Chapter 19! Please Enjoy!

Sasuke, quickly rebounds with another attack before Pain can get up. Luckily for him, this was the last remaining Pain, as Naruto had killed the others during the war on the village. He mentally thanked him for that. Dealing with one is a lot easier than six.

The other Akatsuki also spring into action, attacking the group. All, but Sakura, had to leave Naruto to protect his body. If there were a way to save him, they couldn't allow his body to be destroyed.

"Sakura," Kakashi called, also joining the fight, "get Naruto away from here."

Sakura quickly breaks out of her trance of shock when Sasuke joined the battle and argues, "But he'll die if he's too far away from the nine tails spirit!"

"He'll die if we keep him here without much protection. Go now!" Kakashi orders.

Sakura nods slowly. She lifts Naruto's arm and places his around her shoulder and moves her other around his waist, dragging him at least out of the ceremony room, away from the fighting. She, then, lays him on the ground, trying to keep him alive and thinking of ways to wake him up.

Sasuke and the others continue to push forward. However, the fight between Sasuke and Kakashi has left them pretty whipped out and for the others trying to break through the bubble left them low on chakra. Not that the Akatsuki were doing much better, having to use more chakra than planned to speed up the ceremony. However, their skills still out ranked those of the leaf ninja.

That didn't stop the leaf ninja, though. They still outnumbered them and they continued to adapt the many fighting styles of the Akatsuki, persevering through everything they threw at them. Just like a certain knucklehead ninja use to do. But this time, they were determined to protect him rather than have him protect them like he's done so many times in the past.

They were going to succeed. They had to.

Sasuke took notice the stances of each Akatsuki member, watching as they placed themselves before the statues in order to protect them. That's when he realized that they should be focusing on the statues that contained the tailed beasts and destroying them. However, destroying all of the statues would release all the beasts when they only needed to release one in particular.

"Shikamaru, Kakashi!" Sasuke called out, both looked at him in surprise of the sudden outburst. Sasuke tilts his head indicating he wanted them to follow him and the leave the fighting to the others. They both nodded in agreement, cutting off their adversary.

"Yamato, you come too." Kakashi says. Nodding, Yamato runs in the direction too.

"Where are you going?" Kiba asks.

"Just take care of them, we'll be back." Shikamaru instructs.

With a nod by all the remaining leaf ninja, the three leave for a safe place to talk strategy.

Outside the boundaries, Sakura continues to try to wake Naruto up. "Wake up, Naruto!" She calls, shaking his shoulder with one hand, as the other emits healing chakra into his heart, constantly keeping it beating.

Eventually, his eyelids flutter and he opens his eyes lazily. "Naruto!" Sakura calls again, smiling through her tears.

"Sa...kur…a" He mumbles, eyes widening slightly, though he still looked like he was in a daze from the pain that raked through his body as he tries to speak.

"It's me, Naruto." She whispers.

"Oh great. I'm dead." He chuckles slightly.

"No, Naruto. You aren't. You're alive." Sakura says.

"But you're not, so how am I—"

"We're both alive, Naruto. All of us are alive." She smiles.

"All of you?" Naruto asks, as emotion flood into his mind and increase the pain in his body.

"Every single one of us."

"But how? I'm sure I saw—"

"We're not really sure." She interrupts shaking her head, "One minute we're dead, but the next we're getting dragged back to life. Someone must have cast a really powerful jutsu to bring our lives back. Kind of like the one used on Gaara. But by the time they did, you were gone. We've been searching everywhere for you."

"You w—," Suddenly, Naruto cringed in pain cutting him off.

"Naruto!" Sakura screams, concerned. Naruto's heart stopped for a moment. He may be awake now, but he's still dying.

"Sakura," Sakura's eyes trail back to Naruto's, seeing the pain and suffering he's been through, "The nine tails," Naruto pauses, "it's gone. Isn't it?"

Sakura nods slowly but Naruto just chuckles, adding more concern to Sakura's face. "If only I would have known, I wouldn't be here."

"Naruto, you're not going to die! We'll try something." Sakura sobs.

Naruto shakes his head. His voice was given out on him and slowly his eyes begin to close. But before they close completely he takes one last breath and says "I'm sorry" before passing out completely.

"Ready?" Kakashi asks. Sasuke, Yamato, and Shikamaru nod in agreement.

"Alright, it's a make it work moment then," Yamato adds.

This is their last shot. If this doesn't work, Naruto's life will end and possibly bring about the end of the world.

They take to their positions, then call the others that are still fighting on the scene to fall back. They retreat and the others move in.

Sasuke goes first, activating is mangekyou sharingan then calling out Susanoo, the warrior. Pain awaits his attack, but is quickly avoided by Sasuke. Everything goes in slow motion as Sasuke destroys the third statue to the left with a single blow, releasing the fox spirit from inside.

The nine tails growls in relief, fully forming inside the cave alongside Susanoo. He laughs manically but is cut short as Sasuke pins him to that ground with his warrior.

"Release me." The nine tails growls again, angrier than ever.

Sasuke doesn't reply but continues to go against his wishes holding him down. The nine tails squirms and sinks its fangs into Susanoo's wrist, causing it to fade away like the ghostly entity it is. Still the remaining of his arm and the other limbs grasp tightly to the nine tails.

Yamato quickly rounds the corner and pulls out his sealing wood style jutsu creating a barrier to "declaw" the nine tails from its remaining chakra. Luckily for them, the nine tails hasn't been able to build up its chakra completely leaving it defenseless.

Pain tries to break this up and release the nine tails, however Sasuke stops him now that he can free move with the nine tails being demobilized by Yamato.

"I got him!" Someone calls from behind. Yamato doesn't look, as it might break his concentration, however he knows who it is.

Barreling around the corner comes, Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Sakura, as they carry Naruto towards the nine tails.

"What are you doing?" The nine tails growls as he recognizes Naruto.

They place Naruto down, close to the nine tails. Kakashi performs some hands signs as opens the seal on Naruto's stomach causing a swirling vortex to form and suck in the nine tails chakra. Unfortunately, the nine tails is holding back and Yamato reign him in completely.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi calls out.

"Neji, Kiba!" Shikamaru calls running towards the battle, "Intercept Pain!"

They nod and flash forward. The three of them attack Pain in perfect synchronization, allowing Sasuke to get away.

Once in position, Sasuke takes the nine tail spirit and slowly but surely pushes him into the vortex.

"I won't return!" says the nine tails, as he stands firm.

Sasuke inches forward. I won't let Naruto die! With that determination and one final full push, he throws the nine tails into the vortex.

With the nine tails inside, Kakashi closes the seal.

So what's going to happen next?

I think this fanfiction might only have 1 or 2 more chapters you guys! So thanks for sticking with me all this time.

A lot of people were wondering what happened to Kurama. The reason he hasn't really had a part in this fanfiction is because other than his name being mentioned, he never really had a huge speaking part in Naruto until the war. And this arch happened before the 4th war.

Plus I wanted to make this as close to cannon as possible while still being true to my storyline. Basically what I was going for was that this story could have been an alternate ending to the arch or season, which I personally think I did an okay job with.

If you have any other questions please ask! I'm really nice, I promise.

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