Ho-ho-ho! Here I am with an early Christmas present for you, my dear readers! Here is the next chapter!
* review response:
Radomir Ravyinsky, well, not really, but I do think that the stronger normal body is, the stronger sage body will be.
RogueNya, bumike99, Elemental Dragon Swordman, ChaosLord SilverLink310, c im am a dragon, AvatarofDeath13, alice456, harlequin320, thank you!
Skelo, me? Shy away from lemons? Never. Though with the current plot I have, there will be no lemons (or even limes) until ...chapter 23+ I think. I might change my mind on this, but it's unlikely. Lycan91, same goes for your comment too.
Trooper0007, Naruto/Yugito/Kin/Fuu I can make only as a spinoff. Maybe I'll make it from the spinoff oneshot lime I plan to write... And, most likely, not until I finish main plot line. Both Sasuke and Sakura will be dealt with later, believe it!
macabre-wolf, umm... English, please?
Orange-Fuzz-Ball, about '-kun' and '-chan'. I suppose, both can be used when addressing to a female friend.
Black Hearted Ninja, OK.
* jutsu list:
Doton: iwate - (B-rank) Earth style: stone hands - ninjutsu I created. After performing needed handseals user will place his hands on the ground or concrete and it will form hard-to-destroy gauntlets around user's hands. Unfortunately, this jutsu constanty drains user's chakra, while it is active.
Kuchiyose no jutsu - (A-rank) Summoning - Time-space ninjutsu that summons object/animal (requers signed contract with that type of animals) to user's location
Shishienjin - (B-rank) Four violet flames battle encampment – Creates a purple barrier around an area, those that touch it burst into flames
Kawarimi - (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object
Doton: doryuu Taiga - (unknown rank) Earth style: earth flow river - Transforms the ground upon which the enemy stands into a river of mud to throw them off balance.
Sen'eijashu - (C-rank) Hidden shadow snake hands - This jutsu allows the user to eject snakes from their wrist or sleeve, usually after a punching motion. The snakes are used primarily to attack from a distance and, being snakes, can inflict multiple poisonous wounds on the victim's body or hold them in place.
Katon: karyūdan -(unknown rank) Fire style: fire dragon missile – User breathes a stream of fire from the mouth
Fuuton: daitoppa - (C-rank) Wind style: great breakthrough - This jutsu creates a large blast of wind capable of leveling almost anything in its way.
Suna Shuriken - (unknown rank) Sand shuriken – Shurikens that are made of sand, they cause blunt trauma rather than actual damage
Kage bushin - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.
Ame no shi- (B-rank) Rain of Death - fuyunjutsu attack: user throws the 'Ame no shi' (just a time-freezing containment seal) up into the air, where it releases around one hundred kunai (or any other heave objects) with explosive tags attached to them. All explosive tags will explode at the same time, causing a lot of damage in the area.
Fuuton: reppushou - (C-rank) Wind style: gale wind palm - strong gust of wind sent towards his target. When acting in conjunction with another thrown weapon, the wind can increase its power and deadliness
Fuuton: renkuudan - (unknown rank) Wind style: drilling air bullet – user draws in a deep breath, then the user punches its stomach to release a ball of compressed air and chakra
Senpou: kawazu naki- (unranked sage jutsu) Sage arts: toad croak - After focusing Sage chakra to their throats, both Fukasaku and Shima sing, releasing large, loud, and immensely powerful sound waves that effectively annoy, distract, and temporarily paralyze the target completely.
Senpou: goemon- (unranked sage jutsu) Sage arts: Goemon/Bath of Boiling Oil– 3 person team technique, oil is spit at the target, fire is shot at the target as well to light the oil and increase its damage and wind is blown out to increase the damage of the fire and the impact of the burning oil
Edo Tensei - (S-rank) Impure world resurrection - Brings the dead back to life by sacrificing a living person. With a special seal the people brought back lose their free will. Damage done to those brought back is repaired, up to and including restoring lost limbs.
Shinra Tensei - (unknown rank) Heavenly subjugation of the omnipresent God - The ability to manipulate gravity at the users will to repulse matter away, the damage depends on the amount of force put into it. The user must wait 5 seconds to use it again. Not proved, but can be special rinnengan technique.
Banshō Ten'in -(unknown rank)Heavenly attraction of all of creation - The ability to manipulate gravity at the users will. The jutau draws things towards user. Not proved, but can be special rinnengan technique.
Shunshin - (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu
Onipou: tama shaei - (unranked demonic jutsu) Demonic arts: soul projection - this is a very special jutsu that allows its caster to create a manifestation of soul in the physical world. User can't project his own soul, but he can do this to any other soul that inhabits his body. User can control whether 'projected' soul can or can't do any jutsu (energy for them will be taken from projected soul's chakra/yoki reserves) and if it can, up to which level it can. Theoretically, all jinchuuriki and Tengu demons can perform this jutsu.
This will be eleventh chapter of 'Konoha's young Sage', so, I think, some statistics for the first ten chapters are in order:
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Thank you for reading my story, everyone!
Now, story time:
Disclaimer: still don't own 'Naruto' or any of it's characters...
"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of higher beings / Naruto while using Kyuubi's power or Gaara while using Shukaku's / jutsus"
'thinking of higher beings / Kyuubi talking to Naruto through mental link'
Special thanks to CloudBloodbane for beta-reading this chapter!
Konoha's young sage
Chapter 9: invasion
Two Sound chuunin in a heavy armoring watched as teal-haired kunoichi with Waterfall hitae-ate dealt with an attacker.
"That bitch! She killed Sira-san! I'll rip her apart!" One of them shouted, ready to attack the girl.
"No. She's too hot to be killed that easy. I say we capture her and have some fun first." Another added. The first Oto-nin stopped and thought for a second.
"I like your plan more. Let's go get this bitch for ourselves!" And the two dashed forward with kunai in their hands, aiming for the girl's shoulders to render her arms useless. But the kunoichi easily ducked under their attack and planted her fists into men's guts. The Sound-nins did several clumsy steps back, but that was all Fuu's attack did. "You, bitch!" One of the men tried to attack again, only to have the kunoichi's foot connected with his chin. With a sick, audible crack his neck was broken. Fuu looked at the other man, her eyes becoming even more feral. Dust that was in the air suddenly was pulled towards her outstretched right hand and formed something like a gauntlet with two foot long blades on it.
"Doton: iwate!" The Kunoichi whispered in an evil manner, slowly advancing towards her enemy, whom she held frozen in fear with her killing intent. Without even looking Fuu blocked a pair of kunai that came in her direction somewhere from other sections of the stadium. Finally, she was just a step from the Oto-nin. "Fool. Leaf and its allies will never be taken over by scum like you." Next second two dust-made blades went through the man's heart. Fuu looked around. This section was clear of any enemies for the time being, but in the next section were three Konoha chuunin fighting a losing battle against four Suna jounin. Nodding to herself, the Shichibi jinchuuriki headed there to lend a helping hand.
***
"Sasuke Uchiha, I give you an A-rank mission." Genma said, dodging a kunai from a Suna jounin named Baki. "You are to stop Sabaku no Gaara." The Dark-haired boy immediately agreed – finally he was given a mission an elite like him should be doing.
"Hai," With that Sasuke dashed in the same direction where the Sand siblings ran not a minute ago. But moment later he was forced to stop as Baki appeared in front of him.
"You ain't going anywhere Leaf boy." But before the man could do anything to Sasuke, Genma assaulted him with a barrage of shuriken.
"Run!" Nodding to the jounin, the last Uchiha of the Hidden Leaf continued carrying out his mission.
***
Naruto and Shikamaru quickly ran towards the section where Kakashi was. They found the Silver-haired jounin defending several genins and knocked out by the genjutsu civilians alongside the 'Konoha green beast' Maito Gai.
"What will our mission be?" Naruto asked, ignoring Nara boy's whine of 'troublesome'. Kakashi was ready to send them to help with the evacuation of civilians when he spotted Sasuke running away from the stadium and after the Sand trio.
"You two, along with Sakura," The pink-haired kunoichi blushed a bit. ", will do an A-rank mission. You must stop Uchiha Sasuke." The copy-nin turned to Gai and 'green beast' nodded. "I'll summon Pakkun for you to follow Sasuke's trail"
"Don't Kakashi-sensei; you'll need all the chakra you have." Naruto stopped him. "Sasuke is going after Gaara, isn't he? I have someone, who can trail chakra – or yoki – signature and Gaara right now is in no form to perform high level cloning jutsus." Kakashi nodded and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki bit his finger to draw some blood and quickly ran through four handseals. "Kuchiyose!" In a cloud of white smoke gray a pigeon-sized toad appeared, with a strange metallic device on its back and complex goggles on its ...forehead.
"Ah, Naruto-kun... Wha do ya want?" The toad asked.
"Good afternoon Gamasora. I need you to trail the Ichibi's yoki. It's very important!" The toad moved its goggles onto its eyes and several seals on them began glowing dim blue.
"Ya, I can si'it. Follow me!" Gamasora jumped into the air and two bat-like wings appeared from the device on his back. Wind-based chakra flowed into the wings and sustained the toad in the air. "Oh, wait a sec! How wil'wi get past those?" The toad pointed at the fighting shinobi on the arena floor. The problem was solved a moment later when Gai sent poor a Oto-nin through the wall. The three ninja and the toad exited the stadium through this hole and started carrying out their mission.
***
Before the smoke from the grenade dissipated, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato found himself on the roof with a kunai held to his neck by Orochimaru, who was impersonating the Kazekage. Quickly performing seal-less substitution, Sarutobi appeared behind his traitorous student. Just a moment before his throat would have being slitted. Orochimaru looked at the mud that was his sensei moments ago and turned around to face the Hokage, already in his battle robes. Deciding there was no more need for the masquerade, the snake sannin too threw away his kage robes.
"You're still not rusty, Sarutobi-sensei. But it doesn't matter, Konoha will be mine today. Kukuku, you will die by my hand." Orochimaru gave a sign and four Oto jounin appeared near the edges of the roof.
"Shishienjin!" The four formed rectangular barrier of purple fire around the roof, preventing anyone from joining the fight between Orochimaru and Sarutobi Hiruzen. Moment later the Sound four created smaller barriers around themselves so that Hokage won't disrupt their jutsu.
"Clever... But you forgot one thing, my lost student." Sandaime Hokage said, flashing through handseals. "Doton: doryuu taiga!" A river of mud formed in front of him and tried to wash snake sannin away into firewall. Orochimaru, of course, got away from death by kawarimi'ing himself with a roof tile.
"Sen'eijashu!" Four thick snakes flew from his sleeve intent to kill Old man Hokage, but Sarutobi even at his sixty eight years was still a kage-level ninja.
"Katon: Karyūdan!" The snakes were turned into ashes by the violent fire. The traitorous sannin evaded the flames and tried to perform 'fuuton: daitoppa', but was forced to kawarimi away from roof tiles turned into shuriken that were sent in his direction. Deciding that he needed to advance to the next level of the fight, Orochimaru bit his finger and spread some blood across the tattoo on his arm. In a cloud of smoke a seventy foot long snake appeared. Yes, this will give him enough time to prepare his next attack...
***
Naruto and Sakura were running through the treetops, following Gamasora, trying to reach Sasuke in time – judging by the sounds they were hearing he had already engaged Gaara in a battle. Shikamaru was somewhere behind them, hopefully alive, ambushing six Oto-nins that tried to stop them. Finally the two of them reached the clearing where a partially transformed Gaara tried to kill Sasuke.
As his mission was completed, Gamasora unsummoned himself, creating a poof of smoke. This proved to be a distraction for the Ichibi jinchuuriki and Naruto landed a strong hit on Gaara's side, sending him into a nearby tree. Of course, the sand protected its master from the most of damage...
"Run!" Naruto yelled to Sakura, who landed by Sasuke's side. "I will fight him."
"Stupid dobe, I couldn't land a good hit on him, how can you possibly do anything to him?!" The Uchiha yelled. "And I don't need your help! I can fight!" He tried to stand up, but his body had other plans and didn't move quite as well. At this time Gaara came back into the fight...
"Suna shuriken!" A hail of sand projectiles was shot from his sand body in the direction of the three Konoha genins.
"Kage bushin!" Several shadow clones popped into the existence, creating a wall in front of the members of the team seven. "I said run!" Naruto yelled. Sakura nodded and picked Sasuke up, before disappearing into the canopy.
"My prey!" Gaara shouted in a demonic voice. "I will kill you!" There was another barrage of sand shuriken aimed at the blond shinobi, but Naruto kawarimi'ed away from them. "I will fucking kill you!"The crazy jinchuuriki stretched his sand-made demonic arm and swung it, crushing all nearby trees and barely missing his current target. Naruto reached into his pouch and took out a strange looking containment seal from it. Then he tied it to a kunai and threw the kunai high into the air. Not too far away both Sasuke and Sakura, along with Temari, wondered, what he was trying to accomplish by this move... Naruto did a single handsign and there was a large cloud of smoke in place of that seal with hundred or so kunai falling down, each with a bunch of activated explosive tags attached. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki jumped away from the clearing and watched as the kunai fell down.
"Ame no shi!" He whispered quietly and in the next moment whole clearing turned into a giant fireball from the explosive tags. When the wind blew the dirty smoke away, Gaara looked the worse for wear, but was still alive.
"I will kill you!" He roared and more sand came to him, creating a giant tanuki body the. true form of the Ichibi. "I WILL KILL YOU!" The beast roared, sending a wave of sand towards Naruto.
"Fuuton: Reppushou!" Naruto blew the offending sand away before jumping further from the mad tanuki demon. "Fuuton: daitoppa!" The jutsu hit Shukaku square on its stomach, creating a hole through it. But moment's later sand restored the beast to its original form.
"IT HURTS!" The Gaara-Ichibi roared, before unleashing more sand shurikens at Naruto, but the blond skillfully kawarimi'ed away from the attack.
'What should I do, Kyuubi-chan?' Blond jinchuuriki asked in his mind, not knowing what to do next against the beast.
'Call me forth. Together we will have enough power to stop Shukaku,''. Naruto nodded to himself: this sounded like a plan.
'OK, get ready, nee-chan' He flashed through handseals, some of which weren't from the twelve seals all shinobi are taught. "Onipou: tama shae..." He couldn't finish the jutsu as he was forced to evade an incoming 'fuuton: Renkuudan'. Even if he dodged the projectile itself, the explosion it caused left him with a few minor wounds. 'I need sage mode...' Naruto thought forming a cross-shaped handseal. "Kage bushin!" Two dozen shadow clones popped into existence, distracting Gaara so that the real Naruto could get away.
'Why don't you call me forth now?' Kyuubi asked her ...container. The blond shinobi just shook his head and pointed towards his two teammates that were watching the fight from afar.
'We don't want our little secret to be discovered, do we?' the demoness pouted.
'You're so paying me for this tonight.' Naruto didn't answer, instead calling his sage mode forth. Unsealing his three-bladed shuriken, he jumped back into the fight, just in time to see his last clone disappear in a cloud of smoke. Clicking it open, he threw the weapon towards Ichibi's arm. Then Naruto sent wind-based chakra through the chakra-string into the shuriken, making pale blue blades of five meter length each extend the metallic ones. The shuriken successfully severed the beasts arm, but it just grew back seconds later.
'This is not good...' The Kyuubi jinchuuriki thought, summoning his shuriken back into his hands and sealing it into its seal on his wrist. 'I need the elders.' Luckily or unluckily, he had some still fresh blood that came from the wound he received. Flashing through handseals, Naruto hit the branch he was standing on with his hand. "Kuchiyose!"In a big poof of smoke Fukasaku and Shima appeared.
"I hope, you have a good reason for summoning us?" Pa said. Then he heard Ichibi's roar and turned around to face the bijuu. "Forget it. What do you plan to do? We are not equals to such a demon."
"It uses sand to regenerate any damage done to its body. Maybe we should somehow render the sand useless for it... Or better, we should push the beast back into Gaara." Naruto replied.
"Gaara is the name of Shukaku's container?" Shima asked. The blond shinobi nodded. "For how long has he been in this state?" The elder toad pointed at sleeping form of Gaara on the top of Ichibi's head.
"Four to six minutes." Naruto replied.
"Then if we are lucky, all you need to do is to wake him up. Landing a good hit on him must be enough." Shima said sagely. "And I think, I have a plan on how to do this."
Not very far away from the battlefield of the two jinchuuriki Sasuke was fuming. Not only does Naruto have something he didn't have – a summoning contract – but he used it to summon to useless, old toads instead of some mighty fighter like the toad boss Gamabunta. If only he had this kind of power, he'd show the dobe how it should be used, Sasuke thought.
Sitting by his side, Sakura was thinking along the same line about why Naruto summoned these two toads. But deep inside her rational mind, there was a thought that the blond had a reason for what he did.
Finally Naruto stopped running circles around Shukaku, winning some time for Shima to explain her plan.
"Can you distract it for several seconds? I need to reenter my sage mode." The blond jinchuuriki asked. The toad elders nodded in response and leaped down to the ground, landing just in front of Ichibi.
"Senpou: Kawazu Naki!" Fukasaku and Shima simultaneously sent sage-chakra empowered sound waves into Shukaku, throwing it backwards a bit, paralyzing it for a brief moment they needed to get away to return to Naruto, who was already back into his sage mode. As soon as all three of them were close enough, they all ran through handseals.
"Senpou: Goemon!" Naruto exhaled toad oil, Fukasaku produced strong wind and Shima supplied the attack with fire. Together it was a river of fire that was quickly advancing towards the slow and clumsy body of Ichibi. The moment the hot burning oil touched its legs, the sand began melting, preventing the Shukaku from moving.
"Do it now, Naruto!" Shima shouted, but the Kyuubi jinchuuriki knew what he needed to do: again he unsealed his shuriken and then summoned a single shadow clone. Two Narutos threw shuriken – with wind-chakra blades extended – at the Ichibi's arm, cutting them off again. The Beast roared angrily and began regenerating his lost limbs. "Naruto, do you still have that seal, 'Ame no shi', with you?" The blond shinobi nodded – he used only one out of two he had made. "Use it on Ichibi's stomach."
"Fuuton: daitoppa!" The sage-powered jutsu easily tore a hole through Shukaku's body. Before the sand could 'heal' it, Naruto threw the kunai with the second 'Ame no shi' seal, activating it when it was in the hole. Seconds later the Beast's body was torn in two by a tremendous explosion. It let out another roar of pain, before its body started falling apart.
"This is our chance!" But Naruto didn't need to be told this, he was already advancing towards Gaara's body – he needed to reach it before his sage mode deactivates, or else... who knows. As he was right in front of Shukaku's jinchuuriki, Naruto hit him. The sand that rose up to protect its master couldn't withstand the power of the Sage's attack. The moment his fist connected with Gaara's face, the Suna-nin awakened and created sand spikes that went right through blond's body, thankfully missing vital organs.
"I will have your blood!" Gaara roared. But in the next moment he received two sage-powered hits from the toad elders and before he could regain control over his sand to crush Naruto's body, the Kyuubi container was gone. "I will kill you!" He roared and started looking for his prey.
Fukasaku and Shima laid Naruto onto the thick branch of a tree about a hundred meters away from the raging Gaara.
"You have to retreat, Naruto-kun. Even with the help of your vixen the wounds you received could prove to be fatal, if you don't receive medical help as soon as possible." Pa said and Ma wholeheartedly agreed with him, which was a rare event...
"But who will... stop Gaara?.." Blond shinobi said with a strain. "Everybody else... is already... busy protecting... the village..."
"I said you must retreat NOW!" For the first time in his life Naruto saw Fukasaku angry. But he needed to defeat Gaara no matter what... So he reached into his pouch and produced a single dirty-green pill in a plastic box. "Wha... You... Thickheaded stubborn tadpole! Don't even think about using it! You are in..." but Naruto already swallowed the pill, "no condition to use it..." Chakra exploded from blond jinchuuriki's heavily damaged body.
'Hey, nee-chan... I need your help. Heal me! Please...' Naruto asked in his mind.
'I will. But you are paying me trice for it.' The vixen responded, making the blond sigh.
'You want to keep me with yourself all the time, don't you? I need to live outside of my mind too, you know?' He threw back.
'Well... If you don't want...' But Kyuubi was far from stupid and knew how to get something for herself in any situation.
'No, no... It's not like that!'
'As I thought' her red yoki joined with Naruto's chakra, accelerating his regeneration a thousand-fold. Bleeding holes in his body, where the sand spikes hit him began closing, the blood he lost was replenished, and broken bones were knitted back together... While Gaara now knew where his prey was, thanks to the yoki spike, the toad elders kept him away from it, sending him flying away with their 'Kawazu Naki' each time he got too close to Naruto... Finally, almost seven minutes later a malnourished looking Naruto sat up weakly. All his injuries were healed, but it left his body incredibly weak – this was the price for regeneration. And immediately the toad elders began ranting about how stupid he was...
"What were you thinking?! You could have died!" But the blond jinchuuriki tuned them out and began collecting natural energy to enter his sage mode one more time. When Fukasaku noticed it, it was too late to stop the stubborn blond. He was already heading towards Gaara.
The Ichibi jinchuuriki looked at Naruto, not really understanding how this boy was standing, and even more, how he is ready to engage him in a fight again.
"Your blood will be the best proof of my existence, Naruto Uzumaki." Gaara said with his demonic voice. Although he wasn't showing it, he was tired from the fight... 'If this Uzumaki boy had at least one more ace in his sleeve... He might lose the fight for the first time in his life... He was afraid of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki...' Naruto looked at him with determination to win, trying to stand levelly on his legs.
"I will defeat you." Then the blond shinobi flashed through handseals. "Fuuton: Reppushou!" Sand rose up to protect Gaara from the attack, but made him lose Naruto from his sight. And the Kyuubi jinchuuriki did disappear from his sight. One second... another... and one more... There was neither any sign of the incoming attack nor any sign of the blond himself. Then suddenly Gaara felt himself pulled under the ground till only his head wasn't below the surface. Several moments later Naruto rose from the earth, like it was water. Concentrating on his prey, Gaara sent his sand towards him, only to receive a yoki- and chakra-suppression seal on his forehead. Gaara tried to continue fighting, but found he was unable to do so.
"Why?.. Why are you so strong?!" He almost yelled at the blond who seemed to be standing only by his sheer willpower.
"What you fighting for?" Naruto asked back.
"I fight and always have fought for myself..." Gaara replied in a cold voice, but he was interrupted.
"That is the reason. When you fight just for yourself, you have no need to go past your limits. When you fight for something or someone precious to you, you will do anything to protect them." Naruto said, almost falling down, thankfully, a tree trunk was close to him and he could lean on it.
"I have nothing precious to me besides myself." The Ichibi jinchuuriki replied. "And I have no one to fight for except for but myself."
"What about your brother and sister?" The Blond shinobi countered. "Sure, they are afraid of you, but still they see you as their brother." This made Gaara think a bit. But it didn't seem to change his opinion.
"They hate me." He replied coldly.
"Are you sure? Maybe you should ask them yourself." Naruto said without looking around. Just a second later Kankuro and Temari appeared by their brother's side, looking angrily at the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. He looked back at them. "Hey, someone needed to put some sense into him!" The Suna kunoichi was still glaring at him.
"If you did something to my otouto…" She began, but Naruto cut her off.
"He is fine. His sand is the strongest and most annoying defense I ever came across. Thankfully, it doesn't treat suppression seals like a threat." Gaara looked at his sister.
"You're... defending... me?" Temari smiled warily.
"Who else is my otouto there?" Naruto used this to prove his position more.
"See? Just keep your tanuki at bay and at least two people will love you. You're very lonely, aren't you?" Gaara thought for some time. Then he nodded. All the time completely ignoring Kankuro's yells about not adding him to the list of Gaara's friends without his approval.
"I see... Temari, Kankuro, free me. Then we are heading back to Suna." Three minutes later the Sand trio was ready to go home. "I will remember you, Uzumaki." Then Gaara did something that neither of his siblings expected him to do ever again. Gaara said 'Thank you'.
Still unable to move properly because of chakra – and chidori – overuse, Sasuke with a scowl on his face watched as Gaara left the battlefield. He failed his mission. Worse, the dobe managed to beat this Sand guy when he, an elite Uchiha, could barely draw blood from him. And to add to the insult, the blond idiot allowed Gaara to go free, when he could of easily killed this abomination...
***
Sarutobi had just disposed of the snake Orochimaru had summoned. Hell, even with Enma, the king of monkeys, help, fighting such a big snake in a limited area was hard...
"Edo Tensei" Hokage looked at the coffin that was slowly rising through the roof, and he felt afraid for the first time in this fight: something extremely strong was in this coffin... "You know, sensei, first I wanted to give you a chance to fight all the previous Hokage..." Now Hiruzen was afraid for real. "...But one of my sacrifices died before I could make any use of it. So I decided to stick with those two senseis of yours… I must have been overheard by my other sacrifice. By the way, do you know where Kin-chan is? Anyway... with only one sacrifice left, I decided to give you a chance to fight the man who can be called a teacher of every shinobi in the world! Isn't it great, Sarutobi-sensei?" Coffin opened and a body that was inside stepped out. It was a large man in dark-gray samurai-like clothes. He had rather long, spiky gray hair and wore a necklace of six '9' on a thin silver chain. In his right hand there was a battle staff and a long katana was strapped to his back. But the most extraordinary thing about this man was his eyes. They lacked iris, instead having four black rings around pupil. The man looked around.
"So, this is what happened to the world... Not exactly what I wanted it to be, but my teachings weren't buried under the sands of time and it's enough for me..." The man said in a sagely voice.
"Orochimaru!" Sarutobi yelled at his traitorous student. "You... You dared to summon him?!" Snake sannin only smiled sinisterly.
"You are right, Sarutobi-sensei, this is the Sage of Six Path, the father of all jutsu! And I gave you a great honor to fight him." Orochimaru turned to the Rikudou Sennin. "You are to kill this old fool. But you'd better toy with him first." Sage turned to the snake sannin and measured him with his eyes.
"I will not fight him." This made traitorous sannin lose his cool.
"I said fight him!!!" Orochimaru yelled, pushing more of his chakra and his will into the mind-control seal in Sennin's head. There was a long silence.
"...Yes." The Sage of Six Paths turned towards Sarutobi and outstretched his left hand towards Sandaime Hokage. "Shinra Tensei!" He said in a calm voice and moment later invisible force hit Sarutobi hard, almost sending him into the firewall. Regaining his footing, Hokage flashed through handseals.
"Katon: Karyūdan!" Hiruzen exhaled a stream of fire towards the Sage, but the man did nothing to evade his attack. When the fires almost hit him, they were simply absorbed, dealing no damage at all. Rikudou Sennin eyed his opponent for a brief moment, before sending another 'Shinra Tensei' towards the man. Though this time Sarutobi was fast enough to create a mud wall to protect himself from the devastating power of the Sage's jutsu. "Kage bushin!" The Hokage summoned two shadow clones, ordering one to attack Orochimaru, while he himself and the other clone will try to fight against the Rikudou Sennin.
"Shinra Tensei!" This time the Sage put a little more force behind his attack and the jutsu had enough power to destroy the shadow clone even after turning the mud wall into dust. Truly, this man was a God. "Banshō Ten'in!" Sarutobi felt himself pulled towards the man, as he was pulled his shadow clone tried attacking Orochimaru. Two Hiruzens hit each other and the cloned one was destroyed, but being close to the Sage of Six Path allowed Sandaime to place an explosive tag on the man's stomach. "Shinra Tensei!" Landing just several feet from the firewall, Sarutobi activated the tag. An explosion completely destroyed the lower part of Rikudou Sennin's body, but just a second later it began restoring itself.
'So, physical damage will do nothing... Looks like I will be forced to do that jutsu...' Before Hiruzen could continue on his train of thoughts, he again felt the pull of 'Banshō Tenin' and used a chain to hold himself in a place. Who knows what the Rikudou Sennin can do? But the Sage tripled the force he was using and Sarutobi's old body couldn't withstand it. The Hokage's left arm was torn away. But something happened to the Sage too.
"Where am I? What is going on?" It looked like seeing the blood made Rikudou Sennin overcome the effects of the mind-controlling seal Orochimaru placed in his head.
"Why did you stop?! I ordered you to kill this man!" Sannin yelled. Unfortunately for him, the Sage didn't want to work with him, but before he could unleash the full power of 'Shinra Tensei' at the snake sannin, there was explosion in the Sage's head. The man's body didn't restore itself this time. "Stupid Sennin," Orochimaru cursed the man. "Thank god I placed an explosive tag as a safeguard in his head." The traitorous sannin glared at Hiruzen. "Kukuku... You won this round, but what will you do next, now that you have only one arm, eh, Sarutobi-sensei?" Then Orochimaru proceeded to summon the Kusanagi sword from his stomach. Sandaime Hokage answered by elongating the staff that was a henge'd Enma.
***
Fuu heard the second explosion on the roof behind the firewall. Looking up she saw the man she hated most for what he did to her village. After all, only Orochimaru was insane enough to create those beasts he unleashed at Hidden Waterfall. And seeing the condition Sandaime Hokage was in, Shichibi jinchuuriki had to admit that the old man was losing the battle. Sarutobi Hiruzen needed help, but that damned firewall prevented anyone from interfering with the battle. Or did it? Fuu quickly ran through in her head what was needed to maintain a barrier. First, it needed the source of energy, but as the Sound four was surrounded by the same firewall, taking them out was not an option. Then a barrier needed to be created on a stable surface.
'That's it!' It was strange that no one had used this weakness of barriers to help Hokage during his fight. 'I can have my revenge against Orochimaru!' Calling upon the power of the seven-tails, Fuu created a protective 'cloak' of yoki around her right hand and then slammed it into the tower, making it shake. And as the tower shook, at least two of Sound four lost their footing, thus the barrier of purple fire was no more. Fuu alongside two ANBU squads rushed towards Orochimaru, intending to kill him, but the man was no fool and knew that now if he stayed, his chances to survive will be equal to zero.
"We are leaving!" The Snake sannin ordered. The Jounins of the Sound four nodded and disappeared via shunshin. Orochimaru tried this too, but at the last moment dust blades of Fuu's gauntlet pierced his liver. The girl tried to petrify sannin's organ, but succeeded only partially as she was thrown away with a strong hit from the man. Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the people who came to save him and said 'thank you' weakly, before collapsing onto the roof unconscious.
"I suggest you give him medical treatment as soon as possible." Enma said. "Sarutobi-dono did receive several wounds from the kusanagi sword. He very well may be poisoned." As the ANBU nodded, the king of monkeys disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
This is all for now. Till next time, guys!