Luffy frowned. 'Stupid ninja, getting in my way. Why's he want to catch us anyways? It's not like we did anything. . .'

The two were facing each other in a large, grassy clearing about ten miles from the open sea. The clearing was large, but outside of the clearing the forest was dense and dark. The fact that the sun was setting didn't help matters much either. All in all visibility was low, but neither of the two combatants really needed sight to determine the location of the other.

Luffy's mind slowly drifted back to how his crew had landed on this strange island and how they had started touring the different Hidden Villages. Their final stop had been Konoha.

'Really, I don't know what he's so mad about. Zoro and Sanji only destroyed twelve city block fighting this time, that's five whole blocks better than last time.'

"I'm not just going to let you leave," the blonde ninja said, "Not after what you guys did to my home."

"I said I was sorry," Luffy huffed. "Come on, just let me leave, will you? My crew's already on the ship and once I board we can set sail. You'll never see us again."

"That's not an option, you are a threat to my Village. Although there were no casualties that doesn't mean you get off free. I can't let pirates like you roam free. I'll beat you then catch your entire crew, believe it!"

Luffy's eyes widened as his Observation Haki flared. 'He's coming.'

Naruto didn't know what his opponent was capable of, but judging by the devastation that two of his subordinates had caused, he was no joke.

'Want some help?' Kurama asked lazily.

'We'll see, I'm good for now though. Let's start with a test, huh?'

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Thirty clones popped into existence in a circle surrounding the now on-guard pirate. 'Go get him.'

As one the clones surged forward. What happened after that was like a whirlwind. Moving even faster than Lee with his weights off the pirate performed a seemingly random series of punches and kicks that dispelled all the clones with relative ease.

'Well, this should be interesting.'

Luffy sighed. 'Looks like he's not just going to let me go. Hmmm. . . wonder what that technique was? It was pretty cool, but the clones were pretty weak. Numbers aren't going to win it for him. Numbers. . . there's something I'm missing here.' Luffy's head began to redden as if he was entering Gear Second, but after a moment it lessened. 'Aw, whatever. I'll think it up if it's important.'

He was startled out of his thoughts when he felt another wave of clones closing in. With his Observation Haki and superhuman strength dispatching the second wave posed no particular challenge, but the second the second wave was gone a third wave with spiraling balls of energy in their hands hit.

'So many clones, just how many can this guy make?'

This time a few of the clones actually managed to land hits on him, but seeing as he was made of rubber the hits that landed didn't damage him in the slightest. He had made sure to dispel the ones with the energy balls first, he didn't know how powerful they were but odds were that they were worse than regular punches. 'This is already getting boring.' Luffy's Observation Haki flared again.

'The real one's closing in and he's going for a punch.'

'Seems regular hits don't damage him,' Kurama commented.

'Yeah, those memories saved me some time and effort. Since regular blows won't work, why don't we try this?'

Activating Sage Mode Naruto shot forward. The extra speed that Sage Mode afforded him caught his opponent off guard, but that wasn't all. Even with his increased speed he still wasn't as fast as the strawhat wearing captain and yet the pirated didn't dodge.

'I see, he's counting on his body to protect him like it did earlier,' Naruto realized. 'Hn, lets see if he can simply shrug this one off.'

"Kawazu Kumite: Kaeru Ken!"

The senjutsu enhanced fist impacted Luffy right in the abdomen. He coughed out some blood before the force of the blow took hold and sent him flying backwards right out of the clearing. His body flew straight through a few trees before disappearing entirely into the dark forest.

Glancing behind himself for a moment Naruto frowned. 'The sun's almost set. I can fight at night no problem, but what about him?'

'Odds are that he's as good as he is now or worse at night,' Kurama interjected. 'I highly doubt that his skills increase when the sun goes down, time shouldn't be an issue.'

'Probably right,' Naruto agreed. 'Well, lets go get him. He'll be at a disadvantage in the forest because of the restricted mobility.'

Luffy sat up and groaned. 'Ouch ouch ouch, was that Haki? Whatever it was, it hurt. Looks like underestimating him is a bad idea.'

Looking around Luffy took stock of his surroundings and had to grin. 'A forest, huh? His punch must really have been something to send me this far back. Well, as soon as he enters I've got the advantage. Wonder how he'll react once he finds out about my flexibility?'

Luffy's Observation Haki flared. 'No way. . . you've gotta be kidding me.'

His fears were confirmed a moment later literally thousands of clones landed in the trees that surrounded him. Looking closely a few of the clones, probably about ten of them, had orange markings over their eyes. Just like last time a few clones also had the blue energy balls, but even as he watched some of the clones began to make their own until fully half of the clones wielded them.

There was a moment of tense silence and then the clones struck. The weren't nearly as fast as he was, but the sheer numbers gave them a huge advantage. 'Pity I can't just use Conquerors Haki,' Luffy mused as he dodged yet another blue orb. Then his eyes widened as he comically hit his fist into his hand in a gesture of recognition. 'that's it! I can! i even remember Rayleigh talking about something like this!'

If he hadn't been so proud of his discovery he would have noticed that the clones hadn't stopped attacking. A Rasengan nailed him right in the stomach and sent him flying backwards.

'What was that?' Luffy wondered as he bounced through the crowd of clones. 'It kinda tickled. Maybe it was one of the blue things, I guess it would make sense it they're non-slicing attacks.'

The fear of the blue orbs now gone Luffy bounced high into the air and aimed himself down at the clone that, he hoped, that had him. Landing on him with an Armored Punch he swiftly dispatched the clone before moving on. He continued to fight but after a moment he noticed two things.

'I haven't actually used my Devil Fruit yet except to shrug off their hits, and what happened to the orbs?' Looking around it became blatantly obvious that the blue orbs which the clones had held moments before were gone. 'How? Wait. . . I remember this. . .'

"Now that you've mastered the basics of the other two types of Haki, it's time to begin with the Conquerors Haki," Rayleigh said.

Normally Luffy would have exploded with excitement, but after training this long with Rayleigh he knew that he had to wait till the old man to stop talking before he asked questions. There was one time he had interrupted his teacher. One time.

"Now unlike the other two types of Haki the amount of King's Haki a person posses is a set value. Training though, allows you to control two crucial factors, concentration and direction. Directional training allows you to affect selective people with you Haki while concentration allows you to focus all of the Haki on a single spot. Thin of the King's Haki like the sun, it's extremely powerful, but because of the huge area it effects the effects are minimal on strong individuals, and nonexistent of people as strong as the user."

"By training concentration it's like you're hold a magnifying glass up to the sun, the sun doesn't actually get stronger, the power it produces is simply more focused. Haki doesn't actually get stronger, it just has more of an effect on a particular area after concentration training. The only other way to make it stronger would be to hit multiple versions of the same person at the same time. I've never seen an ability like that, but perhaps one exists. If it does, the power of Conquerors Haki would be multiplied by the number of copies.

'I wonder if it would work with these clones? Well, one way to find out, but first, lets see if I can get him to make more clones.'

'Gear Third!" Luffy yelled as he began to inflate his right fist. The second he was done he inflated his left fist and then he struck.

'That looks like Choji's family technique, and it seems to have the same weakness,' Naruto thought.

'Yes, he lost speed but he's now much stronger. But why, speed was his greatest advantage, even in your Sage Mode he's still faster than you.'

'He's probably trying to get rid of my clones as fast as possible. In that case. . . I think I have a plan. Kurama, mind lending me some chakra?'

'What're you going to do?'

'You'll see.'

Kurama growled before forking over some chakra. With his energy replenished Naruto got ready to put his plan into action. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Justu!" he yelled as he summoned literally tens of thousands of clones using the Kyubi chakra.

Turning to the clone next to him he passed several messages on before running over to the nearest Sage clone. The plan was quite simply, really, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. As of only moments before if Naruto had used the Rasenshuriken the black haired pirate would probably have simply dodged, but he was slower now.

Naruto's plan called for the extra clones to stall him while he used the Sage clones to make three Rasenshuriken. That left two Sage clones, so they would be attacking Luffy head on along with the fifty-thousand or so other clones. There was no way he's escape.

'Just how many freaking clones can this guy make?' Luffy wondered as he looked at the army of clones perched in the branches of the trees as far as the eye could see. 'This is like Fishman island all over again, hopefully, If this doesn't work, I'm in trouble.' The moment of peace ended quickly enough as the clones launched themselves toward him.

'Now or never.' Luffy looked up and unleashed his Conquerors Haki. At first it seemed as if nothing had happened, but then a single clone dispelled in midair. Then another, and another, and another. Like a wave the clones dispelled creating a wall of smoke, but that didn't stop Luffy from moving to step two of his admittedly simpler plan.

"Elephanto Gattaling!" he yelled as he covered his fist in Armament Haki and launched it towards where he felt Naruto.

A single clone dispelled and Kurama felt a slight mental discomfort. 'What was that?' He looked more closely at the attacking clones when a second and then a third dispelled, each causing the same mental pressure. 'Oh fu. . .'

Grabbing control away from Naruto he activated Kyubi Mode just as a gigantic mental wave hit Naruto head on. To put it simply, the blonde was down and out, and when he finally regained consciousness he would have the mother of all headaches. Still, he was hardly defenseless. Kurama had been prepared and so was only minimally effected.

A moment later he was thankful that he had had the foresight to activate Kyubi Mode as a gigantic metal fist impacted Naruto head on, nearly ending the fight then and their. 'This isn't going to cut it, we're going to have to go into Sennin Mode,' Kurama thought as he was sent flying backwards.

Activating Sennin Mode he was just in time to take another of the behemoth hits head on. The things hit with as much force as Biju Damma, they weren't as strong but they were way faster. Not willing to take another hit Kurama, who was happy to not be a backseat driver for once, used Sennin Mode's speed to shoot across the forest and back into the clearing where he began to asses Naruto's mental state.

'He's really out of it, but it makes sense. It's the same as the Shadow Clone training, the mental relay between clones and the original is 100% effective, so it makes sense that a mental attack on his clones would do this to him. The question now is how long he'll take to recover enough to fight,' Kurama wondered as he pushed his charka towards Naruto's mind to aid in the healing.

Looking up he noticed that the half-giant had landed in the clearing along with him and was firing off anther punch. 'Heh,' Kurama thought as he effortlessly dodged. 'Sennin Mode is faster that he is even when he's not being slowed down by the inflated body, no way he can keep up with me now.'

Deciding to take advantage of the situation Kurama lunched himself forwards. At close range he had the advantage, so he would take it. Noticing his opponent coming Luffy released the air from his fists, his body returning to normal just in time to block a chakra reinforced fist.

'Looks like it didn't work,' Luffy bemoaned mentally, 'Well, whatever. With the amount of energy he's currently putting out he can't keep this up forever.' The moment he thought that he remembered the sheer number of clones the blonde haired, and now bodied, shinobi before him had summoned. 'Hopefully.'

Deflating his fists he blocked a fist that was heading for his abdomen. It seemed to be stronger somehow, but it lacked the wave like effects of the Sage punch so it didn't effect him in the slightest. That said, the clawed hand that shot out of the hyperactive demon-ninja's back did effect him. Using his superior speed the Biju in human form created a clawed chakra arm that lanced through the air before scoring a deep gash across Luffy's open chest.

'Damn,' Luffy though as he jumped backwards. 'I saw it coming but he's too fast.' Continuing to press his advantage the fox lunged again and this time the chakra claw was joined by three others that continued to harass Luffy driving him backwards. Even with his Observation Haki he couldn't dodge all the strikes and the fact that the biju was currently using six arms didn't help matters either.

The demon managed to land a plethora of attacks on Luffy drawing red lines of blood all over his body like some type of puzzle. 'This isn't working, he's too fast for me in this form. Still, lets see how he deals with this.'

"Gear Second!" Luffy yelled as he threw his right arm back. The movement initiated the Gear Second state while also preparing him to attack. Focusing his inner energy he covered his arm in Armament Haki before it burst into flames. Bring it forwards at extreme speeds Kurama had to bring up all four chakra limbs to block, and even then they disintegrated under the power of the strike sending him flying backwards.

Landing on the other side of the clearing it took the angry vulpine all of a second to be back on his feet. He had sustained notable burns on his stomach but even as Luffy watched they began to heal. An extremely short five seconds later the wounds were gone.

'Stalemate,' Kurama concluded. 'I don't know what he did, but he's way faster than me now. His blows also seem to be stronger, strong enough to break through my guard. But,' he continued, 'I'm not even winded in terms of chakra. Seems this is coming down to how long he can keep it up.'

Across the field he appeared to be having similar thoughts. After a moment of silence he turned and fled. Kurama's eyes widened as he gave chase, but he wasn't fast enough to catch up. Giving up he focused on his sensing abilities as he felt the strawhat's aura recede before shooting upward.

'What? Oh, wait, didn't the reports say their ship could fly? That's probably it, looks like he got away.' It was a good theory, but then why was his aura only going up and not away? Looking into the sky Kurama saw him floating there. A moment later his fist inflated again.

"Grizly Magnum!" A shout echoed over the forest as the two fists rocketed down to earth. His face contorting into a snarl Kurama shot away, but not far enough. He managed to get out of the critical zone, but the resulting shockwave sent him flying into the air. 'Damn, I'm open,' he thought as he created a chakra limb to grab onto one of the trees that was still connected to the ground. Pulling himself down next to tree he took a moment to catch his breath and check on Naruto. He was waking up.

'Wha. . . what happened?'

'A mental attack that was magnified by your clones. Think of it like the Shadow Clone training but with negative effects.'

'I. . . see.'

'Yeah, sure you do. Considering how many clones you made it's a miracle you're not dead. You've always had a thing for making too many clones.'

'So how's the fight been going?'

'Nowhere,' Kurama responded. 'My attacks can't hit him. He's way faster than the Third Raikage, there's no way an unguided Rasenshuriken would hit him.'

'Well why don't we try one?'

'That would put our guard down,' Kurama argued. 'You haven't seen his speed in this Gear Second of his.'

'From what I understand this fight hasn't gone anywhere. Lets end it now, for the Village,' Naruto thought.

'Impulsive as ever,' Kurama mentally sighed to himself.

Luffy was standing on the beach staring into the forest. The Sunny was anchored about four miles down the coast, so they were basically out of the picture. He had sped over there and told them he had it under control, he'd finish the fight now so the ninja didn't decide to peruse them. For the final time that day his Observation Haki flared.

'He's coming,' Luffy though to himself as he prepared a Jet Twin Pistol. Just as Naruto's form appeared in the sky Luffy launched his attack, which Naruto proceeded to dodge before launching his own return attack. The Rasenshuriken screamed through the air and in less than a second it was right before Luffy.

Recalling his fists at even greater speeds he preformed a Jet Bazooka at the ground behind him launching him up toward Naruto. At that speed there was no way for him to dodge.

"Atama Buso," Luffy yelled as he braced for impact and covered his forehead in Armament Haki. Unable to avoid the attack Naruto took it in the gut. The force of the blow sent him rocketing backwards, but it also pulled his chakra arm with him. In a final last ditch effort Naruto adjusted the trajectory of the arm so it would hit Luffy.

It did, if barely. Still, with an attack like the Rasenshuriken barely is enough. As he was sent flying into the distance, his consciousness fading, he saw the energy explode consuming the pirate captain's form.

Luffy groaned as he impacted the ground at speeds that would have killed a normal human. Hell, that impact would have killed a Navy Vice-Admiral. In order to dodge the attack he had been forced to use the Gumo Gumo no Rocket and all of the speed Gear Second afforded him. Even then he still had a truly nasty gash in his left side, and looking down he could swear he could see one of his organs.

'Good thing Chopper's back at the ship,' Luffy thought as he stood and began to hobble back to his home, the Thousand Sunny.