"Now this is an interesting match," A commented to the other Kage. "The last loyal Uchiha facing the Kazekage's son."
"I look forward to seeing how my boy performs in this match," 'Rasa' agreed. "And I'm sure you're eager to show off your little Uchiha, Hokage-dono. Word is she's quite the prodigy."
I don't know what it is you want with her, Orochimaru, but you'll never get it! Hiruzen promised himself. Externally, he merely smiled politely.
"Uchiha." Gaara's voice was monotonous as ever. "Mother calls for your blood. Hopefully you can entertain me more than that girl from the Cloud Village."
"Don't worry, Gaara-san. I'll give you plenty of entertainment, though your mother will have to find blood elsewhere."
"Are both combatants ready?" Hayate asked. We both nodded. "Then let the third match begin!" With that, he wisely moved well back from us, away from Gaara's sand. I immediately prepared Anti-Gaara Tactic Number One, which was just a fancy name for 'soak his sand to make it heavy'. I reached into my pouch and pulled out a sealing scroll I had filled with water while I was with the foxes, proceeding to open it while strafing around Gaara, hoping to hit as much of his sand as possible. He tried to send the now sodden sand at me, but with my new speed and its added weight, dodging it was trivial.
"Is that cheap trick all you have?"
"Not quite!" I dodged around his sand and moved in with a feint, pulling back the moment his sand barrier went up and spinning around to land a high kick on his unprotected side that sent him reeling. I followed up with a low sweep-into-Leaf Rising Wind combo that launched him up into the air a little, then jumped to perform a falling kick. "Konoha Otoshi!" Gaara hit the ground hard, and I quickly leaped back a few metres to open some distance. Parts of his sand armour began to fall away, but I had done no actual damage to the jinchuriki with those attacks.
"Not bad, Uchiha!" Gaara grinned savagely as he got up. "Show me more!"
"That looks like Lee's taijutsu," Sakura noted, watching Makoto dance around Gaara's sand. "She must have copied his style when they fought before the first exam!"
"When did she get so fast?" Naruto wondered aloud. Behind them, Guy frowned.
Achieving that level of speed in a month is indeed impressive, he thought. But that's not long enough to build up the stamina necessary to take full advantage of it. He glanced over at his eternal rival. What other tricks have you taught her, Kakashi?
As expected, taijutsu alone was not enough to break Gaara's sand armour, and the rest of his sand was drying out, getting faster. But I had seen enough that I could start predicting the sand's movements, so it was time to move onto stage two.
"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!" I used what moisture was left in his sand to form a clone and moved back to open up a little distance. The clone served two purposes: first, she would add another level of pressure to the fight, hopefully stressing and angering Gaara, which would interfere with his focus and create an opening. Second, her creation had removed the last vestiges of liquid from Gaara's sand, as it was no longer needed once I had gotten a feel for the patterns in which the sand moved. The sand had to be dry in case he tried to transform into Shukaku.
In the event that I needed the Chidori to pierce the sphere, I couldn't have my attack weakened by conductive water in the sand.
From both sides, my clone and I began to pour on the pressure, combining thrown weapons with taijutsu attacks to keep the sand moving, occasionally slipping past and landing strikes on Gaara himself. His sand armour minimised the damage from such attacks, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Gaara was getting angry.
Now was the time.
My clone continued her assault while I backed off out of range of the sand and brought my hands together. Horse, bird, dragon, snake.
"Raiton: Teiza no Jutsu!" The electrical wave that launched from my fingers pierced right through both the sand that rose up to stop it and the layer of armour covering Gaara.
The Ichibi jinchuriki let out a blood-curdling scream as his body spasmed, lightning sending his nervous system haywire. It was over in just a moment, and he fell facedown on the ground, his sand going still.
Did that do it? I glanced over at the proctor, who started moving to confirm whether or not Gaara was still conscious. He had only taken one step when the redhead twitched.
Slowly, grunting with exertion, Gaara pushed himself up, eyes filled with crazed bloodlust, muttering to himself. Sand began to rise around him, taking on the shape of a sphere, while a single solitary eye formed above it.
He was preparing to transform.
My Water Clone dissipated, being of no further use in this battle. Despite my best hopes, I had been unable to knock out Gaara and take him out of the invasion, and now I would most likely have to deal with Shukaku. With a sigh, I backed up enough so that I could build up some momentum. The hand seals I needed were second nature now.
"Chidori!"
Guy was aghast at the sight of the chirping blue lightning enveloping the genin's hand.
"Kakashi, you taught your student a move like that!?"
"You're being rather hypocritical considering what you taught Lee-san, aren't you?"
"The Chidori is an assassination technique!"
"And the Eight Gates are a self-sacrificing kinjutsu. Let's not make comparisons here, Guy."
I felt the world slow down as the Sharingan amped my perception to its limit. Adrenaline rushed through my veins, flooding my brain with the high of battle. Spikes of sand shot forth from the orb containing my target, and I effortlessly stepped aside to avoid them. The high-density lightning chakra coating my hand punched through the hardened wall of sand as if it were paper and sunk into the soft flesh hiding beneath. For an instant, nothing happened.
Then Gaara's pained cry split the air.
I felt something grasp at my arm, something that was definitely not human, and pulsed more lightning through it to break free, jumping back only to be pursued by a long sand-coloured appendage covered in flowing blue markings, which quickly retreated back into the sphere. A killing intent that vastly dwarfed that of Orochimaru radiated out, then quickly died down as the sand structure collapsed, revealing a pained Gaara bleeding heavily from his shoulder where he had taken my attack, clutching his head and groaning.
It was then that the explosion happened up at the Kage box.
Events moved quickly from there. Up in the stands, I saw Suna shinobi turn on their Konoha neighbours as concealed Oto nin revealed themselves to join the fray. In the Kage box, seven figures jumped onto the rooftop, four of them taking positions in the corners and raising a cuboidal purple barrier, while the Raikage and his bodyguard rushed to the stands, presumably looking for their genin. Back down in the arena, four ninja in Suna flack jackets and headbands landed in front of Gaara, separating him from Hayate and I. They were quickly followed by Kankuro and Temari, who grabbed their little brother and retreated. I glanced over at Hayate, who met my eyes and gave a nod.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
"Konoha-Ryu: Mikazuki no Mai!"
"Isn't it beautiful, Sarutobi-sensei? It just about brings a tear to my eye."
"Orochimaru," Hiruzen spat. "What madness is this? What goal could you possibly be achieving here?"
"It's really quite simple, Sensei." The snake sannin smiled and chuckled darkly. "I simply find peace to be so… Boring. It's so depressing when the world is still. Like a windmill without a breeze." He spread his arms wide, as if he were an artist presenting his magnum opus, a manic grin plastered on his face. "Konoha's destruction will be the wind that sets the world in motion once again!" Hiruzen shook his head sadly.
"You really are a madman. How I wish it had not come to this…" He threw off his hat and robe, revealing his combat outfit underneath. Orochimaru tossed aside the Kazekage outfit he was wearing and licked his lips in anticipation.
"I-"
"Rasengan!" Orochimaru was interrupted by a spiralling ball of chakra to the side of the head, only for his body to dissolve into mud.
"Jiraiya-kun, you always were good at ruining the moment," he commented with a chuckle, standing unharmed and undaunted before his old sensei and former teammate.
"C, locate our genin!" the Raikage ordered when the barrier went up. "Once they're safe, we're going to bust some Oto and Suna heads!"
"Understood Raikage-sama, but is it wise to get us involved? It could very well lead to war with Suna."
"If Konoha is destroyed today, the balance of power will be broken. There'll probably be a Fourth Shinobi World War. But if Suna loses here, they'll be weak and sue for peace. We might even get something out of it ourselves if we put in a good showing."
"Of course, Raikage-sama. Our genin are over that way." C pointed to a part of the stands where the fighting was relatively thin.
"Then let's get moving!"
"Right!"
Between Hayate's sword and my ninjutsu, it wasn't long before the Suna nin lay dead at our feet.
"Uchiha-san, you need to follow Gaara and ensure that he cannot take part in the invasion," the jounin coughed. "This is an A-rank mission, one you cannot afford to fail."
"You want me to face the full power of the Ichibi? Seems more like an S-rank to me." I gave a cocky grin. "When I get back, I expect a promotion for this." With that, I Body Flickered up to the top of the wall. The Sand siblings were already pulling ahead, but I needed one more moment. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" I slammed my palm down to call Kuro from the Redwood Forest, who looked around at the ongoing conflict. "Kuro-san, things went south. I couldn't stop Gaara, so now I have to go after him." I pointed to the part of the stands where the other participants had been waiting. "I told you about my sensei, right? You know what I need from him." The fox nodded and vanished in a Shunshin, and I popped a soldier pill for a quick boost of chakra. They tasted awful, but did what they were supposed to do. I didn't bother to reapply my Transformation, since I needed all the chakra and focus I could muster for the fight ahead, and it would probably just get broken when I fought Gaara anyway. I briefly rechecked my equipment, pulled up my hood, and set off in pursuit of my targets.
It was a trivial matter for Kuro to slip through the ongoing combat and locate the man his summoner had described. At the moment, he was fighting alongside a green-clad ninja with a bowl cut to protect a group of kits who occasionally threw weapons out in an effort to assist. Seeing an Oto chuunin attempting to sneak up on the genin while their guardians were busy, he leaped over the group and slit the attacker's throat with his tanto.
"Hatake Kakashi?" Hearing his name, the silver-haired jounin quickly stabbed his opponent and turned to the fox. "My name is Kitsukuromaru, Uchiha Makoto sent me. She's in pursuit of the Ichibi jinchuriki and requests that I take Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Nara Shikamaru as backup." Kakashi nodded.
"Understood, I intended to send them anyway." He looked to the genin. "You heard the fox! Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru-san, with him! You are to assist Makoto against Sabaku no Gaara. This is an A-ranked mission. Go!"
"Damnit, she's following us!" Kankuro informed his sister as they rushed to get Gaara somewhere to recover.
"What!? How far?"
"Still a few hundred metres out, but catching up. Take Gaara, I'll set some traps and try to hold her off." They stopped, and Temari stared at her brother.
"She beat you last time, and this isn't an exam. She'll kill you."
"Maybe," he acknowledged, passing over his brother. "Maybe not. The Leaf aren't the Bloody Mist, they do take prisoners sometimes. Besides, the plan can work without me. Gaara, though…" Temari sighed, accepting his reasoning.
"Be careful, Kankuro."
"I get why you guys are going, but why am I being dragged along?" Shikamaru groused. "It's not like we know eachother all that well."
"Quit complaining!" Kuro ordered. "You're coming because Makoto-chan wanted you to. It's all part of the plan!"
"'Part of the plan'?" Sakura echoed, confused. "You say that like she knew this was going to happen."
"We figured this was a possibility. If she couldn't knock him out in the arena, she would pursue the jinchuriki to stop him from releasing Shukaku. Nara-san and Haruno-san are to deal with his siblings, and Uzumaki-san is to help her fight Gaara-san."
"That guy with the gourd is a jinchuriki!?" Shikamaru gaped.
"Yeah, you didn't figure that out yet?"
"What's a jinchuriki?" asked Naruto, only to receive a scoff in response.
"You should know, kit. You are one." Naruto went quiet, while Shikamaru silently took in this new information. Sakura was the only one out of the loop.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Kit, a jinchuriki is a human who has a bijuu sealed inside them. Gaara-san is the jinchuriki of Ichibi no Shukaku. If you guys don't stop him, he'll unleash him on your village, so hopefully you understand that we need to get a move on!"
They travelled in silence for a while before Shikamaru spoke up.
"Is it true, Naruto-san? Are you a jinchuriki, too?"
"...Yeah," the blonde admitted reluctantly. "Yondaime-sama sealed the Kyuubi in me the day I was born." The lazy Nara shook his head. The way the adults in the village had treated Naruto made sense now, even if it was incredibly stupid.
Can't believe I missed it. How troublesome.
"Do you… Do you hate me now?"
"What? No way, Naruto-san. Just because the Kyuubi's stuck in you doesn't change who you are. The container is not the same as the object it holds. Right, Sakura-san?"
"Of course!" she agreed. "We're teammates, Naruto! No matter what you've got inside you!"
"You guys…"
"This is all very touching," Kuro interrupted, "but we've got company. I smell nine shinobi on our tails."
"What do we do?" Sakura asked.
"We pick up the pace. Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" In a puff of smoke, two more foxes appeared before dashing off to intercept their pursuers. "If any of you have soldier pills, pass some around. We need to move faster!"
Catching sight of sunlight glinting off of thin wires ahead, I took a moment to stop on a branch and examine the path before me. Numerous ninja wire traps were strung about between the branches, simple for me to spot thanks to my Uchiha eyes. My backup, however, would not have such an easy go of it. I didn't have time to disarm all the traps, though.
A warning would have to do.
I took my knife and carved an exclamation point into the tree trunk beside me, hoping they would get the message, then pressed on, weaving my way through the traps in what almost felt like a dance. Up ahead, I saw a flicker of chakra in the leaves, and smirked.
You should really know better after the preliminaries, Kankuro.
The Oto shinobi in pursuit of the genin going after Gaara stopped cold and took cover behind nearby tree trunks the moment their two lead ninja had their heads cratered by some kind of wind jutsu.
"Shit!"
"Did you see where it came from?"
"How many are we dealing with?"
"Where's our damn overwatch!?"
"Shut up, all of you!" At the commanding shout from the most experienced remaining ninja, the others went silent. "Hachi, try to sense where they are. San, Go, watch his back! And don't leave cover!" Number Eight kneeled down and began focusing his chakra to his ears in an attempt to locate their attackers, while Numbers Three and Five took up positions beside him, knives drawn. The one who had given the order, Number Six, continued scanning the forest visually.
He didn't have the chance to scream before his head was lopped off by a swift slash from a tanto-wielding fox.
"Four o'clock! Thirteen metres!" the one called Hachi shouted, having heard Six's head hit the ground. From above, a hail of shuriken pelted that area, and the sound of a Shadow Clone popping was heard.
"A clone!" San spat. "They left a clone to hold us off. Let's get moving and get some payback." They were just about to start up when Hachi shouted again.
"Wait! Nine-thirty, seven metres!" This time, no weapons came, and Number Seven fell.
"A fox!" Go was incredulous. "We're getting picked off by a damn fox!"
"Where the hell is Kyuu!?"
"You mean this guy?" In a swirl of leaves, a blue-haired, bearded man in a Konoha flak jacket and hitai-ate appeared amongst them, tossing a corpse on the ground. He wielded a pair of trench knives and was smoking a cigarette. He moved, and in a matter of seconds, the three Oto nin before him were cut down by his wind-infused blades. There was a noise from behind, and he turned with knives raised only to see the last enemy clutching at his slashed throat, a black fox standing at his side with a bloody blade in its mouth.
"You here to back up the genin?" the summon asked. He nodded.
"Sarutobi Asuma," he introduced himself.
"Kitsukuromaru. The kits are off in that direction," the fox gestured with his tail before bursting in a puff of smoke. Asuma took a last drag on his cigarette, stomped it out, then took off in pursuit of his student.
Don't get yourself killed, Shikamaru.
Perfect! Kankuro thought, seeing an opportunity and sending Karasu to strike the unaware Uchiha as she passed below him. It was a perfect blow, the poisoned blade concealed in the puppet's elbow piercing her heart. Guess those eyes aren't all they're cracked up to be.
Then she exploded, blasting Karasu into pieces.
"No, what the hell!?" He remembered what that blonde kid had done to win his fight. "A suicide clone!?"
"Raiton: Teiza no Jutsu." He felt immense pain and lost control of his limbs before falling unconscious.
After binding Kankuro's arms and legs, I popped another soldier pill (I was going to crash hard later) and moved on. I was getting close, there was a noticeable blue glowing chakra signature not far ahead of me.
Just a little longer.
"We're getting close now," Kuro informed the genin. "Her scent is getting stronger… As are those of the Suna team." A second later, he shouted out for them all to stop.
"What the hell!? What are we waiting for!?" demanded Naruto. "You just said we were close!" It was Shikamaru who answered.
"Look at this tree, Naruto-san. It's been marked." He ran his hand over the exclamation point gouged into the bark. "Uchiha-san left a warning."
"There are traps up ahead," Kuro confirmed. "All of you, we continue single file. Follow my path exactly, I'll lead you through. Our backup should make it by himself."
"Backup? I thought we were the backup?"
"There's a jounin following us, he helped my clones deal with the Oto guys on our tail. You know a Sarutobi Asuma?"
"Asuma-sensei's following us?" Shikamaru smiled. "That's the best news I've had all day."
"Yeah, well don't count on him catching up before we engage. We can't afford to wait for him, now let's move!"
Orochimaru dodged a punch from Jiraiya and roundhouse kicked him back, then cast a Breakthrough to block Hiruzen's Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu. At this rate, he was going to be overwhelmed. Jiraiya was weaker in terms of skill than he, but more physically capable, as Orochimaru had yet to find a host body that could properly handle his soul. Hiruzen, on the other hand, was undeniably more skilled, but was hindered by old age and sentimentality. Individually, he could handle either one, but together they were posing a serious threat.
He hadn't intended to use this technique so soon, but he could not afford to keep playing around much longer.
"Mandara no Jin (Formation of Ten Thousand Snakes)!" His jaw unhinged, and a veritable carpet of snakes poured out to cover the rooftop.
"Gamaryudan (Toad Oil Bullet)!"
"Katon: Karyudan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet)!" The combination of Jiraiya's oil and Hiruzen's fire easily dispatched the snakes, but they bought enough time for Orochimaru to make the hand seals necessary for his next jutsu.
"Kuchiyose: Edo T- Aaaagh!" His attempt to summon the previous Hokage was interrupted just as he was about to clap his hands, when he suddenly and inexplicably burst into familiar black flames. Acting quickly, he shed his skin to escape the mystical fire and frantically searched for its caster.
Itachi!? Only two living shinobi could use this technique, and of the two, one was a mere genin. It had to be Itachi – who else could find a way through the Sound Four's barrier ninjutsu?
Hiruzen gaped in both shock and relief as Orochimaru ignited with the black flames of Amaterasu. He had recognised those hand seals: his former student had been about to use the blasphemous Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei (Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation) that his own sensei had created and subsequently forbidden. But how had Itachi known of Orochimaru's plans, and how had he gotten into the barrier that they were fighting in?
He saw the answer at the same time as Orochimaru and Jiraiya did: a single raven perched inconspicuously across the roof from Orochimaru, one with a distinctive crimson pinwheel pattern in its eyes.
Ah, he must have arrived before the barrier went up and hidden in that form where no one would catch him, he deduced. He probably wanted to see his sibling's exam performance.
"We should stand back," Jiraiya whispered quietly to him, sounding unsure. "That's not Itachi-san. The eyes have the wrong pattern to them." Hiruzen had to take his word for it, having never seen Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan himself.
"Someone using a stolen set? Maybe Kyougan Fugaku's?"
"Most likely. Be ready to fight."
Orochimaru, recovering quickly from the chakra-intense skin-shedding, spat the Kusanagi blade from his mouth and rushed to strike the raven down with it, only to burst into flames again halfway there. He shed his skin once more and continued, and when he was metres away from the bird and looked like he might make it, an ethereal purple skeletal… thing formed around it: a chakra construct composed of a ribcage and skeletal right arm, which grabbed Orochimaru, lifted him, and squeezed.
Blood, shattered bones, and pulped organs rained down on the roof tiles below. The purple phantasm faded away, and with a puff of smoke, the disguised shinobi revealed their identity. Both men gaped at the sight of the young girl in the purple shirt and black pants. She was bleeding from the eyes, breathing heavily from exertion, and hunched over in agony, but wore a triumphant grin.
"Eat… a fucking… dick… you snake-fucking bastard," she panted out at the remains of Orochimaru.
Finally, after so much running, I had caught up to my targets. Temari gently let her brother down and grabbed her fan.
"What did you do to Kankuro?" she demanded.
"Don't worry, he's not dead. But I can't promise the same for you if you don't step away from him." She looked at Gaara, then back to me.
"No way!"
"Uchiha," the redhead growled, one eye turning the distinctive yellow-and-black with star-shaped markings of Shukaku. "What… Is your purpose… For seeking strength?" He seemed to be struggling with immense pain.
"I will become strong enough to bring peace to this war-torn world." Gaara chuckled darkly, killer intent rising.
"Fighting for such a selfless reason… Will never make you strong! Temari! Get away from here!" The boy was starting to mutate, sand from his gourd enveloping the side of his neck and crawling up his face, blue markings appearing where it covered.
"Gaara-"
"Get away!" His right arm erupted in sand, quickly transforming into that of Shukaku and swinging at Temari, who despite blocking with her fan was thrown hard into a tree.
Damn, I wasn't fast enough. Gaara… I don't want to kill you, but if it comes down to you or me, I won't have a choice.
"Makoto-chan!"
Well, looks like my backup has arrived.
I smiled gladly when my team landed alongside me on the branch.
"You got them here quicker than I thought. Thanks, Kuro-san. You can rest now." The fox nodded.
"This really isn't my kind of fight. Good luck, kit." He vanished. I kept my eyes on Gaara while I addressed the others.
"Sakura, Shikamaru-san: knock Temari-san out, get her to a safe distance, and bind her. After that, if you want to help Naruto and I, just make sure you keep your distance. Neither of you can handle CQC with this guy. Naruto: you're with me. Understood?"
"Right!"
"Yeah…"
"Got it!"
"Then let's go!"
Gaara was fast. Not as fast as me yet, but I'd peg him at around weighted Lee level, and he would only get faster as he transformed. He was also immensely strong, effortlessly breaking the tops off of trees with single swings of his mutated arm. Thankfully, he was clumsy and predictable, so neither Naruto nor I had any issues dodging him.
What we did have an issue with was damaging him.
"Is that all you can do, Uzumaki!?" he roared after half a dozen kunai with explosive tags were buried in his back and detonated, doing no appreciable harm.
"Not at all, dattebayo! Makoto-chan, combination attack!"
"Coming right up!"
"Fuuton: Daitoppa!"
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Gaara screamed out in pain and fury as he was engulfed by the enormous firestorm our jutsu created. We really need a name for that attack.
"Did that get him?"
"Doubt it, but it definitely got the forest," I commented. "You think we'll get fined or something if we burn this whole place down?" Naruto had no time to answer, as we were forced to dodge by a volley of sand shuriken from Gaara. Leaping from the smoke emitted by the burning leaves around him, he landed between Naruto and I, his entire upper body now mutated and a long tail trailing behind him.
"You can't kill me without bloodlust, weaklings!"
"We don't want to kill you, damnit!" Naruto shouted in reply.
"Then you'll both die here!"
"Chidori!" Using his focus on Naruto as a distraction, I thrust my chidori at his back, but he moved just at the last second and I ended up severing the sandy left arm instead, which regrew quickly. In return, he lunged at me, clawing with his right arm. He's faster! I cried out in pain as I was unable to fully dodge, claws of sand raking my back.
"Makoto-chan!"
"Eyes on him, Naruto!" Naruto was punched into a nearby tree in his moment of distraction, stunning him. I needed to act quickly to keep Gaara from finishing him off before he recovered. "Raiton: Teiza no Jutsu!" He screamed and was temporarily stunned, but in this form, the attack had little effect. It was designed to subdue normal humans, after all, not partially-transformed jinchuriki. Still, it got his attention, and he took a swing at me, which I leaped over while making hand seals. "Chidori!" This time, I landed a good, solid hit to his lower torso.
Unfortunately, that left me right in front of him with severely depleted chakra. I took a backhand to the face and felt myself slam into a tree, my already savaged back erupting into agony before I collapsed onto the branch before me.
Damnit, I can't keep up. The soldier pills had allowed me to get off a third chidori, but now I was running on fumes and the exhaustion was catching up to me. I tried to struggle to my feet. Come on, the Susano'o hurts more than this! I have to move! Fighting through the pain and weakness, I stood on shaky legs. I might die if I try to force another Chidori, and the Taser isn't strong enough. What else can I do? I was drawing a blank, and Gaara was drawing back his arm to launch an attack. I closed my eyes…
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"
...And opened them to see three Narutos holding onto Gaara's arm, and what must have been hundreds more surrounding us.
And they were all glowing with orange-red chakra under my Sharingan's vision.
The three in front of me, with visible exertion, tossed Gaara off to one side, and what I could only assume was the original landed beside me.
"You okay?" His voice was low and growly from Kurama's influence, the eye that glanced in my direction blood-red and slitted.
"I really liked this cloak," I sighed in answer, pulling off the ruined garment and letting the Sharingan fade. "I'm just gonna sit down for a moment. Catch my breath a little." He gave a nod and a confident smirk.
"I've got this. I will protect my precious comrades!"
Upon the death of their leader, the Sound Four dropped their barrier and fled, leaving Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Clone Mitsuru on the roof. The Anbu who had been watching arrived to assist, and were swiftly ordered to locate and capture high-ranking invaders for interrogation.
"You killed Orochimaru." The exhausted clone looked up from watching the arena battle, which was now coming to a close in Konoha's favour, and met the impressed-looking eyes of the Toad Sage.
"I was just lucky that he didn't spot me before I struck."
"Even still, that was an incredible feat. You stopped him from using a very dangerous kinjutsu there. It might have saved all our lives." She smiled.
"Nah, you two could probably have taken him, and I'm just a clone, so my existence is but a fleeting dream anyway. Still, you honour me with such praise, Jiraiya-sama."
"Makoto-chan." Hiruzen approached, fixing her with a proud gaze. "You have done Konoha a great service today. When all this is over and things have calmed down, I believe your promotion will be assured."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama, but we still haven't won yet. It looks like the Boss couldn't take Gaara down in the arena, so if things go as we predicted, Shukaku will be appearing over there sometime soon." She pointed in the general direction the Sand siblings had fled in. Right on cue, an enormous Tanuki composed entirely of hardened sand appeared in the forest.
"Damnit, we have to go stop him!"
"Wait just a second, Jiraiya-sama. We have a plan for this as well." At that moment, a giant fox wearing a blue vest with the kanji for 'one' emblazoned on the back appeared right next to the bijuu.
"Uh, Sakura-san? Maybe we shouldn't go back," Shikamaru suggested slowly as horrific killing intent flooded the area.
"Yeah, maybe not." They picked up Temari and Kankuro and turned for the village, hoping against hope that their two comrades could get away.
"Shit," Asuma muttered upon seeing the Ichibi rise above the treetops. He really, really did not want to go toward that thing.
But there were apparently genin trying to fight it, possibly including his own student. He had no choice.
"Sometimes I wish I'd never become a jounin sensei."
Damn, he really is terrifying, I thought, in awe at the sight of the Ichibi in person. And that killing intent… It's probably a good thing I skipped my morning coffee. I chuckled softly, reaching my hand into my pouch just as Naruto landed beside me.
"Any ideas?" he asked.
"Of course." I pulled out the summoning array Kitsumura had given me. "The Shukaku Contingency is go." The tag glowed as I channeled most of what little chakra I had left into it, and a moment later, we were sitting between a pair of orange furry ears far above the forest. Naruto looked around, first in confusion, then in awe.
"Hmm," Kitsumura rumbled below. "So you couldn't stop him before he transformed, hey kit?"
"Nope," I answered without a hint of embarrassment.
"Good. It's been decades since I fought a bijuu. This'll be a good workout."
"Hey, hey, is this the Boss Fox!?" Naruto asked excitedly. "Hey, Boss Fox!"
"Who's the obnoxious brat, kit?"
"Boss, meet Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, meet the Boss."
"This is Kurama-sama's container!?"
"Who-sama?"
"Can we discuss this later?" I quickly interjected as Gaara's body emerged from Shukaku's head. "He's about to-"
Gaara's mouth moved before he went limp.
"Yeah! Finally free!" Shukaku sounded exactly as insane as he was. "I'm gonna kill everything in sight, starting with you! Fuuton: Renkuudan (Wind Release: Wind Bullets)!"
"Hold on, kits!" Naruto and I gripped the Boss' fur tightly as he leaped away from the massive projectiles. "Katon: Karyuu Endan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet)!"
"Shinkuu Shouheki (Vacuum Barrier)!" The Boss unleashed a colossal stream of fire from his mouth, which split into three absolutely beautiful dragons of flame. The fire dragons closed in on Shukaku from three sides, but seemed to crash into an empty void in the air and dissipate. "Damn, that's hot!" the bijuu complained. "Suna Shuriken!" We were violently flung through the air like an extreme roller coaster ride as the Boss drew his sword in his mouth and cut through the projectiles.
"I'm gonna be sick," Naruto complained.
"Um, Boss? Please don't do that again while we're up here," I requested.
"Hmph, fine. My other summoners did prefer to sit on my back rather than my head, but considering what I need you to do…"
"What do you need us to do?" Naruto sounded nervous.
"Wake up the jinchuriki. Shukaku's hosts aren't able to sleep normally, otherwise he takes over. One of you has to smack the boy awake." Naruto and I looked at eachother.
"Hey, I don't have enough chakra left," I pointed out with a shrug.
"Guess it's up to me, then."
"I'll get you close!" the Boss declared. "Hold on tight!" With that, he lunged for Shukaku, weaving around projectile attacks as he went.
When he finally sunk his teeth and claws into the bijuu, I felt ill from the g-forces. Luckily, Naruto was able to quickly shake off the effects and leap onto Shukaku's forehead.
"Wake the hell up, dattebayo!" The haymaker he unleashed on the poor redhead was legendary. Gaara stared in mute shock at his awakening.
"No, Kami damnit, I just got here!" Shukaku complained impotently, unable to stop himself from being sucked back into the seal. His constructed body began to collapse, Naruto and Gaara falling to the ground.
"It's finally over…" I sighed in relief.
"Hmph, and it wasn't even a good fight. Don't call me for such trivial matters again, kit!"
"Wait, aren't you going to put me d- fuuuuuuck!"
I landed painfully in a tree branch and finally re-upped my Henge just as Asuma showed up, landing right beside me.
"Hey, kid. That fox yours?"
"Yeah," I wheezed out, winded by the fall.
"Good work." Down below, Naruto and Gaara were talking. "Guess I should take the kid in."
"Wait, give it a sec."
"You damn moron!" Naruto headbutted the other jinchuriki, knocking both of them out.
"Now you can take him in." Asuma laughed, shook his head, and took out a cigarette.
"Let's get back to the village."
"See? Told you we had a plan," Clone Mitsuru declared proudly. "The Boss could probably use what little chakra I have left, so I'll be dispelling now." Before Hiruzen or Jiraiya could say anything, she poofed out of existence.
"Huh, that's interesting," I mused upon receiving my clone's memories. Asuma shot me an odd look.
"What?"
"Just something I learned from a Shadow Clone just now." He shrugged and we moved on.
So degradation to my clones' eyesight doesn't transfer to me when they burst? I grinned. I'm going to exploit the hell out of that.