Without further ado, into the breach.
Chapter 41: Oddly Human Reactions
Kabuto had, apparently, been holding back more than Sasuke had thought during the Chuunin Exams.
He watched as Naruto's guard was broken by Kabuto's fist, sending the boy flying away, before the two boy's assailant ducked underneath Sasuke's own counterattack and landed a blow straight into his sternum, knocking him backwards onto his back, and forcing him to roll to the side immediately, lest he have the man's foot stomp on his rib cage.
He'd already had his ribs broken by Orochimaru; he felt no real urge to experience that particular anguish again.
He flipped out of his roll, landing a bit wrong in a way that almost cost him the match, narrowly managing to make a Chidori flow into his hand in order to wade off Kabuto's attack. Their opponent had no choice but to step back, but that still meant he'd used one of the few Chidori's he could create per day.
We need to be smart about this. Sasuke reasoned to himself. We can't just play his game this whole time and expect to come out on top in the end.
Naruto seemed to realize the same thing, nodding to him over Kabuto's shoulder. Sasuke held off on motioning back, not wanting their opponent to catch on, though he'd have been surprised if Kabuto truly wasn't expecting them to try and mix it up. Clearly, what they were doing wasn't working.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke examined the state of the other battlefield. At the moment, the battle between Jiraiya and Orochimaru was still small scale. The former had used his hair as a spiny sort of armor, wrapping it around his body to prevent the latter from biting him with his extending neck, which threatened to place a seal on Jiraiya's body that would, likely, leave him paralyzed for some time.
Shizune had managed to calm Tsunade down somewhat, but it seemed like the woman was still, at least partially, shaking. She gripped her retainer's body like a lifeline, and it seemed that if the two were separated, the woman would lose whatever sense of calm she'd gained almost immediately.
A movement from Kabuto brought his attention back to the fight at hand, and he charged forward as the Sound ninja darted for Naruto, trying to take the boy out while he was inattentive. He might not technically be allowed to kill Naruto, but there was a much larger chance that Sasuke could be kidnapped by Orochimaru if his best friend was incapacitated in some way.
And quite frankly, getting captured by Orochimaru was just about the last thing he had in mind, what with the man's creepy gestures and pedophilic nature. Sasuke shivered just thinking about him.
This time, luckily, Naruto managed to guard against Kabuto's opening assault, forcing the man's chakra scalpel downwards, and using the opening he received to summon about a dozen shadow clones, which proceeded to vault over Naruto's back and jump at their assailant. Kabuto, to his credit, didn't even react, simply dispersing a good five or six with senbon from his left hand, and then ducking underneath Sasuke's strike on him from behind.
I'm getting super tired of fighting people above my level. Sasuke thought with a grimace as he barely blocked Kabuto's fist on his arms, being sent flying once again. The Chuunin Exams were nice. Why can't all our missions be like that?
He landed a way's away, though this time, he was allowed a moment to breathe, as their opponent still had to deal with Naruto's numerous clones assaulting him. He took the time to look back towards Tsunade, who had now risen with the help of Shizune, and was walking towards the both of them.
She was leaning heavily on her retainer, but there was a small bit of fire in her gaze that let Sasuke know that whatever had happened here to start this fight, the woman was clearly rather angry about it. She must've informed Shizune as well, for the woman looked much the same in terms of her expression.
"You kids…" The Slug Princess' voice was quiet and shaky. "Why did you come here?"
"Well, mostly cause Jiraiya and Shizune told us to." Sasuke admitted, watching as the previously mentioned retainer avoided eye-contact, looking off at Naruto and Kabuto's duel. "But also because we wanted to help you, I guess, and prevent you from healing Orochimaru's arms."
Tsunade actually chuckled, though it was far from a mirthful thing. If anything, it seemed like she was mocking them.
"And what difference would a pair of hatchlings make at a time like this…" She muttered quietly, pushing off of Shizune's body and standing, a bit precariously, on her own two feet. "Leave this battle to the adults, alright kid?"
"Lady Tsunade, please!" Shizune stepped forward, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. "You're in no condition to be fighting someone who knows how to abuse your weakness! You've only just recovered, if he does it again-"
"I won't falter a second time!" Tsunade spoke with a growl, and Sasuke noticed idly that her hands were balled into tight fists, her knuckles white. "I'll stop him if he tries again!"
"But-"
"Enough, Shizune!" The woman turned back towards her retainer with fire in her eyes. "I won't hear any more of your interjections!"
The younger of the two said nothing, stepping backwards. Even still, she communicated her disappointment without meaning to, her eyes darting towards the floor as her lips shook. For her part, Tsunade was affected, even if she tried to pretend she wasn't. Her own hands shook, and she turned back towards Kabuto not with any real pride, but with a certain shame lurking behind her eyes.
Naruto had been doing an awfully good job of holding Kabuto up, keeping the sound ninja busy with clone after clone with his veritable battery of chakra. It couldn't go on forever, though, and just as Naruto was about to lose his footing in the battle, Tsunade charged in.
He'd never really seen the woman fight. He'd seen the aftermath, and he'd seen her play around with the two of them, but her actively trying to kill someone was an entirely different thing than either of those.
Her punches were brutal, swung at speeds that, in a vacuum, would've made them threatening. They were even more so when they occasionally impacted against the ground, or a stray tree, and the object they hit was destroyed in a matter of moments, usually reduced to a pulpy version of what it'd been previously.
Kabuto, to his credit, seemed to realize that taking just one of those punches very likely meant death, and so he did his absolute upmost to avoid them, flipping backwards and out of the Sannin's effective range over and over until the woman grew flustered, and until sweat pooled on her brow, evidence of her exhaustion. It probably didn't help that she'd been reduced to a shaking mess at the sight of the man's blood not five minutes prior, it was obvious her movements were still lagging behind somewhat.
Shizune stood a way's behind them, smartly not getting in Tsunade's way, lest they risk friendly fire with a rather high cost of failure, but her face was almost ashen in it's complexion, and it seemed that her teeth almost drew blood as she bit down on her bottom lip, worry overcoming her.
Sasuke himself made it over to Naruto, who was panting from holding Kabuto off for a good minute. It wasn't in any way the boy's fault for being unable to resist Kabuto's assault, given their level's of power, but from the way Naruto gritted his teeth together, it was clear he had only one person to blame.
"You alright?" He asked the Jinchuuriki automatically. "If you need to take a breather-"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto shot him an incredibly fake overconfident smirk. "Thanks for worrying, though."
"No problem. Still, though, I don't think I want to get between those two…" Sasuke looked off into the distance, towards the other Sannin. "Or those two."
At that exact moment, having moved away somewhat over the course of their fight, Jiraiya and Orochimaru sparred almost casually. It seemed neither was a stranger to hand to hand combat, especially Orochimaru, who, despite having lost the use of his arms, seemed to outduel the drugged up Jiraiya's slower attacks.
It wasn't exactly impressive, but at the same time, when it came to reacting, he was fairly sure them stepping into that particular duel would've resulted in their immediate capture, or worse.
"…Yeah same here." Naruto responded after a while. "Problem is, I don't see what we do here…"
Sasuke nodded sympathetically, having come to the same conclusion just a moment ago. He looked towards Shizune, and decided that if they couldn't interject in the fights, they could at least be ready to do so at a moment's notice.
After all, Sasuke pondered silently. All Kabuto has to do is cut his hand again, and Tsunade's–
"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune suddenly screamed out, charging forward as the woman was knocked backwards, her entire body shaking as her face turned a pale white in color. When her retainer reached the Slug Princess, she grasped hold of the woman, rocking her gently back and forth. "Hold on, I've got you!
"Heh, to turn tail and run at the sight of a little blood…" Kabuto spoke snobbishly, stepping forward with a scalpel drawn in his right hand, and his left hand held out, dripping slightly from a small cut on the boy's palm. "And you call yourself a doctor."
Speak of the devil…
Sasuke charged forward, Naruto just on his heels as they took Kabuto from two sides. The man was fast, easily able to block Sasuke's opening rounds of attacks, but it was what came next that surprised both he and the young Uchiha.
Naruto had held off for just a moment, taking the time to bring into being two shadow clones. He'd begun to create a swirling vortex in the palm of his right hand, and, just before Kabuto could truly react to it, he'd brought the ability forward.
It had been a glancing blow, Kabuto just barely dodging the full brunt of the blast, but even then, the way the man stumbled slightly upon landing spoke of the raw force behind the Rasengan's might. He turned back towards Tsunade and Shizune, a giant smile that seemed to beg, no, demand praise.
"Well, old lady!?" Naruto shouted towards her, his left fist help up before him as the Rasengan dissipated in his other hand. "How about that!?"
Funnily enough, it seemed like Tsunade didn't have much of a response. Her mouth was hanging open very slightly, like she'd been caught so unawares that she couldn't even remember to shut her jaw.
"You actually…"
Beside her, Shizune smiled subtly, squeezing the woman's hand in a show of support, and perhaps to remind the woman that she was there as well.
"Haha…" Tsunade actually laughed, covering her mouth with her right hand as the shaking seemed to relax ever so slightly. "I suppose I owe you a necklace, then?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, probably thinking about the conversation that he, Sasuke, and Shizune had had only a few hours ago.
"Well… if it's important to you, then you don't have to give it to me." Naruto spoke, not looking the woman in the eye. Sasuke himself couldn't help but smile. "I was just thinking that-"
"No." Tsunade smiled, an honest sort of thing that seemed to cut through Naruto's doubt. "I think… Let's make it through this, kid, and I'll hand it over."
Naruto's smile was like the sun, lighting up the battlefield as he turned back towards Kabuto, who'd only just recovered from tasting a hint of the Rasengan. His eyes were narrowed, taking them seriously for the first time.
"Let's play this quickly." Naruto told him, forming two more shadow clones at his sides as he brought another Rasengan into his hands. "This time, let me-"
The orb of chakra exploded in the boy's hand, knocking him into the dirt below and banishing the two shadow clones beside him.
There was a moment of abject silence as Naruto picked himself up off the earth below. He brushed his hair with his hand, getting the small bit of dirt that had mixed in out of there. Sasuke felt like he should've coughed or something, to help at least maybe divert some of the attention on his friend away.
He didn't.
Naruto stood awkwardly, trying to ignore the way Kabuto smirked viciously, clearly relishing the boy's embarrassment more than a little.
"So, uh…" Naruto started. "As it turns out, I might've worn myself out practicing all last night."
"Oh," Kabuto spoke, actually giggling to himself. "So that's your excuse?"
"Shut up, you!"
"I don't know if I will, I'm having a pretty decent time over here, myself."
"…And any tension that was there is now gone." Sasuke sighed. "Why are you all like this?"
/-/
Sakura had never felt more awake in her entire life, which she felt probably shouldn't have been the case, given that she'd basically gone through her entire supply of chakra multiple times in the last day or two.
Her hands shook as she reached for the glass of water beside her, nearly spilling the entirety of the vessels contents before it reached her lips. She appreciated the feeling of the water moving through her, revitalizing her.
Because as awake as she felt, it felt like her heart was beating about four times as fast as it should've been, and her head ached to a degree she'd never experienced before. Anko was stood off to one side of her, looking oddly guilty as she offered to hold the glass for her while she drank, an offer that Sakura gladly accepted.
"Thanks, Sensei." She practically gasped out as she stopped drinking, a small amount of water dribbling down her chin. "I'm weirdly parched too, not really sure why..."
"Eheh," Anko rubbed the back of her neck again as she set the glass down. "That's a, uh… side effect of the Food Pills. They sort of kind of dry the mouth out?"
"Right, well, at least I'm not dying." Sakura muttered quietly, before looking back towards Anko with narrowed eyes. "I'm not dying, right?"
"You're not dying." Anko confirmed. "Though they're almost certainly going to have to flush out your stomach."
"Wait, but that Shikaku guy said-"
"He was being nice." Anko interjected. "Oddly nice, really. But uh… sorry, it's not exactly the most fun thing to go through."
"Good. Great, even." She sighed dramatically, before a small ray of hope shone through her. "Though, if you hadn't have given me the pill, I probably wouldn't have had enough chakra to save your life with my… well, whatever I used, so there's that."
Anko actually smiled at that, walking towards her with arms outstretched. Sakura raised an eyebrow as the woman wrapped them around her
"You're awfully huggy today."
"Yeah, well, I died a couple of hours ago. Forgive me for being slightly sentimental."
"I suppose you're forgiven." Sakura responded as she pulled out of the woman's grip, looking just for a moment at the entrance to their little tent. "I actually never asked, even though this should've probably been the first thing out of my mouth, but uh… where are we?"
"Just outside the Leaf Village." Anko spoke, walking towards the edge of the tent and gesturing for Sakura to follow. "Root is located near the back of the village, kind of out of the way, it's… complicated to explain."
Sakura followed the woman out of the tent, and though she'd been outside her own before when she went around looking for Anko, she'd only barely been paying attention to her surroundings. Now, she was able to see the Hokage's faces off in the distance, though far farther than she'd ever seen them from before.
"This is…"
"One of the forests around the Leaf." Anko confirmed. "Specifically, this is one of the many training grounds reserved for high-level Anbu operations. It's also the secret home of Danzo's Root." She gestured around with her hands, giving a vague spin as if to show off the relative lameness of the location. "Welcome, I guess."
"You don't sound thrilled." Sakura smirked slightly, trying to ignore the way standing-still felt so wrong to her energy-ridden body. "Have you been here before?"
"Oh yeah." Anko admitted with a small, mirthless laugh. "A whoooole lot."
That actually surprised Sakura, her eyes slightly widening as she tilted her head to the side.
"Just for missions?"
"That, and occasionally, I was called in to work alongside some of Danzo's best during advanced ops." The woman sighed, rubbing the back of her neck in as clear a sign of uncomfortableness as the woman would show. "That bastard… Danzo knew that I was trained by Orochimaru, and… well, with what we know about him nowadays, it makes a hell of a lot more sense why that was such a big deal to him. He trusted my training, if that makes sense. Knew I'd do… In his eyes, the 'right thing'."
Sakura felt a small twinge of pity for her teacher, though she buried it upon seeing Anko's expression go from one of sad reminiscence to a raw sort of anger.
"That absolute…" Anko gritted her teeth together, stepping forward and cracking her knuckles. "Anyways, I'm going to beat the complete shit out of him. That's my current life goal for putting you through what he did."
"Well, I must say I'm flattered." Sakura giggled. "Don't think this means I'll return your affections, however."
"Would you please drop that joke." Anko sighed tiredly. "I tried to have a nice moment and you had to go and ruin it. Not to mention every time you make that joke around someone else, somehow its me who gets in trouble!"
"Firstly, of course you get in trouble," Sakura said, smirking. "You're like double my age, it's not considered kosher for you to be hitting on me."
Anko's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Oi."
"Oh, and secondly!" Sakura pointed at the woman, flashing a victorious smile. "I saved your life, which means I get to keep jokes you don't like!"
Anko's eyes widened, as if silently thinking that those terms and conditions were blasphemous, before sighing loudly, putting her head in her hands.
"If I'd known that was the condition, then I would've just died…"
"Hey! Don't joke about that!"
Anko's eyebrows rose.
"Oh, so you're allowed to joke about it, but I'm not?"
"I saved your life." Sakura repeated once more. "I get to keep jokes you don't like."
"Is this going to be like my mom saying, "I gave birth to you, do what I say!"?" Anko asked with a deadpan expression. "Because if it is I refuse outright."
"What does that mean, you refuse!?"
They walked past a few tents as they continued to argue, exploring the camp sort of on accident as they made it to the center. There, they found a slightly larger, more important looking tent, that, if Sakura had to guess, she would've called as belonging to the leader of this operation, or at least playing host to them.
"It means I just won't." Anko clarified rather unhelpfully. "Obviously."
Sakura tried to work that particular problem out in her head, but blanked, ending up simply sighing and approaching the central tent, deciding to figure out just who was in charge here.
"Ah, wait, Sakura!"
She stopped just before she could push her way in, Anko's hand on her shoulder having just barely grabbed onto her.
"There's a strategy meeting going on right now." The woman explained. "It's a huge deal cause they're having to do a whole lot last minute, what with the decision to attack Danzo immediately. Basically, we're planning now, getting the plan in about an hour, and assaulting Root right after that."
Sakura's eyes widened.
"So, we're doing all of this today!?"
"Yep." She looked towards the tent, before seemingly realizing something. "Now c'mon, we don't want to interrupt."
"You're oddly upstanding at the moment."
"I'm just trying to not get blamed for your conduct." Anko glared at her. "Because quite frankly, I've gotten yelled at enough today."
Sakura laughed.
"Sounds about right."
"Oi!"
They walked back towards their tent, weaving through rows and rows of identical structures, each having been erected what could've been no more than four hours prior, given that that's how long Sakura had supposedly been out, and these certainly hadn't been there when Tenzo had first gotten the sound trio out of Root.
She had a feeling Danzo's men would've been a bit more gung-ho about catching them had they been.
Speaking of…
"Hey, Anko?" She broke the relative silence they'd been walking back in. "Where're Tenzo and the Sound trio?"
"They're being interrogated."
Sakura's eyes went wide, and Anko immediately began waving her hands in order to calm her down.
"Sorry! Sorry! Wrong word!" Anko shouted at her absolute panic. "Should've said interviewed or… or something of that nature! No torture, they're just being asked a few questions about the defenses and what some of the lower corridors looked like. They're also working on patching the sound trio back up."
Sakura let out a heavy breath, nearly falling over as she forced herself to relax. Having a metric ton of energy coursing through her certainly didn't help with that.
"I wish I could be exhausted right now." Sakura said with exasperation. "Wait, what did you mean 'patching them up'?"
"Oh, right. Basically, Danzo was actually still interrogating those three behind our backs." Anko spoke up, frowning as she continued. "Apparently, he told those three that if they spoke up about it to either of us, or if we ever found out, then he'd kill them. They hid their injuries the whole time, and never spoke of it. Hell, from what I've heard, they didn't even scream while being tortured… thought that if we heard them, we'd come running."
Sakura felt a white, horrid ball of rage fill her entire being, all aimed towards the man named Danzo who'd terrorized her and her loved ones for the past week or two.
"I hate him." She spoke simply. "I actually hate him."
"Yeah, you and me both, kid."
She felt the curse mark on her neck flare up suddenly, as if reacting to her anger, but she ignored it, using her typical method of sealing it away to calm it's attempts to escape and dominate her mind.
"You too, huh?"
Sakura looked up at her teacher with a curious expression, noticing that the woman was rubbing the back of her neck, the same spot where the curse mark usually resided.
"Your… mark is hurting as well?" She asked the woman. "I thought-"
"Yeah." Anko cut her off. "It's been almost entirely inactive since Orochimaru stopped caring about me… but ever since I woke up earlier, it's been aching something fierce."
"Why?"
"If I had to guess? I'd say it's related to how I quite literally died. I'd say my curse mark was… maybe deleting itself, somehow."
Sakura's confusion seemingly showed on her face, for Anko continued.
"Basically, my theory is that when a curse mark user dies, Orochimaru's programmed the seal to delete itself so nobody can study it, basically." The woman reasoned. "It's a hell of a lot easier to study a corpse than a living human, after all. That's basically how the Second Hokage got to be so famous. He invented countless Jutsu from examining corpses, reviving the dead, cloning himself to do multiple things at the same time… you name it, basically."
Sakura had never really heard all that much of the Second Hokage. If she had to guess, the man lived in the shadow of his brother even after both had long since departed this world.
"Anyways, I think my curse mark, in order to delete itself, had to briefly reactivate itself, if that makes sense." Anko seemed to be a bit perplexed about her own explanation, for she stopped for a moment, gathered her thoughts, and then continued. "Right, yeah. So basically, half-way through deleting itself, suddenly I was alive again because you revived me, and then it got… I'll say confused. Basically, it's instructions were unclear, and now it's stuck being on again."
Sakura nodded, sort of kind of understanding the words her teacher had just uttered, and also sort of not.
Is this what being Naruto is like? She wondered absently.
"So…" She spoke up awkwardly. "What are you going to do with it?"
"At the moment? Probably not a ton." The woman admitted. "I wasn't really expecting my dick of a teacher's last gift to suddenly reactivate itself when I woke up today, so I think I'll consider my options for a bit before I make any choices."
Sakura nodded, agreeing with the woman's caution.
"Then again, there's the chance I could accidentally activate it myself."
"Hm?"
"Like you did the first time you used it." Anko reminded her. "I don't want to suddenly turn into some rage zombie or something."
"Rage zombie?" Sakura asked with a small laugh. "I'm going to try and not take offense to that."
"Y'know what, I probably should've worded that better."
"Yes." Sakura giggled quietly. "Yes, you should've."
They finally made it back to their tent, having had to walk through quite a few rows, and more than once getting lost while trying to locate the structure.
"Seriously, why do they all look exactly the same!?" Sakura asked, more than a little frustrated. "I mean, that took like fifteen minutes, for what should've taken maybe two."
"If you want an actual answer, it's that buying in bulk is way cheaper than buying singular." Anko smiled. "And also, because the cheapest tent that the higher-ups could purchase that would still accommodate missions was this one. Thusly, they bought the cheapest tent in bulk, saved a ton of money, and went along their merry way."
"And who's this 'they'?"
"Eh, y'know what?" Anko muttered quietly, a tiny bend of her lip indicating her mirth. "Let's just blame Danzo and move on with our lives."
"Y'know what?" Sakura parroted, trying to hold back her giggling. "That sounds pretty good."
/-/
Things had gotten both better and worse for Naruto.
For one, they were winning their little duel, and it seemed like Tsunade had gotten over her crippling fear of blood, or, at least, she was no longer hiding away at the sight of it. He saw how her body still shook, and her crushing fists weakened, but Kabuto could no longer rely entirely upon the cut on his hand to make the woman cower.
Around half-way through their battle, however, Orochimaru had called his second-in-command back to him, and he and the Sannin had summoned their massive snake, apparently named Manda, to the battlefield.
Naruto had to admit that he didn't much like the guy, given that he shouted pretty much exclusively evil things over and over, like how he was going to need double the 'sacrifices' this time to make up for the last time, and how he would 'eat them all!'.
Though, Honestly, Naruto was pretty sure he was just getting tired of dealing with giant snakes.
First that one almost ate me in the Forest of Death, Naruto thought annoyedly. Then this snake gets summoned in the middle of the Chuunin Exams and nearly eats a whole stadium of people, and then me and Gamaken have to beat the crap out of some massive hydra that broke down the gates…
Just… can't the next guy we fight summon like… birds or something?
Is that so much to ask!?
"FOCUS, NARUTO!"
Sasuke's words were barely enough for him to dodge Kabuto's next attack, a chakra enhanced scalpel that, according to the boy's own words, would've almost instantly severed the muscles in his chest.
He was pretty sure his heart was a muscle, too, and also in his chest, and he was pretty sure it being 'severed' was a not so good thing.
Then again, pretty sure the Nine-Tails would just heal me through it… He tried to stay positive. …And then probably try and take over my body again…
OK, so maybe don't get hit in the heart, got it.
Sasuke counterattacked something fierce, charging into Kabuto's range and just barely missing with a Chidori that would've easily downed the Sound ninja. Kabuto struck back a moment later, just barely missing Sasuke's arm with one of his scalpels and cutting the surface of Sasuke's skin with his chakra alone.
"He's no amateur." Sasuke panted. "Even with the Sharingan active, his movements are still far faster than anyone I've dealt with. If anything, I'd say they're pretty close to Kakashi's or Zabuza's."
"He's that good!?" Naruto looked back towards the glasses-wearing ninja, who pushed up on the item adorning his face, making them glint in the sunlight as he smiled cockily. "Gods if he's a bit of an asshole though."
"Oh yeah, definitely an asshole." Sasuke agreed. "Still, we've gotta beat him while those three duke it out."
Naruto nodded, briefly turning back towards the Sannin's fight, where the three stood atop their beasts and, from what Naruto could hear from this distance, argued about who had been the coolest back at the academy.
I really hope we're not like that when we grow up.
After Kabuto had helped Orochimaru with his summon, he'd hopped back down and immediately reengaged the two of them. They'd had Tsunade and Shizune for back up for a bit, but Jiraiya had called them in for help, since his ability to summon was apparently rather limited with the drug still coursing through him.
The two had done just that, but Naruto had just done the old man a favor and summoned one of the frogs himself, bringing out the Sage's usual partner, Gamabunta.
Well, he'd tried. It had taken him two attempts, because the first guy he'd summoned had been Gamaken, who was Naruto's personal favorite, given the Toad's far more respectful personality, but apparently that hadn't been good enough for Jiraiya, who'd nagged and nagged until he finally caved in and summoned again, nearly exhausting his chakra, but successfully bringing out Gamabunta.
Unfortunately, Gamaken had taken that the wrong way, and, assuming he wasn't needed, had unsummoned himself.
Which was really annoying, given that Naruto really could've used a giant toad to help him beat Kabuto.
And it wasn't like the toad unsummoning himself had given Naruto any of his chakra back either, so he'd simply been stuck chakraless, toadless, and Sanninless against a Kakashi-level opponent.
And, well, Sasuke was there too, but honestly, he wasn't going to win this on his own or anything.
"Honestly, though." Kabuto spoke up suddenly, shaking his head and looking a bit mortified. "You'd think they'd be a bit more dignified, they're Sannin, aren't they? Arguing about nothing like that-"
"You were doing the exact same thing not a few minutes ago!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the man with some degree of frustration. "You literally wouldn't stop going on and on about your dumb glasses!"
"That was entirely different!" Kabuto shot back. "My glasses are actually important, whereas this feud between the Sannin is asinine, and-"
"Oh, they're important!?" Naruto shouted, putting his hands on his hips. "And just how are they so 'important'!?"
Kabuto seemed to clam up for some reason there, averting eye contact in a stunningly human way.
"It's none of your concern." The man spoke as he looked back towards them, smirking cockily. "Just trust me that-"
"Just trust you!?" Naruto was actually upset now. "Your stupid glasses aren't important, just admit it and we can all go home!"
"These are my mother's glasses!"
"Well boo-hoo!" Naruto shouted, continuing. "I think they look stupid!"
Naruto panted as he finally stopped his tirade, feeling now a small modicum of guilt worm it's way through him.
"Eh… sorry about that last one, I didn't mean to be rude, I just-"
"Naruto, are you apologizing to Kabuto right now?" Sasuke spoke, eyes narrowed in complete disbelief. "Because if you are, I'm going to have to ask you to stop."
"Well, I mean, I get being enemies, but I didn't want to insult his mom…" Naruto murmured out under his breath. "It just felt like I was taking it a bit too far there."
He looked back up to Kabuto, and saw the boy's mouth was hanging open, completely dumbfounded.
"So, uh… yeah, sorry about that part. I was just upset, and-"
"No, it's uh…" Kabuto seemed to be struggling to think of what to say. "It's fine? I mean, it's not fine, but I get that you…"
Sasuke looked between the two of them with such absolute shock that he didn't even speak. The boy simply sighed, sitting upon the ground with a frown.
"We're actually in the negatives now for tension." The boy muttered annoyedly. "We'd actually need to gain tension just to have none."
"Well I felt bad!" Naruto tried to retort. "I was just-"
"No matter how bad we feel, we don't apologize to people trying to kill us!" Sasuke shouted at him, looking incredibly fed up with him. "Look, just… can we all agree to go back to killing each other?"
"Well why do killing each other and not apologizing have to be mutually exclusive?" Naruto asked, feeling like challenging his friend for some reason. "Maybe I want to defeat my enemies and not feel guilty about doing it!"
"We can do this later, Naruto." Sasuke spoke under his breath. "For now, let's defeat Kabuto, and then go and help Jiraiya and Tsunade."
"Er… right."
He turned back towards their opponent, admittedly feeling a bit off now that they'd had a semi-real conversation. Kabuto, for his part, seemed to be able to put that aside, bringing chakra back into his hands, once more forming his scalpels.
"This feels kind of weird now."
"It's because you had to go and make it personal!" Sasuke shouted at him. "If you'd just listened to me from the get-go-"
"AAAH! I get it, I get it!" Naruto shouted back at the boy's nagging. "Quit pestering, alright!?"
For some reason, Kabuto actually laughed at that, covering his face with one hand as he snickered quietly under his breath. Naruto and Sasuke both stopped to watch, and eventually the man quieted back down, sighing in contentment as he looked back at the two of them.
"Man," Kabuto spoke with a small smile on his face. "It's going to be a real shame when I have to kill both of you."
Naruto and Sasuke both hesitated, stepping back as the man's scalpels grew in size, and he took a few steps forward.
Just as things were about to come to a head, however, a massive shadow was suddenly cast over all three of them.
"SHIT, MOVE!"
Naruto did just that, following Sasuke's advice and jumping backwards as a massive snake crashed down into their path, completely obscuring their vision of their opponent. Manda let out a howl of pain, and it took Naruto a moment to notice that what he'd first though was a horn on the beasts head was actually a titanic knife jutting out of it's jaw, impaling it to the floor beneath.
"Orochimaru!" The great beasts voice came out as an enraged hiss. "I'll kill you for this, you bastard!"
"Heh!" Another booming voice sounded out, this time, from the mouth of Gamabunta. "You finally got a taste of my blade, and quite literally at that!"
"I'll devour you all!" Manda cried, outraged. "I'll boil you alive! Burn you to death, and destroy your homes and families, my wrath will be-"
"Yes, yes," The voice of Kabuto Yakushi sounded out, sounding vaguely disinterested. "Thank you for your time, oh great Manda."
"Wha – You damned brat! Who the hell do you think you-"
"The person who summoned you." Kabuto replied in a bored manner. "And the person who unsummoned you. Goodbye."
"Huh!? You-" The beasts hissing rage was cut off a moment later as white smoke exploded out from him. A second or two later, when it cleared, the snake was gone.
"Well, I suppose that wraps that up." Orochimaru's voice called out, and despite his overconfident tone, the man was rasping as he leaned heavily on Kabuto's body. "Tsunade… Jiraiya… Prepare yourselves."
The man began to sink into the dirt beneath him, never once breaking eye-contact as he disappeared.
"You will see more of me, and quite soon at that."
And then the man was gone.
Though, still, Kabuto persisted.
"I think he forgets I can't do that sometimes." Kabuto spoke with a small sigh. "Well, whatever. Naruto, Sasuke!"
The two looked towards him, watching as his easy smile became a crooked grin.
"The next time we see each other, I won't be playing around."
The man formed a series of complex hand-signs, and then he too disappeared in a puff of white smoke.
"I am sick and tired of that bastard running away." Jiraiya sighed out, falling to the floor as the giant finally let his shaky legs collapse under him. "But just for today, I think it's best we let them go."
"Yes." Shizune spoke, nodding towards the man. "I don't think we're in any position to pursue them, given that most of us are below their level, and the two that aren't are incapacitated."
Naruto let out a sigh, but couldn't help but agree with their diagnosis, looking towards Sasuke and shrugging tiredly.
The boy had only a nod to give back.
Tsunade was the first to break the silence as the remaining combatants all stepped towards one another. She groaned as she reached into her shirt and gripped the necklace hanging around her neck, smiling a bit annoyedly as she handed it over to him.
"There you go, kid." Naruto took it with vigor, smile like the sun as he placed it around his own neck. "Be careful with that, it's-"
"Yeah, Shizune told us."
The retainer in question didn't meet Tsunade's eyes, frightfully laughing as the Slug Princess glared at her.
"Oh, did she?"
"W-well I thought… you know, just in case you didn't want to-"
"Hmm?" Tsunade asked once more, raising an eyebrow. "What was that, Shizune?"
"I'm sorry…" The woman uttered, looking at the floor. "I shouldn't have gone behind your back like that."
"Hmph." The master smiled. "I'm glad we've settled that."
A moment later, Shizune's brow came down, as if she were having a striking realization, and she looked back up towards Tsunade with a certain anger in her eyes.
"Hey, wait!" She called, gripping the woman's shoulder. "And just where do you get off saying I did things behind your back when you actually knocked me out to prevent me from stopping you last night!"
A bead of sweat flowed down the Sannin's face.
"Well, t-that was entirely diff-"
"You went off to fight Orochiamru, one of the strongest ninja on the continent, along with his number two with no backup, no plan, and a crippling fear of blood!" Shizune stepped into the woman's guard, actually upset now. "And you have the audacity to get angry at me!?"
"Yeah!" Naruto shouted, clapping as he laughed. "You tell her, Bis Sis Shizune!"
"Er… my bad?" Tsunade tried to diffuse the situation casually, rubbing the back of her neck. "Next time I won't-"
Shizune walked away, starting towards the edge of town where they'd first come in from.
"W-wait, Shizune, I-"
"You can start paying me back by agreeing to everyone's offer to be Hokage." Shizune spoke, turning back around and shooting the woman a glare. "It'd certainly be better than you wasting all the money we earn on gambling."
Sasuke walked over towards him, lightly elbowing him to get his attention.
"So… do you think they're…" The boy trailed off, heat coming to his cheeks. "Y'know?"
"Really?" Naruto laughed casually, dismissing the boy with a wave of his hand. "I think they're just friends."
Tsunade's eyes were wide, and her smile was shaky at best as she prostrated herself on the ground.
"I'm sorry…"
"Sorry? What for, Lady Tsunade?"
"…Everything?"
"I want specifics, Lady Tsunade."
"Ergh…"
Sasuke looked towards him again, lazily gesturing towards the scene in front of them with his left hand, as if to say, 'still sure?'.
"Almost…" Naruto spoke up again, feeling more than a little skeptical now. "Almost positive it's platonic."
Tsunade stood up from the dirt, chasing after Shizune at a fairly brisk pace, but she stopped suddenly as her retainer turned back around, rounding on the Sannin and getting in her face with her arms crossed under her breasts.
"N-now Shizune," Tsunade began, taking another step back as she laughed quietly. "Let's not… do anything rash."
"Oh, I won't." Shizune spoke, and Tsunade let out a breath of relief. "Not yet, anyways."
The Sannin's eyes widened.
"You'll just owe me one."
"One… one what?"
"Let's say… a favor" The woman stated with a serene smile, her eyebrows drawn downwards in a cocky manner. "And whenever I feel like cashing that in, you'll do what I ask."
"Positive?" Sasuke spoke up, a small smile adorning his face as his lips pushed upwards. "You're positive?"
"Alright, you win." Naruto muttered begrudgingly as he watched the Slug Princess get chewed out by her partner.
"Frankly, I have no idea."
End Chapter 41
Heyo.
Wow I have actually nothing to say. I got like no sleep which means I'm editing this completely exhausted and really out of it.
Instead, I'll just say see you all next week.