Naruto: Uchiha no Densetsu
Chapter 17: The Fall of Takigakure (Part 2)
"I assume that was the last of your Eiyu no Mizu, Shibuki. I must say, the mysteries surrounding that special form of liquid intrigues even me. Your body would certainly make a great way for me research what exactly it does to a shinobi's body." Orochimaru stated with keen interest. Since that liquid wasn't available anywhere other than Takigakure, one rarely ever got to see its effects. But, even he wouldn't have imagined the great power ingesting that liquid provides, albeit temporarily. Still, he couldn't wait to inspect its properties after he was done with all this.
"Your disregard for life will one day be your greatest downfall, Orochimaru." Seethed Shibuki as he got his chakra under control. He would need to play this out strategically. At least, until the Konoha shinobi came. He didn't know who would come, but he will be betting all his hopes on that group.
"Orochimaru, get rid of this nuisance quickly. Tsuchikage-sama will be here momentarily. He doesn't want to dirty his hands for a matter such as this. And make sure the jinchuriki is not harmed any further. We need her alive." Stated a large, tall man. He was heavily armored, wearing what was commonly known as a steam armor with a furnace on the back for emitting steam. He had light brown eyes and his red armor extended all the way to the bottom half of his face, covering it up. Underneath the armor, covering his face, he wore a white cloth which also covered both sides of his face and the top of his head. He also wore a red kasa over the white cloth which seemed to be composed of the same material as his armor. Over the armor, he also wore a bronze colored ring around his neck. This man was commonly known was Han, Joki no Jinchuriki- the jinchuriki of Gobi, the five-tails.
"Oh? I wasn't aware that the Tsuchikage himself would choose to come over here…" Orochimaru replied, glancing to his right.
"Tsuchikage-sama wanted an audience with the Hokage's son, Naruto Namikaze. You don't need to know anything further than that." This time it was Roshi, who had replied. Known as Yoton no Roshi throughout the Elemental Nations, this Iwagakure shinobi was the jinchuriki of Yonbi, the four-tails. Roshi was a shinobi in his mid-forties, but his power had never dwindled despite his age. He had red hair, moustache and beard which tapered off to a point. He wore a large headpiece consisting of a three-pointed crown-like ridge, bearing his Iwagakure forehead protector, a ring and a prominent black piece of armor running across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. How wore long sleeved magenta kimono shirt and pants, with mesh armor shirt and fitted black suit underneath, along with calf length sandals.
Despite portraying a tough appearance, he was slightly unnerved by his actions today. Roshi and him and essentially slaughtered the entire village, on the orders of their Tsuchikage. His hands were stained in blood, yet he could not bring himself to bring forth a shred of emotion for the fallen bodies.
"As you say, Roshi-san, Han-san…" Orochimaru replied vacantly. Turning his attention back to Shibuki, he was sure the man wouldn't last much longer. Yet seeing his feeble attempts was fascinating. He never did find any meaning in life, because it was after all limited. A miniscule moment in the cosmic scale of events. He had his eyes set on the prospect of immortality, where he could unroot the underlying secrets of chakra. Despite the concept of chakra existing among humans for the past millennia, no one had ever uncovered all it's secrets. Where did it originate from? What did it originate from? Were humans always born with chakra or did someone distribute chakra among the humans? As a scientist, he had an endless lists of questions, to which he had no answers.
He was brought out of his musings when he heard Shibuki move from his spot. It wouldn't hurt him to entertain the fool himself after watching Shibuki struggle for so long. As the two shinobi ran towards each at an impressive speed, they met halfway through with their elbows clashing against each other's. While the sannin hadn't put all his strength, he was surprised that Shibuki was able to match him. The two battled for dominance for a few seconds, but both seemed to be equally matched. However, Shibuki suddenly jumped up when he saw several snakes appear out of Orochimaru's sleeves towards him. Making several hand seals while in mid-air, he called out the name of his jutsu.
"Suiton: Suigadan" The water from the surrounding area rose to great heights to form a spinning drill which then proceeded towards the snake sannin at incredible speeds. In return, Orochimaru performed his own strings of hand seals, "Doton: Doryou Heki" An enormous mud wall rose up from the ground and the suiton jutsu fired by Shibuki crashed into the wall. As he landed on the ground, Shibuki picked up several shuriken from the ground and threw them towards the wall, once he coated them with futon chakra. As the shurikens burst through the walls, Shibuki punched the wall with great strength, making the debris fly over on the other side.
"Futon: Daitoppa" Orochimaru announced, as he blew a large wall of air from his mouth, thus making the debris fall all around him. Orochimaru was now momentarily surprised to see that Shibuki had already covered the distance between them and was now aiming for his neck, with a katana in his hand. The sannin expertly ducked below the swing and punched the Taki village leader in his abdomen, making him fly back. Shibuki finally came to an abrupt halt as his body hit a wall behind him, cracking it slightly. He was given no time to recover, as he saw Orochimaru was now a feet away from him. Quickly getting back on his feet, Shibuki swatted away the punch aimed for his jugular and went for a punch of his own at Orochimaru's neck. His eyes widened greatly, when he saw the sannin's neck elongate to great lengths, thereby dodging his punch. It was simply unnatural as per Shibuki.
Not willing to lose any momentum, Shibuki then feinted a hand seal with his right hand, which caught the sannin off guard. Catching on to that moment, Shibuki planted a firm punch on Orochimaru's abdomen and sent him soaring all the way back.
"Ohhh…" groaned Orochimaru as he got up from the all the rubble beside him. That did hurt a little. But, this fight was turning out to be an interesting experiment for him. It was his first time fighting a shinobi who had consumed the Eiyu no Mizu. If a small vial of that liquid could give a shinobi such power, he couldn't even imagine the power this liquid would give a shinobi, if he could manage separate the side effects from it and make it sustainable for longer periods.
Shibuki wasn't surprised when he saw Orochimaru get up from under all that debris of rocks as if nothing had happened. But he realized that his body was beginning to get a little stiff.
'Just a little while longer... I can't give up yet.' He thought desperately.
"Why do you fight Shibuki? You must have realized by now that you have no chance of winning against me." Orochimaru stated as he dusted his clothes.
"A person like you wouldn't understand what I fight for. My village had never interfered in the great village's business or took any action that may appear to be unreasonable to anyone. Yet, we were targeted by Iwagakure. What did we do to deserve this?" yelled Shibuki in frustration. Orochimaru gave no outward reaction to that outburst, nor did he have any pity for the shinobi.
"Are you stalling for the Konoha shinobi to come and rescue you? Is that what you're doing? Surely you must have thought, we would be prepared if such a situation presented itself. In fact, allow me let you in on a little secret…" said an amused Orochimaru. Meanwhile, Shibuki had a morbid feeling develop in him as he heard Orochimaru's words.
"We were counting on you to approach Konoha for assistance. Our main objective was to lure out the Konoha shinobi. And I'm also sure of who the Hokage is going to send for your assistance. I must thank you for making go everything according to plan… Shibuki-sama." Orochimaru stated the last part with a mock bow. Shibuki took a step back in fear as he realized what he had done. His mind went through a frenzy of thoughts as he understood why the enemy was taking their time. Initially it did seem odd to him that only three people had come to attack the village. But now that he looked at everything that had transpired in the last three hours, it all made sense to him. Attacking the village in small numbers at first that gave the village a false sense of hope that with a little extra help the enemy could be defeated. And once the request for help had been sent, more attackers joined in, killing off anyone who could send a word out.
It was this momentary lapse of concentration that also costed Shibuki greatly. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. As he looked down, his eyes widened in fear when he saw a katana sticking out of his chest. Looking in front of him, the Orochimaru standing there dissolved into mud as he realized what had happened.
"Bu... but when?" whispered Shibuki as spat out some blood.
"That's not important now, is it?" asked Orochimaru rhetorically, as he took his katana out of Shibuki's chest. A few seconds later, Shibuki fell on the ground as it became unbearable for him to stand. Tears fell from his eyes like a dam as he realized this was the end for Takigakure. His simple dream of living a peaceful life among those he cherished seemed like eons away. Slowly looking at the cruel reality all around himself, there was only one thought going through his mind.
'Someone… anyone… please help.' Seeing as Shibuki would fall unconscious any moment, without any further, Orochimaru walked back towards Han and Roshi. Team Ro-Han would be arriving at Takigakure very soon now and he couldn't wait to meet the young Namikaze about whom he had heard so much about.
South of Takigakure
"How much further are we from Takigakure, Inu?" asked Washi urgently.
"Not much. A little less than five miles. Why do you ask?" Kakashi questioned as he kept checking the ground below, in front of him.
"We need to hurry. I can sense only a few chakra signatures standing inside the village. I can't say for certain what may have happened, but something doesn't feel right to me." Stated Naruto worriedly. He had a real bad feeling developing in his gut. The chakra signatures he felt were nothing to scoff at. All of them were extremely powerful and he was certain there were also two jinchuriki amidst them.
Kakashi deeply trusted Naruto and the blonde's instinct as a ninja hardly ever proved to be wrong. Calling out to the other members of the team, he relayed the message to them via hand signals. Once the message was clear to everyone, Sai commanded the bird to fly even faster.
About twenty minutes later, team Ro-Han had finally reached the outskirts of the village. They landed on the eastern side of the village and as they neared the entrance, their eyes could not believe the scene that was before them.
In simple words, it was pure slaughter. Even outside the entrance of the village, the sheer number of dead shinobis that lay about was disturbing. While Kakashi, Mikasa and Itachi were no stranger to such sights, Naruto and even Sai were having a tad bit more difficult time to comprehend the events that may have transpired to lead to this result. There were at least more than a hundred shinobi lying dead just outside the village entrance and judging from their state, they were killed a couple of hours ago.
"This is serious Inu-taicho." Mikasa commented blankly.
"I realize that. Judging from the number of bodies here, we should expect a lot more inside. Even though Takigakure wasn't as strong as a great village, their military strength wasn't so weak either. They had some exceptional shinobi too." Kakashi replied, as he walked past a shinobi who had a large hole in his chest.
"I can feel the chakra signatures coming from the center of village." Spoke Naruto. His anger was rising with every passing second. He could still sense some of the shinobi who were barely clinging on to their life. "This is a cruel reality which you must accept Naruto. War and death have been the two the constants in the human history." Kurama stated upon viewing the hundreds of dead shinobi. As the group walked passed the entrance of the village, all of them took to the tree tops as the stench of blood had become even stronger. As far as their eyes could see, the only image their brain registered was that of a dead shinobi. While most of them had the Takigakure forehead protector, some had the symbol of Iwagakure on theirs.
"Hokage-sama and Shikaku-san were correct in their assumptions after all. It was the work of Iwagakure no Sato." Sai replied flatly as his eyes scanned his surroundings for any sort of movement. The only one who hadn't uttered anything until now was Itachi.
Without any shred of emotion visible on his face, Itachi simply looked around the village. Observing everything his sharingan took notice of. One could call the eyes of an Uchiha a curse, since those never forget anything they see. The battlefield in front of him reminded him of the very first time he had seen the Third Shinobi War, at a young age of five. That was also the first time, he had taken another's life. The group travelled a little deeper into the village where most of the buildings were destroyed and came across an even horrific scene.
Every member of the group had their chakra suppressed to their bare minimum to have even a slight chance of surprise against the enemy and more importantly to assess the area a little more. As they neared an area, which Kakashi assumed was the market district of the village, he held his hand up and immediately everyone stopped behind him.
Naruto and Itachi moved beside their team captain. It was the young Namikaze who let out an inaudible gasp at the scene before him. The entire area was filled with water indicating signs of suiton jutsu, but the strange aspect was the red color of the water. Almost all the buildings were destroyed badly and there were rubbles lying across with dead bodies of countless shinobi floating about.
Naruto suddenly narrowed his eyes when he felt the five chakra signatures move towards their location. "Inu-taicho, they know we're here. There's no point in hiding anymore." Naruto said, placing his hand on the hilt of his chokuto. A few seconds later, team Ro-Han jumped down onto the ground as their enemy came into view.
"We have been expecting you… Kakashi, Mikasa, Itachi… and Naruto-kun!" Orochimaru said gleefully. Everything had gone perfectly as he'd expected until now and he would make sure to get his prize by the end of the day.
"Orochimaru… how low have you fallen to work with Iwagakure shinobi of all people." Kakashi replied, not even concerned by the fact that Orochimaru knew all their identities.
"We are shinobi, Kakashi. We all have our own motives. It just so happens that my interests align with that of Iwagakure currently. But, I must say, I expected you all to reach a lot quicker. You missed all the fun." Said the snake sannin pointing both his arms towards the dead shinobi lying around. Naruto took a step forward in anger on seeing the blatant disrespect the man showed but stopped when Itachi placed a hand before him, blocking his path.
"So, that's the Kyubi jinchuriki, huh?" Roshi said keenly. He could feel the strong power within the boy and honestly, he did not wish to fight another child today.
"He's strong, Roshi. You feel it don't you?" asked Han with a serious face. Out of all the Konoha shinobi, he felt most weary of the blond kid. He could not really reason why, since the Kyubi jinchuriki was only a kid and from the information given to him, had never utilized bijuu chakra.
Orochimaru chuckled on seeing the reaction from the young lad. "Quite the impatient one, aren't you, Naruto-kun? Or should I say Kuro Shi?" Naruto took a deep breath and composed himself as he looked at the situation analytically. They were facing two jinchurikis and a Sannin. He still felt two more chakra signatures, a little further away but couldn't say who it was. But, those two people had terrifyingly strong chakra. He couldn't let his emotions get in the way.
"Consider yourself to be a dead man walking Orochimaru. Today's the last day you take a breath amongst the living." Replied Naruto coldly.
"Those are some big words, Naruto-kun. Are you sure you'll be able to back them up?" Orochimaru replied with a smirk as he stretched his arms to loosen them up.
"Calm down Naruto. Keep your focus." Kakashi intervened as he stepped forward. "Itachi and Naruto will go after Roshi and Han, while Mikasa, Sai and I will go after Orochimaru. And Remember the mission at hand. Our primary objective is not to kill the people before us." However, before any of them could make a move, Orochimaru quickly placed both his palms together.
The very next second, two more people landed before them, that made most of members of team Ro-Han take a step back in fear.
"Impossible…" said both Mikasa and Sai, barely audible to the others.
"You perfected even that jutsu?" Kakashi commented in disbelief. Minato sensei had told him about the experiments Orochimaru was working on before he deserted the Leaf. But, to think the Sannin would pull this move here… he wouldn't have thought about it in his wildest dreams.
"Nidaime Hokage and Sandaime Raikage. What jutsu is this, Inu-taicho?" Itachi asked curiously. Both the kages had died during the previous war and he wasn't aware of any jutsu that could revive the dead.
"It was a kinjutsu developed by Nidaime Hokage himself, called the Edo Tensei. It's used to revive the dead using human sacrifices." Kakashi replied as he steadied himself. The situation just became a whole lot worse that previously assumed. Their team could have probably handled the two Iwa jinchuriki and forced Orochimaru to retreat but facing two re-animated kages was simply suicide. Now that he thought about it, it all makes sense as to how the entire Takigakure no Sato was annihilated so easily.
"Are you aware of any weaknesses about this jutsu?" questioned Itachi.
"I'm afraid, I don't have much knowledge regarding this kinjutsu. I did not think that Orochimaru would be able to actually master this jutsu." Kakashi replied frankly. Itachi nodded and turned towards the two kages again. Every jutsu had a weakness, he just had to be calm and keep trying until he found one.
Naruto took in every word of what Kakashi had said and understood the situation at hand. Looking towards Itachi, both nodded at each other. It was time. None of them had ever fought anyone to their extent in quite a few years. It was time Iwagakure realized why Konoha was feared as the strongest among all the villages.
The two Uchihas stepped forward and it was Itachi who spoke first. "Inu-taicho. Naruto and I will take care of the Nidaime Hokage and Sandaime Raikage. Whatever plans we had come up with up to this point will most likely fail. I'm sure you can tell that yeah?" Seeing the two of them, Kakashi calmed himself. This wasn't the time for him to cower behind his juniors.
"Itachi, Naruto… you guys better not die today. I won't forgive any of you, if you do!" Mikasa exclaimed, stepping beside them and giving the two a rare smile. Sai felt a strange sensation form within himself as he saw the members of his team. While in Root, he was rigorously taught not to care about anything or anyone other the mission. But, the more time he had spent with these people, the more felt himself changing. Talking to Naruto often reminded him of his brother, who too had a strong will like the young Namikaze.
Without any further talks, Naruto and Itachi ran towards the two reanimated Kages, while Kakashi, Mikasa and Sai focused their attention on Han, Roshi and Orochimaru. They all knew, their chances of victory were slim and some of them may very well die in today's fight, but they had already made peace with that.
Naruto and Itachi vs Nidaime Hokage and Sandaime Raikage
Naruto and Itachi now stood opposite to the two kages, who stared back at the two Konoha shinobi blankly. Both the Uchihas had already removed their masks by now, since there wasn't any point in wearing them anymore as the enemy was already aware of their identities.
Weaving through hand seals quickly, Naruto and Itachi called out the names of their jutsu simultaneously.
"Fuuton: Renkuudan" Naruto said, inhaling large amounts of air and then expelling consecutive spherical wind projectiles.
"Katon: Karyuu Endan" Itachi said, exhaling a stream of fire in the shape of a large dragon from his mouth. As the fuuton and katon jutsu combined with each other, the intensity of the flames became even stronger as it proceeded towards their opponent. The heat radiating from the jutsu was so high that Orochimaru had to jump back quite a distance to protect himself from any exterior burns.
Tobirama Senju stepped forward and performed a single hand seal. "Suiton: Suijinheki" The Nidaime Hokage then proceeded to blow out a jet of water from his mouth and formed a barrier around them to act as a barrier against the incoming attack. Naruto and Itachi were shocked that the Nidaime performed such a high level jutsu with only a single hand seal. That just showed the level of mastery the man had over the water element. As the two jutsus collided, there was a large explosion as the entire are became covered with mist. Since both Naruto and Itachi had their sharingan active, they could handle themselves relatively well, but the density of fog hindered even their vision to some extent.
From the corner of his eyes, Naruto spotted a movement beside Itachi, and immediately pushed him away. A second later Naruto found himself on the receiving end of a punch from the Sandaime Raikage who seemed to have teleported behind them. Naruto swiftly flew back in between all the rubbles and hit the wall harshly.
On seeing that, Itachi promptly moved towards the Raikage to intercept him. As the two shinobi partook in a taijutsu battle, Itachi found it exceedingly difficult to keep up with the bulky Raikage. Itachi's eyes then morphed into the mangekyo sharingan as it became slightly easier to cope up. As A aimed a punch to Itachi's left side, he blocked it with his arm but cringed a little at the strength behind it. Reacting quickly again, Itachi bent down to sweep the Raikage from the ground, who jumped high up in the air and formed a fist with four fingers sticking out.
"Jigokuzuki: Yonhon Nukite" The Sandaime Raikage said as he concentrated high amount of raiton chakra into his fist. With four fingers extended, he came falling towards Itachi who was highly alarmed. As the Raikage came close to Itachi, there was a huge explosion as his fingers were being blocked by a red skeletal figure. Itachi stood inside his Susanoo, panting slightly as he felt his body become a little sore. It was times like these that Itachi was grateful that Naruto had the rinnegan. With the rinnegan abilities, Naruto frequently eased off Itachi's pain, whenever his eyesight would feel bad or his body acted up in pain. However, Itachi could not afford to lose his focus as the Raikage had now switched to three fingers. Itachi exerted more chakra into his Susanoo to make it more durable but his eyes widened even further when the Raikage switched to one finger. Tearing through Itachi's Susanoo, the Sandaime Raikage stabbed Itachi in his chest, just above his heart. Coughing up blood, Itachi somehow still stood his ground as he stopped his Susanoo from wavering.
As Naruto got up after being thrown towards the wall, he noticed that Orochimaru was simply standing back and observing the fights with an amused expression on his face. He was however, brought out his thoughts when the Nidaime Hokage landed before him.
"So, I guess, I'll have to fight you huh?" Naruto replied, as his own sharingan morphed into the mangekyo sharingan and his rinnegan glowed bright silver. Making raiton chakra circulate through his body for quicker responses, he quickly moved towards the Senju with his chokuto drawn. His chokuto met with the Second Hokage's kunai with a resounding sound. The two battled for supremacy for a good minute when Naruto smirked upon getting an idea. Loosening his grip on the chokuto, he slipped under the Nidaime Hokage and aimed a punch on the man's back with his fist coated with chakra. However, Naruto was surprised when Tobirama jumped up and landed a little back, dodging his punch. Not wasting any time, Naruto once again rushed towards deceased Hokage with much more speed than before. Before Tobirama could even react, Naruto thrusted his hand towards the kage's shoulder which had a swirling ball of chakra.
"Rasengan" Naruto said as he planted his hand on Tobirama's right shoulder, making the Hokage stumble back quite a bit. Now, any normal shinobi would have died from that impact. But, as Naruto jumped back after a few minutes, he noticed a peculiar thing. The upper right torso of the Senju which was blown away from his Rasengan, was now repairing itself slowly. Initially, he was slightly surprised when the man did not even attempt to dodge that blow.
'That is not a healing ability, since he is already dead. It must be an effect of the Edo Tensei jutsu. This is going to be more difficult than I thought…' Naruto thought irritatingly. To his left, he could see that Itachi was having a hard time on keeping up with the Raikage. With a large body and superhuman strength and reflexes, the Sandaime Raikage was clearly a bad match for the elder Uchiha Clan heir. However, his heart began racing faster when he saw the Raikage stab Itachi just in the chest. Extending both his arms swiftly, one aiming for the Nidaime Hokage and the other for the Sandaime Raikage, Naruto called out to Itachi urgently.
"Itachi, do it now!" yelled Naruto. Manipulating the gravity around the two kages, Naruto pulled the kage towards each other with tremendous force. Tobirama and A tried moving their body, but it was to no avail. As the two kages neared each other, through sheer willpower Itachi's Susanoo developed further as it's color now changed to slightly orange. The skeletal head now was now framed by locks of hair, with an appendage on it's chin reminiscent of a Pharaoh's false beard. The Susanoo's body also gained an armor and resembled a long-nosed tengu ethereal warrior that wore a pair of magatama earrings.
"Yasaka no Magatama" Three magatama bound together by a single, circular thread that were created between Itachi's susanoo's hands were then propelled towards Tobirama and A. As the jutsu collided with the two shinobi, the entire area rocked with a great force as everyone had to stick to the ground unless being risked flung away. As the smoke began to clear out a little, Naruto was satisfied when there wasn't anything left of the two shinobi. However, his face soon turned to frown when slowly but surely their body began piecing itself together. Moving quickly, Naruto formed several black rods from his right hand and appeared behind the two kages and implanted four black rods into each of them before they could react. The black rods inserted by Naruto had his own chakra inside of them and by injecting the black rods in the chakra points, Naruto interfered with their chakra system. Thus, rooting them in their place and disabling their movements
"This would stop them from moving around anymore. Itachi you should seal them with your…" Naruto said taking breaths as he turned to look at Itachi. But his face lost all color when he saw his friend knelt on the ground with heavy breaths and by the looks of it, he would fall unconscious any moment. However, what scared him most was the fact that Orochimaru was now just a few feet behind Itachi with his katana drawn out and the fact that Roshi was now standing surrounded by his jinchuriki cloak.
'I'm not going to make there in time. God dammit!' Naruto thought urgently. With every passing second, his heart was racing faster as he realized, his friend was going to die.
With Kakashi, Mikasa and Sai against Han, Roshi
Kakashi, Mikasa and Sai were having a relatively harder time compared to Naruto and Itachi. One would expect a shinobi's strength to dwindle slightly from their prime age when they passed their forties. This was especially true when it came to shinobi. However, Han and Roshi were pure monsters when it came to taijutsu and Orochimaru wasn't making it any easier for them.
While Kakashi and Mikasa weren't severely injured that was not the case with Sai. Since Sai primarily utilized ink based ninjutsu, against Roshi's yoton based attack and Han's steam-based attack, his ninjutsu was not much useful.
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu" Kakashi said as he formed a single clone. The clone's and Kakashi's hands began sparkling with electricity and then joined together to form a rope of sorts, made with continuous stream of electricity. The clone and Kakashi then ran towards Roshi with high speed, cutting through all the lava covered rocks in the process. As the clone and Kakashi neared Roshi, a large red tail, appeared from Roshi's back as he attempted to swat Kakashi and his clone away. However, he howled in pain, when Mikasa suddenly jumped in front of Kakashi and cut through the tail cleanly, with her chokuto that was covered in raiton chakra. Roshi's momentary lapse of concentration costed him greatly, Kakashi and his clone ran the stream of electricity straight through Roshi, hoping to slice him in half. But, both Mikasa and Kakashi suddenly jumped away when there was an explosion of chakra from the four tails jinchuriki.
Kakashi had to avert his eyes when he saw Sai fly past him, courtesy of Han, who had punched the younger kid with great strength, right in his abdomen. Flipping in mid-air, Sai firmly landed on the ground with heavy breaths. He decided to avoid getting in close quarters with the five tails jinchuriki. He learned it the hard way that the steam release could augment Han's strength by multiple times.
Both Kakashi and Mikasa once again jumped back and regrouped with Sai as now both the Iwagakure jinchuriki stood before them covered in their bijuu chakra. They had to quickly dodge again as both the jinchuriki's tails extended and chased after them. Kakashi used his Raikiri to stab one of the tails, while Mikasa and Sai stabbed the tails chasing them with their chokuto, thereby stopping their movements. However, it was only momentary as the strength of the bijuu chakra broke the swords and hit both Mikasa and Sai, making them hit the ground roughly. They groaned in pain as the corrosive bijuu touched their skin, burning it to some extent. Seeing the two of them, Kakashi appeared before them quickly and with swift feet tore through all the chakra tails with his Raikiri. However, Mikasa could see that even Kakashi was running on fumes now. Having utilized the sharingan for so long was taking a toll on Kakashi's body and his chakra reserves.
"Usagi-senpai, we are not going to last much longer, if this keeps up. I'm almost out of chakra and I won't be able to fight for much longer." Sai said honestly as he panted. He cursed himself for not delving into ninjutsu more. In Root, Danzo had made the higher ranked shinobi train him only in kenjutsu, ink-based ninjutsu and taijutsu. While he was an adequately good shinobi, fighting a jinchuriki who had complete control over his bijuu was not something he had imagined in his life.
"Sai, while we keep these two busy, go look for Shibuki, Senji and Fu. You know their general description, right? We can't afford to stay here much longer. Take them away from here if they are still alive or else seal their bodies in a stasis scroll. We'll retreat after that. Understood?" Kakashi ordered seriously. Everyone's attention immediately turned to the other fight when they felt the entire area shook. Turning to their right, they noticed that both the kages were momentarily immobilized with Naruto implanting them with his black chakra rods. However, it was Mikasa who had noticed Orochimaru eying the fallen Uchiha and make a run for him with his katana drawn.
Without giving it any further thought, she paced herself as fast as she could and moved towards Itachi. As Orochimaru was now at arm's length behind Itachi, he thrusted his kusangai forward and stopped in his tracks when his sword pierced the straight through the chest. However, he frowned on noticing it was Mikasa who's chest he had pierced, instead of Itachi.
"Amaterasu" Naruto said, as the black flames caught on to Orochimaru's arm holding the katana which forced him to jump back in pain. Running towards Mikasa and Itachi, Naruto caught the kunoichi in his arms before she hit the ground.
"MIKASA! MIKASA! Hey! Don't close your eyes. I'm here." Cried Naruto as he quickly removed the sword from her chest. A look of horror formed on his face on seeing that the sword had pierced right through her heart. More tears slipped from his eyes, as he felt her body go limp. Glancing towards Itachi for a second, Naruto noticed that he had already fallen unconscious, but he was still alive. Focusing his attention back on Mikasa, he placed her body on the ground, and put both his hands on her wound and attempted to heal her. Two minutes passed, but he could not sense her life force getting any better.
"I… it's f…fi...fine Naruto. I'm ju…just glad that Itachi is sa…safe…" Mikasa gently whispered as Naruto saw a serene and calm look appear on her face.
"Hey, don't speak. Save your strength. I'm going to save you, okay?" replied Naruto in between sobs. More worry laced on to him, as he couldn't feel any pulse from her. As a few more seconds passed, he closed his eyes shut as he now knew, she was dead.
"That bitch… Why couldn't you stay put in your damn place." Orochimaru yelled in frustration as he shed his skin. But, before his eyes could even follow or react, he felt his body get pierced by several black rods as he fell onto the ground. Looking front, he saw Naruto's left arm was pointed straight at him. Naruto slowly stood up from his spot with his eyes still shut.
All he could feel around himself was hatred and death. Even to this day, he could not understand why shinobis fought, why they killed each other needlessly, why couldn't they just accept the differences the different nations had so that there would no more needless wars and death. His chakra spiked to dangerous levels, as a strong gust of wind started circling him. Even Kurama was tensed when he felt Naruto's emotions and line of thoughts. Large amounts of rubbles were pushed back by the force of his chakra as he felt the hatred inside of him grow deeper and the desire within him to kill grow stronger. Kakashi and Sai wanted to go towards their teammate, but the force of Naruto's chakra was so strong that they could barely move an inch.
For the first time in years, Orochimaru felt the sensation of fear. He wanted to run, but these damn rods prevented him from any movement. His eyes again shifted towards the Namikaze and it was this point that he had a clear view of the rinnegan. Those accursed eyes. Even Han and Roshi found it difficult to move and moreover, their own bijuu were yelling in their mind to run away from here as quickly possible. He saw the blond place his palms together and mold considerably large amount of chakra.
"Chibaku Tensei" Naruto muttered hypnotically under his breath and formed a black sphere in his hands, the size of ball. The black sphere levitated in the air and flew high up before it came to a stop. The ground beneath everyone suddenly began shaking violently, as it began tearing up and rose into the air to stick around the black sphere. Han, Roshi and Orochimaru began panicking greatly when they felt themselves also getting pulled along with the large pieces of rocks. Kakashi and Sai couldn't believe that it was Naruto who was doing this. They both knew that the young Namikaze was ridiculously strong, but what they were seeing was simply unreal.
'I need to get out of here. That thing looks bad.' Orochimaru thought with sweat dripping from his face. Seeing that he could at least move his hand, he drew some blood from his hand and placed in on the ground. He immediately disappeared from the area, leaving no trace of himself ever being in Takigakure no Sato. Naruto realized that Orochimaru probably used reverse summoning jutsu to get himself out of this situation, but he did not care about. His time would come.
"There's no further need to resist." Naruto stated with no emotion in his voice. Kakashi and Sai breathed a sigh of relief when they realized that they weren't being pulled towards that black sphere. Both jumped back, away from the area to catch their breath. They were pretty much out of chakra and fighting the two jinchuriki had taken a lot out of their stamina. However, Kakashi had become highly concerned about Naruto upon hearing him speak.
More bijuu chakra began covering Han and Roshi as they tried to free themselves from the intense gravitational pull, but none of it gave any results. Soon enough, the two were stuck under the pieces of rocks that broke from the ground and stuck to the black sphere. Naruto simply looked on as he saw the two jinchuriki thrash around wildly. He did not feel content on defeating the enemy, he did not feel sad on seeing his friend die… he just did not feel anything at all right now. A few seconds later, the jutsu seemed to be complete, as now there was a large spherical rock, something akin to a meteor, levitating in the air with both the Iwagakure jinchuriki trapped inside.
Looking to his right, he saw that the Nidaime Hokage and Sandaime Raikage were still rooted to their place. He was about to move towards them when he saw the two of them disappear in a cloud of smoke.
'He must have summoned them back too…' Naruto thought vacantly. He turned around with a blank look on his face, as he heard Kakashi and Sai walk towards him. From the looks of it, both appeared to be extremely battered and beaten up.
"Naruto…" Kakashi called out to him with his head hung low. Yet again, he lost someone in his team and yet again he felt that emptiness inside of him.
Author Notes: I really do hope the fight scenes were good enough. Now, some may question the strength of Nidaime Hokage and Sandaime Raikage in this chapter, but do keep in mind that this is the first time Orochimaru has used the Edo Tensei and it's no where near perfect and he hadn't revived them close to their full power. This was the first time Naruto has witnessed someone close to him die and it is going to have an effect on him. For better or for worse, only time will tell. The next chapter will be the conclusion of this arc where Ohnoki comes face to face with Naruto. I can't really say how Naruto is going to react when he confronts Ohnoki but there will be a lot of tension between the two which may escalate further. Now, Naruto hasn't killed Han or Roshi as of yet. He just immobilized them.
A lot of you guys may wonder about Naruto's rinnegan or as to why he is not using more abilities. To put it simply, he doesn't really know all the abilities yet. The gravity manipulation and forming black chakra rods are pretty much the only abilities of rinnegan which Naruto can use as of this moment. As he grows up, and in his future battles, he will get a better understanding of his rinnegan.
Another matter which I wanted to point out is that, I'm looking for a beta reader. It would be a tremendous help to me if someone is willing to help me out!
Please do follow, favorite and review the story! Looking forward to the reviews!
Until next time!