chapter 57.5- Gamer of the Desert

I tried to project an aura of confidence as I regarded the four people in front of me like they were stains that I could wipe off my boots. It was giving them a bit of pause, two that was perfect for my purposes. I thought over my options, trying to come up with a means of escape. This was not a fight I could win. Jiriaya in sage mode was already one hell of an opponent on his own. Then there was Tsunade with her Byakuya seal released, and Orochimaru always had his own unique brand of bullshit at the ready and I would be disappointed if he didn’t already have something at the ready for countering my sand. But the Sannin weren’t the greatest threat. The greatest threat was the man who stood apart from them all and regarded me with open rage in his eyes- Might Gai.

If he declared the situation dire enough, he could open the Eight Gate. Sure, that was a death sentence for him, but there was no chance in hell that I’d survive that. I didn’t have ten tails empowered healing on my side. Even worse, I could feel the state of my reserves. Nagato had not been an easy opponent, and I’d fought Four Kage before him.

It seemed that my luck had run out because Gai closed the distance in seconds after doing a bit of thinking. I leaned out of the way of the kick by the skin of my teeth and slammed him with a rush of sand from my inventory. I piled even more sand on top of him, amplifying the density to the nth degree before I was forced to dodge out of the way of a stream of oil. Oil that ignited to encircle me in a wall of flames. How interesting.

There was an explosion and Gai rose out the chaos with a visibly thicker aura around him. Another gate opened, it seemed. The seventh. One away from the eight. And I wasn’t even certain of surviving this one.

Both Jiriaya and Orochimaru were weaving seals. Tsunade was doing the same. Gai was jumping at me. It was like it all happened in slow motion. I gathered all the sand I had around me. Added more and more sand from my inventory, imbuing everything with as much chakra as I could and drawing seals on the sand while I did so. This was going to be be hell of an attack. I told myself. And when I’d completed my shield and braced for impact, nothing happened. Nothing at all. Was it some form of trick? Get me to drop my guard and then take me out then? I formed an eye outside my sand barrier, and noticed that the world was tinged with red. It was a familiar barrier. Someone had enclosed me in another barrier to protect me from the attacks. Who? Karin? Unlikely.

I allowed the sand part to open a hole for me to poke my head out of. I looked around me, and noticed that the Sannin, and even Gai all looked as surprised as I did. Panning over to the corners of the barrier, I found red haired shinobi at each corner. Red haired shinobi I didn’t recognise. Red haired shinobi who bore the distinct scarring of Edo Tensei.

“I apologise for interrupting your passionate battle, but I couldn’t let you kill the Kazekage here and thrust the world into even more chaos. His siblings would accept no peace unless he lived” A voice spoke out. A voice I didn’t recognise, but someone else did.

“Kabuto?" Orochimaru asked, looking around, trying to find where the voice had come from.

A/N; Just a short transitional bit before the last part of the chapter. I think I foresee this story rounding off before we hit the 60-chapter mark.