Pushing Through the Limit Chapter 77: Last Minute

It was the early morning of the next day, only a few hours past midnight when I made my move. Getting up from my bedroll, I shrugged off my cloak and silently created a single clone to take my place. Leaving a single Marker behind, I gave one final cursory glance around the room.

Everyone was asleep... Well, save for a few of Yahiko’s Shinobi that were currently guarding the base. Hopefully, I’d return before they started waking up.

“Forgetting something?”

“Huh,” I hummed softly.

“The orbs.”

‘Oh, right.’

I’d been waiting for this moment for so long that I’d almost forgotten.

Feeling my mesh shirt ruffle, my Truth Seeking Orbs slowly removed themselves from my body and began floating behind me. Obito was nothing if not slippery... And that wasn’t even mentioning Zetsu. I wasn’t going to give them the chance to escape.

Taking a breath, I reached out to the Marker I’d placed on Obito only a few hours before and vanished from the room.

The world blurred around me and was instantly replaced by a dimly lit cavernous room with Obito’s masked form sitting in a stone chair. Locking eyes with his lone Sharingan, I smirked as several of my Truth Seeking Orbs, extending into spears, shot forward and pierced through his body.

Judging by the grunt of pain and the blood that began to drip through his clothes, I’d say that was a direct hit.

“What... Is this?” Obito grunted as he tried to sit forward.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” I noted idly. “The more you move, the more of yourself you’ll erase... Then again, you’re not going to survive this, so... Do whatever you want. You’ve only got a few minutes at best.”

“It’s you... The one from before,” Obito breathed raggedly. “How...” He strained. “Are you here?”

“That’s a bit of a long story,” I replied. “A bit too long for you,” I chuckled. Walking over, I reached for his mask. Space briefly swirled inward on itself, before it snapped back in place. “Interesting thing... These Orbs of mine. They can negate, well, pretty much anything they come into contact with... Even your Chakra.”

Grabbing a hold of the mask, I tugged it off and dropped it on the floor, revealing Obito’s face.

“Why... Have I never heard of you... Before?” He asked. “I should have known if... Someone had an ability like this.”

Maybe it was Hashirama’s implanted cells or maybe it was sheer will power, but the fact that he was still alive was actually a little impressive.

“Still asking the wrong questions, Obito,” I shook my head. Forming a pitch black blade out of one of my Truth Seeking Orbs, I held it above my head, ready to bring it down. “Sorry, but this is it for you.”

“Get ready,” Kurama warned.

Bringing the blade down, the ground, I reversed my grip on it and stabbed a body behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I found Black Zetsu, his palm only a few inches from my back, seemingly intending to pierce through me.

“Man, I was way off... I gotta practice more with a sword, that was terrible,” I muttered. Twitching a finger, my remaining Truth Seeking Orbs pierced into Zetsu’s body, one of which stabbed through his head, killing the white half.

“The Six Paths,” Black Zetsu growled. “How?”

“It’s a funny story, actually,” I replied. Raising the Truth Seeking Orbs, Zetsu’s body was hoisted into the air. “You know, these things are supposed to erase everything they come into contact with, but not you... Your body’s a bit different from everyone else... It’s made for this kind of Chakra.”

“Otsutsuki? One of Hagoromo’s descendents?”

“Something like that,” I nodded. “I suppose you could say that I did exactly the same thing as Madara... Only, I’m not an Uchiha.”

“Senju.”

“Uzumaki actually,” I replied.

Deciding that I’d said enough, I snapped my fingers.

As one, the Truth Seeking Orbs piercing through Zetsu’s body began to let off a substantial amount of light that quickly obscured his body. Holding my hand out towards them, I pulsed my Chakra and clenched it, condensing the light around Zetsu’s form.

The underground base vibrated with a massive amount of energy that threatened to break it apart before the light began to die down. Shrinking in on itself, a gust of wind rushed in to fill a vacuum.

Dying down completely, all that remained in the spot Zetsu had been held was my Truth Seeking Orbs. They were completely undamaged after containing an explosion that would be able to erase a forest several times over.

‘Kurama?’

“He’s dead,” Kurama answered. “If he wasn’t, I would have felt him by now. When you try, you can really piss people off and Zetsu has... Had a problem with his temper.”

That was a relief. Unfortunately, I doubt we’d be able to do the same thing to the Zetsu of our time. Unlike the one here, he had more than enough information to realize that a direct confrontation with me would end poorly for him.

“What... The hell... Was that?” Obito asked, barely hanging on.

“You’re still alive? That’s actually pretty impressive,” I said, turning back towards Obito, i decided to explain a few things. “That was me killing your buddy. Black Zetsu wasn’t exactly who he said he was. He was a being that was made during the time of the Sage of Six Paths and his intention was to resurrect it.”

“He wasn’t... I... Saw his creation,” Obito argued weakly.

“Madara’s little trick of infusing will into a Zetsu clone?” I asked. “Sorry, but he was fooled too. Zetsu used the both of you. He even changed the stone tablet in the Uchiha’s secret meeting room. This was never about saving the world. The Infinite Tsukuyomi wouldn’t have saved the world, it would have ended it.”

Appearing as if he wanted to continue arguing, Obito let out a breath and slumped in his seat, finally succumbing to his wounds. Waiting for a few moments to ensure that he was really dead, I recalled the Truth Seeking Orbs that impaled him.

This... Didn’t go as I thought it would. I’d wanted to kill Obito for so long, but this... I was still glad that he was dead, but it almost felt hollow. Like it wasn’t a real victory.

“Because this isn’t your Obito. This is one that has only just begun to follow in Madara’s footsteps,” Kurama replied. “You literally don’t have any history with him.”

Yeah... That was probably right. I wasn’t one to feel bad for taking revenge, but this wasn’t really revenge. What I was going to do to the Obito from my timeline... Now that was going to be revenge.

“Look on the bright side... You can still loot his base.”

That was true.

Creating a dozen clones, I sent them to scour the base for anything I might find interesting. If I wasn’t mistaken, the Gedo Mazo should be here along with a few other things that could come in useful.

As for me...

“You’re not actually going to go through with that, are you?”

“Not here, but it couldn’t hurt to bring it back with us,” I muttered.

Grabbing one of my sealing scrolls, I glanced through it, before unsealing a glass container filled with a yellowish liquid. Funnily enough, I intended on using this after killing Obito, but the one from my time.

Unsealing the top, I turned towards Obito’s body and took a breath and pressed my fingers against his eye socket. “Sorry, but I need this more than you do.”

I originally intended for this to be used to store the Rinnegan, but Obito’s Mangekyou would do nicely. I had to wonder though... If I used this back in my timeline, would it be linked to that Obito’s dimension or would it still be linked to this one. While they were the same person, they were also technically different.

I guess I was just gonna have to figure it out when I got back.

Replacing the lid, I briefly looked at Obito’s Sharingan, before resealing the container in my scroll. With that taken care of, I turned my attention towards everything my clones pilfered from the base and I had to say, I was a little disappointed.

Outside of a handful of Zetsu’s and the Gedo Mazo, there really wasn’t much here worth taking. Only a few moldy scrolls that seemed to have been written by Madara himself and the Gedo Mazo... Wait.

“That could certainly come in handy,” Kurama idly commented.

“That’s definitely coming back with us,” I said, watching as my clone entered the room with Madara’s Gunbai slung over his shoulder. Digging in my pouch, I tossed an empty Sealing Scroll to my clone. “Here, seal everything that looks useful.”

“Sure thing, boss.” The clone nodded.

Leaving, I followed one of my clone's paths, passing a group of dead Zetsu’s on the way. Passing through several hallways, I finally came to a stop at the top of a large stairwell with a large lotus stretching from the bottom, holding the Gedo Mazo.

“So, how do you want to do this?”

“A Bijuudama should do the trick,” Kurama hummed. “Maybe add a few Rasenshuriken on top to make sure it’s completely destroyed.”

That seemed reasonable. Once my clones were done, I’d get right on that. Part of me was tempted to take the Gedo Mazo back with me. Even though it was just a husk, it did still contain an enormous amount of life force, but... It also contained Kaguya. Bringing it and her back was a risk that I couldn’t take.

“You know, we haven’t been here all that long,” Kurama commented. “It’ll still be a good few hours before the sun rises in the Land of Rain.”

…He wasn’t wrong.

“Exactly. You did say that you wanted to help the Akatsuki of this time out,” He continued. “We still have more than enough time to handle a few more things.”

With Obito dead, Kurama wouldn’t be forced to attack Konoha, meaning that the village wouldn’t have any reason to suspect that the Uchiha clan was behind it, but... With Danzo alive, who knew what would become of them.

“I suppose we can take a little detour before returning to the Akatsuki’s hideout,” I hummed. “After we destroy this place.”

“Before it comes to that, I think there’s something we should take with when dealing with Danzo,” Kurama chuckled. “Look down.”

Oh? Now that was interesting. I wasn’t entirely sure if I could pull it off, but it was definitely worth a try. At the very least, it’d make for a funny story.

“Hey, boss. We’re all done,” My clone announced, returning my scroll.

Nodding, I slipped the scroll back into my pouch. “Thanks. I have one last thing for you to do before you dispel.”

…PTL…

Danzo wasn’t having a good morning… But then again, not many were. It started off simple enough. He’d woken up early and immediately got to work. With the Third Shinobi War raging, he didn’t have much time to rest, not that it would have really mattered.

He’d spent the morning going over mission reports from one of his newer recruits... One Yakushi Kabuto. The boy, although young, was extremely good at what he did. He blended in perfectly with his environments and provided useful information.

It was almost a shame that he was going to have to kill him before the end of this war. Why? Because he was too good at his job.

During one of his previous missions, he’d managed to come across sensitive information pertaining to Danzo himself… Implicating him in the demise of a former allied village.

Although he likely wasn’t aware of how it linked back, it was still a loose thread that he had to snip. Kabuto needed to die and there was no better person to do it than his own adoptive mother… Yakushi Nonō. Another such person who knew too much.

It would be simple. This war would likely rage for another few years… Long enough for him to condition Nonō into believing that her son was actually someone else. All he’d need to do then was kill the kid from the photos and point her in Kabuto’s direction.

When the time came, he’d pull that cord and send her to kill her son before killing her in turn. Until then, however, he’d get a little more use from the duo. There were still plenty of leaks that needed to be patched… Information that needed to be stolen and people that needed to be killed.

“Report,” He ordered, looking up from his desk to see one of his many agents.

“Unfortunately we haven’t been able to find out much about the explosion earlier this morning,” The Root agent apologized. “Some of our top sensors are saying that it was caused by a Biju, but they are unable to say which. Since the explosion originated in a country between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth, it may be one of theirs.”

Likely an attempted use of extremely long ranged attacks between the two nations, Danzo nodded. That wasn’t necessarily good news. Especially if such a technique was used against Konoha.

On the other hand, it could be useful. If Konoha was grazed by such an attack, Hiruzen may come to realize that their Jinchuriki needed to be properly trained. Mito was given a pass due to her age and being the Shodaime Hokage’s wife, but Kushina was young and had no such connections.

“Send word to Kabuto. I want him placed in Kumo and have Nonō investigate Iwa,” Danzo ordered. “We need to find out if they were responsible.”

“At once, sir,” The Root Agent responded before leaving.

Once he figured that out, he’d simply leak some information to the offending village, allowing them to get their Jinchuriki close enough to Konoha to do some damage, but not enough that they would fully destroy the village.

Some would die, yes, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. In the long run, Konoha would gain a weapon, one capable of shielding it from all attacks and destroying its enemies in one fell swoop.

Hearing the thud of footsteps, he looked up to see that the Root Agent had returned.

“Why are you back?” He asked, reaching for a Kunai hidden under his desk.

Not responding, the Root Agent took several more steps towards Danzo before falling to his knees. Falling forward, his head detached from his body and rolled across the floor as blood began to pool around his body.

Attempting to stand, Danzo found his body stuck to his chair as the wood twisted around, trapping him. “Mokuton?!”

“I am disappointed in you, Danzo,” A deep, frighteningly familiar voice sounded through his office. “To think that one of my brother's students could fall so low. It’s nothing more than shameful.”

Unable to look away, Danzo was forced to watch as Senju Hashirama, the Shodaime Hokage himself, stepped through his doors. Flaring his Chakra, he was surprised to find that this wasn’t an illusion.

“I don’t know who you are, but there’s no way that you’re Hashirama,” Danzo muttered. “He’s been dead for decades.”

“My body was never retrieved,” Hashirama replied, stepping ever closer. “You of all people should know that without a body, there’s no proof of death. My brother made sure to beat that lesson into me when I was a child. Perhaps Saru still remembers.”

Coating his finger in Wind Style Chakra, Danzo quietly began to whittle away at his constraints, only for them to suddenly grow thorns and pierce his skin, locking him in place.

“What are your intentions?” Danzo scowled.

Walking around the pool of blood, Hashirama stopped directly in front of Danzo’s desk.

“To undo the past mistakes,” He answered easily. “Madara and I founded Konoha in an attempt to bring peace and stop all of this needless bloodshed. To make it so that children no longer need to die on the battlefield. You on the other hand have actively been working against that. You’ve been using and discarding everyone that comes across your path and that is something I can no longer abide.”

Breathing easily, Danzo exhaled suddenly, spitting a sharp blade of wind towards the imposter, only for his desk to suddenly come alive and block the attack, before wrapping tightly around his body until the only thing that was visible was his face.

“I’m sorry, Danzo, those tricks of yours won’t help you here,” Hashirama muttered. Producing a single seed from his robes, he forced Danzo’s mouth open and dropped it inside. “Now I will show you a fraction of the pain you’ve brought to these lands.”

Danzo let out a gargled scream as he felt a root begin to grow within him.

…PTL...

“I have to give it to Nagato… Controlling a body like that is a lot harder than it looks,” I muttered, making my way out of Danzo’s underground complex. “I wonder if it’d be any easier with the Rinnegan.”

“Most likely,” Kurama shrugged. “Are you sure that it’s wise to leave Hashirama’s clone there?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s not like anyone else would be able to use his body like that,” I replied. “Besides, they’re pretty much just a clump of cells that look like Hashirama.”

“If you’re sure.”

Rolling my eyes, I made my way out of the sewer and was greeted by a dimly lit Konoha. It was a little different from the one in my time… I didn’t recognize some of the buildings, but regardless of that, it was still Konoha.

Now all that’s left was to see if I could find Orochimaru and–

“Heads up.”

Diving to the side, a golden chain swiped across the place my head had been only a moment earlier. Turning around I found myself staring down an enraged looking Kushina.

“Found you, ya bastard!” She snapped, giving me a harsh glare. “Now there’s two ways we could do this. The easy way in which you come with me to the Hokage’s office and explain how you got inside my seal or the hard way in which I beat your ass until you cry for your mommy!”

Hearing Kurama begin to laugh, I sighed and rubbed the back of my head. Yeah, it would be a bit awkward to do that last part since Kushina technically was my ‘mommy.’

“Hard way it is,” Kushina snarled, lashing out with one of her chains.

“Easy, I’ll take easy,” I called out, holding my hands up in surrender.

Stopping her chain a short distance from my face, Kushina narrowed her eyes. “Okay then,” She accepted. Her chain suddenly wrapped around my wrist, before pulling me towards her. “Just to make sure that you don’t get any funny ideas on escaping.”

“Sure,” I hummed, not really bothered. “I suppose I should explain a few things to… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!” I yelled, pointing to a spot behind her.

“What?!” Kushina jumped, turning around.

Working quickly, I tore my hand out of her chain, breaking several bones in the process, before taking to the rooftops.

“What is it, I still don’t see…” Kushina trailed off, her face turning a bright red. “SON OF A BITCH!”

“You said it, not me,” I laughed before taking off, leaving her behind.

Sometime in the future, assuming that I hadn’t somehow screwed too many things up and that she’d still give birth to me, Kushina would look back on this day and realize that she’d inadvertently called herself a bitch.

…PTL…

A few hours passed before I finally returned to the Akatsuki’s base. My hit list all but completed with only Orochimaru’s name not crossed out due him currently being in some remote part of the world fighting alongside Tsunade and Jiraiya.

With all the changes I’d made, I could only guess as to what would happen in the future. Maybe Orochimaru wouldn’t turn evil this time around. If he did, well, I doubt Minato would be as merciful as Hiruzen had been in my timeline.

I’d done my part… The rest was up to them.

“Here,” Nagato said, handing me an apple as he sat down opposite me in the meal hall. “You should eat something before you leave… It wouldn’t do to be caught in the middle of an ambush while hungry.”

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” I hummed, taking the apple.

It was still somewhat odd talking to Nagato like this in such a relaxed manner, but I was slowly coming around. Nagato was his own person and, with any luck, he’d never be like the one from my timeline.

“It’s funny… How much things can change over the span of a few short days,” Nagato commented. “A week ago Hanzo was in charge of Ame and we were running on our emergency supply of rations and now…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “You, your sister and Sensei really have lightened the load around here. I’m a little worried that things will revert to how they were now that you’re all leaving.”

I could honestly say that I never thought I’d be in a position to comfort Nagato of all people.

“You’ll be fine,” I replied. “Things might be a little tough at first, but I have faith that the three of you will be able to pull through… And as far as food goes, I could make a vegetable garden for all of you before we leave. It’ll need to be tended to, but it should produce enough food for everyone here.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” Nagato nodded gratefully.

“No worries,” I hummed. “Just let me know where and–“

“Oi, Naruto,” Jiraiya called out.

Turning towards him, I found him standing next to Yahiko and both Konan’s. “It looks like they’re all set,” I said, standing up. “I guess I’ll be seeing you, Nagato.”

“You as well, Naruto,” Nagato hummed. “I’ll walk you three out.”

Nodding, I followed the group outside into the perpetual downfall of rain. We travelled for a short while, before stopping just as their base faded from our view.

“It looks like this is it, Sensei,” Yahiko said.

“Yeah,” Jiraiya muttered softly. “I’ll miss you, kid.”

Yahiko nodded solemnly before immediately perking up. “Well don’t take so long to visit next time, you forgetful bastard.”

“Forgetful bastard?” Jiraiya squawked.

Staring at one another, a handful of seconds passed before the duo burst into laughter, completely at ease around one another.

Smiling at the display between her teacher and her boyfriend, Konan formed a flower out of paper and held it towards her older counterpart, ‘Naruko.’

“Thank you for your help yesterday. If the three of you hadn’t been here, who knows what would have happened to us,” She hummed. “I’m just sorry that we didn’t get to know each other better. Maybe next time.”

Cautiously taking the flower from her past self, Konan offered a simple nod in return.

Seeing all of this, I turned towards Nagato who simply shrugged in return. I guess it was our turn to say goodbye.

Holding out a fist towards Nagato, he reached out and bumped it with his own.

“You know, having the Rinnegan is great and all, but the Sage of Six Paths was primarily a Sage,” I said, surprising him. “You might want to look into becoming one yourself.”

Connecting our Chakra, I gave him a few glimpses of ways that he could further himself, along with the three locations to train in order to become a sage, before finally pulling away.

Stumbling slightly, Nagato steadied himself. “What was that?”

“Ninshu,” I answered easily. “The precursor to Ninjutsu and a technique that the Sage of Six Paths himself created and passed down in the hopes of spreading peace and understanding.”

Shooting me an odd look, Nagato nodded slowly. “It was fairly strange, but… Thank you, I’ll be sure to look into it when I get the time.”

“Then I guess this is goodbye,” I hummed, looking over the three Ame Shinobi one last time. “I hope you don’t mind us taking these raincoats.”

“Go ahead, it’s about the only thing we have an abundance of back at our base,” Yahiko waved me off. “Besides, you’ll need them to keep yourselves dry.”

“Thanks.”

Seeing that Jiraiya was struggling, I placed my hand on his shoulder and gave him a nod. As much as he wanted to stay, he couldn’t.

Having said our final goodbyes, we left, marching off into the cold rainy landscape, leaving the Ame orphans behind. Once we broke the line of sight, I formed a single clone behind to handle a few last minute details in order to help lighten the load by building that vegetable garden I’d promised Nagato.

With that done, I placed a hand on Jiraiya and Konan’s shoulders and disappeared in a flash, leaving the Land of Rain behind for the place where this all started. Rōran .

…PTL…

“So, this is how you managed to bring us back here,” I said, examining the numerous seals Konan plastered the underground Chamber hidden underneath Rōran with. “It’s pretty impressive, although I'm not quite sure I understand this part.”

“I don’t fully understand it myself,” Konan admitted. “Although that section is to absorb the Chakra from the vein, while that one siphons it into the rest of the seals, powering the technique,” She said, gesturing to the various seals. “That one over there gives the coordinates for how far backward or forward we want to go.”

I hummed softly, rubbing my chin. As far as I could tell, everything seemed right, but I felt like I was forgetting something important.

“Wait, if we’re going forward in time, we’ll still be in the same timeline,” I said, looking over the formula. “We could try going back before you came here and then forward, but… No, that won’t work.”

“So we’re stuck here?” Jiraiya asked, sounding a little concerned.

“No, we just need to figure out a way to locate our old timeline… It’s similar to how the Hiraishin works, we just need a marker that can guide us to the correct timeline,” I muttered. “We could try and use my Hiraishin markers, but I’m not sure if it would work. We need something a bit more powerful… To…”

“I recognize that look,” Jiraiya said. “Minato always got it whenever he was about to make a breakthrough. Tell me you’ve got something.”

Looking over my shoulder, I watched as my Truth Seeking Orbs lazily floated behind me. That’s right, I’d left one of them back in our timeline… Along with my hand. That should be more than enough to help guide our way back.

“I’ve got something,” I replied. “I just need to make a few adjustments to the formula and we should be good to go.”

“That’s a relief,” Jiraiya sighed.

Making the adjustments as Konan finished setting the rest of the seals, I felt a little nervous once I was finished. I was confident that I’d done everything right, but that didn’t mean that this was without its risks.

“You’ll be fine,” Kurama muttered. “You always have been.”

“…Thanks Kurama,” I murmured softly.

It didn’t take much longer for Konan to finish placing the final seals. All in all it was a little patchy… I could already see a few sections that could be improved, but it would do the job well enough.

“Okay,” I breathed. “Is everyone ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Jiraiya replied.

Letting out a short hum, Konan nodded. “Yes.”

“Let’s do this then.”

Pressing my hand against the activation seal, the entire room lit up in a bright flash of blinding white light.

Wincing a little, I felt a brief moment of weightlessness as the world disappeared, being replaced by a familiar black void filled with flecks of light.

Pushing myself up, I idly noticed that the raincoat I’d gotten from the Akatsuki was now a silvery white colour.

“I see you’ve found your way back here, Uzumaki Naruto,” Hagoromo noted.

“Yeah, I have,” I said, turning to face the god. “And I’ve got some questions for you.”

“As I suspected you would.” He nodded. “Ask and I will answer as best I can.”