Tobi Joins the Team

Orochimaru stood at the edge of the broken bridge, the wind making his tattered robe flap violently. His new left arm had grown back. He lowered his head to examine the hand and flexed his fingers—it worked, and it felt no worse than before.

"Kabuto."

"Yes."

"Let's go." Orochimaru turned away without another glance at the blond boy lying in the center of the ruins. "I've seen enough of his strength."

Kabuto climbed out from beneath a pile of rubble. The blood at the corner of his mouth had not yet been wiped away, but he had already regained his usual composure. Pushing up his glasses, he glanced toward the ruins. "Konoha's people are still pursuing us."

"Let them." The corner of Orochimaru's mouth curved up. "Leave them some clues so they can find us. A prey delivered right to your doorstep would be a waste not to eat."

The two walked down the broken bridge one after the other, following an inconspicuous narrow path along the mountainside until they vanished into the depths of the forest.

At the center of the ruins, Naruto was still unconscious. Sakura knelt beside him, her left arm hastily wrapped in a temporary bandage. Blood was still seeping through, but she ignored it. She lowered her head and looked at Naruto's face, which had finally returned to normal. Her lips moved, but no words came out.

Yamato crouched some distance away, using Wood Release chakra to secure a temporary platform atop the remains of the broken bridge. He had expended a great deal of stamina and was still breathing heavily, but his movements remained steady.

"Sai left."

Sakura raised her head and looked into the distance. There was nothing there—only the forest flattened by the Tailed Beast Bomb and black smoke still drifting through the air.

"He went after Orochimaru." Yamato's voice revealed neither anger nor joy. "That was Danzō's mission for him."

Sakura said nothing.

Naruto's eyelids twitched.

Sakura immediately pulled her hand back and hid her injured left arm behind her. But Naruto had yet to open his eyes. He merely frowned faintly in his unconsciousness, his lips moving as though he were trapped in a bad dream.

"Sakura."

Yamato's voice suddenly softened.

"Yeah?"

"When you rushed in earlier," Yamato said as he crouched beside her, his gaze falling on the left arm she hid behind her back, "you should have known that he wouldn't recognize you in the Nine-Tails state."

Sakura bit her lip without speaking.

"You knew you would get hurt, but you still went."

Wind rose from the bottom of the valley, tossing Sakura's hair into disarray. She did not raise a hand to fix it. She only quietly watched Naruto's face.

Yamato was silent for a few seconds before speaking again, his voice even lower. "To you... he's more than just a teammate, isn't he?"

Sakura clenched the hem of her clothes. She neither nodded nor shook her head.

Naruto's eyes suddenly flew open.

"Where's Sasuke?!"

He shot upright too quickly, pulling at the injuries across his body and making him bare his teeth in pain. But that was not what concerned him. He swept his gaze around and saw only ruins, broken stones, severed Wood Release vines, and trees still burning in the distance.

"Where's Orochimaru?!"

Yamato stood. "He left."

Naruto tried to get to his feet, but his knees buckled and he nearly dropped to the ground. Yamato caught him with one hand.

"You went berserk earlier." Yamato's voice was calm. "Four-Tails form. Orochimaru deliberately provoked you."

Naruto's breathing had yet to settle, but his awareness was slowly returning. Sakura stood two steps away with her left arm hidden behind her back. Yet when she turned, she moved half a beat too slowly, and Naruto caught sight of the small dark-red stain seeping from the end of the bandage over her shoulder.

"Sakura, your arm—"

"It's nothing." Sakura's voice was soft and a little hoarse. "I just fell by accident."

Naruto looked at her for a long time.

He wanted to say something, but the words stuck in his throat, and not one could escape. He remembered the vague sensations from when he had gone berserk. He remembered what he had seen as that chakra surged beneath its cloak—red, scorching, directionless. He wondered whether he had hurt Sakura.

But he said nothing. He lowered his head, clenched his hands into fists, then slowly loosened them.

"Let's go." Naruto stood up, his voice heavier than before. "We can't let him get away."

Yamato glanced at him and said no more. He pulled out a scroll map from his clothes and spread it open. There were no complete terrain records for the area around Tenchi Bridge, but Orochimaru's retreat route was obvious—a narrow trail had been trampled into the side of the mountain, and the footprints were still fresh.

"Sai already went ahead. He'll leave markers along the way."

The three gathered what remained of their equipment and followed the narrow trail into the depths of the forest. Sakura kept her left arm concealed beneath her sleeve. She did not cry out in pain once, nor did she let anyone tend to her wound.

On another path deep in the forest, Jiraiya suddenly stopped.

Looking at the ravaged valley before him, he realized that this was absolutely not destruction an ordinary ninjutsu could cause.

"Naruto went berserk. This was probably the work of a Tailed Beast Bomb."

Jiraiya straightened, and his expression changed completely. "It was Naruto. The Nine-Tails' chakra. He fought someone here."

Before Jiraiya had even finished speaking, he had already dashed out. Yunju followed immediately without hesitation. The two leaped between the treetops, wind howling past their ears as the trees beneath them blurred into streaks of green. Jiraiya was faster than Yunju had imagined, but Yunju's Body Flicker speed kept pace.

"Lord Jiraiya!"

"Orochimaru." Jiraiya's breathing remained steady, but he kept his voice low. "He's the only one who could drive Naruto berserk enough to use a Tailed Beast Bomb."

Yunju asked no further questions. The scorched earth flattened by the Tailed Beast Bomb drew closer beneath their feet. The leveled forest spread out ahead, and the broken bridge lay across the deep valley like a snapped bone.

Jiraiya landed at the edge of the broken bridge and stared at the ruins before him in silence for a moment.

"We're too late."

"Should we pursue him?"

Jiraiya looked at him.

"You said on the way here that you wanted to fight Orochimaru."

Yunju did not deny it. "There have always been rumors in the village that I'm Orochimaru's spy. I explained myself, and I believe you and Lady Tsunade don't see me that way, but rumors are still rumors. I want to do something only I can do. If I can face Orochimaru in an open battle and hold my own, those people won't have anything left to say."

Jiraiya looked at him for several seconds.

"You sure you can fight him?"

"I'm not sure. But if I don't try, I'll never know." Yunju said, "And it's not only to prove myself. Orochimaru has Sasuke. If he gets away tonight, we don't know when we'll find him again. I know the terrain and hideout layouts of the Land of Rice Fields better than anyone. If it comes to a fight, I know where to enter and where to cut him off."

Jiraiya put away what he was holding, dusted off his hands, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Then let's go." He said nothing more as he darted southwest. "Don't stray too far from me. Orochimaru's a crafty bastard."

Yunju followed, and the two figures disappeared into the depths of the forest.

Rain Hidden Village, top floor of the tower.

The rain never stopped. It pattered from morning to night, from night to morning. Rainwater gathered in the pipes at the top of the tower, split into streams, and fell, striking the pools of standing water below with an unceasing sound.

Nagato sat in a mechanical chair at the center of the tower, several black tubes connected to his back. He was so thin that he resembled a skeleton. His eyes were half-closed, and his expression could not be seen clearly, but Konan standing beside him saw it all.

"Sasori is dead." Nagato's voice squeezed through his cracked lips. It was not loud, but it carried clearly through the empty hall.

Konan nodded, holding a brief battle report in her hand. "The One-Tail has been sealed, but Sasori died during the mission in Sand Village. A new partner will need to fill the gap."

Nagato fell silent for a moment.

"Send Tobi to fill Deidara's opening."

Konan did not ask why. Tobi was a newcomer to Akatsuki, and his background was unclear, but Nagato's orders required no explanation. She merely committed the arrangement to memory before turning to the next page.

"What about the Nine-Tails and Sasuke?"

"Orochimaru has his own plans. Let him and Konoha wear each other down. We won't get involved." Nagato opened his eyes, the ripples within his Rinnegan faintly turning in the dim light. "Inform Deidara and Tobi not to approach the Grass Hidden Village for the time being. Have them wait at the border and decide what to do after Konoha and Orochimaru finish fighting."

Konan put away the scroll and turned to leave the tower hall. Rainwater roared behind her.

At a border outpost, moonlight spilled through cracks in the damaged roof and fell across Deidara's face. He leaned against a corner, the space where his right hand had been now empty, his sleeve tied into a knot. In his left hand, he held a half-formed clay spider, kneading it over and over before rolling it back into a ball.

"What are you drawing?" Deidara glanced at him.

"Tobi is thinking, now that Senior Sasori is dead, who will tell Tobi stories about puppets from now on?" Tobi's voice was as innocent as a child's, but behind his mask, his eye was examining the cut of Deidara's severed arm—clean, torn apart by space and then trimmed with a blade. A very neat treatment.

Deidara was silent for a few seconds before kneading the clay ball back into a spider.

"Eternal art lost to mortals." His voice was muffled. "That idiot Sasori died in his own art."

Tobi sat cross-legged on the ground opposite him, using a twig to draw circles in the dirt. He drew one circle, then another beside it, then added a line where the two circles connected. "Is Senior Deidara sad?"

"Who's sad?!" Deidara nearly crushed the spider in his hand. "My art is the one and only! Senior Sasori's puppets were a craftsman's trade, not art! I'm the artist!!"

Tobi drew a third circle on the ground. "Oh—then why did Senior Deidara's art get its arm cut off by a Konoha ninja?"

Deidara's face darkened.

"That Sharingan..."

He did not finish. The clay spider in his hand was crushed flat. He kneaded another lump of clay and began shaping something new, his movements heavier than before.

Tobi withdrew his gaze and continued drawing circles on the ground.

Nagato's report descended from the sky, delivered by a paper crane. Deidara unfolded the crane one-handed, skimmed it twice, snorted, and tossed it aside.

"Orochimaru's fighting Konoha's people." Deidara's tone was full of disdain. "Let him fight. It'd be best if both sides were crippled."

Tobi tilted his head. "Doesn't Tobi need to help?"

"No." Deidara leaned back against the wall and placed the clay spider on his knee. "The leader said we wait until they're done fighting."

Tobi gave an "oh" and continued drawing circles.

Behind the mask, the Sharingan eye narrowed slightly.