A/N Hey there lads and lassies here be the next chapter of Will of Fire I hope you enjoy the read and if you have any feedback whatsoever don't be afraid to review :) I take helpful criticism and compliments and ideas alike. Also I have no beta so if you catch any let me know and i will fix said grammar.
While Orochimaru would never admit it out loud, in his current state he was no match for Sarutobi. After five minutes of vicious battle he had received far more damage than his opponent. He knew he would have to retreat for now lest he be killed so soon after being revived. He had to time it perfectly or else he would be caught before he could even think of escape. Chuckling in a very dark manner he taunted the old monkey summoner as the man struck out with his staff. "Come on sensei, is this the best you can do with a renewed body? Such a disappointment." The smirk on his face adding insult to injury as he casually dodged each strike (even though each strike missed by only a hairs breath).
Taunting Sarutobi might not have been the smartest action for the snake Sannin as his eyes took on a look of steel, one strike hit home, a swipe to his temple followed sending him stumbling sideways, a vicious jumping spin kick to his abdomen sent him sprawling. "Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu." A fireball that spanned about ten feet across raced towards a groggily standing Orochimaru he only he had time to look up in time to see the fire, his mouthed opened in a scream, whether from rage or fear was uncertain. The words died on his lips as he was engulfed in flames only a moment later.
Sarutobi landed near the scorched body, after inspecting the body he smashed the butt of his staff into Orochimaru's shed skins head. Inspecting the now scorched part of the forest that lay near the skin he saw a hole not too far away. "You little bitch! I didn't train a coward such as this!" Sarutobi shouting loud enough to be sure Orochimaru heard him no matter where he hid. Still he had to respect his students' tenacity to live. He sped off in tail of his foe. He was adept at tracking after all. Orochimaru couldn't have gone too far.
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Too say Naruto was in a tight spot was like saying Choji only ate chips on occasion. Kimimaro was a nightmare; he couldn't do any real damage to this guy. Thus when he had stabbed him he hid in the tree tops via the Kawarimi no Jutsu, gotta love the basics. Currently Kimimaro was throwing his little bony shuriken every trying to get a feel for his location. Naruto wouldn't let that happen, he wasn't skilled in stealth for nothing. A ninja's home ground was always in the unseen places, while occasionally enjoying a good slug fest in the opponents face Naruto knew the value of remaining unseen. When he figured out his plans on how to destroy the juggernaut that was Kimimaro he set to work with the preparations.
Kimimaro was growing angrier and angrier, he could feel the blondes' smug presence somewhere in the trees nearby, the fact that Kimimaro couldn't pin point the location or find the blonde with his shuriken really pissed him off. A veritable rain of Kunai rained down upon him from all directions except from underneath, with a smirk Kimimaro spun in a circle lashing out with his bone sword neatly deflecting, diverting, and dodging all the kunai. "Typical trash move from a trash enemy, what else is new." The Kaguya taunted. When he heard the soft sizzling though, his eyes widened in shock before the explosion went off, it was so massive, and the initial shockwave tore the surrounding trees asunder before the flames ever reached them.
Naruto strolled out into the open, dusting his palms together with smirk on his face, yep he certainly loved big explosions, while he was going to come back at some point and ensure that life started back up here again it certainly didn't take away from his love of that big boom. "There's no way that bastard survived that explosion, he was all 'trash move from trash enemy'. Tch I'm Uzumaki Naruto, you don't fuck with me." He jeered, mocking Kimimaro to himself as a mental pat on his back.
He wasn't expecting a sudden blast of killing intent to follow his statement, and it was coming from directly below him. Jumping backwards just in time to avoid being sliced in half. "There's just no fucking way you could have survived that! How the hell are you alive?!" Naruto accused with exasperation and pointing his forefinger at his enemy for emphasis.
"That was quite the trick, I admit. I'm not an average Shinobi and I'm no longer even a normal Kaguya. You see Orochimaru has gifted me with this power." Kimimaro stated his voice darker and huskier. Naruto could literally feel the taint of his chakra from there. His form had contorted even more making him look even more like a freaky Dinosaur human hybrid. With dark grey skin, six large bone spines protruding out of his back, and a long bone-spiked tail completing his new creepy look.
Kimimaro had had enough of this little pest; he rushed forward but at a slower speed than before. It was still fast enough to close the three feet of distance between them and land a vicious slash across Naruto's chest and splitting the skin on his chin with his sword. Naruto's recovered from the shock and dodged the next strikes with ease and gaining sufficient ground retaliated with a piston kick to bone freaks abdomen only to have the ninja dodge by a hairs breathe. His reward was a slash on the abdomen due to Naruto's blades infused with wind chakra. Rushing forward Naruto began a brutal barrage of kicks, strikes and slashes. He made sure each attack flowed as a river into the next one; weaving together an acrobatic attack that had attacks coming in from all angles. Kimimaro however was infuriatingly good at dodging and any strikes he did land on the bony freak healed up too quick to really matter. Dodging Kimimaro's counterattack Naruto leapt forward with a war cry lashing out with a left uppercut with all the strength he could muster and pouring copious amounts of wind chakra into his blades causing a high pitched whirring noise. Kimimaro hopped back but not fast enough as Naruto's claw struck deep into his jaw bone and cut three deep trenches within the hardened bone. Causing Kimimaro's eyes to widen, and then narrow rapidly.
Naruto was now officially in the danger zone, and Kimimaro was quick to show it with a strong elbow to his chest, the spike coming off his elbow slipping into the blondes' body like a knife through hot butter. Kimimaro was not done however as he followed with a low quick that shattered the blondes' knee and crumpling to the ground a second later. Kimimaro followed him down and threw all of his weight into a hard downward strike with his right hand; his drill of a hand, the drill spinning so rapidly it was a blur. Naruto barely avoided it by throwing the teen off in a roll.
Kimimaro rolled to his feet to see Naruto, slowly trying to stand. "It's futile, you are defeated and you will die here and now. Do not be too disappointed though many have died in my wake." He tried consoling his enemy before his final rest.
"Hey mother fucker, take a look at your chest." Looking down Kimimaro to see a seal tag attached to him and it had just started glowing signaling activation. So where was the explosion? Wasn't it an explosive tag? When he tried to remove it he came to a frightening discovery, he couldn't move at all, save for his mouth and eyes it seemed. Now he saw Naruto's vengeful grin, he'd countered his flurry without him even being aware.
"How?"
"When you threw that hard right you were so focused on your attack you missed it when I threw you off me, I slapped it on and activated as soon as I could." The seal was actually very simple in design, the seal was took its strength from the chakra of the wearer. The more chakra they had the harder it was to escape. Kimimaro didn't need to know that though, Naruto now had him in checkmate, and the teen was at his mercy.
"Ah, as an Uzumaki I should have known you were knowledgeable with seals" Kimimaro conceded, looking very pissed at his predicament and trying to figure out how to escape, the more chakra he seemed to put out trying to break this damn seal the more it seemed to take out of him.
"What the fuck do you mean?" Naruto queried a look of surprise on his face.
Kimimaro looked at Naruto as if he were retarded. "The Uzumaki, close allies of Konoha's before being wiped out in one fell swoop because of their power with seals. How can you not know that? You're an Uzumaki!"
"Shut the hell up!" Naruto growled, at any rate he'd learned what he wanted it was time to finish this. "I'm done here, you're worse than useless in your condition and the next patrol will find you and deal with you. I'm going to check on my friends." When he turned to leave however he came face to face with the resident snake Sannin himself.
"Fuck." Naruto stated, before killing intent the likes he'd never felt before fell onto his shoulders. His mind simply could not handle it and he crumpled to the ground out cold before he even hit the ground. Orochimaru swiftly kicked him aside sending Naruto flying into a tree, causing the monster of a man to smirk sadistically.
Time seemed to slow down at the blonde then, his body was bleeding heavily from serious injuries, he couldn't breathe right after his lung being punctured and he couldn't really hear much after that kick. The strength behind it rattled his brain and probably gave him a concussion. On top of all that he couldn't move his body, he tried commanding it to move but his body was refusing to pick up the signal. 'Is this how I'm going to die? Heh and I didn't even survive to become chunin' he thought to himself as his spirit started giving in.
'Naruto, use our power!' a voice that carried the sound of primal beauty commanded him. Looking up his eyes fell upon a woman. Her long hair fell down in waves, constantly shifting in a plethora of colors. Her skin was the color of Brazilian cherry wood and she wore a dark green, velvet looking dress.
"Who are you?" He asked weakly, his strength fading fast.
'It doesn't matter, pour all of your chakra into the tree your resting against and use our power! Do it quickly or you will die!' Her voice was urgent and pleading. For some reason Naruto didn't want to hear her voice carrying such a sadness to it. He nodded mumbling "Sure thing lady, just don't cry." Nodding as best as he could, whether it worked or not he did not know but he shut his eyes and focused, turning his attention inwards he immersed himself within the vast pool of chakra that lie within him and he rushed it outwards into the tree behind him. Instantly things started coming into focus, he could feel his legs and arms again and he could hear the Sannin's gasp of surprise at whatever was happening.
The Sannin had thought that one kick had killed the blonde or at least knocked him out, so he had gone to free Kimimaro from the blonde's seal which was quite well done but a minor inconvenience to him. However when he felt an enormous outpouring of chakra erupt from where the blonde had hit he looked too see a giant wave like writhing mass of branches rushing towards him with large wooden heads of many different sharp toothed animals, all snapping ferociously, there were even large snake heads, ironic really. Still he had to move lest he be engulfed in that attack; grabbing Kimimaro he put on a full sprint trying to get out of the way, he felt one beast graze and pierce his sandal and almost catch his foot but his speed pushed him ahead just a little faster.
Looking back his eyes widened, the forest was alive, what looked to be moving mass of sharpened trees rapidly sweeping over everything and swallowing the land. "Dear god." He whispered; this kid wasn't even chunin he had only just gotten out of the academy for Kami's sake! Regardless he summoned a giant snake and it sped forward with all the haste it could muster due to the wooden avalanche of sorts rushing towards them.
Naruto's conscious was currently one with the forest. He was the rushing mass of nature's wrath! He was unstoppable, but he could also feel his body and as weird as it was he felt it quickly becoming exhausted with the effort of will it took to create this. While he had more than enough chakra it was straining his mental capacity to the limit. It was time to stop; 'You did it Naruto' the ladies voice seemed to whisper in his mind. Opening his eyes he gasped. He sat at the base of the tree completely healed, and encased in a wooden shell, with the light peeking in here and there. The place was roomy at about ten in diameter and dome like. "I did this?" He asked to no one.
"Yes you did Naruto." Naruto whirled to find his sensei standing there, surveying whatever Naruto had created. Than his gaze turned to the boy himself and for the look in his eyes seemed to be trying to discern just how much he was truly capable of. It was slightly unnerving if he were honest. "This is amazing; none since the first have ever displayed such powerful techniques. Especially mokuton," he talked as if he were mystified, dazed and shocked. Than his gaze became sharp and calculating again, turning it once more, on Naruto. "Where is everyone else?"
Naruto blushed and looked nervously at the ground. "Well I… I, uh, I kinda tricked them into going on ahead because we had a pursuer. Sooooo…. I don't know." All he did to justify himself was smile innocently and shrug.
"Oh you are so dead when we get back to the village, you know that don't you?" Sarutobi said through ground teeth. He'd drilled teamwork into all three of their heads and on their first outside mission he throws it all away with careless bravado. "I'm so pissed off at you right now I am currently forbidding you from speaking for the duration of the mission. Follow me while we head towards Konoha. HOPEFULLY they made it home safe. Now find them and lead on silently." Naruto whimpered but did as requested he found them. He whimpered again, he found them alright, and they were in a tight spot. He sped off the Hokage hot on his heels. "They're in trouble aren't they?" Sarutobi asked, getting a nod from the blonde. "Then speed the fuck up, let's hope Yugao can sufficiently protect them." Naruto tried hard not gulp, he only felt three signatures in that area, so unless she could hide her chakra perfectly than Yugao was not there.
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Yugao was currently looking down on a very interesting fight, Shikamaru and Tenten had been stopped in their head long rush by the traitor she had only just now caught up too. Having come upon this fight she felt she would see if the two gennin even needed her help. So far they seemed to be a good job at keeping him at a distance, somehow knowing he didn't have many rangy techniques while both of them were distance fighters, to a point. Shikamaru kept Kabuto constantly moving around via his Kagemane no jutsu (Shadow imitation technique), Meanwhile Tenten kept him distracted and dodging via throwing an entire armies' worth of weapons his way.
"Is that the best you two can do? Ha! How long can you keep this up?" His smirk never once twitched, this was good dodging practice sure but he hadn't even broken a sweat yet. His job was to test the abilities of Orochimaru's ex-sensei's new crop. It seemed as though the jinchuuriki had played hero and stayed behind to fight Kimimaro, a noble sentiment but a fool move. The boy would die for sure. "Come on I want to see what you two can really do. I know students of Sarutobi Hiruzen are better than this!" He taunted.
To say Shikamaru was pissed would be an understatement, as they had been running He thought Naruto had been all to quiet, than when Kabuto had arrived and they found out at the worst possible time that it was a shadow clone of Naruto they had no choice but to distract him while the clone made thousands of other copies just to get away. However now they had no way of knowing whether or not he had actually gotten to Konoha safely, even the slightest mistake could dispel the clone and leave Anko completely unguarded. They all had heard that recent explosion and now that they knew it was Naruto he was officially worried. To top it all off their supposed stand in leader was missing in action and nowhere to be found. Catching eyes with Tenten he signaled her with a few hand signals they had developed as a way of communicating on the battlefield without giving away what their planning. Right now Shikamaru needed an outlet and killing this son of a bitch was the perfect tool
"I'm really bored now children. It seems this is all you can do, how disappointing." Kabuto groaned, feigning sorrow.
"You're an idiot who needs to shut his mouth." Tenten said right behind him right before she slammed the butt of her staff into his back following with a swipe to the head that made a 'crack' she followed up by pivoting and sent a strong sweeping strike to his midsection, doubling him over she swiftly bent low and kicked his feet out from under him but he caught himself on one hand and shoved forward with a knee to her face that almost broke his knee-cap, her skin was like iron! She had a wolfish grin on her face as she rushed forward and lashed out with strikes only for the slimy bastard to weave expertly out of the way.
He would most certainly have counter attacked by now as his chakra scalpels could easily bypass the Rock Armour jutsu, it was high class move to be certain as it was completely transparent made you physically stronger and nigh untouchable with blunt trauma, it had its weakness however. Ones that he would have exploited were it not for Shikamaru's shadow closing in so he had to disengage and jump back, only to see another. He dodged it and this time more came at him only it was five shadow's not just one. He jumped on top of one of the many weapons. "Smart move, littering the battle field with weapons to create more shadow's to use against me. Sadly an amateur move to one such as me." He was about to boast even more but he wound up having thousands and thousands of volts shoved into him via the field of weapons turn into an electrical field. At this point Tenten had long vacated the area so as not to get tangled in the electrical jutsu.
"That was only phase one jack-ass you just experienced phase two, taste phase three fucker." A spear shot forward out of the shadow's and pierced his heart electricity arcing up in a fantastical display of lights and Kabuto's scream of agony was music to his ears.
"Wow that would have been painful, sadly this is where you die." Kabuto's voice whispered behind Shikamaru, who was pretty well hidden. Just as he was about to strike Shikamaru on the neck, however his danger senses went off and thanks to a timely Kawarimi was saved from being cut in half. A third opponent had entered the field now, a purple haired Anbu with a cat mask, "Ah Neko-san what a pleasant surprise." He greeted amicably.
She said nothing except to rush forward faster than even he could follow before slashing him from shoulder to hip. Only for the blade to pass rather through his ethereal image, she stood still awaiting his counter. Sending out a pulse of chakra to see where he was she found he had run. Seemed he didn't really want to take on two powerful kids and an Anbu. Moments later Naruto and Sarutobi dropped down. She nodded their way as he did theirs. "Tell me something Neko-san how can you hide you're chakra completely?" Naruto asked confusion written on his face. He still couldn't sense her and it disturbed him greatly.
He could swear she was smiling under her mask as he heard amusement in her voice as she told him "Maybe I'll teach you someday." Implying that day was far far far off. She was shocked when the Hokage punched the blonde on the back of the head hard enough to face plant.
"What did I tell you about talking during the remainder of the mission?" Hiruzen commanded. He turned away and addressed his team. "Good job, all of you for staying alive, Naruto's clone has yet to dispel or else he would receive its memories so we know Anko is still safe, mission accomplished! On a side note Naruto is not allowed to speak for the duration of the mission for abandoning his teammates in faux bravado and stand against an unknown enemy by himself."
They all nodded and the Hokage smiled. "Let's go home guys."