That wasn't the last of Nadare however.
Almost as soon as his head rolled onto the floor, they heard a weird *sizzle* from the distance.
Tachibana was the first to react and he tossed one of the pink shields he was holding towards Sakura.
Naruto already inside his shield had wide eyes as he looked at what was happening.
While Sakura looked on at Sasuke in shock.
"DUUUUCCCKKKKKK!!!!" Tachibana shouted at Sasuke who did his best to respond but it wasn't enough.
*BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*
The ice clone that Nadare had made to distract Naruto exploded into a flash of ice needles, launching each one at a high speed as they flooded the area.
Tachibana and Sakura poured all the chakra they could into their devices to keep the pink shield powered up, while Naruto who was closest to the explosion ducked and braced to protect his vitals.
Sasuke was the only one unlucky enough to be hit with the full force of the explosion.
The resulting shockwave lifted Sasuke and threw him off his feet as a barrage of needles exploded in his way.
The worst part of all this was that Sasuke had his Sharingan activated.
He watched in slow motion as the world around him was slowly destroyed, the snow and trees that had formed as a result of Yamato's battle with Doto were blown into smithereens as thousands upon thousands of ice needles exploded through them.
The pink shield around Sakura broke first, followed by Tachibana's as they were both riddled by the next wave of those ice needles.
But Sasuke had it the worst.
His entire body had several ice needles sticking out of it, he looked like a hedgehog bristling its quills.
As soon as the explosion passed over them, Sakura was the first to move in spite of the enormous pain she was feeling from the needles in her body.
Tachibana and Naruto followed immediately after.
"Sasuke-kun!!" Sakura said helplessly as she reached Sasuke and knelt beside him.
Tachibana quickly began pulling out the needles that were not around any vital organs because the ice needles were slowly freezing him down.
Sakura carefully moved Sasuke's hand which was covering his face and *gasped* in horror.
Tachibana looked over to see if something had happened and his hands froze as soon as his eyes lay on Sasuke's face, specifically on his eyes.
One of Sasuke's eyeballs had been pierced with an ice needle.
Sasuke's other eye was frantically spinning around as he tried to understand his situation but when it rested on Sakura's face he became confused.
"What happen-"
"No!"
Sasuke lifted his hand to touch the other side of his face but Sakura stopped him by holding his hand.
"No Sasuke-kun! Hold on for now! I'm sure Yamato-sensei will be able to do something! Touching it will only make it worse!!"
Sasuke frowned not understanding what was going on.
"Sasuke don't worry, I'm sure Yamato-sensei will be able to heal you!!!" Naruto shouted.
Sasuke tried to look at Naruto and then found himself having to turn his neck to find him.
That was when it struck him.
'My vision!!'
Sasuke's eyeballs frantically scanned everything around and he realised he couldn't see anything on the left side of his face. His vision was much narrower than before. It had been split in half.
Sasuke's hands slipped out of Sakura's grasp and tried to touch his eyes once again, and when his fingers brushed against the ice needle sticking out of his eye, his hands froze.
'My eyes!!!!!'
Sasuke felt like he had suddenly tasted a spoilt fruit.
"This is a dream!!" Sasuke complained in a futile manner.
His hands brushed around his face once again as his hand touched the ice needle once again, sending a chilling pain all around his face.
Sakura caught his hands to prevent it from becoming worse but this time his hands didn't resist, they were weak and powerless.
Sasuke suddenly felt like he was back in his home. Right when he'd been forced to live a nightmare because of Itachi.
He felt like all his hope was being taken away from him rather cruelly.
It felt like his body had given up on him.
Tears formed in Sasuke's eyes and he found himself unable to speak. The sounds around him fell on deaf ears as he tried to desperately wake up.
Not even the two giant Ice dragons that showed up, towering over the gigantic trees of the forest were enough to break him out of his shock.
Not even the constant pain from Tachibana removing the ice needles from his body was enough to distract him.
Naruto used his pink shield to protect them from the calamitous fight between Yamato and Doto who seemed to be duking it out without a care in the world for the genin who were under them.
Eventually, however, a towering humanoid wooden golem showed up and trapped the two ice dragons. The towering wooden golem then trapped them under its arms and crushed them to death, before Doto was finally killed after five of Yamato's wooden clones set a clever trap for him.
The battle eventually ended and Yamato arrived by Team Seven's side with a lot of bruises and frozen wounds.
As soon as Yamato arrived by their side, everyone vacated the area around Sasuke and allowed Yamato to look at him.
Sasuke's head turned as he looked at Yamato with the last bit of hope he had. His tears bordering the thin line on the edge of sanity and insanity.
Yamato's eyes widened when he saw that one of Sasuke's eyes had been pierced by the ice needle and immediately tried to see if he could rescue it. But it was too late. The needle had been in there for too long and it had killed the eyeball by freezing and exploding its cells as the water in them expanded after being turned to ice.
"Don't take it so seriously. It's just an eye. There are much worse things to lose in battle. Wear it as a proud ornament." Yamato spoke to Sasuke.
Sasuke's grief exploded at this moment and he was about to shout in pain, finally giving up to the world around him but Yamato quickly knocked him out.
When Tachibana gave him a questioning look he spoke calmly.
"He might end up doing something that might hurt him even more if we don't control him for now. He needs urgent medical attention for the rest of the needles in his body. Good job removing the ice needles in the other parts of his body. If you hadn't he would've lost his entire body because the blood would've frozen."
Naruto and Sakura's tears didn't stop while Tachibana's eyes shifted to a glare.
All of a sudden defeating a Jonin didn't feel so great anymore.
With Doto done, Yamato was quickly able to gather the help of the medical shinobi of the castle and force them to heal Sasuke. He stayed there so that none of them would try to do anything stupid while the rest of Team Seven followed Tachibana to the Treasury to fetch Koyuki.
'The mantic stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind.'
'A Jonin is a tough opponent, even in death, especially in death.'