Beyond Ambitions
by thephaw
Chapter 7: The Siege of Konohagakure
The force of sound shinobi moved quickly towards the fire country, to Konoha. As they moved, one of the sound ninja looked around as if scanning the force of shinobi to check its strength. There were about a hundred-thirty sound shinobi and of these, there were probably around twenty jounin level ninjas. Also two groups of ten shinobi held large summoning scrolls across their backs. The rest of the ninja seemed to serve no purpose other than front line soldiers. When he was done checking the force of sounds, the sound ninja looked towards a sound ninja beside him. They both nodded and disappeared from the main group. Both of them were now far ahead of the main force of sound shinobi.
“I got all of the information we’ll need,” reported the first ninja, “It’s a pretty big force.”
“Ya, I can’t believe Orochimaru could come up with a force this huge in only six years,” replied the second ninja. “Anyways, we better return right away.”
“Bah, how troublesome!” said the first ninja as both of them transformed back into their original selves, incessantly moving away from the large army of sound shinobi. The first ninja had thick dark hair that was tied up into a spiky ponytail that stuck out at the back of his head. He wore a ninja vest and had a Konoha forehead protector tied to his left arm. His eyes showed that he had intelligence and wisdom beyond his years but his demeanour revealed him to be a bored, lazy, almost uncaring person. All he wanted to do was relax and look at clouds or play a nice game of Go, but these turn of events will probably prevent him from committing to his hobbies for a while yet.
“You think everything is troublesome, Shikamaru, but I think you’re right on this one,” said the white-eyed, blue-haired kunoichi that moved beside Shikamaru. Hinata had grown up a lot in the past six years. She was no longer the person she used to be when she was a genin. Hinata still had a degree of shyness and timidity about her but, during her missions, Hinata’s self confidence shows and she becomes almost assertive. However, around Naruto, she becomes completely shy again. She didn’t know why she had such a huge crush on the blond ninja for so long, but her feelings toward him were definitely still there. In fact, Hinata had grown her hair just so Naruto would notice her. Hinata’s long hair came down to the middle her back, covering the leaf symbol design on the light blue jacket she wore. She wore a grey blouse beneath her jacket and dark blue pants that came down to the middle of her calf. Many people in the village found her attractive but…Naruto…he was always too busy training. Hinata sometimes ended up sparring with Naruto just so she could get close to him. She enjoyed the sparring matches but sparring was a little different from, well…her cheeks turned a light shade of crimson as she thought about it.
“Hey, Hinata? Can you check how far the sound are from our position?” asked Shikamaru.
Hinata snapped out of her Naruto involved daydream and activated her Byakugan. Looking back, she saw the sound ninja still moving at the pace they were at before. “They are about a half-mile behind us. If we keep going at the rate we are now, we should reach the village a few hours before them.
“Good,” he said, “It should be enough time to warn the village and prepare.”
“I hope so,” replied Hinata.
An hour later, Shikamaru and Hinata reached Konohagakure. Both were dead tired and they were surprised to see Tsunade waiting for them at the gates.
“So, how did it go,” inquired Tsunade.
Shikamaru was the first to reply. “The mission went well. We were able to gather quite a bit of information while we were there. The sound are heading towards Konoha as we speak. I counted about a hundred-thirty sound shinobi. Twenty to thirty of them will be jounin level ninja while the others seem to be chuunin level. Also, several of them are carrying summoning scrolls. I only spotted two sets of summoning scrolls so you can probably expect two big summons when they attack.” Shikamaru thought for a second then continued. “According the briefing we received while we were disguised as sound ninjas, most of the sound will be attacking from the front gates. Two teams of ten sound shinobi each will be attacking from the south of the village. At the rate that they were moving when we separated from the group, they should be arriving in about two hours.
“I‘ve already sent ANBU squads to set traps in the outlying areas. They should be done in time. Anyways, did you two see Orochimaru with them?”
“Orochimaru gave all the sound ninja a little speech before we left. He’s probably following behind the rest of the sound ninja,” answered Hinata.
Tsunade eyed the two weary shinobi. “I know you two must be tired but unfortunately, there is no time for rest. I have already assigned both you a team of chuunin that you are to lead in defence of the village.” Tsunade handed them each a list of the chuunin under their command. “They are waiting by the hokage monument. Hinata, you are to cover the far south-east of the village. Shikamaru, I’ll let you handle the far south-west. Please inform the other jounin that it is time to evacuate the civilians. You two can rest for a while after you’re done evacuating your area.” Tsunade then handed both of them a soldier pill. “You’ll probably need these. Good luck.”
“Hai,” agreed Hinata as she left towards the monument.
“Bah, another troublesome task,” Shikamaru managed to say before he left.
------
Sasuke, Sakura and Lee continued moving towards the now visible leaf village. The forest was unusually quiet.
“You guys feel something strange?” asked Sakura. Sasuke just ignored her.
“It’s too quiet,” replied Lee, “There aren’t even any animals or birds around.”
“Guys, stop!” All three ninjas came to a dead stop. “Look,” she said, pointing to some broken branches and camouflaged string. “There are traps set here.” They all looked around themselves. “There are traps hidden everywhere.”
“They could be traps set by the sound,” said Lee.
Sasuke shook his head. “That’s a stupid assumption. The sound have no reason to set traps if their attacking Konoha. It would make no sense. You should think before you talk, baka,” insulted Sasuke, his usual cold tone now even colder.
“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?” yelled Lee as his anger heightened.
“LEE, SASUKE! STOP IT!” screamed Sakura, “At least wait till this is all over. We have to figure out a way to get past these traps in the mean time.”
“That would be almost impossible,” came a voice from above them. Suddenly, four ANBU appeared beside Sakura. “You guys are back early. Tsunade said you wouldn’t be back until next week.” Looking around, the ANBU saw Sakura, Lee and what looked like an Uchiha with them. “You must be Uchiha Sasuke. Where’s Naruto?” asked the ANBU.
“He…well…we don’t know what happened to him exactly,” said Sakura looking down.
“I see…I’m sorry but we don’t have time to dwell on it right now. Follow me, I’ll guide you through the traps.” The three of them followed the ANBU to main gates of the village. “Tsunade-sama should be in her office right now. You three should report to her right away,” said the ANBU before he left.
“It’s so quite. They must have already evacuated the village,” noted Sakura.
“So there really will be an attack. We better report to Tsunade-sama,” Lee suggested. Sasuke just stood silently, thinking.
Sakura glanced over at Sasuke. To her, he seemed different somehow. It was only for a second, but Sakura felt a sense that Sasuke cared about the village before he snapped back to his emotionless self. Sakura just sighed. She knew there was something bothering him but she decided not to bug about him about it until after the sound are taken care of. “Well, let’s go,” said Sakura.
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In her office, Tsunade was busy trying to formulate more plans to defend against the impending attack from the sound. “Kuso,” she cursed to herself. ‘Maybe I should have kept Shikamaru with me,’ she thought as two jounins entered her office. She looked up to a pair of white eyes and sunglasses.
“Welcome back you two. How did your mission go?”
“It looks as though the Akatsuki were not targeting Konoha at all,” answered the white-eyed jounin. Tsunade looked up at Neji and Shino. Of all the jounin that she had promoted recently, Neji and Shino had changed the least. Neji still retained his somewhat cold personality towards everything and his looks has come close to resembling his father, Hyuga Hizashi, only younger looking. On the other hand, Shino was…well he was Shino. Except for maybe his size, Shino hadn’t changed at all. He wore the same clothes, has the same hair, still has a mysterious personality, and still wore sunglasses.
“Finally, some good news for a change. I’m sure you two have already noticed the situation in the village. Your chuunin assignments are here and they are waiting outside the hokage monument. Both of you will be defending the village near the front gates. We have already evacuated the entire village so you don’t have to worry about that. Please go immediately, according to Shikamaru, the sound will be arriving in about half an hour.
“Hai,” said both of them as they headed out the door. Just as they came outside, Neji tensed up. Shock, anger and hatred all sparked within him when he saw Sasuke.
“Hi Neji, Shino,” greeted Sakura. Shino nodded but Neji just continued to glare at Sasuke. Neji was prepared to attack Sasuke then and there but Shino stopped him.
“Not now,” said Shino to Neji. Neji just clenched his fists. He hated Sasuke probably more than anyone else in the village did.
“What?” asked Sasuke, who noticed Neji’s continual glaring at him.
“Why the HELL did you betray us,” yelled Neji, unable to control his anger any longer, “WE ALMOST DIED FOR YOUR SORRY ASS!!.” Neji had been the person closest to dying on the mission to retrieve Sasuke six years ago. Not only that, when Neji was wounded, he spotted Sasuke heading towards him. Neji, expecting help from the Uchiha boy, only found that the Uchiha didn’t care at all and ignored Neji, leaving him there to die while Sasuke fled the village. The wounds that he received from the fight against Kidoumaru were fatal and if wasn’t for Shizune showing up, Neji would have died for no reason at all. He remembered what Hiashi told Neji about his father, about how his father, Hizashi, had chosen his own destiny rather than to follow the Hyuga destiny. Neji wanted, more than anything, to choose his own destiny. He didn’t want to die for the Hyuga and he definitely didn’t want to die for some stupid ninja who betrayed his own village. If he were to die, it would be for himself. It may be selfish, but it was Neji’s dream, to defy fate. Sasuke had almost ruined his dream and Neji would hate him for it.
Sasuke just stared coldly at Neji. Sasuke knew the reasons why Neji hated him and he couldn’t blame the Hyuga. However, he also didn’t care. Until he accomplished his ambitions, nothing mattered to Sasuke. He felt that an attack from the Hyuga would come at any second if it weren’t for Tsunade who had just emerged from her office.
Tsunade looked up, surprised to see Sakura, Lee, and Sasuke. She hadn’t expected them to return so early but it was good news for their current situation. “I’m glad you’re all back” she greeted. Tsunade turned her gaze towards Sasuke. “So…you’ve decided to help us out.”
“WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU LET THAT TRAITOR HELP US?!” screamed Neji.
“Stop it Neji!” she snapped back, “It’s true that normally I wouldn’t do this. However, the situation in Konoha is critical at the moment and we are in dire need of any help we can get. Besides, I’ll be watching him myself.”
Neji just scoffed before he and Shino disappeared. Tsunade took another look at team seven. Sakura looked a bit depressed and Lee had a giant bandaged sword strapped to his back. “Ok, since you’re here, Sakura and Lee, I’ll let you take care of the south side of the village. Sasuke, you come with me. We’ll help out the teams at the gate. Naruto you…” Tsunade had just realized that Naruto wasn’t there. “Where’s Naruto?” she asked as a loud explosion was heard towards the North of the village. ‘No time,’ she cursed to herself. “Dammit! MOVE OUT!” ordered Tsunade as she heard another explosion sound off to the south.
“Hai!” affirmed Sakura and Lee as they headed south while Tsunade and Sasuke headed towards the front gates.
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Naruto and Itachi moved through the forest towards Konoha. Both were deep in their own thoughts. Naruto wondered why Itachi wanted him to come to the Akatsuki, or why Itachi would bother to help Konoha in the first place. Naruto also wondered about the Kyubi and why it was dormant. Itachi, on the other hand, thought about Kairi. He still wanted to kill her and this time, he had the tool he needed to do so. Itachi glanced over at Naruto and wondered how he would react to what Itachi was going to tell him after they were finished in Konoha.
Just then, a chain of explosions erupted in the north, near the village’s front gates. Naruto and Itachi both stopped, their eyes gazed towards the explosion.
“Looks like it’s starting,” said Itachi.
“What are we waiting for? LETS GO,” said Naruto, almost yelling. Naruto was just about to go when Itachi stopped him.
“Wait!”
“Huh? What?”
“There are ANBU traps here. I recognize them from when I used to be an ANBU,” explained Itachi, “There’s no way to get through unscathed without disarming some of them.” Itachi pulled out a kunai and threw it at a distant tree. Immediately upon impact, a deafening explosion flared uprooting several trees in the process. “Be ready, the sound are coming.”
“How many?”
“Ten. Shouldn’t be too much trouble,” said Itachi calmly. As if on cue, Naruto saw several shuriken fly at him. He dodged the shuriken and spotted several sound ninja jumping towards him. Itachi just stood there, his sharingan activated and a bored look on his face as four sound shinobi came at him from all sides. In the blink of an eye, Itachi dodged the ninja coming from his right, giving the ninja behind him a swift kick in the neck. Then he grabbed the arm of the ninja in front of him and the leg of the ninja on his right before they could attack. Then, Itachi’s body exploded into flames and smoke, taking out three of the four ninja that attacked him at the same time. The remaining sound ninja just stood there while the real Itachi silently appeared behind him and stabbed him in the back.
Naruto had a different approach. When training with Neji when Lee was in the hospital, Naruto had learned to expel chakra from certain chakra holes in his body. Although he was nowhere near as good as Neji at expelling chakra, Naruto was able to create his own version of Neji’s Kaiten. By expelling chakra from certain chakra points in his body, Naruto is able to stop incoming attacks. However, instead of spinning like Neji’s Kaiten, Naruto just blasts out an insanely huge amount of chakra to deflect incoming attacks. It was terribly inefficient but Naruto was never one to run out of chakra, even with his most exhausting techniques. As the six sound ninja attacked him, Naruto just activated his defense. A horrendous amount of blue chakra poured forth from Naruto’s body and surrounded him as the sound ninja’s attacks were stopped in their tracks. “KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU,” yelled Naruto as six Naruto clones appeared and attacked the six remaining sound ninja. The sound ninja were taken out easily by Naruto’s clones.
“These guys were barely a challenge,” noted Naruto.
“It’s to be expected. Orochimaru must have been in a rush to attack Konoha. These sound shinobi are clearly under-trained. Most of them don’t even deserve to be chuunins,” explained Itachi as he glanced towards another incoming group of sound shinobi. “Another ten are coming, let us finish this quickly.”
Naruto nodded in agreement as Itachi created ten shadow clones of himself. Naruto created another three clones in addition to the seven he had earlier. Catching the sound shinobi by surprise, each Itachi clone grabbed a sound ninja from behind and held them while the Naruto clones each charged up a rasengan. The sound ninja didn’t even have a chance as the rasengans tore through their bodies. All the clones disappeared as Naruto and Itachi headed towards the southern wall surrounding Konoha.
They both stood up on the wall as more explosions were heard towards the east side of Konoha. As the smoke cleared from the explosion, two giant three headed snakes were there, crashing through the village.
“Come,” started Itachi, “as soon as we take out those snakes, we’ll search for Orochimaru.”
Naruto agreed and they both headed towards the snakes in blurs of black and red.
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Orochimaru hadn’t expected Konoha to be prepared for the assault. The initial traps that Konoha set in the outlying forests had already taken out two squads of Orochimaru’s sound ninja. The sound ninja weren’t exactly well trained either. Orochimaru knew his goal of destroying Konoha was impossible right now but at least he would be able to accomplish his other goal. As the sound ninja engaged Konoha’s ninja’s, Orochimaru ordered Kabuto to create distractions on the eastern side of the village. Orochimaru bit his finger and performed a few hand seals before slamming his hand on the ground yelling, “Kuchiyose no Jutsu.” A violent wind of smoke issued forth as a huge amount of air was displaced and replaced by a giant snake.
Manda didn’t’ look too happy with Orochimaru. “What? Orochimaru, what the hell do you think you’re doing summoning me here? Didn’t I say I was going to eat you the next time I saw you?” said the giant snake, ready to knock Orochimaru off of his head and eat him.
“Wait Manda,” said Orochimaru, “Don’t you want to get back at the ones who defeated you before? Tsunade is heading towards here as we speak.”
The giant snake was still and silent in for a while as he considered the offer. “Very well, Orochimaru. I will spare you this time. But if you shame me again, I will rip you to pieces without any hesitation.
“Agreed,” said Orochimaru as he stood in wait for Sasuke.
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Sakura and Lee both reached the south wall of the village.
“Huh?” exclaimed Sakura as they looked at the nearby forest. There were bodies of sound shinobi all over the ground. “Who did this?” Several of the bodies held gaping bloody holes in their stomach.
“I don’t know,” replied Lee, “There is no sign of any leaf ninja here.” Just then, Lee saw two people dressed in black and red disappearing from his view. He looked over to Sakura who then nodded.
“I saw them too. I think they may be Akatsuki. We should go after them.” Shuriken flew from out of nowhere and hit the sword on Lee’s back. Then, kunai flew at Sakura who was just able to see them and dodge in time. Two sound shinobi attacked Lee but again, he dodged.
“Looks like two jounin level sound ninja,” noted Lee, “I’ll take care of these two. Go after the two Akatsuki and see what they’re up to. I’ll catch up after.”
“You sure you can handle them?”
“Just Go, I’ll be fine,” he said as Sakura vanished.
The two sound ninja stopped and stood in front of Lee. “You Konoha Jounin are weak. Don’t worry, we’ll end this fast for you,” said the first sound ninja.
“After all, we are the best jounins of the sound. We are well known as the sound’s demon brothers, proud warriors of the sound ninja.
“Huh? I never heard of you before,” said Lee
“Hah, that is because none of our enemies have seen us and lived to tell the tale of our greatness.”
“In that case, I will be the first. I am Rock Lee, the proud and beautiful azure beast of Konoha,” said Lee as he formed his fighting stance, “Let’s just see how great you are.”
Lee attacked first. In a flash, Lee appeared behind the two sound brothers and gave them each a swift kick. The sound ninjas flew through a few trees before stopping, seemingly unscathed. ‘What?’ he thought, ‘those kicks didn’t seem to have any effect on them.’ Both sound ninja performed hand seals.
“Ninpou, HIBIKI SHURIKEN NO JUTSU!” Lee didn’t see anything but he immediately felt a sharp, intense pain in his head and ears. Not only that, Lee wasn’t even able to stand up straight anymore.
“Arrrghh!” screamed Lee in pain as his ears started bleeding. ‘What was that attack? I couldn’t even see it,’ he thought.
“Hahaha,” laughed the sound brothers, “that is our special technique. It creates shuriken made entirely out of sound waves. The sound shuriken causes damage to your ear drums and disrupts the fluids within your semi-circular canals. This will cause you to almost lose your hearing and disrupt your sense of balance,” explained one of them. “You seem to be a taijutsu specialist. Your attacks won’t be able to harm us with our shield of sound.” They attacked again with kunai, but Lee was able to regain enough balance to dodged their attacks. “Again! Hibiki shuriken no jutsu,” they both said as Lee felt more pain running through his head. To Lee, everything was spinning now and he felt like throwing up but somehow, he managed to stand up. He could see the sound ninja laughing at him but he couldn’t hear a thing.
“Let’s end this,” said one of the sound ninja as they attacked again. Lee somehow was able to see the kunai coming at him and he tried to dodge but he couldn’t seem to pinpoint where they were coming form. Lee was engulfed in pain as he felt a kunai enter him in the side and another went into his right leg.
“ARGGHH,” screamed Lee in pain again. Lee tried to release a seal but he realized he couldn’t. He had just opened three seals this morning so he would be unable to rely on them again for at least another few days. Another flash of pain erupted, this time in his left arm as a kunai was embedded there. His right leg was able to move a little, but now his entire left arm was useless. ‘Kuso,’ he cursed, ‘they seem to be protected by some sort of shield made out of sound and controlled by chakra. Not only that, there would be no way to use taijutsu effectively in my condition. It feels like those times that I got drunk.’ An idea suddenly popped into his head.
The sound brothers watched as their opponent went into a weird stance. His body seemed to sway back and forth as if he was drunk. “What’s this guy doing?” asked the first one.
“Dunno,” replied the second, “Lets just finish this, I’m getting bored.”
“Fine, I’ll take care of him. You stay out of this,” said the first ninja to his brother as he attacked. Lee’s upper body somehow swayed backwards as the sound threw at punch at him and completely missed. The sound ninja attacked again, this time throwing a kick at Lee’s stomach. Unexpectedly, Lee arced his stomach back, head-butting the sound ninja at the same time. The sound shield protected the sound ninja but was knocked back from the force of the blow.
“What? How can he attack like that in this situation? He shouldn’t even be able to stand up right now.”
The sound ninja tried again but his advances proved worthless as Lee somehow managed to inexplicably avoid every single attack thrown at him.
“Ahhhh,” yelled the sound ninja, clearly pissed off. “One more time,” he yelled, coming at Lee again. Once again, Lee dodged the attack, but this time, he grabbed the Samehada with his right arm and swung it at the sound ninja. The sound ninja held his ground, expecting the sword to be stopped by the shield of sound. It proved to be a fatal mistake when the sword when straight through the shield, seemingly absorbing it at the same time. In flash, the sound ninja was dead, roughly cut in half by the huge sword.
The remaining sound ninja watched as his brother died. “NOOOOO!” he screamed as he rushed Lee in blind rage. Lee’s drunken fist was too unpredictable and the enraged sound brother continued to miss every attack. Then, after Lee dodged another punch, he thrust out the Samehada and stabbed the sound ninja through the chest.
‘Finally,’ he thought as he came out of his drunken fist stance. Lee pulled out the bloody sword and ripped off a few pieces of the bandage wrapped around the sword. After wrapping some bandages around his wounds, he collapsed.
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Sakura continued to follow the two Akatsuki members she saw. They were heading towards the east where she saw two giant three headed snakes appear from out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, Naruto and Itachi continued towards the snakes.
“We are being followed,” stated Itachi calmly.
“By who?”
“Most likely a leaf ninja. We’ll keep going. Whoever it was will most likely be driven off by the time we reach the snakes.
The sound ninja were engaged with one of the Leaf ninja teams when Naruto and Itachi arrived. The two summons were crashing through the village, laying waste to the buildings in their path. One of the three headed snakes had a ninja on its back. Naruto recognized the white-haired ninja immediately.
“That’s Kabuto!” he said as Itachi and Naruto stood on a building, prepared to attack.
“Kabuto?” asked Itachi. He didn’t know too much about Kabuto except for the fact that he was with Orochimaru. Itachi had no idea of what Kabuto’s abilities were so he acted cautiously.
“HEY! KABUTO!” yelled out Naruto as he charged in towards him. Itachi just shook his head. He knew Naruto was loud, but Itachi didn’t think Naruto would be dumb enough to charge in head on like that. Itachi moved to a more hidden location to observe the fight and find out how strong Kabuto really is.
Kabuto looked up to see a strange cloaked figure wearing a straw hat attack him. The attack was stopped short as one of the heads from the snake Kabuto was standing on knocked the cloaked figure back. The straw hat that the cloaked figure wore came off and Kabuto instantly recognized the face under it. “That was foolish of you… Naruto-kun,” he said, showing a faint smile. Another one of the snake heads hissed and attacked Naruto. Naruto jumped back, narrowly avoiding getting eaten by the snake.
Itachi stood idly by and watched as the three-headed snake continued its relentless assault against Naruto. As Naruto continued to distract Kabuto and the snake, Itachi went around behind the snake and Kabuto, ready to silently kill the silver-haired ninja. He stopped when his vision became completely filled with chakra. ‘Genjutsu!’ thought Itachi, ‘Does that Kabuto have eyes in the back of his head?’ Itachi realized that his assumption was wrong when Kabuto suddenly jumped off the snake and headed towards Naruto. Itachi put his hands up in a seal and attempted to dispel the genjutsu. Nothing happened. ‘What? This is high level genjutsu, even I can’t dispel it,’ he thought. Itachi looked around, attempting to find the source. The world around him became shades of blue as his sharingan saw the chakra surround him. Itachi couldn’t find out where the chakra was coming from but he had an idea. Deactivating his sharingan, Itachi found himself stuck inside a rock with only his head and upper body jutting out. Looking up, Itachi saw a huge boulder falling down on top of him. When it hit, Itachi yelled out in pain and passed out.
Sakura was hiding behind a tree, looking at the now unconscious Akatsuki member that was leaning, unconscious, against a tree, his head hanging down. The genjutsu she used was another one of her original techniques used to incapacitate her opponents. It used up most of her chakra but Sakura was glad to see that it worked and decided to go and finish the job. She stood in front of the unconscious Akatsuki, her curiosity getting the better of her as she removed the straw hat that hid the ninja’s face. Sakura lifted his head to get a good look at his face. He wore a konoha forehead protector with a gash running through it and his facial features were almost reminiscent of Sasuke’s. ‘Itachi?’ she thought, ‘If he’s here, then where’s Naruto?’ She didn’t have time to think as Itachi’s eyes suddenly opened, revealing his red triple pupil sharingan.
‘It worked,’ thought Itachi as he opened his eyes to see a pink haired konoha ninja glaring at him. Itachi had faked unconsciousness in order to lure her to him and it succeeded. Itachi recognized the kunoichi as one of Naruto’s team-mates that he had knocked out in the wave country. He was surprised that Konoha had talented shinobi able to cast such a high level genjutsu on him but it didn’t matter as Itachi used his Tsukuyomi on her.
Sakura was staring into Itachi’s eyes as she found herself in a completely different world. The sky became red and Sakura was tied to a lone tree with Itachi standing in front of her. ‘…where am I?’ thought Sakura.
“You are in my world of the Tsukuyomi. All time and space are under my control here,” he said.
“Where’s Naruto?” she asked, almost screaming.
Itachi took advantage of Sakura’s incognizance to prepare his genjutsu. “For the next seventy-two hours, you will be forced to witness the fate of your team mate, Naruto,” stated Itachi.
Sakura was freed from the tree as she saw Naruto tied up to another tree in the distance. She also saw Itachi standing there, holding a katana in his hand. Itachi thrust the sword through Naruto’s stomach causing Naruto to yell out in pain. “STOP IT!” screamed Sakura as she ran towards Itachi, attempting to attack him. She tried to punch Itachi but her fist and body went straight through him. Again, Itachi thrust his katana through his stomach causing another scream from Naruto. Sakura tried again and again to help Naruto but it was in vain. All she could do was watch Itachi continue to mercilessly torture her blond friend and finally kill him right in front her. “NO!” she screamed as Itachi stabbed Naruto through the heart, killing him. Sakura felt useless, like she had somehow betrayed Naruto by not being able to save him. Sakura turned around but found herself watching another Naruto get tortured by Itachi, exactly the same as the last one. The images of Itachi torturing and killing Naruto continued. Every minute for what seemed like days now, she saw Naruto being killed by Itachi while all she could do is just watch in shock and horror. Sakura tried closing her eyes, but Naruto’s continuous pained yelling and screaming rang through her head. After what seemed like three days, Sakura collapsed in tears, broken. Naruto’s yelling and screaming stopped as Sakura found herself tied to a tree again, Itachi standing in front of her with a katana.
“For the next five minutes, you will experience the pain that ‘he’ felt,” said Itachi. Now it was Sakura’s turn to scream out in pain as she was continuously stabbed by Itachi.
Sakura’s scream was heard throughout Konoha as she came back into the real world, collapsing in front of Itachi. Sakura was in complete shock now, she couldn’t think straight anymore as her thoughts were filled with Naruto’s and her own death. Itachi decided to leave her there and help Naruto kill Kabuto.
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‘Stupid snake,’ thought Naruto as he kept dodging the snake attacks that came at him, ‘Where the hell’s Itachi?’ Another snake head attempted to engulf him as Naruto side-dashed out of the way, throwing an explosive-tagged kunai at the same time. The kunai hit the left snake-head and exploded to no effect. ‘Kuso! I hate snakes,’ he thought again as thought about another way to finish off the snake. Naruto bit his fingers and he started performing hand seals. His hands went into Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and finally a Sheep seal before Naruto’s palm faced towards the ground. “KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!” he yelled as a large amount of chakra gathered beneath his hands. Suddenly, a large katana carrying toad appeared with Naruto standing on its back. The toad was a bit bigger than the three-headed snake but it wasn’t Gamabunta. “Lets go!” ordered Naruto as the toad leapt forward towards the snake, its katana extended. Kabuto saw this coming and immediately leapt off of the snake and onto the ground. Naruto did likewise as the toad attacked the snake.
Kabuto attacked first. Rushing up to Naruto, Kabuto charged his kunai with chakra before attempting to stab Naruto in the chest. Naruto read the attack and dashed backward, avoiding Kabuto’s kunai by a hair. Kabuto followed up with a punch which Naruto blocked with his left hand before giving Kabuto a swift kick in the stomach that sent him flying backwards between the two fighting summons. The ground crumbled beneath the two huge beasts as the giant toad landed on Kabuto’s arm, crushing it, before jumping up to attack the snake again. Kabuto winced in pain and Naruto took this opportunity to attack him. “RASENGAN,” yelled Naruto as he held out his left palm and hit Kabuto with it. Naruto expected Kabuto’s chest to be ripped to shred but instead, nothing happened.
“You better take a look at your arm Naruto-kun,” said Kabuto, smiling. Naruto did so and was shocked to see several Kunai stuck in his arm.
“What!?”
“The last attack you blocked wasn’t an ordinary attack. I cut off your chakra flow and nerve impulses in your left arm. You can no longer use or feel it.”
‘Dammit,’ thought Naruto. He had forgotten that Kabuto was a medical nin with medical jutsus which rivalled those of Tsunade. Naruto was careless but not any more. He pulled out the kunai in his arm and stopped the bleeding by tightly surrounding his arm with chakra.
“You shouldn’t have come Naruto. You could have been the next Hokage if you lived,” said Kabuto, “But I guess being the Hokage of a decimated village wouldn’t mean much would it?” Kabuto grinned at Naruto before continuing his taunts. “Actually, maybe I won’t kill you. I’ll just injure you enough so that you’re able to watch all of your friends and comrades die.”
Naruto withheld his anger. He knew that he couldn’t let Kabuto get to him or it would be all over. Naruto went first, heading towards Kabuto’s right side, the side with the crushed arm. Then, Naruto threw a punch, expecting Kabuto to dodge. Instead, Kabuto blocked the punch, grabbing onto Naruto with his left arm.
“What the hell?” Kabuto’s crushed arm had already completely healed and was latching on to Naruto’s cloak, immobilizing him. Naruto didn’t even think, he just reacted as Kabuto prepared another of his medical jutsu attacks again. Just like the fight against the sound ninja before, Naruto started to expel huge amounts of chakra in every direction. Kabuto was caught unprepared as his attack was stopped dead while a sudden giant ripple of force knocked Kabuto far back and hard into the ground. Naruto took advantage of the opportunity and charged up a rasengan with his right hand hitting Kabuto in the stomach with it. Kabuto’s body was driven into the ground from the force of the ball of wind. Naruto pulled out his hand, the rasengan still whirling in his palm. Kabuto was dead, a bloody hole where his stomach used to be.
Close by, the giant snake and toad were still engaged in a fight. Naruto decided to go finish the three-headed monstrosity. Just as he was about to head towards the snake, he felt as if something hit him from behind. Naruto tried to move but couldn’t. Soon enough, a white-haired ninja made himself visible to Naruto.
“What the hell? I killed you!” said Naruto.
“That was just a double. I got a dead body and made it look like me. Then I woke it up and controlled it. Now…let’s see how well you do against your own attack, Naruto-kun,” said Kabuto, smiling.
Kabuto was standing on Naruto’s left side, holding Naruto’s shoulder. All of a sudden Naruto’s right arm started moving on his own. His right arm was slowly lifted to his side and Naruto watched as a rasengan formed in it. Then, his arm slowly moved towards his own stomach.
‘Kuso, I can’t do anything. It can’t end like this. I can’t kill myself.’ More thoughts ran through Naruto’s head as his arm continued to move on its own. Then, his arm stopped. It seemed as though Kabuto was struggling to finish the job as his arm started shaking. His palm with the rasengan was facing Kabuto and almost touching Naruto’s stomach, ripping apart part of the cloak Itachi had given him. Finally, an idea hit him. ‘It’s facing Kabuto,’ realized Naruto, ‘It’s now or never.’
Naruto focused and pumped as much chakra into his right arm as possible. His arm was now surrounded in blue chakra. “RASENGAN DANGAN!” yelled Naruto as the chakra around his arm was focused into his palm.
To Kabuto’s dismay, the Rasengan shot out of Naruto’s palm and headed to Kabuto’s chest. Kabuto tried to dodge but it was too late as the Rasengan drilled right through him. Kabuto fell down beside his other body, dead.
‘Finally,’ thought Naruto. He was dead tired. Naruto still had a lot of chakra left but it wouldn’t do him much good. His left arm was still completely useless and his right arm had become completely burnt from the huge amount of chakra he gathered in his last attack. A loud poof was audible in the distance as the toad had finally beaten the three-headed snake. A loud scream was heard nearby and Naruto looked in the direction of the scream. He saw Sakura, who was screaming right before she fainted, and Itachi who was heading towards him.
“Don’t worry, she’s not dead,” said Itachi, indifferent.
“What did you do to her? I thought we weren’t supposed to harm any of the Konoha ninjas,” scolded Naruto.
“She was in my way,” replied Itachi calmly. “Besides, I only used a genjutsu. She’ll be fine when she gets some rest. For now, we need to leave. You are in no condition to fight,” Itachi said, looking at Naruto’s arms.
“What!? I can still fight. We still have to take care of Orochimaru.”
“If you fight like that, you’ll probably die.”
‘Kuso!’ thought Naruto, knowing Itachi was right. Naruto couldn’t fight with both of his arms out of commission. ‘Looks like I gotta let Konoha handle the rest,’ thought Naruto. Then, his attention turned towards Sakura. “What about Sakura, we can’t just leave her here. The sound might kill her.”
“They’ll probably just think she’s dead,” assured Itachi.
Naruto was still worried. “How can we be sure. We need to take her somewhere outside Konoha until all this is over. I’m not going anywhere until we get her somewhere safe.”
If Itachi cared, his eyes would have started twitching in annoyance. Again, Itachi considered knocking out Naruto to take him by force. However, they had a lot of time and it would be better than Naruto trying to kill him later.
“Very well, but we must leave immediately.”
“Fine,” replied Naruto. Itachi slung Sakura over his shoulder as they disappeared.
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Tsunade and Sasuke, along with an escort squad of ANBU, continued running towards the front gates, prepared to take out any sound nins they encountered. The attack came as expected. Several shuriken flew at the group of Konoha ninjas but they were dodged easily. Suddenly, a large explosion was heard as a huge puff of smoke appeared in the distance. As the smoke cleared, a giant snake was revealed.
“That’s Manda. Orochimaru must be there,” said Tsunade. The sound ninja started closing in as Tsunade barked out her orders. “You ANBU, take care of the sound ninja here. Sasuke, you come with me. We’re going take care of Orochimaru.”
“What about the curse seal. Didn’t you say you had a way to remove it?” asked Sasuke.
“We’ll try our shot at killing Orochimaru first. If he manages to escape somehow, I’ll remove it for you after. Anyways, no time to talk, lets go,” she said as they all headed out to their targets.
Orochimaru just stood atop Manda as Tsunade and Sasuke arrived.
“KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!” said Tsunade as a giant slug appeared in a huge puff of smoke. Both Tsunade and Sasuke stood on Katsuyu’s head as they faced Orochimaru.
“So…Sasuke-kun,” started Orochimaru, “are you prepared to join me?”
“There’s no way he’ll join you,” Tsunade barked back. Beside her, Sasuke stood silent.
“We’ll see…shall we begin?” Manda attacked first, it’s fangs extended, attempting to bite Katsuyu. Katsuyu squirmed back hard and countered with a poison gas attack.
‘This guys moves pretty fast for a giant slug,’ thought Sasuke. He hadn’t seen a fight like this since Naruto fought Gaara six years ago. Orochimaru leapt off of Manda to avoid the poison gas attack my Katsuyu.
“I’m gonna go after him,” said Sasuke.
“No, wait. He’s too dangerous for you to fight alone,” said Tsunade. Sasuke leapt of Katsuyu and pursued Orochimaru despite Tsunade’s warnings. ‘Kuso,’ she thought. Letting Sasuke fight Orochimaru was a bad idea but Tsunade couldn’t do anything about it since she had Manda to deal with.
Orochimaru and Sasuke stood face to face, Orochimaru’s snake eyes meeting with Sasuke’s red sharingan eyes. Sasuke wasted no time at all as he immediately used Tsukuyomi on Orochimaru.
Orochimaru stood tied to a post while Sasuke had a katana in his hands. “Welcome to my world of the Tsukuyomi,” said Sasuke, “all time and space are under my control.” Sasuke stabbed Orochimaru. Instead of hearing a yell of pain or a grunt, Sasuke heard silence. Looking up at Orochimaru, Sasuke saw a grin planted on his face. Sasuke continued to torture Orochimaru over and over again, determined to erase the grin on Orochimaru’s face, but it remained. In fact, Orochimaru started yawning after the second day of torture. Sasuke continued the genjutsu for the full seventy-two hours to no effect.
The Tsukuyomi ended as both Orochimaru and Sasuke came back to the real world, still facing each other. Orochimaru didn’t seem phased at all while a little sweat started dripping from Sasuke’s face.
“What a terrifying technique,” admitted Orochimaru, “However, I constantly live in pain. A little more won’t affect me at all. I look forward to taking your body and that technique with it, Sasuke-kun.”
“SHUT UP! I’LL KILL YOU BEFORE YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!” screamed Sasuke. Sasuke charged at Orochimaru, fuelled by rage. The move wasn’t a smart one since Orochimaru saw it coming. Orochimaru’s freakishly long tongue flew out, managing to wrap itself around Sasuke’s legs. Then, just as quickly, Orochimaru lifted Sasuke up by his legs, a snake coming out of his mouth at the same time. “DAMMIT, LET ME GO!” yelled Sasuke. A sword came out of the snake’s mouth, stabbing Sasuke in the shoulder. Sasuke ignored it as he performed several hand seals. “CHIDORI!” In a flash, Sasuke’s hands and feet were engulfed in electric like chakra, ripping apart Orochimaru’s long tongue in the process. The sword was still impaled through Sasuke’s shoulder but it didn’t matter as Sasuke suddenly disappeared from Orochimaru’s sight.
“Impressive,” said Orochimaru, hearing the sound of chirping birds all around him. He didn’t think Sasuke would come this far in only six years. Orochimaru couldn’t react in time to the attack coming from behind him.
“SHUT UP!” screamed Sasuke back as he hit Orochimaru’s back with one of his chidori arms. Orochimaru flew forward, flying into Sasuke's foot that had just appeared there. “I’LL…” started Sasuke as he gave Orochimaru a chidori kick in the chest. “I’ll, KILL YOU!” finished Sasuke as he have Orochimaru a final chidori punch in the face.
Orochimaru’s body landed hard into the ground, blood pouring out of the wounds that Sasuke had inflicted on Orochimaru. Tsunade and Katsuyu were still busy fighting Manda but Sasuke didn’t care. He had finally accomplished one of his goals. Now there was only one more. One goal he needed to accomplish. One more of his…ambitions to follow. A loud poof was heard in Tsunade’s direction as she had finally beaten Manda. Sasuke, about to head over when a sudden incredible pain lashed out on the back of his shoulder.
Sasuke screamed out in pain. Sasuke had never encountered such pain in his life. The pain spread throughout his body. It was too much for Sasuke to handle and he found himself almost wanting to kill himself to end it.
Tsunade had just defeated Manda and heard the agonized scream coming from Sasuke’s direction. Looking towards him, Tsunade saw Orochimaru, obviously dead on the floor. A flash of relief was felt by Tsunade as she saw Orochimaru’s body, however, when she saw Sasuke, her relief turned to fear. Sasuke was still screaming out in pain as she saw what happened. The seal that had contained the curse seal had started to light red before it erupted in a flare of chakra and vanished. The curse seal, however, was what surprised her. The fact that the seal was still there made Tsunade know that Orochimaru was still alive. Orochimaru’s body suddenly stood up and performed a few hand seals.
“NO! It can’t be!” said Tsunade, shocked.
The pain in the back of his shoulder stopped as suddenly as it appeared. Sasuke slowly got up from his kneeling position and looked up. ‘What!? Impossible!’ thought Sasuke as he saw Orochimaru’s battered and barely recognizable form facing him. Out of nowhere, Sasuke’s vision was filled with a glowing dragon-like snake, coiled around him and about to eat him.
“Wh-What is this?” asked Sasuke, completely shocked.
No answer came as the snake devoured him completely. “GAAAAAAAAAAAH!” screamed Sasuke as his vision faded to black.
Tsunade gazed at Sasuke, confused. After Sasuke’s last scream, Orochimaru’s body fell back down to the ground lifelessly. Tsunade leapt down off of Katsuyu, throwing a few carefully aimed Kunai at Orochimaru’s body before checking him. ‘Phew, dead,’ thought Tsunade, finally relieved. She took a look at Sasuke, the curse seal on his back had disappeared completely. “Good job, Sasuke. No time for rest though, we still have to help out other parts of the village.” Sasuke stood there for a while. It seemed like he was looking at himself, checking his body for something. Then, he looked at Tsunade and started laughing hysterically.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“Sasuke! What’s gotten into you. We have to-” she was cut short as Sasuke pulled out the sword in his shoulder and attacked Tsunade. “Sasuke, what are you doing?”
Sasuke’s next attack was blocked as Tsunade held the sword by the blade while Sasuke tried to force it down into Tsunade. They were face to face, eye to eye, as Tsunade yelled at him. “Sasuke, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Then, Sasuke’s sharingan eyes deactivated, revealing a pair of snake-like eyes. “OROCHIMARU!”
“HAHAHA. You are correct. I have taken this Uchiha’s body.”
“YOU BASTARD!” she yelled, knocking away Orochimaru/Sasuke away with her freakish strength. Orochimaru landed on his feet, grinning at Tsunade.
“We’ll meet again, Tsunade. Until then…” Orochimaru vanished in a puff of smoke.
“DAMMIT!” she yelled. ‘This is bad,’ she thought as she headed off to help finish off the sound and started to contemplate a plan for dealing with Orochimaru.
Hibiki Shuriken no Jutsu (sound/echo shuriken technique) – User creates shuriken made out of sound which are thrown at opponents ears. The sound then impacts the ears causing damage to the ear drums and disrupts the fluid in the semi-circular canals. This causes the victim to be temporarily deaf and imbalanced.
Rasengan Dangen (Wind Spiral Bullet/Shot) – User controls and focuses chakra in the palm of his hand such that it spirals extremely fast in every direction. Then, the ball of spiralling chakra is blasted outward, away from the palm, drilling through everything in it’s path.