Path of the Shinobi
Author's Note: Well, it looks like it's pretty much official. I've lost almost all my original readers, and I'm still trying to think of a good way to continue the story. Most of you probably stopped reading after I took my hiatus. But as for everyone that came back, thank you.
(WHOA! Where'd the disclaimer go?)
Chapter 12:Encounter
A dark silence fell over the clearing as Naruto's mouth was agape from shock. Sakura was still filled with fear at the sight of Sasuke keeling over in pain, and nobody said a word.
As the shadow chakra infused with Kusanagi, SeikaKage shattered to pieces with a resounding CRACK, breaking the silence. The fragments left of the sword slowly dissolved, each shard turning into purple-black chakra smoke and swirling into the Kusanagi. Its blade glowed a deep purple-black at first, returning to blue. The sword of Kusanagi looked exactly the same as before, except for one small seemingly unimportant detail, the guard had morphed into a four-pointed star with each of the points trailing from the previous one (imagine kakashi's mangekyo with four points instead of three).
"I should've known," Orochimaru muttered. "The second I saw that black chakra, it should have been obvious."
"What the fu-?" Naruto was completely thrown by what he just saw.
Orochimaru shook his head in disgust. "How could Abrame have been so ignorant and devious at the same time? SeikaKage was never a sword; it was always the mere soul of the blade. And once the sword was broken, SeikaKage sought for a host. Apparently, SeikaKage's influence is greater than my own. Unfortunately, you won't live long enough to experience its power!" Orochimaru dashed forward and prepared to slash Naruto's throat
with a kunai. But he was soon forced to jump back, as the new SeikaKage began to glow and shot forward, slashing the air where Orochimaru had been only moments before.
"Dammit," Orochimaru cursed. "The sword's mind has already been corrupted."
"What the HELL did you mean when you said Abrame was your student?" Naruto demanded suddenly.
"Kukukuku, that is for you to find out if you wish, it is a pity that the old man is already dead though," Orochimaru said maliciously. "However, I will tell you that he made quite a test subject."
Without warning, Orochimaru's neck shot forward as it had before, but this time Naruto was ready. Grabbing his newly gained blade, Naruto sidestepped, swung Kusanagi, and completely missed as Orochimaru's head ducked under the sword and aimed for Naruto's neck. Acting quickly, Naruto stepped back and brought up his right arm.
Naruto screamed in pain as Orochimaru's teeth sunk into his arm, cutting through several muscles all the way and tearing a few tendons as well. Shadow chakra flowed out his arm as Orochimaru withdrew, clinging to his fangs.
"It truly is a pity that you have barely scratched the surface of that sword's potential. I would be thought Abrame would have taught you more of its secrets," Orochimaru smirked as he melted in a tree, vanishing.
Naruto stood by as he slowly saw a black mark seep onto his skin. It resembled a three-tipped shuriken and vaguely remembered Sasuke's before promptly passing out.
Sasuke slowly opened his eyes in agony. "Freaking snake," he cursed. "But how the hell was he so strong?" Suddenly, he was shocked to see that he was floating through an endless void.
"How…" Sasuke began.
"What is it you seek…" a whisper echoed across the void.
"Who the hell said that?" Sasuke panicked.
"What is it you seek…" the whisper repeated. "What do you desire…"
"Power!" he shouted back. "I want whatever power I needed to kill my son-of-a-bitch brother!"
"Kukukuku, then let your wish………be granted…" the whisper said darkly.
Sasuke suddenly awoke in a cold sweat, his whole body shaking. He instinctively grabbed his neck as he felt it burn. Once the sensation subsided, he let go. Unknowingly, however, in place of where the mark once was, there was a much larger mark.
Meanwhile, Naruto awoke in a dark and damp sewer. "How the hell did I get down here," he wondered as he got up. But his attention was quickly drawn by the enormous gate in front of him.
"What the fu-," he began.
"He he he, hello kit," a feral voice growled.
"Who is it?" Naruto began worriedly.
"Pathetic, you don't even recognize me? I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune," he roared. "I'm the one who's been saving your ass with my chakra you ingrate!"
"So, you're the Kyuubi. And why exactly am I here?"
"BECAUSE YOU'RE PISSING ME OFF! Have you realized what you've been doing to yourself? You've been using so much of that damn shadow chakra that your chakra coils are getting torn apart! What's more, now you got some fourth type of chakra in here! You had to go and get a freaking curse seal on your arm," Kyuubi snarled.
"The curse seal! Maybe I could try conquering it with the shadow chakra?" Naruto suggested. "Convert it into some sort of focusing point?"
"Yeah sure…if you want to blow your arm off. All that focused shadow chakra would just build up and it'd just turn into one bloody mess. That curse seal chakra is dangerous, corruptive even. That thing is like a parasite, leeching on my own chakra even as we speak. You better think of something kit, or we're both screwed…" Kyuubi said as his voice began to fade.
The cell and the sewer began to fade as Naruto felt his head swirl…
Naruto awoke to the sound of boiling water. He rolled to the side and saw Sakura tending to a pot and putting several fish inside. Sasuke was already awake and was in the river catching fish.
"Hn, it's about time you finally woke up dobe" Sasuke said irritably. "You've been shaking all over the place and leaking your chakra everywhere."
Naruto looked down and saw that the ground around him had him carved and burned by his chakra. Strangely enough, his right arm also had several burns on it. "Damn, I better figure this out quick. I wonder…what about Sasuke's…" He pushed the thought from his mind as he turned his thoughts to the food.
The three Genin quickly ate and broke camp. "We still don't have a Heaven scroll," Sakura sighed.
"Plus, now I've got some mark on my neck and Naruto has one on his arm," Sasuke noted bitterly.
"We're going to have to take someone's, but who's?" Naruto wondered.
And as if someone had heard them, three shinobi crashed through the foliage, spraying them with weapons.
Reacting quickly, Sakura activated the traps she had set earlier. Three sandbags placed around their camp quickly exploded, engulfing the six ninja in blinding dust. Sasuke activated his Sharingan while Naruto drew his sword just in time for a barrage of fireballs to come bursting of the smoke. Team 7 was blown off their feet as the smoke cleared to reveal their attackers.
The first thing Sakura noticed was their headbands. "It's the team from Kumogakure," she said instantly.
The boy with the hidden weapon from before suddenly looked a lot more menacing with an enormous double-bladed naginata in his hands (a staff with a blade on both ends). The other boy was busy licking blood off his kunai, clearly from a recent kill. And of course, there was Yugito. She held a kunai in each hand, several fireballs floating around her. "So, I've heard that you guys have an Earth scroll," Yugito smirked. "God damn it Hiko, stop licking that knife for three seconds so we can just kill them already!"
"Well maybe I would've had enough blood already if Soujiro hadn't screwed up and lost the trail on the last team we were tracking!" the knife-licking boy, Hiko shot back.
"Damn right, and I guess if you want our Earth scroll, then that means you have a Heaven scroll," Sasuke deduced.
"Then this should be interesting," Naruto said getting up. The two teams stood still as neither one of them wanted to make the first move. It became a stand-off that could've lasted for hours if Naruto hadn't been so damn trigger happy. Instantly, he created dozens of clones, each one with enough explosive force to blow any one of them to pieces. The twenty Narutos all drew their swords charging straight at the team from Kumogakure.
Soujiro (the boy with the naginata) whipped out his weapon before the other two could react. Spinning it expertly, he effortlessly slashed straight through seven of Naruto's clones. However, none of them exploded whatsoever, which left Team 7 completely shocked.
"What the fu……," Naruto shouted. "Those clones should've blasted you to hell!"
"Take a closer at my naginata," Soujiro chuckled. "It absorbs all chakra on contact. Your clones are nothing but food for my blade."
"This is a serious problem," Sakura realized. "If we can't use ninjutsu to directly attack him without feeding his own chakra, then how can we win?"
"I guess this is up to some old fashioned swordsmanship," Naruto grinned. He dashed forward with SeikaKage drawn straight at Soujiro while Sasuke jumped to take on Yugito. Hiko was slow to react and realized that his prey had to be Sakura. It was a three-way one-on-one fight.
Meanwhile, the other two teams from the Rookie Nine and Team Gai had already made it to the tower. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji had ambushed a completely oblivious team from the Waterfall village and had easily taken their scroll.
"I still think we caught a totally lucky break with that team," Shikamaru said troubled. "Not just that, but we were totally lucky that they were carrying the scroll we needed too."
"Shut it Shikamaru!" Ino scolded. "It was destiny that such an easy team came to us, and you better appreciate it!"
Chouji just continued to munch on a bag of chips before offering his opinion, "You know, I kind of agree with Shikamaru…".This was a remark to which he earned a sharp blow on the head by Ino.
Neji, Tenten, and Lee probably had the most difficulty reaching the tower. On their way, they had encountered the mysterious team from the Rain. It was there that they had learned the secret to their abilities. The twins were nothing but extensions of the third boy's body. It was sickening, but ingenious at the same time. The third boy had two external "puppets" while he could just sit back and watch the show since the twins had minds of their own. This made them distinctly different from actual puppets, plus, the third boy could act independently if he wished. Essentially, it was nothing but a one man team. It was horribly difficult to defeat him, but through their combined efforts, Team Gai had won.
Lee's speed and taijutsu had kept the twins busy while Tenten's weapons incapacitated them. Neji had then rushed forward to kill the puppets and the boy. But it wasn't' so easy. The twins acted as an extra set of eyes, limbs, and even thinking capacity. The boy easily countered sacrificed the twins for even more power. Using his newly gained chakra, he created dozens of water clones for himself and used them as puppets. Under his unique jutsu, the clones could not be dispelled with a simple strike.
It had taken a combination of Tenten's complete collection of weapons to keep all the clones busy. Neji's Kaiten was his only weapon since his Jukken could only hit so many at once. With all of them distracted, Lee had swooped in, performing his forbidden Lotus technique on the boy, despite Gai-sensei's orders. After that, it was easy mopping up all the clones.
"I'M SO SORRY GAI-SENSEI!!" Lee cried out. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO, BUT WE WERE DESPERATE!"
"It's ok Lee, I understand and I forgive you," Gai said solemnly as he cried as well, hugging his pupil."
"Gai-sensei!"
"Lee!"
"Gai-sensei!"
Hinata, Kiba, and Shino had a slightly easier journey. After hearing Team Seven's fight with Orochimaru, they engaged a team from the Village Hidden in the Mist. The battle that ensued had taxed them to their limits, but in the end, they emerged victorious. Shino had his bugs encircle all of them while Kiba kept the three enemy ninja busy with Akamaru. Hinata unleashed her new technique, which completely dazzled everyone, and blew away the opposing team. After that it had been a simple matter for Shino to drain all their chakra.
"Damn man, I hope they have a hot tub in this place," Kiba yawned. "I feel like we definitely need it."
Shino shot Kiba a disapproving look; Hinata stood at the doorway, "I hope Naruto-kun will make it. He only has one more day after this," she thought worriedly.
Back in the forest, the heated battle had begun to come to a close. Both sides seemed likely to win, and all six shinobi were dead tired and pissed off.
"Why the hell won't you die?!" Soujiro screamed while spinning his naginata. The dual blades sliced through several trees before they were finally blocked by SeikaKage. It was essentially a stalemate. Naruto's skill obviously surpassed Soujiro's, however, Soujiro had leverage since Naruto had to rely mainly on his sword and the fact that his naginata could cover more ground.
Sasuke was being held up by Yugito pretty badly. She seemed to have fireballs everywhere. Even with his Sharingan, there was no way he could track that many small agile projectiles. The stress was killing him, if only there was a way he could track them all…
Sakura, surprisingly, was doing very well. Her opponent, Hiko, relied much upon brute force. Although Sakura lacked much in this area, she made up for it with her sheer cunning. Hiko was too eager to draw blood, causing him to make several careless mistakes. So Sakura easily forced Hiko into trap after trap, eventually completely draining his chakra and forcing him into submission. In the end, Soujiro walked straight into a clearing full of explosion tags. His body was blown to ribbons after that. Needless to say, Sakura was all smiles after their fight.
On the other hand, the guys on Team 7 weren't doing nearly as well. Naruto's fight with Soujiro was draining on both of them, but Naruto could tell that his constant exposure to Soujiro's naginata was slowly draining his chakra reserves. "Shit, if I don't finish this soon, then that freaking weapon is going to suck me dry!" Naruto cursed.
"This fight has gone on long enough!" Soujiro yelled out suddenly. He brushed his hands across the two blades and they instantly transformed. Each blade was no longer whole, but was instead separated into multiple partitions, each with a small pointed blade its end (think Renji's sword from Bleach). Soujiro spun, swinging his staff as one of his blades extended, shooting out toward Naruto. Naruto quickly lifted SeikaKage blocking one of
them, but he wasn't as lucky as the second blade slashed across his shoulder.
"Crap! There's no way I can fight against two extendable blades. His attacked are just too damn flexible!" Naruto jumped back just in time to dodge two more attacks and was once again cut several times through his chest and legs. He flipped, landed on his feet, and struck the ground with his sword, sending chakra across the ground. The blast blew Soujiro off his feet, bringing momentary stop to his attacks.
"God damn it," Naruto cursed. "He's too fast! If I attack, I'll leave myself open, but if I don't he's just going to keep cutting me up! I didn't have much chakra to begin with, but he damn nagainata has taken too much of my chakra reserves. How could I be so weak without my chakra?"
Recovering quickly, Soujiro brought forward his naginata in an attempt to sever one of Naruto's limbs. However, Naruto sidestepped the attack, and then easily split the naginata in two as he cut right through the staff.
Soujiro took one look at his bisected weapon and began a deep laugh. "By splitting the staff, you've only made it easier for me to kill you."
"Looks like I'm in some deep shit," Naruto sighed once he realized he had brought about his own doom.
Soujiro lifted both his newly formed swords and shot both directly at Naruto. Pulling up his sword, he blocked a strike from one of the blades just in time for the second one to cut straight through his right shoulder. The second blade then curved around at cruelly stabbed Naruto in the back.
Blooding was almost pouring from Naruto's body as he arose. He knew it was over, but he still made one desperate attempt to win. In a rush, he dashed forward, dodging the jagged edges of the blades as his blood continued to drip into the soil. It began a dance of blades and blood Naruto struggled to avoid Soujiro's strikes, and Soujiro grew ever more bloodthirsty every time his blades found their mark.
Naruto finally fell to his knees from exhaustion and blood loss. He had been running everywhere, trying to attack Soujiro. But it was no use; he had not even come close, while Soujiro was slowly slashing his body to ribbons. The area where they had been fighting was drenched in Naruto's blood.
"It looks like this battle is over," Soujiro smirked. "You can barely stand up, let alone defeat me. I don't have a single major wound on me. You Konoha shinobi are pathetic."
Soujiro was shocked as Naruto suddenly picked up his sword smirking. "Who said I was trying to hit you with my sword?" Soujiro looked around and saw the trap he had been led into. Surrounding him was Naruto's blood, which formed a pentacle around him, and Naruto happened to be kneeling next to one of the corners.
"I'll see you in hell you bastard!" Naruto grunted as he stabbed down SeikaKage into the corner of the pentacle. With every last drop of chakra in SeikaKage, he yelled, "Kuchiyose: Gate of the Void!" Black chakra shot up in a vortex inside the pentacle as the ground within gave away, revealing a dark purple-black void.
"AHHHHH!" Soujiro screamed as he was sucked down. His screams split across the clearing as his body was slowly pulled into the void. Once it was gone from sight, the vortex grew thinner, finally vanishing as the ground returned to normal.
"I hate that fucking jutsu," Naruto panted as he supported himself with his sword. "Takes so much damn blood." Then he began to slowly limp towards Sakura with his sword, hoping that she had had the sense to carry some medicine with her.
Sasuke, like Naruto, knew he was freaking screwed. He had no way to avoid every single one of those fireballs and Yugito seemed to never run out of the chakra she needed to produce them. Her aim was pretty damn good too. But the strangest part about her attacks, was the fact that his Sharingan saw no hand signs whatsoever. "My Sharingan might be underdeveloped, but I should be able to see her hand signs, no matter how fast she's making them.
Sasuke turned and saw Sakura helping Naruto limp over to where he was. No doubt the dobe was still going to try and help him he thought. "I don't need him!" Sasuke screamed in his head. "I'm going to kill this flaming bitch on my own, or I'll never be able to reach Itachi!"
Sasuke whipped out three windmill shuriken and threw them straight at Yugito. She lept back and laughed. "Shuriken?! You think you can stop me, the jinchuriki of the Nibi, with shuriken? That's hilarious."
"Jinchuriki?" Sasuke wondered as he dodged another fireball. "Well, you better take another look you arrogant bastard!"
Yugito turned as two things caught her attention. First were the bloody remains of Soujiro and Hiko. Second, were the three shuriken spinning back at her.
"Shit, what's the point in fighting if they're both dead," Yugito realized. She formed several seals and inhaled a deep breath, "Katon: Dai Endan! (Fire Release: Great Fireball!)". The fire blinded Sasuke and probably would've burned his face off if he hadn't anticipated it with his Sharingan. By the time the flames cleared, Yugito was gone.
After the three Genin had regrouped, they decided to hurry on towards the tower. They finally arrived several hours later; and to their shock, they looked to be the only team that arrived bloody and covered in wounds.
"NANI!?" Naruto exclaimed. "There's no way we suck THAT much!"
"Well from the look of it," Kiba smirked, "You guys totally suck ass! It took you guys the whole FIVE DAYS to get her. I mean, even Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji got here by the third day. And they're all lazy-asses!"
This earned him a hard smack by Ino to the face. "HEY! Watch it Ino! Now I gotta go and take at soak at the hot springs to get rid of this lump," Kiba sighed.
"THIS PLACE HAS A HOT SPRING?!" Sakura and Naruto shouted in unison.
"Damn it!" Naruto cursed. "If we'd known that, we would've been here weeks ago!"
Ignoring the dobe; "So what now?" Sasuke asked the other Genin.
"Well, did you open those scrolls yet?" Shino suddenly spoke out.
"No, why? What do they do?" Sakura asked.
"Just…open them…and you'll…find out." Chouji replied between chips.
Naruto brought out both scrolls, opening them simultaneously. There was a huge poof of smoke as both the scrolls exploded. All the smoke cleared to reveal Kakashi reading an Icha Icha novel. Unlike others however, this one had a centerfold which Kakashi was currently getting a huge nosebleed from and giggling like crazy.
"Huh?" Kakashi finally noticed what was going on around him. All 12 shinobi from the Leaf were staring at him like he had some kind of disease.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU PERVERT?!" Naruto shouted while pointing an accusing finger.
"Eh hehe, I didn't expect you guys to finish, especially this late," Kakashi responded while quickly putting away his Icha Icha and wiping his nose. "Anyways, my job is to confirm that you made it to the tower and get a full report of what happened while you were there, and judging from the look of you guys, you got seriously owned. So…what happened?"
A few hours (and one hot spring trip) later, a very disturbed Kakashi rushed over to an office where several jonin and chuunin were quickly recording the outcomes of the second round. He kicked open the door, drawing everyone's attention.
"We have a serious problem! Alert the Hokage and the Anbu!"
Well, this chapter is definitely long overdue. I'm not entirely happy with it, but I owe you guys an update. Anyway, edits of the first few chapters should be up soon anyways. So please Read and Review!
