.

For some reason, all of this was beginning to remind him of what had happened to his brother, Itachi. This was just retreading all the same mistakes of the past, and he wanted no part in it whatsoever. Weren't they supposed to be different from the ones who had come before? Better?

"I'm fine with this, Naruto. This is what I wanted," Kakashi said softly. "It's all for the best… it's about time the old generation took responsibility for something. Even if you clapped me in irons and sent me to Hōzuki Prison, I would still find a way to break out and atone. No matter what happens next, it isn't your fault, because you'd have to kill me to stop me… and you could never do that, Naruto."

Hinata was beginning to stir at their feet. Sakura had lost her opportunity to steal her breasts.

"Not one more word of this, this stays between the four of us… between Team 7," Sakura said wearily. "Now, let's go back to the village. We'll talk more then, after I've rested my head."

But little did Sakura know, that conversation would never end up taking place.

...…

Ten days ago.

On the edge of the cliff where the Land of Lightning met the sea, Uchiha Madara stood exactly where Sakura would stand ten days from now, two battered figures lying at his feet, bound in rope and sealing tags. Had Naruto been there, he would have recognised them as Chino and Nowaki.

"Master… it's not too late…" Black Zetsu said anxiously as he emerged from the ground behind Madara. "We can always try again… Obito is weakened and bound by your cursed seal…"

"Black Zetsu, you truly are my will incarnate, my most faithful servant… you are the only one I can entrust my back to," Madara sighed as he gazed out across the blue ocean stretching as far as the eye could see, his long, spiky black hair fluttering in the salty wind. "Just tell me… do you truly think the Eye of the Moon Plan can still be successfully completed with the world as it is now?"

A thousand years of plotting, wasted.

Never mind the Eye of the Moon Plan, all of Black Zetsu's carefully laid plans had fallen through. Of all the powers Madara's new Rinnegan had awakened, it was the Future Sight shinjutsu, an ability even more annoying than Limbo: Border Jail. It was now impossible for Black Zetsu to betray Madara, because any attempt to backstab him would be thwarted before he could even conceive of it!

It was a good thing Madara trusted Black Zetsu enough to inform it of his new ability to send his mind back into his body in the past, or things would have got rather awkward later on when it tried to use his body to revive Kaguya!

Uchiha Madara was now unusable as a vessel for Mistress Kaguya's resurrection, and the backup, Obito, had been rendered useless by the first candidate. Black Zetsu had secretly help stabilise Obito's White Zetsu half so that Danzō and the One-Tail didn't end up permanently stranded in the Kamui dimension, but the heart seal preventing Obito from becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki remained…

"The odds of success are slim; the window of opportunity has passed…" Black Zetsu replied glumly. "The Fourth Shinobi World War has already ended… it would be difficult to reassemble so many backup sources of chakra in one place for the Eye of the Moon Project, should the incomplete Ten-Tails' chakra alone prove to be insufficient."

"Hashirama was never good at gambling, but this bet we made together, with this mad idea we had all those years ago for a place where children would no longer have to fight and die…" Madara said, sounding strangely happy. "The inheritors of his will have grown far stronger than even he could have possibly imagined, eh? With their strengths combined, they could even give me a run for my money… it's a shame Hashirama won't live to see them reach their full potential."

Hashirama had been fully revived in his prime, but that only meant he had a scant few years to live before his degenerative disease struck again… the very same disease the Sage of Six Paths was once said to have suffered from. Their amazing powers came at a terrible cost, for the human body had never been meant to harbour such immense chakra.

"Indeed," Black Zetsu said dryly.

Madara retrieved a shiny blue pebble from his pocket and tossed it into the air, catching it with practised ease before throwing and catching it, again and again; just as he used to do for fun when he was a child, skipping stones across the river with his best friend Hashirama…

"I've already waited seventy-five years… what's a few more years?" Madara said with a laugh, catching and pocketing the pebble with a flip of his hand. "This little thing that fell out of Danzō's pocket… apparently, it's called a Gelel Stone, and more of them are to be found overseas. My Ten-Tails seems to have taken a liking to it… who knows, maybe after it's eaten enough of them, it'll have grown strong enough to rival Obito's…"

"…"

"I plan to restart the Akatsuki overseas, far away from the shinobi continent. I've already sent Kisame there, so I'm counting on you to keep tabs on current events here for me," Madara went on, unperturbed by Black Zetsu's silence. "If you can, seek out Uchiha Sasuke and convince him of the validity of our cause. Turn him to our side; as the incarnation of my will, and having been instrumental to my plans, you should have learned a thing or two from me about plotting behind the scenes…"

It was a good thing Black Zetsu was not human; otherwise, it most assuredly would have crashed out and slapped Madara right there and then in outrage.

In any case, Black Zetsu was done with being Madara's lackey… it may have wasted all its time corrupting him, but perhaps not all was lost. There were more candidates to choose from than ever… Sasuke, and that pink-haired girl…

"As you command, I shall seek out Sasuke…"

Seizing his two prisoners by the scruff of the neck, Madara launched himself from the cliff into freefall, before reappearing moments later as his Perfect Susano'o spread its wings and surged over the edge of the cliff, riding an updraught. The blue chakra titan soared over the calm sea, carrying Madara further and further from the shinobi continent until he disappeared beneath the horizon… and only then did Black Zetsu sink into the ground.

Obito was going west, Madara was going east… and Black Zetsu was going wherever other Rinnegan were to be found.