"So, this is it, right?" Naruto's voice held an edge that showed his anxiousness to get this job finished.
"Yes Naruto, this is where we tracked the two members who were following Tsunade earlier."
Naruto, Sasuke, Anko, Jiraiya, Neji, and Sakura were standing before a large boulder that was blocking the entrance to what should be the Akatsuki's lair. Though they couldn't track Hideaki, Tsunade had mentioned the pair that she had felt following her group earlier and their trail was easily picked up and followed. On the way they had met up with Kakashi, Gai, and Haku, who had been sent by Shizune, after Tsunade had contacted her and ordered back up.
It had been two days and thirteen hours since Gaara had been abducted by the criminal organization, and Naruto had nearly been vaporized by his own chakra in the explosion that lead to Gaara's capture. When he woke up, Naruto was devastated to hear of his friend's fate, and blamed himself as was his custom.
From that instant on, he had bugged and nagged the Godaime to allow a rescue mission, which she eventually agreed to, but not before making sure that Sakura and Naruto were fit enough to go. Sakura's new arm was working perfectly, and she experienced no ill effects when she tried out any of her medical techniques.
"That's a five seal barrier, it will take five of us to remove the seals at exactly the same time or else the entrance will lock itself and we'll have no chance of getting in." Kakashi noted the large paper seal that was stuck to the boulder.
"I've found the other five seals; they are a ways from here, so it might take us some time to return after we remove them." Neji's calm voice was awkward amongst the tense group, but after equipping wireless radios, and receiving instructions to the area of the seals, Neji, Sakura, Haku, and Gai headed out to the seals. After a few moments, confirmation came in that all four had found their targets and the intrusion into enemy territory could go on. On the count of three, all four ninja, plus Kakashi pulled off the tags and Naruto blew through the boulder with a rasengan. As the remaining members of the rescue party rushed inside, they were greeted by a completely unwelcome sight.
Gaara's body, which for a moment was suspended in the air, fell to the ground, limp, as the giant statue that represented all that was evil disappeared into the ground.
"GAARA!!!" Naruto's cry echoed around the vast cavern. Four figures dropped down from the hands of the giant. Naruto didn't notice, as he had turned to Jiraiya and began to yell at his teacher.
"You said we had four days! What the hell happened, they finished faster than you had calculated before we killed off two members!" His eyes had tears in them, knowing that his friend, the one that was the most like him, was dead.
"That would be thanks to our latest…recruiting drive." The women, Chiyoko spoke.
All eyebrows on the Konoha side of the room rose, to varying degrees, until a lone figure, still standing on the hands of the statue spoke up.
"Ku ku ku, it's good to see you again, Jiraiya, Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun." Orochimaru's projection flickered before it disappeared, though everyone noticed that he had both arms on his body once more.
"So, one of you works for that bastard, eh?" Jiraiya asked, though he knew which one it was.
"Name's Suigetsu." The boy, who had had white hair down to his neck stepped forward, his hand moving to the hilt of the gigantic sword on his back. "Never thought they'd let Orochimaru back in, but when you show up with help and a couple of demons to seal, they get happy pretty quickly."
"You…BASTARDS I'LL KILL YOU! Naruto was leaking large amounts of the Kyuubi's chakra, as well as activating his sakashima sharingan. During his training, he had experimented with this form of the sharingan and found a couple interesting things, things he was going to implement in battle very soon.
"I'm going to take the jinchuriki, I haven't fought one yet, and Jashin demands blood today." Hidan, a man with grey hair and a large three bladed crimson scythe spoke up and eyed Naruto with a smirk on his face.
"Whatever, that woman isn't here, so I can't have any fun." Kakuzu drawled, obviously unhappy that Tsunade hadn't shown up.
"You were interested in Tsunade-sama, no? Then you'll have to settle for me then." Anko marked her opponent with her words, cracking her knuckles as she waited for the fighting to begin.
"Kakashi is mine, for him to have killed Zabuza-sensei…it is something that I cannot forgive." Suigetsu drew the sword he had been palming since the confrontation began, which was instantly recognizable as the sword wielded by the former demon of the Mist.
"Actually, you will be fighting me." Sasuke stepped forward and drew his own large sword. "Kakashi-sensei has a better things to do than be bothered by an amateur and I happen to know someone who would be awfully pissed if she knew what you have done."
There was a tense moment as every one of the fighters waited for the battle to begin.
"Kakashi…we might have a small problem." Gai's distorted voice over the radio was apparently the start signal, because immediately there were clashes of steel upon steel and the dull sounds of fists being thrown.
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As soon as Gai had removed the seal tag from the side of a cliff where he had found it, he felt something strange happen. A sudden influx of chakra directed his attention to an amorphous blob that had begin to spring from the cliff face. Shortly after its emergence, the blob began to take a recognizable form. It turned into an exact replica of Gai himself.
"Neji…is this happening to you as well?" The taijutsu master's voice held no emotion or any hint of fear.
"You mean the duplicate of me? Yeah, I've got one."
"Me too." Haku's voice was accompanied by the clang of metal as she parried her clone's sword.
Gai released a breath of air as he adopted a defensive taijutsu stance, one that was mimicked by his clone.
"Kakashi…we might have a small problem."
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When the clone began forming in front of her eyes, Sakura was wondering how something of this complexity could be happening. Was this based on previous information, or were these clones forming on some other set of information? The answer came soon enough when the clone exhibited the same scarred right arm as herself.
The clone adopted a basic stance of taijutsu and formed chakra scalpels which Sakura mimicked; she had long since gotten to the point where she could form them correctly, not like against Neji back when she was a genin. They traded some blows, with neither landing anything decisive. On the next pass, both girls used their explosive strength and this time both suffered damage from the exchange.
The real Sakura suddenly felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck stick up, and knew that some attack was on the way, but was still very surprised when one of the clay birds she had seen in her short fight against the member of Akatsuki come flying at her from her clone.
'I can do that?!' she thought as she leapt backwards in an attempt to dodge the explosive animal. When she found she couldn't get far enough away from the explosive clay, Sakura slammed her fist to the ground to kick up a small wall of earth, just enough to block the bird and cause it to explode. She still felt the small pebbles hit her skin as the force from the blast demolished her makeshift wall.
Her eyes began to dart around, looking for the follow up attack that was sure to be coming. The clone had attempted to charge through the debris of the explosion, but was thwarted by the genuine article's kunai.
'Why didn't she use those explosives again?' Surely that would have been the best follow up to the explosion. 'Possibly, she can't do anymore, I mean, I/we don't have those pouches of clay, so I guess there is just whatever is left in that mouth.' As soon as Sakura thought of the mouth on the palm of her right hand, she felt it respond and felt that there was just enough clay left in the mouth from its previous owner for one attack. Hoping that the things responded to her thoughts, Sakura pictured what shape she wanted the charge to be shaped as, and felt the internal workings respond to her command. The clone was watching her with interest; it seemed that it was supposed to respond to her attacks, as opposed to instigating the action.
She withdrew a kunai and wrapping an exploding note around it, threw it at the clone, who threw her own knife and deflected the projectile easily. The clone watched as Sakura made a single hand sign and was momentarily mesmerized as the leaves began to fly and swirl around, before it recognized the very basic genjutsu, but didn't care why a ninja such as Sakura would use such a low level technique, until she noticed that Sakura was smiling and waiting as the clone brushed a leave from her body.
Wait, what? There were no leaves, that was the technique unless…
"Katsu!"
The clone fell to the ground before dissolving into the amorphous blob, as the explosion had taken off its head in one blow.
"This is Sakura; I'm heading back to the entrance."
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Haku was having similar problems with her clone, as it was responding to her attacks and seemed to know every attack she had. Even techniques that she hadn't shown anyone else, this…imposter knew them as well as she did, if not better.
"Yuki Hakuhen shuriken." (Snow Flake shuriken) Large snowflakes formed in Haku's hands, each point and edge as sharp as a real shuriken, before she threw them at herself. Unfortunately, her technique was copied and blocked by an identical set of shuriken. The two clashed shortly in taijutsu, every time their hands would contact the other, deep wounds would open up from the blades of ice that each girl had equipped. They separated and each picked up their previously discarded swords and attacked again. Once more the outcome was stalemate.
As they separated, for the first time, the clone took the initiative and began to run through a series of signs that Haku recognized as a genjutsu, one of relatively high power, but nothing that she couldn't break out of, after all, she was the adopted daughter of the most powerful genjutsu mistress in Konoha.
Deciding to retaliate with an illusion of her own, Haku spun what was one of her most powerful techniques, a combination of illusion and hyoton.
"Unten Yuki." (Driving Snow) The weather suddenly became cold and bleak, as a heavy blizzard rolled into the area and the real Haku disappeared. The fake, knowing the technique, dispelled the illusion, but was confused as the snow remained after the illusion was broken. Granted, it was now much less, but there was still enough to qualify as a flurry. Just as the clone realized what was going on, the soft flakes of ice began to swirl around her and begin to cut her to pieces. Releasing a pulse of chakra, the clone was able to stop the flakes, but not the sword that cut her cleanly in half at the waist.
Haku fell to the ground panting. It might have looked like the two were evenly matched, but during their second exchange with swords, the clone had landed a serious hit to Haku's midsection.
"Hey, Sakura." The ice mistress called over the radio. "You think you could stop over here and heal a cut real fast?"
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Neji was…unhappy. For a perfect clone of himself, the battle was…lacking. Perhaps it was because he had been training with Hinata-sama so much, and her style was nearly the same as his own in every way. That wasn't to say that he had an easy time dealing with the clone, he hadn't been able to land finishing blows, but the doppelganger was unable to even land a glancing blow to the genius of the Hyuuga clan.
As he blocked another palm thrust, Neji rethought his stance of the clone. Actually, at times, Hinata was much more of a challenge than this…thing. Hearing the girls' radio in their own victories, Neji decided that it would be prudent to finish his own spar.
Using Hake Kusho (Eight Trigrams Empty Palm) for less than a second, so fast that the clone didn't know what happened, Neji was able to rush in underneath the guard of himself and land the winning blow to the 'heart' of the clone. Having not sustained any damage in the battle, Neji decided to meet up with the girls and left his area without disturbing a leaf.
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Gai too had just finished up his fight, it was rather anti-climactic as well, he had spent so much of his time figuring out ways to combat the sharingan, that he knew how to react to an opponent that copied all of his moves. Knowing that he was needed elsewhere, he didn't waste time and began to perform some hand signs. As expected, the clone didn't copy the signs he was making, but made signs for the technique that would cancel out the originals. Unfortunately for the clone, the skill he was trying was a suicidal one, while Gai's wasn't. By the end, there was only the original left, the clone having returned to whatever it was. Gai left the cliff face and began to sprint back to the entrance.
The trip hadn't taken more than ten minutes, and counting the five it took to fight the clone (his was the farthest away, the others were all much closer) it had only been fifteen minutes since the battle in the cavern had started and yet when he arrived at the entrance, he saw the rest of the seal breakers arrive and then almost instantaneously he saw Naruto blur out of the cave with Jiraiya, Kakashi and Anko in tow, before he grabbed the others and huddled them together.
"Naruto," Sakura was cut off by her teammate.
"Not now, everyone stay together, things are about to get really freaking hot."
No sooner had he finished his sentence than a wave of heat washed over them, vaporizing any stray threads on their clothing, before Naruto was able to summon a giant wall of water, which began to hiss and steam while Jiraiya flashed through his own set of seals. The last thing that the group saw was the rock of the cave melting into magma, before the fleshy walls of a toad's stomach sheltered them.
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Naruto stared down Hidan, the follower of Jashin, the god who demands nothing less than a kill in battle.
"I fight for the pleasure of Jashin, and because you are a jinchuriki, I may not be able to kill you…but perhaps you shall be the one to kill me, who knows?" Hidan's voice was uptight, and spoke in pure confidence.
"Kill? I don't know about kill, but I'm gonna do somethin' to ya." Naruto's eyes were black and red and showed the sakashima sharingan. Hidan was no fool and didn't stare into his eyes, knowing what Itachi could do with them. He noticed that Naruto drew forth a scroll and summoned his own scythe.
"You wield the weapon of death as well; perhaps you will be the one to kill me after all. I warn you, I may be the slowest attacking member of this organization, but I only need one cut to end your life." Hidan's warning was greeted by laughter.
"Ah, yes, that archaic reference of death, the scourge of every child's nightmares. Since you have been so…sporting… and given me a hint, I suppose I should return the favor. If I cut you twice…it might not kill you, but I can guarantee…you won't be doing anything for 'Jashin'...ever again."
"You dare to insult Jashin!" Hidan's rage was palpable and he charged forward at the jinchuriki whose enhanced sight read his every move. Naruto ducked the swing of Hidan's three blades and swung Osore in retaliation.
Hidan stumbled back, the deep wound to his side more of an annoyance to the immortal, but the shock of someone so young doing the damage was awkward to him. He looked at the boy, who stood still, eyes boring into Hidan's being. Suddenly, the immortal found himself in the world of the Tsukuyomi.
It was different than the previous time he had experienced it, as he didn't notice the boy, not even Itachi could hide his presence in this world. Nearly as soon as it had begun, Hidan was forced from the world.
"Ah, so that's it. Not surprising, really, I've never done this to someone before, so I can't wait to see what happens." Naruto's voiced incensed the believer even more and despite his injury, the immortal rushed in again only peripherally recognizing that Naruto scythe had changed, and the second blade of Osore had appeared.
Again the two clashed, and this time both were successful in drawing blood, Naruto landed a small scratch to Hidan's arm, while he had sustained an even tinier scratch to his cheek.
"Ha, I now control your fate, jinchuriki; your life is now forfeit." Hidan's maniacal laughter was heard by everyone fighting, but only Naruto noticed as he drew a triangle inscribed inside a circle on the ground and began to transform. His skin became black and white lines began to trace the path of his bones.
"Now you die, Jinchuriki!"
A moment later, one of the two bodies fell to the ground, never to rise again.
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Kakuzu was surprised to find that Anko was more than a match for him and he was quickly forced to show off his masks. He wasn't shocked when the women reached for a weapon. The shock came soon enough, as she blurred out of sight and used her sai to destroy one of the masks, it was the oldest and weakest mask, as any normal weapon shouldn't have been able to pierce the masks. He no longer had his water mask, but it was of no consequence. He activated his kurogane karada (iron body) while simultaneously using his fire and wind masks in conjunction to cause an explosion that Deidara would've been envious of.
When the smoke and debris cleared, there was no sign of Anko and of the many things that Kakuzu was, greedy and bloodthirsty chief among them, a fool he wasn't. So when his opponent sprung from the ground he leaned back and avoided the swipe of her blades, before counter attacking with his lightning mask.
"Raiton: Gian." (Lightning release: False Darkness)
Anko twisted out of the way of one of the lightning bolts that came from the ox shaped mask, but the second one was still on its way. Before it could do any damage, the attack was stopped by a gust of wind that Anko had created by spinning her sai around her finger. Her grin caused a tick to appear over Kakuzu's green eyes as he waited for her to make the next move. It came soon enough as she disappeared and sliced at one of the threads connecting Kakuzu to one of his masks. The Akatsuki member was caught flat footed and the ox mask clattered to the ground before Anko put her foot through it, shattering it to pieces and ending another of Kakuzu's 'lives'.
His green eyes narrowed in anger. It was unusual that someone was able to take two of his lives without receiving a scratch in return. He was reduced to fire and wind which was good, since they were powerful on their own and could be combined to create explosions, plus his original heart.
"So, it seems that your masks are important to you, I don't care why, but I suppose I'll have to 'cut your attachments' with them." The years hadn't dulled that maniacal edge in Anko's voice.
Before he could move, Anko had burst forth, not a technique, but just on pure speed and shoved a sai through the face of the fire mask, she would have had time to kill the other one, but without water nature chakra, it took all of her physical strength to punch through the mask, even though she was concentrating all of her power through the main tsuba.
This time the pain of loosing another heart caused Kakuzu to stumble backwards and Anko was able to use Ryuka no jutsu to incinerate the last external heart of the immortal.
To buy time, Kakuzu tried to trap Anko with his threads but she frayed the attacking strands and leapt back, just as Naruto and Hidan drew each other's blood.
"It doesn't matter if you kill me, woman; your son is as good as dead, his blood is on Hidan's blades and no one escapes once that happens."
Anko just turned her head and looked at her son facing off against his opponent.
"Actually, it's your partner that's finished. Once his blood covers Osore's blades, he's done.
Sure enough, Hidan fell to the ground and didn't move as three people watched.
"Hidan, you lazy piece of shit, get up and kill that brat!" Kakuzu yelled, only for his words to fall on deaf ears.
"He's gone, there's no way he can help you now." Anko's voice was calm as Kakuzu was shocked that his partner had been killed.
"Bull shit, he's immortal, there's no way he could be killed!" He argued.
"Oh, I never said he was dead, but he won't be getting up…ever. Naruto's scythe is the most aptly named of all our family's weapons, Osore, fear. When an opponent's blood is sacrificed to Osore, they are first made to live through their worst nightmare thought the world of Tsukuyomi and then that nightmare become reality. No matter what it is, it will come to fruition. Most of the time it is death that comes, but for your partner, it seems to be something else." Anko's narrative spooked the remaining immortal into shock and he couldn't move as he watched Naruto walk right past him to Gaara's still form.
"Hey, what did you do to him?" Anko called to her son's back.
"His soul…it was destroyed."
"That's impossible, you can't destroy a soul, the soul is immortal!" Kakuzu yelled, only for Anko to interrupt him.
"It doesn't matter if the soul is immortal or weather it exists at all, all that matters is that he believed it. I don't claim to be an expert but most religions believe that you need a soul to go to heaven or hell. Naruto has just cursed that lump of flesh to a life with no possibility to move on. He's as good as dead." Anko's brown eyes met with Kakuzu's green ones. "Now, I think it's time to finish this off."
"You can try, you'll never be able to pierce my defense; you don't have any techniques strong enough."
Anko didn't react more than shrugging her shoulders before Kakuzu noticed the changes her sais were going through. The blades of one became jagged and resembled lightning bolts, while the other became clear and amorphous, like water.
"Every member of our family has arrived at a way to control every element of chakra possible; this is my zanpakuto, Raigeki and Tsunami, one with the power of lightning and the other water. I imagine that if I stabbed you now, it would be like taking a Raikiri."
Kakuzu never noticed that she threw the weapon until it had passed cleanly through his body, delivering the fatal strike instantly.
"And actually, I imagine that if I threw it, it would be like throwing a raikiri." Not that he could hear the remark.
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"So, Kaka-chan, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Chiyoko asked trying to draw out some emotion. The battling with Jiraiya and Kakashi working together, was far more difficult that she though it would be, but she was managing to hold her own though she knew that she was just stalling until she could find a way out of this fight.
Jiraiya had drawn his katana and had activated the second stage of it, turning it into an exact replica of the Nidaime Hokage's raijin ken, thanks to his soul's influence in the sword. The sudden interference of Naruto, grabbing his teachers and removing them from the cave gave her the chance she needed to escape, just as a scorching wave of heat rolled over the area, melting everything in its path.
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Sasuke and Suigetsu were locked in a battle of blades, and neither one had the advantage, despite Sasuke's sharingan and strength advantage and Suigetsu's knowledge of kenjutsu. In one confrontation, both swords were knocked from their owners grasps and embedded themselves in the wall. Sasuke quickly turned around and landed a series of strong punches to Suigetsu who exploded into water. Sasuke watched as his opponent reformed clothing and all.
"So, you're some kind of water being, huh?" The Uchiha drawled, though internally he was cursing his lack of earth techniques.
"Not that it matters, but I can reform any part of my body as long as I have water to draw from and I can resist any fire technique that Orochimaru knows." His continence suddenly changed. "He certainly tested that enough."
"I see, you are supposed to be able to fight me, and me specifically. No matter, I will defeat you." Sasuke began circling Suigetsu, constantly blocking his opponent from being able to get to his sword. For the next few minutes, Sasuke was dominating the fight, his taijutsu was far and away superior to Suigetsu, and if the newest member of Akatsuki hadn't been able to reform himself, Sasuke would have won this fight long ago.
True to his claim, the sound nin was immune to all fire techniques that Sasuke tried and even to fire manipulation. None of his lightning techniques were strong enough either, which was forcing Sasuke to reconsider a promise he had made to his brother. Having just broken his opponent's body for the fifteenth time this battle, Sasuke quickly un-summoned his sword and grabbed the sword that Zabuza had used so effectively, before throwing it to Naruto, who caught it by the handle, just as he teleported out of the cave with Gaara's body, an unseen sentence passing between them.
As soon as he had disappeared, Naruto returned and began to grab the other Konoha ninja and evacuate them from the cave, just as Sasuke finished transforming into his demonic state.
"I made a promise never to use this technique, but a message needs to be sent to the snake and this organization, no matter what they do, no matter what twisted experiments they come up with, we will defeat you and kill you." As Suigetsu finished reforming, he saw the ball of fire twisting and swirling in Sasuke's hand.
"I told you, no fire technique can defeat me!" He boasted, before he felt the initial wave of heat hit him. His skin was beginning to steam away, even before Sasuke was any where near him. He tried to draw out the moisture from the air, only to find that this technique had rendered the moisture in the air unobtainable to him. He watched as the ball of flame grew in intensity and shrunk in size until the heat became too much for the earth around him and the rock began to melt into magma. The last thing that Suigetsu saw was the demonic Sasuke charging him, though he noticed that the technique was damaging the Uchiha despite his resistance to heat. With a cry, Sasuke slammed the miniature sun into Suigetsu, who instantly vaporized before the ball became too unstable and exploded.
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Outside, the remaining ninja were protected as best as they could be inside the stomach of a great fire toad, though Naruto kept up the wall of water anyway.
"What the hell was that?" Haku yelled, realizing that Sasuke wasn't with them
"Katon: Rasengan." Naruto's voice was laced with worry and Anko looked nervous as well.
"What's the big deal, Sasuke's element is fire, he should be able to handle it…right?" Sakura asked, not reassuring anyone.
"It's not the fire that the problem, Sakura, it's the technique itself. The final stage of the rasengan requires that you put enough pressure on the chakra to compress it into a tiny ball, he basically created a hand held sun, and even if it is his own chakra, the heat is more than enough to injure him if he didn't protect himself." Naruto voiced his concern to the group.
"Naruto, what happened to Gaara?" Haku asked, before instantly regretting it when she noticed the look that crossed his face.
"We were…to late…I was able to save his body, it's in a location far away, so it's fine, but…" His voice died away as Jiraiya dismissed his summons and the water contacted the still hot magma, hissing violently in protest.
Everyone's eyes began to search for a sign of their comrade, brother, son and rival, but none was to be found on the ground. There was no warning other than a shadow before Sasuke, still under the influence of his demonic blood, landed in the middle of the group panting and sporting serious burns. He was immediately set upon by Sakura who began to treat the most serious burns. Having recovered his brother, Naruto flashed away and recovered Gaara's body and the sword that was stolen from Zabuza's grave. He had to seal the sword into a scroll before he could return to the group, and then returned to the group, before they headed back to Suna.
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Their return was met by the entire shinobi population of Sunagakure as well as Tsunade and the Hyuuga that were still in the village. All of the ninja were ushered to the Hospital where they were given a thorough exam by the Godaime. It was during this time that Chiyo, the ancient advisor to the Kazekage snuck into the room where Gaara's body lay. Using a forbidden technique of her own design, she gave her own life energy so that the youngest Kazekage ever could live.
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(A/N: I guess I have some explaining to do about the wait and all…if I say that I'm lazy would that suffice? No? Oh well, that's what your getting, so live with it. Here's the latest chapter and I hope everyone liked it. I told you that Orochimaru would have his role to play in the second arc and here it is. Sakura's arm is working and we got to see some of Haku's latest techniques.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and I hope you'll continue to tell me how I'm screwing up. Thanks a bunch!)
ANNOUNCEMENT
I am looking for another author to do a collaboration with, either on a Bleach story that has an OC as the main character, or on a Naruto story that is favorable to Sasuke. PM me, email me, or somehow get in touch with me if you are interested, and I'll send you my idea for the story(s) and you can decide if you still want to write with me. Thanks.