As far as Naruto could tell, the pirates had been true to their word. They'd left his crew unharmed and with an ample supply of food and water. In addition, they couldn't find anything that was missing other than some cash. And they'd even missed where he hid the rest of the bounty money. He supposed that even pirates could keep their word when they want something from you.
Although it did remind him that he had no idea what happened to that money his clone took to go shopping with Nojiko. He should know everything the clone did, but searching his memories, he couldn't remember a thing about that incident. Maybe there was a range limit on the memory transfer?
But he could always ask Nojiko later, he had more important things to deal with. They were now only hours from Orochimaru's base, and he needed to make sure they had a plan. With that in mind, he gathered his crew together to discuss the situation with them.
"Some of you of you may have overheard this," he began when they'd all gathered on the deck, "but those pirates we just dealt with are planning to assault Orochimaru's base while we're there. They want us to keep him busy as they'd rather not deal with one of the Shichibukai."
"I think we should warn him," Tashigi suggested. "As little as I like the Shichibukai, they're at least somewhat under government control. So at the very least they're better than pirates that just go around setting traps for whatever ships pass by."
"Are you forgetting that Orochimaru is kidnapping and experimenting on whoever he can get his hands on?" Nojiko countered. "It seems to me that's much worse than anything Kurenai's crew did."
"We're not even certain he had anything to do with that," Tashigi argued. "That's what we're here to find out."
"If I might interrupt," Shino interjected, "I think our most prudent course of action would be not to warn Orochimaru. The confusion will make it easier for us to investigate his manor. However, I don't believe we should attempt to stop him from leaving, as having him gone could only further aid our efforts."
"You want us to play both sides against each other?" Kiba asked. "Don't you think that's a bit of a dirty tactic?"
"We are under no obligation to help either side in this conflict," Shino replied. "I find nothing unethical about remaining uninvolved when doing so is in our best interest."
Naruto hadn't expected this discussion to become so volatile so quickly. Well, he was captain of this ship, so it was his responsibility to resolve this.
"I would like to add that Kurenai said they were planning to run if Orochimaru comes after them himself," he pointed out. "So if they decide not to give chase we may not have them distracted for long."
"It would also give him cause to wonder why they would attack only to flee," Shino added. "And it could be dangerous to give him any reason to believe we were involved in the planning of the attack."
"So here's what we're going to do," Naruto declared firmly. "We won't warn Orochimaru, and if we can maneuver him into staying we'll do so. However, don't push too hard if he wants to leave, we don't want to say anything that would make him suspicious."
He saw Shino nodding in approval of his plan, and if anyone was opposed to it they were keeping it to themselves. Good. Given the bickering that had just occurred he was afraid he'd have to deal with some dissent.
"Now, we're going to need a couple of people to stay on the ship," Naruto continued. "While he may not want to attack us openly, I wouldn't put sabotage past Orochimaru. All he'd have to do was take out our den den mushi and he'd have our whole trip back to arrange an accident he could 'prove' he had nothing to do with."
"This inspection is official marine business," Tashigi pointed out. "I think those of us who are actually marines should go. Besides, I doubt Orochimaru is going to want to let anyone he doesn't have to snoop around his house. I don't see how we can insist he let in anyone beyond the three of us."
"I could just borrow a uniform," Nojiko argued.
"It's against regulations for us to allow that," Tashigi insisted.
"Tashigi makes a good point," Naruto admitted. "But I would like to bring Shino along if possible."
Even in the short time he'd been with them, Shino had impressed him with his reasoning skills. Given this was supposed to be an investigation, those very skills could prove quite valuable.
"And I guess that means Nojiko and Akamaru will be guarding the ship," Naruto concluded.
"Are you sure we'll be enough to handle it if they try something?" Nojiko asked.
Akamaru barked disapprovingly at Nojiko's question.
"I wasn't insulting you, Akamaru," she replied defensively. "But you and Kiba fight so well together, I just thought the ship would be much better defended if he stayed instead of me."
"Hey, you heard what Tashigi said," Kiba reminded her. "This is marine business."
"Look, I'll leave a couple of clones behind," Naruto promised. "And if things get really dangerous, one of them can dispel itself to let us know."
"Fine," Nojiko conceded bitterly.
Well, Naruto supposed it was better to have an enthusiastic crew that all wanted to go than a lazy one that fought over who got to stay behind.
"Okay then," Naruto announced. "With that settled let's finish our preparations. We don't have much time left until we arrive."
This was one time they definitely wanted it to be clear their ship was a marine vessel. So a large marine flag was flying proudly from their main mast as they neared Orochimaru's island. It had been accurate of Kakashi to call the building a mansion. It was a two story complex that probably could have fit every building on Leaf Island inside it with room to spare.
It was located on the western end of the island, with the rest of the land being mostly taken up by forest. As they were approaching the docks, his eyes couldn't help but be drawn to to a very intimidating vessel that was easily the size of a marine battleship.
Kurenai's ship had been large, but if their respective boats were the only factor, they couldn't hope to win against that monstrosity. And the way it just bristling with cannons, gave the whole ship the feeling of a predator.
The dock itself actually looked to be able to hold several ships of that size, which was very impressive for a private island. It really drove home the fact that this was one of the Shichibukai they were dealing with. Currently, however, the only other ships were a couple of small skiffs, which left them plenty of room to moor their own ship.
But before they'd even had a chance to do so, a very distinctive figure made it's way out of the main doors of the mansion. Orochimaru's unnaturally white face was not one that would easily be forgotten, even if you'd only seen his picture once. So it was clear he would not be feigning absence.
The two clones he was leaving behind had long been hiding in the galley, and he didn't have any others out. Naruto wasn't about to give these pirates any hint of his powers if he didn't have to. And by the time they'd finished the mooring process and disembarked, Orochimaru already stood waiting on the shore.
Neither he, nor the several men he had surrounding him, showed any signs of hostility. But Naruto still approached them warily with Tashigi and Kiba flanking him and Shino bringing up the rear. Orochimaru greeted them with a smile that may have been intended to be charming but really was just unsettling.
"Is there something the marines need from me?" he asked. "You really should have just called if that was the case. There's no need to send someone all the way out here."
"I'm afraid it's somewhat more serious than that," Naruto told him. "Your first officer was caught kidnapping and experimenting on ordinary civilians. He's been captured on numerous charges of murder, among other things."
"I'm afraid that's quite troubling news," Orochimaru declared, nor twisting his lips into a small frown that was actually a good bit less offputting than his smile. "I trust you have sufficient evidence he was behind this?"
If the man was even trying to sound innocent, he wasn't doing a very good job. Still, Naruto highly doubted his tone of voice would be considered sufficient evidence of his involvement.
"You can attend the trial if you'd like," Naruto answered. "But I can assure you the evidence is quite irrefutable."
"I may just do that, but for now I'll take your word for it," he answered. "Although this does explain what you're doing here. You've come to see if he was acting under my orders."
"That's right," Naruto answered. "This is a surprise inspection of your compound. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Of course not," the man answered. "I have nothing to hide. Even if Kabuto was experimenting on people as you say, he was the one with interest in medicine, not me. I'd hardly risk my position to allow him to further his research."
He did have a point there. As much as their profile of Kabuto claimed him to be extremely loyal to his captain, Naruto had no idea why Orochimaru would order the kidnappings.
"Good, then you'll start by taking us to your office," Naruto told him. "Or wherever it is you store any documents you might have."
"If you insist," Orochimaru replied. "Although I'm sure you'll find them to be quite dull. Contracts for supplies, inventory sheets, personnel reports and the like. You'll find that running a government sponsored pirate operation isn't all that different from running a marine base."
"I suggest you take us there with haste," Shino interjected. "Otherwise it might be seen as an attempt to delay us while incriminating evidence is hidden."
"Of course, I wouldn't want you to think I'm doing anything of the sort," he replied. "So right this way."
Orochimaru lead them along the path to the manor, and they were about to enter when a young white haired man came running up to them from behind.
"What is it, Suigetsu?" Orochimaru asked.
"The Burning Skull pirates have been spotted heading this way," he replied, giving Naruto a view of his rather sharp set of teeth.
Meanwhile Naruto was hoping neither he nor his crew were giving any outward signs that they'd known something like this would happen. At the very least surprise wasn't difficult to fake. This had happened much sooner than he'd expected. It was so soon after they'd arrived that Naruto had to wonder if they'd been spying on them by some means.
"They would choose now to cause trouble wouldn't they?" Orochimaru asked rhetorically. "But if they want to hasten their deaths, who am I to stop them? Eliminate them all."
"You're not coming?" Suigetsu asked curiously.
"Why would I?" he answered. "They're just a bunch of trash that refuses to realize they're only a shadow of their former selves. They're no longer in my league."
So saying he turned away dismissively before pausing as if in thought
"Actually, take Juugo with in case they've got a little more fight left in them than I give them credit for," he amended.
"Do you want their ship in one piece?" Suigetsu queried.
"I'd rather not see that miserable piece of driftwood again," Orochimaru replied. "Sink it."
"Aye aye, captain," Suigetsu responded, then turned to leave.
The other pirates in the room followed him out, leaving Orochimaru alone with Naruto and his crew. He hadn't expected the man to volunteer to stay on his own. It certainly gave reason to doubt his claim that he had nothing to hide.
"Now if you'll follow me," Orochimaru told them, "I'll continue where we left off before I'm accused of plotting an assault on my own base just to stall you from reaching my office."
The man quickly lead them up an ornate staircase and down a hallway on the second floor. Naruto was pleased to see that none of Orochimaru's subordinates were in sight. So when Orochimaru opened a door on the left and led them inside, Naruto discreetly summoned a clone outside in the hallway.
Let the man distract them however he wanted, his clone was going to do some real investigating out from under Orochimaru's watchful eyes.
Tenten watched as they drew closer to Orochimaru's ship. It quickly became apparent that their own ship was the only one moving. The large vessel just remained anchored in the open water, as if waiting for them to approach.
"It looks like they've been warned about your power," Nawaki declared, voicing Tenten's own thoughts. "Pity, it would certainly have made things simpler if you could have trapped them."
As powerful as Kurenai's ability could be in the right circumstances, it did have several weaknesses. And their opponents seemed fully aware of the fact that Kurenai could not simply surround someone in her power and trap them. They had to enter the distortion spheres she created after it was put up. So as long as they stayed where they were, they were safe from her power.
"Orochimaru isn't on board," Nawaki informed them. "So what do you say we go greet our hosts?"
"Yes, head straight for them," Kurenai ordered. "We'll drop anchor right off their bow. Nawaki, do you think you can take care of their cannons by yourself?"
"Shouldn't be a problem," he answered.
"Good, then board their ship as soon as you have the chance," she told him. "I suspect most of them will come to us, but don't take any unnecessary risks. If resistance is too strong, get back over here."
"You know as well as I do there isn't anyone who would be 'too strong' for me on that ship," Nawaki boasted.
"Just don't get killed because you can't reign in that ego of yours," she ordered.
Their planning was interrupted by the sound of cannon fire. Locating the enemy projectile, Nawaki positioned himself in its path and batted it away.
"Return fire," Kurenai ordered.
Their return shot was on target to hit the enemy ship, but a white haired young man with a truly massive sword sliced it clean in half. The resulting pieces no longer had the momentum to damage their deck, and bounced harmlessly where they landed.
"Looks like we're going to have to settle this the old fashioned way," Nawaki declared.
Tenten could sense the excitement coming from the older man as he pulled out his spiked knuckles and slipped them on. Honestly, Tenten was hoping she would be the one to fight that swordsman. It had been a long time since she'd had a proper sword-fight, and she'd like a chance to test her skills.
The other ship was much larger than theirs and it's deck was significantly higher above the water. The height difference allowed five of them to jump across the gap between their vessels while they were still in the process of dropping anchor and coming to a halt.
As soon as they landed they began firing their weapons, but it didn't even look like they were aiming for anyone in particular. So, they were using their gunfire to check for Kurenai's distortions. They really were well informed.
Nawaki, however, wasn't about to let them continue unchallenged, and charged directly into the center of the group, quickly tossing all five of them overboard. Having dealt with them, he then leaped up onto the enemy ship. In the process, he passed right by the swordsman from earlier, who was jumping down to their ship at the same time Nawaki was heading for the white haired man's.
Tenten took the opportunity to unsheathe her sword in preparation. She was pleased to see she would get her chance to confront the man. Several other of Orochimaru's men had already joined the swordsman on their bow, and she could see a number more lining up on the other ship in preparation to follow them.
A barely noticeable shimmer appeared in front of where their opponents stood. Tenten carefully noted the position, as a moment later, all visible indication of the distortion vanished. But all of Orochimaru's subordinates were moving around it despite that fact.
It didn't seem they'd be able to count on Kurenai's power being a major factor in this battle. She could only have one distortion up at a time, and it was clear they knew how to spot them being formed. Well then, she'd just take care of this herself.
Charging her target, she sent a swing with the intent of decapitating him. But despite the size of her opponents sword, he easily brought it up to parry. Countering with his own blow, Tenten found it required nearly all of her strength to block the powerful attack.
"You're not bad for a no name pirate on a third rate crew," the man told her.
"Speaking of no name pirates, I don't believe I've ever heard of you," Tenten countered.
"The name's Suigetsu," he supplied. "I'd tell you to remember it, but you won't be alive long enough for it matter."
"We'll just see who comes out of this alive," Tenten fired back.
The challenge made, the two of them began crossing swords at a level even many career pirates would likely never see. Tenten had hoped the weight of that absurdly large sword would slow his movements enough that she could make quick work of him.
But while that almost certainly had something to do with her having the upper hand in speed, her advantage was countered by the fact that one of his strikes could not be lightly parried. If she wanted to block, she had to be willing to brace herself and commit to it. And of course there was his longer range to consider.
If that was all, it might still be an even fight, but Tenten was good enough with the sword to recognize someone who was better. Glancing around at how the rest of the fighting was going, it wasn't as good as she'd have hoped. Their opponents had kept coming and they were already outnumbered on their own ship.
Kurenai was doing a good a job of cutting down their numbers. In fact, a man fell to her knife in his back in the brief moment she'd glanced over, and there were a number of dead men already surrounding her. But it would take her some time to work through the swarm of opponents. Without the aid of her power, Tenten was probably slightly more dangerous than her acting captain.
And with Nawaki on the other ship, there really wasn't anyone else on their crew they could count on. There was a day when they'd been one of the most feared group of pirates on the Grand Line. They'd had an elite crew that Orochimaru would have thought twice about challenging even with all of his best men to support him.
But after that thrice cursed Minato had sent their real captain to Impel Down, most of the old crew had left over time. If her memory served, other than Nawaki, Kurenai, and herself, there were only two other crew members who had actually served under the captain. And those two were nobodies who had joined right near the end.
But the sad thing was, they were still better than most of men they'd found to replace the old crew. Not that she could really blame them for leaving. The captain had been a great woman who Tenten had admired more than anyone.
She'd been born on this ship with her parents both serving on it, but they'd passed away before Tenten was even old enough to remember them. So her captain had even become sort of a mother to her and the day she learned of her capture was still the most traumatic of her life.
But Tenten pulled her mind away from that line of thought. Even if she didn't think much of the current crew, it wasn't fair of her to leave them to fend for themselves just so she could practice her swordplay. It was time to get serious.
But as soon as she'd made that resolution, Suigetsu pulled his sword a few inches back toward himself in mid-swing. So instead of her parry hitting the other sword where she intended, it fell into a head sized semicircular hole cut in the blade.
This only delayed the impact a moment, but it was enough to throw her a bit off balance. Suigetsu used that opportunity to twist his sword, and wrench her own weapon out her hands, sending it flying to the side.
"You should have spent more time practicing with your sword instead of playing with your other toys," he mocked, having noticed array of weapons of various types she had strapped to her body.
Having disarmed her of her sword, Suigetsu pulled back his own weapon, intending to go in for the killing stroke. But this situation suited Tenten just fine. She was already using the wire she'd wrapped around the hilt of her sword to swing it back around in order to slice into Suigetsu's legs.
But he saw the attack in time and jumped over it, not that Tenten had expected any less. Still, it had thrown off his attack, allowing Tenten to easily duck under the horizontal swing he was making. And once in the air, the momentum already imparted in his swing carried him off to his left.
When he landed he turned his motion into a roll to avoid a followup swing from Tenten who had regained her sword. But instead of continuing their swordplay, Tenten quickly pulled out a knife and flung it at Suigetsu. The young man, however, simply leaned his head to the side to let it pass an inch to the left of his face.
Standing back he prepared to resume his attack only to drop to the ground just in time to avoid the knife that had suddenly reappeared in front of him. In fact, he hadn't even managed to prevent the loss of some hair on the top of his head. The third time the knife passed by he was ready for it, and blocked it with his sword, letting it fall to the ground.
"So not only are you unable to match me with swords, you're not even willing to fight one on one?" he asked.
But Tenten wasn't going to let him bait her, not after her plan had been a success. Suigetsu may have been told about Kurenai's ability, but Tenten had years of experience working with it. And one thing she'd learned, was to always keep track of where a distortion was.
She was just glad Kurenai had noticed what she was planning and hadn't replaced it, seeing as she could only have one out at a time. Another fortunate turn was that it looked as if he didn't know all the tricks of the distortions. If he had, he'd know that as long as he left it at the same point he entered, it wouldn't have any effect on him.
But if he considered himself trapped, it might as well be true. She could just leave him there, but there was the chance he'd figure out that weakness if she did. Besides, if she finished him off, Kurenai would be free to make use of her power elsewhere.
"Just because you want to limit yourself to one weapon doesn't mean I have to," Tenten replied. "How about I show you the benefit of a little variety?"
Circling around her opponent she began to send all manner of weaponry in his direction. Knives, daggers, shuriken, pretty much any pointy object she had on her, and believe her, she had a great deal of them on her. She tried a variety of trajectories for the weapons, but he still managed to block them all.
Given the size of that sword, and the fact he wasn't really very large, it made a pretty decent shield. He was careful to make sure they all landed somewhere around his feet as well, rather than simply being deflected back to the edge of the distortion. So he wasn't even left to face them more than once.
"You're running out of weapons," he taunted.
"Maybe so," she replied, "but I'm not out yet."
Unwrapping a long metal chain from around her waist, she moved to just outside the edge of the distortion and swung it in a horizontal arc at Suigetsu. He moved his sword in a path to block it, but Tenten just smirked. Thrusting her arms down, she force the path of the chain down as well as it was now skidding across the ground.
Suigetsu's eyes widened as he realized what she was attempting. He thrust the point of his sword into the ground to block the chain's movement. But it had already collided with several of the weapons scattered across the ground, and those were sent sliding into other weapons in a chain reaction.
All in all, nearly two dozen of the were sent into the edge of the invisible sphere. As they all returned to the position and velocity they had originally entered the distortion at, it proved to be too much for the swordsman to handle all at once. She counted at least eight of them burying into his body.
"I'm impressed," she told him when she'd surveyed the result. "You managed to avoid being hit in any vital areas. Still I doubt you'll be able to put up much of fight in that condition. And if you're not careful, blood loss could become a problem."
She wasn't just mocking him either. Considering each of his limbs was now sporting at least one new accessory, she was surprised he was even still standing. She could see the hate boiling up in Suigetsu's eyes as he looked at her.
"Juugo, get over here this instant!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
A few seconds later, a tall orange haired man dropped onto the bow of their ship. She could only assume he must be the Juugo whom Suigetsu was calling for.
"Are you alright?" Juugo asked with concern when he saw his companion's condition.
"Don't just stand there gawking! Transform and take care of these worms!" he ordered the man.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Juugo asked meekly.
"That's an order, you idiot!" Suigetsu raged. "What do you think Orochimaru had me bring you for?"
Juugo cringed back from Suigetsu. Tenten's first thought was to wonder just how dangerous a man who would cower like that could be. But when several of his fellow pirates began looking at him in fear and diving off the edge of their ship, she was forced to revise her opinion. She had a bad feeling about this.
Naruto's clone had been summoned disguised as one of the men that had been escorting Orochimaru. Prior to them all running out with Suigetsu to deal with Kurenai's attack anyway. Hopefully no one would find it suspicious if he snooped around looking like this. Although he wasn't sure what he would do if someone tried to talk to him, given that he hadn't heard the man speak.
But he could worry about that if it happened. For now he had some searching to do. He would wager that anything Orochimaru was trying to hide would be pretty far from where he'd led them. So he'd go back to the first floor and start searching there.
Going back down the stairs and into another hallway on the first floor, he'd passed only one person, who hadn't so much as nodded to him as they passed each other. With no one else in the hallway, he began to open doors, one by one, looking for anything suspicious.
He hadn't caught sight of anything of note yet when he came to a locked door. Naruto didn't know a thing about picking locks so for a moment he considered using Shigan to carve open the wood the lock was set in.
At least until he remembered he was a clone and he couldn't use that ability with his clones yet. It looked like if he wanted entrance was going to have to kick in the door. He hoped Orochimaru was hiding something in there that was really obvious at first glance, because he probably wouldn't get much time to look.
Breaking it open, he winced at the amount of noise the process made. Hurrying inside he was disappointed to see what appeared to be nothing more than an office. Still, he found a number of folders sitting on a desk and opening one began to skim through the papers.
But he couldn't find anything about kidnappings or human experiments. They just seemed to be boring reports. Take this one, which was apparently about an incident between King Wapol of Drum and King Nefertari of Arabasta some years back.
Wait a minute, hadn't the last paper he'd looked at been on a similar topic? Grabbing it again, he confirmed that was the case. Quickly opening another folder, he began skimming papers in it as well and quickly confirmed the pattern. These were all reports on influential people. Royalty, World Government officials, high ranking marine officers, tenryuubito, and the like.
They contained many details he doubted was public knowledge and seemed to focus very heavily on a certain aspect. Who they had reason to hate and why. Naruto couldn't think of any reason for gathering this that wasn't intended to stir up trouble.
This might not be proof of any actual wrongdoing, but he still considered it more important than the evidence they'd come to find. This information could very well be used to stir up chaos among the World Government. To turn nations against each other and ferment civil war.
Why Orochimaru would do such a thing, Naruto didn't know. But he certainly wouldn't trust a pirate not commit such an act just because he couldn't see a motive. Anyway, he shouldn't stay here any longer.
He was lucky no one had investigated the crash, but as soon as someone walked by they'd see the state of the door. If possible, he wanted his crew safely away before that happened. Without further ado, Naruto dismissed himself to pass on what he'd learned to the real Naruto.
Unsurprisingly, they'd found exactly what Orochimaru had said they would in this room. But Naruto was content to let the man waste their time. It would be too risky to find anything with him looking over their shoulder. He'd just let his clone do the real work.
Speaking of his clone, its memories had just been added to his own. Taking a few seconds to play them back in his head, he realized they should extract themselves as soon as possible.
"I say we put an end to this farce," Naruto told Orochimaru. "Even if there is proof you ordered Kabuto to do what he did, you're not about to let us find it. This is just a formality so the brass can save face. And as far as I'm concerned, we've done our job."
"Well, perhaps I can give you something to help out your superiors in that regard," Orochimaru offered.
Walking over to the desk that sat in the back of the room, he grabbed a piece of paper and a quill. Dipping it in some ink, he quickly scrawled out a message on it before reaching out to offer it to him.
"This is a signed affidavit swearing I had nothing to do with the kidnappings," he informed them.
Naruto walked up to him to accept the paper, and was just about to grab it when he was tackled to the side by Shino. As he was falling he was able to see a knife pass through a hole that opened up in Shino's side and embed itself in the door.
Orochimaru must have used the paper to lure him close and block the sight of his other hand as he grabbed his dagger and threw it. He was fortunate Shino had been so attentive and quick to react.
"What's the meaning of this?" he demanded as he climbed back to his feet.
"Don't play games with me," Orochimaru replied. "The marines wouldn't send anyone who would give up so quickly to investigate this. I don't know how you did it, but you must have found something. I'd wager there's a devil fruit power involved and that's the reason you were chosen for this in the first place."
He was right, it was unnatural to leave so quickly. Naruto wished he could have thought of a better excuse. But he'd assumed staying would be the riskier course of action given the state his clone had left that door in.
With his plan having failed, Naruto now had to figure out some way to get everyone out of here alive. Shino, however, was already making his move, having converted his entire body into a swarm of insects that was advancing toward the treacherous pirate.
In a blur of motion, Orochimaru reached out and grabbed a vase that was sitting on the desk. He then hurled the contents at the approaching swarm which proved to be a clear liquid of some sort. It was a direct hit, and many of the bugs were drenched, quickly falling to the ground.
Where the liquid itself hit the floor, it began to burn right through it, proving it was most definitely not water. The shock of the assault caused the remaining bugs to quickly return to a human shape.
Orochimaru was already in motion toward Shino with a pair of handcuffs he'd grabbed from somewhere. But Orochimaru reached the stunned bounty hunter first, slammed one end shut around his right wrist, stuck a key inside, and locked it.
Naruto reached him before he could do anything further, but the man easily danced back from his punch before dropping the key into his pocket.
"Those seastone handcuffs should take care of the troublesome one," Orochimaru gloated.
"You'll find he's not the only one you have to worry about," Tashigi told him as she unsheathed her sword.
"So that's how you want it?" Orochimaru asked, pulling his own sword out of its sheath. "I may not be as good as Mihawk, but I'm sure I can handle a whelp like you."
Tashigi for her part gasped upon seeing his sword.
"That's Kusanagi!" she declared excitedly. "One of the twelve Supreme Swords."
Just seeing the sword seemed to give her a new resolve as she gripped her own firmly.
"It will be good to see it taken from the likes of you," she told him resolutely.
"We're not going to be taking it," Naruto countermanded, summoning two clones and wishing he hadn't left both of his other two with Nojiko. "All of you are going to get back to the ship. I'll hold him off."
"We're not leaving you here alone," Kiba vowed such that Naruto was quite clear repeating the order wouldn't sway him. "It's four on one; we'll beat him somehow."
"You're mistaken if you think I'll let any of you leave alive," Orochimaru declared.
Then in another flash of speed, he was heading straight for Tashigi. She brought up her sword and parried his strike but looked almost surprised to have done so. And Naruto could see why. Kabuto had been fast, but Orochimaru was even faster than him.
However, that had left his back open to Naruto who had just caught up to the man. But faster than he would have though possible, Orochimaru spun completely around and sliced at Naruto. He stopped in his tracks and leaned back out of instinct, the sword coming so close to disemboweling him that it actually cut a slice through the shirt of his uniform.
He was grateful he'd been working so hard on improving his speed since his fight with Kabuto. Even the time they'd spent stuck in Kurenai's trap might have made the difference just now. He might not remember anything that happened, but all the physical conditioning he'd done was certainly noticeable.
But he saw Kiba moving to attack Orochimaru from the other side with that dagger he'd taken after their fight with Kabuto. Orochimaru was already focusing on Kiba as his next target, and Naruto knew that his friend wasn't fast enough to avoid the attack.
Kiba was saved, however, by one of Naruto's clones, who pushed him out of the way, taking the attack in his place. Naruto quickly summoned a new clone to replace the one that had saved Kiba. It was clear they were outclassed, but Naruto had a plan.
"We need to coordinate our attacks," Naruto called out. "He's too strong for us to fight him individually."
Kiba and Tashigi quickly listened, forming a circle around the man, along with Naruto and his two clones. But Orochimaru wasn't about to wait for them to get ready and dashed straight at Tashigi, who once again narrowly blocked.
Turning to Kiba, who was his next closest opponent, he kicked him into one of Naruto's clones, destroying it. At that point, Naruto and his remaining clone had caught up to the man. His clone was doing its best job to corral Orochimaru toward Naruto.
For his part, Naruto prepared a Shigan and sent it toward his opponent. But despite his clone's best efforts to prevent his escape the pirate was already circling around to his left and out of range. But Naruto couldn't let him get away that easily. Orochimaru was unlikely to let them set up for another go.
So pushing down hard on his right leg, he pivoted with all his might in an attempt to follow the man's motion. Making use of the twisting motion from his body, he drove his Shigan up from below like an uppercut … and just missed Orochimaru by a fraction of an inch, tearing into the side of his pants.
In response to his attack, Orochimaru spun around and sent Naruto hurtling back the direction he'd come with a kick before parrying an attack Tashigi attempted to make while he was distracted. Picking himself up, Naruto again replaced the destroyed clone as it immediately rejoined the fight.
His plan had been a success. Palming the key that he'd stolen from Orochimaru when he tore open his pocket, he waited a moment until the pirate's back was to him. The he tossed it back to Shino, who caught it easily with his left hand.
"I know you're limited without your power," Naruto told him loudly enough for everyone to hear. "But we're going to need whatever help you can give us. He's just too much for us."
"I'll do what I can," Shino answered.
But in his moment of distraction with Shino, Orochimaru had managed to catch Kiba with some attack he'd missed seeing, sending him violently into a wall. The back of his head hit first with a painful sounding thud and the rest of his body quickly followed suit, sprawling him flat against the wall.
"I hope he's as least as good as your friend over there," Orochimaru mocked as Kiba slid limply to the floor. "Because it looks like you're down a man."
Naruto felt a surge of anger at Kiba's treatment but fought it down. He had to stay focused. Looking back at Shino, he saw the man nod that he was ready. Turning forward again, he rushed at Orochimaru, who reciprocated by running straight at him.
But shortly before they clashed, he danced around Naruto, heading instead to Shino, who was running up from behind Naruto. The pirate then thrust his sword directly at Shino and Naruto had to give the bounty hunter a lot of credit. He waited longer than Naruto suspected he himself would have dared, before ripping open the now unlocked handcuffs and letting the sword pass right through him.
The insects his body was turning into quickly swarmed onto the sword and began moving up it toward the wielder. Having little choice, Orochimaru dropped his weapon and jumped off to the side, near where Kiba was lying unmoving.
And apparently that was by choice, as Kiba took the opportunity to bury his dagger deep into the back of Orochimaru's right calf. The pirate stumbled away from the assault, but Tashigi wasn't about to give him a moments respite, as she moved in with her own attack.
Orochimaru dodged back away from the slash but slowed by his injury wasn't able to completely avoid it and received a shallow cut along his chest. That dagger of Kiba's had sliced deeply into the leg. No matter how good the man was at dealing with pain, muscle had been damaged and his leg just wasn't going to move like it normally did.
One of Naruto's clones was the next to take advantage of that fact, sending a kick that clipped his back as he again just avoided dodging completely. The kick threw Orochimaru off balance enough, that he was completely unable to avoid a punch from Naruto, that landed solidly on his chest. Naruto was rewarded by the sensation of ribs snapping under his assault.
So it was a testament to the man's skill, that as injured as he was, he still managed to turn and make a diving roll toward the desk. Then lifting it, he tossed the whole thing at his pursuers, delaying them and allowing him to create some space.
"Your plan was to play dead while we fought and just hope that Orochimaru happened to wander past?" Tashigi accused Kiba.
"I don't see what right you have to complain seeing as it worked," Kiba argued. "I'm going to make sure the report clearly states the major role I played in his defeat. What exactly have you done? Scratched him?"
"Don't let your guard down," Naruto ordered. "I'd expect more from the only man to escape my father. I wouldn't be surprised if he still had an ace up his sleeve."
"Escaped your father?" Orochimaru asked more calmly than he would have expected given his condition. "Yes, I see the resemblance. You must be Minato's brat. That would explain why I took such an instant dislike to you."
"I'll just have to finish what my father started," Naruto replied.
"I wouldn't have thought it would be necessary," Orochimaru continued, ignoring Naruto's comment, "but given the state I find myself in, why don't I show you exactly how it was I outdid Minato. Other than simply outliving him that is."
"What exactly are you going to do beat up like that?" Kiba asked smugly.
"What I can do is show you my devil fruit power," he answered.
Juugo's body quickly began to turn a dark shade of gray. Not just his skin, but his hair, eyes, even his clothes turned to one solid color. In addition, his hands and feet began to morph into claws of some sort and the already tall man grew more than a foot, topping off at about seven and a half feet.
But what was probably the most startling change, was the large pair of bat-like wings that sprouted from his back. They of course were the same shade of gray as the rest of his body. His change completed, the man, or whatever he was now, let out a loud roar.
"Juugo is the owner of a rare mythical zoan fruit," Suigetsu told her. "This is his gargoyle form."
Meanwhile, flapping his large wings, Juugo was actually lifting into the air. When he was ten feet up or so he began a dive, and Tenten finally snapped out of her trance and hurled one of the few daggers she hadn't already used at the beast.
Her aim was true, but the weapon bounced off his arm with a clank leaving him uninjured. Actually, her eye caught a small object falling from where she hit, and she ran over to where it landed on the deck to examine it.
It appeared to be a piece of stone. But did that mean his entire body was made of stone? Before she could try anything else Juugo broke into a dive, aiming toward where one of Orochimaru's men had remained behind fighting one of their crew.
His feet, which were really more like sharp talons now, each latched onto one of the men, digging into their flesh as it lifted them up into the air. Tenten saw the shimmer of air directly in its path that indicated a distortion was forming.
But Juugo made an astonishingly sharp turn to avoid it. Although Kurenai had succeeded in gaining his attention, as the creature dropped its passengers harshly to the deck and dove straight at her. It seemed that as ferocious as he was in his transformed state, he still retained at least some of his human intellect.
A quick mental calculation made it clear to Tenten that Juugo would reach Kurenai before she'd be able to form another distortion. It took her just under 5 seconds to collapse one distortion and form a second, and that was about a second too slow.
She moved to help the woman who was preparing to use her knife to defend herself. But while she struck first, her attack did little more than remove a small chip from the zoan user. Juugo however, landed on top of her, knocking her onto her back and digging his claws into her shoulders.
Tenten saw him reach back his right arm for a powerful strike while holding her pinned, and she was filled with despair. She wouldn't reach him in time to stop the strike, and that monster's attack could probably tear her head off.
When a hand grabbed the claw before it could descend, Tenten realized just how focused she'd been on Kurenai's plight. She hadn't even realized Nawaki had returned to their ship and had been moving to protect their acting captain.
After gripping Juugo's fist, he pulled him off of Kurenai and threw him onto his back. His wings prevented him from lying completely flat, but Nawaki reversed Juugo's earlier position and pinned him to ground before beating on the creature with his spiked knuckles.
His assault left pockmarked holes on Juugo's face and chest and a number of cracks near the holes. The zoan user let out a load roar, although whether in pain, rage, or both, she didn't know. Sending a clawed strike back at Nawaki, Juugo slashed across his chest, leaving a trio of thick red lines.
Then, while Juugo was off guard, he slipped his legs under the man and threw him back and over his head. Tenten was already in motion having pulled out her heaviest weapon, a mace that she kept strapped to her side. Reaching Juugo, who had just clawed his way to his feet, she slammed it into his side with all her might.
A section about the size of her first crumbled away and a number of long cracks spread along his chest and back. Some of them merged with those left by Nawaki's earlier assault. Not to be outdone, Nawaki added to his share of the damage slamming a fist into Juugo's back.
Tenten could see cracks spread further as Juugo let out another roar. But rather than retaliating, he ran directly away from them. Flapping his wings, he leaped off the ship and took flight back toward the island.
"Get back here you coward," Suigetsu ordered, although with much less force than before.
Suigetsu no longer had the strength to stand, and was now kneeling on the ground. Yet he seemed to need his sword for support to manage even that much.
Kurenai and Nawaki had both judged their wounds to not be life threatening and were approaching the pirate swordsman. With him being the only opponent who was still be conscious on their ship, the rest of their crew was seeing to the wounded.
"Not going to kill yourself to protect your master?" Nawaki asked.
"He was just a paycheck and a chance to get famous," Suigetsu answered. "Not worth giving my life over. If you patch me up I might even consider telling you whatever you want to know about him."
"Did you take care of everyone on their ship?" Tenten asked Nawaki, changing the subject. "Considering how long you took I certainly hope you did."
"Hey, there were a few tough ones over there," he answered defensively. "But yeah, they've all been dealt with."
"Great, so now that we don't need those marines anymore, what do you say we go finish them off?" Tenten asked hopefully.
"We have wounded people here," Kurenai admonished. "Including Nawaki and I. We're not going to start another fight now."
"Fine," she conceded reluctantly. "But don't think I'll be so easily swayed if we run into him again."
"I can't believe we're stuck out here while they're meeting with one of the Shichibukai," Nojiko complained to Akamaru. "This will be a great a story to tell Nami. 'I got a glimpse of him from the ship before my companions left me behind and went inside.'"
She'd hoped she'd at least get some excitement from the clash of the pirates. But they'd both just anchored right in front of each other off in the distance. And they were too far off to make out what was going on even through a telescope.
But Akamaru must have grown tired of her monologue, as his response was to tackle her to the ground. She was just about to yell at the dog for his reaction when she saw a gigantic set of grey talons pass right through where she'd been standing.
And when she got a look at the whole creature she didn't have a clue what that monster could be. Although even in her shock, she idly noticed that it seemed to be in pretty bad condition There was a large hole in its side and cracks all along its body. The creature looked to be turning around for another pass, but Nojiko wasn't about to just let it do as it pleased.
Pulling out her gun, she fire a number of shots into the creature which was now hovering just off the starboard side of the ship about ten feet above the deck. The bullets buried themselves into the creature, but no blood came from the wounds. Although a few small pieces of it appeared to break off.
Drawn by the sound of gunfire, Naruto's clones rushed out of the galley to see what was going on. Whatever that thing was, it seemed to reconsider a second attack as it turned around and flew off into the woods on the island.
"What was that?" one of Naruto's clones asked.
"I don't know," Nojiko answered. "But remind me to not to complain anymore that staying behind on the ship is boring."
Shino watched Orochimaru cautiously. His claim to have a devil fruit power could just be a ploy to stall them in hopes that help would arrive. But there was a much greater risk should they act rashly and he truly did have a special ability.
They could try to attack him before he got a chance to use his power. But given that Orochimaru announced he was going to show it to them, rather than simply using it, that may be exactly what he wanted them to do. Yes, waiting for him to make his move was the best course of action for now.
However, he did not expect the man's move to be slumping to the ground. Had he been more wounded than they'd realized, or was this some sort of trap? His companions looked as confused as he was. Except Kiba, who was, oddly enough, smiling broadly. His odd behavior didn't stop there, as his lifted his dagger up and held it against his own neck.
"Nobody move or your friend dies," Kiba ordered, although Shino was pretty certain now that it was no longer Kiba in control.
"This better not be a joke, Kiba," Naruto said angrily, but made no move.
"I assure you, this is quite serious," Kiba's body answered. "I'm in complete control of your friend. Now, the annoying one with the bugs, I want you to put those cuffs of yours back on."
There were many questions about Orochimaru's power. How often could he switch bodies? What happens to the person who was displaced? Would killing the host kill Orochimaru? But one thing was certain, putting those handcuffs on would only make the situation worse.
"You're just planning to kill us all anyway," Shino told him. "Why should we make it easier for you to do so?"
"Because it's actually better for me if you return alive," Orochimaru answered. "It would be difficult to explain how a group sent to investigate me just happened to disappear. Especially if the marines have any spies in my organization that saw you arrive."
"Then why did you wait until now to try this approach?" Shino asked dubiously.
"It was too great a risk," he replied. "My power is my most valuable secret. I don't even let my own men know about it. There was always the chance you'd be the type who were willing to sacrifice a friend for the greater good. Or the type who only cared about themselves for that matter."
"You mean someone like you," Tashigi interjected.
"Exactly," Orochimaru answered, unaffected by the intended insult Tashigi's statement had carried. "But if you would all put your lives in my hand in the hopes I'll let you're friend live, you'll probably be cooperative in keeping my secret. Because you can consider the lives of every friend and family member you have forfeit should news of my ability leak."
Tashigi gasped in response to his threat which only led Orochimaru to put Kiba's face into an even more twisted grin.
"And it would be useless to try to protect them," he added. "Because absolutely anyone they came across could be under my control. So I'm sure you'll make the right decision, just like Minato did."
Orochimaru paused as if deep in thought.
"Come to think of it," he addressed Naruto. "I may very well have you to thank for your father doing such a fine job of staying silent. But that's enough talking, you're running out of time to do as I say. In addition to the handcuffs, I want those fakes of yours gone. Oh, and I want the sword girl to toss aside that little toy sword of hers."
But Shino still had no intention of complying. He didn't trust the man to keep his word. There was some logic in what he was saying, but Orochimaru would probably be better served leaving only one of them alive. That one could return with some story of the rest continuing the investigation.
After all, why would the man share the knowledge with a single person more than necessary. He would just pick whoever he thought was least likely to divulge what really happened.
"Do it," Naruto told him, snapping him out of his thoughts.
For his part, he dismissed his clones. Tashigi was going along with this as well having tossed her sword aside.
"I'm still not certain that's wise," Shino argued.
"Just do it," Naruto said more forcefully.
Shino considered his options once more. Naruto was quite insistent, but he didn't know the young marine well enough to ascertain if it was because he had a plan. He could simply be determined not to let Kiba be killed. Shino did not like gambling everything when their were so many uncertainties.
On the other hand, given how little they knew about the limitations of Orochimaru's power, he couldn't see a course of action that was any less a risk. As difficult as the decision was, it only took him a couple of seconds to make, as he knew that too much inaction would take the choice from him.
He would trust Naruto had a plan. At the very least, if he didn't, it was clear Shino would not be the one chosen to live. So there would be little opportunity for regret. Picking up the handcuffs he'd discarded, he clamped it around his right wrist. Taking the key he'd kept on his person, he locked it before repeating the process with his other hand and tossing the key away.
"Now, I have another set on the desk in the next room to the left," Orochimaru told them. "I want the girl to go and bring it back. But don't take too long or things could get ugly."
Tashigi quickly complied and left the room. However, a foot caught the door before it shut behind her, and Tashigi marched right back in.
"What do you think you're doing?" Orochimaru demanded. "I want to remind you that I'm in control here."
Without even slowing, she walked right across the room, picked up her sword along the way, and stood over Orochimaru's body pointing it at his neck.
"It occurs to me," she said as she looked down on the motionless form, "your body must have eaten the devil fruit. So what happens to you if it dies?"
"Do it!" Shino ordered her.
He didn't know why Orochimaru had let her put his body in that position, but this was their best chance. She was right that killing the body should remove his ability. So the worst case scenario would be that Orochimaru would be stuck in Kiba's body.
"Are you really willing to risk your friends life over this?" Orochimaru asked.
"Are you willing to risk your own?" she fired back, turning to see his response.
Suddenly both Kiba's and Tashigi's bodies jerked. Then, while Kiba lowered the dagger at his neck, Tashigi moved her sword up and in front of her own. Shino resisted the urge to curse. She should have ended it when she had the chance. But why had Orochimaru waited so long to switch bodies when his own was at risk?
Perhaps the process took time. Also, he believed Tashigi had never actually turned to face Orochimaru until right before the switch. Maybe eye contact was the key. If either of those were true, they still had a chance.
"You see how useless this is?" Orochimaru asked from Tashigi's body. "You have no hope of winning."
"You'll pay for this somehow," Kiba vowed.
At the very least it was good to know that the host recovered when Orochimaru left the body. But they were all caught of guard when a moment later the door opened and Tashigi walked in carrying another set of handcuffs.
"I have the ..." her words trailed off when she saw what appeared to be herself standing inside.
The faces of the two Tashigis almost mirrored each other in shock as each looked at the other. But only for a moment as the one Orochimaru had possessed vanished in a puff of smoke. Immediately, Naruto dashed over to where Tashigi stood, and grabbed the cuffs and key out of her hands.
Sprinting back to Orochimaru, he quickly closed them around his wrists and locked them shut. Meanwhile, Shino was hurrying over to where he'd tossed the key to his own handcuffs where he used it to release himself once more.
Having done so, he wasted no time approaching the fallen Shichibukai and picking up the sword the fake Tashigi had dropped upon vanishing.
"I'm going to kill him," he announced. "There's still a chance that he could have taken one of us over and this is the only way to be certain. It's just too risky to leave him alive."
Naruto didn't look very pleased from where he stood a couple feet away, but the marine made no effort to stop his plan. So he slowly lifted the sword up, held it there for a moment, and then slammed it straight down piercing into the floor an inch away from Orochimaru's neck.
"Good," he declared. "Since none of you attempted to stop me, I can assume that you are all who you appear to be."
With that matter settled, Shino transformed his body, and quickly injected Orochimaru with the paralyzing agent his other form granted him.
"How do we know he didn't take over your body?" Kiba asked as he returned to his human form.
"I suppose you can't be certain," Shino admitted. "But I find it unlikely that he would be capable of using my power so effectively only moments after possessing me."
"And it wouldn't make much sense for him to point out that he might be in control of one of us," Naruto added. "Not when we may just decide to kill him to be safe."
Tashigi, for her part, was already standing over Kusanagi with a look of awe. She reached down as if almost afraid to actually touch it before gently lifting it off the ground.
"It's my goal to take all the named blades from those who use them for selfish ends," she stated. "But ... Kusanagi ... from Orochimaru ... it doesn't seem real."
Ignoring her antics, Shino turned to Naruto.
"I want to apologize," Shino told him. "I had a great deal of doubt that you truly had a plan when you ordered me to put on the handcuffs."
"Actually, I didn't have a plan yet," Naruto admitted sheepishly. "I was determined to think of something but I was just trying to buy some time. I still didn't have anything until he told Tashigi to go get that other set of handcuffs. Good thing he didn't just handcuff us together, huh?"
Shino was somewhat ... irritated by his disclosure. But he'd let it pass considering Naruto had come through in the end.
"Anyway, we should get out of here as quickly as possible." Naruto declared to all of them. "We don't know if or when his men might be back, and we need to make sure Nojiko and Akamaru are okay."
He was right, this wasn't yet the time for discussion. Grabbing the unmoving Orochimaru, Shino hurried out the door after Naruto.
Naruto had sent his two clones back to the room he'd broken into earlier. He wanted to gather up the documents he'd discovered in the process. As for he and his crew, their exit proved to be a pretty simple matter. They'd left behind one unconscious pirate, but he'd hardly been worth mentioning.
Still, he would have liked to bring him with. But considering just who they were going to be transporting, he didn't want any unnecessary risk of escape. They made it back to the ship to see Nojiko staring at them as they ran up.
"Is that Orochimaru?" she asked in disbelief when they'd boarded the ship.
Naruto's clones came out of the galley to see what was going on. Then one of them dismissed itself giving him a quick view of what had occurred while they were inside the manor.
"Yes," he answered. "And I see you had some excitement as well. We'll explain once we're safely away from here."
In the distance he could see his clones running up to the ship, so without delay he began the process of shoving off. The boat was already beginning to inch away from the dock when they jumped on board, carrying arms full of folders.
"Just so you know, Kurenai's ship sailed off a short while ago, leaving Orochimaru's on fire," Nojiko told him.
"Let's just hope they don't set another trap for us," he replied.
Naruto didn't really begin to relax until the island was completely out of sight.
"You promised me you'd explain what was going on," Nojiko reminded him.
"I can help you out with that," Kiba said. "Naruto found proof that Orochimaru was up to no good. But he got caught so Orochimaru attacked us. Then, thanks to my brilliant trick, we were able to defeat him. So we brought him back with us to the ship, end of story."
Nojiko looked to Naruto for confirmation of the story.
"His summary isn't actually as far off as you might think," Naruto admitted. "Although he did neglect to go into the details dealing with the end of the fight."
"We're not supposed to talk about that," Kiba replied nervously.
"He's not exactly in any condition to carry out his threat," Naruto pointed out.
"Yeah, but what if he escapes?" Kiba fired back. "If he's safely captured there's no reason to tell anyone about it anyway. And if he does escape, I don't want to risk my family over it."
"There's little point in you hiding his body stealing ability," Shino told him. "Whatever you decide, I have no intention of holding my tongue. And if he does escape, I believe he has plenty of reason to hold a grudge against us already."
"He's right, Kiba," Naruto told his friend. "And we can't go about living our lives in fear of his escape. I'm going to include his ability in my report. And speaking of which, I should call back to the base now."
Going into the dining room, he picked up the receiver of the den den mushi and sent the call to G-5.
"G-5 Base," a man's voice answered. "How can I help you?"
"This is Lieutenant Namikaze Naruto," he answered. "I'm calling to report the status of my mission to Rear Admiral Kakashi."
"Naruto you say?" he asked. "Hold on one moment, the admiral wanted me to let him know the moment we heard from you."
To his surprise, Kakashi himself actually got on the line less than a minute from when he was put on hold.
"Naruto, is that you?" he asked. "What's going on? I was expecting to hear from you days ago."
"We actually had some trouble with another group of pirates on the way," Naruto answered. "I'll give the details in my report, but there are more important things to discuss."
"Yes, how did your mission go?" Kakashi asked.
"The bad news is we failed the part of our mission where we were supposed to keep our findings a secret from Orochimaru," he replied.
"Did you all make it out okay?" Kakashi queried worriedly. "Are you in need of any medical assistance?"
"We're all fine," Naruto answered. "Which brings me to the good news. We've captured Orochimaru and we're bringing him back with us."
"Excuse me?" he asked. "This den den mushi must be sick again. I thought I heard you say you'd captured Orochimaru. I'm sure you actually said you evaded Orochimaru or you captured his cook, or something like that, right?"
"No, you heard correctly," Naruto replied proudly. "We captured Orochimaru and we're bringing him back with us."
"I get it," Kakashi said. "You're getting back at me for not calling you back last time. You're actually waiting outside the base having a laugh at my expense. Well, I probably deserve that, but I'm still going to dock your pay for it."
Naruto was actually starting to get a little annoyed by his disbelief, even if he understood logically how difficult this would be to swallow.
"I'm quite serious," Naruto said a bit tersely. "We did manage to get him alone thanks to a distraction, which I'll cover in my report. If you still don't believe me you can wait until we get back and prove it to you. But before that I'd like to tell you what we discovered about his plans."
"Go ahead," he said simply, calming Naruto a bit when he didn't challenge him further.
"Orochimaru had been collecting information on high ranking government, civilian, and marine figures," he began. "Mostly related to conflicts between any such people. He has a lot of very detailed and obscure information on them so he must have had quite the spy network."
"I see," Kakashi muttered. "I have a few ideas what he'd do with that and I'm afraid I don't like any of them."
"I had the same reaction," Naruto agreed. "And it becomes even worse once you learn what his devil fruit power is."
"So he was hiding an ability," Kakashi said thoughtfully.
"Yes, he can take over the body of another individual," he informed the rear admiral. "We don't know much about the limitations as we only got to see him use it twice. The second time being when I tricked him into taking over a clone, then poof."
"Yes, with that power, combined with the intelligence he gathered, it would be trivial to start conflict," Kakashi stated. "A king's daughter is murdered by another monarch whom he already loathes in front of the eyes of countless witnesses? No one would be able to be able to stop that war."
"As for Orochimaru, he hasn't woken up since," Naruto added. "So for all we know his consciousness was lost in the process."
"Well, I'm looking forward to reading the full report," Kakashi told him. "But this is something I'm going to need to tell my superiors about as soon as possible. So just get back here without delay and I'll talk to you then."
"Understood," Naruto replied, before hearing the connection go dead.
"You know, I still can't figure out what those kidnappings had to do with anything," Naruto said mostly to himself.
But Shino decided to answer him anyway.
"I believe I have an idea in that regard," he told Naruto. "I noticed when I was carrying him back to the ship that Orochimaru's body was unusually cold. In addition, his breathing and heart beat were far slower than they should be. At first I'd assumed he was dying, but he has remained stable since then."
"Interesting," Naruto replied. "Go on."
"I believe he is in some sort of state of hibernation," he told them. "He is probably capable of going much longer without food and water like this. Now it may simply be a side effect of his power, but there is a second possibility."
"Kabuto could have figured out how to make his body do that after testing it on people they kidnapped," Naruto responded, realizing where he was going.
"Exactly," Shino confirmed. "One weakness to his ability is the constant need to return to his own body just to keep it alive. Given that he is watched very closely by the government, it might look suspicious if he were always within a day or two of travel of wherever one of the incidents he was causing occurred."
Yes, it all made sense now. Everything tied together.
"Furthermore, even if it is another part of his power, he may simply have wished to enhance it," Shino continued. "If he could slow his metabolism enough, it might even all but stop his aging. If he could hide his body away for months or years at a time, it might be the closest thing to immortality the world has ever seen."
Maybe he couldn't achieve immortality. But the thought of Orochimaru being around even one or two hundred years from now causing trouble in whatever body he'd most recently stolen was terrifying enough. So much so, that Naruto was tempted to put an end to the man right then just to be safe. But no, he wasn't about to kill an unconscious prisoner in cold blood.
"So, I guess you'll be leaving us now," Naruto told Shino as they watched G-5 grow closer. "I'll make sure we find a new ship for you."
"Actually, I think it might be in both our best interests if we refrained from parting ways just yet," Shino replied.
"Well, I'm not at all opposed to the idea," Naruto responded honestly, "but I am curious as to your reasons."
"To put it simply neither us would have been capable of capturing Orochimaru on our own," he answered.
"True enough," Naruto agreed, seeing as it had been a close call even together.
"Yet capturing this one man has probably done more good than the incarceration of every criminal I've apprehended in the past combined," Shino continued. "So I think it best we continue our cooperative efforts as doing so would allow us to pursue more dangerous opponents than we could on our own."
"I'd be happy to have you aboard as long as you want to stay," Naruto assured him.
"Thank you," he answered simply.
They were now close enough for Naruto to see about two dozen armed marines hurrying to the dock they were headed for. Almost as soon as their ship had come to a stop, they'd rushed on board.
"We're here to secure the prisoner," the lead one announced nervously.
Actually saying he looked nervous was probably an understatement, he looked barely a step below panic. Which was completely unnecessary given that the man they were coming to take custody of hadn't shown any signs of consciousness since his capture. Not the mention the fact that he was chained up quite tightly just in case.
Naruto almost laughed at the reaction when they actually brought the man up from below deck. Half of the men had pulled their guns out and were now pointing them at Orochimaru as if expecting him to charge them at any moment.
Never mind that he could hardly bend a joint in his body with all the chains wrapped around him. Still they reluctantly accepted the prisoner and all but two of the men hurried off. Naruto quickly recognized the shorter of their two remaining visitors, but it was the other man who approached him.
"Do you have your full report written?" he asked. "I have orders from the rear admiral to get it to him as soon as possible."
"Yes, I have it right here," Naruto answered handing him the small stack of papers.
"Good," the man replied. "Karl here will show you to your quarters. You're to stay there until fetched in case they want any further information from you."
With that the taller marine left leaving them with Karl.
"Right this way," Karl told them and began leading them off the ship.
He walked in silence for a while only occasionally looking back as if to check if they were still following. They passed through the same large building they'd entered the first time they'd arrived and entered a long corridor.
"I'm sorry about before," he finally said. "I had no idea you were so strong. And I mean Admiral Minato's son and everything. I guess it just runs in your blood."
"Hey, I played a big role in capturing Orochimaru too," Kiba insisted.
"Oh, I'm sure you're all plenty strong," he said placatingly. "You'd have to be to not be killed in an instant when facing Orochimaru."
Naruto actually found it a little odd to be treated with such awe. But not at all in a bad way, as he certainly felt he could get used to it. But they walked on a little further before coming to a hallway that led to a dead end.
"Anyway, we're here," Karl said. "All of these rooms are currently empty. Just pick one and someone will be by soon enough to get you."
They all split up and took rooms, Akamaru following Kiba into his of course. The one Naruto chose was a small room containing nothing more than a bed with a small stand next to it. His cabin on the ship was larger than this. Not much he could do in here while he waited.
Still, there was enough room to practice his Geppou a bit, considering how far he still had to go. He was getting to the point where sometimes he could get enough resistance to give his body a little push, but he was hardly going to be bouncing around the room.
It was actually more than two hours he had to train before someone did come to get them, although it wasn't anyone he recognized this time. His entire crew gathered together and followed the man back through the building until they came to the main entrance, where Kakashi was already waiting for them.
"Ah, there you guys are," he told them. "I just got done talking with my higher ups and they're not at all happy."
"What's the problem?" Naruto asked nervously.
Yes, Naruto had been ordered to avoid combat, but he'd attempted to do so. And wasn't capturing Orochimaru something worthy of praise rather than recriminations?
"Well it's just that now two of the Shichibukai have fallen so close together," he told them.
"Two?" Tashigi asked curiously. "Who was the other?"
"I'm glad you're the one who asked," Kakashi answered. "Because your old boss, Smoker went and captured Crocodile for stirring up trouble in Arabasta."
Naruto saw Nojiko grip her hands together tightly and knew she made the same connection he just had.
"Were there any other pirates caught in the area?" she asked suddenly.
"As a matter fact there were a bunch of high profile pirates we took in," Kakashi answered. "Let's see, there was Daz Bones and Bon Kurei to start with."
Nojiko continued to watch him intently as he seemed to be trying to dredge through his memories.
"Oh, and the Straw Hat Pirates," he said suddenly, causing Nojiko to draw in a breath. "They got away."
Nojiko immediately let out a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, I know," Kakashi added. "It's a shame to see them slip through our fingers. But I hear they're raising the bounties. 100 million for the captain and 60 million for Zoro. Even if we don't catch them I'm sure some bounty hunter is bound to with that much money on their heads."
Nojiko understandably looked quite uncomfortable with the notion. Meanwhile, Naruto saw Shino looking curiously at Nojiko's reaction and realized the bounty hunter didn't know about their history with that particular crew of pirates.
"Anyway," Kakashi continued, "back to the point at hand. The top brass are all worried about losing two members and upsetting the balance of power and all that. But those kind of things are above even my pay grade."
"So are we in trouble?" Tashigi finally asked voicing the concern they all had.
"Not at all, what would give you that idea?" Kakashi asked. "They know you didn't have anything to do with Orochimaru's treachery. They're actually highly impressed with your work capturing him. In fact, there's promotions all around."
"Promotions?" Kiba asked, perking up immediately at the prospect.
"Yeah, let me see if I can get this right. Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander," he said pointing at Kiba, Tashigi, and then Naruto himself. "And Tashigi's old boss gets made a Commodore. Or it all went something like that anyway."
"Something like that?" Kiba asked incredulously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Eh, don't sweat the small details," Kakashi advised him. "It only creates too much stress."
"How exactly is knowing our own rank a small detail?" Kiba fired back angrily.
"If you're that concerned go ask Mary later," he told Kiba. "She's printing up your new Ids. But before that I have your next mission lined up for you."
"I'm listening," Naruto told him.
"Well," Kakashi began, "how would you like to clean up a nest of pirates in a place called Mock Town?"
Naruto's Clone Adventures
Naruto looked around at all the fallen pirates and still almost couldn't believe it. None of them had been very strong, but really all it would have taken was a scratch from one knife or getting clipped by one bullet and he would have been gone.
And on top of that he'd found himself unable to move as fast as he'd expected. He just didn't seem able to use Soru quite as well as a clone. The two thugs Ino had sent with him hadn't been much help. In fact having to protect them probably made things harder overall.
On the other hand, he wouldn't have been able to make it through without Shikamaru. Mostly the young merchant did his best to stay out of the way and avoid the combat. Only three times did he actually do much of anything, firing one shot from his gun each time.
But the amazing thing was, that each one came at a critical point where Naruto didn't think he'd have been able to get away unscathed otherwise. Shikamaru seemed to have a very good eye for telling exactly when he was about to be overwhelmed.
"Whatever she's paying you, I'll pay you double if you get me out here," Gato called out to him.
"She's not even paying me, I'm doing this because I'm a marine," Naruto replied.
"Then I'll pay you more than you'd make in ten years of working," Gato amended.
"Can you gag him or something?" Naruto asked the man holding him captive, as his attempts to buy him were getting on his nerves.
Naruto heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Ino approaching as her ship had already pulled back into dock.
"Good work," she told him. "Now I assume you'll be staying with me for a while."
"Then you assume wrong," Naruto told her. "Why would you think that in the first place?"
"I just thought you'd want to guard Gato and his men so I could take the nearest marine base," she replied. "I wouldn't dare take them all on my own. But if you're busy, I suppose we could just let them all go."
He ground his teeth at that, almost hoping it would be enough to destroy himself. But maybe there was still some way out of this.
"Shikamaru?" he asked hopefully.
"Welcome aboard," was the only the reply he got as the young man patted him on the back and lazily walked over to the ship.
"We are going straight to the nearest base, right?" he asked her.
"Of course," she assured him. "There might be a quick stop or two first, but don't worry, they're more or less right along the way."
Naruto still couldn't believe this. How could any one person be so infuriating?
"Oh, and hurry and gather up the captives," she ordered him. "I expect to be ready to leave in five minutes. And just to make things clear, I'll be collecting any bounties on these men, seeing as we're using my ship to transport them."
Naruto had been wrong all along. Clones could get headaches.
AN
Finally finished up the arc and gave you a monster of chapter by my standards. Didn't think I'd be breaking my record again so soon. Actually, I originally expected this to be a relatively short chapter, it's the next one I was worried would get really long.
Anyway, I'll admit myself I kind of wished I could have had a little more impact in the climax for the arc. Not that I'm terribly disappointed in how it turned out, I think I did a pretty job. I just would have liked to do even better. But this chapter sets up a lot of things I have planned in the future that I'm simply not willing to change.
So there were a number of things that just had to happen in a certain way, which kind of limited my options. Within the boundaries I had, I couldn't think of much else to add drama other than gratuitously maiming or killing a character. And I only do that stuff for a good reason, such as thinking it would be funny, never gratuitously.
But the next chapter is finally one of the two big chapters I've been looking forward to writing more than any others since starting this story. Maybe that means I'll get it out quickly because I've been wanting to write it so badly. On the other hand I might take extra long wanting to get it just right. Either way I can almost guarantee it will be my best chapter yet according to my own personal tastes.
Last but not least, read and review. I completed my first big arc. Don't I deserve a review for that? Well at the very least I can reward myself with a slightly stale cookie from my own cupboard. And you can't deny me that!