32 seconds. Koutou's face was grim his beard framing a mouth set in the faintest hint of a scowl.
"Nice knowin ya Sannin." Kisame snickered. "Think the old man came out ahead on this one."
Onoki's smile was a baleful, gloating thing as he watched the field below sparing a glance at Konoha's S class shinobi.
If there was one thing he'd credit the pale ninja with it was a good mask for his emotions. If he didn't know any better he might have believed the man was genuinely bored.
-0-
Naruto glared at Kitsuchi, face losing the last vestiges of levity and humor.
He'd fought alongside the man in the war.
But if he wanted to play hardball and hurt his friends then they'd play hard ball. It was a version of the game Naruto had become very adept at.
Beside him, a horned lizard as tall as a horse and twice as long, hissed and lumbered forward, armored scales and razor sharp claws glinting.
Its neck bulged out like a croaking frog before it roared, a pressurized stream of boiling oil exploding from under its tongue as Kyofu breathed out a Katon jutsu infront of it, the oil taking up the flame in an instant, turning a chunk of the battlefield into a roaring inferno with a blindingly bright flash.
The Jounin leapt back, out of range.
Then Naruto added a Fuuton: Daibakuha to the mix.
The furnace turned into hell itself, the blast of fire expanding to gargantuan proportions and specking flaming droplets of oil out like a rain
Kitsuchi's surprise was evident on his face before he hastily formed an earth dome to protect himself, the crowds screamed as other jounin nearest the blast had to use their own defensive techniques to guard the crowd.
Naruto formed eight mud clones at his side, spreading out his senses with nature chakra to feel out Kitsuchi's energy now that he'd lost sight of the man.
"Kyofu! Below!"
The lizard darted to the side as the Jounin exploded from the earth, a fire technique flash roasting its hind leg rather than its whole body. It screeched and spat out a mouthful of acid that the Jounin rolled to avoid.
"Move!" Naruto shouted again, his earth clones rushing forward.
Unfortunately, Naruto's directions lacked specifics and when the beast moved this time it was right into the waiting arms of a spider summon that darted out of the ground twice the size of Kyofu's; four of its limbs snapped around its writhing prey, fangs punching through a thick armored hide to inject virulent poisons.
Kyofu jumped away cursing.
Then Kitsuchi was grabbing her by the throat.
"No you don't!" Naruto yelled tossing a kunai at the mid air jounin.
Kitsuchi caught it, turned it in his hand to stab his teammate- then it transformed in his grip into another smirking blond.
The clone took in the man's surprised face, winked then slapped two explosive tags onto the arm holding him by the collar.
He laughed. "Boom!"
The explosion was small by explosive tag standards. But no matter how small, when the explosion was separated from your flesh by a fraction of an inch of cloth, it hurt.
The Jounin cursed, releasing the girl as he fell, rolling backwards when he hit the ground, furiously beating at his arm to kill the flames snaking up the remains of his shirt even as he clenched the limb close to his chest. Nasty burns and a weeping, ugly wound with black burnt flesh and soot covered skin around its edges covered his inner forearm and bicep. It hurt like hell.
That last part might have been rather obvious due to the Jounin's muttered cursing.
Son of a...mother fuc-
He looked up finding the blond clones pressing their attack, the original, or what he assumed was the original rushing towards the girl that had landed rather hard on her side.
The first clone tried to lunge and Kitsuchi stomped one foot on the ground a spike of dirt spearing up and goring the bunshin that crumbled into more earth.
The second and third one came at him as one, one leaping the other coming in low. Kitsuchi ducked, sliding in a half spin on the ground to kick at the one that approached his legs with a brutally solid blow that sent the thing reeling.
He reached into his pouch with his uninjured hand when, from the ground a clone formed. It didn't emerge from the dirt it literally formed right under his nose and delivered a powerful uppercut.
He bit his tongue with that, cursing in pain and surprise.
That kind of skill with a bunshin shouldn't be possible for a six year old.
Especially one that wasn't even paying attention to the fight.
He rolled, forming a one handed seal out of necessity, cursing the extra chakra it was eating up as he formed three of his own clones that charged at the blonds. The punishment earth clones could take should buy him some time.
-0-
"Ohoho!" A, surprisingly was the one smiling. "Your son got careless."
"That kunai henge was clever for a gennin." Mei praised.
"I wouldn't have fallen for shit like that." Zabuza scoffed.
Onoki's smile had vanished, his face now as grim and set as Koutou's and Orochimaru's.
Little over one minute and thirty seconds left on that clock.
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