Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden. All characters in this story, excluding those that are created by me, are the intellectual property of Masashi Kishimoto. Please show support by reading or watching the original source material.
~Naruto: The Second Coming - Chapter Eleven~
"Fly Like a Butterfly"
(Just Prior to the Mission)
Naruto stood stiff as a board, in a scenario that he quite honestly had never expected himself being forced into. A mere hour before he and Shisui were meant to depart for their top-secret mission, and here he was standing, silently watching his sensei peering through a spyglass at a group of women that had made the mistake of relaxing in a nearby river. Fools. Didn't they know that an insane pervert was on the loose?
"I have to say, the armor suits you," Jiraiya complimented with a sly grin. He didn't take his eye away from the spyglass for even a moment, and Naruto was quite confident that nothing less than Tsunade Senju herself inviting him into her bed could get him to do so.
He was fully clothed in his Anbu attire, minus the mask, which he was holding in his left hand. He wore a travel pack including all essential items pertaining to the mission, including a hooded cloak that would better conceal his appearance. He shifted his hand onto his hip as he waited patiently for his sensei to explain why he asked to meet with him before he left.
That time then seemed to finally arrive after Jiraiya got particularly excited by one of the women briefly stepping out of the water, revealing her fully nude body to his lustful eye. Naruto, on the other hand, was decent enough to avert his gaze in defense of the poor woman's modesty.
"I'm going to be honest kid, I don't think you're ready for this mission," he suddenly confessed, his voice now rather serious despite the bounty his eyes had just been gifted. "But the old man wouldn't hear me out, so it seems that you're going anyway."
The comment stung a bit, "You tried to have me taken off of the mission?" he asked, maintaining an even tone.
Jiraiya shrugged his shoulder, evidently not at all ashamed, "Look, you're no slouch, don't get me wrong, but this is your first mission with the Anbu, and that old coot is having you sneak into an enemy nation to steal a heavily guarded relic," he explained. "That's something even I'd struggle to do, and I've been at this way longer than you, kid."
"I won't question Lord Hokage's decision, and neither should you," Naruto countered. "And besides, there's always a risk of death in the life of a shinobi, and it would be an honor for me to die serving my home."
Without any word of warning, Jiraiya lowered the spyglass from his eye and swiveled around to face his young pupil. He gave him a surprised look, with raised brows, before actually laughing as if he had heard the funniest joke of all time. Naruto could only be left trying to understand what was so funny in the first place, feeling a tad bit embarrassed.
Seemingly finding it difficult to actually speak, Jiraiya needed a moment to compose himself, "I always knew that you were a damned idiot, but this stroke of stupidity surprised even me," he managed to get out before chuckling again. "You're still only a kid, so don't try and act so content to die. What would Mito do if you were to go and get yourself killed? Have you thought about that?"
It was then that a sound of feminine laughter in the distance caused Jiraiya to raise his spyglass once more, with a silly grin on his face. With that being the case, most would assume that his little lecture was over, and Naruto would have been counted among them. Subverting this expectation, his sensei decided that now was the time to demonstrate his skills in multitasking, where he continued to dispense wisdom while also peeping on oblivious women.
"Your parents died so that you could live, not so you'd foolishly throw away your life a few years down the road," he continued. "Do you think Minato would have chosen death if there was any other option? No, he would have stayed alive to be with you and your sister. Do you realize how silly you sound in comparison, saying that you're willing to die and leave your sister behind just to retrieve some jar?"
Naruto was certainly glad that all of his sensei's questions thus far had been rhetorical, because right now he was actually at a loss for what to say in response. For the first time in a long while, he felt like an actual kid. He was never the kind of child that misbehaved in a way that resulted in him being lectured by his parents, so this was something new to him.
Jiraiya scratched his cheek as he continued spying, "You spend so much time trying to be selfless that it actually makes you blind to how fundamentally broken you are," he said, noticeably shifting the tone of the conversation. "If you weren't so fixated on serving and protecting your loved ones, you might actually befriend some more people and learn to act like a healthy human being. Outside of your actual friends, who I can count on one hand with fingers to spare, how many people can claim that they've actually gotten to know you?"
"Is this why you asked me to come here, Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto asked with crossed arms, feeling a tad bit defensive. "Surely this conversation could have waited until after I returned from my mission."
"You idiot, have you not listened to a word that I've said?" Jiraiya responded with a shake of his head and a slight elevation of his tone. "I'm trying to keep my godson from going out and getting himself killed. This isn't a conversation that can wait."
The sheer weight of the response nearly made Naruto's train of thought come to a screeching halt. These past few days had done a great job in presenting him with conversations that completely subverted his expectations. Last night there was his talk with Fugaku-sama, and now he was being lectured by a guy who he had grown to know as a carefree, perverted buffoon.
"I've seen your type before. The person who's lost everything," Jiraiya continued. "You close yourself off from people because forming connections with others presents more opportunities to experience loss. And when you do actually manage to form bonds with others, you obsess over the possibility of them dying and train like a madman to protect them. You think that it's up to you to carry all of these burdens on your own, but it isn't."
Naruto was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable as this talk was beginning to hit a little to close to home for his liking. Was it because deep down he knew that his sensei was right? Probably, but it wasn't something that he could so quickly come to terms with without more time to reflect on the issue. Maybe he had been wasting his childhood in service of others when he should have been making friends and enjoying the simpler things, but that was how things played out. Besides, right now, he had a mission to worry about.
"I have to leave now, but know that I'll be mulling over what you've told me until we get a chance to speak again," Naruto finally said with a slight bow after finding his voice again. "It was a lot to take in all at once, so I apologize if it didn't seem as if I was taking it seriously."
He turned to leave but was stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw that Jiraiya had turned around to face him with a softened expression that he hadn't seen on the perverted Sage's face before. It was the kind of look he remembered his mother and father giving him when he was a young child. Jiraiya didn't just view him as a student...he saw him as family.
"Wait, kid, there's still the reason I asked you to come here in the first place. I need to tell you something important," he said, revealing to Naruto that their conversation had gotten entirely off-topic. "There's someone that you need to know about before you infiltrate Kumogakure."
With a slight incline of the head, Naruto gave him the floor to speak, "I'm listening."
"Yugito Nii is not the only Jinchuuriki that lives within the mountains of Kumogakure," Jiraiya explained, mentioning a name that Naruto instantly remembered. "I doubt you'll encounter him, but if you somehow run into the Hachibi Jinchuuriki, there's only one option for you if you're to actually survive."
"And what's that?" Naruto asked, wondering if his sensei had a special plan already formulated.
"You run, Naruto. You run and don't look back."
(Present Time)
Naruto looked at the Hachibi Jinchuuriki standing no more than ten feet away from him, in an almost completely closed off chamber, and couldn't help but curse his luck. Of all the people that would be guarding the Kohaku no Jōhei it would be the one person that Jiraiya-sensei told him he'd need to avoid at all costs.
"Check it, ya fool," Killer Bee shouted with a grin. "If you want to run, now's the time to choose. Cuz once I get started I don't stop, and you're bound to lose, ya dig?"
Naruto's only response was to draw his tanto from its sheath. His sensei had never been one for hyperbole or exaggeration, so that meant that this man was someone that he couldn't hope to defeat at his current level. But even still, a retreat wasn't an option since he was the only thing standing between him and his mission objective.
"So the Hachibi Jinchuuriki is the guardian of the Kohaku no Jōhei," Naruto commented out loud in an attempt to stall for time so he could come up with a plan.
Killer Bee pointed at him and said, "That's right. And it's Lord Hachibi to you. Ya dumbass phony."
Were there any Jinchuuriki out there that weren't complete weirdos?
Before he could attempt to keep the conversation going any further, a chakra conductive blade coated in lighting was thrown squarely at his face. His Sharingan activated instantly, and he was narrowly able to avoid being pierced. Keeping himself aware of the battle area, he was able to notice that his opponent had disappeared from where he had been standing.
Relying on intuition and battle instinct, Naruto was able to detect another such blade coming toward the side of his head. Simultaneously, over his shoulder, he saw his opponent was now behind him, having caught the blade that he had initially thrown, now preparing to use it to stab him in the back. It would seem that he was using a diversionary tactic in an attempt to confine him.
Faster than the human eye could track, Naruto formed the Shadow Clone hand seal and in a puff of smoke, a perfect copy appeared. Without a moments hesitation, it grabbed his arm and tossed him out of the way, getting stabbed in his place and dispelling as quickly as it had appeared.
'He doesn't want to give me an opportunity to think and plan my next move,' Naruto thought to himself as he jumped back even further to create more distance. 'He won't commit to a particular strategy until he's tested me a bit.'
Rather than continuing his aggressive advance, his opponent immediately halted in his tracks and pulled out his notebook once again. Naruto remained on guard, not knowing if this notebook pertained at all to some kind of jutsu or plan, but he quickly realized that wasn't the case.
"Shadow Clone...bone...stone...zone? I'm in a zone...I just took out your shadow clone...Yeah, that's tight," Killer Bee mumbled to himself before scribbling it down in his notebook. He was apparently pleased enough with the rhyme to actually write it down for future reference.
Not one to grant an opponent a break, Naruto weaved through a familiar set of hand seals, "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu."
As he'd seen them do hundreds of times before during training, the balls of flame homed in on their target with pinpoint accuracy. Not one to wait to see if an attack worked or not, Naruto blurred out of sight in an impressive showing of speed. Almost at the exact same moment, his opponent managed to expertly weave through each of the fireballs without taking his eyes off of what he was writing.
Just as he finished dodging the jutsu, Naruto decided to take a page out of his own book and not give him enough time to even breath. He was already at his side with a Rasengan in his right hand prepared to grind a hole through the Hachibi Jinchuuriki's back. The attack seemed noteworthy enough to cause the shinobi/rapper to lower his notebook for a brief moment.
It was then that Naruto found his attack unable to reach as he found himself restrained. Looking down toward his waist, he was surprised to see a gray octopus tentacle grabbing him from out of the ground, originating from Killer Bee's lower back. He had tunneled it through the concrete below so he could grab him from behind, once again taking advantage of blind spots.
With a grin, Killer Bee chastised his far younger opponent, "The only one who gets to interrupt me is ME, ya fool!" he said, apparently taking issue with Naruto trying to kill him while he was busy writing.
Though, after having said so, his attention shifted toward the rotating chakra sphere that was still continuously spinning in Naruto's hand. It was difficult to see what his expression was underneath his shades, but it was clear that he was surprised to see his opponent use such a jutsu.
"That jutsu...it's the Yellow Flash's, no doubt. I saw him use it years ago in our first and only bout," Killer Bee remarked after staring for a few moments.
Naruto's eyes widened behind his mask as his opponent essentially confessed to having fought his father in the past. Was this for real? Was he actually expected to fight against someone who managed to come out of an encounter with his father alive? Now Jiraiya-sensei's warning was making even more sense. This opponent was far beyond him.
"Anything you want to say before I put ya away, ya fool?" Killer Bee asked raising a blade and streaming lightning through it in preparation to run Naruto through.
If that was how he wanted to play this, Naruto had a fitting set of final words, "Great Clone Explosion."
Before Killer Bee could even so much as blink in response, Naruto, now revealed to be a clone, detonated in a blast that shook the very foundations of the room.
At the surface above, the two gate guards remained impassive as they felt the ground tremor below them. They both remained visibly stoic, clearly still affected by the mind-altering genjutsu Naruto had placed on them earlier.
"Should we check that out?" one of the asked, his voice monotone.
The other shook his head, "He told us not to come down no matter what we heard, remember?"
"True."
Naruto braced himself behind a support pillar as the explosion rocked the entire room with a level of force that felt comparable to that of an earthquake. Being so far under the ground, in a fairly insulated room with no windows, the blast was far more powerful than it would have normally been. For a moment, he wondered if it had been overkill, but then he remembered who he was fighting.
'He likely survived that. I need to got the Kohaku no Jōhei before he figures out what's going on,' he thought to himself before making a beeline toward the back of the room, where the relic was still sitting, now unguarded.
There was then a falter in his step when Naruto felt an unfathomable amount of chakra barreling toward him. He turned over his shoulder and saw that his opponent was now completely covered in a red cloak of bubbling chakra, with eight tails and a set of horns.
Killer Bee grinned, showing his now elongated canine teeth, "Yo, I'll squash you flat, split splat!" he taunted before his attack landed, with enough force to crush much of the concrete floor below.
It took a few moments for the dusk to settle, but when it did, Killer Bee found himself standing inside an empty crater, with a stone covered in paper bombs where his defeated opponent should have been. Before he could even make so much as a single rhyme, the paper bombs exploded.
Naruto watched from his position on the ceiling, thankful for the fact that he made sure to practice the substitution jutsu so many times during his Academy days. When the dust settled, he was unsurprised to see that the Hachibi Jinchuuriki hadn't even bothered leaving the crater. The explosion hadn't done any damage whatsoever.
"Without my cloak, I'd be up in smoke," he complained as he looked around the room in an attempt to find the pesky intruder. "Gotta thank Eight-Tails when I'm done, son."
It took all of his years of training and self-control to keep from allowing panic to overtake him. Nothing was working. He wasn't fast enough to catch his opponent off guard, none of his attacks were strong enough to do any real damage, and he had no chance of getting the Kohaku no Jōhei when the Hachibi Jinchuuriki knew that was what he was here for in the first place.
Then out of nowhere, he felt a searing pain in his leg and looked down to a red chakra arm grabbing his ankle. With no chance to escape, he was unceremoniously slammed into the ground below, feeling several of his bones break during the impact. Adrenaline was the only thing that kept him conscious, but with the severe burns on his leg and bones broken in both his ribs and left arm, it wasn't likely that he'd be conscious or alive for much longer.
Even with his now blurred vision, he was able to see his Jinchuuriki opponent leap into the air above him, apparently intent on ending things here and now. He attempted to move his body, but a jolt of pain prevented him from doing so. He could only watch on as his death appeared imminent.
"And now I'll end the show with a killer blow!"
For a split second, Naruto felt a lingering desire to give up as his saw his chakra-clad opponent inching closer and closer. His Sharingan only served to make his death appear to happen slower, but he knew that in all likelihood his body was too weakened to react anyway. Then, in that moment, he saw a multitude of faces flash before his eyes. Mito, Sasuke, and finally Izumi.
In an unexplainable turn of events, he ignored the unspeakable pain and managed to roll himself to the side, just a bit. He felt the Hachibi Jinchuuriki's arm slam into the ground right where he had been lying, and knew that he would have certainly died had he surrendered to his fate. Even still, his close proximity to the impact caused him to be launched into one of the several support pillars lining the room.
At that point, the pain who just a dull throb to him, and he was quickly able to recognize that his sheer desire to live was the only thing keeping him going. Thinking on his toes, he took note of the other support pillars in the room and quickly came up with a plan. Using his good arm, he fished out all of the remaining kunai and paper bombs from within his weapons pouch.
"So puny, yet so bothersome," Killer Bee mumbled to himself before standing up to face his Anbu opponent.
He then smirked casually when he noticed that the brat seemed like he was going to try and get him with paper bombs again, as if he hadn't been shown already that doing so was basically useless. Therefore, Bee felt no need to move as the kid pulled his arm back to throw the kunai knives.
"Can't you learn, you little worm? You think some paper bombs will make me squirm-" he rapped before pausing before completion when he noticed all of the thrown kunai miss him by a mile.
He turned and saw them each planted in the pillars on the other side of the room, and was finally able to realize what the little bastard was planning. He bent his legs in preparation to move, but for the third time in their fight, he was unable to react in time as an explosion bigger than all that proceeded it rang out through the large chamber. Many of the pillars collapsed and chunks of the ceiling began to rain down, creating a cloud of dust that made it impossible to see anything.
His chakra cloak defended him from any of the damage, but he was forced to strain his eyes as he attempted to spot his little troublesome opponent. This plan of his was clever, he'd give him that, but even with the element of surprise, there wasn't any kind of ambush assault he could do that would actually damage him. If he had something like that in his arsenal, he would have used it anyway.
No ambush came, however, and he was left practically scratching his head until he figured out what was going on. That little bastard knew he couldn't win the fight, so he was creating a diversion to steal the Kohaku no Jōhei! While still unable to see, Killer Bee still knew where the relic was in proximity to him, and as quickly as possible shot in that direction.
Thankfully, he seemed to arrive just in time, as he managed to see the silhouette of the little blonde brat about to pick the pot up. He intercepted him just in time and pinned him against the wall with his forearm. He watched the kid squirm and then glanced over to his left to make sure that the Kohaku no Jōhei was still where it was supposed to be.
"Nice try, little guy," he complimented with a grin. "But you ain't-"
Before he could finish, the blonde Anbu brat that he had been pressing into the wall burst into a cloud of smoke. Bee blinked for a few moments before turning back toward the Kohaku no Jōhei. Noticing something odd about it, he walked to the relic and touched it with his palm. As soon as he did, it too burst into smoke, and when the smoke faded all that remained where the relic had been was a single green leaf. The symbol of Konohagakure.
"Damn," was all he could say, for once short for words.
It took tremendous effort to continue moving in his current state, but Naruto managed to navigate the streets of Kumogakure with retaliative ease. He and Shisui had already mapped out specific escape routes in the village, including roads that were less likely to be patrolled, etc. At the moment, he was too injured to even use the transformation jutsu, so he was currently relying on using stealth to hide in the shadows.
Now that he had escaped immediate danger to his life, his body chose to suddenly remind him of just how damaged it was. Each step felt like someone was jabbing at his broken ribs, or as if boiling hot water was being poured in his leg. The searing, burning pain in his leg was similar to the pain he experienced when receiving his injury against the Nibi Jinchuuriki, which served as further proof of the sheer potency of Bijuu chakra.
'I have to find Shisui,' he thought to himself, doing his best to keep his mind focused on the mission and not on the pain.
"Don't move."
The voice he heard could only be described as entirely stoic, and as he looked up, he noticed a kunoichi with blonde hair and notably large breasts. She was armed with a tanto, though thankfully, unlike his previous opponent her chakra was not otherworldly.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to," Naruto responded, and the moment he shifted his right foot slightly, she launched herself toward him.
Halfway toward him, she saw a pair of crimson eyes, and she immediately felt her entire body seize up, and she collapsed to the ground. Overall, it had taken no more than a second, and she could only helplessly watch as the intruder limped onward as if she hadn't even gotten in his way in the first place.
'Naruto Uzumaki,' she thought to herself as he walked out of sight. There was only one person in the world with Sharingan eyes and blonde hair. She recognized him immediately. It was the last thing that crossed her mind before she finally lost consciousness.
"How?" was all Darui could get out as he laid flat on his back, unable to move his body even an inch.
For what it was worth, Shisui did appear slightly winded as he stood over his now-defeated opponent. Using his Mangekyo was always incredibly stressful, especially when he needed to use the Susanoo. It felt like all of his cells were on fire and that his bones were being crushed under the weight of an entire building.
"This was pretty fun, but I have to go now," Shisui responded, but before he left, he looked back down toward his enemy one last time.
Darui felt as if ice water was injected into his veins as he stared into the almost demonic Sharingan eyes glowing through the holes of his opponents mask. The killer intent he was bombarded with was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, as even the sheer weight of the Raikage's rage paled in comparison.
"Next time we meet, I'll kill you...Darui of Kumo."
Then, like a phantom in the night, he vanished. He appeared quite some distance away, atop a building that gave him a relatively adequate view of the village. He was confident enough in his comrade to assume that he'd successfully retrieved the Kohaku no Jōhei. Now, it was his responsibility to find him so they could get the hell out of here.
It took about five minutes of searching until he finally found Naruto. He was clearly very injured, to the point where only basic stealth was possible for him as he limped through the shadows as best he could.
"Naruto!" he whispered harshly, loud enough to where he could be heard while still not alerting anyone else nearby. Without a second thought, he teleported to his friend's side and put his arm over his shoulder to support his weight.
"Are you okay?" he asked, receiving a tired nod in response. "Where's the target?"
Without a word, Naruto handed him a scroll, which he assumed had the Kohaku no Jōhei sealed inside of it. As he took it and placed it into his pouch, he wondered what kind of opponent would be capable of giving Naruto such a beating. The last time he recalled Naruto being in such as state was after his fight with Yugito Nii, and even then it was nothing this serious.
"We need to see to that leg, buddy," he said before smiling warmly. "But you did it. Good job."
Naruto couldn't stop himself from smiling as well. Shisui's smile was always so contagious, mostly due to the fact that it was so genuine. Then, however, he remembered their situation. They were in enemy territory, and he had just finished a fight against the strongest person he'd ever faced in his life. They were far from safe.
"We need to hurry," Naruto warned, sounding as if he remembered something horrible. "He's probably right on my heels."
"Who is-"
Predictably, he was interrupted as someone crashed into the ground directly behind them. Shisui's eyes widened as he took note of the fact that the man was cloaked in bubbling orange chakra. While he'd never met one before, he was obviously now face-to-face with a Jinchuuriki. He'd never felt so much chakra in a single person before. Only Naruto's came close, but at least this felt like it belonged to a human.
The man inside of the chakra grinned, revealing sharpened canines, "Found ya, ya fool!"
"This a friend of yours?" Shisui asked, though he received no response from Naruto, who at this point had completely lost consciousness.
He almost made a cheeky comment about how things possibly couldn't get any worse, but just as he did, he felt another, equally powerful presence crash down roughly ten paces behind him. Apparently, it was customary for people in Kumo to crash onto the ground like a meteorite. It was most likely done in a way to look as badass as possible...Shisui could dig it.
"You bastards!" the new arrival shouted, and Shisui's eyes nearly popped out of his mask when he recognized this new threat as the Raikage himself, cloaked in pure lightning.
This man was regarded as arguably the strongest of all the Five Kage, and if not that, he was definitely viewed as the most powerful when it came to raw physical strength. It was said that back in the day, the only person who was faster than him was the Yellow Flash, Naruto's father, which spoke volumes about how incredibly gifted this hulk of a man truly was.
"Brother.."
After Shisui heard the Jinchuuriki address the Raikage as his brother, he comically looked back and forth between the two men and noted that there was a pretty good resemblance. They were both physically impressive enough to where they looked more like professional bodybuilders than actual shinobi.
"Bee," the Raikage spoke menacingly. "Let's do it."
Shisui felt the hair on the back of his neck as he prepared for what was about to happen, "Okay, brother," he heard the Jinchuuriki respond, and without another word, the two men both blurred toward him with astounding speed.
With his Sharingan activated, he was surprised that it was still rather difficult to predict the Raikage's movements due to his insane speed. He and his brother both closed in on him in about the blink of an eye, and they each had one of their arms extended, as if they were going to take off his head in a coordinated attack. The attack inched closer and closer, and just as it was nearly an inch away from striking true, he heard them both shout.
"Double Lariat!"
~End~
Taking a page out of my buddy HorrificallyDreadful's book with that cliffhanger. Don't worry though, it won't become a regular thing...probably.
I'm probably as excited as you guys to finally have this chapter out. The reason it took so long was because I'm also working on another massive project that I'll eventually be posting onto this account, so be ready for that when it finally drops. Either way, this story will continue to be updated until it is completed, so don't worry about that.
As usual, thank you all for your continued support. It's definitely appreciated.
