Madara's POV

"Where did they go?" Kabuto asked. "I saw them run down this way. They couldn't have gotten far. I stabbed Nue with a Kiragani sword, so they could be hiding so she can regain her strength." I informed as we walked down the hall Megumi took Nue.

I don't have time for this. I need to find that girl and hurry up with the plan. With the war already starting, it doesn't leave me with much time.

"Oh, we're through hiding," Kabuto and I stopped walking as Nue revealed herself. "Come and get me, assholes." Nue said. "I don't have time to fight with you, you little brat. Now come over here like a good little girl." I said, angrily.

"You seem to take me for some kind of pet." She replied, staring at me, blankly. "Time to finish this once and for all, Nue." Kabuto said. "You're right. It is time to finish this. Megumi, now!"

"Aye, aye, Captain!"

Kabuto and I looked up to see Megumi with two machine guns in her hands. She laughed like a maniac as she began firing at us. We quickly jumped out of the way, escaping the bullets. "This is the best thing I've ever done!" Megumi screamed, happily.

"This is starting to become a handful." Kabuto said as we hid behind a wall. "Tell me something I don't know." I said, sarcastically. "Hiding won't do you any good here!" Nue shouted as she went to punch me. I made her go through my body so she missed. I smirked behind my mask, remembering something about Megumi.

"I have a plan. Cover me." I said to Kabuto. He gave a nod and dealt with Nue while I walked towards Megumi. She continued to fire at me, but the bullets just went through me. "Shit. I forgot you could do stuff like that." She said, dropping both of the machine guns.

"There's a lot of things you've seem to forgotten, Megumi." I stated. She growled as I watched her teeth sharpen. "I'm gonna make you eat those words, bastard!" She yelled as she lunged at me. I grabbed her throat and she gagged.

"Motherfucker!" She cursed. "Time to shut that mouth of yours." I said. I shoved my fist through her heart, grabbing the orb and yanking it out.

I dropped Megumi to the floor as she grabbed her throat, coughing. "Without this, you'll be put of the way for good." I said. Megumi looked up and gasped as she spotted her life source in my hand. "No, don't!" She yelled as she made a wild grab for it.

But it was too late as I crushed the orb within my hand. Megumi gasped while spitting up blood. "Megumi!" Nue yelled in worry.

Nue's POV

"Megumi!" I ran over to her as she fell on her knees, then on her side. "Just hang in there. You're going to be okay." I said as I held her in my lap. "Heh... To think it would end like this..." She said, weakly with a smirk. "Don't say that! You're gonna be fine!" I said. Megumi weakly smirked while closing her eyes.

"Nue-kun... I want to give you this... so it won't fall into the wrong hands." Megumi shakily lifted her hand and placed a small crystal ball in my hand. "Swallow it." She instructed. I took the small crystal ball and put it in my mouth, swallowing it.

Once I did, Megumi gave a weak smirk. "Now... you have the kekkei genkai... to sharpen your teeth... But what I gave you... it's more than that..."

"Megumi..." I said as tears filled my eyes. "I... I have seen more than you can imagine... and I know..." She said. "No..." Tears gathered in my eyes as I watched her losing consciousness. "I didn't want this to happen... You were supposed to live..." I said.

"Live? Yeah, right. The moment... that bastard, Madara, grabbed my orb, it was... game over for me... But at least... I can finally do this," Megumi quickly leaned up and pressed her lips against mine. My eyes widened slightly as the tears that were trying to escape finally fell.

"I love you, Nue-kun." Megumi's eyes closed as a tear rolled down her cheek. I gasped as her body began to turn to stone. "Megumi!" Her entire body turned into stone and a tear escaped my eye, dropping onto her stone cheek.

I gasped again when Megumi's stone body began to crumble in my hands until there was nothing left. More tears ran down my cheeks as my hands were in her remains. "Megumi..." I whispered before closing my eyes.

"You bastard...!" My hands squeezed into tight fist as I gritted my teeth. "I'll kill you!" The moment I turned around, Madara grabbed my hair and smashed my face into the ground. I growled as he pushed my face into the dirt.

"You brought this on yourself, Nue. Megumi was already dead the moment she stepped into this battle." Madara said. He lifted my head off the ground and I glared at him. "Fuck you!" I yelled. Madara took out a collar and put it on my neck.

"I'm not your pet! Get this off me!" I attempted to yank the damn thing off, but the moment I placed my hands on the collar, I was electrocuted. Guess what I was electrocuted with? If you guess Kiragani, then you guessed right.

The electricity shot up and down my body and I fell forward. I opened my right eye, glancing at Megumi's remains. "Megumi..." I whispered. I weakly reached out to her before closing my eyes, blacking out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

'Ugh... Ow, my head...' I thought. I slowly opened my eyes and glanced around to see where I am. 'I'm in a water tank... But why?' I thought with a frown. There were plastic tubes attached to my body as they allowed me to breathe in this water tank.

"You're finally wake. Don't worry, I'll have you back to sleep in no time." Madara said as he stood in front of the tank I was in. Kabuto was by a machine that was operating the water tank. I didn't speak as I just glared at him.

"You're probably wondering what you're doing in that tank. Well, it's pretty simple, really. You're just gonna take a small nap until you're' needed." He said. Until I'm needed? What's that supposed to mean? And why can't I move?

Was it because of this weird liquid running through my veins from the plastic tubes? Probably. I opened my mouth and mouthed to him, "I'll never help you win this war. You'll lose."

"Oh, you will help me, and I will rule with you by my side. The moment you closed those eyes, you'll be placed under an eternal sleep. All your memories, all those moments you've cherished with your mother, they'll be completely erased and replaced with new ones,"

What kind of new ones? I don't think I wanna find out. "You'll have no memory of having friends or the Akatsuki," Madara continued. "The only memory you'll have is serving your new master. I'm sure that will be fun. Well... for him, anyway."

I knew he was smirking behind that damn mask of his. New master? He doesn't plan on making himself my master? If he's not gonna be my master when I wake up, then who is? Why the hell am I thinking about this right now?! I frowned at Madara before mouthing, "Fuck you."

How long will I be asleep? When will I wake up? Only time will tell. "She's stable. I'm putting her under the eternal sleeping process now." Kabuto informed. "When I get out of here, I'll gonna kill you." I mouthed to them.

"Keep telling yourself that, dear. You'll wake when you're needed. For now, it's time for you to sleep." Madara said. I felt a weird liquid go into my veins and my eyelids quickly grew heavy. "No!"

I used the little strength I had in me and quickly pounded my fists against the glass in attempt to get out, but it didn't work. Without realizing it, I had already fallen asleep. As I slept, I curled myself up into a ball as I floated in pitch-black darkness.

I opened my eyes slightly as images of me and my family, and Mom, Karin, Jugo, Suigetsu, and Megumi at the cabin. We were all having a good time, enjoying ourselves, and relaxing. I might as well look at these now since I'll be losing them soon.

I watched the images of my memories as they showed my time with my mother.

'Oh, I remember this memory' I thought as it showed how Mom would hold me in the cabin whenever she felt like it. Well, she's my mom so I really didn't mind.

Another image showed how Mom and I would sleep together whenever I had trouble sleeping. Back in the cabin, I was so stressed about the war and protecting everyone, I couldn't sleep well. So whenever Mom noticed, she'd hold me so I could calm down.

'Mom...' I thought, sadly. "No! Don't go back out there, Mommy!" My younger self said as she held her tightly.

I remember that memory. The day Mom was feeling better after the attack, she was gonna go back out for some groceries.

"The humans will hurt you again! I don't want them to do that! Please dont go back out there! Please, Mommy!" My younger self begged. Mom chuckled as she held her. "Nue, don't be so worried. I'll be fine. I promise." Mom assured her.

Regardless of how many times I begged her, she went anyway. But I went with her just to be sure she didn't get attacked again. Why did it had to be like this? Why couldn't I protect her? Was I too weak? Too foolish enough to believe that I could save everyone?

No... I did try to protect her...

I just didn't try hard enough...

Karin's POV

I sat on the ground while Jugo tried to punch our way out of the force field. "Give it a rest, Jugo. We're not gonna get out of here. This thing is impenetrable." Suigetsu said, sighing. "What's taking Megumi so long? I thought she said, she'd find Nue and bring her back to undo the force field?" I said.

"Well, you know how stubborn Nue is. Megumi's either having a hard time getting her back, or she bailed on us." Suigetsu said. "There's no way Megumi would just bail on us." I said. Then again, Nue didn't really trust Megumi. What if she really did bail on us?

Jugo went to punch the force field again, but before he could, the shield went down. "Huh?" I quickly stood up, surprised that it went down. "Well, that was easy." Suigetsu said. "No... Something doesn't feel right." I said, frowning slightly.

"What do you mean?" Jugo asked. "The force field was taken down way too easily." I mentioned. "So? We're out. Now, let's go find out where Megumi is." Suigetsu said.

"No, Karin's right. Something is off. Nue's force field shouldn't have been taken down so easily. If she wanted to keep us safe, why would she take down the force field?" Jugo asked. "Maybe she changed her mind." Suigetsu guessed.

"That doesn't sound like Nue at all. She'd do anything to protect us. This barrier didn't go down because she wanted it to go down. What if... What if something happened to Nue?" I asked. Suigetsu and Jugo looked at each other, then back at me.

"No way. Nue's a strong ninja. Probably just as strong as Hotaru. There's no way she's in some kind of trouble." Suigetsu denied. "It doesn't hurt to make sure. We should go look for her." Jugo said. "But we don't even know where she is." Suigetsu sighed.

"All we know is that she went looking for Madara, and we don't even know where he is." I mentioned. "Okay, so where should we start to look?" He asked.

"I think we should go back to the cabin first and get what we need. I'm sure Hotaru has some kind of weapons hidden there." Jugo said. We gave a nod and headed back tot he cabin to grab what we need. I just hope Nue's okay.