A Bewitching Dance

by Haerrlekin

When Naruto opened his eyes, he saw a beautiful, red-haired woman with violet eyes and a warm smile. Oh, and a white void, but that was besides the point! In which Naruto fails to summon Gamabunta and goes splat in the chasm; Jiraiya did a whoopsie, Kurama is a jerk, and Hinata brings good vibes. Who knew that crippling, life-threatening injuries could feel so good?

22. The Scarlet Parade

Heya,

Took me long enough to get this one out. As promised in the last chapter, I went and took my sweet time making this one happen. There's a lot of moving pieces to this chapter that I'd definitely attribute the lion's share of the time and length to. I hope it was worth the wait for y'all.

Alrighty, no bullshit; let's begin.

---

Tsunade had only taken just long enough to convene with Shizune, all but dumping the whimpering young lord into her apprentice's arms with naught but an order.

"Make sure nothing happens to him."

Unspoken was a professional understanding between both women: the recovery effort was important, but the survival of the Daimyo's nephew was paramount, if any of them wanted a chance at weathering the mess that Orochimaru's tantrum was bound to cause.

If her apprentice had to choose between that young man and the whole rest of the populace- well, as gruesome as it was, there really was no other option. Konoha only had so much power without the backing of Fire Country's rightful lord; they simply could not afford to risk losing the cooperation of the daimyo.

Once she was sure that Shizune understood, she stalled only just long enough to see her apprentice bustle off, the traumatized young lord's pallid hand in her own and innumerable frazzled civilians trailing along with the woman like a bobbing sea of baby ducklings.

Then she was off as well, one of Katsuyu's more diminutive pieces clad atop her shoulder and barreling onward with Jiraiya's apparent contact trailing behind. The spider-like boy's face tinged a shade of red, a pulsating vein exerting in both his cheek and neck as he fought to keep pace with her. Tsunade's fingers flexed with frustration; even the considerate pace she'd tried to set seemed far too great for him.

"Can't you move any faster!?" God, they just didn't seem to make young ninjas like they used to, anymore!

"Perhaps if you paint him blue and roll him into a ball, he'll get faster?" Katsuyu supplied, helpfully.

"P-please don't give her any ideas! God, y-you- haaa- are ve-ry fast," Kidomaru complained, his tone taking on more of a whimper under Tsunade's baleful glare.

Whether Jiraiya trusted the boy or not, she sure as hell didn't. She could practically taste Orochimaru's taint clinging to his chakra like a skunk's stink, reeking from that putrid mark above his jugular. Part of her, a traitorous little voice that never quite left the war- it warned her to reach out and wrench his scrawny little neck before he bared his fangs. She stilted that side of herself with an absent growl, which made the boy's complexion grow pallid.

No. Surely, if she searched long enough, her sensory jutsu would eventually pick up on Naruto's trail. But that could take precious minutes that the boy might not have. Confident as she was in his abilities, she knew damn well that he didn't stand a ghost of a chance against Orochimaru. If this boy was claiming that he knew where Naruto was, she didn't have the luxury to take that for granted.

Still, "You know we're likely to run into your master if we keep on this path, yeah?"

Kidomaru flinched. He grumbled something, so low that Tsunade's ears had to strain to hear him.

"Speak up, boy! I can't hear you!"

"I said he's not my master!" Kidomaru shouted back, a sneer painting its shape in broad strokes across his face. "He threw me away! He threw all of us away!"

Ah, so that was how it was… Tsunade felt the corners of her lips curl with disgust. "So what, you want a pity party or something? This is Orochi-fucking-maru, boy; the list of people he's betrayed is longer than you and I are tall. You should have known better-" Then she stopped, the rest of her rant dying before they could reach her lips as Katsuyu's squishy head butt against her own with surprising force, knocking her jaw shut with a loud 'click'. Jaw sore and, she threw a twitchy-eyed glare at the slug boss, a curse on her tongue; both wilted under the ancient guardian's disapproving stare.

Whimsical and cooperative as the slug guardian was, Tsunade knew better than to test her patience or shirk her wisdom. She threw a glance back, taking in the hurt, smoldering on the young man's face.

He couldn't even be that much older than Naruto was…

"How old are you, boy?"

Kidomaru flinched again, one of his arms reaching up to grab its opposing elbow. "Fifteen… And my name isn't 'boy'." That last part, he mumbled, as if fearful of her imminent fury.

"Tell me your name then." She ordered, just as firmly, but with a newfound brush of gentleness.

He started, sensing the olive branch, but perchance hesitant to take it at face value. "... Kidomaru."

Tsunade nodded. "Kidomaru then… Orochimaru and I- we go way back; so I know better than most just how twisted that guy really is." She thought back, not even a full half hour ago now. How readily he had turned her dead brother and lover against her; the man had come prepared to hurt her, all because she hadn't done as he asked. "Dude's a real bastard, let me tell you that. Whatever reason he may have done what he did, I'm sure you deserved better."

Kidomaru swallowed, forcing himself to meet Tsunade's gaze. He seemed unsure of how to respond as he processed her words. "Oh…" He finally managed, lamely.

"Indeed! He once ate Lady Tsunade's pet pony- yes, the whole thing." Katsuyu added, at Kidomaru's incredulous look. "Live; with a set of chopsticks."

"Quit confusing him, Katsuyu."

"My apologies." Her tone very much said otherwise, though when Kidomaru chuckled awkwardly under his breath, Tsunade at least appreciated the Slug boss' attempt at levity. More than that though, she appreciated that her friend had put her in check- reminded her that this kid was a victim too. Orochimaru had used him up and thrown him away.

Because that was just what he did. Even when they were young, Orochimaru had been the seedy sort. Always quick to do his own thing, and often at others' expense. Though at least then, he'd still had a shred or two of empathy to check his ambitions. "How many more of you are there?"

The spider-like boy blinked rapidly, parsing out the meaning in her question. "Four- uh, technically…" Kidomaru sensed the incoming interrogation and rushed to get ahead of it. "Aside from myself, there's Tayuya, Jirobo, and Sakon and Ukon- er, they're conjoined twins so we usually count them as one." When Tsunade merely nodded, he continued. "The twins are manning the barrier to keep the civilians safe from all the creeps- er, enemies; last I saw, Tayuya- she was off trying to help those kids of yours, but I don't know-

"Is she marked like you are?" Kidomaru hesitantly nodded, confirming her query, and Tsunade glanced behind them, her senses keen. "She's with Hinata then; they're here."

Tsunade and Kidomaru's steps hit the roof of a building, and as they leapt once more, their silhouettes were joined by two more.

"Report!" Tsunade barked at the two joining girls, immediately taking charge of the pair.

Hinata momentarily fumbled, halfway through a polite greeting that died before it ever took its first breath; Tayuya though, was quick to jump in, more experienced, and recognizing the obvious chain of command.

"We've wrangled up just about every civvie we could find. At this point we've gotta just assume that if we haven't found them, they're stiffer than two dudes sword fighting."

Tsunade snorted at the girl's rather crude analogy. She glanced briefly at the girl, really only meaning to commit her face to memory. But then she did a double-take, looking at her with far greater intensity. "Your name?"

"Tayuya, ma'am. Are those real?" She asked, her eyes shamelessly plugged to Tsunade's chest.

Tsunade ignored the query. "Your family name, girl."

Tayuya flinched. "You think Orochimaru gave a fuck about our surnames?" Toxic shades of bitterness rippled across her features. "It's just Tayuya…" Then she blinked, seeming to remember where she was. Her breath hitched as she took in Tsunade's curling lip. Er- please don't punch me."

"We'll see." The older woman's gaze cut over to Hinata, who had by now reoriented herself, byakugan eyes set directly forward; her face was stony as she scouted out the scene they were arriving to. Tsunade coughed to get her attention. "Do you have eyes on Naruto?"

"Y-yes. Jiraiya-sama is a fair bit ahead of us; he'll reach him first… But- um-" Hinata did not pull her eyes away from her target. Her eyes squinted, trying to keep her eyes on her boyfriend, but the sheer volume of chakra that emitted from him, even from their current distance, was too much to bear. The flames that poured away from him- they were growing more intense by the second! She wetted her lips, steeling herself. "Naruto-kun- he's-" She did not get much farther than that before a massive torrent of violet flames finally breached the rest of their sightlines, its damage pouring closer like an ocean of ash. Hinata flinched, the veins around her byakugan partially receding to better weather the overwhelming sight. "T-that's him."

"Young Naruto-kun is a great big ball of bedazzled fire?"

"N-no I mean-" Hinata stopped herself from interjecting further, sensing late that the summoned slug was making a joke. "Erm- I-it's his best quality?"

Tayuya barely paid any attention to the byplay. "H-holy shit," she breathed, her chocolate-brown irises swelling with volume as she observed the devastating torrent of heat; hundreds of blazing claws scuttled beyond their immediate zone, carving infernal trenches through brick, stone, and even metal with a screech so loud and damning that their ears rang, even from the distance that remained between them. The sheer heat of the display rose far above, causing a sweeping displacement of air that could be felt even from their position.

She had set Jirobo up against that? When she and Kidomaru had spied on his training, she'd merely assumed he'd kick the crap out of Jirobo! Not open the freaking gates of hell on the guy! Her eyes swept over to Hinata in a panic, joined by an equally incensed Kidomaru. "O-oi! You said he wouldn't kill him!"

Hinata frowned, the veins around her eyes swelling once again as she observed the details of a scene that only she could see. "He didn't- isn't…" Then her gaze trailed over to an unusually quiet Tsunade, whose own hardened gaze pressed the girl to continue. "I'm n-not sure what's going on, but Naruto-kun's flames don't seem to be burning him at all, but… But rather, what's inside him." She looked to be at a loss at how to explain further, and both Tayuya and Kidomaru didn't seem assuaged at all.

Tsunade sighed. "I've got it." Her senses extended outward, tasting the devastation that Naruto's efforts had created. Fondly, she remarked, "Somehow that little freak has gone and merged a fire-release nature transformation with a yin-release alignment shift to create a flame with a calibrated targeting system. He's using it to completely bypass your friend, targeting the mark directly." With a scoff, she merely shook her head.

To do something like that, he'd have needed to balance a change in chakra nature with an active shift in the natural alignment of chakra. It was easier than balancing two completely different or opposing natures, sure. But only marginally… Leave it to that kid to surprise her, huh?

"Okay-" Tayuya annoyedly interjected. "Explain that to me like my IQ is my age."

Tsunade groaned. "Soul fire go burny-burny. Curse mark go 'bweh'. Is that dumb enough for you?"

"Oh!" Tayuya palmed her face. "So it's a fire-release and yin-release merger, set to burn Orochimaru's influence out of Jirobo; why didn't you just say that to begin with?" She chuckled nervously, cutting her gaze to a twitching Tsunade.

On second thought, maybe she would punch her after all.

The moment of levity was killed as another, far more frightening presence made itself known, not far from Naruto's own position.

Orochimaru…

Hundreds of his Edo Tensei were seemingly en route to the man's position, which at their present distance Tsunade could tell was coming from Tanzaku castle. Tsunade's head snapped over to regard Hinata yet again, hoping fruitlessly that the girl would somehow have seen something else entirely with her family's telescopic eyes. But no, judging by her pale look, Tsunade was not quite so fortunate.

Then Hinata grew even paler against all logic, and she began to speed up significantly.

"O-oi, Hyuga! Arms and I can't keep up with you!"

"Naruto-kun is down! I'm going!"

"Jiraiya!?" Tsunade questioned the girl, but even as she did so, her sensory jutsu was already spanning outward once more to track her old teammate's position. If he was close enough, maybe he could intervene before Orochimaru got his mitts on the boy- She gulped, sensing a lone chakra signature barring his path.

"I-I don't think-"

"Forget it!" Tsunade barked, suddenly. "You lot go bail that effeminate little bridge troll out before he gets himself killed!" She had to yell by the end, for Hinata had already begun making significant distance. To Katsuyu, she opened her mouth to speak again, but the little slug was already bobbing her head, anticipating her request.

"I will go on ahead to secure young Naruto-kun."

"Good. Look after them for me." Jiraiya would be of no help until he dealt with her…

As for Tsunade, herself- the fast approaching signatures of Dan and Nawaki told her all she needed to know.

Orochimaru didn't want Jiraiya or herself involved in his little game, and he was willing to play dirty to ensure they stayed out. No doubt, if Tsunade tried to push through without playing his little game, he'd have something especially nasty waiting on the other side for those kids.

The two former sound ninja looked stuck between trying to catch up to the fleeing Hinata or sticking with the one in charge. Locking eyes with the pair, Tsunade nodded. "If you're really on our side, go back her up. Make sure those two get out safe and sound, and my first act as Hokage will be to grant you and your friends asylum within Konoha. Understood?"

Tayuya studied the older woman's face for a moment, searching for even a hint of deceit. Then, realizing she couldn't get a read on the blonde, she sighed.

Even if the slug lady was lying to her, it wasn't like they really had much of a choice, at the end of the day.

"Say less tits- I mean toots." Tayuya hastened after Hinata, intent on getting far away from the glowering Tsunade. "Let's go Arms, before she kicks both of our asses!"

"Another freaking side-quest; wonderful." Kidomaru took one look at the older woman's face and made himself scarce, leaving Tsunade to finally come to a stop on a squat, ruined rooftop. The blackened marks of Naruto's flames licked the edge of the building, and her feet came to a stop just short of it, as if meeting an invisible barrier.

"You know this is going to be a nightmare for everyone right? Yourself included!" Tsunade called out, just before her two distractions finally descended on the building just across from her. Dan's hollowed eyes narrowed, a too-wide smirk stretching across his handsome features; his expression was mirrored, beat-for-beat, on Nawaki's youthful face. "You don't get to just lay low after this; this is a declaration of war."

Well, not like invading Konoha directly wasn't that already. But this was different; Orochimaru had involved civilians, completely separate from a ninja village; he had involved the honored nephew of Fire Country's ruling lord. Against other ninja, acts of aggression were risky, but expected. But this- "You're going to regret this, I assure you."

"Tsunade, my dear-" Her late lover's smooth voice was roughened by Orochimaru's insidious inflection. "You simply don't understand… Sometimes, sacrifices must be made to hasten the march of progress.

Then, he spoke again, this time using Nawaki's voice. "If I have to crack a few hundred- or even thousand eggs to oil the wheels- well, as any self-respecting academic, I daresay it's my duty to push the envelope!"

Tsunade bottled up the coil of fury that was threatening to snap in her chest. Seeing her two most precious people, used so flippantly by a man who she had once loved like a brother-

A deep breath. "I'll be honest, I really wanted to stay out of all of this mess- between you and sensei; you and Jiraiya… I think on some level I still considered you a friend; I knew I'd have to eventually, but I really didn't want to have to choose against you."

But this was different… He had hurt her, not because they were enemies, but because he simply wanted to. Context aside, Tsunade knew Orochimaru well enough to know the difference. "You crossed a line today… I'm going to kill you." She finally bit out, almost resigned. "Once I'm done with all of this, I'm coming for you; I'm going to hunt you to the ends of the Earth if I have to. Every one of your little hideouts; every one of your underlings; I'm going to tear everything you've built- all of it, down, and I'll go through anyone and everyone I have to, to do it." Another breath. "Then, I'm going to butcher you and scatter your remains across the lands in unmarked graves. If you manage to come back somehow, I'll do it again- however many times it takes to see you swallowed for good by the Shinigami… That's where we're at now."

She spoke calmly, with a plain, almost matter-of-factness to her words that genuinely gave Orochimaru pause. For the first time that evening, his smirk fell, like a runny egg slipping off a skillet.

He was silent for a moment, the slightest hint of trepidation floating about in Dan's hollowed eyes. The man behind the mask studied Tsunade in that moment, measuring the weight of her declaration, and the resolve in her face.

She meant every word she'd said, and for a brief moment, Orochimaru wondered to himself if he might have gone too far.

Collecting himself, Orochimaru donned his smile once again. "A brilliant speech, my dear. But before you do that, I'm afraid you'll have to kill your lover and your brother; are you sure you have the heart to do such a thing-"

Orochimaru did not get to say another word; Tsunade closed the distance in an instant, her fist carving through the air with a screech, smoking like the head of a comet. Nawaki's top half was blown apart completely, scattering ash and grime atop the building, below and behind where he'd stood. The filth that replaced the little boy's remains splattered across his sister's fist, even staining the front of her top and spattering across her stony face. His lower half swayed for a moment before it fell limply at her feet in the smoking pile of what his top half had become.

"Nah… I think it's you who doesn't understand, Orochimaru…" Tsunade slowly forced her gaze away from the mutilated corpse beneath her, cutting her eyes up to meet the wide-eyed stare of the possessed Dan. Nawaki's leg twitched, and Tsunade's foot came down with only a moment's hesitation, the heel of her shoe pulverizing the dismembered limb.

She swallowed heavily. Just the sight of her baby brother's beautiful, innocent face- always so full of life and joy. Such an earnest, loving little light, snuffed out before his time.

It killed her a little to raise her hand against him, just as had killed her that day, to see his body…

Dan, her darling lover- so kind. So kind; so earnest and charming. He had been strong too; strong for her when she needed his support most. More than anyone else, she had believed in his dream. She had rooted for him.

Her palms hammered pathetically at her fiancé's perforated chest, sputtering embers of healing chakra fizzling worthlessly against his still figure. Tsunade screamed until her throat bled and her teeth ached; her sinuses burned, swelling with emotion in twine with her bruising eyes. How she wished she could have been there, if only so she could try for him; how she wished she could have heard his last words- to hear him tell her he loved her just one last time.

Tsunade's face collided roughly with Dan's chest, trying to breathe in his telltale scent, but all she could smell was rain and blood. The realization was ice water over her head, and she lurched back as if struck, only then realizing that her palms were coated in it.

Dan's blood… Her thoughts wound back to Nawaki, of his blood clinging to her palms like a coat of paint, half-dried. Back then, she'd nearly been broken; it had only been Dan who had kept her from teetering over the edge. Orochimaru was distant; Jiraiya meant well, but he was untrustworthy- far too nosy for his own good. And sensei- She forced her thoughts to a pause, unwilling to entertain the traitorous ideas that sprung to the forefront.

Now she had no one… No one but Dan's darling little niece, who she loved as though she were her own flesh and blood… But the girl could never understand her. She was too soft, too fragile. She'd break at a touch, if Tsunade ever tried to truly embrace her.

No, she was all alone.

But she wasn't anymore, was she?

Slowly, she began to pace forward, fingers flexing with hostility as she walked down the shadow of her love- no, the arrogant little man who had dared to spit on her loss by wearing his face. "Dan and Nawaki are dead. Until about a week ago, I had nothing left…" She snickered morbidly, almost mocking herself. "Heh, I was nothing. Too broken to live; too stubborn and miserable to just die and take my bullshit to the grave with me… All I have left now is Naruto." She spoke absently, fighting back the demons that had tight-fisted her heart for far too long.

Seeing his face; hearing him speak, after so many years alone- it had been the first time in decades that she'd felt that spark of life in her; it had been the first time she'd felt her heart beat and truly known herself to be alive.

And Orochimaru's mere existence was a threat to that. More than she hated him for perverting Dan and Nawaki, she realized that she hated him for a far simpler reason at that moment.

"You're in my way." Her amber eyes glittered with unshed tears, but then they flashed, the light in her gaze almost buzzing with currents of violent energy. Her painted lips slowly curled, revealing a grin, too wide and too sharp -almost familiarly so- and soaked to the bone in murderous intentions. "And I'll walk right over your corpse to get to him."

---

Gamatoro was making good time. Jiraiya suspected they were only a few good leaps off from Naruto's location -and the glowing beacon of purple fire was certainly a strong indicator- when he sensed something amiss. It was only that feeling, purely instinctual and honed to a knife's edge through two wars and countless close calls- it was that, which allowed him to leap away, shouting a hasty warning to his mounted toad before a hail of steel barraged them from all sides.

Gamatoro grunted painfully as a series of shuriken blindsided him, shallowly biting into his warted flesh before he forcibly dispelled himself to evade further punishment. That left Jiraiya to twist in mid-air, barely managing to steer clear of another hail of weaponry before finally rolling. His geta clattered to a rough stop atop an ash-covered building, just a few hundred meters off from Naruto's location.

Keen eyes inspected the scene, taking in the familiarly rigged ninja wire, lining the space between the blocks; they were hidden well in the shadows, and even in hindsight, Jiraiya wasn't sure if he had actually seen their glint or heard their 'click', or if it merely been luck on his part.

But now that he was looking at the setup- "You know, I was really hoping I wouldn't run into you here," Jiraiya chuckled, humorlessly. His eyes flitted from the metal contraptions to find a lone, feminine silhouette, seated on a clocktower, just above him. "So who am I speaking to then, huh? Orochimaru? Some husk with your face? Or do I get the pleasure of-"

"It's me," A woman's voice cut in. She spoke lightly, with even a touch of fondness as she slowly rose to her feet. "It seems he's gone and stretched his control a bit thin… I can almost hear my own thoughts." She laughed. "My body still isn't my own though…" A sigh. "I never thought I'd be brought back to see you, face-to-face like this, sensei."

Jiraiya's lips felt too dry; they cracked and bled, faintly as his maw twisted into a bitter sneer. "Figures that bastard would wanna prepare something special for Tsunade and I, huh?"

In his own twisted way, Jiraiya suspected that Orochimaru was thinking himself affectionate, doing this to his old teammates. God, how he longed to wring that bastard's little neck!

Jiraiya put his old teammate out of his mind in favor of the woman above him. Her skin was pale and withered, just like the rest of Orochimaru's Edo Tensei; a glance at her blackened sclera confirmed that thought for him, doubly so. Even still, she looked more put together- more complete than the rest that he'd seen. The gleam of actual intelligence in her eyes was a welcome sight, compared to the empty gazes he'd grown accustomed to seeing among Orochimaru's horde. Her pretty features were smoothened into something almost pleasant, with even the faint, withering creases in her flesh doing little to detract from her beauty. Her attire was simple, yet finely worn- a dark, denim bodysuit, paired with Konoha's standard flak jacket; it was an older, bulkier model, unzipped entirely and lined with the same thick, fur collar she'd worn during their Kumo deployment. Her long, black hair had been tied up loosely, leaving her front bangs to hang loose, where they dangled well past her chin.

Last but certainly not least, the duo of 3-tomoe sharingan eyes lingering in her gaze.

"Mikoto…"

"I assume I'm here to stall you," She supplied, helplessly. She dropped down from her perch with a 'thump', landing on his rooftop with a loose bend at the knees.

"If you're aware enough to have a conversation- I hope you understand, I've got something vital to get to," Jiraiya probed, leadingly.

"Always so eager to be anywhere else…" Mikoto's lips quivered upward, though the bitterness in her eyes was painfully easy to see. "I would if I could, sensei. But whatever jutsu this is- I'm not in control… Little more than an onlooker, I suppose." She chuckled. "I'm afraid you'll have to put me down if you want to get past me."

Slowly, she rose to her full height, knuckles popping experimentally before excavating a kunai from a thigh pouch with something close to a playful flourish. "I'm afraid neither of us have much of a choice in the matter… Sorry." She began to pace forward, slowly breaking into a swift jog which ascended into an all out sprint. "But while we have each other, I've got a couple of questions, if you don't mind!"

---

He was at his limit.

Kinetic energy, amassed through physical exertion, then rotated and condensed inwardly throughout the body in a repeating, ascending circuit- every rotation that followed produced a new font of energy that was stronger, denser, and more refined than the last; every rotation that followed came faster, carrying with it a brand new wealth of energy that rippled through his body, gracing his flesh down to the very tips of his fingers and deep into the depths of his cells.

And with every rotation, that stockpile of amassed chakra jumped harder and harder.

In theory, it was a formidable discovery- game-changing, even. An exploit, like some kind of cheat code, to infinitely stockpile chakra. In theory, he should have blown the top right off his limits, opening the door for a brand new level of strength entirely!

But there was a problem.

The human body wasn't quite so simple! It had limits- clear boundaries set in stone which could not simply be brute forced away. He had tried that with Shukaku's chakra, and the end result had been catastrophic- nearly fatal, even; he wasn't keen to have a repeat of that scenario.

Without the control necessary to continually condense and regulate one-hundred-percent of that power, every rotation that swirled through his body brought with it a portion of its kinetic backlash, leaking through his tight-fisted control like ekes of water through the cracks between fingers. In small amounts, that kickback was nigh inconsequential. His body was more than resilient enough to take some shock. But every rotation brought with it a more formidable beast for him to conquer; with every completed circuit, more of that energy found its way past his defenses, ricocheting through his body without restraint, and it hurt!

His guts lurched with every cycle, threatening to wring themselves free of his lunch; even the very blood in his body threatened to boil as his energy levels spiked again and again, heating him up until his flesh reddened and steamed in open threat- a warning, that one wrong move could set his very flesh ablaze and immolate him to death.

But he couldn't stop. Not wouldn't- couldn't! Every motion he took, large and small, merely added to the rotation, perpetuating its whirl throughout his body! Nothing short of a complete cease of all movement would suffice, and even then, it could take precious minutes to stabilize.

Kushina's worry ran through him as if it were his own. "The second you do that, your energy levels will start to bottom out; your body will shut down for however long it takes you to regulate yourself… During that time, you'll be completely vulnerable!"

Great. Naruto laughed sardonically, twisting through the air to plant his feet against a wall, just before rocketing forth yet again. Molten brick blew away from his jumping-off point, twin jets of flame expunging themselves from his makeshift palms and propelling his motions to speeds that his own eyes had surrendered in trying to follow, and so he had shut them. His only saving grace now, which had prevented him from slamming to his death, was the perception afforded by his Mind's Eye jutsu. But eventually, even that would fail him if he didn't find a way to slow down!

"Do not cut those flames for even a moment!" Kushina warned, just as quickly as the thought had entered his head.

Naruto grimaced, but did not complain.

Yeah, the flames were necessary. At the moment, they were the only thing keeping his body from tearing itself apart. It had been a spur of the moment idea, an early, mutual realization of the path he was headed, and a split-second decision to replicate his earlier feat to help put those roiling waves of traitorous chakra in check; he was expending chakra as quickly as he could to stay ahead of the build-up, wrought by each rotation, and using the Uchihas' fire jutsu as his means to vent the accruing energy. Judging by the melting structure of his metallic prosthetics though- even his chains' conduits were under threat of being burnt out by the sheer volume of chakra he was working with!

"Just fucking great," Naruto moaned. It bled into a giggle that was nearly hysterical as he twisted, rotating his metallic palms and tightening the flow of his propellants. Curling himself inward, he took hold of the heat, wreathing himself in a violent body of golden flame until his resemblance was closer to that of a glowing, purple-trailed disc.

An adaptation of Whirlpool, amplified by the propulsion of his flames, and used to refine their heat into a scorching, makeshift edge.

His body cleaved through flesh, causing the nearly-severed arm of the possessed Sound ninja to flop wetly against the ground, connected only by stray strands of sinew; the blackened crisps of the severing point were still smoking as it slowly tried to pull itself together.

"HuRtS! It HuRtS! HeLp Me!?" It wheezed, stumbling about on two left feet as Naruto cut past it again in an instant, carving a blackened gouge through its back. An instant later, a similar tear curved shallowly across its collarbone, cleaving into the core of its shoulder and causing it to stumble down to a knee. "HeLp Me! PlEaSe HeLp Me!"

"I'm trying, asshole! Quit getting in the damn way!" It was unfair of him, but trying to snipe that damn snake was getting tiresome!

It certainly didn't seem concerned about using that guy's body as a meat shield.

"We're running out of wiggle room here; another few completed circuits and you're going to blow apart your chakra coils, trying to vent all that energy!" Once that happened, the remaining energy would descend upon him like a horde of feral animals. "Look, we'll need to take a gamble…" Kushina frowned, a plan slowly budding between the two. "Right now, we're moving too quickly to line up a shot properly and steer clear of our surroundings. I can definitely calibrate our scans to lock onto the snake, which oughta help a ton." A huff, then she added, "but it'll come at the cost of tunneling vision… If you miss, we're super screwed. Er- that's like regular 'screwed', but super."

He'd be lucky if all he did was slam into something and die on impact.

"So make super-duper sure I don't miss. Got it!" Naruto ricocheted across a myriad of falling debris, powdering their surfaces as he hunted for his moment. Leaping between bits of brick, Naruto used his real hands to vault over a particularly large piece, shifting his weight and tilting his body while shrinking abruptly to slip between the shallow cracks in ruined porcelain; his body resized itself nearly on instinct as he fully passed through, with Naruto firing off a barbed chain from his palm and gripping his end of it with both hands as it impaled into one of Jirobo's pectorals. Naruto used the connection to sling himself around in a half-circle around the creature, once again finding his palms and footing on a large-enough chunk of debris and pausing. The destroyed stone and brick fluttered around Jirobo's body like the remains of a constellation as Naruto primed himself.

"Now or never… I'm ready." The world seemed to slow bit by bit as Kushina locked onto their target.

"If you miss, you're grounded."

"If I miss, I'm dead."

"If you miss, you're dead and grounded… Groun-dead, if you will!"

The pair let off a conjoined bark of laughter, then the world accelerated, almost too fast for Naruto himself to even handle as he launched himself forward. His eyes teared up as he approached, his teeth gritting with effort as he tensed all of his muscles so tight they ached so as to control his trajectory. An instant, so quick that it felt surreal- then he was in front of the snake, and his strike rang true like the sing of a gong. The knuckles of his index and middle finger splintered painfully on contact with the beast, and its body reeled upward, dragging even the Sound nin's flagging body along with it as its flight began. Its host body barely caught itself on unsteady feet, rearing up with its crushing jaws to capture Naruto as he fell, still reeling from the impact, himself.

"Move!" Naruto heeded Kushina's command more on reflex than anything else, twin jets of flame arcing forward to blindly concentrate themselves toward the still dazed snake, which screamed as its flesh and scales bubbled off from its blackening bones like melting butter. The blowback of the exchange sent Naruto spiraling back, rolling messily against the ground before launching himself back up with a handspring; it was only by the grace of luck that his hands and feet once again found the wall of a nearby building at the end of his trajectory. Then he was rocketing forward yet again, this time more prepared and with a four-fingered claw venting flames from the tips that sliced the jaw right off Orochimaru's serpent. He kicked off the falling gore, bouncing twice more on his surroundings as he wound around before coming in again with a heavily-curved scythe this time, transmuted from his other makeshift limb. Its molten edge carved through the body of the parasite, nearly severing it cleanly from Jirobo's body; scales and viscera tore from its body, with only scraps of loose flesh working double-time to keep it from falling entirely.

Damnit, his aim had been a bit off; it was already pulling itself back together!

"Ah screw this!" Kushina moaned, giving up entirely on maintaining any semblance of composure. "It's weakened! Just flash fry this little jerk!"

"Yeah, I was done with this guy two boss phases ago!" Naruto threw out his scythe, carving into the ground to catch his footing before rocketing forward. "Dance of Storms: Leafhopper Bound!" His leap crumbled the ground beneath his feet and carried him forward with such speed that his body stretched unnaturally with his velocity. Naruto tucked his body in as he flew, slimming his profile down to that of a curling ball before twisting just before he reached Jirobo's body. "Dance of Mountains: Zebra Kick!" Naruto collided both-feet-first into the behemoth's chest with such force that his own leading ankle swelled and purpled on contact.

"Ouchies." Okay, he was thoroughly at his limit.

His propellant flames spiked in their output, releasing a pair of shockwaves that shook his entire body as he drove his blow through before kicking off, sending himself skybound.

Jirobo's body carved a trench through the earth as it tumbled backward, rolling along its path before finally crashing in a pathetic heap against the walls of a small chapel. As it impacted, Naruto twisted in mid-air, a multitude of rose-gold shuriken flicking into place between his fingers; a whirl of metal saw the myriad throwing stars chasing after it, embedding into its flesh and squeezing free ekes of blood on contact. Then they exploded outward, unraveling into several masses of chains that interlocked with one another. As the restraints locked into place, their violet-flamed runoff branded it with their marks and pinned it down. At the same moment, Naruto's feet landed unsteadily at the peak of a light-post.

A deep sigh swelled from deep within Naruto's chest, his fingers twitching with unbridled energy, even as his flames' expulsion began to ebb. Instead, its heat erupted in his torso, sparking from deep in his core until their sound breached his lips, popping off on the tip of his tongue.

"Something, something- 'The power of the sage compels you.' That's how exorcisms work, yeah?" A shrug from Kushina made him chuckle, then Naruto was weaving through hand seals yet again to invoke Sasuke's flames.

But this time, with a twist!

The conversion of one alignment to another was costly; at his current level of finesse, he estimated that brute forcing it like this would leave him with less than half his total accrual of chakra at the end. As it was, he just so happened to have far more of the stuff than he knew what to do with, and a ton of incentive to get rid of it all.

Good riddance!

Yang chakra was converted to a pure yin-alignment, then imbued itself with fire as it ignited in his chest. His lungs and the muscles surrounding them ached with a need for relief, golden sparks lighting up with increasing intensity between his clicking jaws. Plumes of violet smoke puffed from his lips, rolling off with scalding hot fury so intense and chaotic that his face stung and his hair frizzed at the ends, bristling as if electrocuted! Just a few more seconds until it was ready…

Hmm… What should he call this?

"Oi, name it later! We're not doing this right now!"

The Sound ninja's body began to struggle, screeching and sobbing against the walls of the chapel. Its remaining limb pawed pathetically at the chains ensnaring its body, lacking even the strength to dislodge them from its flesh.

'We need a few seconds anyways to finish the shift or it won't work properly! What's the problem?'

Kushina groaned. "Naruto, my sweet, beautiful angel boy who I love so dearly, please for the love of god, focus on the damned jutsu!"

'I'm just saying it'd be pretty lame to do this and not have a name to call! What kind of artist doesn't name their creations? Would you want to be the one to fire a nameless jutsu!?'

"...Fair point. Alright then, hurry up and name the thing!"

'Maybe Spirit-fire Burny-Burn'?

"You're not even trying!"

'I've got performance anxiety because you're rushing me! Do you want a lame, half-cocked jutsu? Because this is how you get a lame, half-cocked jutsu!'

"Fine, how about the Searing Migraine?"

'That's already taken!'

"By who!?"

'Some asshole from Takigakure!'

Their argument was cut short by a sudden eruption of chakra behind Naruto. A bead of sweat dribbled down his back as Kushina's scans took it in.

It was dozens of screams laid over one another, each fighting over one another to drown the other out. They were tortured, raw and teeming so thoroughly with confusion that Naruto felt dizzy just feeling it! At the head of it all was a dark amusement, so twisted and alien that the Uzumaki pair was sent reeling. That presence- as if it were aware that it was being observed, it suddenly spiked, envenomed fangs threatening to dig beneath their flesh and pump them full of its venom.

Naruto's blood was ice in his veins as his mind finally put a name to that feeling.

Orochimaru. It was the first time ever actually sensing the man with his sensory jutsu, and yet somehow, he knew the man at a glance; he was every bit as monstrous as Naruto could have possibly imagined.

Below him, the Sound ninja's body began to shift, the bluing veins underneath its flesh wriggling like hundreds of snakes burrowing. Its watery screams only seemed to intensify, and Naruto could swear that Orochimaru's snake seemed to be getting even larger; it yanked itself forward, prying itself further from Jirobo's slackened jaw in a violent discharge of saliva.

"Boy, if you don't fire that damn thing right now."

"Firing!" Naruto yelped, eyes hardening as he took in a breath "Hellfire-Style: Flames of Despair!"

"That sounds ridiculous!"

"You're ridiculous!" The smoke in his mouth detonated, and violet flames erupted into the air; they burst forward with such potency that Naruto staggered to maintain his balance as they coalesced together into myriad hostile shapes, hundreds of clawed limbs twisted loosely into shape like a sea of trampling, hellish spiders' legs; they clamored over one another with a torturous shriek as they clawed their way toward Jirobo's restrained body. It screamed as their impact rocked it, bashing against the walls of the chapel and causing its structure to rapidly crumble down to a mass of infernal slag. All around them, the flames writhed with chaotic affiliations, reaching for the surrounding structures to suck them into their madness. The space around them warped and twisted, distorting under the sheer volume of spiritually-charged flame that cast themselves well past their target range to finally bleed down their block and the next.

Jirobo's body was lost entirely in the ocean of flame, which only grew with further intensity as Naruto continued to pour on all of his stockpiled chakra. His head began to ache, like it was splitting under the work of a chisel as he fought to maintain his focus against the fiery construct.

No! He needed it contained! Only the snake!

But he could hardly focus at all through the pain!

Its size doubled, then doubled again as the sheer concentration of fire caused it to roar nearly out of control, until it seemed on the verge of engulfing even himself.

"Damnit, cut the flow before you lose control and the fire eats you too!"

The deluge of heat sputtered to a stop, and it was a barely-conscious Naruto who remained as the flames finally parted. He stood, teetering with limply hanging arms; they tried to flex, but Naruto found in that moment that he had nothing left to give. The boy fell forward, not an ounce of strength left in his body as he tumbled off the edge of the ruined skeleton of a mutilated light post. A single, chipped chain shot out from his spine, breaking off on the ashen lip of one of the buildings behind him, but softening his fall enough to allow him to crash mostly painlessly into the blackened mass that lay below him; it dyed his skin and clothing in deep, blackened charcoal.

"Thanks," He rasped. Kushina's fingers painted tones of comfort across his brow.

He could barely even lift his head. Naruto's eyes strained upward to regard the scene he'd created, and he paled.

Ash. The entire block had been reduced to a blackened ash, which had slowly begun to crumble away from them, blown along by the winds. His gaze spanned beyond that space, confirming for himself that the next several hundred meters past that point had suffered a similar fate. Countless, trench-like scars littered the surrounding area, carving deeply, far beyond even beyond the burnt space.

"... Fuck, I shoulda called it Devil's Blossom."

"Oh come on! That would've been so good!" Kushina moaned. Naruto could hear and feel her palm connecting with her own forehead.

"Ouchies."

"S-sorry… Yeah, that's weird." Then she paused. A wet choking sound came from the woman and Naruto was no better; his stomach twisted painfully with dread before she even thought to speak. "Oh you've gotta be kidding me!

The sound of the Sound ninja's watery groans only confirmed for him what his chakra sense was telling them.

"Ah, h-hello failure."

In his mind's eye, he saw the lumbering beast, covered in blackened ash and wheezing breathlessly, but still in motion. Despite the surrounding damages, much of his body was untouched by the flames.

That was hardly the cause for concern, as that had been Naruto's intention.

The use of yin-release to calibrate his flames with a spiritual targeting system- by shifting the 'perception' of its target to distinguish between the host body and its commanding parasite- it should have allowed him to focus every ounce of his flames' destructive capacity on that piece of Orochimaru and nothing else…

But he had overestimated himself. Whether it was the pain incited by attempting to command such a high yield of yin-chakra, or even just plain inexperience, he'd let the flames get away from him. Much of their effects had been wasted, bleeding into the surroundings instead of burning Orochimaru's influence to nothing!

The Sound nin's presence was weak, but surprisingly more aware than ever before, since that damned snake had manifested itself. Orochimaru's influence, unlike the main body, had been burnt nearly to a petrified crisp.

'Nearly', being the major cause for concern and his current source of pain, for a tiny piece of its chakra had remained, and was very much still flowing!

Slowly, the ruined, blackened remnants of flesh began to flake away in favor of ivory scales. Flesh swelled back into form, creeping over charred bone like a fungus spreading over land. Its deadened eyes blinked twice with newfound awareness as its form began to reconstitute itself after a moment.

Jirobo's wounded groans devolved into panicked choking as the skeletal, mending snake slowly continued in melding itself back together. Then it once again began to writhe, wrenching itself further from the boy's panicking throat as it continued to grow.

"Hmph! Urk!" Jirobo retched, saliva frothing at the corners of his stretched too-wide jaw as the still-growing body of the serpent was painfully vomited free from its host; his shuddering jaw cracked and splintered and tears squeezed themselves loose from his bloodshot eyes.

Finally, the snake pried itself free in its entirety, its body plodding onto the ground with a heavy 'thump', before coiling away from its discarded husk; the effects of the curse mark began to recede from Jirobo, who began to spasm as it took its power with it.

"O-Orochimaru-sama?" He slurred, agony clawing at him as his scarred, remaining arm tried to reach across to hold his still-severed belly together. "P-please! I don't want to-" His mouth began to foam, tears welling up and falling in greater quantities as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. His mangled, dirtied fingertips pried weakly at his own flesh before finally spasming to a halt, the blackened edges of his severed belly stretching across all the way in the grotesque facsimile of a black-lipped grin.

The snake, now fully free, slowly rose to its full height where it dwarfed Naruto and Jirobo both, slithering its way about as if testing its new range of movement.

"Fucking hell," Naruto wheezed, his gaze panning past the beast to regard the withering corpse of Orochimaru's abandoned underling. Nearly all of his chakra had been taken by that parasitic snake as it abandoned its host. What little had remained in the boy was rapidly plummeting trying to stabilize him against his wounds, most egregious of which had been inflicted by his grisly transformation in the first place.

Not good…

"You shoulda just let me name the damn jutsu," Naruto tried to joke, mostly to settle the dread sinking into the pit of his stomach.

"Y-yeah. It probably would've worked if we gave it a cooler name… On the bright side, it probably couldn't get much wor-"

"Don't say it!"

Then, as several dozen 'blips' intruded on the radar of his Mind's Eye. Naruto groaned at the sight of reanimated ninja storming onto the scene. Those dozens multiplied into the hundreds, and it was at that moment that their stampeding footfalls reached his ears as well.

"Hehe… Whoops?"

"You know what? You're grounded." Naruto growled at his sheepish mother, who had begun to awkwardly rub the back of her head. "Ah well, I hear being mauled to death by a bunch of dead guys ain't such a bad way to go." Naruto could not do any more than tense himself in anticipation of pain.

…

But then he blinked, slowly coming back to awareness with the realization that the innumerable rushing bodies had begun to barrel past him, not one of them so much as sparing him a glance.

What the hell was going on!?

Naruto and Kushina shared their revulsion as the large serpent suddenly took notice of the approaching mob of Edo Tensei. Quick as a flash, it swooped downward, scooping a withered ninja into its maw, which began to bubble up and overflow with a new wave of familiar, frothing rot.

"Oh- Oh, that's not good." Kushina gulped, a theory building brick by brick. She seemed almost hesitant to continue even when Naruto's questioning thoughts began to prod at her own. "We were working under the idea that the Sound kid was the experiment and the snake was just the link sustaining the process… "

Naruto picked up the rest of her thoughts and blanched. "The snake was the ultimate experiment the whole time; that guy was just its meal until it could act on its own…"

"And now that it's done feeding, it doesn't need him anymore. It's ready to feed itself… And here comes the meal."

The serpent continued to feed, swooping down to collect another mouthful of shambling, withered ninja. All the while, Naruto could do little else but observe, his body still unable to do anything more than lay paralyzed while he was made to watch. Steadily, its large form continued to grow, and each mouthful brought with it a larger scoop to feed even greater gluttony

And there were even more of those things incoming!

It hit Naruto all at once, what Orochimaru was trying to do. "It's a giant beast made of an asston of chakra… You don't think-"

"Oh… Yeah, that's not good at all!"

---

"It's beautiful, is it not?" Orochimaru marveled, reverently. His eyes were bright and wide with something that was almost fatherly as he tore his gaze away from the massive-and-growing serpentine shape ahead of them. Fixing Kimimaro within his sights, he grinned. "Well, my dear? Would you say this little detour of ours was worth it?"

Kimimaro nodded slowly- dumbly, even. "I-if you're happy, my lord, then I am satisfied."

There was a long, almost loud silence that followed that for a good couple of seconds. Then, "That's not what I asked," Orochimaru bit back, a touch frustratedly. Kimimaro blinked, taking in the suddenly hard expression on his lord. Looking into the man's slitted eyes, it occurred to Kimimaro all at once that maintaining all of those reanimated ninja might be taking a toll on him, for his master was rarely so direct.

Orochimaru thrust an arm out, silently commanding his underling to marvel with him at his beloved monster, which had begun to writhe, painfully. From the length of its neck-area, several swelling tumors began to sprout, bulging with such mass that its head struggled to hold itself up. A painful screech tore from the deformed creature, even as it dipped low once more, scooping another mass of bodies into its maw.

Kimimaro swallowed uncomfortably, watching the mass of orange bile dissolve its devoured corpses. "I would never dare lie to you, my lord-" His vision cut to Orochimaru, whose curious gaze had grown almost predatory. "It is truly a remarkable sight; though, I can't help but feel a touch… Revolted, looking at it."

"Ah, such an honest boy…" Orochimaru sighed, almost sadly.

Of course he would not understand its value. For all of his resolve on his behalf, Kimimaro was such an earnest, gentle boy. Often too gentle for his own good… "Perhaps it was a bit ambitious of me to hope for a different reaction, hmm?"

"A-ah, Orochimaru-sama!" Kimimaro swallowed, hesitant to risk upsetting the Snake Sannin any further. "Per-haps if I could understand its purpose, I might be able to better appreciate its value?"

Immediately, Orochimaru perked up, his grin once again finding his features. "Of course, my dear." He gestured again to the massive, grisly figure that grew before them. "I may have been a touch… Cagey about the true purpose of us coming here; I was rather hoping you'd be a bit more appreciative of your surprise…"

Was that bitterness that he sensed in his master's voice?

"Ah, but no matter! It's true that I wished to test and refine the Edo Tensei. But now that I have done so, I simply have no further use for such weak bodies in my collection. All that these nameless rabble have accomplished this evening- a single one of my more prized toys could have done in half the time. That is to say, they are all quite expendable."

Kimimaro did not dare tear his eyes away from the carnage that occurred below. Repeatedly, the massive serpentine kaiju ducked its oversized head down to scoop another heap of dumbly loitering Edo Tensei into its maw. Their bodies were broken down in mere moments by the bubbling, orange liquid that dispensed from within, like some macabre slop of withered flesh and chakra.

"So- please correct me if I am wrong, my lord… But are you disposing of them?"

"In a sense." Orochimaru rose to his feet, dusting himself off. "Though, I would never be so foolish as to merely throw away an asset before it has truly lost its value. No, what I am doing is… Repurposing them."

"R-repurposing?"

"Mhm…" Orochimaru reached down, offering his hand to his most loyal follower, who cast away his discomfort to accept the offered appendage. Kimimaro was hauled to his feet where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the man, whose eyes seemed to almost glisten with unmistakable pride and joy.

To see the man who had given him everything look so emotional- for Kimimaro, it made all of the carnage worth it, and then some.

A long moment passed as the Snake Sannin merely marveled at the mutating monstrosity that he had assembled. Then he seemed to remember that he'd been speaking. "The Edo Tensei- it would be inaccurate to suggest that it revives the dead. At this current level, it is closer to say that it shackles their souls from the pure world, and creates its best approximation of them from the imprint of their souls; it is an echo."

Kimimaro frowned in thought. "So a copy then?"

"In a sense, though, even that would be a rather generous interpretation…" Orochimaru paused for a moment, seemingly deep in thought before continuing where he left off. "These echoes possess only a fraction of the capacity of the originals. Barring particularly exemplary choices with truly strong wills or desires, they even lack any real will or minds of their own, which limits their abilities even further. Someday, I hope to advance this jutsu to a point where I can truly call on the full strength and minds of the real things, though even for one such as myself, such a feat is likely quite far into the future."

How fortunate then, that he would soon have all the time in the world to do so.

Not feeling quite done with his explanation, Orochimaru began to ramble on. "Hmm… Think of the originals as batteries, of a sort. For the shells that the battery is used to power- their capacity depends on the quality of the bodies sacrificed as shells, as well as the proficiency of the caster of the Edo Tensei. However, so long as that shell exists in some fashion or another, even down to the motes of ash that make up its form, the Edo Tensei's ability to draw from that battery will remain- well, perhaps damaged, but nonetheless serviceable.

All at once, Kimimaro understood. "This creation of yours… It is a singularity-"

"Through which all of these batteries may flow, yes. For what is a Bijuu, if not merely an extraordinary mass of chakra?" Lines of amusement populated Orochimaru's visage as his explanation finally clicked for the albino boy. His fanged teeth glinted dangerously. "Some flavors may be lost in the mix of ingredients. But the most important things are there! Raw, unbridled, nourishing chakra. The perfect meal for my newest pet!"

---

It had been quite some time since Jiraiya had had to face a fully realized sharingan- a detail, which he was sorely realizing he had taken for granted.

"Tell me about my sons!" Mikoto demanded as she flanked him, feinting a straight rush before ducking underneath his lashing elbow. She cartwheeled in a show of acrobatics, evading his follow-up sweep before planting herself. Then her hands joined in a 'tiger' seal and she became a blur.

Mikoto was a streak of dark colors, her body warping against his vision as she flitted about too fast for his eyes to easily track.

Experience was on his side though, and Jiraiya was certainly no slouch in movement, himself! He spun in a half-circle, steering clear of a pair of kunai. Then, throwing his forearms up, he guarded his face, just fast enough to ward off a kick; it slammed into his guard, and though its impact was manageable, Jiraiya saw the attack for what it truly was, holding his guard stalwartly as Mikoto shifted her weight, grappling his leading arm between her thighs with a crushing hold and palming a kunai in the same motion. Even prepared as he thought he was, her sudden weight was enough to yank him off balance as her momentum cut and she fell, and Jiraiya's only recourse to protect his suddenly exposed face was to duck his head low, allowing the dagger to scrape harmlessly against his forehead protector.

"Well after your eldest killed you all, he went and linked up with a bunch of terrorists," Jiraiya bit out, sympathetically.

Finally catching himself, Jiraiya heaved, lifting the smaller woman up with his one arm before sniping her armed wrist with a quick palm thrust. Her kunai flung free from her grip, clattering to the far side of the rooftop, some meters away, and Jiraiya took only a brief moment to regard it. Then, with her disarmed, Jiraiya gripped her wrist, ripping her loose from his other arm and rearing back to slam her into the ground. A knife-handed chop at his own wrist from Mikoto hurt his own grip just enough for her to yank herself free, leaving Mikoto to tumble through the air before rolling along the rooftop, mostly unharmed- save from her eyes. The wounded look in her gaze, at his words. It was obvious enough how she was feeling.

"And Sasuke?"

"He's-" Jiraiya considered lying for a moment, if only to spare the woman's heart, but he knew that she would know. Besides, the truth would be kinder, even if it'd be harder to swallow. "He's in a coma… Itachi got to him."

"I-I…" He saw the exact moment that her heart seemed to break. Yet, even in her dazed state, her body continued to move against her own will. Her fingers clasped together again to form a tiger seal, and Jiraiya bit back a groan.

Mikoto loved her fifty-fifties. Her next move would either be the Body Flicker, or a one-seal cast of the Fireball Jutsu. What's more, she was damn good at miming the flow of either, and as he was, her old master simply didn't have the sensory jutsu needed to call her bluff.

That tiny moment's hesitation cost him a precious second, as her chest began to swell, flames sparking at her lips.

"Shit! Tiger, horse, boar, ram, rat, snake…" Jiraiya blurred through his hand seals at a record pace, and his hair began to grow and thicken, beginning to wrap itself around him. "Ninja Art: Needle Jizo-"

Eyes centered on Mikoto, his eyes trailed just behind her, lingering on the discarded kunai just by her feet.

The seal he'd marked her kunai with when he'd disarmed her- it was out of place.

"Release!" His chakra flared, destabilizing her genjutsu; Mikoto's form blurred, and Jiraiya's eyes widened as he finally caught onto her ploy, proper. Half-a-dozen shuriken were en route to his location, the fastest of which was set to collide with his skull before his jutsu could fully protect him.

The Needle Jizo offered a great deal of protection, but in exchange for limiting his movement. He had no way to dodge. Luckily, he had developed his next jutsu specifically to compensate for that!

And how fortunate, as he once again suspected something amiss.

Transitioning from its parent technique was as simple as a single 'rat' hand sign. "Needle Hell!" From his guarding hair he fired a barrage of needles, each closer to small javelins; they fired off at unfathomable speeds, several of which were aimed to deflect each of the incoming whirling blades, while a larger hail focused its fire onto Mikoto, who was simply unable to evade them all even with the kinetic vision afforded by her sharingan.

What's more, she knew from experience that few defensive jutsu could survive even one of those barbs of his, let alone a whole barrage of them. Instead, she simply threw her arms up, using her sharingan to track the oversized senbons' trajectory and protect her vitals.

Jiraiya's hunch was proven correct as her shuriken were sent wide, just before their forms began to glow, first with a reddish tint, then white hot, all within the span of a second. A sharp whistling noise began to sound from the deflected blades, right before they each exploded, each in a sizable ejection of heat and shrapnel.

Jiraiya tightened his Needle Jizo's protective shroud around himself, warding off the stray heat and metal.

Heh, Mikoto's iconic Flak Shuriken never failed to impress. A fire-release change in chakra nature to superheat metal then suddenly expand from within. The result? A sudden explosion of molten metal, ejected in a cone towards the poor fool in her sights.

Luckily, his hair was very fireproof while in this protective transformation -a lesson he'd had to learn repeatedly during its developmental stage-, even if he could do without the burning smell…

Then, Jiraiya registered the pain in his thigh and he blanched.

"Oh you sneaky bitch! You snuck a regular shuriken into the shadow of the first batch, huh!?"

What's more, she had managed to slip it through the gaps in his Needle Jizo, using the sharingan's perception to find the chinks in his armor. Not just that, but she'd also had the foresight to recognize that another rigged shuriken would likely alert him in time, so she'd settled for simply cutting at the tendons in his thigh with regular cut was thankfully shallow, having missed anything vital through his own protections.

But the fact that she'd managed to draw blood from him at all…

Honestly, he had forgotten how talented she had been; the sheer depths of her potential, which he had often taken for granted in favor of Minato. How great could she have become if he had been more attentive to her? Would she be alive today, if he had simply done more for her?

Mikoto said nothing for a moment, her hands falling limp by her sides. Crumbles of ashen dust broke away from the gaping holes in her withering body, where his attack had punched entirely through. Were she truly flesh and blood, the fight would have been over right then and there, even with her efforts to protect herself… Instead, she didn't so much as flinch at her wounds, which had already begun to seal themselves back up. Mikoto didn't even seem to register his jeer, instead focusing on his earlier words. "Why would Itachi do such a thing?" Mikoto muttered, absently. "Us, I understand. But why Sasuke?"

Jiraiya frowned at that first part. She understood? What did that even mean? "Er- I don't know."

"Will Sasuke- will he recover?"

"I-I don't know… We're trying but-"

"Well what do you know!?" Mikoto damn-near whined. Her eyes were downcast, her hand fighting to hover above her chest before snapping into a 'tiger' seal. "Maybe it's selfish, but I-I would have thought you'd have at least looked out for them a little bit!"

Jiraiya winced. Truthfully speaking, he hadn't thought much of those boys at all… He and Mikoto hadn't really been close- at least, not nearly as much as he and Minato had been. Maybe it was just him resonating with the boy, from one orphan to another. But Jiraiya knew in his heart that he had played favorites with his kids.

But seeing the hurt in her gaze- it was a reminder of just how highly the woman in front of him had once thought of him. It reminded him of a whole trio of sparkling eyes, eager and full of adoration; two of those sets of eyes had only grown dimmer with time as he showered the third with training and attention while the others went underappreciated

It reminded him again of his own failures- of how thoroughly and repeatedly he had shirked his duties, and wasn't that getting tiresome, at this point?

But it was true… He had barely even done more than kept tabs on Naruto. He hadn't even bothered to do that much for Mikoto's boys. Hell, he hadn't even spoken to the woman in nearly half a decade before her death. The only reason he even knew as much as he did was because of their interactions with Naruto. Itachi as an Akatsuki operative, and Sasuke as Naruto's teammate.

Mikoto shouldn't have needed to ask him to give a damn about her kids… That should have been a given!

Jiraiya sighed, shifting his hair-armor to cover his punctured thigh while discreetly swiping the wound's blood onto his thumb.

"He has a friend," Jiraiya finally announced to Mikoto, whose gaze snapped up to him. "Kushina's boy, Naruto. They're friends… Best friends- er, I think. He got hurt protecting Naruto from Itachi; the kid talks about him constantly."

Something close to hope seemed to sprout anew in the woman's face, at that. A soft chuckle bubbled up in her, then she laughed loudly, just before her jutsu activated, and her body once more became a blur; this time she was much, much faster than before.

The Body Flicker jutsu, pushed to its highest, most reckless level, and used in tandem with the Sharingan's kinetic vision to offset its typical weakness of tunnel vision. Used at such a level- it was a technique that she had pioneered in a bid just to keep up with Minato's natural speed, back when they were a team under Jiraiya and she'd stubbornly fancied herself the boy's rival.

Shisui Uchiha would later take that strategy to a level beyond even that, allowing him to sustain the Body Flicker's speed in perpetuity, rather than the short bursts that Mikoto had often favored.

Whichever version it was, the speed it offered was formidable. Though, Mikoto's in particular had a fairly glaring weakness-

Her form blitzed about, and Jiraiya gave up entirely on trying to track her movements, instead clasping his hands and biding his time.

For as impressive as her movements were, they were ultimately a bluff. To sustain the jutsu at max output, she would need to maintain that 'tiger' seal, limiting her options.

All he had to do was wait for his moment.

Around him, a faint, translucent barrier began to extend from his body, doming itself just a few short feet around him. A conditional-type barrier, imbued with a simple alarm genjutsu he'd learned to help him wake up in the mornings as a mere child, learning under Hiruzen alongside Tsunade and Orochimaru.

No doubt those eyes of hers would see the bubble, but that was irrelevant, because there was a big weakness to that Body flicker of hers. Used at the level that she had pushed it to, her sharingan's kinetic vision needed to be focused entirely on compensating for her own reckless movements, rendering her incapable of its more defensive applications. Now, she was locked in totally on offense.

And now she had to make a choice.

Her preferred attack would be a melee; ninja tools were unlikely to seal the deal against an opponent of his caliber without proper set up, and casting ninjutsu would require that she halt the flow maintaining her Body Flicker. But each approach came with inherent weaknesses. If she entered melee range to attack, the barrier's alarm would warn him and then its conditional effect would trigger. Between the two, Jiraiya was more than quick enough to counterattack. If she opted for a ranged attack with shurikenjutsu, she would need to slow down for the sake of accuracy if she wanted to make it past his Needle Jizo again, and that would be his moment to counter attack with his Needle Hell, which she simply lacked the tools to reliably deal with. If she went to cast a ninjutsu, she would have to disable the Body Flicker entirely to do so, and it would take her precious moments to begin its cast once more. In that time, Jiraiya could drop the barrier and punish her with a ranged attack of his own- the likes of which he had no plans of letting her recover from, this time.

"Up for a game of chicken, Mikoto!?"

Mikoto's blurred form ripped through the air at chaotic speeds, her footsteps sounding all around him with clear delay, making for a violent cacophony of noise.

Clearly, whatever force was possessing her had come to the very same conclusion.

Then something entered his barrier, and Jiraiya whipped around in an instant, ready to respond.

Except it wasn't Mikoto. Instead, her discarded vest collided with his outstretched elbow, Jiraiya's teeth gritting with annoyance at the ploy.

But he had not dropped his barrier, and as Mikoto's lithe shape finally breached his dome, sliding into place just behind him with a kunai white-knuckled in her grip, the conditions of his barrier were met.

"After the barrier's field is breached by an entity of sufficient weight, change the barrier's technique to target the intruder at max output."

He had gotten a good enough feel for how heavy Mikoto was in their first exchange, and he had even thought to account for her vest or some other distraction, knowing her inclination toward her fifty-fifties.

"Sorry kiddo, that's checkmate."

The alarm he'd imbued into his barrier went off, sounding in Mikoto's head with such volume that her body went stiff mid lunge. Its screech was for her ears only, and it caused the woman to spasm violently as her body was wracked by its abuse.

"Huh… Would you look at that- I can't move at all!" Mikoto marveled, seeming awfully pleased with the situation, even as her body continued to spasm. The situation might have even appeared comical, were the context not so dark. "I never would've thought to use an E-ranked alarm genjutsu to immobilize someone!"

"That's why you're the student and I'm the master!" Jiraiya bragged with a laugh. "Truth be told, if you'd chosen to cast a jutsu I was just gonna summon a toad onto you the second you slowed down. Er- that doesn't hurt, does it?"

"I can't feel a thing," Mikoto assured him, pleasantly. Then, more solemnly, she added, "You should probably hurry and seal me up before my body recovers again."

Jiraiya was already on it, a small scroll unraveling and already being decorated with the skeleton of a containment seal.

"For what it's worth, it was good seeing you again, Mikoto," Jiraiya muttered, forlornly. "Though I wish the conditions weren't so- well, shitty."

"Yeah…" Mikoto muttered back, almost absently. "Sensei, I-"

Anticipating her request, Jiraiya cut in, gently. "I'll take care of it, Mikoto- er, of them… I'm sorry it took me so long to get my head out of my ass. But I'll do what I can for them- for Sasuke, at least… I swear it."

She was silent for a long moment. Then she merely shut her eyes. "Mhm…"

Another few moments, and the body of his late student was sealed away. Jiraiya rose to his full height, throwing his head back and groaning.

"When I get my hands on you Orochimaru, I'm going to make you shit a toad."

---

When he had been alive, Dan had once fancied himself a candidate for Fourth Hokage. When pitted amongst the myriad candidates in competition for the role, Tsunade had to admit that her late lover had never held a snowball's chance in hell amongst those in the running. Certainly not against the likes of Orochimaru or even herself, had she been inclined for the position.

But that didn't change the fact that her heart had believed in him. What's more, her fiancé surely was not weak by any means. At his peak, he had been a highly vaunted jonin of formidable strength and prestige; easily among the best in their force, and sporting a unique, self-made jutsu which had earned him a moniker of his own across the battlefields of the second war.

"Fucking Wraith," Tsunade cursed in annoyance as her fist once again passed harmlessly through his form. Her momentum carried beyond her position, leveling the building where they stood and even the ground beneath that; falling debris erupted all around them, forcing Dan to re-materialize to catch his footing and leap away from her.

Yeah, Dan's Spirit Transformation Jutsu was a real pain in the ass. Being a first-generation technique, it was one with minimal documentation, and it wasn't like anyone who had known its mechanics and weren't dead as hell were keen to speak on it. Many outsiders simply assumed it was the work of a rare bloodline mutation, which had died with its only known inheritor. Tsunade knew personally that his jutsu was merely the result of Dan's own hard work and ingenuity.

In layman's terms, he had simply honed the ability to transform his body into an aspect of pure spiritual energy, rendering himself immune to physical attacks. Additionally, and more concerningly at that, his ability to interact with the spiritual energy of other people while in this state afforded him the agency to dominate and possess the bodies of a lesser or weakened opponent.

For someone like Tsunade who traditionally favored overwhelming physical might to get the job done, it meant that someone like him should have had a natural advantage against her…

Tsunade twitched, then tilted just enough to avoid the dual-whirling of approaching shuriken. Glancing after their trajectory, she spotted the still-reconstituting shape of Nawaki, one of his mangled arms outstretched; Orochimaru's mocking sneer stitched itself atop the still mending head of her baby brother piece-by-piece like the fragments of a jigsaw puzzle.

"Yeah, no!" Tsunade lashed out with her leg, letting a swell of chakra flow through the limb and adhere to surrounding debris as she did so; her motion captured an amassing ball of ruined brick, wood, and metal as she carried the momentum of the growing mass to line up her shot. Then, when it had grown to nearly twice her size and many-times her weight, she detached herself from the pile, twisting while upside-down.

"Dance of Tides: Whip strike," she hissed, the entire length of her arm snapping out with an unnatural curve. A loud 'crack' sounded at the curve of her fingers, sending the accrued mass rocketing toward the still-recovering Nawaki with such speed that the air around the approaching object screeched and ignited as it approached. The possessed boy had only enough time to glance up at the charging sphere before it smashed into him with explosive force, crushing him underneath the several tons of debris.

"That oughta keep you off my ass for a bit." Tsunade twisted in mid-air, dropping down gracefully and extending her senses to feel for the suspiciously quiet presence of Dan.

He'd always been tough to track, even with the Mind's Eye Jutsu; his spiritual body had no mass or physical presence to observe, and the complete absence of physical chakra left his chakra with no real anchor, which made even tracking his spiritual presence a real pain; as far as her senses were concerned, he was nowhere and all around her, all at once.

But there was a trick to it.

Tsunade twitched again, then dropped down low just as Dan's translucent body soared past her, the spear-point of his fingers primed to attack.

While she couldn't sense exactly where he was, she could use her combined senses to confirm where he wasn't. From there, she could feel for his intent and use that to deduce where and how he was coming at her.

But that wasn't all. The ground beneath her feet splintered as she shot forward after his lingering shape.

While Dan could interact with spiritual objects like the soul while in his transformed state, he couldn't interact with the physical world. This limited his movement options, demanding that he transform back into a physical form in order to walk or run. In life, his typical strategy had been to leap after targets, often transforming briefly into his spiritual state only at the last possible moment to evade attacks or deliver attacks of his own while foes were caught off guard.

Dan's foot touched the ground, his weight shifting the debris around them ever-so-slightly as he was forced to materialize. In that very same instant, Tsunade's fist rocketed into his space, blowing through his torso and nearly detaching his head and shoulders entirely from the rest of his body.

Another issue with his technique: Dan had never figured out how to manage a partial transformation; his jutsu had to be all or nothing, and that brief moment between switches was easy enough for someone of her speed and reflexes to capitalize on.

It was this weakness and more that had held Dan back from ascending to the level of an S-ranked ninja.

Dan's damaged body lingered helplessly for a moment, floating nearly in two in the aftermath of Tsunade's decisive assault; bits of ash and withered viscera slowly crept back towards him, but Tsunade had no intentions of giving the man a second chance. Her other fist chambered itself, this time primed to destroy the dead man's head for good.

But then his form shifted again into its spiritual state, forcing her to pass through him once more with an unrestrained groan of annoyance.

"How fortunate that I can transform like this to recover," Orochimaru marveled through Dan's voice, a lilt of perverse fascination preening on full display. Already, he was well on the way to pulling himself fully together. What's more, Nawaki's own crushed remains began to slowly drag themselves free from their burial spot in grisly, ashen pieces.

"Pussy!" Tsunade barked, petulantly. She needed to settle things quickly, but Orochimaru seemed intent on doing all that he could to waste as much of her time as possible.

Which meant cutting loose a little was going to be necessary.

Tsunade clapped her palms together with a sharp breath. Her chakra soared in an instant, rocketing out from her pores like a thick cloud of golden flame. Then, its volume condensed itself, clad over her forearms before hardening along her flesh like a glittering sheen of golden thorns. "Adamant Casket."

"Oh?" Orochimaru hummed in interest, just before his old teammate clenched a metal-clad fist and slammed it into the earth. There was a mere half-second's pause, then a whole bed of large, metallic spines burst loose from below. The horde of metal propagated itself, spanning outward at terrifying speed to engulf Dan's spiritual body and all else within a large radius around Tsunade. When she finally stood once more, the only sight within her vision was a circular bed of golden thorns.

Echoing through the death trap she'd assembled, Orochimaru's sibilant hiss attempted to mock her. "You do understand that I can simply phase through this all, don't you?"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm counting on it, asshole."

It was a simple-type barrier jutsu, cast through her chains and embedded with a medical jutsu designed to induce paralysis, usually for subduing rowdy or panicking patients for treatment.

As Tsunade stretched her senses outward, she confirmed her expectations. Nawaki's body had been thoroughly skewered by the bed of thorns she'd created; his withered body did not so much as twitch as her jutsu tore any semblance of faculty away from him.

Completely immobilized then- good.

Dan though- his movements were limited in other ways, demanding that he materialize to separate himself from all of the space that had been claimed around him.

Which opened Orochimaru up to the final, most glaring weakness of Dan's jutsu.

Without a foothold to reorient himself, Dan would eventually be made to slip through the ground itself if he couldn't manifest periodically to correct his course. When that happened, his body would be shunted away from any objects he was currently overlapped with as he manifested, a failsafe they'd developed together and implemented into the jutsu's formula to avoid the man being either crushed to death or trapped in spiritual limbo.

But the real weakness was in how he was shunted. Dan could somewhat glide, but he had never quite figured out how to truly fly while in that state; once he was forced to deactivate his jutsu while overlapping with something, his body would simply follow the path of least resistance.

Orochimaru had always been a savant with ninjutsu, but not even he, genius that he was, could be expected to have the intuition needed to perfectly understand Dan's techniques or its limitations without extensive practice.

"You sure as shit shouldn't have tried using my fiancé's jutsu against me without knowing what the hell you were doing with it." Tsunade scoffed. "That's the thing with using a person's loved ones against them… Using a jutsu that I helped develop against me was a stupid call."

With Nawaki thoroughly disabled and Dan stuck in his transformed state, Orochimaru now had to make a choice. Either stay in limbo and let her pass, unimpeded, or try his luck and see where he popped up.

But Tsunade knew damn well where he'd pop up. After all, Dan's jutsu always followed the path of least resistance.

Tsunade felt Orochimaru's frustration and grinned. Then, she felt Dan's approach before he even fully breached the ground; her body was already in motion, fingers squeezing around Dan's neck as he collided with a 'slap' into her waiting palm. His neck was wrenched, twisting just short of a complete decapitation as she forced his flailing body backward to impale him onto one of the metallic thorns behind him that made up her barrier. Dan's body immediately went limp as the jutsu took hold on him as well.

"That oughta put you both in check," She muttered. Dan's slackened body could not even raise his head to regard her, so Tsunade cupped his chin, planting a chaste kiss on the man's forehead. Then, peering past her love's eyes, she found the wary gaze of Orochimaru and grinned.

"Start running."

---

By now, the parasitic snake had grown massive, so much so that it seemed to dwarf Tanzaku Castle and even the giant clock tower in the distance, where Naruto could see the sparks of metal in the distance.

The myriad swelling growths plaguing its flesh had begun to shift aggressively, now more akin to straining, cancerous bulbs than mere distortions in flesh. A loud, wheezing whine squeezed away from the creature even as it ducked down once more to scoop another mouthful of reanimated ninja into its oversized maw.

Naruto watched in revulsion as their bodies were broken down by the rotting orange-tinged bile splashing in its mouth. Even as it continued to gorge itself, more undead continued their mindless trek like objects on an assembly line.

Another mouthful of corpses, and one of the growths on its neck finally reached its breaking point, tearing open in a grisly shower of blood and pus that wrung a tormented scream from the massive serpent. Flesh parted like an undone zipper, and after a moment, another lengthy mass of rugged scales and flesh pulled itself free. It was hideous and half-made as it pulled itself loose from the parted flesh, like a deflated, bloody leather bag. Steadily though, its body began to invigorate itself, coming to life and swelling to match its twin as the other continued to gorge; then, it too began to feed.

"God, we are so fucked," Naruto whined.

"Don't panic. Help is on the way."

Then, true to Kushina's word, an incoming surge of chakra erupted just short of his face with a telltale poof of smoke.

"Young Naruto-kun?" Clearing the smoke was a white and blue creature, soft-looking, and roughly the length of his forearm and twice as thick.

A slug… "Are you one of Auntie's friends?" Naruto asked. Tasting her chakra, he confirmed before the feminine-sounding slug even spoke that she carried Tsunade's mark.

"That's right!" The slug confirmed, wiggling upward as if standing up straight, somehow. "My name is Lady Katsuyu of Shikkotsu Forest, also known as Katsuyu. But you can call me Lady Katsuyu of Shikkotsu Forest, for short; Lady Tsunade and I are old college roommates."

"Yeah? What did you study?"

"Political science."

"Yep, that's an Uzumaki's summon, alright," Kushina confirmed, amusedly.

Naruto chuckled dimly. "Thanks, I think I needed that…" His gaze searched for the other swelling masses, from which yet another ivory-scaled, serpentine head was beginning to tear itself free. Then he shifted hesitantly to the morbidly still form of the Sound ninja who had hosted the abomination; Naruto found that he didn't even have it in him to force a grin. "I-I can't move. And that guy- I couldn't save him; I think he's-"

"It's okay. I will collect him for you," Katsuyu offered, soothingly. "I'll do what I can… Lady Tsunade and Jiraiya-san are close by; Young Hinata-chan is fast approaching with help. I'll secure the body, and we will regroup, alright?"

When Naruto nodded, tentatively, she nodded back. Then she left him with surprising swiftness, sliding between the legs of the remaining, ambling Edo Tensei on a thin trail of slime. Within moments, she had deposited herself atop the Sound ninja's corpse. Then there was a short puff of smoke which enveloped his form; when it had cleared, both Katsuyu and Jirobo's body had departed.

Just a moment, then Naruto yelped as another presence descended near him, the boy relaxing shortly after as the familiar taste of her chakra soothed him.

"Oh, hello dear. How's your night?" Naruto greeted with a faux calm. "Mine? Could be better…"

Hinata struggled for a moment to tear her eyes away from the massive form of the still-growing monster before them, finally ducking down to solemnly sling his limp arm over her shoulder; she held his hand, wrapping her spare arm around his waist then hauling him up, dead weight and all as she stood. Only when she was sure she had him secured, did Hinata speak.

"I left you with a regular guy; I come back to a giant snake monster." His girlfriend glared at him, the tiniest touch of exasperation which was thankfully overshadowed by the affection in her gaze. "Sh-should I have stayed after all?"

Naruto winced. "In my defense, I did try to end things fast. The guy kept spawning more health bars." Again, his eyes trailed up to the beast that was continuing its metamorphosis as he allowed Hinata to leap away with him, just as the now four-headed snake's massive body lashed into their area; several buildings tore down as its tail carved a haphazard trench into the earth.

Hinata took the blonde a few dozen meters away, finally securing the two atop a squat building that felt far too small compared to the still growing behemoth, all four heads of which had continued their gorging. Letting Hinata sit him down, Naruto obliged as she braced his weight against her body, wrapping both of her arms around his shoulders and kissing his hair.

"I was worried about you… Are you alright?" She whispered, soulfully. Her gaze searched for his own, but this time, Naruto was remiss to meet her halfway, a combination of shame and grief barring his way. He suddenly felt so terribly overwhelmed.

Their night had been ruined. The kind dango stand owner had been killed- hell, as far as he knew, a lot of people had been killed; and Naruto hadn't even been able to fulfill his promise to that girl in the end.

"None of this is your fault. You couldn't have anticipated any of this," Kushina tried to reassure him. But she knew her words meant little at that moment.

He could have done more. If he had just told that girl to piss off and killed the Sound ninja on sight without giving him a chance to waste his time-

"I should've just killed him," Naruto bit out, painfully. "Maybe I could've made a bunch of clones- helped save people, if I'd just put my fucking hero complex aside and got shit done properly right from the start!"

Hinata's palms cupped his face, her warm touch patiently wiping away at the heavy layers of grime and ash that clung to his skin.

"Yo-you know you don't believe that. Don't… Don't punish yourself for being kind." She tucked his head into her chest. Kissing his hair once more. "Even if it- if it turns out bad sometimes, the fact that you would try at all is what makes you so incredible to me."

"Mhm…" Naruto nodded, mutely, unsure of what else to say to that. Maybe he'd just been fishing for reassurance; maybe it was because it was Hinata who had said it. But hearing it from her did help, even if just a little bit.

Then two more bodies dropped down on either side of him, both huffing and puffing, and his mood soured again.

"Holy shit," Tayuya muttered, glaring with terror at the now six-headed snake, each of which had now truly begun to thin the crows of loitering corpses. Her gaze found Naruto, the look in her eyes somewhere between furious and incredulous. "How the hell did you manage to fuck up this badly!?"

"Suck my dick and balls," Naruto snarled at her, his sudden fury restoring a tiny bit of his strength. He tried to rise to height, but could only fall again, which only bolstered his rage as his body refused to respond. "This happened because I wasted my damn time trying to save your fat fuck buddy while you let a horde of zombies fuck this town sideways!"

Tayuya flinched as if struck, then sneered right back. "Oh sorry, I guess I shoulda whipped out my handy-dandy Orochimaru bingo table and anticipated 'ghetto fucking necromancy' before we got here!"

"Maybe you could have at least mentioned that guy had scarlet fucking rot just chilling in his system!"

"I don't even know what that is!"

"That seems to be a common theme here, doesn't it, you dumb motherfucker!?"

"Call me dumb again, and see if I can't play flute music through your trachea, you painted floozie!"

"Bitch, you think because I'm half-paralyzed I can't smoke you? I'll gnaw your washboard tits off and staple them back, upside-down! Go ahead and try me!"

"Cut the crap!" Kidomaru cut in, his tone grave. "Where's Jirobo?"

That cut right through the argument. Tayuya's mood grew solemn as she looked around, dreadfully. Looking at a now quiet Naruto, her heart clenched, something forlorn and miserable swelling within. "O-oh… I'm- I'm guessing the fatass didn't make it, huh?"

"I-I… Well I-" Naruto hiccupped, ducking his head down in shame. "L-look, I tried. I tried, okay!?" Naruto whined, sounding almost hysterical. Hinata held him closer as he vented at the uncomfortably shifting Tayuya and Kidomaru. "I gave that asshole three chances and he spit in my face back-to-back-to-back! I even stuck my neck out to bail his dumb ass out when that snake started manifesting- I swear I did everything I could for him!"

Tayuya bit her lip, startled and clearly sensing the hurt in the boy as he went off.

Why did he care so much? Jirobo hadn't even been a comrade of his; they'd been enemies! Why did he seem to be taking this even harder than they were?

Hinata's earlier words came back to her all at once, suddenly carrying so much more weight than when she'd first spoken them.

"Doing what's right shouldn't be an outlier… I don't want to contribute to a world like that."

"H-hey I-" Her jaw clicked shut as she forced herself to think her next words through. "I get it… If anything, a lot of this shitshow is my fault to begin with."

Besides, like he'd rightfully called her out on: It wasn't like she'd kept up her end of the deal either, huh? God, this whole night was just awful.

Her fingers clawed through her hair, arcs of pain flitting across her scalp. She couldn't be assed to care though. "Look, I believe that you did your best. Thanks for- thanks for trying, ya know?"

Naruto finally met her gaze, something close to solidarity bubbling up between them. Then he pulled away, merely watching as the eight-headed creature tore through the final swathes of bodies. Finally, he grunted. "I think I can stand. Hinata, help me up." She did so, steadying the boy as he wobbled against her.

His legs felt like they'd collapse under him if he even took a step; he likely wouldn't be able to move well without help for some time, but it'd have to do; they couldn't stay there.

"That thing is building itself up by consuming chakra. The moment it runs out of bodies to munch on, it's gonna start searching for any and every source of chakra it can find- namely us, and whatever else is around."

And seeing as he and Kushina had had their hands full just trying to deal with it as a mere parasite-

He sighed. "I need more time to recover until I can fight again, so unless any of you wanna try your hand fighting that thing, we need to retreat."

And didn't that just rankle him something fierce?

"Slap it to death with your noodle arms, coward!" Kushina heckled him, and he loved her for it as his mood ticked up, even if just a little.

"So flee the super boss and change maps, then." Kidomaru shrugged. "Sounds great to me."

"Um-" Hinata finally piped up again, feeling a bit self conscious as three heads turned to regard her. "I-if it looks for chakra, then it'll eventually start moving toward the barrier, right?"

There was a brief silence between them all, broken only when Tayuya groaned. "Shit, shit!" She palmed her face with both hands. "Yeah, let's book it. We gotta get over there yesterday! Hyuga, sling that twink over your shoulder or whatever and let's move!"

---

"It's finally complete," Orochimaru whispered. His serpentine eyes glittered with elation as he marveled at the titanic reptile; by then, it had grown to a scale that utterly consumed the ashen battleground that had been left in the wake of Naruto Uzumaki's flames.

Each of its eight heads were adorned with rugged, asymmetrical horns that dotted the landscape of its skull. They stood at a height that towered over even the peak of Tanzaku castle, each so large that their creator wondered if any one of them might be able to swallow the entire roof of it in a single bite.

At their distance, the beast's creator could feel the thrum of myriad chakra sources, hundreds strong and each amalgamated together into that one chaotic central focus.

Orochimaru's gaze drifted toward the fleeing form of Naruto, aided by that Hyuga girl and his two defecting pets. Part of him was disappointed that the boy had not even tried to fight his creation, but he supposed that was an unfair judgment on his part; expecting him to fight again so soon in such poor condition.

Maybe once he'd had a moment's rest, then.

Orochimaru strode forward, leaning just past the lip of the rooftop to get a good look at its writhing, serpentine form. The final batch of Edo Tensei were thrown back between its jaws, dissolving stoically into a mass of withered flesh and chakra, which had settled into its massive, conjoined belly.

But its gluttony was insatiable; just as quickly as it had finished off its meal, its eight sets of eyes were already swiveling about. Its tongues flicked outward, tasting the air on the hunt for its next meal.

Hmm… What would he name it?

"Perhaps something elegant, like Mitsuki…" Orochimaru hummed, thoughtfully.

"Orochimaru-sama?"

Orochimaru ignored his underling. Huh… Maybe he'd name each head individually? Ah, but that would get annoying; how would he even teach it which name belongs to each head?

Perhaps something fierce, then- legendary, even! Well, it was a great, eight-headed serpent.

"The Yamata no Orochi, then." Orochimaru's chest puffed out a little, something close to adoration swelling in his chest.

Huh… Was this what fatherhood felt like?

"O-Orochimaru-sama!" Kimimaro said a bit louder, this time. His apparent panic cut through the edge of Orochimaru's annoyance at being interrupted at such an important moment of his life. Turning his attention toward the boy, Orochimaru followed his shakily pointing finger; his vision was consumed by the massive form of his beast, which was now looming over Kimimaro and himself.

"Oh, hello, my dear. Are you here for a pat on the head? I'm afraid I don't quite have enough arms for all of you, so I'll require two single-file lines." Maybe four, if Kimimaro had the spine to touch any of them.

A peculiar sound came from them, like something hollow vibrating violently, and it took only a moment for Orochimaru to understand that he was being threatened. His proud grin tugged downward just a tad, taking in the eight sets of bared teeth. "Ah, so that's how it is…"

Its lunge came with blitzing speed, and from eight separate angles, at that. Orochimaru snagged a balking Kimimaro around the waist, all but slinging the boy over his shoulder as he leapt away from the assault; the entire castle was torn down in moments by the combined weight of the beast. From the cloud of debris, four heads shot out, mouths overflowing with viral, frothing liquid. He shifted his weight to avoid the first lunge, planting his feet along the length of its body and jumping away to avoid being captured in the maw of another. Twisting in mid-air, Orochimaru let his free arm stretch, slinging outward to grip the horn of another incoming head and pull him and Kimimaro both atop the beast.

"For the record, you are very grounded!" He yelled down at the screeching beast with a laugh. "Ah, the petulance of youth."

He set Kimimaro down atop the writhing head of one of the serpents, forcing down a light chortle at the young man's panicked attempts to stay atop the bucking head while surveying the other eight; each oversized serpentine shape hovered about, slowly inching closer toward their prey. Kimimaro's head snapped to and fro on a swivel, trying to keep them all in his line of sight.

"Hm… It would appear that melting down the shells of my Edo Tensei to such a degree has disrupted the sealing matrixes that anchor their immortal souls to this realm." Thus, weakening his hold over them. "Their chakras are rebelling against my will, and that rebellion is interfering with the control that my cursed mark should be giving me." Once again, a grin began to stretch across his face. "How fascinating."

A simple enough fix; he'd need to recalibrate Jirobo's old curse mark to a newer, fresher model to collar the beast once more. Not a problem at all!

Though- Orochimaru's sights shifted once more to the now barely visible forms of the fleeing children.

"I suppose I can kill two birds with one stone."

How would his adorable little spawn fare against that bunch? Clearly, it was suffering from diminishing returns, unable to fully process the chakra and abilities of the rabble he'd fed it; perhaps if he could better develop the Edo Tensei, he might be able to overcome that deficiency?

If nothing else, getting a good look at its current ceiling would make for a rather illuminating experience.

Another head charged in, moving to sweep Orochimaru and his Kaguya up in a single bite, forcing the former to leap away once more, Kimimaro close by. Orochimaru lashed out with a chakra-wreathed finger, severing a strand of Kimimaro's hair as a stray drop of rot found purchase on it. Looking over to the chalk-white boy as he watched its withering descent below, Orochimaru laughed. "Nothing to worry about, my dear! We will abscond for now, and witness the proceedings from a safer distance."

He reached outward, snagging the hand of the boy. Then his free fingers snapped up into a one-handed 'tiger' seal, and the pair vanished in a whirl of wind.

A moment passed following the absence of the pair. Then the Yamata no Orochi began to screech, something close to rage vibrating through it as its meal disappeared on it.

It was still unsatisfied; still so hungry.

But its prey had gone, and it was simply not fast enough to chase after it. Too heavy; too sluggish!

But then another taste drew its focus, and its many eyes spotted a large tower of violet flames in the distance.

Yes, that would do.

---

By the time they dropped down in front of the flagging barrier, the giant serpent in the distance had already begun its meandering trek after them. Even from their distance, each of them could hear the screech of metal and powdering brick and dirt as it dragged its oversized body after them.

Its heads were uncomfortably swift, but they were thankfully conjoined to a main body that was quite sluggish.

Tayuya cast wild-eyed gaze back at the creature again, muttering a panicked urge to "hurry the hell up," as she waved the others inside, slipping between the gaps in the petering flames once Hinata had finally dragged her boyfriend in after Kidomaru.

"We need to book it, yesterday," She called after Sakon and Ukon. "Ain't no way in hell I'm sticking around to fight that thing!"

"We might not have a choice," Kidomaru remarked, the faintest whimper undercutting his forced monotone. "Unless you think we can move this many civilians somewhere that thing can't follow before it catches up."

He cast a glance past the redhead, gulping as he quickly measured the distance it had already covered after them.

"At best, we've got a few minutes." That was assuming it didn't pick up the pace.

"Fuck, alright! Twins, screw the barrier; it won't do shit against that thing. Start rounding the baby ducklings up. Arms, we need some warm, fleshy, spidery bodies, pronto!" She ignored the scandalized looks of a handful of nearby civilians as the barrier fell and the two identical boys began corralling them together. "Oi, twink-machine-" Tayuya crouched down in front of a sitting Naruto; she raised her arms as if to shake the boy, but seemed to think better of it as he glared at her. "Do you think you could manage that turbo fire again?"

The damage he'd left behind with that- if nothing else, surely he could slow it down long enough for them to make a break for it, right?

"I'd need some time to gather the chakra needed, and I can't even start amassing it so long as I can't move," Naruto sighed, exasperation lacing his tone. "I blew right through my ceiling just trying to survive that thing while it was suckling from your buddy's teat." His fingers flexed faintly, trying to muster the strength to form hand seals with mixed results. "Once my chakra levels are regulated, I should be good to try, but that'll take a couple more minutes at least."

Unsaid was the fact that they probably didn't have that much time.

"Fuck, so you're just a whole new breed of useless, huh?"

"Oh fuck you," Naruto growled. "I don't see you volunteering any solutions!"

"Well I'm trying, but it's not like we've got a whole host of shit to throw at it! The best we've got on the table right now is your turbo fire and Arms' spiders!"

"Yeah, we don't even have that…" Kidomaru winced as he pried his bloodied fingers off from the ground. "They aren't responding to my call."

Tayuya whined. "Why the fuck not!? What the fuck did you do to piss them off?"

Naruto snorted humorlessly and pointed past her. "I count two spider-shaped corpses right outside. It probably has something to do with that."

Tayuya followed his gesture, palming her face as she took in the two twitching, oversized corpses not far from the barrier's reach.

It wasn't common that summons were killed while out on the field. Their ability to dispel themselves at any time usually offered enough wiggle room that they could merely return home whenever the heat got too hot… No doubt a clan might get pissed that one of their own managed to get killed out in the field while helping their summoner- let alone two of them.

"Oh for the love of-" Kidomaru groaned, remembering Jiraiya's violent introduction. Pointing one of his fingers at Naruto, he all but snarled, "This is your asshole teacher's fault! They weren't even in his way!"

"C-can we save the blame game for later?" Hinata's request, polite as it was, came with a firmness that shut down even the retort that had assembled itself on Naruto's tongue. "We're running out of time." She cast her gaze after a group of scared elderlies who had begun arguing with one of the gray-haired twins, wincing as the one she thought was Ukon grabbed a screaming old lady by her upper arm and began dragging her after his brother. Then she chanced a look at the eight-headed snake, whose destructive gait continued closer like the charge of a bull.

Far too close for her liking. Two minutes, tops.

"Naruto-kun, you fought it. What can you tell us?"

Naruto nodded. "It's got a paralyzing stare- avoid direct eye contact at all costs. It'll regenerate from most forms of damage; I'm not sure if a complete decapitation will do the trick- er, I never managed it; but it survived being charred to a blackened crisp so I honestly have my doubts. But it might slow it down at least, to have to recover from nothing." Looking past his girlfriend, Naruto gulped as he caught the visceral trails of orange muck leaking from the mouths of the beast. "And that stuff in its mouth- If that shit touches you, you're probably dead… If it touches anyone, cut off whatever it touches and hope you were fast enough. Clothes, hair, flesh-" He winced. "Even a limb if you've gotta… If you get any on you, don't let anyone touch you; you'll probably infect them and make it a two-for-one special of super dead- er, that's like regular dead but super."

"What the fuck-" Tayuya rapidly cut her gaze between Naruto and the eight-headed snake. "So what, it's some kind of ninja plague?"

Naruto sighed. Honestly, she wasn't far off. "It's a viral infection that eats your chakra to reproduce itself in your body. The moment that enters your bloodstream, it'll rapidly self-replicate and eat you alive from within."

"Fu-uck!" Tayuya whimpered. "Why the fuck did you turn Jirobo into a giant zombie snake!?"

"Oh, eat my ass! We're not doing this shit again!" Naruto snapped back with a sneer.

"I'll gladly eat some ass if somebody here can bail us the fuck out!"

"I-" A sudden puff of smoke arose between the two before Naruto could get more than one syllable out, once more revealing the tiny form of Katsuyu.

"A thousand years, I lay dormant. Who has awakened this ancient one?" Her chant was a deafening baritone, which immediately stole the attention of the present company. Swiveling her gaze between their various faces, she simmered just a bit, taking in their morose mood. "Also, I bring great news! And- well, 'alright' news."

Tayuya perked up marginally, the tiniest crumble of hope budding in her chest. "Is- is Jirobo going to-"

"That is still up in the air," Katsuyu allowed, pleasantly. "The 'alright' news is that he is not yet fully dead; just a good, healthy, regular amount of sort of dead. I have stowed him in medical stasis back at home while one of my pieces works to stabilize him; Tsunade-sama and I have fixed worse…"

She spoke easily, if only for the sake of their morale. Though, truth be told, the ancient slug didn't exactly favor the boy's chances. His rather extensive injuries were one thing; his near-complete depletion of chakra was another thing entirely.

Still, seeing the young redhead let loose a desperate, shuddering breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding- Katsuyu neglected to mention her doubts. She spotted the less-than-convinced eyes of Naruto and Hinata though, and withheld a sigh.

Of course, those two would be a lot harder to lie to. If Young Naruto was anything like Lady Tsunade, the boy may as well have been a human lie detector, and Katsuyu didn't exactly favor her chances of fooling a Hyuga… Still though, she trusted that at least had the sense to keep their suspicions to themselves.

"What's the great news then?"

At Naruto's query, Katsuyu's mood shot up again. "Lady Tsunade and Jiraiya-san have finished their battles and are both en-route. Estimated time of arrival is about five-minutes. In the meantime-"

"Shit, we don't have five minutes," Kidomaru interrupted her, glancing between Katsuyu and the now fast-approaching Yamata no Orochi. "We barely have seconds!"

"In the meantime-" Katsuyu said again, this time more forcefully. Kidomaru wilted a bit at her stern tone, but Katsuyu paid him no mind in favor of casting a glance up at the looming serpent, whose deafening, slithering shuffle had finally come to a trudging stop just short of them. "Slapping down giant snakes was actually one of my college electives."

Then Katsuyu began to grow. Her body bubbled viscerally, as if becoming something close to liquid, and her form shifted and writhed as she called on her other pieces from her domain. "Don't mess with the white mage!"

As she grew, Katsuyu dipped her head low, sweeping up the four kids atop her head and pushing forward to bar the path of the approaching snake. More and more, she continued to grow, the bubbling of her accruing pieces rapidly developing until Katsuyu's once tiny form had grown to tower over the surrounding buildings and then some; finally, she came to a confident stop, roughly two-thirds the height of the Yamata no Orochi's eight looming skulls.

Tayuya balked at the sudden change in altitude, peering off the side of Katsuyu's squishy head to observe the ground below with a gulp. Behind them, Sakon and Ukon had picked up the pace, now all but manhandling panicking civilians further away.

Good. Now they just needed to survive this.

From Katsuyu's head, a smaller copy of her detached itself, shuffling closer to Naruto. "While my larger body fights, I'll see what I can do to restore your mobility." She climbed into Naruto's lap, who instinctively wrapped an arm around the smaller slug. Light teal licks of healing chakra flowed from her to him, easing their way through damaged muscles and steadily revitalizing him.

"Thanks," Naruto muttered absently, eyes flitting about to take in the scene. If they could just survive a few minutes, he could join the battle anew! "Alright, we need a-" He was interrupted as both titans began to move with speed. "Crap! We need a plan!"

His voice was lost in the deafening screech of motion as the first of the Yamata no Orochi's many heads made to strike; it snapped out like the crack of a whip, oversized fangs trying to capture Katsuyu's torso between its jaws.

Katsuyu slipped out of the way swiftly, shifting back just quickly enough to avoid the lunge. Whipping around with speed, she made full use of her form's flexibility, weaving past another barreling set of teeth. Then she dove to the side, sliding in an arc on a trail of slime to avoid a duo of even quicker lunges.

"Don't let any of its saliva touch you, Katsuyu-san!" Naruto warned her over the howl of the wind.

"Well what a coincidence! I'm very good at that!" Katsuyu's reflexes were immaculate; she tilted back yet again, then ducked down low to avoid a lunge that dragged the snake's massive body after her. Then, as a trio of heads rose to trap her between them all, Katsuyu made a loud, wet sound. "I cast Acid splash!" She rapidly fired off a trio of bullets, each roughly the size of one of her narrow eye-stalks. They were deadly accurate, careening into the face and eyes of each approaching snake and warding them off with a screech. To her passengers' awe and disgust, the discharge had begun to melt entirely through the heads and jaws of the snakes, leaving triplet-trails of gore to slosh off the sides of the mutilated heads. "It's super effective!"

"They regenerate!" Naruto was quick to shout for her. Katsuyu did not verbally acknowledge his words, instead focusing on the other five charging heads that were steadily working to corral her. She tilted to avoid another bite from one of the active heads as she lunged forward, her corrosive slime carrying her momentum. Banking right, she steered just clear of another set of fangs, then, squeezing her body together, she leapt away just as the attacking head reared forward and spit at her; Katsuyu's slime carried her a fair distance back, allowing her to avoid the caustic bile, and she returned fire just as swiftly. "Snipe-shot!" What followed was another shot of acid, this time fired with far greater speed and a much thinner profile; it came out almost like a beam, boring right through the attacking head. "Buckshot!" As the beam passed through the other end, it exploded in a sizable cone of smaller, acidic pellets, which peppered another nearby head to great effect. "You like that? This isn't even my final form!"

"Holy shit," Tayuya muttered as Katsuyu seemed to almost effortlessly handle the now three-headed serpent. And in mere moments, at that. "Don't fuck with the slug; got it."

"We need a plan," Naruto repeated, this time more firmly. "Things look good now, but it's already starting to put itself back together."

Sure enough, Naruto's words held weight. Each of them could already see the first three heads that Katsuyu had destroyed with her acid beginning to reconstitute themselves; Kidomaru gagged as the missing pieces of their flesh seemed to grow anew, stretching forth from the remaining bits.

"Katsuyu-san can hold it off, but all it takes is one good bite from that thing and we're screwed." What's more, he hadn't forgotten his own fight with it, back when it had been piloting Jirobo… "We've gotta lend support and close this out before it can adapt to become a real threat to her!"

"Tell me what you need," Hinata demanded, her trust in him front and center. "Whatever it is, we'll make it happen."

Naruto licked his lips, cutting his gaze to the two other faces on either side of her . Tayuya and Kidomaru both wore expressions of anxiety, but he could see the slivers of hope in them, bolstered by Katsuyu's work to protect them.

"They're relying on you to get them out of here alive. Let's not fail them, yeah?"

Yeah. They couldn't afford to screw this up.

"Hinata, eyes on that thing; tell me where its chakra is centered," Naruto ordered. At the same time, he and Kushina recalibrated their Mind's Eye Jutsu, scanning the massive serpent for any weaknesses they could find.

The Hyugas' sight locked onto the Yamata no Orochi immediately, Hinata's eyes roving over it with absolute focus. "The heads are circulating steady streams of chakra to and from the gut."

That seemed to be where the majority of its energy was rooted. "From the stomach, there's a huge mass of amalgamated chakra!"

"So what, if we cut the heads off fully, they shouldn't be able to just pull themselves back together, right?" Tayuya was quick to observe.

"Unless it can regenerate its heads entirely from nothing," Kidomaru supplied. "But even then, healing from nothing oughta be tougher than just slapping parts back together."

Naruto considered their words. "I think- Shit! Hold on!" he ordered them, just as Katsuyu leaped again, this time twisting mid-air to cling to the neck of a lunging serpent; it screamed as her acidic slime scarred a bloody trench through the length of its neck. Katsuyu shot forward, further mutilating the adhered neck of that head as she once again chambered a wad of corrosive mucus.

"Acid bullet hell!" She intoned. The air between herself and the wounded Yamata no Orochi was filled with a hail of tiny acidic bullets, each fired with pinpoint precision; they crossed the distance with speed, tearing sizable chunks through the flesh of the multi-headed kaiju as they passed into flesh and melted it apart from within. "I'm not done!" She leapt from the head she'd been clinging to, spiraling through the air and firing a wad of acid directly airborne. "Acid rain!" The discharge flew up a good distance before exploding, and thousands of tiny droplets of her acid began to rain on the snake, whose flesh melted away from bone like hot cream. It curled itself inward with a shudder, weathering her onslaught with a sound that was close to a whimper as flesh and muscle corroded and even exposed bone began to crumble apart.

"Fuck, are you sure she doesn't have it handled?" Tayuya whispered, awestruck.

Katsuyu seemed to stand up that little bit straighter in response to Tayuya's praise. "I have a very extensive cardio regimen-"

"Below!" Naruto and Hinata warned as one. Katsuyu was quick to react, leaning back just as the ground beneath her parted, revealing one of the Yamata no Orochi's half-mutilated maws. Its jaws initially caught little else but air, but at that distance, it locked eyes with Katsuyu who froze. In that same moment, the snake was quick to correct itself, lunging at Katsuyu again, who this time had no agency to dodge with.

Its rot-covered fangs clamped down on the neck of Katsuyu, ripping her off the ground and shaking her viciously with its greater size. Hinata screamed, clamping an iron grip around Naruto's upper arm to avoid being separated. At the same time, Kidomaru was quick to grab Tayuya as the two were ripped from the captured Katsuyu's head in the commotion, the two tumbling further from their comrades and dangling precariously off the edge.

Shaking herself back to awareness, Katsuyu let out a sheepish laugh. "Whoops! Splitting!" Katsuyu announced to the others, just before the caught flesh sloshed away from her, leaving a smaller piece of her to be crushed between the jaws of the attacking head. Katsuyu's larger body collided back onto the ground with a small wobble before she quickly backpedaled, just as the piece of herself she'd left behind began to bubble. "You will always remember that this was the day that you almost caught Lady Katsuyu!" It exploded in a shower of acid, blowing apart the creature's head near-entirely and leaving only its severed, corroding neck in its place; the mentioned neck flopped to the ground with remnant spasms.

"My apologies! Are you all okay?"

"I miss the ground!" Tayuya whined, dangling on one arm from the side of the now smaller Katsuyu; she forced herself to stow her panic and use chakra to adhere to Katsuyu's side. Within arm's reach of her, Kidomaru reached out to her, gripping her other hand and using a full pair of arms to begin scaling back upward.

"There's more coming! Keep moving!" Naruto hissed, causing Katsuyu to perk up again.

"Splitting again! Hold on!" She announced, letting another piece of herself slosh off at the point that Tayuya and Kidomaru had been holding onto. That piece of herself secured the two Sound defects atop herself, with each of the now-two Katsuyus moving further away from each other to avoid once again as several more serpentine heads attacked from below.

"Well that's going to complicate things!" Kushina bemoaned.

That, or it was an opportunity, Naruto realized.

The rest of the Yamata no Orochi dragged itself from below the earth, and Naruto cursed as he caught sight of its remains beneath the acid shower, chipping and blowing away.

So it had anticipated her attack and shed its skin, regenerating while underground and waiting for Katsuyu to let her guard down, sure of her victory… Which confirmed that it was far too smart to simply take lightly.

With one of its heads down again for the moment, its seven angry maws began to lash out with increasing aggression, and while the two Katsuyus' reduced size did offer an increase in mobility, she was clearly feeling the loss of chakra that had come with splitting from such a large part of herself, and again, from splitting in two after that. Where her acid had previously been debilitating to the monstrous heads of the Yamata no Orochi, now it was merely shrugging off all but her most accurate of attacks.

"Katsuyu-sama, cutting the heads off fully might slow down its healing!" Hinata reminded her, eyes working diligently to keep track of the multiple heads.

The Katsuyu that held Naruto and Hinata slid in a half-circle around her opponent, planting her squishy body against the ground and flipping upward to avoid yet another lunge. As another head came in to snatch her out of the air, she gathered another wad of mucus and blew it outward into a bubble that dwarfed her completely. Serpentine fangs closed around the hollow orb, which exploded, showering its eyes and jaws with acid and propelling Katsuyu further away with its blowback. This left the Yamata no Orochi directly between both pieces of Katsuyu, which both began to build up acid in sync with each other.

"Let's confirm that theory! Acid cable!" Both halves spit as one, with their two pinpoint streams of acid connecting at the middle-point to pierce right through the throat of the blinded head. Then the two Katsuyu-halves slunk to either side of each other, letting the conjoined beam rotate in a full circle to sever the head entirely. It twitched painfully as its whole head and neck crashed into the ground.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata hastily shook Naruto, pointing at the damage just as quickly as it happened. "The circuit is cut!"

Naruto followed her gesture, and a grin came to life as Tayuya's theory found some support.

"With the heads fully severed, its regeneration suffers…" Which meant-

"Can you have Katsuyu-san relay some orders to the others?"

Naruto plucked the idea right out of his mother's head just as quickly as it had formed.

If they could just sever all of the heads, that just left a giant mass of chakra at its core.

Perfect for burning with hellfire.

"Katsuyu-san! Tell Tayuya that we need a genjutsu to attract that thing's attention to your other half. While it's distracted, we can sever the heads at the base to slow its healing!"

"On it!" The briefest pause, then, "She says you suck and she hates you!"

Even still, it was only a moment before a loud melody began to carry through the air; even from their distance, Naruto could see the redhead playing into her flute, a dark glower for his eyes as she did so. It took only moments for the Yamata no Orochi to shift targets, going from splitting its focus between Katsuyu's two halves to focusing unilaterally on the half of her that was protecting Tayuya and Kidomaru.

As if exactly on schedule, the tiny copy of Katsuyu that she had deployed to heal Naruto pulled away from the boy, her eyestalks raising in a gesture that Naruto knew instinctively to be a smile. "Thank you for using Katsuyu's express healing service. Would you like to pay with cash or compliments?"

"You're amazing, Katsuyu-san!" Naruto marveled, finally finding the strength to stand, unaided.

"Compliments then! If you'd like, we can set you up with a minimal-interest financing plan for the next six months!" Katsuyu snorted at her own joke before quickly growing serious. "I'm afraid I'm running low on chakra, and I can't call on any more of myself at the moment. If we plan to defeat this thing, it'll have to be soon."

Naruto gave her a deadly grin in return. "Hinata and I have it covered."

He'd need to build up a lot of chakra to amass enough hellfire to take it down for good. By himself, he doubted he could manage a steady enough circuit without blowing his coils out. But with her-

"Hinata, how long can you keep your rotation thingy going?"

"However long you need," She was quick to offer.

God, he loved her!

"Hand!" Their fingers intertwined, grips meeting each in the middle. "Don't start until I tell you, and once you do, don't stop no matter what!"

"Understood!"

Looking down at the mounted slug, Naruto patted her soft hide. "Katsuyu-san?"

Sensing Naruto's incoming request, Katsuyu bobbed her giant head. "I'll get you close!" Then she was off, speeding forward on a trail of slime with such velocity that the air around them screeched with her approach. The path forward was as open as it could be, courtesy of Tayuya's song, and by the time one of the Yamata no Orochi's heads had spotted them, it was already too late. "Best of luck, you two!"

"I'm on navigation! If you miss, you're grounded!" Kushina supplied, helpfully.

'We already did this bit earlier!' Naruto laughed, pulling Hinata with him as he leapt from Katsuyu's head, just as the slug guardian slammed bodily into the body of the snake; it let out a loud yelp as her impact shook its center of gravity, then that half of Katsuyu dispelled.

Now or never. "Yang-release: Hollow circuit! Once again, the rotations began, starting from the very core of his chakra pool. Yang chakra amassed and spiraled in all directions from within, the principles of the rasengan heightening and condensing his physical energies as they refined themselves.

Then, as they descended toward the ground level, the first circuit began, and Naruto's secondary arms snapped together, rapidly flowing through hand signs before flaring outward. "Fire-style: Fireball jutsu!" From the two extended limbs, twin-gouts of flame fired outward, lengthening and tightening as Naruto took full control over their descent. Then, as the second circuit began itself, their output skyrocketed, and their momentum shifted upward.

"I'm sending you chakra!" Naruto screamed himself hoarse to Hinata over the howl of the rushing wind. "Rotate it and send it back!"

There wasn't much time to explain the intricacies of the jutsu; Naruto knew that so much of his instructions risked being misunderstood as they fell, but there simply wasn't time. But that was fine; with his chains he could guide her; beyond that, he simply trusted her. A spool of chain stretched out from his palm, wrapping around his and Hinata's wrists and forearms and connecting the two.

The second circuit, now continued by Hinata- it was longer than the first as Naruto's flames propelled them at an upward angle, tearing past one of the snake's heads. Its slitted eyes spotted them in the corner of its vision and it wrenched its neck to catch them fully in its gaze, its massive maw stretching wide and discharging a stream of rot that hit only air. Naruto felt the exact moment that his chakra reached Hinata, controlled and carefully handed off for her to grasp at. He winced, remembering doing the same with Sasuke, albeit with far less finesse than he would have liked. He had never apologized for that…

This time though-

Hinata grasped it easily, marveling at the mounting mass of energy that touched her core and trying to mimic what her eyes had seen Naruto do.

A rasengan, formed entirely of yang-release, like a vortex of pure physical energy; he was sustaining it inward, sucking in physical energy as they moved and adding to it in a circuit. She would have never even thought to have tried something like this!

Thankfully, he had already produced and refined the initial chakra for her to handle; now, all she had to do was mimic it!

"I've got it!" She yelled back, rotating it as his chakra guided her. She shelved the urge to hasten through it, taking the time to process the full motions with increasing confidence before passing it back to him through the chains connecting them.

The second circuit completed itself as it touched Naruto's core, and the strength of his flames skyrocketed yet again as he began on the third.

Even with the addition of another person, the circuit was faster and easier to maintain than when he'd last tried it. Naruto veered off as the head that had spit at them tried to catch them between its jaws. Its follow up lunge was far quicker, and even as his makeshift palms shifted their expulsion to change course, he realized they wouldn't get away in time.

Then a cataclysmic streak slammed into the size of the snake's head, stripping flesh and splintering bone like a hundred explosives had gone off at once in its face. Oversized teeth spewed free; blood and viscera showered off from the point of impact, and even the creature's eyes were destroyed, one crushing to paste while the other was torn away until it hung by only flimsy tendrils of flesh.

Stringy splashes of rot-tinged saliva chased after the flying forms of Naruto and Hinata, and chain spooled outward, completely independent of his focus to wrap around the pair, warding off a splash of scarlet rot and detaching from Naruto before it could land on either of them.

"I got you," Kushina reassured him.

Naruto followed the path of destruction that had saved his and Hinata's life, grinning as he spotted a blonde head descending downward

"Thanks!" Naruto called out loudly, both for Kushina's interference, and for Tsunade's helping hand. He turned his attention back to Hinata as he worked through his end of the third circuit, passing the chakra along. "You've got it right!?"

Hinata could only nod, gritting her teeth as a far, far greater wealth of chakra was figuratively dumped into her hands. It was far heavier than the first load he'd handed her; if she had to put a number to it, she would've said it was more than twice as potent as the last.

The process wasn't actually that unfamiliar to her. It was sort of like ramping up the sixty-four palms, in a sense. Though, the sheer volume of chakra was far greater than anything she'd ever produced, using her family's taijutsu! It felt like her muscles were cramping, just trying to hold it all in!

The third cycle was completed, then another, as two more heads joined the hunt for them, fighting against even the increasing volume and compulsion of Tayuya's flute genjutsu.

Then a fifth circuit, and the flames that propelled them began to develop a bright purple trail. Naruto hiked Hinata upward, closer to him so he could wrap an arm around her and keep her clear of the immolating heat he'd accrued.

They were coming now with increasing speed, such that it was getting harder to even brace herself for the waves. Hinata felt her bones shake, the very joints in her body aching as if they would pop free of one another and splinter through her flesh from within!

The sixth circuit and Hinata bit back the urge to scream, a vein bulging scarlet in her cheek as the sheer volume of chakra passed along to her caused her body to quiver uncontrollably.

"Rotation, now!"

"Eight Trigrams: Heavenly Rotation!" It was pure relief as she began to expel the excess chakra, Naruto meeting her halfway as she rotated it thoroughly around the two. Aiding her cast of the Rotation, Naruto shifted his flames, causing the two to rotate with increasing velocity as they flew.

Thick, purple plumes of flame, addled by golden sparks -Naruto's chakra, she realized- swelled around the two of them, rotating and tightening into a perfect sphere of dense, chaotic chakra. As the next circuit after that followed, the sphere ascended itself, sparking and igniting into a crackling ball of death, trailed with flames like a miniature sun. That sphere of death careened onward, now moving so quickly and rotating with such speed that Naruto had to shut his eyes and Hinata felt ill.

Sweat drenched through the fabric of her clothing, the edges of which had begun to blacken and fray. Hinata bit back a whimper; the heat that poured off from Naruto cast a mirage of lightheadedness over her senses. The urge to vomit was so overwhelming that all she could do was duck her head and clench her eyes tightly. Even with the rotation venting her chakra at a rate unlike anything she'd ever dreamed or dreaded, she began to fear that she wouldn't be able to keep up.

"Just bear it a little more for me." Naruto's whisper kissed her ears through the roar of fire and wind.

Unwilling to risk speaking, Hinata sharply nodded.

Then the eighth circuit completed itself and that ball was let loose. The comet that clad Naruto and Hinata screeched loud enough to deafen its onlookers as its speed progressed to such that it warped the air around itself and created a rising vortex in the air above the monstrous serpentine heads.

As their speed hit its peak, Hinata realized in the moment that Naruto had likely taken notes from Neji's own use of the Heavenly Rotation during their fight in the exams… Had he really expected her to be able to replicate such a feat with all the chakra he'd shared with her?

Had he really been right?

Then it was over, little more than a hiccup in time; Near-simultaneously, each of the seven remaining necks were ripped through at the base where they conjoined, the spiraling orb that surrounded the two dispersing chakra in pulses of rotating, slicing force as they collided with each point. Each of the severed heads flopped to the ground with a crash and spasmed violently as they did so. Their severed flesh strained, fighting to reattach themselves to the now limp lower half, but Naruto had no intentions of giving them a chance to fix themselves. They careened onward, curving upward and spiraling out just above the writhing creature as Naruto worked through his hand seals.

"Snake, ram, monkey, boar, horse, tiger! Stop!" Naruto called to Hinata, who immediately cut the flow of her rotation. At the same moment, his flames cut as well, and Naruto fought to wrangle all the accumulated chakra they'd amassed under his control.

This time, he wouldn't lose control. "This time, I'm sending you straight to hell!"

The pair descended, the remnant swirls of flame crashing downward around them as they fell, a hellish, screaming comet on a crash course for the Yamata no Orochi.

Atop the remaining piece of Katsuyu, Tayuya whistled, her gaze following the path of the approaching collision with a glittering eye. The slug matriarch had pulled a great distance away, allowing the two ex Sound ninja to marvel at the sight, knowing and yet still unprepared for what was to come. A good distance off, Tsunade too had touched down at a distance, clearly content to observe the happenings.

Deep, violet flames began to swell forth from within the descending orb, finally breaching the spherical mass; hundreds of spider-like limbs stretched past, chambered and eagerly scuttling in preparation to devour their target anew. "Think he'll teach me how to do that?" Tayuya whispered, almost reverently.

Kidomaru shrugged. "You might need a lot more exp before you can handle something like that."

"Asshole," Tayuya chortled, lightly thumping the six-armed boy's shoulder.

"Hellfire-style: Devil's blossom!" Naruto's voice echoed from afar, tearing across the distance that Katsuyu had put between them.

"Aw come on! It even has a cool name!" She whined.

Then the world around them was engulfed in flame. It was like a bomb was set off directly beneath the couple, crossing the distance to envelop the decapitated snake and its severed heads completely. A loud 'crack' sounded as the first wave of heat reached its flesh, smashing into its body and compressing the ground beneath its oversized body. Scales and flesh peeled away; bone crumpled to ash as thousands of violet-flamed claws and mandibles rent away at their prey. The Yamata no Orochi could do little more than shudder and writhe as the second wave followed, blowing away from Naruto with such force that he and Hinata were propelled further above by the resultant shockwave.

The space around the flames' target crumbled into blackened dust, warping apart surrounding metals and powdering brick to nothing; the ground beneath fully gave in, breaking down into immolated sand, then glass, then breaking even further into what could barely even be called a flaming pile of jagged slag. But unlike before, the flames did not spread far, instead concentrating themselves with absolute focus.

Piece by piece, the myriad presences within the beast began to break apart and burn away, exorcized by spirit-fire until all that remained was a still lump of compacted ash. Even that, Naruto burned, until Kushina's shout pierced through his single-minded focus, and Naruto and Hinata careened downward.

Tayuya was startled from her awestruck glare as their bodies pierced through the sputtering torrent of flame, on a crash-course toward the ground. "Shit! Those idiots are gonna break their necks! Arms!"

"On it!" Kidomaru announced, clasping two of his palms together. His cheeks bulged as Katsuyu raced forward with extreme haste. Tsunade's own hasty approach halted, the woman anticipating that Katsuyu would arrive sooner. When Kidomaru could finally spot them clearly in his figurative crosshairs, he spit forth a thick net of webbing; his aim was true, snagging around the still-joined pair and arresting their fall by guiding their trajectory to crash atop Katsuyu's squishy head. "Phew, safe!"

"That's a lot of fire," Katsuyu marveled, coming to a wobbling stop at the edge of the crater. She shifted uncomfortably as even just the remnant heat threatened to seriously burn her. Shifting her eyestalks backward, she regarded the unconscious Naruto and Hinata who Kidomaru and Tayuya were attempting to cautiously secure. Tayuya cursed as their scalding flesh burned the tips of her fingers. "I will stand guard to ensure it is truly dead. Please get those flaming hot children off my head, posthaste; it burns- a lot."

"I'm not touching them," Tayuya growled, shaking her aching fingers. "Arms, web 'em up and sling them over your shoulder like a tanuki's nuts. I want off this wild ride.

Kidomaru did so with a grumble, wincing as even his traditionally fire resistant webbing withered and snapped apart several times before he could get the pair secured enough to haul them up, dragging them off Katsuyu's lowered head and depositing them safely onto the ground level.

As soon as their feet were properly on solid ground, Tayuya yelped as the air around them began to churn, twisting together in a whirl to reveal the glowering form of Tsunade. On her shoulder was another small copy of Katsuyu.

Tayuya flinched at the dark look on the older woman's face. She was quick to jump to hers and Kidomaru's defense. "O-oi, don't go mean-mugging me, Tits! We did exactly as you asked and stuck our necks out for these guys!"

Rolling her eyes, Tsunade paced forward. "I'm not pissed at you, I'm pissed at your mast- at Orochimaru," She corrected herself.

Because they had proven themselves. Tsunade thumbed backward at Jiraiya, just as he-too descended onto the scene. "I thought we'd have to bail you out a lot more, but you handled yourselves pretty well."

Jiraiya barely seemed to notice any of them, instead rushing forward to kneel by Naruto and Hinata. He winced as his fingers grazed his godson's shoulder, which was still refusing to cool. "Tsunade, he's burning up!"

"Yeah, channeling an assload of fire without a proper buffer will do that to ya." She wasn't too concerned though. Still, if only to ease the man's worries, she took a knee beside him, checking over Naruto and Hinata both. "Yeah, they're fine." Even still, her chakra surged alight, a faint golden glow grazing their bodies to soothe the burns that dotted their flesh.

They'd want to be on bed rest for a day or two, but it was clear that Naruto had known what he was doing.

Channeling chakra of that volume by himself would have been catastrophic, even considering his natural capacity. But sharing the circuit with Hinata- using each other as a buffer, and venting excess chakra on both ends to stabilize the incoming flow…

Tsunade grinned. She was really starting to love this kid. Tearing her focus from him for a moment, she barked out, "Katsuyu! Report!"

"All clear, Tsunade-sama!" The smaller copy was quick to reply. "No signs of life from the pile. I guess you could say its situation was a little… Too hot to handle!"

"Oh shut up," Tsunade groaned. The quirk of her lips though was all the victory Katsuyu needed.

"I am going to depart. When they awake, please let young Naruto-kun know that I would very much like to speak to him." Then, Katsuyu was gone in a puff of smoke. Her larger form followed, shortly after.

"Good lord," Tsunade groaned, gathering Naruto in her arms and rising to her feet. She ignored the uncomfortable, scalding heat that he emitted onto her bare arms. Unbidden, Jiraiya did the same for Hinata. "I need a damn drink."

Tayuya perked up. "Can I have one too?"

"How old are you?" Why was she asking like it would change her answer?

"Er- fourteen?"

"Absolutely." They were all going to need a drink or twenty to process all of the mess that Orochimaru had left behind. Glancing back at the loitering, scared mass of civilians, her keen eyes found the shuffling form of Shizune, a gentle hand holding the young lord close by.

Good, she could work with that, at least.

She took a long, steadying breath. "I've not even been inaugurated yet and I'm already cleaning up other peoples' shit piles…" A huff. "We'll sort this mess as best we can." Then her eyes narrowed, their amber glow growing malevolent. "Then I'm tearing that bastard's head off."

---

"Marvelous… Simply marvelous!" Orochimaru preened from afar. He leaped from tree to tree, joined by a bemused Kabuto and Kimimaro. The man had seemed to be in a daze since those children had begun fighting his beast, a wide grin dominating the contours of his face.

"My lord, if I may-" Kimimaro gulped, not wishing to offend his master. Even still, when Orochimaru offered the boy an easy smile, he swallowed his discomfort to push onward. "I would have thought you'd be upset. You seemed quite taken with your- well, with your creation?"

"Upset? Now why would I be upset, my dear?" Orochimaru came to a stop, prompting the two young men to follow suit. Truth be told, it might not have been a smart call to stop moving while they were still so close; no doubt, if Tsunade wished to find him in that moment, she wouldn't be far behind him. And Orochimaru didn't exactly favor his chances of outrunning the woman.

Still, he doubted she'd be so keen to leave young Naruto's side, so soon.

Ah, but where was he? "On the contrary, this day has been nothing short of fabulous!" Sensing his Kaguya's confusion still, he smiled indulgently, pulling from his pocket a small, hand-sized cask. "Today, I was able to accomplish each and every goal I'd set for myself, coming here."

Young Naruto had more than proven his mettle to the Snake Sannin. No, he had completely blown the man's expectations out of the water! And that Hyuga girl too- Kabuto's reports had painted a fine picture of her, and watching her work against the Yamata no Orochi had almost made him wish he could mark her too!

Ah, another time, perhaps.

But not just that- Orochimaru gently shook the cask, and Kimimaro paled a bit as the object inside of it began to stir. It was a white, eight-headed snake, adorned with black, flame-like markings. The multiple heads coiled over one another, writhing in clear discomfort as the creature's master unsealed the cask. Pinching its tail between his fingers, he raised it up, dangling it just a bit with pride.

"That's-"

"Indeed. Naruto-kun did quite the number on my poor dearie, but I was able to use my connection with him to summon his core away before he could be killed for good." What's more, his theory had been proven correct. It had taken only moments to update the curse mark that it was born from, rendering his creation tame once more. Though, having all those pesky, rebellious souls out of it had certainly helped as well!

With his dear pet properly collared once more though, it was now plain to see that the initial strain that he had injected Jirobo with- it had developed a great deal from its time with the boy, and even further while bathed in the chakra of all the Edo Tensei he'd fed it. Such that, even broken down and weakened now as it had become, it still remained quite the interesting little specimen.

"Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto finally spoke up, gazing at the creature warily. "What do you intend to do with that thing?"

Orochimaru chuckled, darkly. "As I said, I accomplished all of my goals here today. One of which being that I needed a cure for our dear Kimimaro's condition."

Kabuto's eyes shifted to wield concern, his own sharp brain forming the connection just a moment after. Kimimaro's bemusement soon shifted to follow suit as his master glided forward, cupping his jaw with an unbreakable grip.

"O-Orochimaru-sama!?" Kimimaro whimpered as his master dangled the writhing creature before him.

"Not to worry, my dear. I assure you, I have done my due diligence to ensure your safety; this little operation is purely for your own benefit."

With the Yamata no Orochi weakened as it was, it was unable to even produce more than a pittance of the scarlet rot he'd imbued it with; moreover, it had clearly adapted a resistance to the substance as it had continued to develop. A quality he had confidence that its true host would enjoy. "After all, I told you before, did I not? This surprise of mine was always meant for you."

Kimimaro's jaw was forced open, and he gagged as Orochimaru forced the abominable specimen down his throat. As he was released, Kimimaro collapsed to his knees, choking and sputtering as the creature forced its way past the constricting squeeze of his spasming throat, reaching past the point of no return. "It's hardly the most graceful of solutions, but I'm afraid I can't afford to lose you just yet, my dear.

---

Alrighty, that's the chapter. A lot happened here, and I've honestly got a good couple of hangups here, but eventually I kinda just had to decide to stop somewhere. I just hope that the quality was up to snuff with my usual stuff, for y'all.

Next chapter, we fully close out the arc and set the groundwork for later stuff. So don't expect the next chapter to be particularly action-packed.

Also, at the request of a reader, I've left you all a little something special.

---

Omake: God's Mercy

Her yellow-haired pet often joked in that archaic language of hers that Tonton could sleep through anything.

Tonton begged to differ. She was a light sleeper; she merely slept well through the inconsequential, for the affairs of the insignificant were merely beneath her notice- like the crawling of ants in a different country. She preferred it that way; staying uninvolved with the petty affairs of mortals had always proved itself an easy, well-worn strategy. Let them honor her- worship her all they liked; she had no stake in their chaos.

Though, even she had limits to her patience. The insufferable whimpering of the decorated fool that her black-haired pet had taken under those clownishly large sleeves of hers- inconsequential.

The ceaseless screams of the other rabble as withered abominations chased them down all across the town- eh...

The whiny moaning of the Shinigami in her ear over the hundreds of pure souls, rudely torn from their domain- That would do it. Honestly, did that fool really think she cared over such trivialities? To disrupt her heavenly naptime- Tonton was half tempted to sew that fool's mouth shut. What did she care if a bunch of ants scattered away from a slightly larger ant's enclosure.

Still, she was a generous god; the Shinigami had served her well in the past, like when he'd ferried away a country of souls on her behalf after a foolish meat sack had stolen one of her favorite napping spots. She supposed she could throw the poor babe a bone, just this once.

"Oink. Oink, oink oink!" She huffed, stretching to her full height. Her black-haired pet tore her gaze away from the sniveling boy to regard her properly- such an obedient one, she was.

"What's that, Tonton? You want to go for a walk?" The girl's comprehension of the primordial tongue was a touch skeptic for Tonton's taste. A far cry from her yellow one's experience. Still, Tonton would not begrudge her for that; few could even hope to comprehend her speech, let alone survive the encounter with their minds unbroken.

She always did have a good sense for the strong ones.

"Oink… Oink, oink; oink oink. Oink?"

Her black-haired girl bobbed her head obediently. "Sure! I'll focus on healing while you handle the recovery; got it!"

She sensed a bit of miscommunication with the girl, but no matter. It made no difference in the end as Tonton flexed her tiny limbs experimentally. The boundless energy beneath her flesh had long-since yearned to stretch itself loose, beyond the limiting shell of this current form.

She paced through the flaming barrier, heedless of its licks of heat, and unbothered by the wide-eyed stares of the two look-alikes. Beyond the scope of his paltry protections, her beady eyes dispassionately observed the myriad undead shells, lumbering and hopeless, and piloted by her yellow one's snake foe.

Such a foolish tot, to incite that one's fury so recklessly. Did he not understand what he was dealing with? Weak as her yellow one was compared to herself, she was still a god and a half to the common rabble that populated the world around them.

No matter; she would teach that fool his place. To stay out of mortal-affairs- that was her modus operandi… But she supposed that just this once, God Slayer Tonton could make an exception.

"Oink, oink oink…" Tonton spoke calmly, unconcerned, even as the shambling dead began their mad dash after her. Her pitch black eyes swelled, transmuting into twin beacons of malevolent energy. "Oink oink… Oink oink oink!"

Then the skies split, flowing apart like water, disturbed. Even soul -even the pathetic husks that stood before her- all paused, the instinctual fear of the incomprehensible stalling even the base instincts of the mindless. Their eyes flickered upwards, muscles limp and flesh slackening in despair as the unseeable black chaos of the void unfurled itself to them. At the mere sight of it- of Tonton's true, unknowable form, their flesh peeled away, crumbling to dust as her presence broke them down to their elementary particles. A belated thought restored the uninvolved, repairing the disassembly of her black-haired one and the baby ducklings she piloted about; another froze them in time, so that they would not wither apart again when the unknowable truth of her form tried to take them away once more. Then, her unfathomable gaze found the disintegrating piles of gore that had once plagued this land. Tonton stared through them- beyond them, gazing into the pit of the snake one's brittle, petrified soul.

It would be all too easy to shatter him; a simple touch, and he'd fall apart on her mighty hooves. Ah, but where was the fun in that? It was much more interesting to hold back- to restrain her touch so as to not annihilate, but merely scar. But the inhuman screech of that babe as her presence violated his own was music to her ears.

For the due punishment for the sin of disturbing a malevolent god's rest was to have that malevolence turned your way.

---

I hope you enjoyed that bit. I wrote it at the request of a reader, while we were discussing story-related bits within the discord. I found the idea of God Slayer Tonton hilarious, and although I wasn't quite willing to include it in the main story, I figure a good ol' omake is as good as any place to include silly bits like that. Consider that a bit of a teaser; in the future, I plan to keep things like these exclusive to my ko-fi, likely added to earlier and future chapters as I get around to them. You can find details to access that in my discord if you're interested.

Speaking of which, updated versions of older chapters will be finding their way onto that platform over time. As I write this, the 1st chapter is already up. Not every chapter will have these omakes; especially not the first, considering the rather dark/depressing nature of it. But you can expect later chapters to be filled with a lot of the clownery I've come up with over the months.

IMPORTANT: You do not need to be a paid subscriber/supporter of any sort to read those extras. The reason I'm adding them to that page is purely to promote traffic there, expand the platforms I can use for my writing beyond FFnet, and also just to give me something special to add there. They will be available for everybody, and will likely just hold any additional bits I decide to work on relating to this story in the future in addition to generally just being formatted in a nice, juicy pdf format. If you want to further understand why I'm choosing to go about it this way, I'm happy to explain further in any of the platforms I frequent, but for now I think I'll avoid talking you guys' ears off.