NaruHina: Duty

Chapter 21: In the Dark

WARNING: Canon typical violence up ahead.

"I got the read on my clones back!" Yamato yelled.

Kakashi, Yamato, and Itachi were running, following the tracking device that Tsunade had planted on Jiraiya. When she'd smashed her desk to pieces, Yamato's seeds had lodged into his chainmail.

They'd been able to keep up with Jiraiya, but they'd lost him when he'd entered an area with weird chakra, erasing the signal that Yamato's seeds had been sending them. Luckily, though, Kakashi's ninken had also helped keep track of Jiraiya's whereabouts so they were able to find him using the dogs' keen sense of smell.

"Same! Pakkun's got the scent on him again," Kakashi answered.

"Let's go!" Itachi urged.

They needed to hurry or Jiraiya would surely die.

They found them.

"Shiren!" Kakashi yelled. Purple lightning burst from his hands. He aimed it directly at Orochimaru, who took a step backward but he blocked the attack with a wind technique. Still, Kakashi kept the electricity running into the earth, hoping Orochimaru would back off the inert body laying on the ground.

"Raiju!" Kakashi's voice rang out again as he shot a lightning hound towards their enemy.

Orochimaru snarled with rage as the dog bit into his arm. He shook it off and his attention wavered away from Jiraiya as he held his fingers in front of him to create a rock wall between him and his attackers.

Meanwhile, both Yamato and Itachi were weaving their own hand seals.

Yamato lashed out with a mokuton wooden arm and smashed the wall before it could fully form. He sent up another arm to restrain and grab Orochimaru, but their enemy was faster and blasted it away. Still, Yamato kept up the attack, sending as many wooden arms out so that Orochimaru wouldn't be able to further injure Jiraiya. Itachi also attacked with a barrage of giant katon balls that the former Sannin kept washing away with a water jutsu.

"Our priority is rescue!" Kakashi forcibly reminded them. "We just need to get close, grab Jiraiya, and then we retreat."

"But if I can finally hurt this bastard, I won't hesitate!" Itachi yelled back as he weaved a hand seal and blasted another giant fireball against Orochimaru.

Kakashi was rushing forward upon the sage and his enemy.

Yamato, running beside him, activated the tracking seeds that were lodged in Jiraiya's chainmail and transformed them into his wood clones.

One of them sprung up from Jiraiya's body and tried to block Orochimaru's blows, but it disappeared, though, when it was hit by the sword in their enemy's hand.

The sword slashed into Jiraiya's body. It came away bloody.

Another wood clone appeared again and started to drag the fallen sage out of Orochimaru's reach, but snakes twined around this one and caused it to disintegrate.

Yamato kept activating his clones one after the other, all in the hope of distracting Orochimaru and to stall for time.

"Itachi, now!" Kakashi screamed.

Itachi's mangekyo sharingan swirled and managed to distract Orochimaru, who hadn't been able to resist the instinct to glance at him when Kakashi had yelled out his name. The quick eye-contact was enough. It trapped the older man in a genjutsu and temporarily bound him, preventing him from moving. At the same time, Kakashi's shadow clone sprung up from underneath Jiraiya's body and grabbed hold of the sage just as the real Kakashi called out "Kamui!"