Another chapter is here!
Enjoy!
"Keep up," Pakkun said as he sprinted forward through the ruined streets of the Hidden Leaf, just ahead of Sakura. They were ants amidst the chaos unfolding, fleeing as the giant toads and snakes waged war, and buildings came toppling down.
Sakura ignored the destruction of the familiar streets that were lined with rubble and flames as best she could to keep up with the pug. It left her unnerved to see so many places that she had once gazed upon in passing in shambles. Then an unconscious moan of pain reached her ears and drew her eyes to an older woman pinned under the rubble nearby. Sakura recognized her as the tailor of the clothing shop her mother brought her to for fittings and ran towards her to help.
"Leave her!" Pakkun ordered as he turned around. "Remember your orders."
Sakura looked to the woman and noticed crimson slowly pooling beneath the rubble. Had her legs been crushed? "But—"
"As we speak, I caught ten scents heading in the same direction as your teammate and peers. Every second we waste here is one that could spell disaster for them… Besides, there's nothing you can do anyway. I can smell she's lost too much blood and won't make it another minute. You can't treat that with the First Aid lessons they teach in the Academy."
Sakura's heart fell into her stomach as she recognized the truth in his words, staring at the older woman as her breathing grew shallower. "It feels wrong."
"I know, but that's war." He turned back towards the wall. "Now come on."
She turned away from the dying woman and ran towards the wall that had been breached, Pakkun leading her through it once more. She couldn't do anything for the tailor, but she could for her teammates at the very least. That had to be enough for now.
[0-0-0]
The nine Sound shinobi moved through the woodlands and trees towards where the giant bird had fallen. They had their orders and would carry them out, lest they ended up earning the wrath of Orochimaru or be left to the non-existent mercy of his right-hand man. How hard could it be to capture two boys?
"Have they moved?" Han asked their tracker. His ears had their sensitivity increased to hear the heartbeats and footsteps of others, making tracking them child's play.
"Insects are buzzing everywhere, but I can make out all their hearts ahead. One of them is yammering about how they won't leave the mutt behind. It must've been injured in the fall."
Saris scoffed at the stupidity. "They're kids alright. They should've been running. Not that it would have helped them."
"Let's do this," Nawin said. The outline of an amused smirk formed on his mask. "Kill all of them besides the blonde and slap him with the seal. The Uchiha comes afterwards."
The kids came into view, their weapons drawn as the huddled together in a circle while the one with a pineapple-haircut for a head tried to convince the boy with markings on his cheeks to leave behind the mutt, which had a bone sticking out of it. Han came to a stop and then gestured for them to move in for the kill. He would remain behind to spot any traps they could pull, though he was skeptical they would be able to.
They wasted no time, using a Body Flicker to close the gap in distance before they could react. There was no need for hostages, so it they didn't hesitate to plunge their kunai into the heads of the children. Such was the nature of war….
Then the air trembled as an abrupt chain of explosions were set off from what were once the children.
Han felt something wet and sticky touch his cheek and reached for it. It was a bit of flesh and blood from either Nawin or Saris. They were the only two who were too slow in their haste to kill to escape from the explosions. The others managed to back away in time to avoid being caught in what was evidently a trap—an oversight on their part.
"Fall back!" he ordered. Only Karo and Asch fell back into a position next to him, while the other four remained where they were. "What are you doing!?"
"Can't m-move!" Nemizu said as he stood there shaking.
Han noticed that all of their shadows were connected to a thin tendril that slinked across the ground, through the crater formed by the explosions, and into underbrush that wasn't too far from the site. Two identical figures darted out from the sides of it, skidding to a stop and facing the entrapped Sound team. They were both the feral-looking boy, identical expressions as they crouched on all-fours, while a cloud of insects burst out of the underbrush towards Hans' detachment.
In perfect synchronization, the two turned into spiraling drills that launched themselves towards the shadow-bound group, while the horde of insects descended upon the remaining three. The twin-twisters cut through the line from the right and left, a spiraling whirlwind of destruction clawing, gouging, and ripping the four men apart. The churning air surrounding them scattered the viscera and grounded innards, splashing the grass and trees crimson. Hans narrowly escaped as he saturated his body with an outline of Earth chakra and used the Underground Projection Fish technique to swim beneath the surface, leaving Karo and Asch screaming as the insects engulfed them utterly as well.
Swimming underground, Hans would admit they'd blundered rushing in while thinking they were just children. He emerged some distance from the remains of his teammates only to hear the buzzing of insects intensifying, and the footfalls of the feral pair. Now they were tracking him, but he knew how to deal with that.
Making the Tiger seal, he used the Hiding with Camouflage Technique. It obscured him from sight and smell, and as a Sound shinobi he knew quite well how to hide his own footsteps. They wouldn't catch him as he wormed his way around to grab the blonde brat.
Then all he had to do was apply the seal he had been given to suppress his chakra, knock him out, and use the Underground Projection Fish technique on them both before escaping. He couldn't get the Uchiha as well, not with the rest of them dead, but that an acceptable loss considering the circumstances. Hiding his breath as he landed behind the boy unaware, Hans reached out….
And then he only knew pain as something slammed into him and left him on the ground in agony.
[0-0-0]
Naruto frowned as the tables had been turned somewhat with Kiba and Shino losing track of the survivor. It had been a hasty plan that Shikamaru came up with after they crash landed, after Naruto let Gamakichi return to his home and told the others he had spotted nine enemies likely to be after them. He figured they couldn't reasonably hope to escape with Suzaku's body destroyed by the impact. It could recover with enough time and Yang chakra to reconstitute itself within the surprisingly durable mask, but that meant they were on their own in dealing with the enemy.
They only had limited information to work with, but based on the assumption that one of them would be a sound-based tracker they allowed themselves to be covered by a mass of buzzing insects from Shino, to hide their heartbeats behind the curtain of sound. Naruto's transformed and tagged clones were left in the front of be used as bait and to take the fall, banking on the fact that they wouldn't expect them to have set a trap rather than flee. Shikamaru would entrap them, and the Inuzuka pair would go in for the kill.
When three of them escaped, Shino sent his horde to follow through with catching the stragglers. Now there was one unaccounted for that neither of their trackers could find, and Naruto doubted he would simply run off after eight of his companions were killed. Not when whoever it was that gave him the order was the same person that drove Karin away from him in fear.
He couldn't help but wonder how far she had gotten when a white blur bounded from behind the nearest tree and passed over Naruto's shoulder. It slammed into the ground behind him hard enough to kick up a plume of earthen dust, which thinned quickly enough for Naruto to see Karin was atop Byakko. Its paws were pressing down on the last Sound shinobi that slowly faded back into existence and moaned in agony.
"Do it," Karin ordered. The tiger construct brought its paw down hard upon the man's head, messily ensuring the kill.
"Karin," Naruto said softly. His thoughts were muddled as he did so. "I… heard everything you said to the clone."
A look that crossed shame and horror flickered across her face. She made to flee again. "Let's go, Byakko!"
Byakko turned to jaunt away, readying to leave again. Naruto raised his hand to try and stop them when the pair uncomfortably froze in place like the shinobi before. A shadow was connecting them to Shikamaru, who looked like he was straining to hold them in place, with Shino next to him.
"Ugh—" She and Byakko struggled to break free and Shikamaru grunted as he struggled to keep them pinned. "—let go of us!"
Shino gave a slight shake of his head and turned to Naruto. "You and I both know the part she played in this. Personal feelings aside, she will need to be taken in. I'm sure the Hokage will take the facts into consideration."
Karin suddenly looked even more horrified and started shaking as she fought harder. "Release me now!"
"Karin, he's right." Naruto said sadly as Kiba approached them. "The Old Man—"
"Not that!" she yelled. "He's coming, I can feel—AHHHH!"
Cursed Seal Markings branded her skin from foot-to-head with the indecipherable scripting as she started screaming in agony. Unlike with Sasuke, it didn't seem to empower her or twist her personality. Instead, it caused her pain as they glowed brightly with every movement, and what looked to be dark tendrils of lightning emanated from the marks and wormed their way into her body.
"Drop it, Shikamaru!" Naruto ordered. "Now!"
"But—" Naruto gave him a glare. "Tch, whatever. On you if it goes wrong."
When he cut his shadow binding, Byakko lowered itself in time as Karin fell off and into Naruto's arm. Her face was twisted in torment, and her muscles were contracting beneath her skin to the extent that he feared they were going to pull themselves apart. Naruto's first reaction was to look for the Cursed Seal on her neck given what happened to Sasuke, but he didn't find it there.
"R…Ru… Run!" She fought through her pain and looked him in the eyes, desperation and fear in her own. "Kab...uto is here!"
No sooner than she muttered his name did a pair of pained grunt come from behind him. Naruto twisted his head around to find that Shikamaru and Shino were unconscious on the ground. Kabuto was standing behind them, hands aglow with a soft white light.
"You were in on it all along?" Naruto found it hard to believe, even as the more he thought about it the clearer it became. Kabuto was the one who had given them information on the cards, and followed them to the tower. Was that to make sure that they would make it to the Finals, so that they would be in a position to be grabbed?
"You could say that, I suppose." He took a step forward, away from the other two on the ground. "Originally, I was supposed to check on Sasuke-kun and act as a spare medic should it be necessary, so that he could progress to the Finals. You were an afterthought until Karin-chan asked if she could remain behind, and we figured that we might as well claim the Jinchuuriki rather that allow it to be lost with the village."
"What did you do to my teammate, you bastard!?" Kiba snarled at the sight of Shino's prone body. Kabuto smiled smugly in response, setting him off. He and Akamaru threw themselves toward Kabuto, spinning once more to tear him apart.
Kabuto slammed his hand into the ground and forced Earth chakra into it, raising wedges that came up to the meet the twin drills at angles. The Inuzuka pair plowed through the first few easily, but the effort slowed their rotations down. He followed up by spitting a stream of dense, almost solidified water that slammed into them like bludgeons. It was strong enough to cancel their technique and sending them spilling violently to the ground.
Akamaru's transformation was canceled as well, leaving the pup unconscious in the mud. Kiba nursed what looked to be a bruised rib from where he was hit as he forced himself back up and then went in for him again. Kabuto nonchalantly backhanded him hard enough to draw blood from his mouth and sent him crashing into a tree, from which he didn't get up again.
Kabuto walked past the pair and adjusted his glasses. The light glared off the lenses menacingly as a cruel smile replaced the smug one. "Karin-chan, I must say that I'm disappointed in you. To think you would try and betray Orochimaru-sama like this by hiding information and trying to get away. He will be most displeased to learn of this."
Karin actually whimpered in fear, only stopped from running due to the seal subjugating her movements. Instead, she seemingly curled in tighter into Naruto, despite the pain that came from moving.
"It was so simple," he continued. "You only had to win his trust. It wouldn't have even been hard. The abandoned boy who longs for companionship, the long-lost family member that greets him—it should have been a cinch to administer the sleeping gas and bring him to us. Now you've forced me to act personally."
"B…Byakko," Karin forced out in a tiny, pained voice. "K-Kill him!"
Byakko lunged in response, and Kabuto moved. The moment Byakko touched the ground where he had been, it swallowed the white tiger in what looked to be quicksand that solidified. Byakko was stuck, its lower body straining to free itself but unable to without enough room to maneuver.
That left Naruto as the only one left to deal with the true traitor, a prospect that was looking unlikely. He set Karin down and then made the cross-seal to summon up clones when Kabuto closed the distance in a Body Flicker and then kicked him hard enough in the abdomen that Naruto went sailing backwards, until he slammed into the ground messily and vomited on his hands and knees.
"N-Naruto!" Karin fought against the seal and the agonizing pain to look up at Naruto as he stood back up. That ended when Kabuto placed the heel of his foot on Karin's head and pushed down, forcing it onto the ground. Then he rolled it so that Naruto could see the expression on her face.
"I'll make this easy for you, Naruto-kun." He pushed down with his foot, causing her to scream loudly as he threatened to crush her skull against the ground. "First, you're going to throw your weapons and pouch right towards my feet. Otherwise, I'll crush her head just enough to where she's brain-dead, and then kill the rest of your peers."
Naruto paused at the thought of being weaponless until Kabuto pushed down harder. Tears of pain were streaming down from Karin's eyes, and the lenses of her glasses were cracking under the pressure. He threw his kunai pouch, shuriken holster, and rear pouch directly at the man's feet underhandedly. "I did what you asked, now let her go!"
"See, was that so hard?" Kabuto removed his foot from her head, causing her to seemingly squirm pitifully in relief. He took a step forward, pulling out a sealing slip of his own, and threw it towards Naruto, who caught it. "Now, apply this to your forehead. Once you do, both of your chakra sources will be sealed and we'll go."
"And you'll leave them all unharmed?"
"If I was going to kill them, I would have done so," Kabuto said. "None of them are even a threat to me. But the longer you hesitate…."
Naruto looked grimly at the seal while the unfinished threat was left hanging in the air. He wouldn't be able to fight if he did, and he was sure a fate worse than death was awaiting him. But if the others died for him—
"Don't…" Karin wheezed softly as she grabbed Kabuto's leg. The grip was weak, her arms shaking as the markings glowed from the movement and punished her with pain that she left bottled in her throat.
Kabuto shook his head at the attempt. "Really now, this is just pathetic, Karin—AGH!"
His mocking turned into a pained cry as she bit into the back of his leg, just above his combat sandals, and tried to rip it off like a vicious animal. On reflex, Kabuto turned and kicked her away hard… revealing a primed explosive tag on the ground beneath her. She had fought against the immense pain to take it from Naruto's pouch after it landed in front of her, while the other two were in discussion.
The tag ruptured into an explosion. Naruto watched horrified as her scorched body flew out of the flames and hit the ground some distance away. She wasn't moving.
[0-0-0]
Sasuke landed in a crouch on the tree branch above the last of the Sand-siblings. The other two had been defeated and rendered unconscious with trivial ease. Now he stared down at his final opponent as he lay on the ground half-covered in sand.
"Now, why don't we pick up where we left off?" he asked.
The rhetorical question was met with an inhuman wail from the partially-transformed jinchuuriki….