Hello everyone, ShadowsEdge here finally coming out of the rock i've stuck under for a while.
To all of you who have pm'ed me and got false promises, I'm really, truly sorry :(. This chapter should've been completed and posted over a year ago when i started it but...well, i'll admit that i kind of lost it. Took a dive into the deep end of my mind and got trapped there, been swimming back up to the surface ever since.
But, I made it back, and i'm coming back. After this, my other stories are up next. I just started a new job after moving states, so i can't really tell you how often i'll be posting chapters, but it'll definitely be quicker than over a year, i can promise you that.
Now, with that being said, let get this show on the road :D
p.s. i don't normally put song suggestions in this story, but the music i was listening too was too perfect in feel for the scene that i wrote, i greatly recommend it.
It was well into the afternoon by now and Naruto was, for once, completely calm.
Things had actually turned out alright if he did say so himself, Kakashi had woken up tied to a post with his bells in team seven's possession and both Haruno and the Uchiha took his strategy in stride. Well, at least for the most part. Sasuke had tried to give him a solid right hook to the jaw, which he countered without thinking, and Sakura had done the same; she was allowed her hit though, being subjected to his sound-lock seal twice in under an hour had earned her that right.
The only drawback to their plan was that in order to capture Kakashi in that sound-encasing seal of his, he needed to connect a few tags together. Which meant that Sakura and Sasuke were included into its area of effect since he hadn't yet designed a way for it to be used by other people yet, so only he could activate the damn thing without getting an ear drum blown out because it was his chakra in it, he only needed to disconnect from it and he was safe. A flaw he would have to fix as soon as possible, even if there weren't any real uses for that particular tag. You never knew what menial tool could come in handy given the right circumstance.
Taking a quick look around himself, Naruto scanned the area and leaned up against a shaded tree once he knew the coast was clear.
Drawing a deep breath, the hooded Uzumaki sighed it out as the world blurred around him, darkening into hues of dark blues and blurring greys, and focused on concealing his stigmata as his eyes opened up to see the fade. The whites of his eyes were still their natural color, but his exotic tri-colored eyes were no longer the predatory slitted orbs that his friends knew, but were taken over by the infected silver mark of his other side.
The one that only he and a choice few knew of.
Glancing down at his hands, he observed the way even his body seemed to shimmer when looking with his wraith eyes, peering into the fade. His stigmata were still visible in this world, but they were dim, which is how he knew they were hidden from view in the other world.
Looking towards the horizon, the Uzumaki searched for the signal that he was anxious for. He didn't really have a reason to, it's not like he would be found out. After all, every clone had the same skills as the original. Most people wouldn't dare use a clone for something like this because for everyone else, all it would take is a single hit to disperse a clone.
But he wasn't most people, and his were no ordinary clones.
Narrowing his corrupted eyes, a face hidden three-quarters of the way by a mask flickered in and out of his vision, its similar corrupted eye shone brightly even in the fluctuating gloom of the fade. The ethereal image blew away with the ever-blowing wind of the fade, however, the spiritual breeze carried a message with it.
A carbon copy of his voice caressed his ear just loud enough to hear, "The nights are really long out here, and the wind makes my nose stuffy. I'll kept you and the rest of us informed, but don't expect to hear from me daily."
Nodding to himself Naruto replied back to his shade, his voice sounding exactly the same as the winds carried every syllable with it, "The same goes for everyone. Keep notice of yourselves and your surroundings, but don't make a move on any big players until we're ready."
"Naruto-Kun!"
Cursing under his breath, Naruto clenched his eyes for a second, opening them and revealing tri-colored orbs that glinted under the shadow of his hood and without a trace of silver in them as the void-like realm of the fade dissipated from view. Turning to the side, the Uzumaki couldn't stop his gaze from softening as a certain Hyuuga made her way towards him along with the addition of her team.
Blinking, Naruto shook himself from his haze and made a mental note to keep focus, and the walls of his stoic-self came back up.
Ruby eyes took in the dark form of the only known surviving Uzumaki. Kurenai Yuhi was not one to get in between her student's interests, but this one, she knew, would be one of the few that she did get involved in. Being an expert on genjutsu and disguises – forming them and taking them apart is kind of her forte – had her narrowing her trained gaze on the silent Uzumaki the moment she laid eyes on him. It didn't take a genjutsu specialist to tell that the young teen tried almost desperately to hide himself away whenever Hinata was around, but failed since his mask crumbled at her very touch.
That was also one of the dead giveaways, touch.
The Uzumaki had an aura about him that all but screamed you will not like what happens if you get close to me, and yet, seeing him embrace her student as if she were made of cracked glass while she squeezed him for all he was worth painted a very different picture of the genin of questionable character.
Kurenai couldn't tell who or what Naruto was when Hinata was around him. When she wasn't around, he was a shadow; a silent blade with lethal eyes who talked to no one, save for a few. But when she was around…he was…
The Ice Queen of Konoha stepped up to the two freshly initiated Shinobi with a look between content, and suspicion, "Uzumaki Naruto, good to finally meet the one who's given so much to Hinata's training." Holding out a hand, Kurenai kept her eyes locked with Naruto's feral ones as they took on a sharper glint than her own.
They narrowed just a bit, moving up and down her form too subtle for anyone else to notice but her. Sizing her up, as if deciding whether she was a friend, foe, or dead.
Hinata was already detached from his middle and at his side by this time, having forgotten that there were actually other people around besides Naruto; he didn't like physical contact while other people were around. But seeing the look in her sensei's eyes and not even having to imagine the look that her love interest was giving the Jonin in return, she would have to keep Naruto calm before she could no longer do so.
Nobody noticed with Naruto's body in the way, Hinata placed a gentle hand on the assassin's back. The effect was almost immediate, his muscles relaxed, and his eyes reverted back to their usual impassiveness.
Kurenai was at a loss. One moment the hair on the back of her neck was standing straight up as Naruto met her gaze with a look in his eyes that she couldn't quite place, and the next thing she knew, the Uzumaki seem to be 'sheathed' and her spine didn't feel like her namesake was being rubbed up and down it anymore.
Arms crossed, Naruto nodded enough for it to be noticed, "I only gave a few pointers. The rest is all her."
Hinata turned her head a bit to try and hide the blush that adorned her face; that was Naruto's version of a compliment.
Taking a step forward, and taking note of the way Naruto's slitted orbs narrowed in response, Kurenai brought her hand down and reached into the pouch on her hip, taking in the sight of the Uzumaki's slitted pupils narrowing even more, "I received a written statement from the Hokage this morning. It says that you will not be in just one set team, but act as a special reserve and be sent to reinforce the other teams depending on the mission and the circumstance."
The quiet Uzumaki nodded, he had informed Hiashi and Inoichi that he wouldn't leave Hinata or Ino to the wolves, and would devise a way to watch over them as their skills progressed. All he did was write on a scroll that it would be to Shadow Fall's benefit to allow him freedom to move from team to team so he could scout out talent and choose which team he would make himself known in, Hiruzen signed and stamped the scroll before he even finished reading it. It seemed as though the old man had truly lost all motivation in life.
'Good riddance…' Naruto nodded his head slightly, "I'm more useful without a leash."
The raven-haired kunoichi frowned at his remark, remembering a certain quiet and collective Uchiha before his fall for whatever reason, "Shinobi work better in a team. Working alone is not only dangerous, but foolish. No one, not even a Kage, can fight the world on their own."
Naruto's right eye twitched, 'That's exactly what me and my brother are doing, Yuhi. Well…just me, now,' a tug on his chakra made him mask a smile, so he wasn't completely alone. Nodding towards the Jonin, the Uzumaki agreed, "No man or woman has the strength to stand up to a nation. But, that is why we are shinobi. True shinobi don't have to fight an army, we kill the person who's in command and destroy it before they realize they are already defeated."
Blinking, the genjutsu specialist couldn't not agree with that statement. Although in the last three wars, subtlety wasn't exactly the shinobi's tool, but it was how most of them lived up to retirement if they made it there in one piece. Being backed into a philosophical corner, Kurenai nodded, "You have a point." Sparing a glance to the student she found herself growing increasingly close with, she nodded inwardly to herself, "Well, I have no problems with having extra support when the need arises. Though, I would like for you to take some time to train with us every so often, it'll help me see where we could use you if and when we need your help."
Nodding, Naruto uncrossed his arms, "You read my mind."
Hinata looked between her sensei and Naruto with a not-so-hidden smile, she was very happy that the two would be getting along.
Closing his eyes, Naruto sent a quick message to one of his clones, 'Infiltrate Suna, and make contact with the Ichibi.' The head of Shadow Fall made to follow behind team eight, but a tug on his sleeve turned his attention to the Heiress on his left.
"Did you say something?"
His heart stopped. Altogether, Naruto schooled his features and gave Hinata his usual small smile, "Just thinking out loud."
Hinata furrowed her brow at the deflective answer, but chose to think nothing of it. Naruto was Naruto, sometimes he hardly said a word and other times they would talk for hours. He would only do this with her and Ino along with the occasional bickering with Kiba, of course, but he was still capable of mumbling and the like, "Ok."
The two settled in to a peacefully quiet walk side-by-side while Kiba kept a conversation going with the rest of team eight as usual with he and Kurenai being the only ones to really talk much since Shino was even more silent than Naruto, and Hinata felt like staying a bit behind with the latter.
Naruto's mind was at work while the gentle Hyuuga beside him smiled at the thought of them spending more time together. He had known that their ability to sense each other wasn't normal, but had yet to find anything to link it to. But now he knew, and he hoped that he hadn't affected her more than he already had…
'Damn.'
Every village has a reputation for being something other than a place to train, buy, and sell ninja and their services. Kiri had springs and mineral rich mud which made for a good balance between spa and the export of goods, Kumo and Iwa were both in their own remote mountainous ranges giving them the roles of resources of metals; Konoha, itself, was known for being quite the tourist attraction since its location is situated right in the center of fire country, having a little bit of everything.
And then there's Suna.
Ninja take on a particular mindset and behavior depending on what village made them into the warriors that they are. The ninja from Suna were known to be some of the most ruthless shinobi to grace the battlefield, their skill and relentlessness being a tribute to the unforgiving deserts that they call home.
"Mommy, mommy, who's that pretty lady over there?"
The desert is unforgiving, without room for compassion or understanding. Its people are much the same.
A young teen who was putting the cap back on an old cylindroid canteen still dripping wet from filling up had already turned her back on the innocent toddler that had probably been drawn to her overall peculiarness even as the little girl being hand-led away willed a twitch of a smile across her lips.
It was a tiny little thing, barely even a spark or a whisper, but it was there.
She wiped the small droplets of water from her lips as though to accent this. Peculiarity wasn't the only reason why she was shunned, the word for love plastered on the top left corner of her forehead, angrily colored red as though written in blood served as a constant and obvious reminder of that. Sky-blue eyes beneath thin auburn-red eyebrows and hair stared without expression out into the world that she bore no attachment to.
She wore a somewhat loose-fitting beige tunic over her body hugging mesh armor and dark-brown shorts with a black sash going around her waist; black ninja sandals adorning her feet while a heavy looking gourd that looked to weigh as much as her whole body, if not more since it was just as large as her too, was strapped across her back. Two silver piercings decorated the higher portions of her ears while a third black pair were studded in her lobes. All in all, she looked to be an outcast, even in a village of people outcast from the more 'civilized' villages.
"We don't talk to that person sweetie, it's dangerous remember?"
And like a spark or a whisper, her smile was gone quicker than it had formed. As if it never were.
A pale-blue eye followed the mother and daughter duo as they walked off, the corner of her dark-rimmed eyes twitched with the temptation to manipulate the sand dancing around the older woman's feet to pile on and constrict just…a little…bit.
"Keep moving, freak."
A blast of sand spits out towards the origin of the meat calling her that damned word in time with another twitch of her eye. The filth whines a bit and strings a few curses together, but apart from that it's the same old routine. Or as the veterans in the cesspool would put it, 'same shit, different day.'
"Leave her alone asshole!" a golden-blonde teen in grey Anbu pants, mesh-shirt and a beige half-top with plenty of room to breathe in growled as she took a second to take in his appearance and probable weapons. Though his top was similar to the tunic that she wore, it was only made to be worn over the top half of the torso, with a what looked to be a hood sewn into it, though he had it down.
This meat wasn't too much different than the rest just off looks, she didn't care to remember what any of them looked like anyway. No, something was truly different about this meat; something more than flesh.
And it called to her.
'Do you see that boy over there sweetie? The one with the strange chakra, and the chakra that's like yours?'
And more importantly, it called to Mother too.
'Yes mother.' It wasn't like her to take any real interest in anybody. Usually the only time she pointed out meat was when she wanted their blood. This wasn't the case?
'He's like you, dear. He's a monster, just like you.'
Oh. Like her was he? 'What do I do?'
'Go play with him my little Gaia, and make friends. There's no need to be scared, Mother will always protect you…"
Having nothing else to say, Gaia could feel her Mother's presence in her mind fade. While she would rather always talk to Mother, Gaia made due with the constant warmth she always felt because of the shell of sand her body was encased in. It was powered by her chakra after all. No one ever detected her chakra though, Mother's power is of earth and stone, it was a shield for inside and out.
And no one notices dirt and rubble, though the flesh bags step on it every day of their lives.
Turning her head towards the loud and somewhat brash, raspy voice, Gaia's pale face framed in boyish length auburn-red hair settled on a boy who looked to be around her age. Sky blue met the vast oceans she had only read about in books in the eyes of a boy tanned from the sun, with hair that seemed to make his head into another one altogether in a glorious flare of spikes, with two of its rays falling from its horizon to frame his face set in a determined expression that looked strong enough to be made from stone.
The confident gleam of his eyes and stature overtook her shell of hate-scorched sand as would the rising of the morning sun; his gaze rose over her expressionless eyes, but didn't fall a single inch, for there was no fear in them that normally weighed down the eyes of the rest of the populace of her village. Different indeed.
Strange. She didn't keep count of how many times she had locked eyes with a villager and watched as theirs scampered away as would a rabbit from a wolf, but she did keep count of how many dared catch her gaze, and hold it without hesitancy.
"-ki. Oi! You deaf or something?"
Blinking, and wincing a bit at the rather intense volume this meat seemed to have, Gaia furrowed her brow and set her nigh expressionless gaze upon the one who chanced walking up close to her, let alone continuing to speak. "What?" she asked in a rather monotonous fashion in a voice that was somewhat delicate, even though her demeaner screamed that she was anything but. It wasn't exactly devoid of emotion, but one would find great difficulty in trying to discern what exactly her tone was laced with, although irritation could be detected this time.
This boy, he was really loud.
Scratching the back of his head a little, a kind smile accented by three whisker marks on both cheeks spread as would the morning light across the seeming endless dunes that surround the village hidden in the sand before he repeated himself in the same upbeat tone as he had before, "I said that lady was a real asshole, and I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet ya!" holding a hand out upon completion of introducing himself, Naruto held his smile for a couple seconds – which tightened at the use of his name – before a look of confusion swept across his face.
Why did he feel like his hand was buried in sand?
"You didn't try to knife me, why?"
Blinking himself, Naruto looked down only to find his hand buried in a raised wall of slightly thrashing sand up to his wrist; the somewhat smooth micro-grains of earth growing course from the way it started to grind into his flesh. Now he wasn't an expert on people, but the way the red-headed girl with cold blue eyes had spoken that sentence sounded as though what her question entailed was a fairly routine thing for her. 'People try to take her out too eh? I really hope that isn't a running theme for us Jinchuriki.'
Chuckling despite himself, he reached into a pouch on his left hip and pulled out a piece of cloth; proceeding to wave it around in surrender, "Before I answer that, why don't we go somewhere a little more out of the way? Crowds are never a good thing for people like us, if you catch my drift."
Twice in one day, she found herself in a bewilderment.
Her sand slowly dissipating from its hold on his hand, Gaia tilted her head ever so slightly, "You know..?" she asked, more so to voice the thought out loud than to actually confirm that he was like her. Mother had already told her of his nature, and Mother doesn't lie.
Stuffing the cloth back into the pouch, Naruto grinned as he pointed at his stomach with his thumb and then at the tattoo on her forehead with his pointer finger in sequence, "Takes one to know one, pretty lady." He replied, mimicking what the child had called her, having caught the almost imperceivable smile that the toddler had gotten out of her.
Furrowing her brow at that last remark, Gaia's sand stayed steadily around the newcomer's hand for a few moments longer before releasing him. Her brow furrowed even more at the sight of his decently scraped hand healing itself anew within only a handful of seconds. 'You're interesting…for a meat.'
She turned away from him and the water well without another word, placing the canteen in a pouch that hung from her hip as her steady strides seemed to glide atop the sand.
Taking her retreating form as the living statuette's invitation, Naruto took a few half-jogging strides to catch up to the red-head before falling into step beside her; leaving a few feet of space between them. While doing so, he dipped his head – feigning itching a scratch on his hip as his eyes pulsed over in a familiar infected silver before reverting back to oceanic blue.
'Contact with the Ichibi made…'
Putting his hands in his pockets, then taking them out in favor of folding them behind his head after his palms almost immediately started to get clammy, Naruto glanced over at the potential prospect for his own personal army with curious eyes, "You don't talk much, do you?"
Still gliding over the sand like a spirit, Gaia answered back in the same monotonous tone with only a hint of matter-of-fact introduced in it, "I normally don't have to." She kept her eyes trained ahead of herself, but her awareness was completely centered around the strange individual next to her. To anyone else, Naruto would seem like your typical high-spirited boy, but not to her. Nor to mother. He was too typical, too brash. Almost desperately so. No, he was hiding something.
It didn't matter though. She would find out soon enough what his intentions were. She always did.
"The villagers around here would rather speak to a corpse than to you I take it?" Naruto asked absentmindedly, having something of a similar experience as a Jinchuriki himself.
Looking over at the increasingly differentiating blonde, the sand-user gave a nod before looking ahead again, making a turn off the street and into a gap between the buildings on her left, "Yes, you could say that."
Glancing up and around his surroundings, Naruto took another sip of water from his canteen before following behind.
"You know, I never caught your name. The villagers around here might spite it, but I'm not a villager." He commented as he took the time to give the girl in front of him a once over. She was only an inch or two shorter than him, but held herself as though she were a titan. Her aura spoke volumes to her position as the weapon the village hidden in sand had hoped for her to be, but he saw more than that. Fair skin adorning a fit body sitting atop legs that stretched a proportionate length, and angry red hair that only accented her nearly expressionless face gave his fellow Jinchuriki all the tell-tale signs of a beauty in the making.
Sparing a half-glance back in the narrow space between buildings that they were in, the gourd-bearing girl scanned him from top to bottom before turning back around after her reply, "Oashisu Gaia."
Nodding, Naruto decided to see where Gaia was leading him in silence befitting a ghost. Mostly because that's where the surrounding noise level was at now, the path between buildings that they were travelling on had run out of buildings and had given way to a gap in the village's wall just big enough to fit two people walking side by side.
"Wow, this is a nice little short-cut you have. I didn't notice it before." the gusting wind made sharp from the ever-flowing sand picked up promptly as they exited the walls of the village, making Naruto grumble under his breath about how hot the breeze was too as he flipped up his hood to help shield himself from the harsh sun. "Man, this place is intense…you're not hot?" he asked.
But was momentarily silenced even in his thoughts at the sight of Gaia standing in the dusting wind as though she really were a desert spirit. The sand whipped around her in an almost visible sphere of clear space, the course earth avoiding her all-together, whilst her sky-blue eyes pierced into his own with near celestial indifference as she crossed her arms in patience.
"I've lived in these deserts all of my life; the heat and sand are no surprise to me. Nor am I a stranger to them…" she trailed off in quiet thought, her unblinking eyes holding his gaze as though she were peeling him apart like flesh from bone, "But you are. You are not a villager, but you aren't a Suna ninja either. So, what are you, Uzumaki Naruto?"
Shaking himself free of the sudden freeze in thought he found himself in, Naruto smiled disarmingly as he strode up to her, his eyes noticeably tightening at hearing his name again, "Neat trick, and noticed that did you? Well, I can't tell you where I'm from, but I can tell you what I am." He stopped a few feet in front of her to take a drink out of his own canteen before holstering it in the back-right corner of his belt.
The sand around her jolting a bit, Gaia pressed further, "And what is that?"
Wiping the remnants of water from his lips with his sleeve, Naruto gave a slight shrug along with a smile, "A friend."
Blinking, the sand ninja stared at the newcomer for a few moments before willing the sand beneath her to rise, lifting her a few feet from the ground, "You wanted to go somewhere quiet, then come. We'll see if you're really 'one who knows another'."
Eyeing the interesting ability the girl was using, Naruto met her gaze again and gave a nod before rolling his neck, gaining a few cracks out of it, "That really is a cool trick you got there."
Gaia turned around after a moment, and the sand beneath her began to propel her as though she were on a moving platform made of particles, quickly leaving Naruto behind.
The assassin spied the unique ability a little more, his mind at work; thinking of what else the straight forward red-head was capable of with that sand of hers. Wanting to see what else he could spectate, Naruto shot off after the sand-gliding ninja in front of him, his mission now in full swing.
A desert. Why did he get picked to spy in the hottest country out of the bunch?
"Fang over fang!"
A whirlwind of grey and white tore past a wall of audibly buzzing bugs, courtesy of the silent Shino whose black spectacles gleamed in the afternoon sun.
Crashing to the ground in a heap of whimpering growls, Kiba swiped at his clothes and continued to squirm erratically, "Gah! These fucking bugs, I hate you right now Shino!"
Pushing up his specs further onto his nose, the bug user was unfazed as his monotone voice sounded out above the high neck of his collar, "You continue to charge straight ahead like a mindless animal, so I will continue to exploit this tendency as a weakness."
Glancing over to his side, he studied the intense taijutsu battle between his other teammate and the only other person from their class that was as quiet as he was.
"Akamaru!"
Placing his hands back into his pockets and snapping his vision back to the foes in front of him, the mostly-covered teen jumped back, narrowly avoiding a harsh slash from another Kiba completely identical to the one currently covered in bugs and thrashing about in trying to rid himself of them. The transformed ninja dog followed up with another swipe from a clawed hand and tried for a roundhouse kick to the head when that too, was dodged by another timely backpedal.
With Naruto and Hinata, the heiress was on the defensive and giving ground almost as fast as she could find it.
She was parrying and weaving under punches with every step she took and changing direction after weaving around a kick every chance she got; Naruto was relentless in his attack.
Red eyes were studiously trained on the hooded addition to today's training session. 'He hasn't stopped pressing his attack since they started sparing. It's no wonder why Hinata lasts so much longer now in sparing. And his style…it's extremely aggressive.'
Sending a combo of a left hook to the head, a palm strike to the head and an elbow to the ribs that lead into a spinning aerial strike – all in opposite directions or different angles – Naruto smiled inwardly at how each blow was either redirected or danced around all-together as the heiress's flexibility was showing more and more in the Hyuuga's fighting style.
The Juuken pushed onto her by her clan was much too rigid for Hinata to adhere to. She needed something quick, yes, but something malleable; fluid. And the adjustments being made were showing themselves more and more as Hinata bent backwards at a backbreaking angle as he lunged forward with an overhand punch, even for him, before placing her weight on her right hand and sending an overhead kick towards his temple as soon as he turned while her left palmed a kunai to use.
'You want to use blades now, do you?' Now openly grinning, Naruto lobbed a kunai of his own straight at his childhood friend and slide along the ground; pulling it from the ground after his throw was deflected and swiped his left leg in a sweeping kick to gain breathing room before rolling his weight around his shoulders and pushing himself back to his feet in a display of strength and agility.
Immediately getting back to his onslaught of attacks, the assassin led this charge with a quick stab which was redirected with a parrying palm. Utilizing the momentum, he flipped the blade around and arced his hand in a tight circle, intent on slashing her stomach with its arc passing along her belt-line while his left hand parried a knife strike meant for his neck.
Letting out a gasp of air, Hinata wavered slightly as she brought her kunai back down, barely stopping Naruto's in its arc. Taking a chance, she sprung from the ground and looped her legs around the back of his neck after a sudden flying knee to his chin, which connected cleanly, foregoing the kunai in her hand in favor of gripping Naruto's left hand as though her life depended on it and knocked the kunai out of it with a timed Juuken strike.
Catching the close quarters fighter by surprise with her risky move, Naruto immediately shoved Hinata in the air by the underside of her thighs, not wanting to get his neck trapped between her powerful legs. His eyes widened though when instead of seeing panic on the young beauty's face from being vulnerable in the air, he saw a smirk.
Using the momentum from the unbalanced push from her right, Hinata spun with it and sent her left heel straight into her love interest's temple; connecting cleaning once more and making him stumble harshly to his right before he fell to a knee.
Landing in a crouch, Hinata wasted no time and dashed forward, hoping to add on to the rare succession of attacks.
'I need to work on my foresight, I didn't expect that at all…' shaking his head, Naruto steadied himself from the kick to head, and turned around just in time to catch a Juuken strike by the wrist with his right hand.
Acting fast, Naruto popped his left hand on the back of Hinata's elbow, curling it inward to make her upper-half buckle whilst kicking out her lead foot simultaneously; getting her down to a knee as well. With a silent apology in his head, he swirled his left hand in a tight circle as he left go with his right, grabbing hold of her right wrist from the front while sending a forceful elbow to her chin with his right; standing them both up as the force of the blow made her face go skyward.
Losing balance, Naruto took advantage of her stunned state by quickly dipping his shoulder into her right arm-pit as he swung her and turn around along with her and flipped Hinata clear over his body, slamming her into the ground and knocking the air out from her lungs.
Smiling apologetically, Naruto summoned a clone to walk over their canteens and opened one for Hinata to quell her fit of coughing, "You did really well Hina, I wouldn't have seen that coming even if there was a clone next to me."
The summoned clone dispersed in wisps of black smoke as he poured a little water into her mouth, careful not to add to the coughing that was only barely slowing down. An act not going unnoticed to anyone in team eight.
Hinata groaned with one hand on her stomach and the other splayed off to the side, but that didn't stop the heat or the color from reaching her face. She had to stifle another cough before answering back, "Can't I beat you just once? You can keep a perfect score after that, I promise." She coughed more than she chuckled after that remark, but she was in good spirits and held the hand previously off to the side, up.
Chuckling in turn, Naruto's smile grew as he hoisted his friend up to her feet, "The day you beat me in a spar, Hinata, is the day my score will be perfect." Letting her hand go in favor of holding out her canteen for her, he elaborated further, "Then all that will be left is for Ino to do the same."
Her coloring face now turning to a full blush, Hinata nodded, suddenly finding anywhere but her friend's fierce eyes to be particularly interesting but fought to hold their gaze just the same. "I'll keep that in mind…"
Hearing footsteps approaching, the Hyuuga's impossibly high spirit dimmed just a bit at seeing Naruto's walls come violently back up as Kurenai walked towards them. His smile all but a memory and the light in his tri-colored eyes giving way to their usual sharp glint as they locked onto her sensei's approach.
"Your style is surprisingly difficult to recognize, but its effectiveness is unquestionable. You also know how to properly press an opponent, and use their attacks against them. Kiba could learn a lot from you."
She could see now why her pupil had improved so much since she had first prospected her as a child. Kurenai had some doubt as to how useful Naruto would be in an already full team, but now she knew that he would be as effective reserve as his Uchiha team mate would be. The rumors she had heard about his defeat to the last Uzumaki now confirmed as well.
Flicking a bug off his shoulder, much to Shino's chagrin, the Inuzuka added his two cents whilst rolling his shoulder from the nasty fall he had taken, "Tell me about it. The damn blonde kicks my ass every time I tell him to take Hinata out on a date, let alone when we spar. Aren't you guys supposed to be slow at learning?"
Flexing a hand, but doing nothing due to the particular set of eyes he felt on him, Naruto sniffed out his nose before crossing his arms, "You're mine come the next round of spars."
Pointing at the Uzumaki accusingly, Kiba hopped from one foot to another in a childish tantrum as he looked over to his sensei as if to prove a point, "See? See?! I told you he does!" picking up Akamaru and placing him on his usual perch, Kiba grumbled before looking over at his pale-eyed teammate with sympathetic eyes, "I do the best I can, but it looks like you're gonna have to take over at some point girl. Bro here doesn't seem to take the hint all that well from me..."
Hinata's increasingly coloring face was Kiba's only answer as she started pressed her index fingers together in embarrassment as she rapidly shook her head 'no' whilst Naruto's figure was getting more rigid with every word that came out of the Inuzuka's mouth.
Before anything else could be said on the matter, a familiar tone of the epitome of under achievement grazed over to the resting group as a head of gravity defying grey-hair peeking over an orange book came into view along with the rest of the relaxed form of Naruto's sensei, "Maa maa, I hope I'm not interrupting anything important, but unfortunately I have to crash this little picnic."
Her student's blinking at the open glare that now adorned their teacher, Kurenai folded her arms across her chest as her eyes twitched at the sight of that infuriating peace of literature that almost never left his hands, "Kakashi, what brings your brand of degeneracy to my training ground?"
Glancing up from his book with his single lazy-eye, the ex-anbu captain gave a small wave as he put away his orange treasure and stuffed his hands into his pockets, "Hello to you too Kurenai. And nothing in particular really, I just need my pupil back for the next couple of days. Then he's all yours again, little lady." He finished with an eye-smile towards the Hyuuga heiress in the midst. Gaining another flush of color after she had just calmed herself down.
Making his presence known, Naruto's eyes locked on his 'sensei' with suspicion in his gaze, "What's the occasion, Sensei?"
Kakashi shook his head after letting out a fake sigh, "Such a cold student I have, whatever will I do…" shrugging, the veteran ninja pulled a small scroll from his pocket and tossed it over to him, "We've got our first mission. Pack enough supplies for four days and meet the rest of the team at the gates in a half hour, we leave then."
Snatching the scroll from the air, Naruto's suspicions were confirmed. 'Wave…I hope you've filled your belly with meat and wine Gato. I'm coming for you.'
Squaring his shoulders, the assassin nodded before turning towards Kurenai and gave an incline of his head, "Thank you for letting me participate today, Kurenai-sensei. Call on me if you need an extra hand at any time."
Giving her own bow of the head, Kurenai smiled, though she was sure that warm – for Naruto – statement was meant for a certain member of her team more so than for her in specific, it was welcomed just the same, "You are very welcome Naruto. I will keep that in mind."
Turning towards his childhood friend, he took noticed of the expression of expectancy on her face and smiled just enough for her to notice. He gave a silent apology with his eyes though, and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "I'll see you in a few days, Hinata."
The heiress had to hide a disappointed frown, there were too many people present for a hug, she knew. But that wouldn't stop her from still wanting one, still, she smiled as she always did whenever he had to leave. At least this time it was for an actual mission, "Hopefully I'll still be in the village when you get back."
Rolling his eyes, Kiba glanced up to his canine companion and winked. On the silent command, Akamaru hopped down from atop his head going unnoticed in the moment, and barked in cheer as he jumped and bounced off Hinata's back; sending her stumbling into Naruto with a yelp of surprise, who wrapped his around her out of instinct.
He would've growled if it weren't for the calming warmth of the heiress in his arms. He didn't like this many eyes on them, he had dealt with eyes on him all his life and he didn't want to subject his closest friend to that too. But, she was already in his arms, so he took the guilty pleasure in stride and leaned his head onto hers; the pleasure portion growing more than the guilt as he felt her small arms wrap around his body.
"Be safe…" she whispered, and gave a noticeable squeeze.
Breathing in her scent as faintly as he could, Naruto nodded before reluctantly letting her go, "Always."
Letting out a true sigh, Kakashi scratched the side of his head, "Come on you two, it's an escort mission, not an assassination."
Naruto huffed as he turned away from his childhood friend, stopping to glare at a smiling Kiba who was holding a thumbs up for a moment before continuing on to fall into step with his retreating sensei, 'Says you.'
Watching the two members of team seven head off for their first mission, team eight began wrapping it up for the day. They were beat.
While Hinata sat down and fished out her ointments for the bruises Naruto gave her, Kiba nudged his head at his sensei, "Yo Kurenai-sensei, when are we getting our first mission?" he was starting to get restless man, they had been doing nothing but rank D's since they became genin. That was weeks ago!
Letting her eyes rest on the shrinking forms of the furthering team seven members, Kurenai shrugged and hid a smirk as she turned to make her leave, casting a wave over her shoulder, "When I feel you're ready. Tie with Naruto in a spar, then we'll talk."
Hinata giggled at the sudden paling of Kiba's facial expression, and the Inuzuka heir sputtered before putting Akamaru back on his head, "What? Y-you're not serious are you Kurenai-sensei?" With silence as his answer, Kiba glanced at Hinata with horror in his eyes which only made her giggling turn into laughter, and he tried after his teacher with panic in his voice before it gave way to a squawk of surprise, "SenseEEII!"
Kiba tried to step forward, but promptly tilted forward and fell altogether with the grace of a sawed down tree as he hit the floor on his stomach with a 'Oof!' yelling in frustration as he clawed his ninja-wire tied feet free of their bindings that Naruto had somehow stealthed onto him just before he left, "Gaaah, that damn blonde! How does he do it? HOW?!"
Hinata's laughter was now unbearable as her teammate pounded the ground like a child, the heiress toppling over on her side, while holding her sides and barely choking out a response, "C-clones! Ha ha, he gets you with the clo-ho-hooones!"
Rolling onto his back and sitting up in an angry cross-legged position, Kiba palmed the corners of his head as though overtaken by a migraine, "But HOW?! That's the seventh time! SEVENTH!" hearing his teammate all but dying from laughter, Kiba pointed a clawed finger at her accusingly, "Tell me how your boyfriend does it this instant!"
Hinata was laughing so hard now, she didn't even care about the prank that Kiba had pulled a minute ago, or even about the 'boyfriend' remark as she shook her head 'no'.
Taking a few steps and stopping next to the pouting Inuzuka, Shino pushed his glasses up as one of his bugs landed on his knuckle, "It's a mystery to us all…"
Peering up at his usually quiet teammate, Kiba squinted his eyes, "Are you teasing me?"
A moment of silence resonated in the group then as Hinata reigned in her laughter to survey the scene unfolding between them.
A second moment passed by, and then a third.
The light of the afternoon sun gleaming off of his dark spectacles, Shino pocketed his hands, "Yes."
The Hyuuga heiress unceremoniously fell to her back as her laugher returned in full-force, and even kicked her legs in the air as she held her hands to her stomach.
"Screw you guys."
Taking a long drink from a medium sized bottle of what was surely alcohol based off the smell, and wiping his hand across his bearded face, a tall well-built older man looked over the genin of team seven through his spectacles as would a real estate agent survey a new investment.
Only, he didn't like his most recent purchase.
Grunting in displeasure, the old man turned his scrutinizing eye towards Kakashi and frowned, "I thought I paid for shinobi. Are these runts even trained?"
Immediately inflamed, Sakura sputtered over Kakashi's sigh and Sasuke's 'hn,' and interchanged looking between the members of the newly formed party, "Hey! Any one of us can fight circles around you all day, old man!" as if to accent that, the cherry blossom girl waved a fist in front of her threateningly.
Wavering her off as would a parent quelling a child having a tantrum, Kakashi tossed her the scroll he had given Naruto earlier, "You're about as intimidating as my foot as you are right now, Sakura, show some dignity. This is Tazuna, a master bridge builder, we'll be escorting him back to the land of waves for the next couple of days. And to answer your question, yes. The boys would kill you if you were an enemy ninja."
Grunting in response, Tazuna pointed at Sakura, "What about her? She any good?"
Raising a brow at the question, Kakashi stuffed his hands in the pockets, "Sakura? She can yell at you pretty loud, probably kill you eventually with that."
Settling for an angry look at the joking at her expense, Sakura huffed before reading through the scroll, and gave it back to their sensei after Sasuke promptly told her he didn't care to read it. "Sounds easy enough. I was hoping our first real mission would be a bit more exciting though…"
Taking another drink from his bottle, Tazuna corked it and put it away in his satchel as his forehead suddenly became hot. 'You might choke on those words by the end of this, kid…'
Pulling out his reputable choice in literature, the ex-anbu captain began their trek with a half-hearted tone in his voice, "Think of it as a little training trip, it'll help you sleep better once we get into the motel." He then started walking away from the gate, taking note of the sweat that started gathering on their ward's forehead at Sakura's comment.
Breaking from thought, the carpenter fell into step beside the only 'real' ninja that he paid for and slapped his back with a hearty tone to follow, "Nonsense! My daughter would have my ass if I let you four stay anywhere besides our house. Haha, she hasn't had the opportunity to cook for guests in quite a while. Stay a night or two, you won't be disappointed with her cooking I assure you!"
Turning his head enough to peer at their charge with his lone eye, Hatake smiled with it as he turned the page to his book, "Who knows, I do like my seafood fresh from the port. Tell me, is your daughter cute?"
Glancing down and noticing what kind of book the ninja was reading in turn, the blue-collar worker flushed in fraternal protectiveness for his daughter and quickened his pace, taking lead of the group, "She's horrifying, my wife let her get hit with an ugly-stick as a baby!"
The trio all but forgotten by the adults watched the exchange between them with a mixture of mild curiosity, indifference, and outright disinterest. Knowing she'd get barely a scrap of a decent conversation with the Uchiha in the group, Sakura turned to the Uzumaki after casting a longing look to the former and chose to strike up camaraderie with him.
"That's not much a fatherly thing to say about your child, don't you think?" she asked with a puzzled look marring her face.
Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Naruto shrugged his shoulders, his mind on the possible obstacles he'll have to deal with before getting to Gato. If he knew one thing about the fat purses of the world, it was the amount of bodies they'll hide behind to save their own hide, "If you were asked that question by someone who's job is to kill, and was holding a book like that, would you answer truthfully?"
Cocking her head to the side, Sakura chuckled a bit as she clasped her hands over her lap whilst they walked, "Huh, I guess I didn't think about it that way. I wouldn't trust our sensei either, the perv."
A heavy sigh fell over the group as the subject at hand turned another page, "I heard that."
Glaring, the pinkette shouted at their sensei's back, all sense of his authority completely out of her forethought, "It wasn't whispered you porn addict! You should be ashamed of yourself!"
Grumbling about the lack of respect in the youth these days, the squad leader ignored his student's outburst in favor of turning the page yet again. It was getting to the good part.
The group fell into a comfortable silence after that. Apart from the occasional adult talk about the state of the economy and the ever-changing state in the various countries affairs between the two older men while the other members of team seven occupied their time with the surroundings they hadn't seen before. It was their first time outside the village, after all.
Being born in a ninja village, the only people allowed outside their walls apart from anyone who got permission to travel on personal trips were the people who had business outside. Merchants, farmers, ninja and other professions that entailed travelling. Apart from that, the rest of the populace remained inside and made their living leading quiet lives.
The group made good time traveling, and half a day went by without much in the way of problems. The older men spent their time with mild conversation, meanwhile Sakura tried her hand at striking a few of them up with the ever distant Uchiha in the group, but without much luck on every attempt.
On the other side of the quiet spectrum, the taciturn Uzumaki held his eyes shut as he travelled, keeping in step with the sound of footsteps around him and enjoying the sound of the breeze accompanying them.
'You seem to be enjoying yourself…' the all too familiar feminine voice of the celestial being within sounded out within Naruto's mind in a half-amused, half-content tone, 'I'm beginning to think you've forgotten all about me.'
The teen behind the assassin smiled beneath his hood, and opened his eyes to allow his partner view of the world denied to her. 'The day I do that is the day I've forgotten everything about myself, Kurama.' A gentle, warm, caress on his chakra was his reply as he turned his eyes skyward. Finding different animals and objects within the shapes of the slow-moving clouds overhead. 'Did you sleep well?'
A charming chuckle massaged his mind, 'Ever the diligent pleaser are we?' she replied back, leaving an open end to her tone.
Casting his gaze towards the horizon ahead, the trees engulfing the corners of his vision whilst the road they were traveling extended for miles, he nodded inwardly and smirked, 'From time to time. I'm not very good at it.'
"You really like the outdoors, don't you Naruto?"
Startled slightly, he snapped his feral eyes over to his pink-haired teammate – their intensity eliciting a bit of color on her cheeks – and stared at her for a moment before replying, "Walls feel like a cage to me. Only without the ability to even look through the bars…I'm more comfortable outside, than in."
He brought his attention forward then, his gaze slowly falling to the ground. He knew he would have to connect to his 'teammates' on some sort of level, but he had given away too much, by his standards. A slight flick against his chakra brought his attention inward, 'It's ok to have friends, Naruto. You'll need their strength for the times you find that your own isn't enough.'
His eye and fingers twitched.
'No friends, no family…no love.'
'Is what that suffocating brother of yours put in your head. That is the path to become what he became…not what you will need to be if you are to see your mission through.' Came the pointed tone of his tenant. Her voice retaining elegance even with the slight anger in it, though it changed to the soothing caress of a mother's lulling as it always did, 'If not for yourself, then for me.'
Blinking at the surprisingly full answer, not to mention honest one, Sakura cleared her throat to get her thoughts back into gear, "I-I see…The villagers, they didn't make Konoha the sanctuary it was meant to be for you, did they?" Naruto's mistreatment was no secret in the academy, his shunning bleeding in even at the school for ninja. What was a secret though, was the reason why.
Sighing under his breath, Naruto kept his gaze to the ground, 'I'll try, Kurama.' Turning his head in his teammates direction, but not fully looking at her, he shook his head 'no', "To anyone else, you're a protector of Konoha; someone to look up to, someone that makes them feel safe. To everyone else, I'm barely under the line of being a threat; something avoided, and feared. A fact that parents tell their children to forget whenever they see me."
Eyes widening, Sakura wanted to ask the question that had been on her mind ever since she had been put on the same team as the enigmatic Uzumaki beside her, but very wisely chose to wait on it. She had been growing to understand him more, and was starting to recognize when he was willing to share bits about himself, and when not to press for more during one of those precious moments where he did give a glimpse into the person underneath the hood and rumors.
She even considered placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, her slim fingers dancing hesitantly between the space between her and his shoulder, hovering over it. She chose to keep her hands to herself though, somehow sensing the definite uncomfortable reaction that he would have to the sudden contact from her; the thought somewhat jabbing her, when Hinata and Ino-pig could hug and poke him all they wanted. Soon enough, she was walking in silence again. The way he had spoken last also silently telling her that he was done talking for a while.
The thought saddened her a bit. She was starting to genuinely care for her teammate, not just as a comrade, but as a friend. She only hoped that Naruto viewed her in the same light.
'That's all anyone can ask for, kit.'
His eyes still trained on the ground, Naruto furrowed his brow as he spotted a decently sized puddle a few yards ahead just as Kakashi and their charge passed over it. Playing over the day and week over in his head, he turned a question inward, 'We haven't had any rain these past couple weeks. Don't you find that puddle there to be a bit out of place?'
Feeling her smile through their mental connection, the eternal fox nudged his chakra with her own, 'There are two of them. Go on and alert that sensei of yours, no sense in risking the hope of him noticing that small of a detail with his nose buried in that book.'
Nodding inwardly, he called out to the ex-anbu captain, "Hey Kakashi-sensei, what'll we do on our free time once we get there?"
Having cast his lone-eye behind him at the call of his name, Kakashi was pleased, but not surprised at the sight of his student mouthing 'the puddle' after his question. Shrugging, he flicked the corner of the page he was on half-way through turning it as he gave a reply, "The three of you still have a long way to go before I can let you continue training on your own, once we get settled in, I'll show you a few jutsu that'll be a good stone to start on."
Turning back around after giving the silent return-signal, he left Naruto to alert his other two students as he trained his awareness on their surroundings.
Having their attention brought onto the exchange by the sudden commotion caused by the usually silent member of their team, both Sakura and Sasuke turned their focus on Naruto, who shifted the conversation over to them, "Well, at least we won't be bored once we get there." Mouthing the same warning to them, he received hard looks, but pleasant tones as the rest of his team were now aware of the action that Sakura had asked for at the start of the day.
"It'll be a nice change in scenery for training."
"Sounds good to me."
Surprised by the sudden communication between the whole team, Tazuna stared at Kakashi, hoping for some indication as to why his only dangerous looking brat struck up words out of nowhere. Sweat forming on his brow, and paranoia setting in from the months leading up to present day, the old bridge builder made the mistake of looking around, spooked at the bad feeling he was starting to get in his stomach.
The sound of chains whipped through the air not a moment after, and Kakashi let out a grunt mixed with both surprise and pain as he found himself wrapped in a bladed-chain, three revolutions over.
Sakura made to scream, but was frozen in horror when the body of their sensei was sliced apart before she could even force the air from her lungs as the chain was pulled tight.
Panic overtaking her in an instant, the red-wearing genin felt her breath leave her in one quick gasp as two dark figures blurred in her vision before the clang of metal and sparks rang sharply in her ears as Naruto was in front of her before she could blink.
A kunai was all the stood between the tip of her nose, and a hand encased in a clawed metal-cestus whose metallic fingers were ready to rend her face into unrecognition. Elbowing the enemy ninja in baggy grey clothes in the right side of the ribs with his free arm, Naruto kicked him away with the opportunity given from the stunning blow to the liver. He then summoned a clone whilst drawing a second kunai, "Guard Tazuna! Sakura, at his back!"
The pinkette winced a second time as Sasuke blocked a similar strike meant for her back from another ninja covered in a black cloak.
Nearly tripping, Sakura found her breath again in the form of terrified pants as she quickened up her pace to keep up with the copy of her hooded teammate. Her body was set on fire by the adrenaline rush surging through her veins as she shakily did as she was instructed, drawing a kunai as she got into her academy taught readied stance at Tazuna's back; the elderly man having collapsed to his rear in realized fear, too scared to even stay on his feet after taking only a few running steps away from the starting battle.
Remembering their last spar and training sessions from the past couple of weeks, Naruto felt confident enough in his brother's abilities to handle himself with his foe. The Demon Brothers of the mist were dangerous, sure, but they weren't the demon of the mist. Only one man out of the three had earned such a moniker. His clone would jump in If Sasuke found himself overwhelmed though, they all had the same judgement as him.
Flipping the kunai in his hands to hold them in reverse, Naruto took tentative steps forwards, waiting for his opponent to lunge. Getting a bladed chain sent his way from the left instead, Naruto threw one kunai and a volley of shuriken after tossing his other kunai in the air and side-flipping over said chain in a show of finesse; the kunai sank into the ground beneath his previous position, pinning the chain to the ground, while the handful of shuriken covered his aerial exposure by crashing into the same metal stars thrown at him.
Catching his airborne kunai in his left hand upon landing, Naruto shot forward in a blur of speed and barged his shoulder into the sternum of his enemy earning a grunting yell of expelling air, spun around quickly and sent another kunai into the grounded chain, pinning it further.
Detaching the chain from his clawed gauntlet as he fell, the grey-clamored ninja rolled backwards onto his feet, crossing his arms to block an aerial corkscrewing roundhouse-kick coming in across his left shoulder. This proved to be a feint as Naruto planted that right foot instead, turning with his momentum further and sent his left foot into his opponent's guard in a powerful straight-kick. Drawing two more kunai as he settled into a readied stance, flipping them both into reverse yet again.
Knocked off-balance again, the grey demon-brother vaulted into a back handspring to avoid stumbling and landed in a guarded crouch. Realizing that he was very much underestimating the ninja he had attempted to assassinate, who was no genin.
After Naruto's timely intervention, Sasuke's blood ran hot as his body moved, and he found himself blocking an identically clawed outstretched hand intent on ravaging his teammate. If he could even call her that at the moment.
Grunting in exertion, the Uchiha pushed forward and up, breaking the guard-lock he had gotten himself into and glared with battle fueled fervor after ducking under the bladed chain attached to his foes other gauntlet.
Drawing a secondary kunai of his own, he dashed forward, his heart hammering in his chest from the heat of his first true battle.
Swiping his blades across his chest in exes and various other angles, parrying a volley of shuriken thrown his way, Sasuke displayed his own acrobatic abilities as he vaulted passed the deadlier kunai that were sent sailing at him. Turning his body in the air to aid in his evasiveness and sending his own kunai in return-fire with practiced accuracy as he turned his body upon landing, continuously dodging the deadly metal as the flying ninja tools cut beside his body whilst he was sideways, and over him as he ducked beneath them.
Cart-wheeling in the air for his last dodge and palming kunai in reverse in both hands, Sasuke was fueled by the adrenaline surging through his body as he punched into his opponent's newly erected guard. Looping his right kunai around the cloaked demon-brother's left hand, he forced it a few inches to the right as he muscled his other hand down and quickly stepped up off of the ninja's more forward knee as he heaved himself up; using the momentum of his chanced climb to send a knee straight into the Kumo nin's chin with a deep pop upon contact.
The cloaked-brother was sent flying back a few feet in a painful arc, hitting the ground hard with a howl of pain.
Not wanting to give his enemy any time to recover, Sasuke leaped into the air, front-flipping into a deadly heel-drop kick aiming right where he thought his opponent's head would be. Looking down at his opponent after completing his acrobatic however, the Uchiha's eyes narrowed in alarm as he saw his opponent's hands finish running through a set of handsigns.
"Water release: Thrashing Ocean Sphere!" upon completion, a jet of water shooting from the downed ninja's mouth, aided by several other jets shooting from the ground, crashed into one another over his midsection; quickly forming a large writhing dome of violently thrashing water slightly glowing with chakra.
Sasuke's leg crashed and sunk into the writhing sphere of chakra-laced water for only a heartbeat before it exploded outward, blasting him backwards into the air with a yell of pain and surprise. The Uchiha corkscrewed violently in the air as his opponent got to his feet, and grunted as he hit the ground, recovering as quickly as he could whilst fighting the momentum of the repelling jutsu he had all but jumped straight into.
Hearing the commotion behind him and the thud of a body hitting the ground, Naruto growled like a tiger as he bared his suiting elongated canines at his opponent in anger, having stolen a quick glance over at the other fight just as Sasuke leapt in the air. 'Prideful idiot, rookie mistake, never leave yourself exposed in the air unless you know you'll make it before your opponent recovers!'
His predatory instincts smiled at the way his opponent tensed from his snarl, and he charged forward as a dark streak bled from his shadow, morphing into a carbon copy of himself that immediately began weaving though handsigns.
His opponent having started and finished his own handsigns after landing from his evading handspring, he shouted, "Water release: Rising Water Slicer!" and willed the water beneath the ground to shoot up and join with the jet of chakra-charged water shooting from his mouth to rapidly surge forward in a man-sized, two-by-four thick wave that sliced through the ground that it traveled.
Naruto kept to his sprint towards his opponent as his clone finished weaving its own handsigns, filling its' lungs with air before shouting, "Fire release: Fire Dragon Bullet!" and exhaled a swirling jet of fire the size of man's body around, two-thirds of the distance the original Naruto had to travel to the grey Kumo nin.
Said shinobi's eyes widened at the precise use of the fire technique as his own jutsu was rendered useless almost immediately, and swiped at Naruto who had just dove through the resulting steam the moment his clone's flames ceased in a pouncing attack with his kunai coming down in sequential diagonal slashes; the pair met in a clash and began trading swipes, kicks and stabs at one another.
Meanwhile, the Naruto-clone left with Sakura observed the two battles with a critical eye, and weaved through handsigns himself after taking a glance back at the nearly hyperventilating – and still shaking – Sakura. Upon completion, it muttered a quick, "Earth release: Rock Shelter" and formed a dome of chakra-infused mud from the ground around them, leaving a few eye-level holes spaced around the interior to allow view outside.
Turning around and promptly ignoring the relieved and amazed breathless sounds of Tazuna, the clone approached Sakura and placed a clawed hand over both of hers, which were now clenching onto the single kunai shakily as if it were the only thing anchoring her to the world.
With as much a soothing tone as it could muster, the clone lowered her kunai as it spoke in somewhat of a soft voice, "It's alright Sakura, we're safe in here…you can relax. Calm your breathing, or you will pass out eventually."
Staying in her current state for a few more seconds before trying to control her breathing, Sakura dropped to her bottom with her legs curled beneath her as it slowed, wiping a hand across her forehead and raking it through her hair after while she used her other hand to support her, "Kami, I froze…I-I froze. You saved my life, a-and I froze…" an audible shake entered her voice as tears began to well in her eyes, her breath still coming to her heaves that were turning into hiccups.
Watching her collapse, the clone interchanged looking between the two of his charges before choosing to observe the fights outside the barrier; drawing a kunai of its' own in case attention should be cast towards them.
Drawing her knees up to her chest, Sakura wrapped her arms around them, her breathing slowing completely to quiet hiccups, "I didn't even s-see it c-…I wouldn't have even seen it before I-…" silence engulfed the twilight of the barrier, realization of the reality of the profession that was now her life hitting before quiet sobs solidified it in her mind.
Keeping his eyes trained on the battles outside, Naruto looked and angled his head in her direction, but only slightly before shifting back to the fight, "You're alive, and so is our client, that's what matters. Whether you didn't or wouldn't have seen or saw anything shouldn't be on your mind right now. Frozen or not, you are still a shinobi. Learn from today, and move forward. That's all anyone can do."
Sniffing, the dress-wearing girl looked up with a glare as she shouted at the clone in anger, "Shut up! And save your pity, shinobi don't freeze in the face of danger, they fight! I'm not a shinobi! I-I'm just a scared little girl who's in way over her head…" her voice lost strength the more her rant continued, and by the end of it, it was shrunken down to weak spoken words barely above a whisper as she hung her head.
Sighing under his breath after a moment of pause, the Naruto clone turned and walked over to his creator's teammate, eyeing her as would a wolf at a misbehaving cub. Crouching so that they would be eye-level, the clone spoke as softly as it's naturally growling voice would allow, "Why did you go to the academy, Sakura?"
Preparing herself for the verbal punch while she was down, the pinkette saved the clone the trouble as she wiped the back of a hand across her eyes, "So I could pursue a boy over a stupid crush."
Shaking its' head 'no' after a second of pause, the clone replied in a patient tone, "No, you didn't. Why did you join the academy?" its' feral eyes glinted the same as its' creator's in the twilight of the dome-barrier, and held the same softened gaze that the original would hold in this moment.
Sakura blew out a calming breath, her eyes refusing to meet the clone's as she continued to hug herself, "So I could get back at Ino. As revenge for when she ended our friendship over the same damn crush that I had on that broody boy we both thought was cool." It was true. Most of the reason why she pursued the last Uchiha was to get back at Ino for what had transpired between the two those years back. She was her first real friend, and she was also her last.
After that, she didn't really spend much time with anyone else apart from academy. She opted to study as much as she could afterwards, also to get one over on Ino. If she couldn't beat her at winning over Sasuke, she was going to beat her at everything else instead. Even at being a ninja. Boy how well did that plan work out.
Shaking its' head again, the clone didn't repeat the question. Its' eyes did it for him. And its' patience was rewarded after a few more quiet moments, the muffled sounds of the fights outside that she was perfectly safe from mocking her with every sound of exertion that bled through the walls of the barrier; which happened to be put up by someone in her age group, and was already out-classing her in every conceivable way after being labelled the 'dead last'. So much for being the 'top kunoichi' of her age group.
Drawing in another self-soothing breath, Sakura searched her memory, recalling all the time she was teased before Ino had come in and saved the day; she gave her a new style in the form of the ribbon she still wore, and even made her friends out of the kids that had originally bullied her. Exhaling, she met the clone's eyes as she confessed something that she hadn't even told her mother who was a successful kunoichi herself and had given her the option of being a civilian, "So I could prove to everyone that I wasn't a weakling…so I could prove to myself that I don't need anyone else to make me strong. That I could stand on my own two feet, and make something of myself. Something I could be proud of, and stand tall."
Nodding, the clone stood to its' full height and extended a hand. A hint of a smile tugging at the corner of its' mouth.
Blinking at her own words, the young kunoichi nodded to herself and accepted the clone's hands. Smiling, she bowed, and picked up the kunai she had shakily dropped earlier with a steady grip, "Thank you Naruto…I needed to be reminded of the reason why I worked so hard to get this headband."
Nodding at her words, the clone took its' post at the peering holes again, "Everyone needs a reminder at some point. Whether they forget who they are, or the reason why they are. The remedy is the same in both situations…all it takes is a friend."
Walking over to stand beside the clown, Sakura turned to it after staring incredulously at the unconscious body of Tazuna. The full-on shinobi battle apparently being too much to handle for the old man. Catching sight of the glare from what was surely another fire jutsu, she shook her head, resolving to never get in the way ever again, "How is it that you're so calm about this? The real Naruto I mean, you're a shadow clone, so you know what he knows…how do you snap into like that? And how did you get so strong?" she truly wondered what had happened to the blonde next to her, that he had become such a force at the same age as her.
The last few years played over in the clone's mind in an instant. The toddler days of being beaten, cursed, and hacked at by the villagers; his first assassination attempts early on. His training with Itachi, and then Shadow Fall…all of it was poured into a single, short answer.
"The boss threw himself into training that threatened to end his life if he lost focus at any time, and this isn't our first fight."
~With Naruto~
Circling each other as dualists would, the real Naruto stared down his opponent who was flexing his metallically clawed hands. The demon-brother feeling all too human under the slitted eyes of the kid in front of him, though he had never imagined that he would ever say a sentence like that in his life. Thought or not.
Stopping the prowling circle, the nameless ninja got into a readied stance as Naruto stopped circling as well, opting to just stand there. Staring unblinkingly. Thinking about how he would go about his next attack, the mist shinobi flexed his hands again as he made sure to have a solid base to his stance, "I've come across a few talented newbies before, but none that were able to match up to a seasoned ninja blow for blow. Just what the hell are you kid?"
Naruto's fists unclenched then, his claws lengthening as he narrowed his tri-colored slitted orbs, a fleeting wind of silver running across them as his skin paled for a second before coloring again. 'This entire time we've fought, and he still thinks we're equals?' feeling a familiar caress on his chakra, his body and awareness became an inferno as his tenant's power seeped into his chakra. His exotic blue, green and gold dusted eyes bled into glowing crimson as his claws grew even more lethal in length. His heart hammered in his ears as he had only one truthful answer to that question while his partner quelled his other nature.
"Death."
Shooting from his position with enough force to leave indentations where he stood, the grey demon-brother was blasted backwards by someone who was a true embodiment of the word. The mist shinobi righted himself in the air as he flew for several yards and landed in a crouch, a hand over his aching sternum as he wheezed, his eyes wide and the sweat covering his body; cold.
"And I am here, for you."
Shooting forward again, the demon-brother barely had time to react as he was assaulted again. This time, by something else entirely.
Each blow crashed into his arms as though they were powered by Kami herself. The force behind them seeming to make his bones rattle as he tried to regain his center balance with every stumbling step backwards he took. Though, even then, it seemed as if he was just being toyed with than actually fighting for his life. With the speed the kid showed with that first hit, there was no way he was really blocking the onslaught of blows smashing into his guard.
Even the metal of his gauntlets was whining each time the monster's claws connected with them, the dents littering them growing with each blow until his forearms were beginning to bleed from the sheared metal and the armor-shredding talons breaking through his defense.
Growling, and fear starting to take hold at the growing possibility that he wasn't going to be walking away from this fight, the Kumo shinobi performed a quick substitution with a log that was splintered immediately after.
A spelching sound greeted him upon making the switch, however, and the masked ninja's face contorted in pain as blood began seeping through his facemask; both of his hands grabbing at the forearm that was sticking out of his chest as he let out a strangled gurgle of agony. A sharp choked out cry of pain was the last sound he made as he felt his heart crushed and minced inside his chest, his body falling forward after Naruto yanked his hand out of his chest.
~With Sasuke~
After recovering from being blasted away by his enemy's water technique, Sasuke mentally berated himself for being so easily caught in a jutsu, and thankful it wasn't similar to the one that Naruto had dealt with. Otherwise, he would be the last dead Uchiha.
Racing through handsigns, the dark-haired teen breathed in lungs full of air before shouting, "Fire release: Great Fireball technique!" and released a torrent of flames that was several meters in width and height for several seconds before he stopped the jutsu, leaving behind scorched and cracked earth.
Having little to no time to prepare, the cloaked brother back pedaled in quick short-leaps, leaving a water clone in every spot he leaped backwards from to slow the flames down. Skidding to a stop only a few meters away from the dome-barrier that the other Naruto clone had formed, the sweating Kumo nin deflected several shuriken thrown his way before dashing forward. Not wanting to chance getting caught by another fire jutsu like that.
He deflected another two volleys of shuriken and a few kunai mixed along with them before growling in frustration as the Uchiha vaulted high over his head, sending more ninja tools sailing down at him. He caught sight of his brother's still form in the corner of his vision, and flicked his eyes over to see a hand monstrously pulled out of his brother's chest.
A fatal mistake.
Missing the myriad of stringy gleams in the air surrounding him, the remaining brother let out an angry yell as his arms were constricted down to his sides by ninja wire, "No!"
Finishing another set of handsigns, Sasuke gulped in more air as he held the hand holding all the ninja wire up in front of his face, "Fire release: Dragon Fire Technique!" and blew a thin stream of concentrated flames that shot along the coiled ninja wire.
The doomed ninja let out another enraged yell of defeat as he watched his impending death blow racing towards him, "Noooo-!" In that instance though, Naruto appeared in the middle of the igniting wire, severing it in half with a kunai in hand, his free-hand yanking on the remainder. His clone phased in front of him simultaneously, erecting an earth wall after running through handsigns as the original dove in the sailing ninjas direction, smashing a vicious superman punch cleanly into his jaw, "ooo-mmph!" knocking him out cold as the force of the blow made him stop in his flight and slam against the ground.
Sasuke canceled his jutsu just as it hit the clone's wall. Panting more from the battle-high of his fight than from being tired. The blackened wall lowered soon after, revealing the real Naruto walking towards him while dragging the unconscious ninja by the ninja wire as if he were a bag of dry leaves, "This one we leave alive, information and bounty."
The Uchiha locked eyes with his teammate, flicking his eyes between him and the enemy that he had killed before replying between pants, "Whatever…" he then fell to his bottom, his legs giving out as he realized that he had almost made his first kill too. His first real mission outside the village, and he was already about to be fully 'initiated' into the life of a shinobi. He was happy he was alive, and while he didn't quite know how to think about nearly taking a life, he was proud that he had reacted the way he was supposed to. Also pondering on how Naruto had killed his foe without hesitation, and how he was just as ready to do so as well; elating at the small step he had taken to becoming his equal.
Taking down the barrier his second clone had formed, Naruto looked over to the tree-line to his right and called out after their wayward team leader, "You can come out now Kakashi-sensei, everything's been taken care of."
Sakura blinked as her eyes readjusted to daylight, and quickly looked over to where the body of her sensei should be, and felt relief all but sweep over her mind like a tidal wave at the sight of a diced-up log, "Thank Kami…"
Walking out from his observing hiding spot in the trees, Kakashi stuck his pinky finger in his ear, itching it, "Maa maa, don't sound so unconcerned Naruto, you'll hurt my feelings." Turning towards his female student, he ruffled her hair with an eye smile, "Thank you Sakura, but it'll take something a lot cleverer than a puddle of water and deadlier than a bladed chain to get one over on your sensei."
Her face dropping into annoyance, Sakura grumbled as she crossed her arms, "So much for having his feelings hurt. If you're so tough, why didn't you fight with us?"
Crouching down next to the unconscious, living, demon-brother, Kakashi fished out a scroll from his vest before walking over to the dead one; his suspicions about his former teacher's son growing further after witnessing him fight, "I needed to see how each of you would react in a real fight. These brothers were tough, but I was confident you could handle them." Unfurling the seal on the dead man's forehead, he pumped chakra into the matrix inscribed on it and sealed the body away for easier transport, "I take it Naruto already gave you the 'do better next time' speech?"
Lowering her gaze, but holding her head up high, she nodded, "Something like that…" looking up at his approaching figure, she tilted her head a bit in wonder, "How'd you know?"
Putting the scroll back into his jacket, the copy-cat ninja shrugged as he walked over to the unconscious Tazuna, poking him in the side with his foot, "He seems like the protective-type." Watching as the old man stirred before waking with a groan, he met his gaze with an annoyed look on what you could see of Kakashi's face. Though his eye had a sharp glint to it that wasn't there previously.
Startling himself awake, Tazuna sat up and took in the sight of a somewhat tattered, and angry team seven.
"You've got some explaining to do."
~Somewhere outside Sunagakure~
Leaping from the top of one sand dune to another, sweat poured down Naruto's face as the heat from the sun pounded over him as though he were on top floor of a hot building while the sand beneath him was like one large hotplate.
Actually having to keep his breathing steady, though he wasn't panting, he glanced over at the sand-gliding image of Gaia with envy. 'This desert heat is merciless, I'm definitely going to need a shower when we get back to Suna…that ability of hers, I've never seen anything like it. It focuses on a singular elemental form, but its effective. I'd imagine its versatile too.'
She seemed to have complete control over the sand too, not having to weave around or over any of the dunes in her path. The heaps of grinded rock and minerals reformed whenever she got close, blowing away from her path or slid down the slopes of the hills as though she was a force of nature. The amount of chakra she had to possess to use the sand the way she did spoke volumes of the amount of power she had at such an early age, and her potential for growth. No doubt on par with his own.
Well, maybe not on par, but definitely in a league above the rest of the populace; she was a Jinchuriki after all.
He had to leap to his right to avoid a sudden blast of sand, and barely had a chance to glare at the silent Gaia as she seemed to disappear into a sand dune that she had sped up into, "Hey!" stopping atop the one closest to where she vanished, he looked closely and could barely make out a definitive open-doorway entrance in the side of a very large sand hill. 'Not really one for a verbal warning, is she?'
Blowing out a breath, he wiped his forehead and slid down the side of the dune he was standing on.
Breaking into a light job upon reaching the bottom, he slowed his pace when he got close to the discrete entrance. Sending out a very light pulse of chakra around him, Naruto made sure there weren't any surprises hidden outside wherever his fellow Jinchuriki was leading him before placing a hand on the side of the entryway and venturing in. Based on the way she carried herself, Naruto deduced that Gaia probably wasn't one to use underhanded tricks if she wanted to hurt someone. She seemed more like the direct type to him.
Though why she chose a place a good ten-minute travel at pretty decent speeds outside the village just to talk was beyond him. But, she was a jinchuriki, caution was probably a trait shared amongst all of his kin.
Lit by a thin-line-opening that ran along the ceiling, the interior was comfortably dark but bright enough that you could see every step you took and even a fair distance ahead of you. Or below you, in their case. The opening turned into a staircase that went downward after walking into a small room-like corridor, the walls on either side of him lined with seals that no doubt held the structural integrity together during sandstorms; a natural occurrence that Naruto had yet to experience for himself.
Speeding up his decent, he was surprised to see that Gaia wasn't anywhere in sight, and he was sure that he had at least a good two stories worth of stairs left to go. 'With that sand jutsu of hers, I doubt Gaia would waste her time with stairs. Looks like I'm hoofing it though.'
He descended for nearly another minute or so, and blew out an impressed whistle as the staircase opened to a subterranean cavern that put his war room to shame. The line in the ceiling thickened to at least three feet across as the ceiling rose to at least three stories from top to floor level, and branched out to three separate fissures in the roof that ran parallel to each other; the concave cavern showing to be at least three hundred meters in length, and no less than a hundred in width with rows of thick columns slicing the area into thirds, holding up the roof.
Upon closer inspection, the columns – two meters in width – had seals spiraling up and down their length; to keep from any jutsu or other disastrous elements from damaging them. All in all, it was an impressive sight. And one for sore eyes as well, with what could only be described as an oasis situated in the dead center of the expanse. A miniature marble Parthenon stood as an island, surrounded by crisp, clear water that seemed to jet up from an underground current with palm trees at every corner.
"Do you like it?" came the slightly less monotonous voice of his eccentric guide, and arguably slightly sultry.
The coarse, scorching sand for floor having given way to powdery-fine nearly white sand that was cool to the touch with large stones and boulders varying in size littering the otherwise white ocean of fine earth, the assassin could only nod with a slightly agape mouth, "Yeah…I do." Hearing sand slither and writhe in a snake-like hiss, Naruto's instincts slapped him back into reality as he turned narrowed eyes to a sinisterly smirking Gaia.
~Prince of Persia Warrior Within: Tower Encounter Ost Extended~
"Good, it will be the last thing that you will ever see…"
Jumping backward, he narrowly avoided two thick tendrils of sand that pierced into the spot where he was at with enough force to create Choji-sized craters where his feet would've been. "Hey!" backpedaling again – dodging another two golden tendrils – Naruto glared at the estranged girl, not at all expecting her to lash out at him like that, "What's the big-" interrupted by a wave of sand that formed into an open hand meaning to grab hold of him, he dashed to the side, "Idea?!"
Flicking his eyes over to the large stone that was utterly obliterated by the sheer crushing pressure that Gaia's sand exerted, Naruto made a mental note that he couldn't let himself get caught in her grasp by any means necessary.
Giggling as the sand around her feet lifted and writhed like living fire, Gaia's smile grew as she slowly clasped her hands together in the 'ram' sign, leeching her chakra into the ground, "The truth, Uzumaki Naruto, is that I knew about your secret before you told me…Mother told me about you. She told me to play with you..."
Leaping to the side to evade another hand that formed from a growing spire of sand that slammed down in his previous spot as if it were a slap from Kami and rolling to his feet, Naruto jumped to his side next; avoiding several smaller hands that sprouted from the ground underneath him. 'Shit! I'm in her element, literally! She can attack from anywhere!'
"So, which one of the nine are you? The Nibi? The Sanbi? The Yonbi or the Gobi?" a tendril of sand rose with each listing of the tailed beasts in numbered sequence; some tendrils forming fists, others whipping at Naruto in different angles while the others formed hands that tried to capture him. Gaia's anger also grew with each new name, her smile turning to a snarl of rage as she continued to name the bijuu that were all more powerful than her.
Naruto's luck was waning, as each sand-construct was inching closer and closer to his person. He threw explosive tags at the approaching man-sized fists, breaking them apart to gain more breathing room as he twirled his body in the air to dodge the tendrils; drawing kunai to slice apart the smaller tendrils that shot out at him from the main ones.
"How about the Rokubi? The Nanabi?!" this high up the list, Gaia was shouting in anger. Her breath being drawn in raggedly before roared out in fury. The Sand at her feet began to rise further, lifting her from the ground atop a growing spire while tendrils formed and encircled her like snakes. "Damn you Uzumaki! Are you the Hachibi?!"
"Guh!" as if proving his own words fact, he was slammed out of the air by a large fist that had formed behind him once he was airborne with what felt like the weight of a building. Shooting towards the ground like a human bullet, Naruto yelled in pain as he hit the sand hard enough to bounce once before quickly handspringing himself onto his feet; narrowly slipping away from what looked like a pit of quicksand that had formed from nowhere, 'And she can attack with sand that isn't close in proximity to her!'
Thinking quickly, Naruto slid along the sand and dove in the air to a nearby pillar, coating his hands in chakra and latching onto it; using his strength to swing himself behind it – outside of Gaia's line of sight – as another giant sand-fist crashed against it, making the pillar shake from the force.
Landing in a crouch as the sand from the broken apart fist blew past him on both sides, he immediately vaulted backwards, twisting as he did so and sprinted up the column not a heartbeat after his chakra coated feet attached to it. Making a cross handsign with both his appendages, Naruto willed a trio of clones with a more than decent amount of chakra in each to form in his wake after each ascending step, tossing a multitude of seal-scrolls behind him, each one of them flying through different handsigns after catching and pocketing several per person as they sprinted upward.
Each of them jumping out to the side, one after the other, they fired their jutsu without pause, seeing how much defensive capability Gaia had with that annoying sand of hers.
The first clone dove to the right heaving in air and shouting, "Fire release: Great Fireball Technique!" and quickly formed what looked to be a small star of pure flames bigger than his body before firing it at the middle of all the tendrils heading towards the column that he and his brethren were launching their assault from; shooting two more straight at Gaia, one after the other but from different angles due to his leap.
Blinking in surprise at the sudden counter attack, Gaia scowled as she made to move her tendrils in the way of the two giant balls of fire heading her way but found the sand extending out past the middle falling harmlessly as the center nexus of her sand constructs were hit first, exploding into flying bits of scorched sand and blotches of red-hot glass. She then raised two walls of sand with a lifting gesture with both her hands, the two constructs absorbing the impact of the impressive fire jutsu in a similarly glowing and explosive fashion.
A second clone dove out from the pillar while the first was still firing the second fireball, this one completing its' handsigns and throwing an activated seal which released gallons of water as it shouted, "Water release: Water Shark Bullet!" thrusting a glowing chakra-coated palm into the body of water afterwards, causing it to glow entirely as it morphed into the form of a giant great-white shark before blasting forward at immense speed from a large pulse of chakra sent surging through it.
Focusing her rageful glare on the walls she had willed to form in order to block the incoming fireballs, Gaia's eyes widened in legitimate surprise as she spied the glow of chakra manipulation from the corner of her vision. 'Shadow clones!', turning her head to the image of a great white made from chakra endued water opening its mouth full of teeth the Suna kunoichi was realizing that she was in for a fight. Too caught up in the first attack to notice the second in time to react, the cork on her gourd blasted out as sand jet-fired out of it, collected and formed a thick dome of chakra-laced sand on its own accord, as if it were alive.
The water jutsu crashed into her erected defense with the force of a thrown boulder, as she took a startled step away from the visible dent that the technique had made in it. The foreign chakra-charged water making it too difficult for her to overtake it with her own and repair the dome, her pupils dilated as her breathing and heartrate quickened from the moisture spreading through her sand; sweat starting to form on her brow from the effort it took to maintain the immensely heavier sand now that it was wet, which was added onto all the sand she was manipulating outside. 'This much power, it couldn't be…'
The original Naruto slowed his sprint to a jog, then to a brisk walk before stopping all-together; turning his body as he sat down against the large pillar, facing the ground as he closed his eyes. He focused on his hearing, pulsing his chakra to get a gauge of the battle now that he had an opportunity to think. His brother had taught him so much more before he had slipped into his disease-induced coma. So much in so little time that it had almost killed him on several occasions, which was saying something considering how much punishment he could take.
Chakra sensing was one of them. Though he could sense the emotions of people around him if he focused due to somewhat being a natural sensor-type, he was taught how to use his chakra to get snapshots of the environment around him and everything in it.
As Gaia blocked his clone's fire jutsu, he felt her chakra react and move through the sand fluidly, albeit raggedly. Considering her obvious psychotic nature, he wasn't surprised at the rather brutish way her chakra felt. But something interesting happened when his other clone's attack hit. He felt Gaia's chakra react, but this time it was different. It was too fluid, too clean of a movement for the unstable kunoichi to have influenced. Based on how her sand had almost 'behaved' before they even made the trek to the cavern, Naruto deduced that the Ichibi probably protected her via the sand, which was probably also why she talked to and obeyed this 'mother' figure of hers.
The other two clones broke into a sprint as soon as they landed on the ground, both going in wide arc as they drew kunai from their pouches and placed explosive tags on them after activated one of their seals, setting up a pincer-point attack.
The third clone leaped out above the second just after it fired its' water jutsu, this one finishing its' handsigns and inhaling air before shouting, "Wind release: Vacuum Sphere!" releasing a stream of chakra infused air which formed into a rapidly swirling ball of compressed wind that looked to be a spherical shaped tornado before firing it directly at the damaged hull of Gaia's defense with a secondary blast of wind chakra from his hands; curling into a side-flip in the air and breaking into sprint in a straight shot to the stationary kunoichi as the wind jutsu quickly flew towards her with the high-pitch whine of whipping wind.
~Prince of Persia Warrior Within Ost- At War with Kaileena Extended~
Hearing the almost whistle-like familiar sound of a wind jutsu heading her way, Gaia's body became outlined in chakra as her gourd emptied itself before crumbling into more sand and added on to the already thickening and repairing dome. She glared at the wall in front of her as she closed one eye, a ball of sand detaching itself from the quickly hardening dome simultaneously and then forming into an eye that levitated from her influence.
Almost immediately after forming the eye, a sizable fist of sand blasted out from the ground and punched into the incoming wind-bullet; exploding into a shower of sand as the floating 'third eye' hovered around her uncompromised defense like a planet.
Throwing their tagged-kunai, the clones scowled as sand-shurikens and needles shot out from the ground surrounding Gaia and met their lobbed ninja tools in mid-air; causing them to explode.
Peeking out from his observatory, the real Naruto took on a studious look as he observed the fight from a distance. 'So, she can see even while completely incased in sand with that floating eye, and she can form weapons out of her sand too. Should've expected as much, she probably just used basic construct attacks earlier because it's usually all she needs…she's dangerous. And lethal if I'm not careful.' Going over what he had seen and felt so far, he fished out a seal, activated it and twirled a decently sized black flanged-mace with large, sharpened, metallic-knuckles for flanges for maximum blunt-force damage along with decent piercing capabilities.
Cracking his neck, Naruto sighed in annoyance at how tedious this was going to be. 'I can't use wind nature with any of my blades, too much of a chance of killing her. Fire will only cancel out her sand, and water just slows it down. Lighting is my best bet. The other natures were worth a shot though.' He conversed internally as he focused the chakra in his hand, making it vibrate rapidly, converting it into the surging nature of electricity as lighting began arcing up the mace in his hand, collecting into a jagged sparking sphere on the mace's head as if it were a lightning rod. 'This is sure to put on quite a show.'
With preporations made, he sprinted up towards the ceiling, opting to get the drop on Gaia while his clones kept her busy.
Her third-eye flickering between the three clones as if it had just taken a drug, Gaia snarled within her sand dome, realization kicking in as to the identity of the shinobi in front of her. Out of the nine Jinchuriki in the world, only three were known to be around Naruto's age group. Herself, the Jinchuriki of Takigakure, and the unknown holder of the Kyuubi who was defeated and sealed by Konoha's fourth Hokage. Konoha…
All his clones thinking something similar, they realized that precise jutsu that attacked at a focal point wouldn't work on Gaia. Her sand was too much of a solid defense, and there was plenty of it to go around, so she could defend attacks coming from any direction as well as attack.
So, they would have to overwhelm her defense, and attack her from every direction, all at once.
Looking at each other, the individual clones each spoke to each other in sign language as they ran, the clone on the left signing 'Wind', the one in the middle signing 'Fire' and then 'Earth' while the third signed 'Water' in response to the lighting manipulation it sensed from its creator. Nodding in sequence, they each set out to their tasks, running through handsigns as each of them created more clones that threw various amounts of explosive tags and firing off defensive jutsu to buy time for the others before getting picked off by the increasing hails of sand-shuriken, needles, kunai and swipes by tendrils accompanied by lashing waves of sand that became punching fists at random with randomly appearing pits of quicksand to top it all off.
The center clone finishing its' signs first, it breathed in a large amount of air before shouting, "Fire release: Rising Fire Storm!" and spat out a stream of flames that expanded outward as it traveled, growing into an ever-increasing roar of flame. Immediately after that, the clone on the left shouted his own completed jutsu, "Wind release: Divine Wind!" and shot out a gust of wind from its' hands that swirled into a trio of small tornadoes after traveling several meters.
Extending both hands further, the clone let out a yell of exertion as it swung both arms in an arc and spun his body around, making the tornadoes arc into the way of the oncoming flames as they approached; igniting the three tornadoes into flaming whirlwinds that conjoined into one massive cyclonic inferno that engulfed everything in its path.
Eyes widening at the display of both tactics and power, Gaia attempted to raise a massive wall of sand to block the quick moving hurricane of flames, but to no avail. As the clone on the left raced through more handsigns after its previous jutsu, and clapped its' hands together in a powerful arc as it shouted, "Wind release: Gale Palm!" sending a violent gale of powerful wind that made the swirling inferno quicken in pace, and enrage further. Having used the last of its' chakra, the clone vanished in a plum of black smoke.
Gaia's lashing constructs were blown away into more glowing heaps and shards of molten glass as the sand melted near-instantly upon contact with the flames. The wall falling backward in a curling wave of red-hot liquid. Her third eye was lost in the firestorm as well, and she could feel the immense heat of the combination jutsu from the inside of her dome, which was starting to turn into an oven as the walls were beginning to turn red as well.
Not wanting to be cooked alive, she grinded her sand into the ground, rapidly digging a tunnel for her to escape through.
Watching the dome cave-in on itself as it melted after his created flames dissipated, Naruto wasn't surprised to see that it was empty. And the third clone finished weaving through his hand signs after one of its' surviving copies unfurled and unsealed three scrolls at its feet that shot jets of gallons of water for its' jutsu. Shoving both hands into the center geyser, the clone shouted, "Water release: Raging Gorgon Strike!"
Pumping chakra into the geyser, it glowed with chakra and lashed to either side like a giant serpent, making the other two glow and conform into controlled bodies as well.
As this was happening, Gaia sprouted from the ground with a furious feminine roar as the ground exploded with her re-entering into the fight. However, she did this just in time to see the three large bodies of writhing water form into the shape and maws of eels as they shot at her at lightning speeds.
She barely had enough time to raise a large fist of sand to block the first eel charging in with its jaws wide open with a massive punch, and her automatic defense had just as little time as it formed a half-dome of sand that absorbed the hit from the second eel; knocking her out of the air and off the cloud of sand she was levitating on.
Keeping her soaked half-dome of protection up, Gaia began panting from the large amount of chakra she was expending in such a short amount of time and growled in anger as she had to form a full-dome to block the last eel which came at her from the side, not wanting to take chances with any hidden surprises. 'Such power! He has to be the one!' she hatefully admitted to herself, deducing that the young teen battling her had to be the child that the Yondaime had sealed the Kyuubi into in order to defeat it.
Smirking, the clone in the center finished weaving through his second set of handsigns as his brethren's second eel hit, hoping to prove a deduction as to the weakness of Gaia's control over her sand. Plunging his hands into the ground, the clone willed the sand to join together and harden as he poured chakra into it and shouted, "Earth release: Titan's Wrath!"
Shaking the ground beneath him, the jutsu formed a colossal fist made of hardened stone that was twice the size of any that Gaia had made thus far. He poured the last of the chakra that it had left and made the rock construct surge forward in an ultimate straight-punch with an elongated arm made of clay-like mud. This clone and the one that had cast the water jutsu both vanished then, their work having been fulfilled.
Dropping down to a knee and holding her hands in the air at the corners of her clumping and slowly deteriorating dome, Gaia's control over her sand was waning as she had to pump more chakra and focus more mentally to hold up the sand that was now completely soaked through and a multitude of times heavier with water. Her arms shook as though struggling with an invisible weight as she tried to lift herself back to her feet, only to be knocked back down to one as the ground beneath her shook.
Letting out the first cry of pain ever since her birth, Gaia's eyes widened to strenuous proportions as a massive fist made of stone crashed through her absolute defense as if it were a goliath, and punched her straight out of it. She spat out blood as she sailed through the air, and let out another growl of pain through clenched teeth as she slammed against a column a good twenty meters behind her; letting out a third grunt as she fell to her onto her face several meters below, too shocked to use the sand to create a softer landing for herself.
Smirking, Naruto was running along the ceiling making his way towards the downed kunoichi as he had her sands figured out, 'Got you. Your sand is quick, a fierce weapon and an excellent tool, but only when its dry. Hit it with fire and it turns to glass, get it wet and you tire yourself out just by holding it together, let alone using it.'
The last of the remaining clones dispersed as Gaia slowly rose to her feet, unused to being hit with such force. Or being hit at all, for that matter. Her body grew hot, and her anger grew at the realization that was now fact as 'Mother' whispered in her mind.
'Do you see his strength, my child? Do you see how his power has so easily overtaken yours? Only one could do such a thing...' The kunoichi could feel her mind being caressed and scratched at by her mother, her awareness heightened and a clawing pain sent surging through her brain as she continued speaking, 'Kill him, darling. Kill the Uzumaki. I want his blood! Kill Uzumaki Naruto! Kill the Uzumaki! KILL THE KYUUBI!'
Screaming in an ear-curling screech, the sand beneath Gaia went wild as it starting to roil around her for at least a twenty-meter radius; the Ichibi jinchuriki holding the sides of her head with both hands as her mind felt as though it were being clawed at the seams.
Losing his smirk and narrowing his eyes, Naruto dove from the ceiling and headed straight for the unhinged kunoichi below.
Glaring up at Naruto with four-pronged yellow stars for iris' in her eyes with four dots surrounding them in her sclera, Gaia pointed an accusing finger at Naruto as her sands shot upward in a multitude of spikes varying in thickness and length, "How dare you come here to Suna, Uzumaki! Knowing that you are the Kyuubi!" screaming in fury again, she willed more sand to gather to gather around her, raising her up from the ground as sand, stones and boulders circled around her, "Die! Die so your cease of life can prove mine is worthy!"
Rolling his body into a front flip, Naruto surged as much lighting into the mace as he could without melting it, making it glow bright as it cackled with barely restrained lighting and smashed it into a spike that was meant to skewer him through the gut as his body gained an outline of deep blue chakra. His face gaining an angry look at the mention of 'his' name again.
The pent-up charge dispersed through the sand in an exploding pulse of traveling energy that surged through much of the sand that was close to him whilst the rest violently arced outward in miniature lightning bolts; immediately, the sand constructs crumbled as he made a half-cross one-handed sign and spammed a group of twenty clones all whom began channeling lighting chakra through their identical weaponry.
Gaia screamed in a screechy roar again, frustrated at how her sand was being negated by the lighting natured chakra. The opposing nature naturally disrupting her control over the sand.
'Lighting beats earth, girl!' was Naruto's only thought as he and his squadron of clones swung their electrically charged weapons into the tendrils and spikes sent their way, rendering them useless. He knew he would have to be quick though, even with the insanely large amount of impossibly potent chakra that he had, he could only keep up this kind of intense combat up for so long whilst keeping ranks of clones with enough chakra to keep their weapons charged in order to combat the onslaught of sand. Wind, and fire he could use just fine; earth and lightning took a toll on him though. Lightning especially, since he had to coat his body in chakra to protect himself from the lightning he created due to its intensity.
And he only held so much of Kurama's chakra to spare, and as for his other ability, he had to meditate and draw in the essence of the fade beforehand. He couldn't use his soul for power, it was the only thing keeping his piece of it tied to the body that the real Naruto had made with the help of one of the Shinigami masks taken from his clan's hidden shrine in the outskirts of Konohagakure. At the thought of his origins, a deep seeded anger began to rise, making the lighting coating his mace flare.
Landing safely on the ground along with most of his clones, Naruto replenished their ranks as more tendrils, waves and hands were sent his way.
He and most of his clones dodged the projectiles, a few of them dispersing upon impact while busy with battering a few waves and tendrils of sand. Jumping, and twirling into a sideways corkscrew, 'Naruto' smashed through several conjured hands that were extending from the ground towards him, in hopes of grabbing and crushing him. Several clones leaped into the air as well, covering their creator's descent from the air as the rest kept his landing free of manipulated sand as they systematically hit their maces on the ground; making a path free of Gaia's control.
Yelling again, the bearer of the Ichibi began lifting the scattered boulders surrounding the area, and lobbing them at Naruto and his clones.
Seeing a possible path to his foe, 'Naruto' made a mad dash forward, swiping his charged mace at any bit of sand that so much as twitched before he leapt into the air, and began hopping from boulder to boulder.
Seeing the Kyuubi using the boulders she was keeping floating in reserve to pick her shots, Gaia narrowed her eyes as would a huntress as a possible opportunity to take him out might have presented itself. Smirking sinisterly once more, she began moving the boulders floating around her in random directions, aiming to keep him open in the air and an easy target for her sand to eventually catch or hit him with.
Letting out a "Wooaah!" of surprise at the sudden movement of the large rocks he was using as his own personal leapfrog path, Naruto growled as the fight just got harder, and exponentially riskier.
Flipping sideways onto another boulder after being thrown from the previous one by a shove-like motion from the sand keeping it elevated, the complete clone of the assassin let out a yell of frustration at the difficulty he was having with getting close. Pumping his body full of chakra, he decided to stop messing around and shot forward, leaving behind tiny geysers of sand in the wake of his footsteps; having tested Gaia's abilities more than he had previously cared for.
~Prince of Persia Warrior Within - Dahaka Chase~
Her demonic eyes narrowing in response to the sudden immense increase in speed, Gaia's heartrate thundered in her chest after nearly skewering Naruto through when she quickly formed two half-domes of sand around herself and willed spikes to protrude from all directions not only from the dome itself, but from all the sand surrounding her; only enough space between the two halves to allow her full-view of what was in front of her.
Being able to smash his way through only so many spikes before being overwhelmed by the sheer number of the extending sand constructs, Naruto roared as he was forced to jump backward; dodging a multitude of spikes that stabbed into each other for a full second, show casing how bad Gaia wanted him dead.
Breathing heavy both from heavy exertion and excitement, Gaia began giggling which slowly increased to the point of hysterical laughter at how much of a good fight she was getting. No one had ever lasted this long once she set her sights on them, let alone land a blow. "Yes. Yes! Ahahaha, show me more! More!" sending volley after volley of sand-shuriken, kunai and boulders as well as waves and tendrils of sand, Gaia's excitement grew at how Naruto curled his body around her projectiles with only a hair of space between them, conserving energy and how easily he batted the larger ones aside along with any other sand construct she threw at him.
"More! Uzumaki Naruto, show me mooore!"
His clones all but eradicated from the non-stop onslaught of sand, Naruto thought quickly, fishing out all the spools of ninja wire that he had and hooked them onto two handfuls of kunai.
Launching them at Gaia with all the strength he could muster, they flew at her with an almost palpable high-pitch sound before a loud crack! soon followed after he lifted his hands and brought them back down, sending a sharp wave in the ninja-wire before beginning a series of complex movements whilst manipulating the nearly invisibly-thin metal wire.
Gaia could hear the wire forming around her dome, but was too focused on trying to catch Naruto to give it much thought. There was also no way that something as trivial as ninja wire could cut through her sand anyway, something much more powerful was needed for that. Her smile grew, seeing newly formed clones forming a protective circle around their creator and discharging their electrified weapons into anything that got close, as well as the ground underneath them to keep anything from surprising them.
Sending more handfuls of shuriken into the fray, and even several kunai, all of which were attached to ninja wire and thrown seemingly at random around Gaia's immediate area, the assassin growled like the person he was made from would.
Hearing that blasted name again, and recalling the agony of his birth, 'Naruto's' hair began to bleed into red as his skin lost color, and faded into grey. His ocean-blue eyes giving way to black and corrupted silver, the young teen snarled as his normal teeth elongated to fangs; hieroglyphic markings bled into view on his exposed skin as the markings on his face leeched out a red mist that formed into a red Oni-mask that covered all but his eyes and the area of face around his right eye. The red mask was set in a vicious snarl that looked to be the very embodiment of hate, and his stigmata glowed red as he snarled again in a monstrous voice, "That is NOT my name!"
Sending more constructs and projectiles his way, Gaia's chest was visibly heaving at having her first true enemy reveal himself. Now completely uncaring of the spider-web forest of wire surrounding her, she laughed before replying, "Then who are you, if not Uzumaki Naruto? If not the Kyuubi?!"
Letting out another frustrated growl, he channeled some of his reserved soul energy into the chakra he was molding in his hands, pouring the anger and outright fury that he was experiencing at being called that yet again into it. The chakra began grinding into itself in his hands, turning red as he cracked the wire in his hands again; superheating it instantly and watched as the red-hot color traveled through his weaved webs of the thin metal as sliced through the smaller constructs of sand and started melting through the thicker ones, Gaia's sand dome included.
"I am Reiji, fall to your knees and break beneath the weight of my wrath!"
Feeling fear for the first time in her life, Gaia realized her mistake as nearly all of her sand was severed by the super-heated ninja wire of incredible craft while her dome of sand was quickly turning into molted glass as she had channeled a very large amount into it in case of another massive attack.
Several of his clones quickly weaving through handsigns, they all spat a torrent of water from their mouths and launched an artillery line of various water jutsu, super cooling the sand into glass as quickly as it was melting, trapping Gaia in her own defense and dissipating from chakra expenditure immediately after.
Giving her no reprieve, Reiji willed the chakra in his hands to stop grinding, and instead, vibrate in-tune with the anger seeming to make his mind shake with rage. This caused the crimson chakra to crackle in thick arcs of fierce lighting, and cracked the ninja wire again.
A rampaging sphere-like bolt of the hellish lightning raced through the wire then, and exploded into a violent discharge of crimson arcs that shattered the glass surrounding Gaia into reheated fragments; the Ichibi Jinchuriki being engulfed in the electricity as well due to the vast web of wire that she was surrounded by making an arcing net of lighting all around her.
Letting out a final piercing cry of agony as the lighting dissipated into the wires around her, the kunoichi fell limply to the ground, rebounding off it once before lying motionless in defeat. Wisps of smoke coming off of her in calm trails as what little sand that was still in her control fell as lifelessly as she did.
Hearing the sound of footsteps muffled from the sand, the last thing that Gaia saw before her world turned black was the red Oni-mask over a tanned face, and an angry, but beautiful ocean-blue eye glaring at her under the mask and hair as yellow as a sun.
That was, until a fist was reared back, and then quickly encroached closer in her vision before everything suddenly cut out.
~Somewhere near the border of Wave country…~
Sighing at the image of his aged face staring up back at him from the green tea in his cup, Tazuna rubbed his forehead as he set the cup back down in his lap as he sat cross-legged on the forest floor. Team seven and client had gone a ways off the road for rest and privacy; both to interrogate the surviving 'demon-brother' and their client whom had withheld some critical information if the events that transpired earlier were anything to go by.
Leaning up against a nearby tree, Kakashi turned a page in his beloved novel as he lazily gazed at the guilty and worry-stricken bridge builder, "So, your village is being held hostage by a company of mercenaries hired by Gato industries; the only shipping company in the elemental nations due to the black-handed business tactics of its founder, and your people are starving, with no real way to break free unless you finish this bridge of yours that is a few weeks shy of completion. But the work crew is thinning out because of the constant threats and the timely murders of crew members on their way to and from the site…that about sum things up?"
Unable to eat the food brought with him because of loss of appetite from the subject, the old man nodded as he uncorked the jug of sake he had on him and downed the rest of its contents, "Down to the last letter."
Sighing after nodding, Kakashi closed his book and put it away in favor of crossing his arms and looking over his students who were all wearing contemplative expressions on their faces, "Why didn't you share this information when you submitted your offer for a mission? The shinobi headquarters would've anticipated the likelihood of enemy ninja being given your assassination order and selected a team more appropriate than genin fresh out of the academy." he then eye-smiled at his team, "No offense to you my precious students, you did great."
Seeing Naruto's indifference, Sasuke's prideful smirk and Sakura's small smile, the copy-cat ninja kept his eye-smile as he flicked a pebble at Sakura's head, "Except you Sakura, you suck."
Ignoring her pout as she rubbed her forehead, the grey-haired shinobi turned his attention back to Tazuna as he spoke again.
"Wave is a small country, and we barely have enough means to feed ourselves. It took a good number of the braver families' donations to even scrape up the funds needed for a c-rank mission…lying was our only option."
Keeping his eyes trained on the old bridge builder's, but otherwise showing no other reaction, Kakashi shrugged, "Fair enough, but this mission has just risen from C-rank to an A-rank, and is too dangerous to continue for my team."
His attention grabbed at that, Naruto was about to say something before Sakura beat him to the punch as she got to her feet, "N-now hold on a minute, didn't you hear what he said? Small country or not, his people are starving! Men, women, children, the elderly; this is exactly the kind of mission shinobi get hired to do at all costs, not run away from at the first sign of trouble!" glancing to her teammates, she looked between them as she continued, "C'mon guys, I-I know I'm not much in a fight, but we can't back down from this when the life of a country is at stake…"
Looking at his other two students, Kakashi was proud to receive resigned looks from both of them.
Sighing before standing up, Sasuke stuffed his hands in his pockets as he voiced his opinion on things, "I hate to admit it, but scaredy-cat is right. People need help. Shinobi need to adapt as elements change during the mission, right?" catching the downcast look in Sakura's expression, he held up his left fist for her to bump, and smiled as her eyes lit up and bumped fists, "We'll, we're shinobi, and the mission changed; time to adapt."
Feeling pride swell in his chest at the changes in his brother since the academy, Naruto rose to his feet too, opting to just give a nod of his head as he crossed his arms.
"See!" softly bumping his shoulder with her fist, Sakura's smile grew immensely, and color even dusted her face when Naruto's eyes locked on hers and gave her fist a bump after looking at it for a moment, "We all think so! Three against four, your vote is over-ruled! Team seven is not abandoning the mission!" the pinkette cheered as she looped her arms around both her teammates necks, earning an annoyed, but oddly satisfied grunt from Naruto and a small chuckle from Sasuke.
How strange. The team seven mission was only a chore for him in actuality, but, Naruto somehow felt…good being a part of it. As though it was what he should be doing.
Seeing his student's resolve, and going over what he had seen of them earlier again in his head, Kakashi nodded to himself inwardly. 'I don't think Sakura will choke again. Not with these two watching her back…alright, let's see what team seven can do.' Glancing over at a hopeful looking Tazuna, Kakashi eye-smiled at him as he shrugged with his hands, "Well, you heard them. I lost my say in this somewhere back there where I left them to deal with two known missing ninja so I could finish the last chapter."
He kept his smile up even as he dodged a rock that was way bigger than the one he threw as Sakura yelled at him.
"THAT'S what you were doing?! You incredulous perv!"
Talking in a robotically conversational voice, the copy-cat shinobi held his hands up in front of him in surrender, "But Sakura, there was romantic first-kiss involved. You can't blame me for that."
Throwing another rock which was also dodged, Sakura tugged on her hair at the sheer absurdity of her sensei, "That's not an excuse! Naruto killed a guy!"
Starting to walk back to the road, Kakashi flicked his book back open and started reading again, "You would too if you were the girl in this book. It's a love triangle..."
Throwing her hands in the air, she whined, "What does that even mean? No I wouldn't."
Giggling childishly, Kakashi turned the page, "Just wait until you discover boys. By the way, I'm not giving any of you 'the talk'."
Blocking out the rest of Sakura's rantings, the veteran Shinobi went over all the information he acquired in his head. There were a lot of unknown variables left even with Tazuna's shelling out the truth. But one thing was for certain…
Those would not be the only ninja he and his team would be facing.
So...what did you think? I know the pace of the story is really slow, excruciatingly for some, but its getting there me thinks. The pace will speed up from here, but it'll fluctuate honestly, this story is more of a writing style experiment ground after all.
Speaking of story, what do you think of what i did with the Shinigami masks? I know most people find my story a little unconventional and 'out there' as far as the Naruto universe is concerned, but hey; fanfiction is about telling a different tale. I couldn't not include the masks since I'm putting a lot of focus on the clans and such, but their function in the manga and anime felt too redundant considering the whole reaper death seal jutsu thing. I mostly let the story do all the explaining for what i do differently, but if you want a full explanation, pm me; i always reply.
The second part of wave arc is up next, so you all know what that means. Zabuza and Hakuuu! This is the first time I've truly written fight scenes, so also let me know how i did on that and what you want more emphasis on for the next fight. I like the fights in Naruto, but I'm trying to keep a healthy balance between taijutsu and just non-stop ninjutsu spamming.
Lastly, how much do you feel Naruto should tell Gaia (couldn't resist, he's almost never made into a girl) once she wakes up? And do you think Kakashi will confront Naruto about his obvious superiority to everyone in the academy? And should Sakura have a place in the harem? I'm considering switching her out for Anko.
Pm, review if you would be so kind, and happy reading my friends :)
