Shikamaru's group soon caught up with the two remaining members of the Sound Four: Sakon and Tayuya.
Unlike the pursuit Naruto remembered from the original story, the team was still almost entirely together. Neji, Lee, Kiba, and Chōji were all accompanying Shikamaru, while Naruto was closing the distance behind them.
But Sasuke's earlier departure had changed more than the composition of the pursuit team.
Kimimaro had arrived sooner as well.
After meeting up with Sakon and Tayuya, he took the sealed barrel containing Sasuke and continued toward Orochimaru. Inside, Sasuke was already approaching the end of his transformation.
Shikamaru quickly divided their forces.
Lee, Neji, and Chōji would pursue Kimimaro and recover the barrel. Kiba would hold off Sakon, while Shikamaru dealt with Tayuya.
They only needed to endure until Naruto arrived.
By the time Naruto spotted the two battles from above the forest, however, Kiba had already suffered serious injuries at the hands of Sakon and Ukon.
Shikamaru wasn't doing much better. He was scrambling to evade the three grotesque giants Tayuya controlled with her flute.
Then Naruto sensed three more people approaching.
Gaara, Kankurō, and Temari.
The Sand siblings were coming to assist, just as they had in the original story.
"Tsunade still doesn't trust me, huh? She even asked the Sand for help."
He glanced down at the battles below.
"But I'm not letting anyone else finish these enemies off."
Ten shadow clones appeared beside him and immediately descended toward Kiba.
Naruto himself remained in the air, turning his attention to Tayuya's summoned creatures.
He pointed toward them.
Dozens of wind blades swept down through the trees, slicing the three giants apart before they could attack Shikamaru again.
Tayuya's eyes widened.
She looked up, spotted Naruto overhead, and immediately unleashed the second stage of her curse mark.
Her appearance changed as she raised the flute to her lips.
A sharp melody rang through the forest, carrying her genjutsu toward both Naruto and Shikamaru.
Naruto moved to counterattack.
Then his body stopped responding.
He could still think. He could still understand what was happening.
But he couldn't move.
Genjutsu worked by interfering with the senses, and techniques transmitted through sound were particularly troublesome. They could reach their targets from a considerable distance, and without sensory abilities, locating the caster could be difficult.
Simply covering his ears might not be enough, either. Vibrations could still travel through the bones and fluids of his body.
His thoughts remained clear, but the illusion had severed his control over his own movements.
Below him, the ground began drawing closer.
Without his wind technique keeping him aloft, he was falling.
So this is her sound-based genjutsu…
His eyes flashed red.
For a single instant, the pattern of his Mangekyō Sharingan appeared.
Then it vanished.
The illusion broke, and Naruto regained control of his body, stopping his descent.
Tayuya faltered.
Her genjutsu had been broken—and in that same brief moment, she had seen his eyes.
"You… You have a Sharingan?!"
That was the power Orochimaru had wanted for so long.
They had come for Sasuke because he was supposed to be the only Uchiha remaining in Konoha.
Then why did Naruto possess those eyes?
She hurriedly resumed playing, pouring more chakra into the melody.
Naruto gave a quiet laugh.
He brought his hands together.
A hurricane formed beneath him and swept toward her.
Her genjutsu needed sound to reach its targets. But the violent currents tore through the surrounding air, scattering the flute's melody beneath the roar of the wind.
No matter how much chakra she put into it, the illusion couldn't take hold.
A moment later, the hurricane swallowed her.
Wind blades closed in from every direction, cutting her down before she could escape.
"Ding! You have killed a jōnin. Reward: 100 System Points."
Naruto watched the winds disperse.
The sensation of being caught in her genjutsu lingered in his mind.
There was something about it…
Something that had caught his attention, though he couldn't yet explain why.
Meanwhile, his ten shadow clones had reached Kiba.
Sakon and Ukon's strength came from their coordination within a shared body and their unnatural regenerative abilities.
In battle, they relied primarily on close-range attacks. Ukon could also merge with an enemy's body at the cellular level, destroying it from within.
Unfortunately for them, Naruto's abilities were a terrible match for theirs.
The ten clones unleashed their wind techniques together.
Overlapping hurricanes engulfed the brothers, leaving them nowhere to flee. Cutting winds tore through their bodies, severing them into pieces.
Their regeneration couldn't save them from that.
Against opponents like these, powerful ninjutsu could end a fight before their unusual abilities had a chance to become a problem.
"Ding! You have killed a jōnin. Reward: 100 System Points."
With that, the Sound Four had been wiped out.
Every one of them had died at Naruto's hands.
He now had enough points to obtain [Senjutsu Body], but he decided to wait.
Kimimaro was still ahead.
He wanted those additional hundred points first.
By the time Naruto reached the next battlefield, Kimimaro was already forcing the others onto the defensive.
Nearby, purple smoke seeped from the large wooden barrel containing Sasuke.
It looked ready to burst open at any moment.
Kimimaro himself was gravely ill. His life was nearly spent, and the fact that he could still fight at all was a testament to his sheer will.
That hadn't made him any less dangerous.
Chōji lay unconscious, blood flowing from several puncture wounds across his body.
Lee had opened his Inner Gates and was fighting beside Neji. Their exchanges with Kimimaro were fierce, with every close approach threatening a fatal injury.
But Kimimaro's kekkei genkai, Shikotsumyaku, made fighting him at close range extraordinarily difficult.
Bone spikes bristled across his body like the quills of a hedgehog.
Lee's powerful blows kept striking bone, while Neji struggled to land a clean Gentle Fist strike through the defenses surrounding Kimimaro's body.
Once Kimimaro activated the first stage of his curse mark, the battle became increasingly one-sided.
Lee and Neji were driven back, forced to dodge and defend. At critical moments, Neji's Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation was all that kept Kimimaro's attacks from reaching them.
"Hurricane!"
A violent column of wind descended from above.
Caught off guard, Kimimaro was swept into the air. Wind blades lashed at him from inside the vortex.
But the blood and torn flesh Naruto expected never appeared.
Instead, a layer of white bone armor emerged over Kimimaro's body, shielding him from the cutting winds.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
Keeping him inside the hurricane wouldn't be enough. The blades weren't getting through.
He swung his right hand.
An enormous wind blade shot toward Kimimaro's head.
Boom!
The blow struck him squarely, injuring his head and hurling him out of the hurricane.
He slammed into the ground below.
Blood spilled from his mouth.
Even with his formidable body, the two attacks had taken their toll. For someone already dying of illness, the damage was worse still.
Yet Kimimaro refused to stop.
Before he died, he would fulfill Orochimaru's command.
His devotion hadn't wavered.
Without hesitation, he forced his curse mark into its second stage.
His skin turned an ashen gray. Thick bone spines rose from his back, and a huge tail extended behind him.
With those changes, he looked like a humanoid spinosaurus.
Kimimaro glared up at Naruto, who remained high above the battlefield.
Then he raised both hands and pointed all ten fingers toward him.
Bone bullets shot from his fingertips.
Naruto raised an eyebrow and swept his right hand through the air.
A powerful gust caught all ten projectiles, sending them off course.
Then he held both hands like blades and began slashing downward.
Each motion released another enormous blade of wind toward Kimimaro.
Kimimaro frowned.
He darted left, then right, leaping clear of one attack before moving out of the path of the next.
The wind blades struck the ground around him.
None reached their target.
Naruto continued attacking from above, but Kimimaro kept evading him.
Five minutes passed.
Not a single one of the new attacks had landed.
"Damn it… How is he still this strong?"
Naruto stared down at him, frustration tightening his expression.
How am I supposed to kill him?