The Village System Chapter 38: Fight Men, Meet Monsters, a Naruto + White Wolf Crossover fanfic

"The game is still afoot," Kidimaro shouted, far too excitedly. "Flies come, even if less than before."

"That bastard Jirobu failed? What in the cold depths of Mictlan happened?" Tayuya demanded.

Sakkon merely gritted his teeth and continued running forward. "Kidimaro, make sure they don't catch up with us. Tayuya, stay with me."

The Deviant smiled. "Keep coming, little flies. It's time for the spider to snatch up his meal."

None of the Scions charging after Sasuke felt particularly thrilled about having left one of their own behind, but Neji in particular felt distraught. Not as distraught on a personal level as Shikamaru, who was terrified about what might happen to his best friend, but the most on a professional level. If anything, he should be the one to stay behind to fight a foe while the others pushed forward. He understood on a technical level that it was all of their duties, but it was a duty that had been ingrained in him for so long, and even if he had been questioning things lately, it still felt cowardly to move on when another comrade was fighting. He hoped that he wouldn't have to experience it again.

"Chimeric Variation: Predator's Cunning," Kidimaro whispered to himself as he hid among the trees, readying to take on the prey. Becoming hyperaware of all movements, all dangers, all potential targets, he allowed himself the pleasure of the sudden bloodlust that infused him before stuffing it down. While normally he barely saw the Scar that made him want to hurt everyone around him like they were balloons full of blood just waiting to burst as a problem, he knew that it could make him impatient. This game needed patience.

He needed to take out the targets quietly before he got the thrill of the kill as a reward. All six of his arms felt the scars in his soul flaring up, fusing with the ripped up soul of a spider within him, preparing the power.

It was so unfortunate that the Scarring made him take time with this next trick, as many Chimeric Deviants could do it almost instantly, but oh well, such was his lot in life. Games wouldn't be fun if the player weren't challenged.

"Chimeric Variation: Animal Form," he whispered as his skin began to ripple. "Deviation: Biting Swarm."

Neji was the first to wonder about the spider webs. They had been there for a while, even before their encounter with Jirobu, but he just now realized how odd they were. Any individual spider web was nothing worth noting in a forest, but these seemed too evenly paced out, as if they were placed in a specified and practiced way, the kind of way that nature abhorred.

He was just about to say something when Fionnadh Dearg and Remus Bane started whining.

"It's the one they can't identify," Kiba clarified. "The one they've never smelled before, he stopped moving with the rest, but then he just disappeared. They're confused."

"It's probably some supernatural means of hiding," Shikimaru surmised. "Everyone, on the lookout-"

before he could finish his orders, dozens of spiders fell from the trees and smothered the group. Sakura screeched. The others were doing little better; beyond the embarrassing but still present ickiness of the spiders, they were biting. Harder than they should be. Plus, they were probably poisonous.

The group stumbled forward, trying to brush the creatures off, but they kept coming, kept biting, kept going for their eyes and mouths whenever one was opened. Shikamaru found himself cursing the fact that none of them knew the Fire Purview, but shut that down until he could process what abilities they did have and get rid of these blasted things. Maybe Naruto could make his Shadow Bodies and give them too many targets?

When Shikamaru tried to open his mouth and only got spiders crawling into it for his troubles, Neji tried out something that Guide Gai had shown them. It was meant to stop attacks before they landed, which obviously wasn't the case here, but he tried it anyways.

"Wits Knack: Whirlwind Shield!" Neji span, turning around almost impossibly fast, knocking back anymore of the spiders that attempted to fall on them and slowly but surely dislodging the ones already on him. "I can make an opening for you, but I might get stuck behind!" Neji shouted.

While they all blanched at the necessity of leaving another member of their little group behind, the stinging arachnids left them little time for deep thought.

Kidimaro internally frowned at the idea of some players trying to exit the game early, but found himself with surprisingly little options to stop them when the clever boy started spinning like a top. He personally preferred a roll of the dice, but a game of tops was perfectly fine. Or rather, why not a game of jacks?

All of the spiders on the ground jumped up at once, prompting him to intone "Universal Variation: Lash" and spray out webs from their abdomens toward the upstart Scion in question, making it a personal challenge to stop before hitting the ground.

While the same frustrating knack from earlier prevented them from hitting anything other than the Scion's hands, that was enough as his own rotating motions swirled webbing around, trapping him more effectively than spraying the web directly would have done. Kidimaro was pleased.

Neji, understandably less pleased than his opponent at the current situation, tried to call on his Strength Knacks to break the webbing free. It wasn't that it didn't work, so much as that he could snap any individual bit of webbing effortlessly only for the falling pieces to stick to another bit of webbing still attached and entangle him further.

Remus Bane was what ultimately came to his rescue; the wolf ignored the stinging pain from the spiders surrounding him to grip the webbing in his jaws and free his master, even if it meant that his own mouth was stuck closed.

Suppressing the sudden hunger that overcame him upon using the Variation, Kidimaro grinned internally. Sure, the player was still in position, but his supporting piece had been made worthless. It was a worthwhile play. Gathering all of his bodies and crawling into a nearby tree, the Deviant reformed and tried to figure out his next move.

The enemy player was poisoned, mildly wounded, and had just gotten out of a precarious situation and was forced to take stock of his surroundings. All the moves were in Kidimaro's advantage,. Smiling, he hardened his carapace and prepared for the next strike.

In their haste, Tayuya and Sakon found themselves running into a plateau that they didn't remember passing on the way there. Climbing it slowed them down, just enough for the sounds of broken branches and rustling woods behind them.

"Dammit, those kids got past Jirobu and Kidimaro? What in the cold depths of Mictlan were those morons doing?"

"Playing with their food, as always," Sakon spat out. "They could have killed the brats easily if they just went all out from the start, but I'm sure that Jirobu stretched it out to make a heartier sacrifice and Kidimaro turned it into a personal challenge."

Ignoring Udon's internal mockery, Sakon instead focused on the sudden sensation of Yin and Yang flowing through his…soul, for lack of a better term. "There's a Dragon Line here," Sakon noted.

"Great," Tayuya rolled her eyes. "If you knew how to freakin' use them, we could be out of here immediately. But you don't, do you?"

Sakon wanted to object, to point out that he knew the theory behind it, but she was right. He couldn't ensure that they could perform the proper ritual in time, not with the brats just about to catch up with them.

Kimmimaro felt that something was wrong. He couldn't say why, he just knew it somehow. The other four of the Sacrificial Five were messing up somehow. Of course they were; before his tainting, he was the greatest of them. It was his duty to lead them to victory.

Some would have thought that impossible with his current condition, and the distance between himself and the others even without it, but he remembered the old tricks from the Village Hidden in Enlightenment. He remembered how to use the Dragon Lines. He remembered how to learn, how to travel. Maybe, even with his ruined body, he might remember how to fight.

He found the entrance to the Dragon Line, invisible to all who had not offered sufficient supplication, and crushed a pearl in his hands. The Rivergate recognized his offering, and he entered the Yin World. Once there, he simply intoned "Jade Shintai Art: Riding the Dragon's Breath," and channeled his Chi through the parts of his soul that bound him to the earth, allowing him to fly over the spiritual river. It saved a lot of time.

Sakon was mildly panicking, unsure whether to run ahead with the precious cargo and risk a disadvantageous position when the brats caught up, or sit and wait, where they could prepare a proper ambush and end the threat once and for all. Would Lord Orochimaru understand the delay?

His Po, as always using Udon's voice, mocked him. He was always this indecisive. Always this weak. Always this pathetic. Ride the tiger. Don't let the tiger ride you. His old mentors would probably be surprised to learn that he kept to the old mantras of his former Dharma, but it aided in clarity here.

Rather than mockery, be useful, he thought before intoning, "Demon Art: Black Wind."

Barely controlling his Po as the energy flowed through him, he laughed a guttural laugh at Tayuya before ordering her to slow them down while he ran with Sasuke. Before she could challenge him on why he was the one to do this and not her, he zipped forward at impossible speeds, calling on Udon's energy even as he suppressed his dead brother's control.

Neji was glad to see the spiders dispersing, even with how distraught he was over Remus Bane's condition, and was about to rush forward when a man with an abnormal number of limbs leapt at him from the trees. Were those….four sets of arms? The thought almost cost him his life, as they struck at him with unwavering ferocity.

"Melee Arete," he shouted in desperation, even though the ability had already been activated against Jirobu. It was the only reason he was alive at the moment; each of his opponent's hands held a blade, and even the best mortal swordsman couldn't have held off all of them at once. Luckily he was no mortal.

Taking a step back, barely dodging out of the way of eight knives at once, he spat out "War Purview: Warrior Ideal!"

The thing merely smiled at his presumably altered perception. "A worthy opponent, or al least someone who knows how to look like one. What an excellent addition to the game."

With that, the multi-limbed thing jumped to the nearest tree, climbing upward and giving Neji some much-needed relief. He had no idea whether he had scared his enemy off, or, going by the creature's rants about a 'game,' it was toying with him. Either way, it was beneficial. Hie ego could handle an opponent underestimating him for now, at least if it gave him a temporary advantage.

Shikamaru, Sakura, Naruto and Kiba had no idea what to expect next after fleeing the spiders, so they prepared themselves for anything. Well, they thought so anyway, before a huge swarm of hummingbirds surrounded them.

Were the next attack to be another swarm of animals, they would have guessed something traditionally scary, like more spiders, or snakes, or wolves, not hummingbirds. Of course, there turned out to be no time for such thoughts, as hummingbird beaks proved to be just as deadly as anything those other animals could muster.

His left arm flaring in pain from having suddenly been pierced by multiple hummingbird beaks, Kiba growled like a dog as he swung his club with the other other, smashing quite a few of the little monstrosities and sending the others flying back in fear. That gave their group a tiny reprieve that only lasted until the distant sound of a flute had the things flying in a tight, controlled formation once more.

"Where are they," Shikamaru asked Kiba.

"One's over in the trees where we just heard that flute, another's over by those rocks you can sort of see sticking out over the trees. I think the second one has Sasuke."

"You three go after them, I'll take these on," Shikamaru ordered as he rushed forward. "We need Kiba's tracking abilities and the other two know Sasuke best," he continued before they could question him. "I'll make sure you can escape."

Shikamaru had never once used the ability he was about to try. It was a fairly simple Boon of the Moon Purview, slightly above the easiest of them in fact, but he never felt the situation to be right for it. It's effect under most situations was confusing, but as the massive swarm of green with red blades, very sharp red blades, gathered its collective wits and made to strike at him again, he decided to test out a theory.

"Moon Purview: Tidal Interference!"

Channeling his Ichor, he made the swarm of birds as a wave in the ocean, and him the moon pulling on it. Borrowing the celestial body's power, he made the swarm go back and forth, back and forth, suddenly finding itself unable to follow his companions as they fled toward Sasuke's location.

It did not, however, prevent the hummingbirds from going toward him. It, in fact, made them more prone to heading his way, as if he was putting a gravitational pull on them, and that was why he normally didn't use this ability. It was such a drag.

Sakon was shocked when he felt the Dragon Line whistling. Was someone using it? No one in the Village Hidden in Legends could, as far as he was aware, and there was no reason anyone in the Village Hidden in Enlightenment would even know what they were doing, nonetheless try to stop them. In hindsight, those facts combined should have probably clued him into the fact that Kimmimaro had come to aid them.

To be fair, his last interaction with their little group's boss showed the Kue-Jin infested with Tainted Chi and barely able to stand, being slowly destroyed from the inside by the very substance that allowed Kue-Jin to continue living. That the strongest of them could still walk after what he'd gone through was testament to a lot of things, not the least of which was how badly they were apparently screwing up on something so important to Lord Orochimaru that he felt he had to.

"You're taking too long," Kmmimaro uttered calmly as he stepped into the Middle-Word.

"Will the Rivergate Guardian let us carry Sasuke through?" Sakon asked, hoping to give a helpful suggestion rather than waste time with excuses.

Kimmimaro shook his head. "His illusion isn't the right sort to walk the Yin World."

An annoying bit of mysticism, but Sakon had no reason to doubt its honesty. Instead, he shouted, "a bunch of Scion brats are tailing us. They've been moving a lot faster than we thought they'd be able to."

"And with the Black Wind aiding you?" Kimmimaro noted in blatant disapproval.

Sakon could have pointed out that it was his fellows who took so long, who chose to waste time on pointless games rather than simply kill their pursuers, but he knew very well that this was not the time for excuses. Being an older Kue-Jin, his leader would probably respond with some convoluted aphorism passing itself off as great wisdom. "One of us should take the boy, while the other fights off whomever gets past Tayuya and Kidimaro," he stated instead. "As you mentioned, I have the Black Wind to aid me, while you are a greater fighter than me, so"

"No," Kimmimaro interrupted Sakon. "You have taken too long already. I can only trust myself to bring the master his prize."

Udon mocked Sakon for his weakness, but even with his normal deference he might have tried to argue the matter if the Scions hadn't shown up right then. There were three of them, and a dog, meaning that the others had only managed to stop three. That was just embarrassing.

Realizing that the animal was helping them to track the boy and was thus the primary threat to eliminate, Sakon, aided by his Demon Chi, proceeded to do just that, rushing forth with the Black Wind and charging straight for the small beast.

Kimmimaro, nonplussed by the newcomers' arrival, grabbed Sasuke's container and ran.

Neji, for the first time in his life, envied Hinata's Awareness Arete. Not for the first time in his life, he also wished he had been able to understand Perception Knacks like Guide Gai and even Lee could. It might have led to him figuring out where the spider-thing he was facing had gone to.

It wasn't a waiting game, in spite of the clear poisons that those spiders had used, as his Stamina Knacks were more than enough to take care of those, but it was still the enemy's field to lose.

"Universal Variation: Lash!" Hearing the shout, Neji didn't even bother to look before intoning "Marksmanship Arete" and tossing his pilum in the same direction that the string of spider web burst from.

Being more concerned with nailing the throw than avoiding the danger, he was cursed with the string latching onto his lower leg, but rewarded with a shout of pain from the nearby trees. Not enough pain, unfortunately, as Neji was quickly grabbed and tossed to the ground by the webbing.

"Clever move, but hardly match-winning," a voice taunted from the trees. "Let's see your counter-play to this."

The webbing around his leg started to sizzle, and he felt as if acid were thrown upon him. Biting down his own scream of pain, Neji drew a gladium and pointed it toward where the voice was coming from. He was certain that he could win this. He just needed the right plan.

Tayuya didn't really grasp what was going on with her hummingbirds. Their flight patterns didn't match up with the music she was playing at all. They were still attacking as she had ordered, but only one of them. That was freaking annoying.

"Animal (snake) Purview: Animal Command," she intoned, shifting the melody her flute was playing, making it less intense like a hummingbird's wings and instead slow and languid, like a snake slithering across the ground. She heard it that way at least. The hisses covering the ground assured her that her targets did as well.

One should never get so used to looking up that one forgets to see the threats below. While it was sound advice in theory, it was kind of hard to look away from an army of angry hummingbirds trying to peck you to pieces, so Shikamaru could be forgiven for keeping his eyes focused on them as ran through each bit of cover, found every loose branch or instance of thick foliage he could use to defend himself, desperate to defend himself.

It was luck rather than remembering the aforementioned advice that saved his life; he reached to the ground for a rock to toss right as the venomous snake was rearing its head to bite him. He wouldn't have noticed it otherwise. He had no idea whether or not he would have lived.

Regardless, now that he had the sense of mind to dodge, he only allowed himself half a second to complain about the situation somehow managing to get even worse before prepping himself to look everywhere.

It would turn out that he didn't entirely have to; the hummingbirds were still coming after him, but they were less aggressive, less coordinated somehow, more easily frightened if their reaction to his next desperate swing of a branch was any indication. The snakes were much more dangerous, almost deliberately setting up ambushes that should have been too clever for normal snakes. Even focusing on them, he noticed the faint music that had always been playing how it had suddenly shifted.

The enemy can use music rather than speaking to channel the Animal Purview, or whatever their kinds' equivalent is. But they can only give detailed commands to one kind of animal at once.

Now, how in the cold depths of the Underworld could he actually use this knowledge?

Kiba, Naruto, and Sakura all burst from the tree-line just in time to see two beings run in opposite directions.

"Huh, but we didn't smell this many!" Kiba shouted in frustration.

"Are we going to have to split up again?" Sakura wondered out loud.

No one managed to answer before one of them, a rather feminine man with blue hair as far as they could tell, burst forth at a ridiculous speed and struck at Fionnadh Dearg, sending the poor dog flying toward a nearby tree.

Enraged, Kiba swung at the assailant with his cudgel, finding himself surprised when a skinny arm swung itself upward and caught his club. From the resistance he felt, the being would have actually managed to block him if it weren't for his Strength Knacks. As it was, he only managed to break an arm, leading to a stifled howl of pain and the Sacrifice-man concentrating before his wound partially healed before their eyes.

The damage was apparently enough to provoke their opponent's flight, as he sped to a nearby outcropping of rock, once more with impossible speed, and shouted out "Yang Prana Art: Yang Mantle." Red lightning surrounded his being, concentrating into a wooden staff that he drew from his back.

Kiba, stijl enraged by what this guy had done to his companion, charged forward thoughtlessly, and found himself making a horrible mistake when the red lightning burst forth from the staff and blasted his torso, leaving him with a nasty, burning wound. That wasn't enough to stop him, just to encourage a little bit of caution.

Naruto, knives drawn, was about to rush to Kiba's aide when Sakura pointed out that the other one who ran away probably had Sasuke with him. Which meant that if they stopped to fight here then they might lose the trail. Her sarcastic joke might have proved prophetic after all. The boy glared at Kiba, trying to ignore the massive burn on his stomach and rushing forward toward the freaky guy. Then he looked toward where the other one had run, probably holding Sasuke's unconscious body. His fists tightened. He didn't want to leave anymore friends behind. The ones he'd already abandoned…but this was about Sasuke. In spite of everything, the arrogant Amatsukami Scion was his closest friend, the one who fought beside him, the one who saw him grow and improve and become worthy of the Village Hidden in Legends.

Whatever he thought of Kiba, he couldn't throw that away, just as he didn't with Choji, and Neji, and Shikamaru.

"Hey, Kiba, you got this freak?" Naruto shouted.

"Yeah, I can handle him. I don't need a loser like you getting in my way," Kiba answered as he readied his club for another attack.

Sakon had the presence of mind to note that merely distracting one of the Scions while the other two went after Kimmimaro was more-or-less pointless, something that the rest of his compatriots apparently found difficult to comprehend, so he tried to stop them from doing that.

He wasn't certain how much longer he could rely on the Black Wind; Udon was striving to take over, and getting closer and closer, but he needed to move quickly. Resigning himself to the internal battle with his brother's shadow, he zipped around the brash fool with the club and went for the two that were trying to follow his leader's path.

"Flesh Shintai Art: Long Neck" he intoned, his arms expanding outward and forming a length of flesh that let him strike at the girl from outside of their melee range. At least, that would have been the plan had the cursed dog from earlier not jumped onto that very same arm and bit into it.

His supernatural resilience meant that a dog's teeth barely hurt, but the Yang Chi flowing through the limb and his surprise caught him unawares as the essence of life flowed through and made him flail wildly. It wasn't much, but it was enough for the brat with the club to catch up with him once more.

Kiba swung at the Kue-jin before him over and over again, ferocity as much as skill leading his strikes. It seemed to be good enough; the creature, even as it deflected most of his blows with its wooden staff, was getting hit. Not enough to bring it down, but enough to ensure that Kiba was the largest threat and that the Kue-Jin couldn't afford to give any attention to his comrades chasing after the new one.

So satisfied with this fact was Kiba that he allowed it to make him arrogant, thinking that the blow that landed directly on his opponent's face was a result of his own skill and not said opponent letting him get in so it could stretch its arms out and slam the butt of his staff into the back of Kiba's head.

That swing to his face left him overextended and in the perfect position to receive such an attack, and it dazed him for half of a second, a time his opponent used to rush backwards and shoot "Yang Prana Art: Yang Mantle!" once more, summoning that red lightening from earlier again.

Kiba might have been in trouble had Fionnadh Deargh not still been in the fight. His loyal dog rushed the Kue-Jin, biting at its legs and distracting it long enough for Kiba to regain his bearings, shout "Animal (dog) Purview: Animal Aspect" to add a dog's strength and sense of smell on top of his own once more, then rushed at the Kue-Jin in an imitation of being on all fours.

Sakon, kicking the dog away, saw the Scion rushing towards him under some sort of supernatural influence and intoned, desperately, "Cultivation Art: Lash the Demon!" It had been a long time since he'd properly used this Art, and was surprised as much as his opponent when the bestial essence within his enemy was pulled back on a spiritual level, though it probably felt physical to the Scion, removing his enhanced strength and speed by collaring the dog within, so to speak.

Unfortunately, using an ability so connected to his Po while Black Wind was still activated had Udon roaring for control. Rather than seize the very brief advantage he had afforded himself, he had to waste time with the poor imitation of his brother until he finally had the presence to try something else, something that almost never worked but had been the basis of all of his studies when he was still loyal to Enlightenment. Something that he just had to feel, not understand, as little sense as that made. "Cultivation Art: Two Become One!"

Everything he had hated about his dead twin in life flashed through his mind, then everything said twin had been right about, most difficult of all, everything he had hated about his brother because he had been right and Sakon wrong. Sakon felt it blend with him. Sakon felt his Po meld with his Hun, the heaven-facing soul and the Earth-facing soul turned toward one another, for the briefest moment made compatible in the way that they should be. He and Po were one. He had done it. Now there was no stopping him.

"Demon Art: Black Wind," he roared with two voices, speeding it up much farther than he had dared before.

Kiba barely had time to process what happened and accept that he would just have to charge after his opponent with his Strength Knacks alone when that opponent changed in some way. If asked to describe it, he would have had a lot of difficulty; it was like its entirely personality had changed, but not really. Like someone else was layered on top of him. He wasn't really thinking of it at the time, however, as he was blindsided by the guy's ridiculous speed somehow becoming even more ridiculous.

Shikamaru felt that his opponent was focusing on the wrong animal; with careful attention, the snakes were much easier to avoid than the hummingbirds. Most of them tried to use the shadows to hide, and his Night Eyes meant that he could see them as clearly as day. It did mean that they were occupying all the best spots to use Shadow Step, but an individual snake wasn't really a threat.

With the lesser action, he was able to focus and pinpoint the likely source of the music, giving him the ability to chop a snake's head off with a knife, step into the shade of the tree it had been waiting in ambush under, and intone "Darkness Purview: Shadow Step." He vanished and reappeared at a tree near the edge of his vision, the much louder music confirming that he had chosen the right place.

Tayuya almost died when the throwing knife went right by her throat. It was only years of training under Kimmimaro's ruthless instruction and minimal training in Wits Knacks that gave her the wherewithal to dodge. Releasing a storm of curses internally, externally she had the presence of mind to channel her Ichor and prepare a Boon.

Spotting her opponent standing on the ground beneath her, she shouted "Animal (snake) Purview: Animal Feature! Animal (hummingbird) Purview: Animal Feature" "Animal (eagle) Purview: Animal Feature!"

Shikamaru's next throwing knife managed to knick her, or at least it would have if not for the scales she grew out of nowhere making her skin apparently more resilient. He barely had time to process even that change before the others became apparent; she flitted down, moving like a hummingbird in spite of her size, and sliced at him with the razor-sharp talons that had replaced her feet. Well, this sucked.

Kidimaro had a play. Even as he grit his teeth and bore the pain from that lucky strike with the sword, he felt certain that he had properly examined and evaluated the opposing player's strength, speed, and stamina. As such, he knew full well that if he called on his best abilities, he would win. At least, he would if the boy didn't think to exploit…but there were so few of them in these woods.

A hummingbird, made crystal clear thanks to his Predator's Cunning, zipping by as he pondered, proved that to be a lie, but how would the silly little Scion know? Yes, this was a gambit that would exploit the enemy's ignorance of the rules, a move-set that he couldn't possibly know how to counter.

Regardless, he called on the Chimeric power to weaken his Scars before flaring up the wounds in his soul and intoning "Chimeric Variation: Monstrous Transformation. Universal Variation: Gigantic."

His flesh warped and twisted, his bones painlessly broke. The cells in all parts of his body rapidly multiplied, expanding themselves and stretching the newly hairy limbs even further, making the massive spider fangs that grew from his mouth even longer.

Unfortunately, both of these Variations were fueled by the exact same Scar, and he felt a ridiculous fear of birds, one of a spider's natural predators, flare through his head. Were he not Chimeric, it might have caused an uncontrollable and inconvenient panic. Then again, if he weren't Chimeric, this Variation would have been difficult to use in the first place.

Neji was glad when he managed to strike true with his thrown gladium. He was significantly less so with the acidic webbing covering his leg, and that didn't even get a full minute of being his top priority before a monstrosity he could only describe as a tarantula standing on its hind-legs fell before him, holding the other end of the acidic webbing and looking hungry.

Kimmimaro felt a stirring in the basket he held. It seemed that the Mark was finished; Lord Orochimaru's prize was either dead or ready to make use of it. Briefly stopping in his retreat, he let the basket down and silently observed as a boy stepped out, awkwardly, uncertain, and yet still filled with an unprecedented power that one could sense, if not describe. It had worked gloriously.

"Go on to Lord Orochimaru. I sense that you know the way. I will stay here, and make sure that none from your Village try to stop you."

The boy, only half-comprehending, nodded before stumbling away in the correct direction.

"Hey, you bastard!" The obnoxious boy in orange shouted as he came upon where Kimmimaro silently stood. "Give Sasuke back!"

The girl holding a spear beside him seemed to agree with the request.

Unfortunately not surprised that Sakon had failed to stop the two, he answered their demands by muttering "Bone Shintai Art: Corpse Skin." His shallow cheeks became shallower, his bones more pronounced. He looked more frail, but was in fact the exact opposite.

"Okay, you bastard, if I have to beat it out of you then I will! Darkness Purview: Shadow Bodies!"

As the boy turned black as Yin and imitations of him the same color charged the Kue-Jin, he looked on with neither fear nor arrogance as he muttered "Bone Shintai Art: Five Poison Cloud" and converted a bit of his expanded bone into dark energy that he spit out into a cloud expanding in front of him. The imbecile he was facing barely had the wisdom to try and avoid it, managing to breathe in just a bit before halting.

As all of his forms pantomimed choking on the poisonous substance, he was easily able to note which one was actually choking and intone "Demon Art: Black Wind" "Bone Shintai Art: Bone Obedience" before rushing forward at an incredible pace while the bones in his forearm formed a spear that protruded from his flesh just in time to stab right into the annoying little brat.

Sakura approached far more carefully than Naruto, spear at the ready. Observing what their opponent could do, she was unnerved by his appearance, speed, and apparent ability to create weapons from his body. She was particularly unnerved by his appearance, as it felt too gaunt for what he was pulling off.

In fact, she saw him let out a small cough as he attempted to stab into Naruto with a spear grown from his other arm. Was he…sick?

"Health Purview: Assess Health," she intoned on a whim, and was shocked to realize that he was being killed by something inside of him that she didn't really understand. Something that should have left him too weak to stand, and yet he was still doing this well? No, she had to focus. Rather than panic, she needed to see how she could use this.

Seeing that the brat in orange was quick enough to barely dodge him over and over again, Kimmimaro leapt back a bit and tried for something risky.

"Yin Prana Art: Bone Dance!" He intoned, putting his arms and legs into the proper position to start.

Without the Black Wind, he would never have bothered, but as the boy Scion rushed him with his knives and the girl remained too cautious to actually act, he made the first step with his feet, the second with his arms held up in the appropriate position, and found himself just able to dodge quickly enough yet also subtly enough to avoid each stroke of the enemy's knife without breaking the dance. He saw his reward.

Yin energy flooded the minds of all who saw the dance, their eyes locked on him and forced to accept each step. They became more passive, more docile, at first merely more willing to accept their place in the universe. As Kimmimaro easily dodged a slightly more sluggish strike (only to one as trained as he, most wouldn't have noticed a difference), he completed another step, sapping them of the will to act.

The boy was unnaturally tired. It was working. While normally getting through enough steps of the dance uninterrupted to force someone in the throes of combat to sleep was so difficult as to be impractical, he amused himself with the fact that both had shown themselves incompetent enough to fall for it. He might not have to damage himself with as much Chi usage as he feared.

Naruto didn't understand what was happening. Physically, he didn't feel tired at all, whereas mentally…no, tired was the wrong word to describe it. It was more like he suddenly didn't want to move. As he saw the guy put on his weird dance, he had the same feeling one has at the end of the day, or when compelled to do something difficult that one really didn't care about.

Which was absurd; of course he cared about beating this guy; he had to in order to save Sasuke! But putting his all into it…his heart just wasn't in it…what in the cold depths of the Underworld, of course it was! Dammit, what was this guy doing to him?

Sakura had to move forward…but she really didn't want to. Steeling herself against whatever was affecting her brain, Sakura pushed, and pushed, making pathetic progress by any normal standards. When the creature before them made a pose, one she felt signified the end of a dance, she couldn't walk forward anymore, because now she suddenly wanted to go to sleep.

It wasn't exhaustion, it was a complete lack of any desire to do anything requiring her waking thoughts. Naruto, from the way his knees were buckling beneath him, was fighting the same effect.

"Impressive that you stayed awake even this long," their opponent noted. "Join the Ebon Dragon knowing that you fought your best. It is pointless to note that said best wasn't good enough. We all have our limits, and there is no good cause for fighting them."

He rushed forward, impaling Naruto with one bone spear, and then letting him fall before he ran to Sakura in a quick blur and struck her with another. Had he gone for a ranged attack, he would have won right then and there as Sakura succumbed to the pressing negativity within her mind.

As it was, her hand grabbed his, an accident of their positions rather than a thought-through attack, and her half-functioning brain just had the presence of mind to channel her Ichor in time for her to shout "Health Purview: Infect Wound!"

He had no wounds to enlarge. Or rather, none that they had inflicted on him. But that old ailment she had sensed, that apparently long-standing and worsening damage to his insides-yes, she could influence that.

Kimmimaro screamed. It was a shameful display, an act out of accordance with his Song-of-Shadows Dharma and his desire to put Lord Orochimaru's interests ahead of his own. He didn't scream from the unbearable pain the tainted Chi caused him, not since he had been afflicted with it. Not until that girl made him experience its growth at speeds the most pessimistic doctors would never had predicted. The misery, the suffering, the sense of uselessness.

Backing up, only able to focus on the incomparable agony he was experiencing, he didn't notice the girl use the Scion's Health Purview to close the wound he had given her. Nor, as she slowly shook the influence of his dance, did he act in time to stop her from doing the same to the boy.

No, he had time for only one thought when he was focused. It was time; if the tainted Chi was going to kill him now, then it would do so only after he eliminated Lord Orochimaru's enemies with everything he could muster. "Bone Shintai Art: Ch'ing Shih".

Sakura were barely recovering from the weird guy's last attack before they found themselves staring at him while his body warped and shifted. His skin stretched outward, though apparently not far enough to contain the bones that splayed out from his sides, from his back, from his fingers, and, most notably, from his mouth, all forming into bladed spears. The man's own skeleton had turned into a weapon, but he man himself hardly resembled a man anyways. Beyond his warped appearance, some form of blackish liquid dripped from his newly grown fangs. Where it fell, the grass beneath him shriveled and rotted as if long dead.

"We're going to save Sasuke, no matter what," Naruto responded to the sight. Sakura, taking what courage she could from him, nodded in agreement.