AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello! Sorry for the long af wait. I just wanted to thank every one of my readers. I hadn't appreacited this enough, but I got 100,000+ hits on Unknown and 1,000+ follows. Wow. Anyways, have a good read!
Her eyes rippled in motion, peering inside the brightly lit lab room. With labored breathing, Naruto muttered, "Odd."
Sakumo looked at the woman who was perched on his back, "I shouldn't be surprised. Hanzo was world-renown for his poison."
Naruto lifted her head from the curve of Sakumo's left shoulder, "Put me down, please?"
"Sure."
When Naruto stilled on the white tiled floor, she couldn't help that her knees gave out from mere exhaustion. She felt like she did a full day of wall squatting, and spluttered on to the floor until Sakumo helped her up again. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just that my legs feel nonexistent."
"Hm," Sakumo hummed, then extended his arm towards her, "cm'ere."
Naruto slung her arm to his shoulder feeling less pressure onto her legs when putting her weight on Sakumo, "Thanks."
Sakumo hummed in response and walked to an extended white-stained glass table that held multiple, large flasks filled with a green, watery, substance. Naruto's interest piked as Sakumo settled next to the table. "What do you think it is?"
"Poison," replied the silver-head.
"Hmm, maybe." She grasped a unique bottle from the table and peered it's features. Although the liquid inside the bottle was almost the same shade with the rest, the bottle was the only one labeled "Ibuse." Sakumo looked over Naruto's shoulder and examined the bottle.
"That's weird, why is this bottle the only one that's different?"
"Who knows?" Naruto took several bottles with fitted caps and placed th
em inside her weapons pouch, "I'm gonna see if Tsunade…" she rolled her tongue weirdly and added, "-san can analyze it."
"Good idea," he eyed her weirdly, "she could maybe make a remedy for you."
"Ibuse," Naruto repeated, waving off Sakumo's expression. "Sounds familiar." With a moment of though, the woman's face suddenly sparked in realization, "Wasn't that the name of Hanzo's salamander summon?"
"His summon? I'm not sure."
The whiskered woman pursed her lips and decided to gently place the bottle in her bag with the rest of the many other flasks. "I'll look into that one later. For now, let's head on. We don't wanna be too late for anything now."
Sakumo nodded his head grimly and headed out the lab with Naruto in tow.
"It's really creepy in here," Naruto commented while looking at the many taxidermy animals decorated throughout the dimly lit hallway. She instinctively moved in closer to Sakumo, who was startled by the sudden contact.
Sakumo stared up at the ceiling, humming in a low tone, trying to ignore the closer contact from Naruto. "What are you looking at, Sakumo?"
The silver-head let out a deep breath and gave a drawled answer, "Nothing, it's just that it's really dark in this place."
"Yeah, whoever decorated this place is insane. How could anyone pass this hallway everyday and not feel disturbed?" Naruto coughed in a jerking manner, "It feels like I have a sixth sense."
"You're delir..." Sakumo turned his head to the other end of the hallway, "...ious." Then, like a stimulant, Sakumo's eyes widened as he pounced on Naruto to shield her from an incoming blow.
"What's going on?!" She screamed both in pain and in terror.
Sakumo stared at her and uttered an apology. Some of Naruto's wounds had reopened, causing blood to gush from the makeshift clothing bandages. He muttered a curse than stood up in front of Naruto, making a dark silhouette to cover her features.
"Kami, Kurama," Naruto whispered under her breath and sighed sadly. It seemed that Kurama still wasn't completely recovered.
After a couple seconds of silence, Sakumo looked back to Naruto in confusion. "What was that?" He mouthed out, not daring to say a word.
Naruto answered, and gestured similarity, "How the heck should I know?" She then cast him look of worry and pointed to his back and silently stated, "Are you okay, Sakumo?"
The Jounin looked to his back and gave her reassuring smile.
There was a clattering sound echoing into what seemed to be the inside of the walls.
Sakumo's face snapped to the location of the sound, staring in confusion when he couldn't find anything other than a wall. "Could it be inside the wall?" He asked Naruto in a louder whisper.
Then, as Naruto was about to answer, Sakumo picked her up quickly and jumped, bringing both him and her, to a safe zone. "What is this thing?" Naruto's eyes widened. "Put me down this instant, I have a feeling that this thing would be a nuisance."
Sakumo nodded. "It could go though walls," he commented while looking at the massive holes on the walls. Everything was trashed in his line of sight, even the dim lights started to get dimmer. Sakumo sniffed the air to try to recognize the thing that was drilling holes.
The thing, to Sakumo's expectations, submerged from the floor and glided towards Naruto with haste. He quickly picked her up and ran.
Sakumo, when looking back at the creature shuttered. It was an unknown variable, and what scared him the most was that the thing wasn't even human.
He looked to his surroundings and saw the drilling patterns of the holes and clenched his jaw.
"If we don't get out of this place, it's gonna collapse on us Naruto!" He and Naruto sprinted as fast as he could to the uttermost safe level where no destruction was held.
The pair could hear the sudden snaps of the building collapse from stress. Naruto looked up to see Sakumo's masked face, his eyes holding distress. She looked worryingly to the older man, and apologized, "Sakumo, sorry for holding you back. My legs still feel fatigued."
"It's fine, you're not holding me back." He grabbed her hand and turned to an alley and breathed out in relief when he found clearing inside the building. His senses tingled when he heard the thing begin to rumble it's way towards them and Sakumo protectively held Naruto closer to him. "It's coming closer, Naruto."
"I know." After a moment's pause, the older shinobi frowned and sorted, "When I tell you to, I want you to run as fast as you can to search for the Sannin. I'll hold this thing back. It seems to be attracted to you for a peculiar reason."
"Attracted?"
"Attracted as when it always seems to want to inflict something on you. Back in the base hallway, it would always either be close to hitting you, never me when I was prone to attack."
"But why?"
"Just a hunch," Sakumo sighed, then perked his head in motion. "Wait, did you get a good look of the creature?"
Naruto knitted her brows together, "Not clearly, but I could make out its shadow—it's massive, almost the size of Gama-" She lurched her throat and concealed her word in a fit of coughs. Sakumo had a relieved expression on his face and patted her back soothingly until her coughs subsided completely. "Whew," she feigned relief, "what I meant to say was that the thing was as grand as the Hokage Tower."
"The Hokage Tower?" He gave her a calculating look and held her shoulders, "Okay," he let out a small sigh, "I'm gonna subdue this thing quickly, and I need you to find the Sannin as soon as possible—we don't know what these people are doing to them—because first of all, in your state, I don't think you can hold up as well even with your ungodly healing abilities-"
"What the, I never told you-"
"That doesn't matter right now, Naruto. All I need you to do is find the Sannin while I run this thing to the mill. Worst case scenario: I'll die."
Naruto gave him a sour look and hissed, "Don't be so pessimistic, Sakumo. I'll be backup!"
He gave her a sweet smile on his mask-less face and squeezed her shoulder, "Don't be so worried about me, Naruto. Just stay safe. And by the way, you are in no condition to be fighting anymore—especially to this creature."
She looked away, feeling a slight twinge of embarrassment and befuddlement. Sakumo pulled his mask up and removed his tanto from its sheath on his back. He ushered Naruto to a safe zone and blinked when he heard the familiar sound of the creature.
"Go!" He lightly pushed Naruto out the door and slashed at the attacker, whom was close to attacking Naruto, and it flew backwards several yards.
Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief as she saw Sakumo's sheer strength that cause the creature to fly back. Naruto could only achieve that kind of strength when she had chakra in her arms. "Naruto, now!"
Naruto stood up from where she had stumbled and saw the creature come dash at her. She stood from her spot and frowned—the creature looked exactly like Hanzo's summon, Ibuse.
Sakumo, just in time, jumped in front of Naruto, and forced Ibuse backwards once again. He pushed Naruto completely out the door and closed it, jamming it in with a kunai.
Naruto widened her eyes in realization of what had just happened and shouted out and started to slam her shoulder onto the door in hopes of opening it, but to no avail, Sakumo was physically too strong for her.
In the spur of her distress, Naruto felt her throat constrict when she slammed her fist onto the door. Hanzo's summon—Naruto didn't think it would still be on this worldly realm. She remembered it being summoned back to its realm when she over exerted it with shadow clones when it swallowed her.
Ultimately, she now knew why Hanzo's summon wanted her—not Sakumo. Naruto cupped her hand to her mouth. It's poison, especially inside the barricaded room Sakumo was fighting against it, could kill Sakumo easily if erupted.
Sakumo should have known it was Ibuse he was fighting against before she did, and even with that, he still didn't let her in the room. "That stupid man," she cursed him name and punched the one last time. "Don't tell me to not be worried for you when you could die!" Again, she kicked the door to bring Sakumo's attention, then screamed, "I swear if you breath any of that salamander's crap, I'll beat the crap out of you!"
A deep silence consumed her, and all she could contemplate about was why Sakumo would do such a thing. She, herself wouldn't stand too long against the salamander for it would easily defeat her due to her slowly-healing injuries and the fact that Kurama was also trying to get the poison off her bloodstream.
Either way, the best choice was what Sakumo was doing as of that instance. Now, all Naruto had to do was fulfill the last part of their mission then come back as quickly as possible to Sakumo before he became a corpse.
She took a few breaths meditatively until she calmed down, walking up to the steel door, finally giving up. Nearing the clamoring sounds that were being produced, she then tenderly proclaimed in a hushed whisper, "Please stay safe, I promise I'll come back to get you, dattebayo."
With that, she turned her heel and sprinted as fast as she could to find the Sannin.
She ran as if her life counted on it and dangerously pushed herself to the limits to quickly find the Sannin. Once she reached a rustic and dreary hallway, she fell instinctual and smelled out the most prominent smells.
When she heard the dripping of rainfall and saw the glow of the fired torches on the stone walls, Naruto steadied her pace and subtly walked into a rain-flooded room, of which she dictated as the entrance of the prison.
Naruto sucked in her breath when she smelled a foul scent. She followed the scent and what came up was a prison that seemed to have a massive intake of prisoners. It wasn't surprising to the very least when seeing this many prisoners. After all, Ame was the heart of the war.
Naruto frowned, this would be an extensive job if she didn't posses Sage Mode. She then sucked in her breath and stood still for a few seconds until her eyelids were highlighted with orange. She opened her eyes completely, and what showed were orange irises with black, frog-like pupils.
She started to search within the natural instinct her Sage Mode gave her. Within moment's time, she was finally drawn to a wallow inside the prison, which held an extreme scent that mixed with mildew and mud.
Hiding her cough into her elbow, Naruto glided on top of the flooded water. Her energy was led to a lone prison, that was flooded with both water and darkness, having only a flickering candle give out warmth and a dim light then deactivated her Sage Mode.
The woman widened her eyes at the unbearable environment. Not even the worst of criminals were held in such unkempt surroundings as this. She came up close to the prison and gasped. Jiraiya was in chakra restrains that kept him to the ground. Naruto could see that near the restraints, his wrists and ankles were raw from struggle.
She thinned her lips then began to play with the lock, feeling surprised when the lock seemed to be loose. She narrowed her eyes and flickered them to her surroundings to see if there had been anyone else before them that was there.
Footprints clattered to water as if
Naruto turned her head to the noise, and almost couldn't block the incoming blow. It knocked the breath out of her and she stumbled back a few feet. Naruto widened her eyes when the flicker of the candle flashed on the offender's face, and what Naruto could make out was the young face of Tsunade.
The Sannin cracked her knuckles and wasted no time in foreplay, exceeding her way with action instead of words. Naruto dodged all of Tsunade's attacks, seeing that the world-known medic-nin was lacking in her stamina and energy.
Naruto could see the bags under her eyes and protruding cheekbones from Tsunade's face, and assumed that she was in malnutrition.
The blond jinchuuriki frowned. Tsunade seemed much righteous then before Naruto met her, fighting vigorously for the sake of Jiraiya.
Naruto sighed and blocked an incoming fist with a vice grip, holding Tsunade in place. Tsunade cried out in frustration and tried to punch Naruto in the face, but all came in vane.
"You're out of your mind, Tsunade-san! Snap out of it, I'm from Konoha with Sakumo!" Naruto reasoned with the female Sannin.
The woman across Naruto lifted her head to look Naruto, "Sakumo? From Konoha?"
Naruto pointed to her forehead protector and stared at the woman who held such hope in her eyes, that it was uncanny. "What the hell happened here?"
Tsunade flourished with comfort when she saw the Konoha stigma on Naruto's forehead protector, "Never been so relieved to see that forehead protecter in my life." She turned to face Jiraiya and scrunched her eyebrows, "We need to find Orochimaru then get out of here quick."
There was no time and effort wasted as the blond Jinchuuriki came into Jiraiya's cell and picked him from the murky waters. "How filthy this place is." Naruto came to realize how similar the prison was to Kuruma's cell, only more unkempt. "Did you also have to stay in these conditions?"
"Yeah, for a whole week," was Tsunade's simple reply. Naruto then noticed Tsunade's damped clothes and stray away hairs. The stench that protruded from the swamp-like prison was deafening to Naruto's nose, and its dimness strained her eyes easily.
"That's unfortunate, but we need to find Orochimaru soon, Sakumo's out there fighting Ibuse—Hanzo's summon."
"Hanzo's summon? Does that mean Sakumo's also fighting Hanzo by himself?" She then gave a thoughtful look, "Well, he is quite strong."
Naruto shook her head, "No," she heaved while holding Jiraiya up, "Let's just say he was disposed of."
"Disposed of? You mean..." Tsunade gave her a look of anger for a split second, but it quickly receded when Naruto traded her a calculating look.
"Yes, he's deceased."
"Who...?" The medic-nin gave a calculating stare to the other blond but decided to keep to herself. "If Hanzo is dead, why would his salamander still be battling with Sakumo? It should've returned to its realm by now."
"Now that you mention it, I'm not sure, maybe his summon was devoted. I mean, didn't he have Ibuse ever since he produced poison?"
"Devoted, huh? I have heard of that." She looked at the heavy heap Naruto was carrying. "Here, let me help you with the pervert," Tsunade stated affectionately after not seeing him for many days.
Naruto smiled gently, letting Jiraiya down carefully and slung him arms on both Tsunade and herself.
In the distance, there was a door, rusted from the humidity, and when opened, there was a greeting of darkness. It gave unwelcoming air to both conscious women, but both treated inside the room until they heard the door slam shut automatically.
Although Naruto disliked the fear of the unknown, especially in places like the room she presently resided in, she felt like she was nearing where Orochimaru was from pure instinct without her Sage Mode. Naruto lit up a match to clearly see what the area that surrounded her appeared to be, and what was shown was a dreary room that looked like the area that Jiraya was secluded in.
The blond Jinchuuriki gave a look of thought, then asked Tusnade, "Hm, just wondering, did the place you were prisoned in look like this?"
"Yes."
"Lucky," Naruto muttered softly to herself. The match Naruto was holding burned to her fingers and she lit another one. "I have a feeling we're close by." Naruto didn't have a reason to use her Sage Mode anymore.
"As do I."
"Why aren't there any guards here?"
"Beats me, the only things could assume is that the majority of shinobi are heading to Konoha, waiting for Hanzo."
"Hanzo, huh? Well, he's not coming anymore," a small smirk was painted on Naruto's face.
"That's relieving. I thought for the entire time I was prisoned here, Hanzo would go and destroy Konoha as we know it." Tsunade rubbed her hand to her face gently before looking at Naruto through the darkness. She grew a frown before shouting in a whisper, "I feel his chakra!"
"Really?" Naruto spluttered as her eyes grew happily, then with uncertainty, "No, then it'll be too easy."
Tsunade shrugged her shoulders, but agreed. She led Naruto to where Orochimaru was, and amazingly enough, Orochimaru stood from where he was inside his cell with his eyes closed.
Orochimaru opened his snake-like eyes and hissed. "What's going on?" He flickered between both Tsunade and Naruto and suspiciously hinted, "Who are you people?"
"People?" Naruto whispered to herself. She looked back to Tsunade and what greeted her was a man with a mask on and in his hand was a sack—a sack of poison. Naruto then threw Jiraiya to a safe zone and hollered, "I swear, Orochimaru-san, if you breath any of this..."
Naruto looked dangerously to the man that was disguised as Tsunade and growled. "How the freak did I not notice you weren't Tsunade?"
"Fu-", she groaned, the man in the filtered mask punched Naruto right on the stomach, successfully knocking the air from her. She crashed into the wall, feeling like a fish out of water. Her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen until she gave an areal strike and cleared the air.
She gasped out severely, filling her lungs with oxygen desperately and vigorously searched for the man. "Where the freak is that freaking rat?" She cursed his being until she found him once again with the same tiny poison bomb clasped safely inside his hands.
"Oh no you don't!" Naruto wasted no time in leaping toward the poisonous bomb as it dropped tithe floor in a quick pace.
Then, as Naruto gave him a feral grin, the man behind the filtered mask gave her a look of both awe and fear. Naruto, who had the small sphere clasped inside her hand, ripped the protective mask on the man's face and shoved the poisonous contraption inside his mouth.
"Will that make you sit still now?" She remarked sarcastically as the man fell into his untimely doom. Naruto heard the shallow splash from the man as he fell face-first to the floor. She looked to where the man stood and cursed that she let her guard down.
"That's very brutal," a familiar voice hissed inside the hollow tunnel. Naruto's head snapped to where Orochimaru was and held in her snarl. She paced herself from where she stood and tried to keep a calm demeanor in front of the snake sannin while retrieving Jiraiya from where he was thrown. "You were sent by Sensei, weren't you?"
"You could say that," Naruto lied. "I'm here with Sakumo. He's about four hundred yards 9 o'clock." She then played with the lock that was holding Orochimaru and his chakra restraints, successfully freeing him.
The blond avoided eye contact from the man and signaled for him to be quite and stay on her tail. Seeing the Konoha insignia on Naruto's head protector, Orochimaru listened and quietly followed along.
Walking up to a high-ceiling corridor, Naruto decided to activate her sage mode once again to find Tsunade for obvious reasons. She couldn't take anymore chances of any other enemies like Tsunade. It was too far long in the past for Naruto to clearly recognize anyone she once held close ties with.
Dodging her eyes towards Orochimaru, she did not feel any dark motives from him like she would an enemy and continued to walk from corridor to corridor. Orochimaru, who followed closely behind, gave her a look of interest when he sighted her orange eyelids and frog-like eyes.
"You're a sage?" Orochimaru asked intently. Never in his life had he ever seen another Sage besides Tsunade or Jiraya. "For a fact if I'd known another Sage lived in Konoha, I would've known at least of your existence—but I've never seen you in Konoha."
Their steps littered soundlessly atop the liquid floor. Naruto thinned her lips, then explained hastily to the Snake Sannin, "You know me, you just don't recognize me."
"Pardon?" He inquired in a formal tone, taken aback from her assumption. "And how so?" He hissed in a snake-like manner.
"That time when you came back with the three Ame orphans-"
"Oh, so you are that new care taker." He paused for a second, concerning himself in deep thought, "And if I recall correctly, you did say you were from Ame, right?"
With lightly clenched knuckles, Naruto straightened her back in unease. Something did not feel right from the way Orochimaru questioned her "past." "And... I feel like you take interest in this subject."
"I do," Orochimaru peered his slitted eyes to Naruto back view. "And if you're as strong as they say you are, at least someone would have recognized you from the Great Elemental Nations. After all, nowadays, people patronize the strong with such a reputation, it would be quite hard to miss."
Naruto turned her head slightly and looked at Orochimaru through her peripheral vision, "What can I say?" She shrugged and turned her head to the from once again, "I was raised on one of the smaller islands that surround Central Ame. A small fishing village, I tell you. But even so, there were some shinobi families that resided there. That's where I lived from my childhood, then to my teenage year, and unto a small portion of my adult life until the war struck. And one things for sure—my village was unknown. By the time the war was at its midpoint, I could tell you that my fishing village was of no more because of how undiscovered it was. I bet you that whoever crossed it wouldn't even know that it homed over ten fishing families and even more shinobi families."
"I wasn't doubting where you lived, Gama-sannin-san. I just wanted to know, well, based on what the rumors say, how undiscovered you were until now."
Again, Naruto looked behind to see the smirking face of Orochimaru. She knew this was coming and wouldn't be surprised if the Hokage knew she was also a Gama-sennin. After all, he has been on her tail since when he first met her.
Snapping her head to look straight again, Naruto ignored the man behind her. She focused on finding Tsunade, and almost instantly, Naruto pinpointed where Tsunade was. "Found her!"
The man who walked smoothly behind her, acting as if he had never set foot inside his torturous prison, did not give her a look of surprise, only retaining his small smirk, portraying a knowing look.
Like hell you know, Naruto thought as her face contorted in agitation in just being a foot away from the bane of her existence.
Naruto looked atop her shoulder, and finally felt the deadweight Jiraiya was stressing. She groaned inwardly and commented to herself, "I swear-"
Then, Jiraiya snored lazily, successfully cutting Naruto's sentence. With narrowed eyes, Naruto began once again, "I swear, he's in no mind unconscious."
Orochimaru looked at both variables intently and reduced his smirk, "Knowing him," he started, "he probably is just asleep. He can sleep through just about anything unless he wakes up on his own."
"That's just..." She looked disbelievingly at Orochimaru and glanced back to Jiraya. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she put Jiraiya down on the wet ground.
"And you are trying to wake him?"
"Yeah, I'm not going to lug around this dead weight all the way back to Konoha." She gave Orochimaru a sour look, "And I'm sure you aren't going to either."
The Snake Sannin did not reply back, looking at his nails as if they were the most interesting thing in the world, not wanting to be any part of the coming procedure. Naruto shrugged and started out with shaking the white haired man violently. "Hey, wake up, wake up," she repeated multiple times. Then, she cupped her hands together and started to swing water from the floor on Jiraya's face.
"Hmm, so you're not gonna wake up?" She wore an agitated look on her face. Naruto then cast a look of uncertainty, "Is he really just asleep?"
Orochimaru shrugged his shoulders, the sudden interest from his nails finally faded, "It's hard to perceive."
"I don't want to use any jutsu on him. All of them are way too noisy or too strong that it could kill him."
Orochimaru didn't say anything for a minute, only giving her a calculative look. When he opened his mouth to speak, he commented, "You are an interesting variable."
This time, Naruto didn't hold her glare from the pale man. He had just described her as some sort of data to one of his bizarre experiments. If only he was a rouge-nin at this time, Naruto would, at any given chance she had, snap his neck.
The blond sighed, then looked back at Jiraiya. She hummed then started to pinch Jiraiya on the face. "Wake up, wake up," she repeated countless times. When he didn't wake up, Naruto sighed then stood up to Orochimaru's height. "I guess he really is unconscious."
"Perhaps."
She then crossed her fingers reluctantly and made a Shadow Clone. As easy as it may sound to make a shadow clone lift Jiraiya, Naruto didn't want the weary and painful aftershock for when the Shadow Clone popped. When the clone puffed into existence, Naruto ordered it to lift Jiraiya.
Then, like a stimulant, a groan erupted from Jiraiya. Naruto quickly dispelled her clone, making Jiraiya drop from midair, and into the chilly, flooded floors. Again, Jiraiya groaned, this time, in pain. "I feel..." Jiraiya didn't finish his sentence.
Sheepishly, Naruto rubbed the back of her back and crouched down next to Jiraiya once again, "Hey, sorry Jiraiya-san." She waved to him.
Jiraiya smiled gentlemanly, "Am I in a dream or-"
"Don't finish that sentence," she snapped.
Jiraiya chuckled, but stopped when he saw Orochimaru behind Naruto. "You're out Orochimaru?" His face then grew serious, "Then where's Tsunade?"
"Tsunade-san, we're looking for her right now, but I've already pinpointed where she's at. Should be around here somewhere."
"That's convenient." Jiraiya looked at his opened toed shinobi sandals and what caught sight were his wrinkled toes due to the flooded water. "Gosh, it's like I've been here for a decade."
They started to walk to Tsunade's location. Orochimaru chimed in smartly, "Not exactly, Jiraiya. Only about a week, give or take a day or two."
"You know what Orochimaru? You need to stop faking that you don't feel fatigued anywhere and own the fact that yeu' " Jiraiya's tongue rolled in the heat of his argument with Orochimaru.
"You?" The snake Sannin corrected.
Jiraiya settled with a glare and crossed his arms with a sour look plastered on his face. "Shut up," he said with much fury. "Freaking Orochimaru," Jiraiya swore under his breath, "I swear I could see those bags under your eyes."
Naruto looked with an annoyed expression littered on her face and growled out menacingly, "You guys need to shut up before I lose my concentration. What if someone hears us?"
"Then we'll just kick his ass!" Jiraiya shouted out cockily. "After all, I am the great Gama-sannin," he stated in a matter-of-fact-like tone.
Naruto lessened her expression and looked straight to the narrowed hallway. Of course, she reasoned, whatever came with Jiraiya was his annoying nature, but she already had two-and-a-half years of experience of that. The blond's eyes positioned relievedly and affectionately for the white-haired sannin. She had missed him for four years.
"Shut up, Jiraiya," ordered Orochimaru.
"Yeah, and today your makeup looks kind of messy, Orochimaru. Your purple eyeliner's slipping from all this humidity."
Orochimaru and Jiraiya traded glares and filled the hallway's capacity with killer intent. Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "She should be somewhere here."
Naruto's eyes peered through the familiar dark room and spotted a gleam of blond hair. Naruto activated her Sage Mode and verified that Tsunade was in the cell. "Tsunade-san's in here!" She whispered loudly. Carefully stepping into the room, the trio stalked to where Tsunade's cell was placed.
Taking out three senbon, Naruto skillfully played with Tsunade's lock, careful to not spark any alarm systems. A slight click sounded as the lock was sent opened, and Jiraiya quickly hoisted her.
"Are you sure you want to carry her, Jiraiya-san?" Naruto inquired formally. "Aren't you still weary?" Tsunade was unconscious, just like how Jiraiya was,
"Naw," he waved off her assumption, "I'm okay."
"Okay," Naruto shown seriousness in her eyes and put her hands to her hips, "We need to get out here as soon as possible. I need to know how Sakumo's doing, and hopefully he's not poisoned to the brink of death—that idiocy." She combed her hair with her hand and sighed, "I'll lead the way, and if something's wrong just flare your chakra up a bit. Okay?"
The two men nodded and all set off.
When the three Sannin and Naruto reached their destination, what caught sight was a littered scene. The door that Sakumo jammed with a kunai was blasted from its hinges. Naruto's face was distorted, and she ran inside the foreboding battle scene.
"Sakumo?" She saw his familiar leafy green flack Chunin vest torn from his body, and picked it up. Only a few yards left, Sakumo laid peacefully on the tiled floor. "Sakumo?"
"Hey," she kneeled next to him. "Hey?" She shook him lightly, then vigorously when he gave no sign of movement. "Sakumo, wake up!"
"Urg," a moan rang out from behind Naruto. Naruto turned around and saw Jiraiya letting Tsunade down. "It smells disgusting in here." She looked around and saw she was surrounded with familiar faces, "Jiaiya? Orochimaru?" She bit her lip, "You punks!" She punched them both on the shoulder "lightly," causing them to fall backwards a few yards. "I though you guys died!"
"Hime," Jiraiya sounded solemn, "Nows not the time to be celebrating." He pointed towards Sakumo and Naruto.
A frown escaped Tsunade's brows. She came next to Naruto and cursed when her weapons pouch was gone, "They really did take everything." She then inquired Naruto, "Do you have a med kit on you, perhaps?"
Naruto who nodded repeatedly wiped her eyes and got her med kit from her pouch. "Here."
Tsunade didn't say anything and quickly started her procedure. She took out medical gloves from their compartment and felt Sakumo's pulse. Tsunade's eyes narrowed when there was no sign of a pulse. "C'mon Sakumo," she growled out. Thump, thump. "There it is," she then took out a miniature flashlight and forced Sakumo's eyes opened.
The light that was cast upon his eyes dilated his pupils. "Good, there is no nerve damage."
Tsunade cleaned Sakumo's wounds then took some ninja wire and a hooked needle, tying them up together. She held the end of the wire and started to sew Sakumo's wounds, closing them up tightly. Miraculously, Sakumo groaned from the piercing contact.
"He's good," Naruto whispered.
Tsunade nodded, stitching Sakumo's last major wound. The medic nin then cast her healing hands over Sakumo's torso, and green, healing chakra protruded from them. First, all his closed wounds healed completely, leaving no trace of them ever being there. Then, slowly, blood rushed towards Sakumo's face, which in turn regained color. And, as color came to his body, Sakumo slowly started to gain consciousness.
His eyes opened like a snap. He blinked repetitively until his sight was clear. Sakumo rubbed his hands to his face and sat up, looking directly towards a heap of litter from when he trashed the building from his fight. The silver haired man looked to his side and saw the Sannin, causing him to smirk a bit to Naruto. He chuckled, "Unofficial mission complete."
"You," Naruto scrunched her eyebrows together, "you're impossible." She leaped on him and started to thrash violently, causing him to chuckle immeasurably. "Are those actually the first words you say after gaining consciousness?"
Naruto settled in his arms. "I destroyed that oversized lizard," he told her.
"And it destroyed you too?"
"No." He exchanged an amused look to her, "Something tells me you don't know what destroyed means. It means I oblitera-"
"I do know, Sakumo," she whined. "You could've died."
"And I didn't."
"But you could've."
"But-"
"Don't argue with me, Sakumo. You know it's true."
He sighed, nonetheless still smiling under his mask. "You're right." He held her closer.
Naruto looked up at Sakumo and saw the curve of his smile. "Sakumo-"
"Guys, we still need to head back to Konoha. Hanzo's army should be waiting there by Konoha's border. We need to subdue the army as best and fast as possible to protect Konoha. Let's go." Tsunade reasoned.
Reluctantly, Sakumo sighed, standing and helping Naruto up. "Thanks," was Naruto's simple reply.
"Anytime," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Let's head home.