Chapter 122 - The Otogakure Redemption

Tayuya swerved among the damp and dark corridors of Otogakure. Despite Kaname erasing Orochimaru's seal, the girl understood when she was outclassed.

'Fortunately for me, he is still held captive in here, hehe…' the red-haired teen chuckled. Girl passed over a hundred cells every few seconds - this place was a literal hell - filled with misery and agony. All of it was done because of one insane wish of attaining immortality.

'Here!' She stopped in front of indiscernible doors. Pulling out a kunai, she slashed along her arm and nicked her eyebrow to let the blood trickle across her body. Tayuya nervously walked towards the cell doors and rapped on them. "T-taichou [Captain]!" She gasped.

"That voice? Tayuya?" A calm male reply came from inside the cell, "What do you want of me? Trash like y-"

"It's Kabuto! He betrayed Orochimaru-sama and is killing everyone! Only you can stop him!" She slumped on the wall, accurately performing her act.

"I knew he didn't deserve to be Orochimaru-sama's right-hand man!" The cell doors opened ominously slow.

'Heh, let those two Snake's booty lickers kill each other.' Tayuya waited patiently, sprawling on the cold dirt floor with her eyes closed. The girl heard footsteps closing in on her, then two fingers pressed into her neck.

"Useless trash, she lost consciousness only after some blood loss. Why Orochimaru-sama keeps four of you is beyond me." She heard him mutter.

'That trash will be your end, fuċker. Just you wait until I call Kaname-san here. You will beg her to spare you!' Despite her anger, the red-haired teen kept herself silent, 'Do as ordered and fuċk off to play with Kabuto. I have more important things to do!'

-----

"Huh? They stopped?" Kabuto looked at his frozen pursuers. "What is she doing now? Damnit, I will look for her later. Taking those vials with Uzumakis' DNA is a top priority."

The silver-haired jonin rapidly ventured through the labyrinth of underground corridors and reached the laboratory in about three minutes.

"Hmm…" Kabuto hummed, looking upon a sizable collection of vials containing DNA samples of the legendary ninja. A devious glint flashed across his eyes, 'Orochimaru-sama asked me to get only the two of them. Ignorance is bliss - It won't hurt him if I take some for… my research.' He quickly found several large sacks, allowing him to dump entire shelves of test tubes with a single swish of his hand. He promptly secured himself a large quantity of bags and left only two vials on the table.

"<Kuchiyose no Jutsu>!"

From a small white cloud came a white snakeling, "Orochima- Ah, it's you, Kabuto-san, I'm sorry, why did you summon me?"

"Orororo, take those bags to Ryūchi Cave. Don't speak a word of them to anybody unless I say so."

"But Orochimaru-sama is our main summoner - if he asks..."

"Not a word! I'm doing it for him. At the moment, Orochimaru-sama has a lot of problems and shouldn't be bothered about all the small problems, is that understood?"

"Y-Yess~" the snakeling hissed in reply. The albino reptile opened its snout and spat out several smaller copies of itself that promptly curled around the sacks. "I will be going now, Kabuto-san."

Hearing his summon poof out of existence, Kabuto covered his eyes with a palm and started trembling, "Ha-hahaha! I just need a couple years to fully research the <Edo Tensei>. No longer I'll be pushed around and considered some kind of nuisance!" The young man laughed out, juggling two vials containing locks of deep red hair between his fingers.

As he walked towards the lab exit, Kabuto felt a dense killing intent aimed at him, making him jump back - just a moment before human-sized spears made out of bones impaled his previous position.

"Now, I'm certain. You're a traitor, Kabuto!" A man came from behind the corner. He had pale skin, vivid green eyes, and angular facial features. The attacker's forehead was marked with two scarlet dots. He wore shoulder-length white hair divided down the middle of his head in a zigzag pattern.

"Kimimaro... I asked you to stay in bed - your health does not allow you to use your muscles. This body of yours will be Orochimaru-sama's host - you need to spare your body!"

"Shut it, traitor. I heard of what you did. The bodies piling across Orochimaru-sama's base are the proof of your treachery."

"Heh, is that what she said? A sly girl... It wasn't me, Kimimaro. Tayuya is the traitor here."

Kimimaro looked above Kabuto's arm at the emptied shelves and two remaining vials in the silver-haired jōnin's hand, "I wouldn't put it past that trash - but this time she is saying the truth, no doubt about that. For Orochimaru-sama's sake, I have to eliminate you." His bones slid out of his body, making the young man resemble a hedgehog.

"Shikotsumyaku, Kekkei Genkai of now dead Kaguya clan... I don't want to fight you, Kimimaro." Kabuto lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender, "Tayuya is planning something. I need to stop her before it's too late."

"Enough words!" last Kaguya's clan member commenced his attack by shooting two bone-spears at Kabuto's face.

------

"I don't mind, but why are we here?" Kaname comfortably leaned on Utakata's back, watching the setting sun over the sea of the Water Country.

"I thought you needed some leisure time, Kana-chan."

"Heh, thanks, Utakata." She closed her eyes and listened to the calming sound of waves washing over the sandy shores of Kirigakure.

The couple just sat silently for several minutes. "There is one more thing..." Utakata hesitated.

"Hmm?"

"I-" he stopped for three seconds, "- received an offer for a job. But I wanted to talk with you first."

"Hah, I thought you wanted to propose to me, Utakata." Kaname chuckled.

"Ugh..."

"Wait! You really did?" she asked, baffled.

"Haaah, it wasn't supposed to look like that... Fuck it!" Utakata sighed out, "I love you, Kana-chan. I think we've waited long enough for that. Will you marry me?"

Behind his back, Utakata heard her breathing calmly - until he got violently pushed forward, "H-HEY!" he yelled out.

Kaname extended her legs, shoving into her boyfriend with her back. "Why the heck do you need to ask me that? You know very well I was just waiting for you to take the last step, you moron!" she shouted back at him. After taking several deep breaths, the black-haired beauty continued, "Let me guess, that was your plan if I disagreed about this job of yours? What is it? Why I'd hate it so much?"

"Nope, it's just a promise that I would never let you go, Kana-chan."

"Hmm..." she hummed in approval, "So?"

"Mei-san asked me to become an envoy between Konoha and Kiri."

"It's going to be-"

"Dangerous?" he interrupted her, "I know we don't lack money, but I want Haku and Kushina to be proud of their father. Me sitting on my ȧss in Konoha doesn't help with that goal."

"... Okay, but under the condition that if you see anything worrying you, you will instantly ping me on Hikōjin's seal."

"I would do that even if you didn't ask me, Kana-chan."

"Good, we should get back to them, or Naru-chan will tear his ears off, but for this occasion, I think you should get... rewarded." Kaname answered with an enticing voice. She turned around and walked on all four limbs towards Utakata, acting like a cat.

"Heh, I love it when you flaunt how hot you are..."

"Hooh? Which part you love the most?" she asked hotly, sitting on Utakata's ŀȧp.

"Let me think, everything..." he replied, kissing his fiancee.

... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-----

"Kaname-san? What do you use for your skin - You're glowing?"

"Heh, that's personal secret, Tayuya-chan. So this is his base?" Kaname stretched her back, greeting the red-haired teen.

"Yes, I met Kabuto about five minutes ago - he is looking for something

in the lab." Tayuya reported, "I lied to my late team's captain. They should be fighting at the moment, buying you the time."

Kaname clicker her tongue, "That ȧsshole wants to get your dead clanmates DNA samples back to Orochimaru. Where is the lab?"

"That motherfu-"

"Tayuya-chan! Where is the lab? Are there any prisoners alive in here?"

"The largest chamber that way and yes, many." The Uzumaki pointed her hand behind Kaname's back.

"Thanks, you should start running. This place will be blown to smithereens in fifteen minutes." With a single hand seal, she created three shadow clones, "Save all you can." Kaname ordered, turned around on her heel, and charged headfirst into the wall disappearing like a ghost.

-----

"*Cough-cough*" the man coughed out blood.

"Stop it, Kimimaro. Your disease may kill if you keep up fighting."

"It was your doing, wasn't it?! You were scared I would take your place as Orochimaru-sama's best agent! How could I be so blind? It all started after we met! Because of you, my body became useless to Orochimaru-sama!"

"You're raving. Nothing of that is tru-" Kabuto yelled back, dodging bone-spears flying at him.

"Ha! And you were the only doctor that ever diagnosed me!" Kimimaro laughed in despair. He shot several bones from his arm, blocking the doors at the other side of the corridor from opening, "I won't let you run, Kabuto. Time for your judgment has come!"

"Tsk... I hate fighting against Kekkei Genkai [bloodline limit] users. They're always so tricky. Shikotsumyaku allows you to manipulate your osteoblast and osteoclast cells. They are responsible for building or breaking down bone tissue. This ability gives you absolute control over the concentration of calcium within your bones, allowing you to control the density or malleability of them." he drew out a kunai and readied himself for close-quarter combat.

In response, Kimimaro pulled out a sword made out of his vertebrae. Even looking at the sight of a man pulling out his spine made a medic-side of Kabuto's brain recoil, "Always so calm. Let me change it!"

The clash of the sword on a short kunai was a lot heavier than Kabuto expected. The strength behind Kimimaro's strike sent him down to a knee. 'Fuck!' the silver-haired jōnin scampered off around his opponent but felt something impaling his thɨġh. Landing on his face, Kabuto looked down and noticed a bone-spear piercing his leg, which he quickly yanked out and healed the wound.

"You iryōnin are the real freaks. No one normal would stand up right after such an injury."

"Look who is talking..."

-----

'And behind the doors number one is...' Kana-1 knocked on the cell doors and listened to the sounds from inside. She heard only the silence - the shadow clone threw a kunai through a small hole used to deliver food and teleported inside. "Ugh... the remains of a bloating minced corpse... That worm has is too easy, boss should send him a small firey gift." the Kaname's look-alike dry heaved and vanished from the cell.

'Why is it always us that has to do such shitty job!' she complained, walking towards the next doors and knocking on them. 'Hmm? Sounds of flowing water?' Entering the chamber, Kana-1 noticed a human-sized water tank and a white-haired boy Naruto's age floating inside.

"This resemblance is striking. Mangetsu-kun's clone?" was her first thought. The clone walked forward and rapped on the glass tube, waking the young teen up.

"Ugh? W-Who are you?"

"It's not important. Do you know someone named Mangetsu Hōzuki, boy?"

"Yeah, he was my oniisan. Why?"

"Your brother, huh? What do you mean 'was'? From what I know, he is alive."

"Stop lying. That white-faced ȧsshole told me that Mangetsu-oniisan is dead."

"I talked with Mangetsu-kun about a month ago." Hearing that the boy is not too fond of Orochimaru, Kana-1 broke the glass spilling the water all over the chamber.

The boy dissolved in the liquid only to reform like he was made out of the water several seconds later, "So he lied? Nothing unexpected out of Orochimaru, but people die in the times of the war... I didn't know."

"Take it easy, boy, the civil war is over. Mei-chan won. And, by the way, cover yourself." The clone took out a towel from her storage seal and threw it at the teen's face.

"Hehe," the white-haired young man tensed his muscles, "Do you like what you see, lady?"

Kana-1 rolled her eyes, "Believe me, I saw one much-much bigger. If you don't hide it from the cold, it will shrivel back up inside... What's your name?"

"Ouch... Nice one. Name is Suigetsu, Hōzuki Suigetsu. What now?" he asked, wrapping himself with a towel.

"Now, I will take you back to Kirigakure. This place is going to evaporate in a couple of minutes."

"Hehehe. It means we will spend some time together traveling, lady. Can I know your name?"

"Not exactly." Kaname passed the boy in front of her a kunai, "And my name is Kaname. See ya'."

"Huh?" Suigetsu looked at the kunai in his hand, "Wait?! You mean that Kana-" Mangetsu's younger brother disappeared. Kaname's teleportation technique delicately singed the towel that slowly fell down towards the ground.

'Welp, he didn't strap it tight enough. Wait, which Hikōjin's seal was that?"

[At the same time - Kirigakure]

"Ugh... Enough. ANBU kill me, that's an order! This pregnancy is too much! I can't even walk normally anymore!"

"Mei-sama, you need to last only a couple of weeks more. You're almost at the finish line." Ao, her attendant, stressed out.

"Shut up, or I will kill you, Ao!" the Mizukage growled back, "I can't imagine what Kana-chan had to go through to bear nine months of double hell. I would kill mysel-"

She was interrupted by a loud *Fwoosh* and an explosion of red flames in the middle of the Mizukage's office floor.

"For the last fuċkɨnġ time, don't you ever teleport inside my office, Kana-" shaking off the abrupt blindness, Mei opened her eyes only to see a man's genitalia swinging in front of her eyes, "Eh?". Then her eyes traveled back up, identifying the face of the pėnɨs owner. "Mangetsu... Let me say it this way, you have got balls coming in here..." she ġrȯȧnėd with a visible tick mark on the side of her temple.

"Hi? Can I ask where I am?" Suigetsu looked around the office.

"ANBU, apprehend and castrate that pervert!" she ordered, pointing her hand at the nȧkėd man.

"Huh?!"

------

"So much death..." Kana-2 did not have much luck in finding alive prisoners. She left the second cell block, but all she found as of yet were leftover corpses - the proof of Orochimaru's insanity.

Approaching Orochimaru's following cell block, she heard the silent sobbing coming from inside. Kicking the iron doors inside, she entered the chamber reeking of death. Kana-2 ran through the cell block, looking for the cry's source.

Kaname's shadow clone quickly passed over twenty cells, not even looking at the corpses inside. Then she found a dirty and scared girl taking shelter behind a wooden sham of a bed. She seemed close to twelve, her hair was strikingly red, and her bright red eyes appeared to be almost dead.

"Hi, kid. I'll take you away from here." The red-haired girl visibly flinched when the clone started talking to her.

"S-so it's time? H-he is sending me away to Southern Hideout?"

"No child, I'm not with Orochimaru." Kana-2 took a step towards the jail doors but had to jump away when a dark-yellow chakra chain tried to impale her.

"D-don't come any closer!" the young girl screamed at her.

"Hoo~ that's an unexpected surprise. What's your name? I'm Kaname." The clone walked forward.

"I said, don't come any closer!" the girl's chain shot out once again.

This time Kana-2 caught it in the air, "I'm sorry, but you need a lot more training with it."

"Hii..." the girl squealed, "No! Don't bite me anymore!" she cried out misty-eyed.

"Bite you? I'm not sure what that white-faced worm did to you, but I'm not on his team. I came to free you, girl."

"No, stop insulting Orochimaru-sama. He hears us - he knows everything!"

"Calm down. I can protect you. What is your name?"

"Uhh- K-Karin."

"Okay, Uhhkkarin-"

"It's Karin!"

"Heh, good, now we can start talking. Have you got a family that can take you in? Someone that is waiting for you?"

"No... my mom is dead, Kaname-san."

"Haaah... Where are you from, Karin? Do you know which clan you hail from?"

"Don't take me back to them, I beg you!"

"Uzumakis are mostly dead, I can't take you there-"

"No, I mean Kusagakure! T-They killed my mom. Please don't let them continue biting me!"

"What's with all this biting, Karin-chan? Haah... From now on, I promise that no one will bite you if you don't want them to, okay? Calm down. You are safe." Kana-2, with the help of Eight Gates, ripped the jail doors out.

"Hehehe," Karin laughed out through her tears, "You are strong."

"Yeah, I am. I will have to introduce you to my younger brother someday - he is also an Uzumaki, just like you." The shadow clone patted the crimson hair and wiped the tears away, "Now, what to do with an abandoned redhead?"

"I want to stay with you, Kaname-san."

"I'm sorry, but I must scout this hellhole first. Hmm, I have an idea! We will meet later, Karin-chan."

"Wait, no!" Karin was blinded by a sudden flash of fire.

[South of Otogakure]

"I love seeing those bases go boom! I can't wait, hahaha!" Tayuya escaped as fast as she could. 'I already saw three times what Kaname does with Orochimaru's bases. This time it's going to be a massive explo- WHOA!' Something materialized right beneath her feet, tripping Tayuya and making her tumble on the ground.

"Ugh." She ġrȯȧnėd out, standing back up and spitting the dirt from her mouth, "What the fuċk was that?!" Tayuya turned around and noticed a red-haired girl, maybe two or three years younger than she was.

Karin was stunned after getting her head hit by something hard. Looking up, she was instantly blinded by the sun hitting her eyes. After several seconds she noticed a woman's silhouette with her face hidden by the shadows cast by the glaring star and distinct dirty ginger hair.

"M-mommy?"

"DON'T YOU EVEN FUCKING TRY THAT ON ME!" Tayuya jumped back in fright.

"You! I saw you once with Orochimaru!"

"Shut up, I'm working with Kaname-san... Haah, she is insane! You can't just drop an Uzumaki kid and fuċkɨnġ hope I would take care of her!"

"Uh, you're not much older than me!"

"And how that fuċkɨnġ helps me, ah?!"

"C-can you take me back to Kaname-san? She was much more nice to-"

"Sucks to be you, girl. We need to go the other way." Tayuya interrupted Karin, pulling her back up onto her feet.

"But-"

"Less talking, more work. Follow me!"

------

"Hehe, how many years has it been when we drunk together, Tsunade?" Jiraiya chuckled, slowly seeping his drink.

"Don't worry, it's not poisoned... yet." Tsunade laughed out, downing a shot of sake in one swing.

"I can never be too sure around you."

"Yeah, sorry for the last time - I wanted to finish Orochimaru once and for all myself. I did not expect he was that strong."

"We got too comfortable with where we got and forgot to develop our techniques. That bastard never stopped expanding his repertoire."

"Talking about that, Jiraiya, between the two of us. Does Kaname pose a threat to me? Or Konoha?"

"Got scared of her, huh? Kana-chan is not your enemy as long as you don't attack her first."

"What do you mean by 'attack'? We bicker all the time."

"It's just that, bickering. Kana-chan takes part in it because it's fun for her. Her family is the most important - as long as you do what you can to protect them and the village, she will be your biggest and best ally."

"And I thought you would try to sell your spying services as my best bet in holding control over Konoha." Tsunade joked.

"You can always count on my help, Tsunade-chan. But I'm a realist - the overwhelming power is necessary to stand on the apex. I noticed her drive when she was just a chūnin. She had a short spar with Minato-kun. She survived his onslaught for much longer than a rusted old man like me could ever hope to."

"I ȧssume that's thanks to her Sharingan?"

"Yeah, but her wilfulness and ingenuity played a crucial role. You will work it out, Tsunade-chan. Just give yourself some time."

"Tsunade-sama!" an ANBU found the new Hokage drinking in a bar next to the Toad Sannin.

"No rest for the wicked. What is it?" The blonde grumbled.

"We found trespassers and apprehended them." the masked man reported.

"You mean there were multiple of them? How many?"

"At least thirty, more are still coming."

"More? Which gate they're coming from?"

"No, they're being teleported right into your office as we speak. Hiruzen-sama is on-site and is allocating safe houses for the people."

"Haah... That Flat Board will be the death of me. So they're refugees?" The Hokage facepalmed.

"Possibly, we won't know until we interrogate them, Tsunade-sama." the ANBU replied.

"Hehe, it's what you wanted, Tsunade-chan. Kana-chan always keeps her word - if she said she would save all the prisoners that are still alive, you should expect a sizeable dose of fugitives." Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah-yeah." Tsunade looked at the setting sun, "This is going to be a freaking long night..."

-----

"That was a good catch..." Kana-3 left the cell block she emptied from prisoners. "Let's check the next one." The clone force opened the steel doors only to found other ones close behind, "Hmm, so much security, a jackpot?"

She broke through another pair of stainless steel doors, "Are you kidding me? Another one?!" The clone phased through a side-by wall, passing around the entrance.

Kana-3 rolled with her eyes noting the third pair of doors, "He really did not want anyone else getting in... or getting out." She passed around another closed entrance, finding herself in a long chamber full of dead bodies of guards. "That is not Tayuya-chan's work... those wounds were made by a rabid animal, and that smell, they died days ago... Now it's getting interesting."

------

*Knock-knock*

Two jōnins instantly halted their combat when they heard someone knock on the doors.

"Tayuya?" Kabuto murmured.

*Knock-knock-knock*

After the second round of knocking Kimimaro jumped away as if something stung him.

"What?"

"Don't you feel it you fool? It's a predator playing with its food!"

"Shit! I should have expected her to come!" Kabuto slowly backed away from the doors.

"Eh? Who are you talking about?"

"Kaname Uchiha!" The moment the silver-haired iryōnin said her name, the doors were blown away.

"Hi!" Kaname smiled and waved at both men.