You, You Species!

In the forest.

The light reflected off Yakushi Kabuto's glasses as he looked down at Gekko Hayate, whose limbs were completely crippled and whose throat had been slit.

"I told you not to chase me."

He hadn't killed him outright. A crippled man hovering between life and death would be much more effective at slowing down the pursuers.

Yakushi Kabuto tossed aside his Konoha Headband, tied on an Otogakure Forehead Protector, and picked up Sasuke. Before he could straighten up, he suddenly crouched. A Kunai whizzed past his hair and stuck into the tree trunk above him.

He looked in the direction it had come from. White-haired Kakashi, his Sharingan activated, was staring at him.

He pushed up his glasses. "This is troublesome."

"Put Sasuke down."

Yakushi Kabuto pointed at Gekko Hayate, who was bleeding. "Aren't you going to save him first?"

Kakashi didn't even glance his way. "Nine out of ten shinobi die on missions. My only target is Sasuke."

"Really?" Yakushi Kabuto narrowed his eyes, put Sasuke down, and lunged decisively at Gekko Hayate, driving his Kunai toward the bloody gash in his throat.

Clang!

Kakashi dived in and crossed Kunai with him.

Yakushi Kabuto immediately pulled back, smiling. "Looks like you're not as heartless as you claimed."

The wind rustled through the leaves. Both heads of white hair fluttered in the breeze.

Kakashi's dead-fish eyes gave away nothing, putting Yakushi Kabuto under immense pressure.

After all, he was a medical ninja by trade and wasn't good at Taijutsu. His Ninjutsu was also far inferior to Kakashi's. If Kakashi truly had the heart to watch Gekko Hayate die and fight him at full strength, Yakushi Kabuto had a seventy percent chance of dying.

Facing Kakashi, he couldn't escape with Sasuke either.

"What about Baki?"

"He's dead."

Yakushi Kabuto suddenly smiled with relief. "I bet you don't have much Chakra left."

Crackle!

Blue lightning flickered in Kakashi's right palm. "What did you just say?"

Yakushi Kabuto furrowed his brows. Kakashi was practically uninjured, and his clothes were intact. He didn't look like he'd been through a hard battle.

He knew Baki's strength well. Baki wasn't much weaker than he was. How could Kakashi have beaten him without a scratch and still have enough Chakra to use Chidori?

Was he bluffing?

The current crackled and flashed, rising as high as a person and bathing the whole forest in a ghostly blue light.

Kakashi said, "Leave Sasuke and go."

Yakushi Kabuto made a pulling motion with his hand. The wounds all over Gekko Hayate's body, where his muscles had been severed, suddenly burst open. Blood exploded everywhere.

"If he doesn't get treatment within ten minutes, he'll die."

Gekko Hayate's eyes, half-open with pain, suddenly widened. "Kakashi... save Sasuke. He's a genius, the last child of the Uchiha Clan..."

Sasuke hadn't passed out. He just couldn't move. Hearing those words, he buried his face in the dirt, and tears finally spilled out.

Everyone had been watching over him. Naruto had warned him again and again beforehand, but he'd still turned himself into a burden just to prove himself, dragging an innocent examiner into this.

Where exactly was the line between confidence and arrogance? How was he supposed to tell the difference?!

Kakashi had to make a choice.

His psychological ploy had already succeeded, and he'd had a chance to save them both. But his opponent had kept a trick up his sleeve, putting him under time pressure.

He would make one attack. If it failed, he'd leave with Gekko Hayate.

Kakashi lowered his body and sprinted forward, Lightning Blade flashing in his right hand.

Yakushi Kabuto charged to meet him, Yin Healing Wound Destruction building up in his left shoulder.

When they were five meters apart, Kakashi suddenly pressed the Kunai in his left hand against his right, infusing it with ghostly blue lightning before hurling it at Yakushi Kabuto.

It struck the same flank where Sasuke's Chidori had hit him earlier.

The Kunai didn't pierce through him. The Explosive Tag attached to its end detonated immediately, blasting him apart.

Yakushi Kabuto was blown sideways through the air. Half his abdomen was left without flesh, charred and smoking. He fled through the trees without looking back, popping pills as he ran.

Kakashi couldn't afford to relax. He carried Sasuke under his left arm and Gekko Hayate over his right shoulder, hurrying to the ninja hospital.

He'd won because his opponent hadn't known that he'd trained his Lightning Blade to the point where he could launch it over a distance using a Kunai.

Too bad he had to save people and couldn't pursue and kill the spy.

In the village, a giant summoned snake battled a two-sword-wielding Toad. Sand Ninja and Sound Ninja were wreaking havoc everywhere.

Choza Akimichi, the Butterfly of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, used Expansion Jutsu and grew into a giant as tall as a five-story building, absorbing a barrage of long-range attacks.

Kakashi was irritated. He hated this sight.

What irritated him even more was that Gekko Hayate kept coughing and insisting he'd give up his life so Kakashi could protect the villagers.

He couldn't help thinking of his father, the genius who'd abandoned a mission to save his comrades, been ostracized by the village and blamed by those same comrades, then taken his own life.

His father had had such perceptive eyes, yet he'd died over something so absurd.

Whatever else, Kakashi didn't believe his father had been wrong. He wouldn't abandon his comrades.

The ninja hospital was packed. The battle was still raging, but the wounded were being brought in all the same. After easily cutting down several clueless ninja who got in his way, Kakashi personally laid Gekko Hayate on a hospital bed and entrusted him to the medical staff.

It was what he should do—the only thing he could do.

From Kakashi's arms, Sasuke watched all of it. Self-reproach and overwhelming emotion tangled in his chest, leaving him choking back tears, unable to speak.

After all the tangled feelings, only one question remained in his mind.

What was Naruto doing?

Naruto was utterly exhausted.

He'd used up seven or eight tenths of his Chakra.

Ninja battles were often over in the blink of an eye, but Hiruzen Sarutobi's clash with Orochimaru and the others had been going on for nearly an hour.

The Four Violet Flames Formation remained stable, but the four Sound Ninja maintaining it had grown so thin their bones stuck out. Their skin was shriveled, and they kept stuffing pills into their mouths.

"How does this brat have so much Chakra? I'm about to collapse."

"Then keep holding on. Do you want to be fed to Manda as a sacrifice?"

They were fighting for their lives too. If the key mission failed, Orochimaru would never spare them.

Naruto panted heavily. His Chakra sword had faded to pale blue and was nearly transparent. He slapped his stomach. "Lend me some, will you? Don't be so stingy."

He'd tried to enter the sealing space several times, but Nine-Tails had thrown him out every time, acting especially hostile.

But he could understand. His own attitude toward Nine-Tails wasn't exactly great either.

"Get serious!" Naruto chided, exasperated. "Can you stop acting like a girl? You're holding a grudge just because I insulted you a few times? If you want, insult me back right now. I promise I won't say a word."

"Species! You're a species!"

Naruto froze. "Huh?"

"Apologize! I want you to kneel and apologize to me! Say you were blind and failed to recognize the divine Lord Kurama!"

Naruto's face darkened.

He looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi, who'd made two clones inside the formation and was shouting that he would use a Forbidden Jutsu, then looked at his own knees.

"If I kneel and apologize, will you lend me Chakra?"

Nine-Tails was silent for quite a while. "You'll really kneel?"

Naruto roared, "Quit yammering! We're in a hurry! Answer me!"

Inside the cage, Nine-Tails raised its monstrous fox face at an angle, its red eyes darting about. It knew Naruto cared deeply about his dignity, which was why it'd said something so discouraging.

It didn't want to lend him any Chakra. It was the great divine Lord Kurama, not some fox who could be summoned and dismissed at will and made to do whatever someone wanted.

But it hadn't expected Naruto to agree. Now how was it supposed to save face?

It snorted two streams of hot air through its nostrils.

"Don't think I care what you do. In my eyes, you're just a person! My vehicle! I've never taken you seriously. This Chakra is my gift to you! Take it!"

Blood-red Chakra seeped through the gaps in the cage, flowing into the sewer, where the whirlpool of the Eight Trigrams Seal absorbed and swept it away.

Outside, Naruto's pupils turned scarlet, round before narrowing into slits. A raging blaze enveloped his body, and a savage greatsword that looked as though it had been forged from blood appeared in his hand.

Not a second passed.

"Chakra output: ten thousand units! Hell Demon Blade!"