Show me the way

XX: Gruesome Sealing

The fight dragged on far into the night. There was little more that Shizuka and Kakashi could do than drag it out, essentially tag-teaming in and out of combat, in the hopes of wearing Orochimaru down before they were both exhausted.

Shizuka could tell they were making progress. The human skin had peeled, revealing the snake-like monster that lurked beneath. Orochimaru had shed his skin a few times and several extremities had been cut off and regrown, taking precious energy from the Snake Sanin.

The roof of the cave had come down, crushing bones in Shizuka's right shoulder in his attempt to push Kakashi out of the way. Shizuka landed on his back not far from the fallen stones and through the dust clouds he saw Kakashi. For a moment, Kakashi had been in sheer panic, stumbling over himself to get to Shizuka and desperately making sure Shizuka was alright. Shizuka recognised the panic of losing a loved one in Kakashi's eyes and an image of Obito driften into his mind. He did not want to be a live reminder of such times to Kakashi, so despite the pain, he sat up and grinned at Kakashi. The relief of Kakashi's face was enough to ease the sharp edges of Shizuka's pain, but that didn't bring back the full functionality of his arm.

The fight drifted outside, offering space and new tactics. Orochimaru summoned Manda, his giant snake summon, and at first they had no direct answer to it. Kakashi's Nin-dogs weren't nearly the same size or strength. Shizuka had not attempted to summon since he came to this time and didn't know if he would even be successful if he tried right now. After all, his name was not on the contract yet and he didn't think Gamabunta was going to take kindly to a stranger's sudden summoning.

But Shadow clones were a very valid option. His shoulder was agonising as he lifted his hands to form the hand sign, but he gritted through it. The five identical copies grinned before they disappeared, too fast to be noticed by Orochimaru and already intuned to Shizuka's plan.

Kakashi landed beside them, giving Shizuka a worried look for using his damaged arm, but it was just a glance. There was no time to be distracted at the moment. Manda reered high, exposing his fangs as they leaked poison, scorching the land in the same manner the green liquid in the syringe had done in the laboratory.

Kakashi took hold of another Kunai as Shizuka gripped his sword in his left hand. At the same moment they started running, both aiming to reach the top of the snake, where Orochimaru stood observing the destruction below. Shizuka coated his Katana in an impossibly thin layer of wind chakra, sharpening the edge to a point it could slice through almost anything. The thick scales of Manda would be nothing but soft tissue for his Katana right now. The only issue was that the cut needed to count and left-hand wielding was not his preferred option, so Shizuka planned to cut through the back of Manda's neck. If it didn't sever the head, at the very least it would separate the spine from the head. Either way the result would be death.

The moving body and slippery scales proved to be quite a climb. Still, both managed to reach their target. Kakashi swiped down on Orochimaru as Shizuka sank his blade into Manda's neck. Kakashi's attack was fast and furious, leaving Orochimaru to defend himself on the writhing movements of a dying Manda. The only goal right now was for Orochimaru to lose his footing before Kakashi and Shizuka did. Shizuka began to back up Kakashi, striking quickly at Orochimaru before he could steady himself from Kakashi's attack. A well executed upward kick finally sent Orochimaru plummeting to the earth. He landed on his back as a great puff of smoke indicated the death and defeat of Manda.

To his surprise, Orochimaru found himself unable to move, his body half sunken into the ground. The soft glow underneath him told him he landed in the middle of a trapping seal, one that was already active despite his opponents not having landed yet. It was different from his own, almost seeming an improvement on it. His own Fuinjustu trap locked the victim away in a different dimensional space within the seal. This seal was far more developed. It was constricting, draining chakra from him and, most importantly, kept him from being able to use any of his Justus. He felt paralized, trapped between this dimension and the other, perpetually moving between them, yet stuck in both of them.

Shizuka landed just outside the five-pointed seal with Kakashi behind him. He smirked as his five clones were pouring their chakra into the seal to keep it in place. He held up his hand to tell Kakashi to wait as he himself stepped into the seal, expertly avoiding the trigger points that would grab hold of him as well. He had a knack for seals. The Time Travel seal was not the only one he created and Shizuka had to begrudgingly admit that, in the absence of Jiraya, he had learned from Orochimaru during the war. It was Orochimaru himself that taught him the basic trap seal, which Naruto proceeded to 'butcher', as Orochimaru called it where Naruto thought he was improving it. The most important improvement was the removal of the means to escape. The Blood Seal needed to escape Orochimaru's trap seal held no use in Naruto's.

Shizuka crouched down next to Orochimaru and cocked his head. The man in front of him seemed to be in  agonising pain, but he cared little about that. He looked Orochimaru over, noting the man's hip's, feet and hands sunken into the ground, leaving his knees, half his torso and his head above it. He smirked, knowing that cutting off the seal now would leave Orochimaru severed as he was divided above and below ground now, but before he was dispelling his clones there was something he needed to do.

From his pouch he produced a bottle half filled with clear, very light blue liquid. It was viscose, almost clumpy in the bottle, but a quick shake seemed to break the bonds that made it viscose and the liquid moved like water. Shizuka sat the bottle down in front of him and proceeded to fetch a Kunai from his pouch. "Wha- what are you doing?"  Orochimaru asked,  struggled in his bonds, fearfully looking at Shizuka as Shizuka lowered the Kunai towards his neck, but was surprised when Shizuka only nicked the skin to draw blood, catching it in the bottle. The blood mixed with the liquid before settling in a clear pink, which Shizuka pocketed.

He stood up and left the seal, fishing out a second scroll, similar to the one he sealed the remains of Kabuto in, but this one designed to restrain Chakra along with the person inside it as well. An extra measurement against Orochimaru's regeneration and hopefully an unnecessary effort.

As soon as he stepped out of the seal next to Kakashi, he dispelled the clones and let the seal cut Orochimaru into pieces. The Snake Sanin screamed, but had no way of moving to ease his pain. Shizuka was in no hurry to relieve it either and took his time to make sure Kakashi was alright. Besides a few more serious cuts and bruises, not to mention near Chakra exhaustion, Kakashi seemed fine. More so than Shizuka was with his crushed shoulder.

He didn't give Kakashi the time to worry about him, though, as he turned to face Orochimaru once more and seal him for once and for all. He saw Orochimaru's last attempt to regenerate himself, but it seemed the seal had drained too much of his Chakra for Orochimaru to be able to do more than close the wounds. The blue glow of the seal eagerly swallowed the Snake Sanin and with that, the threat was gone. Sasuke would be safe from outside temptation into darkness and Naruto would find a way to defeat the inside darkness as well.

With everything done, Shizuka had no excuse anymore and finally gave in to Kakashi's worries. He let the man take his shirt off and prod his shoulder, winching from the prying fingers. "We're going to the nearest village for help. I'm not letting you walk your ass all the way back to Konoha like this." Shizuka rolled his eyes. Nothing was too dislocated, so it would probably heal fine, but Kakashi's tone of voice was final and Shizuka easily gave into it.

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