Continuation of last week... though I suppose that probably goes without saying.

Just kidding, we're jumping back 40 years in the past.

Without further ado, I was joking.

Chapter 50: The Siege of the Sound

Anko seethed silently as her foot connected with the face of a sound ninja, launching him into a wall some ways away, where he soon fell limp upon the ground below him.

Stop wasting my goddamned time!

She powered through the small aches and creaks of her muscles, ignoring the way they flared up after defeating perhaps her thirtieth guard. Her body was beginning to grow exhausted, after all, they'd been fighting basically nonstop for two hours now, not to mention they'd been in these dingy halls for over a day.

And she'd only been growing angrier and angrier the longer they roamed the base, desperately searching for any sign of the two they'd come for.

Her own attitude had gotten so bad that Zabuza of all people had told her to calm herself down, and that was when she'd realized she probably needed to focus. She took a deep, semi-shaky breath, trying to control her oxygen intake, lest it become erratic and heavy, and she experienced even worse pains.

They finished off their current group of enemies, but were caught off guard by an alarm that blazed through the base, different than the one they'd heard earlier. It hung in the air, sounding almost endless as it droned on and on, a harsh warning that something was coming… and it wasn't messing around.

And they already had a pretty good idea of just what that was.

"Don't panic." Zabuza spoke before any of them could even think to. "We're plenty deep inside. If anything, it's those farther up above that have to worry about them. Hopefully, by the time we're resurfacing, they've all moved on from those areas, and we can pass by without being spotted, with those two kids in tow."

The assassin was surprisingly good at keeping up morale, and whether that was a natural thing, or perhaps more thanks to his sort-of-son being present, Anko found no need to complain. Instead, she thought more about the man's words, finding a few flaws that she decidedly did not voice to the group.

For one, who was to say that the Akatsuki of all people didn't have an ability that would let them circumvent the tunnels? Hell, those two from before, Tobi and Zetsu, had managed to sneak their way into Danzo's abode without a soul noticing, and then gotten out without having to take a single one of the Leaf's own passageways. Either they'd made their own…

Or it was something else entirely. Something far more worrisome. Still, at the very least, Anko had a hard time believing that every single member would have those capabilities. Those two were likely a scouting party, working together to infiltrate and destroy their target while the others caused chaos.

Or, they might've been, were it not for every single member of the Akatsuki that they knew of being such heavy-hitters that they all basically functioned as one-man-armies. Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki may have fled from Jiraiya when they'd encountered the man, but the only person here with Sannin strength was Orochimaru, and Anko had a decent feeling the man wouldn't exactly be lending them a hand should trouble arise.

Plus, if they were going to get out of here, they were going to have to go out the way they'd come in, unless any of them had an earth jutsu as powerful as Tenzo's, and she knew for a fact that none of them did. Their chances of not running into a member of the Akatsuki when they did, while mathematically, high, seemed criminally low given their poor track record for avoiding life-threatening situations.

She felt a flash of pain from the back of her neck as her panic and fear flared up once more, and she forced herself to calm back down. Just because they might be dealing with some powerful ninja, didn't mean she could afford to lose herself to her old master's mark.

Ever since it'd been restarted by her… demise, so to speak, the mark had been making it's presence known again. It'd been a thorn in her side as a child, causing her aches and pains day in and day out, but now it was… different.

It was more like it had melded with her.

It responded to her feelings, much like Sakura had described her own mark when they'd discussed them. Her student had said it almost had a will all its own, and now Anko could see what the girl had meant. Her curse mark seemed to pick and choose its moments to influence her, waiting for her to be at her most vulnerable before striking.

She knew she couldn't exactly ignore it, but she also didn't have very many options at the current moment, and so she simply bit down on her cheek inside her mouth and waited for the pain to pass. An imperfect solution if ever there was one, but she'd take what she could get.

They passed through their current corridor and into a damp and cramped looking section of cells. It seemed to be a prison, perhaps meant for locking up experiments outside of the time they were actually being used. The thought made her sick to her stomach, remembering when she herself had been locked up in one of these very units.

She shook her head, deciding not to dwell on those thoughts. All the cells were empty, completely bereft of anything or anyone, though, notably, this looked like an area that hadn't been used in quite a while.

"I'm willing to bet this isn't the only one of these prison blocks." Zabuza spoke out. "We should be on the lookout for them as we make out way through. Inuzuka, you get anything yet?"

"Still nothing." Kiba called out, lightly rubbing his dogs head as it whimpered quietly atop his head. "There are just… so many different smells down here. Blood, and death, and decay, and a thousand other different things. Even I'm being overwhelmed. I can't even imagine what Akamaru's going through."

Zabuza nodded, seemingly understanding the complications the tiny canine was experiencing. They stepped through the area as calmly and as quietly as they could, trying to conserve as much energy as they could for the inevitable exit from the base, and any encounters that might entail.

At least, they attempted to until the walls began to shake.

It was a subtle feeling at first, a thing one barely noticed upon the tips of their toes. A light rocking as a bit of dust and debris fell from the ceiling. The shaking seemed to amplify a moment later, as the eight of them grabbed onto the nearby bars and held on, waiting for the quaking to pass.

Instead of fading, however, it seemed to only grow worse.

Naruto let out a small scream as a piece of the ceiling broke off, and nearly came down on the top of his head. He was probably the only one of them who could take something like that and keep on moving, though it was clear he had no plans to test that theory.

"W-what the hell!?" Dosu called out, gripping onto the wall and holding on for dear life. "What's with this shaking!?"

"Ooooh my god!" Kin kneeled on the ground, pressing her back up against the same wall Dosu held desperately onto. "Is it…?"

"Shit, an earthquake at a time like this!?" Zabuza called, looking all around him in what looked to be a rare panic from the man. "Anyone here know any Earth Jutsu!?"

"I've got one!" Anko admitted, turning to everyone, and holding out her hands. "I originally invented it to hide from pursuers, but, well, falling rocks are probably a pretty good thing to escape from as well."

She briefly explained what would happen to them as she raised her hand, and found a spot on the wall where all eight of them could fit perfectly next to each other.

"Dog kid, you hold onto the puppy, I don't know what'll happen to him if you don't!"

"G-gotcha!" Kiba called out in response, before he too braced against the stone behind him.

"Hidden Jutsu…" Anko breathed in, focusing her chakra and letting it flow between the eight of them. "Striking from Shadows!"

They flew into the wall, narrowly dodging more of the ceiling collapsing upon them.

Anko decided a few seconds later that being inside of a wall while an earthquake was on was oddly like being given a full body massage. She wasn't quite sure what, if anything, she would do with that information, but she also felt wiser for having it, so she wasn't complaining.

She also learned that it was terrifying in a very primal way, a lot like one felt a shiver up their spine when they saw movement out of the corner of their eye. She couldn't see anything, enveloped in the total darkness of the wall around her, so only experiencing the rocking through her skin, with nothing to base it off of via sight, scent, or sound made her a bit sick to her stomach as well.

It was easy enough to ignore the feeling, however, given that she was an experienced ninja. She was used to feeling more than a little uncomfortable from time to time.

"Alright," She called out to everyone still in the wall, and theoretically, they'd be able to hear her. Sakura had been able to, after all. "Everyone present and accounted for?"

"Wait, we can talk in here!?" Naruto's voice echoed out, followed almost immediately by a surprised gasp from the boy. "Helloooo! This is your conscience! You should eat more ramen!"

Anko smiled at the boy's antics, even as she listened to him get yelled at by Zabuza for not taking things seriously enough. Honestly, though, she couldn't help but look at Naruto's ability to find levity in almost any situation as a boon, rather than a bane.

They popped back out of the wall a minute or two later, after the shaking had stopped, and found almost immediately that the halls they'd taken to get in here were irrecoverably different.

"Well…" Zabuza spoke as he looked back towards the entrance-way, where a couple of rather impossibly heavy stones completely closed off their path.

"We'll be needing to find another way out, then."

/-/

Sasuke ran through the dank and decaying hallways with a fervor he hadn't felt in quite a while. He wasn't sure where he was going, to be honest, and he wasn't sure what he was going to do when he arrived at his destination, either. Really, he was running because he wasn't quite sure what else he could do, other than try and reach Sakura as fast as possible.

Hopefully, before the Akatsuki got there.

He didn't think they'd have any business with the girl, after all, she was merely a leaf Genin, who happened to be the test subject of Orochimaru. If they'd wanted her for some scheme, or needed her dead for whatever reason thanks to the Wood Style, then they'd have done that when they'd encountered her during their assassination of Danzo.

Well, it was easy enough to tell himself that, and a bit harder to actually put that logic into practice.

He passed by multiple sound ninja on his way there, though, a bit surprisingly, not a single one bothered to stop him, nor even tried. Evidently, any orders that might've been related to keeping their prisoners in check were null and void under these circumstances.

In that singular regard, he had to thank the Akatsuki. It made getting to Sakura much, much easier.

After perhaps forty-five minutes of running and ducking and dodging through corridors, he stumbled into a lab that looked vaguely familiar. He hadn't been knocked out when Kabuto had taken him to his prison cell, but the man had been honest about saying they'd be moving Sakura to a different location. He'd tried retracing his steps to get to where they'd been experimenting on the girl at first, but true to Kabuto's word, nothing had remained.

This lab, however, looked to bear more fruit than the previous one. For one, the lights were still on, and the heavy, incandescent bulbs emanated a white light that was almost too clean, giving off a strangely intimidating air to the area as he stepped inside, despite it being fully lit.

There were no guards, and normally that would've made him feel even more nervous. Now, however, it was a godsend, for at the back of the room, strapped down to a bed and with a massive metal collar locked onto her neck, Sakura laid completely still.

He dashed towards her, covering the distance in perhaps half a second. He immediately scanned her body for injuries and found more than a few near her curse mark. The skin was flared and red, almost as if it had been irritated continuously, but there were also multiple tiny, nearly invisible holes from what Sasuke could only imagine were countless injections.

He breathed out his anger, deciding that now was perhaps not the time for it. He could make these people pay for what they'd done to his friend later, right now, his priority needed to be getting her the hell out of here.

He reached down and began unlatching the girl's straps, one by one, until the only remaining chain was the collar around her neck. He wasn't quite sure how to remove that, but he decided to look around the room a bit first, just to see if he could find anything that might unlock it. One small search later, and one suspicious looking key gained, he walked back towards the girl's sleeping form and tried fitting the key into the metal piece on her neck. It unlatched with a loud noise, which seemed to startle the kunoichi below him, for she moaned slightly in her sleep, apparently being more than a little out of it.

He reached down and lightly shook her, trying to get her to wake up.

"Hey, Sakura…" He called to her, and still received no response. "Wake-"

His neck was being squeezed far, far too hard as Sakura's arm picked him up and held him aloft. He began to choke immediately as the girl's eyes flung open, and she turned towards him with a growl.

Guilt was the first, and perhaps only thing that appeared on her face after that, for she dropped him after perhaps half a second, letting him fall to the floor and gasp for air.

He coughed for a good minute, just trying to regain feeling in his neck, and steady his breathing. The entire time, Sakura stepped back and away from him, covering her mouth with one hand as if she were about to vomit. He wanted to comfort her, tell her this wasn't her fault, but he couldn't, on account that he still couldn't breathe.

When he'd finally managed to regain control of his airways, he looked up towards the girl, who was hyperventilating in the corner of the room, unable to meet his eye.

He stepped towards her gently, trying not to provoke her in any way. He wanted to believe Kabuto's words, that the girl really was exactly the same as she'd been before… but…

It was Sakura who reacted first, barreling towards him and slamming her head into his chest. He initially thought it to be an attack of some sort, though he realized a second later that the girl was merely trying to hug him, wrapping her arms around his waist and sobbing loudly into his shirt.

He didn't particularly mind. He was just happy to see her.

"I'm sorry…" She choked out between sobs. "I didn't know, I… I was just so scared, and you… I'm sorry!"

He didn't quite know how to handle the situation, but he also felt like honesty could, in this case, be the best policy.

"It's fine. I understand." He tried to reassure the devastated girl in his arms, wrapping his own around her as well. "You didn't know it was me. You're fine."

Sakura pushed off of him a second later, wiping away at her eyes and sniffling slightly. He felt like she'd cut the moment off a bit quicker than she usually would've, but when she looked up at him with eyes of steel, he understood what she was doing.

"So, what's going on?" She asked him. "I mean… how did you get here? I kind of figured Naruto would get us both individually."

"Same here." He admitted. "Kabuto let me out once the base was under attack. Apparently, he likes the three of us."

Sakura arched an eyebrow, her face finally beginning to return to a normal color from the bloated red it had been while she was crying and panicked.

"Not quite sure what to make of that."

"Neither am I, to be honest." He gestured towards the door he'd taken to get in. "C'mon, we should get out of here before-"

It seemed the universe had a truly sick sense of timing, for the moment he began opening his mouth, a horribly shaking began once more in the base, and pebbles began falling from the ceiling once more, breaking off and causing him to worry quite profusely. He turned back towards Sakura with a newfound haste.

"Let's go!"

The girl nodded, and they dashed back towards the door. Unfortunately, before they could make it there, the opening cracked and collapsed, spilling out across the floor, and blocking off all passage out of the room.

The shaking didn't stop, and the very back of the room collapsed as well, dropping hundreds of pounds of rocks on the bed where Sakura had previously been laying, utterly destroying the cot, and leading the girl to swallow nervously.

"Thank god I didn't take a right back there." Sasuke muttered under his breath.

The kunoichi beside him could only nod.

"I… I can't clear that." Sasuke admitted honestly, turning back towards Sakura with a grim face. "Can you? You've got those earth jutsu, right?"

She shook her head, biting down on her bottom lip and seeming to consider something for a moment.

"They wouldn't be able to budge this, but… but I have something else that might be able to."

He tried to make eye contact, but she avoided his gaze as she stepped towards the wreckage, and black marks coursed across her skin like fire. They continued long past where he'd grown used to them stopping before, and Sakura let out a hiss of pain as the darkness fully enveloped her body, turning her skin a grayish-purple, and lengthening her hair until it touched the ground beneath her. Wings that looked like hands sprung from her back, and she wound herself tightly like a coil, biding her strength into a tiny ball.

She unleashed it just a moment later, springing forward and utterly annihilating the rock before her, blasting it away and revealing the entrance before them once more. She looked away embarresedly as she stepped through the gap, letting her transformation fade somewhat from her body. A bit surprisingly, and worryingly as well, he noticed that her hair was still a bit longer than it'd been before. Not quite as long as when they were children, but about halfway between then and her normal hair-length.

Is the transformation… affecting her outside her use of the Curse mark!?

He walked straight up to her, ready to interrogate her on what was going on, before the girl suddenly went white as a sheet, pulling him with both hands back into the room and slamming him against the wall. She held a hand over his mouth as well, keeping him as silent as she could.

He had no idea what it was that scared her so thoroughly, but he heard it just a moment later, voices, echoing out from just beyond them.

"Still, Itachi," An all too familiar voice called out, sounding oddly cheerful for a man exterminating hundreds if not thousands of lives. "I've gotta' say, I just don't see the point in being that dreary all the time."

His brother, or at least, Sasuke assumed it must've been his brother beside the man, even if he couldn't see him, said not a word. The sound of footfalls was the only noise the other Uchiha gave in response to Kisame's statement.

"I mean," There was a horrid scream, and evidently a guard had tried to get in the two's way, for the sound of a body crumbling to the floor a moment later echoed out through the near empty halls. "I can't see how that's a good time for you. Like, just buy up a whorehouse or something. We all know you don't spend your shares on jack, why not?"

Once more, his brother said nothing, and though the small insight into the bastard's life was puzzling, he had no time to reflect on any of the information he'd gleamed. He was far too concerned with the duo hearing them and coming to investigate.

…Luckily, it seemed like their hiding place was good enough, for the two passed them by without any real note, taking a hall perhaps twenty feet to their right and walking down it. If Sasuke was right, then they were descending further into the base. Their objective, Kabuto had sort of told him, was to kill Orochimaru and his agents, but still…

Why the hell are they here right now!? He couldn't help but scream at the universe once more as Sakura finally removed her hand from his mouth, still holding her breath despite her face growing blue. Why the hell would they show up now, directly in our path!?

He supposed that was just his luck.

Sakura finally breathed out, exhaling and inhaling deliberately slowly so that she'd make as little noise as possible. Sasuke did the same, finding his lungs practically gasping for air by the time it came to refill them. The two of them stood without a word, and evidently, they both had the same idea to communicate nonverbally for a time.

Go left? Sasuke signalled, gesturing towards the opposite direction from where those two had gone.

Sakura shook her head.

Left, dead end. She made a walking figure with her one hand, before putting up her other hand as a wall.

Right, up, out. She signaled, pointing towards the path the two Akatsuki had taken to get here.

He nodded, despite wanting to get about as far from those two as he possibly could. Still, it wasn't like following the route those two had taken was a bad idea. If anything, it'd probably be both quicker and more secure, given that he didn't think they'd have left anyone behind in their wake. There'd certainly be no guards if they retraced their steps.

They stepped out from their little hidey-hole, walking cautiously and stealthily towards the hallway that led up. When they arrived, they found a stairway lit by candlelight, and the flames danced in just the right way for the passage to be completely unsettling.

Sasuke let out a small groan of discomfort as they began to ascend the steps, trying not to let the shadows which pranced along the walls beside them play tricks on his mind. As the silence grew, he found himself wanting to question the girl on her curse marks new form, but the question died on the tip of his tongue. There was a better time and place to ask those questions than in the middle of a warzone.

Welp… Guess we don't have much of a choice.

As they traveled up the clammy steps, however, there was only one thought on Sasuke's mind…

Where the heck is Naruto?

/-/

Naruto was doing his best to not get killed at that very moment, which was going so-so, though, admittedly, a bit worse than it'd been going a few minutes prior.

That was largely thanks to the fact that everyone was starting to get pretty tired.

It was an exponential effect, or, at least, Naruto was pretty sure that was what that word meant. Basically, the more tired they were, the worse their performance got.

Is that right? Naruto wondered quietly, briefly distracted from the action before him. Y'know what, I should probably think about this later.

He snapped back to reality, dodging underneath what must've been the thousandth soldiers' sword. He punched the man straight in his stomach and knocked him backwards. The man didn't crumble like some of his compatriots had, instead, he whirled back around, using the momentum from being pushed backwards to complete his next swing, and nearly taking Naruto's legs out from under him.

He himself narrowly jumped over the blade and used the downwards momentum for himself this time, slamming his connected hands on the top of the man's head, and watching as his entire body fell limp to the floor.

I'm actually getting pretty good at this whole combat thing. Naruto smiled to himself as he turned back towards the rest of his unit, and realized that they were dealing with about fifteen more of Orochimaru's minions. Oh, c'mon! Do they grow on trees!?

They mopped up the last of the henchmen, before descending further into the compound. It wasn't that long before they encountered another group of soldiers, and Naruto took a deep breath, preparing to have to face off once more with another danged group of them…

Until the 10 or so men ran right past them, screaming as they did.

"What the hell is that thing!?"

"It's not human!"

Just one time, Naruto thought as they faced the way the soldiers had run from, taking battle stances, and awaiting whatever it was they'd been panicked about. Just one time I'd like to just fight soldiers, y'know. Like, not having to deal with any super-powerful Jonin, or Akatsuki guys, or giant snakes…

Naruto was really growing tired of snakes.

The figure that rounded the corner was an enigma if Naruto had ever seen one. It was… deathly pale, to start. It's skin looked almost bloodless, with multiple black rods sticking in and out of it. As it turned towards them, he got his first look at its eyes.

They were purple and… seemingly ringed. They looked almost like an odd sort of cross between the Byakugan and the Sharingan, but saying that alone wouldn't have been enough to describe them. They were more complicated than that.

He didn't have any time to worry about something on the surface level, however, for Zabuza had stepped in front of the eight of them, him most specifically, drawing Naruto behind his body in an effort to block him from sight, likely trying to obscure the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki. The assassin drew his blade off of his back and pointed it towards the 'man' who stood before them.

"Akatsuki." Zabuza called to him, and it was a testament to just how odd the man's face was that he hadn't even noticed the red and black patterned cloak. "Identify yourself or die."

The figure across from them said nothing, except for hold his hand out in front of him, and literally rip the limb off, revealing what looked to be a few dozen small canisters hidden beneath the flesh.

Naruto tried not to vomit, but soon had much, much more serious things to worry about, for the missiles, because of course they were missiles, fired off from their link, aiming directly at them and coming in at high speed.

Naruto's eyes went wide, before a figure jumped in front of the both of them and slammed his hands down upon the ground.

"Ice Release: Ice Wall!"

A few pillars of white ice shot up from the ground, narrowly blocking off the pathway from the explosive force of the incoming bombs. Before Haku could relax, Zabuza had grabbed both him and Naruto by their collars, and hauled them back down the corridor. The rest of the group followed suit, for the icy wall that was set to block the missiles had given under the explosive power, which Naruto supposed made sense in a really shitty kind of way.

They landed perhaps twenty feet back, panting slightly as shards of ice scattered along the ground around them, already beginning to melt away from the heat of the explosion. Naruto didn't have time to thank the Jonin above him before the man charged back in, drawing his blade around and pointing it forward. He jumped directly into the black smoke, followed quickly by Anko, who looked even angrier than she'd been a few minutes prior.

Both were launched back out of the smokescreen a second later, Anko clutching her left arm, and Zabuza skidding across the floor, barely retaining control of his giant cleaver as he looked back at the now dissipating black haze.

When it cleared, the rest of them could see the problem. Two more figures, who looked very much like missile-hand-man, had arrived. One was a bit heftier, walking forward and taking what looked to be a defensive stance in front of the others, while the third, who had long orange hair that partially covered his right eye, stepped back, apparently the most vulnerable of the three.

"Shit…" Anko called under her breath. "Yo, Assassin, can we take three!?"

"No." Zabuza called back to her. "We most certainly cannot. If they're all S-ranked, then I want no part of engaging three of them at the same time."

Naruto couldn't help but think that was wise, but he was a bit concerned as to what they were actually going to do in regards to getting out of there.

He asked as much and received only a small chuckle from the two Jonin in front of him.

"Simple." Anko said, drawing an object out from her tool bag and holding it in front of her. "We throw a flash bomb, and then we run the hell away."

/-/

Tsunade read the notice in front of her as calmly as she could, trying not to let the fear in her heart lead her to crumbling the parchment in her grip.

Jiraiya looked worriedly towards her, but she ignored him for the time being. She didn't need him fretting for her right this second. Neither, really, did she need Shizune hanging over her shoulder, trying to pretend like she wasn't also reading the note before them, massaging her shoulders in an effort to keep her calm.

It was an effort she would've normally appreciated, but now… now it was only adding to her stresses.

"The Akatsuki are attacking Orochimaru's base." She summarized the note before her, crumpling the thing in her hands now that she'd finished reading it. "They're surrounding it and purging it clean, and our people are stuck inside."

"Who even sent that note?" Jiraiya asked, looking at her a bit suspiciously. "You said it was unmarked, do you recognize the handwriting, or…?"

"I don't, but I also can't afford to doubt its authenticity right now. We know the Akatsuki are after the Jinchuuriki for whatever reason, and right now, our Jinchuuriki just so happens to be right at the spot of the Akatsuki's attack?" Tsunade let out a hopeless sort of laugh. "It seems like just the kind of rotten luck that I'm accustomed to." She pounded her fist on the desk below her, instantly breaking the wooden structure straight down the middle. "DAMNIT! I knew I should've stopped him! Now he's… he's…!"

Jiraiya stepped forward.

"I'll go. I can get there quickly, and then-"

"And then what, take on the whole Akatsuki by yourself!?" Tsunade screamed at him, berating his brash foolishness with more firmness than was perhaps necessary. "I…" She slapped herself on her forehead, trying to calm her fraying nerves. "Sorry. You will be going, believe me, but only after we've assembled as strong a team as we can. The situation had changed. This isn't just a search and rescue mission, this is an S-Ranked Search and rescue mission, and only the very best could even hope to go."

Jiraiya nodded, stepping backwards, and giving her full authority over the situation. She'd always appreciated his ability to get serious when it mattered, though she felt she could fairly criticize his usual persona.

"When will Kakashi be back?" She asked first of all, turning back towards Shizune, who held in her hands the full registry of the Leaf's ninjas, and their current missions. "If it's soon, then…"

"The registry tells that he could be back within the day, theoretically." Shizune spoke, but the look on her face told Tsunade it wouldn't exactly be that simple. "But he was on an S-ranked mission himself, annihilating an entire drug cartel almost on his own… there's a good chance he won't return for a week or more."

She bit down on one of her painted nails, chipping it almost instantly with the force she was using.

Think… Think you idiot! She shouted at herself. I won't lose him too… I refuse to lose another person after all this time, I'll save him, I have to!

"Someone talking about me?"

The door opened up, and Tsunade looked up at Kakashi Hatake with a look of such utter thankfulness that the man actually blushed.

"Er… hello?"

"Situation!" She shouted, jolting the man slightly as she began running through combinations she could utilize with the ninjas still present in the village in her head. "The Akatsuki are going after Orochimaru!"

The man tilted his head slightly, seemingly trying to recall why such a thing would be something they'd have to deal with, before his single revealed eye widened to the size of a dinner plate, and he shot forward, standing next to Jiraiya, and looking at her with a fire in his gaze that she was fairly sure she'd never seen from him in all her days.

"When are we going!?"

End Chapter 50

Things. Things. Also things.

Nothing to say.

See you next week!