Naruto's kunai clashed with the one that Orochisasuke was holding, and the blonde really began to feel the weight of his task.

In addition to the increased chakra of the curse mark, Orochisasuke had the advantage of experience, having better taijutsu, and of being stronger than Naruto (Sasuke would already physically overpower the blonde).

All the cards were stacked against Naruto, but he still fought with all his might.

As the kunai clashed again, Naruto's kunai flew out of his hand, and he quickly made a shadow clone as a shield to avoid getting stabbed in the gut by Orochisasuke.

Orochisasuke taunted, "Your instincts are sharp, Brat, but mine are sharper.".

With that, he threw a kunai at Naruto's feet. When the boy jumped back, he tossed another kunai right at his chest, which hit its target. Naruto fell to the ground with a kunai in between the bones of his clavicle. He pulled the kunai out quickly, and the wound began healing.

Unfortunately, Orochisasuke noticed this. He picked up Naruto by the collar of his shirt, and said, "Let's see how much you can bleed before you bleed out.".

Orochisasuke then felt a tap on the back of his neck. Naruto grinned wildly, and suddenly disappeared.

As the Sound Six engaged their enemies in combat, they tried to push them towards the wall of the bone-laden earth prison. The plan was turned on its heels, though, as it turned out to be the Sound Six who were pushed against the wall.

But they had a plan for that, too.

The Sound Six all immediately jumped half a dozen feet jnto the air, as Kimimaro redirected the bones reinforcing the wall to shoot towards their enemies. The loss of the bones which had made themselves a part of the earth prison made Jirobo's jutsu itself collapse, allowing the Sound Six to begin running.

The bones closed in on the retrieval team and Team Dosu like a snare upon a rabbit. Albeit, much faster. They didn't have much time to think, and at the end of it all, the attacked teams had to push the bones off of themselves.

It took nearly a minute, but they were all finally free.

Thankfully, the wide and open field allowed them to see which way each of the Sound Six were going, and Asuma commanded, "Team 10, chase the man with orange hair! Team 9, go after the man with six arms! Team 8, chase the twins! You, Sound defectors, go after the woman with the flute! Kurenai, Guy, come with me to chase the guy with the bones kekkei genkai! Let's go!".

Everyone chased after those whom they were ordered to, and were determined to win in battle. Team Dosu weren't excited at the prospect of helping Leaf ninja, but they figured that they should at least be in good throes with them.

Lee, in particular, was eager.

Now that my leg has healed, I'll prove my worth as a shinobi!

Orochisasuke observed his surroundings, trying to spot Naruto.

I know he's somewhere around here... I need to find a way to disable his use of the hiraishin, if it's possible! But I can't recall any weaknesses to the jutsu...

Just then, a kunai landed a few meters in front of Orochisasuke's feet. Then, another behind. And one to the left. One to the right. And one in every diagonal direction, too!

Orochisasuke felt a kick to his back, and was pushed forward. Then, Naruto appeared in front of him and began punching him!

Orochisasuke was quick to counter, tossing the blonde over his shoulder, and crushing his nose with a quick jab.

Naruto disappeared again.

After a few seconds, Orochisasuke had an idea.

To lure out Naruto, he ran towards the waterfall and jumped off. As he fell, Naruto appeared to grab him, and teleport him back to the top of the fall.

Then, Orochisasuke elbowed Naruto in the gut, and sweeped his leg. Naruto fell down, and was punched upon by Orochisasuke, who continued to pummle him.

Using the Sharingan, Orochisasuke attempted to use the hiraishin himself, but found that he didn't have enough chakra! Naruto kicked him off, and threw a three-pronged kunai far to his side, creating great distance between the actual waterfall and the kunai.

When Orochisasuke attacked again, Naruto teleported both him and himself to the far kunai.

As soon as Team 10 caught up to Jirobo, in the middle of a clear path, the earth began to shoot up. They shrieked, and, in the span of a few seconds Shikamaru looked around, instantly spotting the behemoth who had conjured this jutsu. Shikamaru immediately tried to use his shadow strangle jutsu, and the shadow was a hair away from Jirobo, before the dirt prison had been created, cutting off the Nara's hidden jutsu. The genin's eyes widened as they were forced to accept the situation.

Team 10 were trapped.

Shikamaru couldn't believe that this was happening. He was so close to getting Jirobo! If he'd just been a second earlier, or had a bit more chakra control, it would be Jirobo who was trapped! Shikamaru swore at himself, cursing himself for being so damn lazy. He always dreamed of being an average shinobi, but he needed to be more than that now!

As Shikamaru tried to figure out what to do next, Choji immediately channeled chakra into his three-pronged kunai, and Naruto quickly appeared.

Naruto looked around, and without even saying anything, began running to the wall in front of the Nara. The jinchuriki used his left hand to shape the rasengan in his right, and slammed the jutsu through the earth prison, causing it to crumble in an instant. He then disappeared, going back to fight Orochisasuke.

As the earth prison crumbled, Jirobo turned around to see just what had happened. His eyes widened, as he saw the shadow of Shikamaru speeding towards him.

Jirobo had not time to react. He was now trapped in the shadow strangle jutsu, and Shikamaru's shadow-hand had caught him in a lethal choke-hold. The boy wasn't letting up, either, he needed to kill the man, here and now.

As Jirobo was being strangled, a spark in his mind caused him to reflect on not only this situation, but his whole life.

Flashback

35 years agoA small boy with orange hair - Jirobo - was sitting on a pier next to his father. It was a sunny day, so the both of them had fisherman's hats on, blocking the morning sun from their eyes.The pair were fishing, something that Jirobo and his father had been doing more often as war was looking around the corner of their village (not that Jirobo knew that). It was Jirobo's father who'd been making more of an effort recently to get closer to his son, not only to strengthen his character for what was to come, but to enjoy time with him before he could die.Jirobo felt a small tug in his pole, and he excitedly pulled the line back, pulling out a meager little fish. He was disappointed at its small size, so he pulled it off and tossed it back into the water.Suddenly, his father spoke up, "Jirobo, do you understand what 'freedom' is?".Little Jirobo responded, "Huh? Yeah, of course I understand what freedom is... It means you can do whatever you want!".His father chuckled, "That's pretty close, Son. You're forgetting a crucial aspect of freedom, though. See, freedom means that you can do whatever you want, without restricting other people from doing whatever they want...". The rest of the fishing was silent.Three days later, Jirobo's father was killed in a skirmish against the invading forces of the Hidden Stone Village.Five days later, the Hidden Leaf Village took over Jirobo's village.Twenty-two years laterIt was the tail-end of the third Shinobi World War. Orochimaru was attacking Jirobo's village, seeking to add it to his newly-founded Sound Village; he'd used the chaos of the war to cover up his annexation of lands that were not his own. After all, the war-parties rarely ever bothered to help fix villages they'd destroyed.32-year-old Jirobo was fighting Orochimaru in the wasteland that the orange-haired man had once called home, but had been completely devastated by the snake sage.The young man shouted, "You ruined my village! You ripped our freedom away from us!".Orochimaru sneered, "Freedom? Don't make me laugh - such a notion is perilous! If we let everyone do whatever they wanted to, then we would be permitting murder, too, wouldn't we?"Jirobo shot back, "No, that's different! Just because we're free doesn't mean that we'll allow murder!".Orochimaru responded, "Then you're not really free!".The fight between the men was short, and it ended with Jirobo being humiliated in defeat, and becoming a prisoner of Orochimaru.Over the next half of a decade, Jirobo's love for freedom had faded away. The starvation, isolation, and other forms of abuse in Orochimaru's prison had completely diminished whatever spark of hope he had for humanity.One day, Orochimaru approached Jirobo's cell, and asked, "How would you like to be a fighter again?".Flashback over

As Jirobo felt the hold on his throat strengthening, and his life fading away, he finally truly understood the meaning of freedom. He finally recognized murder in and of itself as an affront to freedom, not a consequence of it. After all, to take a life is the same as taking away another person's freedom, just as Jirobo had taken so many lives away, just as he was about to take these genin's lives, and just as his own life was being taken. It was such a simple answer, and Jirobo could scarcely believe that it took him this long to understand.

Still, Jirobo felt that he deserved this - that this slow and painful death was the result of karmic justice. But in his mind, he kept repeating a single plea:

I don't wanna die! Please stop, please let me live! I'll change, I swear!

But Shikamaru couldn't hear him. The shadow strangle jutsu was just a physical restriction and manipulation jutsu. Shikamaru couldn't feel Jirobo's regret, his existential despair, nor the tears running down the man's face. All that he was concentrated on was killing him, to make him no longer a threat to his team.

Jirobo never thought much about death, nor God, but now he wanted to fix that. If he could somehow just get out if this situation alive, he'd not even think twice before changing his ways! But now, Jirobo feared that he would be reduced to non-existence, like a light switch suddenly turning off, or possibly even the fires of Hell. It didn't even cross his mind that he'd done some good in life, and that it might land him in Heaven. He pleaded mentally for another chance, just one more chance...

At some point, the spark of thought within him went silent.