"The Greatest Idea Ever"

By Quick-n-Popular

Disclaimer: "Naruto" and its characters are not my property.

A/N: For this chapter I looked over Tayuya's fight with Shikamaru, so I tried to make her fighting as close to how she does it in the manga/anime, but I did get creative in some areas and made some changes to some of her abilities as well, the Doki are toned down a bit, too. I hope you all enjoy it.

Now on with the story.

Chapter Fifteen: The Search for The Legendary Sucker, Part Three

Birds and small animals scattered in terror as the forest shook with tremors. Deep within, three hulking, sickly-colored, ogres moved about. They slammed their maces and clubs; at two figures that darted around them. All the while, a flute's haunting melody echoed around the dense wooded area.

This cat and mouse game had been going on for nearly for several hours. The Ogres showed no sign of getting tired or agitated at being continually eluded by their prey. However, the hunted was bound to get tired.

After escaping the giants' latest attempt to crush them underfoot; the two being targeted by these monsters found an area where they could be hidden long enough to catch their breaths.

Naruto and Tenten, watching the three lumbering summons search for them, took the time to confer with each other.

"How're you doing?" Tenten asked, having finally been able to catch her breath.

Naruto leaned against a tree, breathing steadily but minding his broken arm that was still in its sling. "Doing the same, for now."

Tenten nodded and wiped the building sweat off her face, "Those things won't let us leave the forest, so our only option is to flush out their summoner, but there's a chance that they aren't the only ones here. So…" She trailed off.

Naruto nodded and then smirked, "Well, then. I think it's time we push them around some." He then got to his feet and formed a handsign, using just one hand, due to his injury. Kakashi taught it to him, on the account of Naruto using one if not both hands for holding a sword. Now, twenty Shadow Clones came into existence. Luckily they sported no broken arm that their original currently had.

Seeing him cast the jutsu, Tenten looked exasperated; "You've already tried tha-….Oh!" Realization dawned on her as she figured out what Naruto was planning."

In a distant area, Tayuya continued playing her flute, her eyes sweeping the area, looking for her targets. Visual confirmation was needed to coordinate her flute's jutsu to direct her Doki Summons to attack. Yet, the two Konoha teens were in hiding, right now.

Tayuya was feeling impatient but at the same time her arrogance gave her the confidence to believe that she was just seconds away from killing these two.

'These pathetic little fucks, never live long enough as it is. Orochimaru-sama, himself, said that shithouse of a village produces nothing but the weak and utterly fucking expendable.' She thought to herself.

She was confident that she had trapped the two Konoha Genin and made their escape from this forest impossible, so she continued to look and wait patiently.

Now, all of a sudden, there was a screeching sound intruding on the melody of Tayuya's flute. The Kunoichi of the Sound Four's eyes widened as numerous large balls of chakra with spinning blades of air, came hurtling toward the area where she was hiding; cutting through every tree they came upon.

"Shit!" Tayuya dove out of the line of destruction as almost every tree around her was being ripped to shreds. The sounds of destruction erupted all around.

When the destruction ended, Tayuya surveyed the vastly changed forest before she heard someone speak from behind her.

"Glad I finally got the Rasenshuriken down in time, otherwise we would have never have found you."

Turning, Tayuya saw that it was indeed the blond Konoha teen who still had his arm in a sling and had his other one holding his sword at the ready. There was a cocky look on his face that pissed her off.

"Well, well, dipshit; here you fucking are." She then slammed her palm against the ground and re-summoned her Doki ogres, who rose from the ground; then she brought her flute to her lips.

"Tear this piss-head a new asshole."

With heavy footfalls, the three Doki Summons came stomping towards Naruto. After putting some distance between himself and them with a body flicker technique, Naruto placed his sword's handle under his chin and he braced his sword by tilting his head forward. Then, using the one arm, he created a single chakra chain and had the chain shoot out piercing the closest ogre in the gut with the barbed end. The Doki tried to remove the obstacle but couldn't dislodge the chain.

Naruto then jerked the chain backwards with all of his might, causing it to fall and tripping the one behind it. The third, however, made an inhuman leap over the two and swung it's mace at Naruto.

Tayuya, watching the teen dodge the hit and dispelling that weird chain jutsu of his, came to a late realization.

'Where did that mousy little cunt go to?'

She soon had her answer as the ground around her, no, a HUGE WIDE AREA of the forest's floor was turning into a swamp-like surface. Tayuya's legs, close to the bottom of her thighs, were being swallowed up by this mire. The Sound Kunoichi glared at what trapped her but her eyes soon found where Tenten was hiding and Tayuya raised her flute and started playing.

Moments before, Tenten was surprised to see who they were up against. Not too many missions, had she been on where enemy Kunoichi were involved. Plus, so far; it looked as though she was acting alone in her attack against them. However, the noticeable insignia of her Oto Headband, pointed toward Orochimaru's hand in this. With Tenten and Naruto kept busy, or killed; it would eliminate those who could help Jiriaya and possibly Tsunade.

So, Tenten knew she and Naruto couldn't assume that this Kunoichi was alone out here. Now, having her caught off guard, first by Naruto's new Rasenshuriken, that he learned to use with his wind affinity; and finally now by Tenten's Swamp of the Underworld jutsu that she learned from Jiraiya after finding out she had an earth affinity.

They had a chance to turn things around. Now, as she felt this confident reassurance, she heard the Kunoichi's flute music and the suddenly, it wasn't HER trapped in the earth jutsu, it was Tenten's teammate Lee. He was drowning in the mire, choking, his eyes bloodshot; crying desperately. Further away, she could hear Neji screaming in pain, "Tenten why are you letting her kill us!?" Tenten watched on in stupefied horror as these and images of her Sensei Gai crawling towards her, while being burnt alive; assaulted her every senses and crushing her spirit.

Elsewhere, Naruto had jumped down and used the nodachi form of his sword to slice through the last ogre's neck, causing the beheaded monstrosity to fall down dead. The other two were dead as well as Naruto managed to eliminate them, with no resistance on their part; after they had suddenly stopped moving. He didn't understand why, considering that he too was a Summoner, a rookie one, but one still. He remembered Jiraiya telling him that Summons acted with their contracted summoner but still managed to act independently if their lives are in danger. These ogres didn't do that.

'Not only that,' Naruto thought to himself, 'That girl needed to make them move with her flute's music. I guess that means they are basically puppets than living creatures.'

Now they've been killed. Naruto decided to put the questions aside as he began to head back to where that Kunoichi had been knowing that, if it went well, she should have been trapped by Tenten's jutsu. What happens after that was anyone's guess. So Naruto knew he had to hurry.

Upon arriving he saw that the Kunoichi was indeed stuck up to her thighs in the jutsu but she didn't look like she was in trouble, more so, Naruto could hear her flute and suddenly he was assaulted by the image that the Kyuubi's claws were trying to tear its way out of his stomach. Terrified, he just barely recalled Tenten's advice and then he punctured the tip of his finger with the snebon needle in his pocket, releasing him from the Genjutsu.

Gasping, Naruto looked for Tenten and saw her cowering in fear at whatever hallucination was assaulting her. It was then that he noticed that the flute music had stopped and when he looked, he saw that the red haired Kunoichi reached for a kunai and was about to throw it at Tenten.

Naruto, hurriedly, pinched his fingers and threw three chakra strings at Tenten, catching her on the shoulder, back, and neck. He pulled and yanked her out of the kunai's way as it passed through where her chest had been. The Weapon's Specialist hit her head on the ground as she landed, groaning in fatigue and awakening from the Genjutsu.

Naruto rushed to her, just as Tayuya uses a body flicker technique to escape the swamp.

Jiraiya arrived at the place Shizune had mentioned and found the area cratered in numerous areas and an accumulating cloud of dust hanging in the air. The signs of a fierce battle were everywhere but so far he couldn't find Tsunade, nor Orochimaru for that matter. However, he could see the outline of someone in a haze through the cloud of dust which soon revealed to be the back of The Slug Sannin.

"You came here faster than expected, pervert." She said tiredly.

Jiraiya didn't answer at first, still keeping alert for his other teammate but there was still nothing at present.

"He's not here. He's left already, you can relax." She said.

"Hime, tell me you didn't…"

Tsunade smiled sadly, "No, I didn't heal him. Even if the bastard could bring those two back, they'd never forgive me for it."

Jiraiya looked at her profile and saw she was a bit beaten up in some areas, sporting numerous cuts and a bruise on her cheek.

"I guess even you want retribution sometimes." The Toad Sannin sighed, "How long were you two fighting? Did you scare him off, Hime?"

Tsunade shook her head, "Hardly, we fought for over an hour before someone who works for him showed up and said someone called Akatsuki or something, had raided one of his hideouts and took some person named Jugo. That had the bastard leaving in a hurry."

Jiraiya was surprised by the sequence of the events. He knew that his traitorous ex-teammate had joined that group at one point before he left just as quickly. Akatsuki was a mystery but they seemed to be after something that the Snake Sannin had, would be Jiraiya's guess.

However, it could wait until later as now he should focus on completing this mission to get Tsunade back to Konoha and be sworn in as Hokage.

Tsunade dusted off her clothes before she gave him an unapologetic look. "Sorry I had to drug you and all but you're just way too easy to do that to. Besides, as you can see, you really had nothing to worry about." She then looked at him more closely and said, "Actually, you look healthier than you should. Did Shizune run into you by any chance?"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes at his former teammate's attitude toward him before noticing Shizune coming running up to them.

"You can ask her yourself if you're so curious."

Tsunade turned just as Shizune looked at her Master in relief.

"Tsunade-sama, thank goodness you're alright."

Tsunade shrugged, "It actually tuned out to be a whole heap of nothing, so don't think anymore on it, Shizune."

The girl nodded and then looked to Jiraiya, "Thank you for helping Master, Jiraiya-sama."

Jiraiya shrugged while Tsunade scoffed, "The pervert did absolutely nothing. Now, let's head back. You probably should bring that blond brat over to us so we can heal his arm."

Jiraiya nodded before turning to Shizune, "Were you able to find them and tell them what I told you?"

Shizune shook her head, "I wasn't able to find them anywhere in town, Jiraiya-sama, I'm sorry. I even checked the rooms the three of you reserved and still couldn't find them."

At first confused, Jiraiya quickly cursed himself as he realized he didn't consider the possibility that Orochimaru would have wanted to separate him from the Genin and attack them while he was preoccupied. Despite Orochimaru leaving abruptly, his subordinate is probably still fighting Naruto and Tenten, if the two are still resisting. Jiraiya needed to hurry.

Tayuya was angry. What was supposed to be an easy mission was now being dragged out into a back and forth struggle. Now, to make matters that infuriated her more, her Doki Summons weren't responding to her summoning which meant they were incapacitated or dead. Both of these seem unthinkable as she had evaluated both Konoha shinobis' abilities as mediocre bordering on pathetic. She begrudgingly admits that the two have surprised her, but she'd be damned to let it shake her all of a sudden.

Now, she had to figure out how to succeed in killing these two. Orochimaru would skin her alive and make her death as slow as possible to set an example to the other Sound Four.

'Failure is not a fucking option. So, I need to get out of this clusterfuck.' She thought to herself, 'The piss head is the one I should off first. The fucker's arm is broken and the little asshole is an easier target for my Genjutsu than that weapon-happy little whore. Kill shit-brick, then the gutter slut goes next. Fucking done.' Nodding to herself in satisfaction, Tayuya then began to formulate her plan.

Naruto and Tenten were checking their equipment while staying alert in case that Kunoichi started playing her flute again, casting another Genjutsu on them. Both of the teens were nearing exhaustion but there was no indication they'd be able to rest any time soon.

Naruto put a hand on Tenten's shoulder, giving a small squeeze in comfort and reassurance. Tenten smiled at him, tiredly.

Then, there was a rustle in one of trees and they saw the Kunoichi standing there. Before they could act, ANOTHER one of her appeared on a different branch. Both turned and leapt off into different directions.

Naruto and Tenten looked at each other before Naruto nodded in the direction of one of them, "I'll go after this one."

"Then I'll take the other." She reached quickly and touched Naruto's wrist to get his attention before letting go, "Be safe." Then, the two Konoha shinobi chased after the two Enemies.

As Tenten ran and jumped from tree branch to tree branch, she found that she had lost sight of the enemy Kunoichi. Stopping on a branch she looked around. Then on the higher branches and then finally on the forest floor, where she then finally spotted her again. The girl took off running again and this time Tenten was determined not to lose sight again.

As the chase continued, Tenten began feeling as if something about this was off. Tenten was starting to feel some tiredness from the continuing exertion, yet this girl seemed to be infinitely energetic. That and it felt as if this Kunoichi wanted her to continue following her without turning back to fight or use that flute of hers.

'Something is messed up here. Am I heading for a trap?' Tenten wondered.

Then, as the enemy Kunoichi moved, Tenten saw something that made her stop. The red headed Oto shinobi was casting no shadow. Tenten experimentally threw one of her kunai and it went right through the girl, who didn't even react to being hit.

'A regular bunshin clone!' Her thoughts went from there to finally putting together what the enemy Kunoichi was trying to do.

"Naruto!"

The young Uzumaki continued to follow the red headed Genjutsu user for at least twelve yards before he had somehow lost sight of her. Wondering where she could be, he looked until he heard that familiar flute music she played. Grimacing, he reached for the senbon needle that Tenten had given to him, in his pocket, when suddenly, he spotted someone he knew.

It was Iruka, his teacher at the Academy, and he seemed to be looking for something in this forest.

Naruto, bewildered, started to follow him in a sort of trance-like state. Soon, Iruka stopped and then a fuma shuriken tore into his chest, spraying his blood everywhere. Naruto cried out his name and tried to run to his location but found his legs were unresponsive. Looking down, he saw skeletons gripping on his legs, each of them had the face of his Jiji, the Sandaime Hokage, crying out, "Naruto...Please...Help me! Don't let me die again!"

Naruto felt as if his heart was going to explode then freeze and then repeat over and over as fear and terror washed over him.

'Somebody, anybody! Help them!' His mind and heart cried out, but to no answer as the horrific scenes continued to grow more realistic and graphic, to an alarming degree.

Meanwhile, close by, Tayuya, with her hair growing longer and paler; her skin during a brownish shade, her eyes turning black, and a bone-like horns growing to form a crown on her head; watched the blond go rigid while his mouth and eyes were open in utter terror.

She finally had decided to stop screwing around and used her curse mark to empower her Genjutsu ability so she could rob the blond Konoha nin of his strength and willpower to escape the Genjutsu. With him trapped so thoroughly, she now started walking to him in confident strides. Confident though she was, she knew she was on a time limit before the teen's bun-haired girl would realize she had been chasing an illusion before doubling back to help the blond. Thus she needed to kill him now and quickly.

Coming up right next to him, she lowered her flute and tucked it into the belt of her gi, then took out a kunai, grabbed the blonde's hair on top of his head, pulled his head back, and put the edge of the kunai to the boy's exposed neck.

He showed no reaction as he was still submerged into his nightmare.

Tayuya, through clenched teeth, sneered as she spoke into his ear, "Time to say 'Goodnight', piss head."

Before she could slit his throat, two object came hurtling towards Tayuya. One was a shuriken, which tore and embedded itself into the red head's wrist, causing it to drop the kunai it was holding. The second object was a tanto knife which stabbed into Tayuya's thigh.

Tayuya growled in irritance as Naruto fell limply to the ground, like a puppet that had its strings cut.

Then, the figure of Tenten came rushing in with a kunai in her hand. Tayuya brought out her flute again and was about to try to use it on Tenten when the Oto nin found she couldn't play it because of her damaged wrist.

"Fuck!" She threw the flute away and then grabbed and pulled the tanto blade out of her thigh with a pained grunt. She then stepped on Naruto's head while sneering at Tenten.

Tenten stopped, then scowled, "Get away from him, you BITCH!" She then tossed two shuriken at Tayuya, who dodged but soon flinched from the pain of her wounded leg.

"Shit…"

Tenten rushed forward but soon stepped back as Tayuya swiped at her in a large horizontal arc with the tanto blade. Tenten pivoted and then kicked her foot into the wounded leg of Tayuya causing the Oto Kunoichi to dip to the side in pain.

"You fucking Konoha trash!" She then used the knee of her uninjured leg to come shooting up and pounded heavily into Tenten's rib cage. The bun-haired teen grimaced as she felt an immense pain, probably from having several of her ribs broken.

Not to let an opportunity escape her, Tayuya tried to bring the tanto blade down towards Tenten's chest. Tenten immediately grabbed The Oto kunoichi's wrist and then stabbed her kunai into the red head's abdomen, then when Tayuya looked down at the blade sticking into her gut, Tenten kicked into it hard causing Tayuya to fall onto her back, yelling and screaming out in pain.

Tenten grimaced as she felt the pain in her ribs, but then the tanto blade came hurtling towards her and caused her to lose her balance as it missed the side of her head by a thin margin. Getting back into a stance, despite her injury, Tenten looked and saw Tayuya's features returning to her human state, though she looked pale and on the verge of death.

Tayuya was gasping as she stared in fixated hatred at Tenten as she was on one knee, supporting herself while holding her wounded abdomen.

"You….Just you wait...I'm going to rip out your heart and piss on your lungs through the hole in your chest... YOU FUCKED WITH THE WRONG GIRL!"

Before anymore slander could come from the defeated Sound Four member, a fist punched her fiercely across her face knocking her out and falling to the ground.

Naruto stood there with bloodshot eyes and a shaking body. He looked away from Tayuya and then to Tenten. Neither of them said anything, due either to injury, mentally and physically, or just as an unspoken agreement to do it later. Instead, Tenten opened a scroll and brought out some field wire. She then tied up Orochimaru's Kunoichi just as three familiar figures arrived.

Back in town, in Tsunade's hotel room, the infamous healer was doing a diagnostic scan on the blond teen after setting and healing his broken arm, finally.

Shizune had healed Tenten's ribs and the bun-haired teen was currently sleeping. Jiraiya was keeping an eye on the unconscious girl, who they discovered is named Tayuya from her entry in the Bingo Book used by bounty hunters and Hunter Nins.

While Jiraiya was relieved that Naruto and Tenten managed to capture one of Orochimaru's top shinobi and survived, he had a sense of guilt having not been there to help them when they had faced such a person. When he unashamedly asked what kind of torment Tayuya subjected them to using Genjutsu; Tenten and Naruto were silent on the matter. They felt ashamed that they fell for those hallucinations.

Jiraiya didn't pry any further.

Tsunade nodded to herself as she finished with her check up. "You're okay for someone so shrimpy."

Naruto was quiet, not reacting to Tsunade's attempt to bait him.

She waited and then decided to change topics. "About the Oto Kunoichi."

Naruto looked at her for the first time since coming back to the hotel.

Tsunade looked at him seriously. "You didn't kill her." It was a statement but a heavy one.

"I wanted to kill her." Naruto answered.

"But you didn't." Tsunade said. "She had tried desperately to kill the two of you. She's a murderer first and a human being last. No one would have fault you for it. Not Jiraiya, nor I."

Naruto was silent.

Tsunade took in a deep breath before she released it and smiled slightly. "It's touching that you care that much for her that you don't want her to see that kind of side of you."

Naruto, very much aware of which "her", the Senju woman was referring to, decided to play it dumb; turned his head away. "I have no idea on what you're talking about."

Tsunade grinned, "Sure you don't, brat. But just a word from the wise: don't THINK she isn't aware already." The Slug Sannin then reached around her neck and pulled a necklace with a jade crystal attached to it, off of her. She then put it on Naruto while he was not paying attention.

The blond teen was stirred from his musings and he looked at the necklace dumbfounded.

"You forgot you won our bet, didn't you?" Tsunade chuckled.

Naruto nodded.

Tsunade then smiled at him, "And here's another bet. I'm going to be making the biggest bet on your future, when the time comes for you to live out your dream as Hokage."

The blond teen looked stunned.

"Until that time, I will build the foundation for it by being the Hokage starting today." Tsunade declared.

To be continued….

A/N II: Well, Tayuya lived and I hoped I did her justice in these changes and making her shine in other areas. Please let me know what you all think in a review if you can.

Thank you for reading. Till next time.

Q-n-P