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Naruto Uzumaki and S
It was a fight that reawakened crusted over memories that he had long sought to cover up. His fights with Sasuke, Pain, Madara and Toneri, and countless others. Times when he had been uncertain if he could win, but trudged on nonetheless, driven only by the knowledge he was protecting his friends.
This time, he was protecting his son.
There was a high-pitched whistle above him, and he ducked immediately, feeling the air tear as S swiped viciously above his head with a kunai. Naruto reached up to take his arm, then tried to throw him away-
Another kunai entered his peripheral vision, in the skeletal teeth of the other, careening towards his jugular. It met its mark, sinking deep into the folds of his throat-
Grunting, S spat at the kunai and threw the clone in between him and the other Naruto coming from behind him. The already defeated clone, however, puffed out of existence, giving him suddenly empty hands. Naruto projected his hand forward, where the glowing sphere of the Rasengan stretched towards the other.
"Earth Style: Boulder Trap!" The earth suddenly jutted out as if someone had tapped a nail out of its hold. Naruto tried to jump out of the way, but the earth followed him, and large, blunt rocks caught him halfway down the middle, dragged him back down, where they proceeded to cover him like some sort of teepee.
"Don't think this'll stop me!" he called from inside, then slammed his Rasengan into the rock wall. It exploded, giving him enough room to squeeze out of-
And enough room for S's next jutsu. "Fire Style: Dark Arson Enclosure!" Flame entered the teepee in a writhling torrent, rapidly burning away the sleeve of his right arm, causing the skin to burn and blister-
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
S stepped back. Blast that technique. Almost subconsciously, he brought the mouth of the Skeleton to a smile. At least he's resourceful.
The rock trap exploded from the sheer amount of the clones expanding inside it. Tongues of flame also emerged, as well as burning clones. The popped out of existence, but many more were still emerging. The Sharingan flickered to the real one, which he could tell by how his fingers were annoyingly crossed, and the chakra slowly ebbed out of him.
One by one, he began to systematically cut down the Naruto Uzumakis. Shadow Shuriken splayed out from his hands, fire came to live in the shapes of serpents and dragons and roiling tides.
Not one touched him. The Sharingan detected where they would swing, where their kunai would land. More than once, their sheer numbers almost got to him. He felt a kunai knife slice through the back of his tunic, and a hand grasp and tear a piece of pants away.
"ENOUGH!" In an instant he had Body-Flickered away. It took them a long moment to grasp what had happened; his speed with the technique, Naruto noted grimly, was alarmingly fast. If the other was good enough, he could flicker into Naruto's blind spot and land a critical blow.
He would have to be careful. He watched as, up above, S released a barrage of flaming projectiles the size of elephants. They slammed into the many clones, throwing up dirt and grime and rocks. Naruto backflipped away from one that was coming directly for him, and a warning from Kurama had him bring out a kunai to block that of S's, who had indeed Flickered to his position to catch him unaware.
Pouring his wind chakra into blade like Asuma Sarutobi had shown him long ago, he sliced through S's own kunai, the faint outline of the chakra now arcing for S's throat. The other, however, used Naruto's head as leverage, shoving him forward while he propelled himself forward behind the Hokage.
They both stood apart at their different points, panting hard. They had been exchanging blows for twenty minutes, with neither able to make an opening.
We're lucky this hasn't been to wide-reaching, yet. He threw a fervent look at the swaying cage he could see at the top of the hill. His son, he knew, was inside. But those bars would only keep him inside; if the battle grew as chaotic as he was anticipating, the cage would be more than a prison.
It would be his coffin.
"Surely you aren't worrying about your son?" The Skeletal face tilted its face, tiny red jewels shining in its sockets. "I can admire you being a good father, but I have no intention of hurting him- only you. You have my word."
"Your word doesn't count for much with me right now," Naruto retorted. Sweat blurred his eyes; he wiped it away hurriedly. When his hand had cleared his vision, however, he saw the small, barely noticeable change in the other.
"As shinobi, I expected we would be quiet balanced," S informed him casually, standing quite still. "A brief battle, to test each other's capabilities. Then again, I suppose it was a wasted effort- I didn't expect Madara Uchiha to fall a pair of simple ninja."
"But we aren't just shinobi, are we."
The Seventh gritted his teeth. "I'm going to kill you for what you did to Geezer Sage."
"I was merely following an ancient teaching," S replied smoothly. He began stepping closer, and the clouds spread apart enough above for a glimmer of moonlight to wash them both ever. Throwing the brown shading around the Sharingan. Sage Mode, of both toad and serpent. "The ultimate showing of accomplishment in one's art- the student overcoming the master. I killed the Great White Sage as well; I have mastery over both Sage Modes and their techniques, while you only have one. You're outmatched."
"Do you like talking because it stalls me killing you?" Naruto snarled, fighting down anger. He had never met the Great White Sage, but to hear another death at the hands of Skeleton, on this quest to kill him-
I need to get Boruto out of here for this. Nature energy swirled around him, inside him. His eyes colored, changed. Slowly, he exhaled. Focus it, control it, then release it.
"I was hoping you would give me a fight. How long has it been, I wonder, since two Sages actually fought!" Naruto snapped his eyes open, adopting frog kumite, as S launched forward with blinding speed. Their wrists caught eachother, and Naruto swung with his other for S's midriff. The other simply twisted out of the range of the strike, skidding across the ground a few feet away.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Four other Narutos sprang out of existence, and behind his mask, S raised his eyebrows in surprise. In each of their hands, Rasengans were forming, growing exponentially. To the size of a melon, a grown man, an elephant, even bigger-
"Sage Art: Massive Rasengan Barrage!" The Narutos lunged forward, their Rasengan to large to dodge, coming to quickly to try and dissipate-
"Sage Art: Slime Shed!" He leaped into the air, and took one of the large Rasengan to his midriff. However, it slid past him with ease, not breaching the thin layer of skin he was shedding that was filled with nature energy. The Rasengans fell back to the earth and exploded in blue fire, throwing up earth in the air.
The real Naruto was below, looking up in confusion. He took the moment to his advantage; changing course in midair, he sailed down, putting as much raw nature energy he could manage into his fist. The Orange Hokage blocked it at the last second- that's some good frog kumite Fugaku taught him- sending S's power-packed fist into the earth as well.
It blew them both apart as the ground splintered and broke. For a moment he was blinded, unable to see anything in the dense smoke now hovering around their battlefield. He did notice, however, a certain shape was missing from the top of the hill. So, he took his son out. Must've been when I was distracted with dodging all those large Rasengans. An elbow billowed out the smoke, catching him fully in the neck. He choked, smacked Uzumaki away with a flailing arm, then fell to his knees and wretched for a moment. Wise, using the smoke as cover. My Sharingan can see his moves... but they have to actually see them.
Dusting himself off, he rushed forward. "Sage Art: Big Flame Bullet!" He drew two kunai out as the flaming projectile, larger than either of them, crisped the earth as it flew towards the Hokage. In his peripheral vision, he could see the other was sending shadow clones to get around him. Poor chances.
He flung the kunai at the clones, then Flickered forward. The yellow hair was just coming into view: the speed of his Frog Kumite had actually dissolved the flames before they could reach him, and he was just clearing out of the smoke-
The fighting dissolved into fists and brute strength. The two Sages, with their heightened awareness of natural energy around them, found themselves locked into an infinite taijutsu match. Forearms became bruised, lungs cramped and gasping, chests heaving.
Get some distance, Kurama suggested gruffly, as tired as his friend. I've worked up some concentrated chakra- a good Rasenshuriken might take him down.
Grunting, Naruto kicked out, which S blocked with an X of the arms; he kicked off of it, going high into the air. His sweaty hand reached up and immediately the air above the palm trembled. Then the chakra became to solidify into rippling wave, an orange-glowing shuriken with a hot sun in the middle.
Below, the throaty laugh of the Skeleton reached his airs. "I was wondering when you would get serious! Good timing- I was about to do the same!" He sensed the chakra buildup below him instantly- it's now or never. With an almighty heave, he twisted around and released the Rasenshuriken from his grip, letting his momentum propel it with enough speed to blur his vision.
The collision was enough to jolt him out of the air, and he fell back to the earth with a winded thud. Coughing the smoke from his lungs, he stood up as his eyes scanned the explosion. He's alive in there... I can feel his chakra still. And... what, what's that noise?
The smoke billowed out in all directions; his knees folded underneath him as he tilted his body all the way back. A dark, spherical shape passed inches above his face, followed by S's snarling skull. They landed away from him, and he whirled around, his bloody chilling inside.
"What... what is that?"
"Oh, this? It's called a Rasenringu. It translates to 'Spiraling Ring'." He cocked his head, perhaps amused at the thunderstruck expression on the other. "You may have seen something like it before?"
It was like a perverted image of his Rasenshuriken: in the center, a midnight black bowl that pulsated white energy was circled by an equally white disc, resembling a planet and its ring. In all his years, he had only seen the Rasengan performed by three other people: Minato Namikaze, his father; Kakashi Hatake, his teacher; and Jiraiya, who had taught him the technique in the first place. According to Jiraiya, Minato had invented the technique and taught it solely to them. No one else had been taught, no one else could know-
"Minato certainly pioneered the technique," S agreed into his thoughts, and Naruto shook his head angrily. "However, the concept itself was derived from the Uzumaki Clan. They have taught me many things, Naruto Uzumaki. Things you never bothered to learn. So, I took the archetype design... and molded it to myself."
S's hand seemed to clench, and suddenly the disc began to glow orange, more chaotic and fiery. "Amplified with my Fire Style affinity... well, you can see why the technique was buried in the first place. Something so destructive must have caused fear to many-"
"What do you want from me?!" Naruto shouted, hands clenched at his sides. "You sick, twisted- MONSTER!"
"I'm what this world made me!" the other snarled back, suddenly furious. "You have only Konohagakure to blame for what I am- just as it is to blame for many of the problems that have plagued this pathetic continent. And YOU Naruto Uzumaki- YOU are the symbol of everything that's wrong with it!"
"So I want you to die." His voice was rough now, emotionally tinged. The Rasenringu rent the air. "Just die."
Naruto stretched his arm out before him, and the beginnings of another Rasenshuriken formed in them. "I can't die, not yet. My village needs me. My son needs me. I won't let you do this to us." He tried, truthfully, one last time. As much as he hated the man before him, with a fury that was so potent that it seemed to belong to someone else, he wanted to try one more time.
"It doesn't have to be this way. Whatever the world did to you before, whatever it is I've done- we can work it out. Please."
The sincerity in his voice seemed to shock the other, and for a moment the fiery Rasenringu flickered in his hand. For a moment, the Mask shivered on the other, and behind the fire, in the empty sockets, real eyes glinted like small, blue jewels.
Then the moment ended, and with an animalistic warcry, he dashed forward.
