And Hurt You

The rest of the month was a burst of growth for all parties. Temari managed to reliably etch a seal that Jiraiya called “passable, good enough for a month.” Sakura’s leg became second nature to walk on, and she learnt the basics of storage and explosive seals. Naruto could only get the hiraishin to work with the kunai he’d trained with, but even that was enough for Jiraiya to complain about ‘damn Uzumakis and their damn prodigies’. Hinata was thrown about by her father for days on end, but her gentle fist was honed well. Probably.

The polycule met up on the morning of the final test. They didn’t always participate in the competition, but it was a good place to see their progression.

The first fight was Hinata vs Gaara. The calm redhead regarded his training partner turned opponent. She was as silent as she ever was during fights. From what he could tell, it was nerves, she couldn’t bring herself to actually say anything, simply to fight. To another enemy, her impassive facade would be terrifying. Gaara, however, hadn’t feared in years. He’d also never been nervous before. Sleep deprivation had kept him thoroughly apathetic for most of his life, and he was far too conscious of the futility of his time-loopless life to bother starting now. Some would say that was cause for therapy. He would say that a therapist would probably focus on his motherly fixation first.

Or, y’know, the homicide.

His musing was cut short by Hinata springing into action. While he had been honest about her being able to win some of their duels, that had been a different situation, a matter of probing her issues. He wasn’t aiming to win. Now, however, he was going to use everything he’d seen of Hinata’s flaws in technique against her. Starting with her left leg.

She always over-relied on it, a habit picked up from the Academy. The Academy did try to reduce reliance on the dominant leg, but the curriculum, and the underpaid teachers, forgot about the fact that some students were left-handed. Hinata was not a confident enough child to correct her teachers, so her bad habits were only entrenched into her style. Grab hold of the leg, and she’d be thrown off balance enough to secure a quick win.

Sand rushed out along the ground, grasping for the gap in Hinata’s technique. If she had pupils, they would have flicked down to note the oncoming attack. The Byakugan’s omniscient gaze saw the main attack, and the various backup tendrils snaking around to support. Gaara’s main attack lashed out with a burst of speed, aiming for the ankle.

Instead of dodging into one of the other tendrils, Hinata merely lifted her foot up slightly higher, taking her next step off of the attack. Gaara reeled back as he felt his sand crumble from a concentrated burst of chakra. The explosive burst of speed Hinata gained from her counter launched her closer, landing a solid blow to Gaara’s shoulder. He hissed in surprise, gathering sand around his feet to pull him out Hinata’s range of attack.

Hiashi had said there was no point in preparing for anyone except the strongest. And the demon brat was the strongest one there. With the sealing of the one tail, Gaara had to control his sand manually. It would be easy enough to disrupt his control with a burst of chakra, and to plan around his plan by rectifying whatever the worst fault in Hinata’s technique was.

Hinata had spent a lot of time having her leg kicked out from underneath her. Hiashi didn’t pull his punches, but the result was a lightness of step that made her feel invincible. Gaara’s arm hung limply by his side, but that didn’t stop him from flooding the arena with a tide of sand, grasping earthen tendrils probing for any gap in Hinata’s defence.

Hinata, weaving through the tendrils with the grace of a gazelle, somersaulted cleanly through Gaara’s attempts, closing the distance once again. She blasted through a roughly constructed sand shield, scattering sand across Gaara’s face.

Gaara regarded the grit he had to blink out of his eyes with murderous intent. Sand had been the one constant in his life, his truest friend. It was fine, smooth, calming, and went exactly where he wanted it to. It was a special kind of insult to use it to blind him.

He didn’t have time to get angry, though. As his vision cleared, he saw two white eyes inches from his own, filled with a calm resolve almost as threatening as the kunai held to his neck.

The arena was almost silent. This was an upset on a level no one had predicted. No-one, with the exception of the loudly cheering peanut gallery of time-loopers. The sentiment spread from there, a mostly Konohanian audience elated at the spectacle of a jinchuriki being defeated by the heiress of the most Konoha clan since the other ones all got mysteriously wiped out.

The Kazekage, face set in disappointment, rose from his chair. As he did so, the cheers began to die out, not from a dearth of excitement but rather from a sudden yet meticulously planned lack of consciousness.

The Kazekage sighed, face sloughing off to reveal the Snake Sannin. Orochimaru’s lip was curled in disgust. “I’d dared to hope you might still be useful, Gaara, but I suppose you’re little more than a box for the real treasure.”

Gaara glared up at Orochimaru. The **** of his father was no great weight on his conscience, but he wished he could have sunk the knife himself. With a slight chuckle, the Sage leapt off the platform, having presumably distracted Hiruzen off screen so the author could write this scene.

“Time to open the box, boy. Try not to struggle.”

A shout from the stands interrupted the shifting sands of the arena. “Oi, **** Sage! Catch!” A three pronged kunai whizzed towards the Sannin, who caught it without even looking.

“I know you aren’t the sharpest tool in the shed, boy, but even you should know better than to warn an enemy before an attack.”

“I figured you’d dodge it anyway.” Naruto said, beginning to summon a rasengan.

“Well, you’re not wrong.” Orochimaru’s smile was sardonic. “And look at that, you’re even taking after your dear departed father with your techniques. How cut-” He didn’t manage to finish his sentence, on account of Naruto flashing to the kunai and slamming the rasengan into his gut.

Flying through the air, Orochimaru crashed into the side of the arena, a massive hole torn into his robe and chest. He slumped lifelessly down the crater left in the wall. Lifeless, that is, until the flesh puppet began opening its jaw impossibly wide, two pale hands bursting into the air and pulling a perfect replica of the Sannin into the light.

Orochimaru stared reproachfully at Naruto, poking the three-pronged knife with his toe. “And here I thought you’d simply been left a memento of your father. How troublesome.”

“What?” Naruto was as verbose as ever.

Orochimaru’s face split into a smile filled with far too many teeth. “Were you not aware? The man who damned you to this hated half life, being seen as the accursed demon child of Konoha, was your father, Minato Namikaze. I really thought they would’ve told you when Sarutobi lifted that gag order on your history.”

Naruto shrugged. “I guess not. Gramps has always liked his secrets.”

“Ugh.” Orochimaru groaned. “See, this is why I prefer the dark and brooding types. If I’d told Sasuke this he would’ve exploded with rage. You’re about as useless as Gaara.”

“Hey! Don’t pretend like Sasuke is better than me!”

“Hush now, little treasure chest. You’re actually much more useful than Gaara. You’ll make a far better distraction.” Orochimaru dashed forward, sinking his fingers into Naruto’s gut and tearing through the seal.

Malevolent red energy began bubbling from Naruto’s skin, coalescing into a translucent fox. The chakra of the nine-tails, never meant to be confined to a mortal form, was bursting forth and manifesting into a walking natural disaster.

Orochimaru began to cackle. “I’ve always wanted to try this.” He unfurled a scroll inked in a tomoe design, innumerable twisting lines of seals blackening the surface. Through the searing pain of his soul being put through a paper shredder, Naruto understood two things. First, that the scroll in front of him was a mind-control jutsu so bafflingly powerful that he had no doubts of its ability to control a tailed beast. Second, a single glance at the scroll was enough to send a bolt of fear through Kurama.

“Don’t look at it, Kurama!” Naruto yelled, grasping in futility at the wisps of chakra seeping from his body.

“I KNOW, Kit. I’ve been violated by an Uchiha before.”

“Yeah? Well it’s not going to happen today!”

Orochimaru laughed harder. “You can barely land a hit on me, boy. You think you’re going to be able to re-seal a tailed beast? Come on, you dumb fox, take a good, long look at this seal. I’m on a schedule, you know.”

“Just let me go, Kit. It’ll be one hell of a hangover, but you’ll all wake up at the beginning of the month.”

“I DON’T LEAVE FRIENDS BEHIND, KURAMA!” At Naruto’s shout, a cascade of golden chains burst from his back, snaking around the slowly forming body of Kurama. A section wrapped around Kurama’s eyes, blinding him to the potential effects of the scroll.

As Kurama started being pulled back into Naruto’s body, Orochimaru snarled. “I stand corrected, you’re much more useful than Gaara. I’ve always wanted to play with those chains, I’ll just take you to experiment on.” He let the scroll drop to his side, readying himself to reapply a seal to Naruto’s gut. That shift in focus sealed the fate of the scroll, as a swarm of chakra scalpels reduced it to confetti.

Head whipping up to its source, the Sannin’s cold black eyes met the calm green of Sakura’s. “Oops.” She said, utterly deadpan, immediately ducking to avoid a kunai that sunk into the stone behind her head.

Naruto tried to pull with his chains, drawing Kurama inside himself. The fox, tensing as he felt the chain around his eyes slip, sighed in relief at the sight of the scattered scroll. He looked down at his struggling host, and let out an amused snort.

“Let me go, Kit.”

“I told you, Kurama, I’m not letting him do this to you!”

“It’ll be fine, your mate has already dealt with the issue. That snake insulted me, I want to put the fear of Me into him.”

“What if he has another one? He could still hurt you!”

“Look Kit I-” Kurama cut himself off. “Naruto. He’s about to kill Sakura. Probably slowly, given what she just did to his scroll. I can stop him. And yes, most of me just wants to tear him limb from limb, but frankly your bullheaded attitude is making a dent on me. It’s been quite some time since anyone did something for me without an ulterior motive.”

“Of course I’ve got an ulterior motive! To get you to call me your friend.”

Kurama chuckled. “We’re not quite there, Kit. But I’ll certainly take care of these mates of yours while you’re asleep.”

“You sure?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Alright.” Exhausted, Naruto let the chains dissipate. “Thanks best buddy.” He murmured as he fell into a deep sleep.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Kurama turned to see Orochimaru toying with Temari, Sakura, Gaara, and Hinata. He was easily dodging their attacks, leaving small cuts on them to chip away at their stamina.

“You are a resilient little piece of prey, aren’t you? Picking up puppetry so quickly, you must have impressive chakra control. Really remind me of her.” The thought left a sour taste in Orochimaru’s mouth. Kurama exhaled sharply through his nose, sending a powerful gust of wind across the ant-like combatants. Orochimaru sighed. “And as for you, Temari, I’m disappointed. To be swayed by something as pitiful as love.” Turning, he froze in place when he saw that that attack had not, in fact, come from the sand nin.

“I believe you were calling me a dumb fox? Anything else you’d like to add?” Kurama's eyes, each larger than Orochimaru’s entire body, were filled with frighteningly calm rage.

“Well, shit.” And with that, Orochimaru became the next in a long line of people who regretted their last words, but were too busy being violently killed to think of any better ones.