Chapter 64

Immediately, I began the fight with an attempt to put my Doppelganger on the backfoot. I presumably had very few jutsu that he didn't, and what ones I had were likely to have been gained after the Chunin Exams. Accordingly, two of my hands flashed through the hand seals for the Taiyōken (Solar Flare) even as my other pair parried a heavy punch that seemed to be using the Kōton: Kotetsu no Ken (Steel Release: Steel Fist) to pack even more of a wallop than using just the Oni no Karada no Jutsu (Ogre Body Technique), Kōton: Kotetsu no Tai (Steel Release: Body of Steel), and his Curse Seal could dole out on their own.

Accordingly, I was forced to use both hands to parry the punch off to the side. My Doppelganger could only smirk at that, as his Karate-style, Chokuzuki, Straight Punch immediately turned into a more agile spear hand that arced for my throat after flipping around my hands to disengage from my parry. Fortunately, at that point, my Taiyoken went off, blinding my Doppelganger and allowing me to hammer a knee strike into his sternum with enough force to splinter the mail links of the hidden Kusari Manchira chain vest he was wearing under his robes. I followed that up with a blistering combination of punches from all four arms, smashing him back in a flurry of fists.

As he stumbled backward, my Doppelganger attempted to clear his vision through the use of a Genjutsu Dispel, but on finding that was of no use, he resorted to lashing out blindly in a flurry of spear hand and knife hand strikes at where the eyes and throat would be if I were charging in to follow up based on my last location. Mind you, I didn't hit him from there, instead choosing to circle around to his side and nail him with a kick bolstered by the Steel Fist. My kick smashed him to the side and he shook his head to clear his vision. As he did that, he took his blurry vision off me, giving me an opportunity to end this.

I charged in, rippling my Chakra in the pattern the Fire Monks taught to perform the Raigo: Susanoo no Ken (Welcoming Approach: Fist of Susanoo). My enhanced punch struck out for my Doppelganger's chest, only for him to growl and stomp his foot as I charged in. This somehow alerted him to my approach and he put up an arm to block my attack. My Raigo-enhanced fist met his forearm as he tried to sweep my punch aside in a Karate-style Outside Block, but the Raigo smashed through even his multiply-enhanced physique and broke his arm. In response, he flew through a number of hand seals with one hand and spat out a roaring dragon of Fire using the Katon: Karyūdan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet). I was forced to back off at the last second to avoid the rampaging, fiery, dragon.

I began dodging, trying to avoid the flaming jaws and fiery claws of the Fire Dragon. Unfortunately, I wasn't the greatest at Suiton Ninjutsu, so I didn't have a technique that I could pull out to match the Fire Dragon. What I did have was a truly enormous amount of sealed water in a storage scroll in case of just this sort of dilemma. I only needed a moment to pull the scroll and unseal it. That moment came as the tail of the Fire Dragon slammed into me, setting me alight and slamming me into the wall. I managed to drop to the floor of the cavern and roll to put out the flames, but I was still burned in several places where the flames had superheated my armor to sear into my skin. As I came up, I unsealed the water and unleashed a torrent of lake-sized proportions that not only doused the Fire Dragon but slammed into my Doppelganger with the force of a cresting wave, bowling him over.

As I stood up, however, I noticed that his wounds had largely healed thanks to the effects of his Curse Seal, though it had turned him into an approximation of a True Oni in the process, his skin darkening from the reddish tint of the Ogre Body Technique into a deep crimson, his eyes turning black with slitted yellow pupils, his mouth filling with fangs, and a single horn jetting out from his forehead. Otherwise, however, his arm was healed and he still looked fresh.

In contrast, I was burnt crispy in a couple of places where the metal of my armor had touched my torso during the hit from the Fire Dragon, and I was down to about five minutes of combat power at full capacity before I ran out of Chakra and began to suffer from Chakra Exhaustion. The ground I'd made in the initial exchange had not only been lost but the momentum of this fight had been reversed.

"Looks like I need to put you down in one move to finish this." I grunted.

"Ah'll kill oo 'fore den!" Snarled my Doppelganger, voice sounding stunted around his newly-grown fangs.

He had a point, we were evenly matched as it was, but he had more stamina than I could ever hope to have thanks to his Curse Seal. I doubted the Solar Flare would work again, but if something didn't change, I'd exhaust myself long before I could put him down. With a growl, I figured that when in doubt, bust out the weapons. I went for my sealing scroll and unsealed not only the Blade of Inoshishi-no-Kami but also Jūryoku, the Gravity Blade which I'd taken from the Kiri-Defector-turned-Pirate Riyanto. Four hands from the Shiyōken (Four Witches) meant I could wield both at the same time.

As I did that, my Doppelganger went through hand seals of his own to conjure a pair of fine, steel, Tekkō-kagi-style Tiger Claw Gauntlets that he slipped on. I'd heard about this technique and seen a scroll for it in the Akimichi Archives. Kōton: Kokū Kara No Ha (Steel Release: Blades from the Void). Using that Jutsu, the user could conjure steel weapons from nowhere so as to never be unarmed. Quality depended on the user's skill as a blacksmith, though, which was why I never bothered. Had Orochimaru somehow found a way to encode a craft that took a lifetime to learn into my Doppelganger's brain? If he had, could he do that for other skills too? Jutsu perhaps? If so, that was a pretty powerful ace in the hole to have.

As my Doppelganger clashed the blades of his tiger claw gauntlets against each other, producing sparks, I realized that those were questions for later. Now was the time to fight, and in keeping with that, I let out a shout and charged in. I blurred into motion, striking with both the Zanbato of Jūryoku and the Blade of Inoshishi-no-Kami. As my Doppelganger parried, the force of our weapons colliding produced a shockwave that crumbled parts of the cavern wall. We clashed blades once, twice, three times, with me striking and him parrying, before I activated the seals on Jūryoku.

My Doppelganger was sent crashing away into the far wall of the cavern, smashing into it like a meteor and leaving a large impact crater that tumbled rock and crystal down from the wall in a miniature landslide. With a growl, he burst up out of the rubble that had covered him over, roaring in Fury and launching out spreads of steel buckshot with the Kōton: Kotetsu no Dangan (Steel Release: Steel Bullets) that forced me to parry with my blades and even put up barriers with the Doton: Doroku Gaeshi (Earth Release: Earth Shore Return). The sheer amount of projectiles, though meant I inevitably took a few wounds, mostly to my thighs and arms from grazes, though one of them creased into the ridge of my right ear. Just a fraction of an inch to the left and it would have hit me in the head.

Undeterred, I lashed out with the Raiken: Michishio (Lightning Blade: High Tide) using the Blade of Inoshishi-No-Kami. The arc of lightning that spread out from my blade slammed into my Doppelganger, stunning him for just a moment and cutting off the torrent of projectiles just enough to allow me to close without taking any further wounds. Once again, I lashed out with the Jūryoku and once again my Doppelganger parried. This time, however, as I triggered the seals on the Jūryoku he slipped one of the blades jutting out from his Tekkō-kagi into my lower left triceps. The blade punched into the Chakra-hardened muscles of my original left arm and snapped off from the force required to do so. He immediately went smashing through the cavern wall and into a small, laboratory area, but the damage was done. The Jūryoku fell from my weaned grasp as I now lacked the power to wield it with one of my sets of arms.

He popped back up out of the rubble of the wall, cursed seal already having healed his wounds, only for me to fire off another Michishio with my undamaged right set of arms, while my upper left arm reached into a sealing scroll and pulled out a ball of explosive tags. Predictably, my Doppelganger dodged the Michishio and wound up right in the path of my rolled ball explosive tags. The resulting explosion brought down another section of the cavern wall and sent my Doppelganger flying backward. His wounds were healing, as it wasn't enough to kill him outright, but it was enough for me to charge in with the Blade of Inoshishi-no-Kami.

I lashed out in a cut that aimed to split my Doppelganger in half from shoulder to hip diagonally. He was out of position to parry or dodge, just getting to his feet. Seeing he was about to be cleft in twain, he did the only thing he could do. He struck back in the second before the Blade of Inoshishi-No-Kami hit him. His Tiger Claws carved through my shoulders, punching through the area between the Curiass and Kote, cutting off my extra arms and slashing into my shoulders. My blade carved him in half moments later, but the damage was done.

We both fell to the cavern floor, him dead and me bleeding out and about to run out of chakra. If I shut off my techniques now, I'd bleed out and die, but if I didn't shut them off in the next few moments, I'd suffer stage one Chakra Exhaustion, my techniques would run out, and I'd die of shock before I bled out. My only hope was that I could move just enough to grab a soldier pill and hopefully fix some of the damage.

"Come on, damn it!" I growled through gritted, bloodstained, teeth as I struggled to move my sole, somewhat functional, arm to my storage scroll.

It was a slow process, painfully slow, almost lethally slow, but in the end. I just barely managed to get a soldier pill down my throat with milliseconds to spare before the timer ran out. Instantly the worst of my wounds began to heal and I replenished some of my spent chakra. I immediately shut off all of my techniques and struggled to a kneeling position. I was still in no shape to continue fighting, essentially being walking wounded, but I was alive. That was more than I could say for my opponent.

"Heh. Clone's just a cheap copy, can't hold a candle to the real thing." I grunted at the two halves of my Doppelganger.

"Akimichi! Report! It looks like a damned earthquake came through here!" Came Jiraiya's voice from behind me.

I turned to see the Toad Sage enter the wrecked cavern, wincing with the motion. He still looked fresh and ready to throw down, but then, he would. He was Jiraiya of the Sannin, after all. If any of us could have waltzed in here and done this whole operation on their own, it was him. I struggled to my feet with another pained grunt, still sporting serious wounds in my left shoulder that rendered one of my arms out of action until I could get seen to by a medic. Mind you, I still had to ensure that this really was Jiraiya. In this case, that meant sign-countersign. After all, if it was Orochimaru under Genjutsu there was no way in Hell I was strong enough to break it with a dispel.

"Fire." I challenged.

"Smoke." Responded Jiraiya with the appropriate countersign.

"Right, you're not far off the mark on the earthquake thing. You didn't happen to spot where Jūryoku was lying about, did you, Sir? It's a Zanbato, covered in inverse gravity seals?" I questioned.

"I think I spotted something like that sticking out of a pile of shattered crystals off a few yards to the right. Grab it after you give your report." Insisted Jiraiya.

"Orochimaru managed to make a clone of me. We damn near killed each other in the fighting, but I managed to survive long enough to grab a soldier pill before I either bled out or died of Chakra Exhaustion-Induced Shock. We wrecked the cavern but opened up what looks like one of Orochimaru's lab spaces in the process. Still no sign of the rest of the strike force." I reported with the best approximation of a salute I could perform while this wounded.

"A Clone, huh? I'd heard he took a bunch of blood samples when he left. Your Graduating Class and a few others from the Hospital's Kekkei Genkai Vault. We'd thought he never figured out how to grow himself a clone body of anyone of note outside a single fluke. Guess we were wrong on that." Mused Jiraiya.

"Sir, have you found any of the others? We got separated when the defenses tripped and sucked us down here." I queried.

"You're the first. I'm sure they can handle themselves though. In the meantime, collect your Zanbato and help me root through that Lab of Oro's you opened up for any intel." Ordered Jiraiya. I nodded, moving over to where Jiraiya indicated Jūryoku had fallen, snatching it up awkwardly by bracing it against some fallen rocks and resealing both it and the Blade of Inoshishi-No-Kami. Then I followed Jiraiya through the hole in the wall that I'd blasted my Doppelganger through.

Inside was a combination office and medical lab. The medical lab held a number of specimens. Most had been mutated to the point of non-viability through genetic tampering, according to the files we came across, but one sample was very interesting. It was an intact Chinoike Clan Ketsuryūgan Eye, ready for implantation. The files stated that it was taken from one of the last surviving descendants of the Chinoike Clan, a weapons dealer in Hot Springs Country going by the name En Oyashiro. The Ketsuryūgan was reported to boast similar Genjutsu-casting abilities as the Sharingan had, while also allowing the manipulation of liquids with high iron content, such as blood.

That similarity to the Sharingan had been one of the reasons why the Chinoike Clan had been hunted ever since the end of the Warring Clans Era. Folks coveted the Ketsuryūgan and it had been rumored that no small number of Uchiha had participated in those hunts, often backing the Nara Clan in various attacks. The Nara Clan had an ancestral grudge against the Chinoike because it had been the Chinoike Clan that had kicked the Nara out of Hot Springs Country during the Warring Clans Era to begin with. Most folks assumed the Chinoike had long since died out, but here was an intact Ketsuryūgan Eye literally staring at me. Apparently, this was one of Orochimaru's backup plans in case he couldn't snag a pair of Sharingan.

Aside from the Ketsuryūgan eye, the only other thing of note was a single map with the location of various other laboratories marked out on it. This included one called Lab Hebi-Tsu, or Snake One to put it plainly. Judging by the stated size of the facilities and the annotations on the map, that had to be located in Otogakure. It looked like we had found our path to Orochimaru's hidden lair. Jiraiya sealed up the Ketsuryūgan and Map before turning to me.

"Let's keep searching. There's probably a supplemental Jutsu Library and an Armory around here that we should snag while we're here. It probably won't be anything too groundbreaking, but it's just good practice to loot everything you can." Intoned Jiraiya. By the time we had found both of those and finished sealing up their contents, however, another fifteen minutes had passed.

We came upon Shikamaru five minutes later, bandaging a wound in his thigh that seemed to be from some sort of arrow that had gone all the way through his leg. A web of a sticky, golden, substance sat partially destroyed and burned while the headless corpse of a six-armed, chitin-skinned, man lay in the center of the demolished web. We found Neji not too far away, standing over the immobilized form of a pink-haired, grey-skinned, horned, Kunoichi, a broken flute sat on the floor nearby. Ino and Kiba were found next, Ino was healing wounds on Kiba with the Shōsen Jutsu (Mystic Palm Technique) while Akamaru lay bandaged up to the side, a bit of foul, black, ichor pooled nearby. They were seated near the corpse of a two-headed, eight-limbed, horned, fanged, shinobi.

Lastly, we found Lee, who had torn muscles and ligaments in both his arms and his legs and was hunched over in the fetal position on the floor in agony. All around him were fragments of bloody bones and the corpse of a Shinobi that was practically all bone was nearby, having had a hole punched clean through his chest. There was still no sign of Naruto in the base and we were forced to rely on Ino's Sensor Abilities to locate our wayward Jinchuriki. We found him knocked unconscious at the bottom of a ravine.

There was no sign of Uchiha Sasuke anywhere nearby. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so as you guys can see, the Mirror Match almost resulted in a mutual kill. Luckily, Choji is the definition of always prepared and had a storage scroll with a soldier pill in it ready to go for any potential deployment into hostile territory. As it is, the mission was almost a completely unqualified success, not only did they kill the Sound Four, but they found the location of Otogakure and even managed to snag a powerful Dojutsu eye to boot.

The only problem was that Sasuke managed to get away. He and Naruto clashed outside the base, and the power of the cursed seal managed to give Sasuke the edge, just like it had in canon. Unfortunately for Sasuke, him running to Otogakure just means that he's about to get caught up on the wrong side of a Shinobi War.

Mind you, it's likely that Orochimaru decides to grab Sasuke and any actually valuable minions and leave Otogakure to its fate. After all, he has bases that aren't connected to Otogakure that he can use to hide out until Konoha stomps the village he set up as a means to an end. Now that he has that end, it's ultimately expendable. It's cold-blooded, but then, so is Orochimaru.

At any rate, the next couple chapters will be interludes involving the fights with the other members of the Sound Four, Sasuke, and the various other members of the Konoha Strike Force.

Stay tuned. . .