A/N: Thanks all for reading! More techniques and more of Naruto! As always, please R&R!

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"SHOUTING"

Chapter 3 – Eye for Immortality

Kankuro kneeled in front of the tree completely humiliated. No not humiliated, not embarrassed, he was damn straight furious. Why? Because he'd been defeated so easily by those weak Konoha genin? No! He knew if they didn't have that kami-damned Aburame's kikaichu to negate his puppet strings, it would have been an easy win. Was it because that stupid dog had pissed all over his puppets? No! Well yes, but that wasn't the only thing! It was because that thrice-damned dog boy had pissed all over him! HIM! What kind of barbaric, animalistic… animalistic… animalistic DOG whips it out during a fight and pisses all over his enemy?

"OH KAMI I CAN STILL SMELL IT!" He cried in vexation as the dog boy laughed, "Oh you'll laugh now, but I swear to kami, I swear, one day you'll be pissing and a puppet will crawl out of the urinal and slice your-"

"Kiba, we have company." Said an ever-stoic Shino.

Temari appeared from behind a tree followed closely by Sakura and an annoyed Shikamaru carrying an unconscious Ino on his back. "What's up guys?" Greeted a positively jubilant Sakura before pinching her nose and cringing, "What in kami's name is that smell?"

Wailing, it was Kankuro who gave her the answer, "I'M COVERED IN THAT FERAL ANIMAL'S PISS, THAT'S WHAT SMELLS."

Sakura looked over towards Shino and Kiba, "What, Akamaru?"

"No, Kiba." Replied Shino.

Meanwhile, Temari sat beside Kankuro and extended her hands, pushing her wrists together, "Hurry up and tie me up. I want the smell of Kiba's piss as far from my nose as possible."

Complying with her order, Shikamaru lay Ino down before tying Temari's wrists together with rope, "Well technically-"

"Shut up Lazy."

"Troublesome."

Kankuro looked on with shock, "What are you doing Temari?"

Sighing, said blonde looked over, "Wrong blonde here, Yamanaka Ino at your service. Yeah, I would shake your hand if it wasn't covered in human urine."

"And if your hands weren't tied together."

"Shut up Shikamaru."

"Troublesome."


Pulling himself up off the oesophagus floor of the toad he had summoned himself into hastily (Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari [Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind]), Naruto disabled the technique, returning to the leafy battlefield of previous, "Well that definitely could've gone better."

Dropping down to a branch slightly below before leaping back up to the treetops. Looking left and right, Naruto placed his face in his hand, "Only I could have lost a twenty storey, oversized rat." He almost lost his footing a moment later as a rumble followed by a minor tremor reverberated across the countryside.

Turning around on his leafy perch, Naruto sighed in relief, 'Thank kami, it hasn't reached Konoha yet. I've still got some time to stop it.'

Leaping towards the cataclysmic tanuki, he calmed himself, he focussing on his steady breathing and the sound of his feet touching each tree branch as he hopped. Reaching inside of himself, he felt the flow of chakra through his body, ebbing and flowing like a river, and the occasional pull of a whirlpool. Making a single ram hand seal, he mouthed the words that had become so comfortable on his lips since he began training with Jiraiya:

'Shunshin'.


Jiraiya stood still, muscles tense, teeth grit, and breathing heavy. His long white hair, now matted with blood fell over his eyes, deep black eyes glazed over and steeled. Hands pressed firmly together, it were these very eyes which not moments later, twisted and brightened into shimmering golden orbs.

Orochimaru stood equally motionless, his sword, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi buried hilt-deep into his former mentor. A manic grin sat right at home on his face, features greased in blood and sweat. He opened his mouth to belittle and mock his former sensei but found he could not. He no longer faced the Hokage, but another of the great Sannin, one who had a grip of iron, tightening around his throat.

"How could you do this, Orochimaru? You have betrayed the village, your friends, the Hokage, your sensei uncounted times. Each time it hurts all the more, and yet each time, it doesn't." He tightened his grip even more, Orochimaru's throat almost unbelievably thin, "Each time we think we have seen your worst, you find a way to surprise us."

Orochimaru flailed about, now forgetting about his priceless blade completely as he clawed and grasped at his former teammates fingers. He drew blood but Jiraiya's grip did not loosen in the least.

"You won't be surprising anyone ever again." The Toad Sage whispered. The snake Sannin begin to panic fully, no longer caring about his greater plans as he felt a swirling of foreign chakra inside his throat, ' I can't die here, I still have to discover the secrets of immortality, I still-"

Blinding pain overwhelmed all other rational thoughts as Jiraiya's Rasengan (Spiralling Sphere) tore the innards of his oesophagus to shreds as he screamed silently.

"This is the end, Orochimaru."


"Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)!"

Shrieking in distress, the tailed beast flickered its beady yellow eyes frantically looking for its unseen attacker. Eyes squinting visibly, the enormous biju looked down at the positively dwarfed Naruto before screeching in laughter, "AH SO YOU DID SURVIVE! I KNEW YOU WOULDN'T DIE SO EASILY! HAH HAH HAH!"

"Damn straight I survived, and I'm going to make you regret it!" Tearing off his cloak, Naruto flickered through a long chain of hand seals, "Kuchiyose: Yatai Kuzushi no Jutsu (Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Technique)"

An enormous toad rivalling the size of the biju itself collapsed ungraciously onto the Ichibi, pushing it even deeper into the colossal swamp, leaving only the demon's head resting above the surface.

The gargantuan toad looked left and right confusion before noticing Naruto, "Naruto! You summoned me here?

Naruto, who by this point was sprawled out on the floor of the clearing, looked up tiredly before nodding, "Yeah, thanks a ton Gamaken." Groaning loudly, he got to his feet, "Quick question, would you know how to fix, uhhh, this?" Naruto motioned wildly at the biju still beneath the toad in the swamp.

"Well, I'm not the smartest toad at Myobokuzan," he chuckled modestly, "but I assume it has something to do with the boy on the beast's forehead." The great toad said before pointing downwards.

Naruto looked back confused, "What boy… oh, that's all I needed to do?" He sighed exasperatedly before looking to the sky, "WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME?"

Muttering indistinctly, Naruto hopped onto the biju's sandy head. "WAKE UP YOU SON OF A BITC-"

"NOOO YOU CAN'T WAKE HIM UP NOW! I ONLY JUST GOT OUT!" Wailed the great demon as he flailed about in vain.

Naruto ignored the biju's antics as he raised his sandal.


War often isn't about who's right – but who is left.

The battle had been won, but not the war, though that seemed to be coming to a close soon enough anyways. After the Oto/Suna forces saw their leader, the Kazekage, and by default, Orochimaru defeated, and their powerhouse weapon, the Ichibi defeated soundly, many of the shinobi surrendered then and there.

Jiraiya sat alone in the Hokage's office, in reminiscence and contemplation. Hiruzen-sensei had long been whisked off to medic-nins. The Hokages, the reincarnated ones, crumbled to dust at Orochimaru's death. The Kusanagi no Tsurugi brought to the Konoha T&I for evaluation and testing. Everything was over, yet for some inane reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was only beginning.

"…raiya-sama? There is a certain, ah, Uzumaki Naruto looking for you outside. Should I let him in?" Called an attentive secretary from outside the door. Jiraiya stood to his full height, gazing out through the panoramic windows.

"Ah yes. Let him in." The scenes of destruction and fires blazing across rooftops pervading his eye line. He couldn't bear to see the village in this state. Yet he couldn't take his eyes away.

"Hey old man, finished up on your own pretty quickly." Said his apprentice from beside him. 'Damn he's getting good at that, didn't even feel him until he spoke.' He sighed inwardly, briefly shying away from the windows, 'He's so much like you it frightens me, Minato. Taking on a biju at thirteen and the like.'

"I saw the destruction as I came through," Naruto continued softly, "and you know what it reminded me of?" He gestured towards the scene before them, "It reminded me of Shimo no Kuni."

Jiraiya's eyebrow quirked briefly above closed eyes. "Open your eyes, old man. Look again, not at the destruction and suffering; no, look at the people working together, rebuilding in unison for a new start. Look for that little boy who gives his last sweet to the crying old lady who lost her home."

Naruto paused briefly, choosing his next words carefully, "Look for the light, Jiraiya, and you'll find the end of a dark tunnel."