A/N: Sorry for the pause! Here you have the next chapter. Oh, and one more thing. I'm quite sure I suck with writing fight scenes and this is a fight scene, so please, have mercy.
"Did we lose him…?" Hiashi's whisper was hardly audible. He didn't dare to move, even though his current position would provide with some remarkable bruises. Not only that…
"I'm not sure" Fugaku, who was lying on him, with his hands desperately clenched with his clothes, risked a look at their surroundings.
"You better be."
"Don't you have a byakugan…? Be useful and check yourself."
"Hn" the Hyuuga grunted stubbornly, but activated his dojutsu anyway. He observed the area for half a minute. "I guess we lost them after all…"
"Yeah…"
"Get of me" suddenly Fugaku got shaken off from his back unceremoniously.
"Hey, be careful!"
"You were lying on me."
"Damn…! They're chasing us, can't you just for once pretend to be a shinobi?! No violent moves" he tried to sound angrily, but really, it was more like pouting.
"They are not nearby" he shrugged, standing on his feet. "I did not perceive them with my eyes, so…" he stopped, because a sound of something crawling through bushes reached out to their ears.
"You didn't…?"
"…fuck."
They took off instantly, jumping from one branch to another highly over the ground. Still, the worrisome sound of an approaching beast only got clearer. The two genin eyed each other, a shade of fear on their faces.
"Your efforts are pointless" a silky voice of the sannin was audible from far too close to them. "If I were in your shoes, I would start to think of some strategy for the inevitable fight."
"Right…" Fugaku admitted. "I forgot to be rational."
"How on Earth did you forget to be rational…?"
"Instead of running around, we should make some planning."
"When a huge beast gets on its way to catch and kill me, I find the idea of running away from it quite rational" Hiashi hissed irritated. "But on the other hand" he continued after a moment "we are moving in wrong direction."
"How so?"
"We are going deeper and deeper into the forest. And I am not sure if you are aware, but it is the forrest."
"Which forest…?"
"The forty-four training ground."
"Oh… shit. We need to get back or-" and there he stopped, as a huge tale of a huge snake with a huge yellow creepy eye hit the branch they were landing on. The boys let out a surprised cry and, shortly after, hit the ground with a remarkable speed. They got up shakily, only to see Orochimaru, standing on the beast's head, observing them maliciously.
"It's good that we are not at war now" the sannin sighed, shaking his head slowly. "You would be nothing more than cannon fodder."
"Shut the hell up!" Fugaku growled.
"Tsk, tsk" Orochimaru's lips twisted in an evil smile. "I don't think you're now in any kind of position to give me orders."
"You…"
The snake reached for them suddenly, snapping dangerously with his fangs. They hardly managed to dodge, climbing on tree trunks with their chakra.
"Oh, I didn't introduce you, did I? Must have slipped my mind" Orochimaru scratched his chin, deep in thoughts. "Anyway, I'm honored to introduce you to Manda" he pointed to the snake. "He is one of my summons."
"Aren't summons supposed to help you in need?"
"Of course they are."
"Then WHY is he here?" Hiashi shouted from a tree crown.
"Because I need him."
"No, you do not! It is only some ridiculous idea of yours to summon him here!"
"Well, I am a formidable ninja and I'm very content you share this opinion, but it is going to be much easier to get what I want with his little help."
"WHAT do you want?!" Fugaku burst out. A second later he jumped off the tree with a forced yelp, when a poisonous fang almost pinned him to the trunk. The snake didn't stop and tried another three times to catch the poor genin, luckly for Fugaku, with no success.
"What the hell are you doing, do you want to kill him?!" Hiashi yelled, pissed.
"Oh, you are worried about your teammate?" Orochimaru wondered. "I guess it's a sign of improvement. Somehow. Let's see how it works contrariwise" with that, the young Hyuuga almost disappeared in Manda's jaws. But a huge ball of fire crossed his way, shortly followed by a bunch of kunai sent in Orochimaru's direction.
"Fight him back!" Fugaku shouted to Hiashi, making another series of handseals. "He won't stop, we need to do something."
"Are you insane, you want to fight against a sannin?! And his huge snake summon?!"
"Manda isn't that big, you see" Orochimaru's tone was almost nonchalant. "It hasn't been long since he was actually a child. He still is, in fact."
"A ten meters long beast is a child?!"
"Yes, that's what I am trying to say."
"… how much longer will he get, then?"
"He will most likely double his length in upcoming two years. You two should be grateful to me, honestly. I decided to go easy on you."
"Yeah, thank you so much, Orochimaru-sama" Fugaku growled. "We will remember this little act of your unexpected generosity for the rest of our lives."
"Oh, I don't doubt for a second that you will" he grinned, when Manda snapped at the Uchiha with a crazy hiss. "Now, I would rather we come back to our business, shall we?" and thus, Fugaku found himself clenched in Manda's jaws, holding desperately one of his fangs not to get swallowed. The only thing he could do was stabbing his gums with kunai, which resulted with a series of violent shakes of the snake's head. He couldn't form any seals, so he decided to wait…
…a regular shouts were heard from outside the beast mouth. Manda's whole body was shaking rhythmically, followed by angry hisses of pain. Fugaku took the first chance he got to escape from the jaws and then, performed a basic lightning jutsu even before achieving the ground. Fast. He landed just next to his Hyuuga teammate.
"You have two affinities?" Hiashi asked, watching Manda carefully.
"Yeah, I do."
"Lucky you" he mumbled, sending another gentle fist towards the snake.
"I guess… You have one?"
"Water."
"I've never seen you using any waterstyle jutsu."
"Most likely because I do not use any. Watch out!" he managed to breath out, before the beast attacked again.
"We need a plan" Fugaku sighed, when they hid it bushes.
"I already have one."
"You do?"
"Well… it is simple in fact. There are two of us. I prefer a close combat, you have your firestyle. So I thought that you would distract them, while I try to approach Orochimaru."
"I'm more in close combat too..."
"Fine, but we have quite a problem here, because you could-"
"But-"
"Look, I admit it, all right? I do not know any technique to fight something of this size. So please, would you mind making some use of your fireballs, because as heroic as it would be, I do not want to die in such a place, killed by something like this and with you alongside?"
"So you admit that the Uchiha are stronger?"
"…are you stupid or something? We may be in the middle of a fight for our lives and you think about such a nonsense?!"
"Just say it."
"No."
"Fine. I just wanted to know."
"Fool."
"Idiot. He spotted us" Fugaku dragged his teammate some meters back to escape the fangs. "Let's see if that works."
A huge fireball, much larger than the previous one, formed just before Manda's head. The snake let out a painful hiss and his yellow eyes automatically found Fugaku, who was already going through another series of handsigns. The second fireball pushed the beast a couple of meters backwards, straight into a narrow area of swamp. A crazy idea came to Fugaku's head…
…and he was going to make it happen. Oh, how much he was going to make it happen.
A furious cry of an animal was audible when splitting lightning surrounded his body. The Uchiha allowed himself a vain smirk, when he watched with self-pride a huge body of the snake falling lifeless to the ground. To think it was enough…
Well, of course it wasn't. I know stories shouldn't be this predictable, so I'm sorry, my dear reader, but still, it WASN'T enough. We're in the Naruto universe after all.
"People would think that it was almost surprising for a genin like you to perform a jutsu of this caliber" an unimpressed voice of the sannin was heard from behind Fugaku. He turned to him instantly, only to see a bored expression on the pale face. "But on the other hand, I'm pretty sure your respectful teammate is going to kill you when he gain his consciousness back."
A cold sweat covered Fugaku's neck, when he noticed Hiashi's numb body lying on the ground. He instinctively rushed to him and crouched to his side, trying to figure the damages he caused…
Just then, the pair of white eyes opened. Only that the eyes weren't white: they were gold, with a vertical pupil in the middle.
"Surprise."
He hit a trunk with his back and fell to the ground with a moan, holding his ribcage with his palm. He could hardly see someone getting at Orochimaru with full speed, when his vision slipped away, making him drown into darkness. The last thing his senses registered was a sound of something enormous… getting up.