"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near." - Sun Tzu
Chapter 17: The Act of Infiltration: Part II
The journey to Oto no Kuni was a rather silent one. The only words being exchanged were stealth tactics and minor discussions about who Orochimaru is. Based on what Naruto gathered from Jiraiya, Orochimaru was the equivalent of a mad scientist with a crazy God-complex, but regardless of those faults, the man was still a sannin, meaning he was around Jiraiya's skill level. In addition to that, Orochimaru was considered to be one of the most gifted shinobi Konoha has ever produced. The fact that he was able to conquer a country a set up camp there was a testament to that.
During the search for Otogakure, the squad consisting of Kazumi, Naruto, and Jiraiya passed through several towns. Jiraiya earned himself the codename 'S.L.' from Kazumi in the second town; S.L. standing for Scumbag Lecher. When they were attempting to gather information about Otogakure's whereabouts, Jiraiya was hitting on anything with curves, claiming that he was "eliciting information", not that it mattered since there was literally no information on Otogakure.
Days passed with nothing being accomplished. Jiraiya repeatedly stressed that using jutsu was forbidden unless absolutely forced to for stealth purposes. Naruto could easily see the reasoning in that. Running around spewing fireballs or rolling into a town, squad deep, with a dozen, mirror copies of yourself didn't exactly conceal you.
Naruto growled in frustration from his place high up in the branches of a rather large tree in a forest just outside the town his squad had previously visited. The 'no jutsu' policy made sense, but it wasn't yielding any results other than keeping them under the proverbial radar.
Glancing down at his sleeping teammates, Naruto wondered whether Kazumi and Jiraiya were heavy sleepers. With her mask on, Kazumi was impossible to tell, but if Jiraiya's snoring was anything to go by, he wouldn't wake up unless someone pissed in his face. After his night watch shift was over, he completely clonked out. Then again, he was a legendary shinobi, quirks and all.
Sighing to himself, Naruto steeled his resolve. Crossing his fingers, Naruto created two dozen clones. No words were exchanged between them. The clones knew their objective, and so, they quickly and silently vanished into the night. They wouldn't stop until they found some sort of clue or at least any kind of indication that Otogakure even existed.
'No jutsu my ass. I'm getting shit done around here.' Naruto thought to himself. He glanced down to his teammates again and was relieved to see that they hadn't awoken from their slumber. Naruto sighed in relief and relaxed against the branches of the tree.
But Naruto felt uneasy. He wanted nothing more than to go out and search along with his clones, but he was already pushing his luck as it was. Naruto shook his head at the thought. 'My clones are good enough for now.'
One particular Naruto clone was silently hopping from tree to tree, trying his best to keep his chakra on the low. He was cursing his luck. Hours of searching for a trail and nothing was found. Still, his objective was clear and his resolve was firm.
A little less than an hour later and the clone had picked up something rather strange. About thirty minutes prior, Naruto-clone had caught the scent of a few humans. Originally, the clone just thought it would lead to another peaceful town, so his hopes weren't exactly at a high point.
The clone's nose didn't lead him to a town. It didn't even lead to a village. Naruto-clone's nose lead him just outside the forest to a fucking base. The base was actually reminiscent of Gato's warehouse.
'Now that takes me back.' The clone briefly reminisced about the time he, or more specifically, the original Naruto, infiltrated Gato's hideout, killed him, killed his men, and the blew the place the fuck up. Naruto-clone couldn't help the smirk that took form on his face. Good times.
Once again, the clone's focus was on the base.
Another Naruto clone had stumbled onto a similar predicament by following his nose. There was another base located on the opposite side of the forest. This clone had the same thought process as the first clone. Strangely enough, that included the reminiscing about the Gato incident.
Naruto-clone, like his fellow clone, focused intently on the base. The base was incredibly suspicious due to the fact that it's a fucking base in the middle of an otherwise barren forest. The clone closed his eyes and gathered nature chakra.
A third Naruto clone had also discovered a base in the same forest. Same creepy looking base, same thought process, same Gato flashbacks and all.
Just like the other clones, this Naruto-clone placed his focus solely on the base. Similarly, he had a plan in mind. The clone closed his eyes and gathered nature chakra. When he opened his eyes, he was in Sage Mode and he immediately sensed multiple chakra signatures within the base. If he was going to stake the base out, he wasn't going in half-assed. The clone planted his ass firmly onto the tree he was currently standing on and prepared for a stare down with the exterior of the base.
Meanwhile, the original sat stock still in the tree with his eyes closed. The average observer would automatically assume that he had fallen asleep during his lookout, but the red shading around his eyes told the tale. Naruto was in Sage Mode because he could sense chakra signatures in that state. It was a hell of a lot more reliable than any other means Naruto had at his disposal.
After sending out his clones, Naruto became increasingly restless. It was clear that none of his clones had found anything, or they would have dispelled and he would have gained their knowledge.
Naruto sighed as he slumped back against the branch of the tree. 'Fuck this mission... and fuck Orochimaru.'
Jiraiya and Kazumi watched with varying degrees of amusement as Naruto ate his breakfast while cursing Orochimaru in a very vulgar fashion. Taking one last bite of his apple, Naruto crushed the core and burned it in the palm of his hand.
"Get up and let's get a move on. The sooner we find Otogakure, the sooner I can shove Kubikiribōchō up Orochimaru's ass and reduce his fucking village to ashes." Naruto said with no hint of amusement as he stood and began walking off. He was dead serious about the shoving and the burning.
Minutes later, and the squad was on the move again. Naruto, in Sage Mode, was leading the group with his senses. Something was bothering Naruto other than the obvious.
'My clones haven't dispelled yet. They were only supposed to search during the night, so what the hell are-'
Naruto's thoughts were cut off by the sudden influx of memories from his clones that had just now dispelled. He stopped on a dime causing his teammates to stop as well and look at him curiously.
"Naruto?" Kazumi questioned as she walked to Naruto's side. The look on his face gave the impression that he just had an epiphany of some sort.
"Come on, brat." Jiraiya spoke as he walked over to Naruto's other side, "This is no time to space ou-" Jiraiya was interrupted when Naruto quickly placed his arm up in a signal for silence. Slowly, Naruto placed the arm back down to his side.
Jiraiya and Kazumi chose to allow Naruto some peace to sort out whatever was on his mind, and about a minute later, Naruto walked forward slowly and turned to face both of them with narrowed eyes.
"S.L." The little nickname Naruto called Jiraiya made him sweatdrop, "What are the chances that Otogakure isn't a village, but a string of bases with a main headquarters?" Naruto questioned.
"...Well that's oddly specific. What makes you think that?" Jiraiya asked in dramatic mock suspicion. He already knew that Naruto created a search squad of clones last night. The toad sage didn't honestly care as long as Naruto's clones didn't get caught or something especially if the clones got shit done.
"Oh yes, Naruto, please tell us what gave you that idea, hm?" Kazumi joined in with an even more dramatic tone. She, too, knew of Naruto's nightly affairs.
Naruto sighed. "Obviously, you two know I made a couple dozen clones and made them search throughout the night for any sign of Otogakure." Naruto said, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "Three of my clones found something of interest: Three bases. And the interesting part is that they each saw a shinobi exiting the bases. Those shinobi had a forehead protector with a sound symbol."
"Kind of a dead giveaway." Kazumi remarked, chuckling softly, "Where's the closest base anyway?"
Naruto thought about it for a minute then pointed off northeast of their location. "The bases are spaced far enough away so you wouldn't stumble upon all of them in one go unless you're using clones or something, but they're close enough so the Oto ninja could probably tell what's happening from their separate hideouts." Naruto explained, "Because of that, I suggest we split up and take the bases out the two smaller bases then meet up at the largest one."
Kazumi nodded, then pulled out a notepad and a pen and began jotting something down quickly. Then, she nodded to herself, satisfied with what she wrote and put away her notepad. When Kazumi looked up, she noticed the questioning looks she was receiving from her teammates.
"I'm still your evaluator, you know." Kazumi said, regarding Naruto.
"...Alright, but did you really have to write whatever you wrote down?" Naruto asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yup! I tend to forget things." Kazumi answered, smiling behind her mask.
Naruto didn't dignify that with a response. Instead, he turned toward Jiraiya. "So what do you think? Split up or take them out one-by-one?" Naruto asked, though he was fairly positive about what option Jiraiya would choose. "I'm pretty sure I know which one Orochimaru would be in if that's your concern."
"Alright, Naruto, you're the man with the plan. We'll do this your way. You and Kazumi take out the smaller bases, then meet up with me at the largest one if it still there by the time you two are finished." Jiraiya said with a grin. He was pretty impressed with how Naruto was dealing with the mission, disregarding the colorful profanities directed at Orochimaru.
Naruto created two Shadow Clones; one was commanded to lead Kazumi to one of the bases and one was commanded to lead Jiraiya to what Naruto assumed to be the main headquarters. As they paired off and departed, Naruto smirked to himself.
'This mission is starting to get exciting.' Naruto's smirk grew as he took off, heading toward the closest base in the forest.
It hadn't taken long for Naruto to reach his destination. For that reason, Naruto decided to wait. His plan wouldn't work unless he and Kazumi took out the bases at around the same time, so he would wait until the clone leading Kazumi dispelled.
That gave Naruto time to develop his plan even further.
'One front exit and one back exit. I need to consider the possibility of underground exits, too.' Naruto thought to himself, reviewing the knowledge from his stakeout clone. To counter the possibility of underground exits, Naruto created four clones that headed out in four different directions about a kilometer away where they each hid among the trees and constantly gathered nature chakra.
'If there aren't any underground escape routes, then I have four Sage Modes in the tank.' At this point, Naruto was giving the middle finger to anyone who said he wasn't smart.
Minutes passed by and Naruto had planned out what he was going to do about the base, and at that moment, the clone that led Kazumi dispelled. Naruto gathered nature chakra and entered Sage Mode. The Bunny was in position, and Naruto allowed himself a fanged smirk.
'Time to work.'
*Moments Earlier*
"At this rate, you'll be Anbu in no time. You're handling this mission like a champ." Kazumi praised Naruto's clone, lightly punching him on the shoulder. She giggled when the clone flinched.
"Don't do that." Naruto-clone said simply. He was a Shadow Clone, so naturally he was afraid of physical contact. Fucking sue him.
"Whatever you say, Captain Naruto." Kazumi said with a mock salute.
The clone sighed.
The two jumped through the trees while engaging in light conversation and not long after, they had arrived at their destination.
"There it is in all its filthy fucking glory." Naruto-clone informed Kazumi, pointing to the rather plain base, "Be thankful that you don't have my nose. That base smells like ass." The clone muttered. He looked over to Kazumi because he expected her to laugh or tease him about his hyper sensitive nose, but she just stared at the base.
'Why does that base look familiar? I haven't been here before.' Kazumi completely lost herself in her thoughts. All she could focus on was that base, that eerily familiar base. Everything else fell apart, leaving her, that base, and her scattered memories.
"Kazumi." Naruto said while nudging the girl and getting her attention, "Now's not the time to space out. You got some work to do."
Kazumi nodded her understanding. For now, any strange familiarity with the base was the furthest thing from her mind. She placed her hand on the hilt of her ninjato.
"Kick some ass and leave no survivors." The clone said, eyeing the sword in Kazumi's grasp, before dispelling.
'If I'm gonna do this, I need to be absolutely ready.' Kazumi thought to herself in all seriousness. She pulled out a scroll from her pouch, unrolled it, and channeled her chakra into it to summon the desired object. She put her mask off to the side just for the moment. Kazumi tossed the object in the air and caught it in her mouth, chewed it, and swallowed. Then, she let out a relieved sigh as she placed her mask back on.
'Emergency gumdrop, where would I be without you?'
*Present*
Jiraiya and Naruto's clone headed outside the forest to where the largest of the three bases was located. This base was far away compared to the distance between the other two.
"Not a bad plan you came up with, Naruto. By all means, we really don't have a chance of failing." Jiraiya mentioned as the two quickly made their way to their destination.
Naruto-clone glanced over to Jiraiya for a second before focusing on the path again. "Of course we won't fail. Orochimaru doesn't stand a chance in hell against us." The clone affirmed with a smirk.
Jiraiya barked out a laugh as the two continued on. Eventually, they reached the largest base and Jiraiya let out a whistle.
"Leave it to Orochimaru to build a series of bases under the guise of the village." Jiraiya commented as he observed the base.
"Kazumi and I will meet up with you here after we're done with our bases if you don't finish up before then." The clone reminded the toad sage before dispelling in a small cloud of smoke.
Jiraiya shook his head and chuckled when the ground around him shook lightly and he heard a loud explosion.
"That's gotta be Naruto." Jiraiya muttered under his breath, "Guess that's my cue to go loud." Jiraiya finished with a grin, retrieving some paper bombs, smoke bombs, and flash bombs.
*Moments Earlier*
"Kick some ass and leave no survivors." Naruto remembered that to be the last thing his clone told Kazumi before dispelling. 'It's good practice to follow your own advice after all.' Naruto thought to himself, smirking as he drew kunai and wrapped a paper bomb around it. Situating the kunai in his right hand, Naruto crossed his fingers and created four clones. Each of the clones had a kunai with a paper bomb on it.
"Let's give these guys a 'courtesy call.'" Naruto and his clones aimed their kunai at the four corners of the base, "Let'em fly." Naruto commanded.
Naruto and his clones threw the kunai and each hit their mark. The bombs exploded, but the base still remained intact. Naruto dispelled his clones and hid in the shadows, waiting for the Oto shinobi to make their move.
It didn't take long for about fifteen Oto ninja to pile out of the base, each wearing the same gray outfit with a black face mask that left only the eyes visible. They situated themselves so they were facing every direction of the forest and their backs were against each others. They had all taken the liberty of retrieving kunai from their supplies.
'Decent formation.' Naruto thought to himself. Then, he eyed the small space between the shinobi. 'But not good enough.' Naruto drew Kubikiribōchō and held it in his right hand while he created a Rasengan in his left hand.
The Oto shinobi heard him shuffling, though.
"Over there!" Two of them shouted, throwing their kunai at the tree Naruto was in.
The fox-eared shinobi smirked at the attempt. He expelled his chakra to the space between the Oto shinobi he was eyeing and Burst Stepped to that location, flying to his destination in a black blur. The Oto shinobi only heard the ruffling of Naruto's sage cloak.
Quickly, Naruto slammed the Rasengan into one of the shinobi that spotted him earlier. The others quickly turned around and tried to attack, but Naruto rapidly spun around in a circle, channeling a large amount of wind chakra to Kubikiribōchō.
"Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu." Naruto bellowed as many sharp wind blades shot out from his sword and sliced majority of the shinobi surrounding him. The shinobi screamed as they raised their arms in a futile attempt to save themselves from serious harm.
Only a few made it away and struck back at Naruto with rather precise kunai strikes. They at least managed to keep Naruto on his toes until he decided to end their shit. He Burst Stepped out of their range and flowed through hand signs, performing the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.
The powerful wind knocked the Oto shinobi back and off their feet. Before they could recover, Naruto and two other clones slammed Kubikiribōchō through their chests, ending their lives.
Naruto turned his attention to the base itself. With his sage senses, he could definitely tell there was at least another ten shinobi in the base. Seven of them were standing very close to the entrance.
'Think they'll get the jump on me? Ridiculous.' Naruto thought in amusement. It definitely seemed as though those seven were just going to jump him if he tried to enter the base.
Naruto smirked as an idea suddenly flowed through his mind. Crossing his fingers, Naruto created seven fire clones. The clones charged through the entrance. As soon as Naruto heard the sound of the Oto shinobi preparing to eliminate his clones, Naruto began mentally counting down. When he reached one, Naruto heard seven explosions spaced within two seconds of each other. His ears twitched as screams of agony rang through them.
Naruto's sage senses informed that the seven shinobi caught in the blast either died or were hanging on to life by a thread.
'Orochimaru doesn't even train these mooks, does he?' Naruto thought to himself as he literally walked right through the front door. He sliced through the fire blocking his way with a wind slash from his sword.
The first thing Naruto realized was that the base was a giant laboratory. All the tell tale signs were there, and based on the descriptions he got from Jiraiya, Naruto would bet money that Orochimaru was running experiments on humans.
'That would explain why he doesn't train these guys. There all just lab rats to him. Why the hell does anyone agree to help someone like Orochimaru.' Naruto thought in confusion. 'Now, where's those last three mooks?' The fox-eared shinobi asked himself as he kept trekking through the lab.
Suddenly, Naruto stopped walking as he heard voices on the complete other side of lab.
"Come on, Dosu, what the heck are we going to do? That guy is a destroyer of men; a real life boogeyman! He just wiped out over twenty of our guys without even trying!" Naruto's sensitive ears picked up on the panicked whisper of a girl.
'Boogeyman? I don't know if that's an insult or a complement.' Naruto thought with genuine confusion etched on his face.
"I say we just jump him! We can definitely take him." This time, Naruto realized it was now a boy talking.
'His arrogance is laughable.' Naruto thought to himself.
"Both of you, shut up and calm down." That was another guy speaking.
Naruto just couldn't resist. He created two Shadow Clones and prepared to fuck with his next targets.
"Seriously, what the heck are we going to do? Should we just run for it?" The girl, Kin, asked her teammates, "No matter what that idiot, Zaku, says, I don't think we can take that guy."
Zaku laughed mockingly at his female partner, "If you're scared Kin, you can run away like the little baby you are."
Before Kin could respond, Dosu cut her off, "We need to escape and send a signal to the others."
"That sounds like a pretty decent plan of action." The real Naruto commented from behind Dosu with amusement evident in his voice.
"Too bad, though. Even if you were to escape, the other bases will have already been destroyed before you even get there." One Naruto clone added on from behind Kin.
"Of course, that's a pretty big if. I guarantee you won't make it passed me." The other Naruto clone concluded from his place behind Zaku.
'There's a lot of chakra centered around that guy's arm.' Naruto realized, eyeing Dosu's metal covered arm.
'What the hell's going on in this kids arms?' The clone standing behind Zaku thought to himself.
Zaku had a confident smirk on his face. He quickly spun around, pointing his left arm at the Naruto clone. In the palm of his hand was a little hole. "Slicing Sound Wave!" Zaku bellowed as a supersonic blast of air shot out from the tube in his hand.
The clone vanished in a black blur. The next thing Zaku felt was his chest being torn apart by a blue orb of chakra. From there, Zaku flew back a considerable distance before slamming into a wall, his dead body slumping forward.
Kin was pinned down. The clone behind her held a kunai to her throat, and told her not to move. She tried not to let her fear show. This guy had just killed over twenty of their guys before coming over, messing with them, and killing Zaku in the blink of an eye. And now, her only hope was that Dosu could take him out and save her.
Naruto knew he had to steer clear of Dosu's metal plated arm. The amount of chakra gathered in that one arm that Naruto could see with Sage Mode and his instincts told Naruto of the danger of that arm, but he didn't quite know what to look out for. Naruto jumped back when Dosu struck with a quick swing. Unsurprisingly, Dosu attacked with the arm that held that porous metal gauntlet. The surprise came when air directed by chakra shot toward him like a bullet.
Dosu smirked confidently behind his bandages. The way he saw it, he already won this scuffle. The biggest surprise for Dosu came when he noticed Naruto's eyes following his directed sound wave before the fox-eared shinobi vanished all together. Then, Dosu screeched in pain as he felt his right arm being severed. Naruto stood before him with Kubikiribōchō drawn.
"Yeah, no more of that. Whatever that attack happened to be was your one and only chance." Naruto said, lifting his sword, "Time to die." He finished as he brought his sword down to cleave Dosu in half, but the bandaged shinobi jumped out of the way at the last second and retaliated by throwing several kunai.
"So you still got some fire left in you after all, huh?" Naruto questioned rhetorically with a rather malicious grin as he effortlessly deflected the kunai, "That's right. Fight on till the bitter end. Never back down!"
Naruto channeled fire and wind chakra to the palm of his right hand. He combined them and contained it. The combined chakra formed a mini Scorch Bomb in his hand. Small as it was, the power was still very much present, though it certainly wouldn't cause as much large scale damage as it had in the Forest of Death.
With the grin still present on Naruto's face, he vanished in a black blur once more, appearing about two meters away from his target. Before Dosu could completely turn around, Naruto threw the Scorch Bomb and watched with satisfaction as it completely incinerated Dosu who could barely even release an agonizing scream before he was completely killed, leaving only ashes.
"So much for him." Naruto stated. Then, he fixed his now purple eyes on the girl in this equation. "What to do with our resident female Oto-nin?" Naruto asked himself with a smirk. Even his clones were grinning along with him.
"I'm feeling nice today." Naruto declared, disregarding the fact that he was currently covered in the blood of over a dozen Oto-nin, "You answer a few questions for me, and I'll consider letting you go free." Naruto finished with mock sincerity. He suppressed a chuckle at the glimmer of hope that shone in the girl's eyes.
'Obvious genin.' Naruto thought to himself, mentally scoffing. 'Oh, I'll consider it alright, and that's about all I'm going to do in that regard.'
*Moments Earlier*
Kazumi didn't even need to bait her opponents out. The ruckus Naruto was causing was loud enough to get about a dozen of Oto shinobi to come out and try to make it to the base Naruto was currently sacking.
"Kick some ass and leave no survivors." Kazumi smiled. She was going to do just that. Call it a personal vendetta. After taking another good look at the base, Kazumi had realized just why the base looked so familiar. It was an absolutely strange and surreal feeling. The rush of memories had left her grasping her head in pain.
The physical experiments, the countless shinobi that were reduced to mere husk, the face of the man responsible for all of this, Orochimaru, and finally, the Memory Blocking Seal Orochimaru placed on her before casting her away like trash.
'Yeah, this is totally personal.' Kazumi thought to herself.
Seeing the Oto-nin attempt to run off to the other base, Kazumi dashed to their location. She moved so quickly that her feet were barely even visible. She cut them off, making them stop and regard her. Kazumi drew her ninjato as she faced her opponents.
"Damn! We're being invaded by Anbu?" One of the Oto-nin cursed his luck.
Before any of the shinobi before her could even retrieve some kind of weapon, she was upon them. Faster than they could react, the Oto-nin were swiftly taken down one-by-one. Kazumi was giving reason to her moniker "The Bunny" as she hopped from opponent to opponent, easily inflicting fatal wounds on everyone in front of her with her ninjato. When the Oto-nin tried to retaliate, Kazumi would block their attacks and counter effortlessly.
One of the perks of being one of Orochimaru's test subjects.
True enough, Kazumi's incredible reflexes and speed were the result of numerous experiments performed on her to make her nearly invincible in all aspects of taijutsu.
'But that just wasn't enough for that bastard of a scientist.' Kazumi thought bitterly. Her greatest weakness to this day was the reason Orochimaru simply threw her away like garbage. As soon as he discovered that Kazumi, inexplicably, had no aptitude for ninjutsu, he lost all interest in her. She went from elite to trash in an instant. Then, to cover his tracks, Orochimaru placed a seal on her, meant to completely block out everything pertaining to him from her memory, but the seal hadn't completely worked. Kazumi had forgotten majority of the things regarding Orochimaru, but she always remembered the name, and strangely enough, the reason she was cast away. Because of that, she resolved herself to become a powerful kunoichi who couldn't perform ninjutsu.
Still, one thing was bugging Kazumi now that her memories were actually intact.
'Why didn't he just kill me that day? What was the point of keeping me alive?' Kazumi decided not to dwell on it for long as she finished off the last of the first wave of Oto shinobi.
Kazumi didn't have to take a step in the base to know that it was a laboratory. She also knew that the base was laced with traps at almost every corner.
'Paper bomb there. Trip wire over there. Paper bomb and trip wire over there. How creative.' Kazumi thought to herself as she walked through the base and skillfully avoided the traps.
Previous knowledge told her there were likely more people scattered throughout this particular base. Twelve shinobi didn't seem like a plausible number.
'Then again, Orochimaru is just freaky like that.' Kazumi thought to herself.
Strangely enough, there were only two more shinobi inside the base. With a simple but effective genjutsu that made it seem as if there were a lot more than one Anbu member infiltrating, Kazumi beheaded the last two disoriented Oto-nin.
With her objective completed, Kazumi exited the base. She began walking off before she stopped suddenly.
"Oh yeah! How could I forget?" Kazumi flipped through her arsenal and counted her paper bombs. "Fifteen, huh? That should be good."
With impressive speed, Kazumi zipped through the interior of the base, slapping down five paper bombs throughout the base. Adding the paper bombs being used as traps, there were eleven bombs in total set inside the base. Kazumi dashed outside and set five more bombs along the corners of the base and slapped one on top for good measure. Then, she jumped off the roof of the base and threw a shuriken at the bomb on the roof to set it off which in turn, created a chain reaction of explosions that racked the interior and the exterior. The base wasn't completely destroyed, but it was entirely unrecognizable what with the destroyed walls and all.
Kazumi sighed.
'If I remember correctly, there's a lot more danger in the headquarters where Jiraiya went. I need to catch up quickly.' She thought to herself as she picked up speed and dashed through the forest. 'Naruto should be on his way over there right about now.'
It may have been a one time thing, but Naruto decided to make it into a tradition. Every time Naruto infiltrated an area, he decided he would blow it the hell up. He did it to Gato's hideout, so why not do it to Orochimaru's?
In case you were wondering, no, Kin didn't survive. Naruto swiftly killed her after he got the answers he wanted. She had actually trusted Naruto to let her go after she answered his questions, and in a way, that made Naruto feel guilty about what he did. He shrugged off the guilt easily enough.
Naruto stood outside the base he just sacked. Miraculously, his black sage cloak didn't have a speck of blood on it. That didn't go for the rest of him, though. There were specks of blood on his cheek. There was blood on his shirt and pants. Kubikiribōchō was almost dripping in blood. Even with all that, Naruto just couldn't find it within himself to care. Sure, he needed a shower right now in the worst possible way, but that was the reality of fighting to the death, and Naruto wouldn't have it any other way.
Naruto dispelled one of his clones that he sent off before he attacked the base, restoring his Sage Mode. Holding his hands out in front of his body, Naruto formed a Scorch Bomb that was roughly the size of the one he let off in the Forest of Death. This time, Naruto made sure to stand a decent distance away. He threw it directly at the base.
In seconds, the entire area was a steaming crater.
"Come on, boys! I'm sure you can do better than that." Jiraiya taunted as he simultaneously slammed two Rasengans into two Oto-nins' chests. After Naruto let the bombs fly, Jiraiya didn't see any point in stealthily invading since the Oto-nin were already well aware they were being attacked.
Now, this particular base that Jiraiya is attacking is roughly three times the size of the other bases. This meant that there were much more shinobi Jiraiya had to contend with. That wasn't a problem for Jiraiya, especially now that he summoned a toad that was twice his size.
"Better come out of hiding now, Orochimaru, before I slaughter all of your men." Jiraiya used his Needle Jizō jutsu to lengthen and harden his hair before swinging his head in a circle, cutting and knocking the Oto-nin that surrounded him off their feet. Following that, jumped high in the air, flew through hand signs and spat a large flame that encompassed most of the area. Jiraiya landed and observed the results, "Too late. They're dead."
"Eager and foolhardy as always, Jiraiya. Some things just never change." Jiraiya's head snapped toward the base's entrance, the source of the familiar voice.
"Glad you could finally join the party, Orochimaru." Jiraiya said with humor evident in his voice. His eyes then hardened, "I assume you know why I'm here."
Orochimaru walked out from the entrance of his base, but he wasn't alone. Beside him were two silver haired individuals. One was wearing glasses and the other was rather pale with two red circles on his forehead. The two men were Kabuto Yakushi and Kimimaro.
"To rush to a premature demise, perhaps?" Orochimaru guessed, chuckling to himself. Suddenly, he stopped and along with his two allies, he jumped out of the way of a Scorch Bomb.
Naruto decided to pick and choose his target now that he arrived, and he picked the pale one with the red circles on his forehead. Naruto Burst Stepped over to the man to just cleave him in half with Kubikiribōchō, but was definitely surprised when Kimimaro blocked his sword with a bone he sprouted from his arm. The two held the deadlock as they tried to gauge the other.
Kabuto was about to aid Kimimaro when he felt his vision twist and turn. He heard an annoyingly loud and persistent buzzing noise, and he felt like he was being stabbed repeatedly by little needles. Gritting his teeth, Kabuto formed the ram seal and dispelled the genjutsu he knew he was under. As soon as he broke the genjutsu, he was just barely able to avoid a game ending slash of a sword, though not completely as he was slashed across his chest. Before he could react, Kabuto's opponent planted a side kick firmly into his chest, sending him back and knocking the wind out of him. Then, she followed up with a quick combination of punches before finishing with a full power uppercut to Kabuto's jaw. The force of the strike took him off his feet and knocked him back.
Kabuto landed on the ground with a dull thud. Kazumi walked over to his body, prepared to finish him off, but all the wounds on Kabuto's body began quickly healing. The medic-nin stood and popped a pill in his mouth. His chakra spiked and quickly blocked a sword strike from Kazumi with a kunai, and pushed her back with his increased strength.
"Unfortunately for you, Kazumi," Kabuto began as the last of his wounds healed, "Fighting me will not be so easy." He finished. His hand was engulfled in a blue aura and he dashed at Kazumi with renewed vigor.
"You should know by now, Kabuto. Charging at me is a really dumb mistake!" Kazumi responded, taking up a fighting stance with her sword at the ready.
Bone and steel clashed repeatedly as Kimimaro and Naruto engaged in close quarters combat.
"Not bad. Seems you'll put up a better fight than those other Oto-nin I killed." Naruto said with a smirk. Since he was in Sage Mode, forcing Kimimaro back wasn't much of a problem, but when the bone-wielding shinobi struck back, Naruto was kept on his toes.
'Damn, he's fast and his strikes are deadly and precise. He's definitely in a different class than the other Oto shinobi.' Naruto thought to himself. It was taking almost all he had to avoid being fatally stabbed.
As the two sannin clashed, Jiraiya couldn't help but feel that something was off about Orochimaru. His movements were considerably slower, his attacks weren't as sharp, and his techniques didn't pack much of a punch. Jiraiya always figured he would have to tread lightly when fighting Orochimaru, but right now, he was controlling the pace of the fight.
Orochimaru dashed around Jiraiya, trying to disorient him, and when he thought he was successful, he stretched his arm and went for a punch. Jiraiya lengthened his hair to cover himself completely, then he sharpened his hair and shot the needle-like hair out at Orochimaru.
Even more jarring for Jiraiya was that Orochimaru actually got tagged by a decent number of the hardened needle-like hair. Normally, a technique like that would only be a feint.
'Now I know something's up. I'm barely even trying now.' Jiraiya thought to himself.
"What's wrong, Orochimaru? No snakes today?" Jiraiya asked tauntingly. He legitimately was wondering why Orochimaru hadn't summoned any snakes.
Orochimaru only chuckled.
'Yup. Definitely something wrong with him. That or he's not the real Orochimaru.' The idea wasn't so far-fetched when Orochimaru was involved.
Jiraiya sighed in frustration. Everything was pointing toward that second option. The real Orochimaru probably wasn't even there anymore. It had been quite a while since Orochimaru set up camp in Ta no Kuni, now renamed Oto no Kuni, so it was well within the realm of possibility that the snake summoning sannin simply moved on to another hideout, meaning that this mission didn't accomplish much of anything.
Regardless, this fake-Orochimaru in front of Jiraiya was about to lose some vital parts of his body. Frustration will do that to a guy.
In the short time Kazumi knew Kabuto from her time as one of Orochimaru's elites, she was well aware that the medic-nin was Orochimaru's right hand man. He certainly wouldn't be given that position if was a slouch in battle, so why was she having such an easy time dancing around his attacks.
Kazumi knew not to let Kabuto lay even a finger on you, because with his vast knowledge in medical ninjutsu, he would sever tendons by simply swiping your leg or stop your heart by messing with your arteries. In short, he was a very capable fighter who was skilled in various aspects, but one wouldn't be able to guess that going by how Kazumi was making him look like a joke.
It was that very reason that brought Kazumi to the conclusion that she wasn't fighting Kabuto. She knew enough of Kabuto's abilities to know that he could do a ton of shit that made absolutely no sense unless you were Kabuto, himself, or Orochimaru. When she did know him, Kazumi would always hear Kabuto saying, "When you have access to a person's DNA, so many windows will open."
'Oh man, at the time I just thought he was an insane, mad, scientist.' Kazumi thought to herself as she avoided one of Kabuto's Chakra Scapel strikes and countered with a quick slash of her sword that had Kabuto recoiling in pain.
'Well, time to end this.' Kazumi thought to herself as she followed up on her sword strike with rapid slashes. Whenever Kabuto tried to retaliate, she would simply dance around his attack and keep slashing at him. Blood was flowing freely from Kabuto as the all the punishment was getting to him. Finally, Kazumi stabbed Kabuto through the heart. She watched as the life left his eyes and fell to the ground.
Seconds after he fell, 'Kabuto' became some person she didn't recognize.
'Should've figured as much. Kabuto's such a freak.' Kazumi sighed. She turned her attention to where Jiraiya was promptly handing what she assumed to be a fake Orochimaru his pale, white ass to himself on a golden platter. Then, she looked over to where Naruto was fighting who she recognized as Kimimaro.
Her eyes widened. 'Naruto's fighting Bonezilla?'
Jiraiya dodged a swing from Orochimaru, whom over extended and left himself open. Jiraiya easily punished with a dual Rasengan to the chest that sent Orochimaru skidding through the clearing until he slammed into a tree. Orochimaru slumped against the tree, looking rather dead.
"What? Aren't you even going to do that nasty little thing where you spit out new body? Oh, come on!" Jiraiya said with his voice becoming increasingly louder and higher pitched. Then, he saw Orochimaru's body change into some random mook. "Big surprise." Jiraiya commented sarcastically.
"Dance of the Camelia." Kimimaro modified one of his upper arm bones and created a short, bone-hilted sword. Then, he dashed at Naruto, stabbing at him chaotically and rapidly, forcing Naruto to stay on the defensive and not leaving him any room for a counter.
Naruto did his absolute best to block and dodge each of Kimimaro's unpredictable strikes, but the bone-wielding man's technique, unpredictability, and speed were overwhelming. Naruto was stabbed several times before he decided to put some much needed distance between himself and his opponent.
Blood fell from the wounds on his arms and upper body. Naruto growled lowly to himself. He stabbed Kubikiribōchō into the ground and crossed his fingers, creating a dozen Shadow Clones, throwing two Fire Clones into the mix.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kazumi approaching. "Kazumi, there's more Oto-nin in the base. Remember what I told you earlier? I can take care of this myself." Naruto said to his Anbu partner. He could see her hesitating, so he turned to her and smirked, "Trust me. I can handle this."
That did well to assure Kazumi, so she went to where Jiraiya was and told him what Naruto told her. Together, they went inside the base.
"You fight with honor. That is very admirable." Kimimaro remarked as he watched Naruto turn down assistance from his teammates.
"Honor has nothing to do with it." Naruto said as he turned back to face Kimimaro, "I just don't want anyone interferring. That's all."
"Is that so? You may come to regret such a foolish decision." Kimimaro replied as a black mark on his chest began spreading all over his body.
Naruto could see that Kimimaro's chakra had become much more powerful with the transformation.
"I guess we'll find that out later, won't we?" Naruto responded. He and his clones swung their wind chakra infused swords in a wide arc, "Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu."
Kimimaro dodged majority of the wind blades, but the ones that did hit him didn't nothing more than leave a very shallow cut on him and push him back.
'What the hell? That should've done more damage.' On closer inspection, Naruto realized that chakra was constantly flowing the Kimimaro's bones, and right before he was hit, he gathered even more chakra to the points of impact.
Naruto didn't have much longer to ponder his opponent's abilities as Kimimaro rush in with bones sticking out of his arms.
As Kimimaro got closer, Naruto and his Shadow Clones jumped back, leaving only the Fire Clones. Kimimaro closed in and engaged the Fire Clones. He wasn't doing much other than parrying and countering.
"Dance of the Willow." Kimimaro swiftly took out each of his attackers. His eyes widened as the two clones burst into flames. He snapped his eyes shot and covered his body with his arms.
Naruto and his Shadow Clones smirked as they lifted their swords and let out a powerful wind slash that cut through the fire and slammed into Kimimaro. Naruto and one of his clones took advantage of the knock-back, and they each Burst Stepped forward with a Rasengan in their hand. They slammed it into Kimimaro and watched with satisfaction as he was sent flying out of the clearing and into the forest.
Naruto dispelled his clones to gain their remaining chakra and gave chase. Unless Naruto saw Kimimaro's dead body, he was alive as far as Naruto was concerned.
When Naruto located his opponent's body, Kimimaro was just lying there, unmoving. He looked dead or at the very least, unconscious. Naruto guessed it was the latter, since chakra was still flowing through Kimimaro's body.
Naruto formed another Rasengan and walked over to Kimimaro slowly. When it didn't look like Kimimaro was going do anything, Naruto slammed the Rasengan down on Kimimaro.
He was definitely shocked when bones shot out from Kimimaro's chest and grabbed his arm before he could make contact with the Rasengan. He struggled to break free, but Kimimaro's hold was too strong. Kimimaro then formed a sharp bone from his hand, aimed for Naruto's heart, and stabbed.
Naruto was able to shift slightly to avoid being killed, but he was still stabbed. He shrugged off the pain and quickly situated Kubikiribōchō in his left hand, he gathered wind chakra to the blade and slammed it down, aiming for Kimimaro's head. The bone-wielding shinobi quickly released Naruto and rolled out of the way.
Naruto really just wanted to drop a Scorch Bomb on Kimimaro, but by the looks of it, Kimimaro would never give him the time needed to charge it up.
'I really need to train my Scorch Style.' Naruto thought to himself.
'Everyone is given life for a purpose. Life is about discovering what that purpose is, and using the gifts you have to support that purpose.' Kimimaro thought to himself as he began undergoing another transformation. His skin became a light brown, his eyes turned black with yellow pupils, black marks formed around his eyes, bones sprouted from his back, and strangely enough, he grew a tail. '...Yes, that is the only freedom we are given as human beings. My purpose is to serve Lord Orochimaru, and protect his ambitions. I will not allow anyone to stand in his way.'
Naruto dispelled another one of his nature chakra-gathering clones, and restored his Sage Mode. Naruto gathered fire and wind chakra to Kubikiribōchō and slammed his sword in the ground, releasing a powerful fiery tornado that engulfed Kimimaro.
Suddenly, a long bone whip flew from the fire and wrapped around Naruto, tearing into him and forcing him to drop his sword. Naruto's confusion quickly turned to shock as he realized that Kimimaro must have pulled out his spine.
From the flames, Kimimaro walked out, holding the spinal whip, with a massive spear-like weapon that completely encased his left arm. Severe burns marred his body, but he carried on, charging at Naruto.
Naruto managed to free his right hand. He formed a Rasengan and slammed it into the ground to kick up a cloud of dust, dirt, and grass, obscuring him from Kimimaro's vision.
Kimimaro felt his whip go completely loose, signalling that Naruto broke free. When the dust cleared, Naruto was no where in sight, but he could feel a dense, powerful chakra.
Kimimaro realized he was surrounded. Six Narutos jumped out from the trees, holding Scorch Bombs in their hands. The Narutos let them go one at a time, throwing the bombs when they felt they had a legitimate chance of making contact. Kimimaro did well to dodge them, but it was getting harder and harder as his opponents started adapting to his movements. The last one very nearly caught him, but he managed to jump high to avoid it.
"The first strike is always a feint." Kimimaro's head snapped up at the voice. There was another Naruto, holding a much larger Scorch Bomb. By the time Kimimaro turned to face him, Naruto had already thrown the bomb. Kimimaro was caught with his pants down, so to speak, as he was still airborn from avoiding the sixth Scorch Bomb. There was no avoiding it.
Naruto landed out of the blast radius, panting heavily, with blood dripping from his body. Naruto immediately searched for his sword, before cursing to himself.
'Kubikiribōchō was caught in the blast. Fuck, it probably melted.' Naruto thought, mentally cursing himself for acting impulsively.
Just as expected, there was nothing but ashes... and melted Kubikiribōchō.
'That's just fucking great. I destroyed my sword.' Naruto thought to himself. 'Zabuza's probably pissing himself from laughing too hard if he's watching right now.'
Naruto took a moment of silence to remember the good times with Kubikiribōchō.
"Looks like you did it, fox-boy, but you totally got worked over for a bit if that blood is any indication." Kazumi said with a smile as she walked up to Naruto. Then, she saw a small piece of what looked like Kubikiribōchō's hilt on the ground. "Oh, you're sword... I remember when my first sword was destroyed. It was like my baby. I even named her. I called her Swiss."
Then Kazumi smiled brightly as if she just thought of something. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of fruit snacks. "Here! This should cheer you up!" Kazumi stated as she placed the snack in Naruto's palm.
Naruto shot Kazumi a strange look, before looking at the snack in his hand. He shrugged, tore open the pack, and popped three of the fruit snacks in his mouth.
"Strangely enough, I actually feel a bit better." Naruto said with a small smile as he continued eating the snacks.
"Come on, brats. Let's go back home." Jiraiya called out from back in the clearing.
"You coming, fox-boy?" Kazumi asked as she began walking. She pulled out another pack of fruit snacks from her other pocket, and began eating them.
"Right behind you." Naruto replied with a bunch of fruit snacks in his mouth, so it was hard to understand what he just said. His wounds, thankfully, were already starting to heal. To speed up the recovery, Naruto dispelled another of the nature chakra-gathering clones.
Kazumi just giggled at his slurred speech, and the two walked side-by-side out of the forest, enjoying the same delicious snack.
Nice long chapter for the conclusion of the mission. I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I definitely loved this one, so I hope you guys feel the same.