A change in scenery
Chapter 9 – Preparations
Overall, Naruto was happy with the outcome of his meeting with the Hokage, even if he was starting to wonder how far would he have to go to get information about his parents and some decent training (that he didn't had to find on his own), but, other than that, he was happy with the results of the reunion.
On one hand, he got a new apartment, twice the size of his old one, in a nicer part of the city and with much better neighbors, maybe it wasn't the Namikaze mansion but it was still a great improvement from his old place. For the other part, Gai and Anko were more than happy to fill in for Kakashi and the Hokage, once it became clear that no one else was planning on giving Naruto the training he, desperately, need it in order to survive.
That day, also had some lasting effects on his reputation among Ninjas and villagers (something his clones found out quickly).
Among the ninjas, the rumors of his fighting style and the fact he was apparently being chased by a group of missing ninjas, served to enhance his growing reputation, and made many of his more vocal detractors reconsider their positions, among the villagers the reactions to this pieces of information were extremely varied, some were willing to accept his improved appearance and strength, and some were even compassionate about his life being in danger, but many were still suspicious of his accomplishments. Despite that, it all increased Naruto's conviction that there was hope for his future, and that there were many things worth protecting in his home village.
The same night after meeting with the Hokage, Naruto arrived at his new home, feeling somewhat relieved that the old man actually like him enough to try and keep him alive, at the rate things were going he was starting to doubt he would.
Once the meeting was over, instead of heading for his old apartment, he headed to the ramen stand, because he was hungry and any important things he had, were already being carried by him, but mainly because he was hungry.
After trying and almost succeeding in eating his own weight in ramen, Naruto figured it was time to check his new home, so following the directions he had been given, he arrived into his new apartment, the place wasn't too big, but it was comfortable enough, there was a living room and a kitchen (that actually worked) two rooms, each with its own closet, a bathroom and another wardrobe, all in all, it was perfect for Naruto, even if he still missed the Namikaze mansion.
After settling in, and installing a few protection and security seals (just to be safe); Naruto was finally free to do what he had been wanting to do for a while: unpack all his new stuff, first thing were his clothes, he unsealed almost everything, except for one of his cloaks and a couple of outfits, he was gonna carry them around in case the one he was using got damaged.
The weapons were more tricky to organize, for one thing he had many, apparently when they were choosing what weapons to take they had gotten a little carried away and ended up picking more stuff than necessary, however seeing as Naruto still wasn't sure when he would get more decent weapons this might have been the best solution, but that still left him having to organize all his new weapons.
As far as shuriken and kunai went, Naruto decided to produce several sealing scrolls were he could keep all the extra ones safe and organized for future use, and take a little extra with him in case he needed them, Naruto wasn't too sure about the senbon needles, on one side he really liked this type of weapon, it was simple and deadly if used correctly (especially if helped by a little wind) the problem was exactly that: he couldn't use it correctly, at least not yet, a fact that worried Naruto since he wasn't too sure who would be willing to help him learnt the correct use, for now he would carry a small amount in case he figured a way to learnt how to use it, if worst come to worst he still had the scrolls Haku gave him and he could probably figured it out on his own.
The other type of weapons, smoke bombs, flash bombs, metal wires, special pills and a few makibishi, were mainly left in storage until he needed them, and only a few of each were meant to be taken on regular basis, finally he had some nice swords for his collection, strictly speaking he only had 3 katanas: the first one was a simple, traditional katana it didn't have any distinguishing traits, and that was the reason Naruto had chosen it.
The second one, Naruto wasn't too sure why he took that one, sure it was beautiful but definitely not his style, the blade of the sword wasn't too broad or too slim, however his more particular characteristic was the blue color that the blade took when the light reflected in it, other than that the handle was beautiful, made in some sort of white metal with carvings of dragons in it; the third and final sword was the one Naruto liked the most, it was black, Naruto wasn't too sure in what material it was made but the end result was a black sword, it was extremely slim and almost weightless, and Naruto loved it.
After that he only had a couple tanto (short swords) and a few daggers, since he didn't have any special training with swords (in this body) he chose to leave most of the swords in his apartment, and only take one sealed tanto, at least until he could convince someone to teach him how to use a sword…
With that part finally out of the way, he was about to get started on the ninja scrolls, when someone knocked on his door, and, just as Naruto decided to ignore whoever it was since he wasn't in the mood for visitors, a familiar voice demanded to be let inside, something which Naruto was quick to comply, after all his older sister wasn't exactly the patient type.
"So, what are you doing brat?"
"Hello to you too, Anko-neechan, I was just unpacking some of the stuff I got from my trip" Naruto answer honestly, since this was Anko.
"Ok, need any help, and by that I mean do you have anything interesting left to unpack"
"Yes, actually I was about to start checking the scrolls that Haku gave me, wanna help?"
"Sure" Answer Anko immediately, like Naruto knew she would since the only things she was really interested was pointy things and new techniques (and maybe dango), so with Anko's help he actually managed to organize his new scrolls, they were mainly divided in four categories: medical scrolls, taijutsu and physical training, kenjutsu and weapons and finally water and wind techniques, apparently because of Haku's bloodline he could use both water and wind with ease, something for which Naruto was grateful giving his own elemental inclination.
Anko was fairly impressed with all the scrolls Naruto had collected, finally the only scroll left was the Uzumaki scroll, something Naruto wasn't sure what to do about, on one hand he was dying to know what the scroll said, on the other hand only a blood relative could open the scroll, something Anko was sure to know, since many Konoha-nin had been informed of this by Kushina and passed on the information, so opening it with her present basically proved he was his mother's son, and was not just given the name… which could result in eventual complications.
However Naruto didn't wanted to hide more secrets, at least not from Anko, and, in the end, opening the scroll was his right, even if the Hokage wasn't ready to admit it, so steeling his resolve, he decided to open the damned scroll, and deal with the aftermath afterwards.
"So, Anko-neechan, there it's only one scroll left, but this one it's different…" Naruto finally explained after his internal debate.
"What do you mean Naruto, what is different about it?" Anko answer seriously, picking up Naruto's uncertainty.
"Well, for one thing Haku couldn't open it and it also has my family symbol in some sort of seal…"Naruto trailed off, noticing Anko's shocked expression, a part of him wanted to let it go…but he needed to let her know the truth, about this at least, "Anko, do you know what it is?"
"Naruto, that is an Uzumaki scroll, it is rare to come across one…the thing is you need to be an Uzumaki, to open the scroll so your friend couldn't open it…and you can't either"
"What do you mean? I'm not an Uzumaki?" Naruto asked hiding his relief, Anko wouldn't lie to him and for that he was grateful.
"Naruto, once Kyubbi was sealed in you, the Hokage and Kushina gave you that last name, and Kushina was even planning on raising you herself…but then, she became ill a few days later and eventually passed away, the Hokage honored her wishes and allowed you to keep the last name, and since there weren't any other Uzumaki's alive, as far as we know, nobody opposed it, but …"
This explanation brought real tears on Naruto's eyes, his mother had tried to protect him until the end, she was going to stay by his side even against the whole village…now more than ever he wanted to be known as a true Uzumaki.
"Anko, do you think there is a way she was my mother?"
Anko seem to struggle with a response, but finally she settled with the truth, or at least the truth as far as she knew "Well I don't see how, I mean you act like her as far as I know, and even your talent in Ninjutsu is like hers according to the rumors, but…I just don't want you to get any false hopes…"
But Naruto had heard enough "I'm gonna try to open the scroll. Either way, I'm still proud of my last name"
So Naruto took the scroll, bit his tomb and added some blood to the seal. For a second nothing happen, but then the seal shone brightly and then broke in half allowing the scroll to be open by his rightful owner, however even if Naruto was dying to check the scroll, at the moment he was more concerned by Anko's reaction, at first it was exactly like he expected: she seemed shock and surprised, then she look more confused than nothing and finally she just look angry, this last reaction confused Naruto greatly "Anko-neechan?" he asked letting all his confusion apparent in his tone.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but I just don't get it, if you were her son, which you absolutely are giving you could open that scroll, you shouldn't have been left to suffer, maybe the Uzumaki isn't the richest clan, but they certainly had more than enough money to give you a comfortable life, and more importantly they are a ninja clan, meaning you should had been training in your clan techniques since you were a small child, not left to your own devices, also Kushina was an ANBU and had many high positioned friends, you were never meant to suffer the life you have, I just don't understand why? The Hokage must have known, why didn't he tell us? It was easy enough to prove it, just a little of your blood and an Uzumaki scroll, I just don't…"
Whatever she was about to say was cut off by Naruto giving her a hug that forced all the breath out of her. Since Naruto had arrived at this dimension, a part of him was overwhelmed by the sense of loneliness, even once he had managed to get back some of his old friends, some part of him felt like he had lost something he couldn't get back, but sitting here listening to Anko rant about the injustice of it all, knowing she understood, because she had felt it, knowing she was angry on his behalf for something everyone else assumed he deserved, that part of him was finally starting to heal and, even if Anko didn't know it yet, she had just earned Naruto's complete trust.
About half an hour later, Naruto and Anko were back to their regular selves, having decided by mutual agreement to ignore their emotional outbursts since none of them were exactly big on emotional displays, and were finally satisfying their curiosity by reading the Uzumaki scroll, which included a couple of advanced fire and wind techniques and what seemed to be the first stages of an advanced technique, as far as they could tell, based on the first steps, this technique was meant to combine a sort of genjutsu and a physical anchor, allowing the user to create illusions with physical bodies, all in all an almost invincible technique if used correctly.
The problem was that you needed to learned many complicated techniques before being on a level capable of using the technique effectively and the technique wasn't complete, but even then some of the techniques you needed to learnt where exiting by themselves so Anko and Naruto weren't really to disappointed, of course Naruto couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, after all, even with all the techniques, none were nowhere near Naruto's current level…so, no new amazing arsenal for now.
Shortly after that Anko left for her own apartment, leaving behind firm instructions to met with her, Gai and his team at exactly 6 am, since they needed to design Naruto training regimen now that he was on the assassins hit list, and since he and the rest of team 7 had been given a couple of weeks to rest after the high ranked mission, it was the perfect time to begin the torture, I mean training.
The next morning when Naruto arrived at the training ground, he found an overly exited Lee, an apathetic Neji and a half sleep Tenten, only a few minutes later Gai and Anko arrived at the training grounds.
They had decided it was in the best interest of everybody, if not only Naruto was trained, but also the training of team Gai was increased accordingly, so they were going to develop a training regimen for the four genins.
Lee was obviously going to focus on taijutsu, however they were going to add to his training resistance and gravity seals (which Naruto 'learnt' to do in the mission) and weapons training, this last was added since he needed more than just physical combat an any chakra techniques were out, for obvious reasons, additional to all this, Lee was going to be put in many survival exercises designed by Anko. When they finished explaining his routine Lee's eyes seemed to be burning and Naruto was starting to wonder how they were supposed to survive this torture.
Tenten, was going to get special weapons training courtesy of Yugao Uzuki, an ANBU friend of Anko, however this wasn't all that she was getting, Anko and Gai where going to teach her a few ninjutsus that would be useful in case she was forced in a fight with someone with an advantage over her weapons, and she was also going to join Anko for a few training exercises.
Neji was difficult to decide, since, he didn't have a big jutsu repertory, preferring (like the rest of his clan) to focus on his Juken, however Gai and Anko agreed he needed more jutsus, especially considering that the use of weapons didn't exactly mixed with his taijutsu, however Neji refused to focus his attention in Jutsu training, so in the end they agreed to add resistance seals to help with his training, and a few survival exercises, not focusing much on the ninjutsu training… yet.
Naruto was the one expected to do the more, mainly because he was the one in more danger, but also because he was the one who wanted to learnt more stuff, since he wanted to learnt kenjutsu, he was going to train under Gekko Hayate, another of Anko's friends, for his ninjutsu he was mainly going to practice with Anko and Gai the techniques from Haku's scrolls, since he wanted to increase his control he needed special training so Gai was going to ask a few other Jounins for help and Anko was going to get him a few exercises used in ANBU, and, as soon as he improved enough, they were going to ask Kurenai for help with Naruto's genjutsu training; finally Anko was going to get him a few books about seals that Naruto could use to practice in his free time, or more likely his clones would do it since his schedule look incredible full.
For the next week the four genins adapted to their new training schedules (or more like suffered through them) and also during this time Naruto visited his personal demon a few times hoping to forced him to reveal any information, but even if the demon hadn't outright refused, he was extremely tight lipped, so, other than annoy the demon, Naruto hadn't made much progress.
The only other thing on his mind was the Neji situation, while normally he was happy to ignore the other genin attitude, lately he was getting tired of it, he knew that he was being incredibly unfair about it, not because Neji didn't behave like a pain in the ass, but because that wasn't the reason he was getting tired of his attitude, the real reason was that Naruto wanted his friend back, sure, Lee and Tenten were great, but Neji used to be one of his confidants, and Naruto desperately wanted him back, maybe that was the reason that on his free day, instead of, doing what a more sane person would do and, take a break, Naruto decided to go searching for Neji. He eventually found him in the middle of the forest, practicing with his Byakugan.
"What are you doing here?" Neji asked at once, with his usual arrogance and even a little annoyance
"Looking for you" Naruto stated simply with an easy smile knowing it would annoy the other genin
"Why?" Neji asked trying to keep his composure
"Because" Naruto stated again
"…"
"Go away" Neji finally said, once it became clear Naruto wasn't planning on moving or explaining his reasoning
"Don't wanna"
After waiting a couple of minutes for Naruto to comply or at least do something other than smile, Neji finally figure out that the only way Naruto was going to move away was if he forced him, and given the fact that he was getting tired of dealing with the annoying blond he was more than happy to comply, so adopting the normal Junken stance he attacked his fellow genin
"It's your destiny to lose today" Neji stated while sending a junken stroke to Naruto's right shoulder
"According to whom?" Naruto asked simply while dodging the strike and discreetly deactivating his resistance and gravity seals
"Your fate was written the day you were born"
"If that were true I wouldn't be here" 'In more ways that you know' Naruto added silently to himself
"Our future is already written, I was born as genius and a servant for the main house and you were born to be the dead last, fighting against fate is useless"
"Then why do you do it? I've never seen someone fight destiny more than you, trying to prove your worth, defeating the heiress of the main house over and over again… if you have really accepted your fate why do you do it? Why do you fight?"
"I-I'm not…you don't understand"
While this whole conversation was taking place, Naruto was simply dodging every single strike using his special shield and Neji was getting increasingly frustrated
"Fine, if is really your fate to defeat me…then prove it" Naruto finally agreed, taking hold of Neji's left wrist and using the momentum to throw him over his shoulder into a nearby tree, however Neji spun in the air and used the tree to change direction and aimed a strike to Naruto's chest and another to his arm, on the other hand Naruto used the time to create his double layer shield, giving him the advantage in speed, and the fight in general, since what the junken can't touch, it can't hurt and Neji didn't really use any different techniques (at least in this dimension).
With the additional speed Naruto had no problems dodging the Junken strikes, and taking advantage of his little knowledge about the Byakugan Naruto created a few shadow clones (among which the byakugan couldn't distinguish the original since the chakra was equally distributed) and that thanks to Naruto's particular style where even harder to destroy.
This forced Neji to try to hit multiple opponents, all of which were at least as fast as him, however, after a little while, Naruto and the clones got bored simple dodging and instead decided to attack, so they surround Neji and used a couple of kunai, and turned them in dozens thanks to the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, forcing a quickly panicking Neji to use a special technique that he hadn't quite mastered: Kaiten, which basically consisted in forcing chakra out of all the users chakra points while rotating, creating a shield of chakra.
This served to effectively block all the kunai, but given that he hadn't quite mastered the technique caused him to lose his balance and leave and opening for Naruto to attack using a mid powered Raiton: Jibashi, which basically sent an electric shock to the opponent, and finally defeated Neji.
All in all the combat wasn't particularly hard on Naruto, mainly due to the facts that Neji severely underestimated him; he had past experience fighting against Byakugan users and that Naruto had already mentally unbalanced Neji, even before the fight started, nevertheless a victory is a victory specially in the ninja world.
When Neji, finally, was in condition to speak and move again Naruto had already lost interest (which given his small attention span wasn't all that difficult) and was busy trying to master one of his new wind techniques with the help of a small army of clones, so Neji was forced to wait until he could regain the blonde's attention, finally after half an hour Naruto seemed to remember the other genin and left his clones practicing while he went to chat with Neji, this time instead of fighting Neji decided to explain his past to the blonde (something Naruto already knew but was willing to listen again).
Neji explained all about the seal in his forehead that basically marked him as a servant (read slave) of the Hyuga main family, and also about his past and how his father was killed instead of his uncle, simply because one was a member of the main family and the other wasn't, all the time Naruto simple listened quietly letting Neji rant and basically let it all out.
"You know, now that I think about it you and me are not so different, you told me your secrets would you like to hear some of mine?" Naruto asked once Neji was done explaining, and once Neji agreed, Naruto told him about his past, or more like the original Naruto past, he told him about the fourth, about the sealing of the kyubbi in a newborn baby (carefully avoiding any mention of his parents), about the village, about how he was treated, all the small injustices, and basically all about his own seal and his own 'fate', however all the while Naruto simply stared at the clouds and only when he was done did he dared to look as his fellow genin.
If Naruto was being honest he was scared, or more like terrified, he hadn't been planning to explain about Kyubbi but he was tired of carrying so many secrets and this was the only one he was willing to share, however forcing himself to look Neji in the eyes was harder than he thought it will be, because if he saw the same disgust that the rest of the village showed he wasn't sure of what he was going to do, when he was finally able to do it all he saw was understanding, not fear nor pity, simply understanding and that was all Naruto could had asked for.
"My seal make a servant in the eyes of the main house, yours made you a demon in the eyes of the village, neither is true, what I don't understand is why do you still try to protect them, why don't you hate them?"
"I could…it would be so simple, and yet it would be such a burden… I refuse to let them dictate who I should be, I'm not a demon or a monster, also, no matter what they think, I do love this place and many people in it, so instead of proving them right, I'll simply live as I like and try to protect them…maybe someday they'll understand, maybe not; that is their problem. I'll simply find my own destiny; I'll make my own fate; that is my way" Naruto answered honestly, dropping his mask and, unintentionally, gaining Neji's respect.
After that things settled for the genins of team Gai and Naruto, Neji was still a little distant and he still resented many of the members of the main house, but he lose the edge that seemed to make him a bastard, instead he started to show more of his true self and he dropped all the fate crap, he started to spend much of his free time with Naruto, even if the blonde still enjoyed to push his buttons.
Neji also agreed to focus on some ninjutsu training and somehow managed to convince Naruto to train with him regularly, something that wasn't really that hard since Neji was the perfect opponent for Naruto to train while improving his technique. Other than that the genins continued to suffer thought their training relatively unscratched.
While all of this was happening, the things with team 7 stayed pretty much the same. After the weeks of time down Naruto decided to give Kakashi a chance and went to the first meeting in person.
During the break Naruto knew that Kakashi was still training Sasuke and was trying to help him develop his sharingan, something Naruto secretly wish he didn't, not because he was worried about the thief–eye (which was the name Itachi had given to the sharingan in his own world) but because he knew once Sasuke actually gained the ability, he would become even more arrogant (if that was possible) and even more power obsess, but since Naruto wasn't the teacher he didn't felt like getting in the middle of that fight.
Sakura, apparently, was the only one who did nothing during the whole break.
Naruto's relationship with the other members of team 7, hadn't really improved either. Kakashi was still ignoring him most of the time, even if now Naruto knew the reason or at least part of the reason, something witch annoyed Naruto because Kakashi was supposed to be his sensei, but either way nothing much had changed between the two.
On the other hand his 'relationship' with the other two members of team 7 was actually worst than ever, apparently Sasuke couldn't handle the fact that the 'dead last' wasn't a complete loser, and had actually demanded a fight as soon as they returned, something that Naruto absolutely refused, he had no intention of becoming a rival for the obsessed Uchiha (Lee was one thing, but Sasuke was too much.) And Sakura was still a faithful fangirl, so Naruto tended to simply ignore anything she said or did.
So even if Naruto decided to attend the meeting in person, he wasn't really hoping for much…and he got exactly what he was hoping, Kakashi explained that they weren't going to take many missions instead focusing in individual training and that because Sasuke needed help to developed his bloodline, he was going to be focusing on his training. In the mid time Sakura and Naruto were going to work on improving their chakra control, because that was what they needed more work.
During the whole speech Naruto was busy resisting the urge to scream, he (due to his insane training) actually had good chakra control and absolutely better control than Sasuke; and Sakura actually had perfect chakra control, so there wasn't much they could improve with only tree climbing, so this training was basically useless.
As soon as he was capable of doing it without being detected, Naruto created a clone and headed to the Forest of Death, also known as Anko's favorite hide out, he needed to find his sister and destroy/kill/maim anything that get in his way in order to release some stress. Eventually he found Anko, who agreed that Kakashi was an idiot, and that this supposed training was bullshit, and basically ordered him to send a clone and focus his time on more productive things.
So after that day, Naruto simply send clones in his place to any team meeting without anyone noticing (except team Gai, Anko, Yugao, Hayate and a couple of ANBU, but they mostly keep it to themselves).
It was about a month in their new training regimen that team Gai got a C-ranked mission, this wasn't particularly strange since they had been taking missions like this for a while, however the problem came for the fact that Gai was needed in another mission and couldn't go with the rest of the team, but, since the mission wasn't very dangerous, it was decided to send the team without their sensei as long as they got a fourth member, which Lee quickly solved by basically kidnapping Naruto from the middle of the street and announcing he was the fourth member, and since Naruto's team wasn't really doing many missions, the Hokage wasn't present and hadn't given any specific instructions, nobody had any objections.
The mission was basically an escort mission, the genins were helping to guard a group of merchants until they reach a small village in the south of Konoha, the only real treat in the journey were a few bandits that were quickly dealt with, however the genins enjoyed the journey having developed a very close relationship in the last months.
The merchants were friendly and seemed to enjoy the company, so all in all it was a good mission or at least the first part was, once they arrived at their destination and rested for a little while, the four genins were ready to return to Konoha, which at ninja pace should only take a couple of days, however they were only going for a few hours when Naruto luck ran out.
They four genins were moving at a speed slightly higher than was strictly necessary, when Neji quickly signaled to the rest that they were being followed, immediately they increased their pace and started to prepare for battle just in case, however whoever was following them was still faster and was quickly gaining up on them, they were about to try for a mad dash when Neji noticed that there were ninjas ahead and some were approaching from the sides, which basically translated in the four genins were surrounded by unidentified ninjas, and were out of escaping routes so having no other choices the four prepared to fight
It was only seconds later that the ninjas became visible for all the genins, and when Naruto saw the leader he cursed loudly, and immediately ordered the other genins to deactivate their seals or any other weights and go all out all the time from the beginning, it spoke loudly of their relationship when all the other three did as told without any question.
'I'm sure there is some sort of curse on me, there is no other way I could actually bump in two of the seven assassins in less than two months…sigh…at least she is one of the weakest members, barely A-class…to bad we're just genins and she brought her own army…sometimes I hate my life… at least this time my team is made of competent people…now we only need a miracle, if only god didn't hate me'
While Naruto was going through his mental rant, he and the rest of the team formed a secure formation in the middle of the enemy ninjas, with Naruto facing the leader, Neji covering his back and Lee and Tenten in each side.
"Megumi Sado, the stone witch, missing nin from Iwa, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Naruto asked in a quiet but calm voice hoping to buy a little time.
Megumi was a tall woman dress mainly in black, she had a black blouse with long sleeves and a turtle neck, her pants were also black and over them she only wore a sort of light brown skirt that was cut in the sides giving her more freedom of movement, additionally she used some sort of protectors in her elbows and knees. She had black long curly hair and brown eyes, her only other distinguishable feature was a scar across her left cheek and the slashed headband of Iwa in her forehead, marking her as a missing nin.
"Oh, the little genin knows who I am, what an honor" Megumi replied in a mocking sing song voice "Not to fear little one, I'm only looking for someone who looks just like you. Isn't that funny?"
"And why are you looking for whoever it is?" Naruto asked getting ready to fight, knowing she wasn't going to give them any chance of escape.
"Well we have some friends in common…the problem is they want him dead just as much as I do, so I can let this chance pass, maybe I'll see you in the next life" And like that the fight started.
Tenten quickly combine a wind technique and her sealed weapons, making a lethal rain fall on the enemy ninja, and proceeded to draw her sword and charged at the enemy group in front of her; Lee used his new favorite weapon, three retractable blades concealed in his fists that combined with his taijutsu proved deadly to anyone in his way and Neji made use of his newly perfected kaiten, and his newly acquired jutsus to decimate the enemy. Luckily the enemy ninjas were of low class, unluckily there were many of them forcing the three genins to focused all the attention on them and leaving Naruto alone to face Megumi 'Why do I always end up facing the A-ranked enemy? Thank god I can use a sword this time'
In the last month Naruto pretty much focused the main part of his attention in his kenjutsu practice, for one simple reason: it was the better way to improve his style while genjutsu was still out of his league. Right now Naruto had his favorite blade: 'tsuki no nai ha' and, once he activated his shield, it could pretty much cut through steel.
Which was great since the stone which favorite weapon was rocks, giant rocks or spikes like the ones that were rising from the ground and trying to impale him thanks to her Doton: Doryuso, which were mostly meant to distract him enough in order for her to create a couple of mud clones armed with rock staffs that immediately engaged him in a close ranged fight while leaving her free to use long distance attacks like those stupid spikes and the rocks that he was barely managing to cut trough before they buried him alive.
As soon as Naruto could spare a second he created a couple of battle clones that immediately created small armies of their own, allowing the original Naruto to retain most of his chakra and letting him free to engage the original Megumi while his clones took care of her clones, however even on a one on one fight Megumi was still an A-ranked ninja and while Naruto had improved greatly since arriving in this world, he was still barely on high chunin/low jounin level, which was great for a genin but still left him the weaker of the two, on the other hand this wasn't the first time he was forced to face an opponent stronger than him.
Given the elemental Nature of his opponent attacks, Naruto was forced to rely heavily in his Raiton jutsus, and in a minor level on his wind jutsus since any water jutsus wouldn't do much good and the only fire jutsus strong enough to defeat this type of earth attacks were A or S level.
At close range Megumi relied mainly on her defensive jutsus, and used the rock staff and earth manipulation for any attack, however she was frighteningly good with that damn staff and Naruto only had a month of practice with his sword.
As soon as Naruto was in striking distance he sheathed his sword and used a Raiton: Gian Yari to basically fired a spear of lightning from its mouth, however Megumi used a mud wall to weaken the attack enough that it didn't caused a great deal of damage, and gave her and opening to strike with her spear that Naruto barely managed to avoid and only by using his sword was he capable of intercept the next strike.
Finally Naruto was forced to used a Fuuton: Daitoppa (blow a large blast of wind) in order to force Megumi to back away enough for him to create a few hurricanes using Fuuton: Kami Kaze and direct them towards her, however megumi managed to use a earth dome to render the attack useless and Naruto was forced to use one of his elder brother favorite techniques Raiton: Rai Ryouken to attack her before she could reform her defense, this time he managed to cause her some damage, but she used the staff to absorbed part of the damage leaving her capable of continuing the fight.
The problem for Naruto was that the only way for him to break through her defenses was to use high level jutsus, that he was nowhere near to master and the continued use of different ninjutsu elemental attacks was rapidly decreasing his chakra reserves, at this point his best choice was to retreat and hopefully regroup with the rest of his team.
While Naruto was fighting the stone witch; Neji, Lee and Tenten managed to kill, incapacitate or forced to escape the enemy nin, however much like Naruto this left their chakra reserves dangerously low and physically completely exhausted, so they could do nothing but watch Naruto fight while trying to regain enough chakra in order to aid him. All the clones were destroyed at some point or the other leaving in the battlefield only the four genin and the missing nin.
As soon as Naruto reunited with the rest of his team he knew the situation wasn't good, none of them had enough energy to even attempt to escape and fighting in their current condition was close to suicide, this left them with very little options and none of them seemed to involve all of them making it alive, something that Naruto wasn't willing to risk.
Eventually he came to the conclusion that his only real option was using the Kyubbi chakra, normally even two tails worth of power in his current body wouldn't be enough to win against a A-class enemy, simply because the demon chakra wasn't something Naruto could use at his full potential, essentially rendering most of his techniques useless and forcing him to relay on physical attacks only, the only reason he managed to resist against Tai was that the other man wasn't fighting seriously and Zabuza and Kakashi helped him before the situation was out of control.
However in this case he had already injured his opponent and he was pretty sure she didn't have much chakra left either. The only reason he was having second thoughts was because once he accessed Kyubbi's chakra he had to finish the fight, because he was pretty sure that as soon as he stop using Kyubbi's chakra his body wouldn't be able to fight the exhaustion, leaving him defenseless, and he couldn't use it for a long period of time without causing his body even greater damage, however this was still his best option, so all or nothing…
"Guys, I'm gonna try one last thing… if it doesn't work I won't be able to keep fighting afterwards, so use the time to regain some energy, if you think you can take her, do it; if not, get the hell out of here and don't look back" with that last explanation Naruto went into his mind looking for the giant furball, otherwise known as the king of demons
"Hey furball, are you watching this or are you sleeping while we're about to get killed"
"We are nothing, brat! You're the one who always ends up almost getting killed by psycho strangers that pop out of nowhere! If I wasn't inside you, you'll be dead twice over!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, did you listen to what I was thinking before I came here?"
"Yes I did, annoying brat! If only I could get rid of you…whatever… the conditions are the same as the last time, you get two tails and I retain some control"
"The conditions are the same in this end, except in this case letting her escape is not an option, she would only use the opportunity to attack once I'm weak again"
"I agree"
"Let's do this"
Once Naruto was out of his maze/mind, he experienced the same feeling that last time, more feral instincts coming to the front of his mind and adding an edge to his own thoughts, to an outside spectator he suddenly was surrounded by a red haze, his eyes changing to red and his teeth sharpening.
As soon as his transformation was complete Naruto-Kyubbi closed the distance with Megumi at an almost inhuman speed, using his newly acquired claws and his basic taijutsu to attack.
First Naruto-Kyubby try to slash Megumi with his claws, however she used her staff to intercept the attack breaking the staff in the process due to the demon chakra surrounding Naruto-Kyubbi, Naruto-Kyubby used his momentum to aim a kick to Megumi's neck, that she barely managed to avoid while trying to force a spike of earth to pierce Naruto, who continued to use his momentum to roll in the air and land at a safe distance, immediately using the impact to propel himself back to his opponent, this time aiming a punch to her stomach.
Megumi used the broken halves of her staff forming an X to stop the punch which gave her the opportunity to launch a kick to Naruto's head, however Naruto-Kyubbi managed to intercept the kick using her leg as a leverage for him to aim his own kick at her stomach, this time the kick connected breaking a couple of her ribs and throwing her into a tree, however she managed to use the second it took Naruo-Kyubbi to land, to use her Swamp of the Underworld.
Almost trapping Naruto-Kyubbi and forcing him to use his chakra to propel himself forward, this time using a spinning kick that Megumi avoided only for her to have to avoid Naruto-Kyubbi's claws since he kicked a tree with his other leg to give him enough speed to twist his body and attack her again.
This time Megumi was forced to go underground in order for her to take cover from the incoming attack, however the moment she reappeared she was forced to intercept a roundhouse kick with her arm, breaking her arm in the process, but, managing to send Naruto-Kyubbi into a tree which he used as a jumping board to attack her with a fist that she managed to avoid.
But before she managed to prepare a counterattack she had to dodge a kunai attack coming from the other direction courtesy of Tenten, and in order to avoid that she was forced to drop her defenses giving Naruto-Kyubbi an opening for him to use his claws damaging her right lung and her heart killing her instantly.
Almost as soon as the fight was over Kyubbi's chakra returned into Naruto's body, leaving him completely exhausted and barely conscious enough to hear Neji's voice telling him the fight was over and that they we're all fine, after that the welcomed relief of the darkness took him.
A change in scenery