Konoha's Own Blue-Eyed Puppeteer

Almost...

And just as suddenly Kabuto was bousting, he was spitting up blood and dropped to his knees looking utterly confused. "That jutsu affects the back and inside more than it does on the front." Tsunade said, snapping entirely out of it, fully returning to reality. She started performing medical jutsu on him, pumping decent amounts of her chakra into it. I smiled, almost having to wipe tears as I saw Naruto grab Tsunade's necklace. "I won."  Tsunade squeezed her eyes shut as to hide her own tears before hooking the necklace around Naruto's neck. "Yeah, you did, brat."

Hearing a sound from the distance, my eyes darted up, only to see that Orochimaru was heading toward us with a sword from his mouth.  Quickly I stood in front of Naruto, my body once again deciding to do this on it's own, protecting people I care in any way that it can. My eyes squeezed shut, waiting for impact, but it never came. In all of these cases, the impact never comes. Sometimes that scares me... Like I've already been hit and died. And I never even felt it.

But I wasn't dead. My eyes opened, meeting the sight of a bloodly sword that was right in front of me. "T-Tsunade!?" I coughed out in pure shock. I never imagined her doing this. My hand was outstretched to help when the sword retracting back into Orochimaru's mouth. He glared at her, spitting out harmful words that Tsunade took and sent back, twice as condescending. Tsunade and Orochimaru exchanged more words, but I ignored them, hearing a slight whimper from the distance to put my attention on. Joka laid, attempting to move, not once succeeding. "Tsunade-" "I'll be fine and so will Naruto. Go help him." She didn't face me while speaking, but I took her word for it and raced over to the black panther when Kabuto blocked my path, swaying back and forth.

...Why is he even still alive? "Heh heh.. Well at least I can still kill you.." His words were labored and forced. If the entire situation I was in not rather intense, I might have laughed. ''I may be low on chakra, but you have hardly any left! It looks like I could poke you and you'd fall!" My words came out more confident than I wanted, causing Kabuto to glare and run at me, his speed decent for his injured body. "I DON'T CARE!" He yelled, throwing a fist my way. Swiftly I dodged to the side and plunged two needles into his side. The needles I grabbed seemed ordinary, not a hint of poison to cripple him. Regardless of that fact, Kabuto still fell like a bag of bricks, laying there on the ground with his eyes closed.

I stayed still for a moment, scared that if I moved Kabuto would spring back to life. After a few seconds, it was clear that the gray haired boy would be down for quite some time. I crossed over him, the black panther panting in his troublesome sleep in my sights. Joka's pain brought me to feeling guilty like never before. It was my fault for be weak... I got the panther hurt because of it... Racing on over to him, I leaned by his side digging through my other ninja pouch filled with some cures for the poisons. My searching became frantic, not seeing the cure for Joka here.. Obviously this poison Joka was infected with wasn't fatal, but the pain he was in was most likely a ton. This.. This sucks.. Tears threatened to spill down my face as I stifled my sniffing. "I'm sorry... It seems I'm always too weak.." 

Joka barked out a laugh making me shoot straight up. ''Joka!? You're okay!" Joka huffed a breath of air. ''Of course, human... Like a little poison would take me down.." I chuckled as he struggled to move, as to prove his point but his body refused to follow his orders. "Stop.. It'll wear off soon anyway.." I smiled down at Joka who seems like he'll just always call me 'human' no matter what. "What was so funny?" I asked after the bit of silence. Joka eyed me, silent then speaking lowly, "when it becomes clear that there'll be another summoner, only one feline is chosen from each clan to that summoner. As soon as we're born or the summoner, we grow up watching some of their lives as too be able to know what to do to help them." 

A course of curiosity and surprise went through me. "S-so... You, Keio, Hana, have been watching me since I was born. Or in Hana's case since she was born.. What-... How?" "Master's Crystal Ball." I nodded in little understanding. Master being the tiger in charge no doubt. And crystal ball? Didn't the Third have something like that? "You guys are stalkers, wonderful..." I muttered, trying to decide between sighing or chuckling. Joka give me a stare that showed his eyes wanted to twitch in a annoyance. "No, it's precautionary.. And we don't watch you every moment of your life! Simply.. The important things, or whenever we're checking up. It's.. It's a hard process to explain." I crossed my arms, looking doubtful. "Still stalkerish... Hey, but this doesn't explain why you laughed?.."