Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Between A Rock And A Hard Place ❯ What's Worth Fighting For: Part II ( Chapter 34 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Despite the immense Chakra and power boost Naruto should have received when he unlocked the energy of Kyuubi; he stood no greater threat to Orochimaru than that of a fly. Rasengan had barely punctured a hole in the dent Naruto pushed into Orochimaru's sand barrier. "Damn it!" Naruto boisterously growled out as he tried to pull his fist back. Rasengan had left him wide open for any attack and he didn't want to give Orochimaru the chance he needed. But just as he tried to draw back, the sand quickly moved to fill in the dent he left. The sand came in around Naruto's unmoved hand and hardened; trapping him there. "What the hell?!" He screamed, jerking his hand in a failed attempt to escape.

Orochimaru smiled widely at this and stepped forward. "Enough fun and games, let's gets down to business." He insisted. Now that Naruto had tapped into the Kyuubi's power it would be all the more easier for him to take them. Even though it was quite clear struggling was pointless the teen kept frantically jerking at his bonding. Who would have thought sand was even this strong? Paying little attention to the efforts of Naruto's villagers below still trying to@attack his large serpent, Orochimaru rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a small purple pill. "This won't take long at all, now stand still for me."

Immediately the sand molded into a giant fist, surrounding the blond with little effort. Kabuto could only smirk shamelessly as he watched the mild fear in those mesmerizing blue eyes now streaked with red in as Orochimaru stood face to face before him. In disgust Naruto bared his teeth at the approaching hand that firmly gripped his chin. The clammy palm held tight against the boy's jerking as Orochimaru lifted his head up, about to force the pill into the others mouth. But mere moments from pressing the troublesome drug against unwilling lips, the three mounting the large snake were suddenly overcome with surprise as a brief gust of wind washed over them fiercely. It was quite obvious the wind was not natural for it was strong enough to force the pill from Orochimaru's hand and soaring toward the ground below.

"What-?!" Orochimaru turned from the blond in time to receive a most unexpected tackle by some strange multi-armed creature. Naruto watched in astonishment as the contraption held Orochimaru off long enough for another gust of wind to come roaring in. Relief suddenly came over Naruto when he recognized the technique and was assured of who it was as a rather angry looking blonde came floating down on a giant fan.

"Temari?!" Naruto exclaimed. Had she really come all this way to help out? Then again, Gaara was missing from home so she had probably came here looking for him. Regardless of the reason, Naruto was just grateful for her help. And by the looks of the puppet looking creature currently annoying Orochimaru, Kankuro had come with her.

Temari hurriedly landed in front of Naruto, her eyes narrowing more as she noticed a sand encasing slowly separating into grains and falling from the other blond. It didn't take a genius to figure out that was Gaara's signature and she hardly doubted someone like Orochimaru could hypnotize Gaara into being his puppet. But that theory might have been more comforting than any other guess she could make about this situation. Wasting no time as the blond was finally free from his sand prison, Temari anxiously lifted him by the waist and brought them both onto her giant fan before gliding off. "You sure know how to get yourself into a lot of trouble runt." She huffed irritated.

She didn't pay any mind to how his shoulders limped after that accusation or how he did his best to avoid her glance as the hover a few feet from the ground. "I'm sorry Temari..." He confessed. He hesitated fearfully as the words he knew needed to be said glued to the tip of his tongue. How could he possibly tell Gaara's sister, such a frightening older sister at that, that he had let Orochimaru take Gaara's chakra and perhaps even his life. No only that he couldn't fully tell her the situation Gaara was in now or even where he was. Surely he wouldn't still be back at Orochimaru's temporary hideout bleeding to death on the floor. He could only hope someone would have shown up to help him. But the chances were unlikely, even if Sasuke showed up. He doubted Sasuke would care enough to help Gaara out like that.

Temari's frown tightened. "I'm taking that as a you can't help me find Gaara, can you?" She concluded, giving a quick sigh. "Figures something like this would get so complex. Well let's just take care of things here first, I'm sure he'll show up eventually." She insisted, her lips curling into a soft smile. "He always had a habit of showing up out of nowhere." That much she was sure, and the ninja of Konoha should be able to vouch for that as well. Surely Sasuke would have to strongly agree.

Naruto nodded shortly in acceptance. Now was not the time to worry about that he supposed. "I don't think we will be able to stop Orochimaru unless we take away his, I mean Gaara's, chakra." Naruto pointed out. He noticed the unsteadily look on the girl's face at the mention of this, but it was obvious she was slowly coming to terms with understanding. "I think that pill he was trying to feed me earlier can separate the demon chakra. But I don't have one, and I'm sure it would be pretty hard to get another one from him or Kabuto."

Temari, always being quick with her inputs, suggested "can't we just use the one he tried to give you? It's got to be around here somewhere. You find it and I'll stall!" Temari decided without getting much conformation from Naruto about his views on the plan. But it was unlikely she would listen to any of his objections anyway, after all she was pretty hard headed just like her brothers. So Naruto was barely prepared when she surely shoved him off the fan and onto the ground before lifting back up into the air swiftly.

He landed with a quick thud and whine. "She could have at least warned me." He growled lowly. One would think she would have the kindness to be more gentle with him considering his already rough appearance after being man-handled by Orochimaru, but "no" she had to get all testy and physical. Either way, Naruto knew he had a job to do. He hurriedly rushed to his feet and started to run for the plot of land they were near when Temari and Kankuro first decided to interfere. Hopefully the pill couldn't have fallen too far away, then again it was from a great distance and anything could have happened to it.

With mild grace, Naruto rummaged around in the shrubbery and grass looking for that annoying purple pill that would surely help in getting Gaara back his chakra. Meanwhile, Temari was resurfacing too the head of the snake where surely enough Orochimaru was frustrated fighting off Kankuro's puppet. She was rather impressed that Kankuro could control the chakra strings from a safe distance away from the fighting; practice really did pay off. He surely needed to stay away for it looked as though his puppet was getting most of the beatings. Orochimaru's sand was mangling it like a rag doll, jerking, fling, and thrashing the artificial being whenever it tried to cling itself to the pale villain in order to trap him. "Hey lizard face!" Temari yelled out, immediately grabbing the man's attention. "You are pretty pathetic for someone with Gaara's great strength. You put it to shame." She mocked with a smirk.

Surely enough it had targeted Orochimaru's mighty big ego enough to detach him from the current goal of destroying Konoha and even taking Naruto's chakra. With an infuriated grunt, he directed a wave of sand toward her, just to shut her up. But his control was not so well as to keep hold of the sand in midair to reach her. And like any other person, he refused to call it quits and tried numerous times after that. Kabuto was not surprised by the kindergarten tactic of distraction. If Orochimaru rather play with mice, them he would go for the real prize.

The silver haired assistant quickly jumped down from his high thrown on top the giant serpent and landed in the trees without any effort. His earlier beating from Sasuke truly proved to be ineffective seeing as how he was a true master in the healing arts and had recovered all injuries rather quickly. From the tree tops Kabuto could vaguely make out the mop of golden hair rustling around on the ground several yards away. A croaked smile placed itself on his face; he might as well finish the job Orochimaru started. Leaping from his perch, Kabuto landed a mere few feet from the preoccupied teen. "My aren't you a diligent worker Naruto." He replied in an amused voice. "I would have thought you'd run away by now. I mean you are missing both of your devoted body-guards after all." Kabuto mentioned.

Naruto shifted in place and turned to face the other. "Shut up! I don't need them to protect me, I can kick your ass all by myself!" There was no way he could search for the pill and fight Kabuto off at the same time, so he might as well get done with this before continuing. With that conclusion, he rushed to his feet, staring Kabuto square in the face. "I won't be pushed around anymore; not today, not ever!"

"We'll see about that." And before Naruto even had a chance to speak he was forced back to the ground by an unsuspected blow to the back. When he turned to defend himself from what he thought was Kabuto using a copy, he was startled to find the mostly tattered body of one of the Konoha ANBU; one he had surely saw murdered. If it was to his understanding, Kabuto had the ability to manipulate dead bodies, which was alone creepy enough to give the blond chills. He hurriedly slid back in the dirt in attempt to avoid the corpse’s attack once more. Even so, after managing to dodge that he was left open to Kabuto's attack which had randomly decided to place itself between each of the other's attacks.

For several moments, Naruto managed to dodge most of the two's attacks and thankfully with Kyuubi's chakra it didn't look nearly as fast as onlookers might have thought. Over confidence in the current situation had only left him oblivious to a single attack as Kabuto brought forth a copy of himself into the battle. One powerful kick in the gut managed to push him back some distance, but he didn't hesitate to charge back for who he believed to be the real Kabuto. It was sheer luck that Naruto brought up his own clone in time to kick Kabuto toward him just as the silver-haired man was trying to avoid him.

Temporarily immobilized from sudden hit, Kabuto forgot to block the real Naruto's punch and was sent tumbling back. It was about then Kabuto realized it was a mistake to take on Naruto while he was still heavily supported by Kyuubi's power. Naruto sprinted forward and grabbed Kabuto and tossed him into the air, and punches Kabuto in the stomach with his left hand, before he uppercuts the other with his right hand; sending him almost floating forward. Naruto dashes frantically forward to catch the stunned Kabuto and does a spin kick right into his face as he approaches, sending him twirling. Naruto flipped anxiously forward and lands his drop kick on Kabuto's back and sends him into the grass.

Perhaps he grew a little too confident at that moment, since he allowed Kabuto's clone enough time to tackle him from behind, knocking him back onto the ground and setting Kabuto free from his much deserved beating. Kabuto came over and angrily thrust a foot into the boy's side before lightly brushing away a trickle of blood form his lip. "You must get so excited Naruto, you haven't won just yet." He warned the blond before trying to kick him again. Luckily Naruto grabs Kabuto's foot before the impact and jerks him down to join him in the dirt. From there it merely looked as though the two were wrestling on the ground, with Naruto occasionally catching Kabuto in a lock until Kabuto manages to get an arm loose and elbows Naruto in his stomach. It was then followed by a brief elbow to his face causing Naruto's hold to come apart.

Before Naruto knew it, the corpse puppet had come up from behind him, hoisting him up by his neck and off of Kabuto. Kabuto snickers lightly as he crawled back up and dusted himself off for a moment. He smirked as he watched the blond gag for a moment in the hold. "Sorry Naruto, but I don't have any more time to waste playing with you. It was fun while it lasted..." He began to dig into his pocket and pulled out the similar shaded purple pill that Orochimaru had attempted to use on the blond before.

It was his last chance! From out of nowhere the momentarily forgotten clone, appeared and jabbed Kabuto ruthlessly in the back, causing the man to yell out as he dropped the pill. Naruto managed to painfully thrash around enough to escape the death grip on his throat and quickly picked up the pill before jolting off. He had what he needed, now all he had to do was force Orochimaru to eat it...

To Be Continued...

A/N: So sorry everyone for the long wait. It seems like everything is trying to distract me recently. I got sick on one day I planned to be typing, then sudden test and papers are expected out of nowhere, lol. And now I'm plagued by several wonderful ideas for new Naruto fics. So sometime soon you can be expecting perhaps two more new Naruto fics between the occasional updates for this one!^_^ see you all soon.