The battle continues! But who will come out victorious?

Chapter 23- The accursed mask.

"Madara... what happened to you?"

He staggered toward her and said, "I'm fine, I just underestimated him, that's all."

Kasumi shook her head and went to go help him sit down. His mask was cracked and there were slashes all over him.

But... when had this happened?

She had only been gone for a couple of minutes... was Naruto really this strong?

Suddenly, there was the sound of an explosion and Sasuke's unconscious body flew toward them.

Impossible... Sasuke was strong... no... too weak for this it seemed.

Naruto was suddenly standing in front of them and he said, "You're Madara... but who are you?"

She stood up from Madara's side and said, "Kasumi, last remaining survivor of the Mountain Clan."

He nodded and muttered something along the lines of 'why does she have to be on his side?' before he looked at Madara and said, "I'm giving you one last chance to surrender."

"Never. You brat, you will never understand all the trouble I have went through to get here," Madara seethed as he ripped his mask off his face and stood up to fight again.

Naruto didn't even seem fazed as he continued, "Give up, you know how this will end."

No one knew how it would end... not even time itself.

Kasumi cast a pleading glance at Madara, who frowned and charged at the blond.

Everything looked like someone had pressed the fast forward button because when Madara was around to punch Naruto, the teen disappeared and all of a sudden the Uchiha was flying through the air and into a tree.

There was a sickening cracking noise and both Kasumi and Naruto actually winced at it before running over to him.

He was barely conscious as she muttered his name over and over again.

Naruto stared at the scene sadly, he didn't want to hurt anyone, but he didn't have a choice. This was the man that had created chaos in the entire ninja world and started the Fourth Ninja War.

"Madara... Madara... stop this please... you don't need to keep getting hurt... we can teleport away," she tried to convince him as he opened his blood red eyes to look at her.

"No, we will fight and we will win, you just wait and see," he reassured her, but they both knew it was futile.

Suddenly, her eyes widened and she remembered the first thing she had heard when she had come to this time.

The poem...

She looked at Madara and then back at Naruto. There was no way they could win... it had to be done.

She helped him stand up and then did a couple of hand seals before she clapped and the dark night sky began to cloud over.

Naruto didn't pay attention to it as he once again ran at the couple.

Madara blocked his attacks, while Kasumi stood frozen and chanted an ancient spell her clan had created.

It was a forbidden jutsu reserved only for life and death situations and if this wasn't one, Kasumi didn't know what was.

"Oh brother hell, do hear my call,

As I give my soul to you before I fall."

Madara turned to look at her sharply when she said the second line. Was she truly giving up her soul or was it just a lyric?

The now cloudy sky began turning red and mist came out of no where. Naruto still paid no heed to any of this as he continued charging at Madara.

"Oh mother earth, do know my dreams,

As I turn them true through my seams."

Everything in sight was now a rich blood red and they had stopped fighting to see what was going to happen next.

"Oh father heaven, do forgive my heart,

As I bleed it out to stop the start."

Suddenly, Naruto froze and a pillar of light broke through the red to shine down at him. The clouds above began to twist around the pillar and the teen was completely paralyzed as Kasumi continued.

"But brother hell, it is not my soul I pay.

But mother earth, it is not my dreams I say.

Yet father heaven, it is my heart I sway."

By now, Naruto was trying to struggle out of the strange light that was holding him stuck. But it was too late...

"Brother hell, do take Uzumaki Naruto's soul.

Mother earth, do take Uchiha Madara's dreams.

Father heaven, do take my heart."

Naruto's anguished screams broke through the deadly silence of the mist as a small white orb ripped out of his body and after one last scream it turned black and disappeared underground.

"Brother hell, you are done."

At first his body looked like it died, but then his eyes turned red and a deep, demonic voice said, "Foolish Kasumi, you have now given me, the Kyuubi, Naruto's body!"

Madara's eyes widened and he quickly activated his Sharingan to try and over power him.

However, it was not necessary because roots reached out from the earth, tied him up and knocked him unconscious.

"Mother earth, you are done."

Madara turned around to look at Kasumi and just at that moment she unclasped her hands and fell to the ground.

Blood began to pool around from where her heart was and she whispered, "Father heaven, you are done."

"Kasumi! What did you do?" Madara demanded, but she could hear the edge of worry laced into his tone.

"I have given us victory... and don't worry about me. You survived getting stabbed in the heart, why shouldn't I?" she tried to joke.

"We could have won another way, you didn't have to do this," he whispered as he cupper her cheek in his hand.

"When I came to this time... I heard the lyrics of this jutsu... and I knew why I was sent here... to help you Madara...," she trailed off to let out a painful string of coughs.

He shook his head and when she was done he knew she only had a moment before it was too late.

"Kasumi... I should have told you this eighty years ago... I love you," he whispered and leaned in to kiss her.

He broke the kiss off and with the last of her strength she smiled at him and whispered, "I love you too..."

And the rest was silence.

...

Danzo watched with narrowed eyes as Kasumi suddenly began to glow in an unearthly white light before her eyes snapped open and she stared up at him.

...What...?

She jumped up from the ground and demanded, "Danzo! What the hell are you doing here? Where am I?"

He didn't know what to say to her. One moment she was asking him why he was going to kill her and the next she didn't know where she was.

"You are in Konoha's forest. Did you forget or did the fear make you insane?" he couldn't help but add the jab at the end.

Her eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat.

She... she was back?

A happy grin lit up her face and she yelled, "I'm alive! And... and I'm back! I don't believe how lucky I am!"

Danzo raised an eye brow at her. From where exactly was she back? She hadn't even been anywhere.

Suddenly, Izuna ran into the small clearing they were in and when she saw him her eyes lit up even more. "Izuna! You're alive too!"

Both men gave her confused glances as she continued to cheer about how good it was to be alive.

Out of the blue, she stopped, did a few hand signs and in a deadly low voice said, "But you Danzo, are not going to be alive. You are the reason I left in the first place... you are the reason my clan will die, the reason the Uchiha clan will be wiped out and eighty-one years in the future, Madara is going to wipe Konoha off the face of the earth because of you."

She didn't elaborate any further as she did the last hand sign of the jutsu and her hands became encased in ice.

"I will avenge my clan," was all she said as she ran at him with lightning speed and stabbed him right through the heart.

Then, just to make him suffer more, she ripped his heart out and said, "You will suffer like I did... this is how I died."

Kasumi let do of his body, his heart and made the ice claws disintegrate.

"When did you get that fast?" Izuna asked her, but then he added, "And that violent, I thought you were more of the 'clear cut' killer type."

She smiled at him and said, "That's for me to know and for you to never, ever find out."

Then she was running toward the cave she had left Madara in and Izuna ran after her. He still didn't understand any of this... and what was all the stuff she said about the Uchiha clan being wiped out?

A few minutes later, Kasumi shot into the cave and toward Madara, who looked surprised to see her running so fast at him.

She stopped right in front of him and after taking a deep breath she said, "Madara! Listen to me and listen well because I'm only going to say it once. You will not kill the Uchiha clan, you will not create a secret organization called the Akatsuki and you will definitely not try to destroy Konoha!"

He was silent for a second before he said, "Why would I destroy Konoha?"

"Because, I disappeared and Izuna is dead," she answered matter of factly and Izuna, who was standing right there, checked his pulse before he said, "But you're right here and I'm alive."

Kasumi turned to grin at him, but didn't say anything else on the matter.

Then Madara continued, "When did you get so fast?"

She wagged her finger at him and said, "No more questions, you need to rest and then take charge of the Uchiha clan again."

He shook his head and decided she was only saying these weird things because she had suddenly turned insane.

As an after thought, she added, "Oh, and if I see you wearing anything orange or speaking in high pitch I will personally set you on fire."

Yup, definitely insane.

...

Madara, Izuna and Kasumi walked into the Uchiha base early the next morning and they were expecting people to be surprised... but they weren't expecting... this.

The second people saw Madara they began running around town screaming his name. But that wasn't the strange part.

The strange part was when a huge mob of people gathered around him and tried to lift him up to parade him around town.

By then, they were all creeped out by this so they ran into the Uchiha clan mansion, closed the gates and decided to wait for the crowd to calm down before he made his 'I'm your leader again' speech.

Meanwhile, Kasumi went back to her and Madara's room to promptly burn the rug and bury the ashes in the garden outside.

"So, Mr. Wise guy, what do we do now?" Izuna asked when they found a quiet room to sit in where they didn't hear the crowds screaming.

"They will calm down and eventually stupid Harashima will show up to see me," Madara replied with a sigh.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a door being opened and a voice said, "Madara! You're alive!"

Before Madara could see who it was, he was getting bear hugged from a very happy looking Harashima Senju.

Harashima + Madara + Bear hug... how strange...

Izuna and Kasumi watched with growing amusement as Madara tried to wrestle out of the Hokage's grip, but simply couldn't and in the end resorted to swearing quietly.

When everything was explained and everyone had calmed down, Harashima said, "Madara, I want to ask you something..."

Kasumi couldn't resist but laugh as she whispered to Izuna, "He's going to ask Madara to marry him."

The Uchiha had heard and he shot them both death glared as the Hokage continued, "Will, you be my head advisor, my right hand, my go to person?"

Madara's glare disappeared and after a moments consideration he said, "I will, but on one condition. Get rid of the crazy mob outside my house."

"Done," Harashima finalized and they shook on it.

...

"Kasumi, I've been worried about you lately. You've been all happy and cheerful and no matter how much I try to sour your mood," Madara said as he tried to get his thoughts across to Kasumi.

She just gave him another one of those wide 'I know something you don't know' grins and said, "Stop worrying, I'm just glad to be happy and here with you. This is much better than being stuck with you when you went through that whole 'I'm Tobi, but really I'm not' faze."

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Who is this Tobi person you keep mentioning?"

"You, but forget about that now, the future is no longer the actual future so none of it matters," she tried to get him off the subject again.

Madara shook his head and grabbed the sides of her head to make her look at him as he demanded, "Kasumi, tell me what you saw. I want to know everything."

She stared into his eyes sadly before she sighed and began, "When Danzo attacked me in the woods... Izuna died and somehow that sent me eighty years in the future..."

"...and then I died... but next thing I know, I'm on the ground in front of Danzo," she finished after a good hour of explaining everything she had seen.

Madara hadn't interrupted her once and he sat silent for a couple more minutes until he asked, "So in the end you still never managed to defeat me in battle?"

"I came close! If you want proof we can fight it out right here, right now!" she defended her pride and folded her arms.

Then he looked a little more serious and in a deep, husky tone asked, "And I didn't say anything else to you before you died?"

There was a small nervous chuckle. She had omitted the part where they exchanged their true feelings for each other.

"Well... you did... bu-"

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Izuna walked in. "Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds, but Harashima Senju wants to talk to you."

Madara sighed and said, "Again? He's the Hokage and I'm his top advisor right? Then why does he keep calling on me?"

Izuna just shook his head and coaxed, "The sooner you finish with him, the sooner you and Kasumi can go back to... whatever it was you were doing."

The Uchiha clan leader sighed again, but did as he was asked.

He may not have ended up being Hokage, but he wasn't sure he wanted to anymore because of the simply insane amount of paper work there was to be done.

"Have fun Madara!" Kasumi called after him and he gave her a look that said 'this isn't over' before he walked out of the room.

When he was gone, she let out a sigh of relief and flopped down on their bed.

For the past week they had been sharing the bed and there hadn't been a single problem... well... except for she had to look out and make sure he didn't roll on top of her in the middle of the night and suffocate her to death...

...But they had easily solved that by taking advantage of Madara's obsession of grabbing her by the waist as they fell asleep.

As Kasumi waited for Madara to come back, she decided to finally take the time to snoop around Madara's stuff.

First, she looked through the drawers, but found nothing interesting. Second, she looked through his closet, but all she found there was, well, clothes.

Finally, she decided to take one last chance at entertaining herself by checking under the bed.

There was something almost flat and round lying at the very back and she was determined to get it.

To her misfortune, the bed was large and half of her had to be under the bed in order for her to reach this strange object.

Just as her hand grabbed onto it, there was a strange chuckle and a deep voice said, "Kasumi, what are you doing?"

Caught like a kid with their hand in a beehive.

Only in this case, Madara was the giant bee and it wasn't just her hand that was stuck.

"Madara... um... this isn't what it looks like," she offered and she could already imagine the amused smirk on his face.

"So then tell me, what are you doing?" he asked and she laughed nervously before she said, "Oh you know... I was just... looking around..."

"Under my bed?" he asked, but then added, "I should have known you always liked sleeping on the floor."

She gasped and reflexively tried to stand up, but banged her head against the bottom of the bed and groaned.

"Need some help?" he finally offered when he noticed she had stopped moving.

"No... I'm fine... and just for your information, I do not like sleeping on the floor!" Kasumi replied as she gripped the strange object she had reached for in the first place.

It was too dark for her to see what it was, but she could tell it had one little hole in it.

Madara's voice broke her out of her musings, "So you're just going to sit under the bed all day?"

Scoffing, she replied, "And what if I am?"

He chuckled again and she gasped when he grabbed her ankles and with one precise yank, pulled her out from under the bed.

"Kasumi... why are you holding my mask?"

"Your mask? What..." she trailed off when she saw she was holding an orange mask with a spiral design and one hole for the eye.

She instantly jumped up from the floor and declared, "I am going to burn this!"

Madara raised an eye brow at her and grabbed the mask from her hands before explaining, "This is the mask I wore when I was a child."

Kasumi looked at him, the mask, and then back at him. "You... you wore that as a child?"

Within the second, she burst out laughing and he glared at her, how dare she laugh at the most beautiful mask in the world!

She continued to laugh for a long time, until he got tired of it, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in for a kiss.

The laughing stopped and she gingerly kissed back.

"Now, stop making fun of my childhood and sit down. I have something to tell you," Madara half ordered, half asked.

Kasumi did as she was told and he sat down beside her before he took her by the hand and began, "Hearing what might have happened in the future made me think about a lot of things."

He started to pull her closer as he continued, "I want you to know this, and never forget."

By now, their lips were almost touching and at last he finished, "I love you."

Madara kissed her and for the first time in both their lives, they were truly happy.

Truly free.

The end!

:) Hehehe, the story is done! Thank you all for reading this long and I just was to say a couple of things.

1. I wrote the poem myself, so that's why there are no credits for it at the end.

2. The ending is rather open, but I would rather it be open than really bad or just plain creepy.

3. The title of the story, Mist, symbolizes the freedom they each gained in the end and Kasumi also means 'mist'.

Once again, thanks for reading!

Any final thoughts?