A/N: Been a long time since I have updated this one. But then again, the response for this story has been lukewarm at best, so I decided to take a break from this one. But I am back and hope you enjoy this chapter.

Deathmatch

Akira bit her lip as she contemplated going against the man-mountain leering in front of her.

His black hair was matted in an irregular top-knot, his hair fanning out behind him in the evening breeze, his eyes black as midnight, wild like a forest fire and a huge Kodaichi in his hands.

Against the background of the burning campsite he really looked like a demon escaped from hell.

He swung the blade one-handed pointing it towards her.

"You're gonna pay for what you did bitch!" He snarled.

A seriously pissed off giant of a man, waving around a blade big enough to dwarf full-grown men.

Time to re-evaluate her situation, think things through and no matter what try and not make him more angry.

"That's a big sword you have. You sure you're not compensating for something?"

Okay she had to get that off of her chest. Now she can focus on the fight that much better.

As for trying to not make her adversary more angry. Well to say that ship didn't sail so much away as it sank. Making an adversary angry during a battle can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand it did make them more reckless and prone to leave openings which can be exploited, the same recklessness also made them more dangerous, as they cared little about what they did, as long as they get to kill their opponent.

That single-minded determination would often win out against any quick-fire strategy which one could come up with on the fly.

"Raaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!" The man charged, bringing his sword down vertically to cleave her in half.

Jumping to the side she dodged the first blow and the follow up slash to the head, by ducking, a few strands of hair fell on the ground suggesting just how close she came to losing her head.

Channelling chakra to her feet she put on a burst of speed to put some distance between them.

When she came to a stop and turned around to face him again, she was surprised to see that he hadn't pursued her.

That was strange.

"Good ploy that, trying to make your opponent angry." The man hadn't moved from his place, a smirk on his face.

That's when she knew, that she was in way more trouble than she expected. The man was dangerous and knew what he was doing. He had even managed to fool her into thinking she got under his skin.

"Yeah…. Looks like you're smarter than you look." Akira said forcing a level of calmness in her voice which she was far from feeling. "But then if you weren't you wouldn't be able to walk and talk at the same time."

"You're funny little girl." He scoffed. "That was a killer line. 'Killer' isn't just an expression here."

Akira reached into her belt and unleashed her whips, cracking them once and taking her stance.

From their brief skirmish earlier, she knew that he was deceptively fast for his size. Not as fast as her, but difference in their speeds wasn't enough to make any significant improvements in her odds for this fight, considering he absolutely overwhelmed her in strength.

But her whips had better reach than his sword and she had a few other aces up her sleeve, but she was quite sure he did too.

He charged again, but had to abandon it midway, when Akira's whip came down with a crack forcing him to move sideways, but even as he was moving Akira used her second whip to intercept him, having anticipated his move.

Bringing his blade to intercept the whip he allowed it to wrap around it, confident in his strength to hold onto it if she tried to disarm it.

What he hadn't been counting on was, that she instead of trying to disarm him, used her whip to catapult herself towards him.

His eyes widened, he wasn't fast enough to dodge this one.

They met, Akira landed on the other side, sliding on the forest floor to kill her momentum.

Damn it. She was so sure she had him.

She managed to catch him by surprise with her last manoeuvre, she had aimed to break his neck with a sharp kick, but he had been deft enough, to jump just in time to render the kick ineffective by taking it on his upper arm, turning what could have been a fatal blow, into a harmless bee-sting.

To make matters worse, she had lost a few inches of the whip which had been wrapped around his blade.

"Nice moves." The man said with a hint of admiration in his voice. "Pity, they didn't work. But now it's my turn. Earth Style: Destructive Rising Rock Pillars." Going through a series of hand-seals he slammed his blade on the ground, causing it to erupt upward.

Naruto was watching the battle from some distance away, from the cover of trees. The branch he was standing gave him a bird's eye view of the battlefield. His strategy had worked well.

His clones had done their job well, clearing out the entire group of bandits. All that needed to be done was kill the head honcho.

He would have done it too, but the appearance of Akira had driven a wrench in those plans. But he supposed he should feel grateful that she came to rescue him, even though he didn't need it. Rei had something to do with it he supposed. He could sense her presence barely twenty yards away from the main battlefield.

So far the battle hadn't been going all that well for Akira. She did manage to surprise the bandit with her last move, but he wasn't like his lackeys. This guy was actually skilled.

And his latest move proved that he was something of a strategist as well.

His latest move with that Earth jutsu, just killed whatever little advantage Akira had over him with her speed and agility.

The rock pillars the battle ground was littered with reduced the effectiveness of Akira's whips, which relied on their ability to cover more area of damage. With those pillars he had literally left her helpless.

He could intervene and save her. But that would raise questions he won't be able to answer.

Could he sacrifice her for the greater good?

Could he watch her die, knowing he could do something about it and chose not to?

But maybe he was getting ahead of himself. For all he knew she probably didn't even need his help.

He would let this play out…. For now.

Akira cursed audibly as she saw the very shape of the battlefield change. If the battle had been hard before, it just went beyond impossible with this.

Her whips were now all but useless and a short blade wasn't going to help her much against the monstrosity of a sword he had been swing around as if it were a toothpick.

But before she could gather her thoughts, he made his move.

Jumping high in the air, he raised his blade and brought it down hard on Akira.

"Titan Strike."

She tried to move away, but now the battlefield was cramped due to the Earth spikes.

Even though she managed to avoid a direct hit, the shockwave from his attack was enough to send her crashing.

Fighting to stay conscious, she tried to backflip away trying to gain some distance, but he was having none of it this time as he gave pursuit.

Akira still disoriented from the shockwave, barely put a fight when he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her to the ground like a rag doll, knocking the air out of her lungs.

Pinning her to the ground with his left hand and holding out his blade with his right, he prepared to gut her.

"Time to die." He hissed, before screaming in pain as he jerked away from Akira, a knife sticking out of his left hand.

With a desperation borne out of the need for survival Akira managed to reach for her knife and managed to stab his arm. Blessed oxygen entered her lungs as the pressure was relieved.

Choking and coughing she got to her feet, holding her ribs.

From the corner of her eye she saw the bandit leader bleeding profusely from his arm. She must have cut an artery by pure luck.

Which was good because she would need all the luck in the world if she were to survive this.

Unfortunately his sword arm was still functional.

"You're so dead." He said in a quiet and deadly tone, but his eyes were screaming murder.

Akira silently grabbed her whips and took guard again.

She couldn't allow him to get close again. One good thing to come out of this was that she had made sure he couldn't use Titan Strike again, which needed two hands to be executed.

But he still had the upper hand. And both of them knew it.

Taking a deep breath she calmed her speeding heart.

"Sometimes you will come across opponents who will be stronger than you Akira." The voice of her sensei whispered in her ear. "But that doesn't mean they can't be defeated."

"How do you defeat someone who is stronger than you sensei?" She had asked in all her childish innocence.

Her sensei smiled gently at her and ruffled her hair ignoring her whine of protest.

"You turn their strength into your own." He said smiling at her.

She didn't understand what he was trying to say back then. She had simply thought of it as him being his usual cryptic self. But right now standing here in a fight to death, his words made sense in a way that hadn't before.

Hiroshi couldn't believe how much trouble he was having with one little girl. But then again she had somehow managed to destroy his entire camp while being a captive.

He didn't know how she did it, but felt certain she was responsible.

And now he was going to extract his pound of flesh from her.

He was surprised by her continuing defiance. She held her self with pride, determined to fight to the last. Despite his anger, he couldn't help but admire her courage. Well, enough was enough. It was time to end this.

But before he could make his move, she surprised him by attacking first. The whip flew towards him like a striking cobra.

This time he didn't try to block it but moved his head to the side. That trick wasn't going to work on him twice.

Before he could even complete the thought, he was lying face-down on the ground, the back of his head stinging.

He avoided the follow-up kick by rolling away. A minor crater forming where his head was a fraction of a second ago courtesy of the said kick.

He backhanded the girl, who brought her arms together, trying to block it. The blow lifted her off her feet, depositing her some distance away. But she recovered quickly and struck again. He dodged, but again his body was wracked with stinging pain, this time it was the ribs.

Just what the hell was going on? He was sure he had dodged it, but somehow she kept managing to strike him.

Akira kept up the attack without letting up. She couldn't afford to let him recover. She knew if he discovered the trick to her moves it would be all over for her. Even now when her strikes were a little more than minor annoyance to him.

She may have to hit him another hundred times to bring him down, but all he needed to do was get one clean hit and it would be all over for her.

She could use her ace, but she hadn't mastered it yet. It was more miss than hit anyway.

Plus she didn't know if she had the chakra to pull it off.

So for now she stuck to what was working. She dodged another swing of his blade…. Barely. She swallowed a gasp of pain as her ribs protested the exertion.

It gave her the opening to strike and she used her whip to trip him, putting him down hard and yet again he managed to avoid her finishing blow.

Akira was getting frustrated now. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't put him down.

She struck again, but this time he pinned his blade to the end of her whip, stopping her attack in its tracks.

Akira froze. He figured it out.

"Clever." He gave a bloody grin. The river of blood flowing from his face and torso presented a terrifying visage. "You used my own attack against me. No wonder kept getting struck even when I was dodging."

Akira sighed audibly. She had used the earth pillars to reflect her attacks back on him. She kept getting him to dodge, which led him to getting struck when he was least expecting it. But now he had it figured and her brain was going blank.

"You put up a really good fight." He admitted. "But it's the end of the line now."

Grabbing her whip he gave an almighty heave intent on pulling her towards him.

Akira having the presence of mind let go of her whip, which saved her from getting cleaved but also now left her without one of her weapons.

With only one whip now, Akira prepared for her final stand. He charged, Akira dodged and weaved around him ignoring her protesting ribs as she tried to look for openings.

But it was no use. She was tiring and he still seemed to be fighting like a juggernaut.

It wasn't long before she received a blow to the face, blood and spittle flying she barely held on to shreds of consciousness.

She landed heavily on the ground, before receiving another kick to the ribs. She couldn't keep down her scream of agony this time.

Hiroshi smirked with satisfaction as he saw the lying figure of his adversary. She was groaning in pain as she rolled around, trying to get away from him.

Interestingly, she still held on to her whip.

Walking up to her he pinned her beneath his foot. Time to put her out of her misery. He raised his blade to deal the final blow, when seemingly out of nowhere a rock came and nailed him right on his temple.

Snarling in rage he turned around to face the new aggravator, only to see a young preteen girl.

Not caring about his defeated opponent he turned his blade on the new target and charged.

The girl froze seeing the man charge. But just before he could cleave the man in half, he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

Killing intent the likes of which he had never felt before struck him. He couldn't breathe. He didn't know where it was coming from, all he knew was that if he took just another step, he would die right there. Images of his own severed head assaulted his mind, as his mind tried to find the source of the killer intent.

But before he could, he felt a sudden pressure on this throat followed by the last words he would hear in the living world.

"Lightning Style: Thunder whip."

Akira collapsed along with her enemy. If that didn't kill him, she was giving up. For some reason he had turned his back to her and was in pursuit of a new enemy.

She didn't know what caused him to do that, but then he froze in his tracks. Not questioning her good fortune she took the opening she had been offered and using the last ounce of her strength

she channelled chakra into to her whip, praying to the Gods to make it work and attacked him, wrapping the whip around his neck.

Lightning chakra ran through her whip and electrocuted him. She gave a vicious tug breaking his neck.

He collapsed on his knees, before dropping face-down on the ground.

Seeing her opponent defeated Akira allowed her consciousness to fade.

Smell of smoke assaulted her nostrils. Her entire body was wracked with pain. She was probably in hell, and the devil was cooking her over a slow fire, that would explain the smoke.

She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times to get rid of the blurriness. She was close to what looked like a bon-fire. She tried to move but found herself immobile. That's when it all came rushing back. Tenzo, her fight and her subsequent loss of consciousness. For a second she panicked, thoughts of having been captured and what came next assaulted her brain. But then she realized she wasn't restrained.

Atleast not in a way a prisoner is restrained anyway.

She was wrapped in blankets and bandages to make sure she didn't damage herself anymore than she had.

As her faculties returned she began to make out strains of conversation floating towards her.

Turning her head towards the source of the sounds, she saw two girls she didn't know talking in hushed tones.

"You're up."

She turned to see the smiling face of Rei hovering over her, she opened her mouth to return her greeting, but her throat was totally parched.

"Wa….ter" She gasped

Rei hurriedly brought a makeshift bowl of leaves stitched together and brought it to her lips. Akira lapped it up rather greedily.

It took another two bowls before she was satisfied.

"Ho..w long?" She asked.

"You had been unconscious for 36 hours." Rei explained. "Tenzo said you needed energy to recover, but we didn't know hot to feed you, so he did this."

What Tenzo did, turned out to be a make-shift IV line made from some wire attached to a fruit of sorts hanging above her, sending fluid directly into her bloodstream.

She was impressed. He certainly knew his stuff, Tenzo. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered how he knew, how to do this.

"He has gone to collect some more firewood." Rei informed her helpfully. She wanted to ask about the girls, but her exhaustion took over and she fell asleep again.

Konohamaru Sarutobi thirteen year old Chunnin of Konoha had just returned from his second B-rank mission. He was looking forward to a nice long break after his exertions of the last few weeks. On his way, he passed the statue of Naruto.

He came here whenever he could to regale it with the going-ons of the village and his own missions. Like a lot of people, Naruto's influence on Konohamaru had been profound. He had been a big brother figure for him and a mentor of sorts. But more than that, he had been his rival for the post of Hokage.

He was the first man to take him seriously and take his dream seriously. Now that he was gone, it had left a void in his life which couldn't be filled.

He missed him... A lot.

Sighing he walked towards the sweet shop not far from the statue.

The owner gave him a smile, recognizing him.

"So, will it be the usual Sarutobi-san?" The man asked politely.

"Yes, Yukito-san I will have the usual."

As he waited for the order, his eyes fell on two hooded figures. His eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right here. They din't look like they belonged to Konoha and they certainly didn't look like civilians.

The men rose soon afterwards, as they realized they had been spotted.

Ignoring his order Konohamaru followed them.

He waited till they reached a relatively isolated place.

"Halt in the name of Hokage." Konohamaru challenged them. "State your identity and purpose."

The men stopped and one of them chuckled.

"Well well Uchiha-san." The man said obviously addressing his companion, taking his hood off. "Even though it was our intention to be detected, its kinda embarrassing being discovered by a brat."

"So it would seem." The other man removed his hood revealing his face.

Konohamaru gasped in surprise as he came face to face with the last Uchiha.

"Well, better get this over with." Sasuke said coolly as he casually reached for his blade.

AAAAAnnnnnnnnnnddddd. Done. Well a lot happening in this chapter. A fight scene. Not a lot of Naruto, but you will see him in the following chapters. Do leave a review.

Until next time

Peace out