Once Again (A Naruto Fanfiction) (Sequel to Another Take) (Complete)

Ch. 30: My Last Goodbye

~I've got to walk away, while there's still hope, learning to erase the love I know, and let you go~

Kiyomi's POV

Haha, I thought. Things are never over while Sasuke still has a stick up his butt.

After Kaguya was defeated, all the revived Kages returned to being dead. Hashirama was the last to leave, having sat and talked with a defeated Madara for a while. Madara had reappeared after Kaguya had been defeated, and he was incredibly injured. He was also obviously dying. So Hashirama sat with them, and they returned to the afterlife together. It was touching and all that crap.

Then the Tailed Beasts, who had been freed, started talking about what they were going to do now. Hagoromo just then remembered about what he'd done to me, and and tapped a hand to my head.

I felt a tugging sensation that wasn't very unusual by now, and in five separate flashes, the Elemental Beasts were freed from my body. They settled down and began talking with the Tailed Beasts, having not seen each other in a while.

I watched as Ahio began chatting with the Seven-Tails, whose name I didn't get. Fenrir stayed close to me, while I saw Salila, Seaiga, and Bren all looking around. Probably looking for their hosts.

... Who I also want to find.

"Hey Fen, are Jiyuu, Roka, or Orion around here?" The wolf looked around, then took a deep sniff of their air.

"... Yes," he finally replied. "Want to go find them?" Fen swished his tail, the only sign of his anticipation.

I grinned. "Of course," and I leapt over onto Fen's back. The wolf snorted, then wheeled around and took off, letting out a howl. I saw Bren was the first to notice, and the tiger quickly caught up.

"You can smell them?" he asked seriously, loping along beside us.

In a flash, Seaiga was there as well, with Salila somehow curled up in a ball on his back. "You found them?" Salila wondered, peering over his shoulder eagerly.

Fen nodded, then took a sharp turn to the left. "Over here," he called, and gradually began slowing his pace to a trot. The wolf took another sniff of the air, then headed over towards a cluster of rocks.

There were a few shinobi around the area, but they quickly fled when they saw five large animals moving through the battlefield. Fen nudged aside a rock with his snout, and uncovered an opening.

At the same time, Fen and I caught the sound of a cough. I quickly hopped down from his back, then began pulling rocks away to widen the opening. But Fen nosed me aside and stamped his paw on the ground, and all the rocks moved away at once.

I was about to scramble in, then someone beat me to it and crawled out. They were covered in dust, but I could tell by the relatively small figure that it must be Jiyuu. Seaiga rushing up certainly supported that as well.

Salila quickly slid from the horse's back and started trying to heal all the cuts and bruises as I carefully crawled back into the hole, careful not to bump into anything. With my slightly-improved vision I noticed two shapes huddled towards the back.

"Orion? Roka?" I whispered, and received an answering jolt from both of the shapes. Bingo. I scooted forward and reached out, snagging both of them by some part of their clothes. Not sure what part, but I've got a hold of them now. "Hey Fen, can you pull me out? I've got the other two!"

Not a moment later did I hear a rumbling, and the earth beneath the three of us began to move, carrying us outside the rock hole. Fenrir.

Now that there was more light, I could see the numerous bruises and scrapes that decorated both boys. But they were alive, which is all I wanted. Seems that however the Sage extracted the Elemental Beasts from their bodies didn't kill them. Well of course he wouldn't do that.