Chapter 15 : Broken Bonds
Yugao cursed as she and the last member of her unit continued to run, jumping through the trees at an accelerated pace. The mission she was on had gone wrong, they had been supposed to meet one of Jiraiya's contacts who apparently had information on Orochimaru when they had been ambushed. Several dozen Oto ninja had been waiting for her and her squad, whether they had been betrayed or their contact was killed no longer mattered. They had been forced to fight their way out, now only she and one other member remained.
A whistling noise caught Yugao's attention and she cursed as several kunai were launched in front of her and her teammate, a sizzling noise let her know they had exploding tags attached to them. Yugao pushed her teammate out of the way, jumping out of the way as well as the tags exploded. Landing next to the only surviving member of her team, a man in a boar mask, Yugao began to give out orders. "I'll hold them off! Keep moving to Konoha!"
"But Neko-"
"No!" Yugao interrupted, already knowing what he was going to say, "both of us won't be able to get away, I'm a better fighter than you so I'll hold them off! Go warn the Hokage!"
The man in the boar mask knew better than to argue and jumped back into the trees, taking off as Yugao unsheathed her sword. The woman soon found herself surrounded, however that did not seem to bother her as she charged the first ninja she saw. Ducking under a kunai swipe, Yugao came up and slashed at the man's throat, chopping his head off. Jumping back as several kunai flew to her previous position, she rolled along the ground, coming up and impaling another ninja through the chest. She spun on the balls of her feet, using the now dead Oto ninja as a shield for the kunai that came at her. When hail died down Yugao shoved the dead ninja off her sword and into one of his comrades, jumping up and lunging with her sword, impaling the ninja through the skull.
"Katon: Gokyakou No Jutsu!"
Yugao cursed as she jumped out of the way of a large fireball, twisting her body, she launched several shurikens with her free hand, impaling one of the ninjas between the eyes. Landing on the ground she came face to face with another ninja, this one managed to smash a fist in her masked face hard enough to fly into a tree and shatter the mask. Yugao grunted as her back smashed against the trunk, she did not get the chance to fall as one of the ninjas came up and gripped her by the throat. He smashed her back into the tree trunk, making some blood dribble out of her mouth as he began to strangle her. Yugao grabbed onto the man's hand as she tried to pry it off, however, he merely began to smash her into the tree trunk. As Yugao's vision began to fade, the last thing she saw was silver hair and glasses. Her eyes soon closed and she had one last thought before darkness claimed her.
Hayate…
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Fu smiled as she walked around the forest just inside Konoha, looking for different types of bugs that she could find. Despite not really liking her Jinchurikki status, she still found she liked to see different species of insects and had long assumed this affinity for them was somehow because of the Nanabi.
She had been in Konoha for nearly a week and had been shocked at the difference in how she was treated; it seemed that Naruto was right. The people here, especially those of the younger generation treated both her and Naruto with the utmost respect; none of it was out of fear either, but respect for their sacrifice. This was something she was not used to, having been subject to the constant hatred of her village except for when she was sent on suicide missions. Of course, there were still people here who seemed to hate her, but they did not openly show it lest they get in trouble with everyone else. So far she had met a few of Naruto's friends as well and they seemed to not even care about what she held, talking to her as if she was any other person. However, while she was not yet used to such treatment, she could not deny that she enjoyed not having the stigma of Nanabi hanging over her shoulder.
"Well hello there," Fu said to herself as she found an odd insect that landed on her. It looked like a beetle with twin pincers; however, she could sense it draining her of a little chakra. "You know it's not nice to drain people of their chakra without permission," she said to it.
"My apologies."
Fu jumped and felt her eyes widen as she turned around to find someone wearing sunglasses and covering his entire body in gray/khaki-colored clothing. Fu watched as the bug flew off of her and moved over to him.
"I did not mean for one of my bugs to suck your chakra, I was merely trying to find out who invaded the Aburame clan's forest. However f it did suck your chakra without my permission you must have powerful reserves," Shino said.
Fu felt her eyes widen again, "I'm sorry I did not realize that this forest actually belonged to a clan."
"It is most alright," Shino said, "I can tell you're a foreigner so that is understandable that you would not know this."
"So that bug is yours?" Fu asked as she walked up to Shino.
"Yes."
"What kind of insect is it? I haven't seen an insect-like him before," Fu asked with curiosity pervading her voice. "It reminds me of the Popillia insects that I found in Kiba No Kuni one time, but I can tell it's very different."
Shino blinked in surprise having never found someone outside of his clan who was interested in insects, it did not last long as he began to tell her about his insect hive with Fu listening with rapt attention.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Tsunade rummaged through the list of mission scrolls as she attempted to find a good mission for Naruto to do. Said ninja was calmly sitting in the seat across from her desk. The truth was she had a lot of missions for him, after the chunin exams many of the customers had personally requested the clan head. She had also been forced to throw out a lot of marriage proposals for him that had been disguised as missions sent by various nobles to marry their daughters, she even found one for him to marry a woman who was in her mid-forties and already married.
Picking up another scroll she read it over before nodding to herself, "this one should do, it's-"
"Tsunade-Sama!" the door slammed open and Shizune burst into the room, her eyes wide and her breathing heavy.
"What's wrong with you Shizune?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow, a small feeling of dread welling up in her gut.
"One… one of our… Anbu teams… ambushed by… Oto," Shizune said between breaths as she slowly regained her bearings, "we… have a… an injured survivor, he's at the hospital right now."
Tsunade along with Naruto felt their eyes widen, mission forgotten, Tsunade rushed out of the room as she made her way to get to the hospital. Naruto watched her go with a frown, wondering what to do for a moment. Making a decision he followed the blond Hokage, catching up to Shizune who was also on her way to the hospital.
"Shizune-nee-chan," Naruto said as he began to walk alongside the woman, "what happened? Whose team was ambushed?"
Shizune looked at Naruto for a moment as she debated whether to tell him or not, Anbu teams normally answer only to the Hokage, and anything about their team and what they do are considered classified. Still, this young man was probably the third most important figure to Konoha, with only Tsunade and Jiraiya being ahead of him. "One of our teams was supposed to meet with a contact in Oto; however it seemed to be a trap. The man who came back claims to be the only one to escape," Shizune and Naruto stopped in front of the door that Tsunade entered just a moment before.
"Whose team was ambushed?" asked Naruto again, an odd feeling of nausea welling up inside of him.
Shizune looked at him and sighed, "It was Neko's team."
Naruto's mind went blank at the announcement.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The first thing Yugao realized as she woke up was that she was in pain, enough that she nearly screamed as soon as she woke up. The second thing she realized was that she was strapped to a table. Her arms were bound on either side, the bindings strapped tightly around her and done in a way that she felt like she was being stretched. Her legs were tied down in a spread eagle form, feeling much the same way as her arms. Looking at herself she found that she was completely nude with absolutely nothing covering her form, making her instantly feel violated and exposed.
Her head snapped over to the door on the other side of the room, watching as it opened and two figures stepped in. she found herself sucking in a breath as she stared at a pair of yellow snake-like eyes and pale skin, recognizing the first person as Orochimaru, Konoha's most infamous traitor next to Itachi. The other person was around mid-height, with silver hair and round glasses. He was wearing a purple outfit and had several medical pouches on his person; while Yugao had never seen him she had been given a general description of this man. This was Kabuto Yakushi, the man Hayate had been going to spy on before he was killed.
"You!" Yugao snarled out as she began to struggle against her restraints.
"Oh, my," Orochimaru said in an amused voice, "kukuku it seems she knows you from somewhere Kabuto-kun."
Kabuto smirked as he pushed his glasses, "I don't think I've ever met her before in my life."
"You're the reason Hayate is dead!" Yugao yelled her struggling to increase in fervor in her effort to get out of her restraints and kill this man.
"Hayate?" Kabuto mumbled in thought before the proverbial light bulb went off in his head, "ah! Now I remember him, the proctor for the Preliminaries when we had our invasion." The medical ninja shrugged, "he was the one who was spying on me and our ally at the time. From what I hear he was quite skilled with a sword, he even gave the ninja who killed him some trouble, though that did not save him in the end did it?"
"Shut up!" Yugao yelled, her desire to snap this man's neck reaching an all-time high, "you're the entire reason he's dead! I'm gonna kill you!"
"She seems quite violent," Orochimaru commented with a snake-like smirk, "do you think you'll be alright alone with her Kabuto-kun?"
"Of course Orochimaru-Sama," Kabuto said as he pushed his glasses up his nose, "just leave everything to me."
"Kukuku, very well," Orochimaru laughed as he began to leave, "I need to check on Sasuke-kun anyway, I believe he wanted some more training."
As the door closed behind the snake Sennin, his right-hand man turned back towards the still struggling and snarling Yugao. "Now there is no need for such violence," Kabuto commented as he walked up to the table and unrolled a scroll. Unsealing the contents revealed them to be what looked like medical scalpels and a jar of odd stones floating in a glowing green liquid. Kabuto grabbed one of the scalpels, smirking as he looked over at Yugao. "You know if you continue to struggle this is going to hurt even more."
"Fuck you!" Yugao hissed as she spits on his face.
Kabuto just sighed as he took off his glasses and wiped them off on his shirt, before wiping the spit away. "Now that wasn't very nice, I would have thought you leaf ninja would have more manners. Oh well," he shrugged before taking the scalpel and impaling Yugao through the stomach, dragging it along to open a large incision.
Yugao's screams soon began to echo throughout the base.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto stood up as soon as Tsunade opened the door to the hospital, walking up to her with a determined expression. "Tsunade-Sama I am going to form a rescue squad to see if there are any survivors that Orochimaru managed to capture and rescue them," Naruto said in a voice that told her he was going whether she allowed it or not.
"Your request is denied Naruto," Tsunade said, making the younger blond's eyes narrow. "We don't have enough information to mount a rescue operation; even if we did we are dealing with Orochimaru here. Chances are Neko is already dead or worse…" She knew why he really wanted to go; Tsunade had read the reports about how Neko or Yugao had been his bodyguard for a year before he entered the academy. She had spent time with the boy outside of her duties, even going so far as to let him know her identity as Neko, something that if the Sandaime had not been lenient about because of Naruto, could have cost the woman her career.
"I wasn't asking Hokage-Sama," Naruto replied through gritted teeth, "I will be going, no matter what you say. Either you send me with a squad or I go on my own."
All conversation that had been going on in the hall screeched to a halt as the confrontation between the two S class ninja escalated. Shizune who had only been listening with half an ear until now turned wide eyes on Naruto who even though he never gave respectful suffixes unless in council meetings or when receiving missions of great importance, had never gone so far as to show insubordination, especially to this level.
Tsunade looked at Naruto with narrowed eyes, leaking a small amount of killing intent at the blond, "Tokabetsu Jonin Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, I am giving you direct orders not to go after Orochimaru or attempt to rescue our lost squad. It's a lost cause and I won't have you doing something foolish!"
"Well then Hokage-Sama, you can respectfully shove your god damn orders up your ass!" Naruto replied, "I will be going and if you or anyone else tries to stop me I will not hesitate to fight back." Tsunade's eyes widened as Naruto spun on his heels and began to leave the hospital.
"You would be willing to risk becoming a missing ninja for one person whom you haven't even really seen since you were five?" Tsunade asked, "You barely even know her! And what about your dream to be Hokage! If you do this-"
Tsunade was interrupted mid-speech by Naruto as he turned around and looked at her with a hard stare, "I know her well enough Hokage-Sama, and I am not about to let one of my precious people die, nor will I believe she is dead until I see her body for myself." Naruto turned his head, "besides what kind of Hokage would I be if I let someone who I consider family die." With that Naruto walked off leaving a stunned Tsunade who continued to look at the door he left from.
"Damn it!" Tsunade cursed, "Shizune!" she yelled out getting the woman who watched the confrontation out of her shocked state. "Get me Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga, Sakura Haruno… and Sai! Tell them to be in my office within five minutes!"
"Y-Yes Tsunade-Sama!" Shizune said as she ran out the door to find the people asked for.
Tsunade sighed as she shunshined to her office in the Hokage tower, Naruto was going to be in so much trouble when he got back. She should detain him, however he had said that if she tried he would fight her shinobi, and if there was one thing she knew it was that when Naruto said he would do something, you'd damn well better believe he would go through with it. She sighed, hoping she was making the right decision.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto double checked his equipment, nodding in satisfaction he rushed out of his room and out of his house as he made his way to the north gate. He ran over the information he had been able to get from Shizune, according to what the Anbu who had made it back before passing out, Yugao and her team had been ambushed ten miles south of Oto. Shizune had said that Yugao and the one who came back managed to escape, but Yugao had decided to stay behind and buy her comrade time to escape. As Naruto reached the gate he heard a voice call out behind him.
"Naruto!"
Turning around Naruto held in his surprise at seeing Hinata, Kiba, Sakura and Sai running towards him. "Are you guys here to stop me?" Naruto asked with narrowed eyes as the three stopped in front of him.
"No… Hokage-Sama has asked us to go with you," Sakura said as she put her hands on her knees in an effort to catch her breath.
"That's right man," Kiba said as he got off his large ninja dog, Akamaru, "we're going to help you with your mission."
"We are supposed to make sure you don't get in over your head dickless," Said Sai as he gave his fake smile.
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the three, he had assumed that Tsunade would try to stop him from going. I wonder why she actually got me a team rather than try to detain me? He shook his head; right now anything that did not pertain to rescuing Yugao was irrelevant. "You have my thanks then, we're heading towards Oto where a team of Anbu was ambushed. Our mission is to see if there are any survivors and if so rescue them, we'll be traveling fast so make sure you can keep up." Naruto turned around, "let's go!"
Naruto blurred out of existence as he shot off, putting on a burst of speed and forcing the others to take off in order to catch up. Naruto and his team traveled for several hours, the foliage around the area passed by as nothing but a blur as Hinata, Kiba, Sakura, and Sai tried to keep up with Naruto. Right now the blonds' only thoughts were on completing the mission he had set for himself, at the moment nothing else mattered. As the sun began to set he looked back at the others, noticing that they seemed to be lagging more and more. For a moment Naruto cursed, he should have gone on his own, at least then he would be able to move much faster. Sighing he came to a stop, Oto was farther than Taki, they could not get there before dark and the others were exhausted, he realized they would need to stop for the night.
"We'll set up camp here," Naruto said as the other came up, "Kiba I can hear a stream from somewhere up north I want you to go and see if you can't catch some fish. Hinata I want you and Sakura to set up camp, Sai I want you to scout the area. Meanwhile, I'll set up traps around our perimeter."
The three chunin and one ROOT nodded and went off to their various tasks; Naruto created several Kage Bushin's and sent them off with several trap seals and sensor seals so they would not be caught by surprise. That night Naruto cooked everyone some fish that Kiba caught, the entire affair was a fairly quiet affair. Kiba, Hinata, Sakura, and even Sai were not sure what to say to Naruto, said blond was extremely quiet as he ate, not even looking at anyone as he just stared into space.
"Are you ok Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata, though her voice was still soft she no longer stuttered since her talk with the blond about her reason to grow stronger.
"Hmm?" Naruto looked up, "oh yeah, I'm fine."
"You know you're a terrible liar," Sakura said, "what's bothering you?"
Naruto sighed, "I know the captain of the team who was ambushed… when I was younger she was one of few people who ever showed me kindness and treated me like a human. I… despite how long ago it happened, I never forgot what she did for me and how much it meant. Now she's in trouble and I'm afraid we won't get there in time."
Sakura, Kiba, and Hinata were silent as he spoke; they had not truly realized how hard his life was until his announcement of his Jinchurikki status. They had seen how he was hated of course but never knew why. Now they knew it was because his own father had sealed the Bijuu who had nearly destroyed Konoha, all three realized that they had only seen the surface of just how bad the blond had it. They realized why Naruto was so adamant about saving this woman because she was one of the few people who had seen him for him.
Sai remained silent as well, thinking about what the blond said. Is this what it means to have a bond with someone? He looked at the blond Tokabetsu jonin in unhidden curiosity, to be willing to go so far for one person. Could this be what makes him the way he is?
Naruto sighed as he stood up, "I'll take the first watch, Kiba you'll take second and Sai will take the third. We'll do watches in three-hour intervals, understood?"
"Yes," Kiba said while Sai merely nodded.
Naruto stood up and looked at the darkened sky, hoping that Yugao was alright.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The next day found the group once again trying to keep the grueling pace Naruto set as he rushed through the area towards the last known destination of the Anbu team.
"Akamaru and I smell burnt wood and flesh up ahead," Kiba said, Akamaru barking in agreement.
Naruto nodded, "Lead the way."
Kiba took the lead and the others followed him, they came upon a clearing that was obviously a battle sight given the burnt ground around the area. Naruto immediately ordered the group to spread out and search for clues that could help them find Yugao.
Judging from the number of footprints coming from the north the squad was made of six Anbu, he moved over to where the feet seemed to stop. They were met by someone here, looking over around the area he saw a few kunai and the burnt ground, signs of a Katon Jutsu being used. They scattered, four of them were picked off one by one. He looked at each area, where he could see what looked like ash over the burnt ground. Looking down he spotted footprints that were indented a little farther into the ground. Two of them survived and jumped… he placed his own feet into one of the prints, looking up he jumped over to the first tree in sight. Crouching down he saw a two feet print in the tree; he continued to follow it until he saw a branch that had been taken out by an exploding tag. They jumped to the ground, Naruto jumped down and looked around until he saw two sets of footprints that he identified as those belonging to the Anbu. This is where Yugao made her stand; he looked to see a print that was scuffled. She was knocked back into this tree, Naruto thought as she looked at the tree, it was splintered showing where someone was slammed into it repeatedly. Yet there is no burn marks from a Katon jutsu like the others, which means she was not killed. Naruto kneeled down onto the ground, looking around he saw a glint of white and red. He moved over and picked up what he recognized as the piece of an Anbu mask; a Neko mask.
Naruto whirled around and looked at the rest of the ninja with him, "Kiba! I need you and Akamaru to track the scent from this," Naruto held up the mask piece.
Kiba took it and brought it up to his and Akamaru's nose, getting the scent that was on it. Both of them began to sniff around, trying to track the scent to see which way it went. Akamaru gave a loud bark which Kiba translated, "Akamaru says he found the scent, it's weak, but we should be able to follow it!" Kiba and Akamaru took off into the trees as they began to follow the scent.
Naruto and the others raced off as well, following the canine shinobi and his companion. They made their way out of the trees and Naruto noticed that they had crossed the borders of Hi No Kuni; they were now entering the borders of Ta No Kuni (Land of Rice) where Otogakure was located. In front of him Kiba stopped and raised his hand, causing the others to stop as well. He and Akamaru sniffed the area for a few minutes and frowned, "the scent stops here."
Naruto closed his eyes in thought, the scent stops here? We already know they didn't use any kind of scent killer, or they would have used it at the sight and not been so careless. That means that either they did not expect Konoha to send anyone, or they did and are leading us into a trap. I doubt Orochimaru would waste his time to set a trap when he does not know who if anyone would actually come, so it's probably the former. Now since the scent has stopped here that means that the entrance to where ever Yugao has been taken is here. Several Kage Bushin phased into existence, they spread out and began to search.
Naruto turned to look at the members of his team who seemed confused, "if the scent ends here that means that the entrance to wherever Yugao is, is here. I suggest you four spread out and start searching too," following his own advice, Naruto began his own search. Looking around the area for any sign of an entrance, he was not sure what to look for but assumed there would either be a hidden entrance or some kind of panel to open an entrance.
While searching the memory of a Kage Bushin hit him, he stood up and ran over to where it had been and smiled. There was a door hidden under a layer of leaves and dirt, he knelt down and looked it over. There were several seals on it that would activate if someone tried to force it open, one designed to alert whoever was in the base and another one that would explode and take out whoever was standing within a fifteen-foot radius of the door. Naruto unsealed his sealing brush and began to lay seals over the ones that were in place, making sure his counteracting seals were perfect before channeling chakra into them. There was a slight hissing noise and Naruto watched as the seals began to dissolve, leaving the door completely clear as if the seals had never been.
Naruto looked up to see where the other four members were; he looked at them and individually signaled for them to come over. "Ok you five from this point on I want all of you to use the standard Anbu hand signs to communicate, there will be no talking unless absolutely needed, we are now officially in enemy territory. Due to my speed and reflexes, I'll be in front, Kiba you and Akamaru will be after me. Sakura since you're our main healer I want you coming next, Sai will be after you to cover your back and Hinata you will be in the rear and use your Byakugan to scout the area." Naruto grabbed onto the handle and lifted the door revealing a ladder that led into the Oto base. "Let's go."
Going in first Naruto got onto the ladder and made his way down, his enhanced vision was able to see the bottom about a dozen feet down. He got off the ladder and waited as the other four came down, Kiba set Akamaru off his shoulders as the rest looked around the dark hallway they were in. Naruto looked around himself at the darkened passage, even with his enhanced eyesight he could only see about thirty feet in front of him.
Kneeling down Naruto put one finger on the ground and sent trace amounts of chakra through it, up ahead the hallway branches into three separate hallways. Fourteen doors in each hall, seven on each side. There are a total of fifty-six people on this level and there's a staircase leading to another. Naruto stood back up as the information about his surroundings came to him, formulating a plan of action that would allow him to access more ground without having to separate from his team.
He looked over at them and got their attention, they all walked over to him as he began hand sealing.
'Follow.'
He turned back around and began to move, walking along the edge of the wall as he used his enhanced senses to aid him. The five-man squad made their way along the hall, taking the left branch first. Each time they went up to a door Naruto would place a single finger on it to try and glean what information he could, four people, mid chunin level. Naruto sighed; Yugao's not in there…
This continued for nearly thirty minutes as they went from door to door, there was only one mishap where one of the Oto ninjas had stepped out of one of the rooms and Naruto had been forced to kill him and the other three in the room. They ended up finding nothing in the first corridor and Naruto decided to take the one on the right next, doing the same process as the previous rooms. Finding nothing Naruto and the others made their way to the last corridor, still, they had nothing and Naruto led his team downstairs.
The first thing Naruto was able to determine was that this place was used for prisoners or experiments. The place reeked of death and decay, the walls and area were decidedly less maintained than the upstairs. Walking along Naruto looked into the cells and saw people who looked to be half dead, some of them he noticed had died and had yet to be removed. The blonds' disgust for Orochimaru rose as he looked at the area; he shunted his emotions to the side, knowing they would not help here.
Finally, he came to the one at the end of the hall in what he had dubbed the prison area and found a door, three presences, two chunin, one jonin…Naruto channeled some chakra into his ears, several he could not hear much except for the breathing of the occupants but one of them sounded strained and erratic as if they were injured. Closing his eyes for a moment Naruto made his decision; he turned to his team and gave them instructions.
'Wait.'
Taking a deep breath Naruto grabbed onto the handle and opened the door. He didn't even need a second to take stock of the situation, strapped to a table was a completely naked Yugao. There were numerous cuts, bruises, and what looked like stitches all over her body, worse was Naruto could see some odd-looking protrusions sprouting out of her skin that looked like bubbles. However the worst thing was the glazed-over look in her eyes, it was the kind of look when someone had gone into shock from being subjected to more pain than the body could handle. Naruto's eyes hardened as he took action.
The two chunin didn't even stand a chance, Naruto appeared right in front of the first one, no Hiraishin and no shunshin, just a burst of pure speed. He unsealed a kunai and stabbed it right through the man's jaw, sending it through his head. At the same time, Naruto created a Kage Bushin, which appeared behind the other shinobi and snapped his neck. Naruto laid the two on the ground so he would not create any noise, then appeared right next to Yugao and preceded to unstrap her from the bindings. As gently as he could he lifted her out and sat down on the ground with her on his lap. He created a Kage Bushin and had it henge into a cloak that he wrapped around her frame.
"Sakura!" he called no longer feeling the need to be quiet in this emergency. Naruto looked at the woman and her now-dead eyes, "Yugao…" he grit his teeth as he got no response, "Yugao-chan." Her eyes flickered a little bit but otherwise, nothing happened, he resisted the urge to shout and instead began to caress her face, he noticed a small reaction as her face twitched, but otherwise nothing.
The others came in and he heard three gasps, the next thing he knew Sakura was right next to him and running a medical scan over the comatose woman. "She has major damage to a lot of her vitals," Sakura said as she analyzed the woman before her, "numerous fractures and internal bleeding…"
"She also has several odd-looking bumps on her," Naruto began speaking as he moved over the cloak on her shoulder to reveal the bubbly-looking lumps. "Can you figure out what they are?"
Sakura frowned as she went over her medical scan, "They're not a part of her…" the pink-haired girl frowned as she tried to determine what they were.
"They have a separate chakra system," Hinata said in an effort to be helpful as she used her Byakugan to look over Yugao.
Sakura's eyes widened a tad, "they're eggs! These things are carrying something, some kind of animal or…"
"Insect," Naruto finished as he remembered a lesson on parasitic insects similar to those of the Aburame clan, except they were decidedly more deadly. "We need to get her out of here," Naruto stood up as another Kage Bushin appeared beside him, he gave the purple-haired woman to the clone and began to move.
The others had little choice but to follow as Naruto began to run, moving through the prison as fast as he could. The others followed him as he made his way out, as they entered the branching corridors Naruto's danger sense hit a high alert.
"GET BACK!"
Naruto and the clone jumped away, pushing Kiba, Hinata, and Sakura out of the way as a large destroyed the roof and allowed the sunlight to filter in.
"It's been a while… dobe."
The four members of the Rookie eleven looked up in shock to see Sasuke standing above them. He had changed his outfit and was now wearing a white long sleeve shirt that opened at the torso, with a small Uchiha clan crest on the collar. He wore black pants with a blue-gray cloth hanging halfway from his stomach to his knees. He had a purple rope around his waist that was tied in a bow in the back. Naruto could tell he had also gotten stronger from the way he carried himself, but he could also see the boy had gotten even more arrogant.
"Sasuke," Naruto said in a low voice as his eyes hardened as he looked at the man he once considered a brother. He had thought about what would happen when the two of them met, what he would do when he saw Sasuke again. He had played out many different scenarios for how it could go down, what he would say, what he would do. For the longest time he had been looking forward to this confrontation, either to convince the man to come back or to kill him should he refuse. However right now all of that was a moot point, he looked over at Yugao who was being held by his clone. Turning back to Sasuke he knew he had no time to deal with the prick.
"Kukuku, well isn't this a lovely little reunion."
Naruto turned his head ever so slightly and saw Orochimaru and Kabuto standing together, both of them held a large smirk.
"I see you've grown Naruto-kun," Orochimaru said in his snake-like voice, which was oozing with amusement. "You know word of your accomplishments has reached even me, they pushed young Sasuke-kun here to train even harder so that he can kill you."
Naruto's mind was a whirlwind of activity as he began plotting out the best course of action. His top priority was the safety of Yugao, she was the entire reason he came here. But he knew that against one S class criminal, one A bordering S class criminal, and another who was said to be on par with Kakashi, Naruto knew he would have a hard time.
"Sakura, Hinata, Kiba," Naruto said in a quiet voice as he got their attention, "I want you three to go with Yugao and my clone and get to Konoha. I'll catch up with you, but if I don't get there before you get to Konoha then I want you to go inform Tsunade about Yugao's affliction and see if she can help. Sai I want you to take on Kabuto, he is the weakest of the three but he is still supposed to be on par with Kakashi so be careful." Naruto noticed that Sakura was about to protest and spoke before she could, "do not argue with me Sakura, we do not have the time to debate this."
Sakura looked like she was going to say something but in the end just sighed, "fine, but be careful and…"
"I'll do what I can," Naruto cut her off, knowing what she wanted; "I can't make any promises though."
Sakura nodded, knowing that was all she could get from Naruto before she and the others took off.
"Kabuto if you will," Orochimaru said.
"Of course Orochimaru-Sama," Kabuto said as he pushed up his glasses. He took off to follow the chunin; however, he was cut off by Sai.
Said pale boy gave Kabuto his false smile, "I apologize but I have orders not to let you pass."
"Well I suppose I'll just have to go through you then," Kabuto said.
Sai gave a smile as he finished drawing on his scroll.
"Choujo Giga!"
Several large ink lions shot out of the scroll and headed towards Kabuto, who was forced to dodge the ink beasts. Sai kept up the pressure as he moved continued pushing Kabuto back, taking him away from the fleeing chunin and Naruto's soon-to-be battle.
According to Danzo-Sama's report, he is a highly skilled medical ninja with regenerative skills and can use chakra scalpels to attack. That means I need to keep my distance, Sai concluded to himself as he created more ink beasts, these ones in the shape of bears.
The bear beasts charged at Kabuto who had just finished the lion ink beasts, said medical ninja looked over to see the bears coming at him. Activating his scalpels again he began to cut into them, making ink fly everywhere as they dispersed. A loud sizzling noise caught his attention and he turned to see that one of the bears near him had an exploding tag on it. Kabuto jumped back as the bear exploded, sending fire and ink everywhere, the fire hit the ground and ignited the ink, forcing Kabuto to jump back.
He looked over at Sai and charged, getting in close as the pale-skinned boy tried to back away. Kabuto hit Sai right where his heart was, only for the ROOT ninja to burst into ink. A roar made Kabuto dodge just in time as a lion came at him from the left; Kabuto hit it on the head with a chakra scalpel, destroying it. He looked around for Sai, frowning in thought when he did not see the boy. His ears perked up when he heard a whistling sound, looking up he saw several kunai coming down towards him. He took out a kunai and began to dodge and deflect the attacks, a few managed to cut him but his healing ability kept that from being a problem. However a sizzling sound made him look down, his eyes widened as he saw exploding tags on a majority of the kunai, which had been set on a delayed timer. The medical ninja was forced to make quick use of the Karwimi in order to escape destruction as a large explosion went off from the exploding tags.
Kabuto cursed his disadvantage, knowing that this boy would be troublesome to deal with.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Dobe…" Sasuke said with a smirk on his face as his Sharingan eyes spun, he had been waiting for the chance to battle the blond again. This time so he could kill him.
Naruto looked at the two shinobi before, switching his gaze from Sasuke to a smirking Orochimaru and then back to Sasuke. "I am going to give you one more chance to come back to Konoha Sasuke," Naruto said.
Sasuke's smirk widened, "Is that so? What makes you think I would come back to that weak village and give up my power for those fools. Are you going to make me come back? Don't make me laugh, you're still a dobe and you can never hope to match the power of an Uchiha."
Naruto chuckled, "You know Itachi didn't seem to think that after I kicked his ass and forced him to retreat."
Sasuke snarled, "you fought Itachi! When!"
"I'm not going to tell you that," Naruto answered, "I told myself I would give you one more chance to come back to Konoha and if you didn't I would kill you myself."
Sasuke looked at him with wide eyes for a moment before laughing, "you think you can beat me!"
"Not think Sasuke, I know I can beat you," Naruto looked at him, "you probably don't remember, or maybe your brains been so twisted by your delusions of grandeur that your memory of certain events in your mind is skewed. When we last fought I let you win," Sasuke snarled at this but Naruto continued, "during our last charge I tilted my Rasengan so that rather than take your head off, I merely scratched your Hitea-ate. Do you remember?"
Sasuke put balled his hands into fists, he did remember that day. How could he forget?
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Flashback….
"Sasuke!" came the demonic roar from Naruto as he charged up a Rasengan that was pure red due to Kyuubi's chakra being added to the mix.
"Dobe!" an equally demonic-looking Sasuke shouted as he used his level two cursed seal, his skin was an ash color, his eyes were yellow and there was a cross-like scar on the bridge of his nose. His wings, which looked like webbed hands were splayed behind his back. He charged his Chidori, the jutsu turning pitch black as he used the power of his cursed seal.
The two shot off the ground and clashed at each other, there jutsu clashing and creating a large ball which engulfed them. However, Naruto shocked Sasuke as the blond brought his other hand up and shoved a Rasengan towards his face, at the last second Naruto moved his hand and hit his Hitea-ate instead. Just to prove he could.
Flashback end…
XXXXXXXXXXXX
That had been the sole reason Sasuke had not killed Naruto that day, because Naruto could have killed him but didn't. He had let Naruto survive so that when they fought, he could kill him at his full power, that way no one could deny that he was the better of the two of them.
"I see you do remember," Naruto said, "though as much as I would love to reminisce about me kicking your ass, I have a friend who needs me." Naruto shed his Haori and threw it away, letting the weighted outfit hit the ground with a loud bang as it formed a small crater. The blond shinobi began to channel chakra into the seals located throughout his body.
"Kai."
Naruto let out a slow breath, feeling the gravity and resistance seals release. He looked over at the two shinobi as he got into his taijutsu stance. He knew that he would have to fight with his all the moment this battle started; both would likely underestimate him, one because of his arrogance and the other because of his belief that his clan was better than everyone else. This would hopefully give Naruto enough of an advantage to either kill one of them or force them to retreat.
"Let's make this quick shall we," Naruto said as he pointed a finger at Sasuke.
"Raiton: Byakurai."
Both Sasuke and Orochimaru felt their eyes widen as a large bolt of lightning headed towards them, jumping out of the way they saw it continue on its course. Right before it turned around and headed for Orochimaru who created a Tsuchi Bushin and Kawirimi'd with it.
While that was going on Naruto appeared right in front of Sasuke and smashed a foot in the black haired ninja's torso, sending Sasuke flying to the ground below. Said Uchiha grit his teeth as he flipped around and landed on the ground, he looked up just in time to dodge a wind blade sent his way. Going through a few hand seals, Sasuke charged up his chakra and called out his jutsu.
"Chidori: Senbon! (One Thousand Birds: Senbon)"
Sasuke threw several senbon made of lightning at Naruto, whose lungs swelled up before he let it out.
"Futon: Mugen Daitoppa."
A large gust of wind shot from Naruto's mouth, due to lightning being naturally weak against the wind the senbon dissipated. However the gust of wind continued on, hitting Sasuke and lifting him off his feet.
Naruto was about to charge in to finish him off, or at the very least injure him, when he was forced to dodge a swipe from the Kusanagi no Tsurugi. Spinning a full one hundred and eighty degrees, Naruto unsealed Susanoo and raised it in defense as Orochimaru's blade clashed against it. Rather than push against the snake Sennin, Naruto drops his sword, making Orochimaru fall off balance and came up in the hopes of slicing the man in half. He did, however, Orochimaru turned into an earth clone, Naruto jumped in the air just as the pale skinned man shot out of the ground with the Kusanagi set to impale him.
Cursing Naruto was about to launch a lightning bolt at the man when Sasuke appeared right in front of him and hit Naruto in the face. Naruto flew back several feet, flipping himself over so he landed on his feet. He raised his blade in time to block Orochimaru's attack, pushing the man back before striking him in the stomach with a foot. The snake Sennin doubled over and Naruto cut him in half, cursing when the man turned to mud again. The snake Sennin came out of the ground again, this time the Kusanagi went straight through Naruto's chest. However, rather than bleed, Naruto exploded right in Orochimaru's face. It had only been years of experience that allowed the man to Kawirimi'd himself with a mud clone.
Naruto turned around when he heard the sound of birds chirping; seeing Sasuke with his cursed seal spread across his body, coming at him with a lightning-covered hand destroying the landscape. Naruto charged a Rasengan in his own hand, however unlike the standard Rasengan this one was pure white, having had Naruto's wind element added to it. Sasuke thrust out his hand as he came closer, in retaliation Naruto did the same. The two jutsu clashed as they tried to overpower each other, for a while at least. Due to the fact that the Rasengan had been an A rank jutsu on par with Chidori, to begin with, now that it had an element and the most offensive-oriented one at that, the jutsu tore right through Sasuke's Chidori. Sasuke was blown away by the explosion of power from Naruto's jutsu, landing on the ground several feet away, clutching a slightly torn-up hand. Luckily for him his Chidori, which had its potency added to it by the cursed seal,had been able to somewhat nullify the Fuuton Rasengan's effects, or he would have lost his entire arm.
Naruto had no time to admire his handy work as Orochimaru came at him, Naruto was forced to dodge several sword swings from the Kusanagi. Due to the un-telegraphed nature of the style, it was only Naruto's enhanced reflexes, which by now were almost on par with the Yondaime Raikage's when using Raiton No Yoroi, that Naruto was able to dodge the snake Sennin's attacks. Even still he got several cuts along his arms, Naruto could feel the snake based poison from the blades trying to enter his system. But a quick pulse of Kyuubi's chakra destroyed every trace of the poison.
Knowing he would have to up the stakes even more, Naruto began channeling Kyuubi's chakra directly into his muscles. Because he was fighting a Sharingan user as well as Orocimaru, Naruto knew her would have to be careful. Even though Sasuke did not have the Mangekyo, even a normal Sharingan had the ability to negate and suppress Kyuubi's chakra. All it would take was for the avenger to catch him off guard.
Despite being hailed as a genius, Orochimaru seemed to be surprised that Naruto had not dropped from his strongest poison; as well as the fact that Naruto's speed, strength, and reaction time seemingly doubled. Naruto used this surprise to his advantage, managed to cut the snake Sennin's arm off. However several snakes crawled up Orochimaru's arm, making it seem as if he had never lost it. Still, it was painful enough that it gave Naruto the opportunity to smash a foot in the Sennin's chest, sending the man rocketing back.
Spinning around Naruto charged Susanoo with wind chakra as it clashed against Sasuke's Chokuto, defeating the lightning charged in the Uchiha's blade and forcing Sasuke to jump back. However Naruto let him have no quarter as he appeared in front of him, Sasuke was forced to dodge to the left as Naruto's sword came down. However he could not dodge the kick to his face, as Sasuke was sent flying back, Naruto spun on his heels and blocked another strike from the Kusanagi.
Letting the blade slide past him, Naruto ducked and managed to impale Orochimaru through the chest. Orochimaru however merely opened his mouth wide, and another Orochimaru crawled out. Meanwhile, the one that Naruto had impaled deflated as it became nothing more than skin. Naruto jumped away as the new Orochimaru tried to impale him. Channeling lightning chakra into his sword the blond shinobi sent an intense burst of lightning towards the snake Sennin, who was forced to use a Kariwimi to get out of the way. Resealing his sword Naruto began a string of hand seals as he saw Sasuke chargeback over to him.
"Ranton: Sen! (Beam)"
Naruto whispered the jutsu before spreading his hands in front of him, a bright white beam shot out them. Launching itself towards a shocked Sasuke, it was only thanks to the Sharingan that he had been able to Kariwimi in time. Sasuke reappeared next to Orochimaru, both of them charging towards Naruto having realized that they may actually need to work together to beat him. Orochimaru came in with a knife strike to the throat, while Sasuke attempted to kick out Naruto's legs. Making sure his timing was right, Naruto crouched on the ground and pushed himself into the air so that he was parallel with the ground. Orochimaru's attack flew over him and Sasuke's under, in return for their attack Naruto managed to kick Orochimaru in the gut and Sasuke in the face. With his attacks enhanced by wind chakra the two were sent fifty feet back before they managed to right themselves and skid along the ground. They did not get the chance to do much more than stand as they heard Naruto called out another jutsu.
"Hyoton: Ryuurenda No Jutsu! (Dragon's Barrage Jutsu)"
Water coalesced in front of Naruto, taking the shape of several thousand tiny dragons that froze over the second they were formed. The dragons charged towards Orochimaru and Sasuke in mass, the two forced to dodge the literal storm of ice dragons. They soon realized however that just dodging would not help, once the dragons passed them they would swoop back around and try to impale the two from behind.
What the hell is this! Sasuke mentally screamed to himself, how the hell does the dobe know Hyoton Jutsu! Sasuke hated how this fight was turning out so far, this was not how it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to meet Naruto, show him just how much better he was than him and then kill him and gain the Mangekyo Sharingan. Now he was being forced to dodge tiny little dragons, which if hit, could very well kill him. On top of that his Sharingan was near useless, Naruto had yet to use any hand seals except for the ones that Sasuke could not copy anyway. It was getting frustrating to see the dobe this powerful, he should not have this power.
Getting frustrated Sasuke began to go through several hand seals.
"Chidori: Nagashi! (One Thousand Birds: Current)"
A wave of lightning shot out of Sasuke, hitting the dragons near him and destroying them. Likewise, Orochimaru had managed to destroy them with the Kusanagi. However, neither were able to do anything as Naruto appeared right next to them, smashing a fist in their gut and sending them flying. Naruto did not give them a chance to even get back on the ground as he pulled out two Hiraishin kunai, with a flick of his wrists he sent them flying. Not even half a second later Naruto was right above them, two Rasengan's in hand, which were soon drilled into their guts.
Orochimaru was fortunate enough to have his regeneration jutsu, which he used again to shed his skin. Sasuke however had no such abilities and as such the spinning ball of destruction tore into his stomach, Sasuke let loose a loud and retched sounding scream. He found himself smashing into the ground, increasing the amount of pain he was in and forcing him to cough up copious amounts of blood. He looked up, gritting his teeth when he saw Naruto standing over him, poised and ready to kill him. A part of him could not believe this, he Sasuke Uchiha, an elite ninja trained by Orochimaru of the Sannin himself had been beaten by Naruto, the loser and class clown.
Fortunately for him and his defeatist thoughts, Orochimaru had forced Naruto away at the last second by throwing the Kusanagi at the blond. Naruto jumped back as he knocked the blade off course, giving Orochimaru enough time to get Sasuke.
"You have been a great thorn in my side boy!" Orochimaru hissed, "but rest assured I will kill you after I take possession of Sasuke-kun's body!" With that the snake Sennin disappeared into the ground, his chakra signature vanishing with it.
Naruto sighed as he felt the adrenaline in his system from the fight leave him, this was one of the first times he had gone full outright at the start of the battle; physically anyways. Now that the fight was done, Naruto felt tired. Needing a boost Naruto called upon Kyuubi's chakra, letting it enter his system and refill his nearly depleted reserves.
"Dickless!"
Naruto cursed as he turned to Sai, the pale-skinned teen was slightly worse for wear but otherwise unharmed. "Did you get Kabuto?" Naruto asked, hoping for some good news.
Sai shook his head, "no I was unable to do so since he made a retreat fifteen minutes ago."
Naruto grunted, "Let's go then, we need to catch up with Sakura and the others." With nothing left to say Naruto shot off, using his remaining energy to catch up to his team. After fifteen minutes of high-speed tree hopping, Naruto was able to see his team and the clone he left still holding Yugao. He appeared right alongside the group, with Sai appearing just a little bit after.
"Report," Naruto said in a commanding tone as he began drawing on more of Kyuubi's chakra to sustain himself.
"There hasn't been any trouble," Sakura said as she continued running, having gotten somewhat used to the grueling pace Naruto set she was able to speak normally. "We have not run into any Oto shinobi, I don't think Orochimaru was expecting something like this." She looked at him for a second and bit her lip, "did you…"
"No," Naruto said, already knowing what she wanted to ask, "Sasuke managed to get away. But I managed to injure him pretty badly, so he won't be able to do anything for a while, several months at least." Naruto moved up along his clone, and took Yugao from it while still in motion. He looked down at her and noticed that she was beginning to sweat, "have you noticed any change in condition with Yugao?"
Sakura shook her head, "not that I can see, the eggs have not hatched so we're in the clear for now."
Naruto nodded as he glanced back at Yugao, he was unsure whether or not it was because of the fact that he had not really been able to look at her due to what has happened, or because of the eggs but she was looking a lot worse than before. Naruto resisted the urge to growl as he thought about the ones who did this to her, while he had been able to keep them occupied enough that they had been almost defenseless to his assault, he wished he had been able to kill them. Next time…Naruto promised to himself.
The group continued traveling as the sun began to go down, however none of the other ninja had Naruto's stamina and because of his fight with Sasuke and Orochimaru, Naruto was near exhausted even with Kyuubi's chakra to sustain him. They unfortunately had to turn in for the night, setting up camp and taking shifts. This time Naruto had Hinata, Sakura and Sai take the three shifts, Naruto stayed with Yugao as he gently laid her down in his sleeping bag. Not caring that the surface of the tent was extremely rocky, Naruto set himself down right next to his bag on the floor, watching Yugao until he fell asleep.
"AAAHHH!"
The next morning Naruto awoke to a tortured scream, jumping onto his feet he unsealed Susanoo out of instinct as he looked for the threat. It was only when the scream tore through the room again that he realized where it was coming from; Yugao. Turned Naruto saw the young woman writhing in pain, the blonds' eyes widened for a second as he tried to think of what to do. He quickly shook off any thoughts other than getting Yugao back to Konoha, he jumped out of the tent, thankfully to see that the others had been awakened by the scream.
"Sakura!" Naruto shouted, getting the pink-haired chunin to come over. "Take her, do a medical scan, try and stop or at least delay whatever is causing her pain! Hinata I need you to help her as well!" Naruto handed Yugao off to Sakura as Hinata rushed over to help. Naruto bit his thumb and rubbed some blood over his hand as he began stringing along several hand seals, when finished he smashed his hand on the ground and shouted out his jutsu.
"Kuchiyose No Jutsu!"
A summoning seal array spread out from the point where Naruto's hand had impacted with the ground, there was a large puff of smoke that covered the entire area as he along with the others were shot up off the ground.
"Jiraiya you better hope you're not the one who summoned me, you damned pervert!"
Naruto hopped off Gamabunta's head and onto his nose, "Bunta I have an injured Konoha kunoichi and I need very fast transportation to Konoha now!" As if to accentuate his words, Yugao let loose with another scream.
Gamabunta seeing the frantic look on his summoner's face, and actually liking this summoner, decided to do as asked. "You got it gaki!" the giant toad began to hop off at a pace that he rarely ever used.
Naruto rushed back over to Sakura and Hinata who were busy running some kind of healing jutsu over the large bumps, which Naruto could see were deforming as if they were trying to break. "What's going on with her!" Naruto shouted as he tried to make himself heard over the rushing wind.
Sakura looked up from her work for a second, before going back as she explained what was wrong. "Those eggs are hatching! Hinata and I are using our chakra to keep them encased in a bubble of sorts! Hopefully, that will keep them from hatching until we can get her to the hospital!"
Naruto nodded as he sat next to them, watching as one of his precious people screamed and writhed in pain, feeling completely helpless because there was nothing he could do to help. He tore his eyes away from the sight and saw that they were coming up on Konoha. Gamabunta jumped right over the village gates and made his way to the Hokage tower. As the giant toad stopped right outside Naruto jumped in through the window, not even bothering to take note of Tsunade and Shizune's shock as he spoke.
"I have Neko, she is badly injured and has some kind of 'eggs' implanted in her! I need you two at the hospital otherwise she might die!"
As Naruto was saying this, Sakura and Hinata came in with Yugao who was still screaming but had overused her vocal cords so much that all that came out was a rasping noise.
Tsunade seeing this instantly went into medic mode, "Sakura! Hinata! Get her to the hospital! Shizune get a hospital room ready by the time they get there! Let's move people!"
The four medics hustled out of the room with their orders clear, Naruto took a moment to take several calming breaths before he too left. With a brisk walk, he made it to the hospital, when he got there he went up to the front desk and got the attention of the nurse there. "Excuse me but I was wondering if you could direct me to the room Tsunade and the three medical ninja with her went?" he asked.
"Of course Namikaze-Sama," the nurse said as she searched her paper, "they went to the emergency room for intensive injuries. That's just down this hall, take a right, you'll reach the room when you reach the end of the hall."
"Thanks!" Naruto said as he took off, racing down the hallway as he attempted to get there as fast as possible. When he did he saw the red light on, indicating that Tsunade and the others were in there and attempting to help Yugao. Not seeing anything else he could do, Naruto took a seat along the wall, waiting until Tsunade or one of the others came out to let him know if Yugao was alright.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"Sakura I need you to hold her down!" Tsunade ordered as she tried to get the now flailing woman from smashing her in the face. They had just gotten her to the hospital room when the eggs had hatched, causing the woman not only more pain but also making her appendages spasm at ever-increasing intervals. She and Sakura each grabbed a limb, pushing it down with their strength before binding them so they could not move. Once the woman was bound Hinata and Shizune who had gotten medical scalpels began to cut into the woman where the protrusions had last been located.
What they had found was disgusting; the thing looked almost like a snake, which in all honesty was not surprising. However, what was, were the hundreds of tiny tendrils that they could see trying to snake their way along the woman's nervous system. This was without a doubt what was causing the spasms as well as the excruciating pain the woman was on, and Tsunade had counted a total of five of them.
"Here's how we're going to do this! Sakura and Hinata! I want you two to constantly monitor the patient's vitals and if necessary add the fluids that she is most likely going to be losing! Shizune I need you to apply a continuous stream of medical chakra into Yugao! It may not do much, but it should at least somewhat ease the pain!"
Tsunade created four heavily reinforced Kage Bushin's, all of them already had mental orders and immediately began to work. Tsunade and each of her clones began working on extracting what was no doubt some kind of parasite, what kind exactly she did not know, chances were high it was a knew one that Orochimaru had made himself. The work was hard, harder than anything she had to do thus far, even harder then fixing Rock Lee after he was injured by Gaara in the Prelims four years back. She had to remove each tendril from the woman's nervous system one by one, at the same time she had to use her healing chakra to as soon as the tendril left and continue to send it out. This meant that by the time she would be done, she would be sending medical chakra to one hundred separate spots. Add onto the fact that she had reinforced each clone with 1/5th of her chakra and it made this task ridiculously hard.
As the work continued Tsunade began to sweat from the exertion, for a female she had abnormally high reserves and stamina, especially considering that even though she looked young, she was really in her fifties. Alongside her Shizune was always starting to get low on energy, they had been working for about an hour now so it was understandable, despite this she continued to work and do her best to save the woman Naruto had spent so much effort to rescue. Sakura and Hinata had a bit of an easier time with their tasks. They had managed to plug an IV and heart rate monitor, now all they were doing was replenishing whatever Yugao lost with blood pills and nutrient packs.
Tsunade didn't even dare to wipe the sweat on her brow as she continued working, lest her concentration break.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto kept his eyes closed as he sat in a meditative position as he tried to keep his nerves calm. It had been four hours since he had gotten to the hospital, despite the fact that he was exhausted beyond all comprehension he could not bring himself to leave, not until he knew that Yugao was alright. He held back on the desire to curse himself for what he saw as failing one of his precious people. To him it did not matter that he had not seen the purple-haired Anbu since he was six, nor that the village had kept him so busy that before the training trip he had not even had the time to think about her. He had made a promise to himself a long time ago that he would protect his precious people, be it from physical harm or mental harm. Yugao was one of his precious people, and for the past four and a half years she had been suffering. She had lost the person she had considered the most precious to her, someone she had planned on marrying; and he had done nothing to help. He had not even thought about the purple haired woman who had protected him, cared for him, and in many ways showed him what it meant to be loved, even if it had only been in a big sister kind of way. In some ways he could not help but feel that this was his fault, if only he had sought her out after the chunin exams, if only he had comforted her before he left for the village. So many things he could have done, should have done, but didn't. It was enough to make him feel like a helpless child again.
He shook his head, living in the past is useless, if I focus on what I should have done back then, I'll never be able to do things I can and should do now. He took a deep breath, sending his conscience deep into himself as he began an exercise he had created several years back. Reaching in he began to look for his chakra, it wasn't hard to find. Unlike most people who had to force chakra out of their bodies, Naruto only had to reach it. He liked to think of his chakra as a facet, a very large facet. Whereas most ninjas actually had to pull and drag their chakra to use, all he would do was turn it on much like turned the handle on a facet to get water. It was for this reason that the Bushin jutsu was forever out of his reach, even if he only let his chakra flow for less than 1/4th of a second, it was already too much and the Bushin was overloaded. He shook his head again and forced himself to go deeper.
As soon as he reached his chakra he began to feel it out, if chakra were to be given a color most people would often describe there's as a light blue, Naruto's chakra was a dark and thick blue. Reaching even further Naruto felt out the many different types of chakra he had or could produce. The first was easily recognizable as Kyuubi's, a deep red color that seemed to burn and thrash in a chaotic manner as if it was alive. Ignoring it for the moment Naruto began to focus on his other chakras or his elemental chakra. There were five in total, the first was a deep green color and had felt that it was very contradictory in nature, giving off both a calming and chaotic feeling. This was his main affinity, wind chakra. His second was a bright yellow bordering white and the feel it gave could best be described as shocking, it was his lightning affinity. His third was a deep blue and had a completely calming and cool aura to it, letting him know it was his affinity for water. However there were two others as well, the first was white and ice cold, it was drawing from a combination of his wind and water affinities showing that it was ice. The other one was oddly enough purple in color; it gave off a chaotic and electric feel telling him it was Storm.
Continuing with his exercises Naruto began to mix the different chakra types together, getting different combinations of density and power. The exercise itself was useless for combat purposes, mixing more types of one element over the other always gave off explosive results. It was part of the reason bloodlines were so coveted since they made people instinctively know what the right amount of elemental chakra needed to be added into the mix. However, while this did not help with combat situations it did allow him better control over his chakra and elements.
His concentration was snapped as the red light on top of the hospital door turned off, a second later the door opened and a tired Tsunade walked out. Naruto stood up and went up to her, he opened his mouth to speak but Tsunade raised a hand, stopping him.
"Yugao is stable," Tsunade said, "we managed to fix her up and she will be just fine, however, she will not be waking up anytime soon."
Naruto sighed in relief, he looked up and Tsunade was surprised to see tears of relief on the younger blond's face. Naruto wrapped his arms around a surprised Tsunade, who stiffened at the physical contact. "Thank you," Naruto whispered.
Tsunade returned the hug as she heard the relief in Naruto's voice, it was only now that she truly realized just how important Yugao was to him. "You're welcome brat," she said as she released the hug. When she did the woman gave Naruto a glare, "however you and I need to have a long talk."
Naruto just nodded, knowing that his insubordination would not get let off.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"… after that, I summoned Gamabunta I got Yugao and my team here as fast as I could," Naruto finished his explanation of his self-appointed rescue mission.
Tsunade looked at him with an unreadable expression as she listened to the report; she was actually impressed that he had been able to fight two powerful shinobi at the same time. However she was also angry at how reckless it was, given what Naruto was telling her if Sasuke had been given enough time to utilize the full power of his curse, Naruto could have lost. "What you did was extremely reckless Naruto!" to the blond male's credit he did not flinch at her tone or words. "Going up against two S ranked nin-"
"A rank," Naruto corrected, causing Tsunade to raise an eyebrow. "Sasuke is only an A rank ninja without the full power of his cursed seal, with it he may have been able to give me trouble but without it, he could not do much."
"That still does not make the fact that you engaged two powerful shinobi at the same time without backup!" Tsunade glared at him. Her glare however was merely to hide the fear she felt at the thought of Naruto getting injured, if something had happened to the young man on this mission, or any mission really, she would never be able to forgive herself.
"I know," Naruto said in a quiet, "that is why I am willing to accept any punishment you offer."
Tsunade sighed; she knew the man in front of her did not regret his decision even for a second. "Because of your insubordinate actions, I am putting you on one-month probation where you will not be able to leave the village. Also, you will be required to do thirty-one D rank missions while on this probation period." She knew this punishment was somewhat harsh, but most cases of insubordination could be taken as a sign of treason; which was punishable by death.
Naruto nodded, not in the least bit concerned by the punishment he was receiving, "I understand Tsunade-Sama." He paused for a moment, "was that all? Or could I…"
Tsunade sighed as she waved him off, "go on and visit Yugao, she should be out of intensive by now."
Naruto gave her a smile of thanks before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Naruto entered the room where Yugao was staying, grabbing a chair on the wall and placing it near her bed. He sat down with a heavy sigh, running a hand through his hair as he thought about his confrontation with Sasuke. Any feelings of comradeship he may have once felt for the Uchiha was long gone now, whether he was a part of what happened to Yugao or not, Naruto knew that he would know of it. It did not even matter if he actively participated in her torture, the fact that he knew was enough for Naruto. During their next confrontation Sasuke would die, painfully, Naruto promised himself that.
He shook the thoughts off and focused his attention on the practically comatose form of Yugao; reaching out he took one of her hands in both of his, gently rubbing his fingers along her hand. "Damn it Yugao," Naruto whispered to himself as he thought of the woman. He knew what she was trying to do, going on S rank mission after S rank mission in the hopes that she would die. Her friends had been telling him about how the woman seemed to lose her will to live after the Chunin Exams.
He quickly squashed the guilty feelings that emerged from this train of thought, he could not change the past, and dwelling on it did nothing, something he had constantly been forced to remind himself recently. "Never again," Naruto said as he leaned his head down and kissed Yugao on the forehead, laying his head on her bed after that. He was not going to stand by and watch as one of the people he cared for, and admittedly had a crush on since childhood, suffer. Never again will I let her feel this pain…
With those last thoughts, Naruto slowly closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep as his nearly depleted energy left him.
A little while later a nurse came by, seeing the blond with his head on the bed, she was about to wake him up. However, she noticed the way he was holding the woman's hand, nearly right next to his lips, as well as realizing who he was. Hokage-Sama had given him special permission to stay the night, having anticipated that Naruto would not leave even if ordered. Turning off the lights, the nurse left the room, leaving the two people there to sleep.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Omake: Sasugay
"Dobe…" Sasuke said with a smirk on his face as his Sharingan eyes spun, he had been waiting for the chance to battle the blond again. This time so he could kill him.
Naruto looked at the two shinobi before, switching his gaze from Sasuke to a smirking Orochimaru and then back to Sasuke. "I am going to give you one more chance to come back to Konoha Sasuke," Naruto said.
Sasuke's smirk widened, "Is that so? What makes you think I would come back to that weak village and give up my power for those fools? Orochimaru can give me far more than that village can. Or are you going to make me come back? Don't make me laugh, you're still a dobe and you can never hope to match the power of an Uchiha."
"I see, so Orochi-teme can give you far more than Konoha huh? Well, I'll admit if I liked to play hide the snake in the trousers with a pedophiliac freak I would stay too. Though, I never took you for an uki." Naruto said, causing Sasuke to go red in the face. "Well I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that, you always did strike me as the type that would like taking it up the ass."
"Take that back dobe!" Sasuke screamed, "I am not gay! I like women! WOMEN!"
"Sure whatever you say," Naruto replied with a shrug, "keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep at night."
"Don't listen to him Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru said with an angry hiss, "he just doesn't understand what we have together."
Sasuke looked back at Orochimaru is eyes wide, "What are you talking about what we have together! Didn't I just tell you I like women!"
"~I think someone's in denial~," Naruto said in a singsong voice.
"I am not!"
"That's ok Sasugay," Naruto said, "I really don't care; I mean hey if your gay that's cool. It just means more women for me."
"DOBE!"