Beta: Cyndaquil123

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Warning: All at the bottom of chapter 2.

Anyone become desensitized to the horror, yet? Long chapter for long wait. I hate fight scenes so it was crazy hard to force them out.

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

It's a deep and silent night, I cannot hear anything,

'cause everything is fast asleep.

Now the world, so full of sin

It repeats itself again,

Such a relentless dream!

- Solitude by Luff

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(MEI)

Mei adjusted her posture on Deidara's clay bird, leaning forward to peer over the edge as they soared through the gorgeous blue skies. She was sitting beside Konan near the back of the bird while Deidara sat up front to steer it. She and the White Angel had been discussing the best method to take down the Konoha ANBU.

"They're going to be guarding the kyūbi jinchūriki and several other Genin," Konan said, her strong voice carrying over the wind with ease. "We have to separate them from the Genin first. We cannot allow the jinchūriki to sense our presence."

Mei nodded in agreement to that. No harm was to befall the jinchūrikis before the Black Acolytes had finished their research on extraction. They could not risk the child getting caught in the crossfire of their battles.

But how to separate them?

According to Owari the boy was slowly growing into a chakra sensor. At any moment he could instantly become sensitive to foreign chakra and realize what was happening to the ANBU. They had to get the ANBU as far away from the boy as possible without drawing attention to it.

"Why not use Zetsu, yeah?" Deidara suggested.

"Use him for what? We don't have the chakra, or blood, of anyone from Konoha trusted enough to trick the ANBU away for him to use," Mei retorted.

"Ehh... I mean why not just use him to make more of ourselves? Make them think we're too big of a threat to ignore and draw them to us?"

"But they might alert the Genin," Konan pointed out.

Deidara frowned at that. "Mn, yeah... unless only two of us stay at the ambush—ehh—Konan, why don't you stay with the main group and if anyone tries to move to the Genin, you take them out? Mei and I will deal with the rest."

Out of the three of them Konan was better suited to stealth takedowns. She considered this before offering her comrades a steely smile. "Yes. That will do."

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(NAASICA)

I smiled at my Genin team, pleased at their eagerness for their new mission. All nine of these Genin stood ready, while Kakashi went over the mission details again for them.

"If you can suppress your signature, do so," he said. "Not many of you have particularly strong signatures so it shouldn't be an issue, but the weaker you appear the more likely they'll take you as bait."

"Don't fight them," Obito warned. "Play scared, and stay safe."

"After we have dealt with the main threat of Orochimaru, we will come for you. Your only mission is to stay alive at all costs," I stressed. "No matter what, stay alive."

I felt this important to say. The ANBU that was meant to be guarding them would be murdered before they got the chance. I could only hope that they would do as told and play it smart, and safe. If the situation got too dangerous, I knew they were fast and agile Genin. They could run away and evade without issue because of all the intense training focused on such, so they shouldn't be in too much danger.

It'd be a shame if any of them acted prematurely and had to go to sleep for a while. Even though I knew I would see them again, and that their deaths would not be permanent, I did not want them to experience unnecessary pain.

But maybe they would get to feel necessary pain?

That would be wonderful. It would be truly great if they could all see Red at the end of the mission.

If they understood the Red of the world, they may not resist it when I saved it—saved them.

The more my loved ones saw Red, the more likely they would join me.

I didn't want to have to fight any of them.

I didn't want Owari to deal with them as he dealt with my dear Kushina.

But I would, Owari whispered.

I know, I thought.

"Don't worry," Naruto chirped, "We'll be perfectly fine!"

As hindsight showed, they would not.

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(GENIN)

Obito teleported everyone outside of the safety of the Land of Fire. The Genin huddled together on the merchant road as they waited for Obito to return (he went back to Konoha for some "safety purposes" but did not explain what he meant by that) and give the okay.

It took about ten minutes of patiently waiting before he came back, and then off the Genin went. They were dressed as refugees, their clothes mostly destroyed, their hair a mess, and dirt slathered over parts of them. Their weapons were hidden well enough that even a Jōnin would have trouble spotting them.

They did not sense, or see their teachers disperse, but they knew they would be following closely behind them.

(And two teams of ANBU that they could not see)

Ino and Sakura were particularly convincing, giving out mock sniffles and repeatedly swiping at their eyes. The pride of some of the boys—Sasuke and Kiba, really—prevented them from doing such things, but the rest of the group soon followed suit in trying to act like scared little kids on the run.

Naruto even let out a choked sob—without tears because he didn't know how to call them out on command—and clutched onto Sasuke. Sasuke almost cringed, but managed to play a decent role of a consoling friend.

"What are we going to do?" Sakura whimpered, acting out a couple hiccups and managing to squeeze out a couple tears.

"I wanna go home," Ino whined, trembling as she hugged herself and also squeezed out some tears.

"W-We'll be okay," Hinata said in a shaky voice as she hunched her shoulders and shuffled anxiously in her walk. "R-Right?"

Shikamaru stumbled, falling to the ground. "I—I can't—I can't feel my legs anymore, I'm so scared."

All the other Genins almost stared in amazement at Shikamaru's surprisingly crazy good acting.

Kiba was the first to recover and immediately swooped down to pull Shikamaru back up. "Then we'll carry you! No one gets left behind."

"Th-That's right," Chōji said, moving to hook his arm around Shikamaru and help Kiba carry him.

"No... I'll only be a burden," Shikamaru whispered, hanging his head.

"Never," Naruto declared passionately, a little excited now to play the role of motivator. It was like he was playing the role of a hero! How friggin cool! "Never, ever! We—We're family. We'll never abandon each other. I know things are bad now—worse than they've ever been—but we'll get through this together. I promise!"

His fellow Genin wanted to applaud his movie-like speech. They thought he made a good pretend-hero for their group.

(In the trees the teachers watching them rolled their eyes, along with some of the ANBU.)

"Together forever," Sakura softly added, feeling the need to add a cheesy line to their sob story.

"The power of friendship will keep us alive," Ino agreed, also feeling the need to cheese it up.

This only sparked the rest of the Genin to start acting out stereotypes and sprout the cheesiest lines they could think of. The adults watching on wanted to face-palm at their antics, and their teachers in particular cringed at how embarrassing their students acted.

It would have been nice if it could continue like that indefinitely, but the mission finally took its next step forward.

Two hours into the trip and the Genin were ambushed by shinobi who wore headbands with a musical note over them.

As instructed, they put up no resistance.

The Legendary Demons of Konoha moved ahead of the group. Kakashi could pick up where the enemy shinobies had hailed from and the sooner they removed Orochimaru, the better.

The ANBU moved to follow, but right after the trio left a massive spike of malicious chakra appeared just behind them, moving to them.

For the sake of protecting the Genin, the ANBU sent one team, and a few others from the other team, to eliminate the threat.

A shame none of them would seen again.

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(MEI)

Mei patiently awaited for her guests to arrive. She and Deidara had done a splendid job destroying the nearby surrounding areas to draw the ANBU attention, and she was so very pleased they took the bait.

She wasn't a true chakra sensor, but she had honed the skill well enough to detect signatures—although she could not distinguish them unless it was her beloved Owari. She would know Owari's signature from anywhere.

Deidara circled above, keeping to the air and watching. As Mei took the center focus, he would pick off any that tried to escape and provide aerial support.

This allowed Mei to fully unleash her powers on the ground without worry of accidentally killing Deidara.

All Mei had to do was wait until the ANBU were close enough.

She gathered the chakra in the pit of her stomach, smiling a cruel smile as she patiently waited.

The first two crossed over her marked radius, followed by another two, then another, and another—

Nine moved over. ANBU teams traveled in packs of six, which meant that only three were left for Konan to deal with. Such a thing had to dishearten the White Angel, but it could not be helped.

They broke through the thick trees and into the clearing where Mei greeted them. "Good day, gentleman."

"State your business and name!" barked one of them.

Mei held her hand over her heart and bowed. "I am Mei, disciple of the Black Angel. I am here to bring you a gift."

She raised two fingers up to her lips and blew them a kiss.

With that kiss she breathed out her acidic chakra that moved faster than most humans could react. It filled her designated radius up in only a few seconds, and immediately began to melt the skin off the ANBU caught in it.

Of course these were ANBU and such an attack was not going to kill them.

But then bombs started dropping from above, and the ground beneath them turned into lava. There was no place for them to gain any ground, as any doton jutsu spat out to stand on was only turned into more lava.

"That gift," Mei said with a sultry voice, "is death. Be grateful for the mercy of the Black Angel, you Konoha scum."

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(GENIN)

Whatever the Genin had been expecting to be kept prisoner at... it was not where they stood now.

They were immediately taken to the enemy village and thrown into some underground dungeons that reeked as bad as The Pit. Had the Genin not been trained to handle gore, they would have lost their nerve at seeing the grotesque cells that held them now.

They were not bound, or tied up, but rather guards were posted outside the entrance of the dungeon.

Even that would not be an issue, since they could all either punch through the back wall to the surface, or use doton to make an entrance. The fact that they did not, was because they were ordered to stay there until Obito came for them (unless they were put in a truly life-threatening situation in which case they were ordered to stay alive at all costs).

No, none of that was really bad.

What truly unsettled them were their fellow captives.

Dozens of children watched them from the shadows. Their eyes sunken in, and bodies so thin they looked ready to snap. There were infected wounds covering a fair amount of them, pus and bugs flowing freely out of the holes in their skins. Some were burned, some were beaten, some were so disfigured it was hard to tell they were human.

A few of these children were huddled around a lump of meat, picking off bits and pieces of its rotten flesh and stuffing it in their mouths.

Those with good noses knew they were devouring another human.

They chose not to share that information with the rest of the Genin.

"What happened to you?" Naruto whispered, feeling a cold grip twisting his heart like a wet rag. He was disgusted at them—and ashamed at himself that he felt that way—but more than anything he was heartbroken. They were... they were children. Civilian children, judging by their cores.

"The same that will happen to you," one of them laughed, their voice coming out mangled.

Some of them flinched at that.

"They're pretty," another cooed, gesturing to Sakura, Hinata, and Ino. "The guards will want you tonight, then. Good."

Sakura and Ino flushed with anger at that, while Hinata paled as she activated her Byakugan to examine the one who cooed.

She wanted to gag when she found that the girl was most definitely pregnant, staring at the chakra signature that grew inside of her gut.

"Nah... they feel strong," croaked a different voice, one from a child whose eyes dangled out of his head. "They'll get picked."

This caused a stir amongst the other children, and they all shuffled away from the Genin of Konoha.

"Picked?" Shikamaru asked, a tremble in his voice that he no longer had to fake.

"Picked to be their whores maybe," sneered the pregnant girl.

"Picked ones become dogs," rasped another child. "Bad doggies."

"Bad doggies," echoed the rest of the children.

"Don't worry," Naruto said confidently. "None of that's going to happen. We're all getting out of here."

The twisted children scoffed and laughed at that, and one by one they turned their backs.

Naruto couldn't blame them for that, but he would prove it to them. He said softly, a steel in his voice, "I promise. We're all getting out of here."

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(NAASICA)

Otokagure was built on the bones of Kirigakure. Like with the prior village there was a permanent mist settled over the village that it made it harder to survey the entire village.

Where Kirigakure's buildings were mostly made of carefully crafted stone—all lovingly cut and stacked together in an almost beautiful manner—Otogakure bastardized this. Their stone buildings were thrown together to more closely resemble huts, and it wasn't hard to tell that most of them lead to underground. I'd be willing to bet a good sum of money Orochimaru crafted an intense maze underneath the village.

I had already sent Zetsu spores well ahead of our group, though, and each were interconnected throughout the village. What one saw, the other could see, and in turn I could see.

I knew inside this maze were numerous dungeons, and inside each dungeon was a group of children who had been abducted.

What happened to the adults, one might ask?

If the adults were strong enough, they became Otogakure shinobi. If they weren't... they were used as experimental fodder.

Children could be brainwashed more easily, so they were kept in separate groups. From what the Zetsu spores could gather Orochimaru was testing which way was the most efficient to convert those children to his side.

Were they more compliant with favors? With torture? What if he experimented on them? Which of his minions, his new Otogakure shinobi, could also manipulate children to his side?

There were dozens of dungeons like these, and each one was a test for him.

The one where our Genin were dragged off to was a dungeon given to one of Orochimaru's favored guards to use. He kept the children with little chakra reserves and control in that dungeon. They weren't strong enough to use in his experiments, but not weak enough to immediately die if left unattended.

Therefore... well. One might get the picture.

Obito, Kakashi, and I entered the village without drawing attention to ourselves. We hid in the shadows of the huts and surveyed those around us.

Orochimaru had done a decent enough job collecting his shinobi. Naturally none of them were enough to give the three of us much pause, but they weren't bad.

Unfortunately there was still a lot more of them meandering around the village than what we were expecting.

Our goals were as followed: Eliminate Orochimaru, Wipe out Otogakure, Save our allies' abducted children.

Orochimaru would die today, this I knew without a doubt. He would not escape, not now and not ever again. I had Zetsu spores covering every exit of the village, and as soon as my Akatsuki comrades were done with the ANBU they would begin to circle the village. If Orochimaru managed to squeak out of my hands, he would not get by those three.

But I had no intention of allowing Orochimaru to not die by my hands.

I even called in a dance partner just for this occasion.

"Did you find him?" Obito quietly asked in my ear, his Sharingan eyes assessing the outside.

With a tight nod, I said, "I found his chakra. But—" I narrowed my eyes as I peered out of the shadows we currently hid in to cautiously eye the village. "They've got several dozen Jōnin-level threats. As amazing as we are, I don't think we can juggle all of their shinobi force and Orochimaru at once. So I will deal with Orochimaru and you two will clean up."

"But—"

"Out of the three of us, hime stands a better chance at stalling Orochimaru out," Kakashi pointed out reluctantly. "All of your attacks, Obito, rely on surprise and ambush, and I don't have the raw power to face Orochimaru on my own for very long."

"Tch." Obito folded his arms over his chest, scowling at that. "I don't like it, though."

I reached up and kissed his cheek. "You're sweet."

"Hey," Kakashi objected.

I kissed his cheek, too. "You're sweeter."

"Thank you," Kakashi said with a nod.

Obito rolled his eyes. "As much as I would love to argue over who is actually sweeter, I still don't think this is a good idea."

"That's fine. We're rolling with it anyway," I said dismissively.

Obito's face twisted up with a grimace and Kakashi placed an arm over his shoulders. "Come on. The sooner we get rid of the trash, the sooner we can help her disembowel Orochimaru."

Obito rested his head on Kakashi's shoulder for a moment, sighing. "Yeah... you're right."

"Then I'll talk to you both later," I said before I decided to be a little mean. "And... I love you both."

"Oi! We agreed to never, ever say that on a mission because that just begs for one of us to die!" Obito snapped out.

"I love you both," I repeated with a devilish grin.

"I'm leaving before you say what could possibly go wrong next," Obito muttered, rushing out of the hut.

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(GENIN)

Explosions rocked the world outside of them, and they heard the screams of people dying. With a thunderous boom the dungeon quaked and the broken children huddled together and prayed for a painless death.

"This is getting dangerous," Sakura said, drawing the Genin's attention to her. "We need to leave."

"Leave?" echoed Kiba, aghast.

"Shit's hitting the fan," Sakura pointed out, gesturing to how the entrance was now currently on fire. "We're sitting ducks here, and we need to leave. Besides, they might decide to eliminate any loose threads before they get the hell outta here."

The Genin cringed when one of the explosions went off nearby and made their ears ring.

"We can't leave these people here, though," Naruto hissed out. "We have to get everyone out."

"We don't have time," Sakura snarled back. "Any minute now the enemies could arrive. We can't protect this many people."

"I can create as many shadow clones as it takes to carry them out—"

Sakura grabbed Naruto's shirt, yanking him close to her as she growled out, "You're. Not. Listening. We do not have the training, or power, to protect such a large group moving out in territory we do not know. We need to leave, get to Sensei, and she will get these people out."

Naruto shoved Sakura off him, shouting, "We can't leave them—!"

"We're going—now," Sakura bit out, grabbing Naruto's arm and starting to drag him, but he shoved her off once more. "Naruto! Stop being stupid."

"Leave me, then," he snapped. "I'm not leaving them behind."

Sakura let out a strangled cry of frustration. "Idiot! You're going to get us killed."

"Then flee."

"I think we should stay," Chōji tentatively added, looking around at his comrades. "We—We can't just leave them behind."

Kiba nodded. "Yeah. It doesn't sit with me. Let's bust 'em outta here, yeah?"

"I'm with Sakura," Shikamaru disagreed. "We don't know—we don't know nearly enough about the situation to be safe."

"We can't leave these poor people behind," Ino argued. "I vote we stay."

"Shikamaru, and Sakura vote to leave... Naruto, Chōji, Kiba, and Ino vote to stay," Shino concluded thus far. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke shrugged. "We don't know the situation. But I know my brothers would still stay."

"Hinata?"

"We should leave," she said softly.

Shino adjusted his glasses. "The vote swings to staying."

"If we get killed from this, I'm going to kick your asses in hell," Sakura snapped.

"Good thing we won't then, huh?" Naruto snarked back.

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(NAASICA)

He was waiting for me. Like a villain dying to monologue the perverted scientist eagerly lingered behind in his chosen spot for me to come to him. There was no way he didn't sense my chakra the moment I entered the village, but like the greedy monster he was he couldn't refuse the opportunity.

He thought he was prepared.

He thought he was going to win.

Delusional.

Orochimaru stood outside of what was once the Mizukage's tower with a slimy smile as Obito and Kakashi completely tore up his once precious village.

He thought once he was done with me, he'd get to collect his treasured Sharingan and keep Kakashi as a pet.

The very thought of it made my blood boil, and the desire to skin him alive was downright overwhelming.

Orochimaru greeted me with a mocking bow, "Oh, hime. So good of you to come. Did you miss me that much?"

"When we're done I'll be able to look at you every day, your skin will make a fine rug for T&I," I returned with a cold smile.

He laughed, a high-pitched sound that made nails on chalk look like a symphony.

"Twice you have escaped being mine, but I will not let a third one go by," he said quietly, ugly yellow eyes leering at me.

Twice?

Then along came a surprise for him. An irritation, or a pleasant one he had no way of yet knowing. Landing beside me—and creating a small crater in the ground—was a tall man in a black cloak with red clouds over them. His blue skin looked pale in the eerie light of Otogakure.

Kisame grinned toothily. "Well, well, well, what have we here?"

"My," I purred, "what a devilishly handsome creature you are."

Kisame mocked blush, putting a hand to his cheeks. "Oh, jeeze."

"I don't suppose a fine man like yourself could help a lady out?"

Orhicmaru started to laugh. "Desperate already, hime?"

"It's a date," Kisame teased, "Hope you make a good dance partner."

"I've been told I'm quite good."

Kisame hoisted Samehada free. "Then what are we waiting for?"

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(GENIN)

They were losing.

They were losing.

They didn't understand why so many of the Otogakure shinobi flocked to this dungeon, nor what was taking their teachers so long to get to them.

They would have been fine if the guards were human, but soon after the village came under attack many of them had transformed into half-crazed monsters with dark skin, deformities, and bulging eyes. They attacked any and everything in their path—even each other—and as soon as they figured out that there were threats inside that dungeon they threw themselves in there like a rabid dog thirsting for meat.

They were relentless, a horde of nonstop creatures hell-bent on devouring them alive. The Genin were forced to take defensive measures. Frontliners Kiba, Chōji, Naruto, and Sasuke took the brunt of the attacks while Sakura and Ino picked them off at a distance. Those that managed to slip by the frontliners were stalled by Hinata, Shikamaru, and Shino.

The kidnapped children huddled together behind Sakura and Ino, whimpering and clutching on to each other. Their cries fueled the Genin, driving home just how important it was that none of them were caught by these monsters.

Naruto threw down trap seals he had specially designed—small ones that could be used in tight quarters such as these—that did a decent enough job blowing off the limbs of the monsters. Unfortunately these things were tenacious beasts and had some ridiculous regenerative rates.

Sakura launched arrow after arrow, each digging their way through the skulls of the beings. It still took several arrows in the head before one of them would topple over.

While Ino couldn't launch as many attacks as fast as Sakura, her raiton ninjutsu attacks were devastating enough to completely halt some of them. Unfortunately for her and her teammates, she didn't have the reserves to stretch this fight indefinitely and nearly an hour into the fight she was struggling to stand, let alone attack.

Shino and Shikamaru were in similar spots, with neither having the stamina or reserves to stretch this fight out much longer.

It became painfully apparent how tired everyone was growing when one stumble—one wrong move—had Chōji slipping backward.

It almost happened in slow motion. One moment Chōji was fighting off two monsters at once, and the next he lost his balance and fell on his back.

They pounced on him in that instant and his wail tore new fear into his teammates. Blood and guts were ripped out of him as Kiba screamed with rage and threw himself onto the enemies to fight them off.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

It was a domino effect because Kiba was no longer fighting smart, he was fighting angry and scared and so he too made a mistake.

A mistake that cost him a leg and gave him a mauling of his own.

Chaos.

It was absolute chaos then. Their formation fell apart as Sasuke and Naruto struggled in vain to hold the front line now that their two front liners were de—out of commission. Ino and Shikamaru were scrambling to pull their injured comrades away, but it left them vulnerable and their friends simply didn't have the experience or energy to defend them.

One monster grabbed Ino by her face and yanked her so hard they could hear her bones snapping. She couldn't even scream, or cry for help because it all happened too fast.

It overwhelmed those left standing, and then it was Naruto who had dropped his guard as he stared in terrified rage at what was happening to his friends.

"Naruto—no—!" Hinata cried out, throwing herself in the way of a bulking monster. She tried desperately to conjure the Hyūga's ultimate defense, but she lacked the chakra to do so.

The clawed attack came straight down, shredding into Hinata's face, neck, and chest.

Everything stopped for that single moment for her teammates as they watched, horrified, as blood spewed out of their friend. Hinata's right eye had been ripped out in the attack, her face horribly mangled, and her chest and neck gushing Red.

"Hinata!" Sakura screamed, tears of rage and hatred burning her vision as she scrambled to reach her dying friend.

Naruto stumbled back for a moment before anger so dark, and so fierce, overtook him. Never before in his entire life had he felt so hot, and so full of pain and hatred. He didn't realize he was crying, silent tears falling from his eyes, but he did realize that he was filled with murderous rage.

With a primal roar, he leapt at the attacker, yanking out explosive tag after explosive tag and throwing it at the monster.

Sakura scrambled to pull her emergency aid out. "H-Hi—Hinata st-stay w-with us."

Hinata couldn't speak though, because she could barely breathe through her nearly destroyed throat.

Sakura trembled from the overwhelming feelings inside of her.

And then along came a small miracle.

Obito Uchiha, the Ghost of Konoha, appeared before them with his trademark grin. "Wow. Hime's not gonna be happy about this!"

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(NAASICA)

Donating about a quarter of my chakra into my opening move, I clapped my hands together and muttered out, "Mouton: Shinkō no mori!"

Black, warped, and twisted trees with burning orange leaves erupted from all around us, rapidly encircling the clearing Orochimaru chose for his death. The forest devoured the village, climbing high up in the sky while simultaneously digging deep into the dark maze Orochimaru had created.

The Zetsu spores that were eagerly awaiting for this attack latched on to the roots and sucked out some of my chakra—enough so each of them transformed into Zetsu clones and began to ransack the maze for research notes, and anything of value.

"Suiton: tsunami!" Kisame bellowed out a massive surge of water to plow directly at Orochimaru. Orochimaru slammed his hands on the ground beneath him, creating a solid pillar of rock that carried him up above Kisame's attack.

With my forest now trapping him, and Kisame narrowing the playing field even more, it was time to properly engage.

Kisame tossed me Madara's gunbai that he had hooked to his back, and I leapt up onto the stage Orochimaru set.

With a devilish grin, I summoned forth the Rinnegan. Not that Orochimaru would be able to see it, since I kept the genjutsu seal Madara created for the eye active for the moment.

I raised my gunbai just as Orochimaru blasted forth one hell of a katon jutsu. I used the Rinnegan to absorb the chakra, replenishing some of my own, but hid this fact by using the gunbai.

He followed up with a spew of raiton, and again I held up my gunbai and absorbed the attack with my hidden Rinnegan.

It wouldn't be hard to trick Orochimaru into thinking it was the gunbai absorbing the attacks.

"Fūton: uzu!" I breathed out the fūton ninjutsu, creating a small but powerful vortex of wind at the center of the pillar. I followed it up with, "Katon: fenikkusu kokyū!"

My fire ignited on the wind chakra and it erupted into a beautiful tornado of fire and destruction. It overtook the entire pillar and Orochimaru was forced off it, and back down to the sea of water below where a grinning Kisame awaited him.

The next phase of the battle went on too quick to accurately describe. It was a flurry of powerful ninjutsu attacks by Orochimaru, and Kisame diving in to swipe at him with Samehada while working in tangum with my own ninjutsu attacks. With each swipe of Kisame's Samehada, Orochimaru lost some of his treasured chakra and I would apply a special genjutsu I invented just for this fight.

We knew Orochimaru had done plenty to make himself immortal, but there was one thing he could never, ever replace in a fight.

And that was his chakra.

I absorbed his attacks through the Rinnegan (faking it as the gunbai), and Kisame did the same with his Samehada. We replenished our chakra while Orochimaru could not.

It was a hard pressed fight, and no one had ever pushed me so far in a long, long time. I was grateful I had the foresight to ask Kisame for his help, because I didn't think I would have been able to secure the victory alone without resorting to drastic measures.

The bastard summoned forth hordes of snakes that I had to burn and slice through since Kisame couldn't drown them out. He kept stretching and changing bodies, slipping away from what would have been fatal blows. He was hard to catch, but not impossible.

Because he chose to stick around. He was greedy for my mouton, and greedy for my gunbai.

So greedy, in fact, he sacrificed losing a chunk of his flesh to rip the gunbai out of my hands and laugh victoriously.

While it infuriated me that this scum was daring to touch something of Madara-sama's, it pleased me that he had taken the bait.

He bellowed out a slew of raiton attacks at me, expecting me to be forced to dodge or defend—

But I released the genjutsu over my eye, held up my hand, and devoured his slimy chakra.

Oh, the look on his face when he saw my Rinnegan.

Disbelief.

Incredulous.

Delight.

Desire.

He thought he still had over half his chakra left.

He thought he could take the eye from me as he took the gunbai.

He launched himself at me, moving with speed that would put most shinobi to shame, but then he stumbled—

Orochimaru faltered, tripped, and fell forward as his body trembled.

"What—?" he whispered.

"Out of chakra?" I mocked.

"No—I—" Orochimaru seized before he hissed out. "How?"

"How are you already out of chakra?" I laughed, my tone mocking as I set back the Rinnegan into the Sharingan. I watched as Orochimaru's disgusting face twisted into envy, disbelief, and rage. "I may not be good at genjutsu, but I know enough. I know how to make you think you have more chakra than you truly do. But how? You're wondering that, aren't you? Samehada disrupts your chakra every time it eats it. It's really simple—I reapplied it for every swing."

"That's impossible—you'd have to be—you'd—"

"Have to be in perfect synch?" Kisame finished with a grin, propping an arm atop my head and leaning on it. "What do you know... we are."

He squirmed, struggling to stand. The battle hadn't gone on for more than an hour, but the monster was all out of chakra. He didn't even have enough to really get away, but still—

"You claimed to have had me in your sights twice," I said slowly, a cruel smile curling my lips up. "Unfortunately for you, once is all I need."

Coaxing forward Madara's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, I lit Orochimaru aflame with amaterasu.

And I watched him writhe and burn, slowly and in agony.

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(GENIN)

Obito teleported all of the students back to the Konoha hospital.

Team seven's Hinata was rushed into surgery immediately, with Chōji, Ino, and Kiba following behind.

Their teammates were restless, waiting for any kind of news. Sakura eventually broke after the first hour, crying and angrily hitting Naruto. "Why didn't you listen?! Why would you—why would you pick strangers over Hinata?! Over us?!"

Each accusation dug into Naruto, and wounded him more than her fists ever could. Eventually the blond crumpled, falling to his knees and sobbing. "I'm s-sorry. I'm s-s-so sorry—"

Sakura glared down at him, her cheeks wet. She tried to wipe away her tears, but they kept coming, and she fell down in front of him, her head bowed.

I'm so pathetic, she despaired, reaching forward and pulling her teammate close to her. If I were stronger, none of this would have happened. I can't—I can't blame it all on Naruto.

Naruto cried in her arms, his eyes red and puffy, and his head aching just as painfully as his heart.

Sasuke sat down beside the two teammates, reaching forward and rubbing his brother's back. He wanted to cry, too. He wanted to scream at the unfairness of the situation. At how they shouldn't have been punished for trying to do the right thing.

But the youngest Uchiha was too tired, too emotionally drained to do so.

The rest of their comrades inched closer. Shikamaru quietly crying, Akamaru whimpering his arms, and Shino sat close to them.

The child soldiers mourned the last of their innocence, and prayed to whatever deity was listening, that they didn't have to mourn their friends, too.

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

(NAASICA)

With Orochimaru definitely dead, I relaxed the Sharingan and re-activated the seal genjutsu over my eye. I brushed off any dirt and grime I accumulated over the battle, and re-did my hair while Kisame took back the gunbai and re-attached it and Samehada to his back. After a few minutes of grooming, I was presentable again.

"Well," Kisame said after a minute. "It was a good date."

"Enough for a repeat?"

"Ehhh."

I swatted at him. "How dare you. I'm amazing."

"Sorry, I only do second dates with people who put out on the first one," he deadpanned.

"Does flashing count?"

"PFFFFFT," Kisame clutched at his mouth to keep from howling with laughter. While I watched my friend struggle to refrain from busting a gut at my absurd comment, Obito appeared beside us with a sweet smile aimed at me, which immediately disappeared when he saw Kisame.

"Hello," I said to Obito, giving him a warm smile. "All done here?"

"Yeah..." He eyed the chuckling Kisame suspiciously. "Who's this?"

"A handsome gentleman who helped me kill Orochimaru," I explained, gesturing to Kisame. "Thank you, gallant stranger."

"How could anyone not help an impossibly gorgeous lady such as yourself?" Kisame joked.

Obito abruptly put his arm around my waist and pulled me close. "Welp. Thanks for helping my fiancee. What was your name again?"

"Kisame. Congrats on the marriage. I'll—pfft—be on my way now," Kisame said, giving a slight bow to the two of us before heading off.

I asked Obito when he left, "Are we engaged now?"

"Yep," he said.

"Is Kakashi the second bride, or groom?"

"Obviously second bride since he's prissy enough."

"Fair point." I kissed my Obito on the cheek again. "Everything went okay on your end?"

"Yeah... Kakashi and I didn't have any issues, but," Obito hesitated, chewing on his lip for a moment in a rare display of anxiety. I leaned into him, pulling him closer to provide him with comfort. "Hime, the ANBU didn't make it to Otogakure. The Genin got attacked, and... it's not looking good."

My stomach dropped, a brief moment of guilt inside of me before Owari snatched it away. There was a chill over my heart, and it made everything so much easier to think about.

I knew this would be a possible outcome.

A part of me that Owari couldn't hide away felt ashamed that our Genin weren't strong enough to survive on their own for an hour. They really, truly, would not have made it through the war we had to endure at their age. This unfair world would have them do so anyway.

This world would break each of them the way it broke me.

I had hoped, truly and sincerely, that I had done enough for them to survive this much.

I was wrong.

I wished they were strong enough. I wished—

God, I wish this world wasn't so fucking Red.

All I wanted was to cover their eyes so they couldn't see it, so no children had to taste the vileness of this world, had to experience how cruel humans could be.

Why did they have to choose this path?

As shinobi, as kunoichi, they would be forced to see the Red, or die from it.

I thought I prepared them well enough—

No, no, no... I did not.

I could not.

They would never, ever, be ready until they saw the Red and understood. Once they did then they could truly survive in this world, and then they could join me in saving it.

There was nothing I could do until they saw It.

Besides, the pros are still outweighing the cons, Owari pointed out, always cool and rational.

Or at least more rational than me.

We eliminated two squads of ANBU which were difficult to pin down. It was imperative that we kept the ANBU stretched and busy so they couldn't provide the resources to look into the Akatsuki before the plans were ready.

And most importantly, we killed Orochimaru.

So long as Naruto still survived the attack, I would be able to call this mission a success.

"There's more," Obito whispered, his voice soft and tight with grief. I kissed the top of his head in a consoling manner. "We found... we found some of the victims. Kakashi's gathered up all that are still alive."

"Let's go see them then, shall we?"

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

I looked over these victims, my heart aching as I understood the hell they must have been through.

Before, I could not have saved them.

But now?

I clenched my hands into fists.

Konoha could not do anything for them. Officially, Konoha did not take in refugees, and did not waste money rehabilitating victims that would not bring them profit. Especially those that could prove traitorous, or could secretly be trojan horses. Even if I, as a Senju, could personally pay for them the council would oppose it.

My status could only go so far, and bringing in unknown, weak, and nearly dead humans that would bring Konoha nothing in return... it would only hurt my political power.

I knew this. Kakashi knew this. Obito knew this.

"Go," I softly told them. "I will handle them."

Obito placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, while Kakashi bowed his head in respect.

They thought I would kill them.

Naasica Senju would.

Owari would not.

When they left, I put them to sleep in a genjutsu, and I summoned my left over Zetsu spores.

"Take them to Mei and the others. Bring them to Amegakure and have the Black Acolytes tend to them," I ordered.

I quietly watched the Zetsu clones do as told, each delicately picking up a child and carrying them off. I took a deep breath, looking up at the sky and wondering who else was in pain.

Who else suffered as these children have?

Who else have I failed to save?

Soon, I consoled myself. Soon they won't any more.

And then along came a little birdie who carried a message for Owari from Guren.

Its details were enough to make me smile, putting aside my pain for the children.

O,

The puppet is in place.

G&S

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

Hinata lost her right eye and ear. There would be scarring on her face, neck, and chest, for many years to come. She would be hospitalized for another month, as they tentatively watched her skin regrow over her tender neck.

Ino's vocal chords were beyond repair, and she would retain permanent scarring on her neck, and stomach.

Kiba's upper face was scarred, and he lost his left leg below the knee.

And Chōji lost his life.

Can they see the Red now?

(ง ⌣ ~ ⌣) ง

I wanted to kill more of them off but they haven't been in the story long enough to do a good emotional impact. Maybe next time. :)

New song starting next chapter will be Control by Hasley as suggested by Anon on tumblr. Thanks, Anon!

Answer: A king of fantastical magic well known for their prowess in magic.

Question: Who would you want to be partners with in the Akatsuki?

Reviews are love!