"What do you mean gone?" Momo asked.

"They and Neji were gone," Kankuro said. "We thought they might have come to find you, but they're not here, so..."

"Why would they have left?" Momo asked.

Shine's eyes narrowed. "With Neji, huh?"

Her eyes then gleamed gold, and she looked into the distance.

"That is so odd looking," Ino said.

"You were supposed to watch them!" Temari said to Kankuro, crossly.

"I was gone for a few minutes!" he said. "Then I went to find Gaara. It was less than a quarter of an hour. And considering how long it took us to get here, it's still been less than 45 minutes."

"They couldn't have gone far in that time," Sakura said

"Shoto is extremely fast," Shine disagreed. "He could have gone a few miles at least even in that time, perhaps farther if he knew where he was going."

She frowned. "As I thought, they're heading back towards the Land of Rice."

"WHAT?!" Momo cried.

Then she put her hand to her head. "I never thought they would do this. I knew they were upset, but to actually leave us here and go alone?"

"You mean those two idiots went after Sasuke again?" Temari said. "How many times does he need to say no to convince you people?"

"I was convinced the first time," Shine corrected her. "But they are disobeying my orders... Huh, the only thing I was sure of you doing was at least obeying me, out of respect. So much for honor."

"Shine, that's not quite fair," Momo said. "I mean, yes, they should have, but I think it's on their honor that they feel they chose going after Sasuke."

"I couldn't care less." Shine was mad. "This is dangerous! What if Orochimaru finds them? Do you think they can fight him off without our help? There are four of us for a reason--that's how many of us are needed to be sure. And you lack the experience of Wally and I to split up with confidence."

"Shoto is very strong," Momo said.

"He's strong," Temari objected. "And against most ninja, I'd say he could hold out a decent time. But not against Orochimaru. That man does not fight fair. Kabuto might be back with him by now also."

"We can intercept them before they get there," Gaara said. "Likstar-san?"

But Shine shook her head. "I can't go to them. The way they were moving told me they're not walking. If I tried to stop them, they'd be out of the spot I was going to before we got there and we'd just fall to the ground. If they're high up again, that could kill us. Shoto is good at ice surfing, so I'm sure he's fine. I assume Neij is leading them... No, I can't risk portaling to them directly. Momo and I breaking our necks won't help anything."

"Well, maybe we could cushion your fall," Temari said. "It's faster than us running there."

"We can't be sure you could do that, and I'm much more breakable than you are," Shine said. "Even than Momo is. Even if it worked for her, I don't think it would for me." She sighed. "I can take us to where we were yesterday. Maybe we can head them off. At least it's better than before. I know they'll go the same way. From there the ninja would have to guide us...but we need a tracker."

"I can help." Hinata suddenly jumped down from a wall.

"Hinata?" Momo hadn't expected her to follow them.

"Father walked away," Hinata said, reading her expression. "He seemed very angry, but I guess he believed you when you said we didn't put you up to that... Honestly, I think he thought we would never dare to. He'll think I went to train, so...no reason I can't slip away to help. Neji went off with them?"

"It's too kind of you to offer that after I just did that," Shine said. "I'm sorry for embarrassing you."

"Don't...uh, don't be too sorry," Hinata said. "I could never agree with how you did it, but I can see you meant to defend us, so I can't be too angry."

"I'll take that," Shine said. "We have to go at once. If we don't stop those two idiots before they reach Orochimaru, it might be too late to help them."

"What will he do to them?" Momo asked.

"You don't want the answer to that," Kankuro said. "I just hope he didn't see any of that ice your boyfriend was shooting around yesterday."

"Yes, if he thought it was a jutsu, he'd probably want to recruit him," Gaara said.

"Oh." Momo had known that already, but hearing it out loud, now that it was a real possibility, made her more horrified.

"Well, they better hope we find them first," Shine said, "so I can kill them myself instead--metaphorically of course."

"Ah, I knew you couldn't be that nice all the time," Temari said. "Not that I blame you. I'll do it if you don't--making us risk this."

"Well, if you're not sure you want to, we can't ask you to," Shine said. "They are my responsibility. I would leave Momo here, in fact, but that I think Shoto is far more likely to listen to her than me right now."

"I would never stay here anyway," Momo said. "You said before all 4 of us are necessary. We are a team."

"You're honorable, at least, as teammates," Temari said. Which was her version of a compliment. "And after what you've done for us, it's only fair we help you."

"I wouldn't stay out of it," Gaara insisted. "Especially since I may be the one person who could fend off--but then, I'm less powerful now."

"You might be surprised, actually," Shine said sagely.

"What's going on?" Shikamaru suddenly appeared around the corner. "I knew I saw you pass by. It's too early to be starting trouble."

"Tell that to the Todorokis," Temari said. "They've gone after your friend, again, and this time they're going with Neji."

"What? Why would they do that?" Shikamaru said. "I thought we all realized it was a lost cause."

"All of us but Naruto," Ino said.

"Wait for me!" Naruto skidded around the corner and behind Shikamaru. "What's going on? Where's Neji? Did you do it?"

"You missed it," Sakura said, annoyed. "Now they've gone after Sasuke again, only two of them this time, and Neji is with them. For a guy who just got a curse mark removed, he must have a death wish if he's going to take them to Orochimaru without anyone else to back them up."

"That's the most sensible thing you've said," Shine said. "Well, who is going to come? We'd better go."

She opened a doorway. "I only hope there's not something nasty waiting on the other side for us."

To Momo's surprise, every single one of the ninja moved toward the door, though Sakura was reluctant to and Ino probably only did because she didn't want to look weaker than her.

* * *

Shoto had made excellent time, in fact, easily keeping pace with Neji, or even outpacing him.

Dabi, along for the ride, didn't like this method of transportation one bit and nearly fell off several times, but Shoto managed to keep him on.

His energy with ice was long, but he did have to warm himself up occasionally, but it was not enough time to make much of a difference.

They reached the edge of the Land of Rice very quickly.

No sign of Sasuke, but Neji was able to track his chakra, and he said he wasn't far.

"I would guess he's not to the hideout of Orochimaru yet," he said. "I don't know where that is, but I doubt they would allow us to get close to it. But the Land of Rice is treacherous terrain. Are you sure you want to go farther than this?"

"Can we catch him?" Shoto said.

"Maybe," Neji said. "If they stopped to rest."

"Too late to turn back now," Dabi said. "When we do catch the punk, I'm burning the curse mark off myself."

Shoto nodded and kept going.

He was too focused on the mission to really think of how Shine and Momo were going to react to this, but he did wonder why they hadn't tried to catch them yet. He had hoped to find Sasuke faster than this.

Then he realized that Shine could not have portaled to them, and that made him a little uneasy. That meant if they got in trouble, she wouldn't be able to easily find them either...then he told himself not to be a coward. They'd come this far--it wasn't like he was going to expect her to rescue him.

And it wasn't like he was a child. He could handle most people in a fight, and Dabi, while lower on tolerance, did the most damage. Not many people would be able to survive his flames. Between the two of them and Neji's prowess, not many ninja would likely be able to win a fight, he thought.

Though he was less sure of this where Orochimaru was concerned, but he did not plan on facing that man.

"This might be a bad idea," Dabi finally remarked.

"Now you're getting cold feet?" Shoto said.

"I'm just saying that if we found him fast, we could have overpowered him, but there could be other enemies farther in," Dabi said. "And is it strange that the others haven't found us yet? I was sure they'd realize we left by now. But if we got this far, maybe they'd see why we have to try."

"I was thinking if Shine wanted to bring us back, she'd just open a portal under us," Shoto said. "I've been waiting for one."

Just as he said that, one did finally open in front of them.

But Shoto had expected it, and he dodged it just barely in time.

It snapped shut.

"Okay, I think that was our warning to come back on our own," Dabi said warily. "She can do that 5 more times, right?"

"Five to seven, depending on how well rested she is and if she's used any other powers," Shoto said. "But the problem for her is she has to aim them either in front of us or below us, and I can easily dodge those. I doubt she'd try again, since that didn't work."

He was right.

* * *

"Those little rebels!" Shine raged. They were now at the edge of Rice themselves. "I thought at least the warning would have snapped them out of it."

"Why didn't you just put it under them?" Momo said.

"They're moving too fast. They would have gone right over it with ice," Shine said. "And Shoto is too fast for me. I've fought him before--I know he can dodge my portals because they do take time to think about and aim... If I could stall him more, it wouldn't matter, but I can't do that without being able to see him. I need Wally for this. He could handle them easily!"

"It did seem to be a little unwise to leave him behind, though I know it was not our choice so I shouldn't question it," Momo said.

"Well, they weren't supposed to go off alone," Shine said.

"I believe I should take over here," Gaara said. "If you ride on my sand, we can try to catch Shoto. I must be almost as fast as him, and he must be getting tired."

"It depends on how well balanced he's staying," Momo said. "He can go for a long time with ice."

"Gaara is still faster than we are," Shine said.

"Too bad you can't run like us," Temari said.

Gaara pulled the two ladies onto his sand, and they began to move pretty fast.

The speed didn't bother Shine, as she was used to much faster, and Momo was able to balance all right, though she felt they were likely to break their necks if they hit anything.

The ninja ran ahead or behind them.

"They're not far," Hinata said, eyes straining. "I--uh oh."

"What?" Naruto asked.

"I see someone else," Hinata said. "I think it might be Sasuke, but it's not just him. I don't recognize the other person, but it has to be Orochimaru or one of his ninja."

"Just terrific," Temari said.

"Uh...are we sure we can handle them?" Ino said nervously.

"Ino, what's your jutsu again?" Shine asked.

"Mind Possession Jutsu," Ino said. "Or Mind Destruction--that's a new one I've been practicing. That allows me to break someone's concentration."

"Wow," Shine said. "So you're easily one of the most powerful people in the group."

"What? No..." Ino reddened. "I'm not that powerful."

"How could you take over someone's mind and not be powerful?" Shine said. "I question how ethical that is, but how could anyone question how powerful it is?"

"I...well...uh..." Ino wasn't sure how to answer. "I have to aim it just right, and it's risky."

[But in reality the show is just sexist. Ino is easily on the top 10 list of powerful ninja if we were realistic about her powers, but in practice, girls never are actually able to kick butt on these shows. It's like how Tsunade is literally invincible and not able to do that much against Madara, when she should literally be the one who could do the most.]

"If you just did that," Momo said, "I mean, the second one, could we get away?"

"I don't think that's fast enough," Temari said. "No, we'd need a better plan."

She glanced at Shikamaru expectantly.

Shikamaru was thinking. "It's hard to know what to try when we don't know what Shoto-san and Dabi-san will try. I could probably think of something, but, against Orochimaru, I don't know if it would work. Strategy isn't enough without attack power."

"I respect that you can plan things," Shine said, "but I believe in this case, you'd better let me handle it."

"Are you any good at strategy?" Shikamaru said with clear skepticism.

So far he gave Shine more credit for observation than he did for forethought.

Shine just smiled. "When I have to be."

That didn't reassure him.

* * *

Shoto, Dabi, and Neji beat their pursuers to Sasuke.

Thankfully for them, he was not ,in fact, at the hideout yet, wherever that monstrous place might have been.

He couldn't have been that far from it, because Kabuto was risking taking a break.

Sasuke realized they were being followed though.

"Someone is coming," he told Kabuto.

"I thought I heard something." Kabuto straightened his glasses. "I hope it's not those pesky Leaf again. Some people do not know when to give up."

[Oh, he has no idea.]

Sasuke hopped into a tree, though there were much fewer of them here than in the Land of Fire.

"I don't believe it," he said. "It's the Todorokis...and it's looks like Neji is with them."

"Neji? Now that's an interesting jutsu," Kabuto said. "You know, it wouldn't be amiss to have one of the Hyuga family, but I don't think he would agree to it."

"We should go now," Sasuke said.

"I agree, fighting them again is not my goal," Kabuto said. "My snake friend was very angry, I think, about what they did. I don't know if he would come to our aid again."

"Perhaps I should deal with them myself." Orochimaru suddenly appeared out of the ground, almost, it looked like.

Sasuke didn't act surprised, though he had not realized that Orochimaru was following them that closely.

Or had he just been waiting for them?

"Master." Kabuto bowed. "It seems we have some trouble again."

"Tsunade keeps sending children to do the work of Jonin," Orochimaru said. "I don't want a fight with any real ninja right now, but a few of those hatchlings should be no problem for us. They might stop chasing us if we just kill them."

Sasuke said nothing to dissuade him from this.

It wasn't as if they shouldn't have known better.

"Yes, master, but are you sure you want to engage?" Kabuto said.

"Oh, I wasn't thinking of me," Orochimaru said.

He cast a genjutsu that hid them from sight against the hills and sky.

The three boys came to a stop in front of them only a few seconds later.

"I know they're here," Neji said.

Normally he'd have seen through it, but Orochimaru's was decidedly more powerful than the average user's.

Still, he could tell something was off. Straining his eyes to find their chakra signatures, he began to zero in on them.

However, they were ready for this.

Snakes began to crawl out of the grass. Had they been there before?

"Ah!" Dabi moved as they came towards him.

He shot fire, and the smell of burning reptiles followed afterward.

"That's revolting." Shoto made a face.

"They're snakes!" Dabi said. "What? Do you want me to put them down easy? Look out there." 

More were coming. Shoto froze them instantly.

"You know, that's a more painful way to go than burning up, time-wise," Dabi said.

"Focus," Neji said. "They're watching us. They were here a moment ago."

He looked around. "Sasuke, if you're near enough to hear me, please step away from Kabuto. I'm pleading with you to recognize the insanity of this choice."

He suddenly pulled his headband down. "Look. See, my curse mark is removed. It's not too late."

Shoto would have advised him not to reveal this if he thought Kabuto was watching.

However, he got far worse than that.

Unable to resist this, Orochimaru became visible suddenly, not at all concerned about them.

Kabuto was staring at Neji with more astonishment than eagerness. He at least was unnerved that someone could have removed that mark.

Orochimaru was not alarmed--he was only curious.

At the sight of him, Dabi wanted to laugh in a way. He looked like such a cartoon villain, with the eye painting and long hair and snake pupils in his eyes.

But he looked like he was wearing a stupid doll dress with a large purple sash that kind of undermined how intimidating he was.

"Wait, is this the guy?" he said. "This is the Snake King? He looks like a woman."

Orochimaru didn't care about that jab.

"Fascinating," he said, with almost a hiss. "Who has done that to you? The Hyuga family curse mark, I've heard about it. A very primitive mark, but removing it should not be possible, even so. Even sealing it up would be difficult."

Sasuke, now standing behind Orochimaru, admittedly was a little surprised also. But not as much so, not after witnessing what happened to Gaara.

Neji ignored Orochimaru, though he was keeping an eye on him the whole time.

"Sasuke, perhaps the curse mark has poisoned your mind," he said. "I know what it is like to feel trapped in your life. But this will not free you, nor anyone else. If you will not listen for the sake of your friends, at least do it for the sake of yourself."

"He's right," Shoto spoke up, still keeping an eye on the two bad guys. "There's so much we haven't gone over yet. There is a different way to go about this, one that could bring justice without causing more heartache. It might be that there could be a way to even learn to resist Itachi's Sharingan abilities without having to imitate them. Surely that is enough of an advantage."

"That is laughable," Orochimaru cut in, unwelcomely. "As if that would be enough to beat him. I've faced him before. Sasuke must be much stronger to be ready for that."

"Oh, come off it, creep," Dabi said. "Maybe he's too ignorant to see it, but I know your type. You're using him. You want Itachi out of the way, I bet--if you even intend to keep your word at all. You're just going to end this kid once he's done what you want, like you do with all your little puppets. I saw some of the corpses. They were hardly even human anymore, were they? Honestly, I don't know how you can live with that on your conscience, but men like you always seem to be detached from reality. Someday it'll come back to bite you in the a--, and I can't wait for it."

"Who are you?" Orochimaru was neither impressed by this nor annoyed, from the sound of it.

Something about the way he spoke did remind Dabi of AFO, though their voices were very different. It was the lack of fear, the lack of any emotion but pure delight in taunting their adversary. The greedy sound without any kind of fear to modify the greed to a more human tenor.

It made his skin crawl, and he had the sickening feeling Orochimaru was toying with them, that he'd attack them once he was bored of this game, and he probably was far more deadly that his doctor lackey was.

"You don't need to know who I am, b-----d," Dabi said aloud. 

"His name is Dabi," Sasuke said in an insolent tone that made Dabi want to punch him almost as much as the fact that he'd just sung like a bird did. "He's a fire user of some sort. But slow. The other is Shoto, his brother."

"They don't look like brothers," Kabuto said. "Or...no, they half do."

He seemed to think that was funny.

"Shut up," Shoto said. "You went down easily enough before. I wouldn't be so cocky."

"I wasn't ready that time," Kabuto said. "And you had that very strange woman with you then. I don't see her here, or any other of your party. Were you fool enough to come after us alone?"

"Snowflake, maybe we should run," Dabi said in a low voice so the villains could not hear. "We didn't count on Snake Face being here with him. I think we could take the four-eyed freak, but not the grandpa with eyeliner." [His insults are my favorite part of this dialogue.]

"We cannot back down," Shoto said. "And if we run, they're sure to pursue us, and then we won't see them coming."

"Are they friends of yours, Sasuke?" Orochimaru said, in a tone that was so on fakely indulgent that it made Shoto want to gag.

"No," Sasuke said coldly. "They were the ones who removed the Shukaku."

Clearly the two men had known this already. Likely they'd seen it from afar and had suspected the two strangers were connected to it.

"Interesting." Orochimaru smiled creepily. "You have strong jutsus, ones that can undo seals. I would very much like to know about them."

"Get bent, creep," Dabi siad. 

"As if we'd ever give you information," Shoto said scornfully.

"I thought you might say that," Orochimaru said, not bothered. "But people usually sing a different tune after some persuasion."

Suddenly, without much warning, living snakes seem to explode out of his arms.

It was a very grotesque sight, but the boys didn't have time to think of it, they only doged.

Dodging it was easy enough for them, but the snakes kept coming and snapping at their heels.

On top of that, more of the reptiles were crawling out of the grass towards them, trying to surround them.

While they were distracted by trying to keep them off, Kabuto moved forward, chakra coming out of his hands like blades, which only Neji perceived.

Neji blocked his swing as he came at him, hard and fast.

Neji would have no trouble doing this, of course, but Kabuto was only keeping him occupied.

"Well, Sasuke," Orochimaru said, "are you tempted by their offer?"

He would not have asked if he actually thought there was any danger of it, and they all knew it.

"No," Sasuke said, coldly. "I've made up my mind."

"I thought so," Orochimaru said. "You won't mind letting us capture them, will you? Since my other accomplices have, unfortunately, been eliminated by the Leaf and Sand parasites."

Sasuke made a hand shape and shot a fireball toward Neji, because he was too busy dodging Kabuto to dodge it also.

"Neji!" Shoto used ice to shove him aside.

"An unusual jutsu," Orochimaru noted, watching him. "That one is quite strong. He would make a good subject. He has the look of someone with a goal."

"D--- reptiles." Dabi burned more snakes.

Suddenly, there were clones of Kabuto around him.

"What--" Dabi hadn't known that more than one person could do that. Like the people of his world, he assumed that most ninja only used one kind of trick and had only seem Naruto use the clones. Though it might have been mentioned before that they could do it, he'd not taken noted of it.

Kabuto's clones were stronger than a Genin's would have been anyway, able to generate chakra blades also.

Dabi was not as fast as Shoto, and his quirk did not block as effectively. Though he did burn through some of the clones, he couldn't have surrounded himself in fire without risking setting the hill itself on fire and killing them all, and one of the clones got him in the back.

Now, since he did not have the chakra channels running through him like an inhabitant of this world would have had, it did not quite have the effect Kabuto intended.

It did jar and cut him though.

"Ow!" he said, whirling around to blast fire at the clone.

"Huh...I thought that would have done far more damage." Kabuto was puzzled.

Neji was back up, moving around the ice.

Sasuke sprang over it, however, and dodged Neji's attempt to hit him down, though not as easily as with most people.

He and Kabuto together were going to be too much for Neji to deal with, however.

Shoto wanted to use a huge ice mountain to encase Sasuke again, but he would get Neji with him, and he didn't dare do this. They needed all three of them to even stay alive.

Instead he began to slide around them, but one of the snakes managed to trip him, and he sprawled over the ice--then he caught himself with more ice.

This delay was all the opening Orochimaru needed though. His snakes grabbed Shoto by his torso and pinned his arms down, then yanked him closer to Orochimaru, whose neck soon began to grow in a most unnatural and horrifying way.

Neji looked over. "No!" he said. "Shoto, get free!" He began to move.

Kabuto took advantage of his distraction to hit him in the side and cut his chakra.

Neji couldn't believe such a trick had worked on him, and wondered if his injuries were slowing him down more than he thought.

He fell over.

Sasuke watched Orochimaru with perhaps a slightly perturbed look, like maybe this turn wasn't one he'd expected.

"Dabi!" Shoto yelled, trying to break free, but the snakes were much more difficult to kill than he thought. He was trying to freeze and burn them, and it wasn't working fast enough. Too many were there to replace the ones next to his skin.

He tried to make his fire burn hotter through the snakes on his left side faster. Some of them began to be incinerated.

"He's quite strong," Orochimaru said. His head loomed way too close to Shoto's.

"Hey, stop it!" Dabi began to move closer to him, but snakes grabbed his feet, and one of them bit him.

The vibrant marking suggested that this one was venomous.

"Ah!" Dabi tripped and fell down. The clones moved to block his path.

Shoto struggled harder to get free, but either the snakes were replacing themselves faster, or he wasn't getting enough power up... Unfortunately, rushing here had left him a lot more depleted, and now he was paying the price.

But just as he thought Orochimaru was going to be able to land that bite, something hit Orochimaru in the chest.

It sent him bowling over, and Shoto was slammed into the grass, which hurt, but it was better than the alternative.

"Sir?" Kabuto looked away from Dabi. "What was that?"

Orochimaru didn't answer. He was gasping for air in a way that was very un-super-villain like.

Sasuke had a clear view and had seen a huge, ball-shaped object hit him.

He turned.

In the tall grass he saw Momo, where before they'd seen no one, so one of the ninja must have used a camouflage jutsu. It normally wouldn't have slipped past these high level Shinobi, but they'd been distracted enough not to notice it.

But now it was gone, and Momo had a large object that Sasuke did not recognize. It looked almost like a tube-shaped catapult to him.

(It was, in fact, a cannon.)

Sand shot through the air and wrapped around Kabuto, before he could recover from this surprise enough to dodge, and plucked him off his feet, tight around him.

"Sand Coffin," Gaara announced.

A gust of wind suddenly knocked more of the snakes away from Dabi and Neji.

Sasuke found he was frozen... His shadow behind him was longer toward the others at this time of day.

Shikamaru was behind Momo, focusing.

"Hurry, I can't hold this forever," he said, gritting his teeth.

Hinata rushed down the hill to get to Neji.

Next to Shoto, a doorway opened, and Shine stepped out of it.

Orochimaru was standing up. Unfortunately the cannonball was not metal, and it wasn't enough to keep him down for long--he was too resilient.

"Well, that was an unusual attack," he said, looking up. "Would you be the one who hurt my poor snake friend--"

He got no further than that. Shine sliced through the snakes holding Shoto.

That actually seemed to hurt the psychopath. He hissed in pain, and the snake bodies fell to the ground.

Of course, they regrew almost at once, but Shine had pulled Shoto up and behind her.

"You stay behind me," she said, holding out her sword at Orochimaru.

"And who are you?" Orochimaru said. "The one who is able to unleash a Tailed Beast, I presume."

Shine smiled at him, but it was a smile that Shoto knew meant "screw you."

"Orochimaru?" she said.

"Yes," Orochimaru said, expecting this to intimidate her, you could tell from the gleam in his eye.

"You look far stupider than I expected," Shine said, evenly enough. "And you radiate enough dark power that I can almost smell the stench of it. Unless that's just your lack of hygiene."

Orochimaru didn't find this insult impressive.

"I suppose you intend to take your students back, but they came to us," he said.

"I want you boys to take a good look at him," Shine said. "You too Sasuke. That is what a failure looks like."

Now, whether Shine had known Orochimaru that well or not, she could not have picked an insult that would have angered him more, and the change that came over him quite surprised Kabuto.

"Why, you wretch!" he hissed, still with his neck way too long, so that he looked like a real snake with a human head, reeling up. "You have the gall to call me a failure?! I'll--"

"Kill me?" Shine cut in.

Orochimaru paused, astounded at the audacity of anyone to interrupt him. Ninja did not usually do this, even to their enemies.

"Oh, I know, you'll cut off my limbs," Shine said, warming up to it. "No, you'll drag me back to your hideout and turn me into one of your little pets. Do I look like Sasuke to you?"

"What?" Orochimaru said, actually puzzled as to why she'd ask him that.

"No, right?" Shine said. "That means I'm not stupid enough to fall for your bullcrap. Now, little man, I will give you one minute to get out of my sight. Take your despicable little minion with you, and your disgusting little reptiles and your twisted powers, and don't darken my presence again with your own. If in that amount of time, you have not done this, I make absolutely no promises for how painless our extraction of you will be. My grace will not agree with your dark aura, and you may even go quite rabid if I touch you, and I don't want to see that or put my kids through it, you know, if I don't have to. So I'm going to count to three."

"How arrogant can you be?" Kabuto sputtered, though he was still being held tight by Gaara. "That is one of the legendary Sannin, and you're a--"

"A woman who, by the grace of God, removed a tailed beast yesterday, and it turned its tail and ran away from me," Shine interrupted him also. "And my students. Who are you, by the way? Kabuto, right? I've heard of you. You're lucky I'm not the type to cut off your hands for the things that you've done with them, or I would. Though I did hear that the third Hokage might have done the same for that old snake over here himself."

Orochimaru didn't care to be reminded of that. "Listen, you fool," he said, "I don't know who you imagine you are, to talk to me this way, but never in my life have I heard anyone treat a Sannin with such disrespect. I ought to strangle you with my bare hands."

"If you come one foot nearer to me," Shine said, still not afraid of him, to Shoto's amazement, "I will cut the dark jutsu out of your body with my sword and burn you alive while doing it."

Silence.

[This is going to get good.]