"Stop joking around...I was just distracted by a thought for a bit, nothing more...so let's just finally do what we came here for..." - Sasuke breathed in and remembered his goal and why he accepted to come here with Eiji in the first place.

'Just distracted by a thought, huh?' - Eiji smirked by didn't say anything more to Sasuke, instead he waved towards Jiraiya and shouted to him: "How about making a temporary alliance?"

"I agree that would be the best for each of us...I will hold off against the three summoned with Sasuke helping me, while you the fastest go for Orochimaru, alright?" - Jiraiya signaled for Gamabunta to jump towards Eiji's side while saying that.

Orochimaru heard that too, but Jiraiya knew that this didn't matter.

It was the most effective plan they go for and him knowing about it wouldn't really change much.

Bang!

With a loud sound, Gamabunta landed beside Eiji and Sasuke.

Eiji and Sasuke weren't bothered by a giant Toad suddenly landing next to them, almost crushing them if he were to land a bit nearer.

"Nope." - Eiji

"...what? This is the most sensible decision...or do you have a better plan?" - Jiraiya

Meanwhile, Orochimaru didn't order the undead trio to move.

But why did he do this?

It was because he was waiting for them to make the first move. He had the upper hand since Sasuke's parents were still under his control, and it was clear to everyone that Sasuke wouldn't just run away and leave his parents in Orochimaru's hands, so he could just wait for them to make the move first, and then order his undead in the most efficient tactical way.

If he just ordered them to rush at them, even though his side would have the initiative and would weaken their cooperation at the start, the undead trio might be too preoccupied to retreat back and fight around Sasuke's parents, resulting in him losing his biggest advantage.

Furthermore, there was Hidan...

"Yep, my plan is bulletproof if we manage to pull it off...we just need to buy time for Sasuke...he will do the rest." - Eiji said to Jiraiya who was now near him, so he could say it without Orochimaru hearing him.

"Buying time...hmm...certainly I can do that, but what are you planning? I can't trust you fully, so I need to know..." - Jiraiya was touching his chin while thinking.

Eiji's smirk disappeared and was replaced by an indifferent expression: "Make one of Orochimaru's folk betray him."

"Sigh...that really doesn't tell me much, but I got a hunch, so let's start already...at this pace, the other battles will be finished before we even made our first move." - Jiraiya

"Hmph!" - Sasuke didn't say a word, but Eiji and Jiraiya knew that it meant something along the lines: "Start already, I'm tired of waiting!"

"NARUTO, STAY BEHIND!!" - Yamato shouted while raising a wood wall to defend Naruto, Sakura, and himself.

Naruto was the Jinchuriki, so obviously he couldn't allow Kakuzu to capture him, so he kept defending Naruto, and Sakura who was their important Medic-nin.

Unfortunately, that meant that the other Anbu had to fight Kakuzu.

Grabbing two of them with black threads and taking their hearts out, surprised them at first, but they knew their enemy was Akatsuki, so they just accepted that he had such a mysterious ability.

The giant thread arms gave them at first huge trouble since they had an enormous range and power -plus there were eight of them, so they only could passively dodge.

But to the patient, an opportunity always arrives: Sai managed to summon 5 small ink birds, attached with explosive tags, which flew unnoticed by Kakuzu out of his vision and now closed in on him from a blind spot!

BOOM!!!

"Did we get him?" - Anbu A

When the smoke settled, Kakuzu could be seen standing there as nothing happened with the only difference being that his skin was darker, it was the Earth Release: Earth Spear technique!

"Tsk...you Anbu are an annoying bunch like always...even though you are a bunch of small fries you jump around like rabbits and throw useless junk at me!" - Kakuzu

"He let Earth-Chakra run through his body to increase his defensive power to a maximum...coupled with his long and destructive range, he has no weakness...what a monster..." - Anbu B

"There is a way to counter his Earth-technique though...Lighting-based Jutsus will still work on him." Anbu C

The Anbu saw a glimmer of hope again!

CrusadeAgainstFurries

Writing this chapter was a lot of fun. It had all: tactics, Eiji's usual shenanigans, and fighting