Naruto was sick of that feeling. It had been hanging around him since that incident with Itachi and his blue sidekick, and that had been a while ago. He was sick of the feeling that something terrible was going to happen, and soon. He didn't listen to these kinds of feelings, never had a reason to honestly, but this was different. Jiraiya had explained that the two missing ninja were part of an organization called Akatsuki, made up of only the strongest ninja, who were hunting and capturing the tailed demons, or their containers. He supposed that this might be contributing to the current funk he was in, but it didn't explain it.
He exhaled sharply, rereading the letter in front of him for the second time, looking for anything he might have left out or forgotten. Spotting no problems, he rolled the scroll shut and began to walk to the Hokage's office from the comfort of the tree he had been sitting in for the past hour. He made quick time to the administrative building but decided to take the approach to Tsunade's office slowly. It was late, around ten-thirty if he had to venture a guess, and he didn't need to be caught sneaking around the office of the most powerful ninja in the village. Quietly, he was able to open the door to the office and slip inside, noting that for once Tsunade was not sleeping at her desk, and had more than likely slipped out for some sake.
He found the exact place he was searching for and slipped the scroll inside of a small compartment that he had seen the Sandaime use often. It was a small cubby built into the inside of the desk, near the right knee of whoever was sitting at it. Placing his scroll along with the other one already there, he stood up and made to leave hoping to make it home before too long, his mom had become worried about his safety and had imposed strict curfews on him. The boy shuddered. The last thing he needed to do was make his mom worry.
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Likewise, Sasuke was out and about at this late hour of the night, except his was for a different purpose. It was the anniversary of his clan's massacre and he had gone to pay his respect. It was a difficult time, especially with the reappearance of Itachi, which seemed to mar today even more than usual. He sat on the pier where he first learned to perform his first fire technique and watched the moonlight and stars reflect of the still surface. The voice in his head hadn't returned since the incident, but what it had said kept echoing around and it scared him. There was no way that voice could have been him, he wasn't cruel or evil sounding, he wasn't overly violent, and he certainly didn't want anyone dead, especially if that person was Haku.
Haku. The name drug up a thought that he didn't want to admit or acknowledge. Did he really care for her? She had experienced the same feeling of loneliness he had, even if his was substantially shorter, both having witnessed their family killed before their eyes. She was strong, something he would definitely look for when he decided it was time to date, and the fact that she was level headed, where he was a bit more rash was a nice contrast. He would watch as his brother would spar with the brunette and couldn't help but be amazed by how quickly she thought up a strategy and how effective they were. She was no Shikamaru, who Sasuke knew to have an IQ larger than most people's bill when they took Naruto out for ramen, but she was extremely bright in her own right. Then there was the way that her smile would seem to sparkle, and not in the obnoxious way that Lee or Gai's would, but it could brighten his mood no matter how bad his day was. Come to think of it, if he could see her smile now…
Ok, it was official; he was at least slightly attracted to her, which made what the voice said, even more painful to hear.
“You cannot save your precious brother, because you are too weak, which means that sooner or later, I will come out and play. Perhaps with that girl you like so much, Haku was it? Yes, she will have to be taken care of, so that Itachi cannot use her to get to you…'”
The voice had to be his own, he hadn't told anyone, not even Naruto that he liked her, not a single soul.
He stood up and walked towards the gates of his former complex and as he walked out of the gate he never noticed that he was being looked for by two different groups of shinobi.
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“Orochimaru-sama, you do not need to exert yourself in your current state, allow me to take care of this, you know as well as I that I can handle a simple abduction.” If anyone other than Kabuto had said that, they would have been disemboweled faster than they could blink.
“It would be wise of you not to overestimate yourself.” The snake sannin hissed at his subordinate. Sending yourself is too much of a risk, and I cannot risk Kimimaru's health to make sure you succeed in your task. You will accompany me, which is the simplest way of completing our task.” The sannin declared.
Kabuto nodded, not wanting to test his luck against his master. He still thought it was overkill, after all Konoha shinobi were too weak to demand the presence of himself and his master. The duo slipped into the shadows and suppressed their chakra to a level that was nearly undetectable and made their way to the apartment of Mitarashi Anko.
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Anko was waiting rather impatiently for her sons to return home, when the cursed seal, long since repressed, began to burn. This wasn't unusual, but tonight it burned with a new fury that she had never experienced before. It fought with its containment seal so hard that she was sure it would break free this time. Sensing the sudden appearance of two people who were not her sons, she instinctively lashed out with a kunai, cutting off the arm of her opponent thanks to a bit of wind nature chakra, just like she had done to Kisame. The pain receded for a moment, enough time for her to get a look at her attacker, and was shocked to see it was Yakushi Kabuto, now minus a left arm. The boy seemed shocked that she could fight through the pain and injure him in such a way.
“Why don't you run back to the bastard, together you two make such a cute pair, you even got matching arms removed.” She joked. What she saw next made her eyes widen and mouth hang agape in shock. She felt the cursed seal flare up once again, but she never felt the blow to her head, courtesy of her former sensei.
“Do you still think you should have come alone?” The sannin asked his assistant.
“I will admit she was more of a danger than I thought, but I could have done the job anyway.”
“Yes, I suppose you could have, but what we need right now is secrecy, and you, my subordinate, lack something in the tact and grace department when you become too riled up.”
“Hai, but we both know that's not why you keep me around.” Kabuto finished stretching out his new left arm and picked up Anko. So far the plan was going off without a hitch.
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“Uchiha Sasuke.” The voice cut through the night and into Sasuke's ears. The boy turned around and faced the speaker, not completely surprised by who he saw.
“We are the Sound Four; we have come to offer you the chance to join us under our leader, Orochimaru-sama. If you do not wish to join us of your own accord, we are to take you by force.” The largest one spoke. Sasuke figured the whale of a man was the leader of the quartet, but he felt the most chakra coming from a pale skinned man, who seemed to have a large, irregular bump on the back of his head. The accompanying ninja were a tan man with dark hair that strongly resembled a spider. Perhaps it was the fact that he had four arms, but he definitely looked like a spider. The final member of the four, was a red headed women, who looked pissed off to be here and from the tick on her head, she was about to let her feelings known.
“You thought I'd actually join you? You must be dumber than the standard sound trash that we dealt with during your little invasion.” Sasuke retorted.
“Then we have recourse but to take you with us.” The pale skinned man spoke, before he and his compatriots launched themselves at Sasuke.
With the sharingan active, it was simple for Sasuke to see their movements and adjust himself accordingly; however after a few minutes of dominating the fight, the four ninja upped the ante a bit when they activated their cursed seals. The marks that spread across their skin were unlike the marks he remembered from his only encounter with his own seal, but Sasuke was a bit shocked at the number of different seals Orochimaru possessed.
Shortly after this new development, Sasuke began to succumb to the teamwork and power of the four sound shinobi. His only option seemed to be the cursed seal, but he remembered that Naruto controlled his seal, and Naruto would never falter in his brother's defense.
`But if I were to break his seal, than maybe he would release mine.' Sasuke thought, it was his only chance to defeat these guys.
As he was about to succumb to the temptation to snap his brothers seal, he suddenly found the area surrounded by sheets of ice.
“Sasuke! Are you all right?” Haku's voice came from behind him and it never sounded so good.
“I'll live, but it's a good thing you showed up, I don't know how much longer I could have lasted, one on four.”
Looking over at the four ninja who where having a little trouble standing on the ice sheet, Haku became angry that they would try and attack a Konoha shinboi like this. She formed the familiar ice mirrors and stepped into one of them before she began to move slice the sound four apart with kunai and senbon. She felt rage enough to kill and if the four hadn't been highly competent ninja, they would have been dead within seconds of their imprisonment. This bitch showing up wasn't part of their plan, and threw a monkey wrench into the works. If they were forced to go level two cursed seal, the risk that they would be found rose exponentially, but they didn't have a choice. Uchiha Sasuke must be captured for their master.
From Sasuke's point of view, Haku's mirrors were suddenly destroyed by a giant gate erupting from the surface of the earth. He covered his face to shield it against the sharp ice fragments that rocketed at him. When he looked next, he saw the pale man holding Haku's unconscious body between him and …another him? It seemed as if the man had cloned himself and was now holding a very important bargaining chip.
“If you don't want her to die, you will place this seal on yourself.” The fat guy spoke as his cursed seal receded back into its mark and held up a paper talisman that had a seal drawn onto it. Not being the seal-master-in-training that his brother was, Sasuke didn't recognize the markings as one that would place him into a state of complete paralysis.
Things had gone south so fast that Sasuke's head was still spinning as he did the only thing he could do to protect the one girl he cared an ounce about. He barely registered accepting the talisman from the fat man, but he would clearly remember for the rest of his life what he did afterward. Noticing that Haku's eyes were beginning to flutter open, he quietly whispered to the captive girl.
“I'm sorry.”
He quickly slapped the seal on his chest and immediately felt the effects of the seal take away all movement from his body. It was terribly unfortunate that the seal didn't arrest his ability to see, as he was forced to watch the four shinobi beat Haku until she resembled little more than a mass of blood, skin and clothing. As they whisked his unresponsive body away, he could only hope that he died after what he had put Haku through; it was the only thing that he deserved.
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Naruto felt something through the cursed seal on his neck, but like his mother he had learned to tune it out. He walking along the deserted streets and was half way through an alley when he was accosted by two people with a third slung over the shoulder of the shorter one.
“Why Naruto-kun, it's very dangerous to be walking alone at this time of night.” Orochimaru spoke with a grin on his face which made Naruto freeze, and look up at the figures that were standing on the rooftop overhead. His gaze immediately went to the prone form of his mother who was draped unceremoniously over the right shoulder of Kabuto.
The realization that Kabuto was a traitor didn't seem to faze him as much as the form of his mother. The Kyuubi's chakra began to well up inside him and his hair began to stand on end at the sight. His eyes morphed from the black that many were accustomed to seeing, to the blood red sharingan. As he was about to lash out at the sannin and his man servant, Orochimaru's eyes shifted direction and he smiled even broader at the sight that was quickly becoming visible in the dark.
“You have recovered Sasuke-kun, good work my sound four.”
Naruto's knees nearly buckled, they had Sasuke and his mother.
“Let them go!” He sneered, his eyes never leaving the Sannin.
“Or what? You'll attack me? You've already tried that, and it didn't turn out so good did it, Naruto-kun?” The former sannin was pushing Naruto's buttons in exactly the right order to get the desired outcome.
The memory of his previous beat down rose in Naruto's memory causing his spirit to fall. Not once breaking eye contact, he offered himself to the devil.
“You let them go, and I'll go with you. You want the senshin for your immortality technique, right, so take me and leave them alone!”
“My, my, how noble of you, sacrificing yourself to me once more, but I'm afraid that you'll have to try better than last time, with Sasuke I could create a whole new Uchiha clan and I your mother is the perfect surrogate mother.” He goaded the boy. His plan was nearly complete, just one more push and he would have everything he ever wanted.
“Then what do you want, I'll do anything, just let them go!” Naruto was pleading now; tears were welling up in his eyes as he tried to negotiate his mother's release.
“Well, there is one thing. You will come with me but before you do, you will complete the senshin by absorbing the DNA of Kimimaru there.” Orochimaru lay the terms of Naruto's surrender on the table as Kimimaru suddenly appeared behind Naruto and held a sword made entirely of bone to the boy's neck.
“You can always decline, but then I take your family away, and you die, so what will it be?”
Naruto wasn't sure what the snake meant by completing the senshin but he didn't have a choice and nodded his head. Kimimaru, a sickly pale man who was part of the Kaguya clan, famous in the Mist for their ability to fight using their bones as weapons sliced his wrist with a knife and then slit Naruto's wrist before crashing the two bleeding appendages together, seeping his own blood into the boys body.
Naruto didn't feel anything as the blood flowed from one body to another, but didn't care as long as his family was saved. After a minute of the impromptu blood transfusion, Kimimaru leapt onto the roof with Naruto still in his grasp and handed the boy over to Kabuto so he could heal the boy's wrist. Looking at the man he had followed and fought to the death for, Kimimaru spoke the lasts words of his life.
“It is done, Orochimaru-sama, may your goals finally be accomplished.” He spoke quietly as his strength deserted him from his long fought illness.
Naruto suddenly doubled over in pain, still in the clutches of Kabuto, who simply stopped the boy from falling off the roof. Naruto stifled as scream as every cell in his body seemed to ignite, as if on fire.
“Finally, it begins! I will finally have my perfect vessel! Behold the birth of the true form of the senshin!” The snake boasted as he watched Naruto roll around, fighting to remain conscious from the tremendous pain in his body. After a minute of the extreme pain, he passed out into unconsciousness while the Kyuubi merely watched in shock as every function of his host's body changed to something he had never seen in a human.
“Kabuto, prepare for Sasuke-kun's transportation.” Orochimaru looked at the paralyzed body of his second choice body before smiling. He opened a glass bottle and removed a black pill. “This will break that puny containment seal and release the second level of your cursed seal, Sasuke-kun. It will be extremely painful, but it will be worth it.” He forced the pill into Sasuke's throat and then forced it down by massaging the boy's throat. Almost immediately, Sasuke felt the containment seal break as he was plunged into unconsciousness.
Orochimaru quickly repeated the process with Anko, while the Sound Four were busy sealing Sasuke with the Shikokumujin (Four Black Fog Formation Seal). This prevented the drug that he had been forced to ingest, from killing him. After sealing Anko in a similar fashion, the six remaining ninja sped out of Konoha with their three `prizes'.
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How Haku had survived her injuries was a mystery to Kurenai who found the girl she had come to think of as a daughter, in the middle of the street, but all she cared about right now was getting her to the hospital. Upon getting into the hospital, the night staff quickly jumped into action, pumping healing chakra into the girl like it was going out of style. Her body slowly began to heal and she would make it through this, but she lost a lot of blood, so there was not telling how long she would be unconscious. She slept through the night and was still unresponsive when the Godaime received the report of her hospitalization.
No matter what she did, Tsunade couldn't figure out why someone would attack Haku. She had no enemies and Kurenai was well liked by her peers, so it was unlikely that it was retaliation for something she did. Tsunade slammed her hand into the wood of her desk and cursed when she felt something fall onto her knee. She looked down and discovered a pair of scrolls lying on the floor. Picking them up, she noticed that they were both addressed to her specifically, not Sarutobi, but her.
Opening the first one up, she saw a lengthy letter that as written by Naruto.
Tsunade-bachan,
Ifyou'rereading this, than you obviously got angry and hit your desk, you should stop that, it's not healthy for the desk! I have been having a bad feeling ever since that run in with Itachi. Something bad is going to happen, and I can only assume that it is going to happen to me. If for some reason I am missing from the village, it only means that I was right.Ever since I was made aware of my lineage, I have tried to piece together the events that happened that have lead to Itachi's return to Konoha. According to Sasuke, shortly after Itachi attacked me, he went on to slaughter his entire clan, except for Sasuke, who he left alive to test his strength against. This begs the question, `why Sasuke'? The answer comes from the history of the Uchiha clan. Village records report that the Uchiha are an offshoot of the Hyuuga clan by means of genetic mutation. However, there is no mention of any intermediate states between byakugan and sharingan existing. This would indicate that the Uchiha clan suddenly sprung from no where. Using the information that Sasuke received from the Sandaime, we were able to find out that the head family of the Uchiha clan was created when a Hyuuga sold his soul to a demon for more power, power enough to crush his enemies, around 150 years ago. The result was a hanyou child, Uchiha Madara. The demon blood came fromthe nine tailed demon thatprecededthe Kyuubi no Kitsune. While the damn fox has been alive for over 1000 years, he only became the Kyuubi,which ismore of a title than a name, around eighty years ago, after defeating and killing the demon who gave rise to the Uchiha clan. The problem was that in killing this demon, the fox began an ancient demonic ritual, in which the offspring of the deceased demon would be given the means in which to avenge their ancestors defeat.
This was a ritual that hadn't been activated in years and only affects direct descendants of Uchiha Madara. If you weren't aware, Uchiha Mikoto was the last direct descendant and inherited the power to suppress the fox's power, as did her sons. However, to be able to use these powers, the Uchiha would have to accept their demonic heritage, something which hadn't happened, until Itachi.
By gaining the mangekyou sharingan he broke all ties with his humanity and awoken his demonic blood, allowing him to suppress the chakra of the Kyuubi, this is probably the reason that he was sent after me, instead of someone else.
Ever since Sasuke receivedthe cursed seal, he has seemingly been warring with himself, a sign that the seal has begun to forcibly awaken his demonic blood. He has already shown some ability to slow the Kyuubi's chakra when we spar, so it is my wish that he be sent after me if I should go missing.
The second scroll that you hopefully have found is an earlier scroll that I began to write when I tried to comprehend how the senshin works. You may gain more knowledge than I out of it, but then I am not a medic and my knowledge of biology is limited.
Sincerely,
Mitarashi Naruto
Tsunade was quite shocked by this revelation. The Uchiha clans were descendant from demons and had the ability to subdue the chakra of the Kyuubi. That was something she thought only her Grandfather could do! Well, it wasn't actually the same thing; her grandfather's ability worked on all of the biju, and didn't suppress the chakra, but purified it, making it useless to the demon. She signaled for her assistants, Kotetsu and Izumo, to go fetch Naruto and Sasuke so they could explain this new information better.
The two chuunin returned ten minutes later reporting that no one was in the apartment and it didn't appear that anyone had been inside for a while. The feeling of dread began to creep up the godaime's back as she remembered Naruto's note. As she was wondering what to do next, she received a report from the gate guards that a team of ninja that were returning from a mission had just returned with news that Orochimaru and a couple of subordinates had been spotted with some odd barrels and what seemed to be Mitarashi Naruto. The team had wisely decided to hightail it back to Konoha and report on the situation. This report was almost immediately followed by the report of a body that was found on top a roof that appeared to be from a Kaguya. That sealed the deal; so to speak, she called for Jiraiya and Sarutobi so they could plan how to approach this situation.
The former Hokage was angered to hear the news, he didn't like the idea that his former student would abduct an entire family from his own town and no one would know about it until the next day.
“It's obvious that we need to rescue them, and we will need to assemble a team quickly, or else they will reach the boarder and we will loose them. I will lead the team, since I am the only one capable of fighting Orochimaru with a level head.” The old man suggested.
“Wait a minute! I can fight him well enough, I will go!” Jiraiya fired back at his sensei.
“I said `with a level head', you've just learned that the women you see as your own granddaughter, not to mention Naruto, who you see as a grandson, were abducted, you cannot tell me that your head is clear.”
“Well, we'll have to send you both, because our options for the team are very young. All of our available chuunin and jounin are either out on missions or just returned. We have a force of genin to track and follow a sannin and for all we know a group of jounin. Crap, I need more sake.” Tsunade grumbled as she looked at the list of available ninja.
“What about the chuunin exam, didn't anyone get promoted?” Jiraiya asked, surprised at the lack of ninja.
“The closest we got to agreeing on anything was Nara Shikamaru, from what he showed during the invasion; the ANBU praised his mind in luring the enemy into different traps. Asuma reported that he had an IQ of over 200, but that hasn't been substantiated yet.” Tsunade replied, still searching for some left over sake.
“Fine, we'll take Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Aburame Shino. Jiraiya stated in a hurry to rescue his family.
“No can do, Shino is out on a mission with his father, and Lee is off with Gai on a training mission. You can have anyone else from team seven, eight, or ten, Gai's other teammate, and Tenten is out with her father selling weaponry to Wave.” Tsunade was ticking off the remaining genin on her hand.
“We'll take Inuzuka Kiba and Akimichi Chouji, they are the strongest, physically, and we will need their stamina to catch up quickly.” This time it was the Sandaime that spoke up, cutting Jiraiya off.
“Meanwhile, I'll send word to Suna that we need some help. They've been itching to get at Orochimaru for double crossing them, so they should help.” Tsunade replied as another assistant with an armload of papers entered her office. “Haku just woke up, I'll be going down there to check on her in a while, so assemble your team and you can leave whenever you are ready.” She ordered the two out of her office and gulped down a quick mouthful of tea, before she headed towards the hospital, but not before taking the other scroll Naruto left with her.
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Shikamaru was woken by the sound of his troublesome mother calling for him. He slowly drug himself downstairs, only to find the Sandaime waiting in the kitchen, seemingly waiting on him!
“Shikamaru, we've got a bit of a situation and you are needed for an emergency rescue mission, you'll need to get your supplies and follow me, we have to get the rest of the team.” Sarutobi briefed the lazy boy, who was shaken from his morning stupor. Nodding he quickly ran back to his room and gathered everything he needed and returned before Sarutobi could finish the tea that he had been offered.
Their next stop was Chouji's house, because it was the closest. Jiraiya was off gathering Kiba and Neji, but managed to catch up to Sarutobi and the other two boys just as Chouji was stepping out of his house. The six ninja began to sprint through the town to make up for time and didn't slow down when they hit the forest just outside of the village. They didn't dare ask Jiraiya what was going on, the sannin had a look that promised castration for anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way. After about thirty minutes of sprinting through the foliage, Sarutobi began to explain their mission.
“Sometime last night, Orochimaru infiltrated the village and abducted Naruto, Sasuke and Anko, we don't know how far ahead of us they are, but as long as Neji can keep using his eyes to scout far ahead, we will know sooner or later. Kiba is making sure we are following the correct train, and Shikamaru and Chouji are going to be our brains and muscles. It is imperative that Orochimaru not reach the boarder and escape, if he does, the village will assuredly be crushed.” Needless to say, the genin were surprised that they were being brought on a mission of such importance. They steeled themselves for the impending conflict, unaware that a three man team from Suna was being briefed about a rescue mission.
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Tsunade was meeting with Haku, who had recovered from her injuries remarkably well, but was still hospitalized due to blood loss. She was actually fighting with the nurse, just like Naruto would have, to be let out. She quieted up when Tsunade walked into the room.
“Tsunade-sama, you need to let me go, Sasuke-“ She was cut off by a wave of the legendary medic's hand.
“You will stay here, we've got a team out tracking Sasuke, Naruto and Anko right now, they will bring them back, what you should do is rest, you lost a lot of blood, it a small miracle you didn't bleed to death. What happened to you?”
Haku shrunk back into the bed she was lying in as she was scolded by the Hokage.
“Last night, around 10:30, I was walking back to the house, when I heard a disturbance and when I checked, Sasuke was being attacked by four sound ninjas. There were three guys and a girl and they all had these strange lines running across their skin, like a tattoo, but they actually grew and shrunk in size. I turned the ground into an ice rink and trapped them in my ice mirrors, but after a few seconds, the markings on their body changed and the marks became a solid color. Then this giant gate crashed through my ice and mirrors and the girl trapped me in a genjutsu. Then they made Sasuke put some seal tag on his chest that paralyzed him. Then they beat on me for a while and I lost consciousness. I don't know what happened after that. I- I am so-sorry.” The breakdown in her voice at the end of her statement was due more to Sasuke's final words than to her own injuries.
Tsunade tried to calm Haku down, but was only moderately successful, Haku fell asleep sniffling to herself as Tsunade sat next to her. Quietly leaving the room, Tsunade returned to her office to begin reading over Naruto second scroll. When she made it back, she shakily took her seat, the weight of the day finally beginning to catch up to her. The only thing she had to do was read the scroll.
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The rescue team was making good time, considering that four of their members were genin. They had to stop for a rest, but they hadn't caught up enough for Neji to get them in visual range, which would put them about eighty meters away from their target, but according to Kiba, they were about two or three hours off, a distance they hoped to make up when the sun went down, if they could afford to wait that long, the boarder was quickly approaching. During the break, Shikamaru asked the question on all of the genin's minds.
“Hokage-sama, why would Orochimaru want Naruto, it doesn't make sense to me?”
The Sandaime just got a sad look on his face, before releasing a puff of smoke from his pipe. (Which he just had to bring with him, much to Jiraiya's disapproval.)
“Both Sasuke and Naruto have important bloodline limits that Orochimaru covets; I assume he took Anko to use as a threat against the boys. I cannot tell you more, that is up to Naruto.”
This sated the boy's inquiries for the time, but Shikamru was not one to leave a mystery, especially when it involved one of his friends. Neji was trying to piece the puzzle together as well. He had more experience against Naruto than any of the other genin. He had seen the sharingan, something that not too many others could claim, as well as the ice, and the sand. Was he some kind of bloodline sponge? A subordinate like that would definitely attract attention.
Shikamaru had come to the same conclusion, but without knowledge of the sharingan, he wasn't sure why Orochimaru had such a deep interest in Naruto. Surely a copied Sharingan wouldn't be as powerful as a true one. Before he could get too deep into his thoughts, the group was once again moving, making slow progress on their prey.
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Tsunade had to agree with Naruto's overall hypothesis. She had just finished reading over his theory about the senshin, how it works and what it could be used for. Naruto's theory was sound, but it posed many problems when thought about in terms of biology.
Somehow, the senshin absorbed and incorporated the DNA of anyone who placed their DNA in contact with Naruto's own. The problem was that normal DNA production wouldn't allow for incorporation, DNA was the same in someone at the age of 2 and 92. Somehow foreign DNA was being used to create new cells with in Naruto, a feat that should have been impossible.
Naruto figured that if the Viruses cut out the genetic sequence for the bloodline and was then injected into his own cells, than new copies of his cells would contain the bloodline limit. This was a pretty good conjecture, but was impractical due to the fact that there were trillions of cells in the human body and to fully incorporate a bloodline, the DNA would have to be pasted into every cell in Naruto's body.
The only way around this would be to specify one cell, or a handful of cells that all new cells would be copied from. This would allow a virus to incorporate the DNA into cell, and have the cell replicate the new DNA. It defied all laws of biology, but was the only thing that made sense. She just had to get a hold of Orochimaru's notes, or else she would never know.
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The rescue team had been running at full speed for most of the day and had finally pulled into visible range of Neji's byakugan. About 250 feet away from the group was the sound four with the unconscious form of Naruto and two barrels that no one recognized. They were very close to the boarder, but with enough distance to spread the fight out, so that there was no chance of friendly fire.
Shikamaru had come up with a clever plan to scatter their enemies by landing a large cluster of explosive notes in the middle of the group and then having the Konoha ninja drop down in the center. When all of the shinobi were in place, Jiraiya threw the cluster of notes into the exact center of the group, as planned. Shikamaru's plan went off perfectly and the Oto ninja found themselves staring into the faces of some very determined Konoha ninja, who were dead set on getting their comrades back.
Neji stared down Kidomaru, the boy who resembled a spider, with four arms and had his dark hair pulled into a ponytail, much like Shikamaru. Neji had claimed the boy, because he had noticed during the invasion of Konoha that the spider silk that had been generated to keep the ANBU from following was composed entirely of chakra.
“Things that are made of chakra can be destroyed by chakra.” He had explained to Shikamaru when they had been picking opponents.
Chouji was matched against Jirobo, the fat one of the Sound four, because he was most likely to fight like Chouji, with sheer strength and power as opposed to the speed and finesse of the jyuken.
Kiba eyed Sakon, the pale kid with that seemed to clone himself, since Akamaru could act on his own, it would be best if Kiba fought the boy, if it was a clone, than Akamaru could pick out the correct one, and if it were something else than it would pay to have two on two, instead of one on two.
Shikamaru was forced to fight Tayuya, the red headed girl with the anger management problems, because he hadn't spoken up in time. He didn't want to fight women, but then he also didn't want to die.
Jiraiya was matched against Kabuto, simply for the fact that he would be easiest to pummel into the ground and dissipate some of his rage. Then he could move onto Orochimaru.
Sarutobi had removed Naruto from the grasp of the sound ninja and placed him far enough away to ensure his safety in the upcoming fight. He was paired against Orochimaru because a clear head would be needed to retrieve all the hostages without incident.
No one noticed when the barrels began to smoke until the tops exploded off and the forms of Sasuke and Anko rose from the smoke.
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(A/N: aspromised here's the next chapter, a good bit longer than I normally write, but it puts us in good position to start brawling next chapter right out of the gates! I will hopefully work in some new elements into the fights instead of relying on the standard stuff, and you'll get to see the new forms of Anko and Sasuke, plus Naruto will finally wake up. What did Orochimaru mean when he said `complete' the senshin? Will the suna shinobi make it in time to help out?How can Kabuto re-grow an arm?Why am I asking you guys? I already know this stuff, so it beats me. Thanks to my beta Matt, and although he hasn't gotten to look at this chapter yet, is still amazing and deserves praise for the great work he does. Thanks for the reviews and supports and I hope to see you all much sooner than last time.)
