A/N: Sill Aten't Dead! Sorry for the delay folks… computer still not working. It's a good thing I had this chapter beta'd or it'd be stuck inside my broken computer.
As for the manga I'm rather ambivalent, I hate the fact that the second hokage pulled the hirashin out of his ass, but it's nice to see Senjutsu be plot important again, I might incorporate it into my story at a later date, still not sure though. I am disappointed to see that the yin and yang halves of the Kyuubi seem to have different personalities, that I can guarantee is not going into my story.
XLV: ROOT Part II
Konoha Present Day:
Jiraiya grunted, surging his chakra to break free of yet another immobilizing genjutsu his unseen assailant had thrown at him to slow him down, allowing the ROOT-ANBU he was fighting to dodge a strike from Jiraiya's tantos that should have bisected him.
"When I get my hands on whoever is using those genjutsu…" Jiraiya grumbled as he caught another ROOT-ANBU with his borrowed blades, decapitating him with a scissoring motion.
"All right, there's three of you bastards left, plus whatever coward's throwing genjutsu at me," Jiraiya grunted while breaking free of yet another genjutsu. "If you surrender now, you'll get the VIP prison treatment, three meals a day and all the prison showers you can stomach. If I have to try to capture you alive, I'm handing you straight to Ibiki and Anko."
The three ROOT-ANBU exchanged glances, obviously weighing their options. Before they could come to a decision, a fourth ROOT-ANBU materialized out of thin air. The new ROOT-ANBU was short, barely taller than Naruto, and skinny seeing as his arms were little more than twigs.
The tiny ROOT-ANBU was apparently the leader, judging by the commanding gestures he made. Strangely he didn't speak and instead used an auditory hallucination genjutsu to issue orders, directly to his subordinates.
"Well I take that as a 'no' then," Jiraiya sighed when the three ROOT-ANBU resumed their attack.
Tsunade fought her urge to hyperventilate at the sight of the blood that covered her. 'It's just blood,' She told herself. 'It's just blood, get up or you'll die…' She rose shakily to face her remaining opponent. 'There's just one left. You can freak out once he's dead.' She took a step forward, and slipped in the blood pooling from the headless corpse.
"I am most disappointed, Tsunade of the Sannin." Torune appeared in a swirl of insects. "I went through the trouble of capturing your apprentice only to find that you've defeated yourself before I even returned."
'Move!' Tsunade urged herself, but her hemophobia was too strong and she began to hyperventilate.
"Kill her," Torune ordered his sole remaining subordinate. "She's too dangerous to allow her to live. We will interrogate her apprentice once we kill Sarutobi Hiruzen and Uzumaki Naruto."
'Move!' Tsunade ordered herself once more as the ROOT-ANBU approached her with his blade drawn. Once more she staggered to her feet. 'Move! Or they'll kill you, sensei and Shizune!' She took a shaky step forward and raised her arms into a fighting stance. She forced herself to take a deep steadying breath. 'MOVE! Or they'll kill the only family you have left!'
The ROOT-ANBU raised his tanto, intending to decapitate her. She took another shaky step forward.
The ROOT-ANBU swung.
And she backhanded him across the street and into another building.
Seeing his last subordinate dispatched, Torune swung his own blade down at Shizune. Tsunade screamed, and blood went everywhere.
Jiraiya broke the neck of the last ROOT-ANBU and turned to their diminutive leader. "You're out of minions to throw at me, kid. Now what?"
His answer came in the form of a barrage of kunai and shuriken, followed by the ROOT-ANBU drawing his tanto and charging Jiraiya.
Jiraiya caught the kunai and sidestepped the shuriken. "Nice try," Jiraiya sighed while flaring his chakra and spinning around, causing the ROOT in front of him to disappear and reappear behind him. "But, you'd have to be at Itachi's level for that trick to work on me. You're good but not that good kid."
The kid shrugged and threw another barrage of kunai and shuriken before chaining together a stream of immobilization and disorientation genjutsu.
When Jiraiya seemed to freeze in place from the barrage of genjutsu, the small ROOT-ANBU gave a mocking bow before turning around and running away.
He sprinted around a corner, and bounced off of Jiraiya. "You know," he drawled, pointing to his still immobilized form, "You're not the only one who knows that trick."
The ROOT-ANBU scrambled backwards on his hands and feet. His retreat was soon stopped by a wall.
"Looks like it's the end of the line for you, kid," Jiraiya said before whipping a handful of kunai at the ROOT-ANBU, nailing him to the wall by his clothes. "All right, let's see who you are." Jiraiya said as he reached for the shinobi's mask.
Then, the side of the hospital exploded. Jiraiya's eyes snapped towards the building. Uchiha Sasuke and Hatake Kakashi were standing side by side in a smoking hole in the side of the building. Sasuke glanced towards his sensei, who nodded. A brilliant blue-white glow sprang up around Sasuke's chokutō, and the chirping of a thousand birds could be heard, even from where Jiraiya stood a hundred yards away. There was a blinding flash as he swung his sword down at something on a roof opposite him and a crescent of lightning chakra slammed into his target.
The ROOT-ANBU took Jiraiya's momentary distraction to pull free of the kunai pinning him down and sprint off down the street. Jiraiya turned around in time to see a long pink braid snap around a corner.
As Torune swung his tanto at Shizune, Tsunade charged, screaming at the top of her lungs, blood flying off of` her blood soaked body. Millimeters before his blow landed, Tsunade grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him to her with one hand, while swinging her other hand up to backhand him. There was a loud pop, followed by a wet tearing sound as his arm was completely torn from its socket.
Torune choked back a scream, and landed in a crumpled heap. When Tsunade immediately began healing Shizune, the barely conscious ROOT-nin began to laugh. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, at least if you want to save Sarutobi and Uzumaki."
Tsunade whipped her head around and glared at the broken body of Torune. "What are you talking about?" she growled.
"You're already too late to save them," Torune coughed weakly, "Fuu's already take care of Sarutobi by now. If you hurry you might be able to save the Uzumaki, but you'd have to let your little apprentice die…" the dying man laughed darkly.
Then the hospital exploded. A giant jet of fire burst from one of the tenth story's window, completely demolishing the wall surrounding it and launching a dark figure through the air like a cannon ball.
The man crashed into the roof they were standing on, bounced twice and came to a rolling stop in the puddle of blood left by the ROOT-nin Tsunade decapitated.
The man was naked from the waist up. His chest was a network of second and third degree burns and several blackened shards of his once white anbu mask were fused to his face from the heat of the explosion. A few scraps of auburn hair remained on his head; the rest had been burned off.
"F-Fuu!" Torune cried out.
The burned man groaned piteously. Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke stepped up to the still smoking hole in the side of the building.
"Did we get him?" Sasuke asked.
Kakashi shook his head, "He's still moving."
Fuu tried to stand, but collapsed and rolled on to his back. Fuu and Torune shared a look and nodded once. Both raised their hands in a half ram seal, "Killswitch engaged," they said in unison.
Sasuke looked at his sensei, but before he could ask his question Kakashi said, "Use it."
Sasuke channeled his chidori while Fuu and Torune continued speaking in unison, "Forgive me, for I have failed you Danzo-sama."
Sasuke held his glowing, chirping sword over his head, "Chidori Katana: Tsubame no kōtō!" (Soaring Swallow) he shouted as he swung his sword.
A thin arc of blue white chakra flew towards Fuu as he finished chanting, "Mission failure, Killswitch activate!" A black sealing formula burst from Fuu and Torune's mouth and began to rapidly spread across their bodies. The advance of Fuu's seal was halted by Sasuke's chakra blast, which sliced him in half from his left shoulder to his right hip.
Just as quickly as the seals formed, they retracted back inwards, crushing the bodies of the two ROOT-ANBU into a shower of gore. All that was left of them was Torune's severed arm and the lower half of Fuu.
Jiraiya skidded to a halt when he saw the gore covering the rooftop. "Kami Hime…" he whispered, "Remind me not to get on your bad side!"
"It wasn't me!" Tsunade half sobbed while she worked on Shizune, "It was some sort of seal that was inside their mouth!" She gave a hysteric chuckle, and pointed to Torune's severed arm. "Well that was me, but that," she pointed to the bisected remains of Fuu, "was them." She pointed to Kakashi and someone who she could only assume was Uchiha Sasuke.
Kakashi gave them a cheery wave and Sasuke just grunted and sheathed his sword, clearly tired from the move he used.
"So… no longer afraid of blood, Hime?"
Tsunade turned to stare at Jiraiya, her eyes wide on her blood splattered face and her breath coming in uneven gasps. "No… but if I didn't do something, Shizune, Sensei, Naruto, and I would have died." She gave another hysterical chuckle. "When this is over I think I'm going to go into shock."
Jiraiya knelt down next to the traumatized woman and pulled her into a hug. "It'll be alright Hime."
Tsunade stiffened from the contact at first, but slowly relaxed in Jiraiya's embrace, before burying her blood streaked face in her teammate's shoulder and sobbing.
When Tsunade's quiet sobs stopped and her breathing returned to normal, Jiraiya slowly reached down with one arm and pinched her ass.
Tsunade's reaction was immediate and violent. She buried her fist in Jiraiya's gut, sending him flying away. "GOD DAMN IT PERVERT!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!" She stalked towards the groaning Sannin and punted him in the ribs. "WAY TO RUIN THE MOMENT!"
"And there's the Hime I know," Jiraiya groaned as he sat up. "Oh the sacrifices I make to ensure my Hime's feeling alright."
"Sacrifices! You PINCHED MY BUTT!" she roared as she drew back her fist to sock Jiraiya again.
"Did you forget something Hime?" Jiraiya interrupted her. "You're covered in blood but you can still kick my ass, and look Shizune is waking up already… being covered in blood didn't stop you from healing her."
Tsunade blinked and looked down at her blood stained body. Strangely, instead of wanting to hyperventilate and crawl into a corner, all she wanted to do was take a shower, and punch Jiraiya in the face again. "I guess you're right…"
Just then Sasuke and Kakashi hopped onto the roof top and sauntered over to the two Sannin. "Are you the person Jiraiya went to get to heal the Hokage and Naruto?" Sasuke demanded.
"Yes, I am Tsunade of the Sannin, Last of the Senju. And I'm here to heal my Sensei and your boyfriend," she said with a smirk.
All the blood drained from Sasuke's face, making the pale boy's face even paler. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU TELL HER!" he screamed at Jiraiya, "I'm not gay!"
Tsunade chuckled. "Kami, you're easy to rile up kid."
"As much fun as it is to question the last Uchiha's sexual preferences," Jiraiya said before pulling out three large scrolls from seemingly nowhere, "we need to get moving." He threw a scroll to Sasuke and the other to Tsunade. "Pack up every bit bigger than a finger, even if we can't I.D. all of them we can learn more about ROOT's training practices."
Jiraiya and Sasuke each made five clones and they set about gathering the remains of the ROOT-nins. Once they were finished, they entered the hospital. Tsunade immediately turned towards the wing where the Hokage was being kept.
Sasuke leapt in front of her. "Naruto first, the Hokage's just unconscious. Naruto's nearly dead."
Tsunade shared a look with Shizune. "How about I go heal Sensei and Shizune heals Naruto? Even if she can't heal him completely at least he won't die while I heal the Hokage."
"Ah…that's unnecessary, I'm afraid," a new voice came from behind them. The group spun around to see Yakushi Kabuto standing behind them with a smug grin on his face. "I've already… taken care of Naruto…"
A/N: I know, I know real evil place to end the chapter, hopefully ican have the next chapter up in a week or two… so you won't have to wait too long.