Here's the new chapter. I decided to jump right into it. This chapter sets up a lot of future plot developments.


They'd found Tsunade, and it seemed like all was well and good, but Jiraiya and Kakashi still seemed worried about something. "What's wrong, sensei ?" She asked, but he just whispered "I'll tell you later." He then motioned for them to stay quiet as he and Jiraiya greeted Tsunade and the black-haired woman accompanying her, whose name was Shizune. It was amazing how young Tsunade still looked. What kind of skin treatment did she use ? Or was it just a transformation jutsu ? If so that was still impressive as it was difficult to maintain that jutsu. Choji poked her sides just then, making her realize that she'd been staring. She shook her head free of those thoughts and focused on the mission at hand.

Tsunade heard out the offer (technically a demand, just worded politely) to join the village to deal with the impending threats. Even leaving aside the rising threat of the Akatsuki, the other villages still remained as active threats. Or at least that was what Tsunade was told. She herself knew nothing about that stuff, but simply stayed quiet as Tsunade blatantly refused the offer, while knowing what it meant. Jiraiya then replied "You should take a few days to think about it. We'll be right here. You can tell us your decision then. Why don't we go out for a drink, just like old times." Kakashi then invited Shizune to join them as they got settled into their inn while the two former teammates drank together.

Kakashi and Shizune chatted along the way. They seemed close, though Kakashi had never mentioned her name. Then again, Kakashi rarely talked about himself.

After they got settled in and spent some time talking, Shizune excused herself, saying "It's pretty late. They're probably done by now. I should get back and help Tsunade-sama get settled in."

Soon after that, Kakashi warned them in a low voice that there were signs of Orochimaru having been here, likely to see Tsunade.


She still wasn't sure about what decision to make as she walked towards Orochimaru. Flashes of the past went through her mind. Their smile. Their dream. The despair when everything was lost.

She cried as she was healing the white haired kid, having finally made her decision. Orochimaru asked, "What's wrong Tsunade ? What's with the tears ? Or perhaps they're tears of joy at being so close to reuniting with your loved ones ?"

She wiped her tears, and replied, "No. They're the result of the memories going through my mind. Of the dream I've decided to accept."

She then quickly changed the nature of the chakra she was using to knock the kid unconscious, threw him to the side and charged at Orochimaru, slamming her fist into the ground as they drew back.

"So you've betrayed me, Tsunade. It's a shame. I was going to bring them back."

As she activated the signal she'd left with Jiraiya, she replied, "No, I chose not to betray their my memories of them."


After they entering the battlefield, multiple fights erupted. Jiraiya and Tsunade were fighting against Orochimaru. Orochimaru had forcibly activated the seal on the white haired kid, Seemingly undoing whatever Tsunade did to knock him out. Kakashi seemed to think that he was a dangerous opponent, and so chose to draw him out and deal with him on his own. Which left her, Choji and Shizune to go up against Kabuto.

She had to admit, while Kabuto had seemed a little strange and there was something off about him, she'd never imagined that he was a Oto spy. Kabuto was able to effortlessly dodge the attacks she and Choji threw at him, but Shizune used the opening to launch a wave of senbon, which Kabuto was able to dodge for the most part, though he had to block some with his headband.

Kabuto quickly activated chakra scalpels on his hands. Shizune told her and Chouji to draw back as she released a cloud of poisonous gas. Wow, that was impressive. Did that work ? Unfortunately, Kabuto quickly popped out of the ground. She was able to warn Shizune, but Kabuto was still able to get one leg. Choji threw an enlarged fist at Kabuto, but that was dodged easily enough. But it bought time for Shizune to heal her leg.

This wasn't going well. It seemed like Kabuto was close to Kakashi's level. However, Kabuto wasn't taking the fight entirely seriously, and so the only chance to win was to capitalize on that.


He hoped his kids were having better luck, because this white haired kid who'd called himself Kimmimaro was way too tough. In terms of stamina, he certainly couldn't outlast the kid, and his physical abilities were also really high. After he still managed to get a Raikiri to cut of an arm using a combination of a shadow clone and a simple earth style jutsu to hold his leg. But Kimmimaro just shrugged it off and replaced the arm with a bone sword. The bleeding itself was starting to slow down. So there was also a decently high level regeneration ability to worry about. Great.

Since Kimmimaro was a close ranged specialist, the best way to fight was using ranged attacks. But his stamina was lower than that of his opponent, and he didn't have any decisive ranged attacks. So he was stuck basically harassing his opponent, using genjutsu, traps, weak Earth style jutsu and the occasional lighting style Lightning Beast Tracking Fang. But so far he hadn't made much damage. He'd taken an arm and had landed a few decent hits, but Kimmimaro was still going. Just as he was thinking about his next move, he felt the ground move, and saw giant bone spikes rise up.


They'd managed to survive against Kabuto this long, but it wasn't exactly favorable to them. Orochimaru was getting overwhelmed, but Tsunade's fear of blood was handicapping her, and if Kabuto stepped into that fight, he and Orochimaru would probably be able to get away. Which was why they were trying to stop Kabuto or at least keep him busy.

The issue was, the only one who could actually keep up with Kabuto's speed was Shizune. She herself was fast enough to at least defend herself, though she was barely able to do that. But Chouji wasn't that fast. Moreover, Kabuto's Chakra Scalpels could hit Choji directly at his internal organs and muscles. Chouji's jutsu was helping prevent any severe damage, but he was still hurt. The best the two of them could do was butt in when it seemed like Shizune was about to lose. The problem was, that was happening increasingly often, their stamina was going down, and Kabuto was getting increasingly vicious, and would get away soon enough.

Her and Chouji needed to do something, taking advantage of the fact that Kabuto was paying less attention to them. She'd come up with a plan, though it was a little risky. She relayed if to Chouji as quickly as she could, and they put it into action.

The plan was initialed with the throw of a kunai. Kabuto moved to dodge it before it was even close to reaching him, but then the kunai transformed to Chouji, with an arm pulled back to strike. Kabuto quickly lashed out with a leg, clearly trying to avoid being hit by an expanded arm. The moment he struck, that Chouji reverted back to her, and she quickly grabbed onto, using the tree walking technique. As Chouji, who'd transformed back from his disguise as her, began to close in, Shizune quickly joined in by grabbing onto Kabuto's arm on the other side. Kabuto was able to force Shizune back by releasing chakra from his arm to undo the tree walking technique, and then slammed his leg to knock Shizune back. At the same time, he used the Chakra Scalpel from his foot and scraped her arm with it, rendering the arm useless. But before he could get away, she used the Chakra draining jutsu, making him stumble for a moment. By this time, Choji had reached, and he slammed a gigantic fist into Kabuto.

Kabuto was launched back several feet, rolling on the ground as he flew back, till he finally managed to stop himself. But there was no way he would be able to get back up after a hit like that.

But then to her surprise, he got back up. It was like his massive bruise and broken bones were mending themselves. That should have been impossible. Even if he was a medic, it was impossible to heal such a wound. The pain of the wound alone should have made him collapse.

But here he was, standing straight up and glaring at them. At least he still looked hurt. But he then quickly closed in on her, the rage burning bright in his eyes. "Just who do you think you are ? You're just a sheltered little girl, who knows nothing of the darkness of what it means to be a Shinobi." He snarled, as he cut her other arm's muscles, rendering it useless. Shit, she couldn't either hand now. Chouji and Shizune were moving in to support her, but before anyone there could react, Kakashi burst out of the ground and slammed his fist into Kabuto's chin, knocking him down. When Kabuto got up, he was struck by a senbon from Shizune and collapsed. It seemed like the senbon were poisoned.

She looked at her sensei and asked "You won ?"

He just shook his head, but before he could reply, she heard the fierce tell from the white haired guy. He'd lost an arm and seemed to have been battered here and there with a variety of jutsu, but he was otherwise still going strong.


Looks like it was the right decision to leave behind a lightning style shadow clone. His students and Shizune were all injured, though none of their wounds seemed too bad. Shizune could heal that much. Taking down Kabuto was very useful. Now, if Orochimaru also went down, it would be perfect. The white haired kid was basically just a lackey of Orochimaru, so if his master was taken down, he wouldn't be capable of doing anything to Konoha. As he got prepared to take on Kimmimaro, Orochimaru called for the kid, having she'd his skin to escape from Jiraiya's massive Rasengan. Sheesh, what a trio of monsters. As Orochimaru rose out of the ground away from Jiraiya and Tsunade, panting hard, Kimmimaro ran to his side, stood before Jiraiya and Tsunade while holding two bone swords, glaring at them hard. Orochimaru snarled out, "We'll finish this next time." He then disappeared in a body flicker along with Kimmimaro. Well that was a good enough ending as far as he was concerned, though Jiraiya looked dissatisfied and worried about something.


A/N

Hope you enjoyed that. I know I didn't really show the fight between the Sannin, and so the chapter title is kinda bullshit but the manga and anime showed quite a bit, and I wanted to focus on the matchups that were new. So now Kabuto had been captured, Kimmimaro and Orochimaru have been injured, but Kimmimaro has also been healed. So we're going to have Orochimaru in a new body next time.

Orochimaru

Ninjutsu: 6

Taijutsu: 3

Genjutsu: 4

Intelligence: 5.5

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 4.5

Stamina: 3.5

Hand Seals: 5

Total: 35

Jiraiya

Ninjutsu: 6

Taijutsu: 4.5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 4

Speed: 4.5

Stamina: 5

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 35.5

Tsunade

Ninjutsu: 5

Taijutsu: 5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 5.5

Strength: 5.5

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 4

Hand Seals: 4

Total: 35.5

Shizune

Ninjutsu: 4.5

Taijutsu: 2

Genjutsu: 4

Intelligence: 4.5

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 3

Hand Seals: 5

Total: 29.5

Kimmimaro

Ninjutsu: 4

Taijutsu: 5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3

Speed: 4.5

Stamina: 4.5

Hand Seals: 3

Total: 30.5