Daze Pt 2
Ch 21 - The Snake & The Raven
X X
Tayuya let out a beleaguered sigh.
"How much longer do we have to stay on this island, I like beaches as much as the next girl but this is boring with a capital b."
Anko took a sip from her saucer of sake.
"We've only got three more days here if I can endure the endless bureaucracy you can handle a little down time."
Sakura was entranced within the confines of a medical journal while Ino braided her hair with different tropical flowers she had found.
Taiza sat there awkwardly not used to being surrounded day and night by so many beautiful deadly women.
He heard familiar whistling and nearly tripped hopping to his feet.
"Karen hey!"
The pretty brown-haired girl with a basket full of flowers turned to him and smiled.
"Hi Taiza-kun"
"When'd you get back?"
"Just last night I figured you'd still be sleeping in."
Taiza blushed.
He had a reputation amongst his peers as a bit of dreamer they called him 'Bedhead' Taiza.
"You know I've been working on that special project for your father, I have to get up early."
She giggled.
"I know Taiza-kun you just get so cute when you're embarrassed."
She walked over and pinched his cheek much to his chagrin but he couldn't help but smile at her.
She excused herself bowing at the kunoichi.
"So is that your girlfriend."
Ino gave him a knowing eyebrow wiggle.
"W-what no she's just my friend."
Anko chuckled.
"Sure thing kiddo."
Naruto sat cross legged on a thick tree branch overlooking a wide forest.
He was deep in meditation.
In his mind he ran through multiple battle scenarios against several key opponents.
'Orochimaru, Pain, Madara, am I ready to face them, can I do this.'
He began to shake and sweat.
'This pressure is enough to swallow me.'
He felt a warm hand on his shoulder and turned to spot the culprit catching a glimpse of long raven hair.
Before he could see the figure they faded into a sunbeam.
"I-Itachi."
Naruto closed his eyes with renewed vigor.
'One thing at a time, Orochimaru, how do I finish him.'
"We've arrived, my lord."
The snake woman giggled, her golden eyes reflecting the moonlit waters.
"Are you ready, Kabuto-kun to witness the fall of a civilization firsthand."
"I shall burn it to my memory Orochimaru-sama."
The snake woman smirked her serpentine tongue dancing along her painted lips.
"Summon Manda-2 we begin at once."
Anko suddenly tensed with pain clutching her shoulder.
'It can't be, why would he be here?!'
Anko stood up from her seat hastily.
"Grab Taiza we're heading for the island center!"
"What?"
Sakura looked at her confused shuffling to put her book in her bag.
"Just do what I say, now!"
They had barely made it to their feet when the entire island began to shake the night sky illuminated with orange light.
Kunoichi of different villages all rushed from various shops and houses.
"What happened?"
An older woman in grey sleeveless armor with her hair pinned up in a bun came from the direction of the pier.
Several women in similar armor followed her; they all wore grey headbands with symbols that resembled an upside down triangle missing the tip.
"It's a massive serpent, it destroyed the waterfront!"
'So it is him!'
"We need every available body to assist us Famugakure ninja in evacuating the residents."
The women nodded rushing to follow the armored guard.
Taiza ran the opposite way ignoring the protests of his leaf escorts.
"Taiza where are you going!?"
Anko looked around for any signs of enemy ninja.
"I have to find Karen!"
Anko growled but nodded.
"Ino you go with him, Tayuya, Sakura you're with me.
Famugakure Waterfront...
Orochimaru let out a witless laugh, her eyes glowing with maniacal glee.
"Kabuto it's time, call Tamako-chan and the new Snake Guard."
The grey haired boy obliged, laying a scroll out he channeled chakra into it and the ink rolled off the scroll and into the ocean's black water.
A head emerged from the water, a dark-haired pink gilled woman with black eyes and a long messy bob cut.
She wore a dark blue bodysuit with the front zipped down to reveal a curse mark resembling a triskelion on her collarbone.
Several identical large blue finned men with rebreathers followed her from the ocean's depths.
They were covered in tubes with thick veins and tattered remnants of clothes.
"Tamako you are to bring me Anko and the girl, the rest of you tear this pitiful excuse for a village down brick by brick!"
The woman nodded silently and vanished into a puddle of water.
The blue men roared with a noise what sounded like a series of screaming sharks in a tube.
They ran furious and began crashing into buildings tearing them down with their bare fists.
"This is the result of your research Kabuto, well done."
Kabuto raised his spectacles which reflected the full moon in his dark eyes.
"Tamako-chan turned out better than I could have possibly imagined,"
Kabuto smirked with scientific pride.
"-her synchronicity with the curse mark allowed me to improve the Sujirin clones to what you see now."
On queue the shark men screeched like a massive eel as they were confronted by armored kunoichi.
"A single Sujirin possesses the strength of five chunin."
One of the blue gilled men lifted two genin into the air and began to squeeze the life from their necks.
It's empty milky white eyes were bloodshot and it stared down at the horrified girls, ignoring the repeated stabs from their jonin sensei.
"It's just a shame they lost their ability to shift into water once I added more Jugo DNA."
"Tsk tsk Kabuto-kun you can't have everything."
"I suppose not."
Naruto was preparing to return to the cave when he felt a strong chakra tugging at him from his pocket.
"Damn it Taiza your house better be on fire or I'm shoving my foot you know where."
Naruto channeled his own chakra into the scroll and was reverse summoned to Taiza's location.
"What do you n-"
Naruto took in his surroundings and immediately switched into attack mode.
Taiza was holding a girl in his arms to guard her with his frame.
Ino was prone on the ground next to him, two shark looking men grappled in front of them.
'Which one of them is Ino?'
"Ino release your mind transfer!"
One of the shark men looked at him confused but when it saw he was tossing three Level 2 paper bombs it obliged making a crude hand sign.
A second later and chunks of blue charred flesh were flying across the street.
Anyone standing there would've been blown up as well but Naruto had grabbed the three of them and flickered to a safe distance.
"Why'd you save us Akatsuki!?"
Ino held a kunai up standing in between Taiza and him.
"Easy Ino-san he's with me."
"Taiza what?"
"It's true Ino."
"How do you know my name!?"
Naruto gave her a laid-back smile.
"We went to school together, though you probably never paid me much mind."
She gave him a second look and noticed the very faint almost invisible whisker like marks on his face.
They had been covered by his hair previously so she hadn't noticed them.
"N-naruto it can't be, I heard you were dead?"
"Fraid not, but I can't guarantee I won't be if we stay where we are."
He gestured to several shark men rushing towards the smell of their brothers' blood.
"Let's move."
Tayuya growled.
She latched onto the waist of a downed blue man with her legs and tore into the flesh of it's chest and neck with a kunai in both of her hands.
"These things have thick fucking skin how am I supposed to cut them!"
Anko gritted her teeth as she struggled to restrain two of them with snakes from her sleeves.
"Try your flute!"
Tayuya nodded leaping away from the enraged shark and pulling a steel tube from her pouch.
She played a few chords, a haunting melody reaching the ear passages of the sharks.
They fell still.
"Ith woks bth I canth holf it foreffer."
Tayuya spoke through notes.
Anko nodded.
"Toss me your pouch I'm gonna rig this street to blow."
Tayuya obliged the older woman, tossing her all but one of her ninja pouches.
Anko pulled out a roll of ninja wire and stuck paper bombs throughout tying the string from facade to facade of the nearby buildings.
"Clear out!"
The red-haired girl hopped away continuing to play her melody as the paperbombs began to shoot sparks.
A moment later and a massive explosion shook the entire street chunks of flesh and bone flying into the air.
"Three down let's hope there aren't too many more of these things."
"Anko-sensei Ino sent me, we were surrounded by Sharks, I was able to dispatch three of them while Ino held up the fourth and fifth."
"Alright Sakura good job, let's regroup."
Anko and Tayuya followed their pink-haired companion back towards the island center.
'Targets acquired.'
A woman saw them through sharklike vision, their forms glowing green against the pitch black surroundings.
Naruto, and Ino ran with their civilian charges towards the place where Sakura had been sent.
Naruto narrowly avoided a set of strikes from snakes and chakra laced fists as he suddenly collided with Anko and Sakura on the rooftop.
"E-easy!"
Tayuya and Ino leapt in between them.
Anko growled.
"What are you idiots doing?!"
Tayuya looked back at the blonde wondering why he was back so soon.
"He's on our side."
Ino looked at Sakura and Anko with barely contained excitement.
"It's Naruto."
Naruto sweatdropped and Tayuya facepalmed angrily.
'You weren't supposed to tell them.' / 'Damn blonde bimbo!'
Anko looked at him confused.
"What are you talking about Ino he looks nothing like N-"
'His hair is kind of like the yondaime's but longer and wavy, and those marks were they hidden before?'
Sakura immediately realized it and nearly decapitated him with a hug.
"Naruto!"
She began to cry lightly into his shoulder.
"We all thought you were dead."
Naruto smiled, unable to breath with her arm around his neck.
"H-hi Sakura-chan."
Anko glared at the boy trying to hide her relief with toughness.
"Naruto explain yourself now!"
Naruto wrestled himself free from Sakura's bear hug.
"Not now Orochimaru is here and I'm going to him before he can slip away."
Naruto's normally relaxed demeanor turned deadly serious, his crimson eyes reflecting the moon's face.
'He looks just like Minato, and somehow… Itachi.'
"Very well but the second that bastard is dealt with you're coming back with us to the village."
Naruto half nodded.
"We'll talk after."
"Kabuto, was this one a sensory type?"
"Yes my lord she was distantly related to the Kusa Uzumaki clan branch, why do you ask?"
"Because I can sense Naruto approaching rapidly."
Kabuto paled.
"Should I activate the backup?"
"No need, Tamako should be more than enough to soften him up and the tide of Surijin will keep any of his little friends from interfering."
Kabuto nodded begrudgingly.
Naruto was getting closer now racing the wind with a series of instantaneous flickers.
He could see the massive wellspring of chakra that was Orochimaru along with the erratic chakra of Kabuto.
The other thing he saw made him uneasy.
There were hundreds no, thousands of large chakra signatures in the ocean, enough to make it look as if the water itself had chakra.
He could hear the kunoichi in the distance, struggling to keep up with him but he couldn't afford to slow down.
He growled with exertion his vision just trails of red light from his sharingan flickering as he leapt off the last roof toward the ocean.
He saw Orochimaru's chakra rapidly approaching as he raised his forearm to catch the Sanin's neck.
Orochimaru shot her tongue out, tying the boy up in midair.
"Tsk tsk Naruto-kun have you learned so little from my former associates."
Naruto smirked, his eye muscles folding with delight.
"More than you know Bunshin Daibakuha!" (Great clone explosion)
The clone exploded, blowing off the snake-like tongue and causing Orochimaru to screech in agony.
"Damn you, my tongue!"
"You use it so brazenly Snake-teme it was just a matter of time before somebody realized it."
Orochimaru and Kabuto turned to the source of the voice but no-one was there.
Kabuto coughed out blood, his glasses flying off of his face as he was struck with a direct spear-like elbow to the chest.
"Doton: Ishidzuki Yari!" (Earth Style: Stone Assault Spear)
Naruto glared at him.
"You always pissed me off, you four-eyed coward sink into the ocean like the slime you are!"
Kabuto was sent skipping like a stone across the ocean's surface sinking below the water.
Naruto snapped his head to Orochimaru.
"So even the great Orochimaru-sama is susceptible to auditory genjutsu."
Orochimaru screeched with rage, her neck extending to grab Naruto by his neck.
Naruto drew a tanto channeling wind chakra into it and sliced the neck several times in the span of a moment.
To no one's surprise a second Orochimaru burst forth from the body of the woman slipping away with rapid speed as a Lamia.
"Get back here you bastard!"
Naruto gave chase to the snake ignoring the yells to wait from his newly arrived allies.
Naruto charged forth gaining quickly on the sliding snake as he ran along the ocean's surface tossing up water vapor.
Orochimaru smirked, spinning to a sudden halt and firing a massive blade from her opened jaw.
Naruto charged right through the blade taking part of it in his side and running along the blade's surface.
"If you think a sword is going to stop me, think again!"
Naruto leapt at the snake, channeling lightning into the sword which traveled back into the sanin's body frying her from the inside.
"AAAgghhh!"
She writhed with pain but yet another burst forth from the fried corpse.
Naruto anticipated this and grabbed the snake by her tail, yanking her back with all of his strength.
"You aren't going anywhere!"
Naruto growled as he flipped the snake by her tail slamming her head off the beach floor.
Orochimaru's head bounced off the ground dazed.
She couldn't react as Naruto assaulted her with a series of intense punches and kicks that juggled here and wore down her body's resistance.
"How did you get so strong, it must be Itachi's accursed sharingan."
"Think again."
Orochimaru gazed at the boys' eyes briefly and saw two onyx orbs staring back at her.
"Then how."
"I trained every day with the best of the best, the worst of the worst, men and women who make you look like an academy student."
Naruto smirked.
"You were barely an Akatsuki, Orochimaru, you're a disgrace."
Naruto made a series of hand seals his sharingan spinning to life.
"Katon: Dai 7 hoīru!" (Fire Style: Seventh Wheel)
A Dragon of golden fire flew from Naruto's mouth swallowing its own tail and engulfing the snake master within a wheel of flames.
"This is an S rank fire jutsu I spent the last year and a half perfecting the crystallization of my own power!"
The flames engulfed the screaming sanin rolling her in an endless circle and atomizing everything it touched.
Naruto fell to his knees breathing heavily.
Anko and the leaf kunoichi arrived just in time to see a lone golden eye and raven hair melt in flames which cleared to reveal a beach of glass.
"Was that?"
Naruto nodded weakly.
"Then he's really gone?"
Anko noticed the mark on her shoulder begin to recede.
"No way."
The beach still flickered with golden flames as Naruto fell onto his face clutching a long slash on his chest.
'P-poison.'
"Naruto?!"
They heard a great hissing and turned to see the gigantic form of Manda-2 rising from the ocean.
It towered above the largest cliff even with half of its body under the water.
From its mouth a pale, green eyed man originated.
"Kukuku Naruto-kun did you really think I would die so easily?"
Anko's eyes widened as she heard what Naruto whispered to her from below.
She nodded silently.
Anko helped Naruto to a weak standing position, his sharingan's pattern transformed to that of a dark shuriken.
"Amaterasu!"
The giant purple snake hissed in agony as it was engulfed in a mass of black flames.
"Manda no!"
Orochimaru growled at the loss of his favorite pet but hopped out of it's mouth before the flames could reach him.
Naruto groaned weakly, falling into unconsciousness as his vision blurred.
"Go Anko I'm out of chakra he isn't going to kill me.
"How can you be so sure."
"Just trust me."
Anko begrudgingly turned to leave when a dark haired woman struck her with an attack that sent her flying into the sand.
"A-ah such strength."
The woman's dark beady eyes snapped rapidly back and forth between Tayuya and Anko.
"You will come with me, Orochimaru-sama demands it."
The woman slowly unzipped her bodysuit down to her navel as her curse mark spiralled out into black spirals that engulfed her form.
Her skin turned to a more greyish pink, her dark hair turned white and grew in length.
Marrow like Horn protrusions grew from her abdomen, collarbone, and near her chest.
"Shanaroo!"
Sakura charged the woman with a massive fist of condensed chakra but she countered with her own punch.
Their knuckles met and the shockwave blew Sakura back, breaking her arm and pushing her bone out her elbow.
Sakura was on the ground writhing in silent pain and Ino ran over to check on her.
Tayuya activated her curse mark second form her medium red hair turning a long pink and horns protruding from her forehead.
"Damn it I haven't had to use this in years I hope it still works right!"
Tayuya began playing a fast tune three Oni appeared from sealing matrixes on her wrist guards.
The Oni charged the woman in a pincer attack but she dodged them effortlessly.
She kicked each of them in the air with overwhelming strength and Tayuya was forced to dispel them before they landed in water and were devoured.
"Resistance is futile."
The woman opened her mouth and a thick ball of grey mucus began to rise from her throat.
She spit it out onto the ground and it rapidly expanded.
'What the hell is that?!'
Tayuya tossed some kunai and shuriken at the ball.
A thick grey hand burst forth, the kunai and shuriken implanted in it's wrist, and it shrieked an eel-like sound.
"No…"
Sure enough two Surijin clones burst forth from the egg clutch quickly growing to full maturity.
'She's a damn breed mare!'
Before Tayuya could begin to counterattack the woman had already rapidly rushed behind her and pinned her arms behind her.
"Let me go you Shark cunt!"
The woman ignored her angry protests holding her down and tying her arms.
Tayuya looked for an ally to help her but Ino had her hands full protecting the incapacitated Sakura from a Shark.
Another Shark had jumped onto the already downed Anko and was keeping her from moving.
"Orochimaru-sama the targets are captured."
The man grinned his snake tongue writhing.
"Then I suppose today is not a complete loss, Secure the boy, then fetch Kabuto's worthless hide from the water."
The shark woman nodded robotically.
"It shall be done."
"Kukuku what was that you were saying Naruto-kun, I'm not an Akatsuki, I suppose you are correct those short-sighted fools never could understand,"
The man pulled the skin under his eye revealing the bloodshot white of his eye.
"-The true power of human experimentation!"
The snake man let out a wicked laugh as Naruto and Anko were tied up being carried off to the ocean with Tayuya.
Ino looked on helpless as the sharks vanished in a swirl of water.
Sakura coughed and began weakly healing her arm.
"We lost."
The rest of the sharks snapped their heads all blinking in unison as they headed slowly back to the oceans depths before disappearing.
The burning form of Manda also vanishing.
"He's gone."
X END X
A/N: What will happen to Naruto and the others, find out next time, until then stay golden -