Chapter 57
Knowing full well what is about to happen, Jin quickly shuts his eyes and activates sage mode; his body liquifies while retaining his humanoid shape. He waits anxiously for the moment to strike.
After performing the necessary hand signs, Kabuto expels a dragon-like entity from his mouth that carries an orb in its left front claw. The entity soars through the damp cave air toward Sasuke and Itachi. When it gets close enough, it rapidly coils around the orb like a snake; it emits both a blinding light and deafening sound. The two brothers are blinded, deafened, and paralyzed.
Unencumbered by his own jutsu, an elated Kabuto runs through the light to his intended target.
There he goes! Please make it in time! Jin charges to intercept his adversary.
As Kabuto nears Sasuke, he opens his mouth wide and lunges for the younger Uchiha brother. However, Jin is able to blitz between the two of them and knock Kabuto back with his susanoo. The snake sage recovers while in mid air and lands on the ceiling; the light from Kabuto’s jutsu dissipates, allowing for Sasuke and Itachi to quickly recover.
“You’re not the only one who trained under the Great Snake Sage. Like I told you… I’m your worst nightmare!” Jin coldly glares up at his opponent.
Kabuto looks down on Jin with a smirk. “You and I are so much alike Jin… why do you side with them over me? Come to my side and I’ll grant you more power than you could ever imagine.”
From both his hands, Jin produces two black receivers the same length as wrenches and infuses chakra into them; one becomes a Vacuum Blade while the other becomes a Flame Sword. Jin takes a defensive stance as he dual wields.
“We’re both bookworms that’ve stolen power from others, but that’s where the similarities end. I know who I am. Besides… you’re a better spy than Itachi, that makes you a better liar.”
“I was sure you’d refuse, but I thought I’d ask anyway… Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation!”
Itachi, Sasuke, and Jin all throw fire jutsu at Kabuto, but the newest snake sage is undeterred. Kabuto leaps back down the floor while avoiding each and everyone of the group’s fire style jutsu, as Kabuto lands he slams his hands onto the ground.
Seconds later, eight coffins ominously erupt from the ground. Jin feels his heart begin to race as the lids all fall to the ground, Itachi and Sasuke brace themselves for a battle of attrition. The figures all step out of their coffins with their faces being revealed by the dimly lit cave. Realizing who Kabuto reanimated, a now taken aback Jin’s eyes widen and he relaxes; his lips squirm as he tries to not laugh.
“Pfft--heh heh heh heh… Aha ha ha ha ha!” One of reanimations stares coldly at Jin with a sinister smile. “I remember… You’re the brat that ruined my plans and killed me. I’m going to enjoy this.”
The one who spoke up first is a man, a ghost from Jin’s past. He is a humanoid monster with light-gray skin, light-red eye sclera, dark-black slanted pupils, and long unkempt spiky white hair with two long even strands of hair on each side of his face. He has thin blank white eyebrows, a medium built six-pack, and four light-red floating orbs behind his back. Jin remembers he is the movie villain known as Haido.
The three women at Haido’s side were his loyal knights; like Haido, the stone of gelel gave each girl a monstrous appearance and incredible power. Fugai wears blue armor and has the appearance of a werewolf; Kamira wears turquoise armor and appearance of a vampire with blue-green bat wings for arms; last but not least is Ranke who wears purple armor and has the appearance of a hulking, grotesque, Frankenstein-like monster.
Not paying attention to the new arrival’s threats, Jin’s right eye twitches as his squirming lips slowly contort into the biggest smile he’s had in years; both of his eyes begin to water.
“BWA HAHAHAHA!” Jin burst out laughing, his cackling is like that of a hyena’s. “GET BENT, HAIDO--AHA HA HAHA!!”
Jin’s guffaw is loud and boisterous, it fills the cave to the point where all his enemies and even his own allies find it obnoxious and annoying. The reanimation who made the initial threat seethes with pure anger and hatred, he begins to pace back and forth. Tears run down Jin's face as he falls to the ground, clutching his sides; Jin kicks the air as his laughter continues to echo throughout the cave.
“AH HA HAHAHA HAHA!!!”
“Hey, don’t let your guard down in battle.” Sasuke orders.
“Heh heh heh! Oh, man--it’s been a minute since I’ve laughed that hard. Thank you, Kabuto, I needed that.”
Itachi asks, “And just what’s so amusing? How about you share with the rest of the group?”
“These people Kabuto brought back--they’re so weak! Haw!!” As Jin gets back to his feet he gleefully slaps his knee. “The four to our left? They’re warmongering foreigners that I killed a month after I first went rogue. And the four to the right were radicals that tried to destroy the Leaf Village with the Limelight jutsu; they were defeated and killed by Naruto and Asuma.”
“Radicals? I think you mean patriots.” One of the reanimations speaks up.
The reanimation is a tall man of tanned complexion. He wears a purple qipao-like garment that is lined with yellow, blue, and gray and straw sandals. His hair is white and long while worn out in texture, he also has a pale long scar stretching diagonally across his face.
“No, Kazuma--you and your motley crew were domestic terrorists.” Jin casually counters. “None of them are any real threat to us, Kabuto is probably going to use them as human shields.”
“Strong or weak, it makes no difference. They’re still in our way.” Itachi retorts.
Sasuke steps forward, taking the lead. The younger brother proceeds to unzip his shirt at both Jin and Itachi’s sudden dismay and confusion.
“Sasuke? …What are you doing?”
Ignoring Jin’s query, Sasuke tucks his shirt into his blue cloth that covers him from his stomach to his knees. His body surges with gelel energy and changes, taking an appearance all too familiar to Jin. His skin turns dark-gray, his hair lengthens and turns light-gray, his sclera turn black, and he grows webbed claw-shaped wings from his back.
“Didn’t I remove your curse mark?”
“You did.” Sasuke’s response is curt.
OH, the gelel stone I gave Sasuke… it grants a monstrous transformation--which for Sasuke is his curse mark form. Jin internally gives an educated guess as he takes a fighting stance. Wait--doesn’t mean Sasuke might win when he fights Naruto again?
“Jin, Sasuke and I will face Kabuto. Can you keep these eight from interfering”
“You got it, Itachi!” Jin gives a cocky and confident smile.
Both sides stare each other down, the tension has become so thick that it could crush someone to death. The Uchiha brothers with their Sharingan and Jin with his sensory abilities detect that the reanimations are surging with dark chakra, growing stronger by the second.
Still confident, Jin’s smile changes from cocky to sinister. “This is gonna be… delightful.”