32 - The Meeting

Team not-really-Kakashi sat in a massive wooden mansion created with Yamato's jutsu, which was annoyingly empty. Naruto, Sai, Sakura and Yozora didn't complain, but Fuyuka had standards. By which she meant, she was picky.

"For buddies, Sakura will stay with me. Fuyuka and Yozora will, obviously, work together. Naruto will work with Sai," the brown haired captain instructed. Naruto immediately shot his 'buddy' with the darkest glare ever. "Is this a joke? I'm not working with this guy."

"I'll work with Naruto instead," Sakura offered immediately. "We're used to working together. Or Fuyuka, she can work with him too."

"It is what it is," Yamato insisted. "Sakura, you are our only medic, so you stay with me. Fuyuka is Yozora's mentor, and they are essentially inseparable should the latter be on a mission."

Unfortunately, that made sense.

"Ugh, fuck the whole buddy system, it's stupid," Fuyuka complained. Yamato glanced at her. "Language."

"J'emmerde tout ce système de copains, c'est stupide."

"Did you just... switch to French just so you can swear?" Sakura asked incredulously, her earlier frustration vanishing in favor of confusion. Fuyuka shrugged. "I have to be able to curse in some way."

The spy was Kabuto, the Otogakure four eyes.

The rest of the team hid in a bush as Yamato, disguised as Hiruko, conversed with the spy. Fuyuka was still quite salty she never got to see Sasori's real face, but now wasn't the time. She'd chew Sakura out for not taking a picture later.

Orochimaru turned up, revealing that Kabuto was a traitor to Sasori. After a lot of drama, the signal came.

However, as Naruto was taunted, the Kyubi's chakra began to show until the red chakra began encasing him. Soon enough, a second Kyubi tail had appeared, the blond slowly slipping from control.

"Putain, c'est mauvais." (Fuck, this is bad)

"Fuyuka, why do you know French?" Sakura asked again.

"Only swear words and basics," the blue haired girl promised. The conversation was interrupted by a third tail appearing, the chakra in the air turning heavier and heavier.

"What do we do?" Yozora asked, cringing at the pressure. Naruto let out a roar, knocking out Kabuto immediately, who went flying.

Sakura's eyes widened, but was unable to get out of the way as she went flying herself off the bridge.

"It's a good time for the real mission to start," Sai remarked calmly, flipping out a scroll and summoning a bird. To Fuyuka, Yamato and Yozora's surprise, he went out of his way to avoid catching Sakura as she fell.

"Shit- Yozora, go!" Fuyuka shouted. Her student summoned a starry eagle, flying down just in time for Sakura to land on its back.

Everything was pure chaos by the time Sakura was back on the bridge. Sai was nowhere to be seen, Yamato used his wood powers to stabilise the bridge collapsing due to Naruto's frenzy, and said blond was off fighting Orochimaru.

"What do we do?" Fuyuka shouted over the chaos, as Kabuto confronted Yamato. The blue haired chunin was ignoring most of the details by now, staying close to Sakura, Yozora and Yamato.

She received no reply as Naruto came flying over, crashing into a wall. She flinched at the four tailed form the blond was in- entirely red, chakra literally burning off his skin and no semblance of control remaining.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted hopelessly, ignoring their team captain's protests as she ran towards him. As Naruto began to attack here, Yamato summoned wooden vines that quickly constrained the Jinchuriki.

Fuyuka ran over to her pink haired teammate, who got hit by Naruto, while Yozora went to stop Kabuto from approaching them. Seriously, four eyes, read the room, now's not your time.

Unwilling to fight, Kabuto quickly backs off, leaving time for Yamato to do some wood stuff to seal up Naruto's Kyubi chakra. The other three members of the team flinched, turning away at the sheer agony of just watching the sealing.

When the Kyubi chakra was finally gone, Sakura rushed forward to perform healing on his scorched skin.

"Is there anything I should do?" Fuyuka asked, walking back and forth. "I hate waiting."

"Be patient, let Naruto heal first," Yamato inisted.

"I thought we already established that I'm impatient and petty and I'm not waiting around."

Thankfully, at that time Naruto was healed and woke up, lasting a conversation with Sakura for almost five whole seconds before getting punched. The team then set off to try and get a lead on Sai, who had likely run off with Orochimaru.

"His things are all here," Yozora pointed out, kneeling down and gesturing at the things on the forest floor.

"The picture book," Sakura realized, picking up a hand drawn book with a boy on each cover. "It's his most prized possession... why would it be here?"

"He must have left in a rush," Yamato concluded, turning to Yozora and Fuyuka. "I need you two to go scout the surrounding area from the air. There might still be a chance to catch up to Sai. Tell us immediately if you find anything, and we'll do the same if we find anything from the ground."

"On it." Yozora summoned Aquila, his largest flying summon. He and his mentor clambered on, nodding at Yamato, Sakura and Naruto before flying off.

Sakasa might not be an efficient talker, but he's an efficient fighter for sure.

Rina yelled colorful curses as Ivory managed to calmly dodge away from her shadow threads. Her shadow threads were some random mishmash of very, very, very times a thousand distant genes from users of Shadow Possession jutsu and puppeteers who specialize in chakra threads. Probably. It's not like anyone tracks who their great great great times a thousand grandpa is.

The annoying thing is, while she had improved considerably, she could manipulate up to four threads at once. That made it difficult to catch an especially agile opponent. Rina's favorite battle strategy was tying up her enemies and bashing them against rocks, but that was all null without even catching her foe.

Kessho was a ranged fighter, he preferred to launch sharp crystals. It was easier to hit an enemy with a projectile than shadow threads, but it's nowhere near easy. He could also catch enemies by crystallizing them, but that was harder to sustain. However, Ivory was far faster than his usual opponents.

He launched a barrage of crystals, just managing to jump out of the way of the puppet's lunge, chakra sealing strings dragging behind her. He threw a slab of crystal, managing to stop Ivory just long enough for Rina to dodge as well.

'Distract her,' the orange haired stranger named Sakasa had said.

It seems this mission was accomplished, because a purple dragon swooped in out of nowhere, bowling Ivory over. Sakasa took a flying leap from its back, binding the puppet in silver with rope because normal ninja totally went everywhere with ropes.

"It's time to talk, Makoto-san."