Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters.

Chapter 37: The Sounds of Fighting Leafs

Team 7 found themselves facing the four members of the Sound Four. They had come on behalf of Orochimaru to collect Sasuke. Not having any sort of curse or influence to persuade Sasuke's decision and the discussion he had with Kakashi a few weeks ago, Sasuke straight up refused and now Team 7 was preparing themselves for what was likely to be the fight of their careers.

"Doton: Earth Dome!" Jiroubou made the first move, casting an earth jutsu that entrapped Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura inside an earthen dome.

The three members of Team 7 looked at the inside of the earth dome they were now trapped in. Knowing that they had to get out and quick, Naruto charged up a Rasengn in his hands and charged towards the wall. The Rasengan made impact, leaving a large crater but not breaking through. Much to their surprise, the crater began to heal itself and their hopes at getting out slowly began to drop.

A few more minutes passed with Team 7 trying to figure out how to get out and Sakura was beginning to feel the true effects of the jutsu. Being the member of the team with the smallest chakra reserves, she was the first to notice the drain on the chakra in her network. Once she mentioned it, Sasuke began to pick up on the flow of chakra with his Sharingan. "Damn. If we just sit here, they'll just exhaust us all. We need to get out of this damn rock prison…wait!" said Sasuke, suddenly getting an idea. "Naruto, use as strong of a Rasengan as you can and then move out of the way quickly."

Naruto, not wanting to argue right now, pumped as much power into a Rasengan as he could maintain and charged towards the wall. While doing so, the inside of the dome was filled with the sound of chirping birds as Sasuke created a chidori in his hand following closely behind Naruto. Naruto's Rasengan made impact with the wall, creating the crater that he had already made many times before. Knowing what was coming, Naruto quickly moved out of the way as Sasuke followed up on Naruto's attack with his own. His idea was correct as the lightning jutsu beat the earth jutsu trapping them.

"So how much longer do you think it will be before you suck them dry?" asked Sakon.

"I don't know. One of them has much more chakra then I thought, but it should only take a few more minu…huh?" Before Jiroubou could finish his sentence, the dome was shattered as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura emerged from it, winded but unharmed. "What? How did you?!"

"Lightning beats earth. Simple as that" said Sasuke.

Naruto made a couple dozen shadow clones to make the initial attack. However, the Sound Four didn't have much trouble defeating them when Jiroubou threw a large chunk of earth on top of them. Using Team 7's slight surprise at Jiroubou's strength, Kidomaru made his move, spitting out what looked to be knives made of goo from his mouth. These knives struck their targets square in the middle of the chest as Naruto and Sakura dropped to their feet, clutching their wounds.

"Wow, that was just boring. You really are worthless piece of trash" commented Tayuya. It was at this time that all three members of Team 7 standing in front of them disappeared into a puff of smoke, revealing them to be nothing but shadow clones.

"You know, I found you foolish when you didn't come with me to meet Orochimaru the first time. But it appears as if you are just plain stupid" said Kimimaro.

"Sasuke has become one of precious people. I will not betray him, nor will I let you take him" declared Haku as he launched a few senbon at Kimimaro. A bone grew out of Kimimaro's forearm and deflected the senbon. Haku and Kimimaro were now remembering the kekei genkai the other possessed.

"Then you are nothing but trash if you cannot see the genius that Orochimaru-sama is. Projectile Digits" said Kimimaro as he shot the bones of his fingers out at Haku.

Haku made a quick one-handed seal and an ice mirror quickly formed in front of him, deflecting the projectile bones with ease. "Hyoton: Demonic Ice Mirrors!" Haku called out. He knew from past experience the extent of Kimimaru's power and he was going to try and end it quick.

21 mirrors surrounded Kimimaro and Haku's reflection appeared in all of them. "Please forgive me for this, old friend, but I must do this to protect my precious people." With that, Haku began his assault and hundreds of senbon were sent sailing towards Kimimaro.

Kimimaro smiled and bones erupted from all over his body. "Dance of the Pines!" he called out before going into a wild frenzy and deflecting the senbon that were aimed for him. Haku grimaced as Kimimaro made a second assault, this time he aimed for the mirrors. To Haku's surprise Kimimaro's attacks began to shatter his ice mirrors. Haku was quick enough to get out of the mirrors before Kimimaro managed to shatter all of them. This technique sadly wasn't going to work against this foe.

The bones retreated back into Kimimaro's body as he reached into his shoulder to pull out a long piece of bone that had once been his arm. This bone was now shaped like a sword and Kimimaro held it as such.

Something came to Haku and it was obvious that Kimimaro was a sword master, even though his swords were made out of bones and not metal. Haku new to at least be able to defend himself to the point where he could cast jutsu, he would need some way to counter that sword. Thankfully, his mentor was also well versed in kenjutsu, the art of the sword, and over the past two months, Zabuza had been training Haku in kenjutsu. Haku didn't carry around a sword on him, but he had the ability to manipulate and form ice to any shape he needed, including that of a sword. Haku focused his chakra and began to form a sword of ice in his own hand as Kimimaro raised his eyebrow slightly.

The two sword wielders made an initial charge at one another, wanting to determine the strength of the other. Their swords met and Kimimaro was surprised that Haku's sword held up soundly to the impact. Haku was reinforcing his blade using chakra to strengthen it, but what really made it stronger was how he assembled it. The blade was much more dense than the mirrors had been and as such, possessed the strength to hold up against Kimimaro.

The three Leaf ninja had hidden themselves while Naruto's shadow clones distracted the Sound Four.

"They seem really strong. What should we do?" asked Sakura. She didn't want to show it, but deep down she was trembling when the four freak ninjas mentioned the name Orochimaru. She had been frozen at that point when she remembered the encounter in the forest of death with that snake and the initial burst of killing intent that was unleashed upon them. It wasn't until Sasuke made his declaration that she managed to regain some of her senses.

"I've got an idea" said Naruto. "Just make sure you follow up after Sasuke." Saskue nodded as the two read each other like that time they were facing Zabuza. Naruto made a clone and pulled out a few shuriken. He channeled as much chakra into the shuriken as he could before throwing them. He made a few hand seals while the clone ran through a different set of seals.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"Futon: Gale Palm!"

The Sound Four were looking around, trying to pick up on their prey. Suddenly, they saw a few shuriken come towards them, causing them to laugh. A few shuriken were no threat it them…at least, not until they turned into just over a hundred shuriken. What surprised them even more was when the speed of said shuriken increased, forcing them to quickly dodge instead of block. They managed to dodge just in time, leaping into the air to avoid being shredded by the rain of metal.

Sasuke saw his opening, looking on at Sakon and preparing to make his move. Sasuke used his own Shadow of the Leaf dance to maneuver himself into Sakon's shadow before he began a series of punches and kicks before finishing with his Lion's Barrage. Unfortunately, Sakon managed to block all of his attacks.

"What was that?" asked Naruto, disappointed that Sasuke's attack seemed to have no effect.

"I…don't know. There was a pair of arms that came out of nowhere and blocked me" said Sasuke, trying his best to analyze Sakon. In truth, Naruto had a decent plan, using his shuriken to get them airborne for Sasuke to deal with. If they hadn't jumped then the faster moving shuriken would have hit, causing some serious damage.

Sakura stayed back, not wanting to reveal herself just yet, hoping that maybe she could catch one of them in a trap, creating an opening for Naruto and Sasuke.

"Summoning Jutsu!" shouted Tayuya as three rather large ogre-like things joined the battle. Tayuya began to play her flute, causing the beasts to attack Naruto and Sasuke.

"Hey just remember not to kill the Uchiha" said Jiroubou.

"I know Fatty. Now just shut the hell up and let me deal with these two" shouted Tayuya. Naruto and Sasuke spent the next few minutes dodging blows from the ogres. That is until Jiroubou came out of nowhere, blindsiding Naruto and sending him crashing into a tree.

"Naruto!" shouted Sasuke. However, he had no time as he was busy trying to figure out these beasts that were attacking him.

"I must applaud you for lasting so long against my 9th symphony. No one has ever survived against it so long" said Tayuya. Then it came to Sasuke. During the entire time, she had been playing her flute while the beasts attacked. That must be the key to controlling them as they had to be nothing more than just mindless puppets. He had been keeping an eye on her this entire fight, wondering when she would join. However, she had just been playing her flute. If he could just get that flute, then maybe he could use these beasts against her.

"Damn. Feels like I just got hit by Baachan" thought Naruto, picking himself out of a pile of collapsed trees.

"Kit, I'm gonna give you some of my power. Not enough for a cloak…yet, but enough to allow you to counter that oaf's strength" said Kurama as he began to give Naruto some chakra. Naruto felt the chakra flow through him as his whisker marks became more accented, his fingers grew claws, and his eyes became red with slit pupils.

Jiroubou was about to come up behind and grab Sasuke until he felt something slam into his back, sending him crashing into the trees. "Heh, payback" said a more fox-like Naruto. Naruto moved to block the ogres, giving Sasuke some breathing room.

"Naruto, can you get that flute?" asked Sasuke.

"Sure, one flute coming up" said Naruto as he forced the ogres back, giving himself enough time to create a few clones.

Using his enhanced speed, Naruto quickly closed in on Tayuya, delivering a strong punch to her face and sending her back, but not before taking the flute from her hand and tossing it to Sasuke.

"Bastard!" shouted Tayuya as the flute was now in the hands of Sasuke and ogres stopped their attack. "Pfht, not like you can do much anyways. Your stupid mind couldn't possibly comprehend the true power of my symphony."

Sasuke just smiled as he began to play her flute. The ogres began responding as he wanted to, much to Tayuya's surprise. "H-how?" she said out of shock.

"Memorizing a few simple notes on a flute is such a simple task for my Sharingan" said Sasuke as he went back to playing. The ogres charged towards Tayuya, forcing her to cancel the jutsu before they could start beating on her.

Again, their attack didn't go quite as planned, but at least they got rid of Tayuya's ogres and they had her flute.

Suddenly, a ball of webbing shot out of the canopy at Naruto, pinning him against a tree. Sasuke was caught off guard by this distraction and didn't quite notice the second ball of webbing that knocked the flute out of his hand.

"Heh, good luck getting free of that you piece of trash" said Kidomaru emerging from the shadows. Naruto struggled to get free of his bindings but it was no use. The webbing was too strong to break, even with his strength being enhanced thanks to Kurama. "You can't break my webbing as it's enforced with chakra."

This is where Naruto got an idea, if only he could reach his knives in his back pouch. Naruto struggled with all his strength to move his arm to his back pouch to get his tri-pronged kunai. At this time, Kidomaru spat up something that looked like a mixture between spider thread and mucous. It quickly hardened into a shape that resembled a knife and he did the same until he had six knives…one for each hand. Sasuke wanted to help, seeing Naruto trapped but he himself was caught up trying to dodge Jiroubou, who had managed to recover after being blindsided by Naruto.

"Cherry Blossom Blizzard" called out Sakura silently as she saw this as her best opportunity to help out her team. Her genjutsu was cast on Kidomaru, giving Naruto enough time to finally reach back in his pouch and grab a knife. Kidomaru recognized such a simple genjutsu and quickly dispelled it, turning his attention back to Naruto. He tossed the knives at Naruto, but Sakura had succeeded in buying Naruto enough time. Before the knives dug into his flesh, Naruto channeled some of his wind chakra into the knives and found that they easily cut through the webbing.

"So you think you can use genjutsu, you little whore?" said Tayuya, finally regaining possession of her flute. She worked her melodies and Sakura was soon caught under her genjutsu.

Sakura was on her knees with her arms chained to a cross and surrounding her were skeletons and rotting flesh. This had to be hell. How the hell was she in hell? She didn't remember getting killed so this couldn't possibly be hell, but it felt so real. The stench was terrible and the pain in her arms from where the stakes had been driven through her wrists hurt so much. She closed her eyes, trying to regain control of her chakra as this had to be a genjutsu, however her attention was brought back to her current situation when the flesh on her arms began to peel away. She screamed out in pure agony as the pain became unbearable.

Now, there are two main ways to break a genjutsu. The first is to disrupt and regain control of your chakra network. The second is through excruciating pain. Unfortunately for Sakura, it was the later of the two that broke her genjutsu as Jiroubou's fist slammed into her side as he briefly disengaged Sasuke to take advantage of that opening.

"You fat dumbass!" shouted Tayuya. "Why the hell did you do that? I had the whore underneath my genjutsu!"

"Shut the crap. True physical pain is much worse than some illusion, isn't it?" said Jiroubou. Before Sasuke could take advantage of his opening that Jiroubou made when he went to attack Sakura, he found himself engaged again with Sakon. Sasuke's attacks should have hit as he was able to take advantage of all the openings Sakon had left him, but for some reason, a pair of arms that seemed to some out of nowhere blocked his attacks.

Naruto saw Kidomaru's surprise that he had managed to break through the webbing. Seeing this as an opening, he rushed Kidomaru, wind chakra still coursing through his knives. Unlike Sasuke's attacks on Sakon, his was successful as Kidomaru wasn't fast enough to react to a Kyuubi-enhanced Naruto and there weren't any of his allies around that could save him in time. With a quick slash of his knife, Naruto severed one of Kidomaru's arms from his body, leaving the spider freak with only 5 arms.

Kidomaru screamed out in pain, swearing and cursing at Naruto, who was preparing to make a follow up attack. However, before Naruto could follow through, he was sent crashing into trees yet again as Jiroubou came to his teammate's aid. Naruto stood up, brushing off Jiroubou's assault as if it was nothing, the Kyuubi chakra protecting him.

Sakura finally came to consciousness, although she was really wishing she was still unconscious as there was an immense pain in her left arm and side. Her arm felt broken, a few of her ribs had to be broken, and there was a sharp stinging pain as if she had been stabbed by something. That punch from Jiroubou had been incredibly powerful, not to mention she had absolutely no opportunity to brace herself.

"Sakura, are you alright?" asked Sasuke. Sakon had finally broken off his attack and all four Sound Four were standing together facing them. Naruto regrouped next to Sasuke and Sakura.

"No…" said Sakura, trying to speak through the pain as she also coughed up some blood. "My…my arm is definitely broken…and it feels…like my entire left side has been crushed."

"Hang in there Sakura, we'll get you out of here" said Naruto. Sasuke was agreeing that they had to get out of here as well. Sakura was no longer in any condition to fight and now she was nothing more than a target that the Sound Four could use against them.

"You're not going anywhere, you worthless pieces of trash" said Tayuya.

"Now it's time that you see the power Orochimaru blessed us with" said Kidomaru. "Sasuke, you WILL be coming with us to Orochimaru-sama. You're worthless friends however; they will die."

"Let's just do it and be done with it" said Sakon.

"Activate, Curse Seal Level 2."

Sasuke, Naruto, and to some extent Sakura, looked on in horror as the Sound Four began to take on a more demon-like appearance. What really freaked them out the most was Sakon.

"So how should we cook them, brother?" asked the second Sakon that had emerged from the body of Sakon.

"I prefer them well done, Ukon. But whatever kills them is perfectly fine by me" said Sakon.

If it wasn't bad enough already, Kidomaru began coughing up something new this time…it was a gigantic bow. The Sound Four took their formation, Sakon/Ukon and Jiroubou in front and Kidoumaru and Tayuya in the back.

"Shit Naruto, we've got to get out of here" said Sasuke. This was not the time for either of them to be stubborn as they both recognized the serious trouble they were in. Before Naruto could say anything, he was once again blindsided by Jiroubou, whose punch had to be at least 10 times stronger than the first. He could feel it now. Even with demon chakra reinforcing his entire body, bones were definitely broken as he coughed up some blood.

Naruto managed to recover himself, only to find Ukon's head sticking out of his own shoulder. Sasuke looked on in horror at what had just happened to his own teammate. First he had been blasted back and now he had Ukon's head sticking out of him. How was that second part even possible?

"Well, so where should I start? I can invade a person's body and order their own cells to begin destroying themselves. So what should I start with? An arms? A leg? Or should I just be merciful and kill your heart…huh? What the hell is this?!" Ukon shouted as his explanation was interrupted by a shooting pain through his entire body.

"You know, it's not polite to enter someone's body uninvited" said Kurama to Sakon. "You threaten my Kit. Let's see how you like being torn to pieces!" Ukon screamed in agony as Naruto was suddenly overtaken by a red chakra, the one-tailed cloak. Naruto smiled as he realized what Kurama was doing, forcing Ukon out or tearing him to pieces, whichever came first.

Unfortunately, Ukon managed to separate from Naruto before Kurama could have his way. However, the damage had been done as Ukon was struggling back to his brother. "Brother, I can't…I can't go on…there's something off…about that kid."

"What the hell did you do?" shouted Sakon.

Naruto, now fully encased in the Fox cloak, replied. "You're not the only one with a second presence inside them, and mine doesn't like intruders."

Sasuke smiled as his teammate finally decided to tap into the Kyuubi's power.

"That's it! You die now!" shouted Jiroubou, charging for Naruto. Naruto held his ground as their hands collided, sending out a shockwave, followed by the sound of 1000 chirping birds.

Naruto heard this as well and ducked down just as Sasuke came jumping over him, Chidori active. Jiroubou tried to disengage, but found himself unable to as Naruto's chakra cloak turned into a claw, keeping him in place. Jiroubou couldn't move and Sasuke had his sights set on one thing…Jiroubou's heart.

The Chidori ripped through Jiroubou's chest and through his heart. One down (two if you count Ukon), three to go.

"You worthless piece of shit!" screamed Tayuya as Jiroubou fell to the ground…dead. Sakura had caught a glimpse of this and tried her best to manage a smile. If only she would have looked more into that book on medical jutsu, perhaps she would have been able to heal herself to a point where she wouldn't be completely useless.

Their tag-team effort had been successful as they managed to kill one of their attackers, however Naruto didn't notice the arrow that Kidomaru had sent his way. Had Naruto not have moved at the last moment to give Sasuke an opening with his Chidori, the arrow would have hit his heart. Because he moved, the arrow missed his heart, unfortunately ripping through his right shoulder. Naruto cried out in pain, clutching his shoulder.

"Don't worry Kit, I'm patching you up as we speak" said Kurama. Just like that, Naruto looked over at the hole in his shoulder and he could see it beginning to heal itself, and rather quickly. "While using the chakra cloak, you heal at an increased rate, and this is compared to your normal accelerated healing."

"Heh, thanks" replied Naruto.

"Don't mention it. Although if you are looking for a way to thank me, perhaps you could do something about this sewer that we're in" complained the Kyuubi.

"Not now, kind of busy kicking ass here" said Naruto.

Kidomaru looked on in disappointment as his attack proved to be ineffective. He needed a target that couldn't heal that fast. One that Orochimaru wouldn't be disappointed if he killed. One that would give his team the proper opening to strike and finish this. Wait! He looked over at the injured pink-haired kunoichi clutching her entire left side.

"Haha! Prepare to die! Maximum Power, 110% accuracy!" Kidomaru said as he took aim at Sakura's heart.

"No, Sakura!" shouted Sasuke as he realized what Kidomaru was aiming for. He bolted towards Sakura, hoping to get there in time to move her out of the way as Naruto rushed Kidomaru to try and knock the arrow off course.

However, Naruto was too late and the arrow sailed towards Sakura, locked onto her heart.

She felt it. She felt the arrow tear through her body; however, something had altered its course and the arrow ripped through her right shoulder like it had with Naruto. It hurt like hell, but she was alive…for now. However, she had to know. What saved her life? What diverted the arrow enough to keep it from going through her heart?

Unfortunately, the answer made her wish that it had hit its intended target. In front of her was what she had always dreamed of happening, yet now that it had happened, she desperately wanted to take it back. Sasuke had come to her rescue, managing to deflect the arrow just enough for it to miss her vital organs; however, the price he paid for altering the arrow's trajectory was high, higher than Sakura would have ever hoped for.

"Shit" swore Tayuya. "Orochimaru-sama's not going to be happy."

"Sasuke!" shouted Naruto as he caught a glimpse of where the arrow went.

Sasuke just stood there, turning his head to look back at Sakura. "Sakura…thank you…for everything" said Sasuke, before falling to the ground. The arrow had sailed clean through the middle of his own chest, most likely hitting his own heart. However, it was enough. It was enough to stop the arrow from killing Sakura.

"Sa…sas…" was all Sakura could get out before going unconscious due to a combination of the trauma that had been done to her mind and the loss of blood.

Naruto couldn't move, finding himself frozen by the thought of Sasuke being dead. He couldn't be dead. He still had his dreams to fulfill. What about the brother he had to kill? What about the clan he had to revive? Sasuke's dreams couldn't end there. Naruto looked on as his heart sank into despair.

Naruto found himself in a familiar setting, facing the giant gates that held Kurama back. Shock still overtaking him as he collapsed next to the cage, using one of the bars to support him. Just like Sasuke, he had acknowledged the bond the two of them had formed. Sasuke though, was now dead.

"Kit, snap out of it" said Kurama. This was not the time or place for Naruto to lose it. "Kit, I can feel a faint life force coming from your friend, but it's fading. That spider freak must have missed his heart by a fraction of an inch, but clipped something else."

"H-he's alive?" asked Naruto, hopeful that the demon was telling the truth. "What can we do?! Is there anything we can do to save him?!"

"There is, but you're not going to like it" replied Kurama.

"What? Just tell me! I don't give a crap as long as we can save Sasuke!" shouted Naruto.

"First, we need to get rid of those freaks. Step inside of the cage and I'm going to give you as much power as I can. You will only have a minute at most before the seal begins to react. After that, do your best to stay conscious and stay in the One-tailed form" instructed Kurama. Naruto did as instructed, stepping into the cage as Kurama surrounded Naruto with his tails and infused his power directly into the boy.

"Damn you Kidomaru. Because of you, Orochimaru's going to flip shit on us!" shouted Tayuya.

"Let's just kill this brat and then we'll deal with Orochimaru later. He told us to kill this piece of trash as well, so 1 out of 2 may lessen our punishment" said Sakon.

The three remaining members of the Sound Four surrounded Naruto, prepared to kill him, until they were blown back by something more sinister than Orochimaru himself.

Where Naruto once stood was now encased in a blood-red bubble. A pair of glowing eyes staring out from it, with a massive amount of killing intent radiating from the bubble.

"What the fuck…?" was all Tayuya could say as the three remaining Sound Four stared into the face of death.

Haku and Kimimaro were trading blow for blow, neither of them willing to give an inch as ice and bone clashed with one another. Kimimaro finally disengaged, realizing this wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm impressed. Orochimaru would have been impressed with your abilities. I'm sure he would have welcomed graciously" said Kimimaro.

"Can I ask you one thing? Why does Orochimaru want my friend so bad?" asked Haku.

"Immortality. Orochimaru desired to live so that he can accomplish his goals. I simply exist to help him see those goals through to the end" explained Kimimaro as Haku began to see a reflection of his past self. He too was just like Kimimaro, dedicating his entire existence to ensuring someone else's goals were accomplished. However, his precious people, Naruto and his other friends, showed him that he didn't have to sell his soul to Zabuza. He even changed Zabuza into a new person, one that Haku respected even more. He learned that as long as he trusted in and supported Zabuza that the two of them would be unbeatable. He was no longer a mere tool of Zabuza, like Kimimaro was for Orochimaru. He and Zabuza were truly partners and they would see their goals through to the end. Then Kimimaro continued to speak. "However, immortality doesn't necessarily mean that a body is immortal. He must replace his current body with a fresh, strong new body."

"I see. So the rumors were true" said Haku. Being a chunin, he was informed with some of the more pressing information that Jiraiya had managed to uncover about Orochimaru's supposed immortality. "Then I will do whatever it takes to stop Orochimaru from getting his hands on Sasuke."

"I gave you enough chances to join me, now you will die" declared Kimimaro as strange markings began to overtake his body. "Curse Seal Level 2, activate!"

Haku looked on as Kimimaro began to transform until he looked like something that resembled a dinosaur. There were also four large bones sticking out of his back, along with numerous other bones sticking out of the rest of his body. If things couldn't get any more weird, Kimimaro reached into his back and pulled out something that resembled…his spine? Haku couldn't even comprehend the monster that Orochimaru had transformed Kimimaro into and he didn't want to imagine what he'd do to Sasuke if he got his hands on him.

Kimimaro lashed out at Haku with his spine-whip thing and Haku was just barely able to dodge. Another attack followed shortly after and Haku wasn't going to be able to dodge this one as he was already airborne. Haku moved his ice sword to block the attack as best he could, but the whip shattered the blade with ease. The whip slammed into Haku's left side, sending him into a nearby tree. It hurt…bad, but Haku knew he had to do something or Kimimaro was going to kill him. Although, Kimimaro's spine-whip gave him an idea.

"Suiton: Water Whip!" declared Haku, going through the hand seals and forming a whip of water around his own hand. The two opponents unleased their whips at one another, the two attacks entangling with one another. Kimimaro tried to free his whip from Haku's, but struggled as Haku channeled chakra into the water to hold on desperately. This was what he had wanted Kimimaro to do.

"Hyoton: Ice Whip!" The water whip began to freeze instantly around Kimimaro's spine-whip. Haku pulled back on his own whip, shattering Kimimaro's as the combined effort of the instant freezing of the two whips and the increased pressure on Kimimaro's whip was enough to break Kimimaro's attack.

The dinosaur growled as Haku managed to defeat his attack. Haku watched on as Kimimaro's left hand turned into a long spear and he began charging. Haku summoned as much chakra as he could, forming a few mirrors in front of him to act as a defense. However, Kimimaro's attack came shattering through the mirrors as the spear struck Haku in the abdomen, lust below the left ribs, piercing his liver. Despite the mirrors shattering with ease, they did their job in slowing down Kimimaro enough so that that blow wouldn't have been fatal.

Kimimaro removed his spear from Haku's gut and grabbed Haku's shoulder with his other arm. "I'm sorry it had to turn out this way, but I cannot allow you to interfere with Orochimaru-sama's plans" said Kimimaro.

"I am too. Perhaps once I join you on the other side, we can be friends again. Hyoton: Instant Freeze!" said Haku.

Kimmimaro looked over at his shoulder, which Haku had managed to grab and saw it begin to freeze. Trying to end Haku before the jutsu could take full effect, Kimimaro struck at Haku's head with the spear. Haku channeled as much chakra into his jutsu, trying to freeze Kimimaro before the dinosaur killed him.

The recovery team was now only about fifteen minutes from where the fights between Team 7 and the Sound were taking place. They now new the exact locations as Tsume had picked up the scent of fresh blood there and there had been bursts of chakra coming from not too far away.

And then Jiraiya felt it…the sudden burst of immense demonic chakra. He knew this was bad as something had forced Naruto to tap into that much of the Kyuubi's chakra. This felt like enough to do some serious damage to Naruto, even with the Kyuubi on his side.

"I'm going to rush ahead. Just hurry up and get there as soon as possible" said Jiraiya as he darted off towards the battleground. "Naruto, please hold on just a little longer" thought Jiraiya. He didn't want to do this, but he just had the feeling he would need it as he put his hands together as they began to glow a greenish-blue. With any hast, he would be there in a matter of minutes. Hopefully it wouldn't be too late.

Special: Kurama's Seal

Hey everyone, so I figured with the emergence of the Four-tailed form, I should elaborate further on the workings of Kurama's seal. There are a few things that I do not wish to reveal about it just yet, but hopefully this will give you enough so that you are not confused by how I am handling the seal.

First off, I will start with the design on the seal itself. This seal is different from how the seals of Kurama's past two jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki and Kushina Uzumaki., functioned. Now, I have seen some fanfics where Kushina/Naruto's mother was not a jinchuriki, but I will be using Naruto's mother as Kurama's second junchuriki like the cannon did. The difference between Naruto's seal and Kushina/Mito's seal was the purpose they served. For Mito and Kushina, their seal was simply meant to confine Kurama whereas Naruto's seal was meant to allow Naruto to use Kurama's chakra. The seals on Kushina and Mito did not allow Kurama to know what was going on outside the bodies of his jinchuriki. As such, he wasn't aware of the relationship between the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and Kushina. This is because of the confinement purpose Kushina's seal served. Naruto's seal on the other hand, allows for Kurama's chakra to mix with his own, giving Kurama the ability to know what's going on outside of Naruto.

On a side note, Kurama knows Kushina is Naruto's mother, but he does not know who Naruto's father is, although he is one of the only beings in the story who is actually able to pick up on the similarities that link Naruto to his father. Again, this is because Kushina's seal prevented Kurama from seeing anything that occurred outside of Kushina's body. This also greatly restricted access to Kushina's memories.

The seal itself was designed by Minato with elements of the Uzumaki clan seals incorporated into its design. The seal itself is incredibly complex and powerful, possessing the ability to both confine the Kyuubi and merge some of his power with Naruto. There are many fail safes in the seal (these will be discussed at a later time).

Warning, slight spoilers: Minato designed the seal with the intention of the future jinchurikis being able to tap into the Kyuubi's power. However, this seal in particular required undeveloped chakra coils that could easily adapt to the influx of the Kyuubi chakra. As such this seal had to be applied to a newborn, whereas Kushina and Mito had the beast sealed within them when they were older. On the night of the Kyuubi attack when Minito was battling Madara, it became clear that only someone who could use the Kyuubi's power would be able to defeat Madara. Until this point in time, he had no intention of using the seal currently on Naruto, but found that he had no choice as Madara would soon plague them once again. As such, he sacrificed himself to seal Kurama into Naruto using this seal.

Now, I need to discuss how Naruto's seal functions and why it harms him when he uses more of Kurama's power despite the two of them being on friendly terms. The seal was meant to constantly allow a small amount of Kurama's chakra to mix with Naruto. As such, Naruto gained his accelerated healing and his massive chakra reserves. When Naruto wants to use more power, some more chakra must be forced through the seal, resulting in some form of stress being applied to the seal itself. The amount of stress is directly proportional to the amount of chakra Naruto uses and the amount of time he taps into the power. Once the seal reaches a certain amount of stress, then Naruto begins to experience some forms of side effects, such as severe mental and physical strain and exhaustion while his body tries to recover. If too much stress is placed on the seal, then this could potentially activate one of the fail safes, restricting the flow of Kyuubi chakra to Naruto, which no one wants at this point in time as Kurama is not necessarily a threat to Naruto.

Just to give you an idea of how long Naruto can tap into different levels of the Kyuubi chakra, the first level, which is just the more fox-like appearance, he can hold for a little more than an hour without any adverse effects. The one-tailed cloak, which is significantly more power than the first level, can be held for maybe 15-20 minutes at most. The two-tailed cloak is around 10 minutes at most. The three-tailed cloak is around 5 minutes. The four-tailed cloak, which is what Naruto is currently using while battling the Sound, can last for only a minute or two at most.

As for the appearance of the cloaks, they currently resemble the chakra cloaks from cannon. In the future, once I do decide to fully unlock Naruto's seal, they will resemble the cloaks Killer Bee took on with a version 1, version 2, and then full blown tailed-beast mode.

Also, realize that Minato did not have the time to fully perfect this seal so it does have some problems (such as the stress it places on Naruto when he uses Kyuubi chakra). Plus, Naruto is the first one to have this seal on him. It's more like a prototype, but it is still extremely effective for the purpose it was meant to serve.

Now, to answer a few last questions that I've been asked regarding the seal and Naruto's use of Kurama's chakra. Jiraiya has the key and the key is the only thing that can safely loosen or tighten the seal without activating any of the fail safes. The reason Jiraiya has not unlocked the seal, despite the contract between the two, is not entirely because of Naruto (although Naruto does have something to do with it. Imagine giving a kid the keys to a fully loaded tank and leaving him alone with it) but mostly because of the village. If they learned that the seal had been released, that would just give them more incentive to try and kill Naruto.

Anyways, that's it for now. If you have any more questions on how I am approaching Naruto/Kurama's seal or are a little confused with my explanation, let me know and I'll will try my best to clear things up with you.

Author Notes

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope my explanation for Kurama's seals was helpful in clearing up some of the confusion surrounding it. I plan to extend slightly further into the seal itself in the next few chapters.

Also, I realized that I only plan to do two more major arcs in this story before proceeding onto the next volume of the entire store (Naruto's training with Jiraiya). There will be a few filler chapters in between each where I may expand further on Naru/Hina (perhaps another date or a mission where the two of them are together?), expand on another character, or try my very best to add some attempt at lame comedy. Like I mentioned in a previous chapter, I plan to add another chunin exams which will be one of the arcs. The other one will be starting here in a few chapters and I do not want to reveal too much, but I will say that it will be another trip with just Naruto and Jiraiya this time (sorry but no Hinata on this trip).

Anyways, who will win? Team 7 or the Sound 4 (and Kimimaro)? Will Sasuke live? Will Jiraiya make it in time? And what is that blue-green glow around his hands? Until next time…

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