I do not own Naruto, or anything related to the franchise. I would if I could, but I don't.

An Ancient Rivalry Settled! Samurai Versus Ninja!

-

The stranger walked slowly to the park that day. He wasn't physically tide at the least, but the girl saw through him so easily it disturbed him greatly.

How did the little girl know of his pain? Was he simply that obvious? Or did she have special eyes for cases like him? It would not be the first time he met such a person. Yet, although the simple act the girl showed yesterday unsettled him greatly, he could not help but feel that the girl knew him so well, it just meant thee was one more person he had reason to continue on for. But he knew he had to keep his distance, lives don't last forever, and he doesn't want to break any hearts.

His gloomy thoughts were cut off when he was surrounded with children, each offering a hug, a game, or a kiss. The traveler was so chocked that he didn't notice the little girl from yesterday smiling widely behind him, she had set up this little activity. And just as well, the guy really needed it, he has been working so hard lately. The roughhousing of the children eventually became too much to handle for the stranger to balance, and the stranger collapsed from the weight of dozens of children laughing joyously the entire time.

The little girl let herself a small chuckle before retiring to a stoic façade, no one noticed as she began fading away as she walked farther away from the park. Eventually it was as if she was never there.

Rai chuckled at the expense of his new friend and settled the children down for another chapter. But before he started he felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

'Thank you…for keeping my friend happy…'

Rai looked around, and the children mimicked him. That was strange…it was as if a ghost had whispered to him.

Hah! He must be getting old if he was thinking like that now!

Rai shook his head to clear his head and settled himself down, now where did he leave off last time…

-

A ninja is cold, precise, and ruthless...these thee traits is what separate the best of the shinobi, from the worst. He had long ago learned that ninja have their own flaws that keep them from reaching the top, and has learned to exploit the traits and rid himself completely of them. Some are too compassionate and let their feelings hinder their fighting, a simple target to manipulate into a trap; some are not smart enough to follow the path and use brute strength to get what they want, these fools are all too easy to eradicate; but the most common reason is the most idiotic. Too many ninja are too merciful in battle, using honor and ethics to spare their enemies, that mistake usually comes to haunt their futures with very dire consequences.

Such nonsense is not tolerated in Akatsuki.

Katana spared a glance at his own partner for a moment; he was both afraid and intimidated of the woman, but felt pride and assurance that he was able to control her like a puppeteer to their puppets. He had encountered Mononoke years before Akatsuki was ever founded, along with his boss; and prided himself in being one of the three co-founders of Akatsuki. Mononoke was the ideal shinobi; cold, calculated, and ruthless. And her bloodline limit just made her all the more destructive. He was truly fortunate to be on the same side as her.

But that did not mean he was one of those weak fools who let others do his bidding, he was a true shinobi as well, and he was going to prove that here, in this miserable excuse of a Samurai village. Those fools don't truly recognize the power of a blade! They spend lifetimes perfecting a single style and then claim themselves the perfect warrior, and then another one pops out claiming his style would conquer his, creating a rivalry that would later erupt into war. This reoccurs countless times creating wars tat destroy the lives of countless families, and leave them to ruin. Such a thing happen to his family as well, he would of grown to be one of those self-centered, honored-shackled fools if it weren't for the massacre that occurred all those years ago...The only reason he was still alive was because he killed so many of the invaders, out of respect and ambition his family's murderers had opted to turn him into a puppet for their own goals. Now that he thought about it, he remembered one of the strongest attackers took a young boy of his clan…Kiminaro, he wondered what had happened to him. It was most likely not as productive as what he had to go suffer.

His captors taught him the art of the blade that samurai follow with dedication second only to their faith in the heavens; he learned the secrets of focusing chakra into the steel of any blade and turning it into a tool of the elements granted to him, on his own he learned from both by instinct and by scrolls remaining from his family's library the skills of the ninja. Stealth, slight of hand, ninjutsu, illusions, and the limits his bloodline gave him; he learned all of these abilities to the point of secondary nature. When his training was complete, he thanked his tutors in the proper way, by killing them all. There would be no honor in their deaths as he eliminated them and all of their families down to the youngest soul.

He was Katana Kaguya, The unbreakable sword of the now deceased Kaguya clan.

But now he was a missing-nin, considering the fact his clan was in servitude of the mist, working for the leader of Akatsuki. He was not after power or wealth, but to rid the world of its foolishness of the idea of 'honor'. Such a worthless way of thought only let people die; and others suffer. He wants to cleanse the world of this wasteful idea and recreate it so it can become a world of perfect warriors, free of the idea of mercy and fair play, open to manipulate all forms of combat and use any method of escape to survive. To rid the world of honor, that is his ninja way.

Katana suddenly grasped his arm in pain, it seems that his medicine has started to fail on him already...and that meant he only had a small amount of time left until the next dose, he so detested the taste of that horrid liquid, but he digresses. Katana spared another glance at Mononoke, who was staring at him intently.

"It is time..." Whispered Katana, his voice was gentle, to the point where one would double take to see if it really was a masculine voice.

Mononoke, nodded and offered her opinion. "Very well, should we attack at nightfall? That is, after all, when our skills are at their peak"

Katana nodded slowly, tomorrow would be as red as the clouds they wore.

-

"I have a bad feeling about this Uzumaki" Said a voice.

Naruto simply gave a side glance at his apparently paranoid travel companion before continuing to stare straight ahead. "What do you mean Gaara? It has only been the first day that we've been here, nothing can go wrong now." Except for the lack of ramen stands as the blonde noticed, how did these poor souls survive life without the divine gift that was ramen? He will never know.

"Any samurai we have faced up to this point are nothing more than experienced thugs," answered Gaara. "These are trained warriors, worthy of their titles as their ancient ancestors before them. If we have to face their leader, nothing short of a sannin or a kage would beat them."

Naruto just kept looking ahead, noting the wary glances they were getting from the native villagers, it was rather suspicious to see five random people appear out of nowhere inside a hidden samurai village, he wondered if this place was as anal about security as Konoha. The more he thought about t the more it seemed they did, it didn't help that he saw no small number of men and women going inside their homes for their weapons. Then again, the fact that the village was hidden inside a mountain of all things sort of gave all of that away.

"So what do you think we should do? I can't start training Kano because of this little development, and dumb and dumber over there are just itching to fight one of these guys." Naruto was referring to the Ox bros, who were not-so subtly wringing their hands in anticipation of a fight.

"True, Kanaye and Haru do seem to want to test their fists and feet against their blades. I guess it's just a meat-head thing don't you agree?"

Naruto laughed at Garra's statement, but it soon died away when a group of surrounding samurai closed in on them.

"So you think we're meat heads huh? Not smart enough to take you down?" Said one random samurai, he said it loud enough to attract the entire crowd. Soon samurai of all shapes and sizes were surrounding them.

Gaara took it upon himself to diffuse the situation, while the others started to prepare themselves for an upcoming battle.

"Excuse my rude behavior friend, but in order to travel in this group your tongue has to be as sharp as any blade, and occasionally we bring an innocent in to our little squabbles."

The second samurai snorted. "'Sorry' isn't good enough here boy, you have dishonored us, and we aim to regain that honor. If you really want to be excused you have to go through a duel with us. Meet us here at this spot in three hours, we will decide then who is a meat-head and who is isn't." The third samurai, who had yet to say anything, stared at Naruto and pointed a finger at him, and then made a thumb down signal. The message was all-too clear.

And Naruto was all-too receptive.

With that the surrounding samurai and villagers went back to their daily chores, avoiding any form of contact with the group of travelers. Kanaye and Haru cheered at having the chance of fighting these warriors at least once, while Gaara groaned in irritation, Kano was looking as confused as ever.

"And to think it wasn't my mouth that got us into this. Good going Gaara." Muttered Naruto, Gaara mumbled something that closely resembled a 'shut up' and Kano was looking even more lost than before.

"Excuse me Uzumaki-sama, but what just happened?"

Naruto looked at Kano disbelievingly, but then remembered how he had came to be with them. "Samurai live by a really ancient code called bushido, 'The way of the warrior'. The code centers completely on honor, when that honor is insulted in any way, it is up to the samurai to regain his honor in a duel. We had insulted them, and thus ruined their honor, now we must face the samurai in a ritualized duel, or go against the entire samurai village, that is on the definite 'no' option column."

Kano nodded to show he understood, and took a moment to observe his surroundings. It was the first time he had ever seen more than two to three people at once, bar the conflict with the rain-nin and his first meetings of the group. And it was absolutely amazing for him. He couldn't begin to describe all the sights, sounds, and smells he met. To him, being in such a place was equivalent to having the gods give him passage towards a utopia.

He then noticed that his group was leaving him behind and gave a startled cry once he realized just how far they were from him.

-

"So, how are we going to fight these guys?" Asked Kanaye.

"Is that all you ever think about Kanaye?" sighed Naruto. "You really have to start thinking with your head and not your fists."

Gaara shook his head at Naruto's comment and gave him a condescending look. "Like you should be talking Uzumaki, I have only met you a handful of times and even I can tell how much of an idiot you were when you were still young."

Naruto hung his head as the brothers of the Ox laughed at him, Kano was watching with a look of both amusement and confusion, why was it so bad to act before you think?

The jovial mood was cut abrupt when all five travelers felt a very powerful presence, and looked around for the source. The power did not let out any killer intent, but something that powerful must be kept an eye on, no matter where its loyalties lie. They spent a good five minutes searching until they finally recognized the power, it was the power of the biju! The power was difficult to describe, it let out signal of protection and care, but withheld a power that seemed to yell to the heavens as absolute.

Each individual eventually recognized the power as something eerily similar to their own, and hastily checked on their respective demons to see what they were feeling. The fox was calm, showing no fear or mistrust against the new arrival. Shukaku was very quiet, too quiet, as if he was going to die if he even whispered a word. The ox was restless; he was pacing around in his cage impatiently waiting for the coming vessel. Kano, shakily checked on his demon, it was also quiet, and for that he was thankful, but he could see that the shark was biting his lips so he wouldn't say anything.

All of them gave each other knowing glances, and turned to the direction of the grand power.

-

Mamoru was having a bad day, first he was called by the shogun for a personal assignment, and that always meant a lot of work, then he had to do extra chores at his forge since one of the blacksmiths fell ill. When he was finally finished with all of that he tried to raid the fridge, only to find that it has already been raided...relentlessly. Starving, Mamoru had to go out to eat, but that wasn't so bad...until he heard about the five new comers who were bad-mouthing his samurai heritage...that was not going to be tolerated.

So what did he feel when he noticed the very five souls he swore to cut up into oblivion right in front of him?

Mamoru calmly walked up to the five and stood in front of the blond, who was in the center of the group, and could very well be the leader. "So you are the five idiots who dared soil the name of the samurai?"

The entire room went cold at those words; time froze between the vessels as the rest of the village hurriedly packed away their belongings. Women carried away their children, merchants hid their goods, the old and crippled hobbled away as fast as they could, and the men readied their swords and surrounded the group.

No one noticed the sand creeping out of the ground.

Naruto had to give the samurai village credit to mobilize so quickly and efficiently, it had to have rivaled the Konoha ANBU's capabilities in coordination. As Naruto was purposely ignoring Mamoru, the said samurai was loosing his patience by the minute. How dare his fool ignore his question! While he was standing there waiting for a response, this foreigner had the audacity to ignore him in his own home!

Waiting no longer, Mamoru unsheathed his blade and sent it cascading to Naruto's head, intending to cleave Naruto into two.

Faster than Mamoru could react, Naruto had sidestepped the vertical slash and stepped behind him, then Naruto pulled out a kunai from his pouched and prepared to stab it into Mamoru's leg.

Mamoru froze, kunai where not favored by any type of warrior except ninja, the cat of the samurai dog. It was only after he felt the pain of a blade stab into his leg that he came back to Earth.

Crippled, Mamoru stumbled away a bit before recomposing himself, and with a quick hand seal, healed his leg. Leg restored, Mamoru reevaluated his opponent, he had made the idiotic error of underestimating his opponent, and rushing head-on in a rage.

A cliché gust of wind encircled the two warriors; Mamoru angled his legs and set one toward Naruto and the other facing the open space that he could use to dodge to. Naruto took another kunai from his holster to match the one in his left hand and fingered them cautiously, the cloth grip on the blades slowly soaked in the sweat his palms produced. The silence between the two was a wall between the two, the first to break the wall would start the match.

When the sound of Naruto's sandal grinding against the gravel was hear, Mamoru dashed forward with a speed unexpected of his weight. Naruto hardly had time to react as the bulky samurai drew his katana from its sheathe.

The two warriors met with a clang of metal, Naruto was quickly slashing and stabbing as fast as he could at the portly samurai, but against all logic, the sumo-samurai was able to block or dodge them all. The two danced an intricate dance of death as the steel of their blades created a symphony of clashing metal that surrounded the otherwise silent area. Neither could gain the upper hand as their more advanced techniques took too much time to begin, and each attempt to start would always end up with a glancing blow to their bodies. Ninja and Samurai were stuck in a stalemate where both are forced to use only the most basic of techniques. It was quickly becoming tiresome for both participants.

Finally breaking first, Naruto suddenly kicked out with his open kunai pouch, purposely missing so its contents would spread out to the samurai, who quickly used his blade to deflect them all. Using this time to fall back, Naruto threw his blades straight into the air and formed his hands into his most favorite technique.

"Kage-bunshin no jutsu" Whispered Naruto, he would never get tired of saying that phrase, or seeing the reactions of its target's faces.

Two more Naruto's appeared out of thin air, as did four extra kunai above them. Mamoru was then surrounded by three ninja's and six deadly blades. The other Samurai tried to enter the fray, but were suddenly stopped by a wall of sand. They turned to attack the other group but were greeted by a large leopard-like beast of sand.

(Sunaton Hijutsu: Suna Hikyuu) thought Gaara.

The samurai tried to unveil their blades to attack the interloper when they realize their swords were gone, when they focused back on Gaara they noticed Kanaye and Haru pulling their eyelids down and sticking their tongues out at them.

Their swords were in their hands.

The samurai could do nothing but watch as their fellow samurai fight a three on one battle, at first it seemed that Mamoru would lose, his body began to sway and his swipes started to slow, but as soon as it came it went. A surge of energy shot out through Mamoru as he released the first barrier of his seal. The armor guarding his back, glowed a vibrant black, contrasting the brown leather that made up his casual work armor.

With renewed strength, Mamoru pushed back all three Naruto's, and fell back himself to but space in between him and the copies. He quickly channeled chakra into his sword as fast as he could, in a matter of seconds his sword grew in an intense blue light as a waterfall of energy was poured into it. Once Mamoru felt that his sword could not withhold more chakra, he swiped the air eight times in quick succession. The speed and energy fed to the slices created a speeding sonic boom that was clearly visible to Naruto, but completely unnoticeable to the others.

The swipes were organized in such a fashion that it had created a shape, and when Naruto heard the name of the technique, he figured its creator wasn't all too creative.

"Rising Heavens style: Eight-Pointed Star!" Yelled Mamoru.

Yep, definitely very uncreative.

The two pairs of four chakra shockwaves spun around clockwise as they headed towards the three Naruto's, one clone was caught in the attack and sliced into a human checker board as the other two escaped with the skin of heir teeth.

The second clone was quickly dispatched as Mamoru suddenly appeared right in front of him, and in seconds was de-summoned as a blade pierced his skull.

What happened next was a complete blur. Mamoru reappeared in front of Naruto, who only survived the decapitating swipe because of his quick reflexes from being a ninja. Mamoru however, was able to knock loose one of Naruto's Kunai, causing the blond ninja to jump away and mutter out a stream of curses.

Soon after, Mamoru spun around like a top, keeping his blade close to himself. Naruto felt a vacuum of wind around him, pulling him closer to the spinning samurai. He tried to use chakra to hold his feet onto his ground, but the suction was getting stronger and stronger, slowly dragging him closer to Mamoru.

Mamoru was still spinning as if his life had depended on it, gradually increasing his speed until he was nothing more that a whirling cyclone vacuum. Once he decided his opponent was close enough, Mamoru stopped spinning and thrust out his blade towards Naruto. Naruto, who was still using his chakra to hold himself on the floor had no time to dodge as the samurai blade pierced his flesh.

The chakra that was stored in the blade during Mamoru's spinning then entered the bowels of Naruto, destroying the very organs that were within, and leaving a melted mess inside the body.

Time froze again as the two fighters stayed still for a moment, The blade sunk deeper and deeper into Naruto until the hilt rested upon his seal, the other samurai relaxed, it seemed that the threat was over with. The samurai were about to turn and face the other foreigners until they were yelled at by Mamoru, they stood at attention and grabbed their swords by reflex; only to remember that they were still missing, and stared at their current leader.

And that's when it hit them, only Mamoru was there, only Mamoru. There was no blood, no body, and no trace of the supposedly dead foreigner, the only possible evidence that anything was even there was the pile of sand at Mamoru's feet. When they turned around to look at the foreigners traveling companions, they were greeted by only their swords stabbed into the Earth accompanied with a single note weighted down by a kunai.

Mamoru walked up to the note and examined it and the kunai before picking it up and throwing it to one of the samurai who held it away from him as if it was a diseased animal.

All samurai narrowed their eyes at the kunai, and began to converse with themselves. One warrior ran to a tower that overlooked the village, while the rest called out to the villagers that the coast was clear.

Mamoru paid no attention to this as he read the note to himself, and was slightly disturbed of what he read.

Dear Mamoru,

Though I really liked the little fight we just had, I have to regretfully decline your challenge right now. I am, after all, busy with other matters, but don't worry, we will see each other real soon. And don't take that the wrong way; Rest assured that I am straight like an arrow. Anyway, if you want to meet us again, be sure to be at the duel that will be occurring at your location in about two and a half an hours, we'll be waiting.

Later, N. U

Mamoru stared at the note blankly for a moment as the rest of the world quickly moved back again as if nothing ever happened. Children played, mothers gossiped, merchants sold, the old reminisced about the past, and the men discussed about their duties and the upcoming duel.

Mamoru still stood at his spot as the village moved, he had only one question in his mind:

(Who were those guys?)

-

The said group ere inside a dark but very spacious alley on the far side of the village, the street and local area was relatively deserted, and the alley itself was a slope, with them being at the very top, a large erotic poster was at the end of the alley, with its important parts cut off, no doubt the village's women had found this alley and took matters into their own hands.

"That Was F$#)&( AWESOME!" yelled Haru, he was babbling about how great the fight was, however short it may have been, to Kano, completely disregarding the fact that Kano was standing right next to him when it happened. After a few minutes of running around like a headless chicken shooting a thousand words a minute, Haru fainted dead on the ground, the only sound in the group being his snoring.

Kanaye sighed at his brother's short energy burst. He secretly coveted those moments, it reminded him that Haru was alive. Since Haru slept nearly fifteen hours a day, Kanaye constantly stressed over the thought of Haru dieing in his sleep, but those bursts of energy told him that his ototou was still alive and kickin, or cursing as it were.

"That was an interesting turn of events, what do you think Gaara-san?" Inquired Kano, he was still a bit fuzzy in some parts, but he understood mostly what was going on. He is after all, suppose to learn from his new family.

Gaara shook his head at first, but then realized he could not help but agree with the young boy. "Yes, it was...and that was quite the final technique he used. Do you think it is his best Naruto?"

Naruto grabbed his stomach at the mention of the attack as he thought about the battle; he could not help but feel phantom pain of what could have been a very painful technique. He was very grateful he managed to use a kawamiri on Gaara's sand leopard beast, and thanked any god who was watching over him.

"Uzumaki!"

Naruto snapped out of his funk and muttered a reply to the others. "No, I doubt it, only a fool would bring out his biggest guns in their first fight."

"You mean like you did when you went up against Kakashi-san?"

Naruto snorted but kept silent, Gaara and Kanaye snickering softly at him.

Kano noticed the tension rising in his idol's shoulders, and decided to change the conversation. "So who is going to partake in the duel?"

Gaara and Kanaye suddenly stopped snickering, they would have to plan this carefully or risk loosing everything. They somehow had to convince Mamoru to join them, and proving themselves as warriors would have to suffice. That is, if he and his friends didn't kill them first for being ninjas.

Kano woke up Haru and told him that he should probably listen to the plan that the other three were making.

Naruto looked at Gaara, who nodded and turned to Kanaye, he understood the unknown conversation and made a side-ways glance at Naruto, who looked indecisive at first but then looked up with fierce determination. Gaara and Kanaye smiled at their unsaid leader's silent answer, before sitting down and started meditating, with Naruto following suite.

Kano and Haru watched the entire exchange with pure absolute confusion.

"What in the hell happened?!" Whispered Haru harshly, he did not like to be outside of the plan, especially if he was woken up for it. Why would they even wake him up if he didn't get to be a part of the plan?! Where's the logic in that!?

"If I knew such things I would explain Haru-san, but I am still learning like you so I have no answer to give." Kano frowned, would he be able to have conversations like that one day? He hoped he could, the less voices he heard in life, the better.

Haru stomped the ground "Arrgh! I hate it when they do that! Humph, well whatever. Kano can you help me set some traps around in case some of our samurai friends start snooping around?"

Kano shrugged at the question. "I don't know of such things Haru-san, but if you wish to teach me, I am wiling to learn."

Haru beamed at the response, someone wanted to learn from him! Just watch! He'll teach Kano to be the greatest trap-setter ever! Second only to him! "Great! All right Kano, I'll just tell you what our nii-sans have told me, you just so the same thing as me okay?"

Kano nodded and listened intently, he longed to be helpful and not be burden. If he learned this he could do more than just stand around hopelessly.

Throughout the next few hours, Kano observed and learned; he surprised Haru a few times with suggestions and ideas that seem to have no flaw, this fact gave a mighty blow to Haru's once proud ego, which then started to deflate rapidly when Kano was able to set multiple and extremely complex traps in a matter of minutes. Haru swore that some of the traps were so complex that it would have taken a veteran shinobi at least an hour to deconstruct it, hell it would have to take him at least half that time! Him, the master of traps!

So into completing his work that Kano did not realize the others had already woken up and were analyzing him. Kanaye was making a low whistle at how much Kano was working, Gaara nodded his head in an approving matter, and Naruto had an unfamiliar look of pride on his face.

The three experienced warriors looked at little Haru with questioning looks. Haru just shrugged in response, lost in what to say in Kano's seemingly endless talent for traps.

A loud gong off the distance brought the entire troop out of thinking, all except Kano that is, who was still working on his latest project. Naruto was the first one who walked up to Kano, but had accidentally triggered Kano's trap.

A small hail of shuriken appeared from his side, Naruto dodged them all, but then the shuriken cut a thin wire that dislodged a heavy stone from above his position, Naruto rolled to the left, and the stone fell to the ground.

And into a hidden pit with a hidden trigger inside it. The trigger was pulled by the weight of the stone that set off another wave of shuriken, some of which that landed on Naruto's arm, the remaining shuriken hit the large poster on the other side of the alley, which turned out to hide several dozen summoning scrolls.

Millions of Senbon needles shot out of the poster, triggered by the shuriken that hit their summoning scrolls, Naruto had no way to run away to, seeing as they were in an alley and the only direction was straight up, where the wave of needles were also going.

A wall of iron sand appeared in front of Naruto, either absorbing or blocking the incoming needles. Naruto sighed in relief but heard a strange sizzling sound above him, slowly, Naruto turned his head upwards, where he saw an explosion note falling on his face.

"Aw, shi-" was all Naruto managed to say before a resounding explosion cut him off.

Kano looked up from his work at the sound of the explosion, he smiled thinking he had caught an intruder, but went deathly pale as he realized what had happened. His trap was triggered by one of his own, the one that he idolized the most no less! Kano panicked, what were they going to do to him now? But, more importantly, did the one he idolized the most, live?

It was at that moment Naruto poofed into existence behind him and gave Kano a hearty pat on the back. "WOW! That was amazing Kano! I thought I was a goner for sure!"

If he knew how, Kano would have face-faulted right then and there, he was expecting something else completely different than a pat on the back.

"H-how? I t-thought for s-sure t-that you were a g-goner!"

Naruto gave off one of his trademark smiles, "Kawarimi no jutsu is such a handy technique, I switched spots with a nearby senbon-impaled barrel right before I was caught in the explosion."

Kano stared dumbly at his idol, and inspected the alley. Needles, shuriken, and kunai were scattered everywhere, the boulder he used was sitting innocently in the pit he had dug, and a giant crater marked the explosion from the note Haru gave him.

" Kano... Kano!" Naruto was getting impatient with his new friend, they only had a few minutes to get to the duel, and Kano was still staring at the damage his trap had done.

"Are you going to punish me?"

The question caught Naruto by surprise, why would he punish Kano? But he quickly realized that he must feel guilty from the trap he had set. Well, it did almost kill him, but that was a plus! That means they would be able to sleep easier if Kano set those traps before they fell asleep. Kano should be proud!

"Don't worry about this Kano-kun! Just forget about it and let's get on with life! Beside, you should be proud with what you did! You almost took out an experienced jounin-level ninja! With you're traps alone we could take out half of an entire village of ninja!" Naruto's encouragement seemed to do the job as Kano's spirits rose considerably, there was also a quick flash of a darker emotion as the beast within him toyed with the idea; an entire village…interesting.

(Maybe that was a little much...) Thought Naruto as he saw the strange gleam in Kano's eyes, he would have to keep an eye on that.

"Anyway...we have to fight those samurai soon and I'm afraid that if Kanaye doesn't throw a punch at someone soon, he'll start targeting us!"

Kano gave a small smile at Naruto's statement, and walked towards the group with Naruto. Once they had gathered all together they disappeared using Gaara's version of the body flicker jutsu.

-

The Samurai were growing restless, but none more so than Mamoru. He had been waiting for the past two hours in the same damn spot! And still no sign of those foreigners! If he ever saw those five again...

Mamoru's thoughts were interrupted when he heard one of the villagers shout. A diamond-shaped dagger landed about an inch away from his foot.

Diamond shape...

Ninja...

They were here!

In a sizeable whirlwind of sand, the group that all were waiting to see appeared. Only, there seemed to be more than before.

Mamoru looked upon the new arrivals, they were a sight to see, a cat-like creature made of sand stood protectively in front of what seemed to be the weaker portion of the group, and two horse-sized toads with wicked looking axes flanked the creature.

The three others walked forward to the mob of samurai to begin the duel, their challengers from earlier walked away from their group and strode to their opponents.

Mamoru recognized all three samurai, he had forged a sword for each of them.

The one that was facing the muscular foreign ninja favored power attacks and was very advanced in hand-to-hand combat; no doubt that he chose the largest opponent in hopes of a fist fight. His name was Kuwabara, a red haired samurai with dark eyes and blue armor, his other name was the Knuckled Samurai. He had the Elephant's Tusk, a blade with no sharpened edge, but had a pointed tip for stabbing.

The red-headed ninja was facing a samurai who favored speed attacks; it was obvious why the samurai chose him as an opponent. The red-head looked very sickly and his legs looked very weak, he was also burdened with that heavy gourd on his back. He remembered that this particular samurai was very arrogant about his abilities, but rather than use word to flaunt his abilities, he used facial expressions and body posture. His actions annoy his enemies to make mistakes, of which he takes advantage of. His name was Hiei, otherwise known as the Ebony Blade for his great affinity for anything black, his sword was known as the Great Beast Shadow Sword.

The final samurai was one of the most impressive he had ever the grace to witness. He was not as fast as him, nor as strong, but he was just as skilled, if not more so. It was only his own speed and strength that allowed him to win over that samurai, and he doubted that the blond he fought would survive against him. He was known as the Silver Wind, named after his hair and armor color, no one alive knew his real name, his blade of choice was the Mercury.

Mamoru watched on, eager to see who would win.

-

The six warriors stared at their respective opponents, evaluating, calculating, and judging their strengths and weaknesses. Each was trying to find the smallest of hints on how to win, and how to insure it.

Gaara was annoyed with his opponent; it was painfully obvious to see that the idiot thought he would win. He had greeted Gaara with a scoff and kept that cocky smile on his face ever since. Said red head promised to him self to crush this guy slowly.

Kanaye could see a gleam in his opponent's eyes, and tightened his fists in apprehension. He was tired of all this waiting. He wanted to smash something, particularly the samurai.

Naruto was not really thinking about the battle, he was just hoping that everything will work in favor of his dream. But the dream will never happen if this fight doesn't take place, so with a look of determination on his face, Naruto charged the enemy.

Once Naruto had charged, the rest followed; visions of victory in their eyes.

-

---Gaara's battle---

The samurai who was facing Gaara disappeared in a blur, leaving a wisp of dirt from his previous location.

Acting purely out of instinct, Gaara ducked down and narrowly missed a decapitating swipe.

The samurai blurred out of vision again and reappeared from behind Gaara, stabbing his sword into his back.

The cut went in easy, too easy. The samurai turned to see he had stabbed a clone of his enemy, and it was made out of sand. The samurai spread his senses to find his opponent, feeling the surrounding area, using techniques he learned as a beginning samurai.

(There!) Thought the samurai as he turned to one direction, Hiei positioned his weapon so it faced that location and gathered chakra to his legs. In a burst of speed, the samurai sprang into his target, intending to stab right through him.

But instead of going through flesh and bone, he went through one of those strange cat-like creatures made of sand.

Gaara summoned a number of his leopard beasts to aid him, and sent them to distract the samurai while he pondered what to do. Any idiot could point out that his opponent favored speed over power.

That was not good for him; he would have to completely change his battle plan because of it. Gaara sighed; he had no choice but to ask shukaku for guidance. His experience with that one very agile shinobi from the leaf suddenly flashed into his mind, if he beat Lee, he could beat this guy easy.

That was what Gaara thought, before he saw what happened next.

The samurai had jumped away from the swarming leopard beasts and was gathering chakra into his sword, once finished, the samurai stabbed into the air, releasing the chakra into the blade's shadow.

(Samurai jutsu: crawling shadow bullets) Thought Hiei as the speeding shadow spears went straight through the leopard beast's shadows, and in turn, making holes in their bodies where a real spear should have gone.

Gaara quickly assessed the situation and made a platform of sand for him to stand on, and made it large enough to cover his shadow. If the bullets ever crossed over to him, then it would only hurt his platform, not himself.

His theory was proven correct when the samurai narrowed his eyes and tried a different tactic. The samurai threw his sword like a spear to Gaara, who tilted his head to the side, dodging it completely.

Gaara was disappointed at the act, but was quickly convinced otherwise as the blade sunk into the shadows, and reappeared right below him, The blade had used the shadow's behind him to appear on the shadow he made on his platform! The clever bastard!

After jumping away from the one platform and into another, Gaara send a wave of sand shuriken to the now defenseless enemy. But cursed as he forgot to remember that his opponent specialized in speed, the samurai dodged the flying projectiles all too easily and disappeared in a blur.

Gaara sighed as he resigned himself to asking the stupid tanuki inside of him for aid.

(Shukaku, we may need to work together if this samurai is anything like that Lee character from Konoha.)

Shukaku's response was natural.

FOOL! WHY SHOULD I, THE GREAT SHUKAKU LISTEN TO YOU! A WORTHLESS HUMAN?

Stupid and egotistical.

(If you don't, we both die. And while I have no qualms with death, you however, have a different opinion on the matter.)

The only way to reason with a demon was to use its only fear against him, more specifically, their fear of loosing their life to anyone or anything weaker than themselves.

FOR ONCE YOU MAY BE RIGHT GAKI, I GUESS EVEN A BLIND MAN CAN PICK THE RIGHT COLOR ONCE IF GIVEN ENOUGH CHANCES. Gaara's eye twitched at the comment, Shukaku noticed but hardly cared. YOU WORK WITH THE IRON SAND AND I SHALL STAY IN CONTROL OF OUR REGULAR SAND. DO NOT FORGET TO ENCASE YOURSELF IN A LAYER OF BOTH OUR SANDS. I WILL NOT DIE BY A SAMURAIS BLADE, OR BY YOUR FOOLISHNESS.

(...I'm glad you see it my way...)

Gaara did as he was told, setting up a wall of iron sand around himself. He then made two pairs of eyes to observe the battlefield, and prepared for the coming fight.

The other samurai had reappeared, finished with retrieving his sword, and was now looking towards the sphere. One layer of that already difficult sand, but another layer of what seemed to be sand made of metal. That was very bad for him.

There was only one way for him to break that wall, and it was going to hurt him more that it was going to hurt his enemy, but he had no choice. There was only one technique he knew that could pierce through such a solid defense, even though it was forbidden.

The samurai concentrated, focusing chakra into both his legs and his blade. The blade started shaking under all the pressure and it hummed as if an iron bar had struck it, lightning bolts shot out of the blade and had started to burn the samurai.

Gaara had felt the amount of chakra the samurai was producing and quickly decided to reinforce his ultimate defense. This guy had already open three of the seven celestial gates, and was starting to open more. This next attack was going to be insanely powerful, and seemingly suicidal. Gaara had to admire their dedication; these samurai really meant business when they dueled.

Silently, Gaara promised himself never to insult men of honor like samurai ever again.

Slowly, the humming grew louder until it deafened the samurai's ears, and the lightning grew more erratic until it had electrocuted both of the samurais arms. Now fully prepared, the samurai charged towards Gaara in a speed equivalent to the body flicker jutsu, his body corkscrewing in the air not unlike the Inuzaka's gatsuuga.

" Thunder School's Ultimate Technique: Hurricane!"

A loud explosion rocked the nearby buildings as Gaara's ultimate defense went up against the samurai's ultimate attack. The samurai drilled deeper and deeper into the wall of sand, with each moment that passed the samurai's body burned to a higher degree, soon he will be nothing more than a pile of incinerated flesh, but he was happy. He will die in battle, and with honor, like so many other samurai dream of doing.

Gaara was maintaining the iron sand as hard as he could, keeping the wall focused in the area that the samurai is drilling in. Seconds passed like lifetimes until the inevitable climax was reached.

A flash bang of chakra was shot out, blinding all temporarily.

As the spectators looked on, they saw a badly burned samurai with overcooked arms laying motionless at the end of a trench his attack had made, a few feet away from a rather sizeable crater was being unveiled from the smoke that covered it. The smoke passed away displaying Gaara holding his heavily ripped up arm, leg, and side.

Kano and Haru ran to Gaara, set him down at the edge of a building. No one tried to bother them as the sand leopard and armed toads defended the three with vicious faithfulness. The younger two followed the older third's instruction when they applied medical aid to him, Gaara hissed and winced in pain every once in a while to show how badly his body was hurt.

As he was being treated on, Gaara was able to look on at the others fight, a bruised and bleeding Kanaye was limping towards him, a satisfied smile on his face. And Naruto…wait...What the hell!?

-

---Kanaye's Fight---

Kanye had a very simple life, because he had a very simple way of thinking.

Besides the obvious chores of eating and sleeping, his life mainly consisted of making his muscles bigger, looking out for Haru, and beating up people.

When something happened to change that system of thought, Kanaye got very angry. He was a fighter, not a thinker. Which is why he was being backed up into a wall by his opponent's blade, this samurai was a thinker, and a fighter!

But that didn't matter, he was a ninja, and ninja did not get very far in life without learning to at least read their opponents to a somewhat acceptable extent. Even he was able to read a lot from this guy, and he was terrible at things that needed smartsy stuff.

Kanaye chuckled, samurai are almost too easy to read, they might as well right on themselves to display their fighting styles; that might make it more subtle.

His opponent was a powerhouse, a big time powerhouse that focused on straight-forward assaulting attacks. And this guy had a weapon, a strange blunt katana. Kanaye had at first passed it off as a lazy samurai who forgot to sharpen his sword.

That idea was literally sliced in half as the samurai was able to cut down a very thick tree with a sword that was probably less effective at cutting things than a wooden club.

Kanaye shook his head as he thought about the stereotypical relationship of a samurai and his sword. Why would they coddle a weapon so much? Or even kill themselves with it if they were to loose? Samurai's are so confusing...like women on PMS, or old people who speak in riddles, or toothless children who can't form a single syllable from their mouths…

Kanaye's mental rambling were cut short as he noticed the blunt, but deadly blade come at him in a sideways strike, intending to split his bottom half away from him.

Kanaye jumped, his sandal soles missing the blade with an only minimal margin of space.

That's when Kanaye noticed something, he was stuck! Gravity will come into play and he plummet like a stone, and fall straight into the samurais arms. He already noticed that the samurai fell into stance, his blunt katana ready at his side. Kanaye had to think, fast.

By using what Kanaye would define only as divine intervention, Kanaye temporarily had a genius moment. He had reached into his kunai pouch that he had relieved from the hidden grass just slightly before his joining of Yoinokuchi, and threw a trio of blades at the samurai.

Surprised, but prepared, the samurai deflected all of the incoming knives, allowing a small window of time for Kanaye to escape.

Kanaye made it just in time as he landed and ducked to the ground the second the samurai deflected the last blade, and as if almost practiced out, Kanaye sent his leg crashing into the samurai's sword arm, knocking the blade free from the samurai's grip.

At that moment, if it was possible, Kanaye would have patted himself on the back. Without his sword, any samurai was powerless!

Or so Kanaye thought.

He was rudely brought out of his temporary celebration, by a powerful right hook of astronomical proportions.

Kanaye skidded a few dozen feet away, a got up very slowly, that attack hit him square in the chin, and it hurt like hell.

Kanaye berated himself for giving the samurai a chance to get his sword. That is until he noticed that the samurai was patiently waiting for him, arms crossed.

"Why didn't you go for your sword?" Asked Kanaye.

The samurai remained silent.

"You would've secured your victory with that sword, you know that right?"

The samurai shrugged, but still said nothing.

"...Fine, be like that. I thought we ninja's were the secretive ones, now it seems I have been proven different neh?"

The samurai fell into stance, but his face did not move a muscle.

"...Let us begin..." Were Kanaye's words before he attacked the samurai.

The samurai charged at that same moment, with a sign of a smile on his face.

The two clashed with a loud smack of flesh, sending kicks and combos at each other, neither giving the other and inch of ground.

Kanaye brought his left hand to back-hand the samurai, who responded by elbowing it out of the way and sending a powerful right hook to Kanaye's exposed face.

Kanaye bent his head backwards, narrowly missing the giant fist. The samurai lost balance, sending in too much power into the attack and leaving himself wide open to attack, Kanaye took advantage of this and sent a knee straight into the samurai's stomach.

The attack landed, knocking the air out of the samurai, further distorting him. Kanaye crouched and tripped the samurai into falling flat on his stomach.

Kanaye rotated from his attack until he was facing away from the samurai, and with perfect timing, kicked his feet up until he stood up on his hands. Kanaye was now hand standing in the direction of the samurai, he leaned forward until his leg were carried by gravity and slammed onto the samurais unprotected back, undoubtedly breaking a number of bones.

"The Great Bull's Stomp, my personal technique"

Kanaye back flipped away from his opponent, confident he had won. He had not taken three steps when he felt the most tremendous pain he had ever felt slam into chest.

The samurai had not yet fallen. He had taken a bad hit, but was not out of the fight. By will that might have rivaled the Sun of Konoha, he had stood up, charged, and sent a terrifying elbow to Kanaye's solar plexus, causing him to fly a good three yards away.

Kanaye coughed out a mouthful of blood, and shakily got up. That hit really hurt him bad...If it were not for a lifetime of muscle-building and demon hosting, he certainly would not be alive right now, let alone conscious.

But his enemy was just as bad as shape as he was in, his Great Bull Stomp was no beginners technique, and could break boulders if need be. But he had another technique like that, and it could win this fight...if the samurai would hold still for a moment.

From the distance he was at, all he needed was three seconds. But those three seconds could cost him his life if his opponent was fast enough.

He then felt the two massive chakra out bursts of Gaara and his opponent, if those chakra's clashed, and they undoubtedly will, it would create a flash bright enough to still his opponent long enough for the 'Six Demon Horns'.

Kanaye summoned chakra from his pre-set reserves, and let it flow into his arms and hands. Once he was satisfied with the amount, he waited patiently for the eminent flash bang to occur.

He and the samurai glared at each other from across their battlefield. To them, nothing else existed but the other and victory. How the two would decide the final victory between each other would remain a pointless mystery to the other. All that mattered was one would walk away, and the other would never walk again.

The flash had arrived as Kanaye had predicted, and to his luck, the samurai did not prepare for it, rendering him blind for the precious seconds Kanaye needed.

Kanaye charged it, arms powered up, and ready to strike. His first target was the samurai's shoulder blades.

"First Horn!" Yelled out Kanaye as he brought down his arms on the samurais shoulders, the force of the blow was so strong that one could see the arms visibly detach from their place and slump down lower than they should have. Hah! The stupid f$#$, can't throw those damn punches anymore!

"Second Horn!" Continued Kanaye as he chopped the samurai's remaining ball and socket joints on his hips, the joint was completely separated; disconnecting the samurai's legs from his hips, leaving them useless.

(Arms and legs gone), Kanaye thought as he ignored the pain increasing in his chest, a bone must have cracked when he was hit..."Third Horn!"

Kanaye slammed the samurai in the solar plexus, sending the warrior flying back. Usually the attack would be a flat palm into the stomach, but today was different.

Kanaye ran as fast as he could, reaching the area where the body would fly to before it got there. "Fourth Horn!" Kanaye yelled, he had clasped his hands together and had swung upward. The samurai flew hopelessly into the air with no chance of escape.

"Fifth horn!" Kanaye had jumped higher than the still rising body, and had done a double-handed downward strike onto him, causing his opponent to crash to the ground like a comet.

"Final Horn!" Screamed Kanaye as he crashed feet-first into the already defeated Samurai, Kanaye had force so much chakra into the last attack that is had created a sizeable dust cloud up into the air. If the samurai had been able to get up before, he could not have now.

When the dust settled, Kanaye stared at his fallen opponent. He was smiling. It was not a boisterous grin as if he won the lottery, or a smile you earn when you hear a stupid if funny joke. No, this smile was one of gratitude. It was a pleasant smile that held an entire story behind it, a story that would remain a mystery to Kanaye.

Kanaye, felt another wave of pain run through him. The cracks in his bones were getting worse. He gave a final look to the samurai he had just defeated, he would one day find out his story, but for now he will be content with his victory.

Kanaye walked back to the others, Gaara was already there, and was a bloody mess, but he was still alive. For that Kanaye was thankful, he smiled to the others as he walked close and propped himself next to his companions, once he was sufficiently wrapped up. He looked on to Naruto's fight.

What he saw was a white-haired man in black robes and red clouds. He had two crazy-looking swords made of bone in his hands. An army of skeletons in samurai armor behind him, and he looking straight at a Kyuubified Naruto.

Kanaye's next words were openly sympathized with everyone not part of the seemingly endless undead army.

"Ah fuck"

'Ah fuck' indeed.

-

The stranger sighed as the children pined and whined, they were begging for the next part of the story, even though they already knew it. He also noticed that some of the parents were coming closer. He guessed that they do not see him as a threat anymore, but he could still feel the gaze of some hidden ninja around him. At least he was progressing in the social standings a bit, not that he ever cared for such things, they always made things more complicated than they had to be.

Some of the parents actually have him a polite nod before picking up their kid or kids, at that was kind of nice. Others simply gave him a blank stare as a subtle warning not to try anything, or else; that was kind of not nice. But hey, they were parents, they had to act like assholes to strangers around their kids. They wouldn't want to make another Orochimaru now would they?

Hey, wait a minute…did he just compare himself to a body-snatching pedophile? Eww he did! Ugh, he really needed to work on his self-confidence if he was thinking like that.

Giving Rai the signal to go ahead without him, the visitor left in another direction, hoping to find something in Konoha's night life to distract from his deeply disturbing thoughts. He vaguely caught Rai saying something about sunrise tomorrow before turning the corner. HEY! It was the old porn shop from way back when! Wonder if they still sell those certain things…

They still did.

The visitor gave a cross between an evil and perverted laugh as he rubbed his hands in a demented manner and stalked creepily into the sex shop, all previous thoughts of naked children were miraculously purged from his mind as he saw entire shelves of naked women in provocative poses…very provocative poses. The stranger drooled lightly at the commodities the store had, and his thoughts slowly drifted away from tomorrow morning and closer to the current moment.

After all tomorrow was still another twelve hours away, with another chapter as a promise.

-

I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

No more homework! No more dreaded AP tests! No more inrense studying fordays at a time! No more nada! HAHAHA!

Ok, now time to settle down. I believe you all want an explanation for my abscence, that is if you even know who I am. Well, I've been stiffed up to my eyeballs in homewrok, studying, projects, and junk since Feburary, so I had no time to work on my little project. And when I did have time, I had no idea what to write since I was so stuffed wiith technical info I had no mre creative spark. But all that's in the past! I'm free to type when I want, where I want, and how long I want. And it feels damn good! By the way, I have rewtitten the entire thing if you had missed the blatantly obvious sign on the summary, another reason why this took so long to come out.So if you want, re-read from teh beginning, I personally think it is waaaay better than before.