Naruto didn't understand time. When he had been with Jiraiya, there had been times where he would look up from whatever he was doing and struggle to remember if that was the sunrise or sunset. Then there were times particularly when he had to wait the three minutes for his ramen that seemed eternal. In his more existential moments he would wonder about this but then the noodles would be done.

That was why the five minutes he had to wait until they could counterattack felt like an eternity. The fact that his village, his home was being attacked, while he sat back and did nothing went against every fiber of his being. He was busily grinding his teeth down to his gums when Kakashi stopped listening to his radio and gave them orders.

"There's a slight change in plans. Sakura and I will join a group hunting down some ninjas setting fire to buildings while the rest of you head for the gate itself." He glanced over at Otonashi as he finished.

"Don't look at me. I never claimed we knew everything."

Kakashi's eye curved up in a smile. "Actually, I was just going to say although you're the senior chunin here, Sasuke will be in charge. Now go!" As soon as Kakashi finish they disappeared.

"What's that?" Naruto asked as the three of them ran towards the gate sticking to the streets to maintain some stealth.

The object he was asking about stood on top of the wall and slightly to the right of the southern gate. It looked like a gate but, it had an evil presence about it. The face on the doors were demonic its mouth opened in a silent scream. The doors were shrouded by a reddish wall with spikes protruding from it. Two massive weights dangled from chains on either side. The top was disappointingly normal having an ordinary roof.

"There are people up there." As Sasuke spoke several bird like objects made out of fire flew from the top and into the village. They circled briefly dripping fire before crashing into buildings starting small fires.

"They're using it as a step stool," Otonashi commented amused.

Naruto could now see and smell the smoke from the burning buildings. He increased his speed leaving his two friends behind. The indiscriminate destruction seemed so meaningless that he had to fight back the all too tempting chakra of Kyuubi. He was so fixated on reaching the monolithic structure that he barely heard the kenai in time. Leaping backward he was just in time to avoid several kenais. Ducking as he sensed more than heard somebody trying to cut him in half. It was then he realized he blundered into a trap.

Kicking off of the sword wielder he rolled away forming a familiar hand seal. However, no sooner than he had created the clones then he was shoved to the ground by one. Shuriken peppered the ground behind him and he wondered how many enemies he was surrounded by. Rolling to his feet Naruto was just in time to intercept another ninja who was trying to use a kenai to stab him. Catching his attackers for arm Naruto pulled and flipped the guy onto his back. Applying a little pressure to his elbow he heard a satisfying snap.

"Get down!"

Naruto had barely complied with Sasuke's command when a huge fireball seemed to engulf the entire street. The heat was so intense that it brought tears to his eyes and he made a mental note to kick Sasuke's ass at the earliest opportunity when the fire disappeared. Climbing back to his feet for the second time in less than a minute he looked round for the enemy only to find that the enemy had taken to the roofs for safety.

"Idiot, don't run ahead of us like that." Naruto didn't acknowledge Sasuke scolding as his two companions ran up to meet him. "How many do you think there are?"

"Nine maybe ten," Otonashi answered.

"We don't have time for this," Naruto shouted creating a dozen clones. Their existence was brief though, as he sent them off to the roofs most were cut down by a hail of various projectiles. The few that made it to the roofs entered into a wild melee combat joined by the original trio. The simple fact was as the clones were destroyed they were simply outnumbered against similarly strong opponents. While they were able to whittle down the numbers by one each they ran into the problem that their opponents were more interested in stalling them then defeating them.

Naruto jumped back to avoid a flying kenai and tried to form hand seals but, he was interrupted as the man he was attacking before charged him. It was then that he noticed a green flash approaching and he grinned. Seconds later his opponent was hit with a kick so powerful that it literally sent him through the roof they were standing on. "Bushy Browse," Naruto had never been so relieved to see his strange friend before.

"Naruto leave the rest of them to my team. Somebody needs to stop those firebirds destroying the village and we shall join you shortly."

Naruto nodded and jumped back down to street level closely followed by his other two teammates. "Shouldn't we stay and help them," Otonashi asked glancing back concerned.

"That team is built for this exact type of situation. Trust me we would just get in their way," Sasuke answered.

The demonic gate was close and they could easily pick out the forms on top of it. They were able to watch two figures descending to intercept them. "This is going to come down to one on one fights but remember our objective is to stop those firebirds."

"Yeah, I got it." Naruto snapped at Sasuke before creating a clone and speeding up. Targeting the man further back he took in his opponent's odd appearance and shrugged it off. In his hand he started to create the Rasengan.

Kabuto switched off his radio. His forces would either succeed in their objectives or fail. He would not micromanage them and it wasn't like one depended on the other. Slightly annoyed he turned his attention to the three ninjas that had broken through his defensive line. His annoyance turned to interest as he thought he recognized two of them. The one in orange could be no one other then Naruto Uzumaki. There was no way two ninjas would willingly wear that particular color of construction cone orange. He strongly suspected the other one was Sasuke which was convenient. Whoever the third was he couldn't guess and didn't care.

"Sakon, Ukon go stop them but let Sasuke pass." One of them nodded he wasn't sure which one since they were both in their second stage. Jumping off the gate they moved to intercept.

They were able to stop Naruto and the other one but the raven haired teen continued towards him. Glancing over at Ryoichi who was absorbed in his Jutsu and judging he would be okay for a few minutes he prepared for a fight. Sasuke was now close enough that he could confirm his identity. This was going to be interesting.

Moving to the side of Rashoumon he watched Sasuke run up the wall with the use of his chakra. However, as soon as his foot touched Rashoumon he lost his grip and fell partially back down the wall before recovering. Jumping from the top to one of the weights dangling from the side like a particularly gaudy piece of jewelry, Kabuto grabbed onto the chain and leaned over.

"Interesting thing about this summons it tends to absorb any chakra applied to it. If you want to get to the top you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way." Sasuke's reaction to his kind advice was to throw a shuriken at his throat. It had been pretty fast but easy to dodge. "You know we were surprised at first when you didn't take up our offer. It took us months to figure out why. We were unaware that your situation had changed. You could've brought him with you, you know?"

Kabuto casually threw a kenai forcing Sasuke to stop his climb and take cover behind a spike. Kabuto didn't usually carry a lot of projectile weapons but, he had made an exception this time for the mission. Kidoumaru had really been ideal for this position he mused to himself. An infinite supply of arrows would've been really handy right about now he thought as he threw another kenai causing Sasuke to take cover behind a spike.

Normally, this would be an easy climb but, without the use of chakra it was like a civilian climbing a cliff. Sasuke could still channel chakra to his legs to jump unusually high but, that would leave him exposed. Still, he wished he could have this conversation in a civilized manner.

"You know in a very short time you're going to be dead so why don't you just shut up!" Sasuke called out from where he was taking cover.

"Can you honestly say this is what you want? Are you happy wearing that chunin vest? Is that all you are?" Sasuke was now climbing the edge of the Rashoumon gate. Judging his jump he leapt to a spike a few feet above Sasuke and said in a quieter voice, "If you're staying with Konoha out of some sense of loyalty there's no reason for it. I'm sure you're aware that your clan predates Konoha."

Sasuke chose that moment to make a move. He swung himself forward leaping onto a protruding spike right before he appeared behind thrusting a kenai foreword. Kabuto found it disturbingly easy to turn and pin his hand against the wall. "You're capable of so much more."

"I'm not leaving my home," Sasuke said emphatically before smirking and leaping backwards.

Kabuto barely heard the distinctive sound of an exploding note burning down to detonation. Channeling chakra to his leg muscles he jumped clearing the top of the demonic gate. Once he was in midair he recognized his mistake. Pulling his legs to his chest he threw a protective arm around his throat and shielded his eyes. Three kenai were thrown at him. One was deflected by a fourth at the last second causing it to go down behind him. If he had been slower they would've hit two vital points.

Landing on the roof he immediately started to pull them out and heal himself. One of them had cut right to the bone and even his considerable healing abilities were hard-pressed to heal that much muscle in that short of a time. It was then that he noticed that the light breeze that had been present was gone. Turning he saw why. Ryoichi was slumped over a kenai embedded into the side of his throat. With his death his fireball had disappeared into the ether.

Kabuto came to a conclusion then. Sasuke would not come to Orochimaru willingly and the team whose mission it was to collect him would fail if they were still around. That was bad news but, the good news was Sasuke no longer had a monopoly on the Sharingan. True Sasuke was more mature and had a more developed Sharingan but, the younger one would be easier to grab. Silently preparing a chakra scalpel he focused on one thought. Sasuke had to die now.

For ninjas there were two types of fights. The first type was the knockdown drag out fights that made great stories to retell. The greatest of these became legend and could literally change the landscape of where they happen. Those were what most people thought of when they imagined battles. Otonashi hoped he would never be in such a battle.

He preferred the quick battles. The type of battles that were over in a few seconds or even before one of the participants knew they were in a fight. Those types of battles played to his strengths. Unfortunately, this one was turning into one of those long ones. The man and he used that term loosely, had managed to dodge, block or parry every blow. It was doubly annoying that he couldn't put enough space between the two of them to pull off any of his Jutsu's.

Staring at a glance over at Naruto he had to admit though that he probably had gotten the better part of the deal. Naruto had made it close to the wall before being intercepted and judging by the amount of noise and craters the two of them had made together, they were having a great time. At least that had been something that had gone right. He was pretty sure these two were twins so separating the two of them was probably a good idea.

"I've had enough of this!" The man who looked more like a demon shouted dodging towards him. He wasn't exactly sure what happened but his attacker's body seemed to dissolve into a mist and before he could pull away it touched his skin melding into it. He pulled his arm back but it was no use within a second the man seemed to disappear into his body. It was strange he hadn't really felt anything and he wondered what exactly was going to happen next.

"You're pretty relaxed for someone who's about to die," the voice had came from right beside his ear. Glancing over he saw the man's head sticking out of his shoulder.

"What the," Otonashi cut himself off trying to figure out how this had happened.

The man cocked his head his horn threatening to poke Otonashi eye out. "It's not a Genjutsu. You see I have an interesting ability. I can merge with another person and destroy them cell by cell and there's nothing you can do about it. You see your chakra circulatory system goes to every organ every cell and even…"

"I get it. I am a Medical-Nin and you just gave me the best news I've heard all day." That was partly a stretch Otonashi wasn't a medical ninja yet but, he did know how to get rid of a parasite. Grinning he thrust his special kenai into his thigh.

His parasite grunted in pain and hissed out, "You don't seem to understand. If I die you die." The man paused and he seemed to go pale which was interesting because his skin was a bright red.

"You see I have a fondness for poisons," Otonashi started feeling a bit woozy himself. "They're very interesting because they are so diverse. Some kill instantly and others well you can build an immunity of sorts if you inject yourself with small doses. Like I did with the rock snakes venom I just injected into my body. Of course, my body has the immunity yours doesn't."

The man started screaming and Otonashi was grateful when the man fazed out of him and collapsed to the ground. His ears were ringing from all the screaming and he staggered forward several steps feeling a bit dizzy. The poison did not have the same affect on him but, such a large dose was going to affect him a little. "Relax it won't kill you but, you might wish it had."

"Ukon!" The shout had come from where Naruto had been fighting and he looked over just in time to see the man's twin running towards him. He had made a fatal mistake by turning his back on Naruto who had already created several clones to seize the opportunity. Two of them ran up the wall creating a Jutsu that he was all too familiar with and once the spinning ball of chakra was ready he jumped hitting his opponent dead on. The resulting explosion created a large crater. It was a bit too flashy for Otonashi taste but, whatever worked.

His world spun and he fell to his knee. Maybe that other guy had gotten the better part of the deal. At least he had been able to pass out. "You okay?" He looked up to see Naruto standing over him.

"Yeah but, I'm done for the day. Go help Sasuke." Naruto nodded and then he popped out of existence and Otonashi realized he'd just been talking to a clone.