The creature went limp, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Han fell off the tree as a hail of wind powered kunai rushed straight past him. He would have already caught up if not for this boy's damnable wind chakra. It was the only thing outside of lightning that could outright pierce straight through the heavy splint-mail.
His chakra capacity was worthy of a Jounin. If he really was a Namikaze and was this dangerous already was no wonder Onoki wanted him dead so badly.
The Jinchuuriki let out even more steam from the backpack, dispelling the bunshin as he'd done several times already, then he jumped forward, after the gennin and Samurai, the last of the creatures latched itself onto his back, throwing his momentum off. He felt fangs digging into the back of his skull, rows of razor teeth clutching at the back of his shaved head and sending barbs of pain blossoming across his skull to converge right at the bridge of his nose.
It thrashed, trying to break his neck. It would have been strong enough had it been facing anyone else.
Steam vented from his backpack, boiling hot, it all but flash cooked the creature, making it vanish in another burst of smoke leaving red, weeping tears to stain the white head cloth.
He looked up, and saw just then, the silhouette of leaf nin reinforcements approaching through the trees.
No more need for discretion then.
With five handseals and enough steam billowing from his back as to keep the last of the bunshin away from him.
Koutou's horse stopped dead, a tremor shaking the ground beneath the cursing Daimyo's feet
Five enormous geysers of steam suddenly errupted between his targets and their backup.
Just a few seconds to catch up. Konoha would be able to conclusively pin the blame at Iwa's feet rather than Kumo, Ame or Kusa with the sight of his unique steam jutsu, but the anger would be worse if he or Roshi let Koutou take hold of such a valuable hostage.
That's right...anger.
That's all that ever waited for them no matter the result.
The jinchuriki's lip curled beneath his mask, then, wasting no more time, he charged.
The two girls attacked first, with one throwing her custom weapon with as enough wind chakra to turn it into a small typhoon, a perfect disk slicing clean through trees and branches before it was lit aflame, the perfect disk becoming a wild swirling inferno that spat out tongues of fire everywhere.
Han's fist smashed into the ground, a column of superheated water blasting out of the earth to hit the approaching weapon with force that could have punched a hole through a house, knocking it off course enough to miss him entirely.
He rushed headlong, speeding past the girls straight towards the Daimyo who was even now trying to bring his panicking horse back around to face him.
He closes the distance in an instant, hands reaching to crush the Daimyo's skull between powerful armored fingers-
Rasengan
Han skids to a stop, and its what saves him, the Boy's attack barely reaches, grinding against his stomach armor, metal screeches and leather tears, sharpnel digs into his guts and the Jinchuuriki leaps back in reflex, kicking out and striking the boy in the bandaged, right arm he used to block. He heard the snap of bone and heard the kid scream even as he himself was breathing harshly at the near overwhelming surge of adrenaline.
"Uzumaki!" Koutou shouts in concern, finally bringing his horse around and placing himself between Han and the wounded child.
Han barely pays attention to the man, eyes wide and staring at the boy who was still visible between the horses forelegs.
What the hell was that!?
There was no doubt anymore. The boy had to die!
He breathes, trying to calm his own heart rate only for seven seconds before fourteen silhouettes jump up, over the wall of steam and landing between the Jinchuuriki and Magojiro Koutou.
The Jinchuuriki curses too many. Even for him this is too many.
"Hawk pattern!" One of the leaf nin shout ready to attack.
Han doesn't give him the chance. Steam billows from the armored backpack, swallowing him whole before he vanished in the obscuring cloud. As he leaves the Jinchuuriki stares at the boy through the steam clouds. Committing face and name to memory, he had no doubt it'd be one he'd be seeing again in the years to come.
-0-
The Sannin smiles as the Jinchuuriki hits the ground. He waits no longer and forms his handseals.
Roshi dazed and sputtering for breath feels surprise lance through him as eight clones appear around him. He's about to form his lava armor again as the eight formed identical handseals.
He is quickly confused however...
Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!
Nine balls of fire exploded from the clones mouths in a steady, controlled stream, covering Roshi from head to toe.
Was the Sannin an idiot?
He couldn't burn.
But as the attack lingers on and persisted well beyond the point of normalcy he became alarmed. Mind catching up to the strategy.
He charged the nearest serpent, only for his target to back away, the others coming closer to keep as close to an exact distance as possible, the flames still focused on the Iwa Jinchuuriki.
Roshi rushed forward, trying to attack again only for the snake to keep evading him, breathing out the steady stream of flames.
The game of cat and mouse persisted, even after Roshi's fire lava armor fell away.
Orochimaru didn't end his technique until Roshi collapsed on his knees, struggling to crawl away from the searing flames that could not burn him.
Suddenly, the fires were gone after four minutes of constant flames, they vanished.
Then the serpent struck.
Roshi's eyes flew open, blood exploding from his lips as he gasped, the sword driving him down to lay flat on the ground, pinning him there.
He began to call on the Demonic chakra a red shroud rising up to envelop him when-
"Gogyo Fuuin!"
The Sannin's fingers dug into his back, a greater pain than the sword blossoming across his entire being, the chakra sealed off. It left him weakened, eyes darkening at the edge of unconsciousness, staved off only by the rush of adrenaline through his veins.
"Every Technique..." The Sannin snarled. "Has a weakness. In this case the weakness was you."
Roshi grit bloodied teeth trying to reach behind him to strike the man only to groan as the blade was twisted.
"You don't burn." The Sannin laughed. "But even you need to breathe!"
"You..." Roshi coughed, the blood now coated his beard. "You...bastard."
"Three minutes, fourty seven seconds..." He laughed again, twisting the blade a little more. "You always drop your armor to take a breath. Cover it up with taunting or speaking. Makes sense. Even lava, like fire needs to consume oxygen to keep burning. When I figured that out, deciding to use more fire was easy. Goodbye Roshi."
The sword was yanked out, and swung.
And just like that the Yonbi-Jinchuuriki was dead his head rolling across the forest floor.
The Sannin smirked, one that quickly fell when he sensed more chakra signatures approaching him from the south.
It couldn't be. Had Onoki's Anbu managed to overtake them?
This...wasn't good...
"Orochimaru-sama!" He looked up and found seven Konoha chuunin descending from the trees above, surrounding the red armored Iwa nin.
"How are you here?" He questioned before a Jounin appeared at his side.
"Your student." The man said, pulling free what Orochimaru could now recognize as a beacon scroll. "Someone gave Naruto-san a distress call beacon scroll. Myself and two other teams came to investigate immediately. The other teams are moving with Magojiro-sama back to Konoha at full speed. The other Iwa nin has fled.
The Sannin snatched the paper out of his hand. Smirking.
"Sir." One of the Chuunin called, looking at his superior. "We've got a body here, should we proceed with retrieval to take back to Konoha."
"You'd better." Orochimaru answered his smile turning predatory. "That there is Iwagakure's valuable Yonbi Jinchuuriki."
The man's eyes widened looking at the dead man at his feet and back at Orochimaru with something approaching awe.
"Honestly sir." The Jounin shook his head. "If it wasn't for you having asked how we got here, I'd think this was your idea the entire time."
The Sannin threw back his head and laughed, long and loud.
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