Chapter 39

Of fucking course he wasn't dead. Things could never be so simple.

"You just don't quit do you?" I asked the snake who stood atop…his snake.

"Afraid not, my dear boy. I am a man with a goal after all."

"A goal that required you to betray your home village?" Ebisu growled, his hand tightening around his kunai as he glared behind his now-broken shades.

Orochimaru paused at Ebisu's words. His hand came up to his chin in thought.

"Not so much of a requirement, more so a choice. With such a decision, my will would be fulfilled much easier, so I made it." He waved off with a satisfied smirk. "Had sensei not thrown such a fit about my work I would have remained a Konoha shinobi."

Quite hard to not react when your student is experimenting on innocent people, but then again I won't claim any moral high ground. Such a thing would be the height of hypocrisy.

"With the boy, my will shall be done, that much I am certain." Orochimaru's body tensed, all of us getting on guard. My eyes flickered to Yamato-sensei's unconscious body in the arms of Naruko's clone. We needed him out of here so we'd have to buy time.

My hand twitched and that was all it took for Orochimaru's snake to slither forward. Anko and Ebisu quickly came in front of me both launching fireball jutsu at the snake. I clasped my hands together in prayer my pseudo sage mode activating once more.

'Wood Release: Underground Roots' I poured a great deal of my gathered nature energy into the jutsu, the roots shooting out of the ground and halting the snake's movements.

'Now!'

"GRAAAAH!" The wood golem tackled the snake, slamming it down hard with Orochimaru jumped off the head. The snake sannin quickly weaved through hand seals and I winced when a huge spout of fire erupted from his mouth.

The fire impacted the golem and my eyes widened to see the golem hadn't started to burn.

Ah, I'm an idiot. Not only is the golem composed of living wood, it had been swimming in the water before this fight. Burning it was nearly impossible.

Orochimaru landed on the entrance of the bridge with a cocky smirk. The golem started tussling with the bound snake anew.

"Naruko, Anko, Ebisu, I need you three to buy me some time," I ordered, still channeling my chakra through the roots so the wood golem would have a much easier time killing the snake.

"Don't hold out too long on us kid." Anko grinned nervously, launching herself towards the snake with Naruko and Ebisu right behind her.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu." She'll never stop, will she?

'Gather energy.' I ordered my clone who was still watching the bound, and very irritable, girl. The clone didn't waste time, sitting down and letting the natural energy flow through it.

"You." I looked at Naruko's clone. "Take Yamato-sensei back to the town, run on the water to avoid the snake."

"Got it, Lei!" The blonde clone dashed off, jumping off the mainland and landing on the water below.

My eyes locked onto the snake who was…for lack of a better term getting his fucking shit rocked. The wood golem bashed its head over and over with its strong chakra-enforced fists. It didn't take any longer than a minute before this snake, just like the last lay completely lifeless.

I looked towards the bridge where Orochimaru and the others were battling. A hundred or so of Naruko's clones getting smacked and kicked into the air. He was still toying with us, I was certain of that, but in time he would come to regret such a foolish action.

'Wood Release: Wood Clone Jutsu.' I summoned three more clones and ordered them to push Orochimaru back to the mainland. The bridge was a bad place for me to fight, my golem couldn't provide real support there and I wouldn't be able to produce any powerful attacks without risking damage to the bridge.

The clones made their way over, wood tanto forming from their hands as they joined Naruko in a frontal assault. Ebisu and Anko launched various jutsu from a safer distance.

Watching the fight, I realized just how gracefully Orochimaru was when he fought. It almost looked like he was dancing with how he easily crushed our hopes and dreams of victory.

However as he was slowly pushed back to the mainland, my thoughts changed. I slammed my hands on the ground infusing all the nature energy I had built up this far into the dirt. Even as my clone continued to send more, I added it to my planned attack.

One of my clones sent a water bullet that forced Orochimaru to jump a couple of dozen meters backward, landing a good distance from myself and my golem.

Though he was on the mainland. Checkmate.

'Wood Release: Wood Wyrm Jutsu.'

The ground beneath Orochimaru caved in and out of it emerged a giant wingless dragon-like creature. Orochimaru jumped, and I relished in the surprise plastered on his face as the wyrm consumed him.

'End it!'

*BOOOOM*

The wood wyrm exploded, leaving a large crater that managed to destroy not just where Orochimaru was standing, but also several trees deeper into the mainland. The crater had to be at least a dozen meters in diameter and as I stepped forward and looked into it, the deepest point was an estimated five meters.

I had exhausted my natural energy, but I could feel my clone sending me more. My eyes scanned the crater looking for any signs of the snake's body. He had been swallowed before being exploded, there was no fucking way he survived right?

"Lei!" I turned towards the bridge to see Satsuki running over to us. She paused, looking into the crater. "...Is it over?"

I had yet to see a limb or even a charred bit of flesh, there is a chance he was completely eviscerated, but I doubt it. There should be a trace of something.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "Keep your guard up."

My Uchiha girlfriend nodded, her eyes narrowing as she scanned our surroundings. The others doing the same.

*Clap*

Fuck me.

We turned to the sound of clapping deeper in the forest, and slowly Orochimaru walked out. To my surprise, he looked like he had taken a bit of damage from the attack, evidenced by one of his clapping hands moving to clutch his side where I can assume a nasty burn existed.

"That was a surprise, my dear boy. I don't think I've ever read of that jutsu, did you make it yourself?" He asked, licking his chapped lips.

"Yeah," I answered, but it wasn't true. The wood dragons that Hashirama and I use don't necessarily have wings, but they are built in a way where they can shoot themselves into the air and glide towards people. The wyrm jutsu I used was just a wood dragon that couldn't glide and instead was created to have an easier time moving underground with smooth grooves resembling that of an earthworm.

So really I just copied, pasted, and then edited.

"Fascinating. You are much more capable than I previously gave you credit for. You are quite different from my other wooden toy." His eyes moved over to Satsuki, his smirk growing wider. "To think you would come along to play as well. Unfortunately, I believe I've spent too much time here, so we'll have to end this playdate early, come along kids."

He bit his thumb and started weaving through hand seals quickly, my eyes widened as I recognized what he was planning to do once more and moved to rush him and my fear grew when I realized just how much chakra he was putting into the summoning.

He was summoning something big.

"ARGHHHH!"

I planted my feet into the dirt, skidding to a stop as Orochimaru started to burn. Seeing the snake in agony should have relaxed my mind, and in any other situation, it would have. Not this one.

The flames that were quickly spreading and burning more and more of his body…

They were black.

The deepest black I had ever seen in either of my lives.

I flexed my sensory chakra and felt two new signatures several dozen meters away. I forced chakra in my eyes as my head snapped over to see the new arrivals and my blood went cold as I stared directly into the eyes of a mangekyo sharingan.

I averted my gaze to see another man, inhuman in appearance, staring down at his partner with a questioning look.

Itachi Uchiha, and Kisame Hoshigaki. Dressed in their Akatsuki cloaks.

"ARRRRGHHHH!" I looked back over to Orochimaru to see him opening his mouth wider than humanly possible, from it emerged a white snake with his face that blasted itself towards the water. This was our chance.

'Don't let him get away!' I ordered the golem who launched itself itself towards the snake, attempting to step on it. The body dispersed into smaller snakes that went in different directions, the golem attempting to step on each one it could, but eventually, a great deal of the snakes managed to jump into the water.

Fuck!

I quickly looked towards where Itachi and Kisame were to see them gone. I sent out my nature energy further out and still couldn't sense them.

They left.

—

Kisame

He and his partner had a mission, a mere sub-objective in their grand goal. Orochimaru, the snake sannin and a former member of the Akatsuki was to be eliminated.

In all honestly, Kisame didn't care much for the missions he was sent to go on and didn't even care much about killing Orochimaru. No, his interest always lies in his partner, Itachi Uchiha.

The guy was a mystery, not speaking much to any of the Akatsuki unless he had to. It was highly suspected amongst them that Itachi planned to kill them all one day, Kakuzu even going as far as to dare Itachi to try.

Itachi's response had been so interesting, that he turned away and left. As if Kakazu wasn't even worth his time, and that got Kisame's interest to grow. He had once tried to attack Itachi, the kin slayer easily avoiding it and letting his guard down immediately after, once more showing his wishes not to fight, even though he was as capable as he was.

Thus the never-ending cycle of him trying to understand Itachi and failing each time began.

Then something interesting happened again. While he and his partner were having some tea in one of the towns just outside of the hidden mist, Itachi bolted away suddenly.

Kisame had been so surprised by the development, Itachi, the same guy he had come to know as calm and quiet and so very mysterious was now running at full speed towards the mainland of the elemental nations.

He couldn't help the smirk tugging at his lips and he zipped off to follow, uncaring of the looks they received as they left. He followed his partner across the ocean and through the Land of Waves. They reached the mainland and Itachi hopped into the trees before taking a sudden left turn, Kisame's smirk grew, and he could feel a very powerful and familiar energy nearby, seems Itachi wasn't slacking on the mission as he thought.

Then several dozen meters away, Itachi stopped, perching on a branch. Kisame eyed the snake that had once been a member of the Akatsuki, his eyes moving over to the group of Konoha shinobi and then back to Orochimaru. He contemplated jumping down there and having some fun, but his bloodlust was overwhelmed by his desire to see Itachi's intentions.

He watched as Itachi opened his eyes, both of them taking his mangekyo sharingan pattern. The Uchiha's right eye started to bleed and taking another look at Orochimaru, Kisame watched as the snake was enveloped by black flames.

The wielder of Samehada was just about ready to jump down and cut some meat to shreds, but his partner raising a hand in front of him stopped his actions. He raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha. He contemplated just pushing past Itachi to see what he'd do, but before he could, Itachi dashed off once more.

He stared at Itachi's retreating form, dumbfounded, before his amusement overwhelmed him. He chuckled as he dashed after his partner once more.

As long as Itachi Uchiha existed, life never had truly dull moments for Kisame Hoshigaki.