Chapter 85: Stalling for Time

Feeling a ridiculous amount of killing intent flood over him, Naruto was getting more and more annoyed.

‘Just how bad is my luck? My first C-rank mission turns into an A-rank mission and then I am meeting this kind of monster at my first chunin exam.

She says she wants Sasuke, she is talking about the Sharingan, right? Or is she into younger boys? Well, whatever time to stall for as long as possible.’

“Yo, Sasuke, h…”

Naruto was just about to ask Sasuke for some backline support when he saw that he was completely frozen in place from fear.

‘You have got to be kidding me.’

“Kuku, I am impressed, you can still move despite my killing intent.”

“Yeah, no biggie. Have felt worse, after all.”

“Oh? Now that got me rather curious, but unfortunately, I have no time to chat.”

‘Damn, I thought I could stall her with a story or two, but I guess people at her level aren’t tricked this easily.’

“Well, let’s see what you can do.”

While saying that, the women took out two kunai and threw one towards Sasuke and Sakura, who were both still frozen in place.

Naruto, however, appeared in front of them and easily deflected both Kunai. Then, he turned around and smashed his fist into Sasuke’s stomach. The punch was just a little bit harder than necessary to get him out of his paralyzed state, which Naruto would deny if somebody were to question him about it at a later date.

“What are you doing, I…”

“I don’t have time for your bullshit. Grab Sakura and run. You are in the way.”

Sasuke’s anger spiked for a moment and then quickly dissipated when he remembered the killing intent he just experienced.

“This is impossible, you can’t win!”

Naruto only scoffed at that.

“Of course I can’t. Are you retarded?”

“Then why even fight?”

Naruto really wanted to applaud Sasuke right now. For some reason, their opponent allowed them to speak with each other. This was easily stalled time! After Sasuke’s question, Naruto pretended to ponder for a while to get some extra seconds out of it and then answered his question.

“Because it is the best way to survive.”

Sasuke was completely dumbfounded, but their assailant answered this time.

“Oh? Are you hoping that you will be saved by ANBU? Sorry to burst your bubble, but I organized quite a few distractions for them. It will take quite a while for them to come here. How does that make you feel? Is desperation finally seeping in?”

Naruto was, naturally, completely unbothered by that. Will ANBU come late? Who cares! He wasn’t waiting for them from the start. As soon as the first member of his family arrives, the tables will turn no matter who it is. Stalling for time in a two-on-one will be much easier and sooner or later it will be four-on-one. That means checkmate.

Seeing that Naruto wasn’t wavering in the slightest, the women couldn’t help but chuckle again.

“Truly outstanding. How about you come with me? You will make a fine specimen. I promise I’ll treat you gently.”

Yet again, the woman’s overly long tongue licked over her lips and for some reason, Naruto felt the urge to clench his buttocks together.

‘Okay, now I am no longer so sure that she is after the Sharingan. Is she so enamored by Sasuke that she willingly walked straight into the chunin exams to kidnap him? If that is the case, she might be even crazier than I thought she was.’

“Sorry, my nee-san told me not to follow strangers home.”

Naruto gave another glance at Sasuke and couldn’t help but frown.

“Why are you still here? Grab Sakura and run, the opponent is too strong for me to have the time to babysit you. If you wanna be a deadweight, go do that somewhere else.”

Sasuke was truly stunned by these words.

‘I am the dead weight? How is that possible?’

He took a proper look at the current situation and saw Naruto protectively standing in front of him. All of the killing intent that was enough to paralyze him now crashed into Naruto, and yet, Naruto didn’t falter at all. Sasuke clenched his fist hard enough to draw blood.

‘This is unacceptable.’

Flashbacks from the night when his whole clan was killed kept repeating in his head again and again.

‘Am I really this weak?’

He remembered how he trembled in fear in front of Itachi and how he fainted shortly after.

‘Isn’t this almost the same situation?’

“NO! I WON’T GO DOWN THIS EASY!!! Only by risking my life can I get the strength I need!”

Sasuke’s Sharingan activated, revealing that he has gained an additional tomoe, bringing him to a total of four, two in each eye. He reached into his weapon pouch and threw a massive amount of shuriken at their enemy.

Naruto, meanwhile, was completely baffled.

‘What the hell just happened? I ask him to run away and the next moment he becomes crazy and goes into an offensive.’

[He is an Uchiha, after all. I am not calling the whole clan insane just because I dislike them. It is genuinely hard to find an Uchiha that isn’t at least completely irrational and in most cases crazy as well.]

‘I genuinely thought you just disliked them. Sorry I guess.’

[Yeah, no worries. It’s just good that you understand. The more people know the truth the better.]

Sasuke’s attack, meanwhile, sailed past their opponent rather harmlessly, but just when the shuriken passed her, Sasuke pulled back the strings he had attached to them and managed to bind her. He quickly went through a few hand seals and then fired off a jutsu.

[Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu]

Flames started to burn around the strings and moments later, their opponent was engulfed in raging flames.

‘What the hell was that? Why didn’t she resist Sasuke’s attacks? There is no way she couldn’t have dodged that.’

“Kukuku…”

A peal of creepy laughter echoed through the forest. The woman stepped out of the fire and revealed that over half of her face was melted. Her hand reached up and tore away the remains of her old face.

‘Is that f*ing Orochimaru!? How insane is he to boldly walk into Konoha like this. No, even more important: Why the f* was he cross-dressing? No, wait! Didn’t he say he wants Sasuke? What exactly does he want him for?! Didn’t he say he wants me to come as well?! Time to design a seal to seal a certain place of my body shut.’

“Oh well, time to finish this.”

Naruto felt an incredibly powerful genjutsu slam into his mind and from the looks of it, Sasuke was hit by the same genjutsu.

‘Wait with the dispelling, Kurama.’

[Got it.]

“Let me give you a farewell present, Sasuke-kun.”

Then, with a speed far faster than what he had previously shown, his neck extended towards Sasuke. Naruto couldn’t help but be surprised by that speed.

‘Shit, Kurama, dispel it.’

The moment he finished that sentence, Naruto was out of the genjutsu and a red chakra cloak with one tail engulfed him.

Orochimaru, meanwhile, bit into Sasuke’s shoulder and moments later a mark appeared that looked similar but not the same to the one Anko had.

He was just about to return his neck to normal when a red fist entirely made of chakra appeared and smashed him into a nearby tree.

After extracting himself from the tree, Orochimaru had a look of surprise on his face.

“Oh? Due to the heightened emotions, some of its chakra leaked out, huh? I would love to play with you some more, but it is time for me to leave.”

Naruto, however, only smirked at Orochimaru.

“Sorry, but I don’t think so. I have been stalling you for quite a while now, after all. It is time for the counteroffensive.”

Moments later, two people with vicious smiles on their faces landed next to Naruto. These two, naturally, were Yuna and Anko.

A smile matching the ones Yuna and Anko had appeared on Naruto’s face as he grew another chakra tail.

“Checkmate.”