Orochimama - Chapter 46

Obito couldn’t bring himself to be satisfied at the situation. He had expected something to happen, obviously, it was Orochimaru (or whatever the hell Orochitama counted as) and underhanded treachery of surprising cleverness should have been more than expected. The attack had hit him, but only at first and not at full power. His phasing power didn’t have only one setting. He could lean further in and out of the real world as needed, and when the attack first hit, he felt it instantly make his ears bleed and the world to sound like high pitched ring even as he leaned further away form the world and sound no longer effected him.

He could still see things, but when he was leaned that far out he wouldn’t be able to hear a damn thing, not that he could currently hear anything beyond the ringing of his own ears.

He had ways to get around that though.

“Ara ara, I didn’t know you were so eager to penetrate a woman.” Orochitama’s said, her meaning conveyed by reading her lips with his Sharingan as her hand gripped his arm weakly tried to pull it out. He ignored the attempt with his Hashirama strengthened arm. “Going all in without prepping first is no way to treat a lady, how about easing off a bit and build back up to this?”

Obito gave a snort of laughter. “You’re not the only one that can do research. As long as I still have you impaled, you can’t just spit out a new copy of yourself, whole and unharmed. You have a juxtahepatic venous injury. You’ll bleed out in ten minutes.”

As he spoke, there was for but a second, but he saw a smile of triumph cross her. Had his volume been too loud? Did he shout it? He couldn’t tell.

The more terrifying prospect would be if there was something he overlooked for her to be smug about. His arm? It was made by Madara of the First Hokage’s cells, there was no poison strong enough to effect it and besides, it didn’t truly have blood running through it; it subsisted on chakra.

“Ten whole minutes? My oh my, not a bad amount of time, but I think we could go for longer.” She leaned back slightly and laughed, using her hand to cover her mouth. She stopped abruptly as he twisted the knife, causing the Snake to flinch, and the movement to cause a deluge of blood to spill from her abdomen.

His position was precarious. The stab wound was clearly effecting her, but he had no doubts as to how effective he would be in the fight if she started to throw out ninjutsu or pull out Kusanagi. He could escape at any time, but to actually kill Orochitama he needed to make sure that the kunai stayed inside her. If she attacked he would need to phase away and dodge, but not pull so far back that he couldn’t prevent her from removing the kunai. It would be a dangerous dance, but one that would get easier the longer they fought and the more she moved around, making her lose more blood.

That was the plan. It was a good plan. Much better than what most of the people that went up against Orochimaru or Orochitama came up with.

The problem was that the woman wasn’t trying to dodge away. She wasn’t trying to counter attack, she just kept looking at him with an air of smug satisfaction.

It was unnerving.

“You’ve just decided to let yourself die then? Admitted defeat?” Obito asked doubtfully, watching her for any sort of reaction to piece together what was going on.

“This arm. I have to admit, it’s amazing. No blood, and yet it manages to hook up to your neuron system enough to control it well. Tell me, can you feel things with it still? Can you still feel a warm cup of tea in your hand in the morning the same way? Can you feel the cold caress of water on your fingertips as they glide on the surface tension of water?”

Obito blinked in surprise. Where was this going?

“Why?” he asked.

“These are important questions that you should ask, Mask-kun. Can you still feel the worn safety of a well used tool? The individual strands on your head as you run it through your hair when you’re tired?”

Her face looked so sad. So…pitying.

“Can you feel the love, when another hand grasps yours?” She asked at practically a whisper.

His constructed hand was a wonder. If anything, it had better tactile ability than his previous one, and yet, unbidden, he croaked, “No. I can’t.”

What was he even doing? He didn’t even need to fight her. Why didn’t he just-

He twisted the knife a bit more and growled, “Why are you asking these questions?”

His opponent heaved a sigh. “Well, your arm isn’t the first I’ve seen like that. Years ago, I was hired to build a very similar arm for a very old and very angry man. He wasn’t one to give that kind of feedback. I’m curious how it actually feels.”

She made something similar before? Was she implying she had some way to hurt him through it? It was doubtful, the Hashirama cells weren’t just the First’s level of regeneration, but they had been modified to be even more effective and full of life than what the original Hashirama had. It was doubtful that would be a method of attack.

Was she distracting him from something? Delaying him from something?

“Come now, Mask-kun. Talk to me, it’s a shame to die with regrets.” She said, not with a teasing look on her face but with a sad and regretful expression on her face. If he could hear, he knew he’d be able to hear a deep sadness in her voice.

He wasn’t sure what to do with that. Was it a trick to get him to back off? Did she seriously think she had already won?

“What is your game here?” He asked.

“No game.” She said with a shake of her head. “That would imply that this was fun or that you had a chance.”

A shiver ran down his spine and his arm began to itch.

xxxxxxx

When Shimura Danzo realized something was wrong, it was too late. He first noted the issue when a lucky attack from Tadaomi managed to slip through his body guards to strike him and he activated Izinagi to bring himself back. The technique worked, but as soon as it happened the eye he used pushed up and out of the arm with a wet pop.

“Ha. About time.” Anko said smugly.

“W-what did you do?” Danzo asked, staring at his arm in shock.

“Me? I just killed an arrogant gas bag of a traitor. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s already dead.” She replied as she jumped at him, smelling blood in the water.

Danzo began to scoff at her words, but the derision died in his throat. His arm began to warp before his eyes as it began to swell and small knots of flesh began to dot up his arm and something began to feel wrong in his chest. Instantly, Danzo used up another Sharingan eye to warp reality and his arm again appeared whole and unharmed.

“I don’t know what technique that was, but it was an exercise in-” Danzo’s tone faded as he again noticed his arm begin to swell and the same lumps of flesh began to form.

“What was that you were saying?” Mitarashi gloated with smugness.

Fear gripped his heart as the pain in his chest began to intensify. Something was very wrong. He had to get away, find someone who could treat him, or have a moment to figure out the issue himself. He ran through hand seals rapidly and in a puff of smoke, his Elephant-like summon appeared, trumpeting its battle cry as Danzo turned to make his escape.

“Hey, get back here! I’m not done with-” The Snake Traitor’s student yelled, only to be silenced by the roaring wind of his summon.

Then, Danzo turned and ran, gaining distance and healing his wounds by burning yet another Sharingan eye. He refused to die here, killed at the hands of young whelps! He just had to figure out what was wrong!

xxxxxxxx

I did my best to hide my pain, though I wasn’t sure why. At this point, crying out in anguish and letting my pain show wouldn’t change the outcome of the fight. I just had to confirm my plan was effective.

Plan A wasn’t a complete failure. I had managed to figure out that Obito was currently deaf on the sheer basis that he didn’t react to anything I said if I covered my mouth as I said it. He could be faking it, but I was confident he wasn’t, judging by his terrible job of controlling his own volume. The sound waves had effected him, but to a greatly lesser degree than I expected.

Plan B was likely to end things though.

“You know, I’m trying to make my village change to make the world a better place.” I said suddenly, causing my opponent to tilt his head in confusion at the abrupt statement. “Yet all the things that I did before I was Orochitama seemed set to take anything good I made and turn it into a weapon.”

I kept my grip on his arm, the one full of Hashirama cells that pressed the blade into my liver. Bleeding out was possible, but the larger concern for me was the contaminant in my liver spreading to the rest of my body. Not as severe of a concern for the average person, but it was a concern with some of the body modification I had done.

Super livers came with risks.

“The Shinobi World is made of blood and death, your hands embody those more than most. It is no surprise that anything you made would be tainted as well.” My opponent sneered.

There! I felt it. The skin in arm began to swell! Good, I couldn’t be sure that it would work on his variety of Hashirama cells. I was confident enough to bet my life on it, but it was nice to see it rewarded.

“How rude! I’ll have you know my hands can do all sorts of things!” I said with a flirtatious wink before snakes began to pour out from my sleeves to bite at the Uchiha. The snakes passed through him and I juked back into a low spin, lowering myself to the ground even as I ripped the kunai out of my gut. Obito dove after, a new kunai fresh in hand and stabbing at me in an eyeblink. I didn’t attempt to block him, and instead flexed my chakra and used the Skin Shedding technique. As Obito’s knife fell, it was into an empty husk of a body as a new and unharmed one pulled itself out of the husks mouth.

The Skin Shedding technique was one I didn’t like to use often. It required days of preparation before hand to have the technique ready, and even when I used it, it ate at my chakra heavily. A fifth of my total chakra pool disappeared in an instant.

Obito dove after me, phasing through the freshly stabbed husk to make another attempt at my body proper. I made no attempt to block, but instead dipped like a dancer over the oncoming attack and stepped straight towards his body and gave a spin through the body as he phased through me, leaving me at his back. Rather than stay and risk me pulling something, space curled and spiraled in towards his eye as he disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the roof, staring at me with a judging eye.

Then he winced.

“You see, Mask-kun, I tried to find a cure for cancer. Are you familiar with it?” I asked.

He stared at me in silence before his gaze slid over towards his arm, his body moving stiffly.

“I didn’t manage to cure it, unfortunately, but my men did find a method of making it. You see, cancer is when the cells in your body multiply at a greatly advanced rate, making too much of themselves to the point it harms the rest of the bodies processes. Turns out, with the right chakra techniques and chemical combinations you can create something that starts cancer in someone.” I informed as Obito began to grasp at his arm.

Poor kid.

“The scientist that discovered it was very insistent on weaponizing it, despite my orders. Thankfully, he never managed to make anything that could accomplish the horrors he sought to create, but it was enough for me to step in and finish it. The funny thing though, is that in a normal person, cancerous cells pop up all the time and the body can often find the defective cells and finish them off before they become too much of an issue.”

“The Hashirama Cells.” Obito said in mounting horror.

I gave a somber nod. “Yes. Once they kick off, your body can’t defend against it. The cells multiply too quickly and by the time you see the effects the cells will have begun to spread into the rest of your body, multiplying as quickly as they can. It will not be a pleasant way to go.”

“You let me stab you. You got your poison on me when you grabbed the hand that stabbed you.” Obito stated, but I could hear the question in it.

“Who knows? Maybe you breathed it in?” I offered. He was correct in the administration, but I still wasn’t certain this would be the end of Obito. There was a lot of bullshit in this world and Obito had access to multiple flavors. If I needed to fight him again, it would be handy to make him leery of multiple forms of poison administration.

Though on the other hand, the only reason he hadn’t left as soon as he noticed something wrong with his arm was the curiosity of what I had to say. The longer he sated that curiosity, the harder it would be for him to survive.

“How did you know all this!? How could you possibly have planned for all this!?” He demanded.

“We don’t have to fight you know. We can change the world for the better. I’m not stupid, I know the importance of strength of arms, but the more you sow seeds of anger and hate the more you will reap a harvest of blood. The only real way to change people is to touch their hearts and minds, but back it with the power to back your convictions.” I said in lieu of answering his question. “The answer is not the path of Indra or the path of Ashura, it is both. You need the balance of both.”

“You know even that?” He gasped.

His eyes stared at me in fear, a terror that could be so very useful to me and I felt myself be of two minds about what to do about that fear. My caution screamed that it was best to not spook him too much, as it would risk me becoming his biggest priority to kill. Another part of me reveled in the fear and knew that if he feared me enough, he’d leave me alone on the sheer basis of that terror.

My mouth decided before my heart or mind could agree.

“I know everything,” I said as I leaned forward, a wicked smile on my face as my voice became and deadly rasp, “Obito-kun.”

His eye widened in shock and in a moment, space twisted around him as he disappeared, leaving only the scent of fear on the wind.

I was confident he wasn’t coming back today.

I let out a shaky breath and ran a hand down my face. “Well, lets hope that doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.”

Then a roar shook the air as the primal power of raw chakra of a tailed beast shook the world unfiltered through a human. I didn’t even need to turn to know that Yagura had been killed and the Sanbi had been released, I could feel it in the very air and just the roar of the creature made the barrier of the Sound Four vibrate, something I wasn’t even aware the chakra construct could DO.

The Mist Ninja knew it too and they began to run away from the barrier rather than towards it.

It took but a signal for my men to briefly open a hole in the barrier to let me through the building at the same hole I had left. The cathedral-like room looked drastically different than it had previously. For one, it let in much more natural light which worked to illuminate twisted masses of pink coral and the steaming masses of cooled lava. Zabuza and Mei stood gasping for breath and staring up at the giant form of Isobu in abject horror.

“Zabuza, Mei, you did wonderful. Allow me to take over.” I announced as I walked forward.

“I- guess-” Zabuza gasped heavily between each word, “I- could let you- get this.”

I walked past the two and stared at the Three Tailed Turtle in awe; its presence, its size, it was magnificent. The air quaked with it’s chakra that filled even my mediocre sensing abilities like a big brass band, but the tiny details of its form was what really did it. The texture of it made it seem so much more real than any picture ever could; it was not smooth lines, but living texture with divots and scratches of a life lived.

“Hello Isobu, I mean you no harm, I wish only to speak.” I offered before starting to step forward, arms stretched to my sides to show I was disarmed and not a threat, though I glanced back towards the two terrified Jounin behind me. “Mei-chan, it might be best if you left to take control of the things. If you stay, you might hear some things you’d rather not know.”

She hesitated only a moment before she left to take control of Mist.

Zabuza didn’t follow. I raised an eyebrow at him in question.

“I still work for you right now, and I admit, I’m a bit curious.” Zabuza answered with a shrug.

“Very well.” I acknowledged before turning back to the force of nature before me.

He lowered himself towards me, an eyeball larger than my whole body examined me from mere feet away. I smiled and gave a jaunty wave.

“You…you are the one Shukaku mentioned.” Isobu said with a voice like the crashing of a tsunami.

“Oh! He passed that on? Lovely, I hoped he would let his siblings know.” I knew that the Tailed Beasts had a connection to each other and communicate with one another even when sealed in a Jinchuriki, but I wasn’t sure if Shukaku would pass on the info from our brief powwow when I fixed Gaara’s seal.

“You know of Father.” Isobu stated.

“I do.” I answered with a nod. “And your human siblings, Ashura and Indra, have been reborn again, but the important bit is that Kaguya’s plans are about to come to fruition through an organization called Akatsuki. However, I have a plan.”

I kept a pleasant smile on my face through the tense silence that followed. I could feel Isobu waring with the idea of just trying to squash me there and then, but he didn’t.

“Speak.” Isobu finally announced.

So I told him.

XXXXXXX

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura dashed through the trees at breakneck speeds. They had read the scroll and Naruto wasn’t totally sure he understood everything it had to say, but he got the gist. The guy Sasuke always had a hate-boner for had somehow had help to kill all of Sasuke’s family, or at least he had taken their bodies and took their eyes for himself.

In Naruto’s book, that was pretty messed up and the kind of thing their Sensei might need backup for. So he’d sent some clones to find Bushy Brow’s Sensei or the Pervy Sage to let them know what was going on while they chased after Sasuke’s puppy. The small ninja dog had picked up Kakashi’s scent and they chased after it.

“Hey, Sakura.” Naruto whispered to his girl teammate as they doggedly followed after Sasuke’s summon. It was handy and all, he guessed, but he was pretty sure the dogs didn’t have a giant summon like his toads did. He couldn’t wait till he had a moment to show Sasuke that he could pull out awesome fighting summons that were way better than his dumb puppy. Still, now wasn’t the time for that. He still had some questions. “I get the eyeball bit, but what’s the big deal about the Hash Ramen Spells the letter talked about.”

“Hashirama Cells!” Sakura yelled back at him.

“Yeah, that’s what I said. What’s so special about them?” Naruto pressed.

“Hashirama. The First Hokage. He was known to have a bloodline that allowed him to rapidly heal and hold great amounts of chakra.” Sakura snapped back at him.

“Oh. A Hokage. That makes sense.” Naruto replied and thought the statement over.

Improved healing? More chakra? That sounded like him. But…that must mean…

He had the qualities of a Hokage! Hell yeah!

It probably wasn’t the time right now, but he should totally point that out later when-

Sasuke abruptly stopped ahead of him, and Naruto had to divert himself to avoid running into his broody teammate, resulting in him gracefully smashing into the branch with his diaphragm, knocking the wind out of him for a moment.

“What is it, Masayoshi?” Sasuke asked, before shooting Naruto an unimpressed look, the bastard.

The puppy yapped twice and pawed at the branch they stopped on.

“What’s that mean?” Sakura asked.

“Does he have to go take a shit?” Naruto asked as he scrambled up onto the branch.

“He smells blood.” Sasuke’s dark eyes darted around the forest, Sharingan eyes spinning as he gazed at the forest like hawk. “Guard up. We’re close to whatever it is that’s going-”

An old man burst into the clearing below them, his sagging skin dripping with sweat and his body heaving, but the finer details fell away as all eyes fell to his arm. The appendage barely looked like an arm at all; it looked mangled and bulged unnaturally at points that didn’t even seem to coincide with where muscles would be, it was colored a shade of gray that should never be found on a human and amidst the malformed flesh red spinning eyes peaked out between the flesh.

“Hey, I think that’s-” Naruto began as Sasuke moved.

Sasuke rocketed towards the man and gave a shout.

“Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu!” Sasuke shouted a plume of fire obscured Naruto’s vision of the old man.

“Sasuke! We were supposed to talk first!” Sakura shouted out, aghast.

“Too late now!” Naruto chirped and threw himself after Sasuke.

The fireball abruptly shattered and a wave of wind jostled the trees. The old man stood in place with not hint of being singed.

“The Jinchuriki and the Uchiha.” Danzo growled, and Naruto’s blood ran cold.

“Jinchuriki?” Sasuke muttered before glancing at Naruto before shaking his head and shouting, “You’ll pay for desecrating the bodies of my clan!”

Sasuke dashed forward, loosing a barrage of shuriken ahead of him that spiraled around each other in a confusing pattern as they closed in on the old man. The old guy made a single hand sign in response and released a torrent of wind from his mouth that sent the projectiles flying back at them while also sending them stumbling at the wall of pressure hitting them. Sasuke stumble on his approach and one of his own shuriken scored a hit on his cheek.

“Stupid children.” The man growled. “You interfere in that which you don’t understand! I am Shimura Danzo, student of the Nidaime Hokage! Stop this foolishness, or I will kill you.”

The guy was right, Naruto knew. Maybe not for Sasuke and Sakura, but he was well aware he didn’t really know what was going on or why all this was happening. There was a lot of politic stuff and history shit here.

But Naruto didn’t give two shits about that.

“Where is our Sensei?!” Naruto shouted as he pointed an accusing finger.

“He dragged his students into this? How irresponsible.” Danzo scoffed before grunting and clenching at his chest near his right shoulder, but his eyes stayed focused on them. “Such a waste of talent.”

“Hey! Kakashi-Sensei is great! Way better than you!” Naruto yelled as he crossed his fingers and summoned a mob of Shadow Clones.

“I see he passed his weakhearted nonsense on to you.” Danzo growled as his non-deformed hand grasped the very air before swinging his hand as though he had grasped a sword and used it to cut an invisible enemy in front of him.

The only thing the saved Naruto and Sasuke was the warning of the charging Shadow Clones being destroyed in a wave of destruction that released just enough warning for Sasuke to tackle Naruto to the ground.

That was close! Naruto took a glance to make sure no one was hurt- wait, where was Sakura? A glance around the clearing didn’t show her anywhere.

“Focus idiot!” Sasuke barked.

“But-” Naruto began.

“Surround him with clones! All angles!” Sasuke shouted back over him. The bastard kept doing that every time he started to talk about-

Oooooooh. Okay.

“You got it! Mass Shadow Clone Technique!” Naruto shouted, flexing his chakra to summon as many clones as he could, the puff of smoke obscuring the clearing for but a moment before more than a hundred Naruto’s grinned with ill intent.

“You think that you can beat me with mere-” Danzo began before blood erupted from his mouth as he gave a coughing hack and fell to one knee.

“Wow…I didn’t realize I was that impressive.” Naruto noted.

“Idiot. It’s from him fighting Kakashi-Sensei!” Sasuke shouted before dashing forward and an army of Narutos followed after him with battle cries of their own.

Danzo stayed on his knees the whole time, barely reacting to the oncoming threat, then, when he was a hair’s breath from being stabbed by the oncoming hoard, the man suddenly just…disappeared.

“Hey, where did he go?” Naruto asked.

Then there was an explosion of wind that tore through his clones and sent both Sasuke and he tumbling and suddenly he was there, his arm looking mostly normal now and not a shred of the blood he had spat out earlier. His now imposing form bearing down on Sasuke. There was nothing Naruto could do to stop his teammate from being snatched up by his neck.

“If I am to die,” Danzo began, giving another panting breath as he ignored Sasuke’s desperate attempt to pry the fingers away from his throat, “I can at least insure your accursed blood does not spread.”

Sasuke smiled in response.

“What are you-”

Then the spool of ninja wire on Sasuke’s hip went taut, the other end in Masayoshi’s mouth pulled tight around a nearby tree, the wire popping up between Danzo’s legs, causing him to lurch to the side to avoid having his family jewels being ripped apart, but it left him unbalanced and still hoisting a vindictive Uchiha in one hand.

Sasuke used the arm gripping him as leverage to level a chackra-enhanced kick into the side of Danzo’s head, making the man stumble backwards and giving the ninja wire more slack. Slack that Sasuke used to wrap the wire around Danzo’s unnatural arm. Using Danzo’s face as a springboard, Sasuke wretched himself from Danzo’s grasp towards the ground. The Last Uchiha used the motion to yank the ninja wire with as much force as possible, making the wire shred the skin of Danzo and-

Danzo disappeared again and Sasuke rolled forward, just avoiding being hit by yet another blade of wind and Danzo reappeared, again unharmed, yet haggard and breathing harder than ever, the tired traitor taking a glance at his arm.

“You’re down to one.” Sasuke smugly stated with a hoarse voice that devolved into hacking coughs.

“One what?” Naruto asked as he sent another wave of clones towards their foe, giving his teammate time to recover.

“The eyes, on his arm. One closes every time all the damage goes away.” Sasuke croaked as he rose again on his feet and the beginnings of a nasty bruise formed on Sasuke’s throat.

Naruto squinted and realized that Sasuke was right. The arm only had one eyeball on it now. That was good enough as proof for him!

“So what’s the plan?” Naruto asked, only to throw himself to the side as a wave of slicing wind went for his feet. That kept happening for some reason, this Danzo guy didn’t seem to like his arms or legs cause that was the only part of Naruto he kept targeting. Though he clearly didn’t have the same opinion about Sasuke, because the brooding Uchiha barley dodged a wind attack of his own and was left with hair a finger-length shorter.

“Stall him. The poison or whatever is killing him. He can undo the damage with the eyes, but if we wait him out it’ll kill him eventually.” Sasuke answered.

A look of constipation crossed the old guy’s face at those words and Naruto adopted a mad grin. This guy could destroy his clones almost as soon as Naruto could summon them, but he was willing to bet he could summon waves of clones for longer than the other guy could fight them.

“Let’s go!” Naruto shouted, summoning another storm of Shadow Clones to rush the old guy. They died in mere steps. Whoever this guy was, he threw around more power than Kakashi or Zabuza ever did. So, he sent another wave, only for them to meet the same fate in a hurricane of wind that forced Naruto to cling to the ground with his chakra to avoid being blown away, the stabbing wind blocking his view of anything until a hand burst from the cyclone. Naruto scrambled back to avoid it, but the normal hand of his enemy managed to grasp the front of his jacket and haul him up in the air.

“Konoha can’t lose the Beast. Though anything short of death can be-” The man began, his words vaguely slurred.

Naruto didn’t let him finish and raised his arms up and allowed himself to fall out of the jacket back onto the ground.

“Here!” Sasuke shouted, and at once, Naruto understood.

He dashed forward and slid along the ground even as he summoned a small handful of clones behind him.

He slid between the old man’s legs, an act that wouldn’t be possible if his weird robe thing hadn’t already been so damaged that he passed through it with nary a snag.

“Uzu!” Two clones shouted as they continued their shoulder charge into Danzo, sending him stumbling backwards and tripping back over Naruto’s crouched form behind his legs. Still, this Danzo guy was skilled, because he didn’t end up on his ass and instead completed a full backflip and stumbled a few more steps.

The two clones that had slammed into him reached back and grabbed one clone each and assisted them in a leap forward.

“Maki!” The air born clones lashed out with a kick towards their foe, who blocked with raised arms and barely kept his footing. The duo of Shadow Clones stuck their tongues out with a mocking “Bleh” before they disappeared in a poof of smoke, and Naruto’s real body burst through the smoke with a full body punch that caught Danzo square in the nose, sending the man stumbling back the last few steps to where Sasuke had indicated.

“Naruto Charge!” Naruto triumphantly named his combo.

The sound of ninja wire being drawn taut sounded one second, and the next the line of death snapped up to ensnare Danzo’s neck. The old man raising the unnatural grey hand of the Hashy Ramen Cells being the only thing that stopped his throat from being instantly opened.

Danzo blinked, seeming confused by what was happening more than afraid as the wire cut into his hand and the back of his neck.

“What is this?” the bloodline thief asked, his voice slurring to an even greater extent.

Then an explosion sounded above them, and a tree limb three times Danzo’s size began to fall from the canopy towards him, vaguely burning near its base.

Danzo glanced up, and even without any hand-signs, blew out a Wind jutsu that reduced the falling limb into a hail of splinters. To be able to do that without a single hand-sign was an amazing feat that truly made Naruto believe that the old guy was actually trained by a former Hokage.

Though it didn’t matter, as the tree limb wasn’t the only thing falling from the tree tops. Sakura fell from the sky like an avenging angel, pink hair fluttering in the wind as she landed next to Danzo, kunai in hand. The old guy blew one more burst of wind that managed to only take a chunk out of Sakura’s hair as she fell and didn’t stop her a bit from rising up and plunging her kunai into the last eye on Danzo’s arm.

“No! What have you done!? I’ll die! Without me, Konoha will fall! I have to-”

“Die.” Sasuke announced, drawing Naruto’s attention. The wire that was still wrapped around Danzo’s hand and neck had been pulled up and over a low hanging branch and was then tied off about three meters up on another tree.

A tree whose base was covered in exploding tags.

“Kai!” Sasuke called and with a deafening explosion the tree began to snap and break, slowly tilting is heavy mass away from their position.

Danzo began to panic and quickly tried to raise a hand to yank at the wire wrapped around, but his movement was sluggish and the grasping hand completely missed the wire with it’s grasp. The tree released a thousand echoing cracks before tipping over and falling, pulling the ninja wire abruptly.

All at once, a traitor was hung from a tree.