Chapter Text
Fubuki stood in front of Nori and Ruriko, with Saito and Yugito in front of her. Everyone was tense as they stared across the clearing at the pale man in the long black cloak with red clouds.
“That’s Orochimaru,” Fubuki said hesitantly, her voice shaking from nerves, and the thick chakra saturating the air. “An S-class missing nin from Konoha. His noted skills are Taijutsu, a wide range of Ninjutsu, with a focus on Doton and Futon. He also has the snake summoning contract.”
Neither Saito or Yugito give any indicator they heard her, and she doesn’t doubt the pair probably already knew that. Orochimaru however seems ecstatic at the information.
“Oh? So you know me do you?” A sharp grin spreads across his lips. “Glad to see I still have a reputation among the new generation of shinobi.”
Fubuki says nothing, the man's attention only making her shiver as she takes a step back towards Ruriko and Nori.
“Fubuki!” Her head snaps towards Saito. “Just make a perimeter and do the usual, leave the fight to us.”
Her eyes narrow, and she nods seriously. The words were vague, probably so that their opponent wouldn’t be able to understand. But she had trained with Saito longer than any of her other teachers. He knew her favourite tactics well, her ‘perimeter’ being among them.
As her teachers continue to watch the missing nin cautiously, on edge, Orochimaru continues to eye her with interest. She tries to ignore his stare though, and focuses on her chakra as she begins pumping it into the ground around her team.
It had been a while since she’d used this technique, and she can’t stop a grin from forming on her lips as she feels how much her range has expanded. It’s actually far enough that her chakra has extended beneath their opponents feet…
“Interesting.” Her head snaps up, and her eyes widen as she watches the pale man take a simple step back, just out of her immediate range. “I assume you can control all of the earth in this perimeter around you? That’s quite the level of control for your age… I dare say it might surpass my own.”
Fubuki can feel as the man unleashes his chakra, pushing it against hers. She can’t stop the shiver that trails down her spine as his chakra pushes against hers, testing how far it can penetrate her perimeter. His chakra feels… Different, wrong. And she’s tempted to let it through just so she doesn’t have to touch it.
But she continues to resist, and eventually he is no longer able to push any further. His chakra just barely managing to make it half the distance towards her. “Truly impressive.” He mutters.
Suddenly there’s a blue blur, and Fubuki’s surprised to find Yugito has simply vanished from her spot by Saito, reappearing in front of Orochimaru to lash out at him with razor sharp claws. Fiery blue chakra coating them.
The man barely seems to react to her attack, his body twisting and turning in unnatural ways as he avoids the attacks with startling ease. He casually jumps to the side when a pair of spikes grow from the ground, trying to impale him, courtesy of Saito.
“Two Doton users?” He hums. “Are you one of her teachers?” Suddenly Orochimaru is in front of Saito, Fubuki hadn’t even seen him move. There was no blur that she noticed, one moment he was by Yugito, the next he was in front of Saito.
He was also within her range though, and so numerous spikes moved to impale him at the same time as the ground tried to swallow his feet and hold him in place. Saito reacted at the same time, A kunai in his hand as he swiped towards the missing nin's throat.
Unfortunately his earth affinity was about as strong as her own, so he was easily able to overpower the chakra in the ground that tried to hold him in place, before he began to twist as if there were no bones in his body, easily weaving around the multiple spikes trying to stab him, and under Saito’s own swipe.
As he moves, the attacks follow him, but Fubuki quickly realises it's pointless, the missing nin being far too swift and agile for her to hope to hit with such simple attacks. She’s about to let up on her attacks, when she sees two blue… Mice? Dashing across the ground before hopping up onto her spikes and proceeding to explode in a bright ball of blue fire.
Fubuki’s eyes widen in surprise as she watches Orochimaru get engulfed by the flames, and hesitantly she stops her attacks, watching the blue flames in a trance.
“What about these two? Do they have any special abilities?”
Fubuki snaps her head around, eyes widening as she turns to see Orochimaru standing behind Ruriko and Nori. She hardly registers the fire tornado that begins forming only a little distance from their group, as the other Kumo nin fight Kakuzu.
She’s only a few feet from them, so she can clearly see the pair freezing up in fear, motionless. Despite the man’s casual posture, just standing there, not even a kunai in his hand, they all know he could kill them within a fraction of a second. Even Yugito and Saito freeze off to the side. Not willing to make a move.
“Kukuku, so simple.” Fubuki notices his eyes trailing to Ruriko. “This hair though… An Uzumaki? I suppose that makes sense. Kumo did play a large part in the fall of Uzu. Of course you would have wanted to remake that bloodline for yourselves… I would have done the same thing.”
His eyes light up with sad*stic glee as Ruriko begins to shiver, and Fubuki hesitates as she sees the look of fury that crosses the girl's face. “...Uzumaki?” She whispers to herself, confused.
There’s silence for a moment, before Orochimaru takes a step back, he glances at Nori briefly as if picking the boy apart for anything that could be of interest. “Well.” He hums thoughtfully. “It would be such a waste to kill off such young talent before you’ve even had a chance to reach your full potential… Who knows, one of you could make a fine body one day.”
When Orochimaru suddenly leans down, his lips whispering something into Ruriko's ears, Fubuki has to restrain herself from lunging for him, knowing that will only put her friends in more danger. Her teeth are grit in frustration and anger as he stands back up to his full height, a small grin on his face.
He turns to face Yugito. “And you… Well, I’m not allowed to kill you.” The woman’s eyes narrow. Finally he turns to Saito, his lips slowly spreading into a twisted grin. “I guess that just leaves you.”
Fubuki is temporarily relieved when Orochimaru becomes a blur, moving away from Ruriko and Nori. That relief doesn’t last though as she realises the man has only changed his target to Saito.
The two Jonin and Fubuki all react at once, Yugito rushing forward, claws on fire, a single tail swishing around behind her in agitation. Saito hops backwards, trying to avoid the oncoming missing nin as he begins running through hand seals. And Fubuki tries to open up a chasm below the man, swallowing him down into the ground.
Orochimaru easily avoids her attack, leaping into the air as the ground splits apart below him, creating a wide and deep tear in the earth. This however leaves him open to Yugito who leaps after him.
“-Damn it, is he just completely invulnerable!”
Fubuki temporarily turns to check on the other fight as she hears the panicked yell. Multiple Fuma Shuriken fly through the air, trying to cut Kakuzu in half, but the man simply… blocks them. With his bare hands.
Fubuki’s eyes narrow, noticing the man’s arm has taken on a solid black colouring. “Is that an Earth Jutsu?” She whispers quietly to herself, mind already unconsciously considering the technique and how it would work.
An angry hiss returned her attention to the fight in front of her however, and a grin splits her face as she sees Orochimaru on the defensive. Having to desperately avoid Yugito’s attacks, as the few times he’s forced to block, or deflect a move only results in him getting burned by the chakra cloak around her.
Fubuki takes the oppertunity to run up right next to her teammates, determined not to let Orochimaru get the jump on them again.
Ruriko looked up at her as she approached, the girl’s eyes still narrowed in anger. There were questions she wanted to ask, about what the missing nin had sad, but now wasn’t the time.
“What should we do?” She hissed, trying to break her teammate's dazed state. Ruriko was usually the planner on their team. Not that they had had any encounters worth actually planning for.
Nori looked completely out of it, and she assumed it was from the killer intent floating through the air, so he wasn’t really an option. Not that she really expected him to be able to do anything anyway.
“What should we do?” Ruriko replied slowly, seeming to snap out of her daze, her eyes narrowed as she glances up at Fubuki. “Why should we do anything to help them anyway? They’re only using us for our blood lines you know? They don’t actually care about us.”
Fubuki’s eyes widen, and she takes a step back, taken off guard by the girls sudden change in personality, and traitorous words. She glances hesitantly off towards the Jonin, but they’re too preoccupied trying not to get murdered by Orochimaru to have overheard her.
Nori… Probably heard her, but hopefully he’s too dazed by the killer intent to have processed the words. “What are you saying!” Her words come out as quiet hisses. “They’re our allies! Yugito is our teacher! Saito was my old teacher! We can’t do nothing!”
Ruriko shakes her head, her eyes growing cold. “You don’t get it…” The girl trails off, a heavy sigh escaping her lips. “Do what you want, I couldn't help even if I wanted to anyway.”
Fubuki continues to stare at Ruriko in mild shock, but slowly her eyes firm with resolve, and she straightens up. “Fine. I don't know what's up with you just… Stay safe okay? You and Nori?” She doesn’t wait for a response, fearing another surprise reply from her friend.
Instead she turns back to take stock of the different fights. Yugito and Saito are standing up to Orochimaru well, with Saito using earth jutsu to try and keep the missing from getting away from Yugito, who is able to use her chakra cloak and taijutsu to keep him on the defensive.
On the other side of the field… Her face pales slightly as she takes in the sight. Many of their Jonin are dead, fires dot the surrounding landscape, she notices the odd crack and scorch mark in the ground from lightning attacks, and spikes of stone stick out erratically from the earth.
Toroi is still alive though, somehow standing, all of his weight placed on his good leg. Fubuki isn’t certain what Hidan’s technique did exactly, but she knows that has to be painful. Glancing between the two fights, it’s obvious to her where her help is needed the most.
“What was it last time I checked… Six million? At least your head will make up for the hearts I lost.” Two masses of tendrils float behind Kakuzu as he approaches Toroi, the other Jonin either dead, or too injured to keep fighting.
“A shame we can’t collect the Jinchuriki yet, but all in due time.” His voice is rough and monotone, perfectly even despite the chaos around him.
An array of Kunai try once again to impale the man, suddenly flying with no warning from all directions towards him, but they simply bounce off his hardened black skin.
“Haven’t you learned?” Kakuzu’s voice holds an edge of annoyance as he lunges forward, his blackened hand poised like a spear as he aims it for Toroi’s heart. “That doesn’t work!”
A thick wall of stone suddenly shoots up from the earth, placing itself between Kakuzu and Toroi. The missing nins stone fist pierces through the wall with ease, but it does prevent him from reaching Toroi, the wary Kumo nin appearing too tired to even leap out of the way as the hand rests a couple of feet from his chest.
“Pesky flies,” Kakuzu growls out, glancing around at the motionless Jonin who are too injured to help in the fight. “Which one of you is still-” He cuts himself off as he rips his arm from the wall, leaping away as spikes begin to emerge from the ground, trying to impale him.
Similar spikes aim for his thread monsters, which twist out of the way with ease.
Fubuki pokes her head up out of the ground at Toroi’s feet, using the wall she’d made earlier to remain hidden. “I think we should probably run.” She comments seriously.
Toroi stares down at her with a look of surprise, his breathing is coming in deep pants, and sweat covers his face. “I can’t run.” He replies coldly, and Fubuki has no doubt he means that quite literally. “And neither can many of the other Jonin. He broke their legs, leaving them alive for their bounty.”
Fubuki flinches slightly at the harsh words, but quickly adjusts to the new situation. While she could try to move everyone underground, her opponents both seemed to have strong earth affinities. And while it was kind of cool that her own affinity was as strong, if not stronger than S-Class missing nin, it did mean that they would be able to stop her escape.
“The masks…” Toroi continues hesitantly, gaining Fubuki’s attention. “If you can destroy the two monsters, he might flee… Those are his hearts, we already killed two of them. Destroy the last two, leaving him with only the heart in his chest, and he might decide to retreat.”
Fubuki freezes at the recommendation, the idea of fighting one of these two men, weakened or not, causing her to hesitate. This had always been her dream, fighting strong opponents, the challenge, the satisfaction she would get from victory… Now she was just scared.
“I’ll do what I can to help… But I can’t guarantee i’ll be of much-” A wave of fire descending on them cuts him off, but Fubuki quickly reinforces her wall, expanding it to cover them completely.
“So you’re the rat getting in the way are you?” Kakuzu scoffs as he steps towards their position, his fire heart hovering in the air beside him, not that they can see that with the stone between them. “Orochimaru couldn’t even keep a genin out of my way. Why am I not surprised.”
Fubuki responds to this by sending a volley of stone projectiles towards the red painted mask, her chakra sense guiding her aim. A sudden gust of wind however sends them flying off course, another mask with green paint appearing from the trees.
“Fire, wind, and earth.” She mutters to herself, a small grin on her lips as she takes into account there’s no lightning element. But her grin falls when she remembers the way the missing nin had punched through her wall with relative ease. While it hadn’t been her strongest defence, it was still a solid reminder that she shouldn’t underestimate the man.
“It’s pointless hiding! I’m not leaving without something to show for my time!” While she can’t see the man’s charge, she can feel it with her chakra, he’s coming straight for her wall, probably intending to break right through it.
Fubuki narrows her eyes, and makes a potentially stupid decision. Instead of taking Toroi and dodging, she reinforces her wall, making it thicker, and compresses the stone to make it denser. He has already pierced one of her defences once, and her pride refused to let it happen again.
There's silence for a moment, then the sound of heavy footsteps, and then a loud slam rocks the ground under their feet as cracks spread throughout the surface of the stone wall. But it holds, and Fubuki grins slightly, pride in her strength, winning out over her fear for a moment.
That pride fades when a black mass of tendrils flies around either side of her wall, chakra already building in their mouths as a torrent of wind and fire are sent roaring towards her from their respective masks.
With wide eyes, Fubuki quickly forms a hole under their feet, dropping them almost immediately multiple metres underground as the fire and wind meet above their heads.
Just before the fire can explode downwards, the hole covers over, protecting them from being burned alive, and Fubuki breathes a sigh of relief. “I think… You might be better off staying down here.” She says hesitantly, feeling uncertain about basically telling her leader, and a Jonin to sit back and not get in her way.
The man's eyes narrow, which goes unnoticed in the dark hole, but he eventually sighs. “You’re right. I’ll just get in the way if I’m not able to avoid attacks by myself… I’ll be fine down here, just… Stay safe, and reunite with Yugito or Saito if you can.”
Fubuki nods, which again, goes unseen. “Right.” Her voices hardens as she firms her resolve, she then steps backwards, the earth melting around her body as she begins travelling through the ground, using her chakra sense to try and find a safe spot to surface.
She pokes her head up behind Kakuzu, but the man manages to notice her somehow. Turning around slowly to face her. “Orochimaru may have spared you out of interest.” He growls in frustration, his voice rough and hoarse. “But I don’t give a f*ck what abilities you may or may not have, you’re getting in my way!”
The two masks whirl around beside him, chakra building in their mouths before a huge ball of fire flies towards her, a gust of wind following behind it causing the fireball to explode in size, the heat intensifying drastically as it tears through the air towards her.
Fubuki watches all of this blankly… Before simply sinking back into the ground and moving away from the area of the attack. Fire techniques are nothing new to her, she’s used to training with Yugito, the Jinchuriki for a giant fire cat.
While the added wind element certainly made these attacks deadlier, they were still nothing she was unaccustomed to, and fire really wasn’t a good match up against stone in the first place. Only a constant stream of high temperature flames could melt through one of her walls, let alone reach her multiple metres underground.
Honestly, she would have been relatively confident in her ability to destroy the two masks… If it wasn’t for her low chakra.
The past week had been mostly spent running, with little rest. And she had stupidly expended large amounts of chakra in her attempts to show off, completing their underground bunkers in only a handful of hours rather than the few days they should have taken.
She would have to conserve her chakra for the right moments, when she could do the most damage… And maybe take a few stupid risks along the way… A slow grin spreads across her face as she gets an idea, a potentially very stupid, and suicidal idea.
Moving through the earth once again, Fubuki pops back up a distance away from Kakuzu and his masks, a co*cky smile on her face. “You know,” She taunted mockingly. “It always surprises me how many shinobi become powerless when I simply make an earth dome or dig underground. Kind of pathetic really.”
The sound of fighting can be heard behind her, as the battle with Orochimaru continues not too far away, but she focuses solely on Kakuzu, trusting Yugito and Saito to be able to take care of themselves.
“Brat, quit running and fight.” The man maintains his calm rough demeanour, not rising to the taunts. "You're just putting off the inevitable."
Fubuki takes a deep breath, gathering her courage, before nodding her head, determination filling her eyes. “Fine then, don’t come crying to me when I make you regret those words.”
She watches as the missing nin's empty, green eyes narrow, but she hesitates when instead of attacking her with his masks again, he begins to charge towards her. Her eyes are hardly able to keep up with his movement.
It’s only thanks to her spars with Yugito, that she’s able to react in time, popping out of the ground, she braces her feet, and causes the ground below her to rocket forward, propelling her to the side and out of the way.
Normally she would follow up with a volley of stone kunai, or maybe try and pull him underground, but she knew in this instance it wouldn’t work, and she had to conserve the energy.
“Neat trick. But can you keep it up?” He lunges for her again, and knowing that her legs won’t have the strength to move her out of the way in time, she repeats the same move, the earth pushing against her feet to propel her forward, away from his reaching blackened hands.
When she dodges through, rolling out of the way, her eyes widen as she gets to her feet and sees the two monsters in front of her, chakra already building in their mouths for a combined ninjutsu.
Gritting her teeth, a crazed grin crosses her lips as instead of retreating, she straightens her spine, and charges towards the two masses of threads... The wall of fire comes first, roaring towards her, and then the large gust of wind follows, expanding the fire and causing the flames to glow bright with the heat.
She takes a calming breath, and places all of her focus on her chakra, spreading it throughout her body, saturating her skin and muscles with her affinity. Her skin slowly gains a splotchy grey tint, some spots darker than others. And then she’s consumed by the fire as she leaps up into the air.
“Stupid suicidal brats.” Kakuzu scoffs to himself, watching the display from behind as the girl leaps into the flames. “Always so quick to leap to their-” His eyes widen as he feels his connection to his fire heart shatter.
As the fire hits the ground and dissipates, he’s left to stare at the genin, her clothes and hair burnt, still singed and smoking. A bloody heart is crushed in her pitch black arm, a mass of black threads writhing at her feet.
“f*ck- f*ck this f*cking hurts, that was so f*cking stupid!” And then she desperately begins patting out the still smoking parts of her uniform.
