We'll Burn That Bridge When We Get To It #2
"Sai!" Naruto jumped forwards and crushed the boy in a hug. "It's been ages! How ya been?"
"I am fine. Thank you for asking."
Leaning against Konoha's gate, Sasuke took his eyes off the pair and looked across at the other person with them. "And you are?"
"Yamato." The man inclined his head. "A pleasure to meet you both."
Sasuke squinted. "You wouldn't happen to work for Root, would you?"
"I used to," Yamato admitted, "but of course that branch has been defunct for several years now."
"Of course." Sasuke grit his teeth. "Hey Naruto? The other one's an adult Sai."
"Aw crap." Naruto released his hug. "Did we have anyone seducing this one?"
"No."
"Ugh." Naruto waved his hand vaguely at Yamato. "Friendship magic. Poof, you're a good guy."
Yamato tilted his head. "...Thank you?"
"Ignore him." Sasuke waved it off. "You two understand the mission, right?"
"Meet with Sasori's informant, extract information of Orochimaru's location, apprehend Hyuuga Hinata and assassinate Orochimaru."
Sai and Yamato recited, perfectly in sync with each other.
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged glances. "Yeah...although really that's our mission." Naruto specified.
Sasuke extrapolated. "Your job is to follow a few paces behind, offer tactical info and compliments, and bail us out if we do something too stupid. Other than that..." his grin turned a bit sharp. "It's probably safer to stay out of our way."
And then everyone trekked over to Tenchi bridge and waited until the relevant day but that's boring so nobody could be bothered to write about it.
"This was a terrible idea." Naruto hissed from the underbrush, as Yamato (disguised as Sasori) walked out onto Tenchi bridge.
"Relax." Sasuke genjutsu-spoke back. "We gave him a signal for when he needs our help. Besides, wood clones are like shadow clones but more durable, there's no way to tell Yamato apart from Sasori."
"Unless he attacks him." Sai casually pointed out.
"Well, yeah." Sasuke turned back to the bridge. "Oh, look, it's that one asshole."
Yahushi Kabuto, older but still with that shit-eating grin on his face, walked out onto the bridge.
"Master Sasori." He greeted. "Good to see you."
"Servant." Yamato replied in Sasori's voice, calmly. "I trust Orochimaru is not here to accompany you."
Kabuto chuckled. "That old fool still has no idea I'm really working for you, I assure you. He should still be sitting alone in our hideout."
"Your hideout...?" Yamato trailed off.
"Yes, our hideout." Kabuto nodded. "Now. Do you have the package?"
"Shit." Sasuke muttered.
"Of course." Yamato shifted. "The package."
"The package."
"That I have."
"Yes."
"Which I am giving to you."
"Yes."
"There...is a problem with that."
"Oh?"
The Sasori shell was visibly concerned. "I...lost it."
Kabuto tilted his head. "You lost the package."
"Yes. There were...unforeseen complications."
"Really."
"Yes."
"Okay, fair enough."
In the brush, Naruto and Sasuke both exhaled.
"But what about the message?"
They both tensed again.
"The...message?" Kabuto was sweating.
"Of course." Kabuto smiled. "I'm sure you couldn't have lost that."
"Yes...The message."
"The message."
"For me to give you."
"Yes."
"The message concocted specifically for me to tell you."
"Uh-huh."
"...Your message."
Kabuto nodded.
"...I changed it."
"Oh?"
"Yes." Yamato nodded. "And the new message...is..."
Kabuto leaned in. "Would you like me to bail you out and tell you I know you're not Sasori?"
"Yes! Wait, what-"
Kabuto swept his hand forwards and smashed straight through the wooden construct, and Yamato was forced to leap backwards.
Naruto moved to jump forwards, but Sai grabbed his arm. "Wait. Yamato hasn't given us the signal yet."
"Teammates! I need help!" Yamato shouted.
"That was the signal." Sai nodded, releasing Naruto.
"I fucking hate all of you-" Sasuke jumped out of hiding and onto the bridge.
Kabuto's face fell. "Oh. You."
"Hey assface." Naruto grinned. "How's your stomach doing?"
"Fine, actually." Kabuto spat. "But you...you've hurt me in other ways, Naruto-Kun. Do you have any idea, any idea what you've done?"
Naruto blinked. "Uh..."
Kabuto clenched his fist. "I have had. To listen. To this teenage girl. Go on and on and ON about you for four fucking years!" He threw his arms into the air. "Do you know how fucking great she thinks you are? Naruto this, Naruto that, Kami girl you're sixteen get over your crush!"
Sasuke couldn't help but burst out laughing as Naruto went red in the face, and Kabuto immediately rounded on him. "Oh don't think you're an exception to the rule, Uchiha. I genuinely don't know which one of you she prefers, do you have any idea how much she fucking respects you? She treats everyone in hidden Sound like children, but you, oh she'd probably saddle you with killing her fucking cousin if you asked her to 'trust you'-"
"I get the feeling there's a lot of pent up anger here," Naruto interrupted, "but can we get to the part where you're under arrest? Because I like that part."
Kabuto opened his mouth-
"I'm afraid nobody will be arresting anybody today."
All five froze.
Moving at a perfectly leisurely pace, as though the world would wait for him, Orochimaru strolled across the bridge.
"Well well well, if it isn't the rejects." He remarked, stopping just ahead of Kabuto. "We knew Sasori was dead the moment the seal in Kabuto's head stopped working, but I never would have thought it would be you that did him in."
The snake Sannin crossed his arms. "That was wood style, so you must be Yamato. One of my most successful experiments, except that I had to kill a bunch of children first, got kicked out of the village and lost all my stuff, and didn't even get wood style out of the deal. No clue why I actually did that, to be honest, it was a terrible idea." His expression clouded for a moment, before he turned to Naruto and Sasuke, smiling. "And of course, you two. Bijuu-no-mates and the boy-who-didn't-turn-to-the-dark-side-when-prompted. What a team." He clapped, slowly, as sarcastically as it was physically possible to clap.
Naruto glared, eyes red. "Where is she?"
"Hmm?" Orochimaru leaned forwards. "What was that?"
"Where. Is she?" Naruto growled. "Don't you try and pretend you don't know who I'm talking about."
"Hmm." Orochimaru tapped his chin theatrically. "Perhaps, perhaps...ah, I know. You wouldn't happen to be talking about...
Little miss Hinata?"
A circle of wood beneath Naruto's feet cracked.
"Naruto..." Sasuke warned.
"Give her. Back." Naruto snarled, red chakra boiling up around him.
"Give her back? I'm afraid you misunderstand. I'm not keeping her here. In fact, seeing what she was living with, I'm not surprised she abandoned you."
Seeing the shock on Naruto's face, Orochimaru laughed. "Oh, poor child, had you convinced yourself it was some dark manipulation on my part? Allow me to shatter such preconceptions." His slitted yellow eyes glinted. "Hinata didn't want to stay with you. And considering the way you lost to her, you don't deserve to keep her."
Naruto's fingers tightened on the bridge.
Kyuubi? Power.
Do you honestly expect me to put out for some doomed attempt to 'show him the strength of your convictions' or some other such-
No. I'm going to kill him.
...Well, why didn't you say so?
Two glowing red tails sprouted from Naruto's coccyx. Without any further warning, he blitzed forwards and hit Orochimaru so hard he went crashing away through the trees.
Orochimaru was, annoyingly, fine. But that was okay; it just meant Naruto had to hit him more. He charged forwards on all fours and tried to bury another fist in the snake's face, but Orochimaru swerved out of the way. Naruto lashed out with a kick, and that missed too, so he swept his tails around and batted the Sannin through another tree.
Orochimaru landed, vomited up a snake, and hurled it straight for Naruto. It disintegrated entirely on the chakra cloak, and Naruto reached out with a clawed hand for his opponent. Orochimaru jumped back out of the way, but wasn't prepared for a glowing red claw of chakra to extend out from Naruto's arm and latch onto him.
Naruto grinned, and ripped an arm off.
Back on the bridge, Yamato started making hand seals. "He's lost control. If I use the wood style, I should be able to-"
"Nah, he's fine." Sasuke reached into his bag of popcorn kernels and heated them up with fire style, popping them. "He's pissed, sure, but he's still in control."
Yamato squinted at the juggernaut slowly blowing a massive crater in the forest. "He doesn't look in control."
"Naruto spent three years learning to control the nine tails." Sasuke stuffed the popcorn into his mouth. "E cn comtro uck to tree."
"Pardon?"
Sasuke swallowed. "One tails he's fine. Two tails he's mostly fine. Three-" there was a boom, "-three tails, which he just activated, he's bitchy but he can still think." Sasuke held a handful out.
Yamato gave him a look, but took the popcorn.
Back in the battle, a second Orochimaru (presumably a snake clone) slithered out of his empty arm socket.
"Ew." Naruto sprinted and punched it, but it disintegrated into more snakes which tried to wrap him up. While he was busy dealing with those (by flexing until they set on fire), Orochimaru walked up and socked him in the face.
"Amusing, I'll admit." Orochimaru shook the hand he'd punched with; it was blistered and burned. "But insufficient. I'm playing with you, child."
"I will kill you." Naruto got to his feet, teeth bared.
"Oh but you won't!" Orochimaru clapped gleefully. "Not like that, anyway. If this is all you've got, you'll never be strong enough to get Hinata back."
Naruto's claws dug into the ground.
Kyuubi. Four tails. Version two.
He could feel one of the Kyuubi's eyes open from within it's cage; it had powered him up to this point while effectively dozing.
Really? You know you can't concentrate enough yin chakra to control that much, right?
I don't want control. I want his head.
Heh. Whatever. Don't say I didn't warn you.
The power flooded in. Naruto screamed.
Sasuke paused, watching a pulse of red energy tear through the forest. "Okay, now he's lost control."
Yamato started forwards. "Then lets go."
Sasuke grimaced. "I mean..."
Yamato turned to him. "Why do you hesitate?"
Sasuke gestured. "You see those four tails? That means he's using four tails of the bijuu's power. Which is less than twenty percent, apparently, but still."
"Not four ninths?" Kabuto asked, helping himself to some popcorn.
"No, annoyingly. It's exponential." Sasuke sighed. "But still a big deal. And that black-red glowing outline around his massive elongated body? That means he's in the version two cloak. Which makes him even stronger."
"Your point?" Yamato asked.
"My point," Sasuke winced, "is that yeah he's currently a mindless monster, but he might actually kill Orochimaru here."
Yamato paused. "How much popcorn do you have left?"
"I sealed like four bags in scrolls." Sasuke chuckled. Then he looked across at Kabuto. "You good with this?"
"Oh I think my master's going to win." Kabuto shrugged. "So as far as he's concerned I'm doing everything in my power to keep you all from intervening."
"Got it. See I think Naruto's going to win, so as far as he's concerned I'm doing everything in my power to keep you from intervening."
"So I suppose we both just sit back and watch?"
Sasuke nodded appreciatively. "Sounds good. More popcorn?"
"Please."
Back in the crater, Orochimaru picked his mangled body up from the floor. "Well." He stretched. "That was a little more effective. My point still stands though; I'm mostly just letting you attack to see what you're capable of."
Four tails Naruto was beyond speech at this point. It roared up to the sky, and spheres of red and blue chakra began to form around him.
"Oh?" Orochimaru tilted his head.
"Oh?" Sasuke squinted to get a better look.
Oh? Said the nine tails, in Naruto's head. You do realise you can't make a bijuu bomb in only the cloak, right?
Naruto didn't respond. The motes of light congregated into a sphere of energy, and then the four-tails avatar snapped it up into its mouth. The ground beneath it cracked.
"Oh, shit." Orochimaru remarked, "That's more like it. Triple Rashimon." He slapped his palms to the ground.
"Hey," Sasuke muttered, mostly to himself, "anyone remember that one rumour flying around about Naruto after the Chunin exams? He's only gone and fucking done it."
The light condensed inside the red beast's mouth. Three tall locked gates appeared between it and Orochimaru.
"Fucking Laser-beam release." Sasuke breathed.
The beast opened it's mouth and a massive blast of red-white energy beamed out of it, disintegrating the first gate, tearing apart the second, and smashing the third into shrapnel, blowing Orochimaru back, but leaving him unharmed by the chakra that was busy smashing holes in the landscape.
Naruto wasn't done though. The Sannin's eyes widened and he was forced to jump away as the beast charged forward and fired another blast from its mouth, and then another, and then-
"Okay, that's enough." Orochimaru let some irritation onto his face. His neck stretched up stupidly high into the air, and then a physics-defyingly long sword jutted out of his mouth. It extended metre after metre, stabbing down at Naruto and pinning him to the ground, then dragging him across the floor. Naruto howled, but was unable to stop himself being thrown back over the canyon and pinned to the other side.
"Gish ish du shord of Kushanagi!" Orochimaru gargled. "It can cuc shrough anyshing-"
Naruto grabbed the sword, yanked it up out of his chest, and buried it in the cliff beside him.
"...comdishuns accly. Thucc." Orochimaru sighed, and retracted the sword.
Naruto jumped up onto the bridge again, disrupting the card game that had been going on between its three occupants. He growled, threateningly.
"Alright, easy." Sasuke held his palms up, calmingly. "You wanna go back in or do you want us to help out?"
Avatar boiling, Naruto's white eyes narrowed. The glow began to charge in his mouth.
"Aw shit." Muttered Kabuto.
Yamato held his hand out and began chanting "Hokage style; elder sealing-"
"No time! Get behind me!" Sasuke darted in front of both of them.
Naruto opened his mouth, and another beam of energy blasted forwards, this time at his team.
Sasuke's Sharingan flashed.
Red light met purple.
Yamato and Kabuto gaped as a glowing purple ribcage sprung to life around Sasuke, which stood firm even when faced with a beam that was wider than the bridge. They both huddled together in the middle, as the heat licked around the edges of the bones.
"Okay, that's it." Sasuke grit his teeth. "Now this is time out."
The beam cut out, and Kyuubi-Naruto had a brief moment to look surprised before Sasuke sprinted forwards, Sharingan staring right into its eyes.
The Uchiha appeared in the middle of a dust storm. Black and red particulates swirled through the air of an unknown environment. Gritting his teeth (but deciding it might be smart not to close his eyes) he fought his way forwards. The clouds became thicker, and the wind grew more intense, until eventually he was unable to progress further. There was a form, hunched over and in pain, at the edge of his vision. "Naruto?" He called out, over the wind.
Two red eyes appeared in the air in front of him. "Uchiha." It snarled. "You dare to trespass upon my jinchurikki's-"
"Real cool, don't care." He stared right into the eyes. "You've had your fun, now it's bed time. Go to your room."
He channeled his chakra through his Sharingan, in the specific way he'd been taught.
The clouds around him slowed, shifted and gathered.
"Oh for fucks sake-"
The Kyuubi didn't get to finish its sentence.
It's cloud of influence was corralled by an invisible force, and pushed backwards a hundred metres or so behind a set of tall pillars.
The surroundings that remained...weren't that bad actually. A domed blue sky, trees, cliffs and grassy plains. Everything seemed a little flat, like it had been drawn by someone not quite comfortable with their pencil. Beneath Sasuke's feet was a fast but shallow stream, and laying in that stream a few metres ahead of him...
"Naruto!" He ran forwards, hoisting his teammate out of the water. "Hey, Buddy. Cmon, talk to me."
Naruto cracked an eye open, and groaned. "Sasuke? What in the..."
"You let out four tails and nearly killed us all." Sasuke summarised, succinctly.
"Oh. Crap." Naruto rubbed his head with one hand and got to his feet. "Aw crap, I remember. Anyone dead?"
"Nobody. I used the Susanno to stop you lasering Yamato."
"That thing you've never used before?"
"Yeah. Beginnerus Rukku, I guess." Sasuke looked around. "What...is this place?"
"My mindscape." Naruto replied, with a proud look in his eye. "Designed it myself. Uh, the Kyuubi was complaining all he had to look at was blackness and a sewer."
Sasuke gave his friend a weird look. "That thing just tried to kill us and you do it's landscaping for it?"
"It is a he." Came a snarl from the distance. "And I will not accept responsibility for Kit's little rant."
They both looked across. The Kyuubi's cage had been extended significantly, and the bars were further apart than they had been, but the fox was still thoroughly trapped behind them.
"You're saying it's not your fault?" Naruto rounded on him. "It was your power!"
Kyuubi's head pressed against the bars. "I don't want control. I want his head." He recited. "Those were your words, Kit. Or do you mean to say I can't trust your word?"
"But you can't just-" Naruto protested, but
"You told me you could handle it." The fox cut across him. "And that you would accept the consequences if you couldn't. I don't care if you kill your friends, Kit. Especially little Madara over here."
Sasuke frowned, recognising the name.
"But don't expect me to give you power, and then come whining to me like it's my fault when you can't keep your act together." The fox leaned back and rolled over, turning it's back to them. "Either grow a pair, or use your own power."
Naruto took a step back, then looked down, shifting in place.
Sasuke sighed. "Come on. Let's get back into the real world. Orochimaru's still out there, Yamato could be trouble, and-" He paused, scrolling through the last few minutes of memories.
"Wait a minute. Where the hell is Sai?"
Yeah, this goes way faster when you cut out all the filler, doesn't it? Battle on the bridge occurs, Sasuke is being forced to get more comfortable with his Mangekyo, and Naruto fucks up a little. Important learning experience for him there; you may be on speaking terms with your demon beast, but it's still a demon beast. Next week, it's about time we finally got back together with with everyone's favourite runaway.
