Chapter 21: The possibility of evil part 4

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Another extra long chapter to make up for my previous delays, enjoy, since it will take you awhile.

And please, I know this little arc will be long but it will be over by chapter 23, so bare with me.

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"Very subtitle Zabuza." Kakashi emerged from the water with a light gasp, not from the lack of air but from the absolute cold. "There was no way we could have taken on that many people but you and your explosions."

"What's wrong, had hard time Kakashi?" Zabuza surfaced next to Kakashi, his wet hair hanging down around his face in strands that appeared to be a lot straighter then they actually were. He wasn't in his usual clothing but instead a black thermal suit that was highly insulated, though it appeared to be nothing but a pair of pants, a jacket (made of some material that was defiantly not cloth based, it almost looked like plastic) and boots. Despite how thin it seemed, it was water proofed and insulated for extremely cold weather, he was prepared for this. "Besides, we need to find out what they're doing on this boat, there's no point of hiding outside." Zabuza glanced back at the hull of the large ship, it appeared to be an oil tanker though it most likely didn't contain oil. "What are they stealing and why do they need so much of it?"

Kakashi looked up at the boat that seemed to tower above him, it was impossibly large, it was at least 50 up to the deck from the water's surface and from what he could see from his angle the tanker was 200 or more feet long. "We can't go in through the deck, it's too obvious...one of these port windows will have to--...Zabuza?" Kakashi looked around when he realized he was talking to himself, Zabuza had run off and he didn't even notice it! Kakashi had no choice but to wait until Zabuza rose from beneath the cold waters again. "What did you just do?"

"There are 3 bombs underneath the hull, just in case." Zabuza told him, and being the experienced bomber he was, he knew what places would be most effective in order to sink a ship even as solidly built as this one. "Keep that in mind." He tossed Kakashi a small cylinder about the size of a battery with a small red button on one side a blue one on the other. "Just in case." Zabuza lifted his hand from the water and tugged on an invisible wire that could just barely be seen with a flicker only if the light struck it right. He tugged it a little harder, pulling down a long rope from the deck. Zabuza pulled himself up by his arms, climbing toward one of the circular windows above. Kakashi silently followed, trying to be as quiet as possible so they didn't draw attention to themselves .

They moved surprisingly fast up the ropes to only be using their arms, both of them had had experinces doing this type of thing in the past and for Kakashi the promise of warmth is what pushed him to move onward. He was so focused on how cold he was that nearly fell from halfway up when a loud horn was sounded from the tanker, thick black smoke began pouring from the three large stacks that towered above deck and into the flurry of snow pouring down on them. With another bullhorn echoing out in waves over the docks and a light shake, the ship began to move. They hadn't known that the men from the Sound had finished the work of loading cargo since they hid under water in a attempt not to be spotted. But apparently they had and were leaving port. "Looks like...there's no turning back now." Kakashi grunted just low enough for it to be only heard by himself, mechanically pulling his body up the rope without much focus on anything around except the could him, that was until he nearly ran into Zabuza.

Zabuza peeked cautiously into the window they'd reached...it was an empty room, a residential area with a bed, a desk, a nightstand and nothing more. Deeming it safe, Zabuza upholstered the Mark 3 shotgun hanging off his back and smashed the glass open with the edge of the handle. It was easy for him to slide inside then reach back for Kakashi as soon as he regained himself. "There must be a map around here somewhere." Zabuza said, grabbing on to Kakashi's arm and pulling him into the ship. "It might take too long to wander around."

"Hn." Kakashi, now inside the warmth of the ship, started to shake as much as the water out of his hair as possible, it was the only part of his body that could be readily. He was right in the middle of it when his phone rung. 'Who could possibly be calling now? It must be an emergency, maybe Gai or Iruka...wait, the airwaves are jammed, how is a call getting through .' Kakashi lifted his cell phone to his ear slowly. "What?"

"Kakashi." That was an unfamiliar voice... "I see you. In fact, I see both of you." The mysterious man on the other end laughed in a playful voice, right before there was a small click though not from a hang up. Kakashi immediately flinched and jumped to the side as a bullet rained down on him from a vent above his head, "You figured it out just in time. Not bad Kakashi."

"Who are you?" Kakashi leaned to the side lightly and looked up, peering past the ventilation cage and filter...there was a faint light, a very faint light, this same shaft must have connected to a room on the floor above them. "How did you get this number? How did you even get this call through?"

"I know a lot about you, and Zabuza. Why wouldn't I, it was my job." The man said "You know, you two being here give me an idea. How about we play a little game... You two have 3 minutes to find your way to the main cargo room before I let every solider here know your position. "

"Who the hell are you!" Kakashi shouted. "I'm not playing around damnit!"

"Well I guess I can at lest give you my name. Kidomaru." Kidomaru told him. "At lest let me get to meet you. It'll be a really boring trip if you guys die too quickly." He said playfully before he hung up.

"Zabuza."

"I heard, he's above us... loud little bastard." Zabuza pressed his back against the wall to the left side of the door of the small room, listening closely to confirm what he already knew was there. He heard a voice, a man commenting that he heard a sound in this direction, but despite that it was clear that Kidomaru hadn't told the crew yet. "Ready?"

Kakashi leaned back on to the wall on the opposite side of Zabuza, "Do I have a choice." With the sniper riffle clinched tightly in his hands, Kakashi gave a light nod to Zabuza and both of pivoted off the wall towards the door, kicking it open and firing the second they gained a clear view. Two very surprised men in plan clothes were knocked off their feet hard on to the metal floors. They found themselves staring down a long, cramped corridor fitting to this type of boat.

"Where would the Cargo room be?" Kakashi wouldn't have trusted his own sense of direction on a Tanker, and knowing Zabuza to be the water person he was, Zabuza would have a better idea then he himself would."

"Someplace below us, in the center of the ship." Zabuza told him.

"Let's go."

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'Owwwww...ohhh.' Konohamaru awoken to a throbbing headache, one that was only rivaled by the constant reminder of what was happening again. Before even attempting to move he had the prescience of mind to try remember why he had just been unconscious first...Sasuke had yelled for him to get out of the way and then he felt a hard pain crushing him down... now that he got that straitened out, it was on to his next priority, to figure out why did he feel like he was moving. '...No, No no no!' Normally he would have panicked, but with everything he had ever learned from Itachi and Kisame, he knew that was a really bad move.

So instead he peeked one eye open, staring down at the ground through the haze of white snow carried by wind into someone's back, he was being carried over someone's shoulder. And from what he could tell from the clothing and the person next to who ever was carrying him, they were police officers. Police! He was saved...wait... if they were police then why wasn't he at a police station, or a hospital, or at least a cop car? Instead he was outside in the middle of a blizzard, freezing, so cold that he couldn't feel his arms or his legs, or anything they were connected to. How could he go from where he was before he got knocked out to being like this safely, he didn't even have the coat on he had before, what disregard for his safety! He was defiantly not safe!

Konohamaru lifted his head lightly, just enough to survey his surroundings...He was being carried up steps, looking across at a rather long front lawn...The white house! They were taking him home...? Why would he be being brought here? He should have thought about this more, he knew he should have, but he couldn't waste the chance to warn his Grandfather. So with his one chance to catch his captor by surprise, Konohamaru kicked the man in the chest as hard as he could, then grabbed on to the back of the man's shirt and pulled his body completely off the man's shoulder. Konohamaru flipped forward and landed on his feet, then ran around the two men and darted up the stairs toward the door...

That's when the thought crossed his mind, why would his captors be taking him here, the place with quite possibly the most security in the country? 'Oh man, what's going on here!'

"Come back here you little brat" The two men ran after him, the two men dressed as Konoha policemen that had just kidnapped him. If he couldn't trust the police, who could he thrust? Back in Orochimaru's towers he had been told that people in his Grandfather's administration had been working for the Sound, like Kabuto.., well he'd been only told about Kabuto but there had to be more right?

Konohamaru had to get to his Grandfather, and no one else, that was the only person he could trust right now.

Konohamaru burst into the front door, he really shouldn't have had a problem doing anything but for some reason security was trying to stop him. It was apparent now that this wouldn't be easy...maybe if he got some help...But how!

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"Uff!" Shikamaru and Naruto both were thrown through the living room wall, Shikamaru managed to go far enough to break through the dining room table. "Damn, this guy is really strong." Shikamaru grunted, right before his senses started flaring from the imminent attack coming blind from behind the smoke caused by the destroyed wall. The sound of gears shifting began, making what Shikamaru knew apparent to Naruto. They both dived to opposite sides as Jiroubou's Glatting gun cut through the smoke with a furry of ammunition, none of which hit it's intended target.

Lee came from behind the large man, driving his fist into Jiroubou's back. Though everyone else's physical attacks were weak against someone with as high a defense as Jiroubou, Lee was strong enough to do considerable damage where even Shikamaru couldn't. Jiroubou was forced to take a step forward to keep from stumbling, he turned abruptly with his gun stretched outward, slamming the long barrels in to the side of his head. "It's pointless for you to even attempt to fight me. Is this how they train Konoha's soldiers? Weaklings."

"We are not weak!" Naruto shouted, charging in to the room from the hole in the wall his body had just created with gun drawn outward and firing rapidly. Sure the bullets hit Jiroubou square in the chest, but the 9mm round could visibly be seen bouncing back and falling to the ground next to the shell casings. Naruto looked at his weapon "Eh?"

"You think something weak like that can penetrate this armor." Jiroubou took at step forward, and reached his free arm out, grabbing Naruto by the head and pulling him in while he drove his knee outward into the boy's stomach. Along with every bit of air in his lungs, a fair about of saliva and blood expelled from his mouth as he was launched into the air by the blow. "Pitiful."

"Well how about this?" Sasuke dived out in front of Naruto, his riffle stretched outward towards Jiroubou and firing wildly with each shot from the fully automatic weapon tore into the wide expanses of Jiroubou's torso. Sasuke landed, able to see then that even this much more powerful weapon wasn't able to create even an imprint in the armor. "Damnit."

Jiroubou lifted the long barreled Glatting gun and fired towards Sasuke, Sasuke crawled backwards toward Naruto, who was lifting the same handgun over Sasuke's shoulder and firing at Jiroubou's targeting weapon though he was trying to aim for his hand. With two shots hailed on to the high powered weapon it was knocked off course and missed them completely, instead drilling into the remains of the wall behind them. "We gotta get that body armor off." Naruto said, "Or else we'll never get at him."

Shikamaru sprang towards Jiroubou from out of nowhere, kicking him across the face and landing behind him. He knew that he barely if at all hurt Jiroubou, though that wasn't his intent, it was to draw him away from Naruto, that much was clear when he started hand seals "Shadow mimic no jutsu!" His shadow shot outward in to Jiroubou's, blinding his body.

"What is this?" Jiroubou tried to move but he found himself unable too, though he was obviously surprised by this he found that he was strong enough to fight it. "Not a bad skill, but you can't expect to hold me with this!"

Shikamaru grunted, trying his best to hold a struggling Jiroubou, he was way too strong and the fact that his arm was starting to hurt again from Chakra use didn't help. "Lee, get that armor off of him." He shouted, "Naruto, Sasuke, just keep his attacks away, he's breaking lose..."

Lee came from the front, jumping up a few feet enough to bypass the body armor and punch him directly in the jaw. Then he planted his hands on Jiroubou's shoulder as he was still rising into the air and flipped over the man's shoulders, bringing him in reach with the straps holding on the armor. Lee was able to reach down and pull off one before Jiroubou broke free of Shikamaru's hold and grabbed Lee by the head. "Nice try." Jiroubou snorted, letting Lee fall enough for him to grab him by his leg and then slam the tri-barrel gun unto his face, hard "But your out of your league. How can they send kids like you to defend the sources?"

"Your one to talk!" Naruto jumped on the barrel, forcing it down away from Lee as it began to fire while Sasuke grabbed the arm Jiroubou was holding Lee with, pulling it forward while he kicked Jiroubou's leg. Knocking the large man to the ground. With the opening, Naruto aimed toward the man's head, one of the only places unprotected on Jiroubou. Jiroubou reached out and grabbed Naruto by the leg, pulling him down to the ground forcefully and halting his attack.

Jiroubou drove his elbow into Sasuke's chin, throwing him backwards, he was easily able to climb to his feet afterwords. Shikamaru attempted to attack from behind, throwing a kick into the back of Jiroubou's head, but it was ineffective at best, Jiroubou was easily able to dive his head back into Shikamaru's. Shikamaru was knocked backwards with a stream of blood drawing from his nose and left cheek.

"All of you have too much persistence and not enough skill. It's foolish for you to attempt to take someone like me on. " Jiroubou scowled, he was the only person here that hadn't retained any damage. "Your just half trained pawns, giving your lives for a weak country."

"How about me?" Lee flipped on to his feet, driving his fist into Jiroubou's stomach and then another one directly into Jiroubou's mouth. Jiroubou struck back with his own punch, but Lee was too quick, he crouched down under the man's arm and grabbed on it with one hand, pivoting around and throwing him over his shoulder. Jiroubou was slammed to the ground with a light shake, Lee still retaining a grip on the man's arm, drove his foot down on his head, which Jiroubou caught and pushed him back by.

Jiroubou stood to his feet just as Lee regained himself, then he thrust his Glatting gun in to Lee's stomach, very painfully, and pulled the trigger. Luckily for Lee Sasuke was there to knock the gun off target with fire from his riffle, Lee took the opportunity again, pushing past the side of the long barreled gun and thrust a fist upward at Jiroubou's face. Jiroubou caught his hand and squeezed tightly... "Ahaaaaa!" Lee gasped and almost immediately dropped to his knees, attempting to pull his hand back before every bone that composed it was broken, he'd already felt something crack. Finding himself unable to get away, Lee instead swept his foot across the ground and into Jiroubou's legs while he punched the man in his knee, forcing him to let go as he fell to the ground with a loud crash

Lee held his formerly captured hand lightly, something was most definitely broken, 'Ow...'

"Shadow mimic no Jutsu." Shikamaru called out, extending his shadow into Jiroubou's while the man was still down. "Now!" Shikamaru forced him to roll on to his stomach so they could gain access to the armor, the key to taking him down once and for all.

Sasuke and Naruto sprang on to his back, Naruto loosening the second strap while Sasuke pulled off the third and final one. "Get the hell off of me." Jiroubou grunted loudly as he broke free of Shikamaru's Jutsu and pushed himself off the ground, the armor falling off his blue uniform as he did so. Jiroubou bucked Naruto and Sasuke off his back and into the air, then he jumped off the ground, grabbing both of them by the necks. With a loud grunt he threw both of them back up into the air and drove both of his fist into their stomach, knocking both of them outward with Naruto landing some where in the living room while Sasuke burst through the door to the kitchen. The two of them did manage to get in a small nod to each other before it happen, one in simple agreement. They scattered as soon as they hit the ground.

"The armor's off, great." Lee picked up the rather heavy body armor and tossed it aside, holding the broken hand loosely behind his back, and it really hurted. But still he charged at Jiroubou, driving his foot outward into Jiroubou's stomach, then he kicked off the man's torso, into the air, and thrust another kick across his face before his body drifted out of range. Naruto dived under the attacking Lee, sliding just in front of the man while pushing the handgun upward and pressing it against Jiroubou's chest while Sasuke jumped on to his back, aimed the riffle downward and they both opened fire at the same time.

"!" It all happened so quickly, in 5 seconds Naruto had emptied the rest of his clip while Sasuke deemed it enough and jumped off a seemingly dazed Jiroubou that was amazingly still standing. Lee was the one that gave the final blow, a sharp kick to the side of a very stunned Jiroubou's head, who landed on his left shoulder and rolled on to his back...'Damnit...'

"We didn't even have to take 'drastic measures' Sasuke." Naruto sighed with a breath of relief, rubbing the red liquid off the back of his head with his palm and spit out a fairly decent amount of blood, he was sure now that Jiroubou had caused some internal bleeding somewhere behind those burses he felt forming. He lifted his hand to his chest, unintentionally wincing from the pressure. 'Damn that guy hit hard...'

"I guess not." Sasuke stripped himself of the S.W.A.T vest that coved his torso, noticing that it wasn't nearly as thick as Jiroubou's, and then inspected his seeping left arm. A bullet had lodged itself in his bicep. "Come on, we have to find Konohamaru."

"Not so fast." Jiroubou called out, holding up a small square remote covered in bloody finger prints. "I can't believe that I'm forced to use this against you, but it has to be done..." Jiroubou pressed a few keys, then a red button before he tossed it aside, causing the small device to skip across the ground, over a few piles of debris from the broken wall and into the dining room. It stuck something noticeable, someone's foot...from the second demolished wall in the dining room a group of men dressed in KPD uniforms entered the house from the outside, though they were most likely Sound soldiers, by the way they hesitated they most definitely were.

Lee's eyes widened and he took an apprehensive step back, he felt something coming from Jiroubou... "Wh-What did you just do?"

"I'm sure your familiar with Curse seal, the Nanomachines developed by Kabuto..." Jiroubou's eyes became completely black in one shift like changing winds, the orange hair on his head growing thicker and longer by the second, even more noticeably his skin was shifting hue to a deep red. "It is able to change the very DNA of a cell, even to stimulate rapid cell growth and create billions of new cells with in moments. I never thought I would need to take this level on an assignment like this..." Jiroubou jumped upward from the pooling blood on hardwood floors and landed on his feet hard enough to make everything shake and cause imprints to form. The orange hair now covered his entire head and extended down in a wild mass reaching his back, each muscle had become so toned and enlarged that they seem barely able to stay contained behind the red skin. And his eyes were black with red pupils, emitting a strength only Lee and Shikamaru could fully detect.

"Which problem should we deal with first?" Naruto looked around nervously, between the group of 7 or so 'police officers' and Jiroubou who was motioning them to help, things weren't looking for them.

"We'll handle him." Shikamaru indicated Lee and himself when he spoke about who would take on Jiroubou. "You two can handle them since you are trained to fight against people with guns. With guns, with guns, with guns--"

"Naruto!" Sasuke apparently got the hint before Naruto did. "Go!"

"! Oh, right!" Naruto, being closer to Jiroubou's Glatting gun, in fact right next to it, reached down and picked up the heavy weapon that had been knocked from Jiroubou's hands.

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With a deep breath to clear away the nervousness that gripped him, Iruka shot the lock under the door's handle then kicked the metal barrier open. The door slammed against the wall on the other side and with gun drawn outward, he found a small stairwell ascending to the second floor. With no choice but to persist forward, Iruka slowly climbed the stairs, his back against the left wall and both opposed caliber weapons held upward and ready. He was carefully making his way up toward a second door at the end of his trail, one he easily reached with out incident.

'...' He knelt down, pressing his hands against the door and peering through a small keyhole...there was nothing on the other side, not even a sound. 'I guess it's safe.' Hoping to find that could help him reconnect phone services or something that would lead him to a control room, Iruka drew back a step and kicked open the door... "!" He immediately drew both guns up and ready as a similar one was thrust into his face...with shaky eyes he stared up at the weapon, then shifted his focus up toward the barer "Kabuto."

"Your hours away from when I thought you get here." Kabuto lifted his free hand, and adjusted his glasses by the rim of the left lens. They were in another large room, one filled with about 30 to 40 monitors disputed along several circular desks, along with control panels, CPUs and keyboards on just about every one and both walls, most notably was the back wall opposite of the stairs. It was made of long panes of thick glass over looking the area behind the building, an area that housed thousands of outward streaming phone lines, grids and machines. This was the security office, the only thing odd was that every monitor was displaying... static? What? "I knew you'd be the one to figure it out."

"What the hell are you trying to do?" Iruka rolled to the side, out of the path of Kabuto just as the man fired. He felt something extremely hot grace his left shoulder, making him realized how close that had been but prompting him to fight. Iruka landed behind one of the desks then immediately sprang back up, thrusting the weapons over the counter's surface and fired dual shots at Kabuto.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kabuto jumped to the side, out of the line of fire then crouched while he moved forward to farther evade Iruka's relatively slow adjusting aim. With his skill he was able to avoid being hit until he reached Iruka, Kabuto leapt upward, over the desk and delivered a swift punch into Iruka's jaw. Iruka stumbled backwards from the powerful blow until a sharp tug from Kabuto grabbing him by his shirt's collar drew him forward. "Why do you think I would go through all of this trouble? To do all of this?"

Iruka drove his head forward in to Kabuto's and shook free of the white haired man's hold, then he thrust another headbutt into Kabuto and pushed him away with his shoulder, also managing to force the gun from Kabuto's hands in the process. "Your attacking Konoha again!" Iruka's voice elevated shouted with the spark of realization, "No, you can't be, you don't have the forces."

Kabuto receded slightly and came back at Iruka with a swift kick, one that missed Iruka's stomach because of the man's quick elusive actions but and managed to knock the gun from his left hand by striking him in the arm. "You don't get it do you, I would have thought that if you came this far and figured out this many things that you would see what's staring you right in the face. But that's to be expected when dealing with Konoha, weak and stupid."

"Weak and stupid?" Iruka lifted the second handgun and opened fire, though Kabuto was quick, Iruka managed to hit him in the shoulder before Kabuto strifed to the left. "Your the one who-- ooofff!" Iruka was cut off by a swift punch to the stomach by a very quick Kabuto crouching in front of him. Followed by a swift uppercut into his chin and a punch to the side of his head. Iruka took the attacks in stride, leaned to the side and caught Kabuto's arm during the next attempt of one, then he grabbed on to Kabuto's neck with his other hand and threw him over the circular desk in front of them, managing to take out a few monitors along with him.

'...' Kabuto landed on his shoulder, particularly the one with a bullet lodged inside that causing a good amount of bleeding, which made the pain even worse. He ignored the injury, looking around just to scout his own discarded weapon, which turned out was right in front of him, before he diving from out behind the desk to retrieve it.

He landed right in front of Iruka and once again they found themselves in a dead lock of sorts, both with guns aimed at rather fatal regions of the other's body. "What are you trying to do?" Iruka asked in a voice much more fierce then his normal parameters of tone dictated him to use, of course since he was talking to Kabuto, he was always bitter when he spoke to this person. This person who always pushed his limits of physical strength, endurance and mental stamina when ever they met.

"Every time I plan something, the same people, you are constantly there, creating opposition." Kabuto smirked "Though I admit confrontations with you are interesting, you and your friends constantly interfere and conflict with our plans. That's why I was ordered to get you out of the way once and for all."

Iruka hesitated for a moment, he knew he heard something in what Kabuto was saying, a fact waiting to be discovered. But that hesitation gave Kabuto the opening he was looking for and he quickly pulled the trigger, Iruka, on a count of the hesitation, reacted a half second too late in his attempt to evade and ended up being shot in the side. '!' Iruka fell back as Kabuto climbed to his feet, returning fire rapidly to attempt to keep Kabuto at bay while he was regaining himself. "You talk like your doing all of this just to kill us off."

"Finally got it eh Iruka, a little slower then I would prefer." Kabuto took a few steps back, then abruptly shifted his head to the left, feeling a bullet burn the side of his cheek. 'His aim has gotten better...' "Better late then never."

"No, you can't be going through all of this just for us." Iruka, holding the searing wound on his left side, reached up from the ground and grabbed on to the nearest curved desk. A few grunts forced their way from his mouth on his way up, but once he got to his feet he could fight through it, since he had no other choice but to do so. Iruka removed his hand from around his stomach and raised the now bloody gun toward Kabuto who was in the middle of advancing but was halted by the weapon blocking his path to his target, he only had time to lift his own in to similar position towards Iruka. Another dead lock "There is no way you would take the risk of commandeering an entire phone company and cut off telecommunications for all this whole city just to get me here. It's only a matter of time before someone comes looking here, which should be soon."

They both opened fire on each other at the same time, only to be highly disappointed when an empty click drew out from the weapons. Both of them were out of ammunition, and with a slight fear running through his blood Iruka dropped the useless .22 and grabbed Kabuto by the arm. Iruka pulled Kabuto in while throwing his other fist upward, he managed to get in a fairly good punch into Kabuto's stomach. "That's the Iruka thinking I know." Kabuto said with a light smirk before he pulled his hand free of Iruka's grasp and wrapped both arms around Iruka's waist, with one swift motion he lifted him off the ground and threw him into the wall.

Within an instant Kabuto was holding Iruka against the wall by the neck and driving his knee up directly into the wound in the other man's stomach. A cry of pain tore it's way from Iruka's throat, he could feel the bleeding increasing among other pains. "There's something much larger going on, but you won't be alive long enough to find out, nor will those other's, they should be meeting their demise about now."

"I...don't care what you do to me..." Iruka cringed, biting away any other signs of the pain that threatened to come, he couldn't show that much weakness in front of Kabuto... "But I won't... let you hurt them!" Iruka reached upward, seizing Kabuto's neck in a similar hold. Then with much surprise to Kabuto, Iruka lifted him off the ground with one hand, then slammed him down to the ground. "I won't let you! Not again!" With anger rushed through him as his mind shifted back to the memory of their last encounter and his lack of strength, that wouldn't happen again, he wouldn't let it!

Iruka climbed on top of Kabuto, still with a strong hold on his neck, then sent a fury of punches down on to him, making sure to strike his shoulder a few time. Kabuto was surprised to say the least, this caught him off guard but he didn't have time to think of the nature of Iruka's motivation, not if he wanted to survive. Kabuto was able to slip his hands from underneath Iruka's knees where they were pined down, and then grab Iruka's shoulder and throw him off. Iruka's hold on his neck was too strong to break, so the best he could do was climb on top of him and pin the man down in turn. But Iruka kept fighting him, two strong wills going head to head that it became a match of strength for dominance, it lasted 5 minutes strait even though it felt like an eternity. 'He's gotten stronger?' Kabuto had noticed it, he couldn't help but notice what he was up against 'In such a short amount of time.'

Iruka was finally able to kick Kabuto off of him, sending him sliding a few feet away against a desk. Iruka scrambled to get to his feet as Kabuto pushed himself off the curved desk and charged at him, Iruka halted his advances with a swift kick to the chest, knocking Kabuto back a few steps.

Kabuto managed to catch his leg after the impact, holding it close to his waist with one arm and sweeping Iruka's remaining foot off the ground through a swift kick to Iruka's leg. Iruka put his left hand back and caught himself, being held off in an interesting position with Kabuto seizing one leg, his other leg hanging loosely beside it, one arm planting on the ground behind him while the other hand was docile since it couldn't reach the ground in this position. "Kabuto!" Iruka growled fiercely, kicking Kabuto across the side of his face with his free leg hard enough to force him to let go.

With his leg now free, Iruka caught himself and scrambled once again to stand, but the pain caused him to hunch over lightly and clinched the still bleeding side of his stomach right after. Kabuto clinched his left shoulder, he and Iruka both paused, both panting heavily with injuries now more painful and in worse condition then when they first were inflicted on to them. Iruka and Kabuto both seemed to notice something at the same time, the .50 that Iruka had carried with him earlier, that Kabuto had knocked out of his hand was laying on the ground beside them... With a quick glance to each other they both dived for it, but Iruka being the closer of the two managed to reach it first. And seeing this, Kabuto immediately took cover behind the nearest desk.

'I'm losing to much blood.' Kabuto knelt down on one knee, holding his shoulder, and with a closer examination he found that he'd been shot twice in two spots very close together, the reason he was losing so much more blood then Iruka was. At this rate he'd bleed to death before Iruka had a chance to kill him, with that in mind and the thought that he had to do something drastic he stood from behind the desk he used as cover, and Iruka was already aiming. "Well this is it Umino Iruka, now well see just how good you've become." Kabuto jumped over the desk and charged head on at the man.

'What dose he mean by that?' Iruka grabbed on to a monitor hanging off the wall, using it to help him get up while he held the gun out stretched with his other hand and fired his first shot at Kabuto. Kabuto shifted his path to the side and evaded, Iruka fired another shot and Kabuto crouched down slightly, feeling the bullet moving just over his head. "Kabuto!" Iruka fired another missed shot just as Kabuto dived into Iruka.

What happened next went fairly quick...The latest shot from Iruka missed it's target, but it did hit a power cord directly hanging off the ceiling, that power cord connected to the lights, meaning it was full of electricity. That broken cord sparking electricity fell in a swing motion on to a desk, and onto a broken monitor already damaged from previous shots. That monitor, though broken, had still been plugged into an outlet, so when the electricity from the broken cord streamed in to the monitor... it could only exploded. If that hadn't been bad enough a feedback was sent into the outlet, and a very powerful and still forthcoming surge causing everything connected to a power source in the room to go up with it.

Kabuto had meant to just tackle Iruka to the ground, but instead the explosions sent the both of them into the back of the room and smashing through the wall of glass engulfed in shards and flames.

! - ! - !

Gai managed to catch up with Sakon, having a high performance machine like he did it was only a matter of time. Though the icy roads and blizzard didn't help him do it. "Hey! Stop!" Gai rammed in to the white car next to him.

"Hey, they were right, you are fast." Sakon smirked. "I was told you were good, let's see how good you really are." He said, holding up a small remote. Sakon pulled off the road into an quickly passing off ramp, it lead up to a bridge that ran parallel to this road in every twist in turn it took, only it was out of reach to Gai by a 10 foot gap over water.

"!" Gai whipped the green vehicle about face and headed towards the exit he'd passed about 300 feet back, but before he could reach it a small explosion and an uprising of flames severed the small off ramp cleanly, dropping it into the water below. 'What!...No he trapped the road!' With that painful realization Gai stopped dead in his tracks, just in time as another wall of flames shot up before him and about a 100 feet behind, this part road was also about to be severed! No! He was on this part of the road! 'No...' Gai quickly turned around in the open street , his stomach clinching when he felt the part of the road he was under suddenly drop. But luckily he'd just barely made it off in time.

With a small sigh of relief Gai reassessed the situation, Sakon was trying to kill him, the road he was driving on was rigged to plunge 30 feet in to some very icy waters. And Sakon was 5 above and 10 feet across from him on a safe road, out of range of his riffle. His only choices were to survive on this road until the explosive traps ran out. "He's destroying Konoha property! This will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair!" besides his concern for Konoha property he had no idea when those traps would run out, they could go on for who knows how many miles. So his second option was to take out Sakon, but he had nothing that could reach him from here! 'Noooooooooooo!...wait, yes I do!'

Gai shifted the car in to cruse control, though he lost speed, it was worth the time. He reached into his back seat, finding the familiar strap under the cushions that allowed him to lift it up. Below lay a long steel case, one that he could barely drive while opening but some how he managed to and retrieved the contents. It took someone of his strength to lift the weapon with one hand, a weapon suited for some one as strong physically and personality wise as Gai. A rocket launcher!

Gai reached up, flipping a switch above his rearview mirror that lowered the ceiling and opened the interior of his prized auto to a blizzard. 'For a good cause, for a good cause...' Gai told himself, lifting the long barreled black weapon on to his shoulder with one hand on the trigger while he clinched the steering wheel with his other hand. 'I've got 6 shots, I do have 10 more extra back there but there's no way I'd be able to reload something like this while--'

"Come on, pay attention, you'll live longer." Sakon shouted. The break was over, Gai saw an eruption of black smoke shoot out of cracks forming exactly on the divining yellow lines of his lane from where he was now to about 500 feet ahead. Gai veered to the left, shifting lanes just as a good portion of it fell off with a loud splash, there was just a void left behind... Another geyser of smoke shot out of the ground directly in front of him, only this time instead of imploding and falling it instead exploded. Gai pulled to the right and around it just in time as the concrete buckled and was forced upward in a jagged formation.

"Not bad Meito Gai." Sakon called out, still side by side with Gai on the parallel road.

"Don't call me by my full name, it's annoying!" That wasn't really the case, Gai just wanted to say something while he turned the Rocket launcher toward Sakon and fired. With a thick trail of white smoke left behind it, the black missile streaked through the cloudy, snow fogged air toward Sakon, who hit the brakes just in time to see the rocket explode in front of him. 'No, I missed!'

'Where did that come from?' Sakon looked down at the remote in his hand, 'I have to be quick with him.'

With the sight's lens that protruded from the side of the missile pressed against his eye, Gai carefully aimed his next shot, but of course it wouldn't be that easy. The next approaching off ramp, it didn't lead to Sakon, exploded violently, sending a torent of large, jagged pieces of burning concrete into the air and raining down on him. If it wasn't for those flames Gai would have had a much harder time avoiding them, but with masterful skill Gai wove in-between the pieces and dodged the falling debris that smashed into the ground. Before he could even think about firing the immensely large gun holstered on his shoulder, another blast of black smoke and uprising wall of flames destroyed the lane ahead of him. "!" With a small grunt he eased on the brakes just enough to make the narrow turn and drive on to the next one.

It was less then a second after that another long crack shot through the dividing marks of this lane with an out pouring of black smoke. Gai started to feel the road lean to the left ... prompting him to make a turn to the left sharper then he would have liked to have had to make and launch his car off the edge of a small gap to a sold path . 'That was...close.' Gai watched the whole far left lane as far as the eye could see, which wasn't far since snow made visibility limited, lean to the side, just narrowly missing the second bridge, and crash into the water. Gai stuck his head over the driver side door, glaring up at Sakon who was a safe ways away. "Stop blowing up the road!"

"Heh." Sakon just laughed at his comment "Let's see if you can survive this!"

"What is he..." Gai's voice trailed off and he watched in shock as another uprising of smoke signaled the severing of the road ahead him, creating a 50 foot gap from this side to the next. Gai could barely judged the distance on his own because of the thick snowfall, and to make things worse he saw another geyser of smoke shoot into the air behind him, meaning his only chance was to keep going, he'd be stranded other wise...So with a nervous sweat breaking out, Gai reached down and shifted gears causing the familiar roar of his engine to grow louder and steadily increase in pitch. Could a high performance car in four wheel drive make a roughly 50 feet jump going 170 and gaining mph on an icy road with a 29 degree incline at the very edge of the road?

Gai was tempted to close his eyes when the green vehicle launched into the air, the sinking feeling in his stomach grew until it was almost nauseas as he sailed nearly blind across the gap. But he'd be damned if he was going to let this Sakon guy send him over a the edge with out doing anything about it. So he shifted the black rocket launcher towards the bridge on his left and fired a shot at Sakon... The missile screeched, tearing through the white power and dived directly at Sakon, but to his luck Gai's aim was off a little and it crashed just behind him, but not with out smashing through every window in his car and scorching him.

Satisfied that he'd done some damage, Gai shut his eyes nervously and tensed substantially as he waited for what seemed like forever until he felt that hard impact of his vehicle hitting the ground then sliding uncontrollably on the icy surface. Gai flinched and reigned it back into control. "I'm getting to old for this! Sakon!"

"Geez, how'd I get stuck with an annoying guy like this?" Sakon grunted, staring over at Gai's car co-linear to his...He saw a curve coming ahead, a sharp curve that made a complete circle around a large tower and came back, going under these two bridges. Both roads stayed side by side with each other the whole time. Seeing this he remembered of a trap that had been set here...

Gai, taking advantage of Sakon's hesitation, started aiming his third round, and just when he got ready to fire a perfectly positioned shot...the ground started shaking with an ear deafening rumble, so loud that he could barely hear himself think! 'Where is that horrible noise coming from?' Gai couldn't seem to tell, it was like it was coming from every direction...Gai looked back, he could see the road breaking off behind him, all of it was cracking and falling with loud explosions and uprising walls of smoke and flames, and it was chasing after him! 'Damn...' Even with that, the nature of Gai's dismay was on the other side of the upcoming curve, the same thing was happening over there. In a cascading motion his bridge was crumbling and detonating from both sides, he was already trapped.

"How do I get out of this! Think Gai think! There must be away, even if this looks impossibly like imitate death! " He was mentally pounding his head, trying to think quickly for one good... As his gaze settled on the large building that the highway wrapped around, a rather, daring dangerous idea formed in his head, one that only the best driver in Konoha could possibly pull off. With no time to waste he shifted gears for the final time, hearing the distinct raise in pitch of his engine that came along with it.

With the quickly approaching cascade blocking him and the what looked to be an about 6 story building beside him side, Gai veered sharply to the left and spun the direction of his car 180 degrees so that he was now facing the guard rail beside the highway bridge and the building, though he was still sliding 'This can't be good for my tires!' Then drove forward with every ounce of acceleration his former race car had. 'Come on luck!' Gai wrapped his whole arm around the rocket launcher as he smashed through the metal railing and sent himself flying off the road across a 20 foot gap, then he fired another missile from the lunched and into the side of the steel tower. An explosion ripped through the side of the building, blowing open the wall allowing his car to sail into the third floor with a rush of glass shards and flames.

To his barley contained happiness he landed on white tiled floors, though his rear wheels almost didn't make it completely. "I don't have time to waste!" Gai shouted, plowing through an empty floor filled with hardwood desks, glass cubical, that he either avoided or smashed through if he deemed he would lose too much speed trying to get out of it's way. In a few seconds he was halfway across the office, prompting him to fire off another missile into the opposite wall. Another loud explosion ripped open the steel just enough for his car to fit through with a few inches to spare, and with that he was sailing through the air again, diving a 2 ton vehicle through a blanket of snow over freezing cold waters, since the road he'd been on had already completely collapsed and receding into the sea. Which only left one placed for him to go, a very lucky jump on to the second highway bridge and a hard landing directly in front of Sakon.

"It's over!" Gai lifted the rocket launched on his shoulder and fired his final missile directly at the particularly fast white car coming head on at him. It couldn't miss, infact it flew directly through the broken windshield and exploded. The force threw the half incinerated frame in to the air. "!" Gai crouched his head down just enough for a burning frame to pass over his prized car and land only a few feet away, it had come so close that he could feel the heat... Gai slumped back in his seat and let out a sigh of relief. "It's...over..."

"Not...quite..." A weak voice called out, so weak that Gai barely heard it...but he knew it, and it immediately made him sit up and look to his right near the inflamed wreckage that used to a car. Sakon lay on the ground beside it, some how alive but barely at best. He was drenched in burns covered by blood, Gai couldn't even see the man's face from all of the red liquid... "Curse seal...level 2."

"What?" Gai watched with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open, he couldn't believe what he was seeing! Sakon was healing before his eyes, and what ever he'd been wearing on his back had started to make a humming noise... black marks started to creep on to his almost feminine face originating from his neck, from the machine on his back. Gai couldn't believe it until he saw Sakon stand. "It's...it's not possible!"

"Do you think you could kill me this easily?" Sakon ripped off the small hood on his shirt that covered the black, square, device he was warring. "We've only begun!"

'This never ends.' Gai thought of the notion of running this guy over, but his car had completely stalled, and with good reason after taking that much damage...Gai looked up at Sakon, a small furry growing in his eyes. "You!...You did this to my car!"

Sakon scratched his head. "What?"

"You did who knows what to the people who travel this road, you blow up a highway that took 7 years to build!" Gai took a small glance back where the where a 4 lane road used to be as he lowered the rocket launcher and opened a proportionately large compartment that had been over his shoulder when he carried the weapon. His hands move quickly to reload the 6 of 10 missiles stored in the steel box under his back seat. "And even worse, you do this to my car!" With an angry growl, Gai stood up, leveraging the 6 shot rocket launcher on to his right shoulder while he jumped out of the stalled green vehicle. "I, Mito Gai the beautiful green beast of Konoha, will take you down Sakon of the Sound!"

! - ! - !

It was really peaceful. Sarutobi had just finished reading over a few papers with the news playing on a TV mounted on the wall set to mute when he noticed it. Sarutobi looked down at his watch, it was 7:30 in the morning, the time when things usually started up. There should have been the sounds of people walking past, phone's ringing, something of that nature, or at least his secretary dropping by to ask if her favorite President as she put, needed a cup of coffee.

It was around the time when he woke Konohamaru up, or occasionally had someone do it for him, and met him for breakfast in the dizzyingly large dinning room with a very audible echo. But it was quiet, dead silent in fact. "Is today a holiday?" Sarutobi glanced over to an open laptop on his desk and checked the calendar, things were known to be slightly more quiet during those days, but it wasn't one of them.

"Hmm..." Sarutobi stood up from his chair and walked from around his desk with short steps. He turned off the TV on his way to the door, then reached outward and turned the handle...or attempted too anyway. It didn't move, locked. "What? Hey!" Sarutobi pounded on the door with his fist, there was no reason he should be locked in, if it was for security reasons then someone would have told him. He didn't know what was going on, but he intended to find out, and he couldn't do that in here.

Sarutobi turned to the side and delivered a swift kick to the pair of doors separating him from the outside, he was strong enough to knock off the lock and force them open. "What's going...on...here..." Sarutobi looked outside at the completely empty corridor outside the oval office, there was even an echo...this place was never empty! He couldn't get over that, it made him think something was wrong... '...?'

Sarutobi froze, he would have gone deeper down the hall but something told him that what he really needed to be focused on was right here, inside of his office. "I should have guessed it." The old man sighed, narrowing his eyes into a dangerous gaze as he slowly turned around. He found none other then Orochimaru sitting in his chair with his feet up on his desk and his legs crossed as if he was relaxed. With out another thought Sarutobi unbuttoned the black suit coat he wore and tossed it aside discardingly. "Get the hell out of my chair."

Orochimaru rested his arms behind his head "Your a fool if you think I'm going to leave, not after I waited so long for this day."

"Leave?" Sarutobi reached back and grabbed on to the handles of the doors, pulling them closed before reinstating the lock since it was apparent no on was here that could help him, he'd been set up. "I see you went through all of the trouble of doing who knows what to my staff and security." He said bitterly "What did you do?"

"Dose it matter old man?"

Sarutobi reached up and loosened his tie with a few small tugs "It dose matter. Where is my staff... where is my grandson?"

"Heh, I'll give the little bastard some credit, he managed to find out what was going on before you did. Which doesn't speak highly of you" Orochimaru said "Of course I couldn't let him tell you, that would ruin everything. So I had catch him, he's on his way back as we speak. And don't worry about me killing him, I've got much bigger plans for the boy."

"If you hurt him again--"

Orochimaru pushed himself back just enough to stand "You'll what?"

"I'll make your death slow and painful." Sarutobi slowly began to walk toward the younger man, he knew it had to happen some day, he just didn't think it would be like this. Orochimaru was smart, he knew that much, if he could organize something like this, something on this scale... "This is it Orochimaru!" He shouted, knowing that Orochimaru was growing more dangerous, more lethal to this country by the day. He had to stop him now, because if he waited any longer then Orochimaru may grow more powerful... If he had to do this himself then and turn Orochimaru's assassination plan back on to him, so be it. "This doesn't involve my grandson or any one else, it's only between me and you. And since you've gone through all of the trouble to set this up, it's going to end here, now. "

"I could have had you killed hours ago." Orochimaru said with a cocky tone, his body completely relaxed as he approached, completely apposed to Sarutobi who was so tense that he was almost shaking. "But after all these years it wouldn't have felt right if I didn't do it my self, only fitting right? The student surpassing the teacher."

"Don't take me too lightly." Sarutobi stepped forward and threw a punch at Orochimaru, Orochimaru blocked it with his lifted arm and reached out for Sarutobi with his free hand. Sarutobi crouched just under Orochimaru's arm and punched him in the stomach. Then pushed Orochimaru away. "I taught you everything you know, don't think you can kill me so easily."

"Is that why you think you stand a chance?" Orochimaru, having a longer reach, drew his leg back and sent a sharp kick into Sarutobi's chest. With a small grunt and a step back to catch himself, Sarutobi reached upward, pulling Orochimaru down by his neck and thrust his left fist upward into the side of Orochimaru's face. Orochimaru reached down and caught Sarutobi in a similar hold. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for this old man." Orochimaru lifted Sarutobi off the ground enough for him to slam their heads together hard and force Sarutobi to let go, then he threw him with all the strength he had gained.

Sarutobi curled inward loosely, enough to flip in a half revolution before he uncurled and his feet landed against the wall his back would have crashed into with out that maneuver. With years of practice, Sarutobi kicked off the wall and dived head on at Orochimaru. "!" Sarutobi drew his leg back and drove down a strong kick into Orochimaru's head right as they collided. Orochimaru fell back on to Sarutobi's desk, but immediately kicked the elder man back before his body could reach the ground. "You speak as though you didn't start this war." Sarutobi snorted, rubbing his chest slightly where he'd been hit.

"You started this along time ago Sarutobi!" Orochimaru shot back angrily, pushing himself off the desk in a flurry of scattered papers and a crash of a falling lamp and computer being knocked off. "Your the one that--"

Sarutobi sent another strong punch into Orochimaru's stomach, then tackled him, a obviously very powerful tackle since he drove Orochimaru completely through his desk. "You don't seem to realize how horrible a thing you were doing! Those were innocent people, I don't care what you were trying to do, you have no right to do that to them!" Sarutobi pinned Orochimaru down in the rubble, his left hand with a firm hold on Orochimaru's neck while he pounded into his face with furious punches. He started to feel his anger rising, it was nearly impossible to say which thing Orochimaru had done specifically that made him the maddest, all he knew was that he would make sure this would end here and now.

Orochimaru thrust his legs upward in a double kick to Sarutobi's stomach, he was strong enough to knock the older man a fairly high distance up into the air. "The past doesn't matter any more, The only thing that dose is that the Leaf country will be out of my way once and for all!" Orochimaru shouted, flipping on to his feet, catching the man and wrapping both arms tightly around Sarutobi's neck. "I hate this place, and it's about time I finally got rid of it."

"I always wondered what your parents did to you." Sarutobi scowled, his hands clinching Orochimaru's arms in attempt to pry them off. "You still don't get it do you, I'm fighting you not the entire population of the Sound country. You just want to kill everyone and every thing, your nothing more then a common terrorist, that's why your too weak to win a war."

"We'll see how weak I am when I'm through with you!" Orochimaru growled loudly as he threw Sarutobi forward. Sending the smaller body smashing through the glass doors in the back of the room and outside on to snow covered balcony.

He came to a sliding stop face down in the snow, his head crashed against the metal bars of the railing surrounding the terrace making sure he didn't go any farther. 'Damnit, I getting too old for this.' Sarutobi stifled any sound that would reveal his current pain, only cringing slightly as he pushed himself up on to his knees and pulled the thick pieces of glass smeared in his blood that had embedded themselves in his arms, legs and torso with haste. He was particularly aggrieved when he had to reach back and pull a large pieces of white wood from stuck in the flesh below his right shoulder blade. "Nothing you do will disprove how weak you are!" Sarutobi yelled, drawing his arm back and throwing the same piece of wood that had injured him at an approaching Orochimaru.

His aim was impeccable, that much apparent when the blood stained spike drove itself into Orochimaru's leg. "Senile Bastard!" Orochimaru nearly fell from the affliction, it gave Sarutobi the opening he was looking for and he immediately scrambled off the cold ground and charged as the man. Sarutobi planted both hands on Orochimaru's shoulders and used them to push himself upward, he was thrust above Orochimaru's head, pulling in both knees and driving his feet down into Orochimaru's face.

He used that blow to kick himself farther into the air while Orochimaru was thrown backwards on to the ground. "How quickly you for get what I did to Konoha last time!"

"Fool!" Sarutobi fell kneeling on top of Orochimaru, driving his knee into the younger man's stomach "You made your weapons! Your standard issues! Your ground support, your air support! Everything you have from my dead prototypes! Your nothing but a traitor who wouldn't have gotten anywhere with out steeling from Konoha! WITH OUT STEALING FROM ME!"

Orochimaru coughed violently, expelling blood from his mouth on to the floor from internal bleeding and no doubt a few broken ribs. "Your going to die right here and now old man!" Orochimaru pulled the wooden spike out of his leg and thrust it up with both hands into Sarutobi's stomach, driving it completely through until it came out the other side. "And Konoha with you!"

"...!...!" Sarutobi found himself unable to speak, unable to move for that small second that his body went numb and unfeeling before the immense pain surged through him. He could only gasp and shake... He could feel the life draining from him in the form of blood streaming across the wood's surface to the carpet in a small river. "Oro...chimaru..."

Orochimaru pushed his former sensei's weak body off of him, slowly standing to his feet with a visible struggle and resistance from his broken ribs and damaged leg. "Damn you old man." He scowled, clinching his leg.

Sarutobi fell on to his knees and knees, but he knew it couldn't end like this, he couldn't let himself die so easily! He immediately sprang forward off of his knees and latched on to anything on the other man he could, Orochimaru's shirt. "Orochimaru!" Sarutobi grunted audibly, pulling himself on to his feet in a limping, heavily lagging stance, then wrapped his arms around Orochimaru's torso tightly while managing to constrict Orochimaru's arm also. "I wont...die that easily."

Orochimaru drew back, the look on Sarutobi's eyes, the expression on his face, the way he kept pulling himself closer in spite of the fact that he was only driving the white spike deeper into himself. It was haunting, this man wouldn't leave him alone. "Get the hell off of me!" He called out in a shaky voice.

"You still... don't get it...just because I don't...survive...doesn't mean Konoha wont." Sarutobi dug his fingers into Orochimaru's back, tightening the hold he had on the man. "Every person in this city...in the country...is strong, and they have something...you don't...Konoha will always...thrive!"

Orochimaru tried desperately to push him off, but he wouldn't move in inch. "What are you saying...Let go!" He gasped at a sharper pain in his back, something was burrowing into him...He looked back, and was surprised to find knife in Sarutobi's hand, going deeper, and deeper and deeper with each push and jab. Sarutobi was squeezing him against it 'Where did that come from?'

Sarutobi felt himself becoming weaker by the moment, but he kept his arms locked on the man, unwilling to yield as he forced the blade. It had been an old one kept as a decoration for his desk, a Kunai, and he managed to get it when he knocked Orochimaru through it. '!' He flinched and nearly fell when he heard a pounding on the doors at the head of the room.

The two wooden doors burst open as Konohamaru stumbled through, after apparently kicking it, bruised and bloody from numerous things he had to go through to make it here. "Grandpa! No!"

"Konohamaru!" Sarutobi looked up at Orochimaru, he couldn't let him get his hands on his grandson twice, not twice, not again! So with the last of his strength he forced the Kunai up into Orochimaru's back until he hit something solid that didn't permit him to go farther... Then he felt something streaming on to his hands, something less consistent then blood, a spinal fluid of sorts.

"Wha-What did you do?" Orochimaru felt his arms going numb, the next thing he knew he could barely move them. "What the hell did you do!"

"Heh heh." Sarutobi gave a weak smirk, "At least...I was able to do...something. Not as weak as you think huh Orochimaru." He gave one last mocking smile to Orochimaru, of whom he'd never felt more loathing of, and turned to Konohamaru. "Konohamaru, run."

"No! I gotta get you some help!" Konohamaru shook his head.

"It's too late...just--" Sarutobi fell to his knees, his arms finally releasing Orochimaru. Then with one last breath he collapsed on the ground with enough force to push the wooden spike out of him and let it settle beside him.

"No! No!" Konohamaru ran towards his fallen grandfather, only to have his path to be blocked by Orochimaru. "You---You killed my grandfather you son of a bitch!" The boy growled angrily. "You did this to him! You did this to him! You killed him you bastard!" Konohamaru felt his body tense until his whole form began to quiver. His vision blurred as tears burned in his reddening eyes, and he let them, he didn't care anymore, he didn't care about anything anymore.

It was amazing how quickly it happened, how quickly his mind became clouded with the feelings of unconstrained, pure and absolute rage that took control of every muscle in his body. His heart raced, subsequently making the heat in his body rise and swell up with in him like the fury in his mind, Konohamaru's mind. He could no longer control himself, he couldn't explain it, he didn't want to explain it, his body just moved on it's own and he let it. He just wanted to... "YOU BASTARD!"

! - ! - !

Flames raged around him as he tumbled down the final flight of stairs on to the first floor, Asuma landed hard on the marble floors, hitting his head against it. He gained a clear, unobstructed view of the ceiling, embers raining down on him from a glowing red wood and concrete that was nearly burned through completely making him realize it was only a matter of time before it collapsed. These fires were spreading quickly, most of the second and third floors were covered with them on account of his fighting with Tayuya.

Speaking of which, she was heading for him now, standing a flight above him with the machinegun and flame thrower combo in her hands. "You won't die will you!" She shouted in frustration, panting heavily after taking her share of damage in this fight. Her body armor was fairly weakened from Asuma's constant attacks and wasn't far from being useless.

"I could say the same." Asuma rolled abruptly to the side as a blast of flames concealing bullets streamed down on him. He evaded the heat, just barely able to keep rolling as Tayuya swept the combination across the ground in attempt to hit him. Asuma rolled on to his back and stopped, lifting the sub-machine guns and opening fire. A few of his shots hit the wooden railing surrounding the stairs, but a good number of them were on target, forcing Tayuya to flee down the stairs to evade.

Out of every fight taking place at the moment Asuma had to compete with the most dangerous conditions, even ahead of Gai's who'd nearly been blown up. The only light he had now that anything serving power to the building had been burned away was the hazy red of flames surrounding him. Black smoke poured upward against the ceiling and settled there, building up from lack of places for it to escape to hence the haziness. He could barely breathe nor see, and the heat was getting to him. "Tayuya...this fight can't keep going like this, just give up."

"Give up?" Tayuya looked around in the smoke, her only clue to his position was his voice, which she turned toward and sent out another blast of heated flames at. "Why don't you, you can't win."

Asuma dived to the side, just missing Tayuya's attack only to run into the wall which had long since been ablaze. Intense heat scorched him even from his distance, and to make things worse the wall had been burned through so thoroughly that it fell from the slightest impact. Asuma scrambled on to his feet and ran for his life, just making it in time as the concrete tumbled down and smashed against he marble floors with a thunderous roar.

Tayuya didn't hear anything after that... 'Did that do it? Is he dead?' Tayuya knelt down in an attempt to avoid as much smoke as she could, peering carefully though the black and red haze...

"I'm not there Baka!" Asuma came from behind, grabbed on to the back of Tayuya's head and slammed Tayuya's face to the ground, he stepped on her hand before she could lifted her weapon. Afterwords kicking it away and pressing one of the high rate guns against her head, but when he pulled the trigger nothing happened. 'Damnit! It's empty.' "Give up now and I promise I won't kill you." Asuma had no other choice but to offer it, hoping she didn't here the click of empty ammunition.

"Get off me asshole!" Tayuya reached up, grabbing on to Asuma's neck and pushing him forward, off of her back. She quickly pushed her self up, unable to help but cough when the burning ash saturated smoke became too much for her.

Once again they were lost to each other in the flames and smoke...A loud creaking sound came from above, followed by a loud slam when a concrete support beam fell from the ceiling engulfed in flames. It sent a rush of scolding air rushing over the both of them.

"You can't even breath." Asuma snorted, down on his hands and knees as he looked for Tayuya, also with his shirt drawn up over his mouth and nose. He really wished he had Kakashi's mask at the moment.

"You can't either dumbass." Tayuya yelled out angrily, bushing away an ember that landed on her hat.

"I've been smoking for years, I can handle a little smoke." Asuma was right, he could handle the smoke better then Tayuya, that didn't mean it wasn't effecting him in the same way. Anymore of this and he'd pass out from smoke inhalation.

Tayuya jumped over the burning pillar and charged at Asuma. Asuma reached up and caught her by the shoulder, then tossed her back in to the pillar, which she ended up crashing right through... Asuma was fairly confident that it was over after that, they'd been fighting in this smoke for who knew how long. '!' He heard Tayuya saying something, he wasn't sure it was directed at him but he did make out the words, "Curse Seal."

As if triggered by those same words, a burst of wind rushed outward, pushing smoke, debris and more importantly flames flying at Asuma. "!What is this!" Asuma lifted his arm up to his face and placed a leg back to keep from being blown away, trying his best block his vital areas though he couldn't help be hit by objects like chairs and tables. By the time the gust was over, a huge barricade was formed behind Asuma blocking what he previously didn't know was the front door. All it formed a burning wall blocking any and all exit. The ground around him was clear, only a scorched marble floor surrounded by a ring of fire pushed out by the gust.

He was trapped, just him and Tayuya. And Tayuya looked different, much different. Black chain like marks streaked up from across her left cheek, her arms carrying the same marks. "What did you just do?" Asuma lowered his arm slowly as he stared at her.

Tayuya smirked as she lifted her hands before her face, then clinched them into a tight fist. Fire streamed down from the burning ceiling and covered her hands and forearms, though they didn't appear to be burning her at all. "Don't worry about it, just know that when I'm pounding your ass to a charred, bloody pulp, that you drove me to it."

Asuma looked around him, the smoke was starting to make his surroundings hazy again, but he could still make out one thing, Tayuya's riffle/flamethrower laying discarded only a few feet to the left of him. Tossing aside his empty previous weapons, he immediately went for the still at least half full M4A1 machine gun. Coughing violently with every motion.

It be came clear to him that this wasn't so much as a fight against Tayuya as a race against time. He had to go through Tayuya and get out of here now, 5 minutes he'd be half passed out from smoke inhalation, or this burning ceiling would collapse and the whole precinct would fall in on them. 5 minutes!