75 The first time is always the worst, part two

"Kakashi!" I shouted, blurring all across the base, trying to find him.

What was only probably a minute or two felt like an eternity, both rage and terror fighting for dominance in the forefront of my mind.

I leapt across the bodies of the slain, trying to catch a feel of anyone's chakra.

Rounding a corner, I sensed something in front of me, setting an alarm in my head. A blank slate of uniform material was in front of me, feeling downright strange. I ran towards it, confused by what it was.

Before I could note that it looked familiar, a flash of chakra went off next to me and something impacted my chest, sending me flying down the hallway and skidding across the ground.

I couldn't even get my bearings at all, the blur struck once more, sending me across the blood and guts covered ground and into a wall with a crack sound coming from behind me.

My teeth clenched and jumped to my feet, and slashed at the blur, a loud clang from steel hitting... bone?

My eyes widened behind my mask when I saw who had just nearly killed me.

White hair. Pale skin with cracks in it. Green eyes that would have been the exact same if not for the whites being black.

Kimimaro was back, and he looked pissed.

If I was anybody else, I might have still been trying to figure out how the hell he was back and in a position to be an ambush weapon. But I knew things nobody else did, including about the Edo Tensei and future events, so I managed to compartmentalize it while I looked straight at him.

"Hello, Uzumaki." He said icily, pushing against me and stabbing at my face, which I deflected aside with a parry, twirling my blade with the motion to deflect another stab at my chest, but it came so quickly that it still screeched across my armour, tearing a chunk from it.

Kabuto was the only one I could think of that knew the Edo Tensei. It meant he somehow knew about the mission and that I personally was going to be on it.

Lightning coursed through my nervous system and slowed everything to a crawl, my mind formulating a new plan to not get killed by whatever god-awful luck governed my life.

I don't even have my sword to break off in his chest again.

Holding my blade up in a confrontational stance, I glared at him from behind my mask.

"Didn't I kill you already?" I asked sarcastically, grinning viciously, "I distinctly remember the wet crunch your skull made as I caved your face in and splattered your brains all over the ground."

If Kakashi were dead, Kimimaro would say something.

'Keep your mouth shut, corpse.' I practically growled at him by spiking my Killing Intent, my rage acting as a deliciously easy way to drip some of Kurama's chakra into my system without concentrating.

Kimimaro didn't respond to my taunt, blurring towards me and slashing downwards at my head, trapping me in a pattern of blocking and backpedaling away to not get overwhelmed by his attacks.

////////////////////

Kakashi kept stabbing into the bone wall, growling under his breath as his Raikiri failed to cut as deeply as he needed.

"Damnit!" He punched the hole he was trying to expand to get through, desperate to escape.

They'd been ambushed after Naruto split from them, a Kaguya by the looks of it. And the bastard was an Edo Tensei, which Kakashi figured out the hard way when he shoved a Chidori through his heart and got his shoulder dislocated when a thundering kick to his ribs sent him flying.

Bear was nursing a fractured shoulder behind him, and Neko was trying to heal her injuries from engaging the Edo in Kenjutsu, coming out the loser with multiple stab and slash wounds.

Kakashi kept at it, refusing to give up on reaching Naruto.

He refused to fail again. He wouldn't let Naruto fight alone, not after the promise he made.

////////////////////

My blade was pushed aside, a probing hit making contact with my shoulder, drawing a hiss from me as it sank an inch or two into flesh.

I'd been constantly harangued into different areas of the base, desperately trying to reach the exit so I could use my more destructive Jutsu that tipped the balance last time.

To make matters worse, the bastard Edo had completely covered himself in bone armour, only his face being visible. Strikes that would have taken a limb clean off were only cutting partly through, leaving me vulnerable if I opened up to attack.

"The Kyuubi will not save you this time, Uzumaki." Kimimaro hissed as he rained down several quick strikes on my defense, my elbows and wrists jolting with each hit while I backpedaled away, focusing on a very specific object with my sensing.

Risking it, I dropped my left hand from supporting my grip and tucked it towards my chest, forming a half seal as I barely managed to block his dual upward cuts that knocked my arm aside forcefully, the slight whistle of them cutting through the air being a little too close to my face for comfort.

I successfully switched with a corpse on the ground behind me, giving a split second opening to make another half seal.

Suiton: Teppodama.

I spat a beach ball sized projectile of water at him, the water denser than usual from the amount of chakra I put in it.

It impacted him with snap crack noise, but he practically tanked it and barely staggered, snapping his hand and sending five finger bones whistling towards me.

I deflected the ones that weren't aimed at my chest and let my armour stop the ones that were, opting to use my hands to Shunshin towards him, sliding under his slash at my head and having my sword in a high guard position that had me taking his sword arm clean off while I slid across the blood soaked floor on my knees, my Bloodline ability being the only reason I cut through his elbow.

My legs twisted me around to face his back and I struck again, trying to place a tag on him.

The maneuver failed when his ribs shot out in a defensive move and forced me to dive to the side, kicking off the wall and flipping over Kimimaro as he restarted his attacks, his arm restored fully and holding another bone sword.

I might have most of my chakra and hadn't really been previously injured, unlike when we first fought, but Kimimaro wasn't in the throes of dying anymore. Despite his more mechanical movements at certain times that I managed to exploit once or twice, his speed was constant and it was taking a more than modest amount of focus to deflect and block hits, let alone counter with a weight seal or chakra suppressant one.

A stab from his left sword was pushed aside as I backed away, twisting and pivoted to guide it away from me and shifting my arms to block his other sword from stabbing into my ribs.

A growl of irritation came from him at his inability to breach my defense this time, his attacks speeding up and his leg kicking out at my face, his damned shin bone shooting out from the sole of his foot straight towards me.

I ducked the attack, weaving through an intricate defensive web to divert 7 rapid attacks, the last one striking my armour with a clang. The hit staggered me, and I wasn't able to regain the deadlock.

My guard got breached again and the bone sword in his right hand pierced the already dented section of my armour, biting into my upper chest.

I growled audibly and grabbed it with my left hand, crushing it by shooting lightning from my hand into it to break it. Ignoring the pain that would fade in a minute or two when it healed completely, my eyes tracked his other sword, aimed right at my throat.

Catching Kimimaro's sword on my blade's hilt, I jerked to the right and downwards, pulling him towards me and I rammed my shoulder into his chest, slamming my palm forward.

A Rasengan formed in my hand that chewed into his arm at the shoulder, giving me an opening to attack as he staggered back, his bone armour missing several large chunks.

My stance shifted from a structured and simplistic kind to a quick and chaotic form, my blade a blur of movement as I struck out at the temporarily hampered Edo.

Kimimaro backed away, trying to hold off until his arm regenerated enough to be useful.

Unfortunately for him, I knew how he liked to fight and capitalized on it, slashing downward at his face and stretching the Kusanagi.

He blocked the hit, but I jumped up and over him in the same movement, using my downward slash to help with the jump that propelled me over him, a chakra blade forming in my off hand that ended up tearing through his right eye.

With the barest of openings, I slammed a seal tag on his shoulder that I pulled out lightning fast, locking up his entire body for a few seconds.

With my path clear, I Shunshined towards the exit, spawning multiple clones and having them circle back to try and find Kakashi and the others.

Just as I blurred through the exit to reveal the starry night sky above me, a rumbling noise mixed with loud crackles echoed behind me that made me look back for a second.

'Oh, shit.' I thought, my eyes widening when I realized what the sound was, the fact that I managed to escape the base being totally forgotten now.

A jagged wave of bone came right at me through the tunnel, the longest spike nearly hitting me before I spun around and cut through it with a slash of my blade infused with golden chakra, not breaking my stride as I kept running.

It wasn't enough as another wave of bone shot forward, hitting my back and knocking me across the ground. I jumped up and my eyes widened further as hundreds of what looked like senbon came flying from the mass of jagged bone that had struck me, the projectiles moving far too fast for me to Shunshin out of the way.

Forming a hand seal to shoot water at them to slow them down. I then tucked my limbs closer to my body and hunched myself, making a smaller target out of myself as I deflected as many as I could with my sword.

The tight and controlled movements I'd forcefully drilled into my very bones wasn't enough to stop all of them from getting through, razor sharp shards of bone cutting into the mesh of my upper arms and a few struck my legs, making me stagger as the whirlwind of death ceased.

My blade lowered as my legs shook, pain running through me as I nearly fell from my legs feeling weak.

Groaning as I pulled bits of bone from my arms and legs so my injuries could start to heal, I made a few clones and had them race away, followed by me firing a jet of water at the entrance with immense difficulty as my legs burned from the wounds trying to seal shut.

Kimimaro came shimmering through the bone, his bone sword stabbing forward as his chakra flooded the area, the water Jutsu hardly doing anything as it crashed against him.

My hands rotated to move my blade from my waist to above my shoulders, Kimimaro's stab being diverted above my head.

My blade then came down with a lightning speed, slashing straight for his hip that resulted in his leg giving out when I extended the blade's length.

He then exploded in a shower of bone shards when his leg came off, my entire front being overwhelmed by pain as I got hit by more shards of tough as steel bone.

'Bone clone? The more you know.'

I fell to my knees and gasped, my temple getting cut and blood running down my face along with my legs being unable to support my weight.

Pushing my palm into the ground to push myself up, I saw what I assumed wasn't a clone this time, rushing towards me.

Letting out a groan, I sloppily raised my blade to stop the slash aimed for my head, the hit sending a spike of pain through my legs as I was jolted.

Thankfully, two of my clones Shunshined forward and stabbed through his chest with chakra blades, forcing him back and giving me an opening to push his blade aside and stab at his chest, reaching for his face as I grabbed for a tag.

He wasn't even fazed by it, his fist shooting forward and decking me right in the face, before his ribs spiked out and impaled my two clones, both popping in a puff of smoke.

I staggered back and swung wildly to ward off another strike, blinking from the surprise hit.

'Damnit.' I spat blood from my mouth, the inside of my cheek getting cut by my teeth after the hit.

This wasn't going well at all. I was keeping up with his kenjutsu, but only because I had taken advantage of the narrow hallway somewhat and I had experienced his style of fight, but it was nowhere near enough.

Kimimaro didn't feel pain properly, he wouldn't get tired, and he would keep coming at me until I was killed.

We clashed again and I risked hurting myself by manifesting the second stage of the Lightning Armour to make up for my inhibited mobility, speeding up my movement speed without the armour itself.

I matched every single slash and stab of his with no difficulty at all, outpacing him for a split second, which was a long enough for me to knock his weapons aside and dive forward, landing a tag on him.

My momentum carried me forward and I activated the tag, taking his leg off completely with my blade covered in golden chakra as I Shunshined away from Kimimaro again, ignoring the burning of my legs as I circled around and kept my distance from him, the ground already having chakra sunk into it to create his bone forest shit.

'Damn your bloodline to hell and back.' I groaned weakly, my legs still burning or shards of bone were still embedded in my thighs.

My choice to get out of the base seemed to be a double edged sword now. I could use more destructive techniques, but Kimimaro now had the means to move around.

With extreme effort, I calmed my breathing as best as I could and tried to think clearly, hoping that everything was alright with Kakashi.

'Don't be dead, Kakashi.'

Knowing I had little time to stop Kimimaro from controlling the environment, I enacted my plan.

My hands formed hand seals at a rapid pace, a seal on my bracer storing water breaking loose to be used for my Jutsu.

Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu.

A water dragon coalesced around me and shot forward towards Kimimaro, whose leg had regenerated and was standing up, his own hands blurring through seals.

The grass and several inches of earth were torn from the ground as my Jutsu went screaming towards its target, swallowing him whole and exploding everywhere.

To make sure I healed faster, I closed the open Gate I had, immediately pulling on Kurama's chakra some.

The whiplash in closing the Gate and immediately switching to a completely different type of chakra caused my vision to double over, my injuries thankfully healing faster as the potent chakra worked its way through my system.

I cut the flow and immediately opened the first Gate and the second one, feeling the rush of chakra pump into my tenketsu.

'Focus.' I thought, my breathing quick as I shook from the energy high, my eyes narrowing in on where my Jutsu impacted.

He wasn't there, meaning he probably sank into his underground bones. I aimed downward and spat a wave of water from my mouth, overcooking it with chakra to flood everything.

A veritable flood of water washed across the landscape, a quick two hand seals forming mist to obscure me.

I was going to end up fatigued after this fight, but that was better than dead. I didn't get all this way to get killed by some bastard I already beat to death.

Racing towards where my water dragon struck, I formed several Mizu Bunshin from the water and some more shadow clones, trying to locate Kimimaro.

Unlike last time, he didn't seem to want to rise out of the ground.

'What are you doing?' I thought to myself, knowing he was planning something.

The only warning I got was a loud rumble, before spikes of bone shot out from everywhere, not just a few pillars like in the original fight with him.

Every single clone of mine was killed and I barely jumped in time to not get completely impaled, the Kusanagi saving me by extending several feet and me balancing on it.

Three of the spikes stretched further and I couldn't move, suspended over the hundreds of smaller ones.

One struck my armour, winding me, while another cracked my mask, and the final buried itself into my thigh, drawing a growl of pain from me.

Just as I went to cut the damned thing with a chakra blade, Kimimaro seemed to shimmy out of it, stabbing at my hand with a speed I was unable to overcome from the shock of the position I was in.

I screamed as his bone sword pierced clean through the palm of my hand, my balance being thrown off as I fell into the maw of the jagged bones.

A razor sharp cage formed completely around me, a loud snapping and grinding noise surrounding me as I was slowly crushed.

I fired a lightning Jutsu at it, but it did little and the bones cut into me more and I felt them tightening, Kimimaro standing above me.

"I failed in using my chakra as well as I should have when we first fought, Uzumaki," He spat, saying my name with contempt, "But my illness is no more. Die in pain." His hands raised and formed a hand seal, the bones wrapping around me the rest of the way and everything faded to black.

"Fuck you!" I snarled, forming a Chidori with difficulty from my left hand being injured and lengthening it, tearing through the bone as I slashed at it with the Kusanagi, breaking arguably the only vulnerable part of it open and pushing my way out.

Kimimaro had a spine whip in his one hand, a massive bone drill type thing in the other that more resembled a spiked shield than anything else.

"Always refusing to die." Kimimaro growled, his steps light as a feather, "You cannot win against me, and there is no glory in pointless defeat."

I lifted up my mask and spat blood tinged spit on the ground, glaring at him hatefully as I adjusted my weight to not stress the wound in my thigh.

"Orochimaru-sama will not be held by the shackles of death." Kimimaro said with a dark smirk. "But you will not see it."

'Not when I break Anko's curse seal.'

"You don't have what it takes to kill me." I hissed, lightning crackling up my arms as I kept the Kusanagi in my right and a lengthened Chidori in my left. "And my fury burns hotter!"

A flash of blue engulfed me and I shot towards him, the crackling screech of lightning hitting bone echoing across the battlefield.

I wasn't going to die today.

//////////////////

"I'm almost through!" Kakashi called out, striking at the bone once more.

The Kumo team had managed to reach them, along with a few of Naruto's clones. With two different sides chipping at it, they were making progress.

Bear was at full functionality right now and Neko had managed to stabilize all of her injuries and was capable of defending herself, although she was moving slower.

Another Chidori had his fist sinking through it completely, faint cracks appearing around where his hand broke through.

'Just a couple minutes.' He thought desperately, knowing mere seconds could mean the difference between life and death.

Naruto just needed to hold on a little longer.

///////////////////

Another spike of bone shot from the ground, scraping across my already injured leg as I dodged it barely while diverting a strike from Kimimaro's whip, the attempt jolting my arm.

I was trapped. My newly made clones were busy doing hit and run attacks while I weathered all the blows, but Kimimaro was letting attacks hit him, chunks of his chest getting blown away by water and lightning Jutsu, only to regenerate seconds later.

'I'm going to resurrect Tobirama just to call him an asshole for inventing this godforsaken Jutsu.' I growled internally, jumping over Kimimaro and twirling my blade to protect my back once more, the bottom of my sandal getting scuffed by his whip.

Kimimaro didn't turn around, opting to dive backwards and knock me to the ground, his ribs shooting out to impale me.

My arms tucked in and I rolled to the left to avoid them, the ground muddy and torn apart from constant Suiton Jutsu and bones tearing everything apart.

The dead servant of Orochimaru recovered first and blitzed through my guard, swung his whip diagonally, and slapped me across my face with enough force that it ended up tearing my mask off.

I saw stars from the hit and his spiked shield rammed forward, the spike cracking my armour as he struck my chest and sent me to my back.

A brief flash of silence seem to envelop me as I struck the ground, the stars and moon shining above the battlefield as all seemed at peace. Quiet. Peaceful. Bliss.

Then my heartbeat echoed in my ears.

Coughing from the pain, my eyes widened when he swung down with his whip, my sword hastily being put up to block it. The whip wrapped around my wrist and jerked me up, the wet crack of my wrist dislocating, followed by my entire hand burning, made me realize how obscenely weakened Kimimaro was by his illness when we fought.

Even without the Sharingan, I could read what he was about to do, his hand clenching around the handle of his whip, his green and black eyes burning with rage.

'Uh oh.' I realized, my left hand darting to my pouch as he jerked on the whip that was currently wrapped around my hand.

His whip dragged me painfully towards him and he kicked at my face, my good hand getting in front of the blow and a seal tag clenched in my fist getting planted on him.

It triggered and his body stilled, letting me get my hand out of the whip and I formed a Rasengan in my left, leaping forward and tearing his head to shreds with it.

His now headless body collapsed in a heap in front of me, my mind blurring through where my specific seals were to restrain him.

With no time to waste, I jerked my wrist back into place, hissing when it relocated.

My hands then went to my pockets and I jumped on top of Kimimaro's still unresponsive body, four suppression seals made their way to each limb, before his head formed and he lashed out at me.

The environment would be how it is for a minute or two before the tags got overwhelmed by the steady amount of chakra the Edo radiated, but it bought me some time.

Fighting him with his chakra impeded was doable, even if I couldn't actually win. All I needed to do was delay him until Kakashi got here...

If.

Even with his armour not regenerating around him properly from the impeded chakra feed, Kimimaro lunged at me and started attacking, his strikes still just as quick and my wrists were rotating to use my sword to act as the only thing between me and certain death.

"Delay me with your seals," Kimimaro's whip swung towards me, but I ducked and rolled, throwing my sword up in a horizontal block to stop the shield in his left arm from crashing into my head, "Hit me with Ninjutsu. It doesn't matter." His leg kicked out at my face, my instincts screaming at me to punish the error and cut his foot off.

My sword came down and cut into his leg, a kunai flying from the storage seal in my bracer and into my other hand, blocking his shield from stabbing towards me with the spike on the end of it.

To my surprise, he dropped his shield before it made contact with my kunai and spun with his momentum, exposing his back to me, and backhand swung his whip straight into my side.

The instinct to stab at his exposed back, yet knowing it would do nothing, caused me to hesitate for just long enough where I was unable to get out of the way in time and his whip struck me like a train, sending me flying across the ground.

I bounced off the ground twice, stopping as I drew in a rattling breath.

"Ugh, damnit." I coughed, feeling the familiar burn of a fractured rib, my armour completely cracked through on the side.

Kimimaro didn't charge towards me to press the advantage as he shuddered and the cracks in his face shifted, the tags on him fizzling out.

Shit.

With a look of contempt, he ripped off the tags and tossed them aside, the rage coming off of him making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

"In time, you may have been a match for me," Kimimaro snarled, stalking towards me slowly as a spire of bone rose next to him, the pillar chipping apart until a spear was all that was left, his fingers wrapping around it, "But you will not be given that time."

Just as I was about to say something, I felt a familiar presence in my peripheral originating from inside the base.

"Heh," I pushed myself to my feet, my mask having been lost at some point in the fight as I spat on the ground in front of him, "I don't need to defeat you. I just needed to hold you off until Kakashi got here."

Right as I finished my sentence, I bolt of lightning went screeching towards Kimimaro, impacted his arm and knocking him down, his whip falling from his hand.

A blur of silver rushed towards me from the base, Chidori crackling in hand as Kakashi reached me, his Sharingan seeming to burn a hole into Kimimaro.

Letting out an almost manic laugh of relief, I sent a blade of water at Kimimaro, making a half seal to Shunshin at him right after.

The bastard took the hit like a champ, only taking a step back from the impact, and Kakashi and I clashed with him at the same time.

My blade slashed down towards his side, which he blocked with his spear, but it left him open for Kakashi to ram his Chidori through his other shoulder, almost tearing his arm off.

Kakashi then kicked him off his arm, dashing to the left while I went right.

Kimimaro recovered from the change in tide as best as he could, his wrath evident from the look of hatred on his face.

My head was starting to steadily ache, the two open Gates and the injuries I'd accumulated weighing on me. But I still had about half my chakra reserves, and I still had plenty of seals to restrain Kimimaro.

We could do this.

"Formation 3!" I barked, pulling a special kunai from a specific storage seal and gripping it, taking point as I knew how Kimimaro fought more than Kakashi.

Two clones were made by me and the three of us Shunshined at Kimimaro, one intentionally lagging behind.

Kakashi blurred through hand seals and summoned several of his ninken, sending them to run interference as they circled around me. He then Shunshined halfway towards us, circling around at full speed and throwing kunai with specific seals on them that his ninken grabbed in their mouths.

While that occured, me and my one clone clashed with Kimimaro, my blade smashing into his sword as I tried to force an opening. Steel clanged against bone as I danced around him, stabbing forward and twisting my blade upward to slash at his face when he parried the stab.

He jerked his head to avoid getting hit and we disengaged for a fraction of a second, another storm of blows coming from me as I shot towards him, planning on acting like I got fatigued from not breaking through his defense.

The plan worked as I failed to, switching to defending as Kimimaro countered with a punishing attack, several stabs and slashes being diverted by me haphazardly while my clone covered the openings I was showing from how much his hits were outpacing me at times.

Right as my one clone popped as a signal, my other clone dove straight into Kimimaro, acting as a shield as it was impaled, exploding into smoke that obscured me for a fraction of a second from Kimimaro's sight.

I took the opening and dropped the special kunai right next to Kimimaro and Shunshined away, Kakashi and his ninken successfully planting the seals that I had given to him in the event that such a situation as what we were in now occurred.

"Now!" I shouted, signaling Kakashi on what I was going to do, my hand raising up in a half seal.

The seals activated and the chakra sealed in them that were set to restrain triggered, being drawn to the seal carved into the kunai reserved for this.

Seal markings made of chakra expanded from the outer ring of tags, snaking across the ground and towards the kunai, restraining Kimimaro completely as his eyes widened.

This was basically the same principle of what Rin used on Sasuke and probably what Danzo used against Sasuke at the Kage summit, but for area of effect instead of directly planting it on them.

Doing the math rapidly, I predicted it would only restrain him properly for about ten seconds, give or take. And I probably would have been right, if not for the visible success Kimimaro had in spasming like he were fighting it.

"Persistent bastard." I muttered, forming several clones and tossing my suppressant tags towards them, having less than ten of them remaining if I counted correctly.

Tensing my legs and swirling chakra through the tenketsu in said extremities, I Shunshined full speed with my clones towards the reanimated pet of Kabuto, deactivating the trap right as my feet touched the border of it.

Kimimaro staggered at the abrupt lifting of the restraints, being unable to stop me. Jumping right as I got to him, I slammed the two tags I had into his face, wrapping my legs around his head and using my forward momentum to bring him to the ground, my clones slamming their tags into him as well once we were rolling in the mud.

Kimimaro growled unintelligibly as I forced his face into the dirt, my fist smashing into the back of his head as he desperately tried to fight off his second time defeater.

"Never fight an Uzumaki on open ground." I spat at the bastard, darting away and reactivating the trap, my clones popping to give me back my chakra.

Kimimaro completely froze, no longer able to move now that is body was restrained and his chakra was suppressed to the point where he couldn't shatter the trap.

'We did it.' I let my eyes flick towards where I could see Kakashi and feel his chakra, his signature a little difficult to see perfectly clear from all of Kimimaro's chakra that emanated from underneath us.

I took a deep breath and Shunshined towards Kakashi, who was still on guard, his Sharingan glinting in the near darkness as his ninken circled Kimimaro.

"I almost had it under control." I answered his unasked question, wiping at my face to get some of the sweat mixed with blood out of my eyes.

Pausing to push his hair off of his forehead, Kakashi grunted his sort of response.

"I'm just wondering what you did to fix the saturation problem Rin discovered." Kakashi muttered, his hair drooping from sweat.

"Saturation problem?" I asked confusedly, not knowing what he was talking about.

A spike of alarm went through Kakashi's chakra signature at that, confusing me.

"Rin noticed that environments with foreign chakra saturating it could cause issues with the restraints." Kakashi said slowly, his attention on Kimimaro.

My own attention went to the seals in place, a faint 'sparking' coming from them.

"Oops?" I said questioningly, cringing when the sparking turned into an audible crackling noise.

The seals then violently exploded, flinging dirt and water everywhere.

Immediately after the trap broke apart, Kimimaro jumped to his feet, Killing Intent directed at both Kakashi and me.

"I hate the Nidaime with all my being for making this Jutsu." I said flatly, going through hand seals and shooting a concentrated stream of water at Kimimaro.

Suiton: Water Severing Wave.

"Wait!" Kakashi tried to stop me, but it was too late. The blade of water struck Kimimaro, but he avoided the Jutsu just enough to have it tear his arm off instead of his chest, removing two chakra suppressant tags from him as my own chakra impacted the seals.

I cursed myself for the stupid oversight, realizing I just ended up making things worse.

"Circle around and hit him from separate sides!" Kakashi ordered, sounding annoyed as he Shunshined to the opposite side and whistled, his ninken rallying to him.

On guard for either of us blitzing him, Kimimaro threw his arms out to show he wasn't done yet.

"My chakra never runs out," He proclaimed, breaking another tag with a flash of chakra, "Do you think that Orochimaru would not have trained me to break these accursed Uzumaki seals?!"

Another broke.

"He learned to craft seals just like these," He snarled, tearing off another as it fizzled out, "After ripping seals out of the death grip of your clan's corpses!"

I flinched when he said that, my teeth gritting at the revealing of something I didn't know.

Orochimaru went to Uzu.

The thought of my clan, my people, family; their bodies left to rot in the shattered ruins of their home... It lit a fury in me that I felt only perhaps on a handful of occasions.

Dead. Exterminated. Forgotten.

This thing made light of what was mine by birthright being used by his serpent of a master, and Orochimaru did nothing but scavenge like a vulture picking the bones clean.

My chakra almost burned from how much hatred I felt at Orochimaru once more, a quiet, traitorous voice in the back of my head almost longing for the snake to be brought back to be tortured, punished, and dismembered for his crimes.

Monster. Aberration. Oath breaker. Child killer.

Those words were practically shouting in my head, my breathing laboured as I snarled at Kimimaro.

My arms and legs tingled as Kurama's chakra was slowly coaxed out of my tenketsu, the pounding in my head rising in pitch to that of a dull roar as I saw red, the foul stench of blood and the overwhelming acidic feeling throughout my body nearly overwhelming me.

"Go back to the abyss!" I growled, feeling my chakra churn with each beat of my heart as I glared hatefully at Kimimaro, "Fall back into the nothingness that awaits you and your master!" Golden chakra surrounding the Kusanagi as I gripped it tightly, everything tunnel visioning to the point where I could almost not tell that Kakashi was even here.

Aside from a tilting of his head and a faint squinting of his eyes, Kimimaro didn't show any facial expression towards my response.

"I will finish what the villages started in purging your wretched clan from this continent!" The Edo blurred through hand seals and pressed them into the ground, a wave of chakra flowing from him.

That drew me out of my blood rage, the thought that Kakashi didn't know precisely what was about to happen piercing clean through my mind.

"Beneath us!" I shouted to Kakashi, shooting forward in a blur and pulsing chakra into my legs, jumping into the air to avoid the spikes of bone that came shooting out of the ground in a couple hundred yard radius.

Kakashi, in the display of speed that threw me off, pressed his hand to the ground and lifted up a spike of earth several feet wide, avoiding the bones by only a few inches.

I wasn't so fortunate to have Doton Jutsu in my arsenal, so I did the same thing as I did before and stretched the length of the Kusanagi, the blade stabbing into the bone while I was still airborne, all of my body weight resting on my right arm.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself up to stand on the hilt and leaped forward to try and reach Kakashi. I realized mid jump that I wasn't going to make it.

'Don't fail me now.' I prayed, twisting my body to face downward and I made a few hand seals, pooling chakra in my gut.

Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu.

I sent a wave of water from my mouth to help propel me closer to Kakashi, the improv attempt working enough for me to form a water whip in my hand and swing it towards the spire Kakashi made.

Kakashi's Sharingan tracked the whip and dove for it, yanking me towards him with a great deal of strength.

I got pulled towards him until I made contact with the earth via ramming into it, dropping the whip and sticking to the small island of safety from the bone with chakra and running up it.

I reached the top and Kakashi clasped his hand around my wrist, pulling me up with a grunt.

"I'm never going on an ANBU mission again." I muttered, my sensory ability stretched to try and detect Kimimaro.

With my chakra being what made up the water surrounding us via combined use of Ninjutsu, I formed a hand seal and shot a bolt of lightning at it, seeing and hearing it arc through the pool that had started to sink into the ground.

Kimimaro reacted by appearing from the bone and flinging a spear at me, sinking back into the ground.

Right as I was about to swing at it and deflect it aside, Kakashi stepped in front of me and pinpoint hit it with a small lightning senbon, the rod of bone spontaneously exploding like a bomb about a dozen meters away from us.

'Oh.' I thought, looking up at Kakashi with a nod of thanks.

"Why is that you always end up covered in blood whenever you go out and do something on your own?" Kakashi asked, his Sharingan tracking the terrain around us for any sign of Kimimaro.

"Beats me," I said, trying to still sense the Edo, "Where's the others? They going to be any help?"

"I assume this is the same Kaguya you killed?" Kakashi asked in response, his eye still tracking for movement.

"Yes." I replied, catching a faint flash of chakra. "My right." I said sharply, going through hand seals.

Raiton: Gian.

A bolt of lightning shot towards Kimimaro's signature, blasting a chunk of earth and bone skyhigh.

It missed, judging by Kimimaro firing several bone senbon from the ground towards Kakashi, who blocked it easily by making a half seal that raised a chunk of earth up to shield him.

"The two of us are the only ones here who know how he fights." I said, making over a dozen clones and ordering them to jump down and saturate the area with Mizu Bunshin. "Thoughts on restraining him without anyone getting killed?"

Kakashi grunted a negative, giving a faint whistle as a signal to me right as I felt several signatures emerge from the base and dart outside of the area that Kimimaro controlled.

"I told them to evade until we figured something out." Kakashi pressed his hands against the earth we were standing on, pumping more chakra into it to expand it a few more feet. It rumbled as it did, giving us a bit more breathing room.

"I don't fancy being deadlocked with this asshole a second time." I growled irritably, the Kusanagi still clenched in my fist as I saw my Bunshin do their work.

Right as I was about to offer to just bum-rush the bastard with the last remaining seals between the two of us to restrain him again, I thought of a better idea.

A feral grin appeared on my face, probably making me look like a lunatic from my sharper canines and the copious amounts of blood covering me.

'I already gave you a Christmas present, here's another.'

"Hey, Kakashi," I said slowly, pinging my chakra to have my clones start tearing into the tunnels of bone Kimimaro made to draw him out, "How accurate are you with your eye?"

////////////////////

Kakashi's gaze was drawn to Naruto, the look of malicious glee on his face giving him a faint feeling of uneasiness.

"If you're thinking of me hitting him with it..." Kakashi said with a leading tone, which Naruto nodded to.

"I act as bait and you teleport him away to Uchiha hell or wherever it leads to."

Kakashi ran through multiple lines of thought, coming to a conclusion relatively quick.

'If Naruto brought this up as an idea before trying to seal him again, then this is definitely bad.'

Naruto was quite skilled at seals, including restraining people's chakra and movements. Regardless of the previous time not working, the teen was resourceful enough to figure out something else. So him requesting this as a path to defeating the reanimation instead was a cause for great concern.

His thoughts were cut off when Kimimaro burst from the ground, attacking the bunshin on the ground, his movements extremely fast and precise.

His Sharingan tracked the relentless fury of the reanimation, the bunshin barely holding up even while working in tandem with Suiton jutsu to manipulate the ground to try and counter the environmental control of their enemy.

'How did Naruto manage to survive and defeat that?' Kakashi wondered, shock rolling off him at how genuinely dangerous he was in taijutsu and kenjutsu now that he took his time to truly watch.

After running through the nature of their predicament through his head once more, all the while the clash of chakra against bone and explosions dominated the area, Kakashi settled on a simple order to the red haired Jinchuriki.

"Don't get killed."

Naruto nodded and formed a Rasengan in his hand, using his other to pop a storage seal full of water.

Right before Kakashi's very eyes, he saw Naruto use the partial elemental addition to the Rasengan that Minato-sensei tried to accomplish, but with water.

It was a Jutsu Naruto seldom used, given that it took such a long time to form to the point of being practically useless in combat. But it was forming a little faster than before, and it slowly grew to the size of a large beach ball that had far more densely compacted water than it had any right to.

"ULMO!" Naruto roared, lifting his arm above his head and barely containing the shaking of the limb as Kakashi could see the orb of water glow with chakra from his Sharingan.

The made up word was evidently a signal, and every single clone rushed Kimimaro, not even bothering to defend themselves as they fired Jutsu or slammed into him with a Shunshin to stagger him.

With the reanimation unable to sink into the bone, Naruto flung the ball at him, landing right next to him.

It bounced off the ground once and exploded with a loud snapping noise that nearly made Kakashi's ears ring, the sound barrier being easily broken several times over by the compressed and swirling water shooting in all directions.

Every single clone was eviscerated, along with most of Kimimaro in a blast that tore several feet into the ground, including the bone forest underneath, and a massive wave of water exploding all over the place.

Without hesitation, Naruto jumped down and Shunshined towards Kimimaro, a seal tag in each hand.

The rapidly regenerating factor of the Edo Tensei wasn't fast enough as Naruto slapped the tags on the incomplete Edo, over half a dozen more tags being planted on him.

Naruto then bolted away, activating the seals to restrain his target for the few second opening needed.

"Do it!" He shouted desperately, being out of striking distance now.

Kakashi closed his eye for a moment, guiding as much chakra as possible into the tenketsu and portion of his chakra network above his stomach, attempting to nullify some of the whiplash feeling that was inevitable.

Drawing upon all the despair, self-hatred, and anguish he could possibly muster, letting it sink into his chakra, Kakashi focused on the penumbra of the black spot that stained his very soul... and his eye burned.

'K-kakashi.' Rin's voice echoed in his head, a choked and wet gasp coming from her as he remembered it with an unforgiving clarity.

There was nothing but himself and what was within sight. His ninken were not here. The other ANBU were not here. And not even Naruto was.

The reanimation barely managed to move, his eyes widening as he looked straight at Kakashi for a fraction of a second, realizing that something was not right.

Kamui.

Kakashi felt an obscene amount of his chakra practically disappear as a vortex surrounding where his line of sight was appeared, instantly hitting his target.

The reanimated Kimimaro completely disappeared in a swirl of black, including a couple feet of ground.

'Please work.' He thought, his eye dripping blood as he felt like he had just been violently stabbed in the face. Kakashi's vision swam and then he fell to his knees, nausea hitting him at the abrupt loss of a significant portion of his reserves.

"Ugh." He fought down the urge to vomit, his regular eye looking at Naruto and the crater where his technique hit.

"Can you sense him?" Kakashi asked weakly, hoping Naruto could hear him.

Naruto waved his hand to signal him. "I can't sense him, only the residual chakra from underground."

Kakashi smiled at that, letting himself lay on his back to catch his breath and get the world to stop spinning.

They did it. No fatalities, plenty of information gathered, and an Edo Tensei successfully defeated. If only it didn't require him to use his Sharingan like that.

'I wonder where it even sends them.' Kakashi thought, hearing the other ANBU run towards them. 'I'll let Naruto talk with them.'

He'd wait five or so minutes, then he would jump down. The thought of staggering while jumping down and hurting himself wasn't all that appealing.

But not until then.

///////////////////

'Burn in Hell, bastard.' I thought icily, grinning at where Kimimaro had just been seconds ago.

I didn't know if Kimimaro could cancel the Edo Tensei out, and it made me all the more pleased in a vindictive way when I thought of him being trapped in Obito's personal dimension with no way out.

Catching a flash of different chakra signatures, I sensed them coming towards me, two of them being extremely familiar to me.

'bout time, guys.' I thought, elated at the sort of mission accomplished task.

I sensed for Kakashi and went to call for him to ask if he was alright, when my head suddenly started hurting, the specific portion of Kakashi's signature that was stained to resemble Obito's making my skin itch, my teeth clenching as I felt myself start to get angry.

It had to have been me accidentally tapping into Kurama's chakra some when I was in a wrathful state of mind while the two Gates were open that's causing the headache, the scent of blood in the air not helping.

"Inu, you alright?!" I shouted, gritting my teeth as the familiar feel of a Sharingan emanated from Kakashi's outline.

'Calm down.' I clenched my fists, trying to suppress Kurama's chakra as I felt my anger start to mess with me. 'Deep breaths. Deep breaths.'

"I'm alive." He called out tiredly, his arm waving blindly before he set it back down. "Just... tired."

With supreme force of will, I beat down the unstable feeling in my chakra and the barely explainable anger that almost consumed me, the Kusanagi that was clutched in my hand putting me at ease Kumo ANBU, Neko, and Bear had just gotten here, their body language betraying how shocked they were at the carnage.

"I don't know what to even say." Zee looked around, his eyes going to the crater after he finished gazing at all of the destruction.

The urge to lash out was thankfully muted by my ironclad grip on it, Neko and the Kumo sensor looking at me unwaveringly.

"Something's wrong with your chakra." The masked Kumo kunoichi voiced her thoughts, sounding genuinely unsettled. "There's another kind mixed with it."

'Of course she feels my chakra spazzing out.'

"That's normal for me." I replied, pausing when I realized my mask was not on. It looked like the cat was probably out of the bag.

"Normal for a Jinchuriki." Zee said lightly, drawing twin looks of hostility from Bear and Neko. "What's it matter if I figured it out?" He scoffed, sounding unamused at their reaction, "The kid is the one and only reason my team and I survived, and our villages are allies anyway."

It didn't bother me either way. Neko and Bear were still probably operating under some degree of conditioning in regards to keeping identities and other such things on the down low when cooperating with other units from allied villages.

"We'll be sure to note to Raikage-sama that you went above and beyond what was necessary in order to assist us." Zee promised, both Bear and Neko relaxing after that.

I nodded at the statement, taking a deep breath and looking up at the sky, silently taking in the sparkling beauty of the stars.

The mission worked out so nobody got killed, even when it ended up turning into an impromptu S-rank mission.

Kakashi eventually hopped down after a few minutes, his legs shaky as he had his left eye shut.

"Anyone critically injured?" He asked, glancing at the Kumo nin that had been incapacitated before.

"No, but we're going to need to stay in the area for the night." Zee replied, also glancing at his subordinate, "Konoha is closer than Kumo, so we'll head south."

Kakashi nodded his agreement, looking at me neutrally.

"Your mask is gone, Fox." He said unnecessarily.

"I seem to have misplaced it," I responded flatly, "I'll be sure to pay for a replacement."

"See that you do." Kakashi nodded stiffly, but I could hear the faint traces of amusement as we intentionally talked to each other in a professional manner. "The forest we rendezvoused at is probably the best choice to hunker down in for the night."

Nobody spoke up to refute that, so that was probably our plan.

"Go ahead and get there," Kakashi waved them off, looking at me next, "Stay with me, Fox. We need to talk about the Edo Tensei."

The Kumo ANBU Shunshined towards the trees, the wounded one being held by Zee as they did so, and Neko and Bear followed suit right after.

Gesturing for me to walk with him towards the same direction, I did and caught up to him, looking up towards his masked face.

"No offense to you, but I don't think I ever want to go on a mission with you ever again." Kakashi sighed, being mindful of his footsteps as we got out of the torn up landscape that was the result of us clashing with Kimimaro. "Bad luck."

I almost wanted to scowl at him, but I took a moment to think about it objectively.

"I get that Nami was bad, but what else is there?" I asked, scowling this time when I sneezed from the blood smell still clinging to me.

I broke open a storage seal and drenched myself in water, scrubbing at my face and hair.

"First mission outside of Konoha turns into an A-rank," Kakashi started, sounding monotone as he began rattling off different incidences, "Your first Chunin exam results in Konoha getting invaded, and now your first ANBU mission turns into an S-rank one. Even the most skeptical of Shinobi might start noticing a pattern."

"That," I sputtered, straight up offended by the insinuation, "That's not fair at all."

The way Kakashi made it sound like had me drawing parallels with a certain guy that had immense responsibilities put upon him by his superior, rejected said responsibilities, and then had the ramifications of his defiance continue to hunt him no matter how far he ran. I couldn't exactly tell Kakashi he was completely off the mark because Wave would have happened anyway, as would have Orochimaru's invasion.

"Your first of everything ends in disaster." Kakashi said flatly, hissing under his breath as he rubbed at his face, specifically his eye. "Damn thing stings." He muttered under his breath.

'I'm just grateful Kakashi isn't Jiraiya.' I thought, realizing he would have probably hounded me about me being some supposed anime rendition of whale bait or some bull like that in a perverted fashion.

We remained silent as we walked the rest of the way, the faint twinkling of the stars and the soft touch of the cool wind helping to relax me.

///////////////////

"Care to repeat that?" Tsunade asked, her eyes trailing across both Kakashi and mine's forms.

Neko and Bear were currently at the hospital getting patched up, while Kakashi and I had finished debriefing the blonde Hokage on all but two portions of the joint ANBU mission, the current one we were discussing being the use of Edo Tensei.

Jiraiya and Hiruzen were both present as well, the older of the two looking much better than what he did a few weeks ago.

"The terminally ill Kaguya that I fought during the invasion was resurrected by Yakushi Kabuto, if what he told me was true." I explained, omitting the fact that Kimimaro said no such thing. I was just filling in what I already almost certainly knew.

"And how did you manage to defeat him?" Hiruzen asked, peering at me curiously, "Tobirama-sensei mentioned that conventional Fuinjutsu seals would sometimes not work as effectively on them."

I spared a glance towards Kakashi, who pointed at his left temple.

"Ah." Hiruzen said, understanding now. "Please, continue."

Hiruzen technically didn't hold an active rank anymore, but he was still the Sandaime Hokage, holding a similar level of influence in the village as Jiraiya or Tsunade had she not taken the post as Godaime.

Kakashi cleared his throat, giving me a pointed look.

'Oh, he wants me to explain it.'

"He was successfully defeated and we completed the mission," I continued, grimacing as I thought of the final important thing, "And then there's something that we discovered... it's bad."

The way I worded it had the three strongest Shinobi in the room looking directly at me, not exactly helping matters when I thought of the implications of the discovery.

"Orochimaru had a cloned horn of the Hachibi in storage." I said, exhaling when I saw Jiraiya's eyes narrow. "And we have his notes."

I pulled the storage scroll of notes Kakashi found in the room and walked up to Tsunade's desk, setting it down gently as I post chakra into it to open it.

"Did you authorize Orochimaru to infiltrate Kumo and sabotage the seal of Blue B?" I asked Hiruzen quietly, his dark eyes flicking to mine as his chakra stilled for a moment.

'Answer me.' I looked directly at him, trying to detect a sign of anything from the old man that flourished as a trained killer and warrior.

"I ordered him to kill Blue B." Was the soft reply.

My fingers tapped against the desk as Tsunade looked through the notes, her chakra shifting tightly as I refuse to break eye contact with Hiruzen.

"Why?" I asked quietly, realizing how precarious of a position I was just put in if I were to be the vanguard of Konoha in the following decades.

"Why, you ask," Hiruzen sighed, taking a drag from his pipe as he looked suddenly tired, "War brings out the most depraved in us, and I was no different."

Tsunade paused her skimming through the notes, her chakra dimming, while Jiraiya breathing slowed as I felt the familiar cold fire sensation from him that signaled he was keeping his anger under a tight leash.

"The reason is rather simple," Hiruzen exhaled, the smoke rising up as he fixed me with a resigned expression, "We needed to kill their other remaining Jinchuriki after Uzu was destroyed."

I frowned as he said that, my mind going through the timeline of what I knew concerning the Second Shinobi War and how old B was when his predecessor died.

"Orochimaru volunteered to infiltrate Kumo, kill the Jinchuriki, and risk his own capture or death to avenge our ally, your clan." Hiruzen pressed his thumb against his pipe, extinguishing it and setting it in his pocket. "Taking samples from the horn was not authorized."

"So that was what inevitably turned the tide in Konoha's favour." I muttered, both disgusted and angered by the situation.

It would be something that caused an issue with Kumo if it were discovered, although the fact it was Orochimaru would probably prevent a complete severance of the alliance.

But it meant long-term peace between us would be elusive at best.

My anger was that it was another mess that I could be forced to deal with, but my disgust was with myself. I knew I would have done the exact same thing if those I cared about were taken from me. I would have burned Kumo or Iwa to the ground if Rin was killed by either of them.

:Just like what Ashina did.' A voice seemed to tauntingly laugh at me, making my teeth clench lightly.

"These notes detail how he cloned Bijuu tissue and planned on utilizing a Curse Seal to stabilize it in someone's tenketsu." Tsunade's voice cut through the momentary silence, disgust lacing her tone. "I think I know what those failed Curse Seals you mentioned were designed to do, but I didn't work out the way he had hoped."

Tsunade finished reading through the notes roughly, stacking them neatly once more and setting them on top of the storage scroll, steepling her fingers as she said her chin on her hands, letting out a low growl under her breath.

"It's disgusting that it looks like he came close to making a breakthrough from what his final note said." She shook her head, reaching for her cup of sake and downing it all, before setting it down.

"Did you destroy the horn?" She asked, looking suddenly unnerved at the possibility that we didn't.

"We grabbed a sample and then blew it up, along with the entire base." Kakashi assuaged any worry, pulling out a storage scroll that had a chunk of the horn in it, setting it on the desk.

"Good," Tsunade nodded, looking relieved, "Naruto, you are dismissed. Kakashi, I still need to talk with you."

At my dismissal, I turned and started to leave, but a voice that said my name caused me to pause my stride.

"Naruto." Hiruzen walked towards me, his legs carrying him towards me. "Please, understand why I di-"

"No," I interrupted him, causing him to blink in surprise at him being abruptly cut off, "Don't try and excuse your decision. You were fighting a war and that's what you went with. There's nothing to forgive."

I was mentally exhausted from the mission and wanted to just sleep and do nothing for the next couple of days.

The last part of what I said had the most visible reaction from Hiruzen, the tension in his shoulders relaxing.

"Then I won't disturb you any longer." He said, placing his hand on my shoulder momentarily and patting me affectionately. "You performed well on your first ANBU mission, be proud of that."

I nodded at the old man that I saw as my grandfather and turned to leave, my sandals scraping against the ground slightly as I crossed the doorway and walked out, mindlessly getting to the exit.

Almost like I was in a slight daze, I reached my apartment like no time had passed and kicked the door open lightly after unlocking it, my bed practically calling out to me. I stripped off my damaged armour and tossed it aside, followed by the rest of my clothes and my hair tie, letting it hang free.

Getting into bed, I didn't even get under the blankets, deciding to just lay there as I fell asleep almost instantly.

End Chapter:

This chapter would have been out at least a week ago had it not been for my buddy, DylanTheDemon, being one of the weirdest conversationalists.

I probably should have guessed that he was that way when I realized he had the word *Demon* in his name.

But, the chapter is out now. Naruto gets his first ANBU mission under his belt and it goes about as well as every other thing he's done for the first time.

Kabuto has shown he is willing to use the Edo Tensei to protect himself from the encroaching Konoha/Kumo alliance, and it's bound to cause repercussions. And I went with Kimimaro getting sucked into Obito's dimension because he deserves it to happen again.

The part with Blue B is something that I realized relatively recently unintentionally fit in with the timetable I had set up of the destruction of Uzu and a potential retaliation carried out. So that's what I went with.

This chapter is more of a setup for the type of ANBU missions that will be conducted. The next chapter will actually move things along by several weeks probably, so there's that.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter. Peace!

Raging..