Raijin

Chapter V

There's not much action in this chapter, mind you, but there is a bit of character development. I don't really have much to say in the beginning author's note, so if you want to, you can start reading... Now! Hahaha. As always, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. -Hangovergoblin

Orochimaru was far beyond mad. He was livid. And everyone who crossed his path that day felt it.

Kabuto had been missing for hours now; he hadn't checked in with anyone nor came back to the safehouse, which meant one thing. Kabuto, dear wicked Kabuto, was dead.

And that made Orochimaru furious.

Who could have killed the medic? Besides the Kages visiting in Kusagakure for the Chuunin Exams and a select few ninja like his old teammate, Jiraiya, there was no one in the village who could have killed Kabuto. His asisstant was far too wiley and resourceful to have been taken down by anyone less than a high level Jounin. So who was to blame for the untimely death of his associate? Surely not the Uzumaki boy; sure he had power, but he couldn't have sucessfully killed Naruto. Sasuke was out of the question, too. While he had survived the bite of the Firesnake, Orochimaru still believed the boy would have been nearly completely comatose; only a powerful antivenin could have calmed the raging venom in the boy's system.

Orochimaru paced his makeshift throneroom, mentally ticking off the people who could have assassinated his asisstant. At this point, he could only hope that Kabuto had at least been successful in killing off that troublesome Jinchuuriki. If Naruto was removed from the picture, that was one less person Orochimaru would have to worry about getting in the way of his plans. With the boy's penchant for fucking up the most fullproof of Orochimaru's schemes, he was a monkey wrench that could not be allowed to fall into the snake-sannin's well-oiled machinations.

"Lord Orochimaru..."

The snake's head snapped up in surprise. He had been so lost in his thoughts, he had been left totally vulnerable to attack.

Snakes erupted from the Sannin's sleeve and pulled the interrupting Jounin within inches of his face.

"What," the Sannin spat, "do you want?"

To the Jounin's credit, he didn't flinch at all. He kept as level a face as he could and delivered his report. Hopefully, he could leave this room with his life intact. Hopefully.

"Kabuto, Dotou, and Kazuma were found on the roof of one the buildings downtown. They're dead. Dotou's throat was slit, Kazuma's face was impaled by a blade, and Kabuto...," he trailed off as he felt the grip on his body grow stronger. The snakes were squeezing him like pythons.

"And?" Orochimaru asked, his voice laden with murderous contempt.

"A-a-and Kabuto was impaled by someone's fist. His heart exploded in his chest. It looked like he had been electrocuted."

The snakes quickly coiled around the Jounin's head, and with a sickening twist, snapped his neck.

Orochimaru looked up at the ceiling, arms raised, and screamed in fury.

Line!

A few hours earlier...

Hinata and Sakura both looked up from the couch as the door ringer buzzed.

"It's probably Naruto and Sasuke," Sakura said as she got up and moved to the door. Hinata followed her to say goodbye to the two before she went back to her own hotel and met up with her team. As the door opened, Sakura and Hinata's eyes widened to the size of saucers.

Dirty, bedraggled, and bleeding from numerous cuts and one shrinking hole in his chest, Naruto limped into the room, carried by an equally beat up Sasuke.

"Oh my god!" Sakura yelled. "Kakashi-sensei! Get in here, quick!"

Hinata rushed over to take Naruto from Sasuke as the Uchiha kicked the door shut with the leg that wasn't sprained from his fall off the roof. Easing Naruto over to the couch and letting him lie down, Hinata began to cry.

"Wh-wh-what happened to you, Naruto?" she asked through tears. The boy simply offered a crooked grin for a moment before he winced from pain. He hadn't been in this much agony in a long time. Sasuke wasn't faring any better, though, besides the fact that he didn't have a hole in his chest. The Uchiha delivered the best and simplest explanation he could; he was too exhausted to do anything else.

"We got into a fight," he said, rubbing his ankle as he sat down in one of the kitchen chairs. This hotel room had seen its fair share of injuries to Team 7.

Sakura, even though she was a nervous wreck now, still managed to roll her eyes.

"Like that isn't obvious," she said. Kakashi was in tow, his one good eye wide with surprise.

"Sasuke," he said, voice calm but heavy with an undertone of aggravation. "Didn't I tell you to rest? Why did you go make trouble tonight? And what happened?"

The Uchiha leaned back in his chair as Sakura brought him a cool washcloth so he could wash his cuts.

"Kabuto tried to assassinate Naruto, sensei." He ran the cloth over his face and enjoyed the comfort of the cool water. "So we killed him. But not before Naruto took a lightning bolt to the chest and I got thrown off the roof." He chuckled darkly. "I had that asshole pinned to the roof with White Fang, and he let nearly cut his arm off when he tried to get away. He knocked me down and jumped off the roof. Next thing I know, Naruto comes flying back onto the rooftop with Kabuto's neck in his hand. The guy punched Kabuto so hard, his eye came out of its socket. It was crazy."

Sasuke had amended the story a little in the interest of saving his breath. His whole body ached.

"H-ha. Yeah. It was pretty crazy."

Everyone's head whipped around to see Naruto gently push Hinata off of him as he sat up on the couch. There was a black burn mark around his Anbu armor where the lightning bolt had punctured it, but the skin under the armor was seemingly unscathed.

A surge of intense jealousy shot through Sakura as Hinata sat down beside him, still watching the boy with hawklike intensity. It was no secret Hinata had been crushing on Naruto for years now. That wasn't fair to Sakura, though. She was the one who really liked Naruto. The Hyuuga couldn't just swoop in and be all clingy to the boy. Sakura narrowed her eyes slightly and sat down on the other side of Naruto. The boy was oblivious to the little one-sided war going on around him as he unbuckled his armor and threw it to the floor.

"Sensei, Kabuto is dead," he reported, having been unaware that Sasuke had already dropped that little bomb while he was in a state of near-shock. Youki and having a hole blown in your chest could take a lot out of a man. "And so are two other jounin from Oto. We had to kill them, otherwise it would have been us they'd be picking up off the roof."

Kakashi nodded, glad to see Naruto was alright. He figured the boy would have healed up pretty fast, but as Naruto talked, the life returned to his voice; he almost sounded like he hadn't been nearly killed an hour ago.

"How did you kill Kabuto? He regenerates continuously, right?"

Naruto cracked his neck and rubbed his still sore limbs. "I held him in a half nelson and Sasuke blew his heart away with a Chidori. Shit was pretty intense.

The whole time he had been speaking, Sakura watched Hinata gaze up at him with something akin to awe in her eyes. For Sakura, things like this wasn't a huge deal. She gotten used to the hero thing with Sasuke. It was just so disconcerting seeing someone have that same admiration for Naruto... Especially because her and Naruto had shared that kiss on the balcony the night before. To think, Hinata was trying to edge in on her territory. It made Sakura furious inside. She'd play the nice girl for right now, but when it came down to the nitty gritty... She'd play for keeps.

Kakashi caught the slight twitch in Sakura's face and stored it away for a later time. "Impressive," he said to the boys. "I'm surprised you managed to kill him. Kabuto is resourceful to the point he escaped from me back in Konoha when he was found out. Don't let that go to your heads, though." He gave the two boys a once-over and walked into the kitchen. "You know, until the Chuunin Exams start in three days, you're forbidden from leaving the hotel at night. During the day is one thing, guys, but no more nighttime escapades. Besides, Sakura has a scroll given to her by the Godaime before she left Konoha, and she can't very well train in those... destructive techniques if she's staying here looking after Hinata or waiting up for you two."

At this, both girls on either side of Naruto blushed, but for two totally different reasons. The two male members of Teams 7 groaned. There went anymore information gathering.

Kakashi then turned his attention to the Hyuuga in the room. "Hinata, while it has been a pleasure having you here, I'm going to ask you to go back to your hotel and stay with your teammates. You can come back during the day tomorrow if you wish, but I need you to stay away from the room during the night, in order to prevent any distractions to Naruto and Sakura."

Sakura caught the double meaning in Kakashi's phrasing, but Naruto did not. She blushed again almost simultaneously with her indigo-haired counterpart.

Hinata managed to squeak out an agreement, then headed for the door, head hung in embarrassment. Sakura excused herself, too, and went to her room to get some rest. Tomorrow, she'd start on that scroll.

Once the two females were out of the room, Kakashi prepared to read Naruto and Sasuke the riot act.

"While you two showed guts tonight, going after Orochimaru's right hand, but you were stupid," he said, glaring at them with his one good eye. "You understand you have marked us all for assassination attempts even worse than we were when we got here. Naruto, Orochimaru hates you, and I'm sure he wants your head on a platter. You've interfered more times with his plans than any sane shinobi would try. Sasuke, you denied him his next body and the Sharingan. Orochimaru doesn't take rejection lightly." His hand tightened on the back of the chair in the kitchen that Sasuke wasn't sitting in. "You were fools. You've destroyed Orochimaru's only medic skilled enough to help him do a body transfer."

Naruto raised his hand.

"But isn't that a good thing, Sensei?"

Kakashi shook his head.

"No, Naruto, it is not a good thing. You've killed Kabuto. You said yourself you came across a dead oto-nin in the alley by the bar the other night. Orochimaru is backed into a corner right now; he's losing control, and if I know him like I think I do, Orochimaru acts like an animal when he's cornered. I guarantee the next time you see him, things are going to get messy, boys, and I don't think you're prepared to fight a Kage level shinobi. I'm not even Kage level. I learned my lesson when I confronted the man before. You should listen to what I say next time. Don't be fools."

The last part came out dangerously low. Kakashi knew their lives were in danger, hell, in mortal peril. He didn't need that kind of stress.

"We're sorry, sensei...," Sasuke apologized. "We thought we were doing the right thing, and on top of that, we were angry."

"Yeah," agreed Naruto, pushing his somewhat shaggy hair out of his eyes. It had started to hang over his hitai-ate. "We didn't mean to fuck up."

And, just like that, Kakashi's glare turned into the upside-down 'u' of his signature masked smile. "I know, boys. Just try not to get yourselves killed."

Naturo looked at Kakashi. "Where is the pervert?" he asked. Their Jounin sensei shrugged.

"Probably out in bars... ahem... gather intelligence."

The blonde Genin rolled his eyes. "You mean gather poon." This illicted a chuckle from Kakashi.

"Who's to say?" he asked. "What he does in his free time is his own business."

Naruto sighed at that. "I need a replacement for this armor," he said, gesturing at the ANBU armor on the floor with the hole in the chest plate. "Seen any good shops around here?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, but you might want to try and find one. I imagine the armor took the edge off of that lightning strike."

Sasuke, who had been quiet off to the side, laughed. "No." he said, chuckling darkly. "There was a large gaping hole in his chest, smoking crater style."

Line!

Sakura woke the next morning to find two practically comatose teammates. Rolling her eyes, she got dressed quietly, then went into the kitchen. After eating a particularly healthy breakfast of steak and eggs, she made her way to one of the Kusagakure training grounds. Before she had left Konoha, Lady Tsunade had given her a scroll. Up until now, she hadn't yet looked at it. She unfurled the scroll and gaped at the contents. Inside was a techinuq outlining a way to do massive damage to opponents via pin-point chakra control. The technique involved releasing chakra at the precise moment of impact when she threw a punch or a kick. Lady Tsunade was revered as a goddess of battle, insofar as her legendary ability to level buildings with a single punch.

So, this was the secret to her strength. Sakura grinned. This would be fun.

Line!

Hinata watched quietly from behind the trees as Sakura began to train. With her Byakugan active, Hinata could see everything Sakura was trying to do. She wasn't entirely sure of what the end result might be, but it seemed like the pinkette was trying to release her chakra exactly whenever she hit the lone dummy in the field. Hinata, while being sharp, was at a loss at what Sakura was trying to accomplish.

The thought of Sakura made Hinata's cheeks turn red a bit, but not because she had a crush on the pinkette.

Hinata was timid. Beyond timid, as most would put. But she had made incredible leaps and bounds since Naruto had left in the self-confidence department. Unfortunately, at heart, Hinata still had stalker-like tendencies involving the blond boy wonder, and by way of proxy, she also had stalker-like tendencies involving her rivals for his affection. She, unfortunately, had seen that kiss Naruto and Sakura had shared on the balcony of their hotel. She had been watching the boy from a few hotels over with her Byakugan active.

And the thought of Sakura kissing Naruto made Hinata very angry.

The first thing she felt when she had seen them kiss was heartbreak; she had just lost the only boy she ever had a crush on to his teammate. The second thing was anger. Where the fuck did Sakura get off kissing Naruto when she had spent the entire time at the Academy rejecting the boy? Especially since Sakura had only ever made goo-goo eyes at the Uchiha, who in Hinata's book, was an unworthy friend of Naruto's. Naruto had gone to hell and back in order to rescue the Uchiha, who had willingly gone to Orochimaru for more power. Even Hiashi, her father, took the side of the blond jinchuuriki when he had found out about the mission to rescue the Uchiha from Neji.

Hinata was turning out to be quite the embodiment of warring emotions. This war of emotions is what drove her to spy on Sakura that day; it was this war of emotions that caused her to see something that would change her life forever.

Line!

Sakura punched the dummy and blew it into a thousand pieces.

The leather of her gloves was scarred beyond recognition from the past few hours of training and her shirt and vest were soaked from perspiration, but she had finally mastered the timing of the chakra expulsion. She was lucky in her natural ability to mould chakra well; otherwise, she would be shit out of luck learning the technique. If she were to spend the next few days training like this, she might be less of a hindrance to Team 7 and more of an asset.

Sakura had always been a step (or several) behind her two male teammates. Not because she was a kunoichi, but because she was not multi-talented like they were in ninjutsu and taijutsu. Sasuke's mastery of taijutsu was to the point of being jounin level, and so was Naruto's. Sasuke had the legendary Sharingan, and Naruto had... Well, whatever it was that he had that made him so excellent at everything he did. Every now and then, she'd be sickened by the thought. Now, though, she felt like she had a trump card, an ace in the hole. She was fast, she was agile, and now, she was impossibly strong for her size. If only she had paid attention in her taijutsu classes at the Academy, she wouldn't get thrown around like a rag doll. No matter how hard she could hit someone, if they were big enough and managed to get their hands on her, Sakura would be completely and utterly fucked.

Maybe she could get Sasuke to give her a few pointers one day after she finished training. Yes... That would be nice.

She wished her two teammates weren't comatose at the moment; they could all have a friendly spar to see how far each had come since Naruto had parted ways with them. Naruto had told her of their sword duel outside of Kusa. She wished she had ran with them, if only to watch them do battle. Sasuke was quite adept at using a blade from the past few year of using the chokuto; now he had the White Fang, the Hatake clan's legendary blade, so she couldn't imagine how monstrous he would be in battle. But from what he had said about Naruto's prowess with the blade, it seemed like the blond could stalemate, and even possibly beat Sasuke in a duel.

Naruto... She wanted to kiss him again. Badly.

If only that night hadn't been marred so badly by Sasuke being bitten by the firesnake, it might have gone much further than them just kissing. Sakura cursed her own raging teen hormones. When the Chuunin Exams started, she couldn't let such things affect her; there would be no room for distraction. From what it seemed, things were going to get very hairy there in Kusa, what with Orochimaru's right hand man being killed and all. And then, she remembered, there was the team from Kusagakure that seemed to be after Naruto and Sasuke after the incident at the House of Green Leaves. She was spoiling for a fight with them, to be honest, after they had tried to accost her two teammates in the teahouse. That, and their deepseated hatred of Konoha.

Then, there was Hinata to worry about. As if she didn't have enough on her plate to begin with, it seemed like Hinata was trying to start a war for Naruto's affections; it burned Sakura up that Hinata was hanging all over him after they had limped in half-dead. Where did she get off trying to fuck with Sakura's place in his lovelife? This thought made Sakura pause, though. Hinata had always been after Naruto, even since they first started the academy. It may have been a little more innocent back then, but Hinata had always been vying for his affections since day one. Sakura was the one who had busted in and gone after Naruto when Team 7 had been reunited. Fuck it. She was Naruto's teammate, and she had Hinata dead to rights on that. There was no way in hell that little girl fromthe Hyuuga clan was going to get in her way. Sakura would be damned before that happened.

Line!

Orochimaru was pulling every string he could to have a medic-nin skilled enough to do his body-transfer kidnapped and brought back to Oto for 'mental conditioning', but it was to no avail. Short of Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure and his former teammate, there was no one his extensive spy network could track down enough that was skilled enough for the transfer. He would have to focus all of his attention on creating a new technique once he got done with his nasty business in Kusagakure. Oh, he had plans alright.

First would be the assassination of the pro-Konoha Kusakage.

The man was proving to be quite a thorn in Orochimaru's side. If he could consolidate the borders of Iwa, Kumo, Oto, and Kusa, he would have a formidable alliance; one strong enough to raze Konoha to the ground and forever be rid of his accursed home village. He hated their authority on this continent; it seemed like everything had to do with Konoha in some form or fashion. He wanted that superiority. He wanted that power. But Konoha wasn't the only thing standing in the way. There was his former employer, Akatsuki, and their leader, Pein. Every night, he was coming up short a Jounin here, a Chuunin there, and even some of his specialists were being killed of. You'd think in a village where most of the Hidden Villages had gathered for the Chuunin Exams, someone would have seen or heard something, but that was not the case. It seemed Akatsuki was still as thorough as they were when he was still with them.\

He looked down at the ring on his finger. The tenth ring, Sky, was his last link to the organization of missing nin. And for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why they were here, and why they were harrassing him. He supposed it was because of the Uzumaki child. Besides the Uzumaki, there was one other Jinchuuriki present in Kusagakure; the young container of the Yonbi no Soukou, Akira. He scoffed at the thought of the boy. Akira, from what Kabuto had told him before his untimely death, was obsessed with his inner-pain. Orochimaru scoff turned into a sneer at this. The young boy knew nothing of pain. Not yet. Not until it was his turn to be captured by Akatsuki. Then, Orochimaru thought, the boy would know pain.

Why was it that every time Orochimaru went to commit to doing something evil, he was foiled in one way or another by several different parties at once?

Line!

So, I've decided to throw in a little teaser for you. It was something that popped into my head when I was considering what I should do in the fourth book. Honestly, I pull all of this shit out of my ass over the course of a couple of days, and in that regard, the Jin series is probably the most organic series of stories you'll ever read. That is precisely why it is my pet project at the moment, taking priority over the writing of my original fiction that I've been working on for the past six months. I won't bore you with that, though. Without further ado, here is a scene from possibly the last book in the series, Kajin.

Samehada clashed with Khanda, its many blades shrieking in protest as Khanda's hot edge bit into them. Kisame was surprised the teen posessed such great strength. It was not everyday he fought someone he couldn't simply crush with the sheer weight of Samehada or his own brutish strength.

Naruto pushed the Akatsuki's blade away and aimed a counterstroke at his knees. Khanda sang as it bit through the air, whistling like some great god-like bird. Kisame deftly hopped over the blade, its hot edge missing him by mere centimeters. Samehada made a great arc over his head; Kisame was intent on slicing the boy in half. Naruto had followed through, though, and caught Samehada's wicked edges on Khanda's back side.

Kisame grimaced. This was going to be an intense fight.

Naruto grinned in response.

"Feeling the heat?" he quipped. He reversed Khanda, aiming for Kisame's neck. The shark-like man had to lean back almost double to avoid Khanda's long reach. He used the leverage to backflip and put more space between himself and Naruto. As he righted himself, though, he found Naruto in his personal space much faster than he expected. Khanda was now on the boy's back, and in his hands was a much shorter blade. Kisame's eyes widened as he realize the boy's eyes had changed again.

The blue-silver blade of Byakaze flicked out supernaturally quick to lop on of Kisame's arms off. Samehada flashed up as fast as Kisame could swing the massive blade. Byakaze was thrown back, and Kisame prepared the blade for a riposte, only to find Naruto had disappeared.

The fuck was with this kid?

By chance, Kisame saw a shadow moving within his own at his feet. He thanked whatever god was out there, and looked up. Shielding his head with Samehada, he deflected a stroke from the falling Naruto that surely would have split him from head to groin. The boy landed gracefully and blinked as he switched blades again. Khanda swun forward slowly, as if Naruto had lost his vigor.

Kisame locked eyes with him and grinned maliciously, showing of his inhumanly sharp maw.

"Now," he called, spinning around to add momentum to the blow he would strike with Samehada, "you die!"

Samehada shattered into a thousand pieces as it met with an Oodama Kajin Rasengan. Kisame's arm shattered from the impact as well, leaving him gasping from the sudden pain.

Naruto performed the same motion; spinning in a tight arc, he cleaved Kisame in half diagonally, only to have the Akatsuki dissolve into a great rush of water.

In Amegakure, Kisame grinned. The boy was a powerful adversary and a skilled swordsman, indeed.

Line!

So, what do you guys think about the chapter and the little teaser there? Hope you guys liked it. I'll admit, not much went on in the chapter, and it was a little on the short side, but I think some much-needed face time with Hinata and Sakura was thrown in there for reader-satisfaction. Like I said, I'm pulling ALL of this shit out of my ass on the fly. Like always, read and review, guys. Until next time! -Hangovergoblin