Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.
AN: Life sure is strange.
Chapter Title: Unexpected Developments!
"You are a strange old woman." Kakashi crouched on the railing, ignoring the rolling waves of sand beneath him. He focused on his opponent, Anko crouching down in front of him, her hands reaching behind her for a number of senbon even as several large snakes slithered down from her sleeves. "You shouldn't be so active at your age."
"You are just as annoying as I thought you would be." Chiyo pulled back, all ten of her puppets drawing back to surround her in a semicircle. She was cautious, it was obvious from the way she refused to give Kakashi a direct line of sight with her. She hid it well but she was afraid of the lazy Jonin. He was one of the most dangerous Shinobi in the Elemental Nations after all. It was almost a miracle she had lasted as long as she had against him, his clones, and that strange hound technique he used.
She was lucky he had let her have the numerical advantage again, dismissing his clones not long after joining the fight and reaching this sudden but needed lull.
Now all she was worried about what was what he would do now.
'Her puppets are good.' As Kakashi silently sat across from one of the Honored Siblings, he sorted through the multitude of memories his Kage Bunshin had given him once he had dispelled them. 'That Chikamatsu guy must have been truly incredible to make things this dangerous.' The Copy-nin glanced down to the scratch on the metal plate on the top of his hand. He considered it a souvenir of the battle. 'I can die really easy if I'm not careful enough with her and her little tricks.' His mind was running through information at speeds all but a handful of Nara Clan members could handle. He was focusing on his opponent, watching her for the slightest twitch to launch an attack, as he did such a thing. 'She must have been practicing with those things to be ready for this invasion. Her Puppet Brigade is probably waiting to attack later.' Kakashi, unseen by Chiyo or anyone really, opened his covered eye and used the Sharingan to see something very concerning. 'That little seal she put down is making me nervous. The moment that sand clears, something bad is going to come from it. I already know. But what is it? Is it more reinforcements from Sunagakure to the heart of the village? Have they really mastered Fuinjutsu that much like we feared? If they did, why is their Jinchuriki so unstable? Is it some powerful summon we don't know about? Is it something else to draw even more of our forces away like with the Ichibi? Most of the ANBU are still holding themselves back even now, waiting for that beast to show itself and take it someplace else with the best the village can do without the Fourth around.' The masked Shinobi withheld the urge to sigh as he closed his concealed eye once again. 'I need to finish this before the Ichibi starts its rampage here.'
He would be there this time. He would make sure he would be there.
'Time to take things seriously it looks like.' Kakashi tensed. Chiyo sent the dual sword wielding puppet forward with a twitch of her finger.
A single kunai wreathed in Lightning Chakra was all he needed to counter the two swords and cut them down, three quarters of each weapon flying through the air as Anko threw a barrage of senbon into the puppet, locking up its joints with her scary level of precision. It was almost funny how similar each of the puppets were to actual living and breathing humans. The same anatomy models Anko had memorized to perform her job so well helped her battle the humanoid puppets in front of her now.
Kakashi darted forward, past the immobilized puppet, as he raced through a set of hand seals only he knew. He ended the sequence by lowering his hand, grabbing hold of his wrist with his opposite hand, and sending the necessary Chakra to his hand.
'Is that?' Chiyo's eyes widened at the blinding light that emerged from the hand of the Jonin. She pulled back, more than one puppet coming before her to block the attack with a shield of Chakra emerging from its arms via hidden mechanisms only now exposing themselves. 'He's going to use something like that already?'
'He's serious.' Anko looked at the technique with almost awe. She was amazed that Kakashi would take such lengths to end his opponent. It was almost hard to believe the Copy-nin was so motivated to unleash not only a technique as powerful as the one he was making use of but also the fact that it was one of his original technique too. 'The technique said to have split a bolt of lightning in half and Kakashis Hatake's only original technique.'
The Copy-nin vanished from sight, Chiyo's eyes widening as her defenses were rendered worthless, and Anko couldn't help the smile crossing her face.
'That old lady is done for.' Anko ran Chakra through the senbon in both of her hands and threw them forward, piercing through the Chakra shields Chiyo had placed between herself and Kakashi and once again locking the puppets into place. The fact she had severed the Chakra strings as well only helped seal Chiyo's face.
"Raikiri!" Kakashi was behind her, the Honored Sibling attempting to leap away but it was hopeless. She had hardly begun to react when the raw electricity originating from within the assassination technique had already locked her body in place.
"Shakuton: Kajosatsu!" The Copy-nin narrowly pulled back in time, avoiding the white and red sphere of pure heat.
'Of course someone like her would be here.' Kakashi drew back from the Honored Sibling, avoiding the attack that he knew would have claimed his life. 'Pakura of the Scorch Release.'
Kakashi looked towards where a somewhat familiar Kunoichi stood above him. Her two-toned hair and pupil-less brown eyes would reveal her identity to anyone who had lived through the war she had joined so young just like so many others. The same war she had helped tip towards the stalemate that would eventually end it.
"I didn't expect to see you here Pakura." Kakashi stood as casually as one could with a technique like his Lightning Cutter filling one of his hands. Pakura looked at him for a moment with an unreadable expression before a dark smile stretched across her face.
"I'm not that surprised to see you here Kakashi." Pakura rose from the crouch she had arrived to the battle between the two Konoha Shinobi and the Honored Sibling of Sungakure in. Her eyes didn't leave Kakashi and his eyes didn't leave when their respective allies joined them.
"Kakashi, what's the plan with these two?" Anko didn't look to Kakashi as she asked her question, careful to keep her eyes on the elderly Kunoichi they fought together. The interruption of someone as renowned as Pakura brought a slight worry from her but she fought down any panic. She couldn't panic and expect to survive. The simple fact that she would die if she couldn't focus on her opponent, something which panic would greatly impede, allowed her to keep herself more than calm enough to keep a clear head.
"I thought we could ask them to leave the village, very nicely." Kakashi's reply made Pakura laugh.
"And here I thought the same, if I asked you nicely enough you would defect from Konoha and join Suna in destroying this village." Pakura's smile didn't leave her face as Kakashi shrugged his shoulder.
"You would have had to ask before all of this." Kakashi used the hand not holding his technique at the ready to gesture around him. His single visible eye turned cold. "I would have actually considered killing you quickly then. Now I'm going to have to take my time with it."
"Your sense of humor is a bit dry Kakashi." Pakura was still for only a moment longer before she was suddenly a blur of motion.
Away from the two, a sleeping civilian tumbled over to his side.
She was behind him, a kunai prepared to slit his throat before he could react. The Copy-nin ducked under the slash and turned with his Lightning Cutter aimed to slice her in half with its power. Pakura avoided death, powering herself out of the way with her hands planted on his extended arm. She lifted one hand off his arm, aimed to slice his throat once more, and failed when he thrust forward with his Lightning Cutter. It ripped through her chest and her shock was plain for the two observers to see.
The civilian struck the ground on his side.
Pakura shimmered back into view behind Kakashi and a blazing hot orb ripped through his unprotected back.
The Lightning Release Clone, spawned from the Raikiri, erupted into an electrical storm at the attack.
The real Kakashi and Pakura truly clashed. Kakashi caught her fist with one hand as she did the same with his own blow.
The civilian's head struck the ground and his body settled in its new position.
"You're just as good as I remember, aren't you Kakashi?" Pakura didn't draw back and neither did Kakashi. Her smile at the challenge he was to her showed a hint of madness. "You really do deserve that legend you've made for yourself it looks like."
"I wouldn't say that." Kakashi gave her an eye smile. "I'm too modest to call myself legendary."
Both pulled away. Both began the clash again with a pair of kunai in each of their hands, their exchange so fast and deadly neither of the two observers could manage to catch more than the moving colored streaks the two had become as they fought.
'This fight is insane.' Anko turned her attention to Chiyo, readying a number of senbon between her fingers once more. 'I'm no help there but I can end this old lady before she can activate that seal she planted.'
Her course decided, Anko launched herself forward just as Chiyo decided on the same course of action. She was met by a fresh puppet from the Honored Sibling, designed with melee in mind by its large and durable limbs ripping the stone apart when it missed a descending overhead heel kick. Anko didn't attempt to clash with the puppet Chiyo had unleashed with one hand, the other focused on finding the multitude of senbon she had planted in the famed Chikamatsu Collection to disable them with Chakra Threads from her other hand and pull them out. The Kunoichi focused on evasion of each of its strike, throwing both arms forward once she was sure it would take a moment to recover after a failed grab left both its fists embedded in the ground.
Snakes surged forward from her sleeves and aimed to crush the puppet only to be cut in half. A second puppet released by Chiyo, this one wielded a pair of slender blades, had joined the first and rescued it from its assured destruction.
'This is going to take longer than I thought.' Anko let the dead snakes fall from her sleeves and drew a kunai to each hand.
She threw herself towards the puppets at the same time they attacked her. Her kunai clashed with the twin blades of the new puppet while she twisted her body to the side to avoid the kick of the first puppet. She broke away threw one kunai towards the puppet that had just tried to break her bones and it was knocked aside by the blade wielding puppet.
'A lot longer.' She landed with a fair amount of distance between the two and drew a new kunai to her hand.
She darted forward once more and the puppets moved to intercept her.
"You!" Yugao lost her composure in the brief moment when her blade clashed with the Shinobi she knew had nearly killed Hayate. A Wind Chakra enhanced kunai kept him alive, kept him from losing his head to the blade of the angry cat masked ANBU in front of him. "I will kill you."
She broke away from the blade lock and regained control of herself, created a Shadow Clone on either side of herself, and launched herself and her clones forward as Chakra ripped down each of their blades. Baki looked at her, looked to the clones that wielded deadly sharp blades, and didn't waste time.
He raised two of his fingers into the air, unleashed his Wind Chakra as countless blades around him. It was his most versatile attack, one of his deadliest with the lives it had taken with ease, and he was sure it would do the same now.
"That's not going to work." The voice came from behind him, he narrowly avoided the blade swung for his head, lucky that it only left a small cut on the side of his neck. He threw a kunai towards the source of the voice and it was deflected like he figured it would. He took in a deep breath then, using the residual Wind Chakra from his Blade of Wind, and breathed out four spiraling bullets of air.
The ANBU's eyes tracked them behind her mask, she avoided them with ease, and charged towards him just as his original attack at last struck her clones.
He moved to avoid the rapid sword swings, backpedaling until he reached the edge of the rooftop.
The battle quickly shifted from horizontal to vertical as he seamlessly stepped down the side of the building, applied Chakra to his feet to remain there, and used a pair of kunai to counter the furiously blows of the ANBU determined to kill him.
She pressed her attack, her sword moving at speeds he would normally be impressed at if he wasn't currently on such an important mission.
Temari, keeping her brother up with his arm thrown over her shoulder, was still frozen in shock from the sudden attack.
He needed to move the two away from the village, get them to the rendezvous point, and make sure they get far away from the village that would soon be victim to the rampaging Ichibi.
'Damn this ANBU.' Baki stepped onto the street, throwing both short knives forward in an attempt to kill her. She bisected both with her Chakra enhanced blade. He moved to leap back up to the building and unleash his Blade of Wind once more in the middle of the air when she countered.
Her trio of Shadow Clones had survived the attack against them and jumped down to kill Baki with their blades. One came straight down, the two others came racing down the building on either side, sweeping in to cut him down from the side. Yugao was fine to strike upward from below.
'I can't die yet.' He unleashed his Blade of Wind more like a hammer, striking Yugao down directly as the force of unleashing his technique threw him up at an angle. He avoided the deadly blade from the descending Yugao, threw a trio of shuriken to hopefully dispel the clone, and a fresh pair of kunai allowed him to block the sweeping slashes from the two Shadow Clones coming from his side. He threw himself up using the blade lock, turning in midair to direct his attack as he once more raised two fingers.
Yugao saw such a thing and immediately dashed into the interior of the building they had fought down. His Blade of Wind lacerated her clones and dispelled them. He didn't waste his time or his opportunity, landing on the side of the building and sprinting up it after turning around in the blink of an eye. He charged across the rooftop and to the two children of the Kazekage.
'Damn this ANBU.' He hurried to grab them both and just blitz past everything else in their way. Escorting children from the battlefield was not very conductive to fighting an enemy the caliber of Konohagakure's near legendary ANBU. He needed them out of harm's way as soon as possible.
He could kill the ANBU afterwards.
Her blade cut through the roof in front of him, stabbed through his foot, and he collapsed at the sudden pain. He attempted to rise on his hands and launch himself forward when the ANBU cut through the roof once more, delivering a large cut to his front. He collapsed, blood quickly spreading from the wound. The ANBU cut her entrance to the roof, approached him with deliberate slowness. He heard her blade cut through the air as she reversed her grip on it and let it hover above his head. He could hear the Chakra she ran across it, almost feel it as it gathered at the tip.
She was no doubt memorizing the moment she had created, her defeated opponent soon to be nothing but a corpse with her blade driven through his skull.
His fingers twitched.
Her blade descended.
"Baki!"
A wall of wind slammed into the ANBU, threw her away from him and nearly off the rooftop.
Temari was fast, not wasting time with staring down the ANBU, face the Killing Intent exploding from her like the waves of the sea in a vicious storm, and grabbed Baki.
She was still too slow.
The ANBU's blade lunged through her shoulder as the Shinobi pushed her away, saving her from having the blade punch through her chest. The ANBU withdrew the blade, no doubt recognizing the girl she had nearly killed, and he knew she was already changing her mission.
She would capture the two valuable hostages in front of her for the Hokage, force the Kazekage to end the invasion at the risk of their execution.
His fingers twitched.
Her armored back was struck by a single near invisible blade of wind.
The ANBU ignored the pain, focused on turning to him and plunging her bloodied blade into his back above all else now.
A senbon was narrowly avoided, the ANBU withholding the desire to curse as the brother held the head of his puppet in shaking arms. She had avoided the poisoned weapon with ease and now she focused a burst of Killing Intent on him, the puppet head clattering to the ground a second later. His sister swung her fan once more while she was momentarily distracted.
An effective use of the Shunsin let her avoid the scythe like blade of wind. She darted towards the daughter of the Kazekage then, her sword held at her side. The large iron fan was swung down, turned into a club in a maneuver born more from desperation than anything else.
The ANBU didn't humor her.
She struck her in the stomach with the hilt of her blade, a palm strike from her free hand throwing the fan free of her grip, and the girl collapsed. She was dry heaving after the air had been knocked out of her. The ANBU grabbed her by the back of her top and returned her blade to its place on her back. A pair of bolas was sent spinning through the air, wrapping around the dark haired boy's legs and binding his arms to his side. The impact of the restraining equipment made him topple off the rooftop but a pair of kunai to the chains of the bola pinned him to the building next to them.
The ANBU finally turned to the Sunagakure Shinobi bleeding at her feet.
His fingers twitched.
She broke them with a stomp from her sandal clad foot.
His technique died before it could be put to use from the pain breaking his concentration.
The cat masked ANBU towering above his prone form silently rose her hands up to her throat, drew her thumb across it in a silent promise, and pulled her foot back. Darkness greeted Baki when she swung it into his face, knocking him out in a pool of his own blood and the growing weight of his failure.
'Damn that ANBU.' It was his last thought.
"This can't be it." Jiraiya sat down on the wall as he voiced his thoughts out loud, the titanic summon gone with a cloud of smoke once his clones and he had finished it off. "A few snakes to each of the gates? No one as smart as the Kazekage would think to invade without knowing the Shinobi Konoha had close by enough to assist. I could have guarded all four gates by myself if I wanted, summoning those three was to force these bastards to split up their forces to take them down. All of those snakes make this reek of my old teammate so that means my suspicions about Otogakure are right. He's the guy in charge of that place."
'That also means he's going to be here…somewhere he's hiding and waiting to strike like the snake he is.'
"Places." The voice below him was his only warning. He dodged the mass of hissing snakes that aimed to kill him, he threw himself into the air and unleashed a gout of flames without hand seals. A bullet of water of course countered it as he landed back on the wall, already rushing down it and falling onto all fours as his hair grew much larger.
"Hari Jigoku!" He unleashed his fearsome Needle Hell technique and observed the sudden smile on the pale face of his opponent. A fire surged from his feet, winds whipped around him as a gale, and stone rose to be his shield.
All done by a single hand seal from the Shinobi in front of him, three different Nature Transformations used at once. And that was even if the way he curled his fingers could even be considered a hand seal to begin with.
"Always got to correct me, huh?" Jiraiya rose back to his full height on the vertical surface.
"I can never stand fools." Before him stood his former teammate, another member of the Sanin, a former Konoha-nin and now one of the most fearsome Missing-nin in the entire world.
"I suppose you never change even with all this time, Orochimaru."
Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin, merely smiled. It was a twisted thing, one that promised only death if one was lucky. If they were unlucky then death would be the greatest gift to them.
"Neither have you Jiraiya."
The two silently stared at one another, neither showing anything beyond indifference on their faces.
A drop of water fell from a tree branch.
The stone beneath both their feet shattered, the shockwave of their blows colliding with the other producing more than enough force to do so.
The drop of water fell to the ground.
The Chakra Jiraiya and Orochimaru unleashed as they battled washed over the village, alerted everyone present to the fact that the Sannin had at last met and begun to battle.
AN: Thanks to all reviewers of Orange Legion. As usual.
Life happened again. Orange Legion is annoying to write. Problems happen. I try. Orange Legion continues to be annoying to write. Delays to my schedule happen. I will try to remedy this at some point in the future. Don't keep your hopes up.
Peace.