NHRK Chapter 57 - updated

Orochimaru took immediate opportunity to target more vulnerable prey. Even with all the training Naruto had put them through, they were still far from S-rank…but they were also far from defenceless.

They scattered the moment Orochimaru turned to them, but he did not follow either Sakura or Hinata. He had his eyes set on an intended target. The very target he’d been aiming for in his Konoha infiltration.

Sasuke Uchiha.

Itachi Uchiha’s little, vulnerable brother.

Sarada was fast, perhaps even Jonin level fast, but with the close proximity in which she’d arrived at the scene to Orochimaru, he’d caught up to her in the fraction of a second.

Sarada’s eyes went wide as Orochimaru found her back, cackling like a madman, smiling like a psychopath. He opened his jaw, clamping down on her exposed flesh.

…Or he tried to.

For Naruto had stuck his hand between his teeth, grabbing onto his elongated tongue with his fingers. With his foot on Orochimaru’s chest to act as leverage, he tugged, pulling the snake’s tongue out of his oesophagus in one harsh, yanking motion.

It detached from Orochimaru like a snapped rubber band, pulling with it his voice box and the ligaments attached to it.

Pain did not begin to describe what Orochimaru was currently going through.

He writhed on the floor, gurgling in his own blood, sounds of excruciating pain muted by the liquid.

Naruto pushed Sarada away as he stayed in front of the snake. She landed in a roll and got up safely right afterwards, eyes wide at the scene before her.

Naruto stared down at Orochimaru with cold indifference, just as the snake would to those he took advantage of.

“Do you know this feeling, Orochimaru?” Naruto asked him, spoken like he’d announced a death sentence–candance unbearably equal, tone chillingly hollow. “This is but a fraction of the pain that you’ve induced on others.”

Orochimaru tried to master the sensation, to manipulate his body such that the nerve endings would part from the affected area, so that he could concentrate, so that he could–

He could not.

In Naruto’s many acts of learning, he also found that to a certain extent, he could control the bodily functions of another with the Asura path within very close proximity. Not enough to harm unless the target was already vulnerable and could not get away.

Naruto used it so that Orochimaru felt every bit of the pain he was going through.

Yet Orochimaru wasn’t a sannin for nothing.

He retaliated, engaging with his new foe with Kusanagi.

It would not matter. 

Naruto flash forwards and behind him, Orochimaru was wreathing on the floor once more with his arms detached from his body.

Naruto turned back, to look at the pathetic his once old foe was. The very same that haunted his dreams as a child, the very same that corrupted his best friend.

He glanced towards the old man, who was with a gaping Anko, looking solemnly at his old student from a distance.

“I wish I could make this last forever, for the suffering you’ve caused to others,” Naruto muttered to Orochimaru, “but I am not you, and I will leave your judgement to the shinigami.”

With that, Naruto collapsed the gravity from Orochimaru’s very centre.

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Temari couldn’t believe her eyes.

Really.

She was holding her brother aloft in her arms, scarcely ever seeing the sight of him asleep since…ever.

The redheaded boy with the kanji for love on his forehead was the most terrifying being she’d ever known in her entire life. Even more so than her father.

Yet somehow the three girls he’d faced had bested him as if they’d already known what he was capable of before the fight even started.

Something about what one of them said. ‘Fighting the one guy we were supposed to avoid.’ Or something of that regard. She couldn’t care to remember.

But they knew of him. Of his powers.

It was the only way this was possible.

Gaara was no mere genin just as a sand viper was no mere prey.

He was next in line to be the Kazekage, a feat so rare for his age.

Yet…

“Dammit,” she cursed as she laid him down underneath the roots of a tree, hoping to shelter him from the cold night air.

“How is he?” Kankuro said as he body-flickered to her side.

She didn’t answer him and only raised Gaara’s shirt to reveal the seal on his stomach, now writhing and twisting.

The pink haired kunoichi had immense strength, blasting away waves of sand with punches that seemed to almost shatter the sound barrier. The Uchiha was fast, and blitzed in time after time whenever Gaara’s defences were down. The pale-eyed Hyuuga was formidable enough to hold both she and Kankurou at bay.

These were the people they’d encountered when they first got here.

These were to people they tried to mess with.

Even Gaara’s shell of sand had been penetrated when the Uchiha used what seemed to be lightning contained within her very hands.

Even still, when Gaara’s demon had almost awoken, putting their plans in jeopardy, the Uchiha had then placed a strange sealing tag on him that infected her brother with a array of markings, spreading throughout his body, banishing the demon before condensing and becoming what is in front of her now.

Like an impenetrable cage that surrounded the seal of the demon from all sides, it swirled and writhed as if it was alive.

“He’s…stable,” Tenmari said, putting a hand on her little brother’s forehead.

“Yeah no shit,” Kankuro snarled before turning around and cursing at the air.

Tenmari didn’t care for his antics as much as she would’ve if she wasn’t feeling the very same feelings.

Frustration.

Worry.

Uncertainty.

“What are we doing here, Kankuro?” Tenmari asked and the way her voice broke mid-question had set the puppeteer still.

“What do you mean?” Kankuro asked, walking back to her.

“I mean, what the fuck are we doing here?!” Tenmari snapped, turning towards him with fear and tears in her eyes.

“This…stupid invasion plan!” she continued, quieter, gesturing around her like it explained everything, “we both knew it wasn’t a good idea, even if we were being strangled by our own daimyo. This farce of a plan was never going to work! They have an Uzumaki here, and obviously they even prepared something for their genin in case the jinchuuriki that they knew to be here snapped!”

Kankuro bit his lip and looked towards his feet, arms shaking. “We don’t have a choice.”

“We could run,” Tenmari suggested, desperation in her voice.

“With a Jinchuuriki in our hands?!” Kankuro retorted, “They won’t just hunt us, they’d send an entire army after us! From all villages!”

Tenmari hammer-fisted the ground beside her, tears fully dripping from her eyes and wetted the ground floor.

To Suna, where water and water-natured shinobi were so scarce, crying was seen as an act even intolerable to a mere child. To waste water in the desert was a sin to their culture.

So for her to cry now conveyed no small significance to her brother.

Hopelessness was crushing.

They were going to die in this village, seeing how easily even their mere genin had handled their greatest weapon.

They had thought Konoha was weak.

Yet they had made their most infallible weapon look…

…like this.

…with all but a few seals.

Temari cried.

Uncontrollable tears dripped from her eyes.

She was a ninja.

She needed to regain herself.

Yet the reasons why she fought were right here. Her two brothers, the only source of joy in her life in the desert hell that was Suna.

She did not love her homeland. Not with the way things were. Not with the way she grew up, being a bird trapped in a cage, a mere feature to her younger sibling’s prowess, an asset to her very own father.

She wanted to be free.

She almost cried out again before she heard the faint rustle of leaves from a nearby bush shake as someone’s presence was made known.

Like the trained assassin that she was, she immediately grabbed her fan and got into a defensible position, placing herself between the potential threat and her sleeping brother. Kankuro, too, was ready, fingers twitching to control his puppets that blended so well in the trees.

Yet her heart dropped when the people that showed up were none other than the three her team had sought out a few hours ago.

The pink-haired, the pale-eyed, the Uchiha.

Were they here to finish them off?

She wouldn’t allow it, even when the Hyuuga had outclassed them by herself.

Then another person stepped from behind them, a man who seemed about their age with a bandaged hand and a blindfold around his eyes.

When he made notice of them, he raised his hands up in a placating gesture.

“We aren’t here to hurt you. I’m Naruto Hagoromo, one of the proctors for these exams. It seems that my genin friends have encountered…something that needed my interference,” He said.

Temari tensed up, readying to fight even against insurmountable odds.

“What do you want?” she asked, her voice sounding parched from her previous breakdown.

“I just want to check up on your jinchuuriki friend, to see if everything’s alright with the seal,” he explained.

“As if we’d let you!” Kankuro snarled.

“I know your qualms with the situation, and with normal circumstances, your sensei would have been contacted. Yet, when the girls told me about what happened, I needed to come see for myself immediately. You see, the seal tag they placed on him is temporary, designed by lady Kushina and myself to hold a bijuu within its container for a small period of time, only during its transformation phase. Konoha has had problems with Bijuus being released in its borders in the past, so we’d like to be safe rather than sorry. Without direct intervention now, it is only a matter of time before the one-tail will break down the barriers placed upon it, and unleash itself onto our village.”

Kankuro narrowed his eyes. “You designed the seal?”

“Aye,” Naruto confirmed.

Both Temari and Kankuro looked at each other for a second before they both gave hesitant nods.

“Just you, those girls stay where they are,” he ordered.

Sakura and Sarada scowled whilst Naruto nodded.

He approached slowly, showing no signs of aggression. For all they knew, he was but another participant in the exam hoping to do something to their brother.

Temari led him towards her younger brother’s sleeping form whilst Kakuro stayed guarded against the girls.

“Maybe you girls can continue your exams,” Naruto suggested as he walked away from them, “I can handle this.”

The girls scowled at him and stayed put, for some reason eyeing Temari like she could attack him at any moment.

Naruto rolled his eyes. He could handle himself!

When he met Gaara’s sleeping form, he was hit with a memory of this very same scenario when the Akatsuki had ripped the one tailed out of him and he lay there dying.

If Naruto had anything to say about it, that would never happen this time.

He observed the swirling mass of his fuinjutsu seal, not yet stabilised directly. It was a good thing that the girls had sought him out, even if it meant them almost clashing against Orochimaru himself.

Naruto began to pull out his fuinjutsu brush.

“What are you doing?” Temari asked from beside him, giving him a bit of surprise at her close proximity. He could tell the worry from her voice though and thought nothing of it.

“I’m stabilising the seal, both the moving parts you see and the original one that was placed on him by your seal masters,” he explained.

“Why would you need to touch the original?” Temari asked, narrowing her teal eyes at him. They weren’t as bright as Sakura’s own light green eyes, but like the mysteries of the desert, they held something within them that spoke of hidden strength and brutal toughness.

Naruto gave her a disarming smile and for a second, she leaned back from him a bit, before narrowing her eyes in focus once more.

“The original seal, to put it politely, is terribly designed,” Naruto said and before Temari could argue, he continued, “I’d be surprised that he could sleep at all with the amount of mental influence allowed on this young man.”

Temari shut up at that, eyes going wide. “C–could you fix it?”

“I can,” Naruto said, “Fortunately for you, I’m trained by Kushina Uzumaki herself.”

Naruto began to work, and Temari could only show fascination with how quickly he moved. With every stroke he made, it seemed as if Gaara’s posture was relaxing more and more. The sleeping expression on his face had been one of tense concentration as if he was fighting a battle within his own mind. Now he looked…relaxed, and Temari almost cried once more at seeing her baby brother look so at peace. It was so unlike Gaara to look this way.

“Fuin,” Naruto muttered and the seals that were moving went still. Gaara relaxed for one final time before blinking himself awake.

“Gaara!” Temari shouted and a moment later, Kankuro joined them to check on the commotion.

The first thing that the red-headed boy saw was the smiling visage of a whisker-marked stranger. Then the relieved faces of his siblings.

His mind was so…calm. What once was in eternal turmoil was now as still as the surface of a calm pond.

For the first time in his life, he wasn’t in pain and his mother…no longer haunted him. He knew now, memories working with such clarity, that his mother was long passed and…whatever this thing was that posed at it did nothing but trick his mind.

“Temari…Kankuro…” he muttered, his voice parched.

“Gaara!” Temari shot forth to hug him, surprising them both.

Yet to experience his first embrace in a while was…refreshing.

Then he felt like his head was cracking open.

…the man he saw in front of him…why did he feel like he recognised him?

“What’s happening?!” Temari asked, panicked, “what did you do to my brother?!”

Naruto’s heart almost stopped when seeing the strange contemplation within the Suna jinchuuriki, before it was replaced by Gaara’s usual mask of indifference.

Yet Naruto thought he saw a brief instance of recognition in the redhead’s eyes, but dismissed it once the boy turned away from him to check on his sister.

Naruto sighed and stood.

“It should be okay now. See you in the next stage,” Naruto said.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Anko stared blankly at the ball she held in her hands.

It was something others would find disgusting.

Yet she didn’t.

She was used to gore on any scale–she worked in T&I regularly.

It was still hard to believe that this ball was once…Orochimaru.

She shivered in fear and…no small amount of excitement when thinking of how this…Naruto Hagoromo dealt so easily with this S-rank missing nin. To think that she thought she would have a chance at beating the whisker-marked man when they sparred. It took him but a second to crush Orochimaru with a jutsu so unlike any she’d ever seen before.

It was like the snake’s body had collapsed in on itself before being condensed into a tiny ball she now held in her hand.

Even still when his wretched soul tried to escape, her cursed seal burning once more, she almost panicked.

Yet with another gesture of his hands, Naruto had destroyed him even there.

Was there anything this new kid on the block couldn’t do?

Just who was this guy?

Now her seal remained forever silent.

Anko shivered at the words she’d spoken to him beforehand. A deal that she made with him. Anko Mitarashi did not go back on her words but for once in her life, she felt somewhat intimidated when forming a connection with another. Normally it was the other way around–people being intimidated associating with her.

“Has everything gone smoothly?” Hiruzen asked from her side, speaking to an ANBU who had the face of a cat.

Yugao.

She almost waved to say hello but her stunned self was still too stiff in shock. Besides, it always annoyed her friend when she did such things in the middle of her work.

“Hai, Hokage-sama,” Yugao said, “with the assistance of Guy and Kakashi, we were able to apprehend Kabuto Yakushi.”

“Good,” Hiruzen nodded. Then he turned his gaze towards her.

“May I?” he asked, holding his hand out.

He was gesturing towards the ball of condensed human remains…if you could even call Orochimaru human in the first place.

Anko almost didn’t want to give it. She wanted to decorate her home with the thing, a commemoration of her mentor’s grizzly death but she knew better than to argue with the leader of the village.

Reluctantly, she handed Orochimaru over.

Hiruzen still looked a bit miffed that Naruto had to step in to deal with his opponent but considering the risk he had to the genin that somehow wandered over to their area, it was understandable.

“Here, bring this to forensics,” Hiruzen said as he passed it onto Yugao.

“Hokage-sama?” the Cat ANBU asked, “If I may ask, what is this?”

“That’s Orochimaru,” Hiruzen stated as if he was speaking about the weather.

“...” Yugao paused for a moment before turning to the ball in her hands and taking a closer look at the marble-sized thing.

Then, seeing what she could make out, she almost dropped the thing in surprise.

Her professionalism in her work allowed her to remain composed however and she was able to file the thoughts she was having for later.

She looked over at Anko and the snake-flinging Kunoichi smiled.

She would have questions for her friend later…many, many questions.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Temari was beyond lost with the situation.

First Gaara woke up not acting as a…psychopath…but rather as a normally functioning human being, if a bit quiet and observant. Initially, she was elated. Now, she was weirded out and held no small amount of worry on what they had done with her brother.

“Gaara?” she tentatively asked.

Her brother’s own teal eyes stared back at her, and she shivered at them, but not for the reasons she normally would. What usually contained nothing but malice and irritation at all forms of life, now looked at her with a calm kindness it never held before.

“Yes, Temari?” he responded.

Even the way he spoke was different, voice soft and patient, like a leader.

“Ah…it’s nothing,” she meekly replied. “Just…how are you feeling?”

Gaara blinked at her, before reaching up to touch the kanji on his forehead.

Then he smiled and the sight stopped Temari in her tracks. She couldn’t remember the last time she saw her brother smile.

“I feel…at peace,” he told her before resuming his way to the central tower.

Temari stood still, anchored to her place for a moment before her thoughts finally caught up to her.

She couldn’t do anything else other than follow after him.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

“I need some air,” she said as she got up to walk around.

It was the third of five days in the second stage of the exam, so they still had a few days to prepare themselves for whatever was next.

She had time to…process this.

Gaara only nodded.

A moment later she found herself out in the balconies of the building, overlooking the forest that seemed so dangerous and mysterious to her just a few hours ago.

Trees and the like were so…different from the unending dunes of Suna. Not in a bad way. Trees shaded one from the scorching sun. Trees gave shelter to animals and even humans as it did when Gaara had been unconscious. She wanted to reach out and touch its branches, only having read them in books and scrolls. In the danger of the exam, she hadn’t a moment to appreciate her new surroundings. Even in the tense mindset when they first set foot in Fire country, too focused she was on not failing the ginormous mission that held Suna in its fate.

To think that it was all made from the manipulations of a snake…

She sighed.

Then she noticed a presence nearby…

She almost froze up when she realised that it was the pale-eyed Hyuga that all but treated her and Kankuro like children when they fought.

Great, even here she was not left alone in her peace.

She expected there to be bad blood between them, yet a part of herself couldn’t help but admire the strength and grace this woman had shown. If anything, it inspired her to train harder to catch up.

To her surprise, the Hyuga meekly held her hand up and…gave a small wave at her.

Temari blinked at the gesture before giving her a nod of acknowledgement before turning her eyes towards the trees once more.

“May I…join you?” the Hyuga asked, making Temari turn to her quizzically once more.

What was her angle?

She bit her lip in hesitation but nodded once more.

Did she come here to gloat? To rub salt in their wounds? To put them down for their arrogance prior to the exam?

As it turned out, it was none of that.

For that day, Temari had met one of the sweetest girls in the Elemental Nations.

They talked, and conversation flowed with surprising ease.

They talked about small things at first.

Then for some odd reason, Temari began to open up about her worries, knowing that the Hyuga was there when Gaara was at his weakest and that she understood the situation more than most.

Somehow, some way, the talk with Hinata Hyuga eased her worries, and she came out of it with a clearer head than before.

Upon exchanging some words, she realised that this was…good for her family. Gaara came out of this with a healthier mind. The invasion, whatever the outcome, would be out of her control yet Konoha has already shown mercy to them. She hoped that should they lose, both villages could come into an understanding after they talked.

Hope was difficult, especially during times of great uncertainty, but it was all she had.

She felt like they were going to be indebted to Konoha, and expected them to bleed Suna dry, yet the future, with her brother at the helm, was anything but one filled with despair and helplessness…should they survive this.

Hope.

She would clutch on to it like a lifeline.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-