Author's note: Good news: My notebook turned out to be not quite dead, so I don't have to rewrite the whole chapter 53 from scratch. Next update shouldn't take long.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Nothing's going to change about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Underground base~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Sound ninja really aren't much,' Hotaru thought as she electrocuted another one with her Lightning chakra charged blade. 'But unfortunately there's an awful lot of them and I'm alone,' she added when two others immediately took his place. She jumped back and ran her fingers through a series of handseals.

"Magen: Jigoku Gouka no Jutsu!" The two Sound ninja screamed in pain as they felt themselves being burned by a giant fireball, not realizing that it was just an illusion. Before they could do so and break out of it, Hotaru sliced their throats. 'Two more down,' she thought, 'who-knows-how-many left to go.'

She let out a breath. She was alone for the moment, so she could afford to rest for a bit and she took the opportunity. Now that she thought about it, it was a wonder she wasn't attacked again immediately. Were the Sound running out of men already? On second thought, there didn't seem to be quite enough shinobi in this base considering how big it was. Though Hotaru encountered their groups often, she was never overwhelmed by their numbers and she could take breathers regularly. And she hadn't run into anyone considerably stronger than her after the initial clash. She filed the thought for later consideration. Now she had some captives to find and free.

She walked through the corridor for about two minutes before she arrived at an intersection. 'Where now?' she mused. The answer became obvious once she looked into all of the hallways. In the one on her left she saw two guards in front of a thick door. 'It looks like they're guarding something important,' she thought. 'Now how to get through them?'

She didn't spend a long time on her strategy. Her fingers raced through handseals. Soon the genjutsu was cast. The two guards turned to face the imaginary opponent rushing at them from the other direction. Their backs were facing Hotaru now. The purple-haired kunoichi sprung into action. Her kodachi crackling with chakra she quickly closed the distance between her and the guards and stabbed the closer one into the head. He collapsed without making a sound.

Unfortunately by that time his colleague realized he was inside a genjutsu and broke out of it. He turned towards Hotaru before she could stab him too. He blocked her attack with surprising strength. The purple-haired girl kicked his shin, but it felt like kicking a rock. Then the man's skin was covered with strange black pattern. 'Curse Seal,' the girl realized. And she had just thought that there weren't any tough enemies in this base. She really should have known better. This was going to be tough. She had to act quickly before he changed into his second level form.

She attacked with a series of furious slashes, but the man blocked her easily. She had the sinking feeling that he was toying with her. But that was something that could be exploited. If he didn't take her seriously, he wouldn't enter his second form.

She jumped back.

"Running away?" the Sound ninja taunted. He seemed completely unfazed by his comrade's death. Hotaru had heard that it was a common attitude among Oto shinobi. She didn't dwell on the thought, instead concentrating on the handseals she was performing.

"Raiton: Raikurai!" she shouted. A bolt of lightning sprung from her hands and hit the man in the chest.

"That stung," he complained. His shirt was singed, but that was all the effect the attack had. Hotaru cursed in her mind. She had hoped for a bigger result. "Is that all you've got?" her opponent taunted. He was inviting her to try something else. The Konoha kunoichi was happy to accept his invitation. Her fingers flashed through seals again.

"Raiton: Piercing lightning!" she cried the name of a powerful lightning attack. Her opponent tensed in anticipation of the almost unstoppable bolts. His face clearly showed his shock at her knowing such powerful technique. He had considered it impossible.

In truth, Hotaru couldn't perform it. But her shout was a diversion, making him miss the technique she had actually cast. So instead of the lightning bolts the Sound ninja suddenly found himself surrounded by rapidly whirling giant flowers. Their movements and bright colorful patterns were making him dizzy. Before he could figure out what was going on he felt a sharp pain in his neck. Hotaru had capitalized on his distraction and sliced his throat. He collapsed to the ground, the Curse Seal markings receding.

The Konoha kunoichi sighed in relief. That had been dangerous, but she prevailed. And now she was alone in front of the obviously important door. Now how should she get in?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Command center~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tenzo cursed as his wood attack was transformed into purple crystal and turned against him. 'This is troublesome,' he thought, followed by: 'Now I sound like a Nara.' But it really was troublesome. None of the attacks he had thrown at his opponent had connected and there were already several instances when he had only narrowly avoided a fatal hit. 'Good thing she is tired and wounded,' he thought. 'Otherwise I'd have been toast already.' The question was what to do now. He could wait for her to tire out even more, but, he thought as he jumped out of the way of crystal spikes suddenly sprouting from the ground, he might not live long enough for the strategy to work. He couldn't wait for backup either, his three students being preoccupied with other Sound ninja somewhere far away. He needed to do something now. If he just had any good ideas.

He decided to go over the options from a tactical textbook. So if ninjutsu didn't work, what about some genjutsu? There was the problem that he wasn't exactly a genjutsu type, but he could do some. And he had already tried other tricks and failed.

He quickly hid behind one cracked crystal pillar that used to be a tree not so long ago. His fingers performed the seals quickly. "Kasumi Juusha no Jutsu," he whispered almost inaudibly. Three copies of him appeared around Guren. She quickly cut them with her Jade Blades. But instead of disappearing, every clone divided into two. The Oto kunoichi looked at the six Tenzo copies surrounding her in shock.

"Disappear already!" she yelled angrily and attacked them with fury. All she accomplished was multiplying their numbers faster. She tried to escape them, but they followed her.

Tenzo saw this as his opportunity. He could take her down now that she was distracted. He grabbed a kunai and moved towards her, covered by his illusion clones.

But just as he was within striking distance Guren suddenly stopped swinging her blades wildly and turned onto him. He had just enough time to block the blade aimed at his neck, but her other one hit his flak jacket and turned a part of it into crystal, which promptly shattered. The former ANBU jumped back immediately, but he couldn't avoid the damage completely. He was now bleeding seriously from a wound on his stomach.

"Did you really think I'd fall for such primitive trick?" Guren sneered. "You Leaf shinobi are really pathetic."

Tenzo didn't answer. His last-ditch plan had just failed spectacularly and he got wounded. His situation had just taken a sharp turn for the worse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Solitary cell~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kurenai felt that she wasn't a very good jounin. She even felt like she didn't deserve to be one. She went as far as to theorize that if it wasn't for the war, she wouldn't have been promoted so quickly, if at all. But she had been promoted and assumed jounin duties. She had been quite relieved when her duties were to become a jounin-sensei instead of a frontline fighter. She had been confident that she could do well as a teacher. And at first it seemed that she was right. Teaching had its own pitfalls, but she could overcome them and her three genin were improving. Kiba was still reckless, but she was doing her best to instill the value of thinking before acting into him. And his fighting and tracking abilities were good for his age and improving. Shino was always quiet and serious, but he could always handle whatever she threw at him. And Hinata, poor, little, shy Hinata, seemed to be gaining at least a tiny bit of confidence, despite her father's harsh words. Kurenai was convinced that given enough time she'd grow up into a fine kunoichi and allow herself to believe she was one. And the three genin worked very well together and cared about each other. They were a good team in the making. Everything had seemed alright.

Then their first C-rank mission came and it turned into a spectacular failure. She hadn't expected to be ambushed so close to Konoha. There had been no warning. One moment everything had been quiet and the next they were under attack. She had managed to kill two of the attackers, but they fell quickly in face of the overwhelming numbers. They were taken into captivity.

She knew very well what happened to captives. Especially if they were unlucky enough to get captured by Orochimaru's forces. And Kurenai had the sinking feeling that their attackers were from Otogakure. The young jounin shivered when she thought about it.

She forbade herself such depressing thoughts. She had to concentrate on something else, like getting out of here. But she had already gone through all her options for a hundred times. She was bound so tight she couldn't move, there was a chakra suppressing seal on her and she was inside a sturdy cell. She could do exactly nothing. She really hated her situation.

Then she could hear some commotion outside the door. She raised her head. Was it already time for her to be taken away for experiments? Or, she almost didn't dare to hope, did help arrive? She listened carefully. Yes, there was definitely a fight going on outside. She wondered who was fighting whom. Then the sounds of scuffle ended. Kurenai wondered who won. The quiet on the other side of the door was oppressive.

Then there was a loud explosion and the door fell inside. Her ears ringed and the cloud of dust raised by the explosion made her cough and her eyes tear. If she could just wipe them... but she was still tied.

Then a figure stepped through the hole. Kurenai couldn't see much, just that it was female. Probably. The mysterious person walked towards her.

"Yuuhi Kurenai?" she asked. The jounin blinked in surprise. Her captors wouldn't be so polite, would they? Then her teary eyes finally focused and she could see the newcomers hitai-ate. Konoha. So the rescue was here after all, unless this was some trick of her jailors.

"You are Yuuhi Kurenai, aren't you?" the girl asked. Kurenai nodded. There was no harm in it. "We're here for you," the girl said, loosening her bonds. Kurenai suppressed a grimace as blood rushed to her appendages. Then she was suddenly free. She rubbed her hands and feet that felt full of needles.

"Can you walk?" her rescuer asked.

"Yes, but they sealed my chakra," the jounin replied.

"Oh." The girl began searching for the seal, eventually discovering it on Kurenai's back. Then she pulled it off. Kurenai sighed in relief when she could feel her chakra again.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," the purple-haired girl smiled. "Now let's get out of here."

"We have to find my students first," the jounin-sensei reminded her.

"Do you know where they are?" Kurenai shook her head no. "Well, they weren't where I come through, so let's try this way?" the younger kunoichi pointed into one of the corridors.

Kurenai just shrugged. "Why not?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Prison passageway~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hinata cursed her powerlessness. The jailor was carrying her away and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. She knew that their rescue was almost there, she could tell by the explosions earlier, but they weren't going to make it in time. Soon the door of the underground passage would close behind them, the passageway would collapse and their rescuers would be stopped. And then she'll be taken to who-knows where, her eyes taken and she'd be forced to bear children for her captors. And who knew what horrors awaited her teammates and sensei. And all of that because she was too weak. If she was more like Neji or Hanabi or any other shinobi, she could do something. But she was just poor little Hinata, the eternal failure.

She felt tears surging into her eyes. She always knew that she wouldn't last long as a kunoichi, especially during wartime, but she didn't want to drag her comrades, her friends, down with her. But what could she do? She was bound so tightly she couldn't move. And even if she could move, she wasn't strong enough to defeat the man. It was hopeless. Soon the door would close behind them and then... No! She couldn't accept it. She just couldn't. She had to do something. So what if she was too weak to win this fight? She didn't have to. She only had to slow their captors down so the rescue could arrive in time.

So what could she do? She was bound, but her chakra wasn't sealed. Their captors hadn't considered the genin dangerous enough even after Shino's stunt and sealed only Kurenai's chakra. But her chakra wouldn't do her much good when she couldn't perform handseals. But she didn't need seals to perform Juuken. And the guy carrying her was dumb enough to hold her in one arm so that her bound hands were close to his belly. But her Juuken wouldn't be very effective if she couldn't see his tenketsu. And she needed handseals to activate her Byakugan. She sighed as she remembered how her father always activated his doujutsu with just a thought. But he was a strong warrior and she wasn't.

But she couldn't give up. She was Hiashi's daughter, Neji's cousin and Hanabi's sister. At least a bit of their greatness should have rubbed off on her. So could she perhaps activate her Byakugan seallessly? Well, one way to find out. Hinata took a deep breath and concentrated.

It was hard. Her chakra didn't want to move according to her wishes without the aid of handseals. But it wasn't unresponsive either. With a bit more concentration, she could force chakra into her eyes. It just wasn't very effective. She concentrated harder and then suddenly the world become brighter and her field of vision expanded.

"Byakugan," she whispered in relief.

"What?" the man carrying her jerked, realizing that something was wrong. But it was already too late for him. Hinata could see his tenketsu clearly. Just a little twist of her fingers, a little blast of chakra and the first one was closed. The second one followed almost immediately. The man screamed and dropped her. As she fell, she closed three more tenketsu in his left thigh. His leg gave out. He collapsed on the ground next to the Hyuuga girl.

Hinata's Byakugan deactivated on its own as she hit the ground. She had wasted too much chakra activating it and now she was spent. But she was happy. She had slowed them down. She had actually accomplished something.

"What's going on?" the man carrying Kiba asked.

"That bitch..." Hinata's jailor hissed through clenched teeth, pushing himself into sitting position. "She attacked me." He pulled out a kunai. The young Hyuuga froze in fear. Was he going to kill her now? She didn't want to die. But if her sacrifice helped her teammates, then she had no regrets.

"Pick her up and go," Kiba's captor commanded.

"I can't," the downed man pointed at his unresponsive leg.

"You're useless," Kiba's captor scoffed before walking to her and picking her up with one arm. The shift in his grip gave Kiba the opportunity to bite him and the young Inuzuka took it. Unfortunately even his teeth couldn't pierce the armor. But it served to annoy the man.

"Let go," he shouted angrily and shook his captive. Kiba held on fast.

"Hurry!" the man holding Shino shouted. "They're almost here." As if to prove his words the door at the end of the hallway were blown into smithereens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Command center~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The floor was completely covered in crystal shards and wooden splinters, sometimes accompanied by bigger pieces of debris. It was no wonder considering what battle was taking place here and how long it has been going on. But it was going to end soon, of that Guren was sure. She was breathing hard, low on chakra and bleeding from several shallow wounds, but her opponent was even worse of. The Konoha jounin was barely standing now, his current state caused partially by exhaustion and partially by blood loss from the numerous cuts and stabs on his body. Yet he looked at her defiantly, determined to fight her until his last breath. Guren would be perfectly happy to oblige, but she thought that Orochimaru would rather have him alive than dead. That prevented her from using some of her more dangerous jutsu, but she had plenty others at her disposal.

She clasped her hands together and ran her fingers through a sequence of seals. "Shouton: Amethyst prison!" she called. Tenzo jumped out of the way clumsily. His left leg didn't respond as it should, thanks to a deep wound below his knee. He managed to avoid most of the attack, only his leg getting caught in the crystal. It was a very unfavorable position to be in, but he refused to give up. He raised his hands to cast one last jutsu, hoping beyond hope that this time he'd actually hit the Oto woman.

Guren just scoffed seeing his futile attempt. She was going to show him that the battle was already over. But just as she was about to move, she realized that she couldn't. There was a tree behind her, binding her with its branches.

'That was good,' she thought. 'I didn't even feel him cast the technique. But this changes nothing.' Tenzo had almost caught her in something similar before, so now she knew how to deal with it. She concentrated on turning the wood into crystal. But nothing happened. Guren frowned. If she couldn't crystallize the tree and shatter it, she'd be completely open to all sorts of attacks. But why didn't her powers work on this one when they had worked on all the previous ones?

And then it hit her. Genjutsu! She couldn't crystallize the tree because it wasn't really there. "Kai!" she shouted. Dispelling genjutsu without the use of the proper handseal was hard, but Guren was a good ninja and she managed. The tree binding her disappeared. She moved, but not fast enough. The kunai pierced her chest, but fortunately it missed her heart. She stumbled away, turning to face her attacker. It was the red-eyed kunoichi they had captured several days earlier. Guren snarled at her. That was all she had the time to do before she sensed an attack coming from behind. She quickly created a crystal shield on her back. The Lightning-charged blade slammed into it. And shattered it. Her Shouton was a variant of the Earth release and shared its weakness against Lightning.

Guren cursed as she acquired another serious wound. She quickly switched her place with a boulder and assessed her situation. It wasn't good. She was now facing three opponents (Tenzo had freed his leg from the prison), two of them were jounin, she was wounded, tired and losing blood fast. As much as she hated the thought of giving up, she knew that it was the time to quit. Orochimaru-sama wasn't going to be happy, but as long as he got the Hyuuga, he shouldn't be too angry at her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Prison block main door~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto slammed the Rasengan into the door. He expected it to give way quickly, but it wasn't to be. 'What are these things made of?' he thought as the sphere of chakra slowly drilled into the hard metal. He was going through, but it was taking too long and too much chakra. By this rate he was going to be seriously tired before he broke through and there was a battle awaiting him on the other side. But there was nothing he could do about it. He could just maintain the jutsu and hope that he'd be able to deal with whoever was on the other side.

'If just the Rasengan could cut like the Wind chakra,' he mused. He imagined a concentrated sphere of deadly sharp wind chakra drilling into the door, destroying them within seconds. Now that would be awesome. But unfortunately the Rasengan wasn't an elemental technique so the cutting power wasn't so great and he was stuck waiting for it to work.

'Then what about making Rasengan a wind jutsu?' the chuunin mused slightly. That would be the coolest thing in the world. But unfortunately it would be also extremely difficult. Even the regular Rasengan required almost all of his concentration. Concentration that he had let slip. Naruto frowned when he realized that his Rasengan had lost its spherical shape, turning into a vortex of raw chakra which while quite dangerous couldn't really cut through the reinforced metal. He deactivated the jutsu to stop wasting chakra, sent a sheepish look to the impatient Hana and then applied it again. And slammed it into the door.

He was surprised when the door suddenly gave way. He had expected it to take longer. He lost his balance and fell into the corridor behind it.

"Kiba!" Hana shouted jumping over him, her three partners following at her heels. One of them stepped on Naruto's head.

"Mind your feet," the boy growled springing to his feet. Nobody listened to him. The four Inuzukas were too busy charging at their enemies.

The one sitting on the ground turned around and lifted his kunai, but he was trampled to the ground without even slowing them down. The one holding Kiba reacted by throwing the boy into Hana's path. The kunoichi stopped her attack and caught him.

"Kiba!" she shouted again.

"Sister!" the boy replied. The shout let her know exactly how scared he had been and how relieved he was to see her. His erstwhile captor used the moment of distraction to attack.

Meanwhile Naruto got to his feet and raced after Hana. He finished off the man on the ground who had been about to throw his kunai at her unprotected back. Then he knelt to free the young Hyuuga girl when he noticed the other man leaping at Hana. It seemed that the dog mistress didn't notice it. He stood up again and grabbed a kunai to throw at the man, but he could already see that he wasn't going to make it in time.

Fortunately the Haimaru triplets were always on guard. Even as the man charged, two of them sprang at him and the third one pushed the distracted Inuzuka siblings to the ground. It cost him. His two brothers were unable to stop the attacker completely and his kunai cut into the dog's coat. The animal howled in pain.

"You bastard!" Hana yelled. She was now completely focused on destroying the enemy. She dropped Kiba to the ground, which caused the younger Inuzuka to yelp in pain, and charged the attacker.

"Stop it or I'll kill him!" the guy holding Shino captive shouted, pressing a kunai to the Aburame's throat. Hana didn't seem to even notice him, she was too focused on the man who had hurt her brother and her dog. And the Sound ninja's muscles tensed in a way suggesting that he was about to make good on his threat and slice Shino's throat. Naruto realized that he was the only one who could do anything about the situation and he was too far away. It didn't look good, but there was something he could try.

He brought his hands together in a seal. He hoped that the man wouldn't notice, being too focused on Hana, and silently activated the technique. Whenever he used Shadow Clones, they usually appeared next to him. But when he created a lot of them, some appeared pretty far away. Shino's captor was just within range. So could he will one clone into existence within his reach?

He almost sighed with relief when it actually worked. A clone appeared right behind the man without him being any wiser. He did notice the sound of a sword being drawn and turned to look around. In the next moment a Wind-charged blade sliced off the arm holding the kunai. The man just blinked in surprise as if he couldn't believe what did just happen. Before he could come to terms with it, the clone sliced off his head. The decapitated torso collapsed to the ground, dropping Shino to the ground painfully. The genin didn't even twitch.

Naruto quickly assessed the situation. Hana was fighting the last remaining Sound shinobi and was holding her own. The three genin were lying on the ground. Naruto quickly sliced through Hinata's and Kiba's bonds. His clone did the same thing for Shino.

"He's out cold," the clone announced.

"What's wrong with him?" the original Naruto inquired.

"I don't know," the clone shrugged.

"They injected him with something," the Hyuuga kunoichi supplied.

"He tried to get out of the cell," Kiba elaborated, "so they knocked him out so he won't use his bugs again."

"Then he should wake up on his own," Naruto speculated, trying to sound reassuring to the genin.

"Where is Akamaru?" the young Inuzuka wanted to know.

"Outside," the chuunin answered. "A puppy shouldn't be in battle. And you shouldn't too. Let's get you out of here."

"But sister..."

"Can take care of herself," Naruto interrupted him. "Now get up and get going."

As soon as he said it they were hit by a wave of tainted chakra. Naruto turned around to see that Hana's opponent had turned into something resembling a bald gorilla with claws and antlers and the older Inuzuka was lying on the ground, bleeding from three gashes in her side.

'I jinxed it,' was his first thought when he saw the Level 2 Curse Seal in action. They had been lucky so far that they hadn't run into one up to now.

"Change of plan," he said to the three genin. "You grab Shino and run and I fight him." He shoved the unconscious genin his clone had brought into their arms.

"But..." Kiba wanted to protest, but the chuunin cut him off.

"You'd just get underfoot. So scram!" They didn't look happy, but they obeyed. Naruto didn't wait for them to round the corner and joined the melee.

Hana was on her feet again, but the monster was pushing her back with overwhelming strength. Yet the Curse Seal beast lacked finesse. It just attacked recklessly with its claws and antlers. The kunoichi could see plenty of openings she could take if her wounds weren't slowing her down so much. This way only her uninjured dogs could try to grab its legs and fail to find purchase on its smooth, rock-hard skin.

Naruto saw all of that. He also noticed that the man seemed to be fully focused on the Inuzuka. He took advantage of that. He quickly switched with the corpse of Shino's captor. The Sound ninja didn't notice a thing even when Naruto charged at him with his sword drawn. The Wind-sharpened blade sliced through his iron skin and the muscle underneath. And that was all it did. The Curse Seal granted the man increased resilience and regenerative ability. The wound was already closing as he turned to deal with the new annoyance.

Naruto cursed as he ducked under his claw swipe. It's been a long time since he fought one of these beings and he forgot just how tough they were. Now he was remembering. He also recalled that they tended to have some weak spot. It was just the question of finding it and exploiting it before they could kill you.

He blocked the beast's next attack and observed it carefully to figure out where its weakness could be. So far nothing stood out. Its skin was uniformly smooth. Even the belly didn't look any less armored than the rest. That left the head as the most likely spot. But hitting it was easier said than done. Despite its lack of tactics the Curse Seal monster never forgot to protect it. This was going to need some strategy.

Fortunately he wasn't fighting alone. Hana use her short reprieve to pull herself together. She stood up and threw a soldier pill to her one uninjured dog. He grew bigger and darker before turning into her copy. She decided that now was a good time to try out her new jutsu.

"Gatenga!" She and her dog sprung forward, spinning to create two cutting disks. The monster gorilla's back was wide enough for both of them to hit. They slammed into it. They failed to cause significant damage, but they knocked the enemy to the ground. Before it could get up, Naruto took his chance. A Rasengan formed in his hand. Then he slammed it into the beast's head. It had tried to defend with its antlers, but the chuunin evaded them skillfully. Then the rotating chakra sphere drilled into its brain. Soon the Sound ninja was dead, is transformation fading upon his demise.

"That was more trouble than it should be," Hana remarked. Naruto didn't argue.

"We're lucky we didn't run into these before. Though it's strange there weren't more. I wonder if the others fought them." They fell silent for a moment, contemplating possible implications. Their thoughts were interrupting by the sounds of fighting coming from the direction of the prison block.

And here comes yet another Evil Cliffhanger no Jutsu.

Next time: What mess did Team 8 get into this time?