Strolling Amongst Stalactites

At Long Last

Last Time:

Naruko held up the lantern to see the people, whose chakra signatures were unfamiliar to her, and her eyes widened ...

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Kakashi continued racing towards the village of Hot Water, which is where Orochimaru was believed to be headed. As he approached he summoned his tracking hounds and waited a moment. He was hoping to find the snake sage's scent and ambush him, but that's not how it happened. A massive shower of rocks blasted towards him. The ninja barely dodged, but had to twist his body to escape the long sharp blade that shot out at him from the cover of the rocks.

"Lightning Barrage!" Kakashi yelled with a series of hand signs as he dodged more boulders. A series of lightning bolts raced out of the ninja's hands destroying the boulders raining down on him. "Distraction. Damn!" Kakashi hissed as he saw no one hiding in the rubble.

As fast as he could, he turned on his heel and took off for the village. The possibility of the snake sage accidentally stumbling on Naruko drove Kakashi even faster than his top speed. After all this time he wasn't going to allow anyone to find her. Keeping her safe was his main concern.

A blur raced towards him and he ducked. He immediately pulled out a kunai and readied himself for a fight. Once the dust settled though he realized the blur was not an attack, but actually his attacker.

"Kakashi!" The silver haired ninja didn't take his eyes off of Orochimaru, who was climbing out of the tree he was embedded in, as Jiraiya landed next to him. "We can discuss more important things later." The toad sage said under his breath.

It was clear to Kakashi that he was talking about Naruko. He was relieved to know they cut Orochimaru off before she could be discovered, but it wasn't over. With a quick hand sign Kakashi's hounds exploded up from under the ground and buried their fangs into the snake sage's flesh.

Despite the pain, a sick cocky grin came to Orochimaru's lips, "My, my, you both seem to be in a bad mood today. Did I interrupt a date?" The grin faltered when his usually easily annoyed former teammate didn't even blink. Instead Jiraiya summoned a toad and blasted oil at the same time as Kakashi who released a fireball. "Shit!"

Without any time to escape the snake opened his mouth. One of the hounds growled as something shot out of its captive's mouth and shot into the ground. That hound dispelled itself a split second before they were all dispelled in a fiery blast.

Kakashi watched the body of the snake sage smolder. It was almost too easy and he knew something went wrong when one of his hounds appeared next to him. "What happened?"

"Something came out of his mouth before the blast. It shot into the ground." The dog reported and sniffed the air. It pointed its muzzle silently in the direction the snake sage's scent was coming from and took off to follow it. Of course, the scent seemed to lead the two ninjas and the hound towards the village.

Just before Orochimaru could consider reaching the village hundreds of spikes of stone shot him out of the earth. His small white snake like form was revealed and it was just as covered in cuts as it was disturbing. It was almost disturbing enough to stop the ninjas from wondering who cast that earth jutsu.

Jiraiya cringed, "That's an interesting look." He commented when his former bloodied teammate hissed at them.

"I've seen better." Kakashi muttered as he revealed his Sharingan hidden behind his headband and grabbed his wrist. His fist began glowing and crackling with lightning. This was not a time to hold back so Jiraiya cast a jutsu on his long white hair so the now deadly sharp locks could try to impale the snake.