Hello, everyone. Here's the newest chapter of the "Ronin" story. Enjoy!
* Review response:
karthik9, fuuinkami, LbcLostKid, RasenShuriken92, Umbra8191, Knives91, RE5 forever, c im am a dragon, Garuda 1 Talisman, Manga154, golfaholic, sh8ad8ow, Hanzo of the Salamander, thank you, folks!
Naginator, gazz uzumaki, Kojiro Kun, tobi is a good boy777, roshane, Reishin Amara, ragnrock kyuubi, Hakkyou no Yami, hopefully, this chapter will give you some insight about why I had them not recognize each other (other than "plot needs it this way" excuse).
Elfen Sky, well... If anything, I can use "plot requires it" excuse. ^_^ Anyway, really, I don't have any really good excuse for that one, so see the previous sentence for the explanation. Спасибо, рад, что люди читают меня, и им нравится мое творчество.
Psudocode Samurai, I needed a discharge of the atmosphere - after all in the next chapter Naruto will officially get his nickname: "Genocide" (Thanks to what he did in this chapter).
The real leghendary supersayji, I actually thought that Yagura's weapon is a sword. Oh well... This is MY story, so he'll have a sword as his weapon. Yagura is strong without his beast, and with it... He is stronger, but, well, dumber. So as long as one can evade his attacks, fighting him in the beast mode would be about as hard as him without it... That's what I think.
Elemental Dragon Swordman, go to my reply to Elfen Sky's review to see the reason for the plot hole. But, OK, in the fifth chapter after this one they will finally meet for real (I will have the siege of Kirigakure no Sato three chapters long). Maybe, there will be even some M-rated action between Naruto and Mei. ^_^
ShadowGOUF, of course they will. After all, there is Naruto/Mei in the pairing.
ChaosLord SilverLink310, the rebellion gets help part one: weapons and money - this is what this chapter is about.
ogihcI ikasoruK, we talked over PM about this.
Wyrtha, here you go!
DudeZx, thanks!
Still Not Dead Yet, well, I figured it out that the rebellion knew about Yagura being ...not normal, but they didn't know what beast exactly did he contain. One, actually, having enough info, could simply deduce that it was Sanbi.
TheElementalKingOfHell, I update as often as I can. My diploma that I have to write, though, prevents from writing fanfiction more...
fanofmany, indeed they are.
Floating On An Akatsuki Cloud, Naruto will be very powerful (he already is "strong", though, mostly because he uses unusual tactics, ambushes, etc. to take his opponents down without them counterattacking him much), but never once he will be godlike (nor he will be anything more than a jinchuuriki with a spirit of vampire princess in his sword). =)
deathkille88, like this one?
Lednacek, one: most of the bloodline clans alive lived outside of Kiri, so they had less access to such info. Two: Yagura is strong without his beast, so he has no real need in flashing 'tails' in each battle he fights - this way he has Sanbi as an ace in the sleeve. Three: rebellion has info about him being "not normal" and have suspicions, Naruto just gave them the info about what beast exactly does Yagura contain (I suspect that there are some ninja with lower demons/spirits sealed in them).
* Jutsu list:
Fuuton: shinkuu renpa - (unknown rank) Wind style: vacuum successive waves - User expels several cutting wind arcs.
Henge - (E-rank) Transformation - allows user to transform into another person or object.
Ni-kon hei: rengou - (secret technique) Two soul warrior: union - Naruto allows Akasha's spirit into his body, and they control it together. This allows wider range of attacks and greatly increased situation awareness, but maintaining this 'mode' is mentally straining as one needs to control only certain muscles of his body, while completely ignoring other.
Akatan - (secret technique) Red arc - Aoba launches cutting arc of crimson energy from his blade. It's like weaker version of Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou ("Bleach").
Fuuton: shinkuu gyoku - (unknown rank) Wind style: vacuum sphere - User expels multiple penetrating wind bullets.
Fuuton: kaze no yaiba - (A-rank) Wind style: sword of wind - Powerful wind blade.
Kawarimi no jutsu - (E-rank) Change of body stance technique - User substitutes himself with a nearby object.
Akaame no kiri - (secret technique) Blades of the red rain - More or less several successive Akatan techniques.
Kage bushin - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.
Akamaru - (secret technique) Red circle - Akatan that is not an arc, but a complete circle.
Gogyou fuuin - (A-rank) Five elements seal - This is a fuinjutsu technique. User forms an elemental seal on each of his fingers, one for each of the following five "elements": water, metal, earth, fire and wood. This seal disrupts chakra control of its target and makes jinchuuriki unable to communicate with his/her bijuu. Those jinchuuriki who have "even" seals are affected much more by this "odd" seal than those who have "odd" seals themselves. Gaara's seal is assumed to be "odd" in this story. When applied to an ordinary ninja, will cause a lot of pain, most likely making the target to blacken out, and messes with his/her chakra control.
Fuuton: renkuudan - (unknown rank) Wind style: drilling air projectile - User expels a ball of comressed air that explodes upon hitting something.
Shunshin no jutsu - (D-rank) Body flicker technique - Moderate distance 'teleportation'.
Ura shishou - (unknown rank, possibly S) Reverse four image seal - Upon activation, sucks everything within certain radius into the seal and seals it away permanently.
Suiton: suiryuudan no jutsu - (B-rank) Water style: water dragon projectile technique - Creates a column of water in a shape of dragon that attacks the target.
Doton: doryuusou - (unknown rank) Earth style: earthen rising spears - Stone spears raise form the ground to pierce the target.
Katon: housenka no jutsu - (C-rank) Fire style: mythical fire phoenix jutsu - User exhales several small fireballs. The fireballs can have shuriken hidden within them.
Suiton: taihoudan - (unknown rank) Water style: large projectile - User spits a stream of water towards the target.
Kyuuketsuki ryouka - (C-rank genjutsu unique to the Akasha Chisen blade) Vampires' hunting song - Sound-based genjutsu that paralyzes everyone, other than wielder, in the small radius who hears the sound. Strong-willed ninja or genjutsu masters can overpower it.
Fuuton: shinkuu renpa - (unknown rank) Wind style: vacuum successive waves - User expels several cutting wind arcs.
* Poll:
The question this time is: "What should Naruto's summoning be?"
Animal summoning (specie will be determined later if this choice wins)
Object summoning (like Nagato's Gedou Mazou)(exact object will be determined later if this option wins)
Akasha Bloodriver herself
Naruto needs no summoning
Do vote.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto or its characters. I do not own Rosario + Vampire II (First part too, actually), from where the name Akasha Chisen (Bloodriver) comes, either. And, of course, I don't own Red Eyes either - Naruto's (future) nickname in the bingo books comes from this manga.
"speaking"
'thinking'
"speaking of the higher beings / jutsu / Naruto while using Kyuubi's yoki"
'thinking of the higher beings / Kyuubi and Akashi talking to Naruto in his mind'
Special thanks to NARUHAREM FOREVA for beta-reading this chapter.
Chapter 7: Rivers of blood
Mei was sitting behind her table, going through various documents on that Uzumaki guy she had collected for her. He did feel like her Naruto-kun, but with the hard life she lived she didn't believe in such miracles anymore. And, considering what she had found out so far, the chances of this Uzumaki being really Naruto weren't that big: the red-eyed swordsman could only be traced up to the northern Hi no Kuni where he boarded ship to Water country. How could her little adoptive brother end up in the Fire country when he hated Konoha so much? And if he did somehow, where he was for the last three years? Those questions had no answers so far... And above all, she had to worry about rebellion succeeding first – that bastard Mizukage must pay for what he did!
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A little more than a hundred miles away, Naruto was working his way through various rumors he had collected about the sotaicho. Her name, indeed, was Mei, but the info he had went back only a year and a half, when she first took command of a small squad of rebels in the forests of south-west Water country. Where she came from and, if she really was his nee-chan, what she was doing for the first twenty months after the village was destroyed, he had no clues... And with the childhood he had had, Naruto never relied on a chance, unless there was no other option at all, so no matter how much he wanted his Mei to be alive, he decided not to hope on it too much... It will only hurt more in the end if his nee-chan really died, while he made himself believe she did not...
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It was about three month since Naruto had joined the rebellion, and so far, despite his high-jounin level powers, he was just a 'genin' there. And as such, he was stuck with cordoning the fort yet again. At least this way he could continue his training with the help of shadow clones... Or, no... Kyuubi jinchuuriki's enhanced vision picked up an abject flying towards the fort. On pure instinct, he drew Akasha and estimated projectile's trajectory.
"Fuuton: shinkuu renpa!" Several arcs of the cutting wind were launched from the blade and a couple of seconds later, one of them hit the projectile. It exploded rather violently in the air, alerting everyone that the fort was under the attack. A minute later the whole garrison – forty three ninjas of various strengths – were on the walls, all of them trying to determine where the enemy was and what to do. In this minute Naruto managed to destroy two more mortar shells, though the other two managed to reach the fort, thankfully exploding in the unused yard...
Those who had really long-range techniques were also helping the red-eyed shinobi to destroy incoming shells... With Ao away on some political business, the fort's commander was a large jounin named Kaoru Akayama. And the man, it seemed, didn't know what to do in the situation like this... "Damn it, do something, we can't be shooting down those shells forever!" Naruto growled.
"Do what? We have nothing against such a long-range artillery!" Kaoru shouted back above the sound of another explosion.
"Improvise then!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki growled as he sent a wind blade at yet another incoming projectile... Silence was his answer, as the current commander of the fort had no ideas what to do. "Damn! Everyone, listen!" The blond swordsman yelled, unconsciously amplifying his voice by drawing some youki from the Kyuubi. "Those with the long-range wind and fire attacks, try hitting shells while they are in the air. Earth and Water users, you protect the fort walls. The rest with me!"
"Why should we listen to your orders, genin!" Kaoru snapped at him... Naruto slowly turned to the man and looked into his eyes with his own, red and slitted, ones.
"Because I have an idea what to do." That shut the man up finely.
Five minutes later, Naruto, temporarily raised into the position of squad commander by his fellow rebels, was leading a group of fourteen ninjas into the forest, behind which the Mizukage's mortar team should have being situated. Suddenly he stopped and raised his hand, making the others stop as well.
"There is an enemy outpost behind that tree line." The red-eyed swordsman said, pointing to where he had spotted the Mizukage's ninja in the entrenchment. "Prepare explosive tags – we're gonna blow them up." He added, at the same time creating several explosive shadow clones and henge'ing them into the squad members. Then he drew several kunai with explosive tags attached to them. "Fire!" At his command the whole strike team threw the paper bombs towards the trench. Moment later there was a mass of explosions, followed by the weak moans of pain frrom those, who survived. "Hide!" Naruto ordered then, sensing a group of ninja approaching their position, to find the reason for the explosions, most likely. Second later, only ten clones were standing in the small clearing...
"And what do we have here?" Asked the leader of the jounin cell that appeared from behind the destroyed entrenchment. "Capture these non-humans. I want to personally torture those who stand in our way to peace." Before his squad-mates could do anything, Naruto send his clones a mental command to execute the plan, and they rushed towards the Mizukage's shinobi. "Look, they are even attacking like some stupid beast!" Sneered the man... As soon as the clones were close enough, they self-destructed, turning the clearing into one big fireball. Only one of the jounin survived this hell, but a kunai to his head send him after his squad-mates.
"OK, everyone..." Naruto said as soon as the strike team crowded back together. "Now we are gonna split in two and attack their main forces from the sides. This should catch them by surprise as they are expecting frontal attack. Destroying enemy forces is our main task, but should we capture these mine throwers, it would assist us greatly in our fights in the future. So, try not to damage them much. And also try not to detonate the ammunition, unless you have no other option."
"Hai!" His fellow rebels chorused, before splitting into two groups on their own. Naruto's group was small and had only five ninja besides him. The other had nine shinobi and kunoichi. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded, and the teams separated to do their missions...
True to Naruto's guess, the mortar troop was stationed behind the forest, and consisted of two mine throwers and three crates of shells. All was guarded by a ninja squadron. Also true to his guess, most of that squadron was waiting for a frontal attack, though a good part of them was protecting flanks and rear...
'Shall we show them our power, Akasha-shishou?' Naruto asked in his mind as he got ready to draw his crimson sword with his right hand, while a kunai with a flash tag appeared in his left one.
'Very well, Naruto-sama.' The vampiress replied, making sure to purr his name. There was no denying it: slowly but surely this blond ...man was worming his way into her heart ...in a truly manly way. 'Ni-kon hei: rengou!' They said simultaneously. With this technique, Akasha had her spirit temporary moved from the sword into Naruto's body, drastically increasing their battle effectiveness... Of course, this union had a great downside of two souls controlling one body, so it took them more than a year to learn to synch their controls to be able to fight in this mode effectively.
"We attack in ten seconds. Be ready." The blond swordsman, whose eyes were now glowing blood-red a little, told his teammates, while throwing the kunai into the air above enemies' position. As soon as the tag went off, temporary blinding some of the Mizukage's ninjas, the rebels launched their attack... Naruto and his five teammates charged into the mass of disoriented Mist ninjas, dispatching them rather easily... But this lasted only a couple of seconds. Then the Kiri shinobi came to their senses and launched counterattacks. Still, with half of their numbers already down, the Mizukage's forces were hard pressed to quickly change the situation back into their favor...
Naruto was fighting two chuunin – and was winning – when Akasha warned him about a new powerful opponent, that was going to attack them. Seeing it as a sure sign of incoming danger, the red-eyed blond jumped to the side. Moment later, both of his current opponents jumped away as an arc of crimson energy sailed through the place where he was moment before. Naruto looked to where the attack came from and saw an about six feet tall man who seemed to be in his early fifties. The man was wearing blue ANBU-style clothes with a dark-red cape over them. He had short brown hair and long graying mustaches. In his hands there was big sword, that looked like an enlarged katana, with red kanji written along the blade.
"And you are... Aoba Seiren, the eldest member of the seven swordsmen and the fifth seat among them." The red-eyed blond said, while inwardly cursing himself for the bad luck of running into such powerful opponent.
"You know about me, young swordsman?" Aoba asked almost lazily. "But you have me at loss there as I don't know your name." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki shrugged, while assuming defensive position.
"My name is irrelevant." It was Aoba's turn to shrug.
"Very well. Akatan!" The man did a horizontal slash, and an arc of crimson energy flew from the sword, towards Naruto. Akasha, who right now controlled her wielder's lower body, moved them out the attack's path, while the Kyuubi jinchuuriki sent fuuton: shinkuu gyoku back at Aoba, followed closely by several low-level wind blades. Of course, Aoba wasn't one of the seven swordsmen of the Hidden Mist for nothing, and easily escaped all those attacks. The red-eyed blond saw his opponent disappear from his position, replaced by a random pebble, and instantly knew that he could be attacked from any direction any second now. This time his own battle-honed reflexes were the first one to sense the danger, and following them, Naruto raised his sword to block the attack from the right. ...Moment later the two swords clanged against each other. Even without turning his head, Naruto could sense his opponent's surprise at the way he had blocked the attack. Using this to his advantage, the red-eyed blond twirled inside man's guard and kneed him on his stomach, sending him flying backwards.
"Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!" Naruto sent a wind blade after the man. Of course, Aoba just kawarimi'ed away. Suddenly the blonde's senses alerted him about an attack from behind. He tried to dodge it, but the swordsman was very fast and caught Naruto before he got out of the attack's way, managing to cut jinchuuriki's left arm. Naruto then substituted himself with a branch of some tree that lay on the ground good twenty meters away, created a single wind clone – he had finished the jutsu just a couple of weeks ago – and had it kawarimi back. He did it so fast that his opponent, even if he saw the whole thing, couldn't stop his attack it time not to cut the clone. The clone exploded into wind blades that Aoba somehow managed to avoid.
"You are quite good." The swordsman of the Mist commented, as he readied himself for the next attack he was going to use. "Akaame no kiri!" Multiple red arcs of energy raced from Aoba's blade towards Naruto. The red-eyed blond kawarimi'ed himself with a Mist ninja that tried to sneak upon him. Poor man was reduced to pieces of meat as the attack landed on him, but Naruto himself didn't get away unscathed – he now had two bleeding wounds on his legs.
"Damn!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki hissed. Unfortunately for him, the swordsman continued his attack, forcing Naruto on defensive, as powerful strikes rained on him... Knowing that he needed to change this fast, the blond rebel drew some Kyuubi's youki and, multiplying his strength with it, threw Aoba away. Of course, the man recovered from this before he even touched the ground again, and got ready to unleash another powerful attack on his opponent. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, though, acted faster, and summoned a dozen of kage bunshin. Without wasting any time, the clones dashed towards Aoba, changing their directions and switching around all the time. The real red-eyed blond too was attacking, just behind his doppelgangers.
"Akamaru!" The Kiri swordsman spun around, sending a ring of crimson energy from his sword. Most of the Naruto's clones were destroyed – only three managed to dodge the deadly attack – and their creator got hit too. Thankfully, the armor west he wore protected all but his cloak from the damage. As the real Naruto was recovering from the attack he took, two of his clones managed to latch onto Aoba's arms, while the third one rammed shoulder first into man's chest, making him fall down onto the ground. The swordsman of the mist punched the clone on his right arm, making it dispel, before ending the existence of the clone that rammed into him.
"Gogyou fuuin!" Just as the cloud of smoke from the clone dissipated, the real Kyuubi jinchuuriki rejoined the fight, immediately thrusting his arm into his opponent's gut, placing the seal there... While the five elements seal wasn't the best one to seal someone's chakra array, far from it in fact, it was still one of the few that could easily be placed without ink. That, and it caused quite a bit of pain to the recipient, generally knocking him unconscious in a matter of seconds... Seeing the man on the ground unconscious, Naruto sighed a bit tiredly and canceled the union with Akasha – while the jutsu used about as much chakra as henge did, it was mentally straining and keeping it up for a long time was really hard... Taking a deep breath, the red-eyed blond surveyed the battlefield. The fourteen of his comrades had lost four and two more were seriously wounded, while the Mizukage's forces lost twenty. And with one of the seven out of the fight, the chances were that the rebels will be victorious...
"Die, mudblood monster!" A Mist chuunin yelled, sending a rain of shuriken towards Naruto. The red-eyed blond was caught by surprise and barely avoided being killed by the projectiles. Still, one of the shuriken scratched his right cheek, while two cut his arm and two more on his leg. He got ready to counterattack, but instead nearly doubled in pain – the shuriken were covered with acid. Ignoring the pain as best as he could, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, avoided another valley of thrown weapons, before charging towards the chuunin that attacked him. The man drew a dagger, preparing to block Akasha, but as Naruto infused his sword with wind chakra, it easily cut through the steel and, just a moment later, man's neck... He stopped for a second to recover – the acidic burns hurt quite bad, but he had no time for pain right now...
"Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!" Mizukage's jounin that was busy fighting against two rebels, never saw the wind blade rushing towards him from behind.
"Thanks, Uzumaki." Dark-brown haired man in his early thirties, Sanrin of the Mori clan, said.
"Hm..." Naruto said, dodging a kunai sent at him. "I need someone to cover me while I seal mortars and a crate of shells away. Once that is done, we can blow up the rest of enemies and return back to the fort." Sanrin nodded.
"Ojika, Ushiji, help cover up the commander!" He shouted, making the Kyuubi jinchuuriki sigh – the man more or less had told the enemy that they had some very important plan. But, deciding that, should they survive, he'll scold the man later, Naruto went to work. The whole procedure of sealing even such big objects like mortars or ammo crates was relatively fast, taking only about thirty seconds for each object, but, still, doing something like this on the battlefield was ...dangerous to say the least... But the four of his comrades were able to protect Naruto while he and his clones were at work. Even if it cost them the life of Ojika...
"Take the dead and wounded and get ready to get the hell out of here!" Naruto shouted as soon as the sealing was complete, while picking up unconscious swordsman of the Mist he had defeated. Making sure that all of his comrades were at the safe distance, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki pointed Akasha at one of the two remaining ammo crates. "Fuuton: renkuudan!" As soon as the jutsu was released, he shunshin'ed away. A moment later there was a powerful explosion that turned everything within two hundred meters into ash.
When the attack group returned to the fort, they found out that a part of outer wall was heavily damaged and one of the two barracks was completely destroyed, as were the mess and the left wing of the training center. Also, fort defenders lost seven and had fifteen wounded. Still, most of the rebels could agree that it could have been much worse... After the dead ones were buried with honors, the survivors of the attack started repairing the fort. Also, Aoba Seiren, while really hard to crack, was successfully interrogated. This gave the rebels information about the money caravan that will be sent to Kirigakure the following week, as well as some info on the remaining high-profile ninjas of the Hidden Mist. Since the man was loyal to Mizukage as the title, not Yagura personally, it was decided that he will be kept alive until Ao-taicho would decide his fate.
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Ao, when he returned four days after the attack, it seemed, took the news about what happened well. The was sad that twelve of his comrades were dead and seventeen more ended in the medical ward, but he was also happy with what the rebellion gained that day: with the long-range artillery, the siege of Kirigakure, that will happen eventually, would be a much easier task, and with the information that the captured swordsman shared, they will be able to cut the funding of Yagura's army, weakening it...
Because of his actions, even if they did cost a dozen lives of the rebellion ninja, Naruto got the promotion to the rank of chuunin with a recommendation for promotion to the jounin rank – the young red-eyed swordsman proved that he was a good commander as well as a good fighter.
At the same time, Kaoru was demoted back to chuunin rank as his indecision could have been fatal. The man was really unhappy with this, but he could nothing as that was the decision of the fort commander...
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Oh, how much Naruto did hate these kinds of missions. No, he had patience for such things, but he was one of the ones who preferred action, so laying low on the cliff, waiting for hours for the Mizukage's caravan to appear really got on his nerves... Finally, another two hours later, it finally appeared: three carts with chests full of money and thirty chuunin and jounin that were the convoy.
"It's guarded really good. I doubt our forces at the outpost would be enough to crush those." A chuunin from the Yashitora clan said with a sigh. His brother, also chuunin, nodded in agreement.
"Well..." Naruto said a bit cautiously. "Ask for the help. I'm going to make an ambush at the Black river cliff side. I think I can keep them occupied for long enough for our reinforcements to arrive." For some reason, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki felt a strong desire to destroy many of the Mizukage's shinobi right now. Oh, well... The Yashitora brothers nodded and went on with writing a message to the outpost, while the red-eyed shinobi headed into the forest and towards the Black river.
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Of course, for someone with Naruto's chakra reserves, no matter how good he was at suppressing them, to stay undetected from the group of thirty ninja, who, without question, had a sensor among them, was nigh impossible. But as he was alone, the Mist ninja were certain that they wouldn't be attacked yet and were a bit relaxed – after all, who was crazy enough to attack when outnumbered thirty to one?
Unfortunately for them, Naruto was crazy enough. They found it out when he jumped off the cliff at the jounin in the center of the group with Akasha drawn. He was so surprised that he just drew his own sword in defense, but thanks to the wind chakra running through Naruto's blade, it was cut into two. Along with the man. Not giving his enemies any chance to recover, the red-eyed shinobi continued his assault by throwing his sword – with ninja wire attached to it, of course – at the nearest of his opponents...
Seeing that he had no weapon, two of the Mist ninja tried to attack him from the sides with their swords, but their lives were ended as soon as they were close enough to be reached by the jinchuuriki's wrist blades... Naruto threw one of the bodies into a group of Kiri shinobi behind him, while, using the other as a shield, charged forward to retrieve Akasha... It took him a couple of seconds of dodging water whips to reach his blade, but once it was back in his hands, the red-eyed rebel shunshin'ed into the group of Mist ninja on the other side of the battlefield. Slapping a sealing tag on the back of the nearest enemy, Naruto quickly shunshin'ed away.
"Ura shishou!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki whispered, making a single-handed handseal to activated the tag. Instantly a large black sphere appeared around the man who had the tag on his back. Second later everything within the sphere was sucked into the tag to be sealed away permanently – that was a portion of the ground and eight Kiri ninja who were unlucky to be close enough.
"Suiton: suiryuudan no jutsu!" Several of the Mizukage's dogs roared, sending water dragons towards the man who attacked them. Too bad, Naruto kawarimi'ed away, using one of the rocks that were as thick as black berries there. Several substitutions later, the red-eyed shinobi appeared on the flank of that group.
"Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!" First two Mist ninja didn't even have time to react when the wind blade tore through them. The rest, somehow, managed to escape death.
"Doton: doryuusou!"
"Katon: housenka no jutsu!"
"Suiton: taihoudan!" Naruto barely had any time to kawarimi away, as three powerful techniques were sent towards him. Still, earthen spikes managed to tear bottom of his cloak. And one of them even left a gash on the blonde's left leg.
"Damn!" Naruto swore. The mist ninja had recovered from his surprise attack and started fighting more effectively faster than he had anticipated... Still, he was sure that he could overcome them, though it would be much much harder now. "Fuuton: renkuudan!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki didn't have time to see the results of this jutsu as he had to escape another valley of fireballs and two water dragons. Still, the screams of pain told the red-eyed shinobi that he had hit at least one of his opponents. "Kyuuketsuki ryouka!" Stunning the group that tried to sneak attack him from behind, the blond jinchuuriki shunshin'ed high into the air. From there he threw several kunai with explosive tags attached to them, aiming for the groups of Mist ninja. Then he shunshin'ed back to the ground, as far away from the explosions as was possible without leaving the battlefield.
"Die mudblood monster!" Shouted one of the Mist chuunin that was close to the position Naruto reappeared at before charging towards the cloaked blond with his ninja-to drawn... The man may have been a more experienced fighter than Naruto, but he always, it seemed, fought against someone who used a certain kenjutsu style. So he could do only so much against seemingly random attacks that were the 'style' Naruto learned from Kirabi. Needless to say, the chuunin didn't last more than thirty seconds, before Akasha tore through his throat... While Naruto was dealing with the man, another of the Mist ninja attacked him with a kunai thrown at his heart from behind. Thankfully for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, his armor vest saved his life once again. Picking the now-dead man in front of him, the red-eyed shinobi threw him at his latest attacker, forcing him to stop whatever the jutsu he was preparing to launch.
"Fuuton: shinku renpa!" Because of the dead body flying towards him the man didn't see Naruto's wind blades until it was too late... Naruto sighed tiredly: in this short, but violent, fight, he had already used more than two thirds of his chakra. And his wound, while not life-threatening, was bleeding badly, preventing from moving effectively at the same time. Still, with only five opponents left – it looked like the explosive tags killed more than he had thought – Naruto was positive that he could finish them all... The Kyuubi jinchuuriki was forced to return to reality as he saw a couple of kunai thrown at him. Only when he had them blocked with Akasha, he saw explosive tags wrapped around the handles. "Shit!" Even with the sealless kawarimi the red-eyed shinobi wasn't fast enough to escape the explosion unscathed – his face and hands were burnt, and good part of his cloak was heavily damaged.
"We got him now! That monster is finally dead!" One of the surviving chuunin said when the explosion occurred.
"Are you sure?" A pained hissing voice asked him from behind. Turning about as fast as he could, the man saw a wounded and burnt, but alive, Naruto. Then he was decapitated. Using substitution once again, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki escaped another water dragon sent to kill him. Shunshin'ing between two Mist ninja, the red-eyed rebel quickly killed them with his retractable wrist blades. 'One against two... I can do this.' Naruto reassured himself – he could already feel signs of light chakra exhaustion and blood loss.
'Damn it, hairless monkey, you are as bloodthirsty as I am.' The nine-tailed fox commented from within the seal, complementing on its container. The blond jinchuuriki just scowled and shunshin'ed next to one of the two remaining Mizukage's ninja. The man was fast enough to try to block Akasha with his own sword, but Naruto once again showed that normal blade was next to useless in blocking wind-enhanced one – both the man and his sword were now cut into two. Sighing, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki started slowly walking, limping on his wounded leg, towards the last remaining opponent, a chuunin that was visibly shaking with fear. The man, after witnessing twenty nine of his comrades killed by this man, didn't even try to defend himself much. Naruto, though, only cut him enough to put out of the fight for good.
"I need you to pass my message to Mizukage. Tell the three-tailed bastard that his days are counted." With that the red-eyed rebel turned around and, summoning two shadow clones, went to the carts with money...
When the rebel reinforcements from the outposts arrived to the Black river, they saw Naruto, tired, burnt and covered in blood – mostly from the killed Mist ninja – and two of his clones leading three horse-pulled carts... As soon as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki saw them, he dispelled the clones and fell unconscious.
"Roaring dragon" mortar (mine thrower)
type: siege artillery, heavy mine thrower
caliber: 155 mm / 6.102 inch
length: 12 calibers / 186 cm / 72.254 inch
weight: 3 630 kg
effective radius: 0.64 ↔ 5.37 km
rate of fire: up to 4 shots per minute
ammunition: shells
shell types: high-explosive
shell weight: 17 kg
shell length: 421 mm / 16.22 inch
The "Roaring dragon" mine thrower was developed in the Snow country about three years after the end of the Third Great Shinobi war, but only six test prototypes were created – Dotou decided that the weapon was too expensive and too inaccurate for his tastes. So the created units were sold, ending up in possession of the Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura. Later, Yagura decided to test his new 'toys' against the Kuroi jurin fort, occupied by rebels, but, alas, the mortar team he sent there was destroyed before the data about battle effectiveness of the weapon could be collected.
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~~~ Merry Christmas! ~~~
