Wow, such a response last chapter! Well, I'm really surprised at this story; it just hit 70,000 hits and broke 300 reviews! I think that's pretty amazing for a story that isn't Naruto/Hinata or Naruto/Sasuke. I really hope the success of this inspires others to make more original fictions. Anyway; read, review, and enjoy my latest offering to you!

Disclaimer no Jutsu: I don't own Naruto or the demon I'm making a contract with to gain it's trademark rights...what? Don't look at me like that...

Chapter 10: "Friendship and Past Ties"


A masked figure rushes though the forests of Wave Country. The boy has a figure slumped over his shoulder as he leaps from tree to tree; he seems to be searching for something.

"Gods Ino, you need to lose some of that muscle because it bulks you up too much." the boy groaned as he shifted his unknowing passenger once again. Deeper and deeper into the woods he carries her; finally, he stopped at a place that seems to be what he was looking for. He gently lifted the blonde girl from his shoulder and set her down at the base of a medium-sized tree. Quickly binding her hands and feet, he set to work looping a long piece of rope around her waist, clasping her firmly to the tree trunk.

Naruto took a step back to survey his work. With an appraising eye from behind his mask he looked over the knots. They were tight enough to hold the Genin there for a few hours at best but not complicated enough to make it so she would never get away. He was about to leave when her eyelids caught his attention; they were twitching rapidly as her eye moved around underneath them.

"Heh, even in a situation like this you dream." Naruto trailed off as he watched the blonde sleep, wondering what she was dreaming about...

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"I...can't believe it..." Sakura mumbled to her blonde friend as they walked down the street from the Academy.

Ino shook her head with a somber look. "Me either. I didn't know him that good but still..."

"Naruto...I wonder if they'll ever find out what happened to him...? The ANBU didn't seem to care that much about asking questions." Sakura stated. The pair rounded the turn in the road and walked past a closed ramen shop.

"You know...he always did like ramen, he would always eat it for lunch." Sakura said sadly as she looked at the small shop.

Ino put her hand on the girl's shoulder to draw her friend's attention. "Sakura-chan, they will get to the bottom of this, he might not even be dead."

Sakura looked at the blonde and nodded. "Maybe. I hope he isn't..." The two stood in silence for a few moments. Ino shifted from one foot to the other before forcing a smile on her face.

"Come on, no use standing here moping. If he turns up tomorrow at school and we're all depressed he'll laugh at us! I would rather get kicked out of the village than have Naruto hold something like that over my head!" Ino declared.

Sakura blinked at her a few times before giggling. "Yeah, he'll be sitting there with ramen hanging out of his mouth and say something like, 'Why are you guys looking at me like that? You aren't getting my ramen!'" The two girls shared a laugh with each other before heading to their respective homes. Of course, tomorrow came and the little blonde boy never did show up...

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Naruto shrugged, who cared what she was dreaming about? He certainly didn't; well, not enough that he would waste a good amount of time thinking about it. The masked nin looked up at the sun thought the tree canopy.

"Seems like I still have a few minutes before I have to meet-up with Tayuya-chan and the others." Naruto mused. Taking a look back at the dreaming Ino, Naruto slipped off his mask and slipped it inside his purple cloak. Spotting a cozy-looking tree nearby, he walked over to it and promptly slumped down against the trunk where he slid down until he hit the dirt.

The white-haired boy reached into his cloak again and pulled out a small hand towel to dry himself of perspiration. "Wonder how Zabuza-san is taking all this, he'll probably be pissed at me." he chuckled, imagining the missing-nin stomping around his weird little shack cursing his name.

"...Sa...Sa..." Naruto looked over again at the unconscious blonde. Having nothing better to do for a few moments, he walked over to where she was tied up.

"Heh, can't even go to sleep without dreaming about Sasuke, huh? Guess some things never change no matter how long you're away." Naruto huffed.

"Sa...Sa...Sakura..." Ino mumbled in her sleep. Naruto's face scrunched up in thought as he head that. He always thought Sakura and Ino hated each other after they broke off their friendship. He wasn't given much time to think, however, as Ino's eyes shot open.

"Who..?" Ino blinked at the familiar-looking boy hovering over her. Naruto, caught off-guard by her sudden reaction, didn't immediately reach for his mask and just stared back.

The blonde tensed her hands and legs only to find they were bound by several intricate knots. Ino looked up at the boy and glared hatefully at him. "You! Let me go right now!"

Naruto laughed quietly and drew back away from the Genin. "Let you go after all the trouble I went though to carry you here? Yeah, sure." Naruto replied sarcastically.

"So, it is you! You're the masked Oto-nin that was talking to me on the bridge!" Ino shouted as she just put two and two together. Naruto looked at her in confusion for a moment before reaching up to his uncovered face.

"Dammit!" he hissed as he reached into his cloak to retrieve his mask. Naruto was about to slip it back on when Ino snorted at him.

"Won't help you now since I've already memorized what you look like." the kunoichi taunted. She was about to say more but a flash of steel under her chin cut her off. The blue-eyed nin had drawn a kunai and was pressing it against her throat.

"In that case, I suppose I should deal with you." Naruto stated. Ino's eyes didn't look at the blade but at the boy's face. Blue eyes met hers as she took in the rest of his face. It was unremarkable except for the very strange tattoos on his cheeks...they were almost like...

"...whiskers?" Ino muttered despite the position she was in. Blue eyes, spiky hair, and whisker tattoos. Something clicked in her mind and her eyes widened. The boy saw this and backed off slightly but not enough that the kunai was off her throat.

"...Naruto...?" The silence of the forest was only broken briefly by the soft sound of a kunai hitting the forest floor...

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"Damn you!" Sasuke growled as he dodged an enormous club. Tayuya wasn't even paying him any attention as she continued playing her flute causing the three lumbering summons to charge again at the Uchiha. As he pushed his body to the limit dodging the strikes, he had a wide array of curses for his Jounin instructor; as much as he hated to admit it, he was in over his head.

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura was off to the side being ignored by both fights. It made her blood boil that the Oto-nin didn't even consider her a threat worth consideration. She almost screamed out as she watched Sasuke go flying after a vicious tackle from one of the ethereal beings. She stole a look over to Kakashi and saw him running towards the masked-nin, he wasn't going to be much help.

"I have to save him myself!" Sakura aimed her kunai at the flute-player and, while praying to Kami-sama, sent it flying at the oblivious redhead.

Being the stellar shinobi that she was, Tayuya dodged the weapon that came from an unexpected angle. The momentary distraction did prove to have some results, however. The lumbering giants that were poised to skewer Sasuke lurched to a halt as the melody stopped, allowing the Uchiha to get to his feet.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" A ball of ferocious fire lashed out at the three summons who couldn't dodge due to Tayuya's distraction. The redhead watched in growing rage as her ethereal helpers disappeared in a plume of smoke and fire.

"Shit, shit, shit! You bastards are going to pay for that!" she raged. Seeing that her two opponents were going to double-team her in close combat, she put her flue away and started hand seals; although she made sure she was restricting the effect as to not influence Zabuza's fight. "Oton: Hachou Konmei!"

Sasuke and Sakura braced themselves for whatever the 'Wavelength Confusion' was but after a few moments nothing happened. In fact, the bridge was quiet; no battle sounds, no taunting from the Oto-nin, no...anything.

"What happened, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked. Of course, when she couldn't hear her own voice the purpose of Tayuya's jutsu became apparent to her; it was as if no sound at all was reaching her ears. The pink-haired girl could see Sasuke had picked up on what the jutsu was for as his face was set in a scowl.

The cursed Tayuya was already pressing her advantage as she twirled her flute like a baton and went on the offensive. Sakura was too busy watching Sasuke and with the sound-blocking jutsu in effect she couldn't hear the sounds of Tayuya's feet as the Oto-nin rushed to attack.

Sasuke, however, did see the attack and sent a shuriken sailing over Sakura's shoulder before his teammate could even wonder what he was doing. Tayuya hissed in pain as the metal star imbedded into her arm but still completed the attack. Her instrument firmly impacted the back of Sakura's neck sending the girl into immediate darkness.

'Ino...I'm so sorry...' was the last thought the girl had before falling to the ground in a heap.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and sent another barrage of shuriken at the Oto-nin, barely missing a falling Sakura. Tayuya, no-longer distracted by her attack, batted the weapons away with her flute. They two locked eyes in silence as neither could even taunt one another. Of course, they also didn't hear the fight going on further down the bridge...

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"...Zabuza-san? Zabuza...san..." Haku was shaking as he bent over his master's corpse. Kakashi backed away with his left eye closed to reserve his chakra. He really didn't think the Demon would do that but perhaps it was better the bigger threat was out of the way. The occasional surges of chakra coming from the fight further down the bridge worried him and he had to get back to his students as soon as possible.

Haku cradled the missing-nin's head in his hands as his white mask slipped off. The boy nudged his fallen comrade gently while his eyes were wide with disbelief; it was clear to Kakashi the man was already dead.

"You...you...you...bastard!" The pure venom in the young missing-nin's voice would have made lesser shinobi drawback in shock but not Sharingan Kakashi. The veteran Jounin mearly gave the boy a pitying look as he gripped his kunai; a distraught enemy was still an enemy.

"Ninpou: Makyo Hyosho!" Kakashi immediately tensed-up when several sheets of ice started to form around him. The missing-nin casually slipped into one of them with eyes harder than steel behind his mask. Kakashi quickly tried to analyze what the mirrors could be used for but was forced to give-up that line of thought when several senbon needles imbedded themselves in the ground he had previously occupied.

"So...this is some sort of reflection jutsu?" Kakashi asked more to himself than Haku. The former mist-nin was ricocheting from mirror to mirror launching needles that the elite Jounin was having trouble dodging. As two of the sharp instruments implanted themselves into his leg, Kakashi uncovered his Sharingan yet again.

"You're good..." Kakashi droned. Haku didn't pay his words any thought; he was beyond that now. The missing-nin gathered more senbon needles before dashing to another mirror while launching them at his opponent. To his utter shock, he found himself caught by the throat mid-leap by Kakashi. Haku glared hatefully at the man as Kakashi sighed. "...but I'm better."

The young boy wanted to curse Sharingan Kakashi's very existence, he wanted to make him pay for what he did to his master. He wanted, for the first time in his life, to actually kill someone. The spinning tome of the Sharingan cut-off these thoughts, however, as Haku found himself unable to keep his eyes open.

After his genjutsu had the desired effect, Kakashi watched the mirrors dissolve back into water. "That was some bloodlimit. Oh well, better go see how Sasuke is doing." Kakashi mused as he covered his left eye and disappeared in a swirl of leaves...

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"...Naruto...?"

She said it, he was sure. The white-haired boy was now staring in shock at the blonde girl. How had she known? It was unfathomable to the boy that she could have remembered him from all those years ago. After all, everyone back then hated him...right?

Deciding to take the safe rout, Naruto asked, "And who would that be?"

"Don't give me that! You know damn well who that is! How could you, you bastard?-!" Ino railed. For some reason, Naruto was feeling very sheepish right now. "How could you do that to your friends, to your family!"

"What family? What friends? You have no right to judge me!" Naruto snarled, the cursed seal on his neck starting to flare. To his surprise, Ino only spared a short look at the strange seal on his neck before glaring back at him.

"Traitor."

That one word sent the boy back on his hands. Traitor? Could he be called that? The boy shook his head furiously as his answer. No, his village betrayed him.

"Don't call me that, you have no idea at all why I left." Naruto hissed. Ino's hate-filled gaze never left him and it was having the effect of making the Oto-nin feel smaller than an insect on the forest floor.

To his relief, Ino broke the stare and snorted. "It doesn't matter." the blonde girl sighed in resignation. "So, what are you going to do now? Kill me? Make me pay for whatever grudge you have against your own home?"

"I don't hold grudges, that's why I didn't dispose you all the first day you were here. My mission isn't to kill you, it's to kill the bridge builder." Naruto explained. Ino blinked at that and tilted her head in thought when something came to her.

"Like you could beat Sasuke!" Ino hissed.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this and smiled a little. "No '-kun' at the end of that? Don't tell me you've grown-up a bit and moved on to someone better..." The boy tilted his head with a smirk. "Anyone I know?"

"That's none of your damn business!" Ino hissed though clenched teeth. What was it with boys her own age, were they all this annoying?

Naruto was about to say something else but both he and the blonde girl were silenced by a wave of malevolent chakra rolling over the forest.

The blonde girl's breath was taken away as she felt the chakra. "What the hell was that..." she asked.

"Tayuya...did she...?" Naruto shook his head for a moment before sliding his kitsune mask back on. "Look, I'm going to leave you here so be a good little girl, right?" Naruto stated rather than questioned.

"Yeah, right." Ino said with obvious sarcasm. Naruto gave her a smirk; he couldn't waste time arguing when Tayuya might need him. With one last look at the helpless blonde, the masked Oto-nin dashed off towards the edge of the forest.

"Bastard." Ino said smugly. "No matter how high-up he's gotten in another village, Naruto is still Naruto." The blonde girl smiled as she used her foot to draw the Oto-nin's dropped kunai closer to her hands, good thing he left in such a hurry or he never would have forgotten it. Ino still had a sinking feeling in her gut because the dark chakra was near the bridge Sakura was going to be guarding.

"If anything happens to her I'll..." Ino let the threat hang. No matter what problems she and her large-foreheaded friend were having, if Sakura got hurt there were no words that could describe what she would do to the offending party...

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--A Few Minutes Ago--
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Things were not going well for Sasuke...at all. Sure, he was an Uchiha genius and he had activated the first level of his Sharingan, but what use was being able to follow your opponents movements when you couldn't do anything about it? A vicious kick caught him in the jaw and cut-off his whining; he was sure he would have heard bone crack if the sound-nulling jutsu wasn't still in effect. As it was, the Uchiha could only defend as the irate redhead pressed her attack. What was worse was that her power was still growing.

Tayuya smirked at the boy barley managed to deflect a right hook she threw at him. with a quick pivot, she brought her left knee up and sent him skidding back. By now, her cursed seal was winding itself all around her body and the small shuriken would inflicted by the Uchiha early in the match didn't even bother her.

Her chakra was flaring and she felt something stir she hadn't felt since Orochimaru made her eat those strange pills that forced her second stage curse. She didn't remember much about that experience but Tayuya knew something was trying to get out; it was as if something were clawing at her soul and for once, she didn't put up a fuss at being directed by a force other than her own will.

Kakashi arrived just in time to witness something terrifying. Sakura was lying in a heap off the side of the bridge and Sasuke's mouth was bleeding profusely; he was amazed the boy could still stand. Kakashi's Sharingan was spinning wildly in irritation, these kids were his team. He would never let any of them become another Obito, not ever again would he make anyone else live though the hell of losing a comrade.

His resolve was only strengthen when the ground at the Oto-nin's feet started to hiss, the water around her turning to steam. The pressure of her chakra was enough that Kakashi estimated she had as much power as Zabuza at half-strength; and it was still growing. The Jounin knew that the power was forced by the Cursed Seal that was quickly enveloping what normal-colored skin was left on her. With an inhuman screech from the girl, Kakashi prepared for the worst, what he witnessed was a glimpse into hell itself as the very air around him seemed to shake...

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Naruto sped though the thick forest fighting down the urge to rip his hair out in frustration. An absolute titanic amount of chakra was growing in the direction of the bridge where his partner was. He didn't know what kind of trouble Tayuya had gotten into, but he was certain the redhead would be right in the thick of it. Without even noticing, his Hell Seal's chain tattoos started to snake around his body and his eyes had turned to their to a more menacing yellow pupil on black iris design.

The moment he cleared the tree line, he was hit by a new wave of dark chakra. Naruto strained to see the figures on the bridge; he could see Kakashi and Sasuke-teme but Sakura was nowhere in his line of sight. The most surprising thing was a familiar-looking figure with long, flowing red hair. Not even looking at anything more than the figure's silhouette, he quickly started his way down to the bridge.

Making sure to give the Copy-nin a wide birth, Naruto appeared to the side of his partner. It was only then that he noticed the very distinct changes she had gone though. Her normally bound hair was flowing freely, her skin was a dark tan color, and what was the most glaring change was the set of white horns adorning her head and the yellow eyes in place of her usual brown. What was more, her chakra felt like a physical force pressing against his skin.

As Naruto looked her over, he let out a low whistle. "Wow, not half bad, Tayuya-hime." Of course, he immediately noticed his distinct lack of voice and shook his head. Naruto gathered some chakra and placed his hands in a double seal. "Kai!"

Tayuya wheeled around at the sudden sound behind her. Her yellow eyes widened at the sight of her irksome partner and she sighed. "Where he hell were you?-!" she barked. The added effect of the eyes and horns gave her patented glare a super-charged effect that made Naruto flinch.

"Uh, well…I had a bit of a problem with Ino…anyway, what the heck is this?" Naruto asked, gesturing to her new look. "You hit level two first!" he accused as if he was offended by the action.

Tayuya smirked and in the process revealed a long set of fangs that had grew-in. "Heh, always remember that I'm better, bitch." she taunted, striking a cocky pose.

Kakashi, suddenly very aware of the trouble he was in, started to run though his viable options. He could probably take the girl but with Naruto here that could complicate things. If he had the ability to go to this new level it would be extremely troublesome. Already Naruto's eyes were yellow and his seal was winding itself around him; he could go at any minute.

"Hey...where's Zabuza and Haku?" Naruto asked as he looked around. He felt a pang of sympathy when he saw Sakura sprawled-out on the bridge. Luckily, she was still breathing. Sasuke, on the other hand, looked like he got into a fight with a meat grinder. His face was one big bruise and his jaw looked to cracked or broken; he must have really pissed off Tayuya.

In response to Naruto's question, the demon-like girl pointed to Kakashi. "He was the last person I saw fighting Zabuza, ask him." Naruto turned to him with a raised eyebrow that obviously meant for the Copy-nin to explain.

"Zabuza...well, he's dead." Kakashi deadpanned, his hand snaking up to a pocket on his vest but stopping short. "The boy is somewhere back there, he won't be up for awhile, though."

Naruto gritted his teeth. He may have not liked Zabuza but the man was one of his teammates for this mission while Haku had become something of a friend. Subconsciously, the Hell Seal started to wind itself onto more of the boy's skin.

Kakashi's fingers itched; something had to give. He looked over to Sasuke and was pleased to note, that for once, the boy was not giving into his ego and was steering clear of the fight; Sakura was far enough to the side that she should not be affected by anything that happened.

"So, are we going to kick this shits ass or what?" Tayuya asked, gesturing to the Jounin. Kakashi's hand shot up to his hitai-ate, ready to uncover his Sharingan at a moment's notice.

The fox-masked boy took a glance at the bridge behind them; the bridge builder must have gotten away in the chaos of the fight. "Sure but let's make it quick; we still have Tazuna to kill."

Tayuya smirked; the effect of her second-stage form making it seem down right demonic. "Yeah, let's tear it up!"

On that sentence, Naruto and Tayuya rushed the famous Copy-nin. The redhead got to the man first and opened with a baseball slide which Kakashi leapt over. He dodged Naruto mid-leap and caught the boy in the back of the skull with his fist as he passed. Shaking off the effect once he was on the ground, Naruto held his palms out and started to draw chakra.

"Zankuuha!" The slicing gale ripped across the bridge and seemingly hit the stunned Jounin full-on. To Naruto's consternation, however, his target disappeared in a plume of smoke leaving a battered steel girder in his place. "Damn, a Kawarimi!" he hissed. He spun around just in time to see a kunai headed towards his face. Before he could dodge, it was batted out of the air by a shuriken. Naruto spared a smile in Tayuya's direction as he rushed the silver-haired Konoha-nin again.

Tayuya, sizing-up Naruto's attack, sprinted towards Kakashi at an angle to try and limit his field of movement. She was caught unawares when a kick blindsided her and knocked the stunned Oto-nin onto her back. The figure above her only looked on with impassive eyes as it fluidly drew a kunai and lunged. With considerable effort, Tayuya was able to kick the implement out of the Leaf-nin's hands and get in a punch before the bunshin dissipated in a cloud of smoke.

"Kage Bunshin!" Tayuya hissed. That seemed to be the queue for several clones to appear around her, catching her in a circle. "Wow, what a shitty challenge." she droned as she watched Naruto get humiliated by the real leaf-nin. Kakashi was dodging all of the white-haired boy's attacks and wasn't even using his Sharingan.

Naruto threw another punch that Kakashi seemingly flowed around. The more experienced shinobi dodged to the side and brought his knee up into Naruto's gut causing the boy to double over. Naruto willed himself to his feet and spit out a small glob of blood. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tayuya dealing with a mass of Kage Bunshin's. Their coordinated attacks were causing the Oto-nin some trouble so it would be unlikely that she would be able to help him at the moment.

Whipping what little bit of blood was left on his lips, Naruto ran though a set of seals. Kakashi cursed when he saw the sequence and pulled out the small scroll he was saving for later. With a flourish of practiced movement, he unraveled it, sliced his thumb open, and ran though a set of seals himself during the same time it took Naruto to finish his. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

Two distance clouds of smoke erupted from the bridge. On one side stood Naruto atop the head of an enormous serpent. The snake hissed menacingly as it's senses picked-up the other summoned animal. To be more correct, Kakashi has summoned dogs, lots of dogs. Naruto made a quick headcount of the animals and counted eight of the little devils.

"So...you also know the Kuchiyose no Jutsu." Naruto commented, a bit surprised. Kakashi, on the other hand, looked like he had seen a ghost.

The Copy-nin looked at the large serpentine form looming above him and bit down a curse. "So, you have met Orochimaru?" he asked.

Naruto narrowed his eyes behind his mask; this man was getting on his nerves. "What makes you say that? Who's Orochimaru?"

"Don't even try! That man took the summon contract for snakes when he left the village; as you can summon them, you must have met him along the way. I would imagine that's where you and the girl got your Cursed Seals...it makes sense. He must be in Hidden Sound, are they harboring him?" Kakashi asked. When Naruto said nothing, the famous Jounin shrugged. "It doesn't matter now, you'll be taken back to Konoha and interrogated."

"What makes you think you will even leave here alive?" the boy asked. As he saw it, all the cards were in his favor at the moment.

Kakashi sighed. "Just because you have something bigger than me doesn't mean it will win. If you look at the situation, you would see that." the Jounin lectured. With the flick of his wrist, he set his nin-dogs upon the serpent.

With surprising speed, the lead dog, a rather large bulldog, reached the surprised snake summons. It not its summoner was expecting such a swift attack and before the snake could raise a defense, the dogs were upon the reptile like a swarm of ants; biting, scratching, and tearing at the larger animal. Naruto cursed and pulled out several kunai to assist his besieged steed but never got he chance to use them as Kakashi sent a barrage of his own at the cursed Oto-nin. Naruto fended most of these off but several of the deadly implements embedded into the head of his summoned creature causing even more damage.

Tayuya, who had just got finished with the last of the Kakashi clones, rushed to draw some of the attention away from her teammate. In a flash of motion, she was behind Kakashi and lashing out at him with her flute. He caught her hand and flipped her head-over-heels onto the ground. With a feral cry, she tried a leg sweep but to no avail; it was as if he could predict her movements. An inhuman cry caused both combatants to look over to where the giant serpent had once been. Thick pools of blood were the only things left as the berated snake disappeared in a grand cloud of smoke.

Tayuya heard several yips of pain come from the smog and waited with choppy breath; this new form was taxing her body. Suddenly, a large body hurtled out of the cloud and landed in a heap before Kakashi. The Leaf-nin's eyes widened in surprise as one of his nin-dogs disappeared right in front of him. "What...?"

"Ninpou: Kyokudai Zankuuha!" Upon hearing the attacks name, Tayuya leapt away from the confused Leaf-nin and she was glad she did. The large cloud of smoke was swept away by the power of the Maximum Air Slicing Blast as Kakashi, and to a lesser degree Sasuke and the still unconscious Sakura, were hurtled away by the tremendous winds. Tayuya landed outside of the main effect area but still had to hold on to a concrete pillar of the bridge to prevent becoming airborne.

Kakashi maneuvered mid-flight to avoid the pieces of steel and stone that came flying with him. The sheer power of that attack was staggering and only someone with the chakra stamina of Naruto could possibly pull it off. The Jounin managed to land on his feet about 200 feet down the bridge from the boy. The chakra Naruto was emitting was massive; easily twice as strong as the girl when she had reached her current form, and it was still growing.

"I have to end this..." he decided. With three distinct seals, he ran at the still-swirling orb of smoke that was left over from the summoned animals being dispelled. "Raikiri!"

As he drew closer to the smoke, he could feel the crushing weight of Naruto's dark chakra. It was menacing, the second most evil chakra he had ever felt in his short life. Still on his charge, he could just see a very stunned Ino appear by the unconscious Sakura. He was glad the girl managed to get away but also sad; it would be another person to witness the death of an old friend. Steeling himself, he plunged into the mass of smoke, finally feeling resistance give-way against his ultimate jutsu and the most inhuman wail the Copy-nin had ever heard...

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Ino was scared; no denying that. After finally sawing though the ropes that blinded her feet, she managed to flip the kunai up to her hands to escape. The sounds of battle that she picked-up from the direction of the bridge only served to spur her on to greater speeds.

Finally breaking the tree line, she was immediately berated by fierce winds that had before been blocked by the trees. The dust that was kicked up by whatever attack caused it was cutting at her arms as Ino tried to cover her sensitive eyes.

"What the hell was that?" Ino wondered aloud as the attack lessened. She could see a cloud of smoke settle around a large form in the middle of the bridge; the kunoichi didn't even want to fathom what that was.

Scanning for her friends, one in particular, she was drawn to a bright light several hundred feet down the bridge from the Oto-nins. She made the leap from the forest to the bridge and started running down the structure to get to whatever that light was. Tazuna-san was nowhere to be seen, not that Ino was looking for the old man. It seemed cruel, but there was only one thing on her mind at the moment and that kept her from caring about the killing intent coming from further down the bridge.

Ino's breath hitched when she caught sight of a stray blotch of pink hair. Running over to the pile of rubble, the blonde kunoichi struggled to move the large sections of debris away from her teammate. Sakura was battered, bruised, cut, and bleeding from several larger gashes but she was alive. Ino couldn't help it; she drew the unconscious girl close and sobbed quietly as she brushed stray strands of hair from Sakura's face.

"Idiot! Do you have any idea how worried I was? You stupid, stupid, big-foreheaded jerk!" she croaked. Most of her words came out as unrecognizable sobs, but it made the blonde feel better to vent.

Sakura strained to open her eyes; she felt like she had gotten run over by a train. Her entire body ached and her ears were most definitely ringing from whatever hit had caused her to lose consciousness. To her immense surprise, she found herself being cradled by someone. Her hear raced; what if it was Sasuke? With that still in mind, she forced her eyes to open, expecting to see the stoic Uchiha fussing over her. What she discovered instead was a distraught Ino clutching onto her.

"I-Ino...?" Sakura gasped. The blonde girl struggled to reign-in her emotions as she pulled back enough to look at her friend's face. Looking at the tear-stained face of Ino, Sakura felt something stir in the back of her mind that was completely foreign to her. Ino must have felt a similar feeling because her eyes widened slightly and she stifled a gasp. Whatever the feeling was, it was growing in intensity the more the pink-haired kunoichi stared into the gray eyes of her former best friend. Without even knowing it, both girl had closed a slight amount of distance between them without either noticing. With growing anxiaty, they inched closer and closer, both wondering what was happening betwen them and why they didn't want to stop it...

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" The pained scream of Kakashi brought both kunoichi back into the real world. Ino pulled back so fast her ponytail whipped her back and Sakura erupted into coughing fits, her face flushed. It was silently agreed upon by both friend that they would discuss this later before they turned to see what could have possibly caused their ultra-stoic sensei to yell like that.

Sakura's blush soon drained from her face along with the rest of her blood as both girls discovered the reason why the great Copy-nin would loose his cool. After all, both of them would have done the same thing if they were caught in the jaws of a black-coated fox the size of a small house...

And I think I'll end this here. I love cliffhangers, don't you? Hope you liked the chapter; sorry for the long wait! I know alot of you were looking forward to the Haku and Kakashi fight but come on; if Kakashi beat Zabuza he can beat Haku. Sorry if it came-out kinda weak. See you all next update!

PS: It's late so I'll fix any mistakes in this chapter tomorrow; sorry if you catch any. Also, if you like the Naruto/Tayuya pairing, checkout my other story, "Dueling Harmonies" which is a hundred times better than this one character-wise. You can get to it from my profile!

-Jutsu List!-


Oton: Hachou Konmei (Sound Release: Wavelength Confusion)
Tayuya uses her flute to disrupt the sound waves in the air making everyone in the immediate area unable to hear sound; user and allies included.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Skill)
This Jutsu, using a contract, Seal, and the user's blood, binds an animal to the user. The type of animal is determined by the contract and Seal performed. The blood is used as a signature to make the contract, which can be written on a scroll or tattoo, valid. Once bound, the animal can be summoned to perform a task or help the user in battle.

Ninpou: Kyokudai Zankuuha(Ninja Skill: Maximum Air Slicing Blast)
Spend a massive about of chakra to force the sound waves to titanic proportions. A powered up version of the Zankuuna.

Raikiri
Kakashi's only original jutsu. It is more powerful than the Chidori because the master is the one using it. Unlike the Chidori, it doesn't cause much noise. I come to the conclusion based on the Manga that makes no mention of the Raikiri making any bird noises when Kakashi uses it.