'This is not how it's supposed to happen!' Orochimaru's mind was a confused storm as he blew out a wind wall out to stop a barrage of shuriken flying at him, quickly under his sensei's heel kick from behind before leaping away as he saw his teammate shooting out of the ground.
Both of them took a deep breath before spitting out a torrent of flames at the other, the flames clashing with a brilliant flash of orange before a raging wave washed over the rooftop and doused the flames.
Jiraiya didn't move even as he felt a presence behind him, the toad on his left shoulder turning her head and taking a deep breath before out a dust storm into the face of the black-haired man dressed in traditional red samurai armour right before a bipedal monkey grunted as he threw a white-haired man in similar blue armour through the air and right into the first man.
"Hah, even if they're not nearly as strong as the stories say, it's still a tough fight, eh Sensei?" Jiraiya spoke with a smirk as he watched Orochimaru landing with a glare aimed at him, to which Sarutobi simply chuckled as he nodded while watching as his former two mentors standing up while regenerating their injured bodies.
"Think you could distract the two of them while I deal with my wayward student?" Sarutobi asked as Enma leapt into the air with a puff of smoke and caught the gold-tipped black staff falling down into his grasp, Jiraiya frowning slightly as he looked at the First and Second Hokage before rolling his eyes as the green-skinned toad on his right shoulder spoke up.
"Don't you worry your little head about them, little Hiru. Jiraiya-boy, Ma and I will make sure to keep their attention on you."
"Right! I still need to get back home to make that beetle stew."
"I thank you, Lord Fukasaku, Lady Shima." Hiruzen spoke with a smile at the two toads' responses, Jiraiya sighing as he nodded before grinning as he smacked his fist into his palm.
"Then I'll open up with the first salvo of oil. Ma?"
"I'll bring the wind! Pa, the oil!"
"Got it!" Pa agreed as all three of them took a deep breath, Orochimaru frowning as he felt his teammate's chakra surge while Hiruzen took that time to take a few steps back.
"Sage Art: Bath of Boiling Oil!" The trio blew out a combination of raging fire, storming wind and a torrent of oil right before Orochimaru's eyes widened as the three jutsu combined into a wave of flaming oil.
Quickly leaping up and onto the crumbling rock wall behind him that Sarutobi created to dodge the attack, he frowned as he saw his Reanimations taking the attack head on before quickly spinning around with his sword held out as he parried Sarutobi's attack to his neck.
The Hokage however didn't let that deter him as he spun the staff around his back before Enma's hand grew out from the top of it, Orochimaru ducking under the claw swipe at his face before holding his sword besides him right as Sarutobi spun the other end of the staff around and smacked it into the flat side of the blade.
Orochimaru could feel the blow reverberating through his body even as he leapt back with it to mitigate the damage and he quickly swung at the wall to let part of it crumble down right as his former sensei rushed towards him, Sarutobi not wasting a single moment as he heaved and threw Enma at Orochimaru through the falling rubble like a javelin while leaping from rock to rock with the agility of a monkey.
Midway in his flight towards Orochimaru, Enma changed halfway back into his monkey form with a foot raised high, Orochimaru smirking as he opened his mouth before unleashing a flurry of snakes that hissed as they bit down on the Monkey King.
However, the snake shinobi of the Sannin was surprised to see the Monkey King tanking the blow while swinging his leg down with a vicious axe-kick, a wheezing gasp escaping his lips as the force behind the blow sent the shinobi rocketing down towards the bubbling oil below.
However, he forced himself to move and stabbed his sword into the wall, using chakra to make sure it hooked onto the wall before grunting as he stopped the momentum behind the attack and looked up to glare at the monkey.
Unfortunately for him, he forgot about his other foe as Sarutobi was in already in front of him, watching as his former sensei's fist drew closer right through his face before all he knew next was darkness as he felt his brain rattling in his skull.
The next moment, he gasped as another attack painfully slammed into his back and forced him face first through the wall, but he snapped out of his bleary state just in time to see that it was the First Hokage that had sent him flying through the wall right before he cursed as he saw the irritation of a former teammate he had looking smug while holding two red sealing tags in his grasp.
"We know who is the better sealing master here, right?" Jiraiya asked with a smirk as he burned up both paper tags and Orochimaru rolled his eyes as he made a hand signs.
As he did, both the First and Second froze in their tracks and Sarutobi and Jiraiya frowned as the two men fell to the floor in ashes, revealing the corpses of a young man and a girl of the same age with both having a Sound Village headband on their heads.
"Hah, I see your arrogance has made you resort to using your own subordinates as pawns, Orochimaru." Sarutobi spoke with a frown and Orochimaru simply gave the man an amused yet sadistic smile as he shrugged.
"Do not worry, Sarutobi-sensei. They died the moment the souls of the former Hokage linked to them so they didn't feel much. Just the agonizing pain of having their chakra forcibly taken, nothing else."
"You have really changed, haven't you Orochi?" Jiraiya said with a sad look in his eyes and Orochimaru's eyes took on a cold glint as the man scoffed at his words and shook his head.
"No, Jiraiya. I have always been like this. It just got too hard to hide away my true self from the world. However, ever since I didn't have to live under the pathetic pretense for peace and prosperity, I have never felt so alive~!" The snake summoner spoke with a blissful smile and Jiraiya glared at his teammate before looking at his sensei as the man held a hand up.
"Go and help the village. I'll take care of him."
"No."
"Jiraiya…"
"Will you be able to deliver the finishing blow?" Jiraiya asked bluntly and Orochimaru enjoyed the hesitant look in his former sensei's eyes as Jiraiya sighed and shook his head.
"Then I can't leave you here alone."
"The boy speaks the truth. Besides, it appears that we do not have to worry about the village." Fukasaku said with a smirk while nodding at the village beyond the barrier and Jiraiya took a glance before his eyes widened at the sight of an army of Naruto clones leaping out of the arena and spreading out throughout the village.
"…What did you teach him?" Sarutobi asked Jiraiya and the Toad Sage just shook his head as they watched the blonde menace do what he does best: Defy expectations and afterwards go home for a bowl of ramen.
"Ten Thousand Snakes Wave!" Orochimaru however, did not miss the opportunity to strike while signalling for his guards to drop the barrier, both shinobi spinning around just in time to see a wave of thousands upon thousands of snakes slithering out of the snake shinobi's mouth and rising up into the sky with each having a sword extending from their mouths.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Blast Barrage!" However, Sarutobi was surprised to see a familiar barrage of wind blades slicing right through the thousands of snakes with ridiculous ease, Orochimaru quickly weaving a few hand signs and pressing his hands onto the ground to summon three giant brown snakes while his guards landed besides him.
"Surprising to see you here, friend. I thought you would be hiding in the sewers to make sure I died and no one was there to stop you from becoming Hokage." Sarutobi spoke with a frown aimed at the man the same age as he was with bandages wrapped around one eye, to which the man snorted as they landed on a rooftop far away while leaving Jiraiya and the ANBU to take care of the snakes.
"I simply wished to make sure that every civilian was inside the safe houses before I came to help. They are the core of our village, are they not?" Danzo Shimura asked with a raised eyebrow and Sarutobi smiled and nodded despite knowing that his words were just one of the many expertly crafted lies of his former teammate.
Watching as the snakes disappeared in large puffs of smoke, he was not surprised to hear the words of the ANBU as one appeared and knelt behind them.
"Apologies my lord. It appears that Orochimaru had managed to escape along with his guards. However, we did manage to capture one, a red-haired woman by the name of Tayuya."
"Good. See to it that Inoichi handles this matter personally."
"Why not Ibiki?" Danzo asked as the ANBU nodded and vanished, not surprised to see his teammate's usual cryptic smirk as the man looked at him before answering.
"A secret, dear friend. Now, see to it that your ROOT agents take care of any stragglers on the outskirts of the village." It also did not surprise the old man to hear that Hiruzen knew of his hidden regiment, simply nodding as he watched the Hokage leaping away with a slight frown for a brisk moment before suppressing his emotions as he turned and leapt back to his 'hidden' office.
He did miss his opportunity to become Hokage, but now it was time to put himself back in the good favour of Hiruzen once again.
With each passing moment, it grew easier and easier to breathe as I looked out at the arena in front of us, the other members of the Konoha 12 now all awake and frowning as we watched the empty arena below us.
'Kurama?'
"Still have not given you permission to use that name, but when do you listen? Yes, you're fully healed."
'You know you like me using it, you big goofball.'
"I will tear out your throat, you rotten human motherfu-!" I quickly cut off Kurama's raging in the back of my mind as I stretched with a groan, drawing everyone's attention as Sakura frowned when I stretched my legs out behind me one by one.
"And where are you going? All genin are to head to the safe houses, remember?"
"I know, but I first need to go pick up something."
"Then we'll all go with you." Hinata added and I smirked as I saw the looks of agreement on all of their faces before shrugging as I cracked my back from side to side.
"Good. Then, keep up." The next moment, chakra flooded to my legs and I leapt down onto the arena floor, rolling with the momentum before grunting as I leapt up and over its walls onto the nearest rooftop.
Looking besides me as I heard twin thuds, I smirked at the sight of Sasuke and Neji looking back at me with raised eyebrows, everyone else landing just moments later before I frowned as I saw Tenten struggling a bit to keep Lee safe while following us and even Shikamaru still looked a bit tired despite having rested the most out of all of us.
"Hinata, Sakura, Tenten, Choji, Ino, you five go and take Lee and Shikamaru to the safe house and before any of you argue, Lee is still injured and Shikamaru is going to be tired before we got to the spot. Shino, Kiba, Sasuke and Neji, you four are with me."
"Who the hell died and made you boss?"
"Who the hell was the one who made two thousand clones to fight against an entire army?" I asked the Inuzuka shinobi with a raised eyebrow, smirking as he grumbled before turning to the others I spoke to and sighing as I saw their disgruntled frowns.
Well, all except Choji who just gave me a thumbs-up before he threw a groaning Shikamaru over his shoulder and began walking towards the safe houses closest to us.
"Promise us you guys won't go overboard?" Sakura said, specifically looking at Sasuke and I with pointed glares as I shrugged while Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"We promise."
"Good. Hinata, Ino, Tenten, Lee, come on." She said and most of them began following after her, all except Hinata who stared at me before she walked closer with a slight blush.
The next moment, I raised an eyebrow as she leaned up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, her face bright red as she didn't say anything and simply ran after the girls who were all giggling as I watched her leave.
"…Lord Hiashi is going to kill you." Neji spoke up and I snapped out of my shock to look at him only to be bewildered by the amused smirk on his face right before I remembered that Hiashi most likely spoke to him after his match and told him everything.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we're going to the western gate." I said as I began leaping from rooftop to rooftop, the other four following after me as Sasuke spoke up.
"Why are we going there?" He asked before rolling his eyes as I gave him a cryptic grin and answered.
"Because my clones saw a red-haired damsel in distress and what hero would I be if I let her be taken away?"
It took us almost ten minutes before we landed on the rubble of parts of the west wall, the others looking a bit confused as I frowned while sifting through the memories of the clone that dispelled just moments ago.
"This way." I said as I began to pick up speed, the others noticing as they did the same and we continued to leap from tree to tree for another minute or so before my eyes widened as I caught sight of our target.
The five shinobi in question looked back in surprise right as I created a clone besides me that grabbed and threw me at the shinobi on the right who was carrying a knocked-out red-haired girl wearing glasses over his shoulder.
His teammate went to jump in the way, but I simply smirked as my clone dispelled and I spun to the right just as Sasuke shot past me and slammed a double boot stomp into the chest of the shinobi, sending both of them falling down to the forest floor.
Neji, Kiba and Shino were not too far behind and flew past thanks to the boosts from the clone's wind jutsu and left the one carrying my Uzumaki cousin for me, the man looking between Karin and I as I leapt from tree to tree around him rapid succession before dropping her right as a large smoke cloud obscured the two of us from the world.
"Water Style: Liquid Bullets!" My clones and I in the trees took a deep breath before we spat out water bullets that shattered everything in their path, making sure to avoid hitting Karin as the clones herded the shinobi away while I leapt in and picked her up.
"Get her back to the village and the old man!" I shouted as I spun and threw Karin at a clone, who caught her gingerly and nodded before he rushed away right as I turned to glare at the Cloud shinobi dodging the water bullets.
Flooding chakra to my legs, the clones stopped their barrage abruptly and the man wheezed as I tackled him into a tree hard enough to make the bark crack, raising his arms to block the barrage of punches I slammed into them.
Hearing the sound of metal being unsheathed, I quickly leaned back as he swung his kunai at my face, catching his wrist as he tried to swing it around to stab me before wrapping my legs around his arm and pulling down.
The clones that were waiting were already all around us and taking a deep gulp of air, with me quickly letting go and dropping right as each one unleashed a storm of air blades that sliced the man to ribbons.
Looking around, I smiled in relief as I saw Sasuke pulling a Chidori from his foe's chest, Kiba's sharp fangs and Akamaru covered in red while Shino recalled his insects from the dried-up corpse in front of him.
"I suspected that we may need one alive." Neji said as he landed besides me and I smirked as I saw the shinobi he had faced lying paralyzed while his eyes flickered to each one of us as we stood around him.
"Good work. Seal up the corpses and let's head back home."
"Who was the girl we saved?" Shino asked as I called out that order to the clones, turning to see all of them looking curious before their eyes widened as I responded with a shrug.
"She is Karin Uzumaki and I believe we might be distant cousins."
A/N: And another chapter done~! As I said, Foxy Adventures will now be taking over the slot for the Unholy Wolf until I figure out a new schedule, which…might take about a week or so to figure out.
Also, I hope you guys and gals liked that little fight sequence at the start and Danzo has finally been revealed! Let's see what he brings to the story.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until next week...
Ba-Bye~!