"Sakura....." Kabuto teased as he stepped towards her. "There's no one here for you now. What will you do?"

Sakura got up out of the snow and dusted herself off.

"You know, this is exactly what I wanted..... so get ready," said Sakura with a smirk.

Sakura dashed forward so quickly that it threw Kabuto off guard. Landing a solid punch to his head, he flew back and skidded across the ground.

"I'm going to enjoy this ass-kicking...." said Sakura as she watched him get up.

Sticking her hand into her pocket, Sakura could feel that she only had two shuriken and six explosive notes.

A slight breeze brushed her neck and Sakura ducked as Orochimaru's blade swept across what would have been her head. As she dropped down and came around, Sakura slipped the explosive note onto his sash so that he wouldn't feel it before running up along the wall to distance herself from the explosion.

Sakura didn't even look back when she heard the explosive note go off, but she knew that it got him.

Stopping her in her path, Kabuto forced Sakura to leap back off the wall and dodge a scalpel as she went. Skidding backwards, she switched directions by kicking right, missing another scalpel that nearly got her. As Sakura came to a halt, she wondered why Kabuto suddenly decided that he wouldn't pursue.

Looking back over to where Orochimaru stood, Sakura saw that Orochimaru's body had a hole in it, and to her horror, she once again had to watch the folds of his body peel back to reveal a new one.

"Eeeeeeew...." whispered Sakura.

Wait... why is Kabuto protecting Orochimaru? He didn't need to before.... thought Sakura.

As Sakura looked on, she noticed that something was different about this time. The time it was taking for Orochimaru to pull himself out was much longer than she recalled. Not to mention, his face looked strained and sweaty as he did so.

I see.... thought Sakura. It takes a lot for him to rejuvenate. He must be precisely like a snake, and can only shed his skin so much before it's impossible.

Sakura knew that she had only five explosive notes left, all of which would be needed to weaken Orochimaru even further. The question was, how many times would she need to do it?

Sakura began to count the seconds in which it took for Orochimaru to get out of his skin.

Ichi...Ni... San... Shi.... Go.... Roku........ Shichi. Seven full seconds...

As Sakura stared at Kabuto, she could see that his stance had eased up and leaned back towards her. He had been prepping to take off to defend Orochimaru if need be, but now he knew that they were in the clear.

Sakura took a deep breath.

Here I go.....

Sakura took off at a run, but in the opposite direction of her opponents. Kabuto started but then paused. He had never seen someone just bluntly turn their backs to him in a fight.

"Be careful, Kabuto," warned Orochimaru. "Don't forget she almost had you back there."

Kabuto took after Sakura just as Orochimaru seemed to disappear.

Sakura could feel that they had finally decided to pursue and pounded her fist into the dirt. Flipping over the tremor she made, she landed in the deep hole she created.

"Kage-buushin-no-juitsu..." whispered Sakura before concealing herself into the earth. She knew that the shadow clone technique wouldn't fool either of the two, so distributing her chakura into shadow clones was the only way to succeed. Sakura was just thankful that she hung out with Naruto long enough to pick it up.

Kabuto appeared at the edge of the hole to find it empty. Appearing beside him was Orochimaru. Looking up into those snake eyes, Kabuto tried not to show his fear and hesitation.

"Hmph," said Kabuto. "Cheap trick....."

As Kabuto rounded the hole he was expecting to have a hand pop out at him at some point, but as his circumference became bigger, nothing happened. However, it was in the moment when Kabuto reached the opposite side of Orochimaru that he relaxed and Sakura struck.

A hand that glowed blue shot out from the earth directly beneath Orochimaru. Feeling that this was going to happen, Orochimaru's person disappeared into a cloud of smoke as he too was a clone. However, thinking that this was Sakura's only move, his real self appeared a few feet behind.

Just as a smirk had slid across his face, another hand scooped up from the ground and grabbed his ankle. Looking down, he could see that a piece of paper was in its hand.

BOOM!!!

A second explosion went off and Orochimaru found that he was blasted yet again. As his body flew back, he winced as the sun above was blocked out for a brief second before seeing Sakura's foot come down with a menacing stomp to his face. She had given an explosive note to each shadow clone that lay hidden, then self-destruct as soon as she knew she had the real Orochimaru.

The dirt and snow flew everywhere, and now Orochimaru's body lay sunken in the snow. Taking out one shuriken, Sakura used its shallow blade to slash at Orochimaru's throat until she felt it hit the dirt, knicking her own hands as she tried to steady its course. When she was sure that he was dead, she leaped out of the hole to land huffing in exhaustion.

"So.... Kabuto...." began Sakura, dripping streams of blood from both hands. "There's no one here for you now, what will you do?"

A shadow passed over Sakura, and she whipped around in terror as she saw thousands of white snakes linked together with the face of Orochimaru. He had abandoned his last shell in an effort to escape her terrible cuts. Stunned at the transformation, Sakura froze.

"Aaah!" screamed Sakura as the tail of the snake wrapped around her so quickly and so forcefully that it squeezed out the one breath she had.

"Kabuto!!!" shouted Orochimaru. "I am at the end! I will have to take over her body instead of Sasuke's. I cannot last any longer!"

Kabuto, stunned at the sudden proposal, stepped back as he watched Sakura struggle helplessly in the snake's grasp.

"Are you sure you cannot hold out longer? There must be a better choice!" shouted Kabuto.

"What's better to tempt my enemies than with the image of the one person they love? She is almost as strong as Tsunade, and holds power over Itachi and Sasuke. I could use her to no end."

"Hai! Orochimaru-sama!"

Sakura's vision began to go hazy. It seemed as if she were going under some kind of genjuitsu. As she swayed lazily in the snake's grasp, she dug her nails into its flesh out of desperation before beginning to see nothing but white, and soon the menacing face of Orochimaru appeared before her.

BOOM!!!

A stunning light suddenly invaded Sakura's mind, and soon she found herself in the air, still in the snake's grasp, but its body before her had just been sliced in half by something that left nothing but a gaping hole and a burnt trail across the ground. Sakura then felt the tail holding her go limp, and the world seemed to swirl as she went crashing towards the floor. Shutting her eyes, all she could do was take it.

Just as the snake was about to whip Sakura to the ground, two strong arms linked under hers and ripped her out of the the snake's hold as a sword sliced open its side to get her free. Opening her eyes, she watched as her legs were swung up to be cradled by a familiar someone and looked back to see Sasuke following behind with his sword emblazoned red.

"Are you alright?" asked Itachi as he hugged her close. There was no way he was going to get separated from her again.

"Yes, but....."

BOOM!!!!

A huge beam of red light exploded behind them and shot whatever was left of Orochimaru's true being into the air.

"What the...." said Sakura as her view was blocked from seeing what it was that hit it.

BOOM!!! came another invasive light as it shot the rest of the snake while it was still in the air. Sakura's eyes widened as the rest of its white flesh disintegrated before her very eyes. She had just seen the end of one of the legendary Sannin.

"It's turning on Kabuto!" shouted Sasuke as he brought up the rear.

"What is!?!" shouted Sakura as she tried to get a look but not wanting to unsteady Itachi's pace. She had just escaped from becoming Orochimaru's next container, but what saved her, she had no idea.

A shower of rocks rained down upon them as another explosion rocked them from behind, and as Itachi began to turn, Sakura saw the tiny image of Kabuto running away in the distance.

Kabuto dove into the hole that Sakura had made right before the same beam of light swept over its top in a blur. It seemed that Kabuto had borrowed her trick because he didn't proceed to get out of there right after the beam had dissipated.

Suddenly thick rods of glowing red flesh shot out from the earth, impaling Kabuto's body high into the air. Sakura saw him struggle helplessly to break free, but soon saw his movements slow and relax before the rods ripped his body into several pieces, scattering blood and body parts across the snowy white floor. As her horrified eyes stared at the blood dripping down the rods, the red flesh that seemed to move with a mind of its own suddenly struck a familiar chord in Sakura's memory.

Oh no..... thought Sakura as Itachi's back soon revealed what had pursued him.

Naruto......