"Lord Orochimaru!" the cry of his master's name sounded pathetic, even in his own ears, but Kabuto could do nothing for it. Those not paying close attention to it might have believed it tainted, the squall of a weakling begging for help, but such analysis would lack full understanding. Kabuto was not concerned about his own safety- he was concerned for his master's. As it was, no one even seemed to be paying even slight attention to the beaten and immobilized shinobi.
The fight with Gai had clearly taken a lot out of his master's considerable strength and defenses. The immortality jutsu had several side effects, notably a massive increase in resilience, chakra, and regeneration. Those were the positive side effects. Kabuto knew better than most that every jutsu came with a cost. Most of the time it was merely chakra; the more powerful the technique the more chakra sacrificed. However, in such a complicated jutsu involving the transference of an individual's very being into another, well the host had best be exceptionally stromg to even survive. And over time…
Kabuto didn't need his medical training to see that the host body of Orochimaru was in an utter state of rejection. The form of the rogue Sannin was breathing hard in jagged raggedy gulps. The pale skin was slick with sweat and the serpentine eyes bloodshot and unfocused. Kabuto hadn't seen his master in such a state since he had been cursed by Saratobi. The host's network has reached its limit! If this goes on any longer… Kabuto had seen the serpent's true scales twice now, but to see the miraculous abomination emerge here would be disastrous to his master's long term plans. Kabuto tried to will his lord out of danger. Tried to plead with his eyes for his master to leave. Orochimaru didn't even give him the slightest twitch of an eye.
"Where are they?!" Orochimaru spat venomously at the line of shinobi before him. Kabuto felt his hope die quietly inside as he observed the hideous chakra of the Nine Tales start to rise from within its furious vessel. The sound-nin suddenly had a strange feeling he was about to lose what little family he had.
Sakura hated Orochimaru. It was a hate that had sat and simmered since she had first seen the monster three years before during her first chunnin exam. When he had hurt and scarred the ones who had been most precious to her. It had turned cold then; when he seduced Sasuke away from the very village that was his home, when he had cut her off from him and severed his hope in honest strength. Tempered by the determination to win back the one she'd lost from the abomination, it had expanded and become something pure and blunt. And now… With this threatening creature standing before her, she felt the honest hate like a physical warhammer in her fists. Hate to smash and crush and relentlessly drive the source of pain into the ground. Her hate was not a shriek but a silent battle cry.
She was more than aware that Naruto's hatred was dwarfing hers, as it had apparently become an actual living thing. As soon as she had stabilized Tenten Captain Yamato had ordered the wounded kunoichi rushed to the rear. Sai had radioed a warning that something was closing on them fast and violent. That had set the team into motion, Sai creating an ink beast and stretcher to pull the nearly catatonic Tenten back in the direction of her fellow teammates. Sakura had been about to follow except the captain had given an explicit order: everyone was to stand fast. If it was the Sannin, it would take every available ninja to stop him. Treating the injured now could very well be everyone's death sentence. So they had stood in battle formation, Sai on the far right, her on the left, and Naruto in the center. Behind them, Captain Yamato stood two meters back, reading to provide both support, and to guard their captured quarry.
Then the demon's chakra had erupted. It was strange. Sakura was sure there was noise, but suddenly it was as silent as a tomb in the forest. She had turned to look at Naruto, but she could barely see him. A hurricane of red had engulfed an animal to her right, had scarred the ground itself. She glanced behind her. The Captain's mouth was moving, but she couldn't hear his orders- his face was contorted, perhaps concern, perhaps uncertainty- who is he talking to? Behind him the prisoner, wore an expression unlike any other she had ever seen a human make. His eyes are terrified, but he's smiling? Sakura felt suddenly sure of her conclusion that there was something truly warped living inside the form of Yakushi Kabuto.
As she glanced back toward the front she thought she could hear faint noises, perhaps words lost on the wind. Names being growled over gravel. Naruto? Sakura didn't know who else it could be. "Nejee, Bussh-hy, brows, TehTeh….Sasuke." Sakura didn't even let her eyes register the monster that had subsumed the young boy she had placed so many burdens on. Instead she looked at the monster in front of her. The one who was responsible for the creation of the others. Orochimaru, to her surprise, had his jaded eyes fixed insanely on the hellish manifestation to her right. She saw his lips move, forming a one word response to its growls. "So?"
This is happening too fast. Then the world exploded white for Sakura. She swung her head around toward the source, but the brain wasn't fast enough to process the image. A wall of chakra, brilliant and expanding, had slammed her aside like a leaf on the wind. A red blur was leaping forward, a black clad form was tossed skyward by the force of the blast, and something solid and unyielding collided with the young girl's spine, fracturing it in two places. Her hearing returned then for the first time in seconds. A roar filled her ears, the likes of which no natural beast on the planet had a hope of mimicking. In terror and pain, Sakura Haruno blacked out, only vaguely aware of the mad laughter mixing with the screams.
Tenzo saw the horrible event in its entirety. He had been warned by two of the Three Legends that rage was the trigger. That Naruto could become something truly terrible if he wasn't on guard. But this fast?! He had been flush with the Nine Tails chakra when he had shown up late and beaten Kabuto bloody. Then, having seen Orochimaru just once…
Tenzo's mind would have suspected several causes if he had time to think instead of dodging the violent chakra explosion that had so suddenly erupted. He had tried to warn Sakura and Sai, but it had seemed too late… Sai had tried to throw himself skyward but had still caught a majority of the blast. Sakura had taken the full effect- was she even paying attention?!
He had no idea where the Naruto-thing and the Lord of Sound were now. The explosion had shot both away like arrows through the woods. Nor did he have any idea where the captive traitor was either; unable to dodge the blast do to his restraints, Tenzo was forced to consider the possibility that the hard one prize might be lost.
Seeing his friends hurt, it acted like a primer, like flooding an appendage with ultra dense chakra. Orochimaru was the spark that set it off!
The realization hit him as hard as the tree trunk he connected with halting his trip backward. Trees had been knocked over and scattered about as a child might scatter twigs. There was no sign of anyone. Not his enemies, not his team, not anyone. A truly terrible fear he had felt only twice before wound itself around his heart. Please God, let them be okay.
He heard another roar then, more distant, but far louder than the first. Oh God, if he's gone into a four tailed state… Tenzo knew that the others might be hurt, might be dying and in need of help, that his prisoner might even be escaping, but if he didn't act now, the consequences of a loose Kyuubi would be damning.
Several hand signs later, the black ops captain was speeding toward the direction he knew to be the most dangerous.
The ninja known as Sai had observed the altercation between Uzumaki and the Sannin from quite a ways back. Had watched his ink clone get fifteen meters in the air before it was splattered by a wave of chakra he had never imagined a shinobi could produce. Had waited for the debris to stop falling and then leapt skyward off the branch he'd been perched on since sending the ink clone in his place some minutes before. Perfect, with any luck, the Captain will assume I was killed in the blast and buried amongst the debris. Now my mission can commence. His ink animal, a hawk, leapt from the scroll he had prepared ahead of time, forming the perfect transport to speed him toward this new conflict. Now my true mission can begin.
Naruto Uzumaki could not think. His mind had frozen, crystallized, and now even his eyes were no longer his. In his place, The Fox raged. WHY CAN'T I KILL IT!! Its arm had been ripped off, it had been bit and scarred in a dozen places- the Kyuubi had even latched onto it with both claws and beaten the scaly white serpent like a ragdoll against a rock until its bones should have been pulverized and its skin turned to ash from the hateful chakra.
Yet still the infernal nuisance persisted. It had even struck him, With Its Fist! That had just been insulting. Yet the miniature monster knew one thing- this nuisance was desperately trying to get away. These were not the attacks of an equal trying to hold its own, but of a cornered animal looking for a way out. And it was slowing down. The Kyuubi roared in utter delight. SOOOON!!! He saw the fear in the snake's eyes, saw the weakness. With a leap, the four tailed beast of chakra and blood pounced on its prey once more.
Tenzo saw his chance and took it. He had maneuvered around the newly created crater so that he was now facing the front of the four-tailed menance- it was the only way to keep track of both opponents at this rate. Hiding behind some scatterd depris of stone and fallent timber, Tenzo realized the time had come to make a choice.
The issue was not clear cut, black and white. Naruto was pushing Orochimaru, that much was clear. The snake lord had engaged for a time but was looking for an escape route. Testing the waters with his jutsu had only revealed that the monster that had enveloped the once over-anxious shinobi was lacking in vulnerabilities. And something was wrong with Orochimaru. His speed was far below what Tenzo would have expected from one of the Legendary Three, and while clearly resilient to the attacks, the proud monster seemed to be desperate to avoid any more.
The Four-Tailed Kyuubi was fixated by its prey. It was lost in the chase, now desperate to break the seemingly unbreakable annoyance. That was perfect for Tenzo. As much as he'd love to see perhaps the gravest threat to the Leaf Village finished off, he had no idea how he was going to get the beast to hold still if it wasn't focused on one point. And if he let Naruto get away in this state… A loose Kyuubi is too terrifying to contemplate. So as the red monster had pounced- so did the black operations captain. Kakuan's Tenth Edict!
The wood restraints struck from all sides, dragons made of the very stuff of creation biting down and bleeding off the chakra shell that incased his subordinate- Orochimaru's prone frame was spared contact with the beast by mere millimeters. The Kyuubi howled as it fought to retain its hold in the physical world. The beast cast about looking for an exit amidst the wooden pillars, and in its moment of indecision, Tenzo leapt.
His spring from amidst the debris of the new crater occurred in the same moment that the Snake Lord timed his escape- two parallel streaks heading in opposite directions. Tenzo snapped his eyes down for just an instant to observe the once great ninjutsu master as he fled the encounter. The movement was instinctual really. Tenzo's self preservation had noted a movement and was merely trying to ascertain its threat level. It was chance that, just like Neji, he ended up for a moment eye to eye with the Legend. Through all the hate, madness, even fear, Tenzo caught the hint of something more. Recognition?
There was no time to ponder that any further as the team leader slammed his chakra fused palm into the beast's chest, felt it link with the crystal somewhere deep within the burning red shroud, and for the first moment since the catastrophe had begun, Tenzo let himself hope.
Several kilometers south, same time.
Neji's eyes snapped open at the sound of the roar. He remembered drifting off peacefully, full of hope and reassurance. The roar had disrupted all that, the meditative balance had been lost. Neji glanced quickly around his surroundings. Fool! Drifting off like that! There was no one here to guard us! Neji cursed himself for stupidity, ignoring the fact that he had had no real choice in the matter as to when his body shut down.
Lee was still unconscious to his left, albeit the smile was missing- in its place a crumpled frown. To his right… Oh thank God! Tenten was sitting up on a strange ink black stretcher, linked to perhaps the weirdest animal Neji had ever seen. She had had the bottom of her tunic cut off at the midriff, what looked to have been done by a surgical knife. She couldn't have done that herself. Her attention was currently focused on rolling a cotton bandage wrap around her exposed skin, A precautionary measure?
"Tenten," Neji croaked out, and his teammate's eyes flew up from her work. She looked like hell. Her face was slightly bruised on the left side (had she been struck, did she fall?) one of her normally perfect hair buns had actually come undone, and at the corners of her mouth was the crust of what appeared to be bile she had not bothered to wipe away. Her eyes full of worry suddenly filled with relief- which she than quickly hid behind a mask of anger.
"Why were you asleep! Who was guarding you!"
Neji was not about to let his friend outdo him feigning superiority. "Don't lecture me Te-Cwhoff!!" Choking up blood quickly ended the charade for both of them. "Jeez, Neji, don't try to sit up!" Tenten leaned in to help ease him back down, only to suddenly wince and stagger herself, one hand flying toward her now mummified belly. Neji caught the hand movement even as she tried to play it off. "You hurt?" he wheezed.
"Not too bad anymore. Sakura patched me up. Sakura…" Tenten suddenly turned her head toward the direction of the howl that had broken the Hyuuga's rest. It had gone suddenly quite. Deathly so. The wind that had been blowing earlier that day was no longer present, and the forest had grown horrendously still.
Several minutes passed. Then several more. Tenten got up carefully off her stretcher. Neji finally found the strength to prop himself up against a tree. Tenten bit her lower lip in frustration, glancing first at her comrades, than back in direction of where she had last seen their backup.
"Don't worry Tenten, will come with you."
Both Neji and Tenten shot glances back in surprise at a suddenly very conscious Rock Lee. He grinned back at them from the ground, looking at them with slightly unfocused, upside-down eyes. "Gai-sensei must have won by now."