Return to The Past : Naruto Fic

32-2

Chapter - change-2

"They are handling the situation rather well, don't you say Naruto?" Hashirama asked as Naruto, Yugito and himself watched the battle from afar, ready to interfere if needed.

"I will admit that Shion's visions aren't set in stone, but she did see Anko and Ino in trouble. I have a feeling that they are taking their opponents lightly." Naruto commented with a frown as Yugito nodded in agreement.

"We cannot underestimate those two. Even Matatabi is wary of the pair and with good cause."

As Yugito finished her sentence, they watched as Ino decapitated Hidan and turned around without a care in the world as Anko was thrown back by an explosion caused due to a fire jutsu Kakuzu's red masked creature used.

"Katon: Zukokku! I remember being at the opposite end of this jutsu. Those two won't be able to handle the situation much longer. Kakuzu has been alive since before all of you were born. He had immense potential and seems to have met it. After all, no normal Ninja can survive a fight against me where I had used my full power. Kakuzu is one of the handful of ninjas to have done so." Hashirama commented as he tensed in preparation to intercept the Taki Nukenin.

"That was a grave mistake on Ino's part," Yugito commented as Ino ignored the still twitching body of Hidan as she rushed to provide support to Anko against Kakuzu and his masked creatures. Even with both kunoichi working together, they were unable to destroy or even harm one creature let alone the rest. Thanks to Ino, Anko gained enough respite to gather enough Natural Energy so that she could activate her rudimentary Sennin Transformation.

With Ino's telekinesis and Air Bending and Anko's senjutsu techniques along with her own Fire Bending and Lightning Generation, the two kunoichi were able to push the four masked creatures back but at the cost of allowing Kakuzu to regroup with Hidan's twitching corpse. While the two Kunoichi were occupied with the four masked creatures, Ōnoki and his guard had retreated farther away from the fight, thereby losing sight of Kakuzu. Taking advantage of the situation, the Master of the Jiongu used the opportunity to rip the wood shards out of Hidan and the tree off the acolytes legs before using the Jiongu threads to stitch the silver haired man back together.

"Taichō!" Ino cried out in shock as Hidan blindsided the Snake Mistress from behind while Ino herself was forced to float into the air to dodge the Kakuzu's Lightning-Water combination jutsu. Unfortunately for the Yamanaka heiress, Kakuzu anticipated her actions and directed a mass of quivering Jiongu threads to skewer the blonde kunoichi while Anko was forced to defend against Hidan's crazed barrage of slashes.

Widening her eyes in surprise at the offensive Kakuzu launched, Ino focused her formidable telekinetic powers and mastery of Air Bending to create an opaque barrier of air in a feat once thought impossible. Even so, the barrier barely held off the spikes of thread for a few moments before punching through, intent on skewering the young Yamanaka Heiress. Realizing that she had messed up and was going to pay with her life, Ino closed her eyes in acceptance of her fate, grateful that she was going to suffer a quick death. That was much better than most Kunoichi could expect.

At the sametime, Anko finally made a mistake allowing Hidan to nick her on the arm and draw blood, the toxic senjutsu chakra cloak having been exhausted faster than she expected. Remembering the reports on this particular madman, Anko knew that there was nothing she could do now as Hidan activated the first part of his forbidden jutsu by drinking the blood he took from her causing tribal marks to appear all over his body as a complex sealing array spread underneath him, immobilizing the Snake Mistress.