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Shallow POV – Jiraiya

Jiraiya flexed his fingers. He knew Orochimaru was out there, right across the bridge, just waiting for him. It was he, Jiraiya, who henged himself into Sasori and took the first steps across the bridge. It was he, Jiraiya, who Kabuto first attacked and when Orochimaru finally revealed himself, it was he, Jiraiya, who signaled for the rest of them to present themselves.

Naruto and Sasuke flanked his sides. Team Three stayed far behind them, as they were the medical-squad and they needed to remain alive. Miwako, Anko, and Kitsune had crawled down the cliff the bridge hung over, early in the morning, and hid themselves on the opposite side. They presented themselves to Orochiarmu's back, completely blocking off his exits. Team Two—Gai's team— as well as Raion were right behind Jiraiya, Naruto and Sasuke, tensed and ready for battle.

"Surrender quietly, and we might let you live," Jiraiya said, a mocking tone in his voice. They both knew he wouldn't surrender, and they both knew they wouldn't let him live if he did.

Orochimaru stared at all those who surrounded him, completely unfazed, and even Kabuto didn't seem to mind them. Instead, Orochimaru gave a low rusty chuckle. "Kukuku... right on the money, it would seem. And look, there's my Uchiha, all wrapped in a nice little bow for me."

Sasuke's face twisted into that of utter disgust and loathing as he stared at Orochimaru. Orochimaru seemed to find the face even more amusing.

"What are talking about?" Naruto demanded.

Orochimaru shook his head, his lips twitching in amusement. "I knew you were coming. Really, Konoha prides itself on its loyal shinobi, but that is only a façade."

Jiraiya tensed as he felt the first flash of pure anger spike through him.

Betrayed? By who? Only Tsunade and the El... ders... Jiraiya thought, his eyes closing as he let out a slow sigh. Of fucking course. The Elders had to be informed as so many shinobi were leaving the village, but I never thought... How did they reach us before hand?

"Bullshit! No one in Konoha would betray us, so just shut the hell up!" Naruto snarled.

"Be quiet, Naruto," Jiraiya snapped, his eyes never leaving Orochimaru's.

Orochimaru laughed; a slick and sickening sound that did nothing to calm Jiraiya's growing anger and frustration.

"I believe it's now time for me to show who I have up my sleeve, no?" Orochimaru asked, his voice condescending.

He raised his left hand, and six blurs threw themselves out of the forest. The first one to present himself was a teenaged male with long white hair and odd markings on his face. Sharp green eyes stared at Jiraiya a moment, but Jiraiya noticed that instead of the whiteness you normally saw in eyes, there was blackness.

The second blur was that of a woman with blue hair and she wore a battle kimono with the imprint of a camellia on it. The third and final blur that appeared on the bridge was someone Jiraiya vaguely recognized from the invasion, the double body Oto-nin, one of the two that managed to actually escape.

The fourth and fifth blur appeared on the opposite side of the bridge, and Jiraiya recognized them as two more Oto-nin from the invasion, the red-haired girl Miwako had killed and the arrow-boy that had also managed to escape. The sixth blur appeared just behind Orochimaru, and Jiraiya recognized him as the last Oto-nin that had been killed in the invasion.

Jiraiya flexed his fingers.

Fuck.

Shallow POV – Kimimaro

Orochimaru uttered the first word.

"Attack."

Kimimaro immediately went towards Sasuke, prepared to deliver his master the boy at all costs. He had died weak and unable to really be of use to his master, but now with the completed Edo-Tensai, he was just as strong as he had been at the peak of his health, and he could continue to serve his maser. Before he could reach the boy, however, two green eye-soars appeared before him.

Kimimaro barely had time to blink before the larger one of the two gave him a solid kick that sent him flying past the bridge and into the forest behind him. Kimimaro flipped backwards, landing lightly on his feet as his eyes narrowed in annoyance. He straightened up, just as the two shinobi landed before him.

"Yosh! I'm afraid I cannot allow you to harm Sasuke-kun," the larger of the two declared. "So I, Maito Gai will stop you!"

"And I, Rock Lee, will assist him in everywhere I can. I will not fail you, Gai-sensei!" shouted the one named Lee.

Kimimaro eyed them impassively.

"I will not fail my master," Kimimaro stated as he felt the bones in his body start to crack. A long bone grew out of his palms—his arm bone, and he extracted it, hardening it with his chakra. He twirled it once in his hands before shifting stances.

Kimimaro considered just trying to get around them, but dismissed it. They were both incredibly fast, so odds were that he would have to deal with them first to get to Sasuke.

"I will go first!" Lee shouted, sprinting towards Kimimaro. His right leg swung out in a high kick, aiming for Kimimaro's face, but the bone-user blocked it with his left hand. Again Lee tried the kick, and again Kimimaro blocked him. Lee somersaulted in the air, his leg swinging out to catch Kimimaro. Kimimaro leapt back and up into the air, preparing to descend atop the boy. Lee leapt up as well, successfully landing a solid punch underneath his jaw.

He flipped backwards, his jaw stinging as he was forced to readjust it.

He ignored the pain and cocked his head curiously as he eyed him.

He's fast, Kimimaro allowed. But definitely not fast enough.

Kimiaro flickered forward, nearly using his maximum speed and delivered a solid bone-hardened-fist punch to Lee's chest. Lee went flying backwards and that was when Gai engaged the battle.

"Yosh! A taijutsu battle: most excellent!" Gai cried out.

Shallow POV – Tenten

Tenten leapt back as the first of the Sound Four—she could vaguely recall their profile in the Bingo Books and from what Miwako had briefly mentioned, Sakon and Ukon—quickly attempted to reach the medical-squad from behind. He wasn't the only one, Kabuto and the other one, Jirōbō, also attempted to push past them.

Tenten couldn't stop all of them, but she could grab one of them, Sakon and Ukon, summoning her staff, she whirled it around and as the double-person attempted to leap past her, she slammed her staff into his chest.

Sakon and Ukon—she really wasn't sure which one was in control for the moment, so she would just call them Sa-Uk in her head—flipped off and landed at the edge of the bridge, the same side as Team Three. Tenten gave him a calculating glare before she flickered towards him. He leapt back, giving himself distance from her.

Sasame moved by Tenten's side, shifting into a battle stance.

"Allow me to assist you, Tenten-kun," Sasame said, pulling out a poisoned-tipped senbon.

Tenten gave the girl an approving look before she grinned maliciously. "Why, I couldn't refuse. After all, I wouldn't want to hug all the fun to myself."

Sasame gave a gleeful laugh and Sa-Uk glared at them.

"You will regret joining in on this, girl," Sa-Uk said.

"Oh, no, I won't," Sasame assured him. "After all, I must pay Orochimaru back for what he has done to Arashi."

Sa-Uk sneered at them and Tenten decided that she had no intentions of holding back on this one.

Shallow POV – Haku

Haku deftly threw his senbon towards the rather larger of the opponents, effectively bringing his attention to him. Haku moved to position himself between him and the rest of the squad.

"I will be your opponent," Haku said gravely.

His opponent sneered. "A pretty little girl like you? Go back to Konoha."

Haku stiffened.

He will know no mercy, Haku vowed darkly.

Shallow POV – Kabuto

All that was left on the medical squad was the pink-haired brat and the Hokage's lap-bitch, Kabuto noted. He had disabled the older woman before with ease, and had no doubt that he could handle the pink-haired one as well.

Kabuto felt himself smirking. Afterwards, he would assist the rest of them until all that remained was Sasuke. After all, with the Edo-Tensei in effect, there was no way they could lose. True, if they had a seal-master with them—like Jiraiya—and if they were familiar with Edo-Tensei then they could seal away the immortal corpses, but they weren't familiar with the technique and Orochimaru would keep Jiraiya far too busy.

Not to mention if they really proved to be a hassle, Kimimaro would just send out his little friend and their deaths would be ensured.

"You..." Shizune said lowly, her eyes narrowing. "I will not allow you to escape."

Kabuto gave a low chuckle at that. "How amusing; I was just thinking the same thing."

Sakura—the pink brat's name, if he could recall—shifted her stance, her eyes hardened. "You're trying to get to Sasuke-kun."

"Orochimaru has need of the boy," Kabuto said lightly, "but you really shouldn't be worrying about him."

Kabuto shifted his stance, his hands glowing blue. "You should really be worried about me."

Shallow POV – Naruto

Naruto was really starting to hate this guy.

No matter how well timed his and Sasuke's attacks were, or his and Jiraiya's or Jiraiya's and Anko's... the fucking bastard kept evading them. It was like he wasn't even made of bones. The only good thing that came out of him evading was that they were successfully herding him away from the others, isolating him. And yeah, they were pretty much destroying the entire forest in the process, but Naruto didn't really feel too bad about that because damn it this guy just wouldn't take a friggin' hit.

Naruto could feel his impatience grow as the bastard managed to evade another one of his Rasengans. And it did not help with his snide comments.

You really suck.

Shut up, you stupid fox!

Oh, I'm real hurt. Wow, you missed again. You're just pathetic.

Shut up, shut up, shut up!

Kurama laughed as Naruto's Rasengan slammed into the ground again, missing Orochimaru again.

I hate you, so much.

First you couldn't even deal with the blond-transy and now you can't deal with a gender-confused pedophile.

Seriously. Hate you. So much.

I thought you wanted to be Hokage? What kind of Hokage can't even land a single hit?

Go to hell.

And you're comebacks... honestly, I'm amazed they call that tiny little pod of yours a brain when it barely comes up with anything original.

Fuck. You.

Kurama laughed. Naruto gave a sudden shout of frustration, stopping his attacks, turning in the direction he knew Miwako was in and shouting, "Miwako! Control your fucking bitch already!"

There was a significant pause and silence in his head and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiraiya landed next to him, raising an eyebrow as Sasuke and Anko attempted another combo.

"The fox was adding commentary," Naruto muttered.

Jiraiya nodded his head. It wouldn't have been the first time.

You fucking little bitch. You got me in trouble.

Naruto smirked. Now who's the bitch? Look who's whining over a little girl scolding him. Boo-hoo, boo-hoo. I got scolded by a little girl for being an asshole.

I don't recall being scolded by you. Between the two of you, the kit has the bigger balls.

Fuck. You, Naruto thought sincerely before attempting to tune the little bastard out.

"How are we going to get him?" Naruto asked, turning to Jiraiya.

Jiraiya gave him a taunting grin. "I think it's time we submerged this forest in a little mud, don't you?"

Naruto returned the grin with a mischievous one of his own. "What? And totally screw over his footing and decrease his evasion significantly for a brief time, and in the process land some pretty serious blows? Why, I just couldn't... Let's do it."

Jiraiya laughed, holding up his hands in the first seal.

Shallow POV – Kimimaro

Kimimaro bit back a mutter of frustration as he was force to be pieced back together due to the effects of the Edo-Tensei. Already in the course of ten minutes the duo had managed to deliver multiple killing blows to him, and had Kimimaro not been able to reform, he would have been died by now. Then again he wasn't really trying to stay alive, taking full advantage of the effects of the Edo-Tesnei. It had its limitations, but for the most part it was incredibly helpful.

He just needed to stall time until they exhausted themselves and then he would finish the killing blow.

The problem was... there really seemed to be an endless amount of energy in them.

Perhaps it is time to take this to the next level? Kimimaro mused, activating his first stage in the curse mark. Bones grew out of his left arm, four of them curved and they ended just past his hand. He flickered towards them, engaging the younger of the two first.

Lee threw the first punch and Kimimaro ducked to the side and under, swinging out a punch of his own. Lee bent backwards, evading it and attempting another punch but Kimimaro sidestepped around Lee before kicking his right leg out, high up. Lee bent backwards, blocking the kick by slamming a kick of his own into Kimimaro's leg. The force was enough to send the bone user flipping backwards.

Gai rushed into the battle again and Kimimaro held a grimace in. The taijutsu master was just painful to face. Kimiaro caught his first fist, holding tightly and Gai attempted to land another blow into Kimimaro's diaphragm, but Kimimaro influenced his rib bones to jut out and stab him instead.

Gai disengaged from battle, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"A worthy opponent indeed," he observed.

Shallow POV – Haku

No matter how many times Haku killed his opponent, he just kept reforming.

It was both annoying and pleasing. Annoying in the sense that Haku couldn't finish his battle and move on to assist his friends, but pleasing in the sense that Haku could keep on killing the little menace for insinuating he was a girl. Again.

The most annoying part was that he still didn't take the hint that Haku was very much a teenaged boy and very much not a girl. And he already hit puberty, too. It just wasn't fair. It wasn't his fault that he had feminine looks, and it wasn't his fault that his voice naturally came out soft. So why did he have to suffer for it?

No matter. Haku kept the boy encased in his new and improved ice-mirrors. A new version that he had developed over time with Zabuza's assistance, he had successfully managed to create a mirrors that not only could hold himself, but could properly reflect the opponent's attack. So whenever his opponent got that strange power up and attempted to smash the mirrors, the attack just bounced back and hit him instead.

While it did take a considerable more amount of chakra to hold, Haku thought it was worth it. He did quite enjoy seeing the boy squirm.

Shallow POV – Naruto

That's just nasty, Naruto decided as Orochimaru literally threw up thousands of snakes and each snake threw up a sword in their mouth. Sasuke was mass Chidori-Senbon'ing them and was Naruto using his Futon: Vacuum Wave to slash and hack them to bits. Jiraiya was currently occupied to get rid of the seals and was having the trio—Anko, Naruto and Sasuke—distract Orochimaru until he was done.

It turned out, Orochimaru was really prepared for this battle. He had planted many chakra-stealing seals in the ground and already the others had part of their chakra drained. It made the battle more difficult, because only Orochimaru knew where the seals were. Jiraiya was trying to cause a chain-reaction self-destruct, but the presence of the seals had already taken into effect. Anko was on the verge of passing out, she stumbled into the most seals (and not Naruto, surprisingly).

Naruto blinked in surprise as Orochimaru came slithering towards him, the lower half of his body turned into the lower half of a gray snake, before his fist slammed into Naruto's face and he was sent flying backwards. Two arms quickly caught Naruto, and blinking the spots from his eyes, he muttered a quick thanks to Anko. He looked back at Sasuke had used his katana to slice through the Sannin's middle. The upper half or Orochimaru was sent up in the air and snakes erupted from his lower half, latching themselves to the upper half and pulling him back together.

Sasuke flipped backwards, watching the scene with morbid interest.

... That's really effing handy, Naruto allowed.

No. It's revolting.

Are you just going to disagree with everything I say?

Why didn't you dodge that attack when it was so obviously coming for you? You had plenty of time.

I—Shut up.

Idiot.

The snake half faded from Orochimaru as he regained his legs, eying them curiously.

Naruto glanced up at the sky when he heard the first rumble and let out a feral grin.

Sasuke had previously sent up massive amounts of fireballs into the air in preparation for his biggest attack. Orochimaru noticed the grin as well as Sasuke's pleased smirk. Sasuke backpedaled away from Orochimaru, and Naruto and Anko positioned themselves in between Orochimaru and and Sasuke.

"You're fucking done for now, bastard," Anko taunted. "Even if you live this attack, Jiraiya's almost done and will be back in the battle."

Orochimaru's eyes moved over to Jiraiya who was significantly far away, poised and tensed, but completely still.

Orochimaru leapt back, his eyes calculating as Sasuke held his hand up to the sky.

Sparks of electricity danced around Sasuke's hand.

Orochimaru slammed his palms into the ground just as Sasuke intoned, "Begone with the thunderclap, Kirin!"

Bright white light flared before Naruto's eyes and he was forced to look away as raw lightning flew down from the sky at Sasuke's command and slammed (hopefully) into Orochimaru. When the light cleared away, Naruto stared in open frustration as Orochimaru was still very much alive, though there were what appeared to be remains of some sort of rod.

Did he redirect the lightning? Figures.

Kurama snickered. Perhaps you should call out my power, brat? I know for a fact that we could really give the freak a run for his money.

Go bug Miwa, Naruto thought grumpily.

Kurama only laughed mockingly at Naruto.

"Alright!" Jiraiya shouted from behind. "The seals shouldn't work if you guys keep this seal on you. Go ahead and take your chakra pills now, everyone."

"I already took my last one that I can take," Anko said, wincing.

Sasuke grimaced. "Same."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "About time you finished, Pervy-Sage."

Naruto turned around and frowned and eyed Jiraiya in distaste. "I swear, every time you take a chakra-pill, you look bloated."

"Shut up."

Shallow POV – Neji

This crystal user is already proving to be a hassle, Neji thought as he dove for another bout with the crystal user. Even the ANBU Raion was having trouble. Whenever he used his wood-style, Guren—the crystal user—crystallized his attacks and threw them right back. It was apparent that ninjutsu was out of the question so they were forced to rely on taijutsu.

But taijutsu came with risks as well, already Guren had managed to crystalize Neji's Jyuuken, momentarily leaving the Hyuuga trapped in a sphere of crystal that took time to break out of. It was risky fighting her, but Neji had the utmost intentions of winning.

She had encased her entire body with crystal, momentarily rendering Neji's attacks useless and Neji had to double his chakra usage to make so much of a scratch on her crystal armor. Worse of all, he was losing chakra due to this. Raion was in no better position as it seemed most of his jutsus relied heavily on ninjutsu, and without that...

Guren smirked as Neji failed to break her crystal armor and she landed a devastating blow with her crystal blade into Neji's shoulder.

Things are looking grim, Neji thought.

First Person POV – Miwako

"The fucking bitch is mine," Tayuya snapped, her eyes lit with pure anger. "I'll pay you back for you fucking did to me, you little whore!"

My eyes flashed with anger of my own. Tayuya was a clear reminder to what had happened at the invasion; to my failure to save my own Grandfather and my utter loathing towards Otogakure. Just seeing her was enough to piss me off endlessly. And knowing that she was under Edo-Tensei...

She would be a hassle to face, considering we didn't have anyone specialized in sealing them away. I was not anticipating anyone else to interfere with our plans of ridding the world of Orochimaru. But I really shouldn't have expected any less from the bastard. Originally this was where Sai was introduced because Danzo—the little traitor—wanted to make a deal with Orochimaru for his own selfish benefit. I should have anticipated that he would try and make another deal with the Snake.

In exchange for the information on us—and essentially Sasuke—he was given...

What did he get?

What in the hell did that back-stabbing warmonger get?

It didn't matter. I was going to fucking murder him when I got back to Konoha. Fuck the rules. He's endangered my family.

I was going to make him fucking scream.

"Bring it, snake-fucker," I snapped.

"Miwako," Kitsune said sharply, quickly positioning himself between Tayuya and myself. "Stay back. I will handle her."

"I can take care of it," I insisted.

"Do you see her eyes? She's under a special jutsu. We need to restrain her to figure out how to cancel out the jutsu, and I'm better suited for that. You take care of the other one."

I bit back retort, knowing full well it wouldn't due to fight against him. My eyes landed on Kidōmaru, if I could recall it was him that I had first attacked at the invasion. From his eyes, I could see that he was still alive, meaning that he got away.

"I guess that makes you mine," Kidōmaru leered.

I smiled sweetly at him. "I'm going to make you regret ever taking away Jiji from me."

Kidōmaru laughed, flipping away from Tayuya and Kitsune and into the forest behind him. I knew his game plan. He wanted to isolate me, get me to follow after him, that or take range for his arrows.

I looked down at my gloves, peeling off the special cloth I had used to cover my seal arrays before sprinting after him. He didn't get far, and I was faster, so I was able to engage him in a quick bout. It didn't matter how many blows I took from it, I just needed to tap him once and it was over. I managed to tap him on the arms once before I allowed him to disengage, disappearing high in the tree tops.

I smiled brightly, taking out my tanto and disappearing in a flash of bright red light... only to reappear to his side just as I stabbed my blade into his side, digging deeply.

"Bitch," Kidōmaru breathed, his eyes widened with disbelief before he threw me away from him, taking my blade with him. I frowned at that, but pulled out a kunai instead. Kidōmaru gripped his bleeding side, his eyes lit with fury as he kneeled to the ground.

"Even if you activate your third stage," I drawled, "you'll still die from blood loss. All I have to do is stall."

Kidōmaru snarled at me. "Don't underestimate me."

He then smiled.

My smirk dropped and I looked up, staring up at the massive spider queen and her web, along with the numerous fist-sized spiders that came descending from the web towards me. A shiver ran up my spine.

"Oh... Oh, fuck," I whispered, shifting stances and having both my hands fly up towards them.

"Raiton: Lightning Beast Running!"

A wolf from each hand surged up, slamming into the nearest descending spider, burning—and thus killing—them before twisting and moving onto the next one. One by one they fell, but I couldn't get rid of all them and some touched the ground, crawling towards me. Not to mention the ones that I killed fell off the web, with their own sticky strings of web falling over me.

Too soon for my liking I had killed the ones that were falling towards me, but I was covered in webs and there were more crawling towards me on the ground. I shuddered in revulsion, trying to yank the webs off, but finding them far too sticky for my liking. When the first spider reached me I reflexively kicked it as fast and hard as I could away from me. More were coming though, and more descending and that was when I realized with a sickening feeling that I couldn't teleport away because not only would my only place to go would be to Kidōmaru, but I was seriously weighed down and if I went straight to him—and he would know it was to him as I had arrogantly revealed it to him—then he would just stab me point blank.

Arrogance, I've learned my lesson. Just because someone died originally in Part I, didn't mean they couldn't still kick your ass in Part II.

I had to burn off the web, and somehow kill all the spiders because that stupid queen was making more.

There was only one other move to rely on.

Raiton: Discharge!

Uncontrolled, raw, electricity spiked out of me, burning and searing the web off and randomly hitting the spiders that crawled towards me. I kept up the release of the jutsu until all of the web was gone from me and I was relatively sider free. I then looked up—

The hairs on the back of my neck rose and I reflexively sidestepped just in time for a large and very lethal arrow to slam into ground right where I once was. I stared at it for a moment, dawning horror growing on me.

Oh shit, I gave him enough time to distance himself.

And I still had to kill the queen spider.

Okay. Kill the queen first. Dodge the arrows. Then take out the freak. You can do it.

My hands flew up into seals. "Raiton: False Darkness!"

The high-powered electrical attack flew out of my mouth before slamming into the spider queen. She gave a high pitched cry before disappearing in a plume of smoke, her baby spiders disappearing with her. I twisted my body just as another arrow whizzed by, only this time it grazed my shoulder.

I winced as the sharp pain raced through me and my opposite hand reflexively flew up to grip it.

I gauged my chakra levels, before I went ahead and attempted a teleportation. Appearing right behind him, I inwardly winced at how far my levels significantly dropped. I concluded I wouldn't be able to teleport at all anymore without relying on Kurama.

Kidōmaru whirled around, a blade in two of his hands and I scarcely managed to duck underneath him before my own kunai flew out and attempted to stab him. It stabbed uselessly at him and I realized with a sickening feeling he had activated his special Armour ability, completely making him immune to physical attacks, metal throwing weapons and even chakra-based attacks, not to mention he was using the armor to stop the bleeding from the wound I had inflicted earlier.

Which meant there was only one way that I could kill him now.

Well, one way without Kurama's help.

I dissolved into a genjutsu, using my strongest one to completely ensnare him. Kidōmaru blinked about in confusion before he snarled, activating his third phase. Knowing that his chakra would be changing and adjusting, I quickly enhanced the potency of my genjutsu hoping dearly it would be enough that his third phase wouldn't automatically break it.

Judging from how he had yet to see me in his third phase, I considered it a success.

My hands raised into the boar seal followed by the tiger and yin and yang to complete the genjutsu. A complete sensory deprivation that would take even skilled Jounin a while to break. Due to its complex nature and efficiency, it not only took an unusual amount of chakra (genjutsus usually took very little chakra, but this one took the same amount as my False Darkness raiton ninjutsu), but it lasted for only two minutes.

It had been a difficult genjutsu to learn, taking me nearly a month to do so. It was the last genjutsu Sasuke had a scroll of that he passed onto Kakashi to give to me during our training trip, but it seemed useful to know, so I learn it I did.

I sidestepped around Kidōmaru before wrapping my arms around his neck.

I hesitated, mostly because I really didn't like killing this way.

I snapped his neck.

I wasn't really sure if that would kill him. I really hope it would, as it would kill any normal person, but those Curse Marks... not to mention Orochimaru's experimentation...

He fell to the floor, not moving a muscle and I hesitantly followed after him, peering down at him.

Utter silence, and then...

"Miwako! Control your fucking bitch already!"

I gave a startled squeak at the sudden noise, my heart pounding before I realized that he hadn't magically come back to life and that it was just Naruto...

I closed my eyes, annoyance flaring through me.

Kurama...

... Yes?

Stop mind-fucking my brother. It's immature, childish and just plain rude. I thought you were better than that.

... Ah...

Kurama... Seriously. Stop. Not in the mood.

... Whatever...

I let out a tense release of breath before carefully sniffing the air and I began to make my way back to Kitsune.

('･ω･')

Tayuya was tied up and cursing every second of it.

Kitsune glanced up from examining the girl. "Miwako-chan, you're a seal master, yes?"

"... Kind of. I have a good grasp on the fundamentals and above. Jiraiya-sensei would place me at roughly a B-Rank, maybe A."

"Can you think of a way to cancel the effect of Edo-Tensei?"

I hesitated. "I can try."

"That's all I ask."

Kurama?

Mn?

I'm going to need a bit of your, uh... knowledge in the arts of sealing. It's time we figured out how to seal them.

... They're essentially still chakra constructs. The first layer of the seals would have to be to seal off the chakra from manipulating their chakra. Probably a forced blocking, the second part would need to be a variation to stop all movement.

They aren't really human, though. They don't bleed.

They're corpses. How do you stop a corpse from moving?

... I see. Alright. I know what to do, now, I think.

"I've got an idea," I admitted, moving towards Tayuya and pulling out a storage scroll that I kept my fūinjutsu supplies in.

('･ω･')

Eighteen scrapped seals later...

"Fucking finally," I muttered, watching as the sealing array took effect and Tayuya dissolved away until only a corpse remained.

Kitsune gave a ghost of a chuckle at my annoyance. I stuck my tongue out at him and he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. My eyes trailed up to the top of his head, noting how his black hair was sticking out at odd angles again.

I hesitated a moment before moving forward and patting his hair down. He tensed under my touch and only relaxed when I pulled back.

"Now that I have the seal, I think it's time we helped the others," I told him.

"I concur," Kitsune said, glancing towards the nearest battle—Gai, Lee and Kimimaro if I wasn't mistake.

We flickered towards them.

('･ω･')

"Lee-kun, Gai-sensei!" I called out. "Immobilize Kimimaro."

Lee looked up at me after disengaging with a third-state-Curse-Mark Kimimaro. Gai glanced up as well before giving me his signature pose. Kitsune had taken a seal I already had drawn up and headed towards the other resurrected Oto-nin on the opposite side of the bridge.

I sat down on the tree branch, knowing full and well that I wouldn't have been able to fight on par with Kimimaro and that I would only have been slowing the taijutsu masters down.

"Lee! It's time to open the next gates," Gai declared dramatically.

"Yes, Gai-sensei!"

I smiled fondly at the two of them as their skin began to darken to a violent red.

('･ω･')

Shallow POV – Naruto

The kit and the wanna-be-me about to regroup with the rest of the squad. They've finished sealing away the others. The crystal woman and the snake's lapdog managed to escape, however.

Well, alright, Naruto thought tiredly, his breathing heavily.

Naruto was on the last stretch of his energy before he would have to rely on Kurama's. And that was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.

He still remembered losing control that last time, and he still remembered when Miwako lost control.

Miwako was able to remain in control of herself some tails after Naruto. The problem was, when she did finally lose control, she was really hard to stop. Jiraiya had to summon these two old toads, ya see, and even then, the land would probably forever scarred. It was horrible to watch; made Naruto sick to his stomach when Miwako started crying at what she had done. She was horrified - she really hurt both of the frogs, too, and Jiraiya got a couple new scars. She even hurt Naruto in her fit, but it wasn't enough to leave a scar, thankfully.

Naruto wasn't sure she would have been able to forgive herself if anyone had actually died. Thankfully those two old toads did live, but the old lady toad was seriously hurt. Throughout the rest of the training trip, Miwako had tried to make amends with the lady, but the lady just waved her off, saying that she knew what she was getting into and it wasn't Miwako's fault. Probably didn't help Miwako's guilt, but...

The moment the pervert had returned, it had been a complete shift in the battle. That was, until the damn snake whipped out his 'immortal' white-snake form-thing and bragged about how he couldn't be killed in battle.

And the worst part?

The little fucker was right.

Naruto was getting really sick and tired of it.

There are only three ways to solve this problem, Kurama purred to him. Amaterasu, sealing him away and... raw, undiluted chakra.

No, Naruto retorted. To get that kind of chakra I would need at least four-tails and we both know that I can't control myself at that and we both know Miwako won't go four-tails unless she absolutely has to and we're a safe distance away.

Naruto could still feel the sting—metaphorically of course, as all his injuries were healed—when his twin sister had lost control on her sixth tail. She had gone ballistic and it took his, Jiraiya's, those two old toads, and Kurama's combined efforts to bring her in. It didn't help that she had pulled out that Beast-Bomb a couple of times, and when she finally came to and saw how much damaged she had caused to them, she had gone catatonic for days.

Naruto knew very much that his sister loved him, and he knew that she had grown to love Jiraiya as well, so he understood that she would feel more than self-loathing that she had damaged them so. After all, Naruto had done the exact same thing when he went four-tails.

He still hadn't quite forgiven himself for hurting them, even if they had.

And what the hell is Ameterasu? Wait, sealing? .... Can't Jiraiya do something like that?

Naruto disengaged from battle, signaling for Jiraiya to follow after him. Sasuke and Anko moved quickly to cover their flanks and the two shinobi landed a ways from the actual battle.

"... Can't we just seal him?" Naruto asked quietly.

"Fuck if I know," Jiraiya muttered.

Naruto rubbed his temple in annoyance. "Kurama said we could. Aren't you supposed to be some sort of great and powerful seal-master?"

"There is a seal we can do," Jiraiya said slowly, "but I don't have it ready and it would definitely take a while to get ready."

"Then what do we do?" Naruto demanded.

"... He has to run out of chakra at some point," Jiraiya reasoned.

He does have a point there. There's no way he'd have enough chakra to outlast us.

Naruto pointedly ignored him. "... He does look tired, like really tired, but we're getting tired to. Or at least I am, so I know you guys have to be pretty effing exhausted by now, and Anko's already passed out..."

Jiraiya gave a sigh. "We're so close... If only we could just push him further, trap off his escape routes..."

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Gai shouted as he landed a solid kick against Orochimaru's face.

Naruto blinked. "... I guess the cavalry is here."

"We are sorry we are late," Lee exclaimed, landing beside Naruto and Jiraiya. "Miwako has informed us to head straight here after we had finished up with Kimimaro. How may we be of assistance?"

"Just keep kicking his ass," Naruto told him. "Which reminds me... Oi! Teme, the storm clouds are ready."

"... We're trying that again?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.

"He has to run out of rods eventually and the bastard's really pissed off that he managed to deflect it so easily the first... five times," Naruto said reasonably. "And honestly, I really want to see him just get fried by lightning."

"... Sounds good to me."

First Person POV – Miwako

I ducked underneath Jūgo's fist, rolling and tucking away.

Sakura and Shizune were currently passed out, Tenten was exhausted, as was Sasame, Neji was exhausted as well and frankly, only Raion, Haku, Kitsune and myself were left standing to fend off against a very pissed off Jūgo.

Which was not fun.

I was on my last stretch of energy and knew I had perhaps one more ninjutsu in me before I was out of my chakra and frankly, that was just not good.

"Shit!" I squeaked, barely managing to tuck and roll away from the crazed shinobi. Just before Jūgo reached me, wood erupted behind him, grabbing him and holding tightly to him. He let out an animalistic roar and Kitsune appeared above him, slamming a solid kick to the top of his skull. The cracking sound that followed was enough to make me visibly wince and Jūgo slumped over, unconscious.

I collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. My chakra levels were teetering. I had to consciously focus on not using any of Kurama's chakra, and it was more taxing than I could imagine.

Kurama? How's everything with Naruto?

They're all idiots.

... What?

He escaped.

... You're joking.

No. They're idiots. All of them are complete idiots. We managed to get his chakra levels insanely low and injure him severely and just before he was about to pass out or die, whatever, he pulls a cheap ass escape move and poof. He's gone.

... God that fucking sucks. This is just... Not good. What the hell are we supposed... Fuck it. Whatever. Fine. We're just gonna have to consider Orochi-friggin'-maru joining in on the war on Tobi's side, because we're damn straight not going to hand over Sasuke if he joins our side.

On the bright side, the Uchiha brat managed to finally hit him with his stupid lightening.

How many times?

Once.

Alright, I guess that's acceptable. Kind of makes me feel better, too... Is anyone hurt?

... Not severely.

... Alright. I can work with that... Ah... Actually...

You want to pass out?

Yeah...

Fine by me. I'll just go back to taunting your brother.

I inwardly sighed, closing my eyes as I leaned back.

At that moment, with exhaustion pressing down, I just really didn't care.

Shallow POV - Orochimaru

Orochimaru panted heavily, his vision unfocused and his chest burning like crazy.

He knew what was coming. He didn't like it, but there was little he could do. He wasn't able to body-switch any of them, as that would have left him vulnerable and Jiraiya could have used that time to summon those damn toads of his. Orochimaru wasn't entirely certain why he hadn't gone into sage mode in the battle, but he would bet it was along the lines that his one-time friend wanted that as a trump card. Had the battle dragged on, and if Orochimaru stupidly stayed, Jiraiya would have more than likely popped out his sage mode, be completely renewed and proceed to kick Orochimaru's ass.

Orochimaru would not give him that satisfaction, and as such, he opted to not attempt a body-switch.

While Orochimaru knew they were coming, he still did not have a lot of time to prepare for them. He barely had enough time to pull together that team and make those chakra-stealing seals. Over the years since his last run-in with Konoha, he had been perfecting his Edo-Tensei ability. Sadly, some of the corpses he needed were not at the base he was in when he received the message. Orochimaru supposed he could have not gone to the bridge and just bided his time, but the temptation of Sasuke being there was too much.

He regretted not being patient now.

Because while his regeneration was nothing to sniff at, and he prided himself on his immortality, he knew he wasn't truly immortal.

There was one thing he couldn't regenerate.

His own chakra.

If he was a sage, he could just draw on nature-chakra, but if he didn't have his own chakra to balance it out, he would be turned to stone. There was no formula or medicine that could regrow his chakra magically, aside from his chakra pills. He had already taken well past the maximum he could take, and if he took another one, he would undoubtedly have aneurysm and die.

If he did not take one, he would die from chakra exhaustion.

Regardless, Orochimaru would die. He knew that. He just... did not want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they killed him. At least in this form. He supposed he still lived on his Curse Marks, but...

Orochimaru's lips twitched into a humorless smile. "I guess for now... this is goodbye."

And with a great, shuddering sigh, Orochimaru closed his eyes, tucked forward... and died.