Disclaimer: Own nothing.

"Interesting," Orochimaru purred as he beheld the new Gohan. "Most interesting. I knew that you were powerful, Gohan-kun, but I had no idea you packed this much away into that youthful body of yours." His gold eyes glittered greedily. "Perhaps I should make you my next body instead of Sasuke-kun?"

"I'll never join you," Gohan growled. "I'm going to kill you here and now. You'll never threaten anyone again. I've fought people like you. Words won't reach you." The electricity racing over him began to buzz with more insistence. "I'm through talking."

Orochimaru and Kabuto expected Gohan to flash forward and go on the offensive. They expected a massive blast of ki. They expected some grandiose pronouncement of challenge and defiance before the fight could really begin in earnest. Instead, Gohan did something utterly unexpected.

He began walking towards them. He didn't fly, he didn't skim like he tended to do, to free up his feet, he walked, like he was out for a nice stroll in the park, though the deadly mask of seriousness on his face was completely at odds with the serene way he approached the two missing-nin. For Gohan, it was all he could do to not do all the things Kabuto and Orochimaru expected him to. He was itching to fight, desperately holding on to his control with a slim leash. It was like a toddler trying to hold back a Great Dane. At any second, he would slip and lose himself to the boiling anger ripping through him.

Kabuto and Orochimaru acted together.

"Seneijashu!" Orochimaru cackled, throwing his arms out. Snakes whipped from inside his sleeves, extending out, impossibly far, crossing the distance to Gohan in seconds. They coiled around his wrists and feet and pulled his limbs out, leaving Gohan helpless. At the same time, Kabuto was dashing forward, scalpels at the ready, fully prepared to either cut the veins leading into Gohan's heart or cut the nerves again, whichever came first.

Gohan wrenched his arms hard. Orochimaru felt himself begin to lift, but dug his feet in and anchored with chakra. Gohan wrenched again and this time the snakes holding his arms burst, tearing like string, spilling blood and fluids all over the ground. Kabuto was on him, stabbing with his left, but Gohan leaned to the side, the attack sailing harmlessly past. Kabuto stabbed again, this time Gohan evaded by bending at the knees and leaning straight back. Kabuto withdrew slightly and that opening was all the Super Saiyan needed. He snapped up, impossibly fast, and drove his fist into Kabuto's face.

Kabuto felt like the moon had come down from the sky and hit him. He felt the bridge of his nose snap, along with a little of the cheekbone to either side, and he was vaguely aware of flying. He smashed into the earth and ripped a furrow in the soil right to Orochimaru's feet. He was dazed, looking at the sky with bleary and unfocused eyes.

His hirai-ate, and the remains of his glasses, clattered as they landed harmlessly at Gohan's feet. The boy freed himself from the snakes around his legs by bending over and squeezing each serpent until it hissed and choked from lack of air and released him by reflex. Gohan looked at the snakes with contempt as they squirmed then he squeezed again. The serpents exploded in twin fountains of blood.

"My turn," he said simply, holding out a hand. Ki swirled to life. Orochimaru frowned as he leaped back, putting distance between him and the oncoming attack. Gohan fired the attack. The simple blast shot out, moving much faster than anything Orochimaru had seen from the boy previously. The pressure of the air that the speeding energy shunted aside was enough to raise a rooster tail of earth on either side, and a little ahead of, the strike.

The ki blast exploded, shaking the earth beneath everyone's feet like a drum. A little ways away, Tanzaku castle rumbled and people fled screaming as walls and beams cracked and more terra cotta tiles fell from the roof. When the smoke cleared, Orochimaru was laying, battered and broken on the ground, his skin hissing from being cooked like a slab of beef in the oven.

Orochimaru's chest caved in, turning to dust as it did. A wind swept the courtyard and the snake's body dissolved. It hadn't been Orochimaru at all. He'd simply shed his skin, like snake would, and relocated himself. Gohan turned and glared up at Manda. The two summons had been fighting on their own ever since Orochimaru had attacked Naruto, but when Gohan had transformed, that had come to a complete stop. Orochimaru stood on Manda's head. Words were exchanged, then the purple monstrosity barreled forwards, with speed that belied his bulk, looming over Gohan as he reared up, about to slam his entire serpentine body down on the little whelp below him.

Manda slammed to earth hard enough to make the entire city of Tanzaku rock, sending panicked throngs, already scared and running because of Gohan, into an almost animalistic stampede. Orochimaru cackled. Gohan had glared up at the descending snake right up until Manda had come down on top of him. "And that would be the end of Gohan-kun," Orochimaru said with a grin. "Such a shame too. I really would've loved to have had for a host and…"

Manda began to rise underneath Orochimaru's feet and it was clear from the way Manda's muscles were contorting, the snake wasn't responsible. There was a blast of light from underneath the massive serpent's chin as Gohan poured ki into his muscles, enhancing them, allowing them to force Manda up off of the ground. The ground around his feet crackled, groaned in protest it seemed, then shattered under his heel from the pressures Gohan was exerting. With one final surge, Gohan shoved up to his full height and drove his fist into Manda's chin, rocking the purple anaconda back, his head flailing wildly. Orochimaru leaped clear right as Manda landed and rolled over the ground before getting his feet under him and vaulting to his feet.

Gohan regarded Manda for a moment or two then focused his angry gaze on Orochimaru, who, Gohan was pleased to see, didn't look so supremely confident anymore. He held out one hand and ki swirled to life, buzzing dangerously. The ground rumbled beneath Gohan's feet and he looked down, surprised, as the earth beneath him shattered and Manda's tail shot out from the haze and flying rock, smashing into the teen's relatively small body and throwing him through the sky, tumbling head over heels.

He stopped in a pulse of power that, despite Gohan being hundreds of feet above the ground, still shattered the rock underneath him. A pair of massive jaws loomed around Gohan. Manda had lunged up and opened his mouth as wide as it could go. Gohan had forgotten just how wide a snake's mouth could open and that had been a normal snake's never mind one the size of Manda.

The cavernous mouth slammed shut with a dull rumble. The serpent licked his lips with his forked tongue. "Not even enough for an appetizer," the towering summon grumbled as he turned his attention back to Gamabunta, who in turn eyed his serpentine opponent impassively.

A beam of blue-white light erupted from the roof of Manda's mouth and keeping going, punching into the clouds and dividing them for a second or two as the blast continued on before fading out. "Ghaaaaaaaaaaah!" Manda shrieked as a gold streak shot out of the hole. "Damn you!"

Gohan simply held out a hand.

A pressure wave slammed Manda's great length to the ground in a cloud of dust. Manda screamed as the impact aggravated the new skylight in his mouth, cursing Gohan and vowing to eat Orochimaru should the Sannin ever summon him again, before vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Gamabunta laughed uproariously, more than happy with Manda's humiliation and wishing he himself had been able to dish out the defeat. He too vanished in a blast of smoke. The haze concealed Gohan from Orochimaru's gaze.

The Super Saiyan shot from the cloud like a bat out of hell, swooping low over the ground, his slipstream throwing a tall cloud of loose soil into the air behind him, like a wake from a speedboat. Orochimaru just managed to get his guard into place before Gohan's fist was shooting for his stomach, meeting the Sannin's overlapping hands.

Orochimaru's back bowed outwards as the force ripped through him, lifting him off his feet. Before he could fly away, however, his body lost all its human properties and coiled around Gohan like a constrictor would with its pray. Worry snuck into Gohan's face for only a second, but Orochimaru saw it and began to tighten his grip. Gohan gagged and coughed as his windpipe was slowly crushed beneath the Sannin's sinuous clutch.

"You should've become my host, Gohan-kun," Orochimaru said with a small laugh. "It would've spared you so much pain and suffering."

"Go…to…" Gohan choked out, a bright light forming in his hand, which somehow he'd managed to press up against Orochimaru's stomach. He'd put his hand behind his back and flipped his palm out right before Orochimaru had totally sealed his grip. "Go…to…HELL!"

Orochimaru screamed in pain as he was blown in half by the blast. Gohan coughed violently as his airflow suddenly was returned to him. He stood and looked at the two halves of his enemy on the ground around him, like a deflated inner tube. He spat on the body. "Bastard," Gohan snarled. He started walking away but didn't get more than a few paces before a noise behind him made him turn around.

The sight was enough to make a normal person retch. Snakes were crawling all over the ground, like a million worms, but bigger, and they were pulling the two severed halves of the Sannin together. As the tattered pieces met, the horrific injuries that Gohan had inflicted sealed and healed. Orochimaru still wasn't completely whole when he stood back up. His torso was facing the wrong way. Gohan was about to taunt the Sannin about it when his body shifted again and his torso turned back around with a wet slopping noise until it was facing forward again. Orochimaru smirked. He bent over low. "Mandara no Jin!" Thousands of snakes poured from Orochimaru's mouth, coating the ground like a living and shifting mat. They crawled towards Gohan at an unnatural pace. Had Gohan been in a different state of mind, he would've been unnerved at the sight, but as it was, he only watched the progress of the reptiles with contempt. That is until the front few hundred opened their mouths and each one sprouted a blade that looked oddly like the Kusanagi's. "I'm really starting to hate snakes," Gohan said dryly as the lead wave lunged at him. Gohan exploded into motion.

He flipped, fazed, kicked, and punched through his way through the first wave. The snakes only scored a few small hits before they had to move on. A shadow fell over the enraged Super Saiyan. He looked up, jade eyes wide with alarm. All the rest of the wave of snakes had reared up and filled the sky above him. A sword blade protruded from each mouth.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Gohan muttered right before the wave descended on him. Orochimaru had been standing back with his arms crossed when he saw the golden light begin to pierce the mound of snakes. He smirked and bit his thumb, molding a fast series of hand seals.

"Masenko!"

"Kuchiyose! Rashoumon!"

The protective gates burst up from the ground. The Masenko slammed right into the first one. A hollowing ring echoed over the plains, but the gate didn't give way. Orochimaru was about to say something derisive when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Ka….me….ha….me…"

The Sannin whirled, startled, and saw Gohan behind him, a bright ball of blue-white ki glowing brightly in his cupped hands. "HAAAA!"

Jiraiya and Shizune stumbled when the blast flashed from behind the grinning gates of the Rashoumon and the explosion rocked the courtyard. Two plumes burst from the top of the cloud. They landed. On the left was Gohan and on the right was his enemy.

"Unbelievable," Shizune whispered as the two charged at each other and met with a dull thud behind the Rashoumon. From there, they could hear the sharp claps of thunder from blows meeting each other and muscle slapping against bone. "Gohan's better than Orochimaru?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "No. He's not better than Orochimaru."

"He's not? But how? I mean, Orochimaru's actually trying!"

"True. But trying and being pushed back are two different things. Right now Orochimaru and Gohan are on even ground. Gohan can batter Orochimaru all he wants and that bastard will just bend his body back into place. Orochimaru can't do any major damage to Gohan either. He's already proven he can dodge some of Orochimaru's better techniques without too much of a problem, and if he does get hit, he can keep the damage superficial. It's a stalemate."

Shizune looked startled at the pronouncement but she quickly returned her attention to Naruto. "Dammit! I can't stabilize him!" She pressed her glowing hands more tightly to Naruto's wound.

"Is he alive?"

"Barely. When he started to turn because of your warning, it brought his heart out of the way, so he wasn't killed instantly, but his lung to took the hit. The blade skipped off a rib and made the internal wound just a bit longer."

Jiraiya's voice was cautious when he spoke. "Can you…save him?"

"I…I don't know," Shizune replied, even as she redoubled her efforts to save the bloodied genin next to her. "I just don't know."

"You have to, Shizune," Jiraiya said softly. "Because if Tsunade won't do it, you're the only one who can."

Tsunade flinched at Jiraiya's tone. What she heard in his voice unlike anything he'd used with her before. He'd been angry with her, happy with her, sad with her, and a whole plethora of other emotions. They'd raged and beat each other, sometimes when it was deserved, mostly when it wasn't. All the time, though, they'd remained friends, even if they weren't currently acting like it. But now, Jiraiya had changed, shown her another emotion, this time directed at her. It was disappointment. Jiraiya was disappointed with her.

That more than anything was a crushing blow to the third member of the Sannin. To know that her best and one of her only remaining friends in this world was disappointed in her and was turning to her apprentice for help was a heavy and unpleasant weight to bear. Tsunade glanced at her blood-splattered arms, which were speckled from when Naruto had coughed on her before keeling over. Again she saw Nawaki and Dan's mutilated bodies flash before her eyes. Again the familiar queasy feeling rose in her chest and she felt bile being to rise. Another had died.

And she was helpless to stop it, just as she always had been.

'It doesn't matter what I do,' Tsunade thought to herself. 'It'll never be enough.'

"Now that isn't right and you know it."

Tsunade looked up, shocked, as Dan and Nawaki swam into focus in front of her.

Nawaki huffed and didn't look at her. "Jeeze," He said. "When did you get so weak?"

"I'm not weak!" Tsunade yelled right back. She quieted and glanced away. "I'm just sick of it is all. I'm sick of this shinobi stuff. I don't want to do it anymore."

Dan's ghost smiled at her, just as gently as she remembered from when they had spent nights alone together. "That's not the Tsunade I know," he said. "You're strong. One of the best the Leaf has ever produced. You're not sick of being a shinobi. You've just had your confidence taken."

"I just can't lose anyone else again."

"But you will. People die, Tsunade," Dan said. "There's nothing you can do to fight that. But, the way I see it is, if you love them, and cherish the time you had together with them, then it will be okay." He took her hands in his. "Tsunade, listen. Our death wasn't your fault. And it wasn't the necklace's either," he added quickly when her mouth opened.

"Damn straight!" Nawaki added. He folded his hands behind his head and looked away. Tsunade blinked, startled. For a split second, Nawaki had become Naruto. "Grandpa's necklace wouldn't kill his grandkid and someone that his granddaughter loved!"

"He's right," Dan said with a nod.

"I'm not strong enough," Tsunade mumbled. "I can't take this anymore. I'm not strong enough to bear it all!"

"Then don't!" Nawaki said angrily.

"Rely on your friends in times of great strife," Dan said, kneeling and putting both hands on her shoulders, so she had to look him in the eye. "Let them share the burden."

"But who?"

Dan smiled as he looked at Shizune and Jiraiya. "You've got my niece and your teammate for starters and," here he glanced at Naruto's grayed-out and unconscious form. "I think he'll be a good one too." The two most important people in Tsunade's life began to fade, like they were moving on. "Live on, Tsunade."

"Dan! Nawaki!"

"Live on, Tsunade," Dan repeated. "Live a happy life. Die contented. And when you get to Heaven, look for us."

"We'll be waiting!" Nawaki added with a grin.

Tsunade gasped as she was abruptly aware of her surroundings again. The world was just as she had left it. Wet, rainy, and fraught with battle. In front of her lay Naruto, his blood running over the grass as Shizune desperately tried to staunch the flow. Tsunade blinked. The blood was just blood to her now. For some reason, her talk with Dan, whether real or imagined, had taken some invisible weight from her shoulders. For the first time in years, Tsunade didn't see only the bleakness of the world around her. She saw the hope and promise that Jiraiya saw. She saw the good that Shizune saw. And she saw that the world really was a place for dreams, and dreams were to be lived for. For the longest time, Tsunade had had no dreams, no reason for living. She had only lived for the moment. Did she have a dream now?

Yes, she realized, she did.

Naruto. Somehow, the rambunctious, impulsive, rude, and foul-mouthed boy had grown on her. Unbeknownst to everyone else present, Tsunade had been keeping an eye on Naruto while he'd worked to master Rasengan. She told herself that it was to see if she was going to lose her bet or not, but now she saw the truth. Naruto had reminded her of her brother and that, in turn, had brought up all the memories of happier times, when she'd used to watch her brother train in much the same way.

Naruto and Nawaki.

Nawaki and Naruto.

The two were different in so many ways, but Nawaki was precious to Tsunade, holding a very dear spot in her heart. And perhaps Naruto would be too, given time. But Naruto needed to live to do that and to live he needed medical treatment. Treatment that Shizune couldn't give him now. Naruto needed Tsunade.

Tsunade didn't even realize what she was doing. Before she knew it, she'd shouldered Shizune aside and had folded a long-disused series of hand seals, but they came back to her like she'd used them yesterday. So too did the chakra control and what she had to do to save Naruto.

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked, looking surprised at the turn of events. "What're you doing?"

"What's it look like?" The Slug Princess answered sharply as her hands moved to and fro over Naruto's wound. Before Jiraiya and Shizune's eyes, the bleeding stopped totally and the wound began to close.

"But the blood…"

"Is just blood. It can't hurt me."

Shizune and Jiraiya traded startled glances and Jiraiya shrugged. In no time at all, a bit of color had returned to Naruto's deathly pale cheeks and his breathing was deeper. Tsunade sat back and wiped her brow. "There. I think he's out of the worst of it. Shizune, you can take it from here."

"What about you, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.

She stood up and glared at the battle that still raged between Gohan and Orochimaru. "I'm going to beat the shit out of Orochimaru for what he's done."

"But Gohan-kun said not to interfere," Shizune protested.

"He can kiss my ass," Tsunade snapped. "Orochimaru dared to desecrate Dan and Nawaki's memory by saying he would bring them back to life with some jutsu. I'm not going to let him get away with that!"

"Tsunade," Jiraiya said with a smile.

She spun on him. "What! Make it fast!"

The sage gave her a thumbs up. "Go get him!"

Tsunade nodded and charged for the towering Rashoumon.

Gohan grunted as he took a blow on his arm, shoved the attack away with the block, then lunged for Orochimaru, throwing punches that made the air crack. Orochimaru was backpedaling, keeping distance between himself and the onrushing Super Saiyan. Gohan's hard jade eyes threw daggers at the Sannin's amber ones.

The teen's fist found and opening, slipped through and bashed the traitorous shinobi in the jaw. Orochimaru's head whipped around, spittle and blood flying, his jaw searing with liquid fire as the bone dislocated. He managed to keep the presence of mind to duck a slashing ridge hand. The ground wasn't so fortunate, splitting like boy had swung a sword.

Orochimaru lashed out, aiming to return the abuse he'd just been dealt. His strikes were liquid, flowing from one to the next, punch flowing to kick, flowing to punch, to another punch, another kick, and on and on it went. Gohan was either blocking or one step ahead the entire time. Part of that was due to his enhancement as an Ascended Super Saiyan, but the other part of that was his slim and small frame, which could naturally move quicker than Orochimaru's lankier stature.

The snake lunged with a spear hand that would've punched through the chest of a normal individual. Gohan's own hand intercepted and grabbed right at the base of the shinobi's fingers. The bones in the pale man's hand ground together but Gohan wasn't aiming for that. He twisted and spun, bending Orochimaru's wrist in the opposite direction it was supposed to go. The other combatant reacted with lighting reflexes, launching his body into a roll that kept his arm in line with his wrist, keeping it from breaking. Gohan still had his grip on Orochimaru's wrist when the Sannin opened his mouth wide and lashed out with his tongue.

It began to curl around Gohan's neck, aiming to choke out the warrior. Gohan fazed out right before the hold was finished, reappearing above the Sannin's head with his fists clasped behind his head. He let out a savage yell as his fists came forward and smashed down. Orochimaru lunged forward and rolled. The ground underneath him leaped and buckled as fragments of shattered rock flew everywhere.

The deadly dance the two were locked in had taken them out from behind the Rashoumon and then brought them right back. The ground began to shudder again, but neither fighter was causing it. A shadow fell over Orochimaru as the wan light suddenly cut out. He looked up, puzzled.

"WHAT!"

The Rashoumon was tipping over, but it was clear from Gohan's face that he wasn't responsible. There was an expression that could be called shocked anger on his face, his mouth slightly open as he raised an eyebrow and glared up at the tipping gate.

Tsunade dredged up more chakra from within herself and pushed harder, a vein bulging in her forehead from the exertion, her muscles, deceptively effeminate, swelling as well. She wasn't swelling up like a gorilla, like Gohan or Jiraiya would've if they'd tried the same stunt, but it served as a reminder of just why Tsunade was feared as one of the strongest kunoichi Konohagakure had ever seen, literally.

The gate smashed to earth, the lanterns that hung from its lintel jangling like a brass band of toddlers, the doors flopping open then closed when they hit, making an even louder cacophony that was underscored and amplified by the rumble of buckling earth.

Tsunade winced as she felt the strain in her shoulders. Sometimes she forgot just how old she really was. After all, she saw her thirty/forty-something year old self in the mirror every day. It made it easier to forget sometimes. "Should've stretched more," she muttered as she looked around for Orochimaru, knowing that this little trick wasn't enough to stop or kill him. Sure enough, the ground just outside the doorpost of the gate buckled and a white hand shot out and pulled the rest of the Sannin free. Orochimaru looked surprised at the turn of events.

"Tsunade-hime," he said warily, eyeing her with curiosity. "I didn't expect to see you in battle today."

Tsunade opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by Gohan. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" The Super Saiyan demanded angrily. "I thought I said I didn't want anyone interfering!"

"Shove it," Tsunade snipped right back, neither Gohan nor the Slug Princess taking their eyes from Orochimaru. They both knew better than that. "I didn't come here to argue with you. I'm here to kill Orochimaru, just like you, so how about we put all the posturing and snappy comebacks on the back burner and just kill him. If you want to fight me for interfering, do after, not before."

Gohan's teeth ground before he snorted. "Do what you want," he said, "but don't get in my way."

"Same to you," Tsunade shot back.

"Please, why can't we all get along?" Orochimaru asked with a smirk, but inside he was less than thrilled. Kabuto had been brought down by one punch by Gohan-kun. That meant that, effectively, Gohan was now on even terms with the Sannin, something that had been validated by the battle with the boy. He'd stayed with Orochimaru easily, almost as easily as Jiraiya or Tsunade themselves could. His attacks were deadly, his conviction even more so. Truly this was a complete transformation, physically and psychologically. And then there was Tsunade. The granddaughter of the Shodai had apparently gotten over her hemophobia and her reluctance to fight and now it was, for the second time since the failed assassination of the Sandaime, two-on-one. Orochimaru's gaze flicked to Kabuto, who was stirring but would be less than worthless in this battle.

Orochimaru's lip curled in a snarl then as he realized he would have to be very careful here, otherwise it would spell the end of him, once and for all. He watched Gohan and Tsunade as best he could, all the while plotting how he could kill one (since two would be almost impossible) and escape or just escape, Kabuto be damned. The only thing he had going for him was that Gohan seemed less than thrilled about Tsunade's interruption and they didn't seem to want to work together, a flaw he could exploit.

Tsunade and Gohan moved at the same time, both fighters vanishing like they'd never been there. Orochimaru caught only a blur of movement before Gohan's heel was flying at his face, intent on bashing his nose in. A whisper of noise from behind the Sannin told him that his old teammate had much the same idea, except she'd gone from behind and low, as opposed to high and up front. Orochimaru was already in motion, even as these observations were crossing his mind. His right arm pushed Gohan's foot high as his other hand pushed Tsunade's leg lower and away. The differences in force spun him in the air, then it was gone and the three were back to their brief standoff.

Orochimaru's anger bubbled as he realized that even though Tsunade and Gohan didn't want to work together, that wouldn't stop them from acting and reacting to what the other was doing, which meant that Orochimaru was now at a severe disadvantage. Orochimaru made the first move this time, exploding into motion, charging right at Gohan as a volley of shuriken left his hands, speeding for Tsunade, which he followed up with a Kage Bunshin that went on the attack as soon as it was created.

Gohan turned to the side as he let Orochimaru's right straight slide past him. Even as he was doing that, he was dipping low, right arm shooting out to bar Orochimaru's legs as his left grabbed the Sannin's sleeve and pulled. The pale ninja stumbled then grunted as Gohan's back slammed into his chest. Gohan heaved with all his might and threw Orochimaru through the air like he weighed nothing. He fazed out and appeared in Orochimaru's flight back.

Gohan let loose a warcry as he drew back to abuse another piece of Orochimaru's hide. When Jiraiya was retelling the battle later at the various pubs and bars in Konoha, he would say that to him, he saw Orochimaru go flying, a golden flame appeared above the tumbling ninja then when Gohan hit him, Orochimaru would change direction in mid-air, going from flying at a steep angle to slamming into the ground at a right angle.

The ground rumbled again, throwing a thick, choking, black cloud of dust over the area as he drove both feet into Orochimaru's back. Gohan glared down at the screaming Sannin below him and picked him up by the throat. Orochimaru looked worse for wear now. His clothing was torn, he was bleeding, and there were dark blue and black bruises blooming on his pale hide. Gohan's aura flared into being again, bringing with it the buzz of bioelectricity as his one-handed grip on Orochimaru's windpipe tightened viciously.

Orochimaru gagged and gurgled, helpless in the immovable steel grip. "Please," he managed to choke out around the vice on neck. "H-H-Have…m-m…mercy."

Well that's it for now kiddies. Hope you enjoyed the newest chapter. I think next chapter will end it for the battle and we can move on to bringing this story to its conclusion and beginning on the sequel, entitled Gohan's Return.

~WingedFreedom622

Glossary

Seneijashu (Striking Shadow Snakes): Snakes come out of Orochimaru's sleeves and bite/strangle/kill his enemy.

Mandara no Jin (Myriad Snake Net Formation): If you've seen 4-tailed Naruto's battle with Orochimaru in Shippuden, then you've seen this jutsu. Orochimaru spits out a bunch of snakes, each of which is capable of sprouting a blade from its mouth. Zetsu was right! What is with Orochimaru and barfing stuff up!