I don't know why it took me so long to decide on this but from here on out you should think of the dragons as having four legs unless stated otherwise.
If you have been imagining a different look up till this point, I'm sorry.
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Naruto was drained of energy but he couldn't stop, if there was even the smallest chance that he could help his Jiji then he would give everything he had left.
As he soared through the air on Chishiki's back he felt the wind blowing past, whipping his hair and clothes in every direction. He was struggling to keep his eyes open and now he was truly feeling the effects of chakra exhaustion.
"We're nearly there" The dragon stated.
As Naruto looked up he could see the battle very clearly now. There was a single man facing off against the Hokage and a couple of anbu. There were some bodies strewn about and what seemed to be a forest growing out of the building. The roots of the trees had grown throughout the building, burrowing into the walls and floors. Also, some of the roof had caved in from the explosions, creating pitfalls that sometimes went down multiple floors.
At the same moment that Chishiki cautiously touched down onto the roof, a couple of leaf shinobi arrived as well.
Some of them immediately engaged in battle with the pale snake man and others moved to report to the hokage.
"Hokage-sama we have forced the sand shinobi to retreat but there are still some from sound lingering about. The rest of our platoon will be arriving shortly."
The hokage nodded, never taking his attention away from the opponent. Naruto observed the man as well, he could see that this enemy was leaps and bounds more powerful than him, in his current state he didn't stand a chance.
"Give up Orochimaru! Your plan is failing before your eyes! Are you truly willing to die here?" Hiruzen shouted.
The man, who Naruto now knew as Orochimaru, hissed back his response. "Your threats are empty sensei, I've nothing to fear from this pitiful village."
"You've become a monster, and this time I will not hesitate to destroy you." The old man truly sounded his age as he said this. You could tell this was not a fight he enjoyed. He buried his emotions and resumed the onslaught.
The anbu and the hokage were putting pressure on Orochimaru, causing him to fight defensively, blocking attacks and retaliating every so often with a jutsu. Although he fought alone, he was holding his own, even killing one of the leaf shinobi.
Hiruzen was on a whole different level though, he continued to slip attacks past Orochimaru's guard dealing significant damage. The full power of a kage was being put on display, withered old man or not.
Naruto desperately wanted to join in and provide whatever support he could, but he had no chakra left at all and Chishiki's attacks would endanger the leaf shinobi as well. For now he could only wait.
As Hiruzen landed a blow that sent Orochimaru flying, something happened that changed the entire flow of the battle. Four sound shinobi appeared on the scene, they had strange markings covering their bodies and they wasted no time going to work. They were able to single handedly dispatch of chunin level shinobi and worked together for jonin and anbu. The leafs numbers were dropping quickly.
In his fatigue Naruto was struggling to follow exactly what was happening, his brain couldn't process these sudden radical changes in the situation. He watched in confusion and a bit of fear as the sound four beat back most of the leaf shinobi and surrounded the Hokage. Together they formed a square of sorts, with Naruto at one of the corners. The strange redheaded girl had appeared a few meters in front of him and began to go through handsigns.
Before anyone could react a large purple barrier was erected that burned whatever touched it on contact. Everyone there learned that lesson very quickly after seeing a comrade rush in without thinking.
As the barrier rose up the rest of the leaf platoon arrived on the scene.
'Some timing.' Naruto thought sarcastically.
In any case, the battle slowed to a standstill. The shinobi on the outside could not get in and the Hokage along with a couple subordinates were stuck on the inside. After a moment Naruto hopped down onto the roof and began to approach the platoon waiting on the outside.
"What are you guys doing? You need to get in there!" Naruto exclaimed.
There was a single anbu member on the outside trying to give orders and he turned to Naruto, revealing his owl mask.
"That's what we're trying to do. You should get out of here kid, it's not safe."
Naruto looked at him defiantly and said
"Fukurō-san, I am a leaf shinobi and I will fight to protect my village!" He tapped his headband for emphasis.
The anbu looked tired and decided not to argue. He said "Well look, we have some guys trying to come up with something to take down this barrier, so just stand by until then."
Suddenly a shout could be heard from inside the barrier. As Naruto looked over he could see an anbu member being held up in the air by snakes that extended from Orochimarus arms. A snake slithered up his body and bit him in the neck.
He was released and he fell limply back down to the ground. Dead. The venom had killed him in mere seconds.
Naruto's eyes widened and he began to panic, fear nestled into his very soul as he thought about what would happen to his grandfather figure.
Suddenly he was very alert now. Adrenaline was coursing through his body and his eyes began to dart around, searching for any way to get through the barrier. He wouldn't be able to do much fighting, if any at all, but he had to help somehow. If he could get the platoon through the barrier, they could win.
As he searched, his eyes landed on each of the sound four and his brain began to slowly put the pieces together. He turned to the anbu, now dubbed Fukurō, and spoke up.
"This barrier needs all four of those guys to keep it up, right?" Naruto asked.
"That's what we think, it's either that or each one of them adds strength to it and only one is needed to erect it."
"So in either case we don't need to attack the barrier itself, we need to attack them!"
Fukurō replied in an exasperated voice.
"We've tried that already, they're protected from the inside and the outside. No attack can get through."
Naruto frowned as his mind sifted through possibility after possiblity but he drew a blank. Then he heard something he never wanted to hear. It was a voice filled with shock and horror.
"H-Hokage-sama!"
Naruto forced himself to look, slowly turning his head to peer into the battlefield. He did not like what he saw.
Hiruzen Saurtobi, the god of shinobi, stood defensively in front of what few subordinates he had left. There was a snake biting his forearm, kunai stuck in his shoulder, and a blade piercing his side.
The kage had seen what the venom could do so thinking quickly, he detatched the snake from his forearm, grabbed a kunai and dragged it down the entire length of his arm, draining most of the poison. He would live for now, but he was losing a lot of blood.
Everyone on the inside looked worn down, barely holding on, and from the looks of it the hokage would die soon.
Naruto went cold. "CHISHIKI!" He yelled out in a panicked and fearful voice.
"Yes?"
"Get me in there! NOW!"
"I can only think of one way in, but it is potentially dangerous."
"You need to get me in there." Naruto said. He was almost begging at this point.
Chishiki nodded. He understood that when humans were filled with emotions it was very difficult to get them to listen to reason. He just hoped that what he was about to do didn't cause too much damage, since the building was already structurally compromised.
He better positioned himself behind the red headed girl and got ready.
Seeing that the powerful summon was about to do something drastic Naruto and the rest of the leaf platoon had stepped back to a safer distance, though no one was exactly sure what distance was safe when it came to a beast like Chishiki.
The dragon reared back on his hind legs, standing to his full height, and then slammed his front legs back down onto the roof with as much power as he could muster. The impact shook the entire building and sent vibrations all the way down to the ground. It was essentially an artificial earthquake.
The red headed girl that was holding up the barrier was immediately thrown into the air causing the barrier to be released.
She wasn't the only thing that got flung into the sky however, rubble shot out and began to cause even more damage. It connected with other buildings causing pieces to fall off and cracks to form. some of it even managed to hit members of the leaf platoon.
The building creaked and groaned in protest to this power, in an instant the whole side where Chishiki had struck was collapsing, crushing whatever was in the way and cracking the stone paths as they fell to the ground below. Chishiki steered clear of the falling debris with his wings.
This whole thing took less than 5 seconds but it played in slow motion for Naruto, he could see rubble whizzing by his face and he saw the girl falling, her eyes were wide like she didn't know what was happening. He could even see the cracks forming as the side of the building imploded.
He kept his eyes locked onto the girl though, she flailed about in the air, hopelessly moving in an attempt to somehow stop the effects of gravity but alas, she continued to fall. As she hit the ground all her movement stopped.
He stared at her prone form for a moment before thinking to himself
'A fall like that wouldn't kill her, right? She's probably just unconscious, with some broken bones.'
Naruto heard a shout and saw that the platoon rushed forward to protect the hokage. Hiruzen refused to let them fight on their own and began to launch jutsu after jutsu, contributing as much as he could to pushing the enemy back, all while having a sword stuck through his side.
The snake man was outnumbered and overwhelmed. He ordered his three henchman to retreat and some jonin gave chase, within a few seconds they were out of Naruto's field of view.
'I hope they catch those guys' he thought.
Naruto ran to see his Jiji and as the old warrior saw the blonde coming, a look of suprise came to his face, then he smiled.
It was a smile full of pride, just from looking at Naruto he could tell that the boy fought hard today. But there was no time for words, the old man began to cough up blood and felt very weak.
Naruto couldn't believe the state of him, he was bloody and battered, with a sword protruding from his body, not to mention the small amout of venom still coursing through him, and yet he continued to stand on his own.
Someone started to shout out orders.
"I need someone to get Hokage-sama to the ER now! And somebody put a chakra suppression seal on that girl, then throw her in the infirmary so we can check her wounds!"
"But she's the enemy!" someone shouted.
"An enemy with information." The way the man said that was almost sinister, but Naruto brushed it off. As Hiruzen was taken away to be treated Naruto turned to Chishiki with his eyes half lidded and nearly unconscious.
"Thank you, for everything. There's nothing left for you to do now. The battle's over." Naruto said tiredly.
Chishiki nodded and said "You are in need of rest, make certain that you get it." before poofing away.
Naruto looked up to the sky, the sound of fighting had fadded away and the birds were chirping again.
Naruto could no longer stand up straight. He was swaying on his feet, his breathing was ragged, his vision blurred, and even his hearing seemed muffled.
"You okay kid?" Fukurō asked.
Naruto gave him a confused look, he took a single step forward before passing out. Fukurō moved to catch him.
"You did good kid, let's get you to the infirmary."
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