Inhale, Naruto stood across from Sasuke, waiting for the appropriate chance to strike, as Sasuke did the same. Naruto pictured a rabbit, and launched into a new level of awareness.
Exhale, Sasuke struck, using chakra to boost himself right into position to break Naruto's stance, if Naruto hadn't been watching for just that, he would be seriously on the defensive. As it was, Sasuke could not achieve the speeds needed to catch him unaware.
Inhale, Naruto slammed his fist right into Sasuke's face, sending him flying backwards. Naruto quickly darted forward with a chakra boost to finish Sasuke off.
Exhale, Naruto watched Sasuke slam up against a tree, as the tree shook dangerously. Sasuke tried to recover, but Naruto was already on top of him. Naruto unleashed a combo of shots, a left fist into the stomach, a chakra boosted knee to the face, a spin kick to once again send Sasuke flying through the air.
Inhale, Sasuke was able to recover himself with enough time to get his hands in a guard position, unfortunately for him, Naruto knew how to get through a guard, and Sasuke simply wasn't fast enough to counter Naruto's powerful, but precise hits. Imagine a brick wall getting hit by a sledgehammer, in exactly the right place, time after time after time. The wall never stood a chance. Naruto, attacked with a telegraphed right hook, with Sasuke had the training and speed to turn to his advantage. Naruto just needed his hands out of the way.
Exhale, Naruto turned so that his body was at a ninety degree angle from Sasuke, pulling himself away from Sasuke, who did not let go of the captured arm, which left him off-balance, Naruto kicked Sasukes legs out from underneath him, and spun, leaving Sasuke flying through the air, as he wisely let go off Naruto's arm.
Inhale, Naruto rush forward, determined to keep the initiative in his favor, Sasuke did a back hand spring to recover, Naruto was already right there, hand cocked back to bring Sasuke down.
Exhale, Sasuke blocked him, this caught Naruto off guard, Sasuke in no way shape or form have been able to see that one coming. Sasuke brought his own fist into Naruto's. For the first time since the fight started four seconds ago, Naruto was sent flying through the air.
Inhale, Naruto looked at Sasukes quickly moving hands, Naruto flipped backwards, his hands touching the ground just as a huge fireball was sent toward him.
Exhale, Naruto pushed off the ground with all his strength, trying to gain altitude. Forming his own hand seals, he just crested the fireball before it went rushing by underneath him. He got one look at Sasuke's face, a face with two red eyes.
Naruto's made twenty four shadow clones all of them aimed for Sasuke, as it began to rain shadow clones, Sasuke easily demolished all the shadow clones. Naruto used the shadow clone jutsu whenever he would start to fall having a shadow clone push him back into the sky so he could continue to gets a birds eye few.
Watching the fight, he really began to see just how much better then him Sasuke really was. His taijutsu was clean and precise, even before he got the sharingan, now there weren't any openings Naruto could take advantage off, Sasuke was able to predict and take advantage of his taijutsu much better then Naruto could, easily sliding through Naruto's improved style like it was used by a ten year old.
Even the fact that at any one time he was outnumbered eight to one, sometimes more so if some of the shadow clones were making a aerial assault, was not seriously putting a damper on him. The only things Naruto had going for him was that one, Sasuke was not used to this level of fighting, nor fighting this many opponents, this meant occasionally a shadow clone would get a lucky shot in, and two, Sasuke, didn't have his chakra reserves, and at this point, the Sharingan was eating through his reserves like a wild fire through dry brush.
This however was offset by the fact that creating this many shadow clones was eating through his reserves just as fast, at this point and time he had already made one hundred shadow clones, not counting the ones he had made earlier to train. Splitting the chakra evenly among his shadow clones was really draining. Naruto still had more then enough for him to fight with, heck he really only needed a hundredth of one percent of his chakra reserves to keep his going, though usually at about five hundredths he lost conscience and at ten hundredths it became really difficult for him to move his body. He was currently somewhere around three fourths of one percent, having recovered a small amount of chakra from his dispelled shadow clones. He was really cursing Sasuke for coming to him AFTER he made clones for training. Starting the fight at only five percent of his normal reserves was a serious handicap.
It was time to come down and meet Sasuke before he ran out of shadow clone cover. He was down to his last twenty, which truly showed how skilled the Uchiha was. Granted, most of his shadow clones were only fighting at a quarter of one percent or lower of his total chakra total, which meant that they had to use chakra boosting sparingly, or as a last ditch suicide attack. Still, the fact he had already incapacitated Naruto eighty times was impressive. Make that eighty-two, as he smashed two clones heads together, knocking them out and making them lose their form.
The rest off his clones jumped back, gaining some space and hoping to make Sasuke waste a bit more of his chakra. Sasuke either knew they were stalling, knew he had to finish quickly, or just was feeling like he had the advantage, rushed forward into a group of five clones, engaging them and destroying each within six seconds.
His clones started to attack in small groups, hoping to keep him distracted while the original worked on a plan that didn't involve stalling for time, as Sasuke looked he had another minute in him, when this fight would be over in twenty seconds if Naruto didn't do something. Running away or hiding wouldn't do, Sasuke would take it as Naruto was afraid of him, something Naruto wasn't willing to allow. Not to mention Naruto knew he could win without the use of such tactics. Attacking hand to hand was out, he'd get taken apart right now. His clones were just getting destroyed, and even though Naruto could take hits that would destroy them, he couldn't take very many of them. Defending would do the same thing, he'd last a little longer, but Sasuke would still win. Kakashi-Sensei AND Anko-Sensei had both told him never to do what he was about to do, but it was his only option. He was going to use one of his unmastered jutsu in a battle.
Where as it was necessary to become Hokage to have learned a thousand jutsu, there was not a span of time long enough, a person strong enough, or a genius smart enough to master a thousand jutsu. Mastering a justu required knowing it inside and out, being able to use said jutsu in dozens of different situations and be able to tweak it to fit each one, it also helped if you could do it with few or no hand-signs. A unmastered justu was like using a sword you just picked up, it might work against a untrained opponent, but anyone who knew what they were doing would just pick you apart. It drained to much chakra, took too long to use, and made the jutsu weaker then it should be.
So as Naruto flipped through the hand-signs, Sasuke let out a grin and worked on destroying the last of Naruto's clones. Naruto over powered the jutsu, using every bit of chakra he had left except for what he was using to keep himself standing, and fired off a water whip that sailed through the air heading at a ninety degree angle from Naruto, building up speed, when it had gone as far as it could, intstead of coming to a stop, it swung toward Sasuke using the speed it had just built, accelerating even faster. Sasuke destroyed the last of the clones, a look of victory on his face, the cloud of smoke from the shadow clone enveloping him.
Sasuke emerged from the smoke just before the whip reached it. Sasuke was running, and as the whip neared him, he dived into a roll, letting the whip roll by harmlessly. Naruto let the jutsu go, and tried to defend himself, but it was too late. Sasuke knocked Naruto down with a right hook to the face, forcing him to the ground. As Naruto layed there unable to move, Sasuke smirked, even Naruto had to admit that it was well deserved, handicap or not. Sasuke pulled a kunai out from his pouch and placed it against Naruto's throat. "\You may just be worth something after all Dobe"\
"\Just you wait Teme, next time you won't be so lucky"\ Grins were placed on both their faces. "\Er... Sasuke... I kinda can't move anymore."\ Sasuke stood next to Naruto, watching the sun set. "\To be honest, I could probably use a break myself. Sasuke walked over to a tree before he sat underneath it, Naruto looked to the sky, and watched it turn from orange, to pink, to purple, before it settled on black. The stars came out, at first just one or two, but more quickly filled the sky. Naruto had never seen so many stars, and he could only think that maybe just maybe, his nights wouldn't be so dark anymore.
A/N A Big thank you to Fan Guy, anonymous though you may be, your review was both helpful, and greatly appreciated. Though, honestly, It wasn't intentional for Naruto to come out like he was on NZT, but the similarities are to much to ignore lol. I was probably subliminally effected by that movie. Though I bet the book was very good as well. Only difference is that Naruto's bloodline doesn't give him crazy ideas, just lets him do math and remember things much quicker. Though I can totally see Naruto ending up with some Jack Sparrow escapes in the future. Ah, a pranksters return to Konoha... I can't wait.
A slightly smaller, but not by much, thank you to DragonMan, DragonBard, and Nightbreeze for their reviews. Not much else to say except that I'm struggling with what to do with Sakura for the bridge fight scene. She's never seemed like the genjutsu type to me, aptitude or not. So thats out, for this story at least. She doesn't have a good enough speed or taijutsu to really help against Zabuza or Haku. Holy crap, Just by righting this note, I just figured out whats she's going to do. AWESOME!