Chapter 369: The End

“Damnit! Shit, shit, SHIT!!! AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!! EVERY TIME THAT DAMN MONSTER IS INVOLVED, OUR PLANS FAIL!!!”

Currently, Black Zetsu was cursing up a storm, the reason being rather apparent.

“No, I need to calm down. It’s not as bad as it seems. Although losing two members is pretty bad, we at least managed to get some of the Ichibi’s chakra. It’s not like we need all of its chakra to resurrect the Juubi.”

Zetsu started nervously pacing around the room while he was constantly muttering to himself, making it look like he was crazy.

“Okay, everything is fine. This will work out. No problem. We have at least some chakra from all the beasts up to and including the Nanabi, so only the Hachibi and the Kyubi are missing.”

Zetsu nodded in approval at his own words and continued talking to himself.

“Kisame is currently hunting down the Hachibi, so only the Kyubi is left. Meanwhile, Obito wants Itachi to fight Sasuke so that we can get our hands on an eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.”

Yet again, Zetsu nodded in approval, but moments later, he started frantically scratching his head.

“WHO CARES ABOUT THAT!? In the end, it all boils down to getting the Kyubi’s chakra, so we will have to confront her no matter what. The problem with that is that she can simply teleport away, even if we manage to corner her. We need to force her into a situation where she can’t run away.”

Another triad of curses left Zetsu’s mouth before he calmed down again.

“We have no choice. We need to attack Konoha. Only when she has to defend Konoha can we guarantee that she won’t run away. But, will Pain be enough to deal with her?”

Zetsu pondered his own question for a moment before shrugging his shoulders in indifference.

“It doesn’t matter. Worst case scenario, he fails, and I will have to grab his eyes stealthily before Yuna can get her hands on them. As long as we don’t lose the Rinnegan, everything is fine.”

Zetsu thought about the next steps he wanted to take some more before nodding his head.

“Very well, let’s see where this goes. If everything else fails, I will just have to conserve the Rinnegan while waiting for Yuna to die of old age.”

Meanwhile, Yuna returned to where Karin, Sakura, and Chiyo defeated Sasori while carrying an unconscious Gaara. She let her gaze wander over the destroyed puppets and stopped due to noticing something interesting. She bent down and picked up a pupped head with an amused expression on her face.

“Yo, we made it in time. Gaara is still alive.”

Yuna’s words caused the trio to sigh in relief. Especially Chiyo, who had already prepared herself to exchange her own life to resurrect Gaara, was happy she didn’t have to do that.

“By the way, are you interested in having a Sharingan, Sakura?”

As Yuna said that, she held up the head she had just picked up and revealed that it had two Sharingan in his eye sockets.

“Sasori sure was a perfectionist, huh? After all, the Sharingan is almost useless in the body of a puppet.”

Meanwhile, Sakura was stunned by Yuna’s words. At the start of the mission, she was told that Sasuke was stronger than her due to his Sharingan, and now there was actually the possibility of having one.

However, she somehow didn’t think that was a good idea.

“Why don’t you use it, Yuna? You are already very powerful, but that should increase your strength even more, right?”

Yuna chuckled in amusement at Sakura’s probing question and crushed the puppet’s head with her hand, destroying its two eyes in the process.

“Hehe, you are a smart girl, Sakura. Indeed, why haven’t I gotten myself a pair of Sharingan yet? I killed Danzo, who had 11 of them, and I do not doubt that I could get one from the black market with the Uzumaki clan’s resources either. Heck, there were dozens of them stored away inside Danzo’s bases.”

Sakura couldn’t help but get slightly uncomfortable when she imagined an old man storing dozens of eyes all over his house, but Yuna nonetheless continued talking.

“So, there are actually two different reasons why you shouldn’t do it and why I won’t do it. You shouldn’t do it simply because you don’t have the necessary chakra to support two Sharingans. Just look at Kakashi; that man has only one and had a lot of time to learn how to use it adequately and still faints after half his fights. The Sharingan is really not that great if used by a non-Uchiha.”

Sakura nodded her head in understanding. Kakashi’s situation was actually the main reason why she didn’t want to implant it.

“As for why I don’t want to have the Sharingan: I would rather not have any foreign objects implanted into my body. I already have something that doesn’t belong to me sealed inside me, so exchanging my eyes would definitely bring my body even further out of balance.”

[Oh? Do you mean that you couldn’t cultivate if you were to get someone else’s eyes.]

‘Yes. By now, you and I are almost perfectly in balance, and if I were to toss another variable into the mix, that balance would definitely be messed up again. I have no clue for how long that would throw me back, but it would definitely cost me some time, which I’m unwilling to invest. Besides that, if I really wanted the Sharingan so badly, I would try to get the bloodline itself and not just the eyes. What’s the point of having eyes that are not compatible with you?’

[Mhh~ That’s true, I guess.]

A few minutes after Yuna’s explanation, Naruto reentered the cave with a solemn facial expression, which immediately brought the mood back down. No one could understand why Naruto had such a severe facial expression despite succeeding in the mission.

Without a single word, Naruto walked towards Yuna and bowed his head.

“I’m sorry, nee-san!”

Naturally, Yuna had no idea what Naruto was apologizing for, so she could only tilt her head in confusion.

“What are you apologizing for, Na…”

“My opponent had a mouth in each of his hands!”

“Gah…”

Yuna made a noise like someone just punched her in the stomach and staggered back a step.

“D-Damnit, the potential for jokes is basically endless.”

Yuna shook her head to get over the missed opportunity and looked at the still bowing Naruto in amusement.

“Well, isn’t it fine, Naruto? I might have missed an opportunity to make some good jokes, but it’s not th…”

“The mouths had tounges.”

“Gah…”

Yuna staggered back a little further and looked at Naruto in disbelief. She swiped away the trickle of blood that was flowing down from the corner of her mouth and took a few deep breaths to calm down.

“N-N-No p-problem, N-Naruto. Haha, n-no big deal a…”

“The tounges were dexterous enough to create small animal figures.”

“Gah…*cough*”

Yuna fell on her knees while coughing out some blood.

“N-No way to think such a perfect specimen exited, and I missed him. Ahh, I truly regret it.”

“There was another mouth in his chest.”

“*cough*”

Yuna’s eyes became empty and lifeless as she coughed out some more blood.

“To think I of all people would die of regret.”

Yuna’s unfocused eyes turned in Naruto’s direction as she started speaking again, her voice filled with sadness and regret.

“N-Naruto, tell my harem I love them.”

After she finished speaking, Yuna collapsed to the ground.

Naruto quickly approached her unmoving body and cradled her to his chest. Tears were streaming out of his eyes as he tilted his head back and opened his mouth.

“NEE-SAAAN!!!”

Well, that’s the end of my story; I hope you enjoyed it 🙂