Chapter 57.2- Gamer of the Desert

She blinked as Jiraiya stormed to his feet upon regaining consciousness. That. Was certainly more vim and vigour than she’d seen from her teammate in a while. She’d thought the perpetually impatient Jiraiya had been killed by the werigfht of old age and the decades that had passed since they’d known each other.

“Let’s find Orochimaru” He had said after thanking her profusely for the healing. As if he’d needed to. The three of them moved through the wreckage of her Gerandfather’s dream. She knew she was talking it hard, but between the deep breaths Jitaiya took as they passed every dead body- which thankfully didn’t happen too often- and the silent tears streaming down Naruto’s face, it was clear Thant themed wit her were taking it even harder.

Orochimaru should have been towards the West end of the village, but it was to the East Jiraiya led them with a frown on his face. She knew that he was allowing his cursed seal lead them to its brother which Orochimaru bore, and that could not have been without toll. Cursed seals carried that name for a reason, and she swallowed the urge to slap him upside his head again for the decision to make one.

Finally, they found her teammate. If Jiraiya had been in a bad state, then Orochimaru was worse. It was like the explosion had caught him while he’d been ejecting his body using that strange substitution of his and left him stuck in that stage. Half his body was fully out of the old shell while the other half was stuck within. The only issue was that the old shell was crushed underneath a building.

“That’s disgusting” Naruto let out and she chuckled.

“Yeah, people have been saying that about Orochimaru for a while” Jiraiya joined in. This time, her chuckles were drowned out by full blown laughter. All three of them were laughing. It took a while for them to stop, and she quickly got to work. The operation to recover his legs should have taken a while but she was still brimming with chakra from her cursed seal release and she was done in a few minutes. Orochimaru gained consciousness halfway through her procedure and only began to move once she gave him the all clear.

“Thank you, Tsunade. But I assure you I had it covered”

“We could see that” She said, making the original trio burst into laughter at the memory of how they’d found him and Orochimaru to stare at them perplexed.

“Either way, we have one Rinnegan weilder to tear a new one”

“Indeed. Such a fascinating dojoutsu. I’ve fallen victim to the repulsive attack before, but to think it could cause such havoc. Fascinating”

“Keep it in your pants, Orochimaru. We’re destroying those eyes when we finish” Jiraiya said with a severe look on his face.

The kind of look that made even Orochimaru reluctant to argue.

“Go look for Shizune, Naruto. The rest of us will see to our ally and his friend” The stress she placed on the word ally made it clear she had only one thing in mind for Gaara of the Desert.

“I want to come along, Ba-chan. Konoha was my village too”

“Is”

“What?”

“Is your village. My Grandfather’s dream was more than a series of buildings. It is the people. The will of fire. That is why I am sending you to Shizune. If everything went well, she would have evacuated most of the village to the safe zone. If that’s the case, I want you there keeping them safe. I am entrusting you with my Grandfather’s dream the same way I entrusted you with his necklace, Naruto. Can you do that for me, Naruto?”

“Yes, Granny Tsunade. I’ll keep everyone safe. Dattebayo!” He screamed before jumping off towards the Hokage mountain.

“Good thing he’s still so gullible, ey?” She ignored Orochimaru’s words and the guilt she felt for lying to Naruto.

“Game faces on, everyone. This fight we’ll be stepping into is undoubtedly S-class”, She said. Personally, she was beginning to find that the S-classification was beginning to become insufficient to describe the monsters that were showing up in this generation. Gaara of the Desert was the single deadliest man she’d ever seen, and that seemed to be a position that the Akatsuki leader seemed keen to take from him.

Jiraiya weaved a series of seals and she noted that Ma and Pa appeared with a much larger puff of smoke than would be expected for summons of their side. They wasted no time climbing on to his shoulders and he clapped his hands together for a second. Orochimaru watched the entire thing with a visible thirst in his eyes. Between one second and the next, Jiraiya changed. Where he’d once been a strong river to her senses, he became an ocean. So much chakra that she struggled to comprehend how he was balancing it all without bursting at the seams.

“Kukuku”

“Keep it in your pants, Orochimaru” She said, echoing Jiraiya’s words, but the levity was gone.

“Let’s go” She relented, and pushed down on the ground with all her strength before jumping towards where she could sense the fight going on. She landed and noted that Jiraiya had appeared a fraction of a second earlier than her. Interesting. Orochimaru appeared a second later and looked to be irritated.

She looked upon the fight and noted that the Kazekage’s tongue seemed to have been dragged out of his mouth by some invisible object. He had his blade in the Akatsuki leader’s chest, but it was clear that he was the one who had lost.

Looking between her teammates, it was clear they were all in agreement. They would allow this play out.

At least, that was their plan until a mighty green blur appeared right behind the Akatsuki leader.

“Dynamic Entry” The blur screamed out as it spun through the air before slamming a single powerful kick into the Akatsuki leader’s head.

A/N; Who saw Gai coming?