Chapter 22: The Three-Way Deadlock


A/N: I do not own the Naruto Franchise!

I do however own Mari Kaede and any other OCs mentioned.

Warnings: Contains dark themes, such as depression, murder, experimentation, emotional, mental and physical torture, possible attempted suicide and mentions of sexual activities!

Hey guys here's another chapter for you, sorry for the long wait, it took a while to get motivated for this chapter because I was scared of ruining the fight since the last chapter was so well-recieved, hopefully this one is just as good.

Enjoy!


In this empty field, stood three towering summons, one blue and white slug, one large orange, and red toad, and a long, vicious looking purple and black snake. Ontop of said summons were the respective Sannins, Orochimaru, Jiraiya and Tsunade, and at their sides were Shizune, Naruto, Kabuto and Kaede. The latter was currently sat on the nose of the serpent, staring out at the impressive sight, gauging just how screwed they were against two large creatures like their own.

She wasn't aware that the small toads and the pig from earlier started running when the purple snake glanced down at them, nor did she care. As long as it wasn't trying to eat her, she didn't give a damn what it did.

"Manda and Orochimaru," The giant toad, Gamabunta, started, looking at them as he held the smoking pipe between his lips. "Katsui and Tsunade...These sure are nostalgic faces." He took a puff of the pipe and exhaled a deep cloud of toxic smog. "Are you holding a reunion or something after all this time, Jiraiya?"

The Toad Sannin smirked as the wind whipped his hair around. "I brought you out for the first time in a while, stop saying stupid things. I just thought it was about time we put an end to our prolonged friendship." His eyes narrowed. "We will defeat Orochimaru here, today."

Orochimaru didn't take that declaration well as he made a soft sound of anger and his own snake-like eyes narrowed just like Jiraiya's. However before he could respond, the summon which he stood on gave him his full attention. "Hey, Orochimaru, don't bring me out in such troublesome situations." The large serpent, Manda, boomed irritably, his mood only worsening when he refused to respond. "Damn you! I'll eat you!"

Kabuto, who was still crouched atop the giant serpent's brow, put his hand onto his massive scales and spoke with a tone of respect, one which he used with Orochimaru often. "Please don't say that, Manda-sama. I'll give you an offering to make up for this later, for sure."

'An offering?!' Kaede thought silently, eyes wide as she spun round to stare at the large head of the snake. 'This thing eats live people?! The hell's up with Orochimaru's summons, they're as twisted as he is!'

"Who asked you?" Manda snapped up at the young medic. "Don't talk to me so casually, kid!"

The redhead couldn't help the smirk that curled her lips, which slowly crept into an amused grin. "Heh, even Orochimaru can't handle you? Tell y'what, you've earned my respect Manda-san!"

The large beast hummed and his eyes crossed to stare at the woman sat atop his large nose. If he had eyebrows he would have arched them at the sight of the new face. "Keep your comments to yourself, girl!" Her brow twitched with the insult. "Listen to what I said to the kid there and shut your trap if you don't want to be eaten!"

'I take it back, this snake's an asshole like it's master...'

"Hey, Orochimaru," The vile serpent continued, glaring at their opponents since he couldn't see the Sannin from his angle. "Prepare at least a hundred sacrifices later..."

Kabuto stared down at the purple scales he was crouched on, and then glanced up at his leader. 'Even if he is here at Orochimaru-sama's call, if Manda finds out that Orochimaru-sama can't use his jutsu, I'm sure he will betray him.' The boy let out a soft breath, which could be mistaken for exhaustion rather than concern. 'Even though we have no other choice, summoning Manda in this situation was a very risky bet.'

Their attention was taken when they heard a disgusting squelching noise and all turned their gaze to Katsui and Tsunade as the giant slug created a small version of herself and carried the unconscious Naruto down to Shizune on the ground below. Since she had spoken rather softly, none of them could hear the other from this distance unless they spoke up, like Jiraiya had done.

Once the young attendant was entrusted with the boy, Gamabunta chuckled and took a huge puff of his pipe, before he exhaled the smoke in Manda's face. Sadly as Kaede was sat down on his nose, the smog shrouded her completely and she coughed hard as she inhaled lungfuls of toxic fumes.

"S-son of a-" She started, only to cut herself off with another cough, standing, with immense difficulty, to escape the cloud so she could breathe, stepping back so Orochimaru and Kabuto were in the front to fight. Right now, she was useless to them, her jutsu caused her pain, Jiraiya had numbed her body with his attack on her neck and she was running low on Chakra, any more and she wouldn't be able to use any jutsu in an emergency.

"You bastard," Manda sneered as the smoke began to dissipate. "You want to become a dried toad, eh?!"

"I just happened to want a snake-skin wallet, you know..." Gamabunta countered as he grasped the dagger he had strapped around his waist.

Jiraiya's gaze became sharp with determination, despite the smirk on his lips, and he spoke in a strained, dark tone. "Orochimaru, you've become too evil. We're no longer comrades."

"Comrades?" Orochimaru repeated with a leering grin on his lips and a deep chuckle in his throat as he raised his head and looked down his nose at the white-haired Sannin. "That gives me the shivers."

"The title of 'Sannin' will have one less holder after today!" Tsunade chimed in, full of energy and strength, despite her dwindling Chakra.

The redhead from Suna looked between the three as they squared off, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, and her eyes fell on the back of Orochimaru's head. "You're screwed now, Snake-Eyes." She pointed out, only receiving a slight turn of the head as a response. "How're y'going t'get out of this?"

Silence fell between them for a minute before he made another amused sound, a soft laugh, and his shoulders shook as he looked straight ahead once again. "It's rather simple, Firecracker, so even you will be able to understand this..." He clenched his flaking, purple fist. "I will fight and come out the victor!"

She couldn't fathom how much he believed in his own power, that utterly impossible sense of arrogance that meant even in the most dire of situations he would see himself winning despite there being a ninety-nine percent chance he would die.

It was going to get him killed!

She caught herself thinking that and her eyes widened suddenly, a sense of sickness washing over her as she did everything in her power not to cover her mouth and/or vomit. Why did those words cross her mind? Why did she care? Why did it sound like she was worried about him?!

As the wind ripped the last petal from a lone flower below, Kaede's thoughts were snatched from her by distraction as Katsui moved forward and spoke in such a soft tone, despite the situation. "Zesshinen San!" The slug's cheeks bulged and suddenly a vicious acid shot from her small mouth, which Manda avoided, turning Kasui's target into the rock behind him, which fizzed and melted where the strong fluid had struck.

Using his speed as an advantage, the giant serpent quickly changed course and lunged for Katsui, wrapping around her slimy body with ease, startling both her and Tsunade as he tightened around her. "Here's one!" Manda hissed, eyes set on the blonde as he opened his mouth to snatch up his first sacrifice.

However, Gamabunta didn't let him have his little snack, as the large toad used his strong legs to dive forward, thrusting out his dagger to stab the snake straight through the skull. Of course, Manda used his speed to avoid the blade and snapped his jaws around it, holding it still as the three stood there, trembling as each tried to escape the others' attacks.

The poor slug's shaking intensified as the purple reptile continued to tighten his hold. "Katsui!" Tsunade called down to her summon, concern in her hazel eyes.

"Tsunade-sama..." She started, trailing off as her master understood the request without vocalization, using Sunshin no Jutsu to quickly escape the situation while Katsui began to reach her limit as her body bulged in the areas that weren't being squeezed.

As soon as that limit was reached, her large form exploded into a million smaller versions of herself, forcing Manda to let her go. While the serpent and the toad struggled to gain control of the dagger, said slug reformed as her millions of tiny bodies came together and fused into the large creature she once was.

Manda swung his tail around to attack Gamabunta and put himself at an advantage and the frog summon was forced to let go and flip back to avoid the attack. But the purple snake wasn't done... "It's coming!" Jiraiya warned.

"I know!" Gamabunta snapped and Manda tossed the dagger at him, which the toad easily avoided, only to remember that Katsui had just reformed behind him a second ago. Luckily the blade wasn't flung far enough and it hit the ground, burying half it's silver-edge into the hard dirt, upright and out of use.

Tsunade, who had been waiting in the winds, used this dagger-turned-obstacle as an in-between as she jumped onto its side and used the force of her feet making contact to kick off and flip until she gracefully landed on the top of Katsui's head.

"Tsunade!" Jiraya called out. "Stand back!" The Toad Sage started forming seals with his hands. "Bunta, oil!"

"All right!" Gamabunta inhaled deeply and a gurgling in his stomach interrupted the short-lived silence as he put his hand against his belly which expanded and his cheeks filled with a disgusting fluid. Manda knew that the attack would be devastating if it continued and chose then to swiftly slither towards them, opening his mouth to take a chunk out of the pair of them.

Jiraiya inhaled deeply and spat fire just as Gamabunta spewed the oil, the two jutsu combined and created an inferno of lethal flames meant to take all of them out at once.

'Oh crap!' Kaede thought as she braced for the attack which engulfed the lot of them without mercy. The shadow of the snake inside the flames began to melt and showed no signs of movement.

Gamabunta hummed and his eyes narrowed triumphantly. "How's that?" He asked, mockingly of course.

Much to their dismay, however, the flames died down and revealed that it wasn't the snake that got scorched, but his skin, which he had shed mere seconds before the attack connected. "No, that's...!" The white-haired Sannin trailed off, gritting his teeth in frustration as said skin crumbled and fell to the floor, still burning in some places.

The silence that followed stretched for only a second before the ground shook beneath the two. "Bunta, he's underground!" Jiraiya alerted the giant toad.

"What?!" Gamabunta echoed out, averting his gaze down as the ground cracked and crumbled towards them like something was rushing at them from under the surface. The dirt erupted into the air and Bunta just managed to catch whatever shot out to attack him. However, by the time they realized it was the tail that he was holding and not the head, Jiraiya spun round as the giant serpent broke free of the earth behind them and opened his mouth wide to attack.

Sadly, the villains seemed to forget that Tsunade was still in the fight as she fell towards them from high in the sky, having jumped into the air with the giant toad's dagger in hand. She spun the blade to point downwards and pierced Manda's top jaw, forcing his mouth to snap shut, keeping him pinned to the ground, unable to move. His summoner and the two subordinates leaped back just in time and landed on his spine a few feet away from the dangerous blade.

"That's the second time we just dodged their attacks!" Kaede snapped, glaring at Orochimaru. "D'you still think we're going t'come out of this the winner?!" She wasn't scared, but she knew from their power and her own weakened state that she couldn't fend them off if they chose to attack her.

She wouldn't die while he was still alive!

"Stay down!" Tsunade snapped at the beast as her feet made contact against the flat bottom of the weapon's hilt and Gamabunta landed a small distance back, having dove away before the snake hit the ground to avoid behind harmed.

'As expected from Sannin.' Orochimaru thought to himself as he gritted his teeth, frustrated with the difficult situation he was met with. 'It's tough to take on both of them.' His cheeks bulged and he shot his tongue out, quickly coiling it around Tsunade's throat before she could do anything to stop it.

"Tsunade!" Jiraiya shouted as she made a soft choking noise.

Kaede stared up at the sight as the memory of Orochimaru strangling her with that tongue popped into her mind and she grimaced. 'I'm glad it ain't me, this time.' She thought. 'It's bad enough having t'see his jutsu, but I never want to feel it again!'

Orochimaru chuckled, breaking the woman from her musings as his tongue tightened around the blonde medic's throat, cutting off whatever air she was still getting. "I'll kill you by breaking your neck!" He sneered as the woman fought against his hold, grabbing the muscular organ as it got painfully close to crushing her windpipe. 'Even if you can't die in battle, if you lose your head you'll die,' The Snake Sannin taunted silently as his smirk warped into a disturbing grin. 'Right, Tsunade~?'

Tsunade tried to take in a breath, and when that failed, she forced her arm to tuck under Orochimaru's tongue, using the gap she created to loosen the grip enough to allow her to breathe. He made a noise of shock and his eyes widened as she spun around, holding the muscular organ in her vice-like grip. "Alright, let's settle this already!" She roared as the strong medical specialist yanked him up to her level with her monstrous strength.

'This can't be!' Orochimaru thought as Tsunade clenched her fist and punched him hard in the cheek sending him hurtling down towards the Earth below. However before he could hit the floor, she tugged him back up.

"Not yet!" She snarled throwing him high into the air, leaping up to join him. The two subordinates who were low on Chakra watched as the blonde Sannin began to punch the living daylights out of their leader in mid-air, only two of which he could avoid, before she kicked him back down, falling behind him until she landed on the top of the dagger, grabbed his tongue and yanked him back up towards her, yet again. "Take this!" She raised a heavy fist and thrust it forward, however having overused her muscles, she just missed his cheek, which startled the man so much his eyes widened further.

The villainous snake shinobi hung there, staring up at Tsunade as the two of them tried to catch their breath. His frustrated frown melded into a satisfied open-mouthed smirk as the poor woman flinched, her muscles contracting painfully. "In the end, this is all you've got." He sneered.

Of course, she didn't appreciate that and pulled him up to give him a beating. "Quit joking!" She landed a brutal blow on his stomach, letting him fall this time as she jumped down and started a flurry of precise beatings, however, they weren't as powerful as they once were.

Even Kaede could see she had reached her limits, especially after seeing her power at the beginning of the fight.

Tsunade gritted her teeth and punched him with all her might, watching as Orochimaru's eyes rolled back, and he blacked out slightly. "Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto cried out as he watched his leader fall and Kaede smirked with a sick sense of satisfaction.

'Serves him right.'

The malicious Sannin's eyes snapped open, having regained his senses from the shout, and he retracted his tongue, attempting to run away, to escape her brutal assault with the blonde following close behind. "I won't let you get away!" She declared as she caught up to him. "Stick with me until the end!" She dove in front of him, forcing him to skid to a halt and dodge as she tried to punch him once, then landed the second blow before the flurry of attacks happened once again, with only a few being evaded.

She swung her foot round to kick him hard, sending him flying back, but Orochimaru wasn't done yet, he shot his tongue out and wrapped it tightly around her, rendering her immobile from the waist up. He then dove into the air and pulled his sword out, the way he did before, pointing it straight at her as he grew closer and closer.

But Tsunade was a little quicker and with her feet, she used both soles of her ninja sandals to stop the blade from making contact, like when a swordsman catches a sword's sharp edge with both hands. Her opponent only had time to make a soft noise of shock before she spun in the air and flung him away from her. He landed on the ground and staggered back as both the blade and his tongue retracted once again, only to lose his footing when the blonde medic punched him hard in the face.

The barrage of blows continued until she hit him hard in the chin, throwing him into the air with the force before she kicked him and watched as he hit the ground and skidded to a halt a small distance away, using his weak, flaking hands to slow his forced retreat, cutting the skin and starting the bleeding process as small trails of blood mixed into the gouges made by his nails.

The two stopped once again to catch their breath and Tsunade started walking towards Orochimaru as he got to his feet. She made some unknown signs and her hand began to glow with that dangerous Chakra that gave her punches insane strength.

"He's going t'die." Kaede said simply, hearing the shocked gasp Kabuto responded with as she watched the fight and remembered Orochimaru's warnings about her strength at the beginning of the fight. Since neither of them could really move well at the moment, they couldn't be his backup, and Kaede was glad because she didn't want a repeat of what happened during the negotiations.

Tsunade grew closer to the Snake Sannin as he stood there, his legs trembling with overexertion, making it impossible for him to evade her attack. Tsunade stopped in front of him with her glowing fist clenched and determination written across her face. "This is the end!" She snarled and with a vicious roar, she reared back and slammed her fist into his lower jaw, cracking and breaking bones were heard as he was sent rocketing into the air, what knocked him out though, wasn't the blow, but the moment his head made contact rather violently with the dagger stuck in Manda's mouth.

Kaede and Kabuto watched with wide eyes as he fell and landed on the head of the snake he had summoned, unconscious and battered to the point of blood and bruises littering his whole body. 'He took a direct hit from her monstrous strength!' The young Otogakure medic thought before he mustered what little strength he had left to crawl over and check for vital signs.

"Looks like this is the end," Jiraiya said, a little remorse in his tone.

"Yes," Gamabunta responded.

Kabuto stopped at his leader's side. "Orochimaru-sama?" He questioned, trying to get a response as he lifted the snake shinobi's head and torso, checking him over for injuries.

Kaede grunted as she fought the numb sensation she still felt over Jiraiya's attack on her neck earlier and stood up, shuffling over to Kabuto's side, breathing heavily from the strength needed to move. The sudden sound of Manda's voice made her jump, however. "Losing untidily. I feel like eating you, but I can't swallow when there's a hole in my mouth. If we meet again, be prepared!"

And with that, the snake vanished in a puff of heavy smoke, giving Tsunade the chance to release her jutsu, relaxing at long last.

Silence filled the field as the two standing Sannin watched the smoke, until Jiraiya made a sound of shock when it cleared and Orochimaru and Kabuto stood there, both exhausted and injured, while Kaede had to sit between them, unable to breathe properly with her painful throat, let alone manage to stand a second time.

"Tsunade..." Orochimaru managed to force out between his heavy breaths. "Even if you don't heal me, I still have another method left. A method to revive these arms of mine, that is." His grey fingers twitched, blood leaking from his injured flesh, dripping sluggishly into a little puddle the fluid had created by his feet.

Both the Sannin froze as their former comrade raised his head and revealed a single eye that belonged to the face of the body he inhabited. "I'll definitely take down Konoha." His lips curled up into a taunting smirk. "I hope we can meet again when that happens, comrades." He laughed venomously. "Tsunade, Jiraiya."

While they tried to process his new body, Orochimaru began to sink into the ground and Kaede sighed with relief, glad the fight she had been looking forward to was finally over. "I have eternal youth..." Her 'leader' said as his final words to them. "I am invincible!" And with that, he disappeared into the earth below.

"Let's meet again sometime," Kabuto said with mock politeness as he formed some seals and disappeared with Shunshin no Jutsu.

"Heh, thanks for the second date, Jiraiya." She teased jokingly as she glanced up at Jiraiya and formed the same signs. "I'll have t'repay you for that sneak-attack on my neck someday~"

Finally, she vanished, and the fight was officially over.


A/N: And there you have it, the newest chapter! Please review, all comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated and help me become a better writer!

Japanese to English

Zesshinen San = Tongue Teeth Salivary Acid Jutsu

Shunshin no Jutsu = Body Flicker Technique