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Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Gohan all dashed for the hole that Gai had made in the wall by slamming an enemy shinobi into the stone wall so hard that it had exploded with the force of a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun. Everyone made it safely outside. Well, everyone except for Gohan.

The moment he cleared the hole, a shape, its ki concealed from Gohan's senses, lanced down from above and caught the young saiyan by the scruff of his gi, the shinobi's weight and momentum jerking Gohan off balance. The teen felt his neck whiplash as his direction went from lateral to vertical in the space it took to blink.

The next thing Gohan knew, he was flying through the air. By instinct, he twisted and curled, his coiling legs and feet taking all the impact of slamming into one of the small buildings that were ranged around the arena where he'd been fighting only minutes ago. Gohan didn't get a solid look as his attacker, because the wall he was crouching on exploded outward, throwing the hero into the dirt at his first attacker's feet.

Dazed, the saiyan rolled onto his back, right as a dark shaped leaped in front of the sun, descending on him. Gohan could feel ki swirling to life around the man's hand. That snapped him out of his daze and Gohan's form flickered around the edges then vanished right as the attacker slammed to earth, a huge cloud of dirt erupting around him as whatever attack that he'd used missed its target.

Gohan reappeared in a small puff of dirt. He finally got a look at his assailants. One was a Suna shinobi with a white wrap of bandages around his head and a white veil that hid the right side of his face, a sand hirai-ate in prominent display on his forehead. The second attacker made Gohan blink twice, to make sure he really was seeing what he thought. The second attacker was a Konoha ANBU. If the young martial artist had been at all concerned about a case of mistaken identity, the way the ANBU and Suna shinobi moved together cleared all of that up.

"You're not an ANBU," he murmured. The white porcelain mask dipped in agreement but Gohan otherwise got no other acknowledgement. A grim smile spread over his face. "So I guess that means I don't need to hold back."

Both shinobi took a half-step back by reflex, but the ANBU who wasn't an ANBU recovered fast, hurling something at Gohan's feet. The saiyan's guard came up by reflex, but it was only two black balls. The saiyan was about to go on the attack when the balls exploded, dumping heavy white smoke over the battlefield, obscuring Gohan's vision.

In the next instant, the ANBU lunged at him, ki still perfectly hidden from Gohan's sixth sense. The saiyan stumbled back and that was what saved him. The glowing blue hands of the enemy only made solid contact with his right arm, instead of both of them. The moment the glowing hands touched his arm, pain surged up Gohan's arm, so intense that he cried out, his right arm, suddenly numb and unresponsive, dropping to his side, fingers dangling uselessly. The young warrior felt like a puppet with its strings cut.

The smoke cleared away as the ANBU retreated out of range of Gohan's reaching left hand. The dark-haired teen's hand clenched close enough to the enemy that he could feel the rough fabric of the shinobi's cloak slip through his fingers.

"Damn."

The ANBU landed next to the Suna shinobi, who hadn't moved since his initial attack, though that looked to be changing by the way the man's hand was flexing.

"Not bad at all, Gohan-kun," the ANBU said. Gohan's eyes narrowed dangerously. He knew that voice. He knew he'd heard it before, but the question was where had he seen the speaker before? "You recovered almost instantly, despite losing your right arm."

"What did you do to me?" The warrior demanded, trying to move his damaged limb. The arm twitched like an ant drowning in a puddle, but otherwise remained unresponsive.

"I simply cut your nerves in your shoulder," the ANBU answered, holding up his glowing hand again. "This chakra scalpel is used for unprecedented precision in surgeries and, with enough control and time, it can be used as a weapon that is more precise than even the Juken of the Hyuuga. However, it appears by the twitching in your arm that I was not totally successful in rendering you unfit for combat." The false ANBU and the Suna-nin separated, going different ways in an attempt to bracket the young Z-fighter. "Still, can you defend yourself with only one good arm?"

Gohan laughed. "Hah! You don't know me very well," he scoffed. "This isn't the first time I've been down an arm."

'But,' he added silently, 'it's the first time I've been down an arm and outnumbered. Well, I guess I'll just have to fight as hard as I can.'

"Shall we begin, Baki-san?" The ANBU asked his partner.

"I guess. I have bigger fish to fry, so let's make this quick," the veiled jounin answered. Wind began to swirl around Baki, collecting on his hand and sharpening into a blade of invisible death. "Let's go." The ANBU nodded and both dashed at Gohan, who met them in a blaze of gold light.

Meanwhile, the other part of the team was hurtling through the forest towards Sasuke, totally unaware that they'd lost Gohan, who would probably be their greatest asset against someone like Gaara. They were five minutes out from the village when Sakura noticed.

"Hey!" She called to her companions, "We lost Gohan-kun!"

"Say what!?" Naruto answered, looking surprised. "When the hell did that happen?"

"It must've been right after we left," Shikamaru answered. "Someone or something must've held him up in the village." The impromptu team stopped cold on some branches.

"We have to go back for him!" Sakura said forcefully. Most of Sakura's argument was personal, though there was a very real practical side to it. Gaara was a monster. They had all seen just what he was capable of during the Chuunin Exams. The what-ever-Gaara-was had even managed to push Gohan to his limit, if only through the sheer ferocity of his strikes. How did they, genin with only a pathetic fraction of Gohan's power, hope to stand against that monster?

"There's no time," Shika argued. "We'd be losing time that we don't have. There's no telling when Sasuke will bump into Gaara and get himself killed."

"Can you make this quick?" Pakkun said. "We're being followed you know. There's at least eight shinobi closing fast on us."

"Rank?" Shika asked, mind whirling.

"From their footsteps I'd say at least Chuunin."

"Dammit. We don't have time for this!" Naruto raged. "So what do we do!? Either way we might lose a friend!"

"Gohan can take care of himself," Shika answered, one finger tapping nervously on his leg. "Sasuke is who I'm more worried about."

"But we need Gohan-kun's power!" Sakura interjected. "You've seen what Gaara can do!"

"Hey, couldn't one of us go back for Gohan?" Naruto asked. Sakura nodded, opening her mouth to volunteer when Shika cut her off.

"No good. That person would have to get past the shinobi following us. That's just asking for a fast death." He scratched at his pineapple-style hair. "Dammit this is too troublesome."

"A decision would be nice," Pakkun broke in, his voice urgent.

Shika stared intensely at the other two genin. "We have no choice, we have to keep moving." Both Sakura and Naruto looked mutinous, but neither could deny that they stood a minimal chance of getting past a group of Chuunin, who would kill first and ask questions never. Finally, they nodded. "Good. Let's go. We've lost too much time."

With that, they vanished into the thick foliage of the redwoods around Konoha.

Sarutobi stared down Orochimaru, feeling regret pass through him. Here, right in front of him, was probably his greatest failure. He'd been so proud of Orochimaru at first, so proud of all his students, that he never noticed when the pale student had gone…odd. By the time he noticed that Orochimaru was conducting his horrific experiments it was too late and the Sandaime hadn't managed to bring himself to kill his student.

Now he was reaping the rewards of that hesitation.

Explosions ripped through his beloved Konoha and the Third's eyes flicked to the outside of the hazy purple barrier where he could see Jiraiya riding Gamahiro, fighting one of the massive snakes while pillars of smoke and flame rose all over the city.

Orochimaru chuckled at the sight. "Isn't it lovely? You've been lax, sensei. You've let the peace lure you into a false security. That shall be your undoing."

The Sandaime said nothing.

The snake man continued. "I wonder. How many people will die? Will it be Kakashi? Or how about the blundering fool Jiraiya? Perhaps it will be your grandson, or maybe it will be the fox carrier. I personally think that it will be him."

"Why Konoha?" Sarutobi demanded, even as he and his student gathered the chakra they needed to try and drive each other to the grave. "Why do you need to make the people suffer?"

Orochimaru grinned. "It's the catalyst," he said simply. "You see, the world has been stagnant for far too long, sensei, and the Leaf most of all. This attack, this entire operation, is to set the world into motion. With Konoha in ruins, the other villages will be stirred up, like grains of sand in a massive hurricane." The pale Sannin spread his arms wide, as if to embrace the carnage he was spreading. "It will be war!"

"You're mad!"

The other laughed. "Perhaps. But before I sink further into my insanity, I shall end your withered and miserable life. You see, sensei, if Konoha were a house, you would be the cornerstone, the glue that keeps the façade in place. If you were to fall, the house would collapse."

Sarutobi shook his head sadly. "And that's where you fail, Orochimaru. You never did understand what it meant to stand with others. A house is made up of many different parts, all sharing an equal load. I am no cornerstone. If anything, I am the oldest and most rotted timber. Destroy me, and another will rise to the place of Hokage and the village will live on."

Orochimaru snickered. "Old and rotted? Yes. I suppose that does describe you rather well, doesn't it?" The snake flexed his hand, his knuckles popping one after another. "Shall we begin?"

The Sandaime's hands flashed through a sequence of seals so fast that the ANBU that were helpless on the other side of the barrier couldn't see. He ended with tiger. "Katon! Karyuu Endan!" A blazing river of fire spewed from the Third's mouth, the flames twisting into the shape of a dragon, the beast's furious orange eyes fixed squarely on the Sannin in front of it.

Orochimaru only raised an eyebrow as the flaming creature enveloped him, only the Sannin's feet visible beneath the torrent of flames. When it ended, Orochimaru stood just as he'd been just a split second ago, only his skin was blackened and charred until it was a blistering black covering, like a marshmallow after it had caught fire.

All color bled from the Sannin before his face and body cracked and crumbled, mud that had been hardened by the intense flames. An ominous laugh drifted over the battlefield before the tiles behind the Sandaime warped and began to melt, Orochimaru slowly pulling himself from the roof as if it was a fluid. "Impressive," the former Leaf shinobi said as he pulled himself free. "To perform a Karyuu Endan at your age. You've kept yourself in shape sensei." He slammed his hand into the tiled roof. "Seneijashu!"

Snakes poured from Orochimaru's sleeve, burrowing into the ground and vanishing, the only hint of their presence being the small portion of their bodies that could still be seen connected to the Sannin's arm. The Third stayed where he was, keeping a sharp eye on the tiles around him.

One in front of him shifted ever so slightly.

Sarutobi threw himself backwards, inches ahead of the lunging snake that had its mouth open as wide as it could go, the syringe-like fangs glinting in the sunlight. Sarutobi kept moving as snakes burst from the tiles all around him. At last the final one emerged and he was able to actually concentrate on attacking.

A single shuriken spun from his fingers then his hands twisted together. "Ninpou! Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" The black metal stars suddenly multiplied, filling the air like black iron rain. A single seal from the Third sent them flashing towards his former student.

Orochimaru smirked then opened his mouth much like one of his snakes. He plunged a hand down his own throat.

Light flashed all around him, the oncoming shuriken falling to the ground, knocked out of the air by something that the Sannin held in his hand. Thanks to old age, Sarutobi wasn't sure what it was, but he had a fairly good idea. Orochimaru's arm finally stopped moving.

In his hand he held the Kusanagi, the sword of legend, whose powers were said to rival even those of a Mangenkyou Sharingan. "Let's cut to the chase shall we?" Orochimaru asked before snickering at his own pun. Once again, the Sandaime's fingers came together again.

"Yes," he answered, finishing the seals. "Let's get serious." He slammed his hand down. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

"It's no good," Pakkun said as Naruto, Sakura, the dog, and Shikamaru bounded through the forest as fast as they could. "They're catching up to us." The team had been running for the better part of a half hour and so far had yet to outdistance their pursuers.

"So let's stop and fight!" Naruto said, confident that they could take on some random lackeys.

"You idiot," Shikamaru snipped. "We're outnumbered! How the hell do you propose that we take them all out!?" Naruto blinked, but said nothing. "That's what I thought. We're not gonna be able to handle them all and guarantee that none of us will get hurt, and against Gaara, we're gonna need to be as fresh as we can!"

"So we just keep running?" Sakura demanded. "Let them catch us when we finally stop near Sasuke?"

"What we need," Pakkun said slowly, "is someone to cause a distraction. Slow them down and hold them up so that the rest of us can get away." That brought the team to a halt again, each member caught up in his or her own thoughts.

"I'll do it," Shika said finally. "I'm the only one who would stand a chance…"

"No," Sakura interrupted. "I'll do it."

"Sakura-chan!?" Naruto said, shocked. "Why you? Shika could do it…"

"We need him," Sakura answered, not looking at either boy. "Shikamaru's the only one with a real head for strategy."

"Hey!" the blond Jinchuuriki said loudly. "Are you saying that I'm not smart!?"

Sakura smiled weakly. She knew that her chances of not making it through this were high, but she was doing it for herself as much as she was for the rest of the team. Sakura still had something to prove to herself. Gohan-kun had done a fantastic job training her, but she'd still lost. And she had yet to be any use for the team. Before her training, she'd been nothing but baggage, slowing down Naruto and Sasuke as the two boys soared ever higher. "Naruto," she answered, "you know that's not what I'm saying."

"Sakura-chan?"

"I'm doing this for myself as much as I am for you guys." Sakura's fist tightened. "I have to prove to myself that I'm not just so much baggage. Ever since the team was formed, I've dragged you and Sasuke down and I can't stand that. You've always rescued me so now it's my turn to help you." Her emerald eyes blazed as she stared into the direction the enemies were coming from. "And I want to test myself. I didn't get enough of a chance during the Exam."

"Sakura-chan you can't…"

Shikamaru cut Naruto off. "Are you sure you can handle them?"

"I'll do what I can."

The genius nodded. "We have no time left. Let's go Naruto."

"But…"

"Go!" Sakura called. She faced them finally and both boys could see the determination smoldering in her eyes. "You need Shika for this more than you do me. He can figure out how to bring Gaara down. Naruto, you have the power to stop Gaara. I don't have either of those. Right now, this is the best thing I can do."

Shikamaru and Pakkun leapt away, vanishing into the leaves within moments, leaving Sakura and Naruto behind.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto hovered uncertainly behind his friend, ignoring Shika and Pakkun's cries to follow. Finally the blond grinned brightly. "Kick their asses!"

"Sure."

Naruto turned and bounced away, leaving the kunoichi alone in the woods. She didn't have long to wait. Within minutes she heard the distinct tapping of sandals on wood. She placed a pair of explosive tags on the trunk of her tree and a few of its branches then repeated the process with another tree. Then she flung herself to the ground and fixed her face into what she hoped was a scared expression. It wasn't hard. She was plenty scared enough. If she failed here, there would be no heroic rescue, no saving the damsel in distress. If she failed, she was dead, there were no two ways around it.

'Better get ready Haruno,' Sakura thought, her heart racing, 'because here they come!'

A figure burst from the treeline in front of her and stopped.

Gohan grunted as he barely avoided Baki's wind-shrouded hand, the attacking shinobi soaring passed harmlessly, his free hand blocking his chest and allowing the retaliatory kick the saiyan had sent for the man's solar plexus to lift him into the air and away from the warrior. He landed on the side of a building and clung to it like a spider.

Goku's son didn't have any time to relax. As soon as his foot touched the ground, he was rolling away from the faux ANBU who attacked him from behind. Gohan took a swipe with his good hand, but missed and the masked man vanished into the alley across the street, disappearing as effectively as if Gohan were blind.

Baki lanced at the Super Saiyan again, whose emerald eyes flashed fiercely as he leaped backwards, allowing the jounin's fist to bury itself deep into the hard-packed soil of the road. Gohan thrust out his good hand, allowing a shockwave to rip itself from his palm and slam into the Suna-nin, catapulting him down the street and into a burning building that collapsed in a shower of debris and smoke the fire extinguishing itself.

A faint pushed against his senses was the only warning that Gohan got that he was about to be attacked. He leaned, the ANBU flashing passed, but not before the saiyan caught a fistful of his cloak and pulled him back. The elite shinobi blocked the headbutt coming his way by bracing his feet on Gohan's knee and chest then dropped, closing the distance, one blue hand scraping over the saiyan's thigh even as Gohan flung him away.

A searing pain ripped up the teen's leg as the muscles in his leg were torn apart, though no external injury was noticeable, though the warrior knew that that leg was almost as useless as his arm. Baki extracted himself from the wrecked building and moved up beside the false ANBU.

"What now, Gohan-kun?" the ANBU asked, his head tilting like a curious ghoul. "You're down one arm and one leg. I'm sure even you have never faced odds this bad."

The gold-haired teen smirked. "You'd be surprised."

"I sense a great power within you, Gohan-kun. Something that far surpasses your current state." Gohan blinked in astonishment. How was it that he couldn't even feel his second level and this guy could!? His control and senses were top-notch, that was for sure. "Perhaps you should bring out this hidden power now?"

To cover his amazement, Gohan smirked, one that was worthy of Vegeta at his best. With that and the hard glare in his emerald eyes, Gohan actually bore a striking resemblance, in demeanor at least, to the prideful prince. "I don't need it to beat you down." He held out his good hand before bringing it to his side, palm down, fingers crooked. The ANBU took a reflexive step back as a ball of blue-white light suddenly blazed to life. "KamehameHA!"

The attack roared forth, the ball of ki streaking low over the ground, the power dense enough that it plowed a trough through the earth, like a ship through the sea. The two shinobi scattered, leaping into the air. Gohan moved his hand, the Kamehameha responding as it arced into the sky and vanished.

Baki started as Gohan vanished below him then reappeared behind him. One arm that was as strong as steel and as firm as marble coiled around his neck. Suddenly they pitched forwards until they were pointing straight down. They shot earthward in a blast of gold flame. The Suna-nin realized what was happening and tried to twist out of the lock, but Gohan tightened his grip, choking Baki just enough that he couldn't struggle as effectively.

"This isn't the same as Lee-san's," Gohan's voice whispered in the jounin's ear, "but it should still get the job done." The spinning duo slammed to earth in a huge gout of dirt and rock. The false ANBU was forced to hide himself or risk getting caught in the shockwave that ripped out from the impact point.

'Omote Renge?' Kabuto thought as he watched Baki and Gohan slam to earth. 'Impossible. I was under the impression that Gohan-kun was unable to use shinobi techniques.' He watched only a few seconds more before he came up with a conclusion. 'I see. He's not using taijutsu. At least, not in the sense that I am familiar with. All that was was an imitation of the Renge, a Lotus with no chakra.' He smiled beneath the porcelain veneer that covered his face. 'Though Gohan-kun cannot use our techniques, it would appear that he has several equivalents and for him, adjusting a taijutsu technique to suit him would probably be only a minor problem.' Kabuto had also chosen well in his time and place of attack.

The former Akatsuki spy hadn't really expected Gohan to leave with his team the way that they did. He'd expected them to take to the air, which was why when the hole had been blown in the wall, Kabuto had only seconds to get down the wall and snag Gohan by his collar and slam him into the ground. From there, he'd intentionally disabled Gohan's right arm. With his dominant arm out of commission, it would be far easier to take down the young warrior, even with his fantastic transformation. Now he'd lost the use of one leg as well. A lesser fighter would've succumbed by now and been killed, but somehow, the young man was hanging on. Even despite the tag team tactics that Kabuto and Baki were using, the saiyan was hanging on.

Now they were trying to lure Gohan away from the stadium and deeper into the village, since Kabuto didn't want any of the jounin that were fighting inside the stadium to come out and attack. Kabuto grinned beneath his mask, then dove on Gohan again, who was already spinning towards him to meet the attack.

"Well well," the Sound-nin said with a sneer as he found Sakura backed up against a tree, terror written all over her face. "Lookie what we have here! A little Leaf sapling and doesn't she look just damn cute!" The squad behind him chuckled sycophantically. Sakura shrank back. "Well, you must be the little diversion that your team left behind. So sad that we have to kill such a cutie." A kunai slid out of his sleeve. The shinobi held it up, the blade glinting ominously in the sun. "Now. Would you like pleasure before death? Or just death?"

Sakura trembled as the squad advanced another few steps. Then she smiled dangerously, her fingers flying together before the enemy could react. A series of huge explosions touched off in the canopy above them, then there was a huge crashing and crunching right before a section of tree came into view.

"A trap! Scatter!"

The Oto-nin scattered, shattering their formation and the mutual protection it afforded them. Before they could react, a new arrival flashed from the bushes, kunai and shuriken flying from it. Most of the attacks missed, but one man wasn't so lucky and a kunai caught him straight in the center of mass. The hit knocked him off his feet, the knife tearing straight though his body and bursting out the other side before lodging deeply into the tree.

Even as the man fell, the blur used his corpse as a springboard to soar high into the sky, more kunai flashing forth, wounding two and hobbling another. Even as the group started to rally and focus their attack in on the interloper, a fist crashed into the hobbled man's face, his face shattering under the force of the hit.

He slammed into the majestic redwoods hard enough to make the thick, tough, bark shatter into so much sawdust. The blur flew at the leader, but he wasn't as slow as the other men. He saw the oncoming fist with just enough time to twist out of the way, seize the offending limb, and hurl the new arrival through the air, towards the pink haired girl who was still crouching against her tree.

The figure passed right through the girl as if she didn't exist, then cried out as she struck the unforgiving tree. The leader felt his blood boil as he beheld whom the mysterious attacker was. "So! A Bunshin huh!? You used a Bunshin to distract us while you set off the traps and attacked from the sidelines. Impressive girly, but not good enough." He grabbed Sakura by the front of her dress and lifted her off the ground. "Now what will you do?"

White-hot pain exploded from between his legs as Sakura drove her shin into his crotch. In an instant, the Oto-nin dropped her in favor of doubling over, clutching at his damaged goods. He never noticed when Sakura's fist crashed into the back of his head and knocked him out.

The Leaf-nin stood up straight, emerald eyes flashing. Then she was amongst them again.

Pakkun blinked as a low rumble rolled over the remaining team.

"Thunder?" Naruto asked, looking into the sky as if expecting to see rain clouds hanging overhead.

"No you idiot," Shikamaru answered with a sigh, "it's Sakura. She probably set some explosive tags for those Sound guys behind us."

"Do you think Sakura-chan's alright?"

"If she isn't," Pakkun answered voice gravely, "then it's our job to catch Sasuke and make sure her sacrifice wasn't in vain." The other two nodded, determination blazing in Naruto's eyes. All three gathered chakra into their legs and surged ahead, closing the distance between them and Sasuke by the second.

Kakashi slashed the neck on one last enemy, a Suna chuunin, who collapsed soundlessly at the Copy-nin's feet. Beside him, Kurenai and Asuma both were sweaty, red, cut and bruised, but nothing to bad. The only ones who were unscathed by the turmoil in the civilian stands were Kakashi, thanks to his Sharingan, Gai, thanks to his speed, and Tenzou, thanks to his training.

"Is that the last of them?" Kurenai asked Kakashi as his crimson gaze swept over the stands and the arena floor. The jounin tugged his hirai-ate back into place, sealing his Sharingan and stopping its drain on his chakra.

"Looks like it." He glanced up at the enormous purple box that enshrouded the roof of the Kage box. Through the translucent purple walls, he could just barely make out the figures of Orochimaru and the Hokage dancing back and forth, sparks flying between them as they fought with what looked like a sword and a staff. The jounin forced himself to forget about that duel. Even if he could go in the barrier, the chances of Kakashi actually being a help to the Hokage were slim. Indeed, the only ones who could probably help the old man were Jiraiya, who was preoccupied with the snakes in the village, Tsunade, who was out of the village, and Gohan, though the saiyan boy could only slow down Orochimaru, not stop him.

"Kakashi!" Asuma's voice made the other jounin jump. Apparently, the Third's son had been calling the Copy Ninja's name for some time.

"What?"

"What do we do now?"

Even Yamato stopped in his examination of the Oto and Suna bodies to listen to what his sempai had to say. "The arena's secure, so there's no point in staying," Kakashi answered, "the civilians should be into the shelters by now so that means most of our battle strength can be concentrated on the interlopers now."

"You mean…" Kurenai trailed off, an eager look in her red eyes.

Kakashi nodded. "Tenzou!"

"Sir!"

"Gather your men." Kakashi's one visible eye steeled, hardening to an unforgiving chip of obsidian. "Begin the counter attack!"

That's all folks! I don't have anything earth-shattering to say, so see you next time!

Glossary

Katon: Karyuu Endan (Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu): User exhales a massive stream of flame that twists into a dragon to immolate the enemy

Seneijashu (Striking Shadow Snakes): A lot of snakes pour out of the users sleeves. These can be used to poison, immobilize, or bite the enemy. I figured it would be an easy task for Orochimaru to send his snakes into the ground and strike from below.

Ninpou: Shuriken Kage Bunshin (Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu): As the name implies, its a Kage Bunshin except with shurikens