Opening - Rolling Star by Yui

X

"Obito!?"

Obito hesitated only for a single instant, before he turned to Kakashi with a huge grin. "Yo, Kakashi! Jeez, you look goofy with your hair pointing out to one side like that! So how's Rin doing?"

Kakashi stared at him, dumbfounded. Before he knew it, Obito was in front of him and burying his fist in his old friend's gut. Kakashi wheezed, as the wind was viciously knocked out of his lungs.

"Don't answer that, actually," Obito went on. "Instead, let's just see how my left eye is doing." he pulled off Kakashi's headband and tossed it aside, revealing his Sharingan. "Still in good condition, but it looks a little damaged. You've been using Kamui, haven't you?"

"You're... Tobi?" Kakashi questioned, panting. "Why?"

"Hn?"

"Why do this, Obito? Why did you put on that mask, and pretend to be Madara when you could have come home!"

Obito almost lazily punched Kakashi again, this time letting him slump to the ground and gasp for air. "Well... I guess I can't really give you the whole answer. You wouldn't understand. But if you want the short version of the story..." he drew out a kunai and activated his Mangekyou, "...I guess it's because you let Rin die."

He stepped forward with his kunai in hand, and his remaining eye spinning and glowing. He noted that Kakashi made no move to retreat, to scramble backward or escape with a jutsu. The Copy Ninja likely knew dozens that would do the trick, but he simply sat there and waited.

"Obito Uchiha, hm?" Kabuto grinned. "So that's your real name. I've been curious about it for quite a while."

"...O-Obito." Kakashi closed his eyes and looked down. "I'm ready. I know it isn't worth much, but I just want you to know I'm sorry."

"Look at me, Kakashi." Confused, he did so. Obito glared down at him with contempt. "When you stabbed her with your Chidori, Rin didn't look away or close her eyes. She faced her death without flinching." Kakashi recoiled, but kept his eyes open and trained on Obito, who then stabbed forward and downward.

He split in two as the dagger buried itself in his chest, revealing that under the surface he was made of thick, deep brown wood.

"Hn..."

Kakashi opened his eyes wide, and found himself slumped next to a young man wielding a huge battleaxe with twin blades of polished golden wood. The butt of the weapon rested on the ground next to Kakashi, and Nawaki held its bark-covered shaft up with his right hand. He was armored from the neck down with plates of rough, deep brown bark, and a cloak made of very broad and thick green leaves was draped over his shoulders.

"I'm guessing there's a lot more to this story than what I can see, isn't there, Jounin Hatake-san?"

Shakily, Kakashi nodded up at Nawaki. "I... I'm sorry about that. I should have done something."

"You lost the will to live. It wasn't a choice you made, so don't apologize." Nawaki's grip on the axe tightened slightly. "Just tell me if I can beat this guy."

"...I don't know," Kakashi admitted. "He just got through a fight with Itachi, and I haven't seen him since the war. He's probably gotten very powerful since then."

"Kage-level?"

"It's likely. That's not even considering Kabuto and Orochimaru. Both should be at that level as well."

"Hehe," Nawaki chuckled. "So this is the second time I've picked a fight with a Kage-level ninja at the top of the village walls, while Konoha gets invaded below us. Last time though, I had Danzou-sensei to help me out... Could you maybe give me a hand with these guys?"

"I'll do my best," he decided, and stood. He scanned over Obito, Kabuto and Orochimaru, activating his own Mangekyou as he did.

"Have you gotten much stronger, Nawaki-kun?" Kabuto questioned, with his eyes closed and his body very still. He was grinning.

"Last time we fought, I'd only had about a week's experience with my Wood Release. Now I've had well over a year to get really good with it." Nawaki grinned back. "So how about you? You did swipe some of my blood, after all. Let's see if you can actually use it."

Nawaki lowered his voice, and glanced toward Kakashi. "I'm gonna fight Kabuto, and Orochimaru will probably side with him. That leaves you to fight this Obito guy. He's already down one eye, probably from his fight with Itachi, so he has no depth perception and he can't heal himself if you land a hit. Got it?"

"...Aren't you still a Chuunin, Nawaki?" Kakashi turned to him and eye-smiled. "By all rights, I should really be giving the orders..."

"Obito," Kabuto continued to gleefully grin, "I suggest you hang back and be ready to use Kamui on myself and Orochimaru. I want to fight Nawaki-kun myself, to see if I can learn a few new tricks with the Wood Release. Orochimaru, you can fight Kakashi. If you kill him, feel free to take his Mangekyou Sharingan."

"Hn," Obito scoffed. "You won't get me out of the way that easily. After all, I have the Wood Release as well. I'll benefit from fighting him, especially since I can scan his jutsu with my Sharingan."

"Interesting... so those eyes can copy kekkei genkai jutsu, as long as you have the bloodline itself?"

"Well..." Orochimaru spoke up in a cool voice, "We have to remember that we outnumber them and are far stronger. In order for them to last long enough to show us something useful, we'd have to go easy on them."

Kabuto's grin faltered slightly, and Orochimaru snarled in pain as his Cursed Seal activated around his throat. "Is this another one of your little tricks? Are you still trying to undermine my plans, Orochimaru?" the Sannin bared his teeth, but his face was still twisted into a smirk as well. "Those kekkei genkai I lost because of you... and did you think I hadn't noticed Sasuke's Cursed Seal was unique? Those wings of his aren't at all like the Heaven formula's usual wings. You gave him control over it."

"And?" Orochimaru sneered back as the pain receded. "So what if I did? It was just a bit of fun... I'm curious to see where he goes with the power of senjutsu chakra under his thumb."

"You intend for him to come and kill me with the power you gave him." Kabuto turned back to Nawaki and Kakashi. "But that's not so bad for me... his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan will go quite nicely with these," he activated his Byakugan. "This is the last time I'll let you off the hook so easily, Orochimaru. From now on, the pain will get progressively much worse, and if you keep it up even then, I'll kill you."

"Hm... that does sound unpleasant," Orochimaru continued to sneer. "I suppose I'll have to give this some serious thought." he flinched as his seal briefly burned him again, then growled.

"A dog that bites its master is usually put down." Kabuto drew the Sword of Kusanagi and aimed it at Nawaki. "I've been forgiving so far, but don't bite me again."

"I'm not a dog, Kabuto. You should keep that in mind."

"Let's just fight already," Nawaki spoke up tiredly. "Wood Release: Wood Dragon Jutsu!"

"Oh?" Kabuto looked up at the forming wooden construct that grew out of the top of the wall. "That's one of the First Hokage's favored jutsu... very interesting..."

"He's using it even though he knows I can copy it with the Sharingan," Obito mused. "Is he stupid, or confident that I won't have the skill to replicate it even though I know how it's formed?"

"Hm... it's not at all like the illustrations of Hashirama Senju's dragon," Orochimaru added, staring up at the now fully-formed creature.

He was right. Whereas Hashirama's Wood Dragon had been a long, slender serpent, this was a very different beast. It had scales made of rough bark, and a set of horns that swept backward, made of polished and shining pale wood. In addition to its four long, but powerfully built legs, it had two massive wings made up of branches to replicate the bone structure of a bat's wings, with huge green leaves in place of the wings' skin.

Nawaki came back into view atop the dragon's back, shortly followed by Kakashi. The young Senju turned to his Jounin superior and murmured something too lowly for the missing-nin to hear, most likely a new plan. Kakashi nodded and crouched down, allowing Nawaki to seal him within a Houbi dome on the dragon's back. Nawaki then seated himself at the base of the dragon's neck, forming a pair of reins from two brilliant green vines.

The dragon roared, spreading its wings wide before bringing them down mightily. Kabuto held his hand in front of his face to fend off the gust of wind from the dragon taking off. He watched it soar up higher above them, mildly impressed. "Well, that's a bit more creative than anything I've done with the Wood Release," he admitted. "I wonder if he learned it from Danzou Shimura, or came up with it on his own."

"It's still made of wood," Obito replied calmly. "Wood burns." he clapped his hands together in the Tiger seal, and went on, "Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"

Nawaki forced the dragon to barrel-roll out of the way with shocking speed and ease, before it came to a stop and hovered in the air. It drew back its head, growling slightly, then opened its jaws wide and roared, firing what looked like a stream of golden flame at the three.

Obito's Sharingan spun frantically, although he himself was calm. That's plant matter, not fire. "Great Fireball Jutsu." he breathed out a torrent of true flame, igniting the approaching stream of yellow spores but problematically failing to stop them. "Hn!" he leapt backward, dodging the blast of burning plant matter that he had created. I can't burn its attacks out of the air; I'll have to block them.

"Wood Release: Nativity of a Sea of Trees!" Kabuto called, forming a grove of trees around himself from the existing wood that made up Konoha's walls. Several trees continued to grow and shoot toward the dragon, which dodged again. Kabuto directed more trees at Nawaki from more directions.

As Nawaki and the dragon continued to duck and dodge out of the way, it let loose another breath of golden pollen. Kabuto watched it approach and decided to counter it with a Revolving Heaven, scattering the golden powder around within the rapidly forming Wood Release forest.

Orochimaru and Obito, however, coughed as the powder washed over them. "P-Poison," Orochimaru realized, and Obito nodded as he wheezed.

"How potent is it?" he asked, then coughed again.

The dragon let loose another blast of powder, and Obito considered blocking it with a wall of wood, but instead he used Kamui to absorb the golden mist so that he could study it once it had settled on the floor of his own dimension.

Kabuto, having realized his mistake, examined the golden mist around Obito and Orochimaru with his Byakugan. "It's a chakra-based compound, which should make it simpler to counterract once I analyze it. From what I can tell already, it's intended to cause hallucinations and intense pain. It's not lethal!"

Obito called angrily between coughs, "Both of you get over here!" Orochimaru and Kabuto did so, dashing to his side so he could lay a hand on both of their shoulders. "Kabuto, you're going to cure the poison within the Kamui dimension."

"What about the Edo Tensei? I'm not sure if I can control them from in there..."

"It's an acceptable loss," Obito announced as his eye flashed red. "Kamui!"

X

The Third Raikage paused for several seconds on his way to a certain shrine owned by the Uzumaki Clan. Disoriented, he blinked a few times as the light returned to his eyes. After that, however, Kabuto resumed sending signals to him, and he continued on his way.

X

The interruption affected the Second Mizukage much more, since he was currently dodging blue fireballs being flung at him by an unusually angry Jinchuuriki. One of them struck his left arm, burning it clean off at the shoulder. That'll take a while to grow back, he mused dispassionately as he resumed moving, fleeing backward from Yugito who was approaching on all fours, with her nails extended into claws that could easily rip him apart.

He was, however, still a former Mizukage and a master of genjutsu. It was child's play for him to make her think she actually had ripped him apart, just for a moment, while he stepped to her left and aimed his finger at her chest, focusing the water in his body into it, compressing it, and-

"Tsukuyomi."

Yugito's eyes widened and she spun, slapping aside his hand an instant before he fired. The shot of water missed her entirely, and she struck back by slicing out his throat with her claws. In place of blood, ash poured from behind his chin, and if he were able to speak, he might've questioned what the hell just happened.

"That's the second time you've saved my ass with genjutsu," she noted. "Thanks again."

"Hn." Clad in a black robe with a charcoal-grey lining, Itachi appeared next to her with a Pulse Step. "Akatsuki is here for more than one reason, but I could only be sure of one. I knew they would send someone to capture you for your Two-Tailed Cat..."

"Matatabi," Yugito threw in.

"...Matatabi," Itachi nodded, "So I stood atop the Hokage monument and scanned the village for any signs of blue fire. Spotting you didn't take long."

"You did show up pretty fast," she acknowledged. "Okay, listen up. He has the Water Release and he's damned good with genjutsu. He's a Hozuki, so he can turn his body to water when we land a hit..." she dodged another bullet of water with lightning speed, "...and he can do that finger-gun thing. Watch out for that."

"Hn." Itachi sized up the Edo Tensei calmly. "If that's how he fights, I should fight him head-on while you keep your distance. Although your Fire Release is powerful, his water can cut through defensive fire jutsu easily."

"I could use a chakra cloak," she suggested. "That's a non-elemental defense, and a really tough one."

"Hn..." Itachi glanced toward her. "Look into my eyes, please." she nodded and acquiesced. "Tsukuyomi."

The Second moved to attack her with another shot of water, but Itachi leapt into the path of the bullet without hesitation, allowing it to pierce him instead.

He promptly exploded into a murder of shrieking crows, who flew forward and circled the Second to disorient him. The sound of their calls and flapping wings, coupled with their rapid movement around him, distracted him quite effectively.

The real Itachi appeared next to her where the crow clone had been standing moments before. Already freed from Tsukuyomi, Yugito noted this. "That was a clone made of crows? That's... pretty cool, actually. How come I've never seen one of those before?"

"It takes significant mastery of genjutsu to properly form the clone," Itachi admitted. "That's why the jutsu is unique to the crows and the Uchiha Clan, since so many of us were skilled with genjutsu."

"Alright, let's do this," she declared shortly before an aura of smoky, dark red chakra exploded up around her, settling back down to form a sleek Version Two cloak around her with two tails, giving off a faint red haze. "Are you ready?"

Itachi nodded, and his own aura of chakra formed into a towering red-orange Susanoo in full plate armor, drawing forth the Sword of Totsuka and raising the Yata Mirror. "After you."

Yugito dashed forward on all fours, then leapt up to her feet as she closed in on the Second, lashing out with her now red-wreathed claws. He danced backward deftly, then returned fire with two shots from his finger-guns and a particularly nasty genjutsu, all of which evaporated harmlessly on contact with the furious red chakra cloak surrounding Yugito.

Shocked, he failed to evade the two chakra tails that she stabbed through his torso with, as well as the palm strike wreathed in blue fire that she slammed into his sternum, blowing what remained of his torso into a scattered plume of ash. His arms, shoulders and head flew away in one piece, along with his hips and legs which dissolved into more ash as well. As what was left of him hit the ground, the scattered ashes began flowing toward him so he could regenerate.

"Now!" Yugito called, although Itachi didn't need to be reminded of the opening. He stabbed forward with the Sword of Totsuka, which extended to pierce the Second's neck and absorb him. He was sealed away within seconds. "That was quick."

"We got lucky. The Second Mizukage was a prodigy with genjutsu, and he paired it with his unique summons to make himself almost completely undetectable. If he had managed to use it before we sealed him, even my Sharingan would be hard-pressed to spot him before he could shoot and kill us."

Yugito shrugged, just after her Version Two cloak evaporated. "It was still quick."

"Hn..." Itachi hummed as he thought. "With any luck, this whole mess should be dealt with by tonight... I understand there's a popular restaurant that's been opened since I was last here, the Riku Kesshou. Assuming it's still standing, might I treat you to dinner there?"

"I'd like that," she gave a catlike grin.

"Sorry, but we aren't done here yet," the Mizukage announced as he appeared before Itachi with a completely intact body, aiming a finger gun at the younger man's forehead.

Yugito lashed out, shoving Itachi out of the way just before the Mizukage fired. She then flared her chakra and formed her Version Two cloak again, pouncing on her enemy. The Second, however, simply dissolved into water as she ripped him apart. A water clone... She hissed quietly to show her displeasure.

"Thank you," Itachi momentarily sighed in relief. "If you hadn't done that, I might well be dead already."

"We underestimated this guy," she replied. "Looks like he set off his genjutsu after all."

Itachi looked around with his Eternal Mangekyou, nodding. "In some places, I can see a soft glow of chakra in the air, but in others it's too subtle, even to my eyes. This is an exceptionally well-made genjutsu, and it's a mirage-type."

"Mirage-type genjutsu... damn it, of all the jutsu he could use..." she crouched low to the ground, but remained on only her two feet. Her tails curled protectively around her at her sides, and her glowing white eyes darted around in hopes of glimpsing the Mizukage. "A chakra pulse is no use here, since the genjutsu is in the air, not our bodies..."

Itachi formed his complete Susanoo, and she relaxed slightly within the fortified walls of his chakra. "This genjutsu is only meant to buy him time while he summons his familiar. Unfortunately, it's fulfilling its purpose quite well."

"He's probably summoned it already," she nodded. "A giant clam that pours out an even more powerful mirage genjutsu."

"I'm watching the chakra in the air with my Sharingan. The genjutsu is becoming even harder to detect as we speak. I don't think I'll be able to find him even with the Sharingan, and these eyes are supposed to be the ultimate weapon with and against genjutsu."

"So if we can't find him, we'll have to just attack everywhere at once," she noted. "I get that you wouldn't want to do something like this to your own village, but if we're gonna beat this guy, we're gonna make a mess doing it."

"You're right. I'll at least make sure he can't escape the area before we destroy it..." Itachi turned his gaze skyward, then intoned, "Amaterasu." The air high above them burst into a whirling vortex of floating black flames, which moments later scattered apart into a shower of smaller embers, all of which fell away from above the two in a different direction. From above, one would be able to see that the flames now formed an unbroken circle to contain Itachi, Yugito, and the Mizukage.

"Black flames, huh?" Yugito glanced around, interested. "So you can shoot them out of your eyes?"

"More specifically, what I look at bursts into flame. The flames aren't actually being shot from my eyes; they come into existence on the target itself."

"So, are they any different from normal fire jutsu, or my blue flames?"

MY blue flames, Matatabi pointed out indignantly.

Right. Sorry.

"The flames of Amaterasu aren't like any other kind of fire," Itachi explained. "They're capable of burning almost anything. Water, steel, even other flames. They also don't require oxygen to keep burning, and only I can extinguish them."

"So the Mizukage won't be able to get through them," she realized. "Nice."

"All that we have to do now is eradicate everything within the circle of flames. The fact that we're still within the circle complicates things slightly, but we can work around it. I need you to take the form of the Two-Tails... Matatabi," he corrected himself, "and fire a Tailed Beast Ball at my shield from the other end of the circle."

"Are you serious?" she turned to him incredulously.

"The Yata Mirror is a perfect defense against any frontal attack," Itachi's Susanoo hefted the shield. "I'm confident that it will be able to catch yours. The explosion of chakra will easily be enough to destroy the mirage genjutsu, kill the clam summon, and eradicate the Mizukage. He'll then regenerate, and we'll be able to spot him and seal him."

"...Alright, but don't die on me yet. You're buying me dinner tonight, after all," she purred, then loped forward on all fours, passing through the armor of his Susanoo with her crimson tails swishing lightly. Once outside, she burst into blue flame that rose upward into a swirling tornado of brilliant blue light, growing outward as well until the vortex was the size of a Tailed Beast.

At that point, it withered apart to reveal the Two-Tails in all her glory, roaring triumphantly skyward. In Matatabi's form, Yugito prowled across the circle of flames and took up her position at the far end of it.

As Yugito began spitting out a shower of small red and blue chakra orbs, the Mizukage looked on and began to realize how completely doomed he was, and he quickly thought through his collection of jutsu for something, anything that could get him out of this situation. Finding nothing that could save him, he swore eloquently.

Both he and Itachi looked on as the Tailed Beast Ball finished forming before Yugito's open jaws, a perfectly smooth sphere of obsidian chakra filled with a glowing orange core like lava. She compressed the sphere of chakra slightly before snarling and pushing it forward.

"Tailed Beast Ball!" she shouted.

Bijuu Dama! Matatabi's voice resonated in her mind at the same time.

The attack shot forward, and Itachi braced himself and his Susanoo. The bottom edge of the Yata Mirror touched the ground lightly, and the Susanooleaned into the attack as it struck. To Itachi's relief, his shield held up and deflected the colossal red explosion in all directions except toward himself. Furthermore, Yugito showed impressive control over the jutsu by creating a perfectly sized Tailed Beast Ball to fill the circle with its explosion but not extend beyond it. Although the shockwave from the explosion struck and shook the surrounding buildings, it left them otherwise intact.

The roar of the explosion died down, allowing bits of rubble to rain down on Itachi and Yugito. As a few small streams of ash began to gather together near the middle of the fresh crater, Itachi almost lazily held out his Sword of Totsuka to collect them and seal them away.

"...There," he nodded and sheathed the liquid weapon into its gourd, then banished his Susanoo. "That's one more problem solved."

After returning to her true form, Yugito formed a few quick hand seals, using the Body Flicker to flash across the crater to his side. "We make a pretty good team," she acknowledged. "We should head toward the Hokage monument and see if anyone else is fighting an Edo Tensei like that."

"Hn," Itachi nodded.

X

Altough he was eminently displeased with his own actions, Muu found himself unable to stop ripping into the coffin of the Fourth Hokage. The dirt that had been covering the coffin had been vaporized cleanly with the Dust Release. Muu reached through the shattered lid of the wooden coffin, grasping what looked and felt like an arm bone. The skeleton was still loosely held together, and Muu tugged at it again sadly.

The bone came free, and Muu pulled his hand out of the coffin. He formed a single hand seal to raise an earth clone to his right, passing off the bone to the second Muu. The clone nodded slowly, then leapt away and took flight. As the real Muu set to work looking for the Third's grave, the clone flew in the direction of the signals Kabuto was transmitting.

A kunai flew through Muu's head at roughly the speed of sound, blowing it apart into a cloud of ash. He might've smiled in relief if he'd had a face, but instead he had to wait a few seconds for his head to regenerate. When it did, he blinked once before registering the sight of an incoming fist, and the scowling face of the blonde woman aiming it at his sternum.

He moved, twisting to the right of the punch. He successfully evaded it, but she merely swung her now outstretched right arm to backhand Muu, sending him flying across the graveyard. He landed and smashed through a tombstone headfirst.

As he groaned, he distantly heard a man's voice chuckling. "Bitch slap of the century," he remarked. "He's lucky Edo Tensei can't feel pain."

"He sent a clone off with one of Minato's bones," the woman growled. "It flew away; I lost track of it."

"Relax, hime. They can't summon any of the Hokages; they're all sealed within the Reaper."

Muu picked himself up out of the remains of the tombstone. "My apologies... I'm not at all happy to share this news, but you should know that another Edo Tensei was assigned to breaking the Reaper Death Seal. He wasn't noticed, and wasn't interrupted... he successfully broke the seal two minutes ago."

"...Jiraiya you son of a bitch, you just had to say it."

The old man with white hair and red lines on his cheeks laughed sheepishly. "Sorry, hime. Maybe if we seal this guy before his clone delivers Minato's bone, it'll be dispelled and they won't get his DNA."

"This is the Second Tsuchikage we're looking at, baka. There's no way we'll be able to beat him in time."

"I'll bet you ten thousand ryou, you're wrong. We'll pull it off."

"Even with my luck, I'll win that one. But I don't want your money, Jiraiya."

"How about dinner at the Riku Kesshou? That'll cost around ten thousand."

"You've been hitting on me for forty years, and you've never gotten anywhere," she answered in an irritated tone. "On top of that, Dan and I haven't actually broken up. The age gap is too much and we know that, but we've still been spending time together."

"With respect," Muu spoke up hesitantly, "You're both wasting time talking like this. Although you'll likely fail, you should at least try to seal me before my clone reaches Kabuto."

"...Good point. Earth Release: Rasengan Blockade!" Jiraiya roared, raising a smooth wall of stone between himself and Muu. Seven discs of stone popped out of place in the wall, revealing glimmering blue Rasengan that promptly shot out of the wall toward Muu.

"Dust Release: Boundary Dismantling Jutsu!" Muu countered, forming a softly glowing cube of white chakra between his palms. He thrust it forward between himself and the flying Rasengan, where it expanded into a thin, broad wall of white chakra that grew much brighter as the Rasengan passed into it. The spheres of chakra were wiped from existence cleanly, and the barrier faded away to reveal the crumbling wall of earth beyond it.

He clapped his hands together and drew them apart again, revealing a glistening white cylinder of the same chakra between them.

"Fire Dragon Bullet Jutsu!" Jiraiya called, spitting out a stream of flames that shaped into a snarling serpent and arced around to strike at Muu's left flank.

"White Vajra Jutsu!" Tsunade added, firing three short shafts of crackling lightning to Muu's right, only for them to turn toward the heat of Jiraiya's fire dragon to sandwich Muu between his attack and her own.

Muu frowned under the bandages hiding his face, then considered his options. The dragon was flying toward him, and the lightning was flying toward the dragon. If he dodged backward, the three White Vajras would instead fly into the dragon, and continue to hover within until the dragon struck him. Since the attacks were coming at him from both sides and he was unable to make two Dust Release shapes at once, he wouldn't be able to simultaneously destroy both attacks from his current position.

"...Fission Jutsu."

A moment later, there were two completely identical Tsuchikage, one of whom was standing a few feet behind the other. The one in front was struck by Jiraiya's fire and Tsunade's lightning, which together obliterated him completely. Meanwhile the other Muu floated upward with his hands together in the Tiger seal. "Fire Release: Great Dragon Flame Jutsu!"

A sizable fireball in the shape of a dragon's head shot toward Jiraiya and Tsunade, both of whom leapt to the sides of the attack to dodge it. Meanwhile, Muu watched as his other half finished reforming out of a cloud of ash, then floated upward to meet the intact half that had fired the Great Dragon Flame. Moments later, Muu was whole again and preparing another Dust Release shape.

Seeing the cube forming between Muu's palms, Jiraiya slapped his hands together in the Snake seal, then shifted through Dog, Ram, and Tiger. "Tsunade!" she nodded quickly, and raised her right foot before mightily stomping down on the ground. A huge cloud of dust was kicked up as the earth cracked and shook, and Jiraiya added, "Earth Release: Spiral Sandstorm!"

The dirt floating on the wind began to churn around Jiraiya's right palm, above which floated an unusually large Rasengan which was very slowly beginning to shrink. With it in hand, Jiraiya leapt to his right while Tsunade dodged to her left.

Muu let off his Dust Release jutsu, which eradicated a roughly square chunk of the sandstorm. Upon seeing the storm continue to spin, and gradually cover up the attacked area, he concluded that one or both of his foes were unharmed.

He was proven right when Tsunade jumped up out of the cloud, firing herself into the air directly at Muu. He noted the swirling violet fuinjutsu spreading out from her forehead over her face, shortly before his attention was urgently drawn to her incoming right fist. He twisted out of the way, narrowly dodging her punch. Recalling the last time he'd done so, Muu floated further away from Tsunade before she could backhand him as she'd done before.

However, he only moved far enough away to dodge her arm, not the spinning kick she delivered to the side of his head with her left leg. His head was rather seriously dented by the blow, profusely leaking ashes and bits of what looked like burnt paper, but it stayed more or less in one piece.

He tumbled toward the ground for a few moments before he managed to right himself and reactivate his levitation. He then glanced at Tsunade who had already fallen past him, watching as she disappeared back into the spinning sandstorm. He guessed that he didn't have long before she bounced up to attack him again, so he preemptively set to work creating a Dust Release sphere.

Tsunade jumped up toward him and he aimed his jutsu at her, but he faltered when he realized that she was aiming to jump skyward past him. Instinctively, he kept his eyes locked on her, and winced as he found himself staring directly into the sunlight behind her.

Meanwhile, the sandstorm below both of them stopped spinning, with a circle of clear air at its center where Jiraiya was standing. The Rasengan he held was now a dull brown, and constantly emitting a fine tan dust. Unlike a normal Rasengan, this version gave off a grating sound as it spun, like slate and sandstone grinding against each other.

"Sage Art: Rasentsuchigan!" he bellowed, flinging the jutsu at Muu while the latter was distracted by Tsunade and the sunlight in his eyes. The brown Rasengan slammed into his lower belly, and expanded instantaneously on contact into a perfectly smooth sphere of solid brown rock.

The Wind Release was used to cut the enemy, and so its Rasenshuriken was a cutting weapon that sliced what it struck to bits. The Water Release flowed and pushed, so its Rasenyari exploded forcefully without cutting the enemy.

But Earth Release jutsu were used to build. Fortresses, golems, huge missiles of rock. Even a jutsu like the Swamp of the Underworld could be thought of as a jutsu for constructing an ideal battlefield. Jiraiya had only achieved the palest imitation of an elemental Rasengan, but when it struck Muu it created a structure of rock around him, simple though it was. It didn't need to be anything more than a solid sphere of rock to trap the Second Tsuchikage for a few moments.

Those moments were easily long enough for Tsunade and the sphere to both fall back to earth, where she produced a sealing tag and slapped it down on the surface of the smooth boulder. Satisfied, she stepped back with a quiet sigh of relief.

X

Leaves and branches rustled loudly around Naruto as he bounded through them, dodging the thicker limbs while allowing the thin, flexible ones to brush past him. Shortly behind him, Hinata followed, and behind her trailed the rest of the team save for Fuu, who was flying above all of them with the wings of the Seven-Tails.

When Naruto burst through a particularly dense wall of foliage and suddenly found himself falling toward a massive lake far below, he responded the way anyone would and screamed frantically. Fuu watched this happen and began laughing hysterically, clutching her sides and promptly crashing into a tree herself.

Hinata properly stopped leaping along the treetops so she could freely giggle at them both.

Naruto flash-stepped into place next to her, soaked from head to toe and frowning. His hair was hanging down over his forehead protector and was now dangling uncomfortably into his eyes. She took a look at his brilliant impression of a drowned rat, noted his exaggerated scowl and crossed arms, then snorted and giggled louder.

Equally unimpressed, Fuu recovered a bit of her lost grace by slowly flying back to the group and landing next to Hinata, with a frown that admittedly came nowhere close to rivalling Naruto's. "Okay guys, settle down. We're here."

"Hm?" Hinata managed to stop giggling, blushing faintly at the looks both Jinchuuriki were giving her. "Oh! This is where Yagura's hiding out?" she peered down off her perch, noting how clear the vibrant blue water was. The lake was surrounded on all sides by a thin shore of pale tan, almost white sand between the water and the treeline. "So... where is he?"

"I dunno," Fuu shrugged. "I've never even met the guy in person. If I had to guess though, I'd say he's probably living in a shelter in the canopy, to avoid the venomous insects. No one likes those." Choumei made a displeased sound in her mindscape, and Fuu suppressed an urge to giggle. "And Isobu's definitely living in that lake. Yagura wouldn't need to live near a body of water unless Isobu was unsealed."

"Correct on all counts."

She spun, along with most of the team, to face the one who had spoken. He had noticeably childlike features, along with opaque purple eyes that appeared to lack conventional pupils like the Byakugan. His tan hair was spiky and poorly cut, giving it a shaggy look. It also appeared that he hadn't cut it in a while, since it was long enough to dangle down and partly obscure his eyes. A scar resembling a stitch ran from his left eye to his jawline.

His clothes were worn but not quite tattered yet, consisting of a formfitting mesh shirt under a gray flak jacket, also tight and slim. Over this he wore a frayed, forest-green poncho around his neck and shoulders. Like his flak jacket, his pants were gray, and he wore a loose green garment hanging from his waist to wrap around his legs, giving his outfit the appearance of some sort of robe. The top of it was tucked up under his flak jacket. He wore brown leather boots as well, and a turquoise sash around his waist over the flak jacket.

Notably, he was armed with a smooth black staff as tall as he was, with a sharp hook on one end and a large green flower tied to it as a decoration.

"...Yagura..."

Yagura glanced at Zabuza, mildly interested. "Zabuza-sensei. I imagine you had a hard time trying to convince the Hokage to take you on this mission. I'm also surprised that the stories about you joining Konoha are completely true." he glanced past the Demon of the Mist. "Is that one of the Hozuki Clan? Mangetsu... no, he's a bit too young."

"It's Suigetsu," the younger ex-Kiri-nin provided helpfully.

Yagura nodded slightly, then turned his attention back to Zabuza. "I'm sure you're looking for a way to bring up your assassination attempt..." Zabuza winced slightly. "...ah, I thought so. Looking for a way to apologize... that's not like you at all, Zabuza-sensei. You've grown a bit softer... not such a bad thing, but certainly worthy of note."

"Hey, uh," Naruto spoke up, "If you're calling him Zabuza-sensei, does that mean he was your Jounin sensei?"

"...Actually, he's only two years older than me. I'm twenty-seven years old," he explained slowly, with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"No way!" Fuu blurted out, wide-eyed. He turned to her with a frown. "Holy crap, you don't look any older than twenty!"

"Twenty?" he repeated. "Did you say... twenty?"

"Yeah, I mean you're sort of cute, like a bishie, but you don't look like a kid or anything," she clarified. "But twenty-seven... wow, you look so much younger."

"You're the first person I've ever met who didn't mistake me for a child fresh out of the Academy," he answered. "Where have you been all my life?"

"Taki. Duh."

Yagura cracked an amused smile.

"Uh, right," Naruto spoke up. "Zabuza-sensei hasn't told me the story of what happened between you two yet; he said it'd be better if you were here to verify what he says happened. But from everything I have heard, it sounds like it'll be a pretty good story, ya know?"

Yagura nodded. "Follow me; I have a place where we can sit down and talk. We should be safe from Akatsuki there."

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