Chapter 36
The sky was on fire and the earth was a mass of writhing snakes the likes of which made keeping steady footing nigh impossible. All around, there jutted out giant bones belonging to the skeletons of eldritch horrors; some of them still moving. The air was hazy and distorted everything that one wasn't looking directly at.
But Sasuke didn't have any problems with that. Because standing right in front of him was his best friend, Naruto.
"Sasuke!" Naruto cried out, obviously relieved much to his own amusement.
"How long's it been?" The Uchiha asked jovially with a fake smile. Or was it an honest smile with evil intention? Sasuke didn't know. He didn't really care. The only thing that he could honestly say he could feel was the smooth contour of his chokuto's handle as he rubbed it restlessly.
Naruto smiled. "About three years. But wait, listen, that doesn't matter anymore. Whatever you've done doesn't matter anymore. Nothing does. If you come back with me peacefully, you'll be welcomed back to Konoha." The naïve boy ended that sentence with an upturned laugh. Like he were giving an irresistible offer that only a fool would think to turn down. Like he was saying it only as a formality.
Sasuke's smile widened and widened until his face stretched against his teeth and gums. It was a ghastly look. "I'm sorry, Naruto," Sasuke managed to get through as he slowly unsheathed his chokuto "but I've got a mission to do, and you're going to help me do it."
Naruto's face turned from relieved and happy to confused and wary with a delectable sluggishness. "Wait, what? I don't understand- We can go on your mission once we get back to Konoha and get everything sorted. Is that what you mean?"
Sasuke shook his head and advanced upon his best friend with absolutely no hurry in his step. Everything paused. The air stopped moving. The snakes that made up the ground all turned to stone and crunched beneath his feet. The fire in the sky stopped flickering back and forth. The imposing skeletal structures all paused with baited breath. Naruto too turned still. His legs didn't move and his arms were held quick to his side. He seemed to realize what Sasuke's intentions were and began struggling against the unearthly bonds that held him still.
There was no sound in that world with the exception of the stone snakes crunching underneath Sasuke's feet as he drew nearer and nearer to his best friend. The tip of his sword began grinding into the earth and produced an ear rending screech. Naruto wasn't able to speak. He wasn't able to move. He wasn't able to hope or dream or think or do anything except look in terror at the blade being held in Sasuke's hand as he advanced with a palpable murderous intent.
Sasuke stopped in front of Naruto and waited a beat.
Then he waited two.
Then three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
He waited long enough for Naruto to crack a wary smile. He began to hope again. To hope that all this scary stuff was Sasuke pulling a prank or just being mean for the fun of it, as they haven't seen each other in a little under three years at that point. "S-Sasuke, look, if this is all a game, then it's okay. I forgi-"
Naruto was shocked into silence. Now, no sound was audible in the world they were in. No sound at all except for the small pitter patter of blood dripping out of the stab wound in his heart. Naruto looked at the stream of life fluid, then to Sasuke's sword, which was slick with it, then to Sasuke himself. He was grinning. His eyes changed from the standard three tomoe Sharingan to the Mangenkyou Sharingan.
That was the last thing Naruto saw as he slumped to the ground, dead.
The sword used to kill him clattered to the ground next, becoming submerged in the puddle of blood radiating from the dead body. Sasuke clutched his hands to his eyes.
First came the realization that he had finally done it, then came the chuckle. A chuckle which turned into laugh. A laugh which turned into a full blown guffaw. A guffaw which turned into a scream of jubilance of the fact that he had finally done it.
Naruto was dead. He had the Mangenkyou. He was going to kill Itachi.
As Sasuke laughed into the sky of fire, everything churned unnaturally until the world's colors mixed into a sameness that Sasuke was drawn through.
00000000
He awoke blind and covered in sweat. Breathing heavily from an unknown strain on his body, Sasuke sat up abruptly and discharged lightning chakra everywhere around him. He heard a few electrical explosions to either of his sides which spewed sparks and flames and burned him a little on either of his arms.
When he stopped discharging the electricity, his hands scrabbled up to his eyes, which were covered in a thick cloth. He peeled them away slowly as they were stuck to his skin with some sort of adhesive.
Opening his eyes, he realized that he was in a pitch black room, so he lit a fire in his hand and held it steadily to see his surroundings.
It was a small room akin to a standard hospital room. There used to be a light on the ceiling, but he had blown that out in the pursuit of self-defense. Broken machines that were meant for keeping an eye on his vitals fizzed out on either side having gone through the same treatment as the lights.
"Hello, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke threw the ball of fire at the source of the voice in pure instinct. It fizzed out before it got even within a foot of Orochimaru's head, who only grinned more widely. He had seemed to be a part of the scenery so much so that Sasuke hadn't even realized he was there until he spoke.
"Orochimaru," Sasuke said, still confused and getting his breath back "what have you done to me this time?"
"I gave you power," Orochimaru replied vaguely.
"Power?"
"The power to kill your brother. The power to raze Konoha to the ground. The power to do whatever you please. I don't really care because our mutual partnership is breaking off right now."
Sasuke subconsciously reached to his side, where his chokuto was always belted to, but felt nothing. A growing pit of despair began welling up in his stomach and he glared hard at the snake. "What do you mean by that?"
Orochimaru smiled cruelly. "Oh, don't be so tense. My prerogative has changed significantly since you accepted to be my apprentice. I don't plan to take your body."
When he refused to elaborate, Sasuke looked him all over suspiciously, trying for anything that might betray his true intentions. When he found none, the Uchiha looked at him and flatly asked "then what is your plan?"
The snake shrugged. "Little bit of good. Little bit of bad. A whole lot of in between. Over the past few months, I've come to realize that there's much more at play here than you and your little revenge fantasy. I plan to observe all of it. What you do next is wholly none of my concern."
"Wait, wait. Back up. You said power. What did you do to me?"
"I put you through an illusion."
"The Sharingan sees through all illusion."
"You of all people should know that falsehood."
Sasuke tapped his fingers to the bed impatiently. "It can see chakra and the way it flows, making it very difficult to entrap someone who has the Sharingan."
Orochimaru seemed quite amused by what Sasuke said. "Yes, it sees through chakra. It's hard to put someone under a genjutsu who has the Sharingan because most of the time, they can quite literally see the genjutsu being placed. That being said, not all illusions are induced by genjutsu."
"Stop being vague! What did you do to me?"
"I drugged you," Orochimaru said harshly, getting tired of their back and forth. "And what a strange drug it is. It shows the person in vivid and lucid detail anything and everything that they want. The next stage of Sharingan is achieved by experiencing the death of someone you're close to, so I put you under and gave you what you wanted. Lord knows that you're the only person this technique would work on. Anyone who so desperately wants to see their friend die by their own hands has more than a screw or two loose in their brain."
"Then that means… I have the Mangenkyou?"
Orochimaru tossed him a mirror, which was caught without skipping a beat. Sasuke brought the mirror up to his eyes and saw what Orochimaru had been staring at their entire conversation.
The snake got up and went to the door, but before exiting, turned his head and said "you can have anything you want from the base. I'm leaving. It's been a pleasure, Sasuke-kun. Kukuku."
Sasuke barely even registered Orochimaru's absence as he was too busy marveling at his new eyes.
The entire base burned down twenty minutes later, engulfed in black flames.
00000000
Kiba Inuzuka: EXP: 72897/99000.
Level: 98
Chakra: 121
Chakra Control: 72
Wisdom: 39
Intelligence: 91
Charisma: 15
Flexibility: 97
Speed: 103
Strength: 101
Endurance: 50
Hana Inuzuka: EXP: 82179/95000.
Level: 94
Chakra: 79
Chakra Control: 113
Wisdom: 98
Intelligence: 124
Charisma: 115
Flexibility: 96
Speed: 103
Strength: 60
Endurance: 49
Shino Aburame: EXP: 13027/90000.
Level: 89
Chakra: 115
Chakra Control: 60
Wisdom: 81
Intelligence: 86
Charisma:
Flexibility: 77
Speed: 114
Strength: 92
Endurance: 61
Hinata Hyuuga: EXP: 807/113000.
Level: 112
Chakra: 50
Chakra Control: 150
Wisdom: 74
Intelligence: 90
Charisma: 46
Flexibility: 131
Speed: 122
Strength: 63
Endurance: 54
Neji Hyuuga: EXP: 83816/109000.
Level: 108
Chakra: 54
Chakra Control: 146
Wisdom: 80
Intelligence: 86
Charisma: 36
Flexibility: 127
Speed: 114
Strength: 88
Endurance: 61
Ino Yamanaka: EXP: 61930/75000.
Level: 74
Chakra: 78
Chakra Control: 82
Wisdom: 79
Intelligence: 120
Charisma: 101
Flexibility: 64
Speed: 76
Strength: 57
Endurance: 48
Chouji Akamichi: EXP: 12534/91000.
Level: 90
Chakra: 100
Chakra Control: 57
Wisdom: 44
Intelligence: 51
Charisma: 82
Flexibility: 36
Speed: 32
Strength: 198
Endurance: 254
Shikamaru Nara: EXP: 6701/92000.
Level: 91
Chakra: 81
Chakra Control: 97
Wisdom: 154
Intelligence: 203
Charisma: 12
Flexibility: 59
Speed: 65
Strength: 64
Endurance: 57
Lee Rock: EXP: 2/116000.
Level: 115
Chakra: 3
Chakra Control: 2
Wisdom: 14
Intelligence: 21
Charisma: 64
Flexibility: 219
Speed: 268
Strength: 291
Endurance: 121
"Do you have that?"
Naruto's head was swimming with the dump of information given to him by Shikamaru. "I… I think so. Mostly. Kinda. Not much. Nothing, really. Did you honestly expect me to memorize that right out of the gate?"
Shikamaru sighed into his palm. "Okay, think of it like this: Chouji is the tank. Hinata, Neji, and Lee are damage dealers. Ino and Hana are healers. Kiba and I are support. If Chouji needs to swap out, he can switch with Lee, but not for long. Ino can also do support, but she doesn't like it. Understand that and you'll be fine."
"Okay, that makes a bit more sense. Basically, Chouji gets the attention of the attackers; Hinata, Neji, and Lee go in to lay down the hurt; you and Kiba make sure the attackers are slowed and that everyone is doing their best in the fight; and Ino and Hana heal people that get hurt."
"Right on it. I also have a few battle formations that everyone's drilled on and everyone can split off into smaller and smaller groups depending on the situation at hand."
"And what about Shino?"
"Shino is… well, he's Shino. He only comes in when we need him to."
"Okay, so what about Shino?"
"I told you- just… Okay, if Shino needs to step in, then we're on the wrong mission. You don't need to know any more than that."
"Okay, whatever. Where do I play in?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "Anywhere you want, really. We're on a mission to retrieve Sasuke and possibly kill Orochimaru if it's both practical and feasible. That means that there could be any amount of slippery and strange foes and situations that I can't account for. Do whatever you need to do based on what you think is right. There's not enough time to fit you in the battle formations without everyone losing at least a little bit focus, anyway."
Naruto looked around a bit as if he just realized it was only him and Shikamaru walking amidst the hulking trunks of ancient trees. "Where is everyone?" he asked.
"You can't tell?"
"Well, yeah, I know where everyone is. I was mostly asking for the why."
"This is a raid area. They're scouting and kiting all the enemies away from Kiba and Hana."
"Wait… we're under attack? Is that what all those different signatures were?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "Probably. Raid zones get harder and harder the farther out you go from your home. Right now, we're in an area that a level 60 would have a bit of trouble with, but the difficulty and reward gain scales to the amount of people in a zone at any given time. As it is, we could do the raid with almost no trouble, but it would be faster and easier just to keep the enemies alive so the harder ones don't spawn. How have you not run into one of these before?"
"I don't know. Maybe it requires a team for it to activate?"
"I didn't see anything like that in my walkthrough. But then again, that particular piece of hardware is pretty strange and often leaves vital information out."
"So wait, these raid zones. What are they? I mean, what do they do most of the time?"
"Kill the little ones, the medium ones come up. Kill the medium ones, the big ones come up. Kill he big ones, the boss comes up. Kill the boss, then get the loot. The enemies might be anything from spiders, rats, or wolves, all the way to bandits or brigands. They all act with their own specific logics that they can't deviate from as far as I can tell. The boss usually has a piece of equipment that's really helpful."
"Like what?"
Shikamaru fished around the inside of his vest and pulled out a mini flashlight. He clicked it on and the brightest light Naruto had ever seen came into existence right in front of him. Anything that the flashlight pointed to was turned white from the sheer magnitude of power that the flashlight had stored in it. The shadows it created were the darkest shades of black that he had ever seen. Naruto didn't even know what he would do if it were pointed directly at him.
With a click, the flashlight was off and back inside the Nara's jacket. "It's good for making shadows, so I got it," he explained.
Naruto whistled. "Got anything for me?"
"We took the good stuff for ourselves. Also, you seem more than well-equipped at the moment."
"I've really only got things under my belt that are good for doing a lot of different things at the same time. A super flashlight, however, that just sounds cool."
"It does, which is why I'm the one who has it. Anyway, do you have any plans for when we get there?"
"I don't know," Naruto said, biting his lip in a rare sign of worry. "I want to try talking him home of course, but I've got a sinking feeling that he's going to have to be dragged back."
"Are you up for doing that?"
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Naruto said as he affectionately patted the large scroll slung over his back. "V-chan and I are unstoppable together?"
"V-chan?"
"V for Versatility. That's kind of becoming my thing."
"Well, okay. That being said, I don't doubt your combat prowess, just your ability to do what might need to be done."
"Like what?"
"Like killing him if it come down to that. None of us have seen him in years and for all we know, he's had his head messed around in and is too far gone. With the power of the game, we have all become strong. Stronger than I think we could have ever become without. But we don't know what Orochimaru could have done to him when we were grinding for experience and loot. There's a reason our strike force is so large. There are just too many things that could go wrong on this mission."
Naruto took a few beats to respond. "It's won't come to that."
Shikamaru didn't look too sure. "I really hope you're right."
00000000
Back at Konoha
"So when are you going to tell him?" Fu asked nonchalantly. As she lay on the soft grass of her favorite training ground, watching and making mental notes about the movements of her students, everything seemed like it was coming up Team Naruto. By now, hers, Anko's, and Naruto's love life had managed to circulate around the entire village, sparking up all a manner of conversation and rumors around it. It was a good thing that Fu and Anko weren't really ones that would care about other people of them.
"Tell him what?" Anko asked with a bit of grump in her voice. She was still a little sore over the fact that she couldn't go on the mission with him. Damn rules about lovers not being allowed to go on the same missions should there be a chance of lethality in them. She understood why they were there, to make sure members of the team didn't make any hasty actions based on their relationships, but it still stung that she wasn't able to go help him.
"That… well… you know."
"I'm not."
Fu looked away from her students to look at Anko with a quizzical expression. "Excuse me? Isn't that sort of, you know, important?"
"I'll just tell that I don't want kids. He won't pry any more than that."
"You don't want kids?"
"I didn't say that. I just said that I'm going to tell him that I don't."
"Starting a relationship off with lies isn't exactly the best idea."
"Well," Anko said, propping herself up on an elbow and giving Fu a half-glare "what do you want me to do?"
"Tell the truth?" she guessed.
"Mmhmm," Anko hummed with a dark quirk of the lips "let's just see how that conversation'll play out. 'Hey Naruto, guess what? I'm barren and can't have children.' 'Oh my God Anko, I'm so sorry. Do you need help? A shoulder to cry on? How did it happen?' 'Funny you should mention that. It's actually a cause of the mega cancer that was in my gut after you skewered me with your tailed cloak. You probably don't remember it because there were so many things altering your state of mind at the time, but it was most certainly your fault that I can't bear kids.'"
Fu was silenced upon the realization that she was probably on a verbal minefield and that the softest misstep might alight the whole field aflame. "You sound bitter," she remarked neutrally after much deliberation.
"I'm not… bitter," Anko said helplessly as she laid back down and gazed up at the leaves on the tree above her. "I honestly didn't think about kids all that much even just a few years back. And I know that we can do a whole lot more things like get a surrogate or adopt, if we actually decide that we want them, but it still doesn't feel good, having that option taken away from me."
"Do you hold it against him?"
"What? No! God no. It was more my fault than anything else. I saw what state he was in when he was in that ring. He wasn't there anymore. It was just a monster inhabiting his body. Even so, I just had to jump to him and try to bring him to his senses. Granted, I wasn't in the best of mental states at the time, but it's not his fault and I would never hold it against him."
"Then why the saltiness?"
"Saltiness? Oh, that fake conversation was just how I thought Naruto would hear it. It doesn't matter if I don't blame him if he just goes out and blames himself. Which, might I add, he absolutely will if I tell him."
Fu was about to disagree, if only to make Anko feel better, but not words left her mouth. She knew that if Anko told him the true story of why she was barren, then Naruto would blame himself something awful. How couldn't he? He was the type of person to shoulder blame and hatred, after all.
"Well," The Jinchuuriki finally said with a higher lilt of voice, trying to change the tone of conversation "I don't know about you, but I want a lot of kids. But before that, we're going to get married. And it's going to be a huge thing. The whole village will be invited. My dress is going to be super big and poofy. Naruto's going to look so handsome in a suit. Tears will be shed afreely when we say our vows. The cake's going to as big as our house. We're going to move into the suburbs. It's going to be awesome."
Frankly, Anko was shocked speechless by such a display of wanton girliness. As she listened on about Fu's plan to name all their kids after the various types of Hercules beetles, she had to speak up to interrupt. "Hold on hold on hold on. I thought you were a tomboy."
Fu turned her unamused eyes to Anko. "You know, just because I spent a good portion of my childhood sequestered deep in my village's woods, avoiding contact with everybody, doing outdoorsy things; just because my skin is tan and my 'girls' aren't as big as yours; just because I like to keep my hair short and wear clothing that puts more emphasis on mobility than looking good, doesn't mean that I don't like girly things every now and then. Everyone else thinks about their own ideal future. Why can't mine feature big weddings, big festivals, big families, and big… big… and a fourth example of large size?"
"Sorry, sorry. I just didn't take you for the maternal type. Anyway, you can have your big wedding. I don't want any part of it."
Fu looked genuinely downtrodden at that remark. "You don't?" she asked, looking like a kicked puppy.
Anko was quick to try and ease her sadness. "Woah, wait a minute. It's not that I don't want to do the deed, it's just that I don't like dresses. And big parties. And a double wedding is a little bit…"
"The reason you don't want a wedding reception is because… you don't like dresses?" Fu asked in deadpan.
"What? I don't like the way they feel. Also, I just don't look good in dresses. And everyone we know is going to be there, staring at us. No thank you."
Fu scooted a little bit closer to Anko with a knowing smile on her face. "How long have we known each other?" she asked.
"I don't know? Three years?"
"Sounds about right. Do you think that three years is enough for me to know just what you're thinking even if you're saying something else?"
Anko didn't answer.
"It's okay if you don't want to do a double wedding. We can do a separate one at a different time with a smaller venue and less general recognition. But I think that if you don't get a reception, you're going to regret it a lot later in life. We're ninja, you know? Shit happens. Try to experience what you can, when you can."
Anko laughed lightly. "You sound a lot older than you really are. And you do know that he hasn't proposed to us yet? And that we've been an official couple, well we can't really call this a couple, can we? We've been in a triangular romantic relationship for less than a week. You know that right?"
Fu grinned devilishly. "Which is why I'm going to propose. As soon as he gets back, I'm getting on one knee and asking him for his hand. I've even got a ring and everything."
If Anko looked shocked before, now she looked absolutely gobsmacked. A facial expression which Fu quickly caught onto.
"What? I know what I want and I want what I know. There anything wrong with that?"
"…I guess not. Should've expected something like this from you, is all."
"Only this is, you know that he's not going to agree unless we make this a fair trade deal," Fu said, jumping her eyebrows up and down.
Anko let loose a frustrated groan. "Okay, married life it is."
It was Fu's turn to look shocked this time. "Wow. Didn't think you'd agree to that so quickly."
Anko shrugged. "It's not like I can imagine being with someone other than him. Might as well."
"I should really say that your attitude isn't exactly what one should have when they're agreeing to marriage, but whatever gets you there, I guess."
Anko got up and began stretching her muscles out. As Fu followed suit, Anko turned to her and gave her a smile. Not a smirk, not a dark grin, but a genuine smile. "I've got a feeling that the next few days are going to be pretty eventful. You're right. I love him. He loves me. That's not going to change and we don't know what tomorrow will bring. We're going to be sister wives before too long, but before that…" Anko turned to face Fu's genin students who were still sparring with each other a ways away from the tree they were chatting at "We're going to whip you three into fighting shape!" she yelled just loud enough for the three to hear her.
The sounds of bitching and moaning were like music to her ears.
00000000
Near Konoha
There were two. One was the five tails and the other was the four tails.
The four tails would, every now and then, begin writhing in pain and confusion, but would never be able to get his body, weighed down by furnace armor, up even the slightest of increments. He didn't seem lucid either and Nagato didn't see the need to silence him. The five tails was silent, as he'd been for the day that he'd been laying there.
This Madara that Nagato was perpetually stationed across from was always grinding on his nerves. Nagato didn't know why and wasn't able to pinpoint any part of his personality that would make him feel that way, but it was there nonetheless.
He didn't like how things were progressing. It didn't feel real. It felt artificial. Nagato had always felt that he was at least marginally in control of how the world was changing, but as of late, that was not the case anymore. Nagato felt like he and everyone around him were on a conveyor belt playing to whims of an unchangeable current.
All in all, it more just a feeling of not feeling right. The only consolation that he could give himself was the fact that no matter what happened in the days to come, the end was on the horizon. And that is complex and strange gets a sudden clarity when one can look on with hindsight.
That's all he really wanted. To know that he was doing the right thing.
00000000
At the destroyed base of operations
"Well shit," Kiba groused, having just caught up the rest of the group and seeing what they were looking at.
The place that the trail was leading to was covered in giant bouts of black flame, incinerating everything inside, including malformed and misshapen bodies of experiments gone wrong.
"It doesn't take a mystic to figure out that Sasuke was here recently," Hana said. "That could work in our favor though. We don't have any leads now, but I've got a feeling that he left quite the trail," she said in reference to the large trees that had been uprooted by what seemed like the hands of giants and thrown around haphazardly.
"This plan always hinged on us raiding the base that the scent led us to and raiding it for information," Shikamaru said. "It's luck that he's at the same base that he was at when he left Konoha. Finding him should be remarkably easier now. Though…" Shikamaru gestured to the sickly looking fire and wanton destruction around him "I'm not sure if I really want to."
"We're finding him and dragging him back to Konoha," Naruto said resolutely, his face steely at the sight of such destruction.
"I know, I know. Still, I might have revise our plan to take weird black flames into account."
"That's just so… unyouthful," Lee murmured.
Neji gave the despondent young lad a few claps on the shoulder.
The entire group just looked at the destruction for a few seconds. They took it all in and burned it into their minds. There was no mistaking the topography of the scene for them. This was no battle. It was a way to test new abilities. To practice sadism. To exult in his own power. They took those few moments to themselves to contemplate silently that their friend might be gone for good.
Then a tree behind them exploded into splinters of wood and smoking dust. There was a line of steam from what remained of the tree to Naruto's hand, which was covered in a gauntlet of black metal and sparking with errant electricity.
Nothing had to be said for everyone to get their own weapons out and get into their fighting poses. Chouji raced to put himself in between the line from the tree to Naruto and held out his two shield clad arms, eyeing everything, looking for what might be the danger. Lee, Neji, and Hinata were right behind him, each prepping their chakra to be released. Ino hung close to Shikamaru and took out a few vials of unnamed liquid while a black pool of shadow radiated from Shikamaru. Hana and Kiba took the rear with Akamaru and the Haimaru brothers backing them up, all with their versions of hackles raised.
"Naruto," Shikamaru whispered after a few strained seconds passed "what was it?"
Kashikoi, knowing what Naruto was about to do, jumped away from the team and hid behind a bush a few yards away. Hinata's and Neji's Byakugan were scouring the area, but they couldn't see a thing. Everyone started to lower their guard when no enemy made itself known after a few more seconds after that.
In a flurry of motion, Naruto unsealed a long katana blade from one of the scrolls in his jacket and sunk it up to the hilt in the earth. He withdrew it slick with blood.
That put everyone back on edge.
With a practiced precision, the group changed their positioning around Naruto, who seemed to be the only person who knew what was going on, even though he wasn't verbalizing anything.
The long katana went back into the scroll into his jacket and he unsealed V-chan from the giant scroll on his back.
Something akin to a handle clicked out and Naruto grabbed it, leveraging it as he swung the mighty cylinder around as it transformed into something else. He was left with something that looked like a bazooka, with the exception that he held it near his mid-thigh by two handles near the top and bottom.
A hooked blade with a line leading into the bazooka suddenly shot out of the backend and rooted itself into the trunk of yet another tree, scaring Kiba, who it shot past, so much so that he nearly lost control of his bowels.
It was a good thing that he didn't.
Naruto hefted the now rooted weapon onto his shoulder and began aiming it near the ground, waving it around almost like he were drunk. When his team members realized that he wasn't waving it around wantonly and that he was actually aiming at something that zipped underground like a sparrow through the air, they flowed around the point of his weapon like anchovies around a shark, hoping to dear god that they weren't going to get hit by its perceived backlash.
After what seemed like forever, a huge harpoon rocketed out of his device and sunk through the dirt and soil way too fast than what should be physically possible, as evidenced by the tether unspooling quickly from the bazooka-like item.
Everyone stared at the unspooling line with baited anticipation. With a click, it stopped moving. Naruto, wide-eyed, shouted "GET BACK!" and dove away from the device.
Not questioning his order, everyone dove out of the way. The reason became all too apparent when V-chan started pulling the line in, setting itself snug against the tree. Almost like it was attached to a marlin in the depths of the sea, the line began zipping around, carving up the dirt like rotten butter. The tree it was attached to began leaning in and distorting. Almost like it were sensing that, more and more lines shot out of the backend and rooted themselves into different trees.
This happened more and more until it seemed like half the forest was under the weight of whatever was underneath them, getting pulled slowly, yet steadily, up to the forest floor.
Finally, the ground directly in front of the device distended into a wide cracked dome and exploded, sending mud, dirt, and rocks scattering across the forest.
The line slowed to a stop as the harpoon was sucked back into it and along with it, its quarry: a lanky individual caked with mud and twitching, almost like there was a constant stream of electricity going through him. Poking out his chest, covered in gore and blood, was the tip of the hooked harpoon. Whatever he was, he was still breathing laboriously.
Naruto walked up to him and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for something.
The breathing quickly turned to a sickly laughter. The quarry stopped twitching and cleared the mud from his face, turning his pasty visage to Naruto, looking for all intents and purposes, like one of the dead.
"Hello, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru said "I know that we're meeting formally under strained circumstances, but-" whatever he was about to say was interrupted by Naruto's fist flying through his head, knocking his jaw clear off his face and skittering into the woodworks.
Orochimaru, for his part, just looked at Naruto like he had committed a faux paus at a lavish party. From the hole that used to be his mouth, a new Orochimaru burgeoned out and fell to the mud by Naruto's feet.
He stood up and dusted himself off. There was nothing in his stance that denoted anything hostile.
"What do you want?" Naruto asked with a sneer.
Orochimaru chortled his amusement like a madman. "Come now, what do you think I am to glare at me with such intensity?"
"Evil," Naruto said harshly.
"Well I prefer to think of myself as chaotic neutral," Orochimaru replied. "Now, I think that as strange as it sounds, our interests lie closely to each other."
"You killed Gramps," Naruto ground out.
"Yes."
"You nearly destroyed Konoha."
"I suppose you could say that."
"You kidnapped Sasuke."
"He came to me willingly. Listen, we can sit here hashing it out over who wronged who, but you have your own goal and I have mine. We can help each other out."
"You're a madman."
"Does that mean that you don't want to know where Sasuke's going?"
Naruto's teeth were clenched tightly together as he said "he's going to Itachi."
"That's a start, to be sure, but do you know where Itachi is?"
Naruto's silence spoke for himself.
"Ahhh, now here is where we can help each other. It wasn't luck that Sasuke happened to be at the base that he first traveled to; that was my doing. I knew that you were coming for him."
"Hold on," Shikamaru said, appearing from the brush along with the rest of team Naruto "how did you know that? No, more importantly, you know that the trail is years old. Absolutely nobody should be able to track it other than Kiba and Hana."
Orochimaru quirked a brow at the lazy Nara. "Because they hold the roles of 'trackers' in your party, no?"
Everyone felt their gut clench at the word 'party'. Naruto grabbed the snake man's throat and punched him against the tree neck first. "What do you know?" Naruto said with a quiet intensity.
"Precious little," Orochimaru wheezed out, smile not vanishing from his face. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to unhand me?"
The snake Sannin fell from the small height and rubbed at his throat with a feigned woefulness. "Ever wondered why you couldn't find your fingers?" he asked.
Naruto clenched his hand reflexively. The fingers Fu grew from her exoskeleton were still of a much different shade of skin even after the two and a half years away. He'd told the story to many an interesting peddler or bored villager. Nobody ever believed him. "What are you getting at?" Naruto asked.
"To make a long story short: I took some of your blood and injected into a few of my test subjects. They all died bloodily, but it piqued my interest. So when you ever so kindly reduced my head to a fine paste the last time we met, I made sure to find and eat your missing appendages for later when I escaped in my snake form. I made a few doomed clones of you and when Sasuke knocked on my front door, I took a few of the clones' parts and substituted them for your friend's. Imagine my surprise when I found a glitchy videogame guidebook in his satchel."
"Sasuke has the power of the videogame?" Shikamaru asked.
"It's imperfect," Orochimaru assented "which is why I need your help with just a tiny little tidbit of information."
"…and this help is?" Naruto asked, still glowering at the grotesque man.
"Take out your guidebook. I want to ask it a question. Do so and I'll tell you where Sasuke is. It should help shave of a good portion of time tracking him, no?"
Naruto pulled the book from the inside of his trenchcoat, opened it, and shoved it in Orochimaru's face. "Make it quick," Naruto said, growing tired of conversing with someone he wanted to turn into a smear.
Orochimaru cleared his throat and addressed the guidebook. "Would you please tell me, what are the end conditions of this videogame? What specific actions leads to GAME OVER?"
From inside the guidebook, the robotic female voice sounded clearly out to everyone in attendance "the only conditions required for this version of Naruto: the Videogame to end is the defeat of the ones known collectively as Madara and the suppression of Mother Kaguya. There may be extraneous conditions depending on specific choices and unforeseen circumstances, but you have not met those. The only other condition is the death of the main character."
AN/ have a gentlemanly day.