Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

It stops just shy of the onlookers who are getting more nervous as the battle escalates. "There's something you should know about me, I never stay down."

"Stupid boy." Yugito leaps high into the air. At the peak of her jump she extends out a single leg and starts her fall back down to the earth. With a mighty axe kick that cracks the ground beneath her foot she slams into the spot where I used to be. She expected to hit flesh but only hit earth. "What? Where did he go? Can't have gone far, he can't walk."

A single arm pokes out of the smoke and grabs the limb that Kidomaru is holding.

"I need that." I say as I take my limb back from him and countless black threads reattach it to my shoulder. "Thanks for holding onto it for me."

"Uh… you're welcome?" Kidomaru says uncomfortably. "How'd you get over here anyways?"

"I walked." I bluntly tell him before vanishing further into the thick fog once more.

Not a moment too soon either, Yugito heard where I was and launched three glowing blue fireballs at me. They missed me by a very wide margin but the spectators aren't that lucky, the attacks are heading straight for them.

"Tch." The sound of displeasure escapes my lips as I pull out three very specific and unique kunai from my pouch. I've etched a fire seal into each one in preparation for this battle, I wanted to save them for later but letting Yugito torch everyone on accident is slightly more important that shocking the shit out of her later.

The three kunai fly true and intercept the fireballs. The blue orbs are quickly sucked into the kunai then something unexpected happens. After traveling a measly meter with their contents all three kunai exploded and released the fire they sucked up once more. Thankfully though it just exploded and didn't keep moving forward towards the spectators.

"Dammit woman there are people over there!" I shout at her and immediately relocate to a new spot in the manmade cover.

"How the hell can you move so quickly?" She asks the fog while straining her senses to the extreme, praying for me to make a mistake and give myself away.

A single kunai is the only response she gets. This isn't even one that's special, it's just a plain kunai. But the explosive tag wrapped around its handle is a whole other story.

She swats it out of the air with her tail but once it touches the kunai it explodes, forcing her to stagger back two steps.

"Well now, consider me impressed." I call out from above her. "To only be pushed back a few steps? I once stuck an equivalent of that to a man's back and he turned into a chunky paste. Well done."

"There you are!" She looks skyward at me and sees something worrisome. I'm suspended in the air, a good ten meters above her, with both legs. One leg is tightly bound in bandages while the other never left me. That's not the most pressing issue for Yugito, the reappearance of my leg is a minor curiosity to what I'm holding in my hands. It's an already unfurled scroll, one that is ridiculously complex, just begging to be activated. "Uh oh."

"Uh oh is right." I cheekily smirk at her as I spark chakra against the seal. "ACTIVATE!"

BOOM

"Fucking dammit!" The force of the explosion in the air rockets me to the ground, making a crater with the impact. "That's not supposed to happen!"

"You… okay?" Yugito awkwardly asks into the deep fog, she can't see me but she can certainly hear the stream of curses spewing out of my mouth.

"Fuck no! How the flying shit would I possibly be okay you moron!" I shout back to the faintly glowing red section of the fog. I can't see either, but Sureddo can sense her. He's guiding me on how to move around her. "That wasn't an explosive tag! It was going to be so cool too!"

"And… what exactly was that supposed to do?" Yugito prods me for information. "Since it wasn't supposed to blow up in your face. Literally."

"Nothing major." I dust myself off as I fly through the handsigns for the Summoning Jutsu.

Seven rat terrier sized spiders poof into existence in a perfect circle around me. They are a range of colors, from a shiny black to a nice dull green. There's even one that has a fancy black and yellow striped top half and on the bottom it has a black and white striped pattern. They don't waste time greeting me, these seven know exactly what I want them to do and scurry off to complete their tasks. Now I have to stall for a bit to give them enough time.

"That seal was supposed to indiscriminately suck up any and all bijuu chakra in a set range." I mockingly say to the only one here using bijuu chakra. "After that I could use said chakra to power a barrier ninjutsu, like say one that would box you in until I let you out. But… well it needs some tinkering still. Not quite sure where I went wrong."

"I suppose luck is on my side." Yugito gloats from her spot in the mist. I hope she's not planning anything nefarious. That could be painful. "You're bingo book page doesn't mention anything to do with seals, yet you feel skilled enough to make that?"

"This is my first battle where I'm actively using seals that aren't your generic explosive tags, I expected to run into some errors." I supply her with this information mainly to stall a little longer. Plus it won't hurt to have her become more wary of when I whip out a scroll or a tag. "I'm playing with a new toy, figuring out how to use it to get the most fun."

"I'll see to it that your page gets and update." Yugito promises. "At least the standard Kumo bingo book."

Well this is awkward. I lied about what that seal really was. That truly was an explosive tag, it was all the setup for me to summon those seven spiders and give them enough time to move away from me without Yugito trying to attack me. Wait a moment, she said what?

"I'm in the Kumo bingo book?" I ask for clarification. I can't have heard that right. Why the hell would she be ordered by the Raikage to meet with me if I'm in their bingo book?

"Yes." She says from a new spot, she's moved off to my left. She sounds like she's the same distance away though. "We're not actively seeking you, it's more incase someone bumps into you on a mission. That way they know what to expect, we have a whole slue of shinobi in that section. Although after meeting you the page doesn't do you justice. It needs some serious work."

"Thank you for the compliment!" I chipperly say to her, well the red glow. Kinda can't see far cuz of my fog.

"It wasn't." She bluntly says. "So… uh… you going to keep standing there or what?"

"I'm sorry?" I ask in confusion as a single spider comes into view, dips its whole body once then hands me a single strand of thread before it poofs away. It's set up. Good. "I was waiting for you to attack."

"I was waiting for you to recover from the tag."

"Lady." I monotonously say to her general direction. "You ripped off two of my limbs and I taunted you as I laid on the ground. Do you really think a measly explosion would phase me at all?"

"You told me not to underestimate you, so this is me not underestimating you." Ah, she is capable of learning lessons I want to teach her. Good, then perhaps my lesson about Matatabi will sink in. "Figured you had some trap rigged up around you and were simply waiting for me to trigger it."

She's not entirely wrong. Oh no! Does that mean I'm becoming predictable? Perhaps I should step up the insanity factor. No, that's a bad idea. I'm supposed to win her over not drive her crazy.

Maybe I can do both? Eh, better not risk it.

Present

"So you can see reason." Orochimaru sighs in relief. "Good. I've become increasingly worried as of late. I hear the strangest stories about you, I have no idea if they're true."

"You mean like the Kitchen Fiasco?"

"Yes. It took the staff three hours to clean up the mess." Orochimaru intently looks at me. "We never found out who did it."

"I suppose you never will." I innocently, a little too innocently, reply to him. "Oops. Did I say you? I meant we. I suppose we never will."

"Alvarcus did you -"

"BACK TO THE STORY!"

"If you're waiting for me to make a move then I'll make one." I fly through hand signs and four clones spawn into existence around me. Three of them are quick to scatter into the thick fog while the fourth runs over to engage Yugito.

"Really?" Yugito scoffs out as she dispatches the clone with a single swipe of her hand to the clone's throat. It barely lasted two seconds. "What did that accomplish?"

I don't respond, however one of my clones does for me.

"Well it was a water clone." Clone-me awkwardly offers up a flimsy excuse. "At the very least I can make a wet pussy joke now. That's something right?"

"Kid, you really need to get out more." Yugito blunty says a streak of red blurs towards the clone that spoke. Yugito easily kills this one too, it tried to block a blow and burst into water that sprays everywhere. "Another clone? Did I scare you off?"

"Please," yet another clone scoffs out in indignance, "I've been living with Orochimaru for over a year now. Do you really think that you scare me? I've faced things far more terrifying than a simple jinchuuriki."

"You will learn to fear me - quit it with the clones already!" Yugito shouts skyward as she's throwing a minor temper tantrum. This clone died because she kicked it so hard that her foot went through its chest.

"I dunno, it's pretty entertaining to watch you run around like an idiot." The final clone says from its spot in the fog. "Just wasting time, keeping your bijuu cloak activated. How's that feel now? Is it corroding your skin yet? I suppose you're only on one tail - given you only have access to two but whatever - but it can't feel pleasant."

Yugito becomes a red streak once more and stops just shy of the last clone.

"I swear if you're a clone I will burn your other leg." She means every word she's saying, there is no mistaking the conviction she has in her voice.

I will the final clone to burst into water, soaking the ground even further.

"Well this just got awkward." I say to her as I toy with the thread my spider handed me. "I'm rather attached to my leg, literally. I prefer it stays that way."

"That's it!" She roars as her chakra spikes. "No more of this hiding in the fog bullshit!"

What happens next took me a moment to fully understand. Her constant red glow switched to a purple. Purple. Not even a dark cool purple, it's the least cool you can possibly get purple. But what's really bad about that is I know how the color purple forms, by mixing red and blue. She's turned on her flame cloak while her bijuu cloak is still active.

"That's not good." I mutter to myself as my visibility increases. The flames roaring around Yugito are so intense that the moisture in the air that is making up the fog is evaporating. Thankfully the water on the ground is much more potent than the water in the air, it's evaporating at a much slower rate.

"There you are!" Yugito practically sags in relief at seeing just one of me, she really didn't like that I hid behind clones. "You finally going to fight me for real now or are you going to bitch out and make more useless clones?"

"Useless?" I rhetorically question her. "They were far from useless, you just couldn't see their purpose. Don't worry, I'll show you."

"Scary." She sarcastically snorts out with a roll of her red eyes and lets her flame cloak fade again. No need to waste chakra. "I'm quivering in my boots."

"You know, it's a really bad idea to give shinobi time to prepare." I condescendingly tell her as she glares at me. She hates the fact that a thirteen year old is lecturing her. "Because when you do that, things like this happen."

I raise up my left hand to show her the single thread I'm holding. Her eyes lock onto it and trace it skyward, to where it joins into a much larger structure. It's a web that covers the entire clearing being held up by the trees that line our battlefield.

"When did you have the time to do that?" She asks me while balking at the sheer size of the web. "Ah, the fog. It was to cover yourself while you built it. But it doesn't matter, all I have to do to avoid it is not jump. Simple, you wasted all that effort."

"Did I?" I sharply yank on the thread in my and and the entire web above us falls to the ground. I nimbly weave my way through a gap the spiders left for me but Yugito wasn't that lucky. She has a boatloads of strands draping across her.

"Is… that it?" She asks in confusion as she tests the strength of the web, easily breaking her right arm free. "Was this supposed to restrain me? They break like paper."

I don't bother answering her, instead I kneel down and place both my hands on the webbing that now covers the entire field. This is going to be good.

Those seven spider that I summoned aren't known for their strong webs. Nor are they know for their fighting prowess, nor are they skilled in making specialized things like the Weavers. What they possess is borderline insane chakra conductive silk.

"CLEAR!" I channel a staggering amount of lightning chakra into the webs and the electricity eagerly surges throughout the web. The blue chakra sparks from strand to strand, arcs across the puddles from my clones and shocks everything it touches indiscriminately. Which includes the kunoichi that's draped in the webs and is standing in a puddle.

"AAAHHHHHH!" Yugito cries out in pain as uncountable volts course through her body. She starts spasming involuntarily yet somehow remains on her feet. Then through clenched teeth and by sheer force of will she manages to harshly speak. "It's! A! Two! Way! Street!"

"You've gotta be shitting me." I groan out. "That's just unfair."

The webs around her are slowly turning red. She's pumping her own chakra into my web to counter me, forcing back the lightning while hoping for it to reach me in return. Damn that's resourceful. And annoying.

Very annoying.

"I worked my ass off to set this up and you just waltz right in and take advantage of me! How dare you!" I pin her in an accusatory glare.

"You're the one that said anything goes." Yugito can talk normally now that her corrosive red chakra is pushing my lightning back. "Are you ready to be put in your place?"

"Uh… we're even right now." I bluntly point out. "Sure your chakra is overtaking mine but in the end all I have to do is get rid of the web and we're back to square one. The hits that you can dish out are not enough to make me surrender. You're using a double edged sword to even the playing field between us, you can't keep that cloak up forever. I'll win simply because I can outlast you."

"Kid, I've still been holding back." Yugito confesses to me. "But now it's time for you to see just how outmatched you really are."

"Alright then." I casually stand up and with a sweep of my hand burn the web into ashes, returning the field to normal. Well normal as in there's not a chakra conductive web on it, all the craters and damages from our battle are still there. "Go ahead, put me in my place. If you can."

Yugito slowly walks towards me, she doesn't sprint. She doesn't even attempt to do anything nefarious. She's simply closing the distance between us at her leisure. If that's how she wants to play this then I'll accommodate her.

We stop barely a meter apart from each other, we're both waiting for the other to make a move.

"This is bad." Haruku says to the other spectators. "Like really bad. As in we should run away bad."

"This is just a spar." Knits says while focusing on her work. "She wouldn't, not for something so petty."

"You know how much she hates to lose." Haruku points out. "You really think she'd hand over a victory to Oto? No, she won't even settle for a tie. She's going to go for undisputed victory, in other words his utter annihilation."

"Jirobo. Kidomaru." Sakon nervously says to the other two members as he flies through the hand signs for the summoning jutsu. "Stand behind me. I'll summon a defense when it gets out of hand."

"Don't you mean if it gets out of hand?" Kidomaru asks as the other two Oto shinobi dryly look at him. "Point made. You sure your summon is going to be enough?"

"No, and that is what worries me." Sakon confesses. "Orochimaru-sama told me that Alvarcus has breached it once before and Orochimaru-sama's is in a different class than mine. I wouldn't put it past him to do it again, especially since mine is weaker. It's just that we don't have a better option."

"We're so fucked." Jirobo elegantly sums up the situation and everyone agrees with him.