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Pawns
Ryuu shot across the water at Orochimaru, slashing with his Vacuum Blade, only for Orochimaru to grin as Sakumo appeared between them, blocking Ryuu's blade with a tanto of his own. Ryuu leapt away and landed on his feet as he heard metal clashing behind him, sensing Hinata fending off Hayate, Fu fending off Hidan, and Deidara bombarding all of the others, besides Naruto. Naruto had been grabbed by Orochimaru's snakes, which had arranged themselves into a much, much larger blue snake. He could also sense others on the shore being attacked by reanimated shinobi, but he couldn't tell who either group was, and he didn't have time to look.
He flipped to the side as Sakumo sent a massive fireball at him. However, as soon as his feet touched the water, Sakumo was slashing at him rapidly, his blade clashing with both of Ryuu's blades over and over. Ryuu retreated from Sakumo rapidly, spinning around and around, ducking out of the way of his tanto whenever he couldn't block it. Sakumo was good. Horrifyingly so.
Just as Ryuu managed to get behind Sakumo to strike back, Sakumo twisted his foot sharply and electricity shot outward from it, arcing across the water and up Ryuu's body. A strangled cry of pain rang out before Sakumo spun, stabbing him, only for Ryuu to explode into a ball of fire. Orochimaru hissed angrily, then spun, a bone spike growing from his right palm and blocking Ryuu's Vacuum Blade. Ryuu landed on his feet and slashed with his trench knife, but Orochimaru vanished, reappearing off to the side just as Sakumo reached Ryuu again, Ryuu once again struggling to fend him off. Finally, he managed to flip over Sakumo, twisting and slashing at him, only for Sakumo to spin and send a blast of water into Ryuu's chest that broke his ribs, sending him crashing into a tree beside where the other group was fighting several Hidden Cloud and Stone ninja.
Fu deflected the scythe again and again, spinning and ducking around it, slashing Hidan over and over, only for him to completely ignore the wounds and continue to attack. Finally, Fu caught the shaft of the scythe and slammed a Beast Wave Gale Palm into him, sending him flying, the scythe going with him, still free of blood. Just as she finished him, Ryuu shot past, blood trailing from his mouth. Fu spun instantly, her tanto deflecting Sakumo's, then flipped, slamming a kick into his chest, only for him to rock backward and slash upward at her leg. At the last second, Aoba deflected Sakumo's blade with his own sword, then turned and slashed at Sakumo, who ducked under it easily. Then Fu flipped, landing on her feet and exhaling a massive sea of flames at Sakumo, who vanished ahead of them.
"Thank you," Fu said.
"You're welcome," Aoba said. "He's coming back."
Fu nodded and the two of them rushed to meet him, only for Hidan to reach them at the same time, his scythe crashing into Fu's tanto as Aoba's blade clashed with Sakumo's.
Hinata pivoted and spun around Hayate, slashing at his back, only for him to spin, deflecting it. He was fast and skilled, but his fighting style was identical to Yugao's. Thanks to Yugao training her, she could predict his strikes. She could do this. But she'd have to make it fast. Naruto still hadn't surfaced.
Hayate shot forward, sword flashing around at her but Hinata stepped forward, inside of his swing as Ryuu and Fu had tried to teach them so very long away, back before Ryuu was imprisoned. Then, Hayate's arms amputated themselves on the lightning blade silhouette she had extended from her Chakra Blade before she dropped the blade down to her side and spun, splitting Hayate across the diaphragm. She leapt away from him and moved to run to the water, only to stop as Hayate's upper body broke down into paper, as did his hands, the papers all flowing back to his lower body and reforming, before he picked up his katana and stood again. Hinata swallowed hard, readying herself again.
Yamato swore as Deidara's explosives destroyed the shield he'd made. He flipped landing on his feet as Utakata and Kabuto shot toward Deidara from the sides. Deidara crossed his arms, the hands both spitting out a clay dragon, which expanded instantly before exploding, hurling them both away. A second later, Tayuya dropped behind him, the Vacuum Blade formed over her flute splitting him in half the long way. His body dissolved instantly and she leapt away from him. It regenerated in moments and Tayuya cursed, raising her flute to her lips, only for Deidara to hurl dozens of clay spiders at her. Kabuto shot past, pulling her out of the way of the explosion before Utakata blue through his pipe, a bubble catching Deidara.
"That should hold-" Utakata was cut off by Deidara using a clay bird to blow up the bubble, regenerating once it was gone. "Shit."
"Wood Style, Giant Forest Jutsu!" Yamato shouted, sending a massive swarm of spiked wooden beams at Deidara, only for him to hurl explosive clay insects onto them, blasting them into shrapnel.
Finally, Tayuya began to play, beginning to use Chains of Fantasia, only for a massive clay centipede to burst out of the ground, wrapping around her and binding her tightly. Her eyes widened as Deidara formed the Seal of Confrontation.
Ryuu shoved himself up as his ribs finished healing enough for him to fight and appeared in front of Aoba, ramming his upper back into Aoba's chest to throw him backward as his trench knife and tanto blocked an overhead slash that would have hit Aoba. However, Sakumo's blade slipped off of Ryuu's instantly and continued to descend, only for Ryuu to begin to flicker, the blade flashing through him harmlessly. Several afterimage clones stepped out of Ryuu, all beginning to slash and strike at Sakumo rapidly, forcing him back away from Aoba rapidly. Sakumo retreated onto the water before flipping backward from a slash. The Ryuus extended their wings instantly, getting off the water before Sakumo could electrocute them, only for Sakumo to form a the Seal of Confrontation, a massive wave of water exploding outward from him in all directions, catching Ryuu before he could react before Sakumo electrified the water, the electricity ripping through Ryuu for several seconds before the water fell away and Ryuu crashed down back on shore again.
He pushed himself up and looked around just as an explosive clay centipede burst out of the ground and wrapped around Tayuya. Before Ryuu could move to save her, Guy appeared behind her, breaking the centipede free of her with a pair of kicks before grabbing her and leaping away from the remains. However, rather than trying to detonate the clay, Deidara stood motionless, as did Sakumo, Hayate, and all of the other reanimations, minus Hidan. Ryuu appeared in front of Hidan, blocking his scythe, only for a snake to erupt from the ground below Hidan, swallowing him instantly before retreating from Ryuu, stopping beside Orochimaru.
"Thank you so much for all of your help, Ryuu," Orochimaru smiled. "It's so nice to work with you again."
Then, he fell away as mud as the reanimations' coffins burst out of the ground behind them all and they shot into them before they closed and faded from view. Ryuu sighed, falling to his knees as Hinata sprinted to Naruto, who was coughing up a lung on the beach.
"That wasn't good," Fu said.
"Sakumo's amazing," Ryuu said. "I didn't land a good hit once."
Fu nodded. "At least now we know what we'll be up against in the war."
Ryuu groaned. "That's going to get really annoying, really fast." He whistled, and Yomo flew down to his shoulder. "I'll start writing out a report to Tsunade. This mission's going to last a bit."
Fu nodded and they all gathered with the other group, who all had sabers and had suffered no casualties.
"This changes a lot about our upcoming war," Ryuu said.
"Yes, it does," Yamato said. "I wish I could say I'm surprised he escaped."
"I'm surprised he didn't send the entire Akatsuki lineup he had with him after us," Ryuu said.
"But, Mr. Yamato," an elderly man the extra group had been protecting spoke up. "Who was he?"
"I'll explain," Yamato said. "We're going to need reinforcements."
"I'll add the request to my report," Ryuu said, already writing, including who he had seen in the coffins.
Ryuu knelt on the floor of the room he and Fu were sharing, then set his hand down, forming his long-distance communication seal, Tsunade appearing in front of him, Yomo sitting on her shoulder.
"There you are," Tsunade said. "I've got the elders, Shikaku Nara, Inoichi, and Yugao here with me like you asked."
Ryuu nodded, doing a quick head count before sliding his hand to the side, another seal forming for each of them, though they'd still only see the one image of him. Once he had a seal for everyone, Ryuu took a deep breath before beginning.
"I'm not sure how many of you have read my report, so I'll start from the beginning," Ryuu said. "Tonika Village was completely razed to the ground by Orochimaru. However, he wasn't the one that did it. It was his army, which he'll be supplying to the Akatsuki. Reanimated Shinobi, courtesy of his Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu."
Shikaku, Inoichi, and Yugao all gasped.
"We met him while we were searching The Hole, and he summoned a dozen reanimated shinobi, though he only had a handful fight us," Ryuu said. "Among that number were each of the deceased Akatsuki members except Kisame Hoshigaki and Hidan. He used a clone of Hidan instead, as Hidan isn't actually dead. The other reanimated shinobi were a handful of Hidden Stone and Hidden Cloud ninja I didn't recognize, then..."
"Who?" Shikaku asked. "We need to know what to plan for."
"The worst," Ryuu said. "If you can imagine someone that would be the worst-case scenario to be revived, he probably has them." He took a deep breath. "Of those I saw, he had, by name, Nagato, Kakuzu, Sasori, Deidara, Sakumo Hatake, Hayate Gekko, and...Dan Kato."
Everyone's reactions were what he expected. Koharu, Homura, Shikaku, and Inoichi were shocked at hearing that Sakumo was being used, and Tsunade and Yugao were both instantly on the verge of tears at the thought of having to face their deceived loved ones.
"You're sure?" Tsunade asked finally.
"Positive," Ryuu said.
"How do you know what Dan Kato looks like?" Koharu asked.
"I saw Tsunade's picture of him once and asked who it was," Ryuu said. "Lady Tsunade, we need reinforcements."
"You'll get them," Tsunade promised. "Keep Naruto and the others safe, but do whatever it takes to resolve the situation there."
"I will," Ryuu nodded.
Tsunade sighed, nodding. "If that's everything, you're all dismissed."
"That's everything on my end," Ryuu said.
The images of the others all bowed, so Ryuu ended the jutsus and a moment later, Yomo appeared on his shoulder.
"This is going to get worse before it gets better," Fu warned him.
"I know," Ryuu said. "He'll probably reanimate worse than Sakumo."
Fu nodded, then held her arms out to him. He smiled and walked over, joining her on the bed, both wrapping their arms around one another and holding each other tightly.
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