Chapter 50

With a cough, a haggard Naruto pushed a slab of debris off of his body and stood up, his body no longer glowing red via the Kyuubi's chakra. As he looked around the chamber he had been fighting in it looked like an excavation site. The place seemed to be positively bombed out. Volatile balls of pressurized air combined with hot ever-burning Uchiha shuriken equaled massive explosion.

For some reason it seemed oddly disproportionate to the size of the techniques, but never judge a book by its cover when it comes to a jutsu.

Wiping the soot from the lenses of his protective eyewear, Naruto then let out a groan as the lenses had been cracked by the strength of the explosion that he and Itachi had created, "Fucking great…" He muttered to himself as he pulled them off of his head and tossed them aside, "It took years to make those."

Okay, he was still standing and a little beat up, but he was fine for the most part. And it was a good thing too, because it wasn't over yet. A slab of fallen wall fell to reveal Itachi back on his feet. Even as bedraggled as he was he still looked unnaturally calm and cool.

Similarly to Naruto's own blue ones, his red Sharingan eyes were scanning Naruto's form as if-…

"Crap!" Naruto shouted aloud as Itachi's body seemed to disappear in a flock of crows and the world around him seemed to distort and transform into a vast desert with some large dome-like structure in the distance. That was in Kaze no Kuni.

What a weird setting for mental torment. What, was he going to have massive scorpions sting him to death or devour him alive? Or maybe he'd have them crawl out of his mouth, ears, and nose? Screw that.

Without missing a beat and while he still had control of himself, Naruto pulled a kunai from his thigh holster and stabbed himself in the leg, breaking the genjutsu and simultaneously firing up his anger to jump back into using the Kyuubi's chakra.

But instead of snapping back into the real world in a cold sweat the way Naruto had anticipated himself to after causing physical harm of that extent to himself, he merely found that Itachi could double-layer his genjutsu, and that the trigger was breaking the first one. That was some crap that he needed to talk to Kurenai-sensei about when (if) he got home because he sure didn't see that coming.

Maybe talk to Akira from the Guardian Ninja group too… she was good at them from what he remembered. Anyone was better than him.

Much to his surprise though, instead of a fantasy world constructed only to deal him pain and misfortune, Naruto found himself in the boiler room that was his mind, in calf-deep water right in front of the large cage that housed the Kyuubi behind it, "What? I didn't want to come here."

"But I did."

Standing right next to him, Itachi seemed to be looking at the cage instead of at Naruto, who lashed out with a Rasengan and struck him only for the body to break into multiple crows and reform directly behind him. Wait, he could do that? There was no way Itachi had any kind of clue what Naruto's subconscious looked like, so the only alternative reasoning would be that he was actually projecting his into Naruto's own.

"You shouldn't do that." Itachi chided Naruto, starting to dodge as Naruto threw punches at his head trying to knock him out, "Have you ever been in a genjutsu this strong before Naruto-kun?"

Jiraiya was serviceable at best at genjutsu, and he was the only one that tried to train Naruto directly by trapping him in them. But this was an entirely different level altogether. So no, Naruto hadn't been in a genjutsu that powerful before, "Get out of here!"

Behind them inside of its cage, the Kyuubi had its eyes closed to prevent anything Sharingan-related from happening to it. This was definitely worst-case scenario. It was absolutely the worst thing that could have happened to Naruto in a battle with an Uchiha. Thank goodness there were only two.

As he continued to dodge, Itachi's eyes widened and he took a punch to the face from Naruto, letting out a warning just as he burst into countless crows, "Watch out!"

"Sawarabi no Mai (Dance of the Seedling Fern)!"

It felt like a deep daydream or something had suddenly ended when Itachi's genjutsu was broken intentionally and Naruto abruptly regained full control of himself. This was just in time for thousands of bones to rise up from underground all over the floor, spiking up to impale Naruto and Itachi indiscriminately.

Naruto had survived by instantly hurling his machete up at the ceiling and yanking himself into the air via the chain attached to both the handle of it and the gauntlet underneath one of his arm-warmers. In turn Itachi was kept aloft by a large crow that he had summoned quickly after breaking his genjutsu with Naruto.

It flapped around the room as both men looked down at the spike pit that had almost ensured their deaths. But then Naruto looked over at Itachi's crow, taking care not to look directly at Itachi himself lest he find himself ensnared in another illusion so soon after the last one. But Itachi had warned him to act. He had made sure that he hadn't been run through by any of Kimimaro's bones.

'He only did it because if you died he wouldn't be able to get the Kyuubi.' Naruto thought to himself trying to reason out why Itachi saved him unnecessarily. This changed nothing. It was only done for Akatsuki's and therefore Itachi's own benefit, 'But it's still weird. He broke me out of his own genjutsu for that?'

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth boy. Your enemy, whether foolishly done or not, presented you with an opportunity. Take it and make the Uchiha pay for his cursed bloodline." Not being suppressed by Itachi didn't warrant any looking into by the Kyuubi since as long as it didn't happen everything was fine by its standards.

With his mind forcibly settled by his absurdly powerful tenant, Naruto started pulling his way up the chain as if he were climbing a rope in physical training back in the Academy.

From his position on his crow, Itachi hurled several shuriken at Naruto. His climb was interrupted and Naruto quickly tangled his leg in his chain before letting go with his hands and flipping down to avoid the projectiles while making hand-seals.

As this occurred, Itachi's crow was grabbed around the neck by a black whip and sharp white spikes on it that dug into its flesh, forcing it to let out a mighty caw. Both Naruto and Itachi looked down and saw that Kimimaro's body was sticking out of the tip of one of the bones, his body one with it. In his hand was the long whip in question, "Tessenka no Mai: Tsuru (Dance of the Clematis: Vine)!"

In Kimimaro's other hand was a very large and extremely gnarled-looking spiral bone wrapped around his forearm like a shield and a weapon combination. With a mighty jerk of Itachi's crow not wishing to be pulled down, Kimimaro's body slid out of the bone he had become one with and was pulled into the air with the ascending avian.

"Die!" Allowing himself to be yanked into the open airspace of the chamber, Kimimaro stabbed straight through Itachi's crow with Itachi on its back via the horrid-looking weapon in his hand. All of them went flying up to the ceiling where they crashed.

Itachi's crow dispelled in a puff of smoke and Itachi himself managed to avoid hitting the top of the chamber where Kimimaro had punched a divot with his body, his attack, and Itachi's now dispelled and probably mortally wounded crow.

Kimimaro started falling back down to the bone spikes sticking out of the ground when he saw Naruto hanging from his chain and machete and aimed a hand at his Konoha enemy, "Teshi Sendan (Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets)!" Gritting his teeth, the upside-down Naruto then decided to cheat and formed a ram seal to build his chakra and expel it in the form of a gust from his mouth.

Blowing himself into a swing out of the trajectory of the shots, Naruto leaned up and grabbed the long chain, allowing his feet to press against the wall and stick safely as Kimimaro seemed to be about to wind up skewered on the tips of the bones of his own creation.

This was not to be though, as his body just melded back with the bones and he vanished in the field of them once more.

"Fuck this." Naruto muttered, annoyed at Kimimaro and his ability to alter the battlefield to such an extent and make it his own, "I'm sick of all of this aerial kickboxing crap." He started rolling through a fairly long chain of hand-seals and took a deep breath.

Itachi, still sticking to the ceiling watched Naruto's fingers carefully, interested in the jutsu that the young man was utilizing. But he was soon to learn that this wasn't a jutsu that his eyes merely allowed him to copy, 'What a strange manipulation of chakra. I haven't seen a color of that element before, and it's not just pure shape manipulation.'

"Kura Taifuu no Me (Eye of the Dark Hurricane)!" From Naruto's mouth spewed an obscene amount of his own kind of ash, sending it down in a pattern beneath him that seemed to swirl around in a cloudy circle that covered up the deadly bone forest beneath him in murky black billows that seemed to move like the above-view of an actual tropical storm, "Come out again in that and see what happens asshole!"

'Very impressive Naruto-kun.' With his gaze aiming downward, Itachi noted with his Sharingan intuitive ability that the jutsu wasn't just meant to cover every area where Kimimaro could come back out again. Naruto had set it up so that there was a soft spot purposely placed in a corner, 'There's my target.' Itachi said, knowing what his next move would be, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!"

From his mouth, Itachi spat a huge fireball out and down at the ashen field below them. The toad oil inside of Naruto's ash concoction went up like the flammable substance it was and the entire cave was covered in flames in the blink of an eye. It even surprised Naruto at how destructive that combination was, 'Note to self… find Sasuke when I get home and work this combo into the ground.'

Naruto spared half a glance Itachi's way wondering why they had just seemed to do an impromptu team-up. The enemy of my enemy is my friend it seemed. Nobody was going to walk away from that. Though he did seem to be a bit stunned to find that Naruto's ash was flammable. Ancient toad oil secret.

A single massive spire of bone rose up suddenly from the center of the bone forest covered in ash and crashed through the ceiling, punching a hole straight through it and sending chunks of rock coming down all around.

This knocked Naruto's machete down from the ceiling as a ceiling no longer existed and the young man caught it back in his hand to sheath it on his back before turning up the heat once more and coaxing more of the Kyuubi's chakra out of his system to cover his body in a boiling red fox silhouette again.

Both he and Itachi headed outside through the gaping hole in the roof that was created by Kimimaro single massive spike, trying to get at each other all the way through until they made it outside onto the rocky summit of the island. For the first time in quite a bit since entering the dingy hideout, fresh air filled everyone's lungs and seemed to give them all second winds. It even seemed necessary for Itachi to cough a bit while filling taking his breaths of fresh air.

Shooting out of the tip of the bone spire into the air, Kimimaro aimed himself back down like a missile at Naruto, missing him and causing a cloud of dust to kick up where he landed on the ground. Naruto's improved speed allowed him to easily dodge more of Kimimaro's bone bullets as he rushed in to attack him and hurl him off of the mountain.

Naruto's strikes missed, even with the chakra cloak to aid him due to Kimimaro's mastery of his taijutsu and his body. Whipping around one time allowed Kimimaro to drill Naruto in the head with his hard tail, knocking him to the ground on his butt.

A growl came from Naruto who lifted a single hand and formed a larger than average Rasengan in his hand with the help of his chakra tail to help shell it together, plain for all to see. Even so, Kimimaro faced it down without much of a care, "Feh, a larger version of the Yondaime Hokage's signature attack jutsu… you'll never make contact with something like that. Haven't you noticed by now that trash such as yourself cannot hope to hit me with a melee-?"

Another tail burst from the ground behind Kimimaro, with a normal Rasengan actually formed at the end of it as if it were a normal hand. Naruto hid his formation of splitting his cloak into a second tail that he had used to burrow near his overconfident foe. There was nothing Kimimaro could do but take the heavy attack in the back that sent him flying at Naruto who revealed another new trick.

Naruto stretched out the chakra cloak surrounding his arm into a claw that still held the massive Rasengan along with the tail that kept it stable and raised it up high into the air to smash down hard on top of Kimimaro who had been hurtling toward Naruto through the air.

"Odama Rasengan (Great Ball Spiraling Sphere)!"

Itachi had to turn his eyes away due to the fact that Naruto's more powerful variation of the Rasengan caused a massive explosion of pebbles, chunks of solid rock, and dust, all of which could have damaged his extremely important eyes. The ground mercilessly shook due to the fact that it was slammed directly into it from above, adding the force of a downward strike from a raging jinchuuriki behind an improved Rasengan.

'The strength and dexterity of the Kyuubi's chakra is frightening.' Itachi surmised after seeing just what Naruto could do with it, 'It's not just an extension of his body and will.'

"I'm sorry… but were you saying something?" Naruto said over the crumbling rock noise coming from where he pulverized Kimimaro, panting a bit at the effort exerted from the battle, "…I think I missed it over the sound of me hitting you with a goddamn melee attack you son of a bitch!" Naruto shouted loudly down into the pit he hurled Kimimaro down into. Talk about feeling vindicated.

But he wasn't alone, and his gaze snapped toward Itachi right before the ground beneath the two of them abruptly collapsed as the entire island summit started coming down. What was this damn place made of, limestone?

XxX

(Elsewhere on the Island – With Ino and Anko)

Ino had been scanning through Juugo's defenseless mind for the past several minutes, making a concerted effort to find what Anko required of her as quickly as possible. A lot of it was a jumbled mess. He'd be cool and calm with everything easy to make out one second, and then everything would be as if he were a bull seeing red the next. The latter was usually when multiple people wound up brutally killed by him.

How bipolar of him. And people would tend to say that from time to time about her, the jerks. If Shikamaru ever said that again after she had met this guy she'd punch him in the face.

"Uh oh…" Ino said under her breath, getting Anko's attention while the older woman kept watch over their surroundings.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Anko walked over to Ino and looked down at their sedated 'prisoner' of sorts who still sat with his head the only thing aboveground with Ino's hand resting on it, "What? Did you find something worth talking about?"

Not knowing quite how to explain what she had seen, Ino just shook her head and gave up on trying. There was another route to take in that respect, "It'd be easier to just show you. Put your hand on my shoulder and relax."

Anko did just that with a hapless shrug, and the moment that she did felt her brain swell with the sudden rush of mental pictures that filled her mind. She was only able to take three seconds of that before she let go and backed away. She felt like vomiting, "Oh Kami…"

"I know. I told you to relax didn't I?" Ino said, taking her hand off of Juugo's head to turn and face her fellow kunoichi who was doubled over and looked as if she were about to be physically ill, "Why do you think more people don't know how to do that? It's just daddy and some handpicked elites." Using the mind-reading technique was like watching the movie that was someone's mind close-up in the quickest form of fast-forward that existed.

Learning that technique gave you a crash course in how to handle nausea to say the very least, especially when you can't control it at first. It was very intricate, hard to learn and harder to master, and not very battlefield applicable, which was another reason why most shinobi didn't learn it.

But after the pile-up of thoughts in her brain ended, Anko got a clear memory that didn't belong to her. The things that came from Juugo's mind. The basic principle of the Cursed Seal came from this man. Not the idea, but the powerful partial and complete body transformations imbued in users of the seal. Enzymes from his body were used in conjunction with Orochimaru's chakra in order to produce the transformation of a person's physiology via a powerful outside power source.

"It came from him?" Anko asked herself aloud, sending a look of disbelief down to the mostly buried Juugo who was still as docile as a lamb, "How old could he have been when Orochimaru got a hold of him? I didn't get this thing put on me until I was fifteen."

"He was really young." Ino said, having seen as much inside of his mind, "Even when he was a kid, he was strong enough to kill an entire village of people when he lost control of himself." That was probably what attracted Orochimaru's attention to him to begin with.

Despite his state of unconsciousness, Juugo could still feel the presence of those around him. The haze in his head did little to block out his more subtle senses, such as his indistinct connection with those that had Cursed Seals.

Even as far away as he was, he could still feel the seal of his closest friend in Kimimaro. He could also feel that Kimimaro was in dire straits. Whatever was going on with him was killing him. Could it be that he had actually run into the real Akatsuki members that Guren had warned them all of?

That meant that Yukimaru was in danger as well. As strong as a jinchuuriki could be, he was still extremely raw as a ninja.

His eyes suddenly snapped open and the entirety of his skin darkened over as a black stripe formed on his forehead going down his nose, "I'll kill the both of you!" His body blasted out of the ground as if he hadn't been held in place by solid packed earth just a moment ago that kept him from budging an inch.

Both Anko and Ino jumped away from him as he landed on the ground with a resounding crash, boosters on Juugo's back exuding chakra like an engine waiting to be fired up.

"I sedated him! Even for a big guy like him he should have been down for at least four more hours!" Ino shouted angrily at seeing Juugo back up and about. It was an insult to her skills in that facet of her ninja arts that he was able to shrug it off the way he did. Well her poisons didn't account for freaks of nature.

"Well apparently you didn't tell him that!" Anko said, not looking forward to seeing what Juugo would do now, 'That's got to be a full transformation. Something like that has to be what Orochimaru told me I didn't have the will to access with the Cursed Seal of Heaven.'

Full transformation or not, Ino was now close enough to Juugo without being torn apart yet to risk taking a chance against him. She lifted her hands up in a reverse of each other and forming a square with her index fingers and thumbs, aiming at Juugo, "Fine! Shinranshin no Jutsu (Mind Body Disturbance)!"

She was too close to possibly miss on her very worst day.

Before his foot could take a step forward, it froze in place as Ino stopped his body dead. Slowly his hands started to move up to his own throat and clasped around them tightly enough to begin strangling himself with shaking appendages.

Anko knew that jutsu. It was one of Inoichi's. She'd seen him use it to mess with others by taking control of someone's free will to smack someone else he was having problems with. Well Ino was using it to make her enemy choke himself to death with his own massive strength. That had to take some serious power.

She spared the intensely focusing Ino a glance and raised an eyebrow. Who knew that queenie had a mean streak like that in her? But then again she worked in Konoha T&I, so she had to have a bit of a sadist edge to her to make that work, "I really like the way you work, but less talk more kill." She said as she disappeared in a Shunshin and reappeared directly crouched at Juugo's stomach with a kunai in hand.

"Anko no! He's strong enough to fight my control! It's not complete!"

The warning came too late as Juugo lashed out with one of his legs and kicked Anko away from himself forcefully, still choking himself with his bare hands all the while.

He hadn't ceased to move forward because Ino had stopped him cold. She sort of cheated on that front in order to go for the kill. He stopped walking because she diverted her control of his whole body all to his upper portion instead of spread evenly thorough his entire person. Had she not done so she never would have obtained any kind of control at all. He would have broken it immediately.

On his chest, Juugo formed several clustered hollow cylinders that extended out like cannons and built up chakra in them, aiming in Ino's direction.

Eyes widening, she dropped the hand-seal for her jutsu and let it fade while getting out of the way and picking up Anko to move aside just as Juugo fired his pure chakra blast right at the two of them. Both women narrowly avoided as a trench was carved out of the ground.

Anko cringed in pain and let out a cry expressing this from where both she and Ino lay in the dirt, "Ah, goddamn it Yamanaka a warning would have been nice!" She complained, holding her torso as blood trickled from her mouth. She lifted her free arm and pointed her index and middle fingers at Juugo who seemed to be just about to pounce on the grounded ladies, "Kanashibari no Jutsu (Temporary Paralysis Jutsu)!"

Both of them wasted no time in getting up and away, and it was a good thing too, because Anko only managed to stop him for a single a half-second with that low-level jutsu. Even though it was one of the most basic of the basics of ANBU techniques it should have knocked him off guard due to how rudimentary it was for such a heated confrontation, but it didn't do a thing. He still almost crushed them underneath his fists.

"Now do you know how hard it was to do even what I did to him?" Ino said as she slid to a stop from their combined dodging attempt, "I had to focus my ass off to stop him as much as I did!"

"Stop complaining maggot!"

"No! I fight better when I gripe!"

Catty working relationship between the Konoha kunoichi aside, Juugo was too much of a threat for them to really get into it properly, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" A sudden large puff of smoke that concealed Ino and Anko stopped Juugo's rage for a moment until it cleared and he saw the women standing on the head of a very large python, "Try being proactive like this brat! You need some sure-fire sure-kill power!"

Ino just muttered 'showoff' under her breath at her boisterous superior's attitude to turning the tables. Of course she didn't have many sure-kill moves, she was a damn interrogation specialist. That kind of required her to be better at taking her enemies alive and in the condition to talk than flat out dead.

Juugo was not impressed with Anko's giant snake however. His right arm formed several boosters at the elbow that exuded chakra for added power and leapt directly at Anko's snake, "Kassokuken: Isshiki (Piston Fist: Style One)!" The punch slammed off of the front of the snake's body, and it was as if the entire frame of the creature seemed to vibrate as if there was a quake going on inside of its body.

It let out a hiss and splayed itself out on the ground with blood pouring from its mouth as Anko and Ino jumped from its head before it fell down dead. He killed a summon animal with one punch. He didn't even hesitate.

What was this man?

Juugo kept angrily punching and punching into the snake even after it was dead, cutting it in half with his fists and just making a bloody mess of it at that point while Ino started a chain of hand-seals, "We need to get away from this guy." She said quietly before looking up into the sky over Juugo, "How's this for sure-kill? Sansei Ame (Acid Rain)!" She spit a wavering orb of black and purple into the air that audibly popped into a cloud that began pouring fluid down onto their enemy.

The dark precipitation fell down onto Juugo from the temporary cloud and got him to stop mauling the dead snake to look at one of his arms. As the liquid touched him his skin started to hiss as if it were melting due to the fact that it was.

By the time that they heard Juugo's voice yelling in pain as he rushed to get from underneath the deadly rain, both Ino and Anko were retreating their way through the nearby forest to get elsewhere in a hurry, "So now what?" If he survived that Ino didn't know what else she could throw at him to finish him off. That was her strongest poison that would incur death on a target, so much so that skin contact was even treacherous.

"Let me think." Anko replied, turning her head around to try and catch sight of if anything was behind them after they heard crashing sounds and falling trees originating from the direction where they left Juugo, "I think I'm going to have to carry you while you do your thing. What's your limit for that cute little ghost jutsu you do now?"

Cute little ghost jutsu? She'd definitely get her back for that later when they weren't about to be killed by a superpowered berserker, "It's only 1000 feet." Ino informed her with a frown, "I mean don't get me wrong, it's better than the 150 feet that it used to be, but that's still too close to this guy to be comfortable with it."

Anko nodded in consideration of Ino's words, "We'll have to hide your body then, because I'm playing decoy."

There were several things wrong with that idea from Ino's point of view, the most important of which in her point view she had no problem with bringing up, "Hide my body you say? I don't like that idea. Too much of a chance of getting randomly blown away in a crossfire."

"You could play decoy for me instead of me doing it for you." Anko suggested sarcastically, "I don't think I've got anything up my sleeve that can stop him without killing me too so you might wind up getting caught up in whatever I do any-."

"Fine, hide my body… but if you put me in another snake's mouth I'm possessing you next."

XxX

(Shikamaru/Asuma/Yamato vs. Kisame)

'Why do I have to be the one in close?' Asuma thought to himself, ignoring the fact that out of everyone there he was the best at taijutsu and gritting his teeth as he remained in the pocket to duel with Kisame and Samehada. All the while, Yamato was picking his spots just out of range, but nothing he'd tried had been able to throw Kisame off of his guard, 'Kami, this guy is a machine! It's three-on-one, tire out already!'

But he hadn't, and despite the fact that he wanted to back off and use a jutsu, Kisame would just use Samehada to absorb it if he did just like with Shikamaru's shadow earlier. As long as he had that sword in his hand there was only so much that they could do.

Standing back a touch and observing the battle looking for a spot, Yamato suddenly made several hand-seals and barked out instructions accordingly, "Asuma break off!" He shouted as he placed his hands onto the ground, "Doton: Doryuukatsu (Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide)!"

Asuma jumped as far as he could in Yamato's direction, not caring if he fell onto the ground in the process. It was better than not making it out of the way at all, though could he have cut it a bit closer?

The ground underneath Kisame fractured apart before it folded inward like a rotating block. To keep from getting crushed and to prevent himself from falling into the chasm created by Yamato's jutsu, Kisame used Samehada as a wedge to hold things open and keep them from crushing him. That was one very sturdy sword because it stopped the jutsu cold without budging an inch.

"Kage Nui no Jutsu (Shadow Sewing Jutsu)!"

Several shadow tendrils raised from the ground, quickly struck across the land, and punched into Kisame, taking great aim and care not to touch Samehada, leaving it stuck in Yamato's earth-splitting technique. The sharp tips of the shadows stabbed through his body in the multiple places that he wound up hit in.

The force of Shikamaru's attack drove Kisame out of the spot he had been caught in via Yamato's jutsu and knocked him onto the ground, flying off of the thin needles and landing on the ground, flat on his back, "Grr…" Kisame growled to himself, shifting on the ground to touch at his wounds, "They'd better not think that's enough to beat me."

On the other side of the massive eyesore of raised earth done by Yamato, Shikamaru frowned as his shadow tendrils returned to their unstretched range around his body. He couldn't see through the amount of battlefield that Yamato's jutsu redistributed. Though it had been useful and made Kisame a prime target that he managed to hit dead on, he couldn't finish off something that he couldn't see.

That really stuck in Shikamaru's craw as he tried to compound all of the information he had managed to compile thus far while watching Kisame fight, 'Keep him away from that sword.' It was still stuck in between the two crushing folds of solid earth that Yamato had created, "Yamato-taichou get rid of that sword!" The man in question nodded and started more hand-seals to bury the weapon underground and be rid of it.

From the other side though, a massive dragon of water rose up and aimed directly at Yamato before crashing down at him. He managed to jump back out of the way miraculously as it bored a hole directly into the forest floor, but right from the place where it crashed and burst apart into pulsing water three separate Kisame clones leapt out. One of them reached Yamato easily and trapped him inside of a sphere of water, "Suirou no Jutsu (Water Prison Jutsu)!"

Asuma was able to easily kill the unarmed water clone that went his way with a few well placed trench knife strokes, while Shikamaru had defeated the one sent his way by pinning its shadow with one of the hidden projectile blades he kept in the sleeves of his black jacket, allowing him to finish it off almost casually and retrieve the weapon to place it back in its firing mechanism.

"Heh…" The short distraction allowed by his clones gave Kisame the time to retrieve Samehada. Standing at the top of the two sides of earth previously meant to squash him he held up the imposing sword in one hand and a loose explosive tag in the other, "I found the wire you attached to the hilt with your damn shadow brat." He said, directing his comment at Shikamaru, "I didn't see it until I picked it up. It's too bad Samehada absorbed the chakra right out of the active tag and turned it into a dud."

"What the hell is it going to take?" Asuma shouted out loud, by now thoroughly exasperated. Yamato was stuck in a water prison, and nothing they did seemed to be able to put this bastard down for good. Before he went to lunge out in an attempt to free Yamato he saw Shikamaru smirking. A look like that on Shikamaru's face never boded well for the recipient.

"That wasn't an explosive tag. You fell for a five ryo trick like that?" The look on his face didn't seem as if he felt they were in a do or die situation at all.

It was almost funny. But it was something that he managed to learn whenever he watched Naruto try to fight against Jiraiya, who Shikamaru noticed never took his eyes off of the boy. For all of Jiraiya's taunts and posturing he never for a moment allowed Naruto to achieve any sort of advantage over him, no matter how much improvement he showed from the last time. He never chose to give Naruto's ego the slightest boost with a comment on how well he had done, nor did he ever drop his guard for a second.

This was something that the enemies they battled as Guardian Ninja members didn't share, no matter how strong they were. The more powerful they were, the more they seemed to overlook minute details when they had the advantage. They took their good fortune in battle for granted.

Jiraiya subtly forced that habit of the 'elites' out of Naruto, made him understand that anyone you could possibly fight is always dangerous, and taught Shikamaru a trick to use against his enemies even if the old perverted legend never learned of his hand in developing a facet of Shikamaru's strategic thinking. The S-rank superiority gambit.

Kisame looked at the 'explosive tag' in his hand and saw that the piece of parchment meant to be written on was attached to the edges with weak staples that fell off to reveal a completely different array beneath it, "What kind of-?"

Shikamaru formed a ram seal and in a puff of smoke, Kisame felt himself stabbed through both of his sides. Looking directly down he saw another Shikamaru in front of him with his palms placed on his sides, the blades attached to his wristguards underneath his jacket sleeves impaled inside of him.

"A clone?" Kisame asked, feeling blood and anger well up inside of him, "A clone? I got stabbed by a clone? A shadow clone…" He sounded completely astonished by this fact, but the proof was right there before him, holding a pair of blades inside of him as he spoke, "That's impossible that anything managed to sneak up on me… unless."

Samehada was unable to sense the presence of the clone because it had come from the scroll itself. But that was impossible. Shadow clones lived and died like people did, the existence when left alone was basically the same. There was no way something like this that was prepared well in advance would hold a clone for the necessary amount of time without it expiring inside.

"My teammate studies sealing and summoning techniques and has probably done more experiments with clones than anyone alive." Shikamaru said with a stern look on his face, "It's way too troublesome to study, but you tend to pick some of that stuff up by contact no matter what. I barely understand how it works though, I stopped listening when he tried to explain it once. You'd have to ask him."

With a merciless and angry look on his face, Kisame reached down to the Shikamaru clone and proceeded to break its neck to brutally dispel it, "You just don't get it do you?" He asked as a chakra outline appeared around Samehada and the wounds he had suffered from Shikamaru's surprise attack seemed to close right up, "It doesn't matter how strong my enemies are. It doesn't matter what they think they can do to stop me. I never tire, and I can't be beaten!"

'All of that work…' Shikamaru thought to himself, glaring angrily at the renewed form of Monster of the Mist, 'What is it going to take to kill him?'

When he actually managed to check this guy and put him in grave situations that should have led to his death nothing happened. This was twice now. They had even gone as far as to separate them from his weapon, but he was able to divert enough attention with a double-feint to get it back, and even survived Shikamaru's continuity plan for just in case he managed to do so.

What did you do when someone had enough sheer brute force to power their way straight through any plan you could come up with? Even with two jounin, one of whom was an out-of-uniform ANBU, they still couldn't kill him.

Having taken advantage of the short time allotted by Shikamaru's move to win the fight, Asuma freed Yamato from the Kisame clone's water prison only to see the severe blow dealt to the man healing right in front of their eyes, "Come on Yamato…" Asuma said, sweat visible on his brow by this point of the battle, "You've got the Mokuton and we're in a forest. Can't you just bring these trees to life and send them after this guy like an army to kill him for us or something?"

Despite having just been sprung from a watery jail, Yamato still spared a rather chilling deadpan glance Asuma's way, "What in all of the years that we've known each other and fought together makes you think that I'm capable of something like that?"

"The Shodai Hokage could probably do it."

"Well go get him to do it then."

"…Are you sulking?"

"No! Now get ready to aim, you'll know when!"

Taking a shift in the way the battle had been going thus far, Yamato was the one to move forward and attack Kisame who jumped back onto level ground to continued fighting his Konoha enemies, "Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Great Forest Jutsu)!" His right arm turned into pure wood and speared out in several jabs at Kisame with sharp tips.

"You guys just don't know how to lay down and quit do you?" Kisame asked with a grin on his face as he cut through the forked attack with Samehada. To his misfortune though, it didn't harm Yamato whose arm turned back to normal, but the moment it turned back into normal flesh and blood his hands were already positioned to attempt another hand-seal, "You think you'd have learned by now! It doesn't matter what kind of jutsu you try to attack me with, if it's pure chakra Samehada can cut right through it!"

He tried to preempt whatever Yamato was trying and had him visibly flustered with how close some strikes came to cutting into him. He had to roll underneath one swing aimed at his neck in order to wind up at Kisame's back, but it only wound up with him getting mule kicked hard enough to be knocked a bit through the air. Landing on his feet and feeling like some ribs had been bruised from the open shot he never dropped his hand-seal.

"Doton: Doryuu Jouheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart)!"

Around Kisame, large walls comprised of the earth rose up around him in a semi circle underneath Yamato's feet, taking him high off of the ground. Suddenly whipping around, Kisame found himself staring down Asuma and Shikamaru, both glaring at him intently.

With a smirk, Kisame spaced his body out, prepared to deal with an attack from both sides, one from above and another from the same level as himself. It seemed as if they were getting sick and tired of everything they tried not working, "Bringing out the bigger guns I see? But come on. Double teaming me hasn't worked so far. Hell, triple teaming me hasn't."

It looked as if Asuma was shaking his head resolutely as three hand-seals were made prior to him placing overlapping hands in front of his mouth, "Fuuton: Fuujin no Jutsu (Wind Release: Dust Cloud Jutsu)!" From his mouth he shot a frighteningly quick stream of particle-filled wind at Kisame, moving just as fast as Shikamaru's shadow was going across the ground at him.

'You think I'm cornered?' Once again, Kisame stabbed the blade of Samehada into the ground to sever Shikamaru's shadow attack before it latched onto his and took cover behind the flat of the weapon as it absorbed the chakra from Asuma's jutsu, "Hey, Samehada finds eating wind ninjutsu to be a bit crispy!" With Asuma's wind jutsu blocked he turned around to prepare for whatever attack Yamato was going to use from atop his rampart, but where Yamato was standing he saw… Asuma? "What?"

On top of the high walls there Asuma stood, already halfway through another chain of hand-seals, finishing as quickly as he could to take advantage of the opening provided to him, "The first attack is always a feint." He said dryly, getting a half-hearted indignant 'hey' from Shikamaru for stealing his line, "Katon: Haisekishou (Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning)!"

Asuma shot a cloud of dark powder from his mouth down at Kisame while on the other side where he had originally been standing, Yamato now stood with Shikamaru and used his previous earthen jutsu to raise the level of the ground to a similar level in another semi circle, trapping Kisame inside of a circular pit.

Due to Asuma's jutsu not being a direct attack, Kisame's attempt to use Samehada to absorb it only worked slightly. It was a powder that hung in the air around him without really touching at the sword. Spinning in a circle while swinging the sword he cleared out a decent area for himself to breathe though, "What was that supposed to be?"

A smokescreen? Were they trying to corral him somewhere in that pit to be finished off? Were they covering for another attack of Shikamaru's shadow from an unknown angle?

But then the smell hit his nostrils. The smell of the powder wasn't poison or anything like that. It smelled just like gunpowder.

With a flint placed on his teeth, Asuma created a spark on the leftover gunpowder trail hanging in front of his mouth and ignited the gunpowder in the pit for a massive explosion that filled it out and shot flames and smoke high up into the air via the walls that surrounded the intended target within. A yell from Kisame filled the air, but was mostly muffled from the sound of the blast.

Everyone standing on the walls had to turn away from the heat and the flash of the incredible blast, save for Asuma who had seen this play out similarly a hundred times before. All seeing this did was made him want a cigarette, "Absorb that."

"Mokuton: Jukai Heki (Wood Release: World of Trees Wall)!"

Thickly braided tree roots ran along the rim of the earth walls, closing off the smoky, fiery inside as if it were an oven. Both Yamato and Shikamaru coughed and waved smoke away after becoming visible on their side of the wall.

A smile came from Asuma as he walked along the edge to get to their side. He proudly clapped Shikamaru on the back, "Thanks for the switcheroo with your shadow. He looked like he'd seen a ghost or something when he saw me on the other side." Even Yamato had to admit when he found himself captured in Shikamaru's shadow and falling into pure darkness he didn't know what to make of it.

It was only when an instant later he found himself at Shikamaru's side he knew what was going on. A little warning would have been nice, but then again when exactly was there time for that? He had told Shikamaru to use them as pawns and wait for an opening anyway, so all the pineapple-headed young man had been doing was following orders really.

Shikamaru rubbed his neck as if it were sore and bothersome, downplaying his own move, "Well as long as he was holding onto that stupid sword I couldn't trap him with a Kagemane no Jutsu, and Kage Nui no Jutsu wasn't going to work again the way it did before so I couldn't sew him down…"

That left Kawarikage no Jutsu to switch Yamato and Asuma's places along his connected shadow, something that he was able to hide in the shadow of Yamato's first wall. Thank goodness it was late afternoon and the forest was bathed in shadows as it was to assist him.

"Kirigakure's going to want Samehada back." Yamato stated, pointing down into the enclosed pit. The sword would have easily survived that explosion and the fire as well, even if its user didn't.

"They can come and get it themselves then. Their ANBU are on the way as it is." Asuma said, sick and tired of that weapon and anything having to do with it. He was still on guard because he was expecting some horror movie moment where Kisame would suddenly burst from the ground and drag one of them to hell, "We can't touch it anyway can we?"

There wasn't time to care about that. They'd come back when they had adequate backup to secure the area. For now they needed to make sure that the other members of the squad were okay.

If they wound up in battle when they hadn't even intended to infiltrate anything, it was only a wonder as to what happened to everyone else. Taking charge, Yamato led the two men off to locate their teammates and link back up.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Escape Route of Otogakure Base)

"You can't take us both and keep the kid from getting caught at the same time." Suigetsu said, noticing that Guren didn't back down a bit despite the knowledge of this, "But let's see how you plan on doing it." He said before rushing straight ahead with Kubikiribouchou to be met with Guren's crystal arm blade, "Huh, these crystals of yours really are sturdy aren't they?"

"You'll see how sturdy they are when you've got one buried in your chest!" Guren threatened, pushing Yukimaru back to the wall before stepping forward to trade blade strikes with Suigetsu. Sparks flew from their respective weapons each time they met in the air, though Guren found that she was not going to be able to defeat one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist in a direct conflict of edged weaponry.

The first move Haku made to go for Yukimaru, Guren temporarily turned her attention away from Suigetsu enough to point out an arm and fire several large crystal needles at Haku that missed and stabbed deeply into the rock wall that the escape path was built into. She never thought that they were going to hit, but she needed to guide Haku into her direct field of vision along with Suigetsu which that technique allowed her to do.

She nearly lost that offending appendage though when Suigetsu almost lopped it off in swift retaliation for both taking her eyes off of him and attacking his girlfriend. Sword stroke avoided, she wasn't prepared for the punch that followed with a significantly bulked up arm, "Suiton: Gousuiwan no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Water Arm Jutsu)!"

She hadn't expected such a dangerous taijutsu anomaly coming from him, having forgotten that he could do things like that. That's right, they had managed to capture a Hozuki Clan member for a short time back a few years ago for Orochimaru to experiment on, so was this him?

Probably from the way that he seemed really pleased after he hit her, and even more pleased when her body smacked off of the solid ice wall that Haku had formed to keep she and Yukimaru from escaping.

"Guren!" Yukimaru instantly jumped in front of her and took several needles meant for her to the back, crying out in pain. The way Haku had aimed them they would have put her out of commission, but for Yukimaru they just hurt like hell, "You didn't have to do that brat, you're just making it easier for them to catch you."

"I'm supposed to be your partner aren't I?" He said with a pained smile as Guren pulled the needles out of his back quickly, ignoring the muttering of 'stupid' from the kunoichi.

Haku had past experience battling with a young and inexperienced jinchuuriki in Naruto. Despite the fact that he had never told her as much about his powers, after what she had learned after the fact looking back on that battle and outright beatdown he gave her she learned that even with things well in hand an emotionally distressed jinchuuriki was a touch dangerous.

She had meant for Yukimaru to step in and defend Guren, he seemed to like her a great deal. The more willing he was to risk himself to make sure that they didn't hurt her the simpler he would be to subdue than if he was just willing to let Guren defend him. Both she and Suigetsu had methods to subdue an opponent no matter how powerful they would get. If he started to rage, that would make things more treacherous, but also easier.

Suigetsu attacked with his massive sword once again, but Yukimaru came forward to meet him instead with an angry look on his face. His hand was open and he sent it forward to meet Suigetsu's blade. Hey, if he wanted to lose an arm that would just make catching him that much more straightforward, "Sangoshou (Coral Palm)!"

The shot from the sword knocked Yukimaru back harshly, but he was not cut and he did not lose an arm. The reason being that now there was a layer of coral that had grown on the top of the blade of the sword much to Suigetsu's shock, "What the hell?"

Behind her mask, Haku's face got a touch grave, 'Damn it, that was how the former Mizukage neutralized Zabuza-sama's swordplay during his attempt at a coup and forced us to flee.' "Get rid of it now before it spreads over the whole sword!" Haku warned aloud, not wishing her last link to her previous master to be encased in coral.

Suigetsu quickly lifted the weapon above his head and smashed it on the ground, breaking off the brittle coral along with the tip of the sword. It was a sacrifice that was an easy choice to make.

'Good work Yukimaru.' Guren thought at the quick action of her young charge, 'A broken sword won't do him much good even if it is a national treasure.' The scramble to rid himself of the coral left him wide open for Guren to close the distance between them, an evil look on her face as she did so, "Shoton: Suishou Rou no Jutsu (Crystal Release: Jade Crystal Prison Jutsu)!"

As he dropped Kubikiribouchou in surprise, the same technique that Guren used to crystallize and kill Gato at Degarashi Port encased Suigetsu and trapped him, freezing him inside of the crystal.

Or did it?

While his body wasn't moving, his face wasn't stuck in a horrified look of shock. He merely looked extremely displeased to be stuck in his current situation, even looking toward Haku with a beckoning look to get him out. That was enough to elicit a slight laugh from the ice-manipulating hunter-nin as she seemed to be prepared to make a move to free him.

"Make a single step and I'll shatter him like a glass mirror." Guren threatened, holding up a sole knuckle to the crystal prison. She didn't see what was so funny. But when Haku indeed moved forward, Guren scoffed and made good on her threat, casually shattering the crystal into multiple particles and breaking Suigetsu apart with it. And why was Haku making hand-seals?

"Sensatsu Suishou (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)!"

Inexplicable moisture from the countless crystal particles formed into long thin needles in the air all around Guren and quickly flew at her from all sides, forcing her to instantly jump up to avoid being stabbed to death. She didn't trust her thin crystal armor to stand up to anything sharp moving that fast, not after it had been broken in the past by other recent enemies.

The water needles reformed the moment that they missed, into Suigetsu's body as he lunged at Guren who had stuck herself to the ceiling. The surprise attack thoroughly shocked her, but she still dodged, and Suigetsu's attempted punch hit nothing but the rock, "Damn it Haku-chan I hate when you do that to me!" He shouted at her, only getting more laughs for his trouble, "It's not funny! Just because I can turn into water doesn't mean I like consenting to being used for jutsu when I do!"

"But it's such a good method for a sneak attack." Haku defended in return, "It was either let her break you and then do what I did, or fight to get to you, freeze the crystal, and then find a way to break that." She was not physically strong enough to do that on her own, even if Kubikiribouchou was around for her to use.

A bark of laughter came from Guren who was back with Yukimaru, "You can't break my crystal techniques, even if you swung at it with your giant butcher knife before Yukimaru broke it."

Suigetsu and Haku shared a look before turning back to her, the only one of them with a visible face sporting a deadpan look on it, "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Haku'll freeze cracks into anything you can make. You can't crystallize her either."

This wasn't good. She didn't expect those two to be as good as they were at working in tandem, to the extent that Haku could and would use Suigetsu's own body as a weapon depending on the situation at hand.

Gritting her teeth, Guren made a set of one-handed hand-seals before waving out her hand to send forth a pink wave of chakra. Both Haku and Suigetsu dodged it, but they weren't the real target. The wall at their side leading to the ocean found itself petrified in crystal before Guren made her move.

The wall leading to the cliff outside of the base shattered into pieces like a dinner plate and Guren leapt out of it with Yukimaru tucked under one arm while she slid down the slope, slowing her descent with a blade of crystal on her arm.

Dangerous? Yes, but not any more so than fighting with an inexperienced partner against two skilled enemies that were ready for them and could apparently counter her jutsu style. Cornered as they had been they wouldn't have stood much of a chance had they started using Yukimaru opportunistically the way they had been at the start.

On their dynamic exit from the base, Guren had reformed the hole she had created with a crystal substitute. That would slow down their pursuers enough for them to begin making their way elsewhere.

At least it would have if portions of the wall didn't frost over, cracks appearing in parts of it before it shattered. Both Haku and Suigetsu stood behind it, the latter with an abnormally bulky arm and fist outstretched from busting down the previously frozen over crystal wall.

"I tried to warn her that this would do her no good." Haku said as she watched Guren begin to make her and Yukimaru's escape in a crystal wheel on the surface of the water that was speeding away, "We can't let her get away."

Suigetsu looked down at the long way to the water with a frown and sighed, "Alright, I'm on then. Catch up soon though would you?" He said before diving straight out, aiming for the water despite how rocky the landing would be even if he landed in it, "Suika no Jutsu (Hydrification Jutsu)!" His entire body turned to liquid as he landed in the ocean and disappeared.

From up above, Haku watched this and looked at Guren's method of quick escape rolling out, cutting through the waves as it made for the horizon. She was going to have to follow Suigetsu's lead very soon, but it was best to lag a bit behind in this case, lest she get herself caught up in what he was about to do. Depending on how far away the two managed to get, he was going to wind up going a little overboard.

"It's for the best if I'm a little late to show." Haku said aloud before vanishing in a misty Shunshin.

XxX

(With Ino and Anko)

Juugo's rampage didn't seem to be subsiding. Not until he killed something, and that something was a pair of Konoha kunoichi that had been able to evade him thus far. Shrieking and shouting he continued storming through the forest in pursuit of Anko, whom he could sense lightly due to her Cursed Seal.

In his rage he didn't notice that he had entered a booby-trapped square of terrain within the trees until the explosive tags marking the corners of the field blew up with him inside of them. Anko was very accustomed to setting up traps and had used Fuubaku Houjin (Sealed Bomb Square Release) to try and contain Juugo, with help from the personalized tags that had been given to the team members by their creator.

The strength of the blasts from Naruto's powerful tags felled trees that weren't even meant to be caught in the square limits of the barrier, but for as strong as they were it didn't stop Juugo who passed right through the smoky aftermath looking around, "You think that'll kill me? I'll rip you apart when I find you!"

"Aww… you promise?"

The murderous view of the massive man swung upward to where he could see Anko standing in the branches above with a confident look on her face despite the situation. With one hand on her hip she casually tossed a kunai in the other.

"Did you mean what you said?" Anko continued to say as she looked down, "About ripping me apart I mean. Because, I have to be honest with you, that seems like a good time. Watching you try to do something like that to me. Why don't you come up here and go for it?"

"Die!" Juugo's boosters on his back shot him into the air at Anko. She immediately dropped down from her spot in the tree as Juugo punched clean through the trunk and split it into two. Due to a strand of ninja wire she prepared in another tree, Anko swung down to the ground and dodged the falling chunk of foliage before it could crush her into a pretty little stain on the forest floor.

'Any day now Yamanaka.' Anko thought to herself as she had to dodge Juugo landing on the ground leading with his fist and using enough force to smash a large crater into the ground, 'This guy's like an animal. Am I going to be able to stop him if she blows her shot?' In another concerted effort to stall, Anko hurled a shuriken his way before flashing through hand-seals that she never got to finish before Juugo exploded from his landing place.

The surprising show of speed allowed him to deliver a crushing punch to Anko's head that seemed to make it explode, only instead of gore it was mud that was sent flying as the top half of a mud clone was obliterated by his actions.

At first he seemed confused by the lack of Anko's actual presence, but after taking a moment to feel out his surroundings he grinned viciously and drove his fist directly into the ground, burying his arm into it up to his elbow.

All over the immediate area, wild and random spiking tendrils popped up all over, seemingly branching off from their origin point before one finally bore substantial fruit and wound up taking Anko out of the ground, having stabbed her through the thigh before it retracted quickly to pop up elsewhere like all of the others.

'Damn it that hurt!' Anko thought to herself, biting her lip to keep from crying out at the neatly placed puncture through her leg, 'Right, things like that aren't going to work for me. When he's transformed he can sense out my Cursed Seal like a beacon or something. Thanks for screwing me over again sensei.'

But now her mobility was completely shot to hell. A sloth could probably run up on her and take her out as she was at that moment.

Preparing herself to fend him off with whatever she had left on her to fight with, Anko kept waiting for the worst to happen. Juugo didn't charge her though. He didn't even move, and his head was hanging low.

With a raised eyebrow she stood up with the help of a tree and warily tried to get some more distance just in case when she saw Juugo's body return to normal, "Sorry about that, I've got a lot to sort out up here." Was that Ino? "Shinjoueishin no Jutsu (Mind Body Projection Jutsu) was a success." Yep, that was Ino.

"Yamanaka?" Anko asked warily, "You're in there?" A nod from Juugo's body was the answer, "For how long exactly?"

A sheepish laugh as if it was coming from a girl came from Juugo's form as Ino explained, "When he started really getting into that attack after realizing you were underground. I possessed him, but that's when it got weird. It's like this guy has split personalities. I had to deal with the wimpy one and suppress him first before the crazy one realized what was happening."

"You couldn't do that before I got stabbed in the goddamn leg!" Anko shouted, waving her arms around indignantly and subsequently losing her standing stability to wind up with her falling onto her backside.

"Hey, I went as fast as I could! No one ever trained us on having to deal with deposing two conscious minds controlling a single body! I never did that before!" Ino then stopped and thought about it, "Hey, if I studied it and wrote a good thesis on multiple personality disorder do you think I'd get promoted for it? Or paid at least?" It would only be good for Yamanaka Clan members really, and those that dabbled in subtle interrogation, but that was still good for someone.

"I don't care! Sedate and fix my damn leg before I wind up losing it or you will be living in a haunted house tonight! This shit hurts!"

Fine. Geez, for being so tough Anko was a big baby when it came to being wounded. Ino hoped she didn't complain like that when she got messed up in battles, "You're going to have tough it out and help me make sure this guy is really out for the count this time before I do anything about that."

XxX

(Elsewhere in the Ruined Otogakure Base – With Naruto)

"Go to Kiri and help a friend…" Naruto said to himself as he clawed his way up the side of a wall. Looking down he caught sight of the entire mountaintop ceiling that had crashed down on the inside of the once grand hidden base. He almost wound up falling in and buried along with all of those massive chunks of rubble, "…A big S-rank mission for your first job back is a good idea, best to jump right into it." He continued to mutter to himself as he looked up at the big open sky. The sun had almost fully descended by this time, "Oh Gato's involved? Sign me up. Stupid."

Finally pulling himself back to the top he peered over the side back down into what used to be the main chamber of the hideout. There were still specks of Kimimaro's bone forest that could be seen, but it was mostly just enormous chunks of the island summit that had fallen in after all of the devastation that he, Itachi, and Kimimaro had dealt that exact area with everything they did.

Okay, so it was mostly him and Kimimaro. Itachi was more subtle with his destruction than they were. Between Kimimaro sending pulverizing bone missiles, and stabbing a massive bone spire straight through the roof along with Naruto carving up the foundation of the summit with a chakra tail before slamming a superpowered Rasengan down into it, that place wasn't standing up to see sunset one way or another.

Good news; the summit mostly collapsing put out the raging, self-sustaining death inferno that he and Itachi had started all over the base due to their unknowing team-up collaboration jutsu.

…And that was pretty much the only good news he could think of.

Well there was the fact that he couldn't see either Kimimaro or Itachi, but he considered that to be a bad thing. He wanted to see them, see a body. Otherwise who knew if they were dead?

There wasn't a single motion down in there. The only noise that could be heard was the crackling of some of the still present flames down within and the rocks that were still crumbling all over the place.

Forming the ram seal, Naruto dropped his Kyuubi-cloak and extended his senses to try and scope out any signs of life. The fact that he could do this was the only thing that saved him from being speared through the chest from underneath the ground. He moved his body and pulled his machete in order to instantly retaliate to what was coming his way. Instead he was stabbed clear through the right shoulder by a long, thin bone sticking out of the rock beneath him, "Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu)."

Naruto shouted out in pain as Kimimaro emerged from the ground and knocked the weapon from his hand. The bone spear had severed the metal chain, showing off just how hard Shikotsumyaku allowed the user to make one's bones. The blue and orange clad jinchuuriki managed to remove himself from the bone spike by jumping back, leaving a gaping wound in his shoulder as Kimimaro spun through in one clean motion and kicked him smoothly, knocking Naruto off of his feet and to the ground.

The dull eyes of Kimimaro ignored Naruto writhing on the ground and clutching at his wound to shoot a short glance at Naruto's weapon that was well out of range. Moving forward he kicked Naruto's good arm aside when he made a move to fight back and stepped his foot on the injured arm to pin it in place while he held a bone sword at Naruto's throat.

Parts of skin and muscle were missing from the visible portions of his body. Even one of his eyes were missing due to half of his face being completely gone, "You've ruined Orochimaru-sama's base, but that means nothing. We still have all of the cards here. And now… you're going to die like the trash that you are."

"You sure do like to call people trash." Naruto said, voice straining due to the pain. If he even started to show that he was trying to dredge up the Kyuubi's chakra Kimimaro would just finish him off, "Why'd you have a jinchuuriki to begin with?"

"Because Orochimaru-sama desired one. It's as simple as that." Kimimaro said. He had Naruto dead to rights. There was nothing he could do and Itachi wasn't there anymore. That only left the two of them, "All he wished was to better himself for the organization by obtaining Uchiha Itachi's Sharingan, and that was grounds for dismissal to them. He thought that if anyone would understand his desire to improve himself and make himself the ultimate being it would be a group of his elite peers, but they were just as fickle-minded as your weak village."

"Won't taking a jinchuuriki just make him a target?" Naruto asked aloud, trying his damndest to stall for time. It was almost like he was feeling around for something, but he wasn't moving an inch, "I know about your boss, but there are supposed to be nine of these guys. Having a biju with him is just going to mark him down for them."

Straight to the top of their hit list indeed. But this didn't seem to concern Kimimaro a bit, "Do you know why Orochimaru-sama elected to utilize Yukimaru as a jinchuuriki instead of a younger child as is the custom?" He could tell from Naruto's silence that he didn't, "Yukimaru's body is strangely compatible with the creature, it is stabilized with his chakra system as if it is meant to be there. Even without it being inside of his body he could exact a measure of control over it."

"So what's the point?"

The expressionless face of the monster form of Kimimaro didn't even blink in response, "Can you imagine what a man with Orochimaru-sama's ingenuity can do with a powerful jinchuuriki body? He can remain in it for an entire lifetime and have unimaginably powerful chakra at his beck and call, and that is merely the tip of the potential iceberg. With the chakra supply of a jinchuuriki he can implant a Sharingan into his body akin to Hatake Kakashi and circumvent the stamina problem altogether."

"He's going to take his body?" Naruto shouted up at the underling of the snake sannin, "What's wrong with you people?"

"You know nothing of progress." Kimimaro stated coldly, digging his heel into Naruto's damaged arm to elicit a groan of pain from him, "And if you believe that making himself a jinchuuriki will endanger Orochimaru-sama know this; as long as I'm at his side I will reap a path through the Akatsuki so that he may lead us to newer heights." He narrowed his eyes down at Naruto and drew his sword back, "All enemies of Otogakure and Orochimaru-sama deserve the same fate; death."

"Look why don't we all just go home?" Naruto said, writhing in place on the ground, "Well… we'll go home. You guys can go to a hotel or something. And we can work this shit out another day, because none of us is having a good day right now." Where the fuck were those ANBU?

"I think not."

"I knew you were going to say that."

Without warning from behind, Naruto's machete lifted off of the ground and flew directly at Kimimaro's back. Impenetrable metal-dense skeleton or not, with wind chakra running through the blade it stuck directly into Kimimaro's back four inches deep, it might have even been resting on his spine. He couldn't remember the last time he had been wounded that deeply.

Hearing a jangle noise, he turned around and found the chain that he had severed reconnected to the bottom of Naruto's machete handle. But how?

The trail of the chain led to where the weapon had been lying, and then underneath the ground. Taking a step off of Naruto due to the severity of the thick-cutting blade buried in his back, Kimimaro saw that even though the arm he had been standing on was slick and dyed red with Naruto's blood, there was still a chain extending beneath his bloody arm-warmer that was going underneath the ground.

"Yeah that chain didn't come from around one of my grieves. That chain comes from me. How else do you think I kept extending it and pulling it back so fast?" Naruto said, jumping back to his feet as his chain pulled the machete out of Kimimaro's back. The opening given hear allowed Naruto to blur forward and rest both of his hands on Kimimaro's torso after disarming him, "And while your body might be as tough as steel I'll bet your insides aren't. Giga Shintou (Giga Impact)!"

With a twist of his hands and a sharp tug of them away from Kimimaro's body, Naruto created something of a crushing vacuum with his wind chakra in the hollow areas of Kimimaro's body, past the devilishly strong bones, to the soft and squishy bits beneath.

Kimimaro's head turned up and a spurt of blood flew up from his throat into the air due to having his internal organs squeezed like stress balls by Naruto's wind manipulation. Eyes rolling into the back of his head, his Cursed Seal receded before he fell onto his back ramrod straight and didn't move again, face twisted in shock and pain.

Naruto just stared down at the white-haired warrior, clutching his wounded shoulder with one arm as his own chest heaved up and down tiredly. Part of him was expecting Itachi to play opportunist and swoop in on him to try and finish the job on him, but it never came.

Whatever happened to him? If the entire base falling inward on itself didn't kill Kimimaro he doubted that it managed to take down someone like Itachi.

The bleeding from his shoulder was beginning to slow and with a weak shake of the limb Naruto's chain retracted itself, reeling in his machete to dangle just underneath his hand. He spared a glance down at it with a click of his tongue, "Thanks mom."

According to Jiraiya, Uzumaki Kushina had a very strange kind of chakra that worked for a special kind of ninjutsu style that revolved around using chains made of her own chakra that she would expel straight from her tenketsu. After working out the probable process of how it worked through Jiraiya's stories and Shikamaru's comparison in regards to how his Kage Nui no Jutsu worked, he came up with it a few weeks prior to the end of their tenure as guardians.

Apparently Kushina could do it from pretty much anywhere on her body with any tenketsu and the strength of her chains were so strong she could use them as the basis for a barrier, or as outright attacks complete with spikes, hell she could do even more than that from the things that he had heard! Compared to her Naruto wasn't anywhere near that. His chains weren't that strong to rely upon as weapons in of themselves in battle and he could only make them from his arms since that was where he was most accustomed to moving chakra from, but it definitely saved his ass today.

He literally had something up his sleeve that won that battle for him.

From the summit of the island he had a pretty good view of most of it and could see for the 10 square miles of the land. Shutting his eyes to really feel out as far as he could, Naruto sent out a burst of Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu to locate any signatures he could find.

He could feel Asuma, Shikamaru, and Yamato moving toward the northern coast. Anko and Ino were together in one place with another pretty unstable chakra. He couldn't feel Haku or Suigetsu anywhere on the island at all so they must have been underground or their search took them farther than his ability allowed him to reach from even that high.

Victory or not, fully completed mission or not, he was still concerned with the whereabouts of Uchiha Itachi, 'He definitely could have tried to take me down right now.' Naruto thought, shooting a look to his right shoulder that Kimimaro had gored, 'Did he really just leave?' He couldn't sense him either.

XxX

(Elsewhere on the Island)

Kisame sat, leaning against a tree overlooking a coastline area of the island. His Akatsuki cloak was completely burned off and he barely had pants left on to speak of. Those three had gotten him good.

In order to defend him as best as it could, Samehada wrapped itself around as much of his body as it could. This actually managed to absorb a tremendous amount of the destructive power of the blast that Asuma created and kept him from being blown to separate pieces. The fire itself was a different story though. Samehada couldn't protect him from all of it, only the fire that touched the blade managed to get absorbed.

And to keep from being cooked Kisame had to choose to retreat with the use of Doton: Dochuu Senkou (Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage)… for now anyway.

Footsteps resulted in Itachi walking right next to where Kisame was sitting down from behind the tree he was leaning against. Sparing a glance to the side, Kisame saw that Itachi was pretty well-worn himself, but was easily the one in better condition than him, "Itachi-san, you didn't use the Mangekyou Sharingan did you?" His eyes weren't bleeding and he wasn't straining to look out at the sunset, thus he hadn't done so.

"There was no need." Itachi said calmly as the two of them looked out at the ocean, "You didn't use Suirou Sameodori no Jutsu (Water Prison Shark Dance Jutsu) did you?" He asked in return, already knowing the answer as well. From where he ended up if Kisame had used that jutsu everyone on the damn island would have been able to see it.

Kisame let out a chuckle before sharply inhaling through his teeth in pain, "If I'd have caught up with that Kimimaro brat I'd have used it out of principle just to see him squirm and die, but against three opponents it's not really an ideal kind of move." For someone so severely burned he was in good spirits, "I'll just get Samehada to lend me some more chakra to patch this up.

"He's dead now if it makes you feel any better."

"Ha, it kind of does. Did you put that nuisance down?"

"No, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki Uzumaki Naruto killed him."

"And you didn't capture him afterwards?"

"It wasn't the right time."

"Whatever you say Itachi-san."

Both of them just continued to stare out at the sea before Kisame let out a sigh and tilted his head back, "…The Sanbi got away too didn't it?" Itachi didn't answer, and that in of itself elicited a sigh from the shark-like man, "When we took the Yonbi it was easier than this clusterfuck."

Would Kakuzu and Hidan have more trouble taking out the Nibi? He sure hoped so, because this crap was ridiculous.

"Let's return to the mainland." Itachi insisted, taking a few steps forward closer to the coast, "Leader-sama will want to know of these events. And a more accurate and current report on the formerly mostly unknown abilities of Uzumaki Naruto will only help in the long term."

That much was true. Everything that had been amassed on Naruto prior to his departure from Konoha was woefully outdated due to his time spent behind the concealing capital walls.

Besides, a snake was getting away with Akatsuki property. Orochimaru was finally sticking his nose in their business too the way that they always figured he would. They just never figured he'd try to take a biju in for himself.

Sasori was going to be pissed.

"Sure, let's go. I think my nerve endings are fixed enough so I can move without being in complete agony by now."

"…You look positively barbequed."

"Please shut up… and don't use any fire ninjutsu around me for a while or I might attack you."

XxX

(Seas Around the Island)

Haku had thought to lag slightly behind Suigetsu because in the ocean he would wind up using large-scale water ninjutsu to stop and defeat Guren, but what she found wasn't what she expected to see at all.

The bodies of the entire strike squad of ANBU that had been sent to back them up lay dead and bleeding in the water.

And Suigetsu was unconscious in the sea as well. His body was rendered into a jelly-like state that was basically like an oil slick on the surface of the water. A surefire sign that he had been defeated.

"What in the world?" Haku whispered to herself as she slowly walked around and surveyed the scene, "What happened here?" Upon getting close to Suigetsu's form she kneeled down and leaned over him, "Tell me what went on. Did Guren defeat you, or was the Sanbi too much even inside of its jinchuuriki?"

Suigetsu seemed to be able to see and understand her, but he was too weak to reform his body. His voice came out in a garbled tone through the water, "No …Orochimaru…"

XxX

Onboard a ship with an eight-headed snake figurehead, a contingent of nameless, masked Otogakure shinobi were busy making sure that both Guren and Yukimaru were in apt condition. Both of them were soaked to the bone, bleeding in some places, bruised, and otherwise looked like they had thoroughly been put through the ringer.

Yukimaru seemed utterly shellshocked at what he had just made it through, and Guren just seemed relieved to see a friendly uniform.

The crowd of attending ninjas parted and standing there like a conquering deity was Orochimaru, smiling down at the two of them. To most people to see this man smile at them would be chilling to the bone, but it was relieving to the two of them, "Guren… you've accomplished all of your missions admirably. Thanks to you Gato's wealth has been permanently secured for Otogakure, and you've managed to protect my young investment here in Yukimaru."

The moment that he received word of Gato's death and that he was now the majority beneficiary of the vast amount of Gato Company's massive funds he was aware that Guren had completed her mission that had really been assigned to her when she was sent to watch over Degarashi Port as the lead of Otogakure's security for Gato; managing to divert money from the company towards further investing greatly into the 'ninja business' after Gato's eventual tragic death.

Anyone that took over the company's reins after a successor was decided, if one would be decided before the massive shipping company was bitterly split up between Gato's useless business associates (see: yes men), they would never notice what all of that money was put into, and that they were essentially left with nothing between the lot of them worth really fighting over.

Taken back by the praise, Guren just looked at him in awe before bowing to him on one knee, "Orochimaru-sama, I was merely doing the work you assigned me to the best of my ability." They were such long assignments, and the Gato one was especially grating, but for him it was nothing at all.

"Don't be so humble dear." Orochimaru said, gesturing to the fading island on the horizon, "You managed to salvage the most important facet of my Mizu no Kuni dealings despite the fall of our main base." He gestured to the people around him, "I figured that after word came to me of the fall of Degarashi Port, a move would be made on us here by Kiri, so I evacuated all of our loyal people while their attention was on locating this main facility."

She shook her head dejectedly, "We failed. They managed to destroy the hideout even without the ANBU team making it there to assist. Akatsuki was important in ensuring that."

Still, hope filled her chest when Orochimaru casually dismissed the loss of their stronghold in prime position to do as they wished in Mizu no Kuni, "There is no more interest in this land for us. I've taken all that I need." He had taken enough subjects for experimentation, recruited enough potentially skilled recruits, and obtained basically everything of value that he could receive from that country without starting an outright war.

Guren remained bowing until she saw Yukimaru looking slightly intimidated at being in front of Orochimaru again despite having her with him, "Don't be afraid Yukimaru, you are very important to Orochimaru-sama. Too important to ever allow harm to come to you by those people."

A tentative nod came from Yukimaru who then looked back upon the white-skinned legend. He had been hearing the exact same thing ever since he had been made a jinchuuriki by Orochimaru and the strange man in purple with glasses. He used to be a prisoner of Otogakure, stolen away from his former unspectacular and drifting life, but was quickly taken away from that fate the moment he was deemed to be special.

But it took until that moment to really drive home the point that Guren and Kimimaro had been telling him for a couple of years. Like a hero out of some kind of legend, he seemed to come from nowhere, and he protected them from the powerful man that seemed to be one with the very water. He protected them from the squad of ANBU that appeared and seemed to be prepared to steal him away to their village.

He rested a hand on Yukimaru's shoulder and took the boy into a partial hug, "The sacrifice that Kimimaro made today in keeping the enemy away from you has to make you understand Yukimaru, that I only want great things for you. I only want great things for all of us." He said, speaking up to the entire mass of Otogakure ninja on the ship, "But there are oh so many out there that would seek to destroy us, and why? For seeking natural excellence in our ilk? For trying to improve upon what we already have?"

The hard look in the eyes of the many masked Oto men and women onboard as they nodded along in agreement along with what their leader was saying seemed to sway Yukimaru as Orochimaru directed Guren to stand and come along with him to the interior of the ship for medical treatment, food, and rest.

"I will never let Akatsuki harm you Yukimaru." Orochimaru assured him wholeheartedly, "I will make you strong, strong enough to keep Guren from being hurt by them or anyone else again. I promise you that. I will show you… I will show you all just what true power really is."

Though normally his words would come with a measure of faith in order to accept and believe them, when Orochimaru assured everyone on board that he would show them all what true power was, there wasn't a person there that hadn't seen him in action personally that did not believe in every word he was saying.

Omake: Guardian Days 6

(Eleven Months after Naruto and Shikamaru's Acceptance)

Sitting around a table in the common room of the Guardian Ninja quarters, there were ten players in the middle of a very large game of hold 'em in order to wind down from a rather tumultuous stretch of missions that had been dealt to the group over the course of the last month. It was the first time that all seven current members of the group had been underneath the same roof since Naruto and Shikamaru had completed their inaugural training.

In addition to Naruto and Shikamaru who were currently keeping their two cards to themselves, both with varying degrees of exasperation on their faces at what they were seeing, also sitting around the table in clockwise order were Sadao, Kotoko, Kenta, two other members of the guardians, the handler of the group and an aide to the daimyo in Nobuyuki, a pissed off looking Tsunade, and Jiraiya

One of the two other members of the Guardian Ninja organization was a young man Sadao's age with pale skin, and long hair fixed in ponytailed dreadlocks. He wore a white pants along with an open-collared hooded jacket with flame patterns all over it and a big hood in the back of it that was currently down as he was not out in the sun at the moment. His red eyes were aimed down at the table as he finished dealing the three community face-up cards that would serve as the ongoing flop for the hand.

Sitting next to him with a very smug expression on her face was the second of the other members of the guardians. A seventeen year old girl cropped black hair and one bang hanging over one of her sharp blue eyes with a thin scar going down her right cheek. She wore an intentionally shredded looking pink t-shirt and red leather short skirt with the guardian sash around her waist along with a mesh bodysuit underneath that covered the rest of her body. Taking a quick glance at her cards she confidently looked around scrutinizing the expressions on everyone else's faces. This was probably due to the fact that the most chips at the table collectively belonged to her.

Subtly leaning over to his apprentice's cards while Naruto seemed to be shifting uncomfortably due to his hand, Jiraiya started mumbling in a play-by-play announcer's voice under his breath, "And with Uzumaki holding the 'A's' it looks like he's an early favorite in the-."

"Fold." Everyone deadpanned at once and tossed their hands in.

"What? Ero-sensei back off!" Naruto shouted, shoving his teacher's face back over to the airspace of his own seat, "Quit peeking at my cards! I've been getting my ass kicked all night here, give me a break!" Just because Jiraiya could afford to piss away this much money getting beaten down in a card game didn't mean he could. He was steadily losing his whole paycheck here.

"Join the club brat." Tsunade grumbled, upon hearing Jiraiya blatantly expose what Naruto apparently had to the entire table. With a frown she looked up across the table to where Sadao was sitting and calmly enjoying the environment, "How are you even playing? You can't read the face of the cards."

Realizing that he was being addressed by one of the two strongest ninja at the table, Sadao blinked and lifted his cards in front of his sunglasses-clad face before shrugging and putting them back to what he figured was facedown, "Oh, well I just like being here. And when you came in here you were yelling that no one could hang out here without actually playing, so here I am."

"But you're losing. Badly."

"Well it can't be helped. Next time it's proposed we play, someone needs to bring cards that read in Braille so that everyone can take part equally."

"Why would I do that? Then you'd beat me too. At least I know right now that if I can't beat anyone else I can beat the blind guy."

A frown broke out on Sadao's face before the blind monk just accepted the way things were. If he had a nickname like 'The Legendary Sucker' he'd probably take any win he could get while gambling too, "Hey Jiraiya-sama do you have one of those for me? I'm kind of parched." He said, referring to the beer bottle in Jiraiya's hand.

"Ah, sorry kid." Jiraiya said, shaking the nearly empty bottle in his hand, "Fresh out." He thoroughly ignored the fact that he had five more sitting on the floor right behind his chair. Hey, if Sadao wasn't extending his field of awareness far enough to know that much he obviously didn't want one that badly. Why share?

"Come on, let's go." The girl with short hair was the next to deal and had done so, prompting Nobuyuki to toss out the starting wager, followed by everyone else that chose to up the ante, "I want to hurry up and bust you all so I can get some beauty sleep."

"Akira you suck at life." Naruto said, taking offense at the fact that he had been getting crap all night long, "How can you do this to me? What am I going to do until I get paid again?"

"Go to the barracks with the standing soldiers and eat with them." Akira replied nonchalantly as if the battle-scarred beauty didn't care that she was bankrupting him, "If you wanted a better chance you should've played spades or tonk instead." Why did she have to feel bad about it? She hadn't known him or Shikamaru for very long at all since they were all usually busy out and about on missions.

"You know how women are Naruto." Shikamaru said immediately after, despite the fact that there were currently three women all older than him at the table, "They don't care if they use up all of your money as long as it goes to what they want."

After hearing what he had to say, Tsunade didn't really consider it as much of an insult as she expected to receive from that lazy kid, "Damn right."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Akira followed up while checking over her fingernails.

"Hey, I got an 'A' and a seven. What kind of lame cards are these? Even the ones with letters on them don't spell anything!" Kotoko… well if it was very believable, she actually wasn't doing that badly all things considered.

The mammoth Kenta looked at his hand behind the basket helmet on his head before he threw his hand in and folded, just shaking his head wordlessly. That was pretty much the best thing that anyone could say to sum up the entire game thus far, "Shinya?" He said simply, passing the buck to the next person's turn.

With a scoff, the pale, white-haired, red-eyed young man seemed to mull over his chances with what he had, but upon looking next to him at Akira who seemed amused at anything he thought he could do to win. In the end he just threw his hand in, "Oh what's the point? No matter who's dealing Akira's been tearing all of us apart all night long." Shinya said, placing his head down on the table.

"Don't be so mad about it." Akira said, choosing to up the ante further, "Some people win and some people lose. Nobuyuki?" The good-natured attendant just smiled and nodded his own consent to continue, throwing in his own increase to the pot, "That's the spirit."

"I'm not letting some wet behind the ears kunoichi break the bank on me." Tsunade growled, choosing to continue as well, "I think you're full of crap."

"I'm out." Jiraiya said, subtly switching out beers so that Sadao didn't notice the movement and he didn't have to share, "I can't keep doing this. I could be hitting on the ladies of the court right now instead of losing all of this money."

Naruto doggedly refused to believe that someone could win so many heads-up showdowns when it came time to show their cards and pressed on as well the way that Tsunade and Nobuyuki chose to. Shikamaru just stared across the table at Akira who was smugly waiting on him to either fold or continue. Instead of doing either he leaned over to Sadao and whispered into the blind man's ear.

Seeing nothing wrong with adhering to whatever Shikamaru requested of him, Sadao increased the depth of his field of perception with his Keimoudama (Sphere of Enlightenment) jutsu and his eyebrows raised high up over his sunglasses at all of the ambient chakra permeating the air, "Why's there a genjutsu in the room?" It wasn't like he could see whatever it was doing so it must have been cast over the general area instead of over any person in particular.

The room went dead silent as everyone threw their hands together in the ram seal and together dispelled whatever illusion had been set over the room, more specifically over the cards, as it had been covering up exactly what the true face of the cards everyone had were according to what the user wanted them to be.

Only one person there was really into genjutsu all that much to try such a thing on all of them. All eyes immediately turned to Akira who was visibly sweating at that time and had backed her chair up amid the crushing quiet and stewing killing intent from a couple of the players.

With good reason too, because without warning Naruto immediately dove over the table to grab her and missed when she jumped out of it and ran for the door. By this time Tsunade had flipped the table up to the ceiling and was in hot pursuit in chasing her out with Naruto following right behind.

Everyone just sat in their places without a table between them as if what had just happened was a normal occurrence. The loud yells of anger from both Naruto and Tsunade and the corresponding crashing as Akira continued to try and escape them echoed throughout the vast building.

Nobuyuki laughed in an almost childishly delightful manner and put his hands together as if applauding at a show, "Good show! What a splendid gathering! We'll have to do this again the very next time that everyone is in town."

Jutsu List

Kura Taifuu no Me (Eye of the Dark Hurricane). A-rank ninjutsu, offensive, mid-to-long range. Similar to other ashen-styled ninjutsu based on a specialized form of wind release, the user will eject the superheated substance from their mouth but at a faster rate than lesser attacks. The jutsu tends to cloud and hang in the air for longer and can be prematurely manipulated into a pattern dependant on the user's desire prior to being fired, making it a highly malleable and versatile jutsu for combat to either overwhelm or corral a varying number of opponents to establish control of a wide battlefield. Has high trickery and trapping potential due to this fact.

Sansei Ame (Acid Rain). B-rank ninjutsu, offensive, mid-to-long range. The user kneads chakra into a time-release ball of a compressed chemical substance and fires it into the air. It bursts into a cloud of poison that saturates the area beneath it in a quick downpour. Due to the ability of the technique to cover a decent amount of space it must be used carefully lest a ninja find harm dealt to their comrades in addition to their enemies.

Ongoing Stats (Out of 5)

Ninja Guardians

Ishii Akira

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 4

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 2.5

Hand-Seals: 4.5

Total Score: 26.5

Kondo Shinya

Ninjutsu: 3.5

Taijutsu: 3

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 3.5

Strength: 3.5

Speed: 3.5

Stamina: 4

Hand-Seals: 3

Total Score: 27