Fire Style: Demon Lantern. Jin internally chants, infusing his chakra.

A single red-orange fireball with a ghoulish face and sinister smile manifests above Jin’s head. The ghostly fireball slowly circles around its caster, illuminating the dark cave.

As Sasuke thinks and reflects on what his brother told him, Jin’s attention focuses on not Kabuto, but the sword he dropped at his feet. Without anyone to wield the blade, the electrical blade the sword emanates retracts; all it is now is just a hilt that resembles a vajra. Jins stares at it with complete disinterest.

The Blade of the Thunder God… a tool created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju… a weapon from a filler arc… Jin thinks back to the show. I don’t need it--I already have a fire sword and a wind sword. If I train, I can eventually make water, earth and lightning swords.

Jin casually dismisses the redundant weapon and turns to walk away. However, Jin stops after taking two steps; images flash in his mind, memories of his fight with Indra bubble to the surface of his thoughts. Jin remembers how upset Ayanami was when her Hidden Leaf Chakra Blade, he turns back and quickly picks up the weapon.

She might want this. Jin thinks as he hides the hilt in his sleeve.

Moments later, the cave rumbles before a hole is blasted into the ceiling with dust and rocks flying toward Jin and Sasuke; the two ninja leap back to avoid the falling boulders and debris. The dust settles, revealing two familiar faces under the light of the night sky.

“Ha! Found ya! Heh heh…” A snickering Suigetsu calls out.

Sasuke acknowledges them with a simple, “It’s you two…”

Suigetsu leaps down with Jugo. “That’s right, what’re you two doing here?”

“We just put an end to Kabuto’s reanimation jutsu.” Jin is quick to answer. …I should probably head to the last battle, but I really want to witness this scene in person.

“Huh?” Suigetsu looks at Jin with confusion.

Sasuke points in the direction behind Jugo and Suigetsu, the new arrivals look back and see a pale-skinned, horned Kabuto with a snake growing out of his abdomen. He stands there motionless while weaving the clap hand sign.

“Listen… What do you guys want with me after all this time?” Sasuke asks, remaining cool and stoic. “Why did you go out of your way to find me?”

“Oh, yeah… that’s the thing. Now where is it…? We found something incredible at one of the hideouts!”

Suigetsu searches his robes, looking for his find; the young Hozuki searches the confines of his robes collar and pulls out a scroll and hands it to Sasuke who opens and reads its contents. The young Uchiha’s eyes widen for a brief moment then return to their normal, stoic expressions.

“Amazing, isn’t it?! With this scroll, Taka can take over the entire world!” Suigetsu wears a look of pride.

Sasuke’s face changes from stoic to determined. “I need to go meet up with Orochimaru.”

“HUH?! What are you talking about?!” Suigetsu yells in disbelief. “You already killed him!”

“Suigetsu, you of all people should know that Orochimaru isn’t one to die so easily. Don’t underestimate him.” Jin chimes in, walking up to Kabuto.

The Onikage reaches for his fellow snake sage’s chest and tears a chunk of flesh off with his bare hand; Jugo picks up and carries the unconscious Anko to Sasuke. Jin strides over to the downed leaf ninja and places the flesh on the back of her neck, on top of her curse mark.

“Sasuke, listen… He’s dangerous. If he finds out about this war, he’ll want to be part of it.” Suigetsu argues, trying to reason with his leader. “This is our time to shine, hasn’t h–”

“Shut up. Suigetsu.” Sasuke prepares to hand weave.

Jugo places his hand on the chunk of flesh and uses his sage transformation to merge Kabuto’s flesh with Anko’s curse mark, the mark bulges some and lights up. Sasuke weaves several hand signs and places his hand on the curse mark. As Sasuke removes his hand, a white snake gradually grows out of the mark and increases in size.

The snake opens its mouth and a familiar face crawls his way out of the snake; his entire body is covered in snake bile. He turns around to look at his would-be saviors with his usual menacing smile.

“Who would have imagined that you of all people would facilitate my return?” Orochimaru picks himself up.

Jin waves hello and asks, “Hey there, Orochimaru. How’ve you been?”

“Orochimaru… There’s something I want you to do for me.” Sasuke takes control of the situation.

“No need to explain, I’ve been watching from inside Anko. I secured my sage jutsu chakra into each of the curse marks, they’re like pieces of my own consciousness. And I have one thing to tell you about the war, Suigetsu…” Orochimaru’s attention falls on the swordsman. “And that is I have no interest in it at all.”

“Wha--?!”

Okay! Time for me to get the fuck out. Jin claps his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Well… it was nice seeing you all again, but I’ve got places to be.”

“And just where are you going?!” Suigetsu asks, cowering behind Kabuto.

“I’m an active participant of the war and… I’ve grown past your agendas. I’m walking on my own now.” Jin explains himself to the group. “Before I go, I want you to know something, Orochimaru…”

Orochimaru smiles with amusement. “Oh… And what might that be?”

“You nauseate me, I don’t like how you operated nor did I like gruesome orders you gave me… but you did grant me greater strength. So, I’m grateful for that much.” Jin spills his guts to his mentor. “In layman's terms, thank you and fuck you.”

Suigetsu’s jaw drops, he had just witnessed Jin speak to Orochimaru in an impertinent manner and still can’t believe it. Orochimaru just listens all the while still smiling.

“Is there anything else you’d like to say?”

“That’s all… Okay. I’m heading out.” Jin weaves a hand sign. “Ninja Art: Rinne Six Paths of Pain.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at the location of the final battle, Ayanami with her wooden avatar has teamed up with Mecha-Kurama to fight the Three-Heads. Ayanami’s wooden kaiju uppercuts the Three-Heads into the air with a powerful right hook; Mecha-Kurama leaps into the air and kicks the beast, impelling back to the battle-damaged ground. The Three-Headed Guardian rises back to its feet only to see both Mecha-Kurama and the wooden statue charging right for it; together, the two kaiju punch the beast, sending it flying some distance.

The wooden avatar gets on all fours and quickly crawls towards the downed monster; once close enough the wooden statue leaps on top of the Three-Heads and claws at it. Chunks are ripped out each time the avatar’s claws tear away at the beast. The wooden reptile gets back up on two legs and stomps hard on the Guardian Beast, the beast can’t help, but yelp in immense pain. The wooden kaiju applies more pressure and releases a mighty roar; the now defeated Three-Heads closes its eyes as it falls unconscious.

While this is happening, Mecha-Kurama just stands there with a light twitch happening occasionally; the robotic duplicate shrinks back down, reverting back to Mecha-Naruto. However, something is different about him; his eyes have now changed from blue to purple with a ring-like pattern.

Mecha-Naruto examines himself, it’s as if his body feels alien. “I WASN’T SURE IF IT ACTIVATED, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM…”

“TIME FOR A DRAMATIC ENTRANCE.” Mecha-Naruto crouches down and weaves several signs. “SUMMONING JUTSU!”

Mecha-Naruto places his right hand on the ground and a jutsu formula appears, an explosion of smoke occurs; the smoke clears to reveal that Jin has appeared on the battlefield. He looks at all the chaos and carnage happening around him with wide eyes and a strong and sudden sense of bemusement.

Jin’s jaw drops. “...Why’s the Three-Heads he--wait--screw that, WHY IS GODZILLA HERE??!!!”