And here's Kabuto, smiling. He's got a scalpel in each hand.

"Now, now. Let's all stay and watch the show."

...He stops.

(Kabuto hasn't seen Sugira fight seriously. None of the ones who saw him fight seriously, actually, survived.)

(He has that as an ace up his sleeve, if nothing else.)

"Kabuto," he says, mildly.

And now for the horde of Naruto! With fully formed rasengan, which he'd figured out how to make with clones during the down-time after the exams. And intelligent coordination among themselves!

He's mostly trying to make an opening for his teammates to either attack or retreat.

Even with the rasengan, the clones are only a little trouble for Kabuto. He's quicker than Chihiro, and just as capable of defining his space with scalpels as she is with her sword.

This guy's not a genin.

Slowly, Team Seven are going to be pushed towards the open field hosting the Sanin fight, even with Naruto's reserves and Sasuke's careful spell use and Chihiro's talent.

It's kind of obvious to Naruto that they're being herded.

He's not the only one. Even so, there's not much they can do about it.

And Kabuto gets a hand on the real Naruto's chest. For less than a second, but with a pulse of medical chakra, that's all he needs.

And Naruto coughs, blood pouring from his mouth -

And collapses, gasping for air.

Sugira slams a chidori in Kabuto's general direction, falling to his knees, heedless of his surroundings, by Naruto's side, already starting to chant.

Chihiro slashes a whirlwind that forces Kabuto back further, and keeps pressing him away from the two boys.

And Orochimaru gets just enough distance from his ex-teammates to lunge for Team Seven's fight, figuring if he can force Tsunade and Jiraiya on the defensive he'll have an advantage he desperately needs -

This manifests as trying to stab Chihiro with his sword. After all, Naruto is already effectively dead, and he doesn't want to kill his future body.

Tsunade is between them, though, the sword going through her -

And stopping just short of Chihiro.

"Do. Not. Threaten. My shinobi," Tsunade snarls.

Is that good? That's probably good.

But she needs to make sure Kabuto stays back-

Jiraiya comes after Orochimaru's exposed back.

Orochimaru breaks away from the fight between Chihiro and Kabuto, successfully driven back by his teammates as Tsunade's injury heals as fast as the sword's removed.

Kabuto disengages to Orochimaru's side.

"We're leaving, Kabuto," Orochimaru says, before retreating.

Tsunade lets him go, instead rushing to Naruto's side -

Where Sugira has him stabilized and is rapidly working on 'conscious'.

Chihiro hurries over.

As does Jiraiaya. Heaving a slight sigh of relief. The kid actually can deliver.

Naruto wakes up a few seconds later, blinking, though he follows Sasuke's instructions to hold still you idiot, given that he's far from full health.

Which he's at thirty seconds later.

Tsunade checks him over.

" - Fuck. You're - not injured. At all."

Shaky breath.

"...I'd have struggled to heal that."

Sitting up, and leaning a bit into Sasuke: "Does this mean you'll become Hokage?"

"I suppose it does."