A/N: So, once more we've reached exam week so next weekend there will be no update since I have far too much to read and projects to finish, so sorry about the coming delay.
Chapter 55: Painful partings
The soft cries of the girl made guilt pool in his stomach like never before.
It wasn't his fault. He'd pulled back as soon as he realized Kagome-chan got in the middle of their path. It was that who had already thrown the punch and failed to step away who'd hit her. And now, here he stood, head low while he listened to the small girl whimpering while Itachi examined the quickly forming bruise.
"Ka-...Kagome...I'm sorry, I..." There was clearly, guilt on the other's boy's words.
"Tch, now you apologize...as if you weren't ignoring her to begin with," Naruto mumbled.
"Wha...if you weren't so stupid, this wouldn't have happened, dumbass!" Again, Sasuke turned to yell at him.
""Me? I wasn't the one who didn't know how to stop, you...you bastard!"
"It's not my fault you needed to get punched for you to get it, moron!"
"Wanna see what you can get from a punch?!"
"Naruto-kun..." the older Uchiha's voice cut their growing yells. "You do realize this is why this happened, don't you?"
Tension filled his small frame; for the past few weeks, he'd been worrying about the teen changing his mind about allowing the blond into the compound. After all, the Uchiha heir knew his name, he was sure of it, but it was only because of the young girl that he'd agreed to hide him and even showed him ways to enter the compound whenever Naruto had to sneak in by himself. If Itachi changed his mind...then there was no way he could keep finding ways in, and this little warmth he'd somehow managed to get would disappear once more.
This was it. It had to be.
As much of a bastard as Sasuke was, he was still the teen's little brother. Of course, the heir would side his family now that the girl had gotten hurt.
"You can't jump to fight as your first reaction, Naruto-kun. Sometimes, you have to be the bigger person." Soon the angered screams would start. Any minute now..."Sasuke, no matter how angry you get, you always have to be observant of your surroundings. Otherwise, people who shouldn't be involved can get hurt."
The blind blinked slowly, and then, he blinked again.
His brain was still trying to process the fact he wasn't being yelled at to 'get the fuck out and never show his face again.'. Instead, the older Uchiha seemed to reprimand his brother, and there wasn't even any real anger in those words. For some reason...they were being treated the same, and it was all he could do to keep from smiling because even he knew that would be a right now.
"Kagome..." Itachi spoke again. "I know you don't like to see people fighting, but you can't just run in the middle of a brawl; you have to be more careful."
"...careful?"
"You've been practicing with your wires lately, haven't you?"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
He winced before he could feel the pull on his arm.
The moment the wire wrapped around his wrist, he knew what was coming; and from the look on the Uchiha's face, the bastard was just as well aware of the mistake they'd made. They'd ended up completely forgetting about the girl once their frustration ended up with them screaming to each other and eventually exchanging punches too.
And then, Kagome pulled.
With one foot off the ground and his momentum well on his way, it was impossible to stop. A groan left Sasuke as they collided, limbs tangled in a weird version of a hug that both boys jumped to try and get out of it. The wires between them getting tangled were not really helping them either.
"Sasuke," Kagome-chan's words froze them in their tracks. "Naruto-kun."
Their muffled grumbles died down in a heartbeat; his childhood friend's overly sweet voice promised nothing but regret. Because sure, the young girl could be all smiles and kindness, but when she got upset, she was a force to be reckoned with. It had only taken him once to learn not to ignore the warnings signs. The wire fell from his fingers as his gaze found the bandages that the girl's stockings didn't fully cover...there were also more bandages on the Uchiha's limbs.
They were overworking themselves again.
Out of the three of them, the blond was the one who healed fastest; most of his injuries left no hint of ever being there with a good night's rest. But Kagome also recovered quite fast; if she still had bandages on her, then it meant that the last couple of days had been spent on nothing but training. He thought things were finally starting to resemble some kind of normalcy now that they'd finally started opening the door to him, but it evidently wasn't it.
"I swear, I turn around just five minutes, and you're trying to kill each other." Despite it all, he could hear some amusement in her voice as she crossed her arms.
"Tch."
"Ahahahaha...well..." Naruto trailed off.
"If the moron wasn't playing around so much."
"Well, maybe if your instructions made actual sense!"
"Or maybe, if you stopped acting like an idiot."
"Ahem..." Kagome's voice cut through their insults. "The food is ready, by the way. You know, the fook I spent over 40 minutes preparing, so shall we go? Then again, I could always jump in with the training...now again, we are running out of moving targets, aren't we?"
"Yep, the girl could be downright scary when she wanted to.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Being dangled in the air like a pair of toddlers would be far more mortifying if not for the fact that Naruto still felt angry, and that anger was doing a fantastic job at keeping the humiliation at bay. Unwilling to let the matter go, the blond kept kicking and waving his arms around. Because sure, he may have been the one who threw the first punch but, dammit, that bastard had all but asked for it.
A pained groan sounded from his side as the grip on his jacket faltered, and the blond couldn't care less that his foot had just accidentally connected with a very delicate part of his sensei's anatomy because it meant he could now proceed to punch the jerk in the face. This time without Kakashi-sensei interrupting their training-session-turned-fight. With an annoyed grunt, Sasuke landed, all too willing to go along with the prankster's plan. Both of them completely forgetting there was actually one more person within the training grounds. And with complete visibility as to what was currently going on. Ignorance could be bliss...or a free ticket for a very annoyed childhood friend.
"Kagome..." Kakashi-sensei groaned.
He could feel the muscles on his legs giving at the same time understanding seemed to dawn on the dark eyes of the Uchiha when he also plummeted to the ground.
"Are we ever going to get past this?" Above them, the girl tried to sound serious. "It's like we just go back in time whenever we do this, you know?"
"Sorry..."
"Yeah...sorry about that," Naruto winced.
"You know, one of these days, I'll just pass on the healing, see if limping around for a day or two, finally makes the trick." The girl shook her head. "Also, I wasn't the one kicked."
Three pairs of eyes drifted to where Kakashi-sensei was doing his best to not look like he was crouching down, hands suspiciously close to his crotch in an abandoned attempt to protect that particular part of his body now that they were all looking at him.
"Ahahahaha, sorry about that, Kakashi-sensei."
"Oh, yes..." the man groaned. "I can certainly hear the regret."
"Hmph, well, an elite jounin should probably be able to stop something like an aimless kick." Sasuke's grumbled comment was a bit too loud in the previous silence.
A choked laugh threatened to escape the girl as she kept healing his leg, and the blond didn't even try not to cackle at the glare their teacher sent the Uchiha's way. Just like that, all the tension between the three vanished even as the white-haired jounin told them to run laps from the training grounds to the Hokage tower at least five times in the next fifteen minutes. Despite the fact that he was all too aware that Kagome had technically just paralyzed both their legs and right arms when stopping that fight. Because honestly, getting that look at their slave-driver teacher was definitely worth it. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was actually put in any danger, their fights were always stopped by the girl, and she'd long since discovered quite a few inventive ways to make them stop from a distance.
Higurashi Kagome never physically stepped in the middle of their fights.
She hadn't done so since that one time in their early friendship. That way, no one ever truly hurt, even on accident. There were always better ways to stop a fight. That was something the older Uchiha taught her before the man went insane. First of all, she had to take care of protecting herself; it was something both Sasuke and himself had agreed with...so then, why...why was her blood staining his hand...sprayed over his face as her scream finally shattered the red haze around him enough for him to see clearly?
As if burnt, Naruto pulled his hand away.
Red-tinted eyes could only watch in horror as her feet sunk into the water, too overwhelmed by the pain to even think about molding chakra on her feet. Only Sasuke's quick actions managed to stop her from fully sinking, his hands grasping her unharmed arm and rushing to pull her towards him. That Sasuke had to pull the girl into his arms and sprint to the edge of the lake to let her down on the ground only made it more evident that this was not a common injury.
Why?
Kagome always looked for safe ways to stop them, so then...why had she...
Unless...unless she saw no other way...and the risk of not stepping in the middle was...
His hand was trembling, cooling crimson still sticking to his skin. Where had he been aiming for...in the first place?
Kagome's pained whimper seemed to break through the sound of the waterfall, and he could feel it. Reiki formed in the girl's hand as she attempted to heal the bleeding wound on her shoulder, the injury Naruto caused.
It felt different from usual, however.
Ignoring the odd feeling, the blond managed to stumble his way towards the edge despite his shaking legs. Kagome was gasping, unable to breathe properly, and Sasuke remained kneeling right by her side. Naruto could see it now, passing through the crimson and between her trembling fingers that tried to move around the injury to heal it...Naruto could see the gap in her flesh. It was an almost literal hole the size of his fist with the hints of broken bone that now couldn't connect to her arm.
"Ka...Kagome..." His voice wasn't working as it should. "I...I'm s-sorry, I..."
"Don't come closer!"
The pain in his ribs registered before he realized the Uchiha had kicked him with enough force to send him crashing into the foot of the opposite statue. The dark markings in his skin spread with a speed he'd never seen; it wouldn't take long for the whole of his body to be covered in black.
"Don't you dare come close to her..." Poison was dripping from Sasuke's voice. "Was this what you wanted?"
"N-no! I would never...!"
"It looks like I was wrong." There was an accusation there, a condemnation. "You're not a burden, Naruto...you're a fucking liability...nothing but an uncontrollable risk."
No...he wasn't...he just wasn't.
"Risk...risk?! You're the one planning to take her to that freak!" His voice didn't sound like his own, desperation in every word. "The one willing to leave her alone!"
Anger was rising inside him again. Fueled by fear and guilt because Kagome's blood on his hand seemed to scream at him the same things Sasuke did, and he couldn't, wouldn't accept it...he wasn't a risk, he wasn't a monster...right?
"Your very existence puts her in danger."
It was his back this time that got hit. Parting him from the water once more, and then, he froze...Sasuke always scowled, always glared, and scoffed at him. Ever since their very first meeting. But compared to the way the villagers looked at him, Naruto preferred it because not once did it feel like the youngest Uchiha was looking at anyone but Naruto himself. And yet now...
Now, he could see hatred inside those crimson eyes directed at him...and at the monster who hurt Kagome.
It felt like the way they looked at him.
The Uchiha was willing to break it all and take the young girl with him too...now he even looked pleased with the pain he was feeling. Memories flooded his consciousness, memories of a cold, silent apartment, of glares and mocking glances, of hatred and fear mixed into one another as he sunk into the water.
"You are weak, aren't you? Young one...you should be thanking me." A voice he hated reached his mind. "The one who sealed me, the Yondaime Hokage, you are similar...if it's power you want, then take it."
Naruto could feel it again, a haze pulling him down, numbing the pain and the horror as he lost himself once more. It let him move again, get himself out of the water, allowed his punches to hit...that they didn't seem to be doing damage anymore didn't really register.
It burned.
All of it seemed to burn, and it was all Kagome could do to keep breathing.
Reiki flowed from her fingers and pooled on her shoulder to no avail. It wasn't working. She wasn't healing. And it burned. Questions swirled through her mind, in disorder, uncontrolled, she couldn't focus, couldn't think. Could barely breathe. Trembling fingers pressed uselessly over the gaping hole on her shoulder. Blood seeped with every gasp, taking with it a bit of strength, and it just kept burning.
Instinct...you should always trust your instincts.
The voice of her memory managed to break through her panic...right. She could do this; she had to.
There were two sides to reiki, the one that could harm and the one that could heal. Until now, Kagome had pushed the healing part of the energy forward. At least, she had once the feeling of solid ground beneath her feet helped her regain some sense of logic, but not enough...while she could push herself through the expected pain, the burning had caught her off guard.
Biting back another scream, the girl attempted to focus once more on the wound. This time, she completely cut off the flow of reiki to it and almost yelled as she found what she'd been unknowingly looking for. Because there it was, chakra. Wild, untamed, and almost toxic chakra remained burrowed within her flesh, stopping her healing. The Kyuubi's chakra. Gritting her teeth, Kagome pushed the energy back in, not healing this time. The blood flowing through her veins protected her from the dangerous aspects of her kekkei genkai as it moved to obliterate the demonic chakra inside her, stopping the burning. Just like it did with Gaara's sand, reiki went through as if it wasn't even an obstacle.
A trembling sigh escaped her as the burning vanished.
No, this was not the time for it yet. Kagome had to close the wound or risk bleeding to death.
None of the actual jutsus she knew would heal something of this magnitude, meaning there was only one thing to do now. It would definitely drain her without the proper way to guide the energy; a lot of it would go to waste...but there was no other way.
First of all...the bone on her shoulder needed to be set back as much as possible. Set the frame for everything else to move around; bone fragments needed to be found and either pushed out or reconnected with the others. Pain hit her as the energy began to work, pushing and pulling around in a way the girl barely had any control over. Muscles and tendons had to be sewn together once more, veins and arteries had to rejoin, stop the internal bleeding. With no specific set of instructions, the Higurashi girl could feel the energy overflow, rushing at the injury to comply with the only thing she could will it to do, to heal.
A shuddering gasp escaped her as she felt the skin knitting back again.
Struggling to keep herself grounded, the sounds of the fight on the side finally reached her. Azure eyes lifted, fighting the blurriness from tears she hadn't even realized had fallen. Although, there wasn't too much of a fight to see anymore. If not for the fact that she could still feel Sasuke's ever-familiar aura, the girl wasn't sure she could be sure it was the Uchiha, the one who was currently pounding on the blond jinchuuriki. He didn't look like himself anymore; his appearance had now changed far too much. His skin was now gray, and there was something protruding from his back in a twisted parody of wings. A rage she'd never seen in the boy who she'd shared the whole of her life was evident in his movements. The still-warm blood on her hands was the reason for it; Kagome knew it for a fact...there didn't seem to be any signs of him stopping any time soon.
At this rate, Sasuke could genuinely kill Naruto.
Her chakra reserves were thankfully full. Not a drop of them going into her healing. Fighting back the phantom pain in her arm, the girl focused on sending energy to her feet, stumbling and grasping for balance. Gasping, Kagome managed to sprint across the water. She had to stop this; she had to stop this now.
Crashing into the boy threatened to make her unsteady legs fail under her. Bloodied fingers tightened around his arms in an effort to stop herself from falling. Under her grip, she could feel the Uchiha tense for just a second.
"Stop, he wasn't in control...you know that..." Her voice wasn't steady; it quivered as she spoke. "Please...please just stop...don't do anything you will regret later."
Slowly, Sasuke let go of the blond's crimson-stained jacket as his skin lost the gray tone and the protrusions in his back went back into his flesh. His appearance was back to normal when he turned to face her. Rough fingers traced her cheek before traveling to the mess on her shoulder, moving the bloodied fabric to trace the still sensitive skin of her healed injury. Dark eyes carefully assessed her state before flicking to the blond.
"Let's go, then."
Before he could actually take a step, the Uchiha coughed, crimson staining his lips as he fell to the ground. His hand flew to grab his arm. Warning words rushed to her mind, the second phase of the cursed seal, the one that could consume a person's body. He'd been pushed to go forth with it after the Kyuubi's chakra covered the boy in a sort of clout. Worry sent adrenaline through her veins, momentarily making her forget her own tiredness while she set them both on the ground, hands already moving, weaving the seals for a diagnostic.
The excess of chakra that ran through his body was too much, and he was now paying for it.
So much of her reiki had been lost during her own healing, she could feel it being stretched thin as she pushed herself to continue. She had to keep going. Closing her eyes, the girl forced herself to take a deep breath. There was more, Kagome could feel more energy inside her, and so, she pushed herself.
"Enough." Sasuke's voice broke her technique; his hand covered hers, there was worry inside his eyes. "That's good enough. I'm fine now."
Dazedly, her gaze fell on their childhood friend's now unconscious form, and a bitter laugh got stuck in her throat. All of them were bloodied and on the verge of unconsciousness. This was the picture they painted after so many years. Their plan had to go forth; for everyone's sake, they had to keep moving, even if their bond suffered because of it. Unless they had the truth, they would keep dancing to someone else's tune, someone who'd already shown themselves all too willing to use them as sacrifices.
"I'm sorry..." The words rang hollow, drowned by the thud of her hitaiate hitting the ground as she stood back up. "I'm...so sorry."
As much as he tried, there was nothing in the Godaime's expression for him to pick apart to tell him this was some kind of joke or prank or a hint that this was some kind of genjutsu or henge. But it had to be because otherwise, Kakashi couldn't really begin to count all the reasons why this situation was just completely and entirely wrong.
"What did you say?" he asked, trying to fight against reality. "Only those 5 rookies went to get Sasuke and Kagome..."
"There was no other choice, given the situation of the village. We've hit the necessary minimum." The woman made a face of regret. "Look at this! Your next mission has already been decided."
"Eh, when I'm finished, I'll come back...there's no need to worry." It was a bit of a miracle that his voice remained unaffected.
This was bordering on treasonous actions; the elite Copy ninja was outright ignoring a direct order from his Hokage...but those who abandoned their teammates were worse than scum. And there was not a chance in hell Kakashi would just quietly go on to whatever next assignment was written in that scroll while his whole team was basically missing.
And that was without even mentioning the fact that there was something wrong with this whole thing.
Sasuke forcing Kagome to leave the village to go to Orochimaru...this whole setup sounded off. Maybe someone who'd just watched those three from the sidelines could buy the story. But the man had been the farthest away from those sidelines as those kids allowed anyone to be. Kakashi had carefully observed their interactions. Making sure there was nothing abusive in how they treated each other. And while the result of those observations told him they weren't exactly healthy, it never rang any alarm bells, so then...
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" The smoke dissipated to show his ragtag group of hunting dogs. "First, go off in all directions until you get Naruto, Sasuke, or Kagome's scent. When you get it, call out, then keep going." There was no time to lose here. "Right! Scatter!"
He'd been naive.
Stupid enough to believe that just because they were inside the village, they would be safe from Orochimaru for at least a little while. Had relied too much on Kagome to keep the Uchiha's vengeful impulses under control...although...that only brought up far more questions. After all, while she may not have been totally uninterested in it, revenge had never been high up on the girl's priority list. And if there was one thing that ranked higher on Sasuke's, it had to be the Higurashi heiress' well-being. Even if he were to believe his urge for retribution had become bad enough for the Uchiha to actually force the girl to move, the idea of him placing her so close to danger as it was for them to go to Orochimaru was just ludicrous...
Of course, none of this mattered, not right now.
For whatever reason, those two decided to leave, and Naruto would be determined to stop them. And Sasuke was never one easily change his mind. There had always been an undercurrent of rivalry between the two, anger constantly easy to rise in their interactions. With something as vital as this...how far would they be willing to go? Would Sasuke actually attempt to kill the other boy?
No...
No...no matter the situation, this was the one scenario he couldn't see Kagome standing aside and allowing to happen.
The loud bark of one of his summons was the signal for him to burst himself with chakra, quickly catching up with Pakkun before slowing down to make sure not to outpace the small pug. He needed to stay on their trail; letting his panic drive him would make him waste time, and every second was invaluable.
"Rain...!" Kakashi cursed out loud. "Have you lost their scent?!"
"It's alright; I still have it..." the dog trailed off. "They are here!"
Kakashi recognized the place.
The Valley of the End, the place that marked the very edge of Hi's country territory. This was the place that marked the end of their land and jurisdiction. The invisible line they couldn't cross unless they wanted to risk inflaming international tensions.
Pakkun stopped before the water, and Kakashi almost wanted to curse once more; because, despite all of this rain, he could seel a pool of pinkish water that could only be one thing. If it was still visible despite all this rain, there was only one thing it could mean. The amount of blood loss was far from insignificant. This was already a bad sign.
"Blood..." The pug confirmed his suspicions before making things worse. "It's Kagome's."
"Wha...are you sure?"
"Certain" For once, his dog wasn't offended by the question. "I can still get a slight trace of their scent over there."
A silent nod was all he could manage before crossing the water, forcefully pushing back the sense of dread that set in his stomach once he caught sight of the orange spot on the other side of the river. If Kagome had been injured, then...
Sasuke's life revolved entirely around two people, and the one he cared for was the young heiress. With the girl injured as she probably was, the boy could've really lost it, maybe badly enough to deal a fatal blow. And that was assuming the girl was, in fact, still breathing. It was a dreadful thing to even think about, but the lack of a corpse meant nothing. The Uchiha would've never left her body behind had the worst come to happen. Implications swirled in his mind; that he could still see signs of her blood on the river bank meant someone, probably Sasuke, carried her there. It also implied...that the fight was far too serious, enough that she'd been given no time to do anything but get in the middle of it.
It was slight, but Kakashi could see the blond's chest slowly rising, and lying at his side, there were two discarded forehead protectors.
"Sasuke's..." the pug sniffed them both carefully. "And Kagome's."
"If I wasn't in time...I'm sorry..." Was this an apology for the boy...or perhaps for himself; Kakashi wasn't sure anymore. "Was this your inevitable fate?
"It's ironic, isn't it?"
"Yes...it's said that long ago, two men fought here, and from the scar caused by that fight, this river was formed." There was no real meaning to the jounin's words. "If you observe the flow...it continues flowing, without ever stopping."
It was the unexpected union of three exceptional houses that created the village. It was a dream of peace none of their founders ever managed to see before their deaths. There had always been tension between the Senjus and the Uchihas. It wasn't surprising to learn that there had always been cracks in their relationship. But it was only after the then Higurashi matriarch died during a confrontation with one of her clan's many hunters; that the problems truly started to show. And not long before said clan's disappearance, Uchiha Madara left the village for good, only for him to return to try and attack the dream he'd helped build. The confrontations continued over and over until the fight at the Valley of the End finally happened.
"Naruto...Sasuke...Kagome." Each name weighed a ton inside his soul. "Your lifes' paths seem to be remarkably like theirs."
"The rain stopped..." Pakkun offered by his side before giving the ground a sniff. "That rain...I can no longer follow their scents. Anyways, Naruto is more important than following those two."
"Yes..."
Placing the kid on his back, Kakashi began to make his way back. Even if the Kyuubi's healing factor was far more effective on the boy than he'd thought, Naruto could still use a check-up. It was more than evident that Sasuke had barely held back from delivering a fatal shot during the fight. The holes in the orange clothing betrayed the places the worst hits had landed. If not for the demonic fox inside him, the Copy ninja wasn't sure the boy could've survived in the first place.
"...Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto's voice was weak behind him. "...what about Sasuke and Kagome?"
"Kakashi-san!" The arrival of the medic ops allowed him to keep his gaze away from the boy in his back. "What is Uzumaki Naruto's condition?"
"He's alright."
"What about Uchiha Sasuke and Higurashi Kagome?" The reply got stuck on the elite jounin's throat.
"What's the situation with the other genins?" he asked instead.
"By the Hokage's orders, the first and second medic teams were dispatched." So the woman had anticipated grave injuries on the kids. "They've already recovered the scattered, injured genins and have taken to receive urgent medical treatment."
"What's the situation?"
"Nara Shikamaru has a minor injury. Inuzuka Kiba has a deep wound, but there's no danger to his life." It wasn't fair, but the relief he felt was less than it probably should. "Hyuuga Neji and Akimichi Chouji are in critical condition; for the moment, their situation is uncertain."
Walking was definitely a challenge as they continued moving in the direction they were told to. Sasuke's arm around her helped only to soothe her nerves. Only sending chakra to her limbs allowed her to keep moving.
Soon, they should be getting close enough to find Orochimaru's hideout.
And she felt it.
"Kagome?"
Azure eyes scanned the land around them, limbs frozen as she tried to find...something, anything off. Because she could feel it, the same unnerving feeling that had all but assaulted her during the exams. The one she'd mistakenly thought was caused by Gaara before realizing there was a very distinct quality to a jinchuuriki's aura once the beasts began to fight for control. What she felt just now...it was way worse.
"I thought...I felt something close." There was little she could do to describe it. "But I don't think it's here anymore."
"Ae we still too far away?" The question was more to distract her than anything else. Kagome went with it.
"Shouldn't be...in fact..."
It didn't take long for them to see the figure of a somewhat familiar person walking towards them. As if she needed another reason to dislike Yakushi Kabuto, the older teen was closing the distance between them with a sly smile on his face. According to Naruto, the guy had been able to hold himself against Tsunade-sama; whether the woman was affected by her trauma or not made little to no difference. This was the one person Orochimaru had chosen to have as his companion when facing a fellow Sannin, someone who'd deceived the village for years without raising any sort of alarm. And Kagome wanted to curse...
Because they both looked like a mess.
Kagome was visibly exhausted, and blood soaked all of the left side of her body, and while she'd managed to heal a good part of the damage made to Sasuke by the cursed seal, reiki didn't just magically make one feel rested and refreshed; not unless the girl actively traded her own energy to lift the energy reserves of the person she wanted to cure. That was why she could only reduce the amount of time Kakashi-sensei would be out of commission back during Wave instead of instantly eliminating his chakra exhaustion. No matter how anyone looked at it, they were ragged and currently far too weak.
"Kabuto-san, it's been a while." The Higurashi heiress forced a smile on her lips. "Though I fear that little escort team you set to us, well, they probably won't be able to join us. It would seem our classmates deserved more credit than anyone would've thought."
A/N: And here we go, I really wanted to have all three of their perspectives during the fight to show their state of mind during it. Since we do see a lot of Naruto's perspective in the original version I wanted to focus on the other two a little more and have Naruto react to his accidentally hurting Kagome, something that is going to definitely have an impact on him. Also, from here on canon will begin to change, a lot. Honestly, in canon it almost feels like after this things everyone just stop doing things and focus on training but we have a lot more moving pieces here. As always, thank you guys so much for reading and any and all review/criticism/comment is greatly appreciated.