51. Battles

At this point, its safe to say neither I nor Akina know what's going on. 

(Wtf I'm editing this and I just tell my dad 'I'm hungry'. He said 'hi hungry, I'm dad.' He literally made the most iconic dad joke in all of history without knowing he made one.)

Let the 75th Hunger Games begin!

Another update, because why not? My holidays started anyways.

Enjoy <3

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Third Person POV

As Pain trained Akina relentlessly to master her rinnegan, other battles were occurring throughout the nations as Konoha shinobi fought for revenge.

It was time they sent a little message of their own.

Kakashi and Shikamaru stared down at the letter they received from the ex Konoha nin. The bird - Kokomi - chirped and flew away, hoping that they wouldn't kill her.

Kakashi was bewildered. First, she decides to contact him after Kami knows how long and gives them tips? She called him a hot father figure and honestly, all he wanted to do was yell at the Sandaime saying 'I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!'.

He knew, he just had a gut feeling that this team was bad. 

He shouldn't have taken them on.

But no! 

The Sandaime said he was the only one capable for this team. 

Well, fuck you Lord Third! 

Kakashi could bet his signed edition of Icha Icha that he was probably somewhere up in heaven, laughing along with the other Kages placing bets. He could only imagine how the conversation was going. 

Shikamaru's lips quirked up in a little smile. "Looks like she has her hands full, hm. I'll get her later then. I'm patient enough."

The masked jounin merely shrugged. "I have no idea what she's saying. Just focus on Hidan and the three of us will focus on Kakuzu."

.

Sasuke's sharingan eyes glared into Orochimaru's yellow snake like ones as he engaged in a taijutsu battle with the Sannin. The Uchiha had worked his ass off in the last few years and now, he was seeing the results.

Orochimaru was considerably weak. Kabuto had made some medicine to allow the body to be used for a longer duration of time. So, Sasuke was now fighting Orochimaru at his weakest.

And winning so far.

Orochimaru hissed as Sasuke used his chidori on him and he slammed into the wall, panting and his features twisted into pain. "Sssasuke-kun.." He was seething now.

Sasuke gave a cold smirk. "After I'll defeat you, I know I'm powerful enough to defeat that man. You're merely a stepping stone in my path for revenge, Orochimaru. And you need to go."

He raised his hand and a beam of whitish blue chakra erupted from his palm as it went and impaled his hand. Sasuke raised his kenjutsu sword to stab him, however, he opened his mouth and something shot out.

Turning around, he saw a big scaly snake. "So this is your true form, hm?"

"I'll have that body of yours, now!" From his figure, a bunch of snakes broke out and sped towards him. The Uchiha smirked.

"Do you really think, those pesky animals can defeat me?"

Flashback + Present

Akina smirked at her team. "You guys can't take me down. Tch, peasants like you should bow down to me. My mokuton has you all beat."

Sasuke and Naruto growled. "Like hell we'll give up dattebayo!"

"You should be worrying more about yourself, Akina with what's gonna happen." He activated his sharingan.

Kakashi hummed. "Maa maa, its just a friendly battle. Calm down Team."

Akina spread her arms and branches came out of her forearms.

Like the present.

"Sasuke teme! She's like a damn octopus! Get rid of her branches." Naruto yelled as he dodged the branches swinging his way, rolling and ducking.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called out for his teammate, making eye contact. Naruto left a bunshin to fight against Tayuya. Sasuke nodded.

Sasuke used his chidori.

Naruto yelled out a rasengan. 

Slamming through the branches, they got considerably close to Akina. She poked her tongue out and yelled. 

"What if you face off against a Sannin?!"

"What the hell?!" Naruto rubbed his face, confused.

"Use fire and wind you baka!" She grinned.

Kakashi finally kept his book down, opting to see the battle instead.

"Use fire and-" Naruto grinned.

"-wind." Finished Sasuke.

Putting aside their main jutsus, Naruto began his new wind technique. Akina told him to increase his arsenal of jutsus when he was younger. And that's exactly what he did.

As strong winds with various streams developed around Orochimaru and his snakes like a tornado, Sasuke released his fire jutsu causing the tornado to become a much more deadly one with the addition of fire.

The snakes attacked the tornado only to be cut into slices with the wind jutsu and burnt to a crisp using fire jutsu.

As Yamato and Anko fared off against the last member of the Sound Four - the others lay dead elsewhere - they saw, rather felt the chakra power.

"Their teamwork is something else huh." Anko muttered.

"Their team has been dissolved. They only have each other now and that grief and determination to bring Akina back has only made them stronger." Yamato muttered.

As the flames and wind died out, Sasuke and Naruto stepped to see Orochimaru's scaly body ripped into shreds with blood oozing out. They were reminded of the Forest of Death, except the both of them were stronger.

Powerful.

Angry.

And this time, they weren't fleeing.

"This is for Sakura-chan, you teme!" 

Sasuke raised his sword.

.

.

If Ino could think of one word for the Akatsuki, it'd be monsters.

Kakuzu.

Hidan.

Akina.

She'd experienced a fight with them and that was the best word to describe their abilities. 

She wasn't used to seeing guys with masks on their bare backs, or religious dudes who killed. From what she'd heard from Naruto, they had another woman in their ranks as well. One who almost suffocated Sakura to death.

The mere thought of Sakura sent a pang of distress and sorrow through her. 

She never realized how much she relied on her pink haired friend until... 

Ino just hoped Shikamaru's plan would work. He'd lured Hidan into the forests and now, she had to rely on Choji and Kakashi sensei to set it all up. 

The trap.

The success depended on her and Naruto's abilities and honestly, she was feeling the pressure.

She thought back to what Naruto had told her.

"What do you mean Naruto baka that you haven't tested it out yet?!" Ino yelled at the terrified blonde.

"I was busy dattebayo!" The blonde whined.

"Baka! If this doesn't work, we'll die and Konoha will lose information." 

He pouted. "I'm not as good as Pervy Sage, but I'm decent enough. Shikamaru only gave me a day to do it and it took some time -ttebayo. Seals aren't that easy to create and that's why most don't opt for it."

"Then why did you?" 

He smiled softly. "Something along the lines of 'its in my blood' as Akina-chan said in the early days. She began teaching me the basics, ya know."

Ino yelped, narrowly dodging an attack aimed by Kakuzu. His weird grey tendrils came rushing towards her and she jumped on top of it, rushing towards him.

"Now, Choji Kakashi sensei!" She yelled. 

A tendril came rushing towards her - Kakuzu was aiming to take her heart.

Ino closed her eyes and focused on the given task. It all depended on her now. Choji was to Kakuzu's right, Kakashi to his left and Ino was lifted up into the air in front of him.

It was a race against his tendril and Ino's chakra. 

She won. 

His eyes went blank and her body fell limp. The tendrils stopped moving.

"Ch-Choji are you fine?" Kakashi fell on the ground, his chest heaving. Kakuzu was a big piece of work. He would've destroyed this team in no time.

Choji winced and pressed a cloth to his injury on the shoulders. "I-I'll be fine. Lets just do this quickly."

"Guys, he's fighting me! Do it quickly!" Ino shrieked. She was trapped in Kakuzu's body and his conscious was fighting her. Her chakra as draining considerably.

Kakashi nodded and he took out the seal from Ino's hand, as her body was lifted up by Choji. 

He activated the seal and Kakuzu's body was lifted into the air as the seal glowed a bright blue. Ropes shot out of the seal and wrapped themselves tightly around his body. Ino released the jutsu.

"Mmghf!" Kakuzu squirmed to get out, however his chakra was all gone, being absorbed by the seal. The chakra ropes, glowing a faint blue, covered his entire body like a mummy before all disappeared.

His body was now in the seal. He'd stay alive in that for three days tops.

"Where'd you even think of this idea, Naruto?"

He smiled brightly. "Akina-chan used mokuton a lot. That gave me an idea to use this seal to trap people within it. And to steal the chakra? Sasuke-teme and Akina-chan fought these two brothers in the Chunin Exams and well... I made it?"

They hadn't killed the old miser.

They'd bring him back to Konoha for information. Ibiki Morino would be pleased.

Inside the seal, Kakuzu raged.

.

.

"Asuma, any ways to get out? Can we use summons?" Sakura asked again as they rummaged through the house.

"Nothing. Believe me Sakura, I've tried. You can't use summons. When you died, the contract was broken. And now you can't use them."

"I-I... When will Akina be back?"

"Dunno." He shrugged.

.

.

"This is for Sakura-chan, you teme!"

Sasuke raised his sword.

"SSSASUKE-KUN!" Orochimaru hissed and before anyone could react...

From the cave echoed a painful scream, as Orochimaru bit Sasuke's neck giving him the cursed mark.

"SASUKE!"

Plot twist be like -

Also, when Sasuke said so this is your true form to Oreo man, I was internally listing out all the snakes I knew lol.

I'm terrible at describing fight scenes.. I hope I did them well enough!