Chapter 36

Naruko

It all happened so fast that she didn't even have time to process what had happened. Her body was frozen as her eyes dropped to the downed man.

Thankfully, Satsuki wasn't so stagnant, her body moving to pick up to grab the injured civilian and rush back to the town.

Mr. Tazuna…

As Naruko snapped out of her stupor and followed, she watched as his blood leaked out at alarming rates. That wind bullet definitely would have killed her if not for him…but why?

From the start, their mission had been to protect him, so why?

"Focus, Naruko!" Satsuki shouted, slamming her way through the door of Tazuna's house. His daughter, son, and the elderly man, Dr. Jin, followed closely behind.

Right. Now wasn't the time to lose her head. They had to save Tazuna and help the others!

They went up the stairs letting Satsuki place Tazuna on his bed. Dr. Jin pulled out some tools from his suitcase that, thankfully, he had been carrying with him. He examined Tazuna's wound as she and Satsuki used the mystical palm jutsu to examine and heal his wounds.

"How is he!?" Tsunami asked. It took everything in Naruko's body not to wince.

It didn't look good at all.

"...I won't beat around the bush. He's dying, and fast." Dr. Jin explained as he began to set up an IV bag. "I'm just about useless here. If it was just me, I wouldn't be able to do anything for him."

Tsunami's face grew ghostly at the old man's words. She dropped to her knees and hugged Inari tight.

It was up to her and Satsuki to save Tazuna. Naruko was horrible with Mystical Palm Jutsu. All she could do was examine wounds. She didn't have the incredible chakra control of Satsuki or Hinata. Little things like focused healing were impossible for her to perfect with the Kyuubi existing within her.

She was useless here.

She needed to do something, not just wait here, standing by Satsuki knowing she couldn't do anything, or letting the Konoha Jonin and Lei fight, knowing they may not survive. So she walked over to the door, passing Tsunami and Inari. The doctor looked over at her, his eyebrows for a moment before his wrinkled eyes widened.

"Where are you going?" Dr. Jin asked with unconcealed worry, judging by how he asked that question, it was likely he already knew. Satsuki didn't even look up from where she was healing Tazuna, but Naruko knew she was also curious.

"To help the others. I'm of no use here. I can't help heal Mr. Tazuna as Satsuki can." She answered with a frown. No one made any moves to stop her, the civilians likely not understanding the danger of the threat she was about to face.

"Be careful," Satsuki said, her focus still on her patient as sweat dripped down her forehead. Naruko paused at the door to look back at her best friend/sister-in-love and gave her a grin that betrayed her fear.

"I will return, believe it!" She gave her word, and she intended to keep it.

—

Lei

Fighting this motherfucker was getting annoying.

The problem wasn't that Kidomaru was strong, it was that he liked to move around and stay at a distance.

I have plenty of jutsu capable of taking this son of a bitch out, but nowhere near the amount of time to aim and cast it properly before he runs away. He hasn't even tried to engage me in taijutsu which leaves me wondering just how much information about me was leaked.

Kidomaru wasn't just running, he was launching arrows at me which I dodged easily. I'm sure by this point he knew he couldn't win against me, even with his level-two curse mark. It was only a matter of time before I caught and killed him. I wouldn't be letting him get away to be a pain in my ass later.

"Stop running you coward!" I shouted at him, sending a water spear towards him. He launched himself off a tree, changing directions all while sending another arrow at me. "Son of a bitch!"

I dodged the oncoming arrow with practiced ease before launching myself off a tree towards him in a straight line. He noticed my foolish approach, a smirk tugging at his demonic face as he drew back his bow, ready to put an arrow between my eyes.

Unfortunately for him, launching such a straightforward attack like this was calculated.

'Wood Release: Wood Clone Jutsu.'

One wood clone appeared from beneath my feet giving me a push that easily let me dodge the arrow, the clone getting pierced. I didn't concern myself with that, the weasel fucker was right where I wanted him, staring at me wide-eyed as I closed the distance at blinding speeds.

He threw his bow away, his fists raising to engage me in taijutsu, but I wasn't in the mood to give one of the snake's henchmen a fair fight.

'Wood Release: Cutting Technique'

I sent a flurry of wood spikes at the thing, and he countered by reinforcing his hands with chakra and attempting to slap them away.

Unfortunately for him, that curse mark high has led him astray this time. The wood spikes dug into his palms, then into his legs, and finally into his chest, although not deep enough to leave any major damage. Fucking curse mark.

I formed a blade in my hands, a wood tanto, and reared it back to take the bastard's head. The pain of my initial attacks snapped him out of whatever curse mark power fantasy he had going on as he dodged my slice, inches from taking his life.

Damn, so close.

As I got ready to push forward again, I was sent a mental image from my clone.

Jirobo, I think that's his name, dead at the hands of one of my clones. It seems the other clones were finishing up with their fights as well, and though Kakashi was having a bit of trouble with Kimimaro, in time one of my clones would be joining him to deal with that threat.

As if hearing my train of thought, my clones sent me an image of what was going on in the Orochimaru fight.

My tongue clicked as sweat ran down my face. I needed to finish this NOW!

—

Anko (Start of Orochimaru Fight)

She forced her gaze away from the kid who just launched into the forest. He was strong, stronger than any genin had any right being. He could handle himself.

As her gaze met the eyes of her former teacher, his snake-like pupils locked onto her light brown eyes. A shiver went down her spine as her body told her something her mind had been telling her ever since the man had arrived.

Winning this fight was impossible.

"Anko!" Yamato shouted, snapping her out of her thoughts as she saw the man locking blades with the snake sannin.

She drew her kunai, ready to launch at her former sensei, knowing her presence would hold no real weight in this battle. Ebisu's hands weaved through seals, sending a fireball towards Orochimaru.

Yamato attempted to bind the snake with roots, but Orochimaru wasn't a man so easy to defeat. He kicked Yamato away as he weaved through his hand seals, spitting out a water bullet that completely overtook Ebisu's fireball and flew at the shade-wearing man at high speeds. She stepped over to the man, hands moving as fast as she could make them before slapping the ground.

'Earth Release: Earth Wall'

She managed to get the earth wall up in time, Orochimaru's water bullet slamming into it causing her body to shake a bit in fear, but when she heard the jutsu come to an end, her shoulders relaxed. She had saved Ebisu's ass. The aforementioned man gave her a small nod of thanks.

They didn't have time to wait around, Yamato was on the other side of the wall having to deal with a monster, a man who could an army of shinobi with ease. They could hear the sounds of struggle and destruction from the other side and their bodies rushed into action, clearing the wall and heading straight for the sannin.

Orochimaru smirked as he saw their approaching forms, his hand raised, a sign of his infusing chakra, and from his mouth a torrent of fire headed straight for them. The attack was more than enough to deal with her and Ebisu, her life flashing before her eyes immediately.

Honestly, it was pretty sad. All of it was dull, with barely any good memories, and more than a little heartbreak. Her eyes closed as the fire approached, her life wasn't great, she couldn't change that, but hell she would have liked to die to someone other than this bastard!

A wave of water collided with the fireball, causing the two jutsu's to erupt in steam, hot but not overly so. Yamato had jumped in at the last moment and saved their asses, she owed the guy a drink.

Though as Orochimaru blitzed behind Yamato, snakes slithering from his sleeve to entangle the elite jonin, she realized that they weren't making it out of this alive.

One of the snakes bit into Yamato's forearm, directly into his vein. Anko's eyes widened in shock before narrowing in resentment. She recognized that snake.

The snake was known for its venom, a very potent kind that would leave the infected either paralyzed or in a coma, depending on the infected's resistance to venom.

"Bastard!" Anko shouted, launching towards the two with her kunai drawn. Orochimaru's bored gaze met her fiery one for a moment before some interest twinkled in his eyes.

His other arm came up to send a mass of small snakes at Anko, seeing this, she mirrored his actions, five snakes slithering out of her sleeve. The snakes clashed together, biting and holding each other in place.

"You've grown." Orochimaru's lips curled upwards, his eyes scanning her up and down before settling on her neck. "That gift I gave you, have you been using it well."

"We both know the answer to that question!" She sneered, the older man chuckling at her expense.

"Yes, I believe we do, but you can't fault your sensei for wanting to catch up with his student, can you?"

The mocking in his words angered Anko further, but she knew better than to rush the powerful man again. Doing so would be the death of her. She needed to bide her time and strategize.

"How the mighty have fallen." She heard Ebisu growl from her right. Orochimaru's eyes scanned over to the shades-wearing man. His smirk fell just a bit and his lack of interest returned. "Once hailed as Lord Hokage's mighty student, a hero, now nothing more than a man who disgraces his village." Anko could immediately tell Ebisu was trying to stall. Even a few seconds would matter when it came to this fight.

Those words did have a small effect on Orochimaru as his bored look gained a small frown.

"Who are you?" He asked with a complete lack of interest, Ebisu pausing for a moment, a deep scowl marring his lips as he clenched his kunai tighter.

"I'm Ebi-"

That was as far as he got before the massive snake launched at him, its mouth open wide. Yuto (The wood golem) tried to grab its end and succeeded, but the snake was too long and had too much room to work with. Its maw was upon Ebisu in moments and he could do nothing but stab his kunai into its mouth as it swallowed him.

Anko jumped away as the ground cracked beneath her, the snake tried swooping around to engage her, but Yuto, her glorious baby ended that attempt, quickly slamming his massive body over the snake and punching the head repeatedly.

Her eyes returned to Orochimaru who looked entirely too smug. His eyes watching her, silently informing her that the ball was in her court.

She took a deep breath, Ebisu would be fine, the snake was powerful but its insides were nowhere near as durable as its scales. Yuto beating its ass as well guaranteed Ebisu would be getting out in due time.

…Yamato on the other hand-

Her eyes moved to the man for a moment before locking onto her sensei once more.

Yamato would be fine, if Orochimaru wanted him dead, he'd be dead. Which means he wants him for another purpose and he had no plans on killing him...yet.

Her hand came up to clutch at her curse mark that had been burning ever since Orochimaru had revealed himself. She couldn't win one-on-one, but she didn't have to.

Orochimaru was a man who loved to bask in his discoveries after all.

"I'm curious..." She started, "What are your plans for the boy?"

The Sannin's lips curled up once more, his snakes lowering to drop the now paralyzed body of Yamato.

"Well, I never thought you would be curious about my research, Anko…Unfortunately, nothing has been set in stone, I believe the general reason should be obvious, no?" He asked with unconcealed playfulness like he found a new toy but didn't want to speak on why he wanted to play with it.

She had to force down the resentment she had for him. He was the reason she bore the pain of the curse mark, the reason she was looked down upon and constantly considered a traitor or enemy spy by almost everyone in the village. But their survival was reliant on how much time she could waste.

"I'm also curious, why do you want the boss?"

Anko looked over, her eyes widened as she saw one of Lei's clones standing beside her. She hadn't even sensed him, but then again he was weird like that, so she didn't put too much thought into it. Not when she had bigger things to worry about.

No, more interesting was the body of the orange-haired man a few dozen meters away, pierced by several wood spikes.

"Fascinating, you truly are an incredible specimen if you're already this powerful. Perhaps I should put more…effort into you than just research." Orochimaru grinned madly, completely unconcerned by the death of one of his shinobi. "If one clone out of three is so capable, I wonder how capable the original is."

Anko didn't like the interest he was showing in Lei, or his wood release. Orochimaru getting his hands on such a kekkei genkai would be catastrophic for Konoha, and judging by Lei's potential, perhaps the entirety of the elemental nations as well.

"Kid, maybe you should help Kakashi?" Anko asked, instantly regretting the words she said, but knowing it was the best call. She couldn't contest with Orochimaru, the moment he decided to kill her, it was over for her. Lei's clone would make little to no difference in that judgment. Their best chance would be for him to help Kakashi and then have all of them gang up on Orochimaru.

"Nah. One of the others will help him. I have a feeling you'll need me." The kid drew a wood tanto from his hand, dropping into a kenjutsu stance.

She couldn't help but let a nervous grin form on her lips as she fell in line. The kid had balls. She liked that. "If we survive this, I'll take you out for dango, my treat."

The Senju Head looked at her, surprise plastered on his face as his lips turned up. "Sorry, but I'm taken."

"Yes, you are." Orochimaru interrupted, his grin growing to inhuman proportions as his tongue slipped out of his mouth to lick his lips. "You and I have…reservations that we cannot miss!"

The kid paused, his body tensing as he gripped his tanto tighter. "Anko…"

"Yeah, kid?"

"I'm starting to regret this."

Anko couldn't help but let the nervous grin split her lips, sweat dripping down her forehead as she stared at the Konoha traitor.

"You sounded so cool a second ago. No pussying out now!"