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The Prankster King of Konoha

Chapter 11:

Fall Of The Sannin

The Snake Sannin was… interesting. That was Menma's thought as she was ordered away by the woman. She was sent to get reinforcements in order to help protect Naruto, something that she could see the logic in. Not one to doubt the commands of her superiors, she simply nodded, turning on her heel in order to fulfill her orders. She had wanted to stay, to go and relish in the company of her adoration and simply be near him, but there would be time for that later.

First she had to fulfill her mission. Later, when there were no more orders for her to follow, she would use her free time to help nurse the shining sun back to full health.

XxX

"Kukukuku," the Snake Sannin cackled. His voice was deep, far too deep for the rather feminine face that he was currently looking out of. With the Fox's chakra running through Naruto, he wasn't in as complete control of his emotions than he usually was, and as such he couldn't quite stamp down the overwhelming urge to storm right over to the laughing Sannin and rip that ill-suiting face off.

Nevermind that it probably wouldn't do them any good in the small chance that he succeeded. The snake was a shifty bastard, and would likely regenerate before the day was done. It would be a waste of what little energy they had left, but it would make him feel better, and honestly that was worth the effort.

"Calm yourself, boy," the Fox growled from his mind. The words were fire to his exhausted brain, but that pain brought with it a certain amount of clarity. "You will fare much better against the man with a clear head. Use your strongest weapon against him: your wits."

The blonde's teeth ground against each other, and he had to try his hardest to hold back a snarl. It wouldn't do to argue here, no matter how much he wanted to. Besides, the furry bastard was right—he was better when he was fighting intelligently. He enjoyed using traps and provocations over brute strength. The problem here was that he had no time to set up anything, and even less traps than he had before. The chakra cloak was a nice stopgap for whenever situations like this happened, but it was nowhere near as potent as if he had the time.

The Snake Sannin, while battered and definitely worse for the wear, was already out of the crater that he had been smashed into. His arms hung limply from his dislocated shoulders, but Naruto could still see the way that the man's fingers twitched. It would hurt, but the man could still bring himself to make hand-signs, though the power behind his jutsus might be a bit weaker.

No, the man was down, but he was definitely not out. Naruto simply didn't have the time to think and plan. He had to act, and he had to do it now.

"Brat," came the gasping and labored voice of Tsunade Senju. Naruto spared a quick glance at her, but didn't let the Snake Sannin leave his field of vision for even a second. Tsunade, too, did not turn to look at him when she began speaking, keeping her eyes firmly on the shifty bastard. "Reinforcements are coming. My teammate, Jiraiya, and the old man are going to be here any second now with several platoons of ANBU. If we can just hold him for a few more minutes, he'll be ours."

Naruto's eyes widened as he considered the words. The Hokage and the third Sannin were on their way? Well, that would do wonders for their chances of victory. Now that their win condition was changed from "winning the fight" to "surviving" the odds and viable plans were starting to open up.

Still, as nice as that information was to hear…

"And why do you think that I'll allow such a thing to happen?" Orochimaru asked, that sickening smile stretching across his stolen face. "You're an old woman and two children. Super powered as you all may be, none of you are at full." The man chuckled once more. "In fact, if I had to say anything, I would say that the lot of you are far more tired than I. Do you really think that the three of you are strong enough to keep me here for that long? You could barely handle me when you were at full strength."

Naruto wanted to curse, but he knew that it was more the influence of the fox's chakra than it was the man's words. I mean, he was still annoyed by them, but not enough to be driven to this anger. He took a deep breath, counting down slowly until all the anger he was holding had been let out, before opening his mouth to speak.

"Don't pretend that you're at full either, bastard. You've been doing a good job of hiding it, but you're at your limit too. If you weren't, you would have been able to see that haymaker a mile away, and you wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place."

Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. His stupid smile never once faltered. "Oh? And what makes you think that this isn't the exact situation I wanted?"

"Because you're not stupid. You may act like it, but even you must know that you can't escape both of your teammates and the Hokage, as well as the ANBU that are currently surrounding the training grounds. At least, not with the remaining chakra you have now."

Orochimaru's smile finally slipped, morphing into a smaller and much shakier one.

"If you wanted to escape, your best options to do so are quickly dwindling. You would have needed to do it a few minutes ago, something that you tried to do with an unconscious me in tow." Naruto shook his head. "But you didn't expect me to wake up so quickly, did you? And now you're all the way back here, with most of your chakra already spent in that last ditch attempt at leaving this forest with some kind of prize."

Naruto shook his head once more, before sighing deeply.

"And now your avenues of escape are gone, something that I could tell simply by the fact that you haven't tried to leave yet. No mud clones, no big, destructive jutsus. Your attacks have been getting less and less grand as time goes on, and why? I'll tell you."

Naruto leaned in, his voice intentionally low and yet also heard by everyone in attendance.

"It's because you're all out. Your chest is heaving, your exhausted limbs are shaking, and I can see the way your eyes are starting to droop. That's chakra exhaustion, and you're very close to it. Wall-walking and maybe some rudimentary ninjutsu is all you have left, isn't it?"

The feeling of catharsis that overcame him as Orochimaru's face twisted into anger was like nothing he had felt before. Briefly he wondered if this was what sex felt like.

"And so what?" the snake asked, spittle flying from his mouth as he screamed. "I may be weaker now, but only enough that I can't flee while you all are watching me." His smile stretched his face once more. "All I have to do is be rid of the three of you. I don't need chakra to do as much."

It was Naruto's turn to frown as the snake's words washed over him. Even with the Fox's chakra, he could feel the way that his muscles protested his every action. He was putting up a brave face, but truth be told he would be lucky to survive the next few seconds, let alone however long it took their reinforcements to arrive.

"Big talk," Tsunade chimed in. She rose from her place crouching on the branch, he hand glowing green as it hovered over her abdomen. Naruto could see the hole on her stomach closing, but it wasn't fully healed even after all this time. "But I'm not nearly exhausted as you think I am. I got here a little late, but I never fought. Once I close this hole I think I will be more than enough to take care of you."

Naruto felt ill as the Snake's smile stayed constant. His hand hovered over to the hilt of his legendary blade, Kusanagi, and his slimy fingers wrapped around its hilt.

"My, my, you might just be onto something with that, my dear Tsunade." His tongue snaked out of his mouth and licked at the bruises scarring his cheeks. "Well, I can't let that happen, can I?"

Naruto's eyes widened as Orochimaru disappeared from where he was standing. His eyes, trained to comprehend speeds several times faster than sound, lost track of the older ninja. Chakra flooded his eyes, staining them red once more as the world seemed to slow to a crawl. It darted all over, scanning every bark and every leaf before barely being able to lock onto the Sannin as he blurred towards his teammate.

"Tsunade!" he screamed, his muscles burning as he pushed himself to aid her. As fast as he was, however, he knew that he wasn't faster than the snake, especially given his late start. He was halfway towards her, but the snake was already on top of her. Kusanagi was already drawn, and the blade was already halfway towards her neck.

Dread pooled in his stomach as everything happened in slow motion. His perception was faster, but his body was still in tatters. He reached his hand out in a futile attempt to help her, but even he knew it was too late. Tsunade still had her hands hovering over her abdomen, green chakra trying uselessly to heal a wound, and totally unable to defend herself.

"Tch," the Slug Sannin cursed. "You never change, do you?"

A fist, small but unyielding, came up. Naruto could barely see it as it smashed into Orochimaru's collarbone. One second he was there, his sword just inches away from slashing clean through Tsunade's jugular, and the next he was flying across the forest, barreling through trees once more.

Tsunade, on her end, barely seemed to register her own ungodly action. She stood up, towering over Naruto as he landed, and glaring at where she had just sent her former teammate flying.

"You and Jiraiya were always faster than me, but never forget that I'm the close-combat specialist out of the three of us." She spit on the ground. "Stick to your jutsu, you dumb snake."

Naruto marveled at her feat. He didn't know how much of the fox's chakra he would have to ingest before he was able to do something like that so casually.

"Almost all of it, brat. And don't forget that we're supposed to be keeping an eye on the shifty bastard."

Naruto started, his eyes darting over to where Orochimaru was launched. The dust that was kicked up from the upturned ground almost completely obscured him from view, and Naruto cursed.

"Gaara! On me! We have to keep him from escaping!"

He dashed ahead, not looking back to check whether the Sand Jinchuuriki was following. The sound of shifting sand was all he had to ensure that he had backup, but he would have kept going regardless. He couldn't let the man escape, not again. Before he even entered the cloud of dust, his arm was already rearing back. His hand tightened into a fist, and was rocketing ahead before he had a good look on the man.

The first clear sight of the man had him shooting through handsigns. Startled, slitted eyes widened before the jutsu was canceled, and a right hand came up to catch his chakra-garbed hand. Naruto snarled, an action that only worsened when he saw the lazy smile on his opponent's face.

"Your punches are packing less of a punch, aren't they?" the greasy old man asked. "Are you running out of steam?"

"Only as much as you are," Naruto replied. "Last time you were able to push me back. Are you having trouble now? Need to go take a nap at the retirement home?"

Naruto reveled in the way Orochimaru's snarl returned, then braced himself as the man's hand came around in a left hook. The blow was surprisingly heavy, sending Naruto flying away while the man started to fly through handseals once more. This time, however…

"You broke his arm, kit. He can't sign as fast as he used to!"

That was something to smile about! As he was flying back through the forest he saw a blur speed past him. Golden sand glinted in the bit of sunlight that filtered through the tree leaves as it attacked the Snake Sannin.

"You never learn, do you?" the snake man screamed. He held out an arm and snakes exploded from it, reaching out to meet their snake-like sand counterparts. Surprisingly, Orochimaru's summons were able to force back Gaara's sand for a few seconds, but a final yell from the red-haired boy pierced the reptiles, splitting them in half as they rushed the summoner.

For a second, Orochimaru's eyes widened in surprise. His mouth hung open as the sand sharpened into spears and threatened to poke holes into his being. The very next second, however, his face returned to its neutral countenance, and he twisted out the way of the attack.

"Die!" Gaara screamed as he rushed ahead, carried by a cloud of his sand. Naruto watched as he passed, and the way that sand bullets flew from the gourd on his back. They rushed the Sannin, just as the sand spears that missed the man turned midair, seeking to strike the man in the back. Pincered as he was, there was very little the man could do to escape.

He, of course, had all the moves necessary to escape.

"Substitution!" Orochimaru yelled, bringing his hands together. He shimmered, then in his place was a heap of sand. Naruto's eyes darted around, looking for where the snake could have gone. Gaara's grunt of pain answered that question.

"Sometimes the simplest jutsu are the most effective. Kukuku!"

Gaara couldn't move as Orochimaru rained blow after blow on him. Fists, just slow enough that Naruto could see as they blurred into Gaara's sand-clad body, were relentless as they ore through whatever meager defense Gaara could put up. Gaara managed to raise his arms, likely to shield his body from the blows, but Orochimaru cared very little. He batted them away, continuing to rain more blows. Sand, once under the jinchuuriki's control, responded for his automatic defense, but a quick blast of chakra blew it all away.

"You're going to go out just like your father did!" Orochimaru cackled. His last strike came down with the force of a hammer, finally breaking away Gaara's sand armor and leaving his true skin exposed to the air. His cheek was cut, with blood flowing freely from the wound as he grit his teeth to stem the pain. "I'm sorry boy, you just weren't cut out for this!"

Orochimaru finally reached for Kusanagi, just as he kicked Gaara into a tree. The redhead, bereft of his sand, could only look on in anguish as his opponent drew his blade. Orochimaru drew the sword back, intending on running Gaara through.

He didn't manage to finish the attack.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu!"

The attack wasn't as strong as before, but the overwhelming gale was enough to overpower everyone, especially an exhausted Sannin. Orochimaru, caught off guard by the attack, was pushed away, his sword flying out of his hand.

Naruto landed where the man once was, panting heavily from using the tiring jutsu. His cloak was much smaller now, just barely clinging to his skin. "Are you alright, Gaara?" He reached out a hand.

The sand ninja batted it away. "Keep an eye on the snake!"

Naruto looked up, just in time to see the pale fist heading for his head. He crossed his arms before him, taking the hit against his forearms. He braced himself as hard as he could, but the man still pushed through, slamming his arms against his foreheadand rattling his skull. Naruto gritted his teeth as he weathered the attack, but even through the effects Kurama's healing ability he could already feel the pain he was going to be experiencing the next morning.

How did such a lanky looking man hit so hard?

Another strike came, breaking Naruto's guard completely and sending his head to the side. Stars started to sprout in his vision, and just when he thought he was going to pass out a tendril of sand gripped the Sound ninja's wrist. Orochimaru resisted, he did, but there was nothing for him to do. He was hoisted away for his efforts, before being slammed into yet another tree. Naruto, wasting no time, gathered his chakra.

"I'm getting really tired of you all," the man hissed. His skin started to break apart, exposing milk white scales underneath. His long, creepy tongue extended out of his mouth quite like the snakes he emulated. Long, spindly fingers gripped against the tree bark, scraping into the wood, as he pulled himself out of the dent he created. "I'll be sure to take my time taking you apart."

"It's hard to understand how you can be so confident in a situation like this."

Orochimaru's eyes widened as the familiar voice sounded from directly beside his ear. He turned, just in time to see Tsunade's fist surge forward like a freight train. The sound of the bone crunching was loud enough to be heard from the other two boys, and the dent he made in the ground was deep enough to cause a localized earthquake. Naruto and Gaara had to hold on for dear life as all the surrounding trees were uprooted.

"Don't let him escape again!"

Naruto didn't need to be told twice. He jumped from his perch as soon as the shaking stopped, charging headfirst down into the smoke. For a few seconds, the smoke burned his eyes and forced him to cough. His lungs burned, his eyes burned, and everything was pain. He wanted to back out. He wanted to use a wind jutsu and blow away the offending debris. He wanted to be anywhere but here, and be doing anything but this, but he couldn't back out. Not now.

Not after all this time.

The urge to cough was overwhelming, but he didn't let that stop him. A deep, guttural yell came from the pit of his stomach as he emerged from the other side of the dissipating storm cloud. It was finally thin enough for him to see again, just in time to see Orochimaru, battered and bruised, dragging himself off the ground. It was a testament to how exhausted the man was that he didn't hear Naruto as he screamed. His fingers, mostly busted, came together into slow, sloppy handsigns.

Naruto saw all of that, but he did little to actually register it. His mind was on one thing only, and that thing was the wretched excuse of a human that was sitting in front of him.

"Orochimaru!" he yelled, bringing his fist back. He didn't have enough of the fox's chakra left in him to do much of anything. The shroud was already falling apart in places, barely clinging to his clothing in some parts and leaving him completely bare in others. If he tried to both attack with it and keep it to defend himself he would be doing a very piss poor job of either.

But if he forgot about one, he could do quite a lot with the other.

His fist cocked back, and with it all of the red chakra spread across his body coalesced into his fist. The world seemed to slow, his body sluggish, as he continued to fly through the air propelled by nothing but his previous momentum. Without the healing effects of the fox's chakra, the smoke clogging his lungs started to choke him, and the pain from the entire day threatened to knock him out.

But he couldn't stop. Not when he was so close.

He was practically on top of the snake when the man finally noticed. It was a riot to see his slit eyes widen so much. Naruto couldn't enjoy it as he was, but he was sure that he would cherish the memory later.

"Naruto!" Orochimaru screamed, bringing his arms up in a cross block before his face, much the same as when Naruto did earlier. Unfortunately for him, much the same as Naruto earlier, he was exhausted. His block wasn't some kind of trick that was concocted several moves in advance. For once, the slimy bastard was just blocking, and nothing else.

That block was nothing against his punch.

The blood that sprayed outwards from the crushed arm barely registered to Naruto. There was a little resistance as his fist broke through the man's guard, but that was barely a second. The next thing Naruto knew, his knuckles were scraping against the older man's cheek.

And then Naruto knew no more.

XxX

The real genius of Naruto-senpai's attacks, at least in Menma's honest opinion, came more from what he didn't do in a fight, rather than what he did do. She didn't arrive back on the scene in time to see him fight Orochimaru, but she did arrive in time to see him jump into the cloud of smoke. Flanked on both sides by not only ANBU, but the elites of the village, she felt there was no force in the Elemental Nations strong enough to oppose them.

When none of them moved to help him, however, she knew that something was wrong.

Naruto screamed, and every instinct in her body bade her to go in. Her knees bent before she realized what was going on, and a knife was in her hand. Her eyes scanned the cloud, looking for any signs of life. Anything at all.

Three whole seconds passed with no response. It made her antsy, itchy. She wanted to go down and help, but there was no telling what would happen once she did. Would she be able to help her senpai, or would Orochimaru use her as a distraction? Would she be the one to save his life, or would she get in the way? She couldn't tell, and the indecision plagued her. Had she still been in ROOT, she could fall back on protocol and—

A figure, blurred by the still dissipated smoke, blurred from the smoke. Menma squinted her eyes, peering at the shape and hoping beyond hope that it was her senpai.

Long, black hair—harried by the fight but no less slimy for it—billowed in the breeze as red stained what was once pale, milky-white skin. A fist shaped imprint reflected against his cheek, already swelling the Sannin's left eye shut. Menma, despite her training, felt like cheering. So he had done it? He had actually managed to bring down a Sannin?

Kakashi, one of the top Jonin of the village growled. Menma looked over to where he was standing on a nearby branch, only to see the man with his Sharingan exposed. Danzo had wanted to steal the man's eye so badly that he constantly talked about it. Now that she was free of his influence, she could hardly piece together why. It simply looked like a normal Sharingan.

"He's not down yet," another Jonin, Gai, said. The normally smiling man was frowning as his eyes tracked the much older ninja as he skidded across the ground. "He's going to get back up and try to run." The Green Beast scoffed. "How unyouthful, to persist against the inevitable this hard."

Menma looked back down at the ground. Orochimaru had scored a ditch in the ground as his body slowly bled off the momentum of Naruto's punch. It took a few seconds, but the man finally came to a stop. Menma expected the man to stay down, but after only a few seconds he started to move.

They were right, Menma thought. Her hand came to her hip, hovering at the lip of her kunai pouch. Never, on any of her best days, did she assume that she was talented enough to go toe-to-toe with one of the legendary Sannin. But he wasn't one of the legendary Sannin right now. Right now, he was a decrepit old man that was all out of stamina and options. He was barely able to bring himself to his knees under his own power, and even she could see the way his arms shook wildly under the strain of picking him off the ground.

Right now, she could take him. One quick swipe across his throat and she could be rid of the man forever.

"Wait," came a voice she had been trained to obey since birth. Even in ROOT, the man's word was absolute, if not for the person then for the station. "Let him go."

Menma almost swirled around, ready to question the words of the Hokage. She never would, of course. That was so far out of her programming that even the thought felt traitorous and wrong. She wanted to, however, because letting Orochimaru struggle to his feet felt incorrect. There were so many powerful ninja here, after all, and just about all of them were strong enough to contest the man at his prime. To see them all allow him to leave was just…

Why?

"I can see you have some questions," Kakashi started. Despite the gravity of the situation, the man managed to have a bit of mirth in his voice. "Tell me, do you know one of the major rules of Konoha?"

The men around her started to chuckle, even the ANBU. She turned to stare at each of them in turn, then back to the one-eyed man that asked her the question.

"I don't suppose you would," Kakashi continued. "Given your background, that's understandable. But around the ranks of Konoha's ninja elite, there is a saying."

They turned back to the forest, just in time to see Orochimaru steady himself on his feet. His eyes were delirious, darting around the forest in a quick haze. After seemingly finding his bearings, he turned to the forest and sprinted off into the trees.

Not three seconds passed before something snapped. Menma couldn't place it at first, but it wasn't long before she could hear the sound deep in her memory.

The sound of trapwire being tripped. Of taut wire finally breaking under the strain of a foot.

The forest was alive in luminescent paint and explosions and fire. Smoke billowed wildly into the air, staining the trees and choking the sparse bits of light that managed to filter through the leaves. Menma, entirely unprepared for such things, could only watch in astonishment as the explosion nearly knocked her off her feet. Luckily, Gai was there to catch her, cradling her in arms that were far too sturdy.

"What was—" she tried to get out, only for the chuckling of the several men and women around her to interrupt her. She looked around her, seeing the wide smiles of all of her superiors. "… what's going on?"

It was the Hokage that turned to her this time, his smile much smaller but conveying no less mirth. His teeth peeked out from behind his lips. "There is a saying in Konoha. Being in ROOT, you wouldn't be able to hear it. It goes: Never enter a room that Naruto has previously entered."

Menma followed their gazes down to the forest floor once more. She saw Orochimaru stumble once more out of smoke, though this time his skin was horribly burned. One of his eye sockets were hollow, blackened blood bubbling out of it, while the other was swollen shut. His left arm and leg were bent at horrible angles, and save for one or two, his entire mouth was devoid of teeth.

"It seems that my wayward student was gone for too long to pick up on that one."