Flash of Red and Black
Chapter XXIV
"Naruto…" Kakashi started before trailing off, apparently not sure what to say. I looked over at him for a second before turning back to my enemy and sighed. He was worried, and I couldn't blame him for it, but the battlefield was no place for spilling my thoughts. We would just have to wait until the mission was over.
"I don't like it. I'm not happy about it. I'm physically okay, but I can't guarantee much else. Once we're done, I'll talk about it… Talk about everything… But first we have to finish this mission," I said, seriously, glancing over at him again as Kakashi, Kurama and I made quick work of the north end of the battlefield. His expression was conflicted, registering both relief and worry before he set his feelings in order and nodded, his aura filling with determination.
"Then let's finish it," he said sternly before ramping up his pace. He was just as anxious to finish the mission as I was, if not more.
One way or another, we were going to take Orochimaru down, end the mission, and get everyone home safe and sound. But we had to make it to the Snake Sanin first, and I could tell that he was a long ways off since he'd gotten such a big head start.
I frowned. Impatience only bred mistakes, but we were falling farther behind every second that we spent fighting instead of chasing after him.
"Kurama! Think you can speed this up?" I shouted over to him. He grinned.
Then a mass of black chakra started collecting above him, and I gave a small smile before engaging my next opponent.
"Clear the way," I said, and in the next moment wind rushed all around us as enemies were blown away to nothing or thrown into the air like ragdolls.
"Let's go," Kakashi said, suddenly right next to me, his hand held out to me with Suigetsu's sword left abandoned on the ground behind him. I nodded and gave him a small smile as I took his hand, and then we were off, rushing through the charred path that Kurama had created as he took care of the enemies that tried to follow after us.
As we ran, I gripped Kakashi's hand tightly and tried to sort out my thoughts as much as possible. I knew that fighting Orochimaru with a clouded mind would be dangerous, so I wanted to take advantage of the momentary calm to try to clear my head, if only a little.
My body was back in working condition—fatigued, but working. I felt no physical pain at the moment. All my wounds were fully healed. I hadn't had a panic attack since rejoining the battle—though the momentary peace could give way to another attack if I wasn't careful. (Silently, I gripped Kakashi's hand a little tighter, hoping it would help me stay grounded.)
Mentally and emotionally, I was quickly draining. Fighting helped me keep focused, but silently chasing after an enemy gave my mind too much time to think. I didn't think I was in shock, but I was sure that Sasuke's death (the second one) hadn't quite registered yet. (I just hoped that could wait until after the mission was completed.) I forced my mind away from my time while captured. I was concerned about the other teams, but all of my bunshin were still active, so I hoped that meant everyone was still okay. Though it was far, I could still sense Neji's chakra if I concentrated hard enough, so I knew he was still okay. Kakashi's wounds had all healed thanks to Kurama's chakra.
I just need to hold it together long enough to get through this fight, I told myself, but I knew even that was a tall order for my mental state.
"Naruto!" I heard Kakashi call quietly next to me, worry seeping through his voice.
I looked over, a little surprised when he yanked me from my thoughts before I took a steadying breath.
"This isn't going to be easy," I said quietly, glancing at him again, and his face only grew more concerned.
"Should we rest?" he asked, eyes looking me over carefully. I shook my head.
"We can't afford to give him any more time to escape."
Kakashi knit his eyebrows together, and I could pretty well guess what was going through his head. The part of him that was my lover didn't like it and wanted to force me to leave, to go home and recover (I probably wished that was an option as much as he did), but the shinobi in him knew that this would be the best and maybe only opportunity we would have to rid the world of a dangerous enemy, and we couldn't afford to back down.
"We'll be home soon, Naruto," he said quietly as he sped up fractionally. I nodded and matched his pace.
"We should visit that little lake again, the one we were at on your birthday," I said, and Kakashi nodded, pushing himself to move faster. We both knew what we were doing: keeping my mind off the urgency of getting this all over with as soon as possible. Orochimaru was over an hour ahead of us, which meant that unless he decided to rest, it would take us several hours to catch up with him, and every second that my mind wasn't entirely engrossed in a fight made me that much closer to giving into my exhaustion.
"Think you'll be able to make up all the paperwork before your birthday?"
"Depends on how long everyone decides to lecture me," I said, giving him a small, sheepish smile. I knew I would get an earful once I was back. I was sure that even Shikaku, though just as lazy as his son, wouldn't be able to keep himself from scolding my recklessness at least a little. I couldn't say that I didn't deserve it, though. After all, because I was so brash I ended up getting captured and poked and prodded and—
"I'll help you sneak away for a while then," Kakashi said a little too loudly, but it forced me to pull away from my thoughts. I gave him a small smile as thanks.
"I think sneaking away is what they'll be lecturing me about to begin with," I said, forcing a small laugh.
"Well as long as you stay in the village next time, I don't think they'll complain," he said, and I gave a small nod.
"Ino will probably force me to take a few days to rest anyway," I mumbled, and Kakashi squeezed my hand gently for a moment.
"You've earned a few days off," he replied just as quietly. I just gave a small nod and the conversation lagged for a while as I thought of home. I surged forward a little more as I thought about how desperately I wanted to return. Still, we couldn't return yet. We still had a mission to complete, and there was no way I would return until it was finished completely. I was going to give everything I had to make sure Konoha and all the other villages were safe from the Sanin and his followers.
I wasn't going to let anyone's sacrifice be in vain.
With a newfound resolve and a momentary peace of mind, I looked over at the man next to me.
"Kakashi," I called, and he looked over, studying me carefully. Slowly, I felt his aura change and I squeezed his hand gently.
"We're ending this mission now," I said, and he nodded before we picked up the pace. I didn't have the chakra control to flash all the way to Orochimaru with someone else, but instead I used Kurama's chakra to push both of us to move even faster.
oOo
Finally, I felt Orochimaru's chakra was within a few miles, so I stopped, and pulled Kakashi to a halt with me.
"Five miles ahead, 3 o'clock," I just barely whispered. He nodded and then summoned his ninken.
"Surround him," he ordered quietly, and immediately the animals vanished into the darkening forest.
"Ready?" I asked, and he nodded again. After squeezing my hand lightly one more time, we split up.
Using as little chakra as possible, I flashed to be two miles to the east of Orochimaru and continued running parallel with him, waiting for Kakashi's signal, but I didn't have to wait long.
Several smoke bombs exploded half a mile to the west of Orochimaru, blocking out what light was left of the setting sun, and the Sanin immediately jumped in the opposite direction of the explosion. In that same moment, I flashed towards him, Rasengan in hand. Kakashi's ninken then appeared and sunk their teeth into the Sanin's limbs as I thrust my attack into him, smashing him face-first into the ground.
Immediately, I pulled back and readied a kunai. As soon as I was in position, Orochimaru's body transformed into a log, and I moved to deflect several shuriken coming from above me.
"You caught up faster than I expected. Did you not enjoy my gift?" Orochimaru cackled from a tree limb ahead of me. I frowned but said nothing as the dogs moved away from the log buried into the ground to circle the tree.
"Do it," I called mentally, and immediately the night was filled with the deafening roar of Kurama, despite how far he was. Just as Kurama's roar began, more smoke bombs exploded behind the Sanin, and Kakashi burst out of the cloud of smoke, sending several kunai sailing through the air towards Orochimaru ahead of him.
The snake pulled a kunai of his own to deflect the objects coming at him before clashing with Kakashi on the limb that creaked under their weight. I threw several shuriken at the Sanin myself before reaching a chakra arm up towards them. The Sanin jumped ahead to a different limb to dodge my arm as he deflected the shuriken I threw. However, my arm continued on its path and grabbed Kakashi before sending him flying into the air towards Orochimaru.
The Snake Sanin readied himself for Kakashi's attack, crouching low. But just as he was prepared and as Kurama's long, loud roar silenced, a Rasen Shuriken sailed out of the lingering smoke at Orochimaru's back. I saw realization dawn on Orochimaru's face, and he jumped to a higher limb, hastening his clash with Kakashi. Immediately after the two crossed blades, they both jumped away to get away from the expanding reach of my clone's attack. As Kakashi landed on his branch, he threw several more shuriken, only to be met midair with several of Orochimaru's own. However, Orochimaru was thrown off balance when he landed half a second later on a branch that was covered with exploding tags on the bottom, thanks again to my clones. As he fell, Kakashi's ninken dashed beneath him, teeth ready to rip into their master's enemy.
But several snakes suddenly shot out from Orochimaru's arm and wrapped around another branch, acting as rope. As he swung up onto the branch, though, he found himself headed straight towards my chakra arm with another Rasengan in hand.
Just before my attack could connect with his face, snakes from his other arm pulled him higher and to the left, and only the tips of his hair connected with my attack as he swung himself away. No sooner had his sandals hit the branch when two of my shadow clones appeared from the nearly-dissipated smoke behind him, each shoving a Rasengan into either shoulder. And judging from his expression, this time they both hit, but I knew that he had pushed himself forward just in time to avoid any serious damage. As he fell forward from the branch, Kakashi jumped towards him, kunai ready.
Orochimaru lifted his own kunai to clash with Kakashi, but the moment the blades crossed, Orochimaru's was knocked from his hand, pain and surprise registering on his face and I felt a little better, knowing that my clones had at least caused some damage. Still, I knew I couldn't rejoice, even as Kakashi's weapon made a deep gash into Orochimaru's shoulder. There was no way that the teammate of my master and the Godaime Hokage would go down from just a couple flesh wounds.
So, as Orochimaru regained his footing on another branch and readied another kunai, I joined the two and my clones in the branches. My clones had their eyes trained on Orochimaru who was frowning deeply, staring back at us. I glanced at Kakashi and he gave a slow, small nod, ready to start the next onslaught of attacks.
My clones instantly shot forward, each readying a kunai. Orochimaru shot snakes from one arm into the face of one clone, making it vanish as he blocked the kunai of the other clone with his own weapon. Just as the ring of metal against metal rang through the air, the branch beneath Orochimaru and my clone exploded, catching both of them in the blast. My second bunshin vanished and Orochimaru fell from the smoke, landing heavily on the branch below, on his feet but unsteady. As soon as his feet touched wood, Kakashi and I both pressed forward, throwing shuriken ahead of us as we prepared to attack with our kunai.
The Sanin steadied his footing and deflected all the kunai as he prepared himself for our attacks. As we closed in, though, I saw a glint in his eyes that I didn't like. Apparently Kakashi noticed it too because we both fell back, just throwing our weapons at him instead of attacking at close range.
As Orochimaru deflected our attacks, we prepared kunai again, but Orochimaru's deep frown slowly turned to a maniacal grin as he licked his lips.
"I suppose I was being a little full of myself, taking on Tsunade's successor and her predecessor's student without my full power," he cackled lowly before closing his eyes for a second. I braced myself against a shudder, but I couldn't keep myself from grimacing when Orochimaru's eyes opened again.
Even in the dim light I could tell that his yellow eyes were now a familiar red and black. I felt a chill run down my spine and I heard Kakashi's teeth grinding next to me. We'd expected something like this to happen, of course, but seeing it in person was something we had hoped to avoid.
But as Orochimaru saw our expressions, he threw his head back and cackled louder, and it was only then when my breath caught in my throat.
Slowly, a disturbing pattern burned its way up Orochimaru's neck and down his arms. The gash that Kakashi's kunai had caused vanished as the pattern made its way across his skin, and once the Sanin made eye contact again, my jaw snapped shut and my eyes narrowed as he just stared back at the two of us, his maniacal grin fading to a taunting smirk.
"Let's play, shall we?" he called before pressing forward with enough force to snap the branch as he left it. Kakashi and I braced ourselves for the attack, but just before our expected impact, Orochimaru vanished from in front of us and whipped around to Kakashi's side.
Just before the kunai could dig into his arm, my chakra hand shot out from his side, blocking the attack. Then Kakashi jumped back onto another branch as Orochimaru and I stared at each other. Slowly, we both lowered our stances before suddenly darting forward, the clang of metal on metal ringing through the air. My mouth was set in a deep frown as I turned to face Orochimaru again.
Things weren't looking good. I knew we would be able to take him down eventually, but by revealing the Curse Mark and Sharingan, only more questions came to mind. We had no idea if he was capable of a second release of the Curse Mark, and if so, then he would only get stronger once we were able to push him far enough to use it. As for the Sharingan, there were even more questions. Were they real ones or ones that he'd created? If they were ones he created, how strong were they? Did they have abilities? And if so, what? Was he able to unlock any other stages of the Sharingan? Did they drain his chakra?
I had a lot of questions, but no time to figure out the answers as Orochimaru pushed forward, suddenly inches from me, but I was still able to keep up with him and just barely dodge his blows before pushing closer, making some super close-range attacks of my own.
As he dodged my assault, his mouth slowly morphed back into a manic grin. I grit my teeth, not wanting to know what was on the snake's mind. Then Kakashi surged into the fight, apparently done adjusting to Orochimaru's new speed. Orochimaru's smile vanished as he blocked Kakashi's attack, making me feel slightly relieved, but I didn't have time to rest.
As Kakashi and I continued our attacks, I eventually felt a set of familiar chakra signatures approaching, and again relief washed through me. But I didn't let it show in case Orochimaru hadn't noticed yet, and judging by his unchanged expression, he hadn't. I didn't think that Kakashi had noticed either, but his ninken had. The dogs all spread out, surrounding a larger area than the tree that we were fighting on, and the moment they were far enough away to not be noticed, I felt the chakra of one head towards the approaching team, probably to inform them of the situation and guide them to us.
I fell back and let Kakashi continue engaging Orochimaru as I created a couple bunshin. Then we pushed back into the fight, forcing Orochimaru back from the super close-range fight to defend against the four of us attacking him.
Kakashi and my clones crouched, preparing for the next bout, but I followed Orochimaru back, not giving him a chance to rest, and the others followed immediately after me. As we pressed on, not giving the Snake Sanin a chance to turn the battle into the one he wanted, I could see his expression grow angrier in the darkness. It wasn't long before he'd apparently had enough.
Orochimaru pressed forward even closer, ignoring the kunai that dug into his flesh as he did, and then released several snakes from his arms, forcing us back. My clones vanished as they were bit, and Kurama's chakra burned away the snakes from Kakashi and me before their fangs could sink in. As we fell back, Orochimaru summoned a hoard of snakes. Some wrapped themselves around the tree branches and others fell to the ground, prepared for any of their prey that fell.
"They're all yours!" I called to Kakashi as I pressed forward again. I paid no attention to the creatures slithering at my feet as I landed on the branch with Orochimaru. I knew Kakashi would take care of them, so I focused on another round of super close-range fighting with the Sanin.
Branches creaked and twigs snapped as we fought. It was hard to keep myself from looking my opponent in the eyes, but I couldn't risk it. I had no idea if Orochimaru had any powers to speak of with his Sharingan, but even the most basic Sharingan had genjutsu abilities, and I didn't feel like discovering the extent of his Sharingan's power.
I pressed forward more, parrying Orochimaru's blows with my own kunai as I had chakra arms create two Rasengan and blast them towards Orochimaru's sides, trying to catch him in the middle. He dodged, and I'd expected nothing less, but I didn't expect how he would dodge.
Instead of dashing back like I'd expected to avoid the blows, the Sanin pressed forward even closer towards me, leaving mere millimeters between us, and before I could react, red and black eyes filled my vision, rendering my body immobile as my mind was transported into that dark cell that I'd occupied mere hours ago. Though I understood that it was only an illusion, my heart raced and I broke out into a cold sweat. I forced my eyes shut against the scene and tried to concentrate on disrupting my chakra and breaking the genjutsu before panic overwhelmed me.
However, every second that I tried to concentrate, the pain in my body grew worse. I felt leather and metal digging into my skin. I could smell chemicals and blood in the room. I heard drips from the IV that was connected to my arm, and with every drip, I slowly started to wonder if the rescue was just a dream. Was this room the reality? Was I still buried deep underground? Was everyone really okay? How long had it been since my capture? How much longer did I have to wait? Was the pain going to stop? Would I black out and wake again? If I gave in to the pain, would it stop? Would I be able to see Sasuke? My parents? My master? Why wasn't I getting rescued? They should be here by now, shouldn't they? I wouldn't be able to escape on my own, not with broken hands and poison and pain and fear and panic.
"HELP ME!"
The cry tore itself from my lips, and the panic ringing through the cry resounded in the room, echoing around me. Then another cry burst from me, then another, and another until I wasn't sure what the sound was coming from or why it was so loud or why it hurt or where I was or what was happening.
"NARUTO!" I heard next to me, and I jerked, looking at the figure in front of me. I saw blood. Blood poured from the man's lips, but it wasn't my blood. Slowly, I recognized the man's face and the situation as he collapsed against me. Quickly, my arms wrapped around him and I jumped down to the ground, ignoring the ever-present sunglasses that fell from his face.
My body was shaking, but I tried to force it to calm. I tried to make some of Kurama's chakra transfer to the cooling body in my arms as I laid him on the ground, but he grew no warmer.
"Naruto, are you alright?" I heard him ask, coughing up more blood as he did.
"Ebisu! Don't worry about me. Just breathe. Just keep breathing!" I choked, still trying to force Kurama's chakra into his slowly cooling body while putting pressure on the wound that cut into his chest.
"Naruto, it's alright," he wheezed, and I could feel the hot tears streaming from my face.
"No! You can't give up! You have your students! You have to see Konohamaru become Hokage!" I yelled at him, but he shook his head slightly.
"He has you as his rival, and you were a better teacher for him than I ever was," he whispered, his breathing growing more and more labored.
"Don't! Please, don't talk," I begged, but he paid no attention.
"For not believing in you from the start, I apologize," he said, pausing to cough. "You are an even greater Hokage than I ever could have imagined."
My hands shook as I pressed against the wound that wouldn't heal.
"Ebisu, don't apologize. Please…" I trailed off, and I could see the light flickering in his eyes.
"I leave Konohamaru to you," he whispered. Slowly, I nodded and a small smile came to his face before he coughed again, and then his chest stopped moving.
When I started writing this story, I had absolutely no idea that it would end up being this long, but I really appreciate all the support and I hope you've enjoyed it all so far. I'm honestly not sure how many more chapters this will end up being since ideas keep appearing in my head, but I have the next four chapters planned out in my head.
Anyway, I hope you liked it! I'm going to try really hard again to get Chapter 25 out next weekend, so I hope you'll be looking forward to it.