Teuchi Bridge... The battle awaits

"Okay so his voice was grainy, and he was hidden inside his puppet." Sai said, Yamato changing his voice and asking which sounded the closest, Sai giving the confirmation.

"Now, if Orochimaru shows up, that's likely why I'm here, in case a fight breaks out, I'll handle Orochimaru. You three get Kabuto." Jiraiya said and the group agreed easily enough. Going through the plan a few more times before Yamato made his trek down to the bridge, Yuki standing with Sai, watching, and waiting, as the spy from Orochimaru, his hood pulled over his face completely, shielding his features from view, the bridge creaked as he stepped onto it. Walking towards what he presumed was Sasori. Before he pulled his hood down, revealing Kabuto's features, his round glasses sitting on his nose as his gray hair sat back in a ponytail, he wore a dark hood on his face.

"Is that Kabuto? He was part of the attack on the leaf right?" Yuki whispered and Jiraiya nodded, 'what is going on, is this his spy?' Yamato thought looking towards Kabuto 'Orochimaru's nearby, I can sense him' Jiraiya thought, narrowing his eyes as he watched the bridge,

"Were you followed?" Yamato asked using Sasori's voice, looking at Kabuto harshly, the wind moved their cloaks lightly

"It's just us." Kabuto said looking back at the bridge,

"And how do you feel?" Yamato asked

"I still haven't shaken that strange sensation, from when your jutsu broke and I remembered who I was again." Kabuto replied, 'what? Shit.' Yamato thought

"My head still feels clouded, and heavy." Kabuto continued, shaking his head a moment

"I've got some questions for you." Yamato stated

"Keep it brief. I've risked my life coming to meet without Lord Orochimaru's knowledge." Kabuto said looking over,

"I want to know if there are going to be further attempts to capture Sasuke Uchiha, and the location of your boss's hideout." Yamato said, Kabuto looked over, before looking out at the river,

"There are several hideouts for lord Orochimaru, we move each week to avoid detection. Many are in the hidden sound village, but there are some in other lands. As far as Sasuke Uchiha goes, I don't know if he's planning to go after him again, so far every attempt has been stopped, we lost the sound ninja four, kimimaru, a lot of good ninja in our attempts. There are spies everywhere acting as his eyes and ears, reporting straight to him." Kabuto said

"What of the current hideout." Yamato asked,

"Right now, Orochimaru's holed up on a small island on a lake, just north of here, we're moving again in 3 days." Kabuto replied 'not much time…' Yamato thought as he looked at Kabuto

"We were only able to sneak this close since the wind hides our scent and sound." Sai said and Yuki nodded

"We ought to discuss my orders, lord sasori." Kabuto said looking at Yamato, before describing the reanimation jutsu Orochimaru uses and how he does so, 'Damn… if this conversation continues, I'll be discovered.' Yamato thought as he continued to look at Kabuto listening to his explanation.

"I see…" Yamato said in response to what Kabuto had told him,

"Isn't talking to him a waste of time?" Yuki asked

"No, we need information, and if we can get that willingly, it'll be worth it. Besides, we can't let him escape, without giving us some sort of idea on when Orochimaru will come for Sasuke again, so we can prepare." Jiraiya explained and Yuki nodded,

"Alright…" She said back, looking at the scene in front of her, her midnight blue hair moving lightly in the wind, as did her clothes and Sai's hair and clothes as well. Jiraiya's Gizo moving lightly behind his back,

"But, if he takes too long, the spy could get suspicious. Which puts the entire plan at risk." Sai responded,

"You make a good point Sai, but we've gotta wait for the signal." Jiraiya said

"Alright, let's see… team Ebisu, I have an exceptionally grueling task for you today." Natsuko said to the genin standing in front of her,

"Alright! Is it an S rank?!" Konohamaru said

"Not even close kiddo. But it is a Crank" Natsuko said reading over the paper,

"What is it?" Moegi asked

"Miss. Kiyuki has requested help with tearing out the old fence and weeds, and putting up a new fence." Natsuko said reading the paper,

"What! That's not even hard!" Konohamaru said and Natsuko hummed,

"Then it should be perfect for you three." She said and Kohamaru grumbled as he Ebisu grabbed the mission report,

"This is a perfect mission to build up more of your skills Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, truly. Thank you lady Hokage." Ebisu said before his team left the room, Natsuko's hair was in frenchbraids behind her head, as she wore her cloak on her back, she placed her elbows on the desk as she looked forwards, She'd sent Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura on a delivery mission, with the help of Shizune, delivering the credentials to the businesses for them to stay open. They were also ordered to grab the expired credentials and bring them back. Neji and his team were assigned to find out more information on the statue that Neji had described, from their mission to save Gaara.

"You're worried about that statue?" Shisue asked and Natsuko nodded,

"A statue that can store the massive amounts of tailed beast chakra is worrisome enough, but with someone out there that can use that statue, that's even more troublesome. What's worse is we don't have any information on it…" Natsuko said as she flipped through another book, having finished her paperwork as her desk sat empty.

"Team Gai will find information on it," Shisui said and Natsuko nodded,

"Hey Natsuko, you had a mission for us?" Kiba asked as he walked in and Natsuko nodded,

"It's a fairly simple mission, a missing puppy, by the name of Oreo, was last seen in their backyard before disappearing. Heres the mission. Kiba your heading up this one." Natsuko said as he grabbed the paper

"Alright! Let's see! This should be relatively easy, the kids name is Kumiko?" Kiba asked and Natsuko nodded,

Yamato brought out a kunai aiming for Kabuto when Orochimaru jumped down behind Kabuto,

"Well well, this looks interesting, Mind if I join the fun?" Orochimaru said sighing in his gleeful tone, as he stood behind Kabuto who still had his arm outstretched, the man glancing back to him.

"She was right." Jiraiya said referring to Natsuko's feeling about Orochimaru showing up to the meeting, Kabuto jumped from the snake Orochimaru was wrapping around his body, jumping in front of Yamato, he wore a gray short sleeve shirt with a purple vest overtop, the vest having a large open collar, paired with purple pants, a tan belt around his waist, a shuriken holster on his right thigh with a kunai pouch on his back waist. With ninja sandals on his feet.

"Lord Sasori, thank you for pulling that Kunai, If you hadn't I wouldn't have gotten away in time." Kabuto said Yamato's disguise of Sasori consisted of a straw hat with white fabric falling around his head, a black cloth over his mouth with an akatsuki cloak over the large back of his woodstyle. Overall it was very convincing. 'What do I do now, Orochimaru's shown up… we have Master Jiraiya but we need to play it safe for now…' Yamato thought as he looked ahead

"My, my, that robe brings back memories. Such fond memories, doesn't it. Sasori." Orochimaru said to Yamato who tsked,

"So, you followed Kabuto, did you." Yamato said and Orochimaru sighed,

"I just had to thank you in person, after all, you sent this child to me. And he's been very handy. The development of new jutsu can eat up 100+ test subjects, but thanks to your spies medical ninjutsu… I've been able to reuse my test subjects, again and again. It's always so hard to find volunteers," Orochimaru said simply grinning from ear to ear, as Yamato tried to decide what to do, before Kabuto raised his arm, medical ninjutsu shining in his palm as he turned swiping at Yamato who jumped out of the wood imitation, 'He knew the entire time? No… it looks like this was a set up ambush meant for Sasori.' Yamato thought as he looked on from the air, Orochimaru sending his snakes towards Yamato who used wood replacement jutsu to replace himself with a wood clone before he was bitten.

"Wood style? Interesting…" Orochimaru said looking at Yamato

"Is that Sasori? Lord Orochimaru?" Kabuto asked

"Definitely not.. You mean the entire time you were serving Sasori, you never saw his real body?" Orochimaru said

"What is the meaning of this? Kabuto, you were the Akatsuki spy" Yamato asked, holding his sliced arm,

"The jutsu he used on me was broken long ago by lord orochimaru," Kabuto said

"So it was a ruse, while you'd turned traitor?" Yamato questioned,

"You got me… I empasize with Lord Orochimaru, and his ideals." Kabuto said back holding his hands up near his face in a faux placating gesture as he smiled condescending

"Who are you anyway? We were going to take care of Sasori.. But you're not him, this changes things." Kabuto said looking at Yamato

"I'll fill you in on him later… for now though, why don't you signal to the three rats behind you." Orochimaru said and Yamato tsked, before doing so. Sai, Jiraiya, and Yuki jumping out from the bushes, landing in front of Yamato, standing ready to fight. Jiraiya stood in the middle, with Sai on the left, preparing his super beast scroll, and Yuki on the right, a kunai in either hand,

"Orochimaru! Been a long time." Jiraiya said

"Well, well.. Looks like we should have some fun while we're here." Orochimaru said, glee in his voice, before engaging in a battle with Jiraiya, the battle deceimating the bridge, and the forest behind Orochimaru, as the two engaged in a high stakes battle, Sai catching Yuki as the bridge fell down the middle, broken pieces heading towards the river several meters below. As Jiraiya and Orochimaru battled, Yuki, Sai and Yamato closed in on Kabuto. Who tried to escape, Yamato using a woodstyle on him to wrap wood around his body, Kabuto tsking before jumping away. The two sanin's went around in battles, Jiraiya summoning his toad mouth trap, trapping Orochimaru in the walls, before Orochimaru summoned his gate technique, which broke the trap apart, he extended his neck, a sword coming from his throat to stab Jiraiya who used his Gizo to block the sword from his body, sliding back on the dirt,

"Toad oil bomb!" Jiraiya said sending oil spewing from his mouth and hitting Orochimaru in the face

"Still with the same old tricks, Jiraiya" Orochimaru said unconcerned,

"Not exactly" He replied lifting his finger up to his chin causing the oil to self ignite on Orochimaru's face, casing the man to yell in surprise and pain before shedding his skin, a trait only Orochimaru could pull off. Before sliding off like the snake he was. Jiraiya was panting from the battle,

"I'll come for Sasuke again, just wait." Orochimaru said before slithering away, and Jiraiya tsked,

"We need to go report to Lady Hokage, right away. Our goal was just gather information, and we've done so. Let's get going." Yamato said and Jiraiya nodded, the group heading back towards the leaf, with Sai sending off a preliminary report.

"This is troubling.. He's got hideouts and spies everywhere and moves weekly. So tracking him down would be next to impossible. Pervy sage, what happened when you fought him?" Natsuko asked as she leaned on her hands,

"He's planning to come after Sasuke once more. And they were going to take down Sasori, had a plan in place. I don't know what they're planning but it can't be good." Jiraiya said, he Yamato, Yuki, Sai, and Fugaku stood in the room, as Natsuko hummed.

"This isn't good. Sasuke isn't going to like it but he is to be under constant supervision, I don't want him left alone at all, not while Orochimaru is still out there. Lord Fugaku, I'd like to assign you to this." Natsuko said and Fugaku nodded,

"Understood, Lady Hokage." he said

"Pervy sage, you and Granny've known him the longest, do you think you could determine where he might be moving next? And Yamato you mention he was testing a new jutsu?" Natsuko asked and Yamato nodded,

"He said thanks to Kabuto's medical knowledge, he was reusing the same test subjects." Yamato said and Natsuko hummed,

"We'll have to look more depth into this information, thank you for your report." Natsuko said,

"I'll get on that right away." Jiraiya said

"Thanks." Natsuko said, 'he want's Sasuke's body, but what for… for longevity.. What would happen if he weren't to transfer his conscious to another within the time frame. Troubling no matter how it's looked at.' Natsuko thought as the team left. Looking out the window, 'we need to be prepared, to fight Orochimaru, and the Akatsuki.' She thought