291: The 4th Great Ninja War? (1)

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Chapter 291: The 4th Great Ninja War? (1)

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[Flashback]

Two decades. Obito Uchiha was saved by Madara Uchiha nearly two decades prior. 

Madara promised to bring back Rin Nohara to life, the kunoichi who Obito cherished. In exchange, Obito was left with the mission to revive Madara– who was about to die– years later after collecting all the nine-tailed beasts.

Nearly two decades have passed since then. 

At this point, Obito didn’t want to revive Madara. Because he wasn't a fool anymore. He didn't believe in Madara, no, he didn't trust that man at all. 

So, after considering everything, Obito had decided a few years ago to keep Madara dead– as the legendary Ninja, if revived, would only complicate his plans.

Yet, not long after that decision was made, this annoying and frustrating variable showed up. Messing up all of Obito’s plans, nearly beyond repair. 

To fix this mess, according to Naruto's Mangekyou Ability– future prediction– Obito would need the help of the Ghost of Uchiha, Madara Uchiha. Because without Madara, the odds that Neji can be defeated were far too low for Obito’s liking.

So despite his earlier plans and decisions, Obito Uchiha decided to revive Madara anyway. He had no other choice, after all. Fortunately, Obito now had just the thing needed to effortlessly revive Madara. Using the Rinnegan left behind by Neji Hyuga himself.

After implanting the Rinnegan onto his right eye socket, Obito had gone to Madara’s grave. He had buried Madara's corpse with his own hands when the old Uchiha had finally passed away decades ago, and so he knew where the corpse was.

The only strange part was that, when he reached the grave, he found Kabuto Yakushi right there. 

Right in front of Obito’s eyes, this crazy disciple of Orochimaru– who had absorbed his own master into himself– was digging Madara's grave.

“Oops… I can explain.”

“....”

After confronting him, Obito Uchiha came to learn just how exactly Kabuto found the location of Madara's dead body. Obito also learned of Kabuto’s self-proclaimed, ‘magnificent’ plan.

Obito would have killed that snake-like bastard right there and then, if not for the fact that Kabuto's plan was actually mind-numbingly good.

“Fine, I won’t kill you. In exchange…”

After that, a deal was settled between them.

"Naruto and I will help you collect the materials to reanimate some certain people," said Obito. "It wouldn't take that long with my assistance and Naruto's Mangekyou power. So I expect fast work from you."

"Oh-ho?” Kabuto asked with a snake-like hiss, as his single gold eye gleamed. “And who are these 'cssertain' people?"

Obito smiled under his mask.

"...That would be the S-ranked Ninjas and Kages from the history of the five great villages."

* * *

[Present]

When the Gedo Statue came out, the building shook and everyone jumped out of it. Excluding Obito who slipped into his Kamui dimension.

The Gedo Statue trashed its hands around, destroying the rest of the building and making it fall apart. That movement killed almost the entirety of the Samurais who were inside it.

Right then, Madara took advantage of the rowdy situation and grabbed the unconscious Killer Bee by the collar.

After a few seconds, the Gedo Statue moved from the destroyed building and strode through the snowy ground of this Land of Iron.

The Kages and the other Ninjas, along with a few surviving Samurais, had taken refuge a few hundred metres from the incident. Naruto and Sasuke had gone opposite their direction, and the statue moved towards them.

Madara moved towards the statue and threw Bee's body at it, and right then by his mental command the statue spewed out chakra chains that wrapped around Bee and visibly started to suck chakra. The rate of absorption was fast, faster than the Akatsuki's combined because it was Madara who was controlling the statue. He, unlike Nagato, was the true owner of the Rinnegan.

"...Bee?!"

From afar, Raikage yelled when he saw the scene unfold. His ‹Lightning Cloak› sprung up to life and he kicked the ground to rush at the statue.

Before he could reach there, however, the air spun in his running trajectory and the moment he reached the spot, a fist came out to punch him in the face.

The Raikage was thrown metres back as he growled and looked up to find who attacked him.

From within the spinning air, walked out a man with long silver hair and another with long golden hair.

The Ginkaku and Kinkaku brothers, their bodies looking weird and creepy.

"...You two?" 

Raikage's angry expression suddenly looked bewildered. 

"What? How are you two alive?"

These two were Kumogakure Ninjas, so Raikage knew they were long dead. So how…

"Sorry, Kage-sama." said Kinkaku, looking awkward to have hurt his own Kage. "We are being controlled right now by an outside force. Both of our bodies are not in our control."

"By the way, how did you lose your arms, Kage-sama?"

"...."

When the Raikage was about to open his mouth again, the other Ninjas had reached the spot, including Neji who was flying in the air along with his two girls who were floating on his telekinesis.

At the same time, the spinning air from before returned and this time Obito Uchiha walked out.

"Stay away from the statue," said Obito. "Otherwise I will have to make you stay away."

With that said, his Kamui acted up again and the air kept spinning nonstop to allow more people to walk out of it.

One, two, three– and the number soon crossed a dozen.

All of the individuals who walked out of this door in space-&-time looked similar to the current Gold and Silver brothers. They all had black eyes and parts of their skin were shattered. 

Most dangerously, all of their chakras felt endless. 

Each individual, as they stood beside one another, was a legendary name in this shinobi world.

The 1st Hokage.

The 2nd Hokage.

The 3rd Hokage. 

The 4th Hokage.

The 2nd Mizukage.

The 2nd Tsuchikage.

The 3rd Raikage.

The 4th Kazekage.

Hanzo, the Salamander.

Deidara, of the Akatsuki.

Sasori, of the Akatsuki.

Pakura, of the Scorch Release.

Last, but not least, it was Dan Kato who walked out of the portal that finally closed.

“Apologies," Obito said sarcastically. "I could have prepared more if given enough time.” 

He met everyone’s gaze, longing on the Kages for a moment longer to relish the frightened look in their eyes. 

“Really, apologies.”

Smirking to himself, Obito turned to look in Neji’s direction, who was still floating in the air, his arms crossed and his expression unreadable.

Obito didn't say anything more and looked at Ginkaku and Kinkaku, whose heads nodded on their own. Then, with swift movements, all three of them ran towards the Gedo Statue.

The living Ninjas thought of stopping them but saw no chance of that happening with these legends in front of them. However, if they knew that Kinkaku and Ginkaku are what would complete the Ten-Tails, they would still have tried hard to stop them.

Neji did know that though, but stopping them wasn't his plan.

After a short silence between the living and the dead, a fight broke out. While some went all out from the start, a few of the former Kages took it slow to rather exchange some words with the new generation. 

The 3rd Raikage looked distinctly angry and even a bit teary when he saw his son, the 4th Raikage, without any arms.

The 2nd Tsuchikage frowned when he learned and failed to sense Particle Release from Onoki.

The 2nd Mizukage was immensely sad to learn what the Mist Village had gone through after his death, while conversing with Mei Terumī.

And so on.

The most interesting part happened with Tsunade, according to Neji, as her two grandfathers and one teacher looked at her with confusion while taking a fighting stance.

"What's up with that get-up, Tsu?" asked Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi himself. "Wasn't your hair a bit brighter too? It looks whiter now!"

Hashirama laughed aloud. 

"Looks like age is catching up to you, huh? I still had black hair when I died, though. Haah, you were so little back then..."

Tsunade was still floating beside Neji yet she was on the verge of tears as she conversed with her former family and teacher.

From the first three Hokages' side, the 4th Hokage in particular was staring at Neji.

"Neji Hyuga?" asked Minato, frowning a little. "Kurama hates you, she says."

"Oh…"

Neji blinked.

Why was that?

…Perhaps the Kurama that was inside Naruto had its memories returned to its other half inside Minato after its death? That sounded plausible.

"Sorry about that, this girl can be weird sometimes." Minato gave an awkward smile, clearly talking about Kurama. "Weird how I always thought she was just a weapon of mass destruction." Yeah…"

"By the way, do you know about my son Naruto?" asked Minato, as he vanished from his spot.

Minato reappeared in front of Neji, slashing a Kunai across his face.

Neji dodged swiftly, though that did separate him from his girls.

"Ah, sorry about that, my body is being controlled. Couldn't resist it entirely." Minato apologised. "By the way, Kurama told me you do know Naruto. I left a piece of my soul in the Seal on his stomach, but since he was killed by your people, that seal broke without me ever meeting him. Though I heard he got revived somehow, so it's not that big of a deal, don't worry I am not holding a grudge."

Neji was more than a bit surprised at this man's positive energy. Seriously, what was wrong with this guy? As far as he was aware, Neji killed his son, for fucks sake.

"I can sense some thick Nine Tails chakra around here, that must be Naruto. It seemed he merged with Kurama's chakra, similar to the Gold and Silver brothers. I was wondering if Naruto is still okay or if the power corrupted him. That usually happens in such scenarios." Minato continued explaining while attacking Neji.

Neji didn't attack back, since he was interested in Minato's words too.

"...Sorry, but it's as you imagine." Neji said after a pause, dodging another attack and then putting a palm strike on Minato's abdomen. "Naruto is far gone from his usual cheerful self. He's quite fucked in the head now."

"Awww…" Minato winched in physical and spiritual pain at Neji's attack and words.

"That's it. I need to do something before we continue this brawl." Neji pushed Minato to the side (blasting him with a shockwave and making him fly far in the sky) before he moved to Tsunade and Temari.

The three former Hokages were trying to hold back against her, as they chatted, but they didn't have full control over their bodies. Some attacks Tsunade was hit with seemed to hurt quite a bit, though none were lethal.

Temari was in a similar situation, having to fight her father– the 4th Kazekage.

Neji slipped between them to fetch them by their waist and floated in the air.

Right then, Obito Uchiha returned. He looked up at the flying Neji.

“Weren't you so confident before? Look at you now, flying from the enemies.” said Obito. “With this little power, can you stop Madara from becoming the Ten-Tails’ Jinchuuriki? Can you stop him from casting the Infinite Tsukuyomi? Why don’t you try doing that while all these Kages and S-Ranks Ninjas try to kill you and your girls.”

“My girls?” 

That was the only part Neji caught on to. He smiled a little when he looked to his side, where Tsunade was floating.

Tsunade was suddenly ignoring her grandfathers and teacher. Now, she had her eyes on Dan Kato as she frowned with a complicated look on her eyes.

Neji put a hand on her shoulder, ignoring Obito, and whispered. 

“You wanna talk to him?"

"...I feel like it's better for me to break up with him once and for all, now that I have a chance to talk." Tsunade said, turning to look into Neji's eyes. "Their bodies are being controlled, but they can speak."

"...True." Neji shrugged and then turned to Obito. 

"Smart idea to bring Dan out, by the way. The 4th Kazekage too. Did Naruto predict that I will bring Tsunade and Temari with me? Is that why you brought them in particular, where you could have brought out better alternatives?"

Obito gave Neji a sharp glare.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. But I don't think that's going to be really useful to you." Neji turned to Temari. "You wanna keep talking to your father?"

"...No." Temari soon shook her head, refusing to even look in the direction of Rasa, the Kazekage. "I don't count him as my father, not since that day he decided to put Shukaku inside Gaara."

Rasa of the gold dust, even as his body was being controlled, and even as he was fighting with his son, heard Temari's words. He frowned in what seemed like sadness and discomfort. 

Gaara, on the other hand, looked confused since it seemed to him that his sister who had lost her mind and turned evil still regained some humane feelings for him.

"Makes sense." Neji gave Temari a shoulder hug and then said, "Alright. I am teleporting you to heaven. Tsunade, you are going to be sent to Konoha. When you are done with Dan, maybe look around your former village."

Without allowing any sort of protest from either side, Neji just snapped his finger as Shadowclones appeared beside Tsunade, Temari, and Dan Kato. In the next instance, all three of them teleported away with the clones' Flying Thunder God. 

Neji cancelled the clones right after that, unwilling to listen to the conversation between Exes.

Now though, his hands were free. He didn't have to hold back.

Neji took in a sharp breath as the sky started to get covered by dark clouds. At a supernatural speed, the entire sky was covered in thunderclouds and rain started to fall.

The moment the first droplet of rain touched the ground was also the moment when the clouds crackled with lightning and a bolt fell right on Neji.

This was [Lightning of Heavenly Tribution], one of Neji's divinities he earned after defeating Nagato a few weeks ago.

The lightning zapped around Neji and in a second, formed an armour around him. Unlike the Raikages' armour though, this looked more like traditional samurai armour. It looked similar to the one Madara was wearing, but it was made of lightning, not solid matter.

– Bzzt!

This was the Ninjutsu [Lightning Cloak], but one made with heavenly lightning.

As the second droplet of rain touched the ground, Neji moved to massacre everything that fell in his sight.

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Master4thWall Note: Neji went full Chinese in the last part ????