Chunin Exam Part 3
Disclaimer= I don't own Naruto or Techniques from any other anime etc.
Thanks guys and gals for the support, patience and wishes of good luck in regards to my dilemma as well as the reviews. I was able to concentrate on my studies and am proud to say that I not only passed my exams with the highest marks but also received a Scholarship offer from a foreign university!
The actual credit of my success goes to you! Once again, thanks guys and gals for the support and enjoy this new chapter!
Answer to a few questioning reviews,
Sinedd662: Sorry but no other pairings.
Xypher1: Glad to hear from you again, mate, really missed your reviews (*_*). It was quite disheartening to hear such tragic news but all I can say is these things are connected to life. Death is the one fate we all share, so I know you are hurt, but use this pain of yours to move on with your life as to not leave any regrets when your time comes. The financial problems, I can't say I understand what that feels like but I have a vague feeling that it's not pretty, so sorry to hear that and hope that your problems are over soon.
I greatly enjoyed reading what you had written, mate, there is no need for you to apologize for a long review, I enjoy reading long reviews. I look forward to your long reviews more than anything, believe me! What I love most about your reviews is that you not only cover every single little detail in your words but you also discreetly overlook my small mistakes. I admit I am not perfect thus I make mistakes, but the fact that you know them and overlook them simply because you know they are inconsequential in the long run … is what endears your opinions to me.
Almost 30% to 40% readers are hell-bent on minor details such as hair color, clothing etc (Though I admit even reading that Naruto is wearing a *I am here, come and kill me* orange jumpsuit makes me shiver!) which sometimes gets really disturbing. As long as the story stays on its course, follow the desired path, cover the important details and flow smoothly, small mistakes shouldn't even matter, right?
Anyway, I hope I can count on you to support me till the end with your blunt but still encouraging reviews. Thanks mate and I sincerely hope your troubles and challenges soon leave the premises of your life!
Reptil: The issue of the Rasengan and Sage Mode will be hopefully resolved in the next chapter. As for weaknesses, those will be gradually revealed. Such as mentioned in this chapter, read it and you will see.
Alpha: I know you guys are wondering where he stands in the power level department, but trust me when I say, if I tell you now, it would ruin everything for you. You wouldn't then pay much attention to his fights and his interaction. So be patient and all will be revealed in due time!
Namittheking: Yes, mate, I knew that but if I had taken Naruto's fight to that time, it would've lengthened the chapter way too much and I didn't have much time that day.
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Namikaze Compound
"Well then, are you ready?" Naruto asked in a calm and detached tone as he sat outside a glowing circle of seals with Akuma's hulking form standing in the middle of the circle. Around the circle were five of his Shadow Clones positioned in pentagonal shape, each holding the standard Ram hand-sign.
A square seal array was extended to an altar of sorts with Naruto's sword known as the Sword of Sartr stabbed in the ground, an ancient heirloom of the Uzumaki Clan, passed down from one Clan head to the next for generations.
The second part of the Chunin Exam had ended a few days ago and just as Kurenai had predicted, he hadn't seen or heard from her till this day since she was no doubt busy with strengthening the villages' borders along with some of the other Jonins.
After finishing his battle, he had asked the Hokage for an early leave to properly prepare himself for the next phase of the exam, which the old man had been all too eager to provide.
Though, he had advised him to seek out a person by the name of Jiraiya, his godfather apparently to get some training from him since he was the Toad Sannin. Though the offer was tempting _ who wouldn't want to receive personal training from a Sannin? _ he had far too much on his plate right now to give it any thought.
Right now? Absolutely no chance, Later? Maybe
It was harsh of him to say it but he was glad the Genjutsu Mistress was away at the moment considering her relation with Akuma. She would no doubt outright forbid him from doing what he was about to do at the moment.
The sword while considerably powerful in its own right, was just something he had no need for. If it had been a Wind based sword, it may have proven somewhat useful to his cause, but since it was a Fire based sword, he had no need for it since his affinity for Fire was all he needed.
Thus came the issue of actually utilizing the enormous power of the sword and to not let it rust away uselessly. The answer came in the form of Akuma, his ever loyal, hulking mass of compact muscles and fiercely overprotective foxy companion.
While he admitted the fox had proven far more useful during some of the Foundation missions he had taken than he had expected, he still thought that Akuma lacked the necessary power to help him in a tight situation.
The idea came to him during an assassination mission in the Land of Demons. The rogue-nin he was assigned to assassinate _ who was wanted for poisoning the water supply of small village in the Land of Woods _ proved to be a stronger opponent than he had anticipated.
Even though Danzo had provided that reason, Naruto knew there was something else going on between the two that the scarred elder was no willing to tell him.
Long story short, at the end of the battle, he had been forced to release one of the Storage Seals to avoid being killed, which proved to be a life changing experience for him. Akuma had tried several times to help but since he lacked any technique, he had proven somewhat useless.
Akuma, while fast and considerably strong, still lacked power to stand up to stronger opponents like Orochimaru. If he could somehow merge the infinite amount of fire energy stored in the demonic sword with Akuma's developing Chakra network, it would not only provide his companion with almost infinite amount of Fire Style chakra, but it may also change him.
The idea had seemed appealing so he had dwelled deeper into the Art of Sealing and eventually came up with almost the same seal as the Eight Trigram Sealing Jutsu, but a little different in its function. Even though he had been reluctant to try it, Akuma had wordlessly persuaded him to proceed anyway.
The idea turned out to be his gravest miscalculation ever!
The merging of the sword and Akuma had not only failed spectacularly but had almost killed his foxy companion due to its power. He had miscalculated the amount of energy the sword possessed and thus, unfortunately, Akuma paid the price for his mistakes.
Even though that attempt had failed splendidly and almost crippled Akuma for life, it had given him a gleam of hope. After that failure, he had studied the sealing formula engraved on his belly and had tried to decode it, which had also proven too difficult, if not outright impossible.
His father had proven that he was not called a 'once in a generation genius' for nothing.
In any case, after almost four unsuccessful tries in about six months which had wounded his fox companion far too much for his liking, he had come up with a way which at least promised to be safe if not successful.
By engraving a seal array similar to one of the abilities of the Legendary Rinnegan, the sword would convert into its natural state of pure unrestrained energy and the absorption sealing formula engraved on Akuma's abdomen would absorb the pure energy core into his Chakra Pool before distributing it into many storage seals drawn on his body.
While the idea seemed appealing and easy in theory, he still had his doubts. The problem was not the seal converting the sword into a pure energy core but the resilience of the Storage Seals engraved on Akuma's body.
Should the energy influx prove far too strong for Akuma's own Chakra Pool and the Storage Seals, it would not only destroy Akuma from the inside out but also blow him as well as the Compound to smithereens!
He was still hesitant about actually implementing the idea, surprisingly Akuma remained steady in his resolve to absorb the power of the demonic sword. Maybe he himself realized that he was not strong enough to stand beside him in a serious fight, which was both amusing and praise worthy.
Currently they were in the Namikaze Compound's heavily insulated room specially designed by Minato to perform his Sealing experiments in … in order to avoid causing chaos should the seal fail.
Coming back to the topic, Akuma released a sound akin to a grunt and tensed his muscles in preparation for the pain that was sure to come. He had experienced the pain of almost being shredded to pieces by the power of the sword, so he had a vague idea of the upcoming torrent of agony.
Naruto nodded with a soft smile on his exposed face and nodded to his clones who closed their eyes and channeled chakra into the Seal. The circular seal glowed ominously in the dark room, illuminating the corners of the chamber in its red hue as the sword glowed furiously.
The stabbed crimson sword was slowly lifted out of the ground by an unknown force and left hovering in the air as it glowed, bathing the whole room in its light. Slowly but surely, the shape of the sword became indefinite and circular, changing from a pointy structure to an enormous circular crimson sphere which glowed furiously.
Naruto gritted his teeth, sweat trailed down his pronounced brows as the heat of the sword kept on rising and rising until it could even penetrate his Fire immune skin and cause burns. His black cloak caught fire and was instantly reduced to ashes, fortunately his clothes did not suffer the same fate.
For the first time in these last six months, he finally realized the pain Akuma must have gone and was still going through to absorb the sword.
His respect and appreciation for his companion went up a notch as he felt the scorching feel of the flames threatening to even burn his body!
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Akuma's loud and agonizing roars as the seal on his abdomen absorbed the energy sphere. He just prayed his companion would survived this because this was the last and final time. He would not compromise the safety of his companion even if said companion was willing!
His eyes widened in surprise as Akuma went through a strange and frankly fascinating transformation. His already large and hulking form enlarged to a height far greater than before until it reached the roof of the room. His compact muscles rippled and expanded to impossible proportions.
His menacingly large maw extended even farther, his claws lengthened and his crimson fur along with his bushy tail resembled flames as it flowed ominously.
The most menacing feature about him were his eyes. The previously crimson slitted eyes were now something akin to flames burning in a furnace. There were no pupils inside the eyes but a circular shape of flames constantly flickering and waving around.
The shadow clones vanished, having exhausted all their chakra as Naruto kneeled on the ground. The process had taken a lot more chakra than he had imagined, though it wasn't much of a surprise since the sword contained almost infinite amount of energy.
Even in his weakened state of body and mind, his sense screamed at him to roll over. Seeing as his sense had never ever failed him, he took the warning to heart and jumped to the side of the room just as a massive claw struck the place he had been kneeling on, courtesy of a transformed Akuma.
His eyes widened in surprise as another sharp claw connected with the wall behind him and smashed it to pieces, sending debris and dust flying all over the corridor as he rolled over to the entrance of the now partially destroyed room, his mind thinking over the situation as he ran towards the training ground.
The newly transformed Akuma gave pursuit, knocking away several walls and the ceilings along the corridor as he sprinted after Naruto. The formerly cloaked Jinchuriki stopped in the training ground and lowered into his fighting style, knowing it would come to that part anyway.
How could he have missed taking such an important detail into account!? He should've known that the sudden influx of that much energy would leave Akuma's mind weakened and somewhat scrambled.
Unless and until the fox regained his thoughts, all of the villagers would be knocking at his door in a few minutes, since the restrictive seals were destroyed along with half of the room as well as the entire hallway.
For the second time in a single day, his eyebrows rose up his hairline when he saw that Akuma had grown even larger when he stepped foot in the training ground and growled menacingly.
He had not expected this outcome in the slightest! If he grew any bigger, the whole village would think the worst case scenario and cause unnecessary chaos and confusion.
Fire Style: Fireball Barrage!
He hummed in shock when Akuma raised a massive paw and swatted away the large fireballs like they were nothing at all.
This was turning out to be quite the fascinating miscalculation! On one hand, he was wary of what Akuma rage-induced state would do should he prove unable of stopping of him but on the other hand, he couldn't help but anticipate the battle that was sure to come.
"If ordinary Fireballs do not have an effect on you, then let see how well you do against a stronger technique"
Before Naruto could raise his hand for another Wind enhanced Fire style technique, Akuma opened his menacingly large maw and _ much to Naruto's growing surprise _ produced a large reddish sphere of demonic energy before firing it at incredible speed.
Not having enough time to dodge or even use Flashstep, Naruto channeled a considerable amount of chakra into his arms and held them in front of his body in a risky gamble.
The sphere of demonic energy connected with his body in an astounding show of power, blasting away the ground and trees of the training ground to mere pieces of flaming debris, the grass turned to black ashes as winds picked up speed.
A few moments later, two flaming whips emerged out of the smoke and wrapped around Akuma's feet, causing the rampaging beast to roar in irritation and anger as the flaming whips sizzled its skin.
The smoke gradually cleared to reveal a badly bleeding Naruto kneeling on the ground and whips of fire emanating from his hands. His shirt was nowhere to be seen and half of his lower body garment resembled rags.
Large gashes and slashes were visible on his arms, chest and legs, bleeding profusely. Both of his hands, starting from his fingers up to his elbows, were burned and turned an angry red from being exposed to the demonic energy.
Naruto grimaced lightly as his bleeding wounds and burned skin sizzled and instantly closed up without a trace, something he was grateful to the gigantic beast of chakra for. Instant regeneration, a wonderfully handy gift from the nine tailed beast!
Looking around the clearing, he saw nothing but lifeless ashes and burning embers.
He could not believe his overprotective companion was capable of causing this much destruction! That sphere had almost killed him! If it hadn't been for his potent chakra somewhat negating the effects of the blast and his physically resilient body, he would've been blasted to pieces!
Not even Orochimaru had been able to cause him much physical damage because of his dense skin, yet that energy sphere had caused him to even bleed!
He hadn't seen his blood since starting his physical training because no one had been able to draw out his blood! Not even the Hokage and the man had used several devastating techniques to test that particular claim.
Of course he had been beaten severely during those so-called tests but the old man hadn't been able to draw blood from his tired, beaten, bruised and exhausted body!
All those aspects aside, his fascination was actually stemmed by the fact that his theories had proven correct about the Fire inside the sword being of supernatural origin, considering it burned him even though he was immune to fire!
To think that a simple merging of the sword had caused such a drastic increase in power level! It was fascinating!
The rage-induced Akuma struggled against the flaming whips and broke them with a harsh stump of his feet before focusing on a smiling Naruto.
Malice and power oozed off his towering form! His towering form looked more like something of a monster out of a nightmare. Fire constantly flickering and waving in his eyes gave him a dreadful aura! It was magnificent!
"Such strength … such power" he commented lightly and stood up with a soft chuckle, leisurely dusting his now bare torso and arms before stumping the ground with his right foot "Apologies in advance, but you leave me no choice!"
Fire Style: Blazing Fortress!
An enormous stream of scorching flames rushed from his foot towards the transformed Akuma and caught him its heating embrace. The massive transformed fox tried to shake off the heat of the flames as it raised higher and higher into the sky, leaving no way for him to escape.
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!
"It's called the Blazing Fortress for a reason" Naruto announced in impassive tone as he watched his transformed companion roar in the heating embrace of the rapidly increasing Fire Jutsu.
It somewhat … pained him to hear his loyal companion roar in agony amidst a technique of his creation but some matters could not be helped.
He never thought he would use a technique this powerful against his own companion but there was no choice left for him. Admittedly, the Blazing Fortress was one of the three strongest Fire Style technique in his limited arsenal.
As the roars of the flames died down, so did the pained and angry growls of his transformed familiar.
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Mindscape
The sound of small droplets dripping down into a water body reverberated through the dark corridors of his mind as he walked towards the central chamber where the Nine Tails was held. Something about his mind being nothing but a dark corridor akin to a sewer disturbed him greatly.
He would have to do something about this, one way or the other.
Arriving at the large chamber, Naruto was treated to the sight of his reluctant and sarcastic prisoner gazing at him with his crimson eyes from behind the safety of the great seal. No matter how many times he saw him, no matter how much he tried to compose himself and no matter how much he tried to prepare himself, the giant beast of infinite power always seemed to capture him in a state of awe.
Starting from his enormous height, his crimson tails flickering hypnotically behind him, his red eyes filled to the brim with interest and wisdom, his menacingly sharp and gigantic claws and up to his imposing presence. Everything about him screamed power!
Yet the sad fact was, that despite his enormous power and might, he was captured by a mere human and sealed into the body of a newborn with just a few lines from a brush. Shocking yet ironic all the same!
While the giant beast had been less than forthcoming about his reasons for attacking and almost reducing the Leaf village to dust, he had a feeling the beast had been captured because he had underestimated the humans.
"To what do I owe the invitation?" Naruto asked curiously and stood in front of the seal.
After his less than pleasant battle with a transformed Akuma, he had taken the revoltingly injured fox to a room to heal him with his considerable knowledge of healing, which sadly wasn't much. He had only healed his external wounds and requested the Hokage to send him a Medic-nin, preferably someone from the Inuzuka Clan.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had proven once again that he was willing to redeem his past mistakes in any way necessary and had sent him Hana Inuzuka, Kiba's sister.
At first the woman had proven her expertise by healing Akuma faster than he could ever imagined and advised him to keep the fox in a room without doing anything excessive.
After being unexpectedly asked if he was 'bagging' Kurenai Yuuhi _ whatever that meant _ he had found that she was apparently in the circle of the Genjutsu Mistress's friends.
Anko Mitarashi had been the one who had told her, which shouldn't have surprised him considering the woman had as much control over her mouth as her snakes, which constituted as none. While he had tried to tell her the truth, she wouldn't have any of it and only gave him a knowing smirk before walking away.
While he had been thinking about the meaning of the smirk, the Nine Tails unexpectedly called him to the seal without giving any explanation. Thus his current presence in the seal.
The gigantic mass of chakra opened his eyes and pinned his tall cloaked host with his red eyes of fire "Being subtle never was my strongest trait, so you will have to pardon me for not indulging in idle chit chat"
Naruto raised an eyebrow behind his mask and crossed his feet under his tall form, hovering in a cross-legged position in front of the cage. His eyebrows rose a little higher up his hairline when he noticed the beast twitch at his action. That was completely unexpected!
"It does not matter" he replied blankly.
"Well then, I will make it simple for your benefit" Kyuubi announced in is deep rumbling voice "You do know you have a seal implanted on the back of your neck, right?"
"What!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise.
The nine tailed creature of chakra raised a massive eyebrow at the unexpected and surprising reaction. Sure, he had expected the boy to be surprised but he hadn't exactly been expecting him to react this way.
Seeing his reaction, Kyuubi sighed deeply and lowered his gigantic head to his paws "So you don't know. That certainly explains your ignorance"
Naruto uncrossed his feet and neared the cage with his eyes narrowed in concealed anger "Who?"
"Danzo or maybe someone else"
The Jinchuriki blinked in shock. So Danzo was behind this! But how? He had never even shown his face to the man, let alone the back of his head! "When?"
"While I do not know the entire story since I was as uninformed as you till a few days ago, but I do have a theory" The nine tailed creature sighed at his strangely agitated container's antics "Remember your mission to the Land of Earth?"
Naruto sighed and nodded, gradually getting control over his frantic nerves. Guess he had underestimated the scarred elder. He knew the man was sneaky and shrewd but he had been confident that the man would not outsmart him!
"It's possible that he may have planted the seal on that day, though I am still unsure of its purpose" Kyuubi stated firmly "Frankly, the sudden revelation of the complicated seal is the least of your problems"
Naruto's eyes furrowed in anger. There was something else as well?! "What else?"
"Judging from the state of your body at the moment, he did quite a few modifications"
Modifications! Danzo had the nerve to apply modifications to his body!
Thinking back to the mission he had taken to the Land of Earth, it had been the toughest of all his assignment, so tough in fact that he had been nearly killed and forced to retreat despite releasing 5 Storage seals at the middle of the fight and 2 after the fight AS WELL AS using Kyuubi's chakra!
It had happened on the third month of his new job as a Foundation assassin. Danzo had given him an assignment pertaining the elimination of a rogue Rock Ninja who had proven too troublesome for the Land of Fire.
Despite his instincts screaming at him that it was nothing but an elaborate trap, he had accepted the mission and gone to the Land of Earth under a disguise. After a week of relentless searching, he had found the culprit in a forest on the border between Earth and Lightening.
The man had turned out to be known as Roshi of the Lava Style, an old man who had fought in the last two wars and had been an Earth exile.
He had attacked without giving the man time to think, however seeing the way he dodged and sidestepped his precise attacks had him thinking that the man was more than what he tried to appear.
Needless to say, he and Akuma had found themselves in a serious disadvantage. The man had fought in world wars and thus had more experience and wisdom on how to use his skills.
At first the man had given him a false sense of victory by holding almost 80% of his power, however after that the man had started to take the fight seriously when he had seen that Naruto was not one to be underestimated.
Naruto had felt true shock and surprise when he had seen the man's true battle prowess and skills. The old man had Speed, agility, awareness, Ninjutsu and Taijutsu in spades! Even his superior speed by utilizing his Flash Step had no effect on the man's battle-hardened awareness and instincts.
The only thing which had kept him alive during the battle had been his resilient body and speed.
However, that advantage had soon lost its purpose when the man had actually revealed that he was a Jinchuriki, not just any Jinchuriki but the container of the Four Tails. By utilizing his Tailed Beast's chakra, the redheaded man had crumbled his defenses like an earthen vase.
The man had used Lava style techniques, meaning combining Earth and Fire Styles to create an entirely new and devastating array of Jutsu which had even overpowered his control over Fire style.
The redhead old man had been far superior to him in every way before even using his tenant's chakra, however after he had seen that despite delivering devastating wounds and damages to Naruto's superior body stature, the cloaked man wasn't going to fall, he had resorted to using the demonic energy.
That had been only the tip of the iceberg!
During the middle of their battle, when Naruto and Akuma had almost been on their last wits, a new combatant, by the name of Han of the Steam, had appeared. Any shard of advantage Naruto had at that time had been crumbled when his Fire Style techniques had been dosed by the armored man's superior Water Style Jutsu.
In the end, Naruto had realized that if even he were to use almost all of the seven Storage Seals' chakra, he wouldn't be able to kill the two, he had released the 6th and 7th seal in a destructive storm of dense and potent chakra to mask his escape, leaving a tired and bruised Akuma to carry his wounded, depleted and bleeding body back to the village.
That had been a life changing experience! No one had ever forced him to use all the seals engraved on his body yet still survive the confrontation!
He had learned three things from that ordeal.
One, never again underestimate Danzo! He may be old and gave the impression of a man whose youth has left him crippled, but his tactics, deceit and mind games were not to be overlooked or ignored!
Second, learn to control the Tailed Beast's chakra more efficiently. During the battle, Kyuubi had been reluctant to give him more chakra since the beast knew of his lack of control. Previously, he had avoided the topic with the beast because he had felt that it was a weakness to depend on others for your protection.
But now, after seeing the bond between Han, Roshi and their respective Tailed Beasts, he had come to realize that they were assets. Kyuubi was sealed inside his stomach and was not going anywhere, so why not learn to control its power and use it should the need arise?
By forming perfect synchronization with his tenant, it would benefit both of them.
Third and the most obvious of all the lessons he had learned was … he was weak! Being beaten and forced to retreat!? Unacceptable! He was not so arrogant as to believe himself a superior being with power unsurpassable but he liked to believe that he was relatively powerful.
But then again, he was but a Genin who was about to take his Chunin Exam, he had much room to improve.
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Forest of Death, Midnight
Deep within the dangerous and threatening confines of the Forest of Death, a panting Naruto tiredly leaned against the base of a tree and sighed in content. Fighting an endless number of Kyuubi-fied clones was neither a joke nor a walk in the park.
His exhausted and lifeless body was a testament to that fact.
Finding out that a seal of unknown function had been placed on him for unknown reasons by an equally unknown individual without his knowledge and that his body had been experimented on had riled him up quite a bit.
The sudden and unexpected twinges of severe pain, sudden loss of control, devastating backlashes of techniques and muscles spasms certainly made sense now.
Now that his mind was clear and devoid of any anger, he realized with a grimace that indeed the twinges of pain, while insignificant at that time, had started after he had returned from his deadly mission.
Just what had Danzo done to his body that it felt good and horrible at the same time!? Just what would Danzo gain from modifying his body? It made no sense!
If Danzo somehow had the delusional and arrogant thought that he would able to use him as a weapon, then he was dead wrong! Nobody had used him, nobody was using him and no would use him! No one!
If he were to take Kyuubi's inputs to heart, then it was safe to assume that the modifications would prove beneficial to his cause. Danzo would only be training and modifying his own assassin!
All thoughts aside, he realized that despite his thoughts of being in control, the man had subtly manipulated him into doing a lot of things.
By sending him to try and assassinate an experienced and skilled war veteran, Danzo ensured that he would return severely injured and would require days or maybe even weeks to be back to perfect health, thus allowing him sufficient time to conduct his experiments!
Since he had been unconscious at the moment, Akuma had taken him to the medical bay of the Foundation's Headquarters since even the fox knew that the Hokage did not have any knowledge of Naruto joining the ranks of the Foundation and thus would get suspicious to hear a report about a badly injured Naruto brought to the general hospital.
What he did not understand was why Akuma had not stopped him from conducting his experiments? His companion was loyal to a fault, he would rather die than let harm come to him! Just where was had been his foxy companion when Danzo had conducted the experiments?
Simply by this revelation alone, he knew he needed to be more careful around the shrewd and cold war hawk.
Sighing tiredly, Naruto dusted his long cloak and sped towards the fence surrounding the forest. It was past midnight and he needed to rest his tired body to receive some semblance of strength for tomorrow's activity list.
He hadn't received any sleep for the last three days because of constantly keeping a watch over his bedridden foxy companion, training and trying to decode the seal placed on his neck.
He had tried several times to decode it by having a shadow clone observe the array, but unfortunately and much to his continued anger, it was beyond his current capacity of knowledge.
Reaching the fence, Naruto leaped into the air and dashed towards his compound through the desolate streets.
The seal was positioned in a place which was his and everyone's greatest point of vulnerability, even those with Dojutsu. The back of the neck, right at the middle of the collarbones and innocently drawn over the vertebra was the damned seal that he had no idea what it did!
He hated it when he had no knowledge of something! It went against his nature! After all, Knowledge is power.
"Hmm?"
The speeding Jinchuriki stopped his sprint towards the general location of his compound when he saw a peculiar sight and heard sounds akin to a battle amidst the desolate streets. Sound did travel much faster and much louder during nights.
Something was wrong.
Swishes of several sharp objects cutting through the air followed by the telltale signs of metal hitting the floor confirmed his suspicion.
Something was definitely wrong.
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With Hayate, A Few Minutes Earlier
The sickly proctor of the Chunin exams cursed under his breath as he sped over the rooftops towards the Hokage Tower, ducking under a barrage of thrown kunai and shurikens. This was big, very big!
He couldn't believe the seemingly friendly and sincere ally of the Leaf would dare betray them! How could the Sand want to invade them when they had done nothing to displease them or make them suspicious of the Leaf!
He had been merely observing the Preliminary rounds of the Chunin Exams when he had witnessed the bloody battle of the one named Gaara and had decided to follow him to observe his behavior. After all, it wouldn't be wise to let an emotionally and mentally unstable killer run unsupervised through the streets, even if said killer was a guest.
He had witnessed Gaara ruthlessly kill a Sound Genin in a cocoon of sand and carelessly drop his deformed and squashed body from the roof of the house with a maniacal grin on his strangely transformed face.
He would have to talk with the Hokage about that … if he got out of this alive.
What he hadn't expected was for the Sand Jonin, Baki, to meet up with a masked Sound Jonin and exchange battle plans and tactics… battle plans and tactics that involved the destruction of the Leaf!
The borders were supposed to be closed and keenly monitored to avoid any potential attacks during the Chunin Exams, so then how did a Sound Jonin enter the Land of Fire, let alone run freely through the streets of the Leaf village without being spotted?
As if that wasn't suspicious enough, Baki had seemed unsurprised by his appearance, meaning he had known about the man and had been waiting for him. He would have tried to know more about the whole scheme, but unfortunately, his cover had been blown and now both of the Jonins were hot on his tail.
Taking one Jonin, while hard and energy consuming, would've been no problem since he was a Jonin himself, but unfortunately for him, there were two of them and quite skilled from the looks of their movements.
"Shit!" Hayate cursed again as a sharp kunai embedded itself deep into his shoulder and rendered his right arm useless. The situation was rapidly taking a course for the worst! If he didn't finish this in a few minutes, he might either die from loss of blood or fighting the two Jonins!
"Argh!" a pained grunt escaped his lips as another shuriken found its home upon his ankle and caused him to drop to the ground in pain. Pushing the searing pain to the back of his mind, the ailing proctor took out his sword and deflected another barrage of shurikens with his left hand.
Just because his right hand was useless to him now didn't mean that he was someone you wanted to underestimate. He was a Jonin and known as the best sword fighter in the Leaf for a reason!
Looking up, Hayate's eyes widened in shock as the two Jonins descended upon his injured form like vengeful Shinigami with their kunai drawn and ready to impale him. This was bad and would get worst if the Sand Jonin's Wind chakra enhanced kunai embedded itself in his body!
Normal shurikens and kunai would do little damage to his vital areas besides his head, since the standard issued vest were made from thin fibred mesh armor sewn into the fabric to provide sufficient protection, but a Wind chakra enhanced kunai would cleanly cut through flesh like a hot knife through butter!
Seeing as there was no other way than to block the Sand Jonin's attack and take the other Jonin's assault head on, Hayate readied himself and tightly griped his sword to hopefully block the attack and survive.
Before the two Jonins could descend on him and possibly kill him, a double flying kick to their faces sent the two aforementioned ninjas flying to a wall. The sickly proctor eyebrows rose up in surprise and relief when he saw the familiar cloak of the famous but detached Jinchuriki flap in the wind.
"Naruto"
The aforementioned Jinchuriki extended his hand to the downed Jonin and helped him up without saying anything. The sickly man knew why that was … well beside the fact that the blond always was quite.
The Jinchuriki was focused on the now fully ready and aware Jonins standing in front of them with angry expressions. It was obvious that their so called pride had taken a hit by being kicked unexpectedly.
Baki and the Sound Jonin gritted their teeth in anger as they gazed at the statue-like figure standing protectively over the downed spy. His appearance complicated things more than they already were. Now they had to kill two loose ends instead of one!
"Can you fight?" Naruto asked bluntly and looked over his shoulder.
He was under no misconceptions to think himself capable of taking on two Jonins and hope to survive. Taking one Jonin at his current state of power may prove extremely difficult but battling two Jonins would be outright suicidal.
Hayate nodded softly and tightly gripped his sword "I think so"
"Then you should take on the Sound Jonin"
His eyes widened in surprise "You mean you want to fight the Sand Jonin?"
Naruto gave him a pointed look "That is obvious"
Without waiting for his reply or his warning, Naruto dashed forward with a perfect use of Flash Step and punched a surprised Baki in his stomach with enough force to send him flying through a wall.
Taking the advantage Naruto provided him with by taking on the stronger opponent, Hayate vanished and clashed with a strangely demoralized Jonin. Guess, he was not used to taking on an opponent one on one.
Well, unfortunately for the Sound fool, every Leaf Shinobi was trained both individually and collectively to overcome any odds.
Off to the side, Naruto blocked a kunai slash from the growling Jonin and jumped back before raising a single glove-covered finger.
Fire Style: Fire Bullet Barrage!
But the Jonin wasn't a Jonin for nothing. He dodged the fire bullets with considerable ease, waving and dancing around the shower of fiery projectiles. However, there was just something wrong about this whole situation that he couldn't put his finger on.
Baki dodged the fire bullets and raced forward with his kunai drawn, channeling his wind chakra into the energy conducting metal. Naruto took out his own kunai and blocked the assault with ease, channeling his own wind chakra to counter the piercing effect of the other pointy weapon.
'He is more focused on engaging me head on rather than firing a technique, why?' Naruto mused lightly as he blocked another frantic slash from the Jonin. Without proceeding with the contest of physical strength, Naruto jumped backwards and stood a few feet away from the Sand Jonin.
Much to his continued surprise and suspicion, the Sand ninja didn't fire a technique and dashed forward, intent on fighting head on. This fight was turning out to be much too easy for a battle between a Jonin level ninja… unless…
'I see'
Naruto Flash stepped out of the way of the upcoming assault and appeared a few feet away "You are not fighting at your full capacity"
Baki grunted in annoyance. This was turning out to be quite the irritating situation. If they let these two alive, then their invasion plan was as good as foiled! The betterment of their Villages' future depended on the success of the Invasion!
It was true that he was holding back, after all, if he were to use high level techniques, it would attract a lot of unwanted attention but the fact that a mere Genin who had just started his Chunin Exams was able to figure that out was worrisome.
Of course he knew who this tall and cloaked boy was, he had seen him fight and kill two opponents in the Preliminary Exams.
"You are fighting to desperately to kill me, yet at the same time, you are holding back a considerable amount of power" the cloaked Jinchuriki stated bluntly and sidestepped a barrage of shurikens "Are you worried about being discovered by the patrolling ANBU?"
The Sand Jonin gritted his teeth in anger. This brat was getting on his nerves, talking as if he knew everything! When did Genins get to be so disrespectful and powerful at the same time!
Discreetly skimming his gaze over the parameters, he saw with a depressing sense of foreboding that the Sound fool wasn't doing much better against the skilled sword fighter. In fact, looking closely, the Jonin appeared to be losing quite badly!
Why did Orochimaru send this weakling to deliver the message?!
That was not all! Even if the entire Leaf ANBU Force had been comprised of deaf and blind individuals, they would've sensed something amiss and that is exactly what was happening at the moment! They had taken particular care in choosing the location for the plans exchange but the ever perceptive ANBU had somehow heard the commotion and were doubt on their way here!
Knowing that taking any more time would only worsen the situation, Baki turned towards his strangely quiet and motionless opponent, discreetly reaching for a dozen shurikens under his vest.
"So the ANBU's got the signal? Good" Naruto commented firmly and turned towards the Sound Jonin fighting Hayate, still keeping Baki in his peripheral vision.
Baki's eyes widened in surprise. The signal? What signal?! He hadn't seen the cloaked Genin fire any visible signal to alert the ANBU… unless.
"Those bullets were not meant for me, were they?" Baki asked through gritted teeth.
"Perceptive" Naruto retorted plainly, though the Sand Jonin could feel the air of smugness around him "Killing you would take unnecessary time and energy which I do not have at the moment, however killing your partner …."
Hayate's eyes widened in shock when his opponent went stiff like a rod and screamed in pain, his eyes wide in shock, mouth opened in a silent scream. Scanning the area, he spotted Naruto standing behind the motionless ninja and his glove-covered hand …. jutting out of said Jonin's chest! He killed him!?
"… will be easy!"
Carelessly pulling his blood covered hand from the dead man's torso and dropping his corpse to the ground in a meaty thud, Naruto sped forward and swept a surprised Hayate off his feet, speeding off into the distance without even looking back.
Realizing the Genin's intention, Baki got over his shock off seeing a mere Genin take out a full seasoned Jonin and moved to give pursuit. However, before he could chase after the boy, his battle hardened senses picked up the approaching chakra signatures of several ANBU.
His hands clenched in anger, drawing blood, his teeth grinded against one another. This was bad! Worse even! Should the two report what they witnessed here to the Hokage, then their invasion will be for naught! Granted there won't be an invasion if the Hokage decided to order his Force to eliminate them!
The whole success of the invasion depended on the element of surprise! They had not delusional thoughts of being strong enough to take the Leaf Village on with their weak force, but they were confident that they could deliver a decisive blow during the confusion!
Cursing the cloaked Genin and vowing to get his head in a platter, the Sand Jonin took the dead Sound ninja's body and sped off into his temporary apartment. It would surely raise suspicion and security if the ANBU were to find a dead Sound Jonin in the middle of the street.
Finding the copious amount of blood on the street would do the same but at least they could chalk it up to an internal quarrel between ninja or even some reckless training method.
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Author's Note: I want to express my apologies for giving the readers false update alarm. I only meant to delete the (AN) I had left before my departure, I never realized that the system would inform my readers of an update. Some of the readers understood for which I was thankful while some outright expressed their anger.
So I understand your anger and apologize for the inconvenience but kindly at least try to assess the situation before you leave angry comments asking for the update's whereabouts. I learned my lesson and will remember to warn you guys before I do something of the same nature.
Another thing, I know this chapter is short (almost 8k words) as compared to my other chapters but I wanted to give you guys and gals something to read after all this time. I hope it was enjoyable and worth your precious time.
Kindly review and let me know what you think. If you don't have an account, leave a guest review. My Moon Emperor fans made me the happiest man alive by giving me a breathtakingly sizeable amount of reviews for a single chapter (145 reviews!) only after I encouraged them that a guest review was also acceptable! So don't be shy and review even if you don't have an account!
Here is short list of my stories along with their short descriptions.
Story No 1:
Name: Wandering Soul:
Type: Naruto X Bleach.
Pairing: Naruto, Tsunade and Rangiku
Type of main character: A slightly perverted, OP, cheerful, friendly Naruto who loves to troll his opponents, call people rude nicknames and drink sake.
Story No 2,
Name: Dark Avenger
Type: Naruto X Avengers Assemble
Pairing: Black Widow
Type of main character: The same as Wandering Soul.
Story No 3,
Name: Moon Emperor
Type: Naruto X Young Justice with elements from Justice League, Marvel, Teen Titans and related movies
Pairing: Older Zatanna
Type of main of character: Ruler of Realities, insanely powerful Emperor, polite, friendly, always calm and smiling harmlessly.
Note: The above story is unlike anything you have ever seen or read, trust me on that! The idea haven't been done before and the direction of the story have never been taken before! Give it a try and I can guarantee that you will love it!
Story No 4,
Name: A Fascinating Reality
Type: Naruto X Dragon Ball Super, sequel to Moon Emperor
Pairing: Vados
Type of main character: The same as Moon Emperor.