Disclaimer: Own zilch, zero, nadda, squat, jack, or anything to do with either Dragonball Z or Naruto

Naruto and Shikamaru bounced through the trees outside the village of Konoha, in hot pursuit of Sasuke, who for some reason, had gone off after Gaara, the Sand Jinchuuriki. The mood among the two genin and the dog summon that Kakashi had sent them with was dour. Sakura had chosen to stay behind to hold off the onrushing Oto-nin that had been chasing them ever since leaving the village walls.

"Damn," Naruto cursed under his breath. "Damn damn damn damn damn!"

Shikamaru didn't say anything to the blond, knowing it was a waste of time to try and keep Naruto silent at a time like this. He was worried about Sakura, and with good reason. Shika didn't know why, but he did know that Naruto, for whatever reason, was hated and feared by the villagers. The genius couldn't imagine what for. Sure the kid was annoying and troublesome, but had potential. Even an idiot could see that, since he had improved by leaps and bounds beyond what he'd been capable of in the Academy.

'What're you hiding Naruto? Why does everyone despise you?'

The fact that everyone hated him also explained why Naruto was so concerned about Sakura. She, Gohan, and Sasuke were really the first friends that the blond had ever had, and Shika was certain that, were he in Naruto's shoes, he would be thinking the same thing.

"Hey!" Naruto called to Pakkun. "How close are we!?"

"Getting there," the pug answered. "I think only a few more minutes."

The genin's hand flexed. "Good."

Sakura ducked a punch, blocked a knee, then launched up in a vicious uppercut. She smiled as she felt the Oto-nin's jaw shatter beneath her hand. His eye rolled back and he fell, boneless. Sakura wasn't sure if he was dead or not. She knew the others were injured. They were moaning and groaning, and a few were motionless. The two in front of her backed up nervously.

"How's a girl like you this powerful?" One demanded.

"It's unfair!" The other complained.

"You outnumber me and you say I'm not being fair?" Sakura said with giggle. "Man, Orochimaru needs to find better help." Two clones burst from the bushes. Both men took swipes at them, taking their concentration totally off Sakura. The clones vanished like the shadows they were, but before either Oto-nin could do anything, Sakura seized their heads and smashed them together. They dropped, out cold.

Noticing that the threat was gone, Sakura sank to her knees with a sigh. She was tired, and her limbs were shaking from too many close calls and the adrenalin high she was riding. She hadn't gotten off unscathed either. She had a few good gashes on her arms, a punch had made her eye swell halfway closed, and she was deathly tired, but that didn't surprise her. She had been using her chakra to augment her muscles after all, and she didn't have much in the way of reserves. She had improved, that was true, since with Gohan's vicious training it was impossible not to, but she still didn't have enough for a prolonged battle.

"Gotta work on that," Sakura muttered as she stood.

A cool edge laid itself across her throat.

"Too bad you'll never get the chance," a voice said in her ear. Sakura's eyes widened when she realized that it was an Oto-nin. There were in fact nine of the Sound shinobi.

'The lookout,' Sakura realized as the blade broke the skin on her neck. 'The one who usually stays back for this kind of situation. Dammit, I was careless!'

"Never forget that your enemy will always keep one man in reserve," the Oto hissed. Sakura could practically feel him grinning. "Now you die." The kunoichi's eyes closed as she felt the blade press harder against her throat.

Screaming filled the forest.

"Begin the counterattack," Kakashi said as he watched plumes of smoke rise from the village beyond the walls.

"Yes sir!" The others, even Tenzou, said, before scattering to perform their tasks. The scarecrow sighed. He didn't like fighting. He'd rather be spending his time reading Icha Icha, but now he had a job to do.

"Sorry, Obito," he murmured. "I can't be late this time."

Kakashi vanished. He already had a feeling of where he should be heading.

"Last one," Jiraiya said with a grin as the last summon snake fell under Gamahiro's keen blades. The massive toad sheathed his blades. "Nice job, Gamahiro."

"I never miss a chance to slice up some snakes," the summon answered.

"And who doesn't?" Jiraiya asked, laughing again. His laughter died quickly as he looked around the village. "This isn't good. The village is in pieces." He could smell the stench of burning flesh mixed with the acrid, sooty, scent of burning buildings.

"So now what?" Gamahiro asked.

Jiraiya looked back at the stadium. He could still see the translucent box. He could also still feel his sensei's chakra clashing with Orochimaru's, though the Sandaime's was much weaker. "The Old Man needs help."

"On it."

Before the Sannin could say anything, Gamahiro was in the air, soaring towards the box above the stadium. Jiraiya didn't really want to fight Orochimaru, not when so many others needed his help more, but at the same time…it would be nice to show the snake bastard a thing or three.

Gohan grunted as the ANBU hit him hard in the stomach. He was gone and out of range before the Super Saiyan could respond to the attack, other than the initial recovery.

"I don't know why you keep pushing yourself, Gohan-kun," the ANBU said, cocking his head like a curious dog. "It's perplexing really. Anyone else would've realized the futility of fighting with only one good leg and one good arm."

The saiyan didn't answer. He only scowled, trying to get his ragged breathing to even out. And it wasn't like he could run anyway. These two would only track him down again.

'Sorry everyone,' Gohan thought. 'It looks like I won't be joining you any time soon.' Baki and the ANBU came at him again and Gohan fazed out, rushing to engage the two before the situation could get any worse.

Sakura blinked as the man holding her hostage started screaming. When the knife vanished, she dared to look back. It was a sight to behold. Black creatures were swarming all over him, moving ceaselessly. It looked like he was wearing a coat of shifting darkness. His eyes were wide with horror, his mask stretched as his mouth opened as wide as it could. Sakura noted that the blackness wasn't blackness, but bugs with shells that were darker than the night sky.

"Never forget that your enemy will always keep one man in reserve," said a new voice. A figure emerged from the bushes, someone with a high-collared cream-colored cloak, dark round sunglasses, and gravity defying black hair. Bugs were crawling over his face and coat, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Shino-san!"

"Sakura," Shino answered. He glanced at her. Sakura could feel his eyes pass over her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks for coming along when you did."

The bug user nodded, but otherwise didn't reply. Sakura watched as his kikaichu left the Oto-nin and crawled back to their master, climbing up his pants and under his jacket. Sakura couldn't see where they were going and quite frankly she didn't want to know. The Aburame were able shinobi, but they were damn creepy.

"What're you doing out here?" Sakura asked.

Shino motioned for her to follow him and leapt into the trees. Sakura huffed, irritated at being ignored, then followed after him.

"I'm going to find my opponent," Shino explained, once they were moving.

"Opponent?"

"Yes."

"From wh…." Sakura suddenly remembered that Shino's opponent in the Exams was supposed to have been Kankuro and he'd forfeited before the match had even begun. Hell, she remembered, Shino didn't even get to walk down the stairs. "Never mind. So how'd you find us? You weren't at the stadium when we left were you?"

Shino shook his head. "I was, but I got…distracted."

Sakura took that to mean that he'd been attacked.

"So I planted a female kikaichu on Naruto. She's letting off a strong pheromone that the male kikaichu can follow anywhere. That's how I was tailing you guys, but when you decided to stay and fight, I figured I would back you up." Sakura blinked. That was the most she'd ever heard Shino speak.

"Uh. Thanks."

"Let's go."

They picked up the pace as they bounded through the trees.

"Kukukukuku."

The Sandaime tried to sit up, but found that the point of the Kusanagi in his face prevented him from doing that much. Orochimaru also stood far outside the reach of the Hokage's legs so sweeping him was out of the question and Enma was tied up a few feet away, struggling against his snake bonds.

"You lose, sensei," Orochimaru cackled.

The Third didn't deign to reply. That only made the snake man laugh all the harder. The Kusanagi swung up, and the Third knew that it was going to come down on him and cleave his head in two.

A huge explosion rocked the stadium and threw Orochimaru off balance. The Third seized his opportunity and kicked the blade away then pushed off the ground, flinging himself into the air to alight on his feet. The explosion turned out to be a huge toad that both men recognized immediately as Gamahiro, one of Jiraiya's larger buddies.

"Have no fear, Jiraiya-sama is here!"

The Sannin himself landed just beyond the barrier. He struck a pose.

"Women love me! Men envy me! And Snake Men should cower in fear of me!"

The Sandaime facepalmed as Orochimaru burst out laughing. Veins started twitching in Jiraiya's face and forehead. "Hey! What the hell's so funny!?"

"Why should I fear what is of no consequence?" Orochimaru asked, still chuckling. "You can't do anything outside that barrier, and even if you tried, then you would just be turned into ashes."

Jiraiya grinned as he pulled a scrap of paper and an ink brush out of his gi. "Well, then you won't mind if I give it a shot, right?" He inked out a fast seal, and Sarutobi noted that it was too fast to be a new seal.

'Has he studied this technique?' The Third and Orochimaru wondered at the same time. 'How can that be?'

"Lemme tell you something, Orochi-bastard," Jiraiya said as he stashed the brush and tore off the paper. "Barrier techniques work on the same principle, no matter what they are, and no matter what their abilities. Try and alter that basic principle and you no longer have a barrier. You said that this barrier will turn me to ash, which means that it has properties of fire. If I put a normal seal on there, then the barrier will just immolate it. However, if I add a few extra properties to the seal, it won't burn and it'll still be able to do its job. So, by nullifying the basic barrier principle and the fire properties, you can open a hole in the barrier." He grinned again. "Was that too tough for you? Here. Lemme show you!"

Jiraiya slammed the seal parchment to the barrier. It sparked and spat angrily for a few seconds, then the tiniest of holes opened. Orochimaru looked stunned for all of two seconds then broke out laughing.

"Poor Jiraiya. Even when he succeeds he fails," the snake cackled. "I can only imagine what it's like for you, you stupid buffoon."

"I dunno," Jiraiya said as he stepped through the massive hole that had opened up in the barrier while his former friend had been too busy laughing to notice. Orochimaru's face was a mask of shock, rage, and disbelief. "You tell me."

The seal burned up and vanished, the hole closing right up.

"You always did take things at face value," the toad-summoner said, cracking his knuckles. He bit his thumbs and slammed them to the ground. "You've hurt the village, my sensei, and you were always insulting Minato. It's long passed time that you got what was coming to you, you jerk. Ninpou! Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Two puffs of smoke erupted from the Sannin's hands and when they cleared, two small and old toads were squatting in front of Jiraiya.

"Well, if it ain't Jiraiya-chan," one toad remarked, his voice deep and crinkly with age and smoking. "Been a while."

"Hey Pa," Jiraiya answered.

"So what's an old senile buffoon like you want this time?" the other toad demanded. Jiraiya scowled, but he didn't answer. This wasn't the time.

"That's what I want," Jiraiya answered, pointing at Orochimaru.

"Ah," Fukasaku said. "So, you want to use that do you?"

Shima, the woman toad, looked cheeky. "But Jiraiya-chan doesn't like that, because it makes him look ugly and it scares off all the ladies that he's always chasing." Jiraiya smeared the blood on his thumbs onto the marks on his face, extending them and making the look sort of like the letter P.

"Don't have a choice. I'm gonna grind that bastard into the ground for everything he's done to his team, his sensei, and everyone he's hurt." Both toads glanced at each other before shrugging.

"Have it your way, kiddo," Fukasaku said as he and his wife hopped up on Jiraiya's shoulders. Jiraiya grinned the slammed his hands together, as if praying.

'I hate this form,' Jiraiya thought, before he cleared his head and allowed the energy that filled the air and everyone and everything around him to flow into him. His skin darkened to a deep and swarthy brown as warts sprouted all over his skin, and especially on his nose, which swelled up like a balloon. His eyes turned gold with a horizontal slit for a pupil. It looked oddly like a toad's eyes. "Here we go. SAGE MODE!"

"Oh?" Orochimaru said, quirking an eyebrow. "It doesn't matter what form you use, Jiraiya. You're still nothing but a baboon reaching for the moon."

Jiraiya's toad-like face contorted into a grin. "We'll just see about that. Bring it on, snake boy."

"I shall, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and when we're through here, one of us will be dead." They charged like rabid bulls, the Kusanagi sweeping up in a wide arc as Fukasaku's tongue shot from his mouth like a bullet.

Gohan cried out as he struck the ground hard and bounced a few times before skidding to a stop. He tried to push himself to his feet, but his arm gave out and he collapsed again. He was winded. The ferocious tag teaming he had to put up with was sapping his strength faster that he ever thought possible. A weak 'dammit' crossed his mind before the haze he'd learned to associate with passing out began to creep up on him. He was totally numb, except for a sharp burning that was beginning on his neck, around where his Cursed Seal was. What Kakashi said about his will keeping the seal he'd used to counteract it came back to him.

'I guess with my passing out and everything, it's weakened, so now the Cursed Seal's getting stronger.' He blinked, and this time he had to struggle to open his eyes again. The dirt in front of him was turning red, probably from the cut on his forehead. It wasn't major, but it was bleeding profusely, making it hard to see.

"Too bad, Gohan-kun," said a voice from above him. It seemed so far away. "Orochimaru-sama expected great things from you. I guess my data about your transformation was off by a significant amount." It was the fake ANBU, or so Gohan thought. The haze was creeping up on him. He couldn't even see the ground in front of him anymore.

"He fought valiantly," huffed Baki, nursing the bruise on his stomach. Gohan had managed to hit him particularly hard and the jounin was coughing up good-sized bits of blood. He probably had internal bleeding of some kind. He would have to track down one of Suna or Oto's medical shinobi before heading off in pursuit of Gaara. "I had no idea the Leaf had men such as him."

"He fought bravely," the ANBU agreed. Gohan's head cleared for a split second and he could feel that the ANBU was near his foot. In a sudden surge of strength, Gohan's foot flashed up in a heel kick that the ANBU managed to dodge, but not before his mask was smashed by the hard bone of Gohan's heel. The momentum flipped Gohan onto his back. Shock surged through his once again numb body as he recognized the face above him.

"Kabuto-san," he whispered.

The medic smirked, his Oto hirai-ate standing out proudly on his forehead. "A noble attempt Gohan-kun, but too little too late. You should've run when you had the chance. This battle was decided the moment I took your arm and leg."

Gohan didn't respond. He didn't even have enough energy to keep his head off the ground. He had pushed himself too hard, running himself into the ground, fighting when he knew the odds were bleak. Kabuto raised his glowing hand, and Gohan thought that he could just barely see a blade of faint blue light extending a little past his fingertips.

"It's a shame that you'll die here, but if Orochimaru-sama was to use you as his body, he might lose, and he needs a body that is powerful. If you cannot defeat me without an arm and leg, then you aren't deserving of being his body."

"Why….why the…hell…would I…be…his…b…body?" Gohan grunted, both against his own exhaustion and the burning in his neck, which was getting fiercer by the second. For some reason, Gohan could also feel the haze that plagued him beginning to fade. The world was coming back into focus and the Super Saiyan swore he could feel new strength surging into him.

Kabuto shrugged. "Oh well. Die, Gohan-kun."

His hand descended as if in slow motion. Gohan chuckled weakly. Slowly, Kabuto faded from his sight and Mt. Paozu came into focus.

Goku, hale, healthy and very much alive, was standing on the doorstep to his house, right next to Piccolo. On Goku's left was Vegeta, arms crossed across his armored chest, and his permanent scowl in place.

"Dad! Piccolo-sensei! Vegeta-san? What are all you doing here?"

Vegeta stepped up to Gohan and belted him across the face, flinging him into the small shrine that stood in memory of Gohan's namesake, Goku's grandpa Gohan. The small sanctuary collapsed in a cloud of rubble.

"You call yourself a Saiyan warrior?" Vegeta demanded. "You're getting beaten by that bastard punk!"

"But he…."

Vegeta kicked him across the hill that Gohan's house sat on. He skidded the length of the yard and stopped right near the entrance to the forest where Gohan played and trained. "Saiyans never give up! Never! We stood up to some of the most powerful beings in the universe and killed them all! No one could stop us! Even Frieza himself feared us!"

"That's enough, Vegeta," Goku said gently, putting on hand on his friend and rival's shoulder. Vegeta spat at Gohan then blasted into the clear blue sky, vanishing in a flash of gold flame. The elder Son helped his son to his feet. "You know, Gohan, I don't agree with Vegeta most of the time, but he does have a point. You're giving up too easily. Would you have stopped like this when Cell was around?"

"No! Of course not!" Gohan said vehemently.

Goku grinned. "That's my boy! So why give up now? Just because this Kabuto guy has you down and out, you're still a Super Saiyan, right? More important that that, you're my son! I have faith that you can win. So stand up, fight, and win! If you don't this guy will kill your friends, right? So why let him?"

"Remember you training," Piccolo said, stepping up to Gohan's other side. "You're in another dimension, boy, but you're still my student and I know I didn't train a wimp. Your father didn't train a wimp. Show him the power that hides inside you." Both Goku and Piccolo, along with Mt. Paozu, began to fade.

"But I can't!" Gohan called as gray fog descended over them. "I can't use it! My powers are limited by that seal!"

"You'll find a way," Goku answered, his voice faint and echoing, as if from across a canyon. "I know, because you're my son and I believe in you."

Gohan was lying on the cold dirt of Konoha again, the hand of Kabuto descending on him.

'Show him my power…' Gohan thought, repeating his father's words. 'I don't know if that was an illusion, a hallucination, or if it was real, but I can't let my father down!' The boy's fist snapped up on its own accord, batting aside Kabuto's hand, as his foot flashed from its position on the ground, sweeping out the traitor's feet. He pushed into the air and back to his feet. The searing in his neck was receding and new strength was flooding Gohan. His aura was in place, chirping like a flock of birds, lighting the ground around him, despite the sun, and it was even pushing small depressions in the dirt near his feet. Gohan's arm still dangled uselessly, and his leg ached furiously, but he had a second wind.

"Impossible," Kabuto breathed as he rolled away from the saiyan. "You were about to die! I felt it!"

"And that was what did it," Gohan answered. He smirked. "Push me into a corner and you'll get hurt." The power that was flooding him wasn't Super Saiyan Two, but the hidden potential that he had yet to unlock, the power that only reacted when he was in the most desperate of situations.

"Interesting. Is there any limit to what you cannot do, Gohan-kun?" Kabuto asked, that look of being unwillingly impressed on his face.

"I can't bring the dead back to life."

Kabuto snorted. "Perhaps you could if you were there with them." He and Baki rushed Gohan together.

"You're really something, Gohan," said a new voice. Both onrushing shinobi started and abandoned their assault. A new arrival leaped from a nearby rooftop to land in a crouch in front of Gohan. He straightened up and Gohan caught a flash of a black mask and flyaway silver hair.

"Kakashi!"

"Yo." His eye curved in a smile. "Nice to see you're hanging in there, but you look tired." Kakashi held up a hand, palm out for a high-five. "How about a swap?"

"Sounds good." Gohan slapped the proffered hand, a gesture of handing off. "Tag in." Kakashi tugged up his hirai-ate.

"Now then," he said lightly, though hard eyes drilling in on Kabuto and Baki. "How will I punish you for picking on a friend of mine?" His voice was lilting, like he was asking a question. "I know!" His hands flashed through a series of seal sequences. The chirping of birds filled the air as a handful of lightning blossomed in his palm. The hard scent of ionized ozone followed soon after. "How about I kill you both?"

He darted at them, a blur even to Gohan.

"CHIDORI!"

Gohan didn't stick around to see what was going to happen. Kakashi was older than Gohan was, which meant more experience, which meant, in turn, that the jounin could handle himself better than Gohan could. Besides, the young saiyan wasn't used to two on one battles. Kakashi was and he probably could pull out a stunning victory. Gohan was used to the knock-down-drag-'em-out boss battles that tended to degenerate into one on one battles that had the fate of the world on his shoulders.

'Hard to believe I actually want Cell or Frieza or someone like that to show up.' The Super Saiyan thought as he launched himself up into the clear blue sky that was partially obscured by a haze of smoke.

Kakashi smiled as Gohan took to the sky. He was exhausted and not used to two v one battles. It was a sign of how gifted he was as a martial artist that he'd been able to hold on as long as he had. Now he was more baggage than help and was able to swallow his pride to get out and give Kakashi one less thing to worry about.

"You've been left alone, Kakashi-san," Kabuto remarked as he watched the golden trail vanish into the sky.

"Maybe, but I can handle myself," the other answered easily. He held up a kunai that reflected the light of a nearby fire and the sun rather merrily, which made it look all the more dangerous. "You wanna see?"

Kabuto grinned dangerously, eyes obscured by light reflecting off the lenses of his glasses. "Please do. Let us go, Baki-san."

"Sorry," The Suna jounin answered as he leaped up onto the pinnacle of a mound of debris that had been a building. "But I have to find the Kazekage's kids. I can't be bothered by another whim of yours, Kabuto." He vanished in a swirl of wind and sand grains, a Suna Shunshin.

Kabuto was furious, but he didn't let it show on his face as he and Kakashi continued their face off. "Too bad," Kakashi said with a laugh. "Good help is so hard to find, isn't it?"

"Clichés won't help you here, Kakashi-san," Kabuto answered silkily.

"Maybe, but they're cliché for a reason, right?" Both flickered, vanished, then reappeared high above the ground, kunai grinding together in a clash of sparks. Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he realized that Kabuto was quite deliberately not looking at him in his Sharingan.

'Well, Kabuto isn't a retard, so I guess I should've expected that,' Kakashi thought wearily as they landed and sprinted at each other, limbs and kunai flashing as they tried to score hits on each other. The Sharingan lent Kakashi a distinct advantage in that department, but Kabuto was skilled enough that he could keep up, even without a Kekkei Genkai. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Well, you're not as stupid as you look," Kankuro said to Shikamaru and Naruto. They'd finally caught up to Sasuke, only to see the Uchiha send clones in every direction with no way to tell the real one from the fake, then Kankuro had used that confusion to make his move, attacking with the puppet that had more tricks and traps to it than a funhouse of mirrors. Shikamaru's mind was already whirling as he tried to come up with a way passed the puppet, but so far he hadn't come up with anything aside from the fact that the puppet had a three hundred and sixty range of attack out to about a hundred feet. Outside that, its movements got distinctly more sluggish and slow. Kankuro himself, the source of the attacks, was making sure to stay well within a circle of sunlight that he'd made with the blades hidden in every joint of that damn puppet.

Shika's shadows were all but useless as they crossed that circle. The Nara would've ground his teeth but that would've been too troublesome and it would've detracted from any time he could have spent trying to figure a way out and they were losing time getting back to Sasuke.

"Get out of our way!" Naruto shouted.

The Suna genin laughed. "Sorry, can't do that. Temari'll deal with that emo friend of yours and I'll kill you here, then Gaara will smash your village and we can be done here, so letting you passed me will be kind of counter-productive."

"We have back up," Shikamaru said, letting the implications hang, while at the same time, keeping the fact that their back-up was Sakura, who was either dead or too tired to be of much use. Still, the genius reasoned, what Kankuro didn't know didn't hurt him.

Kankuro laughed. "Somehow I doubt that." His fingers wiggled and the puppet hanging suspended in the air clinked and clattered hollowly, like it was laughing at them, but there wasn't much it could do, since Naruto and Shika were both outside its range.

"Hey Shika," Naruto muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "how're we getting around that thing?" They could try going around, but Shika was sure that the way around had been booby-trapped, which left the only safe way through as going through Kankuro.

The image of Ino's vicious defeat at the hands of the puppet master made something stir deep within Shikamaru. The genius knew that it was anger and it surprised him. He was usually so apathetic that he felt nothing but annoyance and laziness on any given day. The stir of emotions within him lit a fire underneath him that sent warmth spreading to every limb and suddenly Kankuro ceased to be a human in Shikamaru's eyes but a target and a puzzle, something that was to be analyzed, dissected bit by bit, then finally taken down and killed. "Naruto," Shikamaru answered dangerously, eyes backlit by anger, "leave him to me. You go on ahead and catch Sasuke."

"But…"

"Don't argue. I have something to do here," Shika answered. "Make as many Kage Bunshin as you can fit into this space here and send them across all at once. I'll take it from there."

Naruto blinked, but nodded, fingers already folding together into the characteristic cross-shaped seal. "Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" The concussion that close to a hundred clones made in appearing in such a narrow space almost knocked Shika off his feet, but he stayed upright, his own hands already moving as the cloud of orange took to the sky, leaping over Kankuro and his puppet. The Suna boy's hands were moving in response as well. The puppet's mouth dropped open, and then opened some more as kunai filled the air like black rain. Clone after clone popped and disintegrated, but more than enough, along with the original, made it passed him.

"Ninpou! Kage Mane no Jutsu!"

The shadow around Shikamaru's feet darkened then shot out like a bullet, stretching for Kankuro, who suddenly realized his mistake and leaped to the back edge of the pool of sunlight. The puppet clattered and clacked angrily as the shadow shot into the sun, then stopped and dissolved.

"Keh. Looks like you can't go into the sun, just like Temari said."

"So she was the one who told you," Shikamaru observed. "Figures. I didn't think you were smart enough to figure it out by yourself."

Kankuro twitched. Not much, but it didn't slip past Shika, whose eyes were watching for every slight twitch and flick, anything to clue him in to Kankuro's mannerisms and personal habits. 'Oh ho? Does our little friend here have an ego?'

"Does it matter?" Kankuro answered, though his eyes narrowed in a hate-filled glare, further confirming Shikamaru's suspicions. "I'm gonna kill you and that will be that, so does it really matter?"

A plan began to take shape in Shika's whirling mind. "Well, we'll see about that."

Kakashi and Kabuto clashed, then bounced apart again, both flinging kunai to cover their escape. They landed and began another stare down. "You'll have to better than that, Kakashi-san," Kabuto said, pushing up his glasses with his middle finger. Kakashi was sure that the gesture was deliberate. It wasn't offensive, but was meant to be taken that way.

"Just wait," Kakashi answered, crimson eye flashing. "I'll do better."

They sprinted at each other again.

"My my. You've certainly gotten a bit better haven't you?" Orochimaru asked as he ducked a swipe of Fukasaku's tongue, noting in the back of his mind that the speedy appendage split the tile behind him as easily as the Kusanagi could.

"I can't take all the credit," the warty Sannin answered. "These two here are a big part of it."

"It doesn't matter. In the end, both the babbling baboon and the senile old monkey will die and that will be the end of that," Orochimaru shot right back. "This will be a day long remembered. We will see the end of Konoha, the Sandaime Hokage, and Jiraiya of the Sannin." Former friends went at it again.

In the training ground that Team Seven liked to frequent, a female ANBU stood from squatting at the stone, where she laid a single white lily flower. "Hayate," she murmured, "I swear I'll avenge your death." She pulled her mask in place, becoming one of the elite and faceless protectors of Konoha.

"All is in readiness," Tenzou said from behind her. He and the rest of her team were waiting for her, letting her have her moment. They knew how much she hurt from her loss and were willing to wait. It meant more than she could ever say. "The regulars have begun the push. The Sand and Sound are on the run. One final blitz and we should push them out of the village entirely."

The team nodded.

"Let's go."

"Sir!"

The five ANBU vanished silently, only the mute swirling of leaves announcing their departure.

So ends Chapter 21. Sorry it took so long. I meant to have it up earlier last week, but finals, packing, and catching an airplane got in the way. Yes, I am on summer break and looking for a job now, so only time will tell if updates will speed up any. I think that this chapter was fairly good, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that. How will the battles turn out? And wehn will Nartuo vs. Gaara start? Truthfully, I think it might be either late next chapter or the chapter after. I dunno though. This story pretty much writes itself, I don't have a specific plot laid out. I just say 'I want it to go this way' and my imagination (twisted as it is) does the rest. Oh yeah.

A lot of people have been asking if Gohan will get his tail back. That answer so far is no. This is Cell-Arc Gohan, who didn't have his tail, but you never know. If it doesn't happen, though, fear not. Maybe I'll do an extra chapter at the end or something that doesn't fit into the main story to satisfy people's curiosity. Also, people want to know if more DBZ charachters will be appearing in the story. That answer is a definite no, since there's not a way to get them from DBZ world to Narutoland. However, I am planning on putting Piccolo in the sequel, for reasons that will remain classified for now. I may or may not add more characters. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Whew! Long AN, but that's the end of it. See you next time

~WingedFreedom622

Glossary

Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Jutsu): A unique technique to the Nara and the Nara alone. It uses the user's shadow to capture and control an enemy's movements with their own shadow. Has a time limit of about five minutes and is the set up for several other shadow techniques.

Sage Mode: It uses Sage Chakra to enhance the user's physical capabilities. So far, only Jiraiya and Naruto can use it. For specifics, I encourage you to look at the Naruto Wiki or read the more recent manga chapters. It's a long and involved explanation that I'm not going into here. Think of it as a Spirit Bomb without the Bomb part.

Suna Shunshin: It's a Shunshin jutsu that uses sand to hide the user's path of travel instead of leaves, water, ice, wind, or some other thing like that.