章節 60: Intimidation and Ocular Shenanigans
(Naga's Point of View)
While both the current and former members of Orochimaru's group noticed the movements of the Kocho, neither cared. Capturing the person standing across from them was their highest priority, especially for Tayuya. If the sound four couldn't retrieve Naga, they might as well not return; she was that important to Orochimaru's plans.
"Why are you here skin bag bitch? You weren't supposed to be free, and we certainly wouldn't have split up if we knew you were here." Tayuya ground out.
"Really? That was easily your worst insult yet you howling monkey." Naga retorted with a condescending smile, amused by Tayuya's antics. She continued, "Why I'm here is none of your business. What is important is that I'm deciding whether to kill you or to capture you. Let's focus on that piece. In fact, why don't you help me out with that." She stated confidently, activating her petrifying dojutsu for the first time since she returned to human form.
"What did you say bi—" Tayuya's shouts ceased as she felt her body convulse and her control over her muscles falter. It wasn't full paralysis, but it certainly felt like her blood had been replaced with liquid metal.
Naga didn't respond, she just started at her, impassively looking into Tayuya's eyes.
From Tayuya's perspective, she could feel the promise of death carried by a king of beasts. In that instant, she was reminded that she didn't stand a chance in direct conflict. Jirobo and Kidomaru were the strongest after they obtained stage 3. Tayuya would only feel confident in the fight if she had one of those two in addition to being inside Jirobo's Earth Palace Jutsu. Only then could she win and that's assuming the girl didn't have a transformation of her own and with recent events, she was confident Naga did.
Understanding the futility of putting up a struggle, Tayuya cooled herself down.
Seeing this, Naga deactivated her dojutsu, releasing Tayuya from her petrifying gaze.
"Now that you understand the pecking order…" Naga slowly stated. "Why are you staying with Orochimaru? With your skills, you could seek employment by any village on the continent. Hell, if you wanted, you could allow me to willingly capture you and trade valuable intel for asylum in Konoha. I'm sure it will go a long way to securing a position in the village."
Tayuya didn't reply. She honestly didn't know how to answer that question. It had occurred to her to leave for quite a while now, but who could she trust? It was a massive gamble to join a hidden village and she had the biggest taboo mark possible on her name. The likelihood of being accepted was unlikely. In fact, it was almost impossible.
Looking Naga in the eye, she asked "Oh? And why are you going to Konoha? Surely you don't think you'll be accepted. What with being Orochimaru's daughter in all but blood."
*Chuckle*
Tayuya's eyes narrowed as Naga chuckled at her comment.
"I'd rather take my chances. That and my guarantor is the Hokage's daughter. She's my master, though we both agreed that we would consider it a contractual relationship. If you looked at her actions on the surface, you'd be mistaken into believing she's naïve. That would be the last mistake you'd ever make." Naga calmly replied, amused at the disbelieving expression on Tayuya's face.
"Really? You're believing in someone? You're putting your faith in them for such a risky plan? Since when did the boss's cold-hearted snake bitch deign to give someone their trust. I've never seen anyone hold a conversation with you for more than a few minutes." Tayuya asked in disbelief.
This time, it was Naga's turn to contemplate her response. She understood Tayuya's perspective. If her figurative humanity hadn't been in serious jeopardy, she probably would have behaved exactly as Tayuya expected her to. Sure, she likely would still have left her father's service, but she certainly wouldn't have put herself in a contractual relationship like this, especially one that requires her to join one of the five great nations, even if it's the most 'benevolent' one.
"To be honest, it was her eyes. The threat to my 'humanity' aside, it was the genuine care and honesty reflected in them. It's possible that people with those kinds of eyes exist everywhere outside of Orochimaru's domain, but as you're well aware, Orochimaru doesn't employ people with decency of any kind, so it had a profound impact on my decision. They reminded me of my mother, the one you killed." Naga's words started off nostalgic but shifted to a cold rage as she reminded herself of what these four had done.
Sighing, Tayuya shook her head.
"You know we had to do it. You know what would have happened if we didn't." She explained with a straight face; there was no guilt to be seen.
Releasing her own sigh, Naga looked down at the ground and replied, "I know. That's why I'm even talking to you right now. My first instinct upon hearing the news was to bury you without hesitation. Well, that or turning you into a statue and leaving you to mark my mom's tomb." She started, eliciting a shiver from Tayuya, who had no doubt that she'd do it in a heartbeat.
Naga continued, "You've always been this way Tayuya. You'll happily perform any mission, regardless of its heinousness as long as your safety is guaranteed." She paused, contemplating how to word the next part.
After a few moments of contemplation, she looked Tayuya in the eye and continued, "But on the way here I've realized something. You've never been in a position where morality is acceptable. Orochimaru didn't give you the same options as he gave me. In short, you're a powerful, but disposable tool that he used however he wished. Your skillset would also be useful to have around, so it'd be a shame to lose it. That's why I'll give you a choice."
Naga took a scroll and tossed it toward Tayuya.
The genjutsu mistress knew exactly what this was. It was a restraint seal of some kind. If she willingly let herself be put under its effects, she'd be helpless. On the other hand, she knew who her opponent was. Even if it was before they were gifted with stage three from their lord, Naga was able to perform at the same level as Kimimaro Kaguya, the former head of the sound four; she crushed the four of them at once.
She couldn't even retreat either. Lord Orochimaru would have her head for not retrieving his 'perfect vessel' with her life. She certainly had a life sacrificing jutsu that might work in stage three, but she certainly wasn't willing to use it for a boss that couldn't give a damn about her.
Really, the only chance she had of living was accepting Naga's suggestion and going through Konoha's interrogation and integration process. She may be in prison for a while, but that's longer than Orochimaru would be alive all things considered. With the intel she, Sakon, and Naga possessed, there simply wasn't a viable way for his invasion to succeed with anything but his death, even if he took a lot of people with him.
It would have been nice to save the fat ass and creepy eyes, but they were the most addicted to Lord Orochimaru's gifts; they had gained the most from it after all. There was no way they would be willing to give up their curse marks, especially Kidomaru who received sets of the most powerful eyes in the world. He would rather die than go back.
On the other hand, she specialized with genjutsu which can't really be improved with cheap tricks like the curse mark. The exception was to implant dojutsu, but her body wasn't strong enough to accept a transplant without significantly hindering her available chakra and stamina pools. With that in mind, she knew that she was the only one who would willingly submit; Sakon would be a corpse by the end of the week with his fanatical devotion to his lord.
Unlike the others, his refusal would be out of fanatical devotion than anything else. After all, the twins were Orochimaru's leash on the other three members of the Sound Four.
Sighing, Tayuya knew that Naga knew her thought process. They had often spoken of their reluctant participation in Orochimaru's operations as two people with nowhere to go. She had even reluctantly confessed her dream to her, to find out her origins.
With that in mind, she grabbed the scroll and unraveled it. Pressing her hand against the complicated-looking restraint seal, she felt her chakra being drained into it as chain-like markings appeared on her wrists, ankles, her heart, her neck, and her forehead.
Seeing the effects, Tayuya recognized the seal immediately; she knew it very well in fact. It was an extremely powerful seal Orochimaru bought and modified just for Naga to use in the event one of the Sound Four, particularly Jirobo or Kidomaru, ever attacked her. It was for her protection and was meant to restrain a cursed-seal user with kill switches on multiple key points of death. In this way, Tayuya was truly helpless.
Orochimaru simply hadn't ever considered the possibility of Naga running away so he trusted her with a few special seals only reserved for key figures like Kabuto, his chief lieutenant. She was anti-social, cold, heartless on missions, and tied to him so strongly that running away didn't even register as a possibility. He knew that no sane Kage would ever accept her into their ranks and made sure to impress that fact onto her on a weekly basis.
He was right to a degree. If it had been anyone but Kamui who had found her, she wouldn't have bailed. Even Kamui relied on a very specific circumstantial need to recruit her. Basically, it was really bad luck on Orochimaru's part. Karma would also be an appropriate word considering he was responsible for creating the situation that gave Kamui her opportunity.
Tayuya felt her consciousness fading. Clearly, Naga wasn't taking any chances and had activated the suppression mechanism right away.
'Smart girl.' She thought to herself
And with that, her world faded to black.
(Kidomaru's Point of View) (Shortly before Jirobo's death)
"Damn it! That barrier's in the way!" Kidomaru shouted in frustration.
It had been a while since the battle started and he spent all of it trying to breach the barrier. At first, he thought using his weaker arrows would work, but they couldn't penetrate all the way through.
What's worse was that the barrier seemed to be siphoning the chakra from the palace to sustain itself. It didn't take him long to figure that out. Since Jirobo hadn't been able to properly finish the jutsu, the excess chakra they had stored in the scrolls carried by the Doki was being pushed into the ground. That was another surface area the jutsu should have affected but hadn't.
'What the hell's happening to us!? First, Jirobo can't finish the Palace, then, my eyes feel like they're burning a hole through my skull every second they're active, and even Jirobo's gone wild ever since he entered stage 3!?' He thought furiously.
"It's almost as if…. there's something wrong with our curse marks!" he realized. The common thread between Jirobo and himself are the curse marks they bear. They both have wildly different combat styles, chakra affinities, and physiques but that's a commonality. He couldn't think of anything else that could be causing the problem.
While he was thinking this, he was still testing the barrier, deciding against using ninjutsu to enhance the arrows due to his newfound handicap.
"It must have happened after the upgrade. When we last tested this, it still worked…" He mumbled. "What happened between then and now….?" His pondering continued for a while until a realization dawned on him.
"It was that pain. That agonizing wave of pain that felt like we were being ripped apart. At the time, we just though Lord Orochimaru was punishing us remotely for one of our mistakes, but maybe it wasn't. Considering all of us felt it, something must have happened to someone connected to the curse mark's network? But who?" He kept thinking aloud, not even phased at the signs of progress he was making in breaching the barrier.
Without conscious thought, he used his middle arms to grab the top pair and rip them out, leaving him with four pairs. Slowly, the ripped off arms merged into the now top pair to form a longer barrel of flesh. In addition, the hands and mouths grew twice their size to accommodate larger arrows. Finally, his bottom pair of arms braced the longer barrel to stabilize them.
"It can't be us. I doubt Lord Orochimaru would intentionally do this during a mission; if he had, he would have sent a snake summon to explain our fuck-up and our corresponding tasks for getting back in his good graces. With us out of the picture, it's either Naga or that reject in Konoha. Either way, we'll have to capture the latter and interrogate her. This is unacceptable. Our gifts from Orochimaru are compromised and I can't even turn it off. It just keeps feeding me more power. At least Jirobo's form is physical based. If this goes on, I might have to rip out my eyes to keep my spirit stable! That can't happen!" He roared as two larger arrows flew out of his now larger hands and toward the barrier.
This time, they made it through, and he hadn't even had to use ninjutsu, though he couldn't even if he wanted to.
"Looks like I made it in." He projected through the barrier's talk feature. It's a handy add-on that let him project his voice from multiple points in the barrier allowing him to hide his location and continuously taunt the enemy. Truthfully, he would have rather had the chakra drain function since that would give him and Jirobo and infinite supply of chakra, but it was what it was.
Suddenly, he felt something from one of his original eyes, specifically, the one he had embedded inside of his hulking friend; unlike the old traitor from Konoha, the eye wasn't visible on the skin, but was located inside of the body next to the heart. Kidomaru could feel the blood and chakra sustaining it drop until almost nothing.
Sighing, he shook his head in disappointment at his clumsy friend.
'How'd he get himself killed fighting these chumps?' He thought in exasperation. 'Well, might as well give it try. Lord Orochimaru's been wanting us to test it.'
"Jiroboooo!!!!!" He projected from the north side of the village.
'That'll throw them off. Now, let's give this a shot.'
Smirking at the ignorant leaf shinobi, he ran through a series of hand signs and focused on his right sharingan.
Almost instantly, he felt the overwhelming torrent of blood and chakra pour into the eye he planted into his friend once again.
"AARGG!!" He gritted his teeth in pain as the strain from his jutsu flooded his brain. At this point, it wasn't only his byakugan, but all his eyes that had prominent veins flooding resources to them. His byakugan was even gaining a pinkish tint to them at this point from the excess blood flow.
Taking a few moments to catch his breath, Kidomaru regained his clarity of thought.
*Wheeze*…. *Wheeze*…. Good to go. Looks like the jutsu… *wheeze* worked. Lord Orochimaru will be… *wheeze*… pleased." He thought out loud through his labored breathing. "Since we can't summon in this dome…. *wheeze*..., I'll have to let him… *wheeze* know when we kill these chumps. I bet he'll…*wheeze*… even reward me with a replacement.'
Shifting his thoughts back to his part in the fight, Kidomaru suddenly had another great idea, transforming his smirk into a maddened grin.
'Now that I'm in, why don't I prepare a big one. Let's see just how strong my new pufferfish arrow is. It's a risk, but it should work and the look on their faces when they're full of holes will be soooo worth it!' He thought to himself in glee, a vicious smirk rising on his face.
In his squinted assortment of eyes, his right sharingan faded to white, while the other's color started fading at a slow but visible rate.
Before he could enact his plan, however, a beam of light broke through the dome surrounding them and struck the ground right next to him.
"What the hell!?" he shouted.
創作者的想法 
Falsic
Falsic I thought about having the fight with Tayuya now, but it would be quick and pointless. Naga’s simply the worst match up for Tayuya and with all the pre-existing knowledge she had due to their relationship, it would be challenging to extend the fight beyond half a page. Shifting into stage two or three takes time and Naga would know not to give it to her. Instead, I decided on having Tayuya make a rational decision to surrender like a jonin-level combatant would and simply save the fight for later. As for Orochimaru’s trust in Naga, I’d equate it to his trust in post-time-skip Sasuke in canon, which was exceptionally stupid of him. I’ll include some sparring matches here and there after this arc to make up for it. Tayuya would make an interesting rival for Kurenai.
Also, I've made a minor correction to the end of the previous chapter. In short, the beam struck next to Kidomaru's actual position, not the direction he fed them.
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