Kakashi swung his blade at the dragon, a sliver/white flying crescent slash meeting the dragon before it could get to them, carving the left side of its face off, but not stopping it.
'Durable, this wood dragon is infused with a lot of chakra.'
Kakashi thought as he sent 3 more flying slashes at the charging dragon, managing to slice the thing's head off, the large body clattering to the ground and the large head sliding to his feet.
"Who are you?"
The cloaked figure gave no reply, the two golems charging Kakashi and Sasuke, the two giants shaking the ground with their footsteps.
Kakashi spared a glance back at Sasuke, seeing him panting with a flushed face.
'His chakra isn't that low to cause this.'
Kakashi's Sharingan spun to life, its three tomoe blurring instantly into the Mangekyō. In a flash of blinding chakra, a bone-white skeletal torso erupted around him. The Susanoo's massive right hand snapped up, stopping a colossal punch from the giant on his right with a deafening crack. Simultaneously, a searing white flame materialized in its left palm, a blazing chakra blade forming just in time to catch a brutal shoulder charge with the flat of the blade. The impact of the dual assault reverberated through the spectral cage, forcing Kakashi himself to slide back a few feet inside the stationary torso.
Abruptly pulling the sword back, the giant, who had been leaning all of its weight on the blade, fell face-first to the ground, Kakashi using this chance to cut off the right arm of the other giant, leaping back, snatching the back of Sasuke's collar.
"Sasuke, what happened? You're burning up."
Sasuke panted, his Mangekyō flickering out like a weak light bulb.
"I-I don't know. My chakra."
Sasuke said before falling to a knee.
Kakashi kept his attention on the giants, one pushing itself off the ground while the other aggressively regrew its severed arm.
"Well, leave it to me then."
Another blade sprang to life in the Susanoo's remaining skeletal hand. This one was entirely different, a localized power of spatial distortion humming violently along the edge.
Raising the weapon, the Susanoo swung downward. A massive, crescent-shaped rift flew out across the cavern, actively tearing the air apart and pulling everything in its path into the void.
'Kamui slash.'
The slash passed between the giants, tearing off the sides closest to them and making them crumble to the ground, but it continued to the real target of the attack, the cloaked figure.
The figure ran through a few hand seals and clasped palms together, fingers intertwined and arms shaking.
'Wood Style: Great Forest Emergence.'
A forest rose in an instant, appearing in front of the figure, tree after tree being absorbed into the kamui slash, but they grew back as fast as the distortion teleported them.
Kakashi took the time to focus more on Sasuke, placing his hand on Sasuke's back to understand better what was happening.
"It was my chakra."
Kakashi realized, feeling his chakra assimilating with Sasuke's own.
'This is essentially my serum, but a more potent version; it's impressive that he held out this long.'
The distortion slash stopped a few moments later, and the forest parted to reveal the figure, Kakashi feeling with his observation that the figure was calm, and if he was right, excited as well.
"Not bad, Kakashi Hatake. I'm glad you didn't die to the Zetsu; that would've been disappointing. Though I'll admit, I never expected this level of strength from you. Do try to survive my next attack, or don't. That would make things much easier for me."
Kakashi didn't get the chance to reply, nor could he place the deep, masculine voice echoing from beneath the hood. His eyes widened in sheer shock. Within a single heartbeat, an immense, suffocating torrent of Natural Energy flooded into the figure.
The stranger clapped his hands together with a deafening crack.
"Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"
"Sasuke, grab my shoulder and don't let go!" Kakashi roared.
In a desperate surge of chakra, Kakashi's Susanoo erupted from its skeletal frame, expanding into its towering Armored Form. The once-massive cavern instantly became suffocatingly cramped as the two forces stood across from each other.
'I can't move as freely as that statue in here,' Kakashi realized, sweat cutting through the grime on his face. 'We're sitting ducks.'
The countless wooden hands lining the statue's back groaned with immense tension before springing forward all at once. The entire underground realm convulsed. A relentless, mountain-shattering barrage rained down, hammering the armored Susanoo with apocalyptic force.
'He's going to bury us alive.'
In that split second, Kakashi abandoned all defense. Recognizing that the Susanoo's armor would inevitably fail under the relentless, crushing weight of the assault, he stopped trying to block entirely. Instead, he channeled every ounce of his remaining focus into an all-or-nothing offense, conjuring four massive Kamui shuriken and hurling them directly at the cavern's trapping barrier.
On contact, the space warped violently, and the barrier trapping him and Sasuke shattered like glass.
'Shit!'
With the armor abandoned and the defense dropped, the wooden fists bore down directly on them. Kakashi threw himself in front of Sasuke. Crossing his arms, he flooded his entire body with pitch-black Armament Haki. The blunt force of over a hundred Sage-infused blows slammed into him, the shockwave cracking his bones and rupturing his lungs before the shuriken could even finish tearing the barrier open.
His body was utterly wrecked, blood spilling from his lips. Yet, through sheer force of will, Kakashi locked onto the coordinates of home. Just as the final, crushing fist descended and the entire cavern collapsed into total darkness, he triggered his teleportation, wrenching himself and Sasuke away.
Stopping his attack, the figure stepped back through the wall and vanished as the cavern sank in on itself.
- Hidden Base, Location ??? -
"You're back. How did it go?"
A two-toned voice asked, the figure turning to his companion, Zetsu.
"He was much better than I was expecting, complete Susanoo, good with a blade, and very resilient. Itachi's younger brother was there, but something must have happened to him; Kakashi had to split his attention, and it nearly got him killed."
"Nearly? So, he's still alive. Then would you like me to finish the job?"
Zetsu asked, but the figure shook his head.
"No, the ambush served its purpose. The White Zetsu in Kumo's intelligence department should've already worked to pin Kumo against Konoha, the One-Tails should already be extracted, and the two people that can use that teleporting technique should be busy or incapacitated."
"What of the 8 and 9-Tails? This would be a good time to get them."
Zetsu spoke, ready to retrieve at least one of them.
"That won't be needed. Hidan and Kakuzu are busy retrieving the 2-Tails while the 8-Tails is away; a perfect time to do this, as the Raikage will likely be leaving soon to back up his brother.
"So, the ones impersonating them at the extraction of the One-Tails are the empowered White Zetsu."
Zetsu realized, nodding at the plan, so deeply satisfied that he nearly smirked.
"How is 'Madara'?"
The figure asked with an amused half-laugh.
"He's still the same, though I've noticed he's far more wary of going inside his Kamui dimension; he wouldn't tell me why."
The figure waved it off.
"As long as he's going along with the plan, he doesn't need to know about me and how I've helped him, just as that man planned when he revived me."
- Flashback, 2nd Ninja World War -
"Lord Madara."
A white Zetsu announced himself as he came out of the ground.
"Speak."
Madara ordered, his old voice holding more power than the Kage of this time, even in his sorry state.
"The boy you've asked us to keep an eye on is dead?"
Madara narrowed his eye not covered by the long fringe, speaking up in a dangerous voice that promised death.
"The boy I gave the Rinnegan to, that Uzumaki brat, Nagato?"
"No, not him, the Senju one, grandson of Hashirama."
Madara relaxed slightly at that.
"How did he die?"
"He ran into a trap and blew up."
Those words stunned Madara for all of 3 seconds as he thought of Hashirama's near-invulnerability and the contrast between him and his little grandson.
"Hahahahahahahahahaha."
Madara laughed so hard that he nearly slipped into the pure lands, coughing for a minute with deep laughs mixed in between.
"Amusing news, but. If that's all, you may leave."
The White Zetsu stayed and began speaking again.
"I've managed to find the sort of technique you were asking for, Lord Madara, the one to bring others back to life. It's in its early stages, made by the Chiyo woman after her Son and daughter-in-law were slain by the White Fang of the Leaf. It requires a life poured into the one you wish to revive, a life for another, but unlike what you asked for, this jutsu wouldn't make you younger again if someone were to revive you this way."
And just like that, Madara's interest died, but after a moment's thought, he smiled with a wide smile, getting an idea when looking at the Zetsu.
"That boy, the grandson of Hashirama, bring his corpse to me once he's buried, don't get caught, understood?"
The white Zetsu shivered, leaving hurriedly, returning later that night right after the burial with Nawaki's corpse.
"Good, now go get me the notes to that jutsu. I'll be borrowing it for a time; once done, you'll return it where you got it."
Madara ordered, calling more Zetsu to him once the other left.
"Yes, Lord Madara?"
All ten of them replied
"You'll all wait here; I need your help with something."
Madara closed his eye and waited, the Zetsu he tasked with the retrieval coming back in 30 minutes, having rushed, not wanting to keep Madara waiting.
The Zetsu promptly brought the notes to Madara, the lone Sharingan in his socket darting across the pages at blurring speeds; the idea of the technique wasn't overly complicated to Madara, and in that small time of reading, he had already perfected what Chiyo had been working on.
Madara sat the pages on his lap in the order they were brought to him and looked to the waiting Zetsu.
"Bring the boy to me. I'll explain what you 10 must do, and you come over here as well; you won't be participating, but I need you for something else."
The Zetsu brought the body over and laid it at his feet, listening intently as Madara explained what they were to do. The Ten promptly followed the order, flooding their chakra into the dead boy, the 10 of them pouring all the chakra they could without knowing what they were doing as Madara had already placed them under genjutsu.
Looking to the Zetsu who had brought all of this, Madara gestured to an arm and leg.
"Give the boy an arm and leg."
Zetsu did it without complaint; limbs were easily regenerated, tearing off an arm and leg on the side Nawaki was missing and attaching them as the 10 Zetsu fell dead, Nawaki groaning and raising a moment later, a reaction that Madara had been hoping for.
The derived cells of Hashirama in the white zetsu were absorbed by Nawaki through the life force and chakra, grass and flowers springing up around him as his body changed, becoming more robust, Madara feeling the boy's chakra reserves increasing at a pace that wouldn't destroy him. Still, it likely wouldn't feel good, not that he cared; his idea had borne fruit: Wood Style and a Sage body, the grandson of Hashirama, now his to manipulate and turn to his side. Madara had to suppress a smirk that would be far too sinister for the act he was about to play, already preparing the way he'd spin everything to him.
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Nawaki Senju."
- Chapter End -
I've sped some things up in this timeline. Sasori's parents die in the 2nd ninja war; that stays the same, but Chiyo makes the sacrifice jutsu after the war; I sped that process up just enough for someone like Madara to take it and finish it, not unreasonable considering the man absorbed natural energy and basically said, 'Ahh, I understand it now'. I also sped up the creation of White Zetsu; they were never 'created' by Madara until the start of the 3rd war, which is weird to me. Zetsu are very valuable and could've helped much sooner, but I assume Kishimoto wasn't really thinking about that.
Also, Fuinjutsu doesn't have to exist for me to create it in MY fic, just a reminder to anyone that this is a fanfiction. I'll not follow canon to the T; that'd be boring and pointless.
Hope you enjoy the chapter; the flashback will continue next chapter. I won't pull the rug on you all, don't worry.
Also, way back when Nawaki's grave was revealed to be empty, someone guessed Black Zetsu, very good job, that was a close guess and I genuinely thought about it.