Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Hatake Kakashi spent exactly fifteen seconds deciding what to do after Orochitama left the tent; practically an eternity for him, but the situation was delicate. Ultimately, he came to the conclusion that the most pressing concern was handling whoever was causing the sand storm outside. Finding the culprit wasn't difficult, considering he knew exactly who was doing it.

"Gaara-san. I think it would be best if you stopped that." Kakashi announced lightly, causing the boy to jerk around to look at him. Meaning he snuck up on him. Kakashi mentally noted that he couldn't use the sand to sense people in a wide range.

"If I stop, the Sound Ninja will be able to coordinate better. Me continuing would be in Konoha's best interest." Gaara intoned in a dead voice; one more flat than what he had heard previously, which meant the kid was probably lying.

"Oh? And what would make you assist Konoha with this matter?" Kakahsi asked lightly.

"We are allies, are we not?" The corner of Gaara's mouth quirked up ever so slightly.

Cheeky brat.

"Well, as a Konoha Jounin, it is my judgment that this is impeding more than helping. Drop it, unless you wish for that alliance to get a bit troubled." Kakashi continued in his same lazy tone.

The red-head stood motionless as the sand continued to whirl through the air and bite at any exposed skin. He didn't think that a threat would make the boy back down, it was probably better to attack him with overwhelming force all at once. You don't give jinchuriki a chance to start channeling their beast; not if you valued your life anyway. Still, attacking the son of the Kazekage was going to cause a shit-show no matter how it went down, but leaving the village blind in this area was only asking for trouble. Anything could be hiding in the sandstorm right now and he couldn't just let it go. He'd have to go through a child to do it, but he would.

It wouldn't be the first time.

Kakashi gave an internal sigh and began preparing something to take the boy down when a thought occurred. Naruto had seemed to be friendly with the kid and that was something he could use. Diplomacy had never been his strongest point but he'd seen some great examples of it as of late.

"Gaara-san. Please. Naruto doesn't have many friends, and I'd hate to make you an enemy."

The Suna-nin flinched as if he'd slapped him and then, moments later, the sand in the air began falling to the ground and Kakashi found himself giving a sigh of relief. He had the blood of enough kids on his hands.

"Hatake-san!" A familiar voice called and the forms of the Ino-Shika-Cho team rapidly approached. "Status." The scarred visage of Shikaku ordered.

"Unharmed. Person of interest..." Kakashi hesitated. Gaara wasn't officially a prisoner, though saying he was an ally wasn't accurate either. He was in a grey area of typical field status. Finally he settled on an answer. "Person of interest being a typical Suna ally."

Choza gave a short laugh, but quickly spoke with a somber gravity he didn't often have. "Your kids?"

"Fine, I believe. They were securing the Third's grandson and they were sent out when this all started. A few old friends followed them out." Kakashi answered.

Choza let out a sigh of relief. Old friends was the short hand in Konoha for indicating an identity you couldn't reveal casually; this usually meant ANBU. If the kids ran off with ANBU shadows they likely wouldn't be taken out quietly.

"What happened here?" Shikaku asked.

"The play ended. Orochitama showed-up wearing a top-hat, implied she'd destroy the ninja world, then pointed out Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame in the crowd." Kakshi stated lightly. Not even in a false sense anymore. This just seemed to be his life now.

"Shit."

"Orochitama had a brief altercation with them before threatening them with Konoha."

"What? How'd she manage that?" Inoichi asked, though Kakashi didn't need to answer.

"She made it a lose-lose scenario. They beat her, then we beat them. The only way to win is to not play." Shikaku said, shaking his head. "If the three fled, they likely are too slippery for us to realistically find and take in."

Kakashi spared a glance back at Gaara, who was taking the chance to very specifically not bring attention to himself. Likely waiting to see if any of them said something particularly juicy, as any good ninja that wasn't Naruto would.

"Mostly true." Kakashi acknowledged, "But Jiraiya wasn't here."

The three Jounin perked up. "Then where is Jiraiya?"

To the north, a massive plume of fire rose in the distance, the roar of an intense explosion rattled the glass of the abandoned carnival stalls.

"Right around there, I imagine." Kakashi answered.

xxxxxx

"Jiraiya. Something's off." The toad on his shoulder, Pa, muttered.

"I know." He muttered back.

The fight was off, Orochimaru wasn't fighting right. It was absolutely still Orochimaru, the small flourishes when he used a sword, the way he kept using the terrain, even the way he'd tilt his head ever so slightly when an attack was used differently than he expected was all very Orochimaru, and yet it wasn't.

Orochimaru was making attacks to put Jiraiya off balance, but it was used to gain more distance. He wasn't pushing his advantages for a relentless attack that would slowly pick Jiraiya apart piece by piece. He wasn't even trying to use the female body to his leverage and advantage! It's almost like he was afraid.

That didn't make sense though. The best move would be to try and take Jiraiya out as soon as possible. The longer the fight went on, the more likely it was that other Konoha ninja would show up and make this even more difficult on the Snake Sannin. The only thing that made sense would be-Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

"She's trying to delay us." He muttered.

Pa and Ma gave a hum of agreement.

That still left questions though. Orochimaru had clearly taken steps to make a perfect distraction against Jiraiya specifically and he wasn't using it. Reports indicated he'd been practicing flirty behavior with others to distract them, so why not now? What was different about this situation?

Though he'd trained himself in preparation of that.

Orochimaru continued to make a fighting retreat, his bright red coat's twin tails flapping in the wind behind him while the top-hat miraculously stayed on his head despite everything. He continued to jump from tree to tree, abruptly changing directions and slithering around tree trunks as he went. Movement that was a pain to track with your eyes, but Jiraiya didn't need to use his eyes.

Sage Mode allowed him to feel the chakra of everything around him, not just it's presence but the feel of it. Like when Orochimaru ducked behind a tree and two of him leapt away on the other side. He didn't need to guess which one was the right one. He could feel the earth chakra in the one on the left. It was a clone, probably a mud one.

"That won't work!" He yelled as he made a huge leap forward, Ma and Pa reading his intentions and snapping out their tongues to help rocket him towards the real Orochimaru. Orochimaru changed directions and jumped towards his clone, avoiding the hit, but he didn't expect the attack to land. His hair, now greatly lengthened turned into a bed of hardened spikes that lashed out at his former teammate's airborne form. Orochimaru wouldn't be able to dodge in midair and he didn't have enough time to pull out a jutsu. If the attack landed, his mass of hair would surround the Snake and impale him in a thousand places.

Instead, the mud clone flung itself in front of the attack, splattering the dark sludge that made up the clone all over his hair.

"Come now Jiraiya, all this hostility and no talk? This isn't like you." Orochimaru called behind him as he ran.

"I think we made our positions clear the last time we met." Jiraiya called back as he again leapt after him.

Jiraiya though, had a bit of trouble bringing himself to make decision, in part he was dealing with the warm flush of excitement running through him. He had done it. He had finally beat Orochimaru, no questions asked. He had the better plan and fucking WON. For decades he'd fought Orochimaru and for the first time, he'd actually won. He was bringing Orochimaru to justice.

"Yes, as you decide my fate can I ask for you to do something about my clothing situation. Either cover me up or go ahead and let me take everything off and leave the world the way I came in. Naked and covered in blood."

That snapped Jiraya's attention back to the present and again looked at his rival.

Heh. And she had a lacy black bra. Very-

Jiraiya mentally slapped himself. No time to be distracted yet.

"Your bra is still intact. Your modesty is protected enough." Shikaku stated firmly. "No distracting us."

"But I'm very good at being distracting!" The...creature whined. "Though, I must hand it to you. You caught me by surprise when you didn't get sidetracked there. I expected a classic clothing rip would suitable distract you for one good hit."

An arrogant smile came to Jiraiya's face.

"Honestly, I'm impressed too, Jiraiya-chan." Ma stated, patting him on the head.

Pride flushed into Jiraiya again and he let out a mighty laugh. "Yes! I came prepared. I trained for this moment to focus myself."

"Focus yourself?" The Snake Sannin asked, in confusion before her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened before taking on a teasing lit. "Jiraiya! You didn't!?"

The warm feeling immediately left.

"Alright. That's enough now. Kakashi, kill him."

The surrounding ninja blinked at the sudden change.

"Oh my god you did!" Orochimaru shouted.

"What? What's going on?" Chouza asked, looking between the Sannin.

Maybe it wasn't too late to go Missing-nin?

"To stop himself from getting distracted by anything mildly sexy in a fight he used to make a clone transform themselves to look like the woman and then have the clone flirt with him and flash him until he no longer had an extreme reaction! I thought he stopped!"

"Hey! I hadn't done that since I was a teenager!" Jiraiya yelled back.

"Then how exactly did you 'focus yourself' to resist the distraction of my pendulums swaying?" Orochimaru challenged back.

"I-" Jiraiya began as his mind scrambled and he discarded his first thought of an alternate answer since it wasn't much better. Finally he landed on an answer. "Meditated."

The clearing went quiet.

"You took a really long time to come up with that." Orochimaru stated smugly.

"Oh come on. You're the one who-" Jiraya started before, quite suddenly, Orochimaru disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

All of the ninjas present stood up straighter and again readied themselves for combat. Jiraiya used Sage Mode to send his senses out to find any trace of the Snake.

"What happened? She just disappeared!" Chouza asked as he gripped his staff.

"Do you sense her Jiraiya?" Shikaku asked.

"No." Jiraiya said and he realized, quite suddenly, what Orochimaru had been delaying for. "He must have already set up his snakes to reverse summon him. From the beginning this was just to distract us until his summons could pull him out." Jiraiya snarled.

"Fuck." Shikaku groaned, slapping a hand to his head.

They had been so close!

"For the record." Kakashi spoke up as he pulled out his book, "I totally called it."

xxxxxx

With a puff of smoke I arrived in the realm of my summons. I fell to a knee and held back on coughing up more blood. Jiraiya's attack was unexpected and I hadn't prepared any defenses for it. I was very hurt.

I began to work medical chakra into myself to fix some of the damage before looking up at the towering form of Manda.

"Manda. I believe I said to summon me in thirty minutes, you fucking asshole!" I yelled.

"Oh? Was that more than thirty minutes?" Manda asked smugly. "Perhaps you are so weak as to need-"

Kusanagi shot forward and stabbed Manda in the gut. The snake flinched back and gave a mighty cry of pain that shook the ground.

"You dare!?" Manda hissed.

"Yes." I stated firmly. "I almost just died because of you. Let me make something clear." I flashed through hand-signs and the ground below Manda turned into a miry swamp, sinking the giant snake into the muck.

"I don't suffer traitors. If you want out, say it and I will cancel our contract right now. I will leave you to do as you wish. However," I slash with Kusanagi again, and one of the horn-like protrusions on top of Manda's head is removed with a spurt of blood, "this backstabbing and subtly undercutting my plans will stop, or I will kill you and make sure the snakes have a more suitable leader. Is that fucking understood?"

Manda shook in some combination of pain and rage, or the poison might have been causing it too. It wasn't potent enough to kill something of Manda's size, but he would not be feeling well for the next few days.

"I...understand." The snake hissed out with reluctance.

I didn't like dealing like this. Mutual benefit worked much better, but the Snake Boss wasn't giving me much choice. I stumbled away and went to find somewhere to sit down for a while. Despite the hiccup with Manda, that actually went surprisingly well.

"Well. Phase one complete." Now I just needed to usurp a village and set up a wedding.