Blinding Entrance and Betrayal

(Yugao's Point of View)

Even after touching down, the beam maintained its structure for a few seconds. From their position, they could see its immediate effect on the barrier. Its structure heated to molten levels as pieces of it began dripping as lava, exposing everyone inside to the bright rays of sunshine from the world outside.

"What now!?" Yugao asked. Not sure what was going on.

From what she could see, the beam was working in their favor, but its presence certainly wasn't natural and suggested a third party.

"Sensei." Kamui called out from her position.

"Yes, Kamui?"

"Whatever that beam is just destroyed the barrier. The summoned creatures sustaining it aren't there anymore and the seals composing the barrier itself have collapsed."

"Seriously?" Yugao asked in disbelief. Looking around at the devastation, she couldn't help but marvel at the insane amount of power it must have taken to disable the barrier in one blow.

"Whatever did this must be incredibly powerful…." Yugao muttered.

"Actually sensei." Kamui stated, catching Yugao's attention. "While the attack was powerful, destroying the barrier the way it did wasn't something out of the realm you or I could do with proper prep time. From what I could see from the barrier, it focused almost all its defenses inside. It was extremely vulnerable from outside; the sound four must have been extremely confident that no one would interfere.

"I also just got word that Tayuya surrendered to Konoha with the hopes of seeking asylum and joining the village. Since she wasn't completely trustworthy, Naga restrained her until we reach the village. Since the summons powering the barrier were hers, the barrier's near inexhaustible supply of chakra wasn't present. Normally, knocking the summoner unconscious doesn't de-summon summoning creatures, but that may have been the case here.

"Long story short, that barrier was only a real problem due to us being inside, me not being able to teleport inside of it, and the vast chakra batteries they prepared ahead of time."

Yugao's eyes widened at the revelation. She was impressed. To think their new addition managed to settle one of the sound four already and without a fight. Considering what they just went through, that's extremely impressive.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Two kunoichi immediately turned to see a seemingly perfectly healed Jirobo screaming at the top of his lungs as his form rapidly shrunk back to his original size. While he still retained his distorted form, the overwhelming power it once held was no more than a memory.

"How the hell is he still alive!?" Yugao shouted uncharacteristically, clearly frustrated that the titan she had struggled to kill was still completely intact.

Kamui shook her head.

"I don't know. Unless his healing has reached divine levels, he should absolutely be dead. Even a jinchuriki would with the injuries you caused. There's only one jutsu I know that could pull something off and it requires a sharingan, something he clearly doesn't have." She replied.

"You don't think it could be the Izanagi, do you? Didn't Danzo get his from Orochimaru?" Yugao asked, still remembering that horror show. The assassination of root's leader was a memory she didn't like reliving. Excluding himself, Danzo had armed ten of his elite root ninjas with a fully matured sharingan implanted in a hand composed of the first Hokage's cells. Their use of Izanagi allowed them to use suicide jutsu that would be impossible otherwise. They lost a lot of good ANBU in that hunt.

"We would need to find the sharingan that caused it. I don't know how it could have been used though. Jirobo was too overtaxed to pull it off. Plus, his body wasn't giving off the type of presence I'd expect from Lord First's cells. Speaking of presence, something's different about him." Kamui replied, her sharingan focusing on the apparent weakness she's felt in the man's demonic chakra.

In her vision, Jirobo's body spasmed in an uncontrollable seizure. Through her eyes, she could tell that his available personal chakra had lessened significantly with only the cursed seal's chakra being left. Whatever method was used must have either been incompatible with the tainted nature chakra or performed improperly.

It was something that she found odd. There shouldn't have been any imbalances in his chakra system. From what she saw in Anko's mark, the malicious seal constantly regulates the ratio of—

Kamui's eyes widened in realization.

"It's gone…." Kamui muttered. "Almost everything that consisted of the seal is gone… the only exception is Orochimaru's soul fragment and that seems to have gotten even larger somehow."

"What!? How? It shouldn't have just disappeared. I doubt Orochimaru would both save them and free them. That's not how he works." Yugao exclaimed, her tone dripping with suspicion.

"I don't know. We'll have to investigate this more. On, the bright side, with him alive, we should be able to get more intel, especially since Kidomaru seems to be occupied." Kamui commented cheerfully. Although she was wary of the new addition, everything they had done had been beneficial to them so far. Plus, the two of them were in no shape to antagonize them.

Sighing, Yugao shook her head at her student's sudden easy-going nature, despite their close encounter and still very real threat in Kidomaru. Even preoccupied, he was still a grave threat.

'I blame you, captain and Lord Fourth. You two set a pretty poor example.' She thought to herself in resignation.

"Well, get to it. We need to see what's happening with Kidomaru. I doubt our 'savior' will appreciate us taking our time." Yugao casually ordered.

"Right" Kamui nodded and got ready to move toward the spasming giant.

Before she could even take a step though, Jirobo's movements rapidly stiffened up, his skin darkened, the volume of his screams dropped to a whisper, and finally silenced to nothing. In almost an instant, Jirobo was a lawn ornament, forever to scare away the local fauna as an inanimate statue.

"Well… shit" Kamui commented.

Looking at the sight, herself, Yugao's mind froze with shock, and she did the only thing she could conceivably do at this point, dumbfoundedly nod in agreement.

(Naga's Point of View)

Carrying an unconscious Tayuya on her back, Naga sped toward the direction Reina had gone. She honestly would rather reinforce Kamui but knew what was more important right now. Reina wasn't nearly at the same level as the other two and would struggle if an unknown enemy jonin ambushed that group.

Suddenly, she stopped as she felt a slight change in the air centering around Tayuya. It only lasted a moment, but when it ended, Tayuya had changed.

Focusing her senses on the young woman, Naga could feel an immediate difference in the girl's chakra. While Tayuya had always been the least affected by the curse mark, her chakra still normally carried a dark taint; it was even more prominent in this encounter. She wasn't sure of the reason for the recent darkening, but it was something she'd noticed and had been wary of.

Now, it was gone. While there were vestiges of it tainting her chakra, those would pass.

"How the hell'd that happen?" She mumbled to herself as her eyes noticed the lack of a curse mark on her neck."

Sighing to herself, Naga decided to report it and get back to finding Reina.

'Kamui, there's something you may want to know.' She began reporting through the link. She didn't know what was going on, but at least it shouldn't be bad for Tayuya. At worst, her new boss would have a harder fight.

After reporting what just happened, she shrugged and pushed forward.

(Kidomaru's Point of View)

Immediately after the beam hit the ground, a cloud of dust clouded the area around him. That wasn't what caught his attention though. The beam itself was blinding. Its power was like nothing he'd ever felt before. In fact, the overwhelming density of chakra was blinding to his eyes.

"What now!?" He exclaimed.

With his byakugan, he immediately noticed the quickly deteriorating barrier around them. Not only had the summons disappeared, but the structure was quicky turning into magma. He didn't know how, but the beam was somehow transferring portions of its heat equally across the barrier.

'What ever happens, I need to retreat. Even if those two Konoha chumps are easy prey, I'm still at a massive disadvantage especially if there's someone who can fire these types of attacks...' He thought, trying to ward off his frustration from leading him to do something suicidal.

He hated retreating. He hated it with a passion and would normally make fun of any teammate who suggested it; this was different. He hated to leave his comrades behind, but… they knew this would happen one day.

This was always part of the deal. They were all raised by the incarnation of selfishness and had been his elite task force for years. There simply hadn't been any situations where they were separated like this and in such bad shape. If the summons were destroyed, Tayuya must have lost consciousness and he's already lost contact with Sakon and Ukon. With Jirobo already proving to be too weak, he needed to get out of there.

'At least I got the key to my future out of it. Heh, through their sacrifice, I'll achieve heights even Lord Orochimaru couldn't fathom.' He thought callously, briefly focusing his byakugan's vison on the four new seals on his body.

On the back of his upper right hand, he had a seal with three triangles pointing away from each other, on his upper left, he had a seal with three right angled lines depicting a sort of pinwheel, and finally, he had seals on his chest and back depicting three filled in circles. These were the curse marks he snatched from his former comrades.

Before the battle, Orochimaru had embedded Sakon, Tayuya, and Jirobo with his original trio of eyes. The ones in his head now were all transplants including the ones resembling his old set. The real purpose of the sharingan in his eye sockets were to give him the means of resurrecting the others with Izanagi, the ultimate genjutsu that allowed a user of a sharingan to apply a genjutsu to reality at the cost of their eyes.

The jutsu itself was normally used to undo critical injuries to one's person, but Orochimaru had taken it further. By transplanting his eyes, he used the constant, unbreakable connection a dojutsu user has with their eyes to extend the range of the Izanagi onto them. That was how he brought Jirobo back to life.

What the snake didn't know was that Kidomaru had other ideas. Through his knowledge on the human body, he theorized that he could change anything he considered 'himself' as if he were an illusion as long as the changes were physically feasible. The best part was that the jutsu wasn't affected by distance since the targets were all part of 'him' so he was still able to use it on Sakon and Ukon to a limited degree. Izanagi may not be able to do this normally, but Orochimaru's upgrades on his body had increased its potency significantly.

With that said, he first used the technique to revert himself back to the condition he was in back when he first tested stage 3; this restored him to the period before these unknown crippling injuries. Then, he stole every part of the curse marks from his former companions while moving any parts of Orochimaru over to Jirobo. Since the man was filled with all that sage chakra, he wouldn't last long without the seal to regulate it so Orochimaru's chakra would go with him.

Now, he had all the curse marks' powers while being completely free from his former master. He also took the liberty of switching hearts with Sakon; though, Sakon's new one was purposely placed incorrectly. His bloodline limit would come in handy later so having the man's cells running through his body would help.

With this, Sakon would kick the bucket leaving Ukon weakened and unaware of what happened, Tayuya was too weak to matter and Jirobo'd be dead. In short, they couldn't compete with his strengthened form. The problem is that he had to retreat to a safe place to deal with the acceptance process of the seals. He was suppressing them with his chakra before they could be fully integrated but that wasn't a permanent solution.

Turning his focus back to the beam, he noticed it had started dissipating, leaving something he hadn't expected. There was someone in there.

Where the pillar of fire once stood was a light-skinned 16-year-old girl with scarlet-red hair and eyes. Her hair framed her face with bangs hanging just above eye level; the back of her hair was braided in a single long tail that went to the middle of her back. She wore a form-fitting long-sleeved black shirt under a dark brown short-sleeved tunic; the tunic was tied down by a bronze ornate buckled black belt tied around her waist. On the back of the tunic was a black triple magatama pattern expressing her status as a priestess. A six onyx-black magatama bead necklace hung loosely on her neck. Lastly, she wore a pair of black shinobi pants and sandals.

In her right hand was a retracted thin onyx-black whip-sword that pulsed with flames. In her left, was a large bronze mirror shield with intricate black trimmings.

Her presence radiated an intense heat that seemed to burn his skin and chakra. He couldn't tell exactly how much chakra she had with his byakugan being blinded, but he knew it certainly wasn't enough to accomplish this. Call it a hunch, but the chakra he could feel from her was of a different quality than the one that produced the beam.

'Was that beam some sort of space time ninjutsu? Has someone aside from the Namikaze family learned how to teleport? There's no way she came with the beam; that would be suicide.' He deduced.

No matter how powerful this new arrival may be, it would be foolish to place oneself in the heart of a beam that hot. If that were the case though, then the jutsu's caster must have an unfathomable level of control. Either way, it would be unwise of him to engage them in his current condition.

He couldn't afford to let his chakra get any lower than it is now; that would release the curse seals and he would lose control of his functions during the integration process. That needed time and care to be done safely.

Focusing back on the girl, he noticed her looking around in confusion.

'She doesn't know where she is, does she?' he noticed.

Then, her eyes focused on him.

"Oh, look what we have here. A shady looking man pretending to be an Oni. Truly, this land is as unique as the tales suggested." The girl casually commented with an awed smile.

"Get out of here kid. This ain't your business." He ordered with bravado, pointing one of his extended arms in her direction. While doing this, he willed one of his sharper nails on his lower left hand to cut into his palm.

"Actually." She paused. "I think it is. With the way you're dressed, I would say that you're one of Orochimaru's goons and my lady is definitely not happy with him. In short, I have to kill you. Apologies in advance." She replied with what looked like genuine compassion.

'What?' he thought before pumping as much chakra as he could to his legs catapulting him back.

Almost an instant later, the upper portion of her blade ripped through the earth he was just standing on like a heated knife through butter. She hadn't even moved, just swung her sword vertically which extended at impossible speeds.

Looking down at the impact site, he could see the earth quickly heating to a molten state.

'I absolutely can't let that hit me. Wait, did she say her mom did that!? Oh shit, I can't fight her. I can't sense anyone else outside of my byakugan's vison so if the mom is able to send her here without a previous marker… even if I killed this chick, I'd never get a wink of sleep. Pissing off someone like that's not good for my health.' He thought frantically. Seeing the effect of the girl's sword matching the effect of the beam lent credence to her words.

Before he could catch his breath though, she swung her sword again, once again sending the blade in his direction.

On instinct, he moved both larger arms to her left and right, his right smaller arm toward the oncoming sword, his left smaller arm running through the hand signs for his modified reverse summoning jutsu, and his mouth opening.

'My ninjutsu should be available again; at least, it better be.' He thought frantically.

'Spider Release: Scattershot arrow' He thought as two giant arrows shot out of his hands to the girl's left and right.

'Spider Release: Blood-felling Spear' Red-colored spear shot out of his right hand to meet the sword.

'Spider Release: Sticky Scatter Bullets' White sticky web-like balls shot out of his mouth into the sky like watermelon seeds.

'Modified Reverse Summoning Jutsu' A summoning tattoo spread across his left palm and glowed in a dark purple light. It was a jutsu that requested his summons to reverse summon him. It would take a few seconds for them to do so, so this combination was really more of a stall tactic.

The red spear collided with the sword with an impact that threw both hurtling back, though the sword was retracted with abnormal speed.

The two arrows on the other hand, reached points on either side of the girl and exploded into a shower of shrapnel-like material.

From above, the web balls exploded into larger curtains of webs, making any vertical means of escape much harder.

'Those two Konoha punks are lucky. If the barrier were still up, this combination would have killed them without fail.' He thought in passing.

This was true. Were Kidomaru able to get this off, the consequences would have been fatal. Actually, the only reason Jirobo lost to Yugao was his impairment. At full strength, with a barrier properly set, he could have soloed them both; that was the frustrating part of this situation to the spider-like man.

Seeing the well-laid combination, the girl smiled.

Shooting backwards with as much force as she could, the girl pointed the mirror shield forward. As she did, his eyes briefly caught his own reflection. That didn't last long though as the shrapnel pelted the shield in the next moment.

By getting back far enough, the girl only had to defend from the front, which was covered by the shield.

Once the shrapnel made contact, they vanished. Kidomaru's eyes dilated in shock as he involuntarily coughed out globs of blackened blood.

'What the hell happened!' He mentally screamed as unbearable pain assaulted his midsection.

Where the shrapnel hit on his reflection, they were embedded on that part of his body and had done so with the same force they hit the shield with.

"What… *cough* kind of shield *cough* *cough* is that!?" he screamed through his coughs.

"Doesn't matter." She joyfully replied as she rushed at him, knowing that a distance-based battle would only help the creepy man.

'Damn it, that did more damage than it… AACCKK!!'

His thoughts were interrupted as a roaring pain shot from every new cursed seal he had embedded. With the chakra sealing them having been interrupted by the extreme physical trauma, tendrils of their dark chakra began leaking into his system.

Distracted by the pain, he had no time to dodge a whip-sword covered in crimson flames roaring in his direction. The girl had closed the gap and was preparing to finish him off before he could pull something.

Before the blade could strike though, he disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Where he stood, the blade passed harmlessly.

Baffled at the now-empty patch of earth, the girl backed away with a quick body flicker and surveyed the area for the man's location.

"Did he really just run away?" She asked in disbelief and exasperation. "What a killjoy. Didn't he have any sense of honor? Oh well, let's go meet my new boss then. Hope this all goes smoothly."