Kapitel 241: Chapter 9: Hachiro Kishin Free
(Thirty Minutes Ago, Orochimaru)
As he gazed upon the large object, Orochimaru was having trouble of deciding what he liked most: The detail of the structure that held Hachiro Kishin, or the complexity of the seal formula. Truly, Sadahiko Uzumaki did nothing at a small scale, especially when it came to Hachiro.
The object before him, the one build directly at the center of the city, was a large sphere made out of what looked like reflective iron but was actually raw chakra. It was covered in several lines of seals that went up and down, and left to right. The sphere was held in mid air by eight large, golden chains, attached to eight large silver square-shaped pillars that had pointed tips at the top at the other end. Orochimaru could also see that the at the tips of the pillars was particles of energy being absorbed into them, traveling down through the chains and over the large sphere, causing the seals on it to glow a faint green every ten seconds. The Snake Sannin could only assume that it was natural energy being absorbed to strengthen the seal on Hachiro.
But what really caught his attention, was the natural energy particles coming off the grey sphere, and floating into the sky, away from the prison. 'Interesting, it appears that something or someone is absorbing the natural energy being used to reinforce Hachiro's seal. I can only assume that it is Jugo and perhaps those two old toads Jiraiya summoned for his Sage Mode.' Orochimaru concluded as he went back to study the seals.
"I should've figured that you'd be here." A voice from behind said.
Turning around, Orochimaru found himself staring at Itachi, standing only a few feet away from the Sannin. The Uchiha had a few bruises on his form, but still retained his stoic expression. "Power always seems to attract your attention Orochimaru." Itachi added, speaking in is usual monotone voice.
"Hoh, were you hoping I come here? Do you wish to kill me than?" Orochimaru asked mockingly. "In your current state, do you think you can face me again?"
Itachi did not reply, or show any signs of aggravation at the Sannin's words. But he knew that his current health was not good, and his eyes had worsened over the past six years. The elder Uchiha had no illusions he would live to see tomorrow, and most likely he would die in this battle. 'But if I can atone for mistake, save Sasuke, and preserve the honor of the Uchiha Clan, than I wouldn't mind.'
Done with his thoughts, Itachi sprung into action. Revealing three shurikens in each hand, he launched them at Orochimaru with incredible speed and precision. But they proved little trouble for Orochimaru. The Sannin easily dodged them before launching himself at Itachi, with inhuman speed to boot.
"Sharingan!" Itachi whispered loudly. His eyes soon changed into a familiar red with three black tomoes around his pupils. But that soon turned out to be a mistake. Itachi looked on in shock as a massive source of chakra appeared before his very eyes, literally. It was a large black and purple vortex, floating above him and looked like it was going to suck him whole. The sensation Itachi felt from it matched the chakra's appearance: dark, sinister, and not human. 'W-what kind of chakra is this?' Itachi asked himself. Seeing it through his eyes was almost unbearable. 'Could this be Hachiro's, even while he is sealed? Is this the chakra of the Kishin?' He did not know, but the Uchiha wasn't eager to find out. The faster he finished off Orochimaru the better.
The sound of something moving against the wind snapped Itachi out of his trance. Coming back to reality, the Uchiha managed to side-step Orochimaru, avoiding what would've been a painful punch. Using incredible reflexes while moving, Itachi formed several hand seals. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)" And the Uchiha released a large continuous flamethrower from his mouth. The flames immediately struck Orochimau head on, consuming his body in a torrent of flames. But Itachi knew that the Snake Sannint was not dead, which was proven correct as the figure in the flames turned out to be an Earth Clone. The real Orochimaru appeared behind Itachi, Kusanagi raised.
Itachi immediately revealed a kunai underneath his sleeve, the weapon clashing with Orochimaru's. The Uchiha managed to follow it up with a kick to the Sannin's stomach. Orochimaru skidded back a few feet but immediately retaliated. "Sen'eijashu! (Hidden Shadow Snake Hands)" A from his left arm, three large snakes shot outwards towards Itachi, mouths opened and fangs ready to bite.
Itachi released a volley of miniature fireballs at the oncoming snakes. Some if the projectiles struck the snakes, while the rest continued towards Orochimaru. Said person released a burst of wind, blowing the fireballs away. But that only revealed shurikens that were hidden within them, still flying towards Orochimaru. The Sannin merely deflected them with his sword.
However, that gave Itachi an opportunity to release another attack. Forming hand seals, Itachi leaned backwards a little. "Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique)" And a released a large fireball in the shape of a Chinese Dragon Head flew towards Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin was about to do a Kawarimi when he felt something grab his arm. Turning to his left, Orochimaru saw a clone of Itachi holding him down.
"Shit!" Orochimaru cursed as the large dragon fireball consumed his entire form. The impact resulted in a large explosion as flames burned everything in its path.
As the flames continued to burn, Itachi was breathing heavily. His health was definitely not at its best right now. And, as much as he hoped, Itachi had a feeling that Orochimaru was not killed by that attack.
True enough, a large white snake popped out of the smoke, followed by seven more. All of them were hissing angrily as they glared down at the Uchiha. From the mouth of the middle one, Orochimaru popped out, looking absolutely peeved. "Enough! I will kill you now with my ultimate technique, Yamata no Jutsu! (Eight Branch Technique)" The Snake Sannin declared as one of the serpent heads lunged at Itachi.
Just as it was going to make contact, the snake's head was severed. Orochimaru looked on in shock as Itachi was quickly covered in what looked like a large ethereal yellow ribcage. The ribcage began to expand outward until it formed the top part of a humanoid body that had two sets of arm conjoined at the elbow and a humanoid face that had dreadlock hair. Following that was armor and a Tengu-face mask that covered the entire head, revealing only a pair of glowing eyes. In the left hand was a large, round shield. And in the right hand was what looked like a sword coming out of an orchid-shape sake bottle. Standing inside the ethereal being was Itachi.
"So~ this is the third power acquired by the Mangekyo Sharingan: Susanoo." Orochimaru summarized with a hiss of interest. "It does seem quite powerful, but it looks like it's causing a bit of pain, Itachi-kun."
It was true, Itachi was not fairing very well. Activating Susanoo was very taxing, given Itachi's current health. Plus, his vision was beginning to fade faster too. He would have to finish this battle quickly, as he was sure this would be his last. Right now both he and Orochimaru were using their strongest moves, with the Snake Sannin in the middle of Itachi's Susanoo and the large sphere that held Hachiro Kishin.
Wasting no time, Orochimaru began his attack. Six of the snakeheads opened their mouths and launched a barrage of purple substance at the Uchiha. Immediately, Itachi raised the Yata Mirror, the large shield in his Susanoo's left hand. When the substance hit, it let out a sizzling steam, but did no damage to the shield. 'Snake venom. If it had hit anything else then I would be in trouble. Guess I'll have to focus my Yata Mirror on deflecting it.' Itachi thought.
Orochimaru was gazing at the large shield construct, already realizing its identity. 'The Yata Mirror, it has to be. Only its incredible defense could have stopped my snake venom and not be damaged.' Orochimaru thought with a curse. Clearly even with his health declining, Itachi Uchiha was someone not to be underestimated. 'But that means the Susanoo can be damaged, I merely have to bypass his defenses.'
Three of the snakeheads continued to fire poisonous acid. Itachi was forced onto the defense and use his shield to block it. However that meant that his line of sight was obscured as well, making him unprepared for what happened next. Possessing lightning reflexes, three of the snakeheads lunged at him, and wrapped their bodies around Susanoo's arms and chest. Then the snakes bit their fangs into the ethereal being, releasing cohesive poison upon doing so. While it was not doing much damage, Itachi knew that the cohesive substance would eventually break through Susanoo's armor.
Wasting no time, Itachi willed Susanoo to shrug off the snakes that held it. It took a moment, but eventually Itachi managed to shake of the snake that was coiled around Susanoo's right arm, the one that was hold the sword. With swift movement, the liquid-flame blade decapitated the snake with ease. Then the ethereal being focused on the second snake, which was wrapped around the body. Using its free arm, Itachi tore the second snake off of him, ripping it half in the process. After that Itachi easily bashed the third and final snakehead with his shield, making it recoil.
Now only with five heads left, Orochimaru had four of them, including the one that Itachi had smacked aside, open their mouths and fired another barrage of poison. But that proved useless as Itachi's Yata Mirror easily repelled them. Not wasting time, Itachi had Susanoo ram into the main body, causing the snakeheads to flay about in surprise. And with another swing of his sword, Itachi beheaded two more snakeheads, leaving only three left, including the one Orochimaru resided in.
"D-damn you!" Orochimaru cursed, already having taken out his sword, the Kusunagi. The Snake Sannin was about to attack when he noticed something odd. The two remaining snakeheads appeared to be in a daze, staring at something behind him. Turning his head slightly, Orochimaru was surprised that he was directly in front of the floating sphere holding Hachiro. He hadn't realized how close he had gotten during his battle with Itachi.
Suddenly the two snakeheads let out loud hisses and lunged at the sphere, wrapping their bodies around it before bringing their fangs down on it. Orochimaru gasped in pain as he felt flow of sage chakra being absorbed from the sphere through the snakes' fangs. 'The heads are being drawn in by the raw chakra. And now they're absorbing it! I have to do something before the large abundance of sage chakra being taken in kills me!'
Itachi was also watching this spectacle, curious as to why the snakeheads were attacking the sphere. With his sharingan he could see that they were absorbing the chakra, which was clearly causing Orochimaru pain. But what really caught his attention was that with each moment those snakes were absorbing the natural energy, the seal was becoming weaker. The sphere was beginning to shrink and the chains that held it in the air became thinner and lose form. And as the seal became weaker, the malevolent chakra that Itachi sensed before was becoming stronger.
'At this rate, Hachiro will be freed.' Itachi thought. Immediately knowing what to do, he charged forward, Susanoo's sword pointing forward towards the enemy's weak point, AKA, Orochimaru's own body. With the Sannin trying to regain control over his snakeheads, he had no time to dodge the blow as the sword penetrated his body. At first nothing happened after that, but soon Orochimaru's body began to liquefy and slowly pulled by the blade towards the gourd from where it originated.
"T-this is…" Orochimaru said in shock, recognizing the sword and its power. "The sealing sword, the Sword of Totsuka. To think, after all those years of searching it, you had it all-" Orochimaru's final words were cut off as he, and the large snake body was soon absorbed into the gourd. Now sealed, the Snake Sannin would be trapped in a genjutsu for all eternity.
After the last trace of Orochimaru was sealed, Itachi dropped to one knee, coughing up blood. By than Susanoo had reverted back to a normal appearance without the additional armor, and no longer possessed the Yata Mirror, though the Sword of Totsuka was still out. Despite that, Itachi felt a sense of satisfaction at what he accomplished just now. He defeated Orochimaru, removing a dangerous threat to Konoha, freed his younger brother, and stopped Hachiro's seal from breaking.
"HAAAAH!" A loud and rather unstable sounding voice, cried.
Itachi's eyes widened as a rampaging Jugo appeared behind him. Still beaten up from Yujin, Jugo's right arm became larger and demonic as he charged Itachi from behind. The Sharingan user had little time to react as Jugo's fist struck Susanoo's ribs. While the blow wasn't enough to break through, it did leave a decent size crack and what was worse, managed to push the Ethereal being forward, with the still raised sword impaling the Hachiro's prison!
At that moment time seemed to stop as Itachi watched the blade dig deeper into the sphere. Even Jugo seemed to take pause, his rage having simmered down as the release of dark chakra began to erupt from the crack in the sphere. Around them, the chains that held the sphere afloat began to waver and dissolve. Itachi was just about to pull out the Totsuka before a powerful shockwave burst out from the sphere, throwing Itachi and Jugo backwards.
(Present Time, with Naruto and Jujiro)
Naruto had to keep his cool, if he didn't he was sure that everyone on the island was screwed. Even if he didn't fully understand how it was broken, the young Uzumaki was one hundred percent positive that Hachiro's seal was broken. He had no idea what Sadahiko was up to or if he would arrive in time. And he and the others still had to deal with the remaining invaders. Time was definitely against Naruto Uzumaki.
"Naruto-san!" Jujiro's voice snapped Naruto back to the present. Performing a backflip, Naruto dodged several chakra chains that struck the ground where he originally stood. While in midair, Naruto summoned six of his ninjato, three in each hand. With great precision, he launched all six towards Kushina. The Edo Tensei didn't even flinch at the oncoming projectiles. With two of her chains, she deflected the blades with ease.
'Gotcha!' Naruto thought as he flexed his fingers. The ninjato around Kushina froze in the air for a second before shooting towards the redhead woman. But before they could make contact, a chakra chain appeared and knocked them aside. As the ninjato flew in the air, Naruto formed a set of hand seals. "Ninpo: Mikado Shoheki! (Ninja Art: God's Gate Barrier)" Naruto said.
The six ninjato all performed a perfect hexagon around Kushina. As the implanted themselves into the ground, a rainbow like barrier formed from them and soon imprisoned the redhead woman. The size of the barrier began to shrink around Kushina, evident by how she was slowly be pushed to her knees. She tried to break free of the barrier with her Adamantine Chains. But they merely bounced off the barrier, which distorted the tips of the chains, causing them to lose their forms. Once she was secured Naruto performed another hand seals. The seal formulas on the ninjato handles glow and in a second, them and Kushina vanished.
"Where did you send her?" Jujiro asked as he walked up to Naruto.
"To the ship." Naruto said in a tone that left no room for further questioning. "Now we have to head towards Hachiro's seal and see how bad the damage is. Hopefully Sadahiko-hijiji will be able to get here in time before things get worse."
Jujiro nodded before his eyes widened. An invisible force pulled him backwards away from a surprise Naruto. Before either of them could do anything Jujiro found himself being impaled from behind, a familiar black rod sticking out from his chest. Behind him was Pain's Deva Path.
"I grow tired of these interruptions. This time I will not fail in capturing you." Pain declared as he proceeded to toss aside Jujiro's corpse.
However before he could do so, the "corpse" suddenly exploded into a large thick black substance. Said material latched onto Pain's body, immobilizing him and blocking his vision. 'What? Is this some kind of Meiton: Kage Bushin? (Dark Release: Shadow Clone)'' Pain thought as he tried to free himself from the sticky substance.
Eventually Pain used Shinra Tensei to blow the substance off of him. But when he did he saw Naruto lunging at him, a Rasengan already prepared. Knowing that his jutsu, Shinra Tensei, took five seconds to recharge Pain jumped backwards to avoid Naruto's attack. With the distance between them obvious, Pain knew that he would be able to avoid the attack and release another attack. And after that the Akatsuki leader would be able to finally capture the jinchuuriki.
But what he not expect was for Naruto to turn his hand into a fist, the Rasengan floating just inches from the knuckles. "Hado: Rasengan Taiho! (Wave Motion: Spiraling Sphere Cannon)" And he thrust his fist forward, and in return the Rasengan was fired as if shot out of a gun barrel. It flew through the air at lightning speed and Pain had no time to dodge it. The sphere of chakra immediately slammed into his stomach and sent him flying backwards as it spun deeper into him and he let out a silent scream. The Akatsuki cloak was torn apart by the swirling chakra and the cross out Ame-headband flew off. It was only when he crashed into a building but by then it was over. The final body of the Six Paths of Pain had been defeated.
Naruto let out a sigh as the body slumped to the floor. "Finally I was beginning to worry that it was going to take a lot longer. How you doing Jujiro?" Naruto asked his shadow.
The real Jujiro soon rose up from the redhead's shadow, completely fine. "Well besides feeling a bit creeped out of seeing yourself being impaled from behind, I'm pretty good. Anyway it appears that we have company."
Just as he finished that sentence, several figures appeared. Said people consisted of Tsunade, Shizune, Jiraiya, Ino, Hinata, Sasuke, Neji, Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, Kakashi, Asuma, Anko, Sakura, Yamato, Gai, Kakashi, and Lee. Following them were Tobirama, Minato and Hiruzen.
"Well damn, thought more of you guys would be down by now." Naruto said with a sigh. He then turned his gaze towards a certain buxom blonde. "Been a while Tsunade." He greeted in a neutral tone.
Besides the tone in his voice, the way how Naruto said her name rather than 'baa-chan' made Tsunade flinch and looked visibly hurt.
"So you're little Tsunade-chan? It looks like the years have been kind to you." Tobirama asked, catching everyone's attention. Noticing the uneasy gazes in their eyes Tobirama continued. "Relax, the three of us are no longer bound to Orochimaru's control seals. He must've been killed for that to have happened. Right now we're in control of our own bodies."
Suddenly four more figures arrived, landing beside Naruto and Jujiro. They consisted of Yujin, Guren, Sayoku and Uyoku with the two ogres landing directly behind the Uzumaki. The Konoha group tensed at the sight of Yujin. They were well aware of how formidable the green skin man was capable of, having defeated several of their comrades.
Naruto looked at Yujin. "So how are things going elsewhere?" He asked.
"The other Konoha shinobi are still out cold but the old Hokage Platoon have moved them to safety. According to Guren-san, the one named Kabuto has fled after Orochimaru was killed and it seems like the rest of Akatsuki have fallen back too, thanks to the mask member."
"I see" Naruto said as he looked back at the opposition. "Anyway we have more important things to do. We need to-"
Naruto's sentence was cut off when an explosion appeared nearby. Spinning around, Naruto and everyone else looked as a large plume of smoke rose up just several feet away from them. A second later two figures could be seen flying out of the smoke, crashing into nearby buildings at the same time. They were Jugo and Itachi and both were badly injured.
"Itachi!" Sasuke cried. He was about to make his way to his brother when Kakashi stopped him.
"Wait! There's someone coming out of the smoke." Kakashi said.
Indeed a silhouette could be seen through the smoke. Footsteps made by the figure felt like a dagger being pushed into everyone's chest, straight to the heart. After what felt like an eternity the figure finally emerged from the smoke. It was a man who looked like he was around his fifties. His skin was pale and he had long blue hair that reached his lower back and some bits of facial hair. His eyes were a dull yellow that seem to brighten at the sight of the gathered Shinobi. He had a lean, muscular build and his body was almost completely covered in bandages save for his face, fingers, toes and stomach. Some bandages stuck out from his back and reached the ground. Even though the man was just standing there and had a neutral gaze on his face, that only seemed to unnerve the others even more.
"This person…has an incredible amount of chakra. On par with Sadahiko if I had to guess." Neji commented quietly as he had his Byakugan activated.
"Is, is that who I think it is?" Tsunade wondered as a bead of sweat went down her face. Never had she felt such fear running through her body. It was as if this person before her was somehow fear made manifest or something.
"There is no mistaking it. That's Hachiro Kishin!" Tobirama said as he grinded his teeth in frustration.
Hachiro said nothing, just continued to scan the group of shinobi. He paused as his eyes landed on Naruto. The Kishin's eyes widened for a moment before returning to its neutral form. However he made a brief movement as he raised his right arm and hand pointing at Naruto. Everyone got into fighting stances as they awaited for Hachiro's move.
"Uzu…maki…" Hachiro muttered. Suddenly a ball of black energy formed from the palm of his hand. Without warning it fired a beam straight towards the stun Naruto. Said person had zero time to react if not for the quick saving of Yujin. In an instant the green-skin man pushed Naruto out of the way of the beam. In doing so the upper part of Yujin's body was completely vaporized by the attack.
"YUJIN!"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein