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Sakura gagged as she doubled over, trying to choke back the bile that rose in her throat. Her latest attack on Tayuya had been thwarted by an attack from behind by those damned ogre things and she'd paid for it when the musician girl had hit her from the front while Sakura had been distracted.

"Now this is just getting ridiculous," Tayuya scoffed, standing over her, arms folded. She kicked Sakura in the stomach again. Sakura yelled in pain as she sailed out over open space and hit another tree. The kunoichi struggled upright again and glared at her opponent through a curtain of strawberry hair. "Oh? Looks like you have some fight in you after all." Tayuya raised the flute to her lips again and began to play.

Sakura knew what was coming. Sometime before, she'd established that Tayuya used her flute to control the ogres. Of course, actually getting that flute meant something else entirely. Sakura would love nothing more than to use Tayuya's own ogres against her, but if the flute was the key, then the notes it made had to be even more important. Sakura wasn't musically inclined, never had been hence her career choice, nor did she know the sequence of notes she needed to control the damn things. If she played the wrong note, one of three unpleasant things could happen. One, the ogres wouldn't do anything. Two, the ogres would turn on her and kill her anyway. Three, the flute was booby-trapped and with her luck would blow up right in her face.

The monstrosities surged forward, coming at her with moans deep in their stitched-shut mouths. Sakura didn't have enough energy for an evasion right at the moment so she lurched drunkenly and allowed gravity to do the work for her, dragging her off the branch and towards the forest floor, dozens of deadly feet below her.

Sakura managed to snag a passing branch with chakra-enhanced fingers. Her shoulder screamed in protest as she was jerked roughly to a stop, dangling for a moment before pulling herself up and rolling onto her back, trying not to think about the throbbing pain in her shoulder, the blossoming bruises all over her body, and the multitude of cuts and scratches, some nasty, some minor annoyances.

She pulled herself up and cradled her abused arm. It didn't feel broken or dislocated, but it still hurt like hell. Maybe she'd sprained it or something. She didn't know. She fished in her pouch and pulled out a soldier pill. She popped it in her mouth and swallowed it down. A moment or two went by then strength and clarity of thought returned to her. Sakura stood up again, feeling full of energy, almost to the point of overflowing, but knew that it was only a temporary rush. She could fight for three days with no break, but that didn't stop her from exhausting her chakra and killing herself that way.

The Doki were on her then, pushing her back. Sakura fended off their attacks and tried to retaliate, but found that she had no way to do so. They were too fast, too agile, and it took everything she knew to stay on even footing with them. 'A second's delay,' she thought as she ducked and weaved. 'That's all I need, one second's delay.' A thought occurred to her. Would it work? She had no idea, but couldn't see a reason why it wouldn't. 'At this point, what have I got to lose?' Now it was just in the implementation.

She would need to wait for a distract….KABOOOM!

A huge explosion rocked the forest. Off to her left, in the direction of Gohan and Jiroubou, a massive dome of blue-white energy rose over the treetops and kept climbing. It was humming, the sound reaching the two girls right after the shockwave hit them, nearly blowing them off their trees.

"What the fuck was that!" Tayuya breathed, looking towards the dome. Sakura's hands flew together, seizing the chance and implementing her plan. "Don't tell me that fatass actually lost to that brat!"

Sakura sighed, both relieved for Gohan-kun, since he was the only one she knew who could make an explosion like that, and that Tayuya didn't seem to notice what was going on. She drew her kunai and lanced for Tayuya, moving quickly. The Oto-nin's attention was drawn by the motion but by that time, Sakura was on her. She swung wildly with the flute, the holes whistling idly, but missed as Sakura ducked under the blow with a half second to spare and stabbed.

Tayuya spun, trying to get out of the way. She felt a line of cold pain draw itself across her arm, blood running down in a small river. Tayuya tried to get away again but Sakura stayed with her, suddenly always one step ahead of her. Tayuya snarled as she found herself on the defensive, harried and harassed by the sudden persistence of the pink-haired kunoichi.

No matter what Tayuya tried, Sakura was always a half-second faster, her kunai drawing painful cuts on Tayuya's arms, hands, and fingers. One or two was even enough to make Tayuya worry about it costing her the fight. She growled a few choice curses in her throat, feinted one way, then the other, then smashed her flute into Sakura's exposed ribs as she tried to lunge in and get another hit.

Sakura cried out and dropped her kunai, clutching at her ribs. Tayuya grabbed her by the hair and threw her bodily. The Doki surged forward on the strains of Tayuya's flute. Sakura hurled a smoked bomb at her feet. The thick white cloud obscured everything.

The kunoichi charged from the smokescreen as the Doki entered into it, oblivious. The flute's tone changed, warbling a new tune and Sakura glanced behind her to see the monstrosities hot on her tail. They attacked as one. The huge girth of the Doki and the force of their attacks hid Sakura from view, but when they separated, they revealed Sakura, impaled on the yellow one's fist.

She thrashed weakly for a second, then the life left her eyes and she slumped over, dead.

Yamato threw himself into a shoulder roll. Golden arrows stitched the ground behind him, one after another. He came out of the roll and hurled a pair of kunai into the trees in the same motion.

Kidoumaru didn't even blink as the twin knives smashed into bark next to his head. Rather, he let fly with another arrow barrage, the hands that weren't occupied with handling the bow busy secreting, shaping, and nocking arrows to be fired. What with all his hands, he kept Yamato in motion through the simple fact of sheer rate of fire.

"That Kekkei Genkai is getting to be rather problematic," Yamato muttered to himself. "I'm going to have to get around it if I want to get a hit in on him." His eyes narrowed as he found a split-second lull in the fire. It was all he needed. Yamato lanced for Kidoumaru's location like a bullet. His hands were already weaving seals before he even had the six-armed boy in sight. "Mokuton! Mokusatsu Shibari no Jutsu!"

The tree Kidoumaru stood on practically exploded with growths, wooden blocks that were thicker than Kidoumaru was tall. They all arched for him like the tentacles of a monster from some kind of sick manga. Kidoumaru was suddenly busy trying to avoid getting squashed by the tree that suddenly seemed like it wanted to eat him. His bowstring twanged again and again, shattering the onrushing blocks, but that didn't slow them in the least. If anything, it made them even more dangerous because now they had many vicious spikes adorning the crowns.

'I just can't catch a break with this guy,' Kidoumaru thought. He landed on one of the wooden pillars. It didn't move or try to attack him and Kidoumaru figured that the jutsu had run its course. Naturally the tree looked like hell but at least it wasn't trying to eat him anymore.

"Doton! Doryusou!"

The earth erupted, spikes of rock erupting up at Kidoumaru. He leaped up the remains of the Mokusatsu Shibari, trying to evade. He flung his body towards another tree when he reached the upper limits, landing safely. The boy stopped and looked around.

"Jeeze this a way more difficult level than I thought," he muttered. "If I'm not careful it'll be game over for me instead of him."

"I'll take that as a complement."

Kidoumaru spun, golden knives appearing in his hands as he spun around. He hit nothing but air but looked up when a shadow passed across the upper limits of his vision. Yamato hung inverted, already completing a sequence. "Mokuton!" The ANBU's arm transformed into a wooden pillar and streaked down towards Kidoumaru, who looked up at the onrushing attack, eyes narrowing as his body was covered in black marks that thickened and covered him.

Yamato watched as his attack smashed home, throwing up an obscuring cloud. A faint rustle made him throw his body into a dodge, the world spinning crazily around him as he spun. A hail of golden senbon smashed into the ground right where he'd been standing before. When the dust settled, the ground was riddled with thousands of holes, no bigger than the tip of a pen.

Kidoumaru, in his horrific Seal Level 2, dropped to a branch over Yamato's head. He leered down at the Konoha-nin. "Sorry," he said, creating senbon in each of his six hands with that golden armor ability of his. "But this is game over!"

Yamato only glared, taking in Kidoumaru's changed form with apparent disinterest while he paid attention to every little detail, like the long, gray-white hair, the dark red skin, the horns on his shoulders, elbows, and forehead, the tawny and black eyes, and, most importantly, the third eye that was set into his forehead. 'The Cursed Seal must be responsible for this,' he thought, even as he prepared himself to explode into motion. 'The question becomes how do I take him down with a minimal of risk from any special abilities?'

"Trying to figure out how to get around my second form?" Kidoumaru asked with a grin, revealing a mouthful of sharp fangs. "Won't do you much good, I can tell you!" The only outward sign of shock was the twitch in Yamato's eye.

"We won't know until we try, now will we?" Yamato shot back.

"You don't get it," Kidoumaru said, grin widening. "You can't hit what you can't see!" Then he exploded into a cloud of smoke and was gone.

"Kage Bunshin!" Yamato breathed.

A golden arrow exploded from his chest. Yamato had just enough time to look startled before blood leaked out of his mouth and he toppled sideways onto the grass, motionless.

Kidoumaru's lip curled in a snarl as he watched Yamato fall. "Dammit." He started bounding through the trees, randomly changing direction to keep Yamato from guessing his location. "I can't believe he managed a Kawarimi that fast." The third eye blinked, vertically instead of normally. "If it hadn't been for my third eye, I never would've noticed."

Yamato let out a silent breath from the tree he hid behind. "Damn that was close. Thank God I was able to hear the arrow coming." He smiled dangerously. "Now, I think it's time I get serious. And to show just how serious I am…" He reached into his backpack and took out a porcelain mask worked into the shape of a cat. "Let's put this on, shall we?" The mask slid onto his face, a comforting and concealing weight. The second that happened, Yamato the Jounin ceased to exist and Tenzou the ANBU returned. All color bled from Tenzou's body, replaced with a dry, earthy brown. He backed into the tree and melded with it.

"Are we catching him, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "We're gaining," he replied. "I'm worried that it might not be fast enough though. We're only about an hour out from the border. If they cross that then we'll lose them."

"Why? Can't we just chase them down?"

"Sure we can. If you feel like starting a war over it. We cross the border without prior arrangement and it'll be that country's right to attack us. For all they know we're an advance team for an invading army."

"That's stupid!" Naruto said. "And paranoid!"

"You're forgetting that we're shinobi," Kakashi replied. "As a politician in the enemy country, what would you think when a team of shinobi shows up in your territory unannounced? Paranoia is a lot better than complacency after all."

Naruto didn't have much to say to that and instead focused his attention on where they were going. There was silence then the blond spoke again. "Hey, do we really have to kill Sasuke?"

"Can't do it?" Kakashi asked. He jerked a thumb behind him. "The village is that way."

"No! That's not what I meant! I mean…do we really have to kill him to bring him back?"

Kakashi was silent a moment then decided to lay it all out for the blond. "Our orders say dead or alive," the jounin replied. "I'm sure Tsunade-sama would want him alive, if only to keep a Sharingan in Konoha's hands, but I don't think she'll shed too many tears if we have to finish Sasuke off. Of course, I don't want to kill him either, but Sasuke may not give us much choice."

"Huh?"

"Have you paid attention to Sasuke much, Naruto?" Kakashi asked. "Recently I mean."

"Uh…yeah. Now that you mention it he has been acting strange since…since a long time ago."

Kakashi looked him in the eye as they bounded through the trees. "Do you know why?"

Naruto opened his mouth to reply no when he suddenly realized something by the way Kakashi was looking at him. "Wait, Sasuke won't come back to Konoha because of me?"

"Partly," Kakashi agreed. "And partly because of Gohan and partly because of Sakura."

"Gohan and Sakura-chan and me?" Naruto asked. "What's he got against us?"

"Sasuke wants nothing more than to kill his brother, Uchiha Itachi," Kakashi replied. "You've faced Itachi, you know how strong he is, how dangerous an opponent he'd be." Kakashi pretended to ignore Naruto's shiver. "Sasuke also wants to rebuild his clan to the prominence it used to have," the jounin went on, "but he thinks that as long as Itachi lives, they'll risk another massacre. That's not entirely true. I'm not saying I know Itachi well, but he doesn't do anything without cause."

"So what cause did he have to slaughter the entire Uchiha clan?" Naruto asked.

"That's a good question. And that's why it's so strange that Itachi even did the deed. What cause did he have to butcher everyone he knew, loved, and protected? Sasuke was the only one who knows and according to him, it's cause Itachi wanted to test his strength, nothing more. That's not like Itachi. He had a reputation in the ANBU for going out of his way to avoid flaunting his strength. I'm speculating but I've never been able to shake the feeling that there was more to this massacre that met the eye.

"But back to Sasuke. Even if he brings back the clan, he's afraid that Itachi'll come back and destroy everything he worked so hard to gain. He's gotten into the mindset that Itachi is the best that there is. That's not true. There's always someone better than you out there, but Sasuke can't see that. A large part of that is the brotherly affection Sasuke has for Itachi, even if it is locked away very deep inside him. Sasuke spent his entire life looking up to Itachi. It's only natural that Sasuke be obsessed with being the best, because in his mind, you have to be the best to kill the best.

"Sasuke has devoted his entire life to that single ideal and it's what drives him to make the decisions he does. It's why he was so strong in the Academy. His thirst for revenge and drive to kill his brother are all he has now."

"But how do Sakura-chan, Gohan, and I figure into this?"

"Look at what happened early in your genin career. When Team Seven was first formed, Sasuke was the top of the class in everything except tests. He thought, wrongly, that he was ready for Itachi. Then comes the mission to Wave with Tazuna. We were attacked by those two chuunin. Sasuke handled it flawlessly while you froze up." Kakashi held up a hand to forestall the spluttering argument he could see coming. "Let me finish. Sasuke was right to be proud of his achievement. After all how many genin can take down two chuunin almost unaided?

"Remember that I said the next battles would be tougher? I wasn't wrong. Zabuza was a big threat but before that, we got a little unknown added to the equation."

"Gohan."

"Right. Sasuke wasn't really affected by that. He was interested like the rest of you, but that was about it. He saw that Gohan was either your age or only a year or two older. He didn't think Gohan was better than he was. The battle with Zabuza proved him wrong. Then Haku showed up. In the span of maybe an hour, Sasuke was shown two people his age with more skill and power than he did. He got jealous."

Naruto looked pensive. "Okay. That's Gohan and Haku, but it still doesn't explain Sakura-chan and I."

"I'm getting to that," Kakashi replied. "Now Sasuke has this jealousy sitting in him and it grates on him. Notice that he's never hung out with Gohan on friendly terms. He's always either very frosty or downright rude to Gohan too. Then there comes the Chuunin exams. Sasuke is ejected while you, Gohan, and Sakura all make it through. Sakura starts training with Gohan and you land yourself one of the Sannin as an instructor. Sasuke was training with me, yes, but he never anticipated you and Sakura growing as much as you did. In the exams, you showed that you weren't the Dead Last Dumbass that everyone thought you were. In the exams, you came into your own Naruto.

"You took down Neji, a prodigy, and showed the true spirit of a Konoha shinobi. You also showed Sasuke just how much you narrowed the gap between the two of you. It hurt his ego severely. Then Gohan fought Lee and revealed his Super Saiyan transformation, showing Sasuke that not only was Gohan far beyond him, he was stronger than Sasuke had ever dared to imagine. So you, the Academy's Dead Last was catching up, the new guy was fantastically talented and strong and far beyond, and Sakura was also showing that she was more than some helpless little girl. She lost to Temari, yes, but Sakura has only trained harder, polishing what Gohan taught her and rolling her own ideas into it. You just wait, Sakura'll be someone to watch in a year or two.

"So, now do you see why Sasuke left the village?"

"I think so. He saw that he wasn't as good as he thought he was, right?"

"Bingo. Suddenly Sasuke went from being the best to being just another one of the promising genin in the village. It hurt him, Naruto, more than any physical wound ever could."

"Then why didn't he just ask for help? Any of us would've!"

"Pride goeth before a fall," Kakashi answered. "If Sasuke asked you for help, it would mean admitting to himself that he wasn't the best, that he wasn't superior. He'll let himself be taught be an older superior, like me or, God forbid, Orochimaru, but he'll never accept help from you, Sakura, and especially Gohan. It would mean admitting that he's not ready to restore his clan. Not ready to take on Itachi."

"Which is his ambition." Naruto said, eyes downcast. He could see Kakashi's point. Sasuke wouldn't listen to Naruto. To Sakura-chan. To Gohan. He wouldn't listen to anyone of them maybe. Kakashi might be able to get through to him, but even that was a very big might. "So you're saying that we have to kill him?"

"The chance is very high," Kakashi replied somberly. "Unless he's got a some way of getting away from the two of us, I'd say it's almost inevitable that we fight. And if we do, Sasuke will be aiming to kill. We're standing in the way of his ambition. He won't forgive us for that. If we want to live through this, we have to fight with the intent to kill as well."

"I…can't do it," Naruto said finally.

"What?" Kakashi asked, knowing full well what the blond had said.

"I can't kill Sasuke," Naruto replied, looking rather teary-eyed. "He's the first friend I ever had, even if we didn't get along. Gohan's the brother I never had, the first person to acknowledge me without me having to earn it first, but still, Sasuke was the first one I'd ever felt…I don't know how to describe it."

"Kindred spirits," Kakashi said. "Every kid in the village had a parent, a family to come home to. You and Sasuke were two of a kind. Neither of you had family and you were both outcasts in a way. You were the hated Kyuubi host and Sasuke was the tragic child from the Uchiha clan. You could relate to each other."

"Yeah," Naruto answered softly. "Kakashi-sensei, I can't fight Sasuke. If the other guy stays behind, I want to fight him. I can do that but Sasuke…I just couldn't do it. Not to kill."

Kakashi was silent for so long that Naruto thought for sure that the jounin was disappointed in him somehow but when he finally spoke, Kakashi's tone was warm and proud. "I'm proud of you, Naruto," he said, smiling over at Naruto. "You've come such a long way in a short amount of time. You're not the Dead Last anymore, not by a long shot. I only hope I live long enough to see you become Hokage."

Naruto brightened. "You really think I can do it?"

Kakashi outright laughed, something the genin had never heard before. "I'd say it's only a matter of time. And I look forward to the day it happens." The jounin grew somber. "Now come on, we have a mission to complete." He shot ahead with renewed speed.

"Yes sir!" Naruto crowed and doubled his pace as well.

Tayuya stood over Sakura's body, leering down at it. "Stupid bitch," she said viciously, kicking the corpse. "Stupid little whore. Stupid piece of trash!" With each insult she hurled, Tayuya kicked the corpse again and again. "This should teach you to stand up to Orochimaru-sama!" She dismissed her Doki and drew back to give Sakura's body again. When her foot connected, Sakura exploded. The white cloud of smoke whooshed over Tayuya, making her choke and gag.

Something tackled her and drove her off her feet. The assailant started raining blows down on Tayuya. Every one of them felt like she was getting hit in the skull by a hammer. In seconds, Tayuya's face was blood and bruised. Tayuya screamed, not in pain but in rage and primal frustration, and swung blindly. She connected by sheer chance. The new attacker was thrown off and Tayuya scrambled back to her feet. She felt her face pale when she saw who attacked her.

"You!"

"Yeah me," Sakura said, huffing slightly from shortness of breath.

"But how!"

"Kawarimi. Never discount the basics."

"You little slut! I'm gonna kill you!" Tayuya reached for her flute, but her fingers groped naught but air. "What?" She looked down and sure enough, the leather loop that usually held her flute was empty.

"Looking for something?" Sakura asked, holding it up, the metal glinting in the sun.

"When did you…that attack just now! You were waiting for me to send my Doki away! You wanted me to!"

"Took you long enough," Sakura replied. Her fist quivered for a moment. Tayuya had just a half second to wonder what the girl was doing then the flute shattered, falling away in slivers and chunks. She drew a pair of kunai. "Now I'm going to kill you."

Tayuya started chuckling. "You?" She scoffed. "You can't kill me! Let me tell you something, you primped up little princess. There's more to us than you know." Black marks spread across Tayuya's skin and thickened. Bone, or what looked like bone, erupted from her head until she was crowned with the white spikes. Her hair lengthened and her skin turned a dark brown.

"What is that?" Sakura murmured.

Tayuya guessed what Sakura was wondering. "It's the second level of the Cursed Seal," she explained. "I'm invincible when I'm like this."

'Invincible?' Sakura thought. 'No, that can't be. There's no such thing as invincible. Gohan-kun taught me that….'

"Dammit!" Sakura swore as she hit the ground. She rolled upright and glared daggers at Gohan, who stood easily a few paces away. They'd been out of the village for a while now and Gohan was showing Sakura basic kata, strikes, kicks, and other taijutsu movements, gauging, he claimed, where her strengths and weaknesses lay. Of course, it wasn't helped by the fact that Sakura was still wearing those damned weights, but Gohan had recently shifted his training style, moving more towards sparring than actually teaching. "How are you always one step ahead of me!"

Gohan laughed. "Experience," he replied. "Piccolo was a hard taskmaster. You think I'm bad? I'm not doing a tenth of what he did to me." He drew himself up, scowled sharply, and deepened his voice to a passable imitation of his mentor's. "Get up, boy! Attack me! You haven't got all day! The enemy won't wait and neither will I!" The saiyan laughed. "I was sore for a week after that one." He jerked his thumb towards their campfire. "Come on, let's eat."

They sat down and dug into a hearty meal that Gohan had made out of the wild herbs and game he'd found around the area. Sakura glanced repeatedly at him, trying to be coy but he caught her quickly enough. "Something on your mind?" he asked.

"Not really, it's just that…I wonder if I'm good enough?" Sakura asked. "I mean, I've heard the stories you tell about Cell, Bojack, Frieza, and all those others and they seem so…I don't know, invincible. Then I think of Orochimaru and how he compares and he seems just as invincible! How am I ever going to measure up to that!"

Gohan looked pensive and he chewed for a second before answering. "Never believe that there's an invincible opponent, Sakura," he replied. "Everyone has a weakness. Everyone is mortal. Everyone can be killed. Don't ever lose sight of that."

"But what about two-on-one?" she asked. "or three-on-one?"

"It doesn't change anything," Gohan answered. He looked up at the stars, just starting to peek out against the gold and pink sunset. "Piccolo told me once that every fight, no matter the number of opponents, is a one on one fight. In the moment they attack, it's just you and your enemy. The others are secondary until they attack. If they attack together, one will always attack first. You deal with him then the other. Do what you have to until they're all down and either dead or incapacitated."

"And how do I do that?" She asked. "I'm scared I'm going to let my friends down. Let you down as my teacher."

"I asked my Dad that when we trained in the Time Chamber back home," Gohan replied. "I was so scared of being defeated by Cell and letting everyone down. Dad had a quote that he said he picked up from Master Roshi way back in the day."

"What was it?"

Gohan's eyes were far away, his mind clearly on another memory. "When you defend yourself, you don't let them hurt you. When you protect someone, you don't let them die." He rose and faced a tree, a good twenty paces distant. "And should the need arise, when you attack…" He thrust out with a fist. The tree lurched and toppled over backwards, shaking the ground with its impact. "You kill!" Gohan turned back to Sakura. "If you ever find yourself lacking because of fear, make those words your conviction and use them to bolster yourself. You'd be surprised how well it works."

Sakura smiled to herself as she remembered everything Gohan had taught her and how much he'd come to mean to her. Sakura didn't know if it could be called love, but she was willing to explore the possibility and she made a promise to herself to let Gohan know exactly how she felt, no mincing words, no chickening out. "You're not invicible," Sakura said to Tayuya. "No one is. Not me, not you, and especially not Orochimaru."

"Watch it, bitch," Tayuya snarled. "I'll kill you right now!" She shot forward. She was fast. Really fast. Sakura's world slowed down to a crawl and Gohan's voice came to her. "When you defend," she whispered, catching Tayuya's blow solid and turning it aside, "you don't let them hurt you."

"I'll kill you!" Tayuya shrieked. "Then I'll kill that mop top bastard and everyone else on your shitty team!" She lashed out with a roundhouse that would take Sakura's head from her shoulders. Sakura was already underneath the blow. Tayuya missed, her momentum spinning her around, giving Sakura a wide-open view of her back.

"When you protect someone," Sakura whispered, "you don't let them die." She attacked, putting everything she had behind it, all her strength, her body weight, her chakra, all of it went into this one final blow. "And when you attack…"

She hit Tayuya hard. Tayuya screamed, her body bowing outward, stretching further and further as Sakura tried to punch through her. Something gave way under Sakura's fist and Tayuya took off like a rocket. She smashed through trunk after trunk before slamming hard into the ground and grinding to a stop. Sakura's jade eyes shone with a fiery determination that matched Gohan and Naruto at their best. "You kill!" She finished.

She slumped to her knees, looking at her fist. A few of her fingers were dislocated and her knuckles were split but she'd won. She'd won! Sakura fell back, spread eagle, laughing in sudden relief and awe. "Of course," she added, "a genjutsu that made you attack a half second too early probably didn't help either."

Finally the fatigue and exertion overtook her and Sakura sank into the welcoming darkness.

And there's another chapter down. Sorry this took so long. The last two fast chapters kinda burned me out and then I had winter break and I didn't feel like doing much of anything during that time. But now I'm back and I hope to get the next chapter up much faster than this one.

~WingedFreedom622

Glossary

Mokuton: Mokusatsu Shibari no Jutsu (Wood Style: Smothering Binding Technique): Lots of wooden tendrils come out of Yamato's arm. He uses them to ensnare opponents. In my story, he can also use an entire tree to do the jutsu.

Doton: Doryusou (Earth Style: Rising Stone Spears): Makes spikes of rock come out of the ground and try to impale the enemy.