A/N: So, to address the elephant in the room right off the bat:

FFNET's email notifications have been widely deactivated, and set back to a default of "do not receive". This is because, some idiotic reason, the moderaters thoght it was necessary to replace the notifications button with a useless "opt in" feature for email updates.

To cut right to the chase, this has immediately cut down a massive amount of many author's viewership and review turnout, my own included. If you are reading this, check your settings. There's a significant chance your notifications are off.

But back to the fic itself

This chapter will be blowing through some stuff, but it will be the last of the "rush" chapters, if that makes sense.

Time for Chapter 68

Enjoy!

Naruto was far from unused to unpleasant mornings.

In his admittedly short life, he had experienced his fair share of unfortunate daily beginnings, some of which still haunted him persistently. Even amid a stacked field, the present morning was far and away the worst. Nearly every negative emotion conceivable had been provoked at some point in the past three and a half hours. Confusion, upon his awakening to an empty bed. Horror, at the gravity of the situation. Grief, in the face of the implications. Plenty of others had made a brief appearance, and none of them had truly dissipated. He had merely put a leash on them.

Shaking his hands out down by his sides as he rushed through the forest, drops of blood flew into the wind behind him. His hands had been tightened into white-knuckled fists, and his nails were sharp. The small set of wounds on his palms mended quickly. Though not by choice, his body was inflamed with burning chakra. He was far too inwardly emotional to control it completely. He could easily feel the eyes of his comrades resting on him with frequency. They could likely feel his barely-contained volatility. Thankfully, Shikamaru notwithstanding, none of them had spoken up. The Jinchuuriki was in no mood to justify.

Truth be told, their opinions hardly mattered to him. As far as he was concerned, the mission at hand only truly involved himself, and to a lesser extent, Shikamaru. While he did appreciate the assistance of the remaining four genin, he knew that their personal stake in the outcome was miniscule when compared to his own. He respected them no less for that fact, it was only logical, but it was not their battle. Not in any meaningful sense. When push came to shove, and the chips were down, he would make his own calls, irrespective of outside input.

Naruto's eyes remained narrow and slitted as he stared straight ahead. They were moving quickly, but no matter how much ground they covered, he would not be satisfied until Satsuki was within his sights. Failure to reverse her course would end in disaster. Orochimaru represented a path toward a cliff's edge for the Uchiha. Naruto knew all too intimately how potent the mental and physical pressure the Sanin's mark had been at its worst. It had reduced Satsuki Uchiha, a strong and confident kunoichi, to ugly tears more than once. The man himself was bound to only damage her more severely.

'I'll kill him first. And if he runs, I'll catch him and kill him.' Naruto vowed darkly. Macabre as his mindset was rapidly becoming, it was born of genuine concern. He would do what he had to do, for as long as was necessary. Even if that timeframe facilitated the need for lethal force. For all his silent bluster, he still could not shake the instinctual fear brewing in his gut. He had faced Orochimaru once before, and it had ended horribly. In actuality, he barely remembered the battle at all. Only the painful injuries it had left him with. Deep down, he knew that the Sanin was far above his weight class. But just then, tearing through the forest, he hadn't a care in the world for the unfavorable odds.

Though much of his mental energy was dedicated to how he planned to go about completing the recovery, a small, persistent corner of his mind was permeated by simple sadness. He did his best not to acknowledge it, but no matter how hard they tried, there was a chance that he and his team's efforts would be in vain. That they would fail, and Satsuki would be truly lost to the changing tide. That Naruto would find himself alone all over again, right back where he had started. It was a cutting thought, and one that the Jinchuuriki could not fully silence.

As the retrieval team came upon a large clearing in the forest, for the second time that day, Neji halted in the lead alongside Shikamaru. The rest of the group awaited his assessment in somewhat tense silence.

"We've got company." the Hyuga said predictably. Expectable as the announcement was, there was something off about his tone. Lee was the first to inquire further.

"A group, or just one again?" he asked. Neji began to speak, but paused once again, seeming to be puzzled by what his Byakugan were showing him.

"A bit of both? I'm only seeing one body, but there are two chakra systems within it." he explained. Naruto furrowed his brow.

"What does that mean?" he pressed. Neji gave him no reply. Instead, he signaled for the group to follow him. As the genin all emerged out into the clearing, they were met with the unsurprising sight of another person on the other side of the open space. Their appearance, however, was far from mundane. While clearly male, with shoulder-length gray hair and pale skin, one feature set them apart from any person Naruto had ever laid eyes on.

Protruding from the back of his neck was a second head.

"What…am I looking at, exactly?" Shino pondered under his breath. His question was left unanswered, as the strange, dual-headed man took several steps toward them. He was wearing an identical outfit to the previous henchman the genin had encountered.

"Down to five, hm? Either Kidomaru misread, or Jirobo managed to take one of you down. I'm leaning toward the second option." he mused. His voice was raspy, with an underhanded belly to it. Naruto fixed his enemy with a red-eyed glare.

"This again? Really? You're never gonna slow us down with single people." he hissed, thoroughly perturbed by having been halted a second time. The two-headed man smirked and came to a stop in the center of the clearing.

"I've already wasted your time, but we're far from done. My name's Sakon, and I think you'll find that I'm not as easy to give the slip as Jirobo." he said confidently. Naruto's eyes drifted over to his teammates, all of whom were focused squarely on the adversary before them, apparently named Sakon. The subject of the silent deliberation was clear. Just as had been done with their previous enemy, they were discerning who would be best left behind to face Sakon alone. They could not afford to thin their own numbers any more than was necessary.

They group was not granted the time to come to a concrete decision, as Sakon proved to be far less patient than Jirobo had been. The sequence that followed occurred with such sheer speed that only the well-honed eyes of Neji were able to perceive it fully. As Sakon pushed off his back foot and broke out into a charge toward the genin, Naruto moved to intercept him. As they crashed toward one another, the remainder of the recovery team stood frozen in time, all but one unaware of what was transpiring right before their eyes.

The exchange was short, but it was wholly decisive. Spearing out a punch, Sakon missed Naruto's head by just a few fateful centimeters. As he slipped inside his foe's range, Naruto seized Sakon by the throat and sunk his serrated nails into his windpipe. It proved to be fatal, as their combined opposing momentum not only drove the Jinchuuriki's claws dangerously deep, but also badly broke Sakon's neck as he was stopped dead in his tracks. For several moments, silence hung dead in the air. It took several moments for Shikamaru, Lee, and Shino to catch up, but they remained tongue-tied even once they had.

Sakon attempted to speak as he lurched forward into the Jinchuuriki, but all he could manage was choked coughs that sent blood dripping from his lips. Just as Naruto was about to drop him, a new voice made itself heard in his ear.

"You're the one Kidomaru sensed. He was right to hesitate."

Naruto's crimson eyes cut to his left shoulder, which Sakon's dying body was using for support. The second head protruding from the base of his neck had spoken. Its features were similar, as was its voice.

"I'm glad you didn't." Naruto replied coldly. The second head let out a strained chuckle. Apparently, injuries to the primary body very much affected the additional appendage.

"So callous. This means a whole lot to you, doesn't it?" he said. Naruto responded by removing his claws from Sakon's neck, only to sink them into the main body's stomach. The second head sputtered out blood, but managed to maintain consciousness.

"This won't end the way you want it to. She's gone. Far gone." he rasped. Naruto twisted his hand in Sakon's gut, but was unable to elicit further reaction from the second head.

"I'll manage just fine." he shot back. The henchmen's body gave out slightly, causing more of his weight to be leaned into Naruto.

"What happens when she resists you? What will you do when all of this effort is for nothing?" the second head asked. Finally, Naruto stepped aside and removed his clawed hand from Sakon's body. Falling forward, one final sentence escaped the unusual Shinobi as he fell toward the ground.

"Her future is not yours…to control." he croaked, landing face-down in the dirt. For a time, Naruto glowered down at his fallen enemy. When it was clear that he was dead, he stepped back and took a deep breath. He then felt a hand on his shoulder. Glancing back behind him, the blonde was greeted by the rather concerned face of Shikamaru.

"He's gone. Let's get moving." the Nara suggested, opting to skip platitudes or words of empty comfort. Naruto nodded and retreated further back from the corpse to fully join with his team again. A beat later, they assumed their prior formation and took off into the branches once again. As they exited the clearing, Naruto looked back over his shoulder at the bloodied body he had left in his wake. It was barely a moment's glance, but it still crystalized one key truth in his mind.

He had killed a person, and without any remorse. He did not feel guilty, or even particularly bothered by what he had done. Perhaps it was the demonic chakra burning through his system, or simply a coldness he had developed without realizing it. Either way, he had crossed a vital line, and lost his right to take the high road. The unwelcome face of Gaara then passed through his mind, an image which Naruto suppressed hastily. Before he could, their final exchange echoed in his skull.

"I'm not like you."

"Sure you are. Give it some time."

Try as he might, Naruto couldn't help but shudder.

Choji rolled over onto his back in a daze as the fiery wings of chakra fully faded away. He had been victorious, despite the considerable adversity he had faced. He had learned nearly immediately that his choice of opponent had been a difficult one. Jirobo, the henchman he had challenged, had been extremely daunting. Durable, immensely strong, and deceptively intelligent, the man had pushed Choji to the direst possible brink. The Three Colored Pills, the Akimichi clan's deadliest weapons, were reserved exclusively for life or death situations, and Choji had resorted to them early on in the battle.

'I can…barely move.' the genin thought to himself. The vast stores of body fat he had possessed only minutes ago had been burned away completely by the final pill, leaving him unrecognizably lean. The immense power granted by the last pill had won him the fight in one fell swoop, but the price was steep. Chances were, given the low temperatures and his newfound lack of insulation, he would die of exposure within hours. Choji's eyes lethargically drifted off to his right, where the crushed body of Jirobo resided.

The battle had been a short one upon his final transformation, and acquisition of his wings. He had battered Jirobo relentlessly, eventually ending the confrontation for good by toppling several trees down onto the already-worn ninja. The results had been lethal. Choosing not to dwell, the Akimichi heir looked up toward the sky. The heatless sun was bright and glaring, having been given a path through the canopy by Choji's tactics.

'You'd better bring her home. I don't wanna have to gain weight again for nothing.' he silently projected to his long-gone teammates. On some level, he was proud of having come out of the ordeal the victor, but he hadn't the certainty to revel in it. Much could still go wrong up ahead, and there was nothing he could do to assist in the mission any further than he already had. He was spent, and his function had been carried out. It would be greatly optimistic to assume that he would survive at all.

Making a futile effort to rise to his feet, Choji groaned in pain as his entire body ached in protest. He well and truly had nothing left. Sighing defeatedly, he laid flat again. He would likely lose consciousness soon. He could feel an unsavory sleep tugging away at him. Despite his efforts to fight it, it was a losing game. Right as his eyes began to glaze over, and his body relaxed, the sound of faint footsteps echoing through the forest roused him from his quasi-slumber. For a few moments, the steps grew closer. Soon enough, they were well within the battleground Choji and Jirobo had created.

Then, at last, the source of them came into view on Choji's right side. The person he saw was shocking, and filled him with fear.

'What am I missing? Why is he here?' the Akimichi heir thought to himself frantically as Gaara of the Sand strolled toward Jirobo's half-covered body. Though he had never directly met him outside of a momentary encounter in the Forest of Death, Choji had heard of the redhead's predatory nature, and the many macabre sins he had committed. According to his father, Gaara had even played a pivotal role in the near-destruction of Konoha over a month prior. His presence was both puzzling and unsettling.

Watching nervously, Choji's eyes widened when Jirobo twitched slightly as Gaara nudged him with his foot. He was still alive, if only barely. This spark of life was then succinctly snuffed out, as Gaara picked up his foot, and slammed his heel down on the balding man's throat. An unpleasant snapping sound accompanied the stomping impact. Jirobo ceased all motion. Gaara had killed him without mercy. It was largely in-character from what the leaf genin knew of him, but horrifying all the same. Choji had intended to do the same, but only in the name of self-defense and duty.

"You're not very thorough." the Suna boy called out to Choji, turning on his heel and walking toward him as he spoke. As he drew closer, Choji was able to get a better glimpse at his facial expression and body language. He did not appear to be hostile, but his demeanor had been identical during his slaying of Jirobo only seconds ago. He was wearing a sleeveless dark red tunic, with his trademark gourd of sand slung over his back.

A few steps later, Gaara had reached him, and was staring down at him with a look of amusement written across his face. Choji could hardly find the nerve to breathe, let alone speak. Having half-expected to be killed in short order just as Jirobo had been, the genin's heart nearly burst out of his chest as Gaara knelt down beside him and laid a hand on his sternum. No assault of the sort followed. In fact, the exact opposite result soon came to pass, with a rush of hot chakra flooding into Choji's system without warning.

Once the transfer was complete, Gaara stood up again, and began to walk away. Finding that he now had the strength to sit up, Choji swallowed his fear and forced himself to speak.

"Why're you helping me?" he questioned. The redhead stopped briefly, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Winners live, and losers die. Since you aren't smashed under a tree trunk, I'm assuming you won. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but I wouldn't if I were you." he explained matter-of-factly. Choji opened his mouth to retort, but held his tongue. He was being thrown a bone, and as patronizing as it felt, it would be downright suicidal to reject it. Appearing satisfied with the leaf genin's chastening, Gaara vanished into a vortex of sand. The instant he was gone, Choji flopped back down onto his back. He was slightly revitalized on a physical level, but he was more mentally shot than ever. Fear of such a degree had a way of draining a person.

Things were far more perilous than they had previously seemed, and if Gaara's arrival was a sign of any kind of trend, things were only bound to grow more dangerous by the minute. Savoring the heat of the chakra he had been given, Choji closed his eyes.

Within moments, he was unconscious.

Kimimaro's right hand shot out and grasped a stray branch to bring himself to a sudden stop. Carefully balancing the dark barrel containing Satsuki on his shoulder, he turned around and cast a suspicious look into the forest behind him. He had no natural sensory abilities, but his intuition and ability to sniff out threats were both refined. Something had shifted. He was certain of it. As far as he could tell, he still held a sizable lead over Konoha's recovery team, but he could not shake the feeling that someone was breathing down his neck. As though he was being stalked. It was a feeling he recognized.

Shaking his head, Kimimaro turned back around and set out once again. Staying put served no purpose other than unnecessarily thinning the margins, and if the educated guess forming in his mind was accurate, the playing field had changed somewhat. Orochimaru's projections for the mission had been thorough, and up to now, they had been accurate, but some factors simply could not be accounted for by even the sharpest mind. Several questions still remained to be answered as well.

First and foremost, there was the non-zero chance that Satsuki would not survive the process of her curse mark's maturation. It was an incredibly grueling experience, with a miniscule survival rate to match. Kimimaro himself had survived it without much of a struggle, but his body was far from normal. Beyond her unique ocular prowess, Satsuki Uchiha was a fairly average physical specimen. She was certainly powerful, she would be of no interest if she weren't, but nothing about her makeup guaranteed her survival. By the time he found his way out of the forest, it was possible that he would be carrying nothing but a dead body.

'For Orochimaru-sama's sake, I hope you push through. He's put quite a lot of effort into acquiring you.' Kimimaro thought to himself, glancing at the barrel. For the moment, he could still feel slight shifting motions from within the container. She was still alive, which was heartening. Many subjects had simply dropped dead immediately. She had passed the first test, so to speak. Picking up his pace somewhat, Kimimaro's mind shifted to other concerns. Namely, the success of his comrades in slowing Konoha's pursuit.

Of the four, he only had faith in two. Sakon and Jirobo were both far too limited to fend off an entire group alone, and depending on the order in which they had spaced themselves, it was possible that both had fallen already. Thankfully, both Tayuya and Kidomaru were appreciably reliable. Tayuya's genjutsu was potent even to Jonin, and Kidomaru's abilities were perfectly tailored to creating a multi-layered stronghold, both literally and figuratively. Both were still flawed, and could be overcome with the proper tactics, but they were bound to buy a serviceable amount of time.

A sharp pain then erupted in Kimimaro's lungs mid-jump between branches. Clenching his jaw, he bit back the urge to grunt out of discontent. The aches and pains had been ever present since his departure from the Land of Sound, and had grown progressively worse by the minute. Regardless of his condition, however, he could not afford to slow. The operation demanded haste, and the more distance he put between himself and Konoha, the less likely it was that he would be forced to fight.

'It's nothing. An inconvenience and nothing more.' he coached himself mentally. The powers at play were far larger than himself. To allow something as minor as discomfort to stand in the way would be selfish and arrogant. As such, he pushed on irrespective of the stabbing agony in his chest. His resolve was unshaken.

Yet, despite his determination, a small stream of blood trickled from his mouth with his next step.

Phobias were a natural aspect of psychology.

Niche as many seemed to be at the face of them, a long-standing ancestral reason tended to lay at their roots. Chief among them, and commonly seen, was arachnophobia. An ingrained aversion to spiders and other such eight-legged creatures of the same ilk. Be it their ungainly appearance, venomous capabilities, or simply the idea of them, many people held an unbridled distaste for spiders. Neji Hyuga was no exception. He had strongly disliked spiders, and could scarcely recall a positive memory involving them. He did not fear them outright, but he found them to be unpleasant and unsavory.

As such, when an inordinate number of elaborate webs began to appear all throughout the trees, Neji's intuition immediately called for greater caution. It was less the presence of such structures than their frequency. For every ten feet they traveled, there seemed to be just as many webs. The deeper they raced into the forest, the thicker the webs became. With his extended field of vision, Neji could also see that they were widespread, and were poised to grow denser. In any event, they did not appear to be natural. While there were plenty of webs, there were practically no spiders to which to attribute them. Almost as though some singular, unseen entity had spun the silk itself.

Neji was not the only member of the group to find the gradual change in scenery concerning, as Shikamaru looked to Shino.

"This seems like your forte." he said, not bothering to ask the obvious question. Though his eyes were hidden behind his ever-present sunglasses, Neji saw them roll wearily with his Byakugan.

"Arachnids aren't insects. Similar, but not quite the same. Either way, I've been scouting the webs for a few minutes now, and I can say this much confidently. They aren't natural." he said. Pausing briefly to duck under a particularly dense chunk of web.

"Every thread is laced with chakra, and as far as I can tell, they're all connected." he added as a few stray insects returned to the confines of his trenchcoat. Neji pursed his lips. His initial assumption held its water. The webs were all coming from a focused source.

"What does all of that mean for us, then?" Naruto asked. The blonde had calmed since his brisk killing of Sakon nearly an hour ago, but his voice still held an edge. Shino's answer was chilling.

"It means that whoever, whatever, is spinning these webs knows exactly where we are. Chances are, we've torn through thousands of threads each. Maybe more. They're far too thin to feel through your clothes." he explained. The entire group fell silent at his words for a few moments.

"What do you suggest we do?" Shikamaru asked. It was a pertinent question. The sheer scope of the silk field was staggering in context, and implied a large chakra pool. And thus, by extension, a threatening level of strength.

"We should change our–" Shino started. Half-way through his reply, Neji cut him off by seizing the back of his collar and yanking his head straight back. A sharp, sleek projectile promptly whizzed through the space where Shino's throat had once been and embedded itself deep into the bark of a nearby tree. The retrieval team came to a screeching halt on one shared branch. Shikamaru drew a kunai and looked around.

"Can you see them?"

Neji strained his eyes. He had noticed several minutes prior that the webs created a haze that clouded his vision. At the time, he had been unable to find a suitable explanation as to why, but now armed with the knowledge that each thread was laced with chakra, it made perfect sense. His vision was being overloaded. After several unsuccessful seconds of searching, Neji was thrown a dangerous clue. Barreling in from his rear, entering his range of sight at blistering speed, came another projectile. Wasting as little motion as possible, Neji pivoted left to narrowly avoid being skewered through the shoulder. Whirling around the instant the coast was clear, Neji pointed up into a tree behind the group.

"Up and to the right!" he yelled out, causing his comrades to turn and join him. Though slightly obstructed by a mess of webs, their aggressor was now within view.

"Are all of these guys freaks?" Naruto muttered. Neji suppressed the urge to back up a step at what he was seeing. Sakon's biology had been strange, to say the least, but whomever was hanging from the branch above their heads was even more alien. For the third time, their enemy was male, with dark skin and dark hair done up in a short ponytail. Though having only a single head, he possessed two extra sets of arms. In total, counting his legs, he had eight appendages. Spider-like indeed.

"If you're going to insult me, say it with your whole chest." the new arrival chided Naruto, swinging out from the webs and landing with a thud on a branch thirty-odd feet from the group. The Jinchuuriki began to advance, but stopped when Shikamaru gripped him by the shoulder.

"You're Kidomaru, am I right?" the Nara asked. An amused chuckle escaped from the six-armed ninja.

"I guess I'm popular. Where'd you learn my name?" he shot back. Naruto shook himself free from Shikamaru's grasp.

"Your two-headed friend let it slip while I was ripping his throat out." he said. Neji winced. Though it almost always manifested in an admirable way, Naruto's raw passion had a darker side to it under the right, or rather, wrong circumstances. Kidomaru stared at the blonde unflinchingly.

"So, that's how you got here so quickly. You ran right through him." he said, clearly speaking more to himself than to Naruto. Predictably, the Jinchuuriki spoke regardless.

"And you're getting the same treatment if you don't back off and let me pass." he replied. It was then that Neji stepped directly in front of Naruto. Every aspect of Kidomaru suggested that he was significantly more dangerous than either of the previous two henchmen. He had taken the time to set up an elaborate security system out of web, and had it not been for Neji's dojutsu, he would have succeeded in assassinating Shino from afar without detection. Even when considering Naruto's bludgeoning levels of power in his current state, his lack of clear-eyed judgment would bite him badly against an enemy with clear tactical prowess.

"I'll handle him. My guess is that there aren't too many of them left past this one, so get moving." he said, taking charge of the situation. Shikamaru protested initially, but soon pulled back. In a surprising turn of events, Shino joined the Hyuga on the front of the branch.

"I'll back you up." he said curtly. Neji nodded. The insect tamer was far from a virtuoso in close-quarters, but his skill-set was well-suited to the battlefield. Kidomaru simply grinned, each of his six arms flexing and bending at the elbow in an inhuman manner.

"Be careful, Neji-kun, Shino-san." Lee said. Neji gave a thumbs-up to his teammate. Naruto, Lee, and Shikamaru then turned around to resume their pursuit of Satsuki. Within their first two leaps between branches, Kidomaru lashed out. Bringing his hands together in a seal, he sent forth another projectile. As it turned out, they were fired from his mouth. Having reacted twice prior to the technique, Neji was more than prepared. Stepping into the line of fire, he drove out his hand with his palm turned downward. Pushing a small surge of chakra through his fingertips, the Hyuga split the deadly, needle-esque object in two.

"They don't concern you now." Neji said, assuming his family's traditional stance. The angry buzz of insects then began to emanate from Shino, who maintained a cool, relaxed posture with his hands in the pockets of his coat. Kidomaru jumped up into his webs once more, laughing as he did so.

"If you both want to die so badly, then I'll grant that wish." he said with menace. Although neither showed it on their face or in their posture, both genin were keenly aware of a single truth.

They would not be escaping the forest unscathed.

A/N: Okay, so I wanted this chapter to come out a few days ago, but Thanksgiving rolled around, and I had to prepare. Went to some family events, ate some good food, the whole nine yards. Holidays aren't always the best, but they've been alright this year. I hope that was the case for all of you as well.

So, the chapter itself. I know many of you are going to find Naruto murdering Sakon in cold blood off-putting, but I would like to point out that Naruto absolutely intended to kill Haku on the bridge when he was under the assumption that Satsuki had died. He only failed due to a lack of experience, and a brief moment of wavering. He's definitely off his rocker right now, but I wouldn't say he's out of character for ITA.

I would also like to ask: How many of you are still here? With this whole email situation, I'm not sure how many of my regular readers are still getting these updates. I would REALLY appreciate it if you'd all let me know if at all possible, and if you'd tell me what you thought of the chapter as well.

I love you all, and Happy (late) Thanksgiving to those who celebrate :)

Read and Review!