Chapter 21- The Blade Spirals into Action

Naruto gritted his teeth as he called out the technique for the umpteenth time, "The First Blade: Residual Moon." The clone disappeared as Naruto appeared behind him, but the Jinchuuriki was clearly dissatisfied with the results that his dispelled clone gave him.

"Damn it, it isn't enough…I need more speed than that." Naruto said, panting on one knee. As he tried to get up once more, he fell to the ground, exhausted and fell into unconsciousness. Out of the shadow of the tree, Shizune walked up to Naruto and carried him over back to the hotel.

Upon reaching the hotel room and putting him to bed, Shizune moved to walk out of the room and Blade's deep voice startled her, "You know, as soon as he wakes up, he is going to go back to the same spot as he has been for three days."

Shizune calmed her heart and stared at him, "Nevertheless, I can't help but worry about him…he is working very hard, but at the rate that he is going, I don't think he will get the requirements of the bet in time…besides that necklace that Tsunade holds is cursed."

"Cursed? How so?"

"Everyone who has worn that necklace has died a horrible death…it happened to her little brother, Nawaki, who was killed in an explosion trap during a war…that necklace was the only thing that Tsunade could use to identify his body and the second time happened to Dan, her fiancé and my uncle, he died on the battlefield in the same war, causing Tsunade's hemophobia to start on that day."

"So…because of their deaths, the necklace is supposedly 'cursed'?"

"Yes."

Blade began to chuckle with full mirth, "Lady, you are underestimating my student a lot, but then again, you don't know anything about him." He looked at her with an intimidating stare that the medic could obviously feel through his shades, "Naruto was dealt a bad hand ever since the Yondaime Hokage chose him to be the vessel of the Nine Tails. No friends, no smiles, nothing…he had to mature at a fast pace in order to keep himself alive in his own village."

Blade looked at Shizune and took off his shades, "A curse? You nor your master don't know anything about curses, I envy Naruto a lot…he has my abilities, but none of their weaknesses, even the thirst for blood."

"T-Thirst for b-b-blood?"

"Yes, I am what you call a Daywalker. Vampires do exist as well, the only weaknesses they have are silver, garlic and sunlight…forget the shit about them not crossing running water and crosses, your ass is grass if you still choose to believe it. A Daywalker is essentially a vampire with none of their weaknesses to silver, garlic or sunlight…but I still have to be careful around blood or else I will become a force to be reckoned with, a monster." Blade explained slowly, "Lucky for you, I have a serum that I have to administer myself every night….hurts like a bitch, but it gets the job done."

He turned to the window as he continued, "But my body…it is slowly adapting to the serum and if I don't find a permanent way to take care of it, I might even end up hurt someone I love or worse…" Shizune looked down, "I-I'm sorry…I didn't know, Blade-san."

"It isn't your fault, Shizune-san…I blame the monster who made me this way, he was the one who turned me into what I am and killed my mother at the same time. I even lost my father figure because of the cunningness of those monsters…I knew that it would happen, but I just didn't want to accept that he was gone…"

"I understand…"

Blade nodded and walked out, leaving Shizune to her thoughts and all the while, Naruto chose at that moment to slip out of the room undetected to train once more and never return for the next two days. Meanwhile in the lair of Orochimaru, the Snake Sennin was consulting with his right hand man, "So Kabuto…the week is up, now what do you suppose her answer will be?"

"If it is yes, then the destruction of Konohagakure will be in your hands, but if it is the opposite…" Kabuto began. Orochimaru smirked as he finished his sentence, "It looks like I will have to force to submit to our cause."

"But do you believe it will be that easy to do, Orochimaru-sama?"

"That is why I have you with me, Kabuto…along with insurance as well. Don't be so concerned, I was the closest to her when we were all a team and even her own weakness…she will agree with this deal for sure."

On the last day of the deadline, Naruto was frustrated, "Why can't I get this damn technique down fast enough? What am I missing here?" The Jinchuuriki then had an interesting thought, "Wait a minute…I got it!"

Naruto summoned his chakra and sent it to his feet before he went after the clone, immediately he had his chakra in a spiral fashion much like the Rasengan first training step. Circling around his opponent, he made an afterimage of himself and stabbed the clone in the back, "Deadly Sword Technique #1: Residual Moon."

The clone's knowledge was filed into his brain and the Jinchuriki smirked, "Got it finally…now for the Rasengan's third and final step." With that, Naruto held out his right hand and calmed himself, "First step: rotation…"

Instantly, blue wisps of chakra visibly swirled around in his hand and Naruto continued, "Second step: power." A bright blue ball appeared in his hand with a few swirls in the mixture, finally Naruto thought as he gritted his teeth, "And finally, the third step…stability."

The sphere began to fluctuate before it blew up in his face, sending the Jinchuuriki through the trees. "Oww…son of a bitch…that really hurts." Naruto said as he got up, bruised and disorientated, "Well, no pain, no gain as they always say…now let's try this again." And he did so over and over again until he fell to the ground, unconscious and dangerously close to out of chakra.

Later on, Tsunade came over to greet the sight of downed trees, craters and Naruto's resting body in the middle of all the chaos. "Well, kid…you have been working very hard, I will give you an A for effort…but I think we both know that you will never win that bet with all of that effort now."

Effortlessly, Naruto was put over her shoulder and carried back to the hotel to put to rest. Tsunade then performed her Mystical Palm Jutsu over Naruto to heal his self-inflicting injuries, especially the chakra burns on his hands along with Shizune.

"We healed on his injuries, but his chakra exhaustion is all up to him…at that level, he won't wake up until the day after tomorrow."

"Looks like I won the bet, kid." Tsunade said softly before she chuckled bitterly, "Jiraiya, you were right…it was a stupid bet that I made with him and I got so worked up about it." With that, the woman moved to walk out of the room until Shizune's voice reached her ears, "Wait…Tsunade-sama!"

Tsunade stopped moving and Shizune spoke again, "Please don't go tomorrow, I beg of you!"

The Slug Sennin didn't respond, looking forward still and her apprentice shouted, "Why won't you say anything at all?! Please answer me, Lady Tsunade!" With the tension high, she glared at the back of her long-time companion, "If you dare plan to go…to that…man, I don't care if it takes my life, I will stop you."

That got a reaction out of Tsunade, who chose to glare at Shizune, "Shizune…do you know who the hell you are talking to?" Shizune shrank back and Tsunade chose to act in that moment to knock the young Kato kunoichi with a light punch.

Shizune slumped on the floor and Tsunade looked at her as she thought, "Please trust me, I know what I am doing….now that I have taken care of my last loose end, it is almost time to meet at the rendezvous point." With that, she left the room to find Orochimaru and Kabuto, who was on the way to the point as well.

"You know, Kabuto, it would be very…problematic of us if that companion of Tsunade decided to…interrupt our little meeting."

"So what is your orders on this little matter, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Kill her, we don't need any interruptions at all."

"As you wish, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto said with a smirk as he took out a kunai and used a nearby tree as leverage to go the opposite direction to carry out his mission. Early in the morning on the last day of the bet, Naruto awakened, strangely refreshed and got out of bed, rolling his shoulder with a loud crack.

"Alright, more training…I was so close to getting that Rasengan down." Naruto said to himself as he gripped his fist. He walked forward only to bump into something heavy, he looked down to see an unconscious Shizune, "What the…"

He knelt down to the ground and shook her awake, "Hey, hey, Shizune…wake up."

Shizune woke up shortly and looked around, "Naruto, what are you doing up? You should be unconscious until the day after tomorrow."

"Shizune, I am the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and have an advanced healing factor that is accelerated by my mentor's vampiric powers. The Kyuubi restores my chakra while the Daywalker power inside me restores my body."

"Of course…but…wait…what is today?"

"Um, Monday?"

"Damn it! She didn't?!"

"Wait, what are you talking about? You don't mean Tsunade actually…"

Shizune went toward the window and opened it only to be stopped by a thrown kunai. She looked out to see a panting Jiraiya, hanging over Blade's shoulder for leverage. "Jiraiya-sama, Blade-san?" Shizune asked, "What happened to you two?"

"The bitch slipped us a drug in his drink and my serum, I really can't feel my body and it feels sluggish to move at all." Blade replied to her, "We need to get out of here and stop that woman now." Naruto nodded, "Right…let's move, Shizune, can you speed up the body processes to flush the drug out of their systems."

The Kato kunoichi nodded earnestly, "Yes…yes, I can."

At the Tanzaku Castle, Tsunade waited as Orochimaru approached her with a huge grin on his face, "Glad that you came to your senses, Tsunade…let's get this over with."

"Before we do this, I will heal your arms on one condition…"

"What is?" Orochimaru questioned

"You must promise to leave Konoha alone if you want your arms back."

The Snake Sennin began to laugh a bit and looked her in the eyes, "Agreed…" With that, the two Sannin began to walk towards each other and faced a few inches away. Orochimaru lifted his arms up towards her while Tsunade herself summoned her chakra to her hands, but soon a kunai appeared in the middle of them, stopping the process and the two former teammates jumped back from each other.

"So I see how it is…why have you betray me? Huh…Tsunade?"

Tsunade looked up to see Kabuto landing next to Orochimaru, "I know you wouldn't actually keep your word at all, so that is why I was planning to stop you here and now….it seems that your associate has a good knowledge on medical ninjutsu."

"I was trained by Doctor Yakushi, who so graciously took me in…so I would tell that you were going to destroy my master's hands."

Tsunade gets up slowly and cracks her knuckles, "Well, then it looks like we will have to do this the hard way…" With that, she leapt up into the air and shouted, "Heavenly Kick of Pain!" Her leg slammed down close to on top of Orochimaru and Kabuto's heads.

The two men leapt away from the kick, which caused craters and a lot of immense damage to the surroundings. Kabuto turned to his superior, "Perhaps we should relocate to a better position then…"

"Yes…it would be better this way." With that, the Snake Sennin along with Kabuto moved to a better location with a rampaging Tsunade behind them. Minutes later, Shizune and the group looked around the destroyed meeting place.

"Well, it looks like Tsunade rejected the deal that Orochimaru gave her, we better hurry and pick up the pace. It feels that I am back up to at least forty percent of my strength back, damn, she did a number on me…on both of us. How do you feel, Blade?"

Blade replied slowly, "Well, I have a splitting headache and my body still aches like hell for some reason. I don't know how the hell she got my vampiric blood in the factor of it, but she is very good…very good at this medical shit."

"Maybe she could help you with that serum of yours then." Naruto replied, "Let's pick up the pace, so we can get there before Tsunade gets up into more trouble than she knows what she is getting into." The group agreed and sped up to follow the trail of destruction that the Slug Sennin left behind for them.

Meanwhile, Tsunade was panting out of breath and trying to bash Orochimaru and Kabuto's brains inside their skulls. Knowing that the small area was a disadvantage to them, Kabuto made the suggestion to move to a more suitable location. Orochimaru agreed, letting his right-hand man lead him to a large clearing.

"It seems that Tsunade-hime is out of breath….it might be a good time to put 'it' to use." Orochimaru said. Kabuto took out a soldier pill and ate it as he said, "Although taijutsu is not actually my forte…." Then he did hand signs, "Chakra Mesu no Jutsu!"

"So he knows medical jutsu as well." Tsunade thought. Then the iryo-nin decided to take the time to disappear and her eyes widened as Kabuto's hand exploded from the ground beneath her feet. She jumped into the air and slammed her fist quickly into the ground, but Kabuto managed to evade the deadly strike.

Large chunks of stone surrounded the two medical ninjas and Tsunade looked to see a large stone by her foot and she chose to kick it at Kabuto. His kneeling form disappeared from the stone's deadly path and was behind her in an instant while she was in mid-air.

Kabuto touched her bicep and abdomen only to leave Tsunade with an opening as she touched down on the ground. She slammed her shoulder into Kabuto's chest, making him slide back a few inches from her. "Ouch." Tsunade said. "Damn, he cut my muscles." She thought to herself.

"That is right, I have cut your bicep and abdomen muscles, so that super strength trait of yours will not be a nuisance to me anymore."

"Chakra scalpels? But if you have that, then why would you cut my muscles. Why aren't you aiming from my arteries?"

"Although my skills in the medical field are excellent, but in the midst of a battle, I am not that accurate to aim for your arteries or main organs…..but if I aim at your neck, it shouldn't be a problem." As he said this statement, he moved toward Tsunade and struck at her.

Tsunade, thinking that he was aiming at the neck, moved to block, but Kabuto proved that it was a feint and aimed at her chest instead. "Damn you….you hit my lungs….can't breathe." Tsunade coughed. Then she thought, "He isn't an ordinary iryo-nin. His speed and strength exceed my own even in my prime."

Kabuto shifted his glasses, "It would be a bother if you were to die, so I won't aim for your neck, but after that blow….you shouldn't be able to move around."

But he was surprised as Tsunade sent him sprawling to the ground with a blow to the neck. "Damn it, it didn't hit her lungs at all….hmph, I guess those large breasts are good for something. It seems that I need to be a bit more serious about this."

Suddenly he noticed that his body was going haywire. "Wha…" WHAM! Tsunade lands a punch across his face before he could figure out what was happening to his body. "This….this isn't caused by my muscles, it's caused by my nervous system."

Tsunade replied, "I see that you seem to realize your problem, I converted my chakra into electricity and transfer it throughout your body."

Orochimaru thought, "Fufu, I see…..the nervous system is run on electricity, but Tsunade disrupted the initial flow by sending more electricity. Now the signals in Kabuto's body is sending so many signals that it can't distinguish them."

Tsunade took advantage of the situation by healing himself while Kabuto knelt there to figure out his body. "Okay, if I moved my right hand, my left leg moves. If I move my left foot, my right shoulder moves." In a matter of moments, Kabuto was able to figure out sixty percent of his body.

"Don't think that with the level of power…..can defeat me!" Kabuto shouted.

"What? He figured out how to control his body already?"

"You are afraid of blood, right? I'll show you some now…..I'll scatter just enough blood until you are at the brink of death." He suddenly was kicked back toward Orochimaru's position by an unknown kick.

"Are we late for the party…..Baa-chan?"

Tsunade looked up to see Naruto crouched down on the ground on one knee with Jiraiya, Blade, Tonton and Shizune behind him. The Toad Sennin spoke up with a small smile, "It has been a long time, Orochimaru and how have you been?"

"You haven't changed at all, Jiraiya."

The moment was soon interrupted by the bold Tsunade, who shoved Jiraiya aside to get to Orochimaru, but Kabuto intervened and flicked his blood upon the woman, who shivered in fear, "B-Blood…" Kabuto commented, "Looks like my body is almost back to normal and it is bad enough that I have to fight two of the Legendary Sannin, but I will not lose."

With that, the combat medic attacked Tsunade, sending her sprawling to the ground with a punch, but Shizune caught her in her arms. Tsunade was still shivered while Shizune cried out her name as she began to wipe off the blood from her face.

"So…Kabuto-san…I was right, you are a spy." Naruto spoke up, "Thought the ANBU caught you actually…I wonder how the hell you got out of that mess though?" Kabuto replied, "Ah…yes, I remember you did give me that look back at the exams, so it was you that tipped the ANBU Black Ops on my tail."

"Yes, my sources were reliable in to say that you were in league with Orochimaru, good call on her part." Naruto replied, cracking his neck, "Now…it looks like I will have to kill you myself since the ANBU couldn't handle your bag of tricks, you won't get out of this without a few broken bones or scars for that matter."

Kabuto laughed in a hysterical manner, "You can't win against me, Naruto…I am on par with Kakashi Hatake, your sensei, meaning that I can kill you without trying." The Jinchuuriki got into a stance and rolled his shoulders as he discarded his leather jacket, "Well…let's test that theory then, bitch."

In response, the spy took out a blood stopping pill and replied, "Orochimaru-sama…please remove your left bandage." The Snake Sennin did as he was requested and Kabuto used his blood to summon a snake, Jiraiya moved to summon his own animal only for Blade to stop him.

Naruto stared at the snake, "Alright, you cold-blooded lizard, come at me…" The snake struck at the Jinchuuriki, who was crushed within its jaws. "NARUTO!" Shizune shouted out loud, but Naruto's voice stated, "Deadly Sword Technique #1: Residual Moon."

Kabuto's eyes widened as Naruto appeared behind him to slash him across the back, causing the man to stumble forward. "You…how did you?" Kabuto turned on Naruto, asking him in an angry manner and the Jinchuuriki smirked in a condescending manner, "Wouldn't you like to know? Too bad, I am a ninja…and ninja never reveal their secrets unless they are dead, you should know that rule all too often…but it is people like you and Orochimaru that likes to boast too much."

Kabuto smirked, "Alright, Naruto, we will play your game for now and once you are dead, I will be finding how you and your master tick."

"Not today." Naruto replied as he held his sword in a reverse grip, "Let's get down to business." With that, both ninja clashed against each other with a spark between their weapons.