I don't own Naruto or the cover image.
I'd tell you to enjoy, but even I know this chapter sucks major b-
Mei Terumi sat in her seat, soaked in the blood of one Naruto Uzumaki.
The Yondaime had flashed away to do Kami knows what, and the Sandaime had summoned the Monkey King Enma, and was fighting the Snake Sannin above her.
"It seems they've forgotten me, in the middle of war no less. This is no way to treat a beautiful lady." The Mizukage murmured, glossy lips quirking in black humor.
Mei snapped her fingers, a whip of water materialized, pulled from the very air, and fell over her head, washing her form of blood. She stood, and looked over at Ao, her personal guard. The blue haired man was not amused.
With a hearty chuckle, Mei washed him of blood as well.
"Reckless child." Ao muttered, glaring down at Naruto, who seemed to be falling into a pool of shadows.
"No no." Mei refuted, baby pink heel clacking over the balcony edge of the Kage Box. "Clever child." She corrected.
Ao rose a brow, watching his Kage vault herself over the edge of the Kage Box, summoning a wave of water that she road down into the center of the stadium.
Mei stood suspended in the air, atop her whip of water, entranced as she watched the ghastly parody of Naruto's hair grow. It twisted and turned, forming an intricate web around the young man's ankles, ensnaring him.
The gray haired youth's hands faintly began glowing green, and he twisted about, slicing through the long thick locks of blood colored hair.
'Chakra scalpel?' Mei thought. 'Impressive technique.'
Her glossy lips quirked. 'As much as I would love to watch a battle between Naruto's clone and that boy, there are far more pressing matters…'
Mei wove through hand seals, gathering chakra into her lungs.
'There are way too many eyesores for my taste.'
"All Leaf nin!" Ao bellowed, recognizing his Kage's jutsu in progress. "Look out below!"
The Leaf shinobi battling Sound nin throughout the stadium wounded their targets to stun them, having enough time to leap into the air, just as the Mizukage called the name of her jutsu.
"Lava Style: Lava Monster Jutsu!"
A wave of glowing magma spilled from the Mizukage's lips, falling over the heads of the unsuspecting Sound nin like a burning veil. The lava pooled onto the ground, leaving blackened, steaming, and scorched infirm corpses in its wake.
Belatedly, Jorogumo realized the corpse that should've been Kabuto had light brown hair, instead of gray.
"Oh my, it seems there was no fly." The long haired clone murmured, looking up at the Mizukage who was giving her a curious look.
"Dead Soul Jutsu." The clone clarified.
"How resourceful." Mei commented, summoning more lava, and using it to obliterate the enemies still remaining in a single elegant stroke of her arm. Zabuza, Haku, Chojuro, and Chiharu watched from the seats that once held the audience, noting their Kage had everything covered down below. So, they opted to cut down any remaining enemies in the audience alongside the battling Leaf nin.
Jorogumo bowed to the Mizukage, and leapt onto the walls of the Chunin Exam stadium. She was not surprised to find a horde of her creator's new zombie clones feasting on the enemy below.
"Well, my brain was ressurected for the sole purpose of commanding this fleet..."
Her already ankle length hair began spilling in ridiculously long rivers from her scalp, slithering down to the feeding zombies below, twisting around their shambling feet.
"So command them I will."
The chakra infused strands spiraled up, piercing the zombies in their decaying brains, and began feeding them the healing chakra Naruto had gathered from Karin earlier in the day, and then given to Jorogumo.
The clone's eyes glowed with the power of the chakra, and they stood up from their various positions, carnage staining their bared teeth.
"No enemy walks from this village." Jororgumo commanded from above, retracting her hair from the skulls of the creator's clones.
With their temporary intelligence, the green clones all cracked wicked grins, heads turning to the edge of the village, where more Sound nin were breaching the walls.
There were flashes of gold here and their, signifying the Yondaime was in the middle of combat.
"Why don't you all see if daddy dearest wouldn't mind giving you a snack." Jorogumo intoned, gesturing to the direction of the outer battles.
The clones needed no further prompting. Things were about to get really fun.
When Konohamaru heard the first explosion, he immediately reached to his kunai pouch, pulling out two of the three tags Naruto had given him earlier. He looked at the two tags, recognizing one of them was for a summon, and the other was a storage seal. The boy knew the storage seal, as well as the black tag was for something entirely different than the danger Naruto had apparently anticipated would befall him. So, he tucked it away, leaving the summoning seal in his slightly shaking hand.
Not wanting to destroy his big sis' home, and wondering where Karin had gone after Naruto left for the Exams, he shunshined to the next roof over, already feeling predatory eyes on him.
He had to force himself not to be distracted by the outbreak of fighting, and shinobi flooding the streets, being intercepted by ANBU.
Ignoring his fear, and confusion at what the hell was going on, Konohmaru stretched out his senses in the same way Naruto taught him. And he felt it.
A slight, small pulse of chakra that anyone could miss, had they not been looking for it.
The boy launched himself into a back flip, narrowly avoiding the chakra glowing hand that had moved to slice him from his right shoulder to his left hip, undoubtedly wanting to immobilize him. It hadn't been meant to kill him, but Konohamaru knew the new arrival had no qualms against hurting him severely.
The crouched figure materialized completely from their shunshin, and rose to a full standing position, revealing an older teen with gray hair, and round glasses. Curiously, there was fresh, glaring pink healed bite wound at the side of his neck.
Of course, there's no way Konohamaru would ever know that immediately after Kabuto had been bitten by Harime, he replaced himself with one of the victims of his Dead Soul Jutsu, and healed over the grievous wound, not wanting to risk being killed. He knew if he wanted to get to Naruto, he'd have to strike where it hurt. And it just so happened that Kabuto gathered information that told the tale of Uzumaki being very fond of a certain young Sarutobi.
'I will not face Orochimaru-sama's wrath for failing him. I must apprehend Naruto Uzumaki.' He thought.
"Who the heck are you?" Konohamaru spat, feeding Naruto's sealing tag a bit of his chakra.
"Kabuto Yakushi," The bespectatcled teen said, pushing his glasses up onto his nose with a dark smirk. "But, you can also associate me with your own death."
"Wha-"
The traitor lunged, but before he could reach the kid, the boy threw the tag clutched in his hand, feeding it the last bit of chakra necessary to activate it.
There was a flash of blue, and Kabuto knew he shouldn't have underestimated one who spent most of his time with the Yondaime's child.
The scream of a chainsaw was the last thing Kabuto heard before he was literally torn in two from the center of his skull down.
Konohamaru squeezed his eyes shut at the resulting spray of gore, surprised that the man had been taken down so easily. The bisected halves of the arrogant man thumped uselessly to the bland roof surface.
"Boy,"
Said boy flinched and popped open one eye, looking at the chainsaw wielding clone that had saved him. Ichi.
Ni was at her side, and finshied her twin's senetnce for her. "Naruto-sama instructed us to protect you. And it seems the gray one likes playing with dead things just as much as she does."
Mouth falling open, Konohamaru looked down at the mutilated corpse of Kabuto, noting that the gray hair, was now a deep black. Konohamaru had seen many things after years of knowing Naruto, but he had never seen something quite so stomach churning as a person rended with serrated and rotating blades.
"Is this some kind of sick henge using someone else's body?" He croaked, feeling the ramen he'd eaten that morning try to slither its way out of his stomach.
"Not quite." Ichi shrugged, falling into combat position with her twin at her back. "The gray one has yet to really die. He is hiding, and has henged all of his dolls so they have the same bite wound."
"No matter though," Ni continued. "We will destroy all the dolls until we find the one playing with them."
Konohamaru gulped, ignoring the taste of bile on the back of his tongue as Ichi revved up her chainsaw, and Ni began swinging her iron ball slightly at her side to keep limber.
Something occured to the brunette.
"Wait!" He boy blurted. "What dolls?"
As if to answer his question, several Kabuto look-a-likes flickered onto the rooftop the clones and Sarutobi occupied, all wearing the same dark smirk.
"Oh," Konohamaru deflated. "Those dolls..."
"We can play this game all day until Naruto comes." They said in unison. "But that would be annoying, so we'll just get rid of you cheap puppets and be taking the boy."
"Hn." Ichi said.
"We shall see." Ni finished.
The Kabuto squads lunged, hands glowing with deadly green chakra.
"Damnit!" Danzo gritted, standing up from his desk chair as he felt yet another explosion shake the village down to its foundations. He had been recently planning to manipulate Naruto's inner hatred for everything into killing her father so that he could take the seat of Hokage in the blonde man's stead. But it would seem the elder's numbered days were finally up. He could feel the hum of his foolish pupil's chakra all throughout the village above.
"Playing with corpses again that foolish child." He scowled, rounding his desk to leave his office and once again go to the surface to protect his village.
With all the chakra Danzo sensed Naruto using, it was a wonder the girl wasn't already dead. But, he needed the girl to protect the Leaf, so she was not allowed to die yet.
"Tch." The elder tutted, opening the sharingan eye he'd stolen from Sasuke's father, Fugaku Uchiha. "Saving the village means saving you, foolish girl..."
Without a second thought to the consequences, Danzo's form was swept from his office by a silent breeze.
After leaving Gaara to his thoughts, Naruto returned to the stadium, shunshining atop the roof that held a curious rectangular purple barrier that had four odd characters keeping it constant. The smoking remains of an ANBU told Naruto exactly what would happen to her if she charged in blindly.
Rolling her eyes, Naruto looked at the three remaining ANBU on the rooftop, raising a perfect red brow at the still warriors watching their former Kage batter Orochimaru with his summon in staff form, the Monkey King Enma.
"Why are you all just standing there?" She asked. "The one's responsible for the barrier are right in front of you, and you didn't think that taking them out would cancel the barrier?"
Impossibly, the silent nin stiffened even more, having their obvious and stupid folly so plainly pointed out to them.
'Elite?' Naruto scoffed. 'How embarrassing.'
'Pfft.' Kurama snickered in agreement. 'If this is the extent of your village's "elite", then what does that make the pink one on your team? Kage level?'
Naruto decided to ignore that sad, yet admittedly hilarious piece of sarcasm, and glared shortly at the ANBU.
"Cheeta, eliminate the fat one, Dog, the freak with six arms, and Jackal, the two headed drag queen." Naruto ordered, eyes flooding with red and black. "I'll take on the chick with pink hair."
"Who are you to order us around?" Dog sneered.
The redhead's glare melted, away, and she cocked her head to the side innocently, taking pleasure in the shivers she sent up the agents' spines.
"The one sending you to your grave if my Jiji gets hurt." Naruto smiled.
Naruto left no room for argument, hands clasping in the rat sign. "Secrete Art: Blood Shadow Fusion." She called, summoning Harime up and around her body before finishing her jutsu.
"Reaper Mode Version One: Phantasm."
A black wispy cloak with a sickled hood, white razor teeth, and Harime's eyes on either side materialized around the redhead's form. Her skin bruised pitch black, holding an odd transparent quality that allowed her milky bones to shine through.
"Do what I say, or I will kill you where you stand." The Uzumaki stated.
The ANBU needed no further prompting, and blurred into action, blades silver gleams as they drew them from their sheaths, intent to draw blood and steal life.
"Alright Harime-chan, lets kick it up a notch." Naruto murmured.
"Okie dokie~" The living shadow giggled, becoming one with Naruto's skin.
The redhead summmoned Kurama's hateful chakra, feeling it seep into her very blood, setting it to a boil.
Naruto's eyes began burning, weeping streams of steaming red, and a single glowing fox tail spilled from the small of her back.
"Reaper Mode Version Two: Head Hunter."
Naruto's shadow was driven wild, shooting up and into her right hand, forming a black staff with six feet of length. With a hidden grin, Naruto watched a black sickled distortion sprout from the top side of her weapon, forming a jagged scythe blade.
"Say Harime-chan, whaddyou say we go head hunting?" She snickered, devilish eyes sliding over to the dark pink haired girl she recognized from the Bingo Book. Tayuya of the North Gate. Genjutsu expert and Doki Summoner.
"She'd make a pretty doll wouldn't she?" Naruto mused.
An eerie giggle in the back of her head was her only response.
With a shrug, Naruto took a step, and melted once more into the shadows.
'Hold on Jiji, I'll be there soon...' She thought.
Sorry it's short, I know, but I need inspiration. My creativity meter keeps flipping me the bird while it's on vacation.