Naruto and Sasuke moved at the exact same time.
The Sound Four did not wait to be picked off. They attacked together, their movements synchronized by years of surviving Orochimaru's brutal training.
Jirobo charged like a battering ram straight through the center of the clearing, cracking the earth beneath his heavy boots. Up in the canopy, Kidomaru's extra arms blurred, blocking the sky and all upward escape paths with thick, reinforced webbing. Tayuya raised her wooden flute, immediately playing a sharp, erratic rhythm designed to shatter balance and disrupt clone coordination. Sakon and Ukon bypassed the skirmish line, targeting Sasuke directly because securing the Uchiha remained their actual mission.
Naruto's three clones instantly executed their assigned roles. The first clone dropped back to protect Sasuke's injured side. The second clone remained planted firmly beside Hinata. The third rushed forward beside the real Naruto to intercept the vanguard.
Sasuke did not use Swift Step. His ribs burned with every breath, and the Curse Mark was reacting far too aggressively against the combined pressure of the four enemies to risk flooding his network with high-speed chakra.
Instead, he relied on his Sharingan and Hinata's flawless tracking.
She did not waste time explaining every attack. She gave short, rapid instructions.
"Above Naruto."
"Sasuke, right side."
"The second arm is coming."
Naruto and Sasuke cooperated without discussing a single move. When Sakon lunged, Naruto's clone sacrificed itself, catching the Sound ninja's wrist just long enough for Sasuke to drive a kunai deeply into Sakon's shoulder. When Kidomaru dropped a sticky net, Sasuke exhaled a precise burst of fire that forced the spider-nin to abandon the branch, instantly allowing Naruto to roll beneath the next web trap safely.
They survived the opening exchange, but the Sound Four continued closing the space around them.
Tayuya stepped back and changed the rhythm of her flute. The notes twisted Naruto's sense of direction, causing his remaining clones to turn toward movement that did not exist. Hinata could still see the real chakra networks, but resisting the sound while maintaining her Byakugan placed increasing strain on her.
A thin line of blood ran from her nose.
Naruto noticed but did not order her away. He created another Shadow Clone and positioned it beside her before turning back toward the fight.
Jirobo used the distraction to break through Naruto's guard. His backhand caught Naruto across the chest and sent him crashing into a tree.
Kidomaru pinned Sasuke's injured leg to the ground with a burst of webbing, then formed a hardened web arrow in his upper hands. Hinata saw its direction before he released it.
"Naruto, left!"
Naruto pushed himself away from the tree and threw a kunai into the arrow's path. The strike changed its direction enough to keep it away from Sasuke's neck, but the hardened point still cut deeply across Naruto's shoulder before burying itself in the dirt.
Blood immediately spread through the torn orange fabric.
Naruto landed between Sasuke and Kidomaru despite the injury. Sakon used that moment to rush toward Sasuke's exposed Curse Mark.
Hinata shouted another warning, but Tayuya's next note distorted her voice for half a second.
Sakon's marked hand came within inches of Sasuke's neck.
A line of black-and-crimson hellfire tore through the web layer above them.
The flames passed several metres over Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata, burning away Kidomaru's traps while sending a wave of heat through the clearing. Kidomaru abandoned the canopy as the branches beneath him caught fire.
Doom burst through the smoke and landed inside the clearing, his weight cracking the dirt beneath his paws. Kenji remained low over the hellhound's back until the beast came to a stop.
Doom's red eyes swept across the Sound Four. Smoke leaked between his teeth, and a strand of Kidomaru's scorched webbing hung from one curved horn.
Naruto's arrows carved into the trees had brought Kenji to the eastern trail. From there, Doom had followed the blood, burned webbing, and scent left on the broken transport barrel.
Naruto recognized the beast immediately, coughing as he pushed himself off the tree. "You brought the demon dog!"
Kenji jumped lightly from Doom's back. "He was getting fat."
Doom released an indignant, rumbling growl without taking his glowing red eyes off the Sound Four.
Kenji looked across the battlefield. He saw Sasuke's active Curse Mark. He saw Naruto's bleeding shoulder. He saw Hinata's strained, bleeding nose, and he saw the broken pieces of the containment barrel.
His expression lost the joke entirely.
"Doom," Kenji ordered, his voice dropping into cold steel. "Nobody touches the three behind you."
Doom stepped forward, planting his massive bulk directly between the injured genin and the Sound Four.
Moments later, Kakashi dropped from the trees and landed flawlessly beside Sasuke, having followed Naruto's directional markings directly from the eastern trail.
Kurenai arrived beside Hinata moments later. Hinata's emergency tag had drawn her toward the eastern training sector, and Naruto's carved arrows had guided her through the final stretch of forest.
There was no lengthy reunion.
Kakashi saw the Curse Mark spreading across Sasuke's jaw. He moved instantly, placing his hand directly over Karin's fresh suppression strip and feeding his own clean chakra into the containment script buried beneath it.
The dark spread slowed, halting its aggressive crawl.
Kurenai caught Hinata gently by the shoulder just as another flute note threatened to disturb the girl's balance.
"You found them and kept the trail," Kurenai told her student, her red eyes locking onto Tayuya. "Now let me handle the flute."
Hinata did not collapse. She wiped the blood from her nose and remained standing close enough to continue using her Byakugan to monitor the field, but Kurenai seamlessly took over the burden of protecting them against Tayuya's sound.
Sakon's gaze moved from Kakashi to Kurenai, then settled on Kenji and the massive hellhound blocking the injured Konoha shinobi.
The opportunity to recover Sasuke was gone.
"Retreat," Sakon ordered.
The retreat was coordinated and efficient, not a panicked scatter.
Jirobo slammed both massive hands into the earth. The ground rumbled violently before a thick, towering earthen wall ripped upward through the middle of the clearing, physically dividing the combatants.
Kidomaru rapidly filled the remaining upper branches with heavily layered webs and concealed explosive tags, turning the canopy into a lethal minefield.
Tayuya bit her thumb, struck the ground, and summoned her three Doki. She remained at the rear, using the summons and her flute to cover the others while Jirobo opened their eastern escape route.
Sakon, Ukon, and Kidomaru moved first. Tayuya continued playing until they had reached the wall, leaving herself as the last member of the group to withdraw.
The Curse Mark patterns spread fully across Sakon and Ukon as they rushed Kakashi together, attempting to keep him away from Jirobo.
Kakashi's Sharingan followed both bodies. He slipped between their opening attacks and drove a lightning-coated kunai through the outside of Sakon's thigh.
Ukon separated from his brother and attacked from behind, but Kakashi's waiting Shadow Clone caught him in mid-air and threw him into Jirobo's earthen wall.
Jirobo tore open a tunnel beneath the wall before Kakashi could finish either brother. He caught Sakon by the arm, pulled Ukon inside after him, and dragged them into the eastern escape route.
From the canopy, Kidomaru fired heavily hardened web arrows down at Kenji to stop him from following the brothers.
Kenji didn't dodge. He used a thick line of Bungee Gum to catch the first hardened arrow mid-flight, stretched the elastic aura past his own shoulder to absorb the kinetic energy, and violently snapped it right back at the spider-nin.
Kidomaru's eyes widened, and he abandoned the branch a fraction of a second before his own arrow shattered the wood.
Doom opened his jaws and breathed a concentrated, controlled line of hellfire straight through the thick web barrier blocking the sky. The web burned apart instantly, but Kidomaru had already used the brief delay to drop down and dive into Jirobo's escape route.
Kenji looked toward the opening Kidomaru had used, but the pounding of heavy feet sounded behind him.
Tayuya's Doki were charging toward Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata.
Kenji clicked his tongue and turned away from the escape route.
"Doom, back."
Doom planted himself between the Doki and the injured shinobi. He opened his jaws and released a broad curtain of hellfire across their path.
The three summons scattered to avoid running directly into the flames. Tayuya had to change her flute rhythm to pull them around the burning line, breaking her concentration for several seconds.
Kurenai trapped Tayuya in a flawless visual genjutsu the instant the Sound kunoichi focused on controlling the Doki and maintaining her sound technique simultaneously.
Tayuya saw Kurenai approaching rapidly from her left and shifted to evade. The real Kurenai appeared silently on her right and delivered a brutal, sweeping kick that knocked the wooden flute entirely from Tayuya's hands.
Tayuya snarled and forced more Curse Mark chakra through her network, breaking Kurenai's genjutsu. The effort disrupted the chakra she had been feeding into her summoning technique.
Without the flute rhythm controlling them, the three Doki stumbled and turned in different directions. Tayuya abandoned the technique entirely to preserve enough chakra for her escape, causing the summons to dissolve into three clouds of smoke.
Realizing she was entirely alone and disarmed, Tayuya turned and sprinted toward the eastern escape route.
Doom cleared the distance in a single leap and landed directly in front of her.
Tayuya channeled chakra to her legs and desperately tried to jump past the massive beast. Doom simply snapped his jaws forward, catching the thick fabric at the back of her jacket between his teeth, and violently threw her backward into the center of the clearing without ever biting through her body.
Tayuya hit the dirt hard. Before she could scramble toward her fallen flute, Kenji caught her wrist with a bright pink strand of Bungee Gum and yanked her arm flat against the ground.
Tayuya drew a kunai with her free hand, twisting fiercely. Kurenai stepped in, struck her wrist with a precise, disabling blow, and disarmed her instantly.
Kenji wrapped chakra-conductive binding wire around Tayuya's arms and pulled it tight enough to prevent her from forming hand seals. Kurenai pinned her shoulder against the ground while keeping the fallen flute out of reach.
Kakashi flickered back from the escape route, pulled a standard chakra-suppression tag from his pouch, and pressed it over Tayuya's Curse Mark. He activated the script, forcing the dark pattern to begin receding beneath it.
Tayuya fought the wire and shouted curses at all of them.
Doom stepped forward, placed one huge, heavy paw directly beside her head, and released a low, vibrating growl.
Kenji looked down at the furious prisoner.
"You should stop insulting people while the dog is deciding whether you smell edible."
From inside the tunnel entrance, Sakon saw Doom throw Tayuya back into the clearing. He twisted free of Jirobo's grip and started toward her.
Kakashi's hand erupted with the sharp chirping of Chidori. He drove the lightning into the earth directly in front of the tunnel mouth, shattering the ground and cutting Sakon off before he could reach the clearing.
Jirobo dragged the injured Sakon back, collapsed the tunnel behind them, and sealed the route beneath several tonnes of earth. Kidomaru covered the last visible cracks with dense webbing and explosive tags before disappearing after the others.
Kakashi stopped before the collapsed tunnel and glanced back across the clearing. Sasuke was barely sitting upright, blood soaked Naruto's shoulder, and Hinata was wiping another line of blood from beneath her nose. Tayuya continued struggling against Kenji's binding wire.
Kenji brought Doom to the blocked route. The hellhound lowered his head and inhaled around the broken earth before turning his muzzle toward the east.
"He still has their scent," Kenji said.
Kakashi looked toward the ANBU entering the clearing. "Then give the tracking team the direction. Sasuke was their objective, and we have him. The wounded move first, the prisoner is secured, and nobody rushes into a route the enemy prepared without fresh support."
The ANBU captain acknowledged the order. Two trackers moved beside Doom to study the scent and direction, while the remaining operatives secured the clearing. Their immediate job was to confirm the Sound ninja had left Konoha's territory and identify the route they used—not force another battle in unfamiliar ground.
Shizune's rapid-response medical team reached the clearing shortly afterward, dropping from the trees with precision. Sakura arrived with them, carrying a heavy field kit.
Shizune assessed the clearing instantly and divided the injuries. She took direct responsibility for Sasuke's unstable Curse Mark and cracked ribs. She ordered Sakura to handle Naruto's bleeding shoulder, and sent another medic to check Hinata's chakra strain and eyes.
Naruto, wincing as he sat on the dirt, immediately tried telling Sakura to treat Sasuke first.
Sakura shoved him hard onto the ground by his good shoulder.
"Shizune is treating Sasuke," Sakura snapped, pulling sterile supplies from her kit. "Stop trying to assign patients while you're bleeding on me."
She cleanly cut away the damaged, blood-soaked fabric around Naruto's shoulder. The wound was ugly. It contained jagged fragments of Kidomaru's hardened web and ran the distinct risk of being exposed to poison.
The clearing remained loud around her. Doom growled beside the blocked tunnel, Tayuya shouted curses from beneath Kurenai's knee, and arriving ANBU spread through the perimeter. Sasuke coughed nearby while flames still burned through several branches at the edge of the clearing.
Sakura's fingers trembled once.
Kenji knelt beside Naruto when she ordered him to hold the injured shoulder steady. He placed both hands where she directed and did not question her.
Sakura exhaled and formed the Chakra Scalpel. The blue edge flickered once before becoming stable.
She used the chakra blade to separate the hardened web fragments from the damaged tissue without widening the cut. Once each piece was loose, she removed it with forceps from the field kit.
Sakura pressed a poison-testing strip against the fluid around the wound. The paper remained unchanged. She cleaned the injury, packed it with clotting gauze, and applied pressure until the bleeding slowed enough for her to close the bandage.
Her hands remained steady through the entire procedure.
Once Shizune stabilized the Curse Mark and helped Sasuke sit against a tree, Kakashi crouched in front of him.
"Start from their arrival. What did Orochimaru send them to do?"
Sasuke gave the report without embellishment. They had offered him greater control over the Curse Mark, information about the Uchiha, and enough power to pursue Itachi. He had refused. The four of them had attacked, forced their chakra into his mark, and sealed him inside the barrel.
Kakashi's visible eye moved briefly toward the ruined container. "Names?"
"Sakon and Ukon. Jirobo. Kidomaru. The prisoner is Tayuya."
Kakashi nodded. "We will finish the full report after Shizune clears you."
Naruto shifted while Sakura tightened the bandage around his shoulder. "So, kidnapped. Exactly what I said."
Sasuke looked toward him. "Nobody disputed that."
"You could sound more grateful."
"Hinata found the barrel. You broke it loudly."
Sakura pulled the bandage tight enough to make Naruto wince. "Both of you, shut up before I decide the bleeding was useful."
Across the clearing, two ANBU took custody of Tayuya. They replaced Kenji's binding wire with reinforced chakra restraints, checked Kakashi's containment tag, and fitted a standard prisoner gag before lifting her from the ground.
A third operative sealed her flute inside an evidence scroll and recorded the markings carved along its surface.
"Foreign hostile prisoner," the ANBU captain stated while completing the field ledger. "Connected to Orochimaru and the attempted abduction of Uchiha Sasuke. Transfer her directly to the secure T&I wing."
Tayuya's eyes moved toward the collapsed eastern route before settling on Kenji and Doom. The others had escaped without her. She stopped struggling, but the hatred in her stare did not weaken.
The ANBU carried her toward Konoha under guard.
Only after Sasuke had been secured on a stretcher and the prisoner had left the clearing did a blue window appear before Kenji.
[Mission Complete — No Snake Leash]
[Orochimaru's recruitment attempt has failed.]
[Sasuke rejected the offer and survived forced extraction.]
[Reward: +6,000 SP]
[Current Balance: 46,990 SP]
The medical unit finished packing their gear and prepared to carry Naruto and Sasuke back toward the safety of the Konoha hospital.
Doom remained standing beside the collapsed eastern route, his massive head lowered as he stared intensely at the disturbed ground where the other Sound shinobi had escaped.
Kenji walked over and placed one hand gently against the hellhound's thick, dark neck.
"Can you still follow them?" Kenji asked quietly.
Doom released a low growl and turned his head toward the eastern forest, holding his muzzle fixed on the trail.
Kenji scratched the thick fur behind one of his curved horns.
"Good boy. Remember the scent."
Doom's glowing eyes remained fixed on the darkness long after the others began carrying the wounded back toward Konoha.
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