Nothing to say at all, other than that I'm very ahead on this story currently. I'm working on chapter 92 at the moment.
Without further ado, and everything else...
Chapter 88: Physical Weight
Despite the exhaustion that hung at Naruto's, Jiraiya's, and Konan's frames at having been fighting for so long, he couldn't help but notice that Pain seemed to be showing quite literally none.
It brought him back to how he'd not even seen the man breathe and added another tally to the list of weird things about Pain. Evidence was beginning to paint a rather sinister picture in the back of his head that something here wasn't right… he just needed something conclusive.
It was as he was thinking about that that Pain's bodies all collectively stilled at once.
"Konan…" The main body turned to his blue-haired compatriot. "What is… that chakra?"
"You feel it too?" Konan turned to him, looking… genuinely concerned.
"I do."
"I… I recognize it, but… surely it can't be…"
Even Jiraiya, who had stayed silent for the majority of the fight since taking that blow to his jaw earlier, seemed briefly disturbed.
"That's…"
Pain turned to his old master and shook his head. "I'm afraid I have no willingness to continue this fight, Jiraiya, Nine-Tails. I care far less for this battle than I do for what following that chakra might potentially yield."
Jiraiya took a step forward, seemingly wanting to protest. "Wait just a minute! I thought you were Yahiko!?"
Naruto looked back and forth between the two confusedly as Pain took one last look at his old master, and, with a deadened look in his eye, simply said.
"I allowed you to believe that as truth. But…" He struck the ground beneath him, and a black seal pattern spawned into being. "No… you'll get nothing more from me. Goodbye, Master Jiraiya. If we meet again, you… shall meet your end."
And, in a flash of white smoke, all five Pain's, along with Konan herself, were gone.
He immediately turned to Jiraiya with a question on the tip of his tongue. "Wait… is he not Yahiko?"
The Pervy Sage stood motionless for a good while, seemingly running through possibilities in his head.
"That chakra that the three of us sensed… I understand why you didn't feel it, it wouldn't mean anything to you at all. But…" His master shook his head. "That chakra… I'm pretty sure it belongs to Yahiko… what that means, I've no idea, but it means he's not here…"
Naruto looked back to the spot where the six they'd bene fighting had disappeared and swallowed on nothing.
"Which means Pain is…"
"Likely…?" Jiraiya finished for him. "Nagato."
He'd heard about the man's third student, but, well… they'd suspected him dead, so he certainly didn't know as much about him as he did the other two.
"What's he like?"
"I'll explain on the way," Jiraiya spoke as he pointed to the door just in front of them that Hinata and Tenten had taken out earlier. "Right now, we need to catch up with the others. If Pain and Konan get the jump on them…"
He ground his teeth together nervously.
The man had no need to finish his statement.
They both knew what would be the outcome.
/-/
Kabuto's chakra scalpel cut across Sasori's puppet-like body, eviscerating the wooden joints and supports that made it up. Just as his opponent made to fire off toxic senbon, a wooden beam from Tenzo cut across the area, blocking him from being poisoned. He ducked underneath and continued the assault, abusing the man's lack of firepower beyond the muscle-locking poison he possessed.
He'd taken blows from it during this fight; it would've been hard not to, but Kabuto had not come here empty-handed. No, he'd abused what the man had used against him years ago. He'd poisoned him back at the Sound Village, but Pain had forced the man to heal him. He'd given Kabuto an antidote, and Kabuto had not simply allowed that antidote to heal him…
He'd done some admittedly rather nasty things to get a sample of it… but get a sample of the antidote he had. He'd created copies of it, more than a few doses so that he'd be as close to immune as possible if and when the time came to battle his former 'owner'.
It was not perfect, since Sasori had changed the recipe for his poison what seemed like numerous times since then, but they had used the same base elements to relax and lock up the muscles of his organ system…
And that meant that, aside from a numbing feeling that was beginning to encompass his entire body, and a general slowing of his overall movements, he was immune to the man's poison.
Aside from the flamethrower that Sasori occasionally brought out against him, which did admittedly burn away at his skin, he was immune to the man's bag of tricks.
Well, mostly. He could still be cut in half by the man's blades, but he liked to think himself skilled enough to not fall for something like that.
He parried a final strike from Sasori's form, watched as the man's eyes widened, understood he'd been defeated, and raked his scalpel across his wooden form. It came apart like butter, separating his body cleanly in half. The core of his body, from what he understood, the only human part of Sasori that remained, spilled out upon the floor, and he took a second to simply stare at it before he brought his foot up, sighed…
And stomped down on it, breaking it into pieces.
"No one owns me." Kabuto spoke. "Neither you, nor Orochimaru. I am my own person."
Speaking of Orochimaru, he watched as Sakura leaped into the air, and brought a chakra-filled fist to his face. It collapsed the man's skull in, destroying the ground beneath her as she slammed both her fist and his face into it.
That would mark the end of that battle as well, which meant they were just about done here.
Or, well… it would've, but…
He saw as Zaku and Kin, people he'd known; been in charge of, looked towards their teammate as Sakura got up.
And he saw the injured Dosu, saw the wound he carried.
And felt a twinge of sadness at already knowing the man's fate as his legs gave out from under him.
/-/
Sakura's face was a pale white as she charged for the falling Dosu. She didn't make it in time to catch him, but luckily, Zaku did, cradling the man in his arms as he rocked him back and forth. Kin was only slightly slower, her eyes wide with fear and pain as she stepped towards them, looking desolate.
"Oi… OI!" Zaku screamed, looking down at his teammates slowly fading form. "What the hell are you doing!?"
"I don't know…" Dosu coughed past the blood building behind his lips. "What I was doing either… my body… just moved on its own."
Zaku's eyes were impossibly wide as he stared down at his friend, and Kin placed a hand in front of her mouth in horror.
"Weren't you supposed to be the survivor!?" Zaku practically pleaded with the man below him. "Weren't you supposed to survive above everything else!? Wasn't that what you said you'd do!? So… So, get up you damned idiot! You can't… I won't let you…"
Dosu's lips curled upwards as the man opened them. "That was before I found something… more valuable even than my life. Before… Before I truly allowed myself to trust in the both of you, to befriend the both of you…" He looked down at the pool of blood steadily growing bigger beneath him, and gave a small, breathy laugh. "It's funny… but… I don't think I ever really lived before I knew you all. Being able to save you… even at the cost of my life… I don't have any regrets, despite everything."
"TO HELL WITH THAT!" Zaku screeched. "You… You can't die, damnit!"
Sakura sat there entirely uselessly, unable to do a single thing to help the grieving figures before her; unable to help her friends. The sound trio… she'd witnessed their growth, had been there for every failure and every success… and now, right in front of her, one of them was dying. If she still had her curse mark… then maybe she could do something to heal him with the wood style, but…
She possessed no power, no ability, without the black tendrils running across her form. Without them, she was just Sakura… and Sakura was w–
"Even without my Curse Mark… I refuse to be weak."
Her eyes widened somewhat as she remembered her own words to Zaku not ten minutes prior. She shook her head. Even as confident as she'd been then, this was an entirely different scenario. She couldn't simply…
"Your Curse Mark is not what makes you strong, Sakura."
She remembered Tsunade's words to her, remembered how she'd responded…
"What do you mean?"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out someday."
Tsunade's little lesson… she still didn't understand it. What had the woman meant, what had she–
"No. You're strong, Sakura."
She heard Anko's voice.
"Your Curse Mark wasn't what made you so, and don't you ever think otherwise. My Curse Mark… all it ever did was hold me back. Prevent me from seeing past what I was doing to what I could've been doing. To turn that feeling of darkness, of absolute powerlessness, into power itself… Is a strength. One all your own."
Prevent me from seeing past what I was doing… to what I could've been doing… Sakura thought to herself. I…
I'm making the same mistake if I sit here and do nothing.
She stepped forward, getting right in front of Zaku and Dosu as she began channeling chakra into her hands.
"Lay him down on the ground." She spoke as evenly as she could, ignoring the way all three stared at her. "Try not to jostle him anymore. If this is going to work, he needs to remain as still as possible."
"S-Sakura?" Zaku sounded devastated even still. "What are you–"
"Isn't it obvious," She spoke as she pulled off her trench-coat, and threw it behind her somewhere, tying her (at the moment) annoyingly long hair up behind her as well. "I'm going to save him."
She wasn't even sure she could. But at the same time… the looks of utter bewilderment, complete emotional whiplash, helped to focus her. If she failed now… those expressions would flip back to complete despair.
She couldn't allow that.
"Dosu, focus on your breathing." She said as she channeled Water and Earth chakra's into her right and left hands, respectively. "Try and keep conscious, okay? I know it hurts but you have to stay with me."
He gave an incredibly weak grunt of what she could only assume was affirmation.
She clapped her hands together, folded her fingers inwards into a 'snake' sign, and closed her eyes. After a moment, she slammed her hands down on the stone beneath her.
Nothing happened.
That wasn't a surprise. She had no assumption that this would be in any way easy. Hell, she barely expected it to work at all, if it even did. Still… she needed to concentrate, needed to picture what it was she required…
She remembered back to her desperate attempt to heal Anko in the bowels of Root. How the thorns of the Wood Style had grown from the bones of her body, stabbed out of her muscles; out of her skin…
It'd hurt, but… That power that'd given her dominion over life itself, had allowed her to understand things she'd never again grasped…
She needed to channel it here and now.
There was just one problem with that.
She'd never been able to do things like that before aside from that single time, and now… without her curse mark…
No… No. Without her curse mark, she was no weaker than she'd been before. If anything, now, no longer weighed down by its darkness, she was stronger. She needed to think like that. If she didn't…
If she didn't, she stood no chance from the get-go.
She wrapped her hands together another time, and focused harder than before. She felt her lungs beg for air, but she knew if she breathed, her concentration would be shot. No… she couldn't do a thing.
She slammed her hands down a second time.
Once more, nothing.
She was reminded of her training in Root, when Tenzo, Ra, and Anko had helped her work through the technique. Well… work through implied she'd succeeded. Her only successful attempt had come far later, and she'd only been able to use a neutered form of it after that.
Honestly, she was pathetic. Weak and pathetic.
She slammed her hands down and heard Kin whimper slightly as nothing happened again.
But now…
Now, she was supposed to be strong. She had to be strong. Because if she was weak now, then a friend of hers would die. More than that, more of her friends would hurt deeply at his loss…
And hell, she wouldn't forgive herself for that failure.
She brought her hands together and pictured exactly what she needed. Dosu's breaths were horrendously labored now, and they came only once every two or so seconds. He had, likely, less than a minute in his current state.
She remembered back to when she'd first met them. In the darkest recesses of the Forest of Death. She remembered gripping onto Kin's hair and threatening to gut the woman, and she remembered when she'd seen them again, how she'd apologized to Zaku, how the boy had opened her eyes regarding the way the world really was.
She remembered watching them struggle their way through their fights, ever-so-barely managing victory from Zaku. Dosu's had come easier, but then again, his opponent had been, too. She remembered the next time she'd seen them, in the Third Hokage's office, and how she'd been, just…
Happy. Happy to see that they'd made a good decision, that they'd escaped from out from under Orochimaru's clutches.
She remembered how, when the Third Hokage had been killed, the four of them had been taken in by Danzo to be studied. No… no, his intention had always been to torture those three to death, to take away their chance to be witnesses while getting as much information out of them as he could.
And she remembered saving them from that of her own volition, going past what Anko wanted her to do, and choosing to stay to protect them. She'd never really let that go, that feeling of… responsibility over them. They were her friends, but more than that, they were people she wanted to protect.
They'd become true ninja of the Leaf, Chuunin, and now very close to Jonin themselves. And… here one of them was, below her, about to die.
Dosu was perhaps the one she knew the least about. He'd never spoken about himself all that much, as Zaku had about his past on the streets with a young boy named Ries. Alternatively, he'd never really attempted to warm up to her much either, like Kin had. Dosu was… hardened. He was slow to trust, but she could tell the other members of his team had earned it.
She could tell, somehow, at some point, that she had as well.
She would not betray that trust. She refused to. Even if Dosu had no regrets about his newfound desire to protect the only people in his life who'd ever meant anything to him… she'd have regrets. She'd regret his death as long as she lived, she'd regret her powerlessness, her uselessness…
And because of that, she wouldn't allow it. She was a ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village. She was a Chuunin, going on a Jonin. Her power, her strength… It couldn't be tied to some bite-mark left on her by a narcissistic bastard.
If she was to stand up to her teammates, prove herself a valuable member of Team 7, prove herself a worthy student to Anko, a worthy successor to Hashirama, something she truly doubted she'd ever be able to do… then… no matter what, she's need to start here.
She focused in, looking not for the Curse Mark, but the tiniest feeling, one that it had helped her to grasp. Theoretically, she shouldn't even be able to find it, and yet as Dosu exhaled a horrendous, messy breath…
Her body remembered where it was.
She felt the tiniest glimpse of that power.
And she found a small, absent grin forming on her lips.
Because she was Sakura Haruno.
She curled her fingers and slammed her hands onto the ground below her.
And she was strong.
The stone below her cracked immediately, breaking apart as tiny little stems flew from the gaps. More came, vines and roots as thick as her legs, before even larger, more full things began to rise from the floor, trunks of massive trees, rivers, oceans of flora poured in from all directions.
And… she was in control of them.
It was an indescribable feeling, really. Life at her fingertips; literally, as thorns began to grow from the bone beneath. It hurt; by the gods did it hurt, but she could afford to worry about that later…
She could afford to worry about that when Dosu was safe.
Her tendrils clasped the man's body, raising him up and supporting him from beneath. Another flowed into the wound the Kusanagi blade had given him, filling the gap in his skin as raw life energy passed into his body. That root, unlike before whenever she utilized her power, didn't wither, and die. Instead, new energy poured into it from the earth all around her, an energy she'd never experienced before.
And yet, she recognized it.
Natural Energy.
She knew the feeling from standing beside Naruto. The energy his indigo-eyed form gave off… it was just like this. Free, untamed, the raw might of nature itself. She could feel him beneath them, running their way, his energy blazing like a hot summer's day even through the numerous walls in their way. His eclipsed her own power entirely, and yet… She couldn't help smiling as she flexed her hand, and the tendrils at her fingertips flexed too.
What she'd once talked about learning to utilize as an aimless dream to Anko before even the Chuunin Exams… it flowed along the bark and the fibers of her tendrils. It fueled them, allowing them to begin healing the internal damage Dosu was suffering. He'd been stabbed straight through the heart. As she'd been before, relying on the dark power of her Curse Mark, she wouldn't've been able to do anything about that…
But she wielded life itself at her fingertips now. Such a wound… was within her grasp to fix. The sapping of life she'd been granted by Orochimaru's gift… it was nothing compared to the splendor of nature itself that coalesced within her grip. She allowed the energy of the earth beneath to fully seal Dosu's wound, to stimulate his body into creating more blood, more ichor, so that he didn't perish simply from having too little, and then…
She breathed.
The pain of the moment caught her almost instantaneously. She fell to her knees, utterly eviscerated by agony all across her body. She'd used almost all of her own pool's chakra to kickstart the process, and even if she were using natural chakra now, she was still very literally running on fumes.
Her brain was back down to earth as well. Whatever odd form of consciousness had controlled her for a moment was gone. She felt… powerful, but she also felt horrendously exhausted. She wasn't used to using this new power; would likely take quite some time to master it, and it was clear her control of the life healing Dosu was fading rapidly.
But still… she couldn't stop now.
The front of his chest, where the sword had entered into… she focused her chakra there last. The vines and roots followed agonizingly slowly, stitching the wound shut with a fiber of a reed, and then…
Her arm fell, and with it, so too did everything else collapse.
The thick and mighty trunks that'd supported Dosu's body fell first, slithering like serpents themselves back into the earth beneath. Luckily, Kin seemed to catch onto her lack of ability to hold her teammate any longer, for she caught the man before he could fall and split his skull open on the rocks.
That would've been unfortunate after all she'd done to save him.
And then her body gave out, having done just about all it could. She slumped to the floor, barely able to get her left arm under her head to avoid the same fate as she took a deep, satisfied breath.
It was over.
She'd done it.
"Holy shit…" She heard Yahiko state as he stopped dueling the three girls altogether. "What even…"
"How intriguing." Danzo scoffed as Guy kicked off his left arm, which immediately began to regrow. "I suppose this means that at least the Leaf possesses a potent spear, now."
"Hah… that makes my control over the Wood Style look like a joke…" She heard Tenzo laugh, an incredibly rare show of emotion from the man. "Well done, Sakura."
Kakashi simply smiled her way as Anko gave a quiet laugh, pulling the knife out of her leg and beginning to perform some first aid.
"Like Hashirama before her…"
Before she could say that she was in no way even close to Hashirama's level yet (she'd nearly killed herself trying to heal one measly injury), she'd been tackled in a hug by an incredibly speedy Sound Ninja.
"Thank you…" Zaku murmured into her shoulder. "Thank you Sakura."
"I…" She laughed. "You're welcome."
And in that moment, for just a second, she allowed herself to relax.
…
It felt only natural that something would immediately ruin that.
A massive plume of white smoke shot out from the back of the room, encompassing a good deal of the frame of the large cavern they were held within. She broke out of Zaku's grip as she turned to see just what it was that had caused such a commotion.
From out of the smoke stepped six figures, all of which she recognized in one way or another. She'd come into contact with most only briefly, but…
The leader of the Akatsuki, Pain, five of his many forms in attendance, and his right hand, Konan.
She initially prepared for combat, but before she could even make to stand, Pain's attention had already been taken by something else.
"Wait…" Yahiko spoke, tilting his head as he pointed at the six of them. "Konan!? Is that you? Wait, hold on, what the fu-, is that me!?"
It was… oddly humanizing to watch one of the members of the Akatsuki come close to crying. Konan didn't move from her spot, but she did give a watery smile as she nodded her head at the reanimated man before her.
"It's… it's me, Yahiko."
"Huh." The orange-haired teen spoke. "You're… so much older. That's… kind of weird. Uh… follow-up question, because I feel this bears repeating," He pointed at Pain's main body "Is that me!?"
Pain's face didn't change, didn't so much as flinch, but then again, Sakura was fairly sure she'd never seen it do so much as blink, so that wasn't exactly a surprise.
"It's your body, yes." Pain explained. "But I am… Nagato."
Yahiko seemed to blank on that for a moment, as if needing to take a second to process that. When he finally did, his face lit up with a beaming smile.
"So… the both of you made it, huh?" He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Man, that's relieving, I… I was worried when I died that you'd be next, but…" He closes his eyes, placing a hand over his heart. "That's good. It wasn't for nothing, then."
"No… it… it wasn't for nothing. We made it, Yahiko."
"Oh, what about that Madara guy?" Yahiko pointed at the both of them. "I told you I didn't think you should work with him, right? What'd you end up doing?"
At that, Sakura couldn't help thinking the expressions on both of their faces were almost awkward, as if they'd been caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar.
"Well… that's…"
"Ah, well, I guess it doesn't really matter." Yahiko waved away. "Ok, but, on a more serious note…" He smiled after a second. "Did you seriously call yourself "Pain", Nagato?"
Sakura was fairly sure she'd never seen what she now knew was a corpse look so affronted.
"I–"
"You seriously–" Yahiko snorted, having to hold his gut to keep from laughing. "You actually called yourself 'Pain'!? What are you, an eight year old? My gods, that's the funniest thing I've heard in my entire life!"
Sakura couldn't help smiling at the man's enthusiastic laughing, and from the looks of things, she wasn't alone. The man had a certain… charisma about him that drew her in, wanted to believe that he was a good guy, even with his relations to the leaders of the Akatsuki themselves.
He seems a lot like Naruto, actually. She couldn't help thinking.
"The name is symbolic of our goal," Nagato spoke, though she noticed the way that even that form of his wouldn't meet Yahiko's eyes, evidently rather embarrassed. "We are to make the world feel the Pain it inflicted upon the Rain Village, in order to bring peace."
"Huh… yeah that's still the edgiest thing I've ever heard," Yahiko pointed out, earning a small, amused smile from Konan, "But alright, it makes sense at least. It's very… you."
Pain, or Nagato, she supposed, could only sigh.
It was at that moment that she saw Hinata perk up somewhat and could tell that something was likely going on… somewhere. Still, that wasn't what got her attention.
It was the glowing white light surrounding both Danzo and Yahiko, and that which was being emitted from out of the cage Tenzo and Kakashi were keeping Deidara within.
"Oi! What the hell is this!?" She heard Deidara's voice call out from within the wooden casket. "Why am I glowing!?"
"Yahiko!?" Konan took a step forward, reaching her hand out to her old friend, but there was something about the warm smile on the teens face that told Sakura something was… not wrong, but…
Perhaps finite.
"My apologies to cut this reunion so short," A voice rasped from just beyond their range. "But I think I'll have to call things here."
Sakura turned towards where Orochimaru's corpse had been, and saw a mucusy, but very much alive Orochimaru standing there, his hands drawn into a 'Boar' seal.
"Orochimaru!" Pain turned towards the man, evidently enraged. "You would dare go behind my back like this!?"
"Well, yes," He smiled. "Even under the control of Tobi's Kotoamatsukami, I still had my innate curiosity to fulfill, after all."
Sakura's eyes widened, as did Konan's.
"You…" The blue-haired woman seemed shocked. "You knew?"
"No, no, I only just awakened to that fact just now, actually." Orochimaru explained. "When little Dosu there hit me with that blast of sound, and Sakura unloaded on me with that chakra fueled punch, well, they really," He tapped the side of his skull, smiling amusedly. "Cleared my head, so to speak."
Danzo's body crumpled first, and the man inside of him, who'd apparently been used as a catalyst, spilled out. It was…
A White Zetsu.
"Hm." Danzo spirit spoke as it rose into the sky. "Protect the Leaf Village, all of you."
"Way ahead of you, asshole." Kakashi sighed as the man disappeared. "Anything to say, Deidara?"
When the blonde's spirit rose from out of his wooden cage, he glared right at Kakashi, and held out his hands, seemingly in an attempt to bombard him with some kind of Jutsu. When nothing happened, he bit down on his bottom lip, and swore openly.
"Bastards! Art is… art is–!"
He was gone before he could say anything else.
Just then, from the entrance of the room, Naruto and Jiraiya came dashing in. They were panting terribly, and seemed to have a few wounds about them, but otherwise appeared to be in decent shape.
Almost immediately Jiraiya eyed the now disintegrating form of his old student. "Ya–Yahiko!?"
"Oh, hey Sensei!" Yahiko laughed, giving a beaming smile as he waved to the man. "Ah, good to see you're still kickin' around, you perverted geezer!"
"H-Hey!"
Another second passed, and Yahiko's body crumpled to shreds, revealing another White Zetsu as his spirit ascended into the air.
"Shit… I guess this is it." He remarked as he turned towards his partners. "Hey, Nagato, Konan, don't forget who we are, ok guys!?" He smiled at them, and it reminded her so much of one of Naruto's own sunny expressions. "We're not villains! We're to make the Rain, and the world for that matter a better place! We're to bring peace to the ninja world, just like Jiraiya always said!"
Pain's eyes, which had always seemed entirely unmoving, actually twitched at his old friends words. Konan had no such reservations, a few solemn tears running down her face, though she did not make a sound.
"Oh, and Sensei!" Yahiko rounded on Jiraiya one last time. "I can… sort of see what's going on here. You guys… don't exactly seem like allies anymore, but…"
He held out his hand, as if to bump fists with his teacher.
"Don't give up on 'em. Promise me that, Sensei!"
"Yahiko… you…" Jiraiya stepped forward, reaching out his hand as if to try and touch the ghosts form. Still, just as the man was about to disappear, Jiraiya shook his head, and held his fist up, speaking with a teary grin. "I won't. I promise I'll bring 'em home."
Yahiko's expression gained a certain peace to it as he nodded his head.
"That's…"
"Good enough for me."
And with that, he faded into the ether.
Jiraiya almost immediately turned towards Pain, regarding him somewhat differently than he had mere moments prior.
"Nagato…"
Before anything else could happen, Pain shook his head, turning towards Konan and seemingly sending some kind of silence signal towards her. In but a moment, one of Pain's forms was already forming the signs for a summoning Jutsu, or, well, Sakura assumed it would be an un-summoning Jutsu.
"We have lost this location, but we've obtained everything we need from it." Konan nodded as she fell back into the Pain's, wiping at her eyes despite the puffiness that still hung about them. "Until we meet again, Sensei, and to the rest of you, 'heroes' of the Hidden Leaf."
He slammed his hands down on the ground, and, when the smoke settled, they were gone.
"I think I will be making my exit as well." Orochimaru said after but another moment. "Once again, thank you for freeing me from the spell I was caught within. That was rather kind of you."
Sakura ground her teeth together, wanting to knock the man's teeth out of his skull, but seeing as how she was pretty sure he was about as close to immortal as anyone could get, she had a feeling he would just grow them back.
"Oh, and you should know that at some point during this little tussle, Black Zetsu has likely already collected my chakra-stealing device and used it on the other Jinchuuriki." The man spoke in a 'what can you do?' kind of way. "And, well, perhaps he's done something even more heinous than that, what with what Obito asked of me."
Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Obito asked something of you?"
"Yes, a personal project that was "to be done in utmost secrecy"."
"Well… What was it?"
Orochimaru merely laughed. "What, and ruin the surprise? I think not." He smirked even harder at Kakashi's annoyed growl. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure it out before too long. It's rather relevant to current happenings, or, well, will be relevant."
She couldn't help but wonder what he was talking about as he took a few steps back, leaning against the back wall as the several Jonin present began to surround him, trying to trap him within the room.
"And where exactly are you headed?" Jiraiya questioned, stepping forward and crossing his arms. "Staying with the Akatsuki?"
"What, with my head as clear as it is? Not a chance." Orochimaru laughed. "I'll return to my old dens, as it were. Though, well, you've likely cleared out all my old houses and homes, so I suppose that'll be rather difficult. Who knows what I'll do, I suppose?"
Jiraiya frowned mightily as he stepped forward.
"A word of caution for you all, however," Orochimaru spoke, taking a solitary step back. "I would watch out for the Zetsu if I were you, specifically Black Zetsu. There's something about them that's just… Inhuman. And coming from me…" He sneered widely, showing off his snake-like fangs. "That should mean something."
Sakura couldn't help but agree.
"Why do you say that?" Kakashi asked as he strode forwards, sending a signal to Tenzo from behind his back, likely trying to keep the men talking to keep him present within the area so that he couldn't make a getaway. "What makes you think they're so suspicious?"
"Simply that I cannot identify a motive for their actions." Orochimaru explained. "Everyone else has some sort of reason to be with the Akatsuki, some reason to do what they do; on the contrary, neither of them has any such reason. If it's as I suspect though… Well, let's just say that they intend to do something a bit more terrible than you might be expecting."
Kakashi growled once more, very clearly frustrated with the man's lack of answers to his questions.
"What exactly do you suspect their plan is?"
Orochimaru seemed to heavily debate with himself whether or not to share that particular piece of information, though, after a few seconds spent deliberating, he shrugged, and parted his lips.
"I believe they intend to revive Kaguya Otsutsuki."
None of them so much as reacted to that information. It was actually Naruto, funnily enough, who decided to voice what all of them were likely thinking.
"Who the hell is that?"
"I suppose it makes sense that none of you would know who that is, after all, the only reason I know is because of the millennia-old tomes I dug through searching for secrets of immortality. It's a name of importance, though, I will admit that even I don't know much. She was a terribly powerful figure, the mother of the Sage of the Six Paths himself."
That, at least, drew reactions from the crowd.
"Wait, wait, wait… I thought the sage was just a myth." Zaku spoke, turning and looking at them all. "He is just a myth… R-Right?"
"Theoretically, he's just a myth, surely, but…" Kakashi clicked his tongue. "The Rinnegan; the mystical eye that the Sage was said to possess… We've seen that with our own two eyes, have we not? Is it so strange to think that there was once a man who wielded said eyes in a time before ours? Who used them to grow to such esteem?"
Zaku couldn't answer.
"Yes, well, I'm sure you'll find that if they get their way, if they succeed in bringing back an Otsutsuki to this plane…" For once, there was no sense of amusement in Orochimaru's expression. "Then this world won't just see a war beyond any it's seen before…"
"It will come to an end."
She swallowed on nothing as the man held up a finger, as if just remembering something important.
"Oh, and one last thing…"
At that moment, Kakashi and the other Jonin charged, and though they were quick… Orochimaru had already melted fully into the stone wall he'd been leaning upon, disappearing from sight. His voice still echoed throughout the cavern, however, and his message was dire.
"You should know that Pain is likely going to bring down this entire base on top of you in mere moments. If you intend to rescue the Jinchuuriki… you'd best be quick about it."
And just as his presence faded entirely, the walls began to shake.
End Chapter 88
Sakura's got a new technique (or, well, more like a purified version of her old technique unlocked through the will and strength of her heart and due to the loss of the darkness of the curse mark that haunted her, but that doesn't flow as well off the tongue, so...) and she's here to use it!
Next chapter, the escape...
See you all next week!