She didn't know how much time she had spent by her mother's grave. Frankly, she didn't care; she was hard-pressed to find much of anything she cared about at all nowadays. Her mother was gone. Her whole world was taken from her.
Karin knew it was inevitable. They both did. Her mother knew her time was drawing nearer with every session. She had been faint and frail for the last month, and it was a struggle to even get from their home to the hospital, but the village didn't care. They continued to bleed her dry. They used her up until she had nothing left to give, and only when she physically couldn't continue anymore had they allowed her to go home and rest for the final time. She was nothing but a tool to them that had finally reached its limit.
Karin was, too.
Through all of the compulsory biting and even the mandatory conscription into their shinobi forces in order to hold Karin over her mother's head, her mother was always there to wipe her tears away. She was always there to dispel her worries and fill her with all the strength in the world regardless of how ragged they were being run because they were all each other had. Even though the village had already stolen her freedom, robbed her of her innocence, and disposed of her dignity like a broken kunai, at least she still had her mother. At least she still had her rock.
Now, she had nothing. Kusagakure had finally deprived her of the only thing she had left in this world. She had nothing left to lose.
The sounds of sandals crushing the grass underneath filled the area, but she didn't turn away from her mother's gravestone. There were two Kusa shinobi approaching her. She had already sensed them long before they made themselves known since they were watching her from afar, but she paid them no mind. They remained in silence for a lengthy minute before one of them had evidently lost his patience.
"Uzumaki, it's time to return to active duty," he gruffly informed.
She didn't respond. She didn't even look back at them. Her crimson eyes, which were saddled with bags upon bags, remained rooted on the stone engraved with her mother's name. She could feel the chakra of the adults grow more unsettled, signifying that their agitation was growing, but she truly did not care.
"Uzumaki, we've been lenient with you," the other Kusa-nin spoke now, struggling to suppress the growl that threatened to reverberate from his throat. "We've allowed you to take time to grieve and step away from your responsibilities, but you're overstepping and testing the village's patience. You have a duty to perform, and it's time for you to put your emotions aside and get back to work. You're a shinobi, so act like it."
"No."
Another silence fell upon the three. The two adults were taken aback by her brazen insubordination, especially given how uncharacteristic it was of her to even look most Kusa-nin in the eye most days. Karin knew it, but she just couldn't find it within herself to care. Kusagakure had taken everything from her, and she wouldn't give them another morsel.
The second Kusa-nin sneered upon collecting himself after her refusal. "I don't recall suggesting that it was up for debate, so my apologies if you were given that impression. You're going to stand up and return to the village on your own accord, or you will be subdued and forced back, genin."
Karin's dark expression grew into a scowl at the attempt to pull rank and remind her of her place. Slowly, she climbed to her feet in front of the headstone, but she still wasn't facing them. Her fists could turn coal into diamonds with how tightly they were clenched, and a low, venomous grumble left her lips.
That grumble didn't go unheard by the two Kusa-nin, and they certainly weren't going to let this continued insubordination slide. "Speak up, Uzumaki."
She finally turned to them, her crimson eyes that were bloodshot from crying now burning with white-hot rage. "I said, 'Go fuck yourself'!"
She knew that was a mistake the nanosecond it left her lips, and the stiff punch that smashed into her face and broke her nose was immediate proof. The audacity that had come over her briefly waned as the reality of the situation once again set in, and the fear and subservience that they were familiar with seeped back into her gaze while blood poured out of her nose. She almost cowered under the furious gaze of the second Kusa-nin out of habit, but something within held her back despite it all.
"Insubordinate little bitch!" the second man snarled while the first one only sighed. "You're nothing but a remnant of a dead clan of savages from a bygone era. You and your urchin of a mother were simply wretched filth that the village took in. You're no better than common street trash; you're simply useful street trash. Zosui is going to make you wish you were dead when he hears about this."
"I already do," the snide response left her lips before she could stop herself, and the sole of his boot slammed into her face in response.
The first man sighed again, already knowing where this was headed as he turned away to light a cigarette and allow his comrade to get it over with. "Don't rough her up too badly, Benga. Uzumaki still needs to be functional."
Before Benga could take another step forward, a silver chain rammed through his back and out of his chest, stopping everyone dead in their tracks. The chain had a faint, green glow, indicating it was coated with wind chakra, and it started rapidly vibrating, tearing Benga's heart to shreds from the inside. Karin and the other Kusa-nin were deathly still as blood spurted out of his mouth and dribbled down his chin, his pained agonal breathing slightly masking the footsteps of the blonde teenager stepping around Benga before he dropped the man to the ground.
Karin had no idea how his presence had gone under her radar. Even if she was distracted, she should have been able to sense him coming… at least she liked to think that she should have. In any event, the blonde stranger momentarily set his icy gaze on her, making her involuntarily flinch. Then, his eyes moved toward the other ninja, and they darkened considerably.
The other ninja didn't remain idle, though. He threw a kunai at the blonde and quickly went through hand seals for a jutsu, but it was for naught; another chain batted the kunai out of the way, and faster than she could blink, he was in front of the older man. The next thing she knew, the Kusa-nin's head was airborne, and the rest of his body twitched in place before collapsing to the ground in a lifeless heap.
Without a single word spoken, he returned his gaze to her, and she finally had time to analyze him fully. His black cloak with red clouds on it was interesting, but what really captured her was his chakra… there was just so much of it. Not only that, but it was powerful, more powerful than anything she had ever experienced before. There was also a lot of darkness (some of it felt ancient for some reason), but it was seemingly wrapped within the warmest, brightest, most inviting chakra she had felt since her mother's. She didn't know what to make of the enigma before her, and from the way he was looking at her, he was trying to figure her out, as well.
However, when he finally took a few steps toward her, she didn't flinch away. Despite having brutally dispatched the ninja sent to retrieve her, she didn't sense an ounce of ill intent from him when he looked at her, merely curiosity and… hope?
"Sorry about that…" he sheepishly spoke up once he reached her, motioning to the two men he killed. "I figured whatever they had in store for you wasn't going to be pleasant."
She was dumbfounded as he offered his hand to help her up with a warm smile. She was so dumbfounded, in fact, that she stared into the inviting blues of his eyes for longer than necessary before she realized what was happening and blushed as red as her hair.
"Um, thank you…" she nearly stammered, avoiding his amused gaze in mortification as she accepted the hand. Where had her earlier fire disappeared to so quickly?
"The name's Naruto," he said, taking her awkwardly trailing off as an unspoken request for his name instead of her simply being the pathetic, awkward mess she usually was. "Naruto Uzumaki. What's yours?"
Her eyes practically shot out of her skull. "Y-you're an Uzumaki?!"
"Half, but yes," he chuckled.
It took a few moments for her to get ahold of herself. Was she actually meeting another Uzumaki? Her mother had told her that there might have been other survivors, but they were scattered to the winds and probably in hiding. The chances of ever meeting another were slim to none.
"I thought we were the last ones… that I was the last one," she lowly muttered, staring at her mother's grave once again. "I wish she was here to see it…"
"Before today, so did I," Naruto sighed, recapturing her undivided attention. "I figured it was just me and my uncle. Imagine my shock when I'm just passing through and stumble upon one of my long-lost clansmen being hassled by a couple of jackoffs from Kusa."
She flinched again at the mention of Kusa, and she hated herself for it. She was already a stuttering mess around the inexplicable clansman who had just helped her, and now he'd know that she was a pathetic, jumpy waste of space that was only good for one thing-
"Hey, breathe," Naruto's concerned voice and his grasp of her shoulders snapped her out of her spiral. "Just breathe. You're okay."
She didn't know what it was about him that was so calming to her; perhaps it was his chakra, perhaps it was his apparent Uzumaki status, or perhaps it was the fact that he was the only person besides her mother who had ever deigned to comfort her in any capacity. Regardless of what it was, she couldn't help but be at ease in his presence. She also couldn't help herself from immersing herself in his chakra once again, allowing the ocean of warmth to engulf her. She didn't know what to make of the darkness that lay deeper; all she knew was that in that moment, she felt safer than she ever thought she'd feel again.
"I get the feeling that you don't want to go back there," Naruto commented as she fell back into calmness.
Thankfully, her newfound ease wasn't totally shaken, but she still grimaced and shook her head. "Zosui would hunt me down. I'm too useful of a tool to lose so easily."
"Zosui, huh?" he muttered, his eyes traveling back towards the village proper. Then, he placed his hands into a strange, cross-like seal, and then a perfect clone of him appeared in a puff of smoke.
"Can you take care of that?" he asked the clone, and the clone nodded before flickering away. Then, he turned a smile back to her. "You never told me your name, by the way."
Karin took another moment to process the situation. He had just cut his chakra pool in half with that clone, but he still had more chakra than anyone she had ever met before, meaning that clone did, as well. Was he sending the clone to dispose of Zosui…?
Good riddance.
"It's Karin," she finally answered, an unsure smile taking form. "Karin Uzumaki."
Naruto returned her smile, and she couldn't feel any warmer or safer in his presence. "Since you're not going back to Kusa, do you want to tag along with me?"
"Yes!" she answered maybe a bit too enthusiastically, and her embarrassed blush returned. "I-if you're okay with it…"
Naruto chuckled again, and Karin wished so badly to be a turtle so that she could retreat within a shell. "I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't. Do you have anything you want to get from your home before leaving?"
She wanted to shake her head at first because she kept anything of any sentimental value on her in a scroll at all times in case Zosui saw fit to have her home ransacked, but she looked back at her mother's grave. She didn't want to give Kusa even a snowball's chance in hell of desecrating her grave for any reason…
"Could we…" she began, but her voice trailed off as she struggled to put her request into words.
Thankfully, Naruto gathered where she was going and nodded. "Of course. It'll just take some clones and a few scrolls."
Just like that, four more clones poofed into existence and got to work, pulling her mother's headstone out of the ground before sealing it away, and then they began digging up her casket. In all honesty, it wasn't much of a casket, but more of a wooden box she was dumped into to save time and effort for Zosui. She really couldn't get out of this hellhole quickly enough.
It didn't take long for the casket to be sealed away into a scroll alongside the headstone. Just like that, she was gone, and with a small earth jutsu, the ground looked like it had never been disturbed. She noticed Naruto momentarily pause, and then he turned to her.
"Zosui won't be a problem anymore," he informed, and it was as if her entire world had transformed in the blink of an eye. She could leave Kusa behind alongside her mother, and it would be as if neither had ever been there at all. Not only was she free, however, but she was alongside family that she wasn't even sure truly existed prior to that moment.
For the first time since her mother took her last breath, Karin didn't feel so alone anymore.
The first thing that came into view when Temari finally came to was the blurry whiteness of the ceiling. That was already a red flag because the interior of buildings in Suna was usually some shade of beige, which meant that she was not in Suna. Pulling herself together to quickly assess her situation, she tried thinking back on the events that led her to her current state. The last thing she remembered was her fight with Sasori of the Red Sand, and towards the end of the battle, she succumbed to his poison. She vaguely remembered Kankuro saving her from being killed, and then she blacked out.
"Good, you're awake," an older, feminine voice captured her attention, and she turned her head towards the door to see Tsunade Senju entering the room.
That was when it clicked. She was in Konoha, and the Slug Princess herself, infamous in Suna for being the walking counter to Granny Chiyo's poisons, was the one to treat her for Sasori's poison. That made sense, but what didn't make sense was how she even got here in the first place.
"I'd wager as to what's on your mind, but with my luck, I'd still probably end up losing," Tsunade chuckled, setting a clipboard down on the bedside table. "Pakura sprinted here all the way from your village and practically dragged me out of bed to whip up an antidote to the poison that was in your system. Real nasty stuff that was, honestly. It might've been the worst batch I've ever had to treat outside of Ame. You're lucky I owed her a favor from a few years back."
"Uh… thank you?" Temari confusedly uttered, her brain struggling to both finally gain its bearings and make sense of the implications of everything being said.
Tsunade simply waved it off, though. "Thank Pakura. I'm not sure she slept until she knew you were out of immediate danger. I don't know what you did to worm past her hatred of Suna, but it was effective."
"Huh…" was all Temari could say. Pakura made the two-day trip from Suna to Konoha nonstop just to save her life. Temari was ready to die to protect Gaara, but Pakura apparently wasn't having any of that.
"You look skeptical," Tsunade commented with a hint of amusement.
"No, it's just…" Temari struggled to put her whirling thoughts into words. "I'm just surprised that she'd bother going that far for a village that betrayed her."
Tsunade nodded in understanding. "Carrying pain like that around for decades on end is exhausting at the best of times. The only thing even more mentally taxing is finding a way to let go of that pain."
Temari didn't have anything to say to that; she could only marinate in what felt like a personal admission from the world's greatest medic-nin who had also vanished from duty for who knew how long.
Tsunade took note of her pensive expression and opted to slide some levity into the conversation. "It might even be simpler than you're making it out to be. Maybe she just didn't want a newly installed Kage to die so soon into her reign."
It worked, as Temari slipped out of her brief bout of rumination with a chuckle. "Yeah, that would be kinda pathetic. Even the Yondaime Hokage was around for longer than I've been so far. It'd suck to have the shortest reign of any of the villages' Kage."
"Second shortest," Tsunade corrected.
"Hm?"
"The Sandaime didn't last a month before he croaked."
Temari blinked in confusion at that statement. "Wait, but Hiruzen Sarutobi was around for like all of shinobi history it felt like. Didn't he get the position during the First War?"
Tsunade nodded. "Technically, he's the Yondaime. We did actually have someone in between Granduncle Tobi and Sarutobi-sensei."
"Seriously?"
"Mhm. Torifu Akimichi. He was part of the Nidaime's Escort Unit during the First War. The Nidaime chose him to be the next Hokage should he have fallen to the Kinkaku Force. According to Sarutobi-sensei, he was the big, hard, strongman type, so when it started pouring during his coronation, he insisted on giving an impassioned speech to the village anyway."
Tsunade closed her eyes and shook her head. "Dumbass died of pneumonia barely a week later. They never even got the chance to start carving his face into the monument, so they just opted to move on and hand the title of Sandaime to Sarutobi instead."
"Wow," Temari remarked in wonder. "That's… really lame."
"Isn't it?" Tsunade snorted.
"So, am I good to go?" Temari asked.
Tsunade nodded. "I want to keep you under observation a little longer just to ensure that there aren't any lingering effects, but other than that, yes. I'll go let Pakura know you're awake."
As Tsunade left the room, Temari dropped back down to her pillow with a sigh. "This is way more screentime than I would've envisioned."
Yugito Nii was a prideful woman. It was par for the course for being a shinobi of Kumogakure, but even independent of that, she knew just how powerful and dangerous she was. Her impressive bingo book entry spoke for itself, after all.
Granted, her bounty wasn't as high as Bee's, nor was it as high as Darui's, and it certainly didn't touch what the Raikage's once was, but third place among active shinobi was nothing to scoff at, damnit! She was the proud vessel of the Nibi and wielded its immense power with indisputable skill, which said nothing about her own raw combat talent. She could hang with the best of them and protected her village with everything she had.
So, naturally, finding herself literally hanging against a wall on a pole stabbed through her hands was not on her agenda, nor was getting smacked around and torn apart by two missing-nin who proved to be more than a match for even the might of the Nibi. Excuse her if none of that was on her bingo card for the year.
As she hung there, blood sliding down her beaten, battered form, Yugito idly wondered if she shouldn't have been so overconfident. Perhaps her assuredness of her victory before the fight even began caused her to wrongfully disregard her opponents and charge in full steam ahead when she shouldn't have, which was exactly what Bee warned her against. She hadn't listened, and now she was almost certainly going to die at the hands of Tsuki no Me. Luckily, she was able to send one of her bakeneko summons to the Raikage to inform him of the situation, so he would know exactly who did it if this was truly her end. Hopefully, they wouldn't get Bee, too.
While she was stewing in self-loathing, Hidan was blissfully sprawled out on an insignia of Jashin drawn in blood. That bliss was violently deprived from him by his partner's annoyed gruff.
"Hurry this along, Hidan," Kakuzu growled. "It's been half an hour and you're still going. Your mystical bullshit is wasting time, and time is money."
Hidan growled right back, angrily climbing up to his feet with his scythe in hand. "Shut the fuck up, you blaspheming piece of shit! Don't mess up the ritual!"
Kakuzu scoffed. "I'll never understand you collectivist sheep and your inane desire for religion."
"I'll show you a fucking sheep, you godless cockwaffle! I'll bleed you like a lamb to Lord Jashin!"
"Try it, Marxist scum."
No more blood would be spilled, however, as a large flytrap protruded from the ground between them right before the two could leap into action. The trap opened to reveal Zetsu's smiling face (the white half of him, anyway).
"You guys seem spirited," White Zetsu cheered. "Were you finally able to convert Kakuzu to Jashinism, Hidan?"
Kakuzu scoffed. "The only god I worship is money."
"And that's why your heretic ass is gonna die early," Hidan grinned.
"I'm 91, idiot."
"Oh, that's right, you were around for the before times. Hell, I'm surprised you never met the 'great and powerful' Madara Uchiha before all this."
Kakuzu strangely hesitated to respond to that, eyeing Zetsu closely for a considerable moment before side-eyeing Hidan. "…Our paths never crossed. Speaking of, why are you here, Zetsu?"
"To inform you that Madara has collected the Sanbi, but Sasori and Deidara failed to capture the Ichibi jinchuriki. Sasori is dead."
"Shame," Kakuzu remarked. "A potential bounty wasted."
"What the fuck are you telling us for?" Hidan groused.
"Specifically to Kakuzu," Black Zetsu finally spoke up, "don't go out hunting for massive bounties until we fill Sasori's spot. It wouldn't do to eliminate any potential recruits."
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed at the plant-man."You're asking me to leave money on the table?"
"You can hunt for bounties in and around Konoha," Black Zetsu stated, unaffected by the underlying danger in Kakuzu's tone. "There won't be any suitable recruits in Hi no Kuni."
"Hunt to your heart's content down there!" White Zetsu chipped in.
Kakuzu was silent once again, but this one was simply him mulling his options. "…The Fire Temple. There's a considerable bounty for the taking there. And yes, Hidan, you can murder as many people as you want."
"Hell yeah!" Hidan cheered, already forgetting about Yugito twitching on the wall. "Let's hit a restaurant or something on the way, though. I'm fucking starving.
"We'll take the jinchuriki back to base," White Zetsu said, and the Immortal Duo left the scene since their work was officially completed.
"Any reason you suggested Konoha specifically?" White Zetsu asked his darker half.
"It makes our lives easier," Black Zetsu replied. "They'll stir up the nest, then Konoha will send units out to take them down. The wood user in ANBU and his squad will no doubt be among them. Obito can take care of the rest."
"Ah, so we're using them to lure our battery out to us?"
"Exactly."
Sakura frantically ran through the underground maze of torchlit hallways within the hideout. Every door she came across was kicked in and every room was scoured from ceiling to floor, but nothing yet had turned up. That would not dissuade her, however. This was her chance to find Sasuke and bring him home, and she would not fail. Not again.
"Easy, Sakura," the tired voice of her sensei filled her from atop her back. "We'll find him, but you have to remain calm."
She sighed, and then she nodded at Kakashi's words. He was right; she couldn't get herself worked up and potentially become sloppy, especially with the state that Kakashi was in after he and Guy fought Orochimaru back at the bridge. Kakashi had majorly taxed himself after unveiling the Mangekyo Sharingan for the battle, whereas Guy had eventually been forced to open the Seventh Gate to finally put Orochimaru down… at least, it appeared that way until they realized that it was simply an empty husk that Orochimaru had left behind before escaping. It was such a shame; Guy's Daytime Tiger obliterating the Triple Rashomon was really cool.
Fortunately, they weren't completely out of luck. Pakkun was summoned with the dregs of Kakashi's chakra and used the husk Orochimaru left behind to memorize his scent, leading them directly to the hideout Orochimaru had scampered off to. Unfortunately, Kakashi and Guy were zapped of energy, and Guy especially was in a world of pain due to his muscle fibers rupturing from opening the Seventh Gate. This meant that it was up to her, Lee, and Tenten to find and subdue Sasuke in the belly of the beast.
A thunderous explosion rocked the base, and Sakura wasted no time sprinting in the direction of the commotion while tightening her hold on her sensei. Something was happening, and regardless of if Sasuke was involved or not, she'd be there to help her team. Soon, she came upon a corridor leading toward a hole in the hideout that had likely just been created by that explosion, and sprinting through it into a large crater conveniently brought her face-to-face with none other than Sasuke himself. The man in question was standing at the end of the crater and impassively staring down at a frowning Lee with Guy on his back and a stone-faced Tenten.
"Sasuke…" Kakashi lamented at the sight of his wayward pupil.
"Sakura, Kakashi," Sasuke dully addressed, barely sparing them a glance. "I figured you were here, too."
"Your flames of youth have dimmed considerably, Sasuke," Lee chastised in the only way Lee knew how. "You'll so cavalierly cast away the precious bonds you forged with your team? With your home?"
"Things change," was Sasuke's simple reply before his impassive gaze set back onto Sakura. "I didn't kill you back at the valley. The fact that you survived Guren's attack is impressive, but you're still the same fool as back then. Having too many ties in this world will only lead you astray."
The blankness of his tone unsettled Kakashi. Sasuke hadn't once considered them as more than flies in his presence since their arrival. It was as if he was encountering Itachi once again.
Just then, Sasuke was joined on the edge of the crater by two others: Yukimaru and Sai. Yukimaru was annoyed and glaring at Sasuke, whereas Sai was… well, he was just Sai.
"You really like blowing shit up, don't you, Sasuke?" Yukimaru grumbled. "Should've known something was wrong with you after you hatched Kirin."
Sasuke didn't return the look, but the faintest of smirks developed on his face. "Hn."
"Why didn't you?" Sakura finally broke her silence, and everyone's attention now rested on her as she placed Kakashi on the ground for him to get clear of the inevitable fight. "Why didn't you just kill me that day, Sasuke? Why even let me live if you were insistent on severing your bonds for good?"
Sasuke didn't immediately reply. Silence hung over the crater for a solid ten seconds as Sasuke seemed to peer directly into Sakura's soul. Lee (having reluctantly followed Sakura's example by placing his sensei on the ground in case of a battle) and Tenten's gazes were locked onto Sasuke as well as the other two for any sudden movements. The tension blanketed the area like a Hidden Mist Jutsu, and it was ten times as suffocating as any of Zabuza's killing intent.
"You weren't worth killing," Sasuke's cold answer cut through the tension like a red-hot katana.
Before Sakura could respond, though, Sasuke appeared in front of her and draped his arm over her shoulder.
"Perhaps that's changed, though," Sasuke softly mused, drawing his chokuto from its sheath. "You look like you've been training. Maybe you'll actually put up a fight this time around."
However, despite the threat, Sakura remained in her spot. She didn't even turn to meet his gaze; she simply stood still.
"Not even going to defend?" Sasuke questioned, amusement bleeding into his tone. "You've really resigned yourself to dying here?"
"If you were going to kill me, you would've done it by now," Sakura called his bluff matter-of-factly. "You've never been one to monologue."
Sasuke actually chuckled at that. "You were always the sharpest of the three of us. You were also the weakest."
"Things change."
"Judging from the kunai you have pointed at my kidney, I'd say so," Sasuke mused. "Though, you don't look like a medic-nin, so I doubt it's poisoned. Kakashi looks poised to charge any minute now, but he's clearly in no condition to fight. I'm not all that concerned about the others, either. What's your plan to make it out of this?"
"Everyone needs to have an ace in the hole," Sakura shrugged.
"If you mean the one-handed genjutsus you're trying to cast on me behind my back, I'd recommend trying something else," Sasuke scoffed. "Genjutsu of that level doesn't work on me."
Sakura sighed, conceding the point. "I really don't want to do this the hard way, Sasuke."
Rather than verbally respond, Sasuke twisted his chokuto to knock the kunai out of her hand faster than she could react. In that same moment, a Chidori flared to life in his hand and engulfed the blade right as he brought it up to clash with Kakashi's Raikiri.
"That's enough, Sasuke," Kakashi gritted out, obviously exerting himself far more than he should've been.
Sakura, meanwhile, performed the snake seal, and her skin began to darken as it was imbued with her earth-natured chakra. Seeing that Sasuke was completely unconcerned with the development irked her beyond belief, and she took that frustration out on the ground below with a devastating punch that shattered the terrain. Perhaps she wasn't quite as strong as Tsunade like this, but with the Earth Spear Jutsu active, she could pack a mean punch and withstand just about any attack dished out at her.
On the sidelines, Yukimaru and Sai silently watched the reunion finally break down into a battle. When Sakura obliterated the ground and kicked up another dust cloud, Lee and Tenten decided to join the fray. Sai was about to interfere, but he was stopped by Yukimaru.
"Don't," Yukimaru advised, keeping his eyes on the battle below. "Let him handle this. Copy-nin Kakashi and the Green Beast of Konoha are non-factors in their current state, and he hasn't even activated his Sharingan yet. He'll be fine."
Sai nodded, then he flashed his trademark smile that was somehow even more blatantly fake than normal. "If you say so, Fatherless."
The groan that Yukimaru unleashed spoke of years of unending torment at the hands of an emotionally stunted artist.
"Did you know that he could spawn fucking fireballs?! Fireballs, Kabuto, merely by punching the air!"
Kabuto sighed amidst his master's ranting about their earlier clash with Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy, one that both parties were lucky to escape from with their lives once Guy unleashed the nigh unstoppable power of the Seventh Gate. Between hearing his master's indignant raving and having to deal with the stragglers that no doubt caused the explosion of the base, Kabuto just wanted to consume Orochimaru's flesh in peace to finally become him but better.
Orochimaru's rant was not finished, though. "And then he weaponized the air pressure from a single punch by launching it at me in the form of a tiger! A fucking TIGER! Just how in the FUCK does that even work, Kabuto?!"
Kabuto was left massaging his temples. "He's the world's foremost taijutsu practitioner for a reason, Lord Orochimaru. You know this."
"And another thing!" Orochimaru continued, ignoring Kabuto's statement and the fusion of exhaustion and agitation rolling off of him. "That eyesore of a jumpsuit isn't simply a crime against fashion, it's a crime against humanity! And I know A LOT about crimes against humanity!"
Kabuto was nearing his limit. "Can we please just retrieve Sasuke and leave?"
Orochimaru must have finally gotten the ire out of his system (or simply ran out of energy to whine about it) because he sighed in concession. "Yes, you're right, Kabuto. Let's rendezvous with Sasuke and Yukimaru. No doubt, they're entertaining our guests."
"Do you think Sai will take this opportunity to abscond with Sasuke for Danzo?" Kabuto pondered as they meandered toward the commotion.
"If Danzo knows what's good for him, he won't," Orochimaru smoothly answered. "Creating a legitimate village out of Otogakure has been keeping that old fool busy of late, and I'd doubt he'd attempt to renege on our partnership before he was sufficiently prepared to go to war over it."
"I must admit, it has been rather interesting to see just what he's done in Oto," Kabuto remarked. "He has somehow managed to cultivate a competent shinobi force out of the strays and runaways scattered between the bases, and he even found use for many of the failed experiments that are more beast than human at this point. It's quite remarkable."
"It's unlike you to info dump like that, Kabuto," Orochimaru observed, side-eyeing his bespectacled subordinate. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were subtly hinting at plotting to betray me and aligning with Danzo."
Kabuto simply laughed at that. "Don't be silly, Lord Orochimaru. I'm always plotting to betray you."
Before Orochimaru could respond to that, Kabuto pointed towards the kerfuffle in the crater. "It seems that Sasuke is finishing up."
Sure enough, Sasuke had returned to his place above them at the edge of the crater. Two things stood out to Orochimaru immediately. For one, his Kusanagi that was stolen from him by that blonde wretch was resting in the grubby paws of a filthy Konoha kunoichi. Secondly, Sasuke had his hand raised in preparation for his Kirin jutsu.
Orochimaru moved faster than he ever had in his life despite the lingering pain and exhaustion from his earlier fight. He didn't give Sasuke a single moment more to prepare his spectacular lightning jutsu, latching onto his wrist with an iron grip once he reached him.
"What do you think you are doing?" Orochimaru leered as if he were scolding a child.
The glare that Sasuke leveled at him could pierce diamond. "Let go."
"Not while my Kusanagi is down there," Orochimaru growled in response, and then he turned his venomous glare toward Tenten and flooded the area with masses of killing intent. "Tell me where you got that sword, and I might be so kind as to let you live once you've returned it to me."
Tenten was sweating, both from the brief scuffle with Sasuke that was substantially more challenging than she imagined it would've been and the vengeful bloodlust emanating from Orochimaru. Knowing that much of it was directed specifically at her wasn't helping matters, but she remained calm. She knew this was a possibility when she accepted this mission, and she had trained way too hard with the Kusanagi over the years to even dream of handing it over to the criminal it was taken from. He'd have to pry it off of her corpse if he wanted it back.
"You are testing my patience, child!" Orochimaru hissed with enough venom to kill an army.
"Look no further."
The new voice captured the attention of everyone present, but the familiarity of the new arrival's appearance made several pairs of eyes go wide.
"Naruto??" Tenten, Kakashi, and Sakura all remarked simultaneously.
"Yo," Naruto casually waved, scanning over the assembled shinobi. "This is an interesting collection we've got going on. Mind if I crash it?"
"Akatsuki…" Lee marveled, surprised at being able to see a member of the famed organization out in the wild. Unknown to Lee, his thoughts were paralleled by Yukimaru, only Yukimaru's disposition was substantially darker in comparison.
However, a strong hand clamped down on Yukimaru's shoulder to prevent him from doing anything stupid, and he turned to see that it was Orochimaru glaring at Naruto with a mixture of amusement and the deepest desire for violence that Yukimaru could have ever fathomed coming from his boss. He wasn't the only one to notice, either, as Sasuke had his Sharingan reactivated and flipping back and forth between Orochimaru and Naruto. Anyone who could make Orochimaru this unsettled simply by appearing was worth paying close attention to (especially considering no one had noticed his presence before he decided to make himself known).
"So, the prodigal son finally returns," Orochimaru spat, his devilish smile doing nothing to mask the murder in his tone.
Naruto's smile remained the picture of unbothered. "Orochimaru, it's been a while. I'm pretty sure I killed you the last time we encountered each other."
"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated," Orochimaru bit back a snarl.
"Clearly," Naruto replied, his easy smile still unwavering and only growing Orochimaru's ire even further.
'Well, that certainly explains why Orochimaru is so tense,' Sasuke internally mused. Then, the familiar blonde hair in tandem with the cloak allowed the pieces to come together in Sasuke's mind…
This was the guy from Nami, the same one who had been occupying real estate in his mind for years for his bloody, effortless display of power. He reminded Sasuke so much of Itachi by how much power he wielded at such a young age that his Sharingan burned with the desire to put him down if for no other reason than to measure himself against someone potentially in the same league as his brother. Even so, he clamped down on that bubbling anger; Akatsuki was Yukimaru's mark, not his.
"So, have you come to finish the job, Naruto?" Orochimaru continued, his fury giving way to a dark glee rife with bloodlust. "Please say you have. I'd love to have your head on my mantle."
Naruto chuckled and shook his head. "Sorry to disappoint, but someone else called dibs on your life."
Right as he finished, a barrage of human-sized arrows came into view from the horizon, only giving the Oto group seconds to dodge the hypersonic shower of death. Even the Konoha shinobi retreated from the crater to evade the attack, collecting back within the corridor to observe the interaction. Sai, meanwhile, took to the skies and sat on an ink bird, simply content with watching the situation unfold. This was an interesting development that he would be sure to inform Danzo of ASAP.
On the ground, Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sasuke, and Yukimaru evaded the onslaught and prepared for whatever was to come next, and Naruto's continued stillness only kept them on edge. Then, another set of footsteps entered the area, and yet another person in an Akatsuki cloak stepped into view as an invisible curtain slowly faded away, revealing a familiar redhead holding a flute to her mouth. Following behind her were her three Doki familiars accompanied by two large tengu with dark red skin and black, feathery wings descending to the ground on either side of her. In their arms were large bows with three arrows each ready to be fired.
"Sup, Orochimaru," Tayuya mockingly saluted. "Long time, no see."
"Tayuya?" Orochimaru questioned, now even more intrigued. "So, you survived, and you even joined up with the rats of Akatsuki. Such treachery."
"What can I say? They have a better 401K," Tayuya shrugged. "I'm gonna kill you now. Sorry about that. Not really, though."
Orochimaru sneered at that. "Is the big, bad Naruto Uzumaki afraid of little ol' me? Does the prospect of a rematch frighten you so much that you'd send your comrade to slaughter in your place?"
Naruto snorted as if that thought was genuinely amusing to him, and Orochimaru's blood began to boil.
"Nah, I'm good," Naruto declined with a chuckle. "You're not exactly worth my time."
"…Excuse me?"
"You're not worth my time," Naruto repeated, his expression losing any mirth it previously had. "You're weak, Orochimaru. Painfully so. As you are right now, you might've been a challenge for me just a few years ago, but that's certainly not the case anymore. Killing you wouldn't even be fun, it would just be… trivial, like brushing my teeth or wiping my ass. The difference is that at least I gain something from brushing my teeth. I don't gain anything from expending the precious half of a percent of my chakra it would take to wipe your pasty ass off the face of the planet."
Everyone was reduced to silence. Even the Konoha shinobi had nothing to say to that. To so casually dismiss Orochimaru of the Sannin as nothing more than an ant…
'How much stronger has he gotten?!' were the thoughts speeding through Tenten's brain.
Naruto, meanwhile, simply turned around and walked away, not sparing Orochimaru or anyone else another glance. "Get this over with, Tayuya. I'm sick of being around so much trash in one place."
Tayuya couldn't help but be reminded of Kimimaro as he departed, and it drew an involuntary shudder from her. 'He is way too fucking convincing…'
On the other hand, Kabuto watched him walk away and remained rooted in his spot. It was obvious that Naruto was goading Orochimaru into attacking rather than fleeing. Adjacently, Kabuto was used to hanging in the shadows and biding his time despite his pride, so not rising to the bait wasn't a difficult task.
The other three were not nearly as inclined to let it slide, unfortunately.
Yukimaru struck first, no longer having Orochimaru clamping down on him. He rushed Naruto's back in the blink of an eye, not sparing Tayuya a single glance in favor of slashing at Naruto far faster than even Kakashi could comprehend now that his Sharingan was covered back up. His katana bit only chain as his slash was deflected, though, as was every other slash that Yukimaru delivered in his attempt to dice him into a fishcake. Soon, Naruto even turned his head back a tad to spare him an impassive glance, and he was met by tourmaline eyes brimming with fury.
"You took everything from me!" Yukimaru spat.
Naruto blinked in confusion at that declaration. "…Have we met? No, seriously, have we? You sort of look familiar, but I don't think we've ever encountered each other…"
A lightbulb appeared over his head, and Naruto snapped his fingers in recognition. "Wait, you strongly resemble Yagura! Are you his son? Is that what this is about?"
Yukimaru was apoplectic and nearly foaming at the mouth. He disengaged from Naruto and made some distance, waiting on pins and needles for another opportunity to cut him to ribbons and defecate on his remains.
"Well, I'm not apologizing for killing your dad, if that's what you're after," Naruto continued, completely unaware (and truthfully uncaring) of what was actually going through Yukimaru's mind. "He was a genocidal tyrant, and the world is quantifiably better off without him around-"
At some point during his speech, Naruto blinked, and Yukimaru closed the distance between them in that single moment with wind chakra now coating his katana to cut Naruto down where he stood. Unfortunately, rather than his blade bisecting Naruto from hip to shoulder, it was intercepted by Naruto literally grabbing it, completely unaffected by the wind chakra that should have sliced through his hand entirely. Only when Yukimaru swallowed his incredulity and felt out what was going on with his senses did he pick up on Naruto casually coating his hand with wind chakra to nullify the blow.
"Fast… but still so slow," Naruto dismissively remarked.
A pair of clawed hands emerged from the ground and grabbed Yukimaru's ankles, pulling him neck-deep into the dirt with the Headhunter Jutsu. Then, one of the hands emerged again and slapped an explosive tag onto Yukimaru's face before retreating underground. Naruto flickered out of the blast zone and rejoined Tayuya amidst the explosion, and they were soon joined by Karin finally emerging from the ground.
"That one taken care of?" Tayuya questioned.
Karin grimaced. "No, he substituted with a water clone just before I pulled him down. I didn't catch it until I put the explosive tag on him."
True to her word, the real Yukimaru appeared back across the crater with the others, and while his scowl was still as murderous as his master's, his body language was far more cautious than it had just been.
"Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto hazarded, sensing the impending battle. "I'd strongly advise a retreat. You've already expended so much energy fighting Might Guy and Kakashi. Even if we eliminate Tayuya and the other one, Naruto Uzumaki was more than a match for you even a few years ago-"
"I'm not leaving without all three of their corpses strapped to the rope around my tunic," Orochimaru spat, uncharacteristically insistent on venting his fury.
Kabuto could only sigh. Naruto had succeeded in breaking Orochimaru, making a fight inevitable. He reluctantly readied chakra scalpels for combat as Yukimaru prepared for another charge with his katana and the first stage of Sasuke's Cursed Seal of Heaven activated. On the other side, Tayuya held her flute up to her lips, ready to send her Doki out to kill her former master at a moment's notice. Karin held her fingers in a cross seal to summon clones on a dime. Naruto simply gazed lazily at Orochimaru, not even fighting the smirk that formed when the man's murderous scowl deepened at the blatant disrespect.
Then, Naruto flexed his chakra for a brief moment, but a brief moment was all that was necessary. The entire area felt a monumental weight slam onto them before vanishing just as quickly. The group from Konoha was stunned, whereas Orochimaru was sick of all the preamble, taking the invitation for what it was and rushing Akatsuki.
The battle was on.
Tenten was expecting a lot to happen when she was assigned this mission. She knew that they were meeting up with a spy in Orochimaru's ranks and that the goal was to get information about his whereabouts, so a potential encounter with the man himself wasn't out of the realm of possibility. She expected to have to fight tooth and nail against him and his legion of followers once that happened. She expected to see her sensei go all out for once. She even expected to get the chance to chop Orochimaru's head off with his own sword to add insult to injury.
She wasn't expecting to see Naruto again, though. That was a nice sight. She also wasn't expecting him to have grown exponentially since the last time they crossed paths from the already insane level he was at previously. That one admittedly stung her pride just a bit.
The biggest blow to her expectations, however, was Naruto arriving specifically to kill Orochimaru. That essentially made their presence redundant, and they all knew that. Not all of them particularly liked it, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
"What do we do, sensei?" Lee asked both Guy and Kakashi who were riding piggyback once again.
"…We fall back," Kakashi answered after sharing a glance with Guy.
"Wait, what?!" Sakura nearly dropped her sensei in shock, but she kept herself together. "But Sasuke is right there! We can't just leave!"
"There's nothing we can do, Sakura," Kakashi responded. "As we are right now, we'd only be getting in the way. As much as I hate it, this battle no longer concerns us. Whatever Akatsuki's plans are, they involve Orochimaru's death, and I'm not sure that Naruto will leave without his head."
Sakura wasn't so willing to abandon ship just yet, however. Seeing this, Tenten stepped up and placed a hand on her arm before staring her directly in the eye.
"Sakura, listen to me," Tenten began, and she had the other girl's mostly undivided attention. "I know you want so badly to either bring Sasuke back or finally put him out of his misery."
She ignored Sakura's consternation while motioning out to the ongoing battle. "But this is far bigger than us now. Trust me. Naruto is strong, and I mean really strong. He's beaten Orochimaru before, and I don't doubt that he can do it again. Whether or not Sasuke is insistent on joining in on his master's fate is his choice to make at this point, just like leaving the village was a choice that he made."
Seeing that she was getting somewhere, she patted Sakura on the arm reassuringly. "You've already tried talking, and that didn't work. You tried force, and that didn't work, either. There's nothing else you can do for him aside from hope he escapes with his life so that you can come back for him even stronger later."
"…Yeah, you're right," Sakura muttered, though it was clear she wasn't ecstatic about it. She didn't say another word as she proceeded back down the hall and away from the crater, the others following behind shortly afterward.
The only thing occupying Orochimaru's mind was his desire to tear the heads off of the blonde bane of his existence and his former failure of a subordinate. Tayuya was closer, so he'd begin with her. Slithering and contorting around the heavy strikes of her Doki's weapons was easy enough, though dodging human-sized arrows from airborne snipers was troublesome. Still, he reached Tayuya and lashed out to grab her by the throat with the intent of strangling her through her stupid, high-collared cloak. When she easily evaded his swipes with a shit-eating grin, he lashed out even more fiercely at her abdomen to knock the wind out of her, but she met his fist with her leg and absorbed the hit without flinching. He was admittedly impressed; she was far stronger than he remembered her to be. He would've been fascinated if he wasn't so set on chopping her head off where she stood.
A little ways away, Naruto was entertaining a two-on-one assault from Sasuke and Yukimaru. The duo flitted around and struck like a well-practiced routine, each covering the other's blindspots and attacking from every angle. Chain met a chokuto coated in lightning on one end and a wind-coated katana on the other, while Naruto met the cold, assessing glare of the Sharingan and magenta eyes swimming in hatred with simple curiosity and a touch of amusement in his gaze. He watched Sasuke's glare narrow at the recognized slight, then he watched them crinkle in frustration when Naruto shrugged off the genjutsu Sasuke attempted to place him in.
Sasuke glanced at Yukimaru, sending him a silent signal to break away. Yukimaru did so, flying through a set of seals all the while Sasuke's entire body crackled to life as lightning was expelled through his pores.
"Chidori Stream!/Water Trumpet!" the two simultaneously shouted, Sasuke lighting Naruto up as a jet of water neared to compound the powerful shock even more.
Unfortunately for them, Naruto fought through the shock and produced a storage scroll, pouring chakra into it before throwing it directly in the path of the Water Trumpet Jutsu. Inexplicably, the scroll unleashed a bright Electromagnetic Murder Jutsu, much of which traveled up the water jutsu right to a shocked Yukimaru (in more ways than one). Not anticipating the unorthodox counter, Sasuke was idle for a single moment too long, allowing Naruto ample time to slam a chain-covered fist into his abdomen, rocketing him away. He wasn't satisfied with that, however, and he was on Yukimaru in the blink of an eye to lay a devastating stomp to his sternum that drove him into a fresh, Yukimaru-shaped hole in the ground. Still not satisfied, he peeled Yukimaru out of his new abode and threw him straight into the recovering Sasuke, sending them both tumbling back to the dirt.
With that taken care of, he spotted Orochimaru breaking through Tayuya's defenses and coiling around her like a python in his periphery, and he was having none of that, so he closed the distance between them in no time at all to level a bone-shattering kick to Orochimaru's jaw, practically driving him off of his comrade with the force of the blow alone. Not allowing him to not suffer the same fate as his subordinates, Naruto shot a chain out that wrapped around Orochimaru's abdomen, then he yanked the chain and threw him across the clearing, sending him flying into Sasuke and Yukimaru and knocking them over like bowling pins.
Both Naruto and Tayuya were pleased to see how far beyond ballistic Orochimaru was at that moment. His glare was so fiery that Naruto half-expected him to shoot Amaterasu at them on the strength of his hatred alone. Instead, Orochimaru bit his thumbs and slammed them to the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu: Edo Tensei!"
Naruto and Tayuya were taken aback by the development, and Orochimaru grinned wickedly at them as two coffins rose from the ground in front of him, Sasuke, and Yukimaru. The coffins opened, and out stepped the newly reanimated Sandaime and Yondaime Kazekage.
"What is this…" the Sandaime muttered before realizing what was happening. "Again??"
"Orochimaru, you traitorous son of a bitch!" Rasa snarled from beside the Sandaime. "I should have known to never trust a snake."
"And you'll have another eternity to lament your poor decisions in the afterlife once we're done here, but for now, I'm going to need you both to kill that blonde wretch," Orochimaru smoothly intoned with delightful malice dripping off of every word.
"And what makes you think I won't simply kill you here and now?" Rasa responded, flecks of Gold Dust swirling around him despite his movements being restricted.
"That presupposes that you were capable of that in the first place, and I think we both know how that worked out for you," Orochimaru answered, sliding between them and pushing talismans into the backs of their heads.
He couldn't exert total control over them like he preferred because he needed to be able to multitask if Naruto pulled out any surprises, so the basic level of control would have to do. It let them retain their personalities, but it still prevented them from disobeying his commands, so Orochimaru wasn't worried. Unfortunately for him, neither was Naruto.
"You're not the only one who knows that jutsu, Orochimaru," Naruto smirked before flying through the sequence and slamming his palms to the ground, as well. "Edo Tensei!"
To Orochimaru's shock, a third coffin rose in front of Naruto across from the two Kazekage. Then, the door fell open with a wooden clang to reveal… nothing. Orochimaru needed a moment to ensure that no one was fucking with him, but after a few silent moments of no activity, it became clear that Naruto had, in fact, summoned an empty coffin.
For the first time in decades, Orochimaru laughed. It wasn't his usual chuckle that only spoke of depraved, unspeakable horrors, nor was it a simple, sarcastic chortle. It was a genuine, full-on guffaw that bellowed out of his throat.
To Tayuya, Yukimaru, and even Sasuke, it was one of the most wrong, unsettling, and just plain disturbing things they had ever experienced. Even the two reanimations were disturbed. Nothing resembling genuine mirth should ever slide out of the unholy crevice that was Orochimaru's gullet.
Fortunately, his laughter was hushed by the deluge of chakra chains that shot out of the ground, ensnaring the two reanimations and just narrowly missing the three living Oto-nin.
"When there's no more room in Hell…" an almost angelic voice reverberated through the clearing.
Suddenly, an all too familiar redhead shot out of the ground with a triumphant grin, chains protruding from her back and firmly anchored into the ground.
"KUSHINA WILL WALK THE EARTH!"
Sorry to end it here, but the chapter was already becoming pretty long, and the last 3 chapters of Kaleidoscope were all action, plus the last chapter of this story was mostly action, so I'm a little tired aight cut me some slack
This chapter is in memoriam to one of my dogs that finally went out to pasture. He was thugging for 17 years, so shoutout to him. Gonna miss that ornery little shit.
Thanks for reading.