*Sound Effects Will Now Look Like This*

Danzo always hated smoking. Before tonight he hadn't smoked since he and Hiruzen had dined with the current Fire Daimyo's father over 20 years ago. Bringing the flame from his lighter up to the Tapir head shaped pipe bowl he placed his lips on the pipe's 'trunk' and after a couple small puffs inhaled deeply, hearing an annoying gurgling sound. Tilting his head back in his lawn chair he let out a long stream of smoke while sighing, watching as the smoke gradually spread apart revealing the still cloud filled night sky above it.

"You're smoking too fast. That's why it's gurgling like that plus you're not supposed to actually inhale the smoke dummy" Hiruzen said from behind him.

"Let me smoke how I wanna smoke. Why do you gotta be such a know it all-all the time?" Danzo said with a small smile on his face. This was one of the more memorable arguments that they'd had as children.

"Maybe if you cracked open a book once and a while instead of running around blowing hot air I wouldn't seem so much smarter than you. Course you'll always be a dummy to me" Hiruzen said before hearing something he hadn't heard in 50 years. Danzo was laughing.

"And then we started fighting and accidently set your clan's smoked meat cabin on fire. That whipping your father gave us was worse than any I'd ever gotten from my own" Danzo reminisced with a chuckle.

"Hai but making us eat all that charred boar was a bit much"

"Humph, Sasuke-sama never was one for wastefulness" Danzo said standing up and allowing his black haori to slip off his shoulders revealing his bare back and unsealed enhancements for all to see.

"Danzo, how could you do this to yourself?" Hiruzen said taking in the warped, pasty white skin of Danzo's right arm, implanted sharingan eyes (only 8 of which were actually open) and the miniature face of his dead sensei jutting out of his right shoulder.

"Becoming an abomination is fine with me if it means being able to defend the leaf against the monsters hidden in its shadows"

"Danzo…"

"Hiruzen, if tonight is going to be my last then I'd appreciate it if we skipped whatever sanctimonious lecture you've planned" Danzo said turning around and blowing out of the side of his mouth causing the lawn chair to go flying across his rather large back yard.

"One more question. You obviously knew this was coming so why are you still here?"

"And be on the run for the last what, six months to a year of my life? Without Kichida I'd be lucky to live that long"

Hiruzen's facial expression stayed the same but his grip on his weapon momentarily tightened. While most would over look the movement as an old man adjusting his hold on a heavy piece of equipment Danzo knew better. Hiruzen was concerned.

"Don't worry Hiruzen I don't have anyone in your precious ISS but I'm not stupid either. I've noticed Kichida's nervousness these last few weeks and the gradual change in the rotation roster so that more Anbu, current or otherwise, were recalled to the village. I didn't put it all together until I noticed that at the last minute you removed all my ninja from the Kumo delegation's security detail and changed their hotel to the one closest to area 44. Of course by then it was too late to do much except destroy the contents of my personal vault. That's when I found the terrible present you gave me after my Jonin exam" Danzo said holding up the pipe.

"Hey, it was better than what you gave me. A bento full of cold turkey and pocky, really?" Hiruzen asked causing both men to let out short chuckles. Two tandem explosions caused by their clashing forces seemed to sober the two men, their expressions hardening.

"Are you ready ape?"

"Hai, I'm sorry it came to this. I failed you Danzo I'm…"

"Look at it this way" Danzo interrupted taking up a fighting stance and channeling chakra to his forward left hand. "We don't have to hold back this time!" he yelled slashing at the air and causing five wind blades to fly at Hiruzen.

Inhaling while making two-one-handed seals Hiruzen spat a watermelon-sized fire ball at the blades causing all five to destabilize and combust in a burst of smoke. He then dragged the end of his staff across the ground, channeling earth chakra into it before swinging at Danzo's last location in an upward arc. Large 10 foot tall spikes of hardened earth followed the staff's lead racing towards Danzo who narrowly barrel rolled out of the way. As a gust of wind blew through the yard dispersing the smoke from their first exchange the two eyed each other and smirked as a mutual realization set in. This realization was immediately followed by 'Hiruzen' being decapitated by a wind shuriken and 'Danzo' being mauled by a mini earth dragon. As 'Hiruzen' melted in to a mud puddle the real Hokage jumped out of the ground and looked up seeing an airboure Danzo's descent back to the earth.

"Although we couldn't see it we felt each other make those clones. It would seem that we've both become quasi-sensors in our old age" Hiruzen said looking over at the headless Danzo clone beside him.

"One of us more than the other" Danzo said right before his clone detonated in a shower of wind blades.

It was only due to his decades of experience the Hiruzen was able to substitute himself with a stone bench in time to avoid the worst of the attack but still took some minor lacerations to his right side. None severe enough to impede his ability to fight but since they wouldn't be treated anytime soon they'd leave a fair amount of scar tissue. Sensing another attack he channeled wind chakra into his staff and swung with amazing speed, slamming his weapon into a rather large wind blade canceling it out. Spinning around he utilized a series of upward rowing blocks to deflect the trusts of Danzo's newly unsealed naginata.

Hiruzen attempted a leg sweep with his staff to which Danzo promptly jumped over and back. Channeling chakra to vitalize his aging body Hiruzen blurred forward in what could be described as a micro shunshin, jumped in the air and caught Danzo with a flying side kick to the sternum shattering it.

"Kugck!" Danzo coughed out releasing a large amount of blood however before the airbourne plasma could land Danzo had already started to shimmer and fade from Hiruzen's line of sight.

"Is that…" "Ahhhargh!" Hiruzen's train of thought was derailed by a series of air bullets hitting him from behind with enough force to lift him off his feet.

"Hiruzen, is this all you have? Have the years robbed you so much?" Danzo taunted as one of his implanted sharingan closed.

Slowly standing up the aged Hokage noticed that the left side of his body now felt stiff and heavy. "Damn it! One of those air bullets must have damaged my spine and Danzo has apparently used that Uchiha kinjutsu to undo the damage I just dealt him. Looks like I don't have a choice" he thought to himself as he called on his new power.

Feeling something amiss Danzo rushed in and swung his wind enhanced naginata at his opponent's neck trying to finish the injured man off however right before his blade made contact he saw three red dots light up under Hiruzen's shirt and hundreds of thin red lines race across the left side of the man's neck and face. As his weapon made contact with Hiruzen's jugular the hardened skin covering it refused to give way causing the naginata's blade to shatter. Jumping away to avoid a chakra enhanced staff swing Danzo was able to finally get a good look at the man in front of him and get a decent feel of his chakra.

"Hypocrite"

Raising his left hand so that he could see the intricate black wood grain pattern that had covered his now pale skin, Hiruzen looked at Danzo and smirked. "It would appear so wouldn't?"

Flashback 12 hours prior:

"Hokage-sama please reconsider. This one only contains Tenzo's DNA and Mokuton chakra…"

"There's still that mystery enzyme that you told me about right?"

"Hai, the enzyme is the key to the transformation but it was Orochimaru's essence that promoted the mental degradation in the test subjects. Once I examined the dead Oto-nin's seal and consulted with Danzo's top Yamanaka I was able to find the part of the brain that the Orochimaru… soul fragment resides and use a sealing array containing small amounts of Mokuton chakra to purify, weaken and remove it. Without the interference of the soul fragment I was able to properly study the technology and reverse engineer it. I was even able to fix certain chakra conduction issues in the original seal matrix. The T enzyme is the only part of the original curse mark present in this prototype as it is crucial in prompting and reversing the transformation"

"If I do this how am I any better than Danzo and Orochimaru?" Hiruzen asked eyeing the syringe in Kichida's hand warily.

"Permission to speak freely Hokage-sama?"

"Hai"

"How you can be better than them isn't the question. What you should ask yourself is how you can hope to survive the slightest of confrontations with them as you are? In this time of conflict, who could hit the ground running as Hokage should you die?"

"I…" Hiruzen started but stopped to fully consider the question. Months ago, before the start of this war, he'd devised a tentative plan to finally retire. Once the prodigious members of Team 7 all made Chunin, he'd ask (order) Jiraiya to take on Kakashi as an apprentice and give him a year or two to train the man in his spymaster duties. Once Kakashi had a decent handle on Jiraiya's spy network he'd sit Jiraiya down and convince him to become the Godaime (by any means necessary) however things at the northwestern border spiraled out of control and his planning went to shit.

"If you can adjust the mark so that I can purge it from my system myself if something goes wrong then…I'll take it"

End Flashback:

"I can remove this curse mark at any time while what you've done to yourself is permanent. Add that to the fact that no one had to die for my enhancements and I'd say that morally, I still have one up on you"

"Keep telling yourself that Hiruzen. In any case you're not the only one with an ace up your sleeve... so to speak" Danzo said dropping his broken naginata and bringing his left hand up to his right shoulder. The lumpy flesh seemed to bulge and the 'mouth' opened up, a bladeless vajra like hilt slid into Danzo's hand.

*Crack vvush vrrmmmmmm*

"The Raijin no Ken? But Aoi Rokushō…"

"Is very dead. Killing him and returning this treasure to the leaf is just one of many of your messes I've had to clean up over the years. Now, if I remember the stories you used to tell me of your sensei's spars correctly Tobirama-sama was able to use this blade to cut through some of Hashirama-sama's Mokuton defenses" Danzo said raising the glowing blade above his head with the tip angled downward behind him.

"That stance…that's the Kenjutsu Kushina was developing. You stole it from her?" Hiruzen asked remembering the intimidatingly vicious, strength based sword style thru which the late kunoichi channeled her frustration and rage.

"Why would I need to steal something I helped create? Kushina was my first apprentice after all" Danzo said blurring forward and taking an electrified swipe at Hiruzen.

Land of Sand:

"We're being followed" Naruto whispered to Sasuke and Tsunade.

"What? I don't sense anything" Tsunade replied.

"They're still a couple miles behind us but are gaining fast. We won't be able to out run them, their mode of transportation is faster than we can run on this terrain"

"And what mode is that?" Tsunade asked somewhat worriedly. She wasn't exactly sure how close they were to the border and didn't want the Ame patrols to be alerted. As out of shape as she was those brats Kakashi and Gai might be able to give her a run for her money if they worked together so fighting 2 S-rank ninja was definitely not something she wanted to try with only kids backing her up.

Pulling out a scroll from his pouch Naruto unrolled it and started emptying his kunai and shuriken holsters. "They're riding a cloud of iron sand" he informed giving Sasuke and Ami quick but meaningful looks.

"Shit, it's them, here? Are you sure?" Sasuke asked while he began to rid himself of metal as well.

"The iron user is apparently a powerful sensor as well. He destroyed most of the henged clones I left behind before they even knew what hit them however one got a good look at all three of our pursuers. What it saw matches the descriptions we got from you know who, its them" Naruto said looking around and spotting a twenty-foot deep ravine barely wide enough for an ox cart.

"Osprey, take out a syringe from your med kit and draw some of my blood. When you're finished drop your metal and make the three of us crystal replacements. Scorpion, take Tsunade-sama and her charges and run a mile northeast while staying a klick away from the border. Once you finish the mile have Arumaemi here summon any armadillo besides Arumagoro to transport you directly to Kusa" Naruto said handing the small armadillo to Scorpion while Osprey finished drawing his blood.

"What about you three?" Scorpion asked.

"We'll catch up" Naruto said before creating two shadow clones and handing one the syringe before they ran and jumped down the ravine.

"Who are we running from?" Tsunade asked impatiently.

"Sorry Tsunade-sama but there's no time for a proper explanation. Just know that three powerful ninja are following us and my team and I need to stay behind and distract them if this mission is to succeed. Please go now" Naruto ordered despite using the word 'please'.

Frowning but nodding in response, Tsunade knelt down in front of Karin and gestured for the girl to get on her back to allow their group to move faster. Once the Genin was on, the four women sprinted away.

"What's the plan Senpai?" Ami asked finishing a few hand seals, prompting dozens of crystal weapons to grow out of the ground.

"We engage the Iwa-nin just long enough to buy Scorpion enough time to get Tsunade and the others a couple klicks beyond the border. Once the first of my first shadow clones is destroyed the two in that ravine will feel it and take that as the signal to summon Arumagoro. That ravine is our rally point. If our battle with the Iwa-nin goes sideways I'll give the signal to break contact, get back to the ravine and make a run for it" Naruto said while filling his pouches with Ami's crystal weaponry, the only metal weapon still on his person being his custom short sword sealed away in its scroll.

"Crane, I have a bad feeling about this maybe we should come up with someth…" Eagle started before being cut off.

"No time, we're doing this now. Let's go" Crane ordered before taking off in a run.

"Wait something's happening. The one I tagged is moving again; they're moving at a far faster speed and coming directly for us… they just shunshined. ETA four minutes… another shunshin two minutes!" Tetsuo warned while summoning more sand from his cloak.

"Looks like we're in for our first real fight, get ready guys. Steel Release: Strong Arm" Hirutsuchi said jumping off Tetsuo's platform and applying his bloodline to his covered left torso, arm and gloved hand.

"Velocity Armor: Quick Start!" Maiko yelled ordering her armor out of standby.

"There's buildup of chakra happening around the tagged nin…now he's adding his chakra into it…MASSIVE JUTSU INCOMING!" Tetsuo yelled while making the ram hand seal and creating a protective iron dome around his team.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

"Tetsuo what's going on!?" Maiko asked, her voice carrying a slight anxious edge.

"They used a large wind jutsu to create a sand storm for cover then used the ambient wind chakra to enhance explosive fire jutsu which are slamming against my dome. The explosions are slowly sapping my chakra, we'll need to move soon" Tetsuo said with a look of concentration on his face.

"Can you pinpoint their location?" Hirutsuchi asked still somewhat unbalanced at the suddenness of the attack.

"No, my iron particles outside the dome have been blown away and without them the range of my sensory abilities has been lessened. Plus all of this ambient wind chakra is making sensing even more difficult"

"Wind chakra doesn't just stay in one area. The ninja doing this is probably concentrating pretty hard and stationary. If that's the case I can track them down with the thermal setting of my visor and…"

"Do it! Tetsuo let her out when she's ready!" Hirutsuchi yelled hoping that being pinned down for as long as they had wasn't a sign of things to come.

"Swift Release: Shadowless Flight" Maiko said before sprinting out of the dome and ducking under a fire ball without breaking her stride. Looking ahead with her thermal vision on she saw a figure with their arms outstretched, roughly 100 yards to her one o'clock and charged him as fast as she could slamming a right haymaker right into his jaw.

*Boom!*

"Ah!" She yelled despite her visors warning allowing her to avoid the worst of the exploding shadow clone's blast. Suddenly shifting her momentum had caused her to become unbalanced and trip over a sage bush sending her tumbling a good ten feet before coming to a stop.

"Ow, that hurt" She said to herself as she slowly rose to her feet. Looking behind herself she saw the sand storm trap start to destabilize. She was about to go back into the cloud to search for the enemy until she saw the ground where the shadow clone had been standing crack, a hand reaching out.

"Oh no you don't" she said running at the person to engage them only to be forced to dodge out of the way of the speedy swipe of a pinkish purple kunai. Her attacker didn't let up, slashing at her with kunai in both hands, giving her no chance to switch her HUD to speed mode so she could keep up with him/her better. Desperate, she put her hands up in front of her chest palms facing her opponent and rapidly channeled chakra. "Wind Release: Dual Repulsor palm!"

The blast was as powerful as it was immediate, lifting Maiko off her feet and sending her rocketing thirty yards in the opposite direction. Unlike the last time when she tripped she was ready for this tumble and after her third or fourth uncontrolled roll she dug her feet in to the ground, put her repulsor palms out behind her back and used a more controlled burst of air to slow herself to a stop. Immediately moving her hand up to her control to switch to speed mode she was surprised when her armor's internal sensors picked up foreign chakra in her system and switched her HUD to its anti-genjutsu setting. As thermal vision gave way to a blue colored hue she was able to see the bird masked ninja was just out of arms reach of her preparing to strike. Flaring her swift chakra she prepared to shunshin out of the way when she saw the rotation of the three spinning tomoe in her opponents eye accelerate before she was lifted off her feet by a lightning fast front snap kick to the chin.

"He moved faster than I could while channeling swift chakra? Even with his Sharingan and Genjutsu catching me of guard that shouldn't be possible. Who the fuck is this guy!?"

Naruto and Ami sat behind a crystal encampment wall as a group of Naruto's shadow clones bombarded the dome with Ami occasionally jumping up and chipping in.

"Osprey, are you sure they haven't tried to escape underground?"

"Hai senpai, if they did I'd feel it through the crystal pillars I have under the d…" Ami started but stopped when iron senbon flew from the dome in every direction dispelling the unprotected shadow clones. Flashing through hand seals Ami put up an additional encampment wall a foot in front of the one they we're currently behind. It was good that she did since the senbon tore through the first wall and penetrated the second with the tips poking out an inch on Naruto and Ami's side.

"They're out of the dome, separate the sand user from his teammate. Keep him off me while I deal with the big one. I'll create some clones to back you up" Naruto ordered before making a squad's worth of shadow clones and shunshining away.

"Crystal Release: Crystal Labyrinth Technique!" Ami yelled after making ten quick hand seals and slamming her hands on the ground. Her shout was so loud that it immediately put Tetsuo and Hirutsuchi on edge allowing them to dodge away from the massive crystal pillar that shot out of the ground between them. Flipping out of the way of two additional pillars, Tetsuo formed and jumped on his platform to get an airborne view of the battle field. Even though he and Hiru had put on goggles before leaving the dome and the winds and sand cloud had lessened he could only see in his immediate area. As he rose, the few sand nodules he was able to surround himself with bumped into a ceiling of some kind that was roughly 20 feet above the ground.

"Damn it! They've separated us" he lamented before ducking under the swing of a purple tanto welding bird masked Anbu. "Magnet Release: Iron Sand Shuriken!" he yelled nailing his target only for it to explode a few feet away from him.

*Boom!*

"Ah!"

Hearing Tetsuo's scream Hirutsuchi turned in that direction and drew his sledgehammer, slamming it into the crystal wall separating them. Deep spider cracks formed on the wall but it didn't give. Taking a few steps back Hiru charged the wall again this time getting a better running start and reinforcing his body with chakra. The wall shattered easily however instead of Tetsuo being on the other side of the wall it was a bird masked Anbu with a purple tanto in hand.

"It was a mirror image and my swing over extended me, I can't dodge in time!" He yelled to himself as the tanto struck his neck…the left side of his neck.

*Crack!*

"Shit" Naruto cursed to himself as the Tanto's crystal blade shattered against the Iwa teen's throat. Seeing his opponent regain his balance and swing at him, Naruto performed a substitution with the shadow clone he'd half hidden behind a nearby pillar. Taking cover fully behind the pillar Naruto didn't even jump at the sound of the clone's detonation as he quickly reached into his pouch and withdrew a black and yellow scroll. With a puff of smoke he unsealed his new custom blade and tried to make a quick plan while his opponent recovered.

"Judging from the way it only took him two swings to get through the wall and his reaction time after my ambush I'd say he's at least twice as strong as I am and only slightly slower. My speed and knowledge of Ami's labyrinths are the only obvious things I have going for me. This is Ami's 2nd labyrinth so there should be a fairly large chamber two lefts and a right from here. If I can get there without falling for any of her mirror walls I should be able to fully use my speed and…MOVE!" Naruto yelled to himself and barrel rolled out of the way as Hirutsuchi smashed his way through the pillar.

Naruto didn't have an earth affinity or actual earth chakra however after wind jutsu he favored earth jutsu over any other element. This preference allowed him to channel chakra with some quasi-earth properties into his blade strengthening it to the point where it didn't even chip when he brought it up in a high parry. Hiru's initial blow was so strong that it forced Naruto to take a knee and nearly made him drop his sword. The head of Hiru's hammer slid along the edge of Naruto's downward angled blade in a quick shower of sparks until Naruto moved his wrist, rapidly dropping the angle even lower and freeing it of the hammer. Pulling his arms slightly back and leaning to his right, Naruto whipped the blade back behind his head while simultaneously channeling wind chakra into it. Bringing it up Naruto struck at Hirutsuchi's still extended lower forearm with a right to left slash.

Seeing the change in chakra along the blade Hiru jerked his wrists back and back pedaled as fast as he could. He wasn't fast enough as Naruto used his chakra to create a wind blade extension nearly doubling his blades reach. More sparks along with a short grinding sound filled the crystal hallway as the blade tried and failed to cut into Hirutsuchi's left wrist only managing to cut open the fabrics covering it.

"So that's the technique the Iron skin jutsu is based off of?" Naruto wondered as he took off in a sprint down the hallway. Reaching into his pouch Naruto pulled out a smoke pellet and threw it behind himself after making the first left turn. Making the other turns and running into the large chamber Naruto created two more shadow clones and took up the ready stance of his mother's first original sword style, Shienno, that Yugao taught him years ago.

Kushina apparently created the style as a young Chunin after the defenses of her Uzumaki clan style were bypassed by the unorthodox, rapid thrust heavy style of a spear using Ame-nin during her first Chunin exam. Turns out the Uzumaki style's defense is best against slashing opponents who are within your swords reach. The style is only moderate at projectile deflection and terrible at protecting against skilled long range weapon users who subtly change the angle of their trusts mid-attack.

After her near defeat Kushina spent the next couple years taking the defensive aspects of the Uzumaki style that actually worked, the energy saving tight blade work of her Anbu instuctor's Fang sword style, the subtle dodges and skilled footwork of the Leaf style and aspects of a fourth style she wouldn't fully explain to Yugao to make the ultimate defensive sword style Shienno. If Naruto was going to weather this Iwa kid's ridiculously strong blows long enough to figure out a weak point in his skin jutsu he'd have to utilize his mother's sword art to the best of his ability.

Hearing the sound of something heavy rolling down the hallway he'd just exited from Naruto and his clones saw a man-sized, crack riddled bolder enter the chamber.

"Shrapnel bomb!" the clone closest to the thing warned as smoke started to raise from the cracks and it exploded. Pointy rock pieces flew in every direction however the Shienno defense held firm allowing Naruto and his clones to avoid any damage.

"That wasn't too ba.." Naruto started to think to himself before a steady stream of even faster boulders rolled in to the chamber erupting in a steady suppressive stream of deadly rock.

"Shit"

Sasuke grimaced under his mask at the pain going through his leg. He'd slightly over taxed his chakra coils after flooding them with chakra so that he could strike the armor wearing kunoichi before she used that strange chakra of hers to escape. He knew she'd be fast having been told of her bloodline by Danzo however the old war hawk apparently didn't know about her armor. Danzo'd told team 7 that the girl had trouble maneuvering but her armor, more specifically those things in the palms negated this issue. Even worse, her armor was tied into her chakra network and could disperse Genjutsu on her behalf. Her eye covering must protect her from Genjutsu as well since his Sharingan illusion didn't take effect when he made eye contact with her. Add that to the fact that the girl was way too fast for him to try his more time consuming illusions and Genjutsu was a no go.

After realizing the weaknesses he'd planned to exploit in the girl weren't going to work and seeing her buildup of chakra Sasuke realized that he needed to keep her off balance or he'd be over whelmed. The snap kick had been a double edged sword however as his own mobility would be hampered for a few seconds. Turned out a few seconds was too long.

Before his foot was all the way back down he was hit right in the face by a repulsor burst from the still airbourne kunoichi. His porcelain Eagle mask protected him from the worst of it in exchange for cracking and falling away leaving him in just his face mask. Stumbling back Sasuke shook his head and looked up at his opponent who'd landed in a fighting stance.

"Fuck" he thought to himself as he realized that his advantage was now gone. She was ready for him.

"That eye, hey your that Uchiha kid! Sasuke right?" she said pointing at him causing Sasuke to realize she'd I.D.'d him by his doujutsu. Something that wouldn't have happened had his illusion worked.

"Double fuck"

Grinning at him the girl brought her hands together in the boar hand seal "You know my teammates and I have been training to kill your friend, Uzumaki but when news of your speed and proficiency with the body flicker reached Iwa my own personal training was intensified. Because the old man is so afraid of speedy Konoha-nin he had my trainers but me through hell and it's all because of you. Please, allow me to return the favor! Swift Release: Shadowless Flight!" She said before disappearing.

It seemed like she was still talking when the first blow slammed into Sasuke's gut lifting him off the ground. Something crashed into his left cheek spinning him before what he was pretty sure was a kick landed in the small of his back launching him ten feet away from his original position before another kick to the gut knocked him right back. He was bounced around like a pin ball for ten incredibly long seconds before she hit him with a kick to the head knocking him harshly to the ground.

"Hump, all that training for that?" Maiko said looking at her unconscious opponent. Looking away from him to the crystal structure containing her teammates Maiko reached to up to her right ear covering and radioed her teammates. "I just took out an Anbu that was actually Sasuke Uchiha which means one of the others maybe Uzumaki. I'm on my way to help you guys kill your…"

"You"

*Crunch*

"Think that"

*Chew*

"I'd let you Iwa bastards"

*Chew*

"Kill another one of my teammates?"

*Swallow*

Spinning around Ami saw a kneeling Sasuke with his face mask pulled down and his eyes closed.

"So that last hit didn't knock you out huh? No matter, what ever you just ate won't help you, you'll…" Maiko started but stopped when she saw a violet colored glow under his still closed right eye lid and a bloody tear drop from his left eye as he opened it revealing six red tomoe.

"What are you doing?" Maiko asked getting into a defensive stance and molding her chakra.

Smirking at her confusion Sasuke finished channeling the majority of his Yin chakra to his right eye for safe keeping while allowing the special pill Kichiha made him to do its work revitalizing his battered body and muscles. Then, channeling the now abundant yang chakra in a manner similar to a body flicker just like he'd done to win the race with Lee, he sent a little chakra to his feet for extra grip and made up a name that was sure to piss the Iwa kunoichi off.

"Body Flicker: Supersonic Flight"

*Boom!*

"Damn it!" Maiko yelled as narrowly brought her arm up in time to block a right cross. The cross was followed by a jab that she dodged more out of instinct than her ability to see it coming. Her instincts served her well as she used the rest of her molded swift release chakra to jump backwards over the white flames that shot out of Sasuke's Mangekyō and at her feet.

*BOOM!*

"Khgyck!" Maiko gaged as a kick more powerful than any she could execute slammed into her gut sending her flying back to earth like a shot. Sand was kicked up, small stones were either destroyed against her armor or bit through her bodysuit into her skin and countless sage bushes were uprooted as she slid along the ground creating a nearly 40 yard trench.

"Whoa, didn't mean to hit her that hard, guess I don't know my own strength. I wonder if this is how Tsunade-sama's strength works." Sasuke thought to himself as he allowed his body (mostly his legs) to recover a little before feeling something run down his lip. Touching his face he realized fresh blood was leaking from his nose. "Well this didn't happen last time. I need to get Ami to check me out" Seeing movement up a head Sasuke heard a repulsor blast that blew the dust away allowing him to see the kunoichi who was pressing buttons on her left ear covering.

Maiko adjusted her armor to still disrupt her chakra flow when it sensed foreign charka in her system but canceled the visor setting override and switched her HUD to speed mode. "You think you've won Uchiha!? That was just the warm up!" She yelled before making the boar hand seal and making her fastest take off yet.

The advanced precognitive abilities of Sasuke's Mangekyō allowed him to lean out of the way of a right punch and a left jab before his opponent used up more of her swift chakra and blurred away. Immediately moving his head to cover his blind side Sasuke saw a ball of compressed air rushing right at him, his Mangekyō warning him that this blast contained tiny wind blades.

"Got you now bastard!" Maiko thought in relief as her attack got within arm's reach the Uchiha only for him to do something stupidly suicidal. He fired off a burst of that white fire at the ball, igniting it causing a huge explosion of white flames. Using her bloodline Maiko narrowly avoided the blast having only been a dozen feet away from the Uchiha when he decided to kill himself. Dropping to a knee Maiko struggled to breathe. That last sprint put a huge strain on her body and she only had a quarter of her chakra left. Looking up she saw the now house sized white flames still roaring where their creator died or at least... that's what she thought before she heard a now familiar voice among the flames.

"Barrier: Island of the Sun Goddess" the voice said before flames rushed pass her left and right. Turning around she ran in an attempt to escape this barrier but her body hadn't had enough time to recover and she was forced to stop as the flames on her sides rushed together and formed the final wall. Feeling heat on the back of her neck she turned around and saw that the other walls were closing in around her leaving her with a 10x10 foot patch of earth.

Looking to her left she saw a shadowed ethereal figure with glowing eyes, one purple and the other red, standing among the flames. Her armor started disrupting her chakra flow only succeeding in making the figure all the more intimidating by making it flicker with the flames. Moving to switch her HUD to anti-genjutsu, she was forced to stop and rip-off her left ear covering when a quarter sized white fire ball flew out of the flames and hit it. With the left side gone the right side of her visor automatically retracted.

"W-what? Your dead. How is this possible?" Maiko asked her fear obvious in her tune.

"You've helped me stumble across my Doujutsu's special ability. I was able to activate it right before my physical body was burned away. I now exist as a spirit inside these flames. I have seven days and seven nights left to live, we're gonna have so much fun hehe" a voice in her head taunted as a fist sized red fireball shot out of the fire and engulfed the left side of her face eliciting a blood curdling, pain/terror filled scream to come from the kunoichi. It was only a few fireballs later that the pain and fear became too much and she fainted.

Outside of the flames the real Sasuke, who only had his right eye open, released his Genjutsu and fell to his hands and knees exhausted as blood was running from both his eyes and practically pouring from his nose. His eye new Doujutsu had once again acted on its own to save his life. It somehow seized control of his other eye and fired an Amaterasu while dumping 80% of all the spirit energy it contained into the white wave of flames giving it a limited amount of control over the blast. "Run" it had painfully whispered. Luckily Sasuke didn't hesitate and used one more supersonic shunshin to escape the blast. He then snared the enemy kunoichi in a genjutsu were she was imprisoned and tortured by his disembodied spirit. The strange thing was his doujutsu manipulated the real Amaterasu flames to actually enclose around the girl and then urged him shoot a small flame (which wasn't actually an Amaterasu) at her when she tried to use her visor to see through the illusion.

"Those flames were filled with yang chakra while the doujutsu added yin, was that Izanagi? No, if it was I wouldn't have had to run away and I wouldn't be able to see…" Sasuke said to himself before opening his left eye for a moment, his vision was somewhat blurry but still there. "What's going on with me?" Sasuke wondered to himself before coming to a realization as he started walking towards the crystal labyrinth. "I'm running on fumes and if I swallow a pill of any kind I'll probably die of chakra poisoning. I'm out of the fight" Reaching up to his radio that was miraculously undamaged and still in his ear, Sasuke was about inform his teammates of his condition when he felt a familiar burst of malevolent chakra and saw the labyrinth take on a crimson glow. Another burst of chakra, (smaller than the first but still huge to Sasuke) laced with killing intent followed shortly thereafter and a metallic figure covered in silver chakra burst out of the top of the structure.

"Come and get it Uzumaki! I'll rip your guts…"

"ROAAAAHA!" a low-pitched, incredibly loud voice roared shattering the entire labyrinth and was followed by a crimson beam slammed into the still airborne metal man.

Despite the roughly 150 yards separating them the enhanced vision of his unnamed doujutsu was able to see a newly revealed 4 tailed figure on all fours that looked at Ami who was thirty feet away from it. Sasuke saw her remove something from her mouth and look at the stone user whom she'd surrounded with mud and encased in crystal. The four tailed figure said something to her to which she shook her head and said something back. The figure then roared a forceful, if inarticulate order.

"I... control! RALLY!"

Ami looked around for a second and stopped when she saw him before vanishing and exiting her shunshin about fifty feet away from him. Quickly closing the distance between them Ami got a good look at Sasuke and saw that he wasn't in running shape. Grabbing him she picked the boy up in a fireman's carry took off in a sprint.

"What are you doing we can't leave him!" Sasuke yelled fearfully.

"Senpai knows of your condition and can sense another jinchūriki coming. If he is to fully commit to battle with the jinchūriki and the metal user he needs us to leave the area. We are to get to the rally point and wait five minutes." Ami said, her tone emotionless although from his position Sasuke couldn't see the worried frown on her face.

"And if he doesn't make it?"

"...senpai's orders was terrifyingly clear, I will comply"

"What the fuck? Let me go!" Sasuke yelled struggling to free himself from Ami's hold, Ino's face flashing before his mind's eye.

Dumping Sasuke from her shoulders Ami grabbed him by his flack vest collar and cocked her fist back. Sasuke heard the simple sentence again before blacking out.

"I will comply"

A/N: So I'll start off replying to a couple of the reviews I received.

YuukiAsuna-Chan: I thought I'd established that Naruto's reserves we're large with the amount of chakra his cloak uses and the amount of clones he created during the rescue the Raikage arc. My Naruto is different from the cannon version in that his Root and Anbu training has taught him to value efficiency. He also has a wider skill set so that spawning an army of clones anytime he runs into trouble isn't really his thing. That being said, your right to a curtain degree when you say I'm nerf (weakening him). The reason for this (and why I've given Sasuke yet another power up) will be shown in the next few chapters.

vincent1875: I appreciate the constructive criticism, honestly. And while in hindsight I agree that the pills are kind of cheap I put them in this for a reason which, again, you'll see soon. As for why no Hyuga would find out that Ebisu was one of them...Why would someone of the mighty Hyuga main branch care about some clanless, no name orphan who only seemed to excel at teaching shinobi as opposed to actually being one. Why would they waste their chakra on such a low person? Why would someone of the branch family who had politeness instilled in them at a young age violate a fellow leaf-nin's privacy? Finally, wouldn't Danzo of all people be able to find a way to hide Ebisu's Doujutsu? Something like special shades or Genjutsu?

Ok, so Sasuke's Barrier: Island of the Sun Goddess technique is Blaze Release, he didn't call it that because he doesn't know what blaze release is yet.

Kushina's two forms of Kenjutsu were inspired by a certain space opera franchise. I wonder how many people will guess what I mean. The name of her defensive style came from the Buddhist Four Heavenly Kings though I changed the name around some. Next chapter will start a few min before this one ended, with Ami and Naruto's battles. I'm not sure how my schedule will be since I'm starting a new job soon but I'll try to get the next chapter posted in a couple weeks. As always please review.