V. Team Issues...
(...)
"Who... Who are you people?!"
"Shut it, this is not the time."
"No, you shut it, let me go! Get the hell out of my way!"
"Are you stupid? We're trying to help you, idiot. Get a grip and stay put, for the love of..."
Sakura grabbed the red head's arms and pulled him down, forcing him to sit back where he was. Her strenght while doing was unnecessary, but also apparently the only way he would actually listen. The fire wall created by Kakashi and Sasuke's Katon was raging and cracking threateningly, while Naruto took a hold of a kunai from his holster and awaited any sort of attack coming from the other side of the fire, and Hinata checked the perimeter with her Byakuugan.
The blond jiinchuuriki made a cross-seal with his fingers and ellaborated a Kage Bunshin, which jumped over the fire with remarkable agility and joined his Sensei and his friend's fight with the pursuers. Right after that, the original Uzumaki sat down and concentrated as he had been taught to do by a certain frog-hermit from certain mountain.
"Hinata, can you see how many of them are there especifically? I mean, are there more than just those four?" Naruto asked. The Hyuuga shook her head.
"I can't see any other ninja around us, and I'm talking about a five to six kilometers perimeter. All seems to be clear..."
"Right. Okay, please stay with Sakura-san and protect her while she heals that guy." His eye-lids acquired red pigmentations, his eye colour became golden, and his pupil transformed into a frog-like horizontal line. He stood up right away.
"Are you going somewhere?" Hinata asked, deactivating her Byakuugan for the time being. Her expression showed her worrying. Naruto closed his eyes for a second. Sakura, who had recoiled a bit while holding the redhead's mouth so he wouldn't talk at all and healing him (all due to Naruto's "Sakura-san"), also looked at him enquiringly.
"Even though you can't see it, there is someone else coming our way. His chakra pool is... Huge. Not as much as mine, but I'd say close. It's definitely more than Kakashi's and possibly as big as Sasuke's. I don't think it's a good idea for the whole team to confront this person, we have our hands full as it is with those freaks. I'll handle it."
"Absolutely not." Sakura replied. "If there is such a big threat coming here, then it's all the more important to us to get the hell out of here. You're better off going and helping Sensei and Sasuke wrap that fight up faster."
"We don't have time for that." Naruto frowned. "He's less than ten minutes away. By the time we finish the fight, he'll be after us, and if I had been helping Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke with their fight, then all three of our fighting resources would be already half-consumed. Besides, taking care of anybody after this guy..." He pointed at the redhead. "... Is also part of the mission. Are you chickening out on me?"
"This is not about being brave, Naruto..." Hinata stepped closer to him. "...This is about taking him to our village. If we manage to get the pursuers while at it, lucky us. But they're not priority. Please don't take unnecesary risks..."
The blond Uzumaki's eyes widened a bit as Hinata made her request, and put a hand on her cheek, smiling.
"Baka... I'm not taking any unnecessary risks. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do for the village and for the mission. Besides, I'm not gonna fight all out and die... I'll just make sure he's held back for long enough so you guys can retreat with him. Once I know you guys are out of danger, I'll catch up. I promise."
"No, you listen to me Naruto." Sakura said before Hinata could reply. "I'm not sending you out there without a plan and without the rest of us. As the captain of this team, I'm ordering you to stay here with us, out of harm's way. End of the discussion..."
The Kyuubi's vessel was about to counter the argument, when the redhead young man put Sakura's hand away from his mouth and gasped frustrated at her harsh treatment.
"You're Konoha shinobi, aren't you?" He glared at Sakura. "...Tch! Always after me. There has always got to be someone after me, doesn't matter who or from where. But Konoha's ninja are the ones I can't stand the most. He was also from Konoha, wasn't he? The one who's been after me all this time...!"
"Do you know who is it that's coming here?" Naruto asked, though he already had a close idea. The redhead glared at him after trying (and failing) to get free from Sakura's grip.
"I think his name is Orochimaru..."
(...)
Charging right ahead, Sasuke ran towards the one who seemed to be the leader of the hooded crew, and launched a glowing, fast Chidori Katana at him. All the hooded people broke up in teams of two, the seemingly elder women with the leader facing Kakashi, and the younger women with the taller man were against Sasuke.
"This guys..." Sasuke undid his Chidori Katana right away, his sensei right beside him.
"Yeah... I don't like the feeling of their Chakra. It's like... "
"Oho... So you do realize what sort of people you're dealing with. Perfect. Now it's time to die!" The leader said, extending his right arm towards the sky and unleashing what seemed to be the thing Sasuke and Kakashi were fearing. His arm was immediatly covered by black, tattoo-like marks that spread all over it as if painting his body. After the marks finished consuming his arm, it gained a bizarre, gigantic appereance, after which the leader punched the ground with it and caused a miniature of an earthquake.
"Up above, Sasuke!"
Kakashi and Sasuke jumped to the first set of treebranches they could find, out of the shockwave's damage zone. But no time to even breathe. The elder woman (who apparently had done the same with her arm) attacked them from midair using a whip-like version of her arm and slicing easily anything that stood in her way.
"Shit" Sasuke thought, as he had stopped practicing how to contain someone with the Cursed Seal's power since long ago. "Are these guys on pair with Juugo?"
They ducked as they could to avoid the slicing whip attack from her, and their eyes widened as they caught the glimpse of another incoming attack from the tallest guy. Both his arms were resembling a terrifying, parasite-like firing weapon, which charged some energy right in the middle of its hole and fired away a frightening yellowish beam.
"You think you can take me out with that?" Sasuke activated his Mangekyou Sharingan with a blink, and let out a howl of rage.
The spherical explosion that followed was enough to rip hundreds and hundreds of trees away from the ground, creating a crater that had nothing to envy from the ones in the moon. After the conmotion was over, though, every participant of the fight was still standing. And now, in front of the four hooded individuals, stood a giant, ethereal figure that sent waves of rage towards them. The strenght of such Chakra made them shiver silightly. Sasuke was engulfed in purple light, his eyes glowing intimidatingly, and his ethereal warrior's sword pointed at the attackers.
Kakashi landed beside him, his Mangekyou Sharingan also activated and ready to have any other attack Kamui'd at the sight of it.
"Thanks Sasuke. You saved us."
"Not at all. I'm used to the likes of these guys... People with this kind of abilities don't know the word restraint"
"Oi! You guys okay?!" A familiar voice asked from afar. Seconds later, a blond, blue-eyed young Jounin joined the fray, landing right beside Sasuke and Kakashi.
"How's things on the other side, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.
"Could be better..." the Jiinchuuriki said, taking a look to his surroundings. The ratio of that crater could be easily compared to a stadium, probably as wide as the one where the Chuunin Exams usually took place.
"Is Sakura all right? Don't tell me you came here and left them alone..." Sasuke said, still glaring at the hooded foursome. Naruto shook his head.
"I'm a clone. They're with my original. Bad news. But I'll have you briefed as soon as we take care of these guys."
"Fair enough." Sasuke and Kakashi answered, as the three of them braced and prepared for battle.
"Oi, oi, oi..." The shadowy squad's leader chuckled, and his subordinates imitated him afterwards. "...Aren't you all getting a bit ahead of yourselves? Taking care of these guys you say, but it only took three moves to force Uchiha-chan here use his Susano'o... Are you sure it's allright?
"Oh, yeah?" Naruto smirked, his thirst for battle increasing. "How do you know my pal here didn't activate his Susano'o merely because he knows it only takes one little swing of its sword and y'all weirdos be yelling in pain?"
Their leader closed his hands in fists, and their laughing stopped. Sasuke and Naruto shared a fast look of complicity. Kakashi sighed.
"Why am I only surrounded by strong enemies that happen to be bothering brats at the same time? Mattaku..." He unlocked his holster and agilly took his kunai, making it glow with a blueish light that soon transformed into sparks and jolts of electricity. "Say... You people... Who are you exactly, and what are your aims with that man?"
"Sorry. Our sensei has taught us not to talk with strangers." The older woman said.
"Has your sensei taught you anything about being tortured because of your failure to speak after being asked for the first time?"
"Yeah. That's why you are the ones coming with us! You'll have a taste of what it means to be tortured by us!" Said the younger woman, after which, the foursome launched themselves towards the three Konoha ninjas. Kakashi sighed.
"Don't kill them. Let's try having all of them captured."
"Wakkata!" Naruto and Sasuke answered, bracing themselves.
"You'll need the killing intent if you even want to touch us, you fools!" The tallest of the four said, as they surrounded the three leaf shinobi in a circle and approached them with different, odd-shaped, weaponized arms. Sasuke let out a loud snort of disappointment, and deactivated his Susano'o. Right before their attackers came close enough to engage, Sasuke spun on himself once and extended his arms violently.
"Chidori Nagashi!"
The four hooded ninjas were electrified by a large current of blueish sparks. Kakashi charged against the leader, who was the one running towards him, and the only one who managed to withstand Sasuke's Raiton. Hatake took advantage of his enemy's split second opening interval and pierced through him with his kunai inbued in electric Chakra, while the other three were sent flying by the Chidori Nagashi's momentum.
"Naruto, Sasuke, get ready!"
"Hai!"
Kakashi, who made a Kage Bunshin while holding the leader against the ground with his kunai had his clone make some hand seals at top speed and put his hands on the ground, before the other three ninjas touched the ground.
"Doton: Hashira no Jutsu."
Right below them, the earth was shaped in a cilindric pillar, resembling a man-made plateau. Said pillar rose from the ground as if it was some sort of rising dragon, and hit their stomaches hard enough to send them flying vertically several feet away.
"Ready, dobe?" Sasuke said, semi-activating his Susano'o to the point a huge, skeletal hand could be seen at his side.
"Born ready, teme!" The blond jumped on the pevious hand's palm, after which Sasuke threw his friend with Susano'o's strenght. While in midair, Naruto used a cross-seal to summon two more clones in a poof of white smoke, and prepared a small, spinning chakra sphere on his hand. His clones imitated him.
"Bitch, don't underestimate us!" The tallest of the hooded group said. His comrades and him spun in the air as possible for them, and aimed at Naruto's clones. A set of three yellowish spheres began charging energy as three Narutos flew at them.
"Shit" Sasuke thought. "He's not gonna make it at this rate...!"
The three blond clones looked at each other, while rustling their holsters with their free hands. Each clone then weilded a three-pointed kunai, at which sight Kakashi's eyes widened.
"Your're the ones who shouldn't underestimate us, bastards!" Naruto said, as he and the other two clones threw the Kunais at the hooded attackers. However, despite the fact that the weapons had been aimed at their heads, they managed to avoid them easily.
"You missed, and now you're fucked!" The younger woman yelled with a tone that stated clearly her love for victory. After that, three beams of incredible energy were shot against Naruto and his clones.
"Sasuke, don't worry about me and guard the attack!" He said, as the three of them were engulfed in light. Sasuke snapped his tongue loudly, and activated his Susano'o completely for the second time, making sure he and Kakashi were covered by it. The following explosion was less poweful than the first one, but still created another crater and still made as much noise and ruckus.
"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, as he moved Susano'o's arms to see better. He scanned the area in looks for his blond friend, as the three hooded ninjas landed in front of them once more, laughing loudly.
"What a dumbnut! Taking the attack right on...!"
"I see this is all Konoha can do against us... What a let down..."
"If all of you are as stupid as that guy is, then crushing you'll be a piece of cake!"
"Naruto, get your ass here!" Sasuke kept yelling, not able to find him around. But Kakashi's hand asked him to remain silent.
"Don't worry. He's fine."
"How do you know?" Sasuke asked, upset at his friend's disappereance. The ninjas with cursed seal laughed even harder.
"Yeah, are you blind? We smashed his ass to smithereens, pal. There ain't no "Naruto" anymore, not even his fingernails are left for you to mourn him, you shitface!" The tallest man said, holding his breath as he laughed.
But then, as they kept laughing, their leader woke up from the numbness caused by the electrified kunai and yelled at them.
"Idiots! You're the blind ones! Look up...!"
But it was too late. Only a few centimeters away from each of their faces, a spinning chakra sphere glowed with a sapphire light as it was reduced to a smaller size by its owner. A blond, young Konoha jounin that mere moments ago was supposed to be obliterated with their beams.
"I-Impossible!" Was the only word that crossed their minds, as Naruto and his two clones smirked mockingly.
"Don't fuck with the son of the Yellow Flash, bitches! RASENGAN!"
Their spherical attack produced a considerably smaller explosion, though the internal damage done by it in each of its victim's bodies was unthinkable. They fell with their faces to the ground, yelling in pain and having their backs exposed as Naruto's technique tore their clothes easily. Blood came out of their mouths slowly, and their conciousness hung from the thinest possible thread.
"What the...?!" Sasuke frowned, deactivating both Susano'o and his Mangekyou Sharingan. "...But I saw him getting caught in the attack...! How in the world did he...?"
"Impressive, isn't it?" Kakashi said, smiling as he covered his Sharingan with his headband. "It's my Sensei's famous teleporting Jutsu. The Hiraishin No Jutsu. This is what earned him his nickname, the Yellow Flash."
"Hiraishin...?" Sasuke smiled nervously, as much as he frowned all the same. "...That idiot... Since when is he able to do that..?" He shook his head, and knelt next to Kakashi, looking at the hooded leader's numb body. Meanwhile, Naruto pulled the other three from their clothes' neck and carried them towards Kakashi.
"We should go to where the others are now, though..." The blond said, receiving Sasuke and Kakashi's enquiring look after that. "...It seems we will have a visitor soon..."
(...)
"Oh, thank the Heavens..." Sakura ran towards Sasuke as soon as he and the rest threw the unconscious hooded foursome to the ground. The pinkette hugged Sasuke around his neck, after which she punched him slightly on his shoulder.
"We saw those explosions... Was it these guys? Are you all okay? Need any healing?" She asked, galring at Kakashi and Naruto one after the other. The three men sat on the ground.
"We're fine. We managed to beat them before it got uglier." Sasuke looked at one of them, though their hoods were still on. "I wonder how did these guys got out of their cages, though..."
"Yeah..." Kakashi said, as Sakura healed him and Hinata ran towards Naruto and hugged him.
"Are you hurt? I'm not a healer, but..."
Naruto kissed her on her forehead, making her blush considerably.
"I'm okay, Hinata." He took her hand and gave it a small squeeze as a sign of missing her. After this, he looked at the clone he had left there with golden eyes and red pigmentations. "How much time have we got left?"
"About four minutes." His clone said, dissipating after talking and pouring all his Natural energy into Naruto's original body.
"What's that about...?" Sasuke asked, while Sakura returned to heal their red head target (who had lost consciousness).
"Reinforcements. These guys have someone really powerful coming to help them. I'm a sensor on Sage Mode, so I can tell."
"Who is it...?" Kakashi said, his expression losing any signs of relief. Naruto stood up and moved his right arm in a circular motion, grabbing his shoulder with his left hand.
"Orochimaru."
Silence fell upon the Squad, as the night wind drifted through the middle of the forest, sending a cold shiver through their spines. Sasuke's Sharigan with three tomoe was activated in a red flash of light, and he stood up as well.
"So we need to go take care of him, right?" He said, looking at Naruto. Sakura interrupted their conversation with one of her ruthless punches striking a tree log, and making a hole in it.
"Like I said before, Naruto, Sasuke, no one is to go and engage him. Our mission is accomplished right now, we don't need to fight unnecessary battles. Let's go to Konoha. Now."
"We don't have time for this..." Naruto closed his eyes, seconds after which his whole body was engulfed in what seemed to be yellowish, orange flames of light and tattoo-like black symbols decorated his whole body. He had activated his first Kyuubi Chakra Mode. "...Missions are not only about doing what's been written on the scrolls, Sakura-san."
"Enough with the "Sakura-san" bullshit!" Sakura snapped, standing up and facing Naruto. "Listen, if you have some sort of problem with me or anything, that's fine! But on missions, especially right now, you have to do as I say and forget about your personal..."
"If you really think I'm doing this out of personal grudges against you, you have another guess coming." Naruto said, his voice growing colder. "You should know full well what Orochimaru is after..."
"Which makes it all the more stupid from you to go alone and fight him, Naruto." Sasuke said, leering at him. "If he really is looking for my body, then let him come and I'll settle this once and for all.."
"That's too dangerous."
"The hell it is! Are you calling me weak?" The Uchiha said, though Naruto's glare was as strong as his.
"I'm not calling you weak. And you two should stop acting as if I was going to die! YOU are the ones calling me weak! I'm not saying I'll beat him, I'm just saying I'll create a diversion so you can get out of here easily! THEN I'll catch up to you, and that's the end of it!"
"Don't you fucking get it? This is a team Naruto, you can't just go around doing whatever you please!" Sakura growled, her eyes throwing sparks.
"Why don't you shut your trap and stop talking as if you even cared one bit about me?!" Naruto said hotly, as he jumped to a tree branch, away from the rest of the team.
"What did you just...?!"
"Sakura..." Kakashi said, putting himself between her, Sasuke and Naruto. "...You might not want him to do that job, but he does have a point. If we all fight against Orochimaru, our target might get either killed or injured, or he might even scape. Instead, if only someone goes and fights him to distract him, the rest of us can secure the target easily."
"But...!"
"Naruto..." Hinata interrupted her, before Naruto jumped any further away. "...Let me go with you."
"What?" Naruto and Sakura recoiled. The Hyuuga shook her head.
"I know you have a point, but you also are Konoha's Jiinchuuriki. We can't possibly let you do these kind of things alone, if you're killed or if something happens to you, one of the most important defenses of our village would be gone. You can't have Sasuke-kun because he's Orochimaru's target, Sakura-san is off charts, because she's a medical Ninja, and Kakashi-sensei is our strategist, and he can use Kamui to carry all of our targets. At least have me go with you. Please."
There was a relatively long silence, during which Sakura and Sasuke shared troubled looks, Kakashi stared at Naruto worriedly, and the redhead young man's breath was heard as he slept peacefully.
"You would follow me anyway, wouldn't you, Hinata?"
"Yes, I would."
Naruto smiled lowly and turned on his feet.
"Okay, come. We're short on time."
The black-haired girl jumped to the same tree branch, and both of them vanished through the dark woods, leaving no trace behind other than Naruto's Kyuubi chakra glowing behind him.
(...)
Only a minute had passed since they had left their squad. Up until then, a dense silence raged between them both, making it awkward to be together. Though Hinata wasn't sure whether or not Naruto's reason to be quiet was the same as hers... In her case, she just didn't want to put pressure on him, or making him feel like she wanted to talk about a topic he would rather have buried six feet under. Besides, even if she didn't agree with many things Sakura did or said, she did admit the pinkette captain had a point when she said missions were no place to hold on to personal relationships. And if what Naruto and that redhead man had said was true... If Orochimaru was really coming towards them, then it was all the more important for her to look sharp. Still...
"Tch! Why does that idiot Haruno have to be such a pain in the ass all the time? Here I am trying to make him feel better about her marriage to Sasuke-kun and she goes and blows it with her slutty temper... 'Taku!" She shook her head, frowning. "It's not like he's not getting over her anyway. He's being... So nice to me... And so kind. But I can tell. They were a team... No, they are a team... They've been together for so long... It's the same with us. If I had married Shino or Kiba, one of the two would have reacted awkwardly at best... How painful must it be to him, when it was obvious that he loved her?"
"Matte...!" Naruto stopped her with a hand sign, and both of them landed on a particularly hidden branch. It was all but submerged into the bushiest tree, giving them a nice hiding spot. Naruto deactivated his Kyuubi Chakra mode in the blink of an eye, and both Jounins held their backs against the trunk of that tree.
"What is it?" Hinata whispered lowly.
"He's close. I could feel it... Hell, I still can, even without using Kurama's chakra..."
"Kurama...?"
"Oh, right. Kurama is Kyuubi's real name. Actually..." Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, letting Hinata meditate in what she had just heard for a second. Then, not only did the blond's whisker-like marks become furrier, but his eyes redder and their pupils vertical. Hinata felt a slight cold sensation inside her throat.
"It's fine, girl. Don't be scared." Said a voice that had absolutely nothing similar to Naruto's, yet it came from Naruto's mouth all the same. "I'm Kurama. Nice to meet you... Though then again, I've known your Clan from the moment it even became a Clan. Maybe it's more appropiate to say, good to see you again. You look a lot like your mother."
Hinata's eyes widened considerably, and she utterly forgot everything about the mission. "What did he just say?!" She gulped dry, but before she could ask Kurama anything else, he (obviously using Naruto's body) gazed behind the trunk slightly.
"I guess our introductions will have to wait, Hime-chan..." Kurama whispered. "...He's here. Watch Naruto's back, allright?"
"Y-yes. Count on me."
He blinked, and red was replaced by blue again, followed by the whisker marks returning to normal. Naruto (who seemed to be as surprised as Hinata due to Kurama's last minute revelation) did a perfect job ignoring his amazement to focus on the main event during that moment. Some slow steps were heard echoing throughout the whole area, a sound that combined with the darkness of the forest, made it all the more gloomy and grim. A set of viperish eyes seemed to act as lanterns from afar, deep in the dark, and Hinata could have sworn she heard the slow crawling of a snake on the ground, making twigs snap gently below its body.
"Get ready, Hinata. Actually, it might be useless to hide anyway, since he can very easily sense us..." Naruto was saying, when a cold, sharp voice cut him.
"...You stole the words from my mouth, Kyuubi brat. I guess you finally have swapped your stupidity for some perceptiveness?" The enemy grinned evilly, stopping in the middle of the woods where Hinata and the Jiinchuuriki awaited for him. "... It might also be better for you kids to come face me, too. You see, vipers hate unnecessary efforts from their prey, especially when it will be eaten nonetheless."
Naruto snapped his tongue, annoyed, and asked Hinata to follow him with a head motion. Both of them landed with the agility of a night cat, making hardly any noise, and glared (Naruto's red pigmentation coming back, and Hinata's Byakuugan veins itching up).
"Huuuh... So you have become a Sennin as well? I see... Following the steps of that useless Godfather of yours." Orochimaru, who wore a black tunic much like the one those hooded ninjas wore, albeit without the hood, was accompanied by a snake the size of several people. Its tongue kept sissing in and out mockingly, as if the sight of both Konoha ninjas amused it.
"At least I can become a Sennin to begin with, Orochimaru. Unlike some." Naruto smirked as mockingly as the snake would have smirked, had it had a mouth. Orochimaru merely laughed shortly. Naruto's frown became more accentuated. "So... What is a man - if you can be called a man of course - of your caliber doing here, huh? What is it you're after...?"
"I presume you mean to ask what am I after besides the young man you have already captured?" His snaky eyes glowed with apparent hunger. "Well, answering that would be a very amusing tale... One that deserves a slightly better audience than the likes of you two, that is..."
"...Don't you dare think I will let you put a hand on Sasuke again, you sick bastard..." Naruto weilded his three-pointed kunai, at the sight of which Orochimaru let out a tiny whistle.
"Handling Daddy's weaponry now? I see that fool Jiraiya did grow senile enough to give those things to you. Not that you would know what to do with them, anyway, right?"
Naruto greeted his teeth, and while ignoring Hinata's faint "wait!", he charged ahead, his rage quite apparent. Orochimaru kept laughing as the blond jiinchuuriki ran at him.
"My, my, still too hot headed to refrain from such bold attacks... Especially against a Sannin... How very foolish indeed."
"Shut your trap!" Naruto sliced the air around Orochimaru's head with his kunai, though the Sannin agilly avoided the offensive and countered using his snake. It moved as fast as a bullet, its fangs spilling a deadly looking liquid, though Naruto was able to dodge the bite leaning backwards and kicking the snake so his space towards Orochimaru was clear. He used a right roundhouse kick, which Orochimaru had no option left but to endure with his side arm. Right before the kick made contact, though, Naruto smiled.
"Who's foolish now, idiot?"
Naturally, and in the same way it had happened some time before against a certain orange-haired man, Naruto's Sage Mode kick was way too strong for the Sannin to withstood with only his bare arm. Not long after receiving the blow, a small shock wave spread like a spherical air bomb throughout the place and Orochimaru was sent against several trees, crushing through them as if they were made of glass.
"Naruto, stop charging ahead like that...!" Hinata said, walking to where he was. "...You need to be a bit more thoughtful..."
"Heh, would you really love me if I was like that?"
"Ack. Good point." Hinata glared at the place where Orochimaru had been sent to. He had walked his way back, stumbling in the usual, zombie-like way with which all the ones who knew him felt creeped out. Either he enjoyed pain, or simply had a pride higher than his chakra pool, but whichever it was, he was still laughing.
"Such brute strenght..." He licked his bottom lip, making some noise while at it. "...Maybe it is fitting for a brute like you, Kyuubi kid. Perhaps I should also give you a small taste of power?"
"Go ahead and try, freak. I'll take you on any time." Naruto answered, as Orochimaru bit his thumb and made handseals as fast as possible.
"It is two on one, however. We should make sure the odds are even whenever fighting, don't you think?" The White Snake said grinning. He put his right hand on the ground, and several black kanji-like marks decorated the grass beneath said hand. Following this, and a small poof of white smoke, Naruto and Hinata's eyes were struck by fear and surprise as a ghostly, grim coffin rose from the ground as some sort of elevator from Hell.
On it, a black symbol that was frighteningly familiar to the both of them sent all kinds of negative feelings to their bodies. The blond jiinchuuriki growled in rage as he and Orochimaru exchanged looks.
"You didn't..."
The sole symbol on the coffin was a svastika, with two horizontal lines pointing at each of its sides. That had been all it had taken for both he and Hinata to understand what, or who was inside the coffin. As its door slided open noisily, the sight of Hyuuga Neji's body was seen. There were marks all around his body, as if he was made of paper. Naruto deactivated his Sennin mode and let himself be engulfed in lightmade flames and black marks. An ethereal robe flapped as if it was actual material, and a thick, highly compressed Rasengan formed on Naruto's hand right away.
"HOW DARE YOU?!"
Orochimaru received the furious technique right on his stomach, which unleashed an explosive reaction. The amount of golden chakra used on Yondaime's original technique created a small typhoon of light that surrounded the Sannin and blasted him away further than Naruto's previous kick. At this point, though, Neji's corpse had opened his eyes, and one of Hinata's nightmares became true. A serious fight to the death with Neji was due.
Neji stepped out of the coffin slowly, and gazed around.
"What... Where am I...?" His face finally met the blond's and Hinata's. His blackened eyes were hit by momentary shock.
"Naruto? Hinata-sama? But... Don't tell me you two are...!" He remained quiet for a while, seeing Hinata's expression become shadowy, and Naruto looking at him with significant eyes. Neji's expression gained understanding.
"I see. There are still people out there willing to go this far... And they have summoned me. Right?"
"It's Orochimaru..." Naruto said, his Bijuu Mode fading away for the moment. "...Neji, I..."
"...Naruto."
Hinata's voice resonated through the woods. Neji and Naruto stared at her, while her face rose and showed a expression of determination that Naruto seldom saw on her, let alone Neji. Her determination was mixed with what seemed to be... Rage. And Naruto had to take a second to meditate on the implications that suggested. A person as calm and kind as Hinata, someone who would gardly ever lose her temper over anything, would never fit into Naruto's (or anybody's) definition of "scary". But it was also true that those who never let their temper out could be unfathomably dangerous when they actually did. And right now, the Hyuuga heiress' eyes showed such rage that Naruto feared for his life for a moment. Her chakra was boiling furiously.
"...I'll take care of this. Please go after him..." Hinata said, trembling with what was surely anything but fear. Neji smiled at the sight of her expression. "...I will never be able to forgive that man... For stepping over Niisan's memory like this. And I won't allow him to use Niisan as his puppet. But I'm no good against a man like him. Please, Naruto..."
The blond jiinchuuriki composed a smile, closing his eyes and holding Hinata's hand for a moment. He gave it a short squeeze like before, and gave her a bit of his chakra (which covered her momentarily like a fox mantle). Then, he walked forward, stopping for a brief second beside Neji.
"I never got to say this, but..."
Neji looked at him silently, as Hinata stood in her battle position, her Byakuugan activated.
"...Thank you."
"Thank you, Naruto. Despite what you see now... I am free. Look." He used his thumb to pat his forehead twice, showing how his Caged Bird Seal was gone. "Right now, all that matters is that you're both safe... And I'll just serve as a test to measure Hinata-sama's growth. That makes me happy. So keep going. Orochimaru awaits."
"Yeah..." Naruto smiled, and activated his Kyuubi Chakra mode once more, after which he would run towards the place where the Sannin had been sent flying to.
"Hinata-sama..." Neji said, getting his battle stance ready. "...I hope you manage to beat me this time."
"I will." Hinata said, rushing towards her cousin and getting to the fight with a strong resolve.
I hope the battle writing doesn't disappoint you guys! Thank you for your reviews and for following this fic. Makes my day!