I'm responding to a couple reviewers at the moment.
To Krn-Kimbap: As to how Sasuke died, try reading the first couple of chapters. That's how this story started. I'm not saying that condescendingly. It's just written in those first two, maybe in the first ONE, how Sasuke died in the first place. I thank you for reviewing and I am faithfully watching your story also. I'm sorry I forgot about my promise to draw you a picture of your character. I'm going to start as soon as I'm off the computer, and I should have it for you by Sunday at the latest I think.
To Hyou: I thank you also for your advice on Orochimaru's summon, but I'm quite positive I'm not in teh wrong anywhere. When you say that a living person is necessary as a sacrifice, you're right. I stated somewhere, I'm pretty sure, that Naruto knew it was just a soul copy placed in the dead body of someone else, that it wasn't really Sasuke in front of him in the bodily sense. And I understand about the tag needing to be inserted. You'll noticed that Sasuke does not take a single action at all in this story, including this chapter. Just clearing some things up. Thanks for the review though, as it tells me I need to make sure I'm more clear when writing.
Destiny: It's good to have you aboard the story miss. If you could, reveiw every chapter after your eleventh, because I want more reveiws in my counter, and it makes me feel better. I hope you continue to enjoy.
Dragon's Sword: I can't believe I forgot to add that little part in there, about the Edo Tensei. I'm sorry. That's just flagrant stupidity on my part. Thanks for correcting me. I'll try to be more diligent in doing it right in the future.
There are a lot of other reviewers out there, and you know who you are. I love you people who've been faithfully following this novel, even after I left it so long in between updates here and there and with putting in shitty chapter every now and then. I'm in dept to you all. Especially you Houza. I love your Naruto stories. They are fantastic. I love the Cherry Blossom poem, and I just saw your newest one "Goodbye" Thanks to you a lot.
Chapter Eighteen
Sasuke grinned evilly from his sarcophagus as he emerged. He looked exactly as he did the day he had died. He was still the boy Naruto had competed with for so long, so long ago.
The battle between Gaara and Kabuto seemed to have been temporarily derailed as well, as they had stopped to see the technique. Sasuke was covered in curse seal markings. "Naruto!" shouted Gaara. "That's not Sasuke! It's just a mindless drone!"
Naruto smirked. "You don't have to tell me twice," said Naruto. "You stole my friend's soul, God only knows how, and imprisoned him in that body?"
Orochimaru smiled. "It's like a nice little reunion," he said. "You finally get to see your old friend again."
"Don't fuck with me Orochimaru," said Naruto. He charged at Sasuke, his kunai prepared. "I have no reserves about kicking this puppet's ass. I'll be doing my old friend a favor anyway this way."
Sasuke was still undeveloped in his strength. Naruto knew he would pose no threat to him now. Though they competed so much for dominance in the past, Naruto knew that this technique only displayed the power of the person at the time they died. Sasuke, Curse Seal or no, was not even close enough to Naruto's power, and he knew it.
"Your soul will be freed soon buddy," whispered Naruto, lunging at Sasuke. Something stopped him and tripped him though. He turned from his spot on the ground though and saw that his leg was wrapped up by the slimy tongue of a giant snake.
"What the hell!" he shouted. "Where'd that come from!"
Orochimaru ran in on him at full speed. Naruto, as he knew, was in a bad spot, held tightly in place by the snake's trap, and his foe's sword drawn. He had no idea where the snake had come from, but he knew it was real, and that it was summoned.
"Kyuubi, I really need to be using that power," he thought urgently.
I can't give it to you yet. It'll kill you too soon, and your battle won't be resolved.
"Dammit!" He performed a quick seal from his location, and a doppelganger appeared next to him as Orochimaru sliced him in half. Orochimaru smiled as the previously trapped Naruto burst with a pop into smoke.
"Used a Bunshin and Kawarimi Jutsu simultaneously," said Orochimaru. "You didn't even need to separated the hand seals. It was all one fluid attack. Combination jutsus mastery at such a young age."
"Yeah, I'm told I can be quite the powerful Shinobi sometimes," said Naruto, "when I put my mind to it."
"It's a shame I will not have that body."
Kabuto performed a whirling mid air kick at Gaara, who bent backwards as his sand helped slow the attack. He didn't have time to be screwing around with Kabuto right now, and he knew it. He had to finish this, but it was difficult to fight the medi nin without using any of Shukkaku's abilities other than the sand defensive system.
"I don't have time to fight you," said Gaara in anger at Kabuto. "You know I could easily kill you, don't you?"
"Of course," said Kabuto as he jabbed forward with his palm, exploding through the sand wall that formed and kitting Gaara in the chest. Gaara fell to the ground as sand went spraying everywhere around him, cushioning his fall. "You're not using Shukkaku against me, which means, for some reason, you have reserves about dying just yet. Perhaps you want to live? You won't beat me without all of your abilities, or at least some of them, at your disposal, because you depend so much on the Shukkaku. Hell, you haven't any taijutus at all for the most part."
"He's right," thought Sakura from a short distance away, crouching around a tree's trunk. "Gaara is no good in this fight unless he uses the Shukkaku, and I know he won't do that until Itachi arrives. He's holding back, but it's fruitless right now. He may just be plain killed against Kabuto's chakra scalpel attacks… Only another chakra scalpel can repel it."
It didn't take a genius for Sakura to figure out that she was the only one who could go against Kabuto at the moment. Tsunade's abilities, handed down to her, were the only thing that could stand up to Kabuto's own medical taijutsu-jutsu combination.
She stood up and readied herself. She was done running. She would fight and make herself useful. She was done being fought for. She ran into the battle.
Naruto jumped backwards to avoid another volley of shurikens thrown my Orochimaru, and bumped into a tree. The slight distraction put himself only a centimeter away from a passing by shuriken that whizzed past his face. He only barely managed to avoid it.
Sasuke, meanwhile, was standing motionless in front of his coffin, not having been ordered to do anything yet. Naruto didn't understand what Orochimaru had summoned him for, if he wasn't going to use Sasuke. Surely, Orochimaru knew that the boy was useless to fight with, as he was so unskilled against the current nins on the field.
It suddenly hit Naruto what was going on when a second Orochimaru appeared from around the tree to try and slash him in two. "Two Orochimarus? When did this happen?"
He landed on a tree, leaving the two clones below while he quickly thought, and quickly he came to the answer. Orochimaru had performed two simultaneous summonings. He summoned Sasuke and the Snake that trapped Naruto in the same instant. One summoning was done by a clone, while the other was done by the real one, in an attempt to make him concentrate on just one, the Sasuke summoning.
"It was all a diversionary tactic," said Naruto to the Orochimarus below. "You just used Sasuke for a distraction!"
"He's figured it out so quickly," said one of the two below. "He's a quick one!"
"Yes," said the other. "We shouted our summonings at the same time so you'd only really hear the phrase once, not catching on to the summoning of the snake behind you that you couldn't see."
"That means you've had a bunshin in the trees for a while, have you?"
"I told you he was quick," said Orochimaru.
"Shut up you bastard!" yelled Naruto. He performed a few hands seals and held both open palms to his side. In the open space gathered a swirling ball of blue chakra in each hand.
Orochimaru's eyes widened. "It took Jiraiya a long time to master the Resengan in both hands."
Naruto darted out form the branch he was standing on and descended on the two side by side Orochimarus. He thrust one into each stomach, and they were thrown backwards with swirling vortexes in their wake. Each hit a tree, and one exploded into smoke.
The real one was struggling to stand. "That was a powerful one. You continue to surprise me."
"If you'd stop underestimating me, you'd not be so surprised!" yelled Naruto. He ran forward as he formed a Kage Bunshin to run by his side. Again, he performed several hand seals, these too fast for Orochimaru to follow. It was a new move he'd not seen before.
In a flash, a doppelganger was on either side of Orochimaru, leaving him surrounded. "Chakra Release! Barrier No Justu!"
A blue dome of wavy energy sprang from around them and formed with Orochimaru as its center. "What's this?" asked Orochimaru, looking around at it. "Seals us in and everyone else out?"
"He's figured it out so quickly," mocked one of the Bunshins. Both Naruto's laughed. "You're trapped in here with me, and there's no room for summoning I'm afraid. Your snake and Sasuke are locked out."
"Clever boy," said Orochimaru. "Not clever enough though. You took your eyes off the little lady."
Naruto turned on his heels, instantly thinking of Sakura. As he was halfway into his turn, he heard a blood curdling scream of pain that sounded all too much like the kunoichi's.
Sasuke's electrified left hand was completely through Sakura's chest. The Chidori had torn through her flesh with ease. "Sakura!" screamed Naruto. His doppelganger was detonated as Orochimaru had taken this distraction for opportunity. This dropped the barrier, as it required both creators to be conscious.
Sasuke ripped his arm out of Sakura, sending an arc of blood spraying into the air. Naruto watched, horrified, as the body fell to the ground slowly and gracefully. As soon as Sakura hit the ground, Naruto felt the sensation of just waking up from a dream, and he stared as Sakura ran head long into battle against Kabuto, charging chakra into her hands.
Sasuke, meanwhile stood still near his coffin. Sakura was still alive, and nothing had happened?
We were hit by a genjutsu while thinking we only needed to worry about that when fighting Itachi.
Naruto realized Kyuubi was right immediately. Orochimaru had terribly deceived him. He had been distracted into releasing the barrier no jutsu. "Damn you Orochimaru!" yelled the boy as he turned on his heel to spring back into the fight.
Orochimaru wasn't there. "Where the hell are you?" he asked randomly into the woods.
Sakura leapt into the air and punched with a wild haymaker at Kabuto, who had to raise both his hands to repel the chakra-enhanced mega punch. He flipped backwards and sprang back forward, cutting at the air with his scalpel fingers. Sakura saw he was faster than she had anticipated and had to immediately block both of his hands, though she was forcibly pushed back.
Gaara's sand flew into the air and caught Kabuto by the leg, causing him to stumble as he attempted to pursue Sakura. The kunoichi took this for an opening and thrust her hand forward toward Kabuto's exposed chest. Her karate-chop scratched the surface, cutting his shirt open and leaving a thin line of blood in its wake.
"Naturally, a medi nin trained by Tsuande," said Kabuto. "You are very lucky to have received such training. It has made you stronger than the last time I saw you."
"Can it," said Sakura. "Gaara, leave Kabuto to me. You're not suited to fight a specialist like him."
Gaara didn't like being told to stand down by a kunoichi he barely knew, but he got the hint Sakura was trying to impose. She was meaning for him to save his strength for the battle later, as he couldn't fight well without the Shukkaku's aid.
"Brave little girl," said Kabuto, blocking a punch and counter attacking with his own. Sakura ducked under it and punched with a solid uppercut that landed squarely in Kabuto's jaw. He flew into the air and landed on his back.
"I'm not the fearful little girl you watched in the Chuunin exams," said Sakura. "I've become much stronger."
"I see," said Kabuto, rising and wiping the blood from his face. "Tsunade's super human strength resides in you after all. Your punches live up to her prestige." Kabuto threw a kunai as he ran at Sakura. She arched backwards in an evade and dodged it with ease, but as she came up, she was met with a solid counter from Kabuto, and she was punched hard in the stomach. She staggered backwards as she raised an arm to block a scalpel attack coming her way.
It cut her arm, and she winched with pain, but she had her free arm ready for a counter of her own. Her scalpel shot forward and sliced open the enemy's right shoulder. As Kabuto recoiled, she jumped forward with a twirling kick. It landed across his face, causing him to fly, spinning in the air. He quickly recovered and landed on his own feet though. He smirked.
"And so begins out own fight," he said. "I'll just have to extend my range a bit." He gathered chakra around his arms, and Sakura noticed the size of his chakra scalpels greatly expand to two feet long. It was like his karate chops would now be devastating sword attacks.
She gulped nervously. She imagined if only she had more chakra stamina she would've easily been able to that. However, she didn't have a lot of chakra to work with even when at full strength.
Naruto threw a shuriken into the bushes at the slightest hint of movement. Orochimaru was hiding somewhere, and he couldn't find him. "I'll help," said Gaara, coming to stand next to him. Naruto just realized that Sakura was fighting Kabuto alone, but couldn't find time to worry about her at the moment. No, he trusted she would do fine. She could handle herself.
Gaara's sand poured into the ground as he performed a few hand seals. The sand went surging underground. "It's homing sand," said Gaara. "It finds and tell me where a target I'm looking for is hiding."
Gaara turned his head sharply as he found Orochimaru. "Seventeen meters that way." Naruto threw a pair of kunai exactly at Gaara's designated spot. He heard them hit home with the blood spilling "squelch" a blade makes when piercing flesh.
Orochimaru emerged from the trees with both kunai imbedded in his forearm. "Nice work boys. Now tell me, am I to be fighting the both of you at once now?"
Naruto and Gaara took their respective battle poses and prepared as Orochimaru tore the daggers out of his skin with no evident sign of pain on his face.
"Let's go, Orochimaru," said Naruto in a growl.
"I'm afraid Orochimaru won't be going anywhere other than the afterlife," said a cold voice in the wind. It was like the voice was everywhere around him.
"Banninshment No Jutsu!" said the same voice tonelessly. Suddenly, the snake nearby disintegrated into thin air. Sasuke followed with it, fading into nothingness.
"That voice is unmistakable," said Naruto, looking around frantically. "Itachi."
Orochimaru was looking around, fear finally visible on his face. Gaara's eyes were darting around, though his body didn't move at all.
They felt a gust of wind surround them. Kabuto and Sakura had stopped fighting as well. The wind was cold and chilling to the bone. Naruto looked over at Orochimaru just as Itachi materialized behind the sannin.
"Hello, Orochimaru," said Itachi. Orochimaru's eyes widened in terrible realization that he was dead. Without moving, Itachi somehow managed to make Orochimaru's body separate into four pieces, sliced cleanly into segments with invisible speed and ability. The blood spray didn't faze him in the least.
"Greetings, Naruto-kun, and Gaara of the Sand," said Irachi from behind his raised collar. "I thank you for leading me here. I really had no idea, however, that I'd be taking two Bijuus with me today."
Naruto gritted his teeth. Evidently, he wasn't Itachi's only target. Gaara seemed to come to the same realization, though he showed no signs of shock or even acknowledgement.
"Prepare yourselves," said Itachi. "Today, you boys die."
Naruto grinned, and despite Gaara's best efforts, so did he.
"Yeah, we know," said Naruto.
End Chapter Eighteen
So, sorry about Sasuke really doing nothing. Like Orochimaru was explaining, he was just a diversion for catching Naruto by surprise. I hope you're not a bit pissed about me just leaving him to do nothing. So, yeah, things might be getting good in the future. I have to really think this battle out, so give me a few days. It'll take some time, but I'm thinking the battle will be at least two chapters, maybe even three, with a nice little ending chapter after that. I've already got a new fic idea in my head too for when I finish this, a new NaruSaku fic.