He was going to fail, Orochimaru-sama hated failure and he was about to fail him. One of the secret abilities of the Cursed Seal of Earth was that it allowed you to sense other cursed seals of lower quality and after time, manipulate them. It was this ability that allowed him to know that Kidōmaru and Ukon were dead and Sakon was AWOL. With half of the sound five out of commission, the unexpected skill of the Kumo fodder (who after 15 mins were mostly still alive thanks to the interference of Uzumaki's clones), and the fact that the flare signaling the Raikage's demise was still unseen Kimimaro realized that the only way he could redeem himself in his masters eyes was to bring him an offering of such value that even the snake sannin's inordinate anger would be abated enough to put off killing him. As he looked at his panting opponent he realized that the Mokuton would be such a prize.
"Tayuya, Jirōbō level two, set-up a echo foxtrot!" Kimimaro ordered as his own transformation neared completion and his appearance became similar to that of a dinosaur, with dark grey skin, six large bone spines protruding out of his back, and a long bone-spiked tail. "Yamato of the Wood Release, I hope that your labored breath is merely a ploy, for our battle is about to reach a whole new level. Dance of the Clematis: Vine!"
From his position Yamato watched as the cursed teen bent at the waist slightly, reached up behind his neck and pulled out his abnormally long spine which had spiked, inch long protrusions along the numerous vertebrae. "Taijutsu isn't gonna work against this kid he's already taken out the clones Naruto sent to help me like they were nothing. Such speed and skill and he hasn't even used any Ninjutsu, this boy is in the in-between like Kakashi-sempai. A couple more years and he'll be an S-rank monster"
Kimimaro let loose a lightning fast swing of his spine whip that a tired Yamato barely avoided. Reaching into a vest pocket he popped a solider pill and felt a burst of artificial energy flow through his system. Channeling chakra to his arm he thrust a wooden knife hand at his opponent who was forced to dodge as a pointed wooden beam shot at him with surprising speed.
With the whip barrage temporarily delayed Yamato flew through 10 hand seals before clapping his hands and slamming them on the ground. "Wood Release: Shell Game" At his command three wooden barrels twice his size grew out of the earth, one on each side of him and the third taking shape around Yamato himself hiding him from Kimimaro's direct line of sight.
Kimimaro struck at the middle barrel but his whip did very little damage so he decided to use the other half of his jutsu. "Dance of the Clematis: Flower!" Supper dense bone grew out of his left arm, twisting and taking the shape of a large bone drill that was nearly as long as Kimimaro was tall. Channeling chakra to his legs and feet the Kaguya survivor sprinted at the center barrel intent to pierce the wooden barrier and subdue the shinobi inside however before he could even get halfway to his objective the ground beneath his feet gave way and turned into a massive mud pit. It was only through a quick application of chakra to his feet that he was able to keep from being submerged.
Looking up he saw the three wooden barrels begin to shift and rotate, gradually picking up speed until he was unable to keep track of the original middle barrel.
"So this is what you rely on when your back is against the wall Konoha-Jonin?! Such cheap gimmicks I'm sure the Shodai is weeping in the afterlife as he…" Kimimaro's rant was cut off as 9 wooden foo dog heads rose from the mud around him and a small flame was lit on the head of the one the farthest away from him.
"He's powering up some kind of complex jutsu, that must be why he summoned those barrels to hide while he got it ready. But how was he moving the barrels, creating this mud pit and getting this dog head jutsu ready all at once? Clones maybe? In any case I can't let him finish whatever jutsu he's preparing. Looks like I have no choice." Kimimaro thought to himself as he stoped channeling chakra to his feet and sunk deep into the mud.
"What is he…" Yamato wondered before feeling a huge buildup of chakra coming from directly underneath one of his barreled wood clones. Occupied with the Foo dog Heads technique's preparation (he only had 6 of the 9 heads ready) he yelled at the clone "Hurry and contain him now!"The order was too late as super dense bones of various sizes shot out in all directions, breaking the earth's surface and piercing through the wooden barrels and their contents.
Carefully Kimimaro resurfaced through on of his larger bones to inspect the barrels and see if he'd hit his opponent. Looking around himself he saw that all but one of the dog heads was lit but was still cautious and stayed partially inside his bone pillar just in case he needed to make a speedy exit. Extending bone spears from his palms he picked the barrels apart to reveal two shish kabobed wood clones and a severely bleeding Yamato who was shaking and somehow coughing up blood despite the large bone sticking out of his lower abdomen.
"Don't worry Jonin-san I won't let you die, well not until Orochimaru-sama examines you at least" Kimimaro said as he exited his bone pillar and walked toward his defeated opponent. As he bent down and grabbed the bleeding shinobi he noticed that the man's arms felt… stiff? "Release!" Kimimaro yelled flaring his chakra and nimbly flipping over a wooden dog head that had tried to bite him. While still in the air he was able to fend of three more dog heads before a fourth clamped down on his right leg, seconds later he found each of his arms and legs painfully trapped in a wooden mouth and his chakra being quickly drained away.
Looking down he saw that what he'd thought was the Konoha Jonin was just a Genjutsu covered clone. As he struggled against his restraints the dog heads merely clamped down harder on his appendages and siphoned his chakra even faster. It only took a minute for the second level of his curse mark to be consumed and him to revert to his natural form.
Emerging from one of the dog heads that hadn't moved the real Yamato dropped to his knees in exhaustion panting heavily. "Too think someone so young could push me this far. If Orochimaru hadn't gotten his fangs in you I'm sure you would have become a splendid ninja"
"Ku ku ku" Kimimaro chuckled, his laugh sounding disturbingly like the one that still haunted Yamato's dreams. "What an ironic choice of words 'gotten his fangs in you'" Before Yamato could ask what the teen was on about another non curse seal enhanced Kimimaro jumped out of the mud and attempted to kick Yamato who, out of years of Anbu experience and sheer will power was able to lean out of the way. However as the acrobatically inclined Kimimaro twisted his body at an unnatural airborne angle Yamato was caught by surprise by his next attack.
"Shadow Snake Hands!" Four green and black snakes flew at Yamato, two sinking their fangs into his neck one his into his face and the other bit into his left hand, all injecting him with as much of their artificial venom as they could before the were killed by panicked kunai strikes.
"Wha… you're a clone?" Yamato asked as he sluggishly rose with a bloody kunai in a reverse grip.
"No, I'm real what you have bound is a prototype technique I call a Bone and Marrow Clone. Due to the… unsavory individuals my master tends to employ I'm well versed in the art of the shell game and realized that you had probably hidden yourself somewhere besides those barrels. I created the Bone and Marrow Clone after I submerged to draw you out betting that you wouldn't be able to tell that it wasn't me since, unlike most clones, it is created with my own genetic material as well as the majority of my chakra" Kimimaro explained walking towards his downed opponent who was struggling to reach his ear radio with one hand and forming a half ram seal with the other.
"Team 7, leader compromised abort mission, I repeat abort mission" Yamato ordered before activating the Body Elimination Technique. Acting quickly Kimimaro shunshined past Yamato to safety right before the buildup of chakra consumed the man's body. Looking back at the quickly burning corpse Kimimaro couldn't help but thank kami that Kabuto had found a cure for his disease. If he hadn't the use of his new clone wouldn't have been possible and the chronic pain would have prevented him from out thinking his clever opponent.
"Well now, are you ready to share your secrets with Orochimaru-sama?" The young Kaguya asked the severed, happuri wearing head in his bloody/bone clawed right hand.
A little earlier with Naruto:
"Tayuya, Jirōbō level two, set-up a echo foxtrot!"
Naruto wasn't sure what their team leader meant by echo foxtrot but he did know that allowing them to set one up was probably a bad idea. Looking over at Sasuke and Ami he saw that they appeared to be shaken up by something and were just looking at each other with strange expressions on their faces. "Ami, Sasuke are you good?" he asked over his radio but got no response. "Ami! Sasuke! Report!"
"Aaah um, yeah. We're good… I think" Sasuke shakily replied.
"Look, I don't know what just happened to you two but I need to know if your heads are in the game"
Shaking his head Sasuke looked at Ami who looked back at him with a focused expression on her face and then at Naruto and nodded, the seriousness of Naruto's tone snapping him out of his distraction.
"Good, now I need you two to take out the big earth user ASAP and then go help the Kumo-nin. I'll deal with the red head Genjutsu user. Be careful I doubt these transformations of theirs are just for show" Naruto ordered getting two nods in return. "Demonic Mimicry: Human Chakra Cloak!" Naruto shouted before taking off in a supercharged shunshin and plowing through the tree Tayuya had been standing in front of, the sound kunoichi having replaced herself with a fallen tree branch. Turning around Naruto saw his opponent bring her flute back up to her lips in an attempt to snare him in an illusion and responded by swiping at her with an 8 foot long chakra claw extension which she ducked underneath.
The claw sunk into the earth beside her inspiring Naruto jump and use it to yank himself at her landing a superman punch that cracked one of her horns and knocked her on her ass. "You dick licking shitbag! You think you can take me? Well I got news for you, this fucktastic little light show you're putting on doesn't change the fact that you're a piece of garba… umph!" Tayuya's rant was cut off by an air bullet dispersing across her face.
"Sorry but your filthy mouth gets annoying after a while" Naruto said before forming two chakra arm extensions and grabbing at Tayuya who flipped out of the way.
"This kid wasn't this fast or strong when he was facing my Doki. His jutsu apparently gives him a boost like the curse seal does for me, plus it allows him to use Taijutsu at various distances however unlike the curse mark he's using his own chakra. Since he's apparently resistant to Genjutsu and my Doki are no longer able to fight my only option would be to outlast the kid and wait for him to use up his chakra. The only problem with that is Kimimaro ordered an Exfill which means that I don't have time to…" Tayuya's thoughts were cut off as Naruto dropped on all fours and charged her.
The blonde was even faster than before and closed the distance between them in seconds. He slashed at her legs but Tayuya was not only able to jump over the swipe but landed a satisfying low kick to his face as well. Her moment of triumph was short lived when a third chakra hand extension shot from his shoulder and wrapped around her ankle burning through the bandages wrapped around it and searing her flesh. The pain didn't stop there however as Tayuya soon found herself picked up and smashed, face first into a huge tree her nose braking instantly and vision blurring soon after.
Through her teary eyes she saw a bright blue light coming right at her and tried to dodge but was tripped by the chakra hand still around her now numb ankle. A new but now familiar burn spread around her neck and even though her vision hadn't cleared she knew that the leaf brat had her by the throat and realized that it probably wouldn't be too hard for him to carve her a new smile. She was defeated.
"What are you waiting for? Just kill me already!"
"Where are you from?" the boy asked her calmly.
"Oto you dumds…"
"No before that. Where were you born?" Naruto specified.
"I…why should I tell you asshole?"
"That hair, that attitude, this… weird feeling I have in my gut, I think that…I think we may be kin" Naruto said as an odd emotion that he was unfamiliar with began seeping past his emotional conditioning.
"What? I don't know what kind of weird tree huger mindfuck you're trying to use on me but it won't work kid. We don't look anything alike plus I don't have any family and…Hey! Are you listening to me!?" Tayuya demanded since Naruto had his real hand raised to his ear.
"Team 7, leader compromised abort mission, I repeat abort mission"
"Looks like we're gonna have to finish the Q&A session later, Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto yelled causing Arumaeiji to appear in a puff of smoke. "Arumaeiji-sama, do you think you could store this girl for me?"
"Fuck that I'm not going anywhere with this thing" Tayuya yelled thrashing against the chakra hands but only succeeding in further harming herself. The armadillo in front of her disappeared in a burst of speed and a cooling sensation that started at her scalp quickly spread throughout her entire body, somehow forcing the curse mark to recede. The last thing she heard before everything went black was: "Si, this one's an Uzumaki"
With Ami and Sasuke:
Ami cartwheeled out of the way of a hammer fist that formed a small crater were she had been standing while Sasuke shunshined behind the unnaturally dark skinned older teen and stabbed his kunai into his back only piercing an inch into the dense, muscular flesh. In response Jirōbō grabbed Sasuke and slung him into Ami sending both leaf-nin flying away.
"Ugh, Sasuke-san what happened? He's gotten faster after his transformation but he still shouldn't have been able to grab you" Ami asked.
"My eyes aren't…in sync, they're messing each other up. When I try closing my left eye all I can see through my right is darkness with a little violet light. When I close my right eye I can see through my eye lid so I'm still fucked" Sasuke informed her.
"Just stop channeling chakra to your… dodge!" Ami started but was forced to jump out of the way of a large boulder.
"I'm not channeling chakra to it; it's running on its own energy" Sasuke said while going through hand seals. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Earth Release: Earth Shore Return!" Jirōbō countered blocking the fireball with a wall of rock before punching the wall sending a cabbage sized rock right at Sasuke who was saved by the last Naruto clone in their immediate area who performed a substitution with the young Uchiha.
"Try channeling chakra to it then!" Ami yelled in an uncharacteristic burst of frustration, throwing three smoke pellets followed by three crystal shuriken at their opponent.
Following his teammates advice Sasuke sent chakra to his right eye but found that it wasn't all accepted. "Spirit energy! It runs on spirit energy!" Sasuke realized before forming the ram hand seal and focusing on his chakra. The key to Genjutsu is the special ratio of spirit to physical energy present in your chakra. You have to use more spirit energy than physical (since foreign physical energy is easier to detect) in order to manipulate the target's mind and senses but without physical energy the illusion usually falls apart. The chakra control needed to form and manipulate this unbalanced chakra is rare which is why there are so few true Genjutsu masters in the world. Sasuke wouldn't go so far as to call himself a master but he was fairly good at Genjutsu so channeling spirit heavy chakra to his eye wasn't beyond him.
As soon as the special chakra reached his eye the darkness that previously dominated his vision gave way to various shades of beautiful violet/purple light. He was able to make out the grass, trees, fleeing animals and the shinobi in the area since they all had violet/purple light flowing through them. "It's their spirit energy" Sasuke thought in awe. The sound of something shattering broke Sasuke out of his internal study of his new eye and he turned around just in time to see Jirōbō, who had broken through Ami's crystal defense, land a devastating left haymaker on the young kunoichi knocking her unconscious. Closing his left eye Sasuke brought his hands up in a cross shaped hand seal "Shadow clone Jutsu!". After coming into existence the shadow clone immediately went into a set of hand seals of its own while its creator took off in a shunshin.
Jirōbō reached into his supply pouch and pulled out a slightly longer than normal kunai prepared to finish off the Konoha trash when he felt a strong itching sensation in his raised arm before it became stiff and impossible to move. "What the…Release! Aaguuh!" The moment he broke the Genjutsu on himself he triggered another one that made it appear as though his arm exploded into a half dozen hawks that promptly took to pecking at his eyes and clawing at his flesh. His anger rising Jirōbō unconsciously pulled on the curse seal's power and roared "Release!" .
The hawks vanished as the foreign energy was harshly flushed from his system by cursed chakra, slightly damaging his chakra network but forming a cloak of blackish purple chakra around him that was so strong even normal eyes could see it. Looking down he saw that the Konoha kunoichi was gone. Hearing the sound of more birds behind him Jirōbō turned to see the dark haired leaf brat with whitish blue, crackling lightning chakra covering his smoking (the bandages were burning) right hand.
"Your earth jutsu and thick skin won't save you from this" Sasuke warned.
"You think that little spark can stop me! I'd laugh if I wasn't so insulted" Jirōbō said before running at the foolish boy intent to bury his kunai in the younger teen's head. The Konoha-nin ran right at him with his hand cocked back ready to strike, as they neared each other Jirōbō grinned realizing that his longer arm span and special kunai gave him a clear reach advantage. Looking at his opponent to see if he had realized it too he made the mistake of looking in the boy's strange white eye, the spiral starting to spin and glow bright purple before he was blinded by a violet light followed by a sharp pain in his chest.
When his vision returned moments later he saw that his kunai had missed its mark and his arm was extended over the boy's shoulder. Looking down he saw the kid's arm inside his chest and felt the power of the curse mark leaving him. "Looking an Uchiha in the eye even if it's some kind of mutated version, humhp, I deserved this" the large Oto-nin chuckled humorously, lamenting his own arrogance.
"Look into my eye one more time, I'll put you to sleep so you won't feel any more pain before you…pass on" Sasuke said.
Deciding to take the boy up on his offer Jirōbō did just that preferring dying in his sleep instead of in agony. For his part Sasuke channeled more spirit heavy chakra to his eye intent to put the boy out of his misery when the over whelming urge to dump physical heavy chakra into Jirōbō made itself known somewhere in the Uchiha's subconscious and going with the feeling Sasuke did just that.
"hehehe, I will receive. Yin Release: Soul Absorption" Sasuke heard a happy, childlike voice chuckle eerily in his head before the violet light that was Jirōbō's spirit energy doubled in luminosity and started to rush to the large teen' eyes. Although he couldn't see Jirōbō's physical energy he could feel it trying to latch onto its spiritual counterpart but Sasuke's own physical heavy chakra was getting in its way. The violet light left Jirōbō and settled in Sasuke's eye causing a since of satisfaction to flood his very being.
"It was a real feast! Hahaha"
"Who's there?" Sasuke asked out loud as he pulled his arm out of Jirōbō, the dead boy dropping unceremoniously on the ground.
"I said who's there!?"
"Team 7, leader compromised abort mission, I repeat, abort mission" Hearing the command, Sasuke's attention was once again snapped away from his strange new eye and he shunshined to the spot where a slowly awaking Ami was hidden and radioed Naruto.
"Naruto can you hear me? Over"
"Rodger"
"The Earth user's dead but Ami's knocked out and I'm nearly out of chakra, what do we do?" Sasuke asked. Although he was sure he had plenty of spirit energy left his physical reserves were low meaning that his chakra was out of balance and unsuitable for regular jutsu. Feeling a familiar burst of chakra behind him Sasuke turned around and saw his blonde teammate who was looking at Ami and frowning. Pulling the mostly out of it girl to him, Naruto pulled some smelling salt out of his vest and waved it right below the girl's nose startling her fully awake.
"Alright this is what we're gon…What the fuck happened to you?" Naruto asked once he got a good look at Sasuke.
"My Sharingan mutated or something"
"OooK, how are you two doing on chakra and injuries, can you still fight?" Naruto asked and was told about Sasuke's imbalanced chakra and how despite a massive headache Ami still had about 60% of her chakra left.
"Teme, can you still use Substitution, Shunshin, and your Genjutsu?"
"Hai, although I'm not sure how many Shunshins I have left in me"
"Ok so at this point we have two objectives: rescuing Yamato-sensei if he's still alive and going to aid the Raikage. Ami I'm going to send you and the best enhanced shadow clone I can make to go after Yamato-sensei while Sasuke and I go to help the Rai…" Naruto started only to be interrupted by Sasuke.
"If Yamato-sensei couldn't defeat that bone kid then I doubt that Ami and a shadow clone would be able to do it, no offence " Sasuke said looking at Ami who shrugged before looking at Naruto.
"Sasuke-san is correct senpai. Besides with Sasuke-san's weakened condition and his inexperience with his new dojutsu the two of you may just get in the way of the Raikage and his guards. Yamato's final order was to abort this mission and since we've warned the Raikage and dealt with the Sound Five we've technically completed the mission's objectives despite losing one of our own. I believe that it would behoove us to leave what's left of this battle to the Kumo-nin and return to the black site" Ami suggested getting a look of disbelief from Sasuke.
"We can't let Yamato-sensei get taken to Oto. We have to go after him, all three of us and…"
"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" Naruto yelled surprising his teammates.
"Up until a week before he was ordered to take over our training Yamato was Anbu commander, not an Anbu Taicho but a commander, meaning that he's jam packed with up to date knowledge on Konoha's defenses. We can't let Orochimaru get his hands on that Intel so while I said it was a rescue mission to spare your feelings Teme what's really going to happen is Ami is going to confirm Yamato is dead and if he isn't she's going to use her Injection Shot Sniper to make him that way. Don't look at me like that. Through my clones I saw how strong that Oto bone user is and in our weakened states it would take all three of us to defeat him. But if the Raikage dies our alliance with Kumo will at best be delayed and at worst fall apart, either outcome will probably mean the end of the leaf so despite me being tired and whatever weirdness is going on with you we are going to back up the Kumo guards and save the Raikage even if it costs us our lives and Ami is going to kill Yamato if it's still possible that he's a security risk. It's not pretty and maybe I'm overlooking some miracle third option but fuck it. I'm the Chunin and you two are the Genin, my order is final and if you decide to disobey…" Naruto paused his rant as his teeth and nails grew/sharpened and his eyes became red and slitted.
"I'll kill you myself!"
A/N: Sorry its taken so long for me to update but bronchitis and personal stuff got in the way. As always please read and review.