Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I own Bleach.
Exiled Whirlpool
Chapter2: Parting Ways
Fire-Lightning Country: Border
Uzumaki Naruto was a lot of things; headstrong, stubborn, half-crazy and has been known to switch between being a genius and an idiot at random but there is one thing he is known for being that truly defines who he is…he's insanely lucky. It had been three weeks since he left Konoha…three weeks since he left the one place he had always called home and in those three weeks with the help of shadow clones and Kyuubi he had progressed more than he did in almost three years prior. He still had a long way to go but at least now he felt like he was progressing again.
He was nearing the end of the seemingly endless forest towards his next destination and finally exited the forest onto a giant open field that stretched for miles, 'you know if I've ever had one other dream other than becoming Hokage…it'd be to see the whole world'.
"Now that's a dream I don't mind," he heard the Kyuubi mutter before feeling him curling up to go to sleep. "Wake me up if you need me".
That's when he felt it; whirling around he spotted a squad of fourteen nins exit the forest behind him all wearing a Konoha hitai, 'I think you should stay awake for this fox'.
"That's probably a good idea," the Kyuubi's eyes snapped open as he opened his senses.
Naruto recognized the group consisting of the rest of the Konoha 11, Kakashi, Asuma, Yamato and Gai, "what are you guys doing here?"
"Naruto what are you thinking leaving the village?!" Kakashi half-asked, half-yelled.
The blond cocked his head to the side, "they were going to exile me anyways; I thought I'd get a head start on those Root Anbu guys the council will send after me".
"That doesn't matter; you need to come with us so you won't be marked as a nukenin," Kakashi explained.
Naruto just shook his head, "no can do Kakashi-sensei; I'm heading in the other direction".
"Naruto," the copy-nin warned.
"This is where we part ways sensei…for better or worse," the blond settle into a fighting stance "if you want me then you'll have to use force because I'm not going back with you".
"Enough of this! Akamaru!" Kiba charged forward with his loyal companion right beside him. He jumped and spun around creating a miniature tornado followed shortly by Akamaru "Gatsuga!"
"Kiba stop! It's too dangerous!" Asuma shouted after them.
"You know your no match for them all kit even if you have improved greatly," Kyuubi spoke in his mind.
'I know but there are only three forms of facing an enemy: fight, hide or run…I can't fight them all, there's nowhere to hide and they'll just chase me if I run,' Naruto spoke in thought as he watched the two moved like a drill towards him.
"You'll have to run but first you must take out your enemy's trackers so they can't pursue you," the great demon informed him.
As the two spinning man-tornados closed in on the blond he started charging two randomly contained spinning balls in both his hands, 'I get it but…I don't want to kill any of them'.
"You don't have to…just don't screw up!" with that the link went silent.
Just when the pair was a few feet away he raised both chakra balls and hit them both while they were in midair "Rasenrengan!" the two were suddenly spinning in the other direction before being blown back by the jutsu.
They were sent crashing into a nearby tree and boulder "Kiba! Akamaru!" Ino shouted but the two were unmoving, "that idiot".
'That was close,' Naruto crouched down and settled into a Taijutsu position, "I know it isn't field-tested but…I don't stand a chance without it'. Taking a deep breath he started channelling chakra to every corner of his body, 'here we go'.
"Gai, Lee! Go in fast and close to take him down!" both green beasts nodded and shot forward on Kakashi's order.
Gai went in low and made to kick Naruto's midsection only for him to narrowly dodge and Naruto to throw a punch in retaliation. The punch was barely a graze but it sent Gai reeling back in pain; at that time Lee came in behind him and landed a punch to his back but hurt his hand upon impact. Naruto grunted in pain before dropping to the ground and sweeping Lee's legs out from under him. With the younger of the two green beasts on the floor he brought up his foot and then brought it down on Lee.
Lee let out a yelp of pain before Naruto rolled away with Gai descending right above with a downward him. The blond caught the kick with both of his hands and he pulled him down before punching him in the chest making him hit the ground with a loud tremor. Both of the green-clad ninja were barely moving and Naruto was starting to feel exhausted.
'Dammit; only used it for a few seconds and already feeling fatigued,' the blond thought as he saw both ninja start to rise again. 'I can't last much longer; gotta think of a plan and fast!'
Meanwhile Kakashi was examining the engagement with his Sharingan, 'he's channelling chakra to every part of his body and constantly keeping it moving; why?' That's when he saw it; both Gai and Lee had the image of a spiral on the areas where they had made contact with Naruto and the copy-nin's eyes suddenly flashed with recognition, 'don't tell me he formed a Rasengan around his entire body?' "Gai, Lee! Fall back! Close combat is too dangerous with him!" both ninja complied and retreated to his side where Sakura and Ino started healing their wounds.
'No chance that they're going to go away?' Naruto asked in thought as he saw Kakashi and Shikamaru begin to analyse him, 'I guess not'.
"You created a Taijutsu style which uses the Rasengan with your understanding of a Tailed-Shroud didn't you?" Kakashi asked with curiosity, "this allows you to do more damage to your opponent; even if it's just a graze and also protects you from physical attacks as well".
Naruto nodded slowly before explaining, "I call it the Rasenken and for the record it's not finished. I was going to infuse my wind elemental affinity into it to make it more effective and create the Futon: Rasenken".
"Spiralling Fist?" Kakashi muttered under his breath, 'it seems he's trying to surpass you sensei'. Going through hand-seals he called out, "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu!" he exhaled a massive fireball at the blond.
'Can't dodge! I guess I'll see just what the Rasenken is made of,' Naruto thought as the fireball hit him dead-center.
'Please tell me he survived that! Please don't be dead Naruto!' Kakashi thought in sweat and sighed in relief as he saw the blond step out of the flames with a white semi-transparent shield around him, "I see it also protects you from certain jutsus as well".
It suddenly flickered out of existence before becoming invisible again, "to a certain extent". 'Though if it's hit with enough force or with constant attacks then it will shut down quickly' he added mentally.
"The chakra requirements for something like that must be enormous; I can understand the Demon Fox's Shroud because it's powered by nine-tails of chakra but for a human like you…it must be taxing your reserves," the copy-nin spoke knowingly.
Naruto nodded and smirked "I've always had abnormally large reserves sensei…why do you think I failed the Genin Exam three times?" he felt the Rasenken shred a few of Shinos bugs that had tried to grab onto him.
Without another word he shot forward intent on knocking out the one person in the squad who posed a direct threat given the information he now held: Shikamaru. Seeing this Shikamaru sent his shadow at the blond only for him to dodge while Yamato appeared behind him holding a spear of wood. Naruto got in close forcing Yamato to back off while Sai moved to face the blond. The Root Anbu pulled out his sword and tried to stab him but it was merely deflected and appeared to be turning red from the constant friction of the Rasenken.
When he knocked Sai away with a single blow Neji and Hinata jumped in his way and charged in close. Sadly for them their Jyuuken was constantly being deflected by the Rasenken and both were knocked back when two swift punches. Before Shikamaru could react Naruto vanished in something akin to a flash of yellow and was suddenly inside his defences. Naruto slammed a fully formed Rasengan into his gut blasting him back until he hit the bottom of a nearby hill and fell into unconsciousness.
Turning quickly Naruto caught the knives Asuma was wielding against him enhanced with wind blades; the blond could feel the strain of the wind slashing at his defence before he shrugged the older man off and pulling him around to deliver a round-house kick to his midsection.
"Shintenshin no Jutsu!" he heard before he felt a presence entering his mind.
Well at least this time he had no problem blasting the intruder out…it wasn't a Sharingan user after all.
'Get out of my head!' Ino fell backwards as she was blown back into her body only to be caught by Chouji. Naruto could now feel his chakra reserves almost gone and sighed as he shut down the Rasenken, 'damn; out of power'.
Kakashi's Sharingan notified him that the powerful defence was no longer active and called out, "your barrier is down Naruto; come quietly and you will not be harmed".
Naruto was panting slightly and looked around at the still conscious Konoha forces, 'Kakashi, Shino, Chouji, Tenten and Sakura…I need to get out of here now'. He smiled like a fox, "sorry Kakashi-sensei but I'm not finished yet." He concentrated almost all of his remaining chakra into creating two Rasengans in the palms of his hands.
"Naruto come with us right now or we'll be forced to use drastic measures". Kakashi warned and concentrated chakra into his hand encasing it in lightning, "Raikiri".
Naruto looked at him and his jutsu sadly, "you'd go that far just to follow an order?" When Kakashi didn't answer he continued, "you know I remember the first lesson you taught us…the only lesson you ever really taught us: 'those who disobey the rules are trash but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash'…your such a hypocrite". He closed his eyes for one moment seeing the look of slight shock and horror at what he just said cross Kakashi's eyes, "goodbye Konoha…thanks for the memories". He slammed both chakra balls into the ground, "Rasenrengan!"
Dust shot up blanketing the entire area in a cloud of smoke, "smokescreen!" Kakashi shouted unable to see though it even with the Sharingan.
'Shunpo no Jutsu,' though no one could see it there were several flashes of yellow as Naruto flash-stepped out of the area.
"Futon: Daitoppa!" Kakashi exhaled a large blast of air and dissipated the dust cloud revealing that Naruto was nowhere in sight "he got away; can anyone track him?"
"Kiba, Neji and Hinata are down," Shino reported. "My bugs were unable to grab onto him".
Kakashi looked around at his badly beaten team noticing Sakura and Ino were doing what they could to heal the wounded but Sakura's behaviour worried him greatly. She hadn't spoken throughout the entire encounter…he was worried that she might have cracked thinking yet another one of her team-mates had left the village even if he was exiled…or that it was indirectly her fault.
"Patch up the wounded and then we'll return to Konoha…I doubt we'd be able to find Naruto now that he knows we're after him," Kakashi sighed putting his hitai back into place over his left eye.
"Why?" Chouji asked.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes at him, "because though he dresses in bright orange he is almost impossible to locate when he doesn't want to be found…how do you think he pulled off his pranks all of the time?"
Lightning Country: Unknown Location
Naruto finally stopped using his new jutsu which he had created a few days ago after he had remembered his battle against Gaara where he used Kyuubi's chakra to execute a super-powered jump up to where Gaara had stood. When he stopped using it he felt almost completely drained and collapsed on the ground feeling for the first time in years depleted.
"Took you long enough," he heard Kyuubi chuckle under his breath.
'The Rasenken requires way too much power to maintain…well at least I've field-tested the thing now'. Naruto thought as raising his head slightly from the ground, ' hopefully this is far enough away'.
It took a full thirty minutes to recover his chakra before he was able to move again and he sat up straight. He stood a moment later and for once in his life was thankful that Kyuubi was sealed inside him because it regenerated his chakra at an alarming rate.
"You need to hurry and get out of here before anyone else shows up," Kyuubi spoke more as an order than a suggestion.
He bit his thumb drawing blood and made several hand-seals before slamming his bloodied hand into the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu". With a poof of smoke there suddenly stood in front of him a horse-sized five-tailed fox, "I guess the Kitsune Contract was the real deal after all".
The fox looked over at him for a moment before speaking in a feminine tone, "you must be the new summoner?" it wasn't a question.
Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously and explained, "yeah that's me…do you mind if I get a ride?"
Tsukino simply stared at him before nodding, "I am Tsukino no Kitsune; father speaks highly of you…how far do you wish to travel?"
The blond pointed up at a far off mountain, "to the base of that mountain".
"That's a days journey at least…another week's to get up it; are you sure?" Tsukino commented.
Naruto nodded, "it would take three times longer to go around it".
Tsukino sighed, "very well; climb on and we'll get moving". He pulled himself up to mount the fox like you would a horse and she spoke again, "fast or slow?"
"Err…fast?" Naruto half-asked.
"Okay" she said simply as her tails rapped around themselves. "You might want to hang on," Tsukino looked over her shoulder at him and grinned (like a fox). The end of her tails suddenly caught fire and exploded outwards away from them, "step one".
With the sound of an explosion echoing behind them the fox took off at insane speeds towards the mountain making Naruto have trouble breathing.
'Note too self: Never ask her to go fast again'
"Did I fail to mention she likes high speeds?" you could almost feel the amusement in the demon lord's voice.
'She's your daughter,' Naruto shot back.
Lightning Country: Kumo / Southern Gate
It took a full week to make it to the Kumo which was situated on the mountain's summit; Tsukino had returned to the summon realm per her request once they reached the bottom of the mountain. Over the week while he had been climbing up it Naruto had been experimenting with adding wind to his various forms of Rasengan; he hadn't got it down yet but he was close…very close.
'Dammit; it's not good enough,' he thought looking at his worn-out arm as he approached the village gates. 'I really need a bath and a nice comfy bed; I really hate bathing in rivers and sleeping on the ground…they had better have ramen'.
"Halt! That's far enough; state your name and your business here," Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts by one of the three Chunin on guard duty.
"Err…I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I err…well I just want to stop here tonight. I'm just passing through really and I should be gone tomorrow," the blond explained.
The Chunin looked him over a few times before nodding, "alright follow me to the Raikage's office; you will of course be watched by an Anbu at all times as per protocol".
Naruto sighed in relief before nodding, "led the way Chunin-san".
As he followed the Chunin through the village he noticed right away the absence of any muttering and any hateful glares directed at him. People were going about there business; stores all around the area were abuzz with activity and there were even children running around playing. Kumo itself was several large clusters of platforms, buildings and towers all over the mountain's peak with the Raikage Tower at the very top. All of this was interlocked in one way or another and it was one of the largest hidden villages in the elemental countries rivalling Konoha in sheer size.
That's when Naruto dropped the question he had wanted to ask since arriving, "do you know any good ramen stands?"
The Chunin stopped dead in his tracks and he turned fearfully, "don't tell me you…"
"What? Like ramen? Of course; it's a gift from the gods!" you could see the sparkles in Naruto's eyes.
"Sweet Kami not another one," the Chunin muttered shaking his head and shivering in fear. He knew someone that had a very large addiction to ramen…now he had met another, "they're both blond too".
Proceeding through the village they were nearing the Raikage Tower when suddenly all of Kumo shook with several explosions echoing in the distance, "what the hell was that?" Naruto asked getting his bearings. The Chunin didn't answer but when he saw some smoke in the distance he took off toward it, "hey wait up!" Naruto shouted running after him noting that the Anbu that was supposed to be tailing him wasn't there.
The two arrived at the demolished section of the market district which looked like it had been through a war, "what happened here?" the Chunin looked around in horror seeing other Kumo nins helping people out of the rubble. He spotted someone wearing a Jonin jacket pinned under a support beam and dashed over to him, "Eric-sensei!" He kneeled down beside the man who was his apparent his teacher, "are you alright sensei?"
The man now identified as Eric grunted in pain but nodded, "I've had better days".
"One moment and I'll get you out," the Chunin lifted the support beam with Naruto's help allowing the Jonin to get out from under it, "what happened here sir?"
"There were two of them," he gritted out with a wince. "They appeared out of on' where wearing black cloaks with red clouds and attacked Yugito-sama". He winced a bit more, "Yugito-sama lured them away into the sewer system towards the central hub directly below us. She blew out the hatches and the valves to prevent them escaping and us from interfering".
"That explains the explosions," the Chunin clenched his fists. "She's all alone in there".
While this was going on Naruto was deep in thought, 'black cloaks with red clouds? Definitely Akatsuki but that would mean this 'Yugito' would be a Jinchuuriki…I guess it's true what they say, enemy of my enemy is my friend'. "How far down are we talking?" Naruto asked interrupting the two Kumo nins.
They looked at each other before turning back, "just under a mile; we don't have the tools or the time to drill down there though," Eric answered honestly.
Naruto didn't answer but instead charged a ball of spinning chakra, "just under a mile…might be close but I'll do what I can". He slammed it into the ground burying it in deep and causing it to accelerate downwards crating a hole in the deep into the ground, "Rasengan". He turned to the two once he was done and said. "Catch up when you can," with that he jumped down into the hole disappearing from view.
As he fell Naruto was in a deep discussion with a certain fox, 'so any idea which Jinchuuriki this is?'
"I might have an idea…Nibi no Nekomata; she's my mate," Kyuubi answered/mused.
Naruto almost fainted at that, "what? You're married? How the hell did that happen?"
"Do not think so lowly of me as to go by the human's term; she's my mate not my wife," Kyuubi growled in anger.
'You mean like soul mate?' Naruto asked trying to understand the concept.
"Yes you hairless ape," Kyuubi replied mockingly.
Naruto resisted the urge to hurt the demon lord, 'but I thought Tsukino-Chan was your daughter…she wasn't a cat'.
"She gets her striking good looks from me while she gets Nibi-Chan's personality," you could almost say Kyuubi was proud of that.
'You don't say,' Naruto thought dryly.
Author's Notes:
Chapter 2 is up and running; next chapter we will finally meet Yugito and that I promise you all.
Oh and before people start complaining about me making Naruto too strong I will tell you here and now that the only reason he managed to hold his own against 14 Shinobi of Chunin and Jonin level was because he had an ace up his sleeve…that's all; the Rasenken is the only reason he managed to last as long as he did.
Translation
Gatsuga = Fang over Fang
Rasengan = Spiralling Sphere
Rasenrengan = Double Spiralling Sphere
Shunpo no Jutsu = Flash Step Technique
Futon: Daitoppa = Wind Release: Great Breakthrough
Raikiri = Lightning Blade
Shintenshin no Jutsu = Mind Body Switch Technique
Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu = Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique
Rasenken = Spiralling Fist
Futon: Rasenken = Wind Release: Spiralling Fist
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…See Ya Later…