"Thanks, Sakura," Sasuke said curtly, flexing his newly healed fingers experimentally. "Good work, as always."
Meanwhile, Naruto was still getting vored.
"Formation twenty-seven," Sakura said, glancing in Sasuke's direction. "You go low; I go high."
Sasuke gave the briefest nods of acknowledgement, and with the signal given, they split up and darted towards Satori, closing in on the monster from opposing directions.
Satori took a swipe at Sasuke with its clawed hands, forcing him into a slide, from which he sprang up the moment he had cleared its sharp nails, already tossing a handful of shuriken at its legs. With a flick of his wrist, he yanked the wires threaded through their central holes, and the shuriken ricocheted off one another before coiling around its legs, binding them together.
At the same time, Satori flexed its shoulders, forcing Sakura into a pirouette to avoid its wing strike. She projected chakra from her Tenketsu, latching onto its feathers as it drew back, letting the motion carry her up along its wings until she reached the top of its body. She landed near Naruto, who was still trapped between its jaws.
"Yoi~ sho!"
Sakura dug her fingers into Satori's gums and flexed her powerful muscles, wrenching the monster's jaws open and freeing Naruto. Naruto immediately condensed another failed Rasengan within one of his chakra arms and thrust it into its mouth a fraction of a second before it exploded, causing the beast to reel backwards, smoke escaping from between its shiny white teeth.
"Why do my Rasengan keep exploding?" Naruto shouted as they jumped down to the ground. "I don't get it, ya know!"
Sakura joined Sasuke in pulling on the razor wires binding Satori's legs, yanking its apelike hand-feet right from under it, but it flapped its wings to stay aloft, refusing to be dragged down into the mud.
"If I had to guess," Sakura said with a grunt of exertion, "I'd say you need to get used to using the Nine-Tails' chakra instead of your own!"
Thanks to the chakra leaking through his father's Eight Trigrams Style seal, Naruto had always possessed oodles of stamina. This chakra came with no strings attached, none of the Nine-Tails' will; it might as well have been his own… and therein lay the rub. The chakra had assimilated into him over time, and so, outside of rampaging out of control, Naruto had next to no experience using any chakra other than his own!
"Ice Style: Chains of Earthen Ice!"
Sakura let go of the razor wire and pressed her palms against the ground, drawing out water from the underground springs and freezing it into clinking chains of ice tipped with spear points that burst forth from the ground and wrapped around Satori. The monster's movements started slowing as the cold permeated its body…
"Freezing is working!" Sakura exclaimed. "It must be made of some kind of memory alloy, or something!"
"Yo, yo, yo, Killer B in the house, never fear— but if Big Bro A asks, I was never here!"
The icy chains shattered as Killer B appeared before them in a flash, spinning like a tornado as he produced a flurry of slashes at Satori with his eight blades, each strike ringing out with a sharp, metallic ping.
"I had him right where I wanted!" Sakura said in dismay.
Upon seeing the lazily floating cloud patterns embossed on B's forehead protector, Sasuke immediately threw a handful of shuriken at him, but the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki effortlessly blocked them by producing a massive chakra tentacle from his back, which he then used to slap Satori senseless, sending it reeling backwards.
The metal stars fell to the frost-ridden ground in a series of melodious clinking noises.
"Stop that, I'm here to help," Killer B said, holding up a palm. "You ungrateful whelp."
"You're Killer B, A's sworn brother," Sasuke said, his eyes narrowing dangerously. "Your Raikage sent this weapon after us, and you want us to believe you want to help?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto added angrily. "I almost got eaten for supper, ya know?"
Sakura's Mind's Eye of the Kagura allowed her to read chakra with perfect clarity. From the subtle fluctuations of one's chakra, she could tell whether they were being truthful or not… and B's heart was as clear as a reflecting pool.
"I believe him," Sakura said simply.
"Ah!" Naruto blurted out. "Giant Gramps Sage, he said something about octopus tentacles!"
He couldn't remember what it was, though!
"Oi, stop staring at Sakura's chest," Sasuke said darkly, shooting B a withering glare. "I'll gouge those eyes out."
"Sorry about that, I meant no offence!" B said lightheartedly. "It's just that the Sixth Hokage's boobs are positively immense!"
Ignoring the fact that Satori was getting back to its feet behind him, B turned and levelled his fist at Team 7. Naruto and Sasuke flinched and dropped into fighting stances, but Sakura simply raised her hand and fist bumped him back.
Killer B broke into a wide smile. As expected, Top Heavy knew what was up!
"Cool, now you guys run away," he said. "We'll hold down the monster; me 'n Brother Eight-Tails, we can do this all day."
"Thanks, Octopops!" Naruto said brightly, fist bumping him in turn. "We owe ya one, er… triceratops?"
B's expression turned ugly.
"Stay safe, Mr B," Sakura said. "The Akatsuki's still around, and they'd love nothing more than to get your Tailed Beast. If you need help, just have Eight-Tails call Nine-Tails, and we'll come running, okay?"
It was B's turn to be surprised. It was not unusual for him to disobey the village's orders and wander according to his whims, but for an enemy village's Hokage to overturn everything he knew about Kage just to help him in return, even though they barely knew each other…
"Oh yeah, I'm filled with determination… my mind's floodin' with inspiration!"
As he entered Tailed Beast Mode to meet Satori in a head-on fight, Killer B looked over his shoulder and watched Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura disappear into the night. He reflexively adjusted his sunglasses, even as he vanished within his Tailed Beast's expanding chakra body, his eight tentacles undulating hypnotically…
"Yo pink girl, killer queen of curves,
Wider than her torso, perfectly round,
Jiggly, bouncy, milk and fat reserves,
Hangin' all the way down to her pubic mound!"
Gyūki wrapped his tentacles around Satori, rapping in response.
'Killer B, ya king of pervs!
Focus on the fight, stop foolin' around!
Gotta give Satori the respect it deserves,
If ya don't take it seriously, we'll be eatin' hard ground!'
Satori sank its teeth into one of the Eight-Tails' tentacles, forcing him to let go. With a flap of its wings, it crashed into the enormous octopus, tearing gashes into his pink-purplish skin and stuffing his delicious meat down its gullet…
"Breasts so big, they're a force a' nature!
With each bounce they make the whole world sway,
Makin' Killer B say, yo, they're somethin' major!
Somebody pinch me, I just can't look away!"
Just as it was about to tear yet another chunk out of the Eight-Tails, Satori went stiff, and it stopped moving completely.
"B, YOU DAMNED FOOL!" the Raikage's thunderous voice suddenly rang out. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"
Down below, A and his comrades seemed tiny through Gyūki's eyes. And yet, despite the difference in their sizes, B couldn't suppress a shiver of fear as he began singing the next verse of his rap…
"My bad, Brother A, but I just couldn't resist!
Sixth Hokage's boobs make me wanna change careers,
From Jinchūriki to gynaecologist!
With these eight tentacles, cop a feel of those spheres—"
…
Unfortunately, Killer B never got to finish his rap.
Far to the south, Sakura glanced over her shoulder as a thunderclap disturbed the quietude of the night, the clouds overhead briefly flashing electric blue as the brilliance of the Fourth Raikage's Hell Stab illuminated the gloom.