Reviews:

dragonwarrior316:

I'm glad you like it. Honestly, I get so few reviews for this story, I sometimes forget that there are people that actually read it. Also, I did update my Fox and the Monkey story if you haven't already seen it.

superpeirce:

Thanks. Hope you'll continue to like it. I will be updating my Overlord/Marvel crossover. I wish I could say it will be soon, but with my chaotic schedule, I can't truthfully say that. Sorry.

A/N: Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.

Chapter 10:

Strike of the Serpent

The month before the finals passed with little excitement. The only interesting bits that could be mentioned would probably be saving Hayate from Baki, oh, and the little…let's call it a skirmish when the Sound ninja tried to take Kin and Zaku for use in the Reanimation jutsu. It wasn't really too bad. I wasn't even involved in the fight, so most of this is secondhand knowledge. A squad of nameless Sound ninja came to capture the two injured teens, but instead of them, they found a squad of ANBU waiting for them. The Sound ninja were soundly defeated and those that were captured were interrogated on any plans they had. Both the Hokage and I figured it was best to get them straight from the horse's mouth as it were, just in case any last minute changes were made in the invasion plans. They were sent to Ibiki and Anko for "interrogation." Once those two were done with them, they sang like birds.

We made certain that Kin and Zaku heard what was planned for them. Needless to say, they were a tad upset when they heard that not only were they now considered deadweight by their now former allies and leader. Okay, a tad upset is an understatement. Zaku wanted to go on what would have basically been a kamikaze run at his former allies, thinking his newly healed arms would have been any help against the snake-using master ninja and his army. Yeah, I thought it was a stupid idea too, which is why the Hokage and I convinced him to help in another way. Kin was angry as well, but she was more lost and depressed than angry. I got the Hokage to offer them both a place in the village if they were willing to help, under observation, of course.

Hayate was wounded despite my intervention, so he was gonna be out for the invasion, but at least we wouldn't have to worry about him being resurrected on the side of that nutball Obito. Jiraiya had trained Naruto for the month and when I say trained, I mean it especially since he found his favorite perving spots were unavailable to him. The local hot springs for instance were filled with tamper-proof seals that set off an alarm if anyone on the outside of the fence tried to look on the inside. It also shined a bright light on any peepers. In short, every time the eternally perverted toad sage tried to peep on girls in the hot springs, the seals activated and gave away his position to the extremely pissed of kunoichi inside, resulting in his person being brutally beaten black and blue. Needless to say, he learned pretty quick who was responsible and I told him that if he ever wanted to peep in the village again, he was going to have to actually train Naruto rather than leaving him to his own devices.

Sasuke didn't have those issues, but I did make sure Kakashi understood that if he was late to the finals, I was going to break into his apartment and burn every issue of his favorite book series. Needless to say, that got Kakashi's attention and he assured me that he wouldn't be late.

Anyway, the day of the finals both of my eldest kids had arrived bright and early with my two Konoha-born wives sitting next to me in the stands as we waited for the fights to start. Mei, unfortunately, was stuck in the Kage's booth with the Hokage and the "Kazekage." Though she tried to keep her face neutral, I could tell she was upset that we couldn't be with her, but she was at least happy that she got to see her stepsons compete. Dosu showed up too, much to my surprise. Apparently, Gaara, instead of smashing him to jelly, just put him through a few…dozen walls. Guess he's calmer in this version of the world than in the canon. Maybe my words have affected him more than I thought. Either way, we might just have an ally in the Sand.

Choosing to focus on the fights, I was curious as to what Orochimaru was going to be doing since the fight between Sasuke and Gaara was going to be happening first. Either way, I was going make sure I was prepared for the fight that was to come.

"So, Wade, are you ready for what's to come?" Mikoto asked, not wanting to say the word 'invasion' out of fear of who might be listening.

"As I'll ever be, all the preparations we could make have been. Now, all we can do is hope they'll be enough for dealing with that snake-loving prick and his friends," I said.

Mikoto nodded in agreement, "I understand. I just wish that I could join the fight. It's been so long and I don't feel right about just letting the rest of you put yourselves in danger while I just stay back at the house."

"I understand, but someone has to stay behind to watch the babies and you're the one who's been the longest out of active duty. Besides we can't spend the chakra on clones. We'll probably be needing it for the…event," I said, holding her hand, trying to reassure her.

"Yeah! Don't worry Mikoto!" Anko said grinning her sadistic smile, "We'll take 'em down twice as hard for ya!"

I smiled and kissed my snake-using bride's cheek before doing the same to Mikoto, "What the ever-exuberant Anko said," I laughed slightly, "Besides, there's no telling what'll happen once the…fun starts."

Mikoto nodded and seemed to be willing to accept that, though I could tell she was still a little upset.

As it was scheduled for the finals, Sasuke and Gaara were the first combatants to fight. Gaara immediately started attacking Sasuke with his sand, but Sasuke, trained in using his speed for this particular situation, was easily managing to dodge it, returning the attacks with thrown kunai.

After getting enough distance between them, Sasuke flew through a series of handsigns before shouting, "Fire Style: Dragon's Fire Burst!"

He sent out a massive stream of fire from his mouth that was so hot, I could feel the heat from my seat up in the stands. It was apparently hot enough that Gaara's sand was turned to glass when hit with the initial stream of flames.

I guess Orochimaru got the impression that his secret weapon wasn't going to cause enough damage against his next chosen vessel, so he gave the signal to start the invasion. The feather genjutsu started to fall after Sasuke started getting the upper hand, putting everyone not trained in ninja arts to sleep. Mikoto immediately headed out towards our house where one of her clones was watching the infants. Just after she left, Sound and Sand ninja appeared out of nowhere, but much to the surprise of the Sound ninja, the Sand ninja started attacking them rather than us Leaf ninja. Gee, it was almost as if someone had told the Sand ninja that Orochimaru had murdered their Kazekage and taken his place. Now, who could have done that?

Gaara had even taken to crushing the nameless Sound ninja with his sand. I'll admit that I was still a little surprised when he sent me a nod, but I guess he decided that he believed me when I offered to help him.

I, however, had the hard part and when I say hard, I mean that it is also dangerous and it means that even if I survive, I'll probably either be killed by my wives or I'll never get to have sex again. Honestly, I don't know which option would be worst. With these thoughts in mind, I headed to the Kage booth to join the fight against Orochimaru himself. Yeah, I know, not one of my better plans, but I gotta do it. I'm the only one that can anticipate what the snake-loving prick is gonna do. As I moved, I caught glimpses of something…red moving through the battle at high speeds. I didn't have time to worry about that, I had my own problems to worry about.

I managed to make it before the barrier he used to trap Sarutobi came down and cut him off from help.

"Well, well," the creepy enemy said with an equally creepy smile, "It appears I'll not only be able to take my revenge on my old teacher, but on you as well for your interference in the Forest of Death, Lord Farnsworth. At least one of your wives will join you in death."

"You sure about that?" I asked, trying to look and sound confident.

"Yes, I am and your false bravado does not fool me," Orochimaru said.

"Maybe not, but he did," I said, gesturing at the hokage, which got the creepy smirk off of Orochimaru's face.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You wanna show him, 'Lord Hokage?'" I asked with a real confident smirk.

The 'Hokage' gave me a big smile, the kind the Hiruzen Sarutobi would never have, and was engulfed in a puff of smoke to reveal…Jiraiya.

Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock, "Jiraiya!? Where's Sarutobi-sensei!?"

"Sorry, Oro, my old teammate, but Sarutobi-sensei had other plans," Jiraiya said with a smile.

"Well, I suppose then that you two will get to have privilege of seeing the little surprise that I have for Sarutobi-sensei," Orochimaru said, recovering from his surprise and going through a series of handsigns before slamming them his hands onto the ground to make a trio of coffins sprout up from the ground.

"Are you insane, Orochimaru!?" Jiraiya shouted in horror, "You'd actually use that jutsu!?"

"You do remember who we're talking about, don't you? We're talking about that guy that performed inhumane experiments on people, one of whom I'm married to!" I shouted annoyed.

"We will make him pay for what he did to those people and our dear Anko," Mei said.

"You got that right, beautiful," I said, smiling at her, "But first, let's take away his little surprise." With that, I slammed my own hands to the ground activated the seal I had placed weeks ago for this fight. When it did, the coffins opened up and three, inanimate bodies fell out.

"W-What!? How is this possible!?" Orochimaru demanded.

That time I smirked with real confidence. "You like it, prick? I placed that seal just for this situation. It disrupts the chakra you need to use to activate the Reanimation jutsu. In other words, it shorts out the jutsu."

"That was pretty clever, my darling husband," Mei said, "How long did it take for you to make that?"

"Not long," I said, lying through my teeth. The truth was 'not long' was actually about a month.

"Fine, I'll admit you caught me off guard again, but with Jiraiya and yourself here, how will you handle the summon that my minions have called?" the snake asked, cockily.

"We already did," I said, gesturing to the massive three-headed snake that had just reached the walls, but before it could break through them, however, it burst into a large cloud of smoke, which cleared to show the snake summon was gone.

"W-What!? How!?" the now extremely pissed off snake-using sannin shouted.

"Same basic principle as the seal that prevented you from using the Reanimation jutsu, I just changed it a little so that it activates when a hostile summon is near," I explained, "So, that takes care of the last of your surprises."

"Damn you, how have you known about all of this!? The Sand ninja, the Reanimation jutsu, the summons, all of it!" Orochimaru demanded, "Even those pawns you got to join your side didn't know about all of the plans!"

"Let's just say that I'm quite gifted when it comes with predicting certain events," I said, not wanting to tell exactly how I knew every exact detail of his plan, "By the way, you kinda caused the Sand ninja turning against you when you killed their Kazekage."

He gave that creepy, amused laugh of his, "I suppose you have a point there, but I'm afraid that I'm still going to have to kill you all."

"You're welcome to try, but I won't allow the first man that I fell for to die here," Mei said.

"Thanks, babe," I said, smiling.

"You're still sleeping on the couch once this is over," she said.

I hung my head in defeat, "Yeah, I kinda figured that'd be the case."

Orochimaru, tired of being ignored, growled and charged at the three of us.

Mei fired bursts of lava at the snake sannin, who dodged, only to find the shots from my pistols moving to meet him. One of my shots managed to wing him before he leapt into the air and speed to me, delivering a powerful kick to my gut, sending me flying. Jiraiya attacked from behind with a rasengan, but he melted, showing he was a mud clone. By that time, I managed to recover and fired dual mudballs from my pistols, using earth chakra. That stunned the snake sannin long enough for both Mei and Jiraiya to hit him with a pair of kicks.

"Ice Style: Nitrogen Shot!" I shouted, firing at Orochimaru, one of the shots managed to hit his left arm, freezing it solid.

Jiraiya capitalized on that and hit him hard in the arm, shattering the limb to pieces and making Orochimaru cry out in pain and anger.

"Damn you and this village! You might have made me retreat this time, but next time, I'll destroy you all!" he shouted before he and the Sound four retreated after taking down the barrier.

While they were retreating, Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara were fighting some sound ninja. The Sound ninja, hoping to cause them at least some damage, charged them all together, but before they could come close, golden chains appeared out of nowhere and tore through the Sound shinobi.

The three kids looked around to where the chains came from and Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, "M-Mom?"