Chapter 31: Naruto vs...!
Chapter Summary: The pursuit of Sasuke comes to an end!
Words: 2,079
Published: 10/22/23
Miles Away
Naruto had caught up to Sasuke and Tayuya at a cliffside overlooking the midpoint of a waterfall hundreds of meters high.
It was referred to as the Valley of the End, the location where the first hokage, Hashirama Senju, and his lifelong rival, Madara Uchiha, had made a public agreement between their factions to join each other, officially founding the Hidden Leaf Village. Life-sized statues of the two men shaking hands stood at the top of the waterfall, where they had made the agreement. At any other time of the year, this place would be filled with tourists from the Leaf, and other villages. However, due to the currently-shaken politics of the region, the zone was deemed as a no-go, despite protest against the fact.
At the cliffside below, Tayuya and Sasuke stopped dead in their tracks.
Naruto stopped as well, a few yards away from them, and shouted, "C'mon, Sasuke, don't be an asshole! Just come back to the village! Why are you doing this?!"
Sasuke panted and answered, "The village is useless! There's nothing they can do to give me a fraction of the power that Orochimaru can; I'll never be able to kill Itachi if I stay!"
Naruto stammered, "Y-- You moron! Is killing Itachi really that important?! You'd give up your soul to do it?! Is that what your family would want?!"
Sasuke's sharingan activated. "Don't talk about my family."
He began to charge the chidori in his hand.
Naruto took a step back.
Just like last time, with Raiga...
He glanced over at Tayuya, and back to Sasuke.
"Hey, Sasuke, did Tayuya tell you about the last guy who tried using that jutsu on me? I clashed with him, and he ended up flying off a cliff to his death."
Sasuke growled, "I'm stronger than him. I'm better. Your win last time was a fluke."
Naruto argued, "Oh, stop being so full of yourself! I'll beat you now just like I did last time!"
Tayuya stepped forward, brandishing her twin sai. She smirked and remarked, "You'll be lucky to leave this place alive."
Naruto suddenly sensed a dark presence a few feet behind him.
Smells like... Orochimaru!
Anticipating the moment in which the fight would begin, Naruto dug his heels into the ground and connected his chakra to the ground.
The connection with nature provided him with a sense of warmth, comforting him in the most frightening moment of his life. He could barely imagine individually fighting Tayuya, who he had thought was an ally, nor Orochimaru again, even if the man were weakened, nor Sasuke, for fear of ending his life. He couldn't possibly imagine having to fight them all at once.
Nevertheless, that was the situation he found himself in, and his closeness to the earth allowed him to collect himself.
He paid close attention to the chakra of his opponents, waiting for a change in movement. He knew that it would have to come soon, as Sasuke would need to release the chidori soon.
Naruto knew that Orochimaru was nearest and Tayuya was farthest, so the blonde had to be ready for any attack, at any moment.
He felt Sasuke and Orochimaru begin to move at the same time.
Without hesitation, he leapt into the air. He summoned a shadow clone to kick the sword Orochimaru - still disguised as Anko - was using from his mouth, while throwing kunai at each side of Tayuya in an attempt to trap her.
When Naruto landed back on the ground, he analyzed his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was Tayuya's dead body, which had been pierced in the arm by a kunai and her chest by Orochimaru's sword.
Orochimaru had lost a few teeth from the force of the kick, and was bleeding from the mouth, as Sasuke was getting up from a fall on the ground.
Orochimaru cackled, "Boy, you've got a real killer instinct, haven't you?! To think of a plan like that in such a short time - - trying to eliminate Tayuya and me in one swift blow."
Naruto gulped. "Plan...? I just... I did what came to mind! I didn't mean to..."
Orochimaru scoffed. "I guess I was more on the nose than I thought... It really is an instinct, through and through! I mean, you were born to kill!"
Naruto, wary of an impending attack, shouted, "Shut up, already! What's even the point of sayin' that?!"
Orochimaru whispered to Sasuke, "Boy... Be my arms, won't you? Charge up that chidori of yours again..."
Sasuke frowned, but nodded. As such, he began trying to charge up the chidori.
In turn, Orochimaru began to strafe around the area, walking in a circular direction, forcing Naruto to keep up with two enemies in opposite directions. The boy summoned a shadow clone to keep an eye on Sasuke.
He saw Orochimaru approach the sword stuck in Tayuya, and lick its blade.
Knowing what Orochimaru was going to do, Naruto quickly bit into his own thumb and slammed it on the ground.
In two puffs of smoke, the battlefield was now occupied by two immense animals - Orochimaru's largest snake summon, and Naruto's largest toad summon.
Whereas Orochimaru was alone on the snake, Sasuke had risen with Naruto on the toad's back. The Uchiha lost his balance and fell, losing the jutsu he had been preparing.
Naruto shouted, "Gamabunta, keep that snake busy!", and the toad pulled out a giant sword in response, swinging it at the snake to keep it occupied.
With Gamabunta's wild swings, his posture changed, and Naruto and Sasuke found themselves either lying still trying to grt up, or sliding down his back. In turn, they attempted to hold on to Gamabunta's back using their chakra as best they could.
Naruto swore, "Sasuke, you asshole! I'm gonna make sure to kick your ass so bad that it never stops hurtin'!"
Sasuke spat, "You're the asshole! Trying to prevent me from reaching my goal! Making me weak!"
"You know what?! Just because I hate your guts, it doesn't mean I want you to get molested by that freak Orochimaru! You saw what he did to Sakura!"
"I'm stronger than Sakura, I'm smarter! I won't let that happen to me!"
"You... I should just kill you right here!"
"Try your best."
Much like their previous battle, Naruto and Sasuke engaged in a fierce back-and-forth as Gamabunta fended off Orochimaru.
Naruto had even managed to place a flying thunder mark on the back of Sasuke's shirt, intending to use it to knock him with a devastating blow.
However, before Naruto could do so, Gamabunta managed to stab the snake, who keeled over and fell on the toad's back.
Orochimaru used this opportunity to leap onto Gamabunta's back, smirking as he landed beside Naruto, pulling out another, smaller sword from the cavity in his physical form.
Naruto growled. He summoned another shadow clone to keep an eye on Sasuke, ready to react to an attack.
As Orochimaru began to run toward Naruto, Naruto threw a kunai at the man, who dodged it swiftly, only for Naruto to appear behind him by using the flying thunder. Orochimaru dodged a kick from Naruto and rolled out of Sasuke's chidori path.
Naruto dodged the maneuver as well, and immediately used the flying thunder to leap and knock Sasuke flat on his stomach.
As Naruto turned to face Orochimaru again, he began running toward him, eager to get the first punch in.
Much to everyone's surprise, though, Naruto was foiled by the sudden presence of Shisui Uchiha, who took it upon himself to knock Orochimaru down.
Shisui's head, arms, and black shinobi gear - the gear mimicked by Sasuke's own - were all covered in blood. Not small splotches, but wide, dark stains that could only occur with brutality inflicted upon others. His face bore a racoon-like blood mask.
Shisui's sharingan was activated, reddening the iris of his eyes, but his eyeballs were also red, a manifestation of his blinding rage toward Orochimaru.
Shisui unsheathed his tanto, ready to strike Orochimaru down once and for all.
However, Naruto jumped in front of him, holding a hand out for mercy.
"Hold on, man! You can't kill him, not yet! You'll-- you'll kill Anko, too!"
Orochimaru cackled. "I told you already, boy... Anko is gone! You can't save her any more than you can the sky from rain."
Shisui's grip on his tanto tightened. "This is how specters operate, Naruto - - he's right; Anko is gone. Even if she's somewhere inside there, she's doomed to be chained to Orochimaru's soul."
Naruto's bleary eyes pierced Shisui's gaze.
Shisui added, "A life without freedom is a life not worth living. This is what's best, even if it's a vile act I must commit."
The blonde gulped. "His arms are useless - - he won't be any issue for a shinobi of your caliber. Let's just... Detain him. I'm sure he'll be imprisoned, and while he's stuck there, we can figure out a way to free Anko - - just- the least we can do is make sure we've exhausted every possibility. She's a human being, we owe her that much. "
All of a sudden, Shisui picked Naruto up and spun him around, swapping places on Gamabunta's back with him.
When Naruto got his bearings, the sight before him shook him to his core.
Shisui's stomach had been pentrated by Sasuke's chidori, and the hand Sasuke used for his jutsu now had a knife stuck in it, courtesy of Orochimaru.
Even Orochimaru was visibly shaken, as he had not intended Sasuke as his target.
Most of all, Sasuke felt his heart sink to depths he hadn't imagined possible since his family was killed.
In shock, the boy tried to pull his hand out of the cavity he had created in his confidant's guts, only for the kunai stuck in his hand to stop him from doing so.
Paralyzed with horror, Sasuke collapsed as Shisui fell over.
Enraged, Naruto threw a kunai next to Orochimaru and transported to attack him, only to be tripped by his opponent. Orochimaru managed to flip the boy over, and immediately trapped him in a chakra-stealing kiss.
Thoroughly disgusted and further enraged, Naruto slammed his palm on Orochimaru's diaphragm to shock him and jumped off, and made a few yards of distance from him.
"I'll rip you out of Anko's body with my bare hands if I have to!"
Red swirls of chakra encircled the blonde, who had unconsciously begun to access the chakra of the nine-tailed fox.
As opposed to the regular yellow, the rasengan forming in Naruto's hand was a deep, fiery red. It contained all the malice he could muster, as well as a ruthless and devastating poison in its core.
Orochimaru, meanwhile, was preparing to counter the attack.
However, before he could make any such preparation, Naruto had already used the flying thunder technique to transport right next to him, pummeling his face with the rasengan.
Unbridled pain ran through and inflamed every fiber of Orochimaru's being. The venomous, leeching chakra of the rasengan panged against every inch of his body, and reverberated from the bottom back up, bouncing across every atom, peeling away every molecule of chakra from the body.
Orochimaru let out a shattering scream - the only thing he could muster to do - as he felt his very being melting and boiling away from the sheer force of the technique.
After the rasengan finally dissipated, Naruto noted the vile purple chakra emanating, as if smoke, away from Anko's body. He opened her eyes to check, and ensured that they were back to normal, as opposed to the reptilian eyes Orochimaru bore. The curse mark on her neck was also gone, and she seemed to be fast asleep.
As the red chakra around Naruto faded, he felt his knees getting weak, and a visceral feeling of emptiness pierced him.
He requested, "Gamabunta... Find my friends... Get us back to the village."
As soon as the words left his lips, he passed out from exhaustion.
I'm back _