A/N: From some of the reviews for last chapter, it seems like a lot of the readers think Naruto lost against Kimimaro too easily. While it's true that he lost badly, I want to share the reasons why I think that outcome was not only possible, but likely.
First, Naruto has never lost a battle since receiving Shisui's sharingan and improving his control over the Kyuubi – he's never even come close to losing. Second, he has never fought with the mind-set that he has to avoid every blow. After all, his Mangekyou sharingan makes him all but invulnerable to genjutsu, and his healing abilities mean that even a deadly wound is just a temporary setback. That kind of near-invulnerability is likely to make a shinobi a little complacent, because he subconsciously believes that no matter how hard he gets hit, he can always hit back a little harder. Third, Naruto has never seen Sealing Jutsu used in battle, and has zero experience using them himself. Therefore, he had no way of knowing what Kabuto was preparing. Finally, the sharingan does not allow a shinobi to perform past the limits of his own body – Lee proved that to Sasuke before the canon Chuunin Exams. Kimimaro's Stage Two form was much faster than Naruto, who wasn't drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra at the time. His tail attack wasn't a demonstration of his complete superiority over Naruto – who would have upped his speed if the fight had continued – it was simply a first strike that Naruto didn't realize was part of a well-thought-out strategy to apply the Chakra Seal.
I am not excusing Naruto from blame. He made three major mistakes: overestimating himself; underestimating Kimimaro; and failing to recognize the threat posed by Kabuto's technique until it was too late. All of these are foolish mistakes for a shinobi, and any one of them could have resulted in his death. The fact that he is alive right now has nothing to do with him, and entirely to do with Kimimaro – although not for the reasons you may think.
Even geniuses make mistakes. Sometimes they get lucky. Sometimes they even lose. And someone like Naruto, who began with nothing but guts and a few power-ups that he never asked for and hasn't yet earned, is going to make many more mistakes than a natural genius. One thing you can depend on, however, is that he won't make the same mistakes twice. Character growth didn't stop when Naruto received his sharingan – he's learning as he goes, and last chapter was a fairly blunt lesson. And this chapter, he gets the opportunity to show that he makes good use of his second chances.
I hope you choose to read on, and judge for yourself if you think he's learned enough before the end. But if you're looking for a Godlike!Naruto story where he turfs out all five Kages before he's had to suffer, learn about his own limitations and weaknesses, or damn well earn his power-ups through his own sweat and blood, then you should look elsewhere.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 36
Naruto had lost track of how long he'd been unconscious. Kabuto's seal had shattered his grip on reality, and when he opened his eyes after an interminable period of shifting, swirling chaos, he found himself trapped deep in his mindscape. He seemed to be stuck down at the bottom of a deep well.
After a moment, Naruto recognized it as the same well that he used to draw excess chakra from the Kyuubi without manifesting any of the beast's nine tails. It was the first aspect of his mind that he had consciously shaped after harnessing the power of his sharingan. Now, however, the well was bone dry, and at the bottom was a paper seal with a design that glowed green and emanated heat that seemed to scorch Naruto's very soul.
He clung to the side of the well with all his might, but he had no chakra with which to anchor himself. His muscles were throbbing, and the unforgiving rock was starting to cut into his hands. He didn't know what would happen if he fell away from the wall and onto that seal, but he had a feeling that it would be extremely, even mortally unpleasant.
Damn it Naruto, focus! This is your mind – there may not be any chakra to use, but you're still in charge of what goes on here. Act like it!
Naruto willed himself to ignore the pain in his limbs, to dismiss it as an illusion crafted by his brain. He gathered his ragged, scattered thoughts, and visualized a handhold emerging from the rock in front of him. It felt like something was fighting back – as if he weren't in complete control of his mind. But he gritted his teeth and pushed, and, miraculously, a small slab of rock slid out a few inches from the wall in front of him.
Naruto transferred his grip to the tiny ledge, and repeated the process several inches higher up the wall. Again that feeling of resistance, of battling a malevolent intelligence that wanted to drag him down to the bottom of the well. But Naruto wouldn't give in, and soon he had created a dozen ledges that allowed him to ascend the inner wall like a spider. With each ledge the sense of resistance lessened, until Naruto was practically flying up the well, using ledges that appeared as soon as he envisioned them. Finally, Naruto stopped using the ledges at all, simply telling himself that he was levitating up the well with sheer force of will. His body obeyed and he shot upward, effortlessly, once more the master of his own mind. The light above him grew brighter and brighter until at last, Naruto burst out into the open field of the outermost layer of his mindscape.
He was weary and gasping for breath, but his euphoria at escaping that unearthly seal kept him upright and focused. Naruto's next thoughts were of his team, who might even now be fighting a mismatched battle against the mysterious shinobi from Oto. Or worse, they might be-
Naruto cut himself off in mid-thought – that was one possibility he refused even to contemplate.
"I just have to wake up," he said aloud, drawing reassurance from the sound of his own voice. "Just… wake up!"
Nothing happened.
"Genjutsu can sometimes by experiencing some sharp pain or shock," Naruto reasoned. "This might not be a genjutsu, but maybe it'll work for me too…"
He thought hard for a moment, until a gleaming kunai materialized in his grip. Before he could think better of his plan, he stabbed the back of his left hand.
The pain was immediate and excruciating, and he screwed his eyes shut in an effort not to scream. When he opened his eyes, he saw only gray.
He tried to sit up, and realized he was tied down to something. It felt like wood, but it was too rough to be a table or chair. Naruto fought against his instincts, which were to thrash around like a fish in a net, and tried to test his range of motion.
What the… did those Oto bastards kidnap me?!
To his complete surprise, he found that the ropes around his body were not securely tied, merely looped to keep him stationary – it was how shinobi anchored themselves when they had to sleep in a tree.
From that, Naruto deduced that Akemi and Takeshi had somehow survived the attack – and he would love to hear how they had done that – and hidden him in the treetops. So this gray stuff…
Naruto froze, as he realized that he was likely covered in Deidara's clay.
Thanks, guys! he thought sarcastically. I feel much safer.
A few seconds' work – careful work – freed him from the ropes and got rid of his explosive camouflage. Then he set about finding his teammates.
He didn't have to look very far. Down at ground level, in a nearby clearing framed by the fallen trunks of two truly enormous trees, Akemi and Takeshi stood opposite a shinobi from Iwa. Naruto's trained eyes quickly took in the situation, noting with approval Takeshi's hostage and the corpse next to the only remaining enemy.
Seems like they've got everything in hand, Naruto thought, but it's only fair that I help with the last one. I wonder how long I've been out cold?
Then the waves of killing intent began radiating from the sole remaining Iwa shinobi, and Naruto hastily revised his understanding of the tactical situation. He used a Body-Flicker jutsu to appear next to his teammates, and flashed them his brightest smile.
"Hey, you two. Did you miss me?"
Akemi, startled, was unable to hold in her sigh of relief. Then she coughed unconvincingly, trying to pass it off. Takeshi nodded at Naruto, beaming. "Glad you're ok, boss. Ready for another fight?"
"Born ready," Naruto replied. "Who's the old guy?"
"A jinchuuriki from Iwa," Akemi snapped, "so you'd better not pussy-foot around like you did with the last guy!"
Naruto winced. Akemi's words were harsh, but not nearly so bad as the sting of Naruto's guilt. He had never handled a situation so poorly, not even when Itachi had defeated him in the Land of Waves without launching a single attack.
Naruto had tried to defeat Kimimaro like an Uchiha, using a high-level genjutsu deriving from his three-tomoe sharingan to immobilize the Oto nin. But when Kimimaro had transformed into that inhuman monster, a surge of some strange chakra had freed Kimimaro from the genjutsu's hold, allowing him to lash out with that frighteningly fast tail. Even then, Naruto had not realized the danger he was in, because he planned to free himself with a burst of power and speed from the Kyuubi. Then Kabuto lunged, and Naruto had just enough time to realize that something was very wrong…
Enough. His team had almost died because of his stupidity, but now was not the time to wallow in self-pity. He just had to remember the humiliation he had suffered, the helplessness of that moment when he figured out just how badly he had miscalculated… and vow never to experience that feeling again.
The elderly jinchuuriki appraised Naruto steadily. "So you have decided to join us. I look forward to testing my strength against the power of the Nine-Tails."
Naruto took a leaf out of Akemi's book and tried to cover up his look of dismay with a bout of coughing. When he tried to reach out to the Kyuubi's chakra, there was nothing to grab hold of. He was on his own.
Well, Naruto thought, if I can't hack it without the Kyuubi, I might as well slit my own throat now and be done with it.
"Hey, you guys," Naruto said, looking at his teammates. "Any chance I can convince you to sit this one out? I think Redbeard only wants to tangle with me."
For once, Akemi and Takeshi were completely united. Their looks of scorn, combined with the sudden spike of killing intent, scared Naruto much more than the jinchuuriki he was about to face. "Point taken," he muttered. As if to emphasize what he would do to Naruto if the blond genin if he kept them from the fight, Takeshi knocked his hostage out cold and tossed her through the air, away from the coming battle. Naruto felt bad for the girl – she had obviously received quite a beating from the half-blood Inuzuka.
"I wish I could give you what you want," Naruto said to Roshi, "a fair, honorable fight between two jinchuuriki. But my sensei taught me never to fight fair, so I hope you don't mind if I bring a few friends."
Naruto gathered his chakra and unleashed a large amount in a single jutsu. The Forest came alive with Naruto clones, each one watching Roshi with red eyes that did not contain three tomoe, like Akemi or Takeshi. No, Naruto had activated Shisui's Mangekyou sharingan, so his clones shared the pinwheel pupils that signified Shisui Uchiha's legacy.
"Take him down!" Naruto ordered.
There was a chorus of "Yes, sir!" from the majority of the clones, and every here and there a wise-ass shouted "Whatever you say, boss!" Then a score of clones dressed in the Uchiha Military Police uniform descended on Roshi from all sides. The majority of Naruto's clone army hung back, waiting to see how Iwa's jinchuuriki would respond to this attack. Naruto fully planned on obliterating his opponent with the power of his Mangekyou, but if he struck out rashly, he might get felled by a counter-attack. Better to take the offensive and use his clones to figure out Roshi's abilities.
Roshi didn't move an inch. The clones fell upon him, hiding him momentarily from sight. Then Naruto detected a reddish glow, and suddenly flames shot out in all directions. The clones disappeared instantly, revealing a terrifying sight. Roshi was covered from head to toe in molten lava – it moved as he moved and cloaked him like living armor.
"I have no patience for games," Roshi said from the heart of the inferno. "Thanks to my demon's Lava Release, I am now impervious to physical attacks. If this is the extent of your power, you will die quickly."
The rest of Naruto's clones tried to buy them some time, descending en masse and deploying coordinated Water Release jutsu, but none came close to penetrating Roshi's molten armor.
"We'll get fried if he even gets close to us," Takeshi pointed out to his teammates. "I can feel the heat from here. That rules out taijutsu completely – we have to stay on the defensive until we figure out a way to take him out."
"I have an idea," Akemi said, turning to the half-blood Inuzuka. "Watch these seals and duplicate them." She copied the seals that she had seen Katsumi make just before the jounin's death, with just one minor modification at the end. "Earth Release: Rock Armor!" The jutsu worked just as she hoped – granite armor materialized around her, including a stone face-mask with holes for her eyes and mouth.
"Yes! Now I won't get incinerated immediately if he manages to get too close. Can you copy the jutsu, Takeshi?"
Rather than answer, Takeshi made the hand seals perfectly and donned rock armor of his own. Naruto shook his head sadly. "It's times like these that make me wish I could do Earth Release. Still, I can try to help out."
Naruto summoned another batch of clones, who then Transformed to become exact replicas of the stone armor worn by Akemi and Takeshi. Because Naruto couldn't do Earth Release it was a thin disguise at best, but it would certainly help Akemi and Takeshi avoid getting singled out by Roshi.
"We can't win if we stay on the defensive," Naruto pointed out. Even now, Roshi was cutting a swathe through Naruto's clones, not even bothering to use any jutsu. The heat from his lava armor incinerated any clone that got too close.
"So what's the plan?" Akemi asked. She knew from the gleam in Naruto's eye that there was, indeed, a plan.
Naruto had one ace card up his sleeve, but he didn't want to play it if he didn't have to. Among other things, using that technique would keep him from activating his Mangekyou sharingan for a long time, and he had a feeling that he would need the doujutsu again before the end of these Exams. That meant he had to use a little more strategy, but with three pairs of highly developed sharingan eyes to draw on, his team had some options.
"You two are going to have to prove that you're masters of the sharingan," Naruto replied. "As long as Roshi can tap his Tailed Beast's chakra, we're in trouble. But General Fugaku showed me that it's possible to suppress a Tailed Beast's chakra by using your sharingan to activate a high-level genjutsu. That's how he helped me hone my control of the Kyuubi."
"Fair enough," Takeshi said, casting a worried glance to the other side of the clearing, where Roshi had dispersed nearly half of Naruto's clone-golems. "So how do we activate the technique?"
"First off, it requires eye contact, and as long as Roshi's cloaked in that lava armor, the technique won't work. So getting it off him will be my job, since I've got a technique in mind that should stand up to his lava attacks."
Naruto quickly created two more clones, who transformed into oversized hitai-ite and draped themselves around his teammates' necks. They had Naruto's memories, so they could give Akemi and Takeshi a crash course in Tailed Beast Chakra Suppression theory as they maneuvered around the battlefield and tried to avoid Roshi.
"These clones will talk you through the theory while I try and figure out how to get Roshi to drop his armor. Don't worry too much, you two. General Fugaku always said that if your sharingan is developed enough, it's more about willpower than technique – otherwise I would never have figured it out!"
He grinned widely, and gave them an encouraging thumbs up. Akemi said several hurtful words.
"So that's the plan," Naruto continued. "You two stay out of Roshi's way until you're ready to suppress his chakra. Meanwhile, I'll keep the bad boy busy, and see if I can't make any chinks in that armor. With a little bit of luck, the two of you working in tandem can block his connection to his demon enough to give us the upper hand."
"Hey, Naruto," Takeshi said as an afterthought. "That technique you're going to use to go toe-to-toe with Roshi… it's not the one you've never actually cast successfully, right?"
Naruto's grin turned a little sickly. Takeshi heaved a deep sigh. "All right, then."
"I grow tired of these games!" Roshi bellowed from across the clearing, flaring his armor in a sudden burst that took out a dozen clones. "If you won't fight me yourself, I'll bring the whole Forest down! Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock jutsu!"
He exhaled mightily, sending spheres of deadly lava hurtling through the air in every direction. Naruto had to jump away from his teammates to avoid one of the fiery projectiles, and winced when he saw it continue across the battlefield and set one of the fallen tree trunks on fire. It appeared that the clay Deidara had used on this tree wasn't tuned to Fire or Earth chakra, because no explosion followed. But with lava spewing in every direction, it was only a matter of time before one ignited the right type of clay.
"Hey, asshole!" shouted one of Naruto's clone lieutenants. It Transformed from a golem back to its normal appearance, its expression defiant. It wore a lieutenant's rank insignia on its Konoha Military Police uniform, and had a higher level of chakra than the majority of Naruto's clones. He had discovered years ago that his clones performed a little better if they had some military discipline and organization. "If you keep shooting off lava like an idiot, you'll blow yourself up, too!"
"That's an acceptable trade," Roshi replied, continuing to fling lava spheres through the air. "I cannot risk this battle extending long enough to draw the attention of the Exam proctors. If I must sacrifice myself to carry out my orders, then so be it."
"Not so fast, old timer!" the lieutenant crowed. "We're experts at fighting fire. Clones!" it thundered, pitching its voice to carry even further. "We've trained for this… or not, but whatever. Clone Fire Brigade jutsu!"
Without missing a beat, Naruto's clones began throwing themselves individually at the lava spheres, targeting the projectiles with a water jutsu that created a powerful column of water spinning at high speeds. Each time a jet of water connected with a lava sphere, a scalding spurt of steam shot out too fast for the clone to dodge. But the clone lieutenants filled in the ranks of firefighters by using the Shadow Clone jutsu again and again, sacrificing their own high chakra levels to create specialized clones with just enough chakra each to neutralize one sphere of lava. For the moment, at least, Roshi would not blast them all to hell by setting off Deidara's clay.
Roshi stopped spewing lava, and his Lava Release armor dimmed until it was just a thin layer over his fighting tunic. "This ends now," he declared, bringing his hands together in a meditation pose. "Tailed Beast Transformation: Four-Tails!"
A wave of pure chakra radiated from him, destroying the nearest clones and levitating nearby pebbles and loose leaves. Roshi began to change, four tails sprouting behind him and waving furiously. He shot upward, and as he grew his skin became fur the same deep red color as his beard. The last things to change were his eyes. They were ancient, intelligent, and utterly malevolent.
"Um…" Naruto muttered weakly, fighting the urge to whimper. "At least I got him to drop his lava armor…"
He barely dodged the long tongue of green flame that Roshi shot from his Tailed Beast form's mouth. The thing was too big to be that fast!
Naruto spared a glance around to check for Akemi and Takeshi. He couldn't distinguish them from the dozens of remaining Transformed clones, which meant that Roshi probably couldn't either. Naruto drew on some more chakra in order to create a new cohort of golem-clones – his friends' part of the plan required a large crowd to hide in.
So far, Naruto hadn't been anything more in this fight than a clone factory. It was time to do something about that.
"Hey, monkey boy!" he called out, drawing Roshi's attention. Naruto took a ready stance and waved his hand imperiously, at which all of the clones between him and Roshi stood aside. "How about you pick on somebody your own size?" He took a deep breath, gathering most of his remaining chakra for a jutsu that he had never yet cast successfully. Here goes nothing…
"You're not the only one who can summon a big, scary monster!" Naruto yelled. He fed the chakra he'd gathered to his Mangekyou sharingan, feeling his eyes begin to burn. "Let's see how you like this one… Susanoo!"
Naruto would have had a difficult time describing the agony that engulfed his body as he attempted to force his guardian to manifest. If asked to try, he might have said that it felt like all of his nerve endings had been grasped by microscopic tweezers and ripped free of their skeletal moorings. That was too clinical, however, too emotionless – this pain was malevolent, self-directing, even intelligent. It searched for new corners of Naruto's soul and set them on fire, fading in places only to ignite with renewed agony.
But Naruto was no stranger to pain, and he was too stubborn to quit. Gradually he worked his will upon the blue chakra swirling in the air around him, until it took the form he had envisioned: a giant ribcage, even larger than Roshi in his Tailed Beast form. This was the first stage of Susanoo's manifestation, a defensive ribcage formed of translucent sky blue chakra.
"Wow," said Naruto, looking around from inside. "I can't believe that worked!"
With an odd flash of insight, Naruto realized that this was the first time he had ever tried to summon Susanoo without calling on the Kyuubi's chakra. I wonder if using two kinds of chakra actually caused the technique to fail?
An interesting question, but now certainly wasn't the time to try and answer it. The four-tailed monkey let out a roar of challenge, followed by a wave of green fire thicker than two of Konoha's giant trees put together. Naruto leaned forward, and Susanoo's skeletal torso mirrored the motion, so that the fire impacted at an angle and went down towards the ground rather than up into the clay-covered treetops.
Although Naruto had been told that Susanoo was practically invulnerable, it seemed that an incomplete manifestation was less so – or perhaps the unbridled power of a Tailed Beast was simply too great for any defense to turn aside unscathed. Roshi's green fire ate into the ribcage of Naruto's Susanoo, and when the attack finally subsided, it looked like the giant guardian's bones had been dipped in a powerful acid. A few more attacks like that and Naruto's technique wouldn't be able to hold up.
This was the first time Naruto had ever successfully summoned Susanoo's ribcage, but it was clear that wasn't going to be enough. If he wanted to save his own life, to save his friends, he was going to have to push his ability farther than he ever had before. Naruto grabbed hold of his chakra once again, a little frightened by how quickly it dwindled while sustaining Susanoo. He pushed out even more power, focusing on a picture in his mind. He gave a primal roar, and then, near the top left side of his guardian's ribcage, an arm began to grow.
A band of blue chakra formed around the wrist, darker than the rest of Susanoo's torso and solid instead of translucent. It grew along the length of Susanoo's newly sprouted arm, and solidified further until it was recognizable as a shield of pure indigo chakra, larger than a house and studded with giant, war-like spikes. The one-armed guardian extended its shield, and this time when Roshi spewed forth green fire, it impacted Naruto's defense and splashed harmlessly to either side. Safe inside Susanoo's ribcage, Naruto gave a little cheer. "Go, my badass guardian! Kick some monkey butt!"
Roshi spoke for the first time since entering his Tailed Beast form. The ape's voice resounded in the air and echoed off the trees like thunder. "Very impressive, young one. When I deduced that someone had sealed away your ability to draw out your host's power, I feared that this battle would do no credit to either of us. But you make your ancestors proud."
"I'd rather make you dead!" Naruto replied, and charged. His guardian might only have one arm, but a shield could be a weapon, too. "Susanoo Shield Bash!" Naruto wondered briefly if he'd lose style points for giving his newly improvised jutsu such terrible names. Good thing there wasn't anyone else around to judge him.
His Susanoo lowered its shoulder and pushed ahead with the shield like it was a battering ram, trying to impale Roshi on its spikes. Instead, his opponent merely grabbed two spikes with its impossibly large hands, and his four tails whipped forward to secure a hold on more of the spikes. Muscles bulged under Roshi's red fur, and a colossal vein twinged in his neck. Naruto strained with all his might, knowing that it was his own willpower that would determine whether his Susanoo could win this grappling match.
"You just made a grave mistake," Roshi said through gritted teeth. "You should never have closed with me after withstanding a single attack. Not all of my techniques are as easy to block as that one, and now you're too close to dodge."
Naruto would have answered, but he was distracted by the sight of two rock golems who were suddenly clinging to the inside of his guardian's shield. It was Akemi and Takeshi – they must have tunneled under the ground to get inside his Susanoo, and then used the Body-Flicker jutsu to reach the crosspiece of the shield. With their rock armor, his teammates were fully seven feet tall, but they looked like ants clinging to the colossal shield. Takeshi waved one arm at Naruto, miming a specific motion. Naruto realized immediately what they wanted him to do, but he didn't respond with any overt motion because he didn't want to warn Roshi.
The Iwa shinobi made his move then, releasing his grip on the shield's spikes and taking a single step back. "Flower-Fruit Mountain!"
Lava bubbled up from the ground around him, hotter and more powerful than anything Naruto had encountered yet. Naruto didn't wait for the explosion that was surely coming any second now. He charged again with his shield, directly into the glowing plume of lava. All sound was erased by a tremendous hiss as his Susanoo thrust its weapon into the bubbling lava, and the ghostly flesh of its arm holding the shield began to melt from the residual heat. But Naruto pushed forward, exactly as Takeshi had instructed him, his shield carving a path through to Roshi.
And then, incredibly, like two suicidal lemurs casting themselves into the heart of a volcano, Akemi and Takeshi leaped up and over the edge of the shield, jumping until they were at eye level with Roshi's Tailed Beast form.
A second later, Naruto knew that their plan had succeeded. The bubbling lava did not explode outward with deadly force, shredding his Susanoo's ribcage and boiling him into nothingness. Instead, it sank back into the ground whence it came. And the giant, four-tailed ape was gone. In its place was Roshi, whose face, for the first time, displayed something other than calm stoicism: utter surprise. Naruto had to say he felt the same. He had not expected the chakra suppression to be quite that effective.
"It worked!" Takeshi called out, allowing his rock-armor jutsu to lapse. "I thought it might."
"We each focused our genjutsu through one of his eyes," Akemi explained. "It was kind of like sealing a broken dam from both ends – we met in the middle. Took us a while to figure out how to do it, though."
"I can barely feel my demon," said Roshi, more than a little wonder in his voice. "I cannot even summon my Lava Release Armor…"
"It's over, old man!" Naruto called out, raising Susanoo's shield high overhead. "Surrender, and I'll let you live. Consider it a token of my respect for a fellow jinchuuriki."
"You three have fought well," Roshi allowed. "But you are still about to die."
"How do you figure?" Akemi demanded, panting slightly after expending so much chakra. "You're done, old man. Sealed, tagged, and bagged. It's over."
Roshi shook his head, a sad smile tugging at his lips. "The shinobi of Iwagakure are known for two skills. The first is Earth Release. The second is our proficiency with explosions. Deidara is perhaps the best explosives expert ever to come from our village, but he is by no means the only one. All high level jounin are required to learn a self-destruction technique that releases all of our chakra in one last, supercharged explosion, so that if we are ever captured we have the chance to take our opponents with us to the afterlife. When I gained control of my Tailed Beast, I learned an even more potent technique, just in case anyone ever managed to capture me alive. The force of my chakra coils imploding will rip apart the Seal keeping my demon constrained, draw out every ounce of its power, and kill us both in an explosion that will level this entire Forest. I want you to know I regret this… but there was never any choice. A shinobi who does not fulfill his duty is no shinobi at all, merely a bandit with chakra. Farewell…"
Naruto tried to bring Susanoo's shield down upon the redhaired jinchuuriki, but it was repelled by a translucent shield that erupted around him. Inside the shield Roshi began to glow golden, brighter than the sun at midday.
"What do we do?" Akemi yelled, watching as the very earth underneath the old man's feet began to crack and quiver. "Once he explodes, all the clay in the Forest will explode too. Forget about us – that blast would level half of Konoha!"
Naruto was out of answers. His Susanoo was becoming weaker by the second, and he simply didn't have enough chakra left to try manifesting a more solid form. Without the Kyuubi's chakra to draw on, he was at his limit. His Mangekyou sharingan couldn't penetrate that glowing dome. Despair threatened to engulf Naruto as he thought that, once again, he had failed to act in time. Why was it that innocent people always seemed to suffer the consequences of his failures?!
"I have an idea!" Takeshi shouted. His hands flashed in a series of signs, though he didn't shape any chakra. "Can you repeat that, Akemi? It creates a stone tower shaped like a honeycomb – I copied it from Suzumebachi earlier. You need to pour as much power into one as you can. The stone tower has to rise above the treetops."
Akemi nodded fervently. "I can do that. Are you sure it will be enough to contain the explosion?"
"Not on its own," Takeshi shook his head. "But that's not all we're gonna do."
He explained the rest of his plan as quickly as he could – all the while, Roshi glowed brighter, until he was no longer recognizable as a person, just a blinding ball of light. Naruto and Akemi sprang into action, following Takeshi's instructions. Naruto directed Susanoo as best he could, commanding the guardian to swing his shield in a tight, horizontal arc. He sliced through the trunks of the nearest trees, and pushed the severed tops aside with a mighty heave. The crash as they fell seemed to shake the world to its foundations.
With those trees cut down, a section of the Forest now opened to the sun. Yellow rays shone down in force, yet paled in comparison to the glowing dome around Roshi. Akemi cast Suzumebachi's jutsu, pouring every bit of chakra she could into the technique. A stone tower rose up, six thick walls around the heart of the clearing, separating the genin cutting the genin off completely from the outside world. The honeycomb tower shot up ten feet, twenty, a hundred, until it rose far above the trees. The top of the tower remained open, blue sky barely visible, like a window to another world.
Now it was Naruto's turn. He sent his Susanoo forward, away from himself. His guardian was a part of him, bound to his very essence, and forcing it away was like peeling off his own skin. But what came next was even harder.
Naruto aligned his chakra and his will for one last, all-out effort. As he commanded, his Susanoo's ribcage split open and advanced until it surrounded Roshi's defensive bubble. With a snap, the bones of Susanoo's ribcage closed once more, so that Naruto's guardian completely enclosed the enemy jinchuuriki.
Takeshi shared one last, brief handclasp with Naruto and Akemi, then tossed a trio of food pills to Hinamaru. "This is it, little buddy. Didn't think we'd have to use this technique so soon. Two-Headed Wolf!"
Takeshi and Hinamaru seemed to fuse before Naruto's eyes, swirling together until they became a fourteen-foot wolf with two heads. The majestic animal blurred into motion, faster even than a shinobi using the Body-Flicker jutsu, becoming nothing more than a white streak circling the monstrous form of Susanoo. Takeshi's technique, the most powerful one he had ever used, kicked up currents of wind and chakra that became a swirling vortex raging around Naruto's Susanoo. Slowly but surely, the giant guardian began to spin as well, faster and faster until it matched the speed that Takeshi and Hinamaru set with their supercharged Gatsuuga.
It truly was a tremendous sight – the tornado raged white and furious in the middle of the tower, with a brilliant blue core that was Naruto's spinning Susanoo. Inside of both was the golden glow of Roshi's last technique, which continued to become brighter until Naruto and Akemi had to cover their eyes and back away.
The moment of the final explosion was impossible to miss. Golden light obliterated everything, so bright that Naruto's hands and eyelids might as well have been translucent paper. His retinas burned white-hot and he thought the light would burn up the rest of him too, char his flesh and bones until nothing remained… but the light faded, and he was still alive.
Naruto opened his eyes slowly, blinking multiple times in a vain effort to clear the spots in his vision. An outstretched hand found his shoulder, and Akemi clung to him for support. They tottered forward as fast as they could, searching for Takeshi.
Naruto's Susanoo was gone, obliterated as surely as if it had never existed. A shallow crater lay in the very center of the stone tower, perfectly spherical and glassy smooth. In the heart of the crater Takeshi lay flat on his back, eyes closed, with Hinamaru clutched in his arms.
"Takeshi!"
Akemi leapt to the motionless boy's side, a brittle, almost hysterical edge in her voice. "Wake up!" She shook him, gently at first, then not gently at all. "Damn you, wake up!"
There was a little whimper, and Hinamaru raised his head a fraction. The loyal hound licked Akemi's hand. Naruto's breath caught. Then Takeshi jerked upright, a bubble of blood escaping from his lips. He drew a deep, desperate breath.
"Takeshi!" Akemi wrapped her arms around him, drawing grunts of pain from both Takeshi and Hinamaru – the ninja hound was crushed between them. Akemi drew back, embarrassed. "Sorry," she muttered.
Naruto laughed wholeheartedly, and jumped into the crater next to his teammates. "It worked," Takeshi whispered. "Susanoo alone couldn't contain the blast. But with it spinning in the heart of the vortex, the force of the blast was directed upward instead of outward. I don't think there's a single person on this continent who didn't see that column of light. Villagers will talk about this for generations – the night a spear of light stabbed the heavens."
Takeshi opened his eyes, and Naruto gasped in shock. His teammate's eyes were not sharingan red, nor black as they should have been once he deactivated his doujutsu. They were a deep, burnished gold, as if they had absorbed Roshi's light and become saturated with it. Somehow, Naruto knew instinctively that those golden eyes couldn't see a thing.
"What happened?" Akemi asked, her voice low, reverent.
"We had to keep our eyes open to align our technique with Susanoo," Takeshi explained, petting Hinamaru gently. The hound opened his eyes, which were the same golden sheen as his master's. "Nothing to piss on, so we couldn't use scent to guide our path like we normally would. Maybe you should think about that next time you manifest Susanoo, Naruto," Takeshi added, with an attempt at a laugh that gripped Naruto's heart like a vice.
"Anyway," he went on, "Susanoo's rotation contained and redirected the force of the explosion, but I guess we were just too close to the source of the light. Don't worry too much about us, guys. We Inuzuka have always relied on our sense of smell more than our eyes… Hinamaru and I will be just fine."
But Naruto did not miss the quaver in his voice. Takeshi said, "We Inuzuka," not "we Uchiha" – maybe he thought that he would be kicked out of the clan, now that his sharingan had seemingly been burned out of existence.
Naruto curled his lip. That was never going to happen, not if one Uchiha Naruto had anything to say about it.
"You're damn right you'll be fine," Naruto said loudly, clapping his hand on Takeshi's shoulder. "Eyes aren't all that special. Hell, I've got two, and that's more than I need. Maybe we'll see about a little transplant once we get back to the village."
Takeshi's voice rose in protest, but Naruto cut him off. "Shut yer yap, Takeshi!" he said, but his voice still overflowed with joy and relief. "That's an order. We won't discuss that until after we get out of this damned forest. Understood?"
Takeshi looked like he wanted to argue more, but all he said was, "Yes, sir."
"You know," Akemi observed archly, "your new eyes aren't that bad. Distinguished, even. And considering we just took out a veteran jinchuuriki with more experience than the three of us put together, maybe we all got off lightly."
Naruto had to laugh at that. In addition to being blinded, Takeshi and Hinamaru were covered in at least second-degree burns from the last vestiges of Roshi's explosion after it had incinerated Naruto's Susanoo. Akemi's body was wracked with shivers that indicated the first stage of acute chakra exhaustion, and as for himself… Naruto licked his lips, surprised by the salty tang. His eyes must have started bleeding from the strain of using Susanoo for so long, and he hadn't even noticed. Tears of blood traced their way down his cheeks. If this was getting off "lightly," he didn't want to see heavy.
"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "that was easy. Let's do it again."
Their laughter was ragged and uneven, but it felt good. They all needed to release some tension.
"I'll tell you something that I promise will make you feel better," Takeshi added.
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
The half-blood cracked a wide grin, then winced at the pain it caused. "Remember that hostage I had when you joined us? I didn't mention it at the time, because we were fighting for our lives and all, but I swiped a couple of things from her belt pouch. Check this out."
He reached both hands into his own belt pouch, and tossed two cylindrical objects through the air, one to Naruto and one to Akemi. Naruto laughed like a maniac when he recognized the object he held. It was a Heaven scroll.
"An Earth scroll," Akemi crowed, holding hers up. "Nice!"
"Looks like Katsumi wasn't taking any chances," Takeshi said happily. "Maybe she wasn't sure if she would find us in the Forest, and wanted to make sure she could advance to the next round if it became necessary."
Naruto nodded judiciously. "Or maybe they just ran into another team and didn't feel like wasting the scroll after pummeling the poor bastards. Either way… we're good to go!"
He surveyed his team, nearly choking with pride. One was blind, one in the grip of chakra exhaustion, and one bleeding from the eyes and almost as low on chakra… but they were still alive. Still fighting. This Exam wasn't over yet.
oOoOo
Naruto's team made it to the Tower in the center of the Forest without meeting any more enemies, but along the way they did have one encounter that disturbed them profoundly. They had been working their way through the underbrush, moving as silently as they knew how. Naruto's chakra was returning in little trickles, and he had worked some elementary healing jutsu to soothe Takeshi's burns and take the edge off the symptoms of Akemi's chakra exhaustion. They were certainly in no condition to fight another strong team, but they could sneak and run and hide – the true skills of the shinobi.
Takeshi warned them that they were approaching dead bodies, and he hesitated a moment before adding, "It's Genji's team."
Naruto and Akemi gasped. Genji had been a strong Cadet, probably even the strongest after Naruto. It would have taken a shinobi of extraordinary ability to bring his team down. Of course, Naruto reflected bitterly, there were more than a few shinobi of above-genin caliber running around the Forest of Death. The Oto team, for example, wouldn't have had much trouble killing the Uchiha Cadets.
After some hard thought, Naruto ordered his team to approach the killing ground. They stayed alert for a trap, but nothing was lying in wait except the corpses of their comrades. It was a horrible sight – they were suspended from a low-hanging tree branch by braided ropes, their faces swollen and empurpled. A message was carved in the trunk of the tree from which the Cadets had been hanged.
It read: "Policemen should uphold the law, not abuse it. What you see here is the hand of justice."
Naruto froze, a memory from two years ago flashing up in his mind. He saw Genji grabbing Hinata, his ugly features twisting into a lecherous grin… Naruto shook his head, trying to dispel the image. The message could not possibly refer to that – the only people present at that ghastly scene were himself, Hinata… and Neji's team.
Could this be Neji's work? Naruto wasn't sure. The genius Hyuuga certainly nursed a hatred for the Uchiha… but Naruto could have sworn that he had earned at least some measure of trust by saving Tenten's life from Hidan. Naruto pursed his lips worriedly. Another possibility was that Genji had committed some terrible act while on border duty, and earned the enmity of one of the genin teams that had entered the Exams. A nasty, but practical part of Naruto's mind insisted that knowing Genji, it was certainly possible.
He sincerely hoped that it wasn't Neji who had decided to take justice into his own hands. Naruto wanted to improve relations between the Uchiha and the rest of the Konoha shinobi – vigilante killing sprees were not the way to accomplish that, and neither were the measures that Naruto would be forced to take in response to the murder of three Uchiha.
But if Genji and his team were actually guilty of crimes like the one you once saw him try to commit, said a insistent voice in Naruto's head, then he deserved to die. Shinobi who bully or molest the weak should be imprisoned or killed – our duty is to protect the village, not to abuse our power.
Still, Genji and his teammates were Uchiha, and if he had committed a crime, then it was the responsibility of the Uchiha clan to punish him, not some foreign genin.
"Let's cut them down," Naruto said curtly, trying in vain to still the debate raging in his mind. "We'll bring them to the Tower with us, so they can be buried in the clan graveyard. Whether the message on the tree is true or not, their bodies should rest with the clan."
"Who could have done this?" Akemi asked, her voice tight with rage and confusion.
"I have no idea," Naruto replied, though he had many ideas – that was the problem.
I'm going to figure out who did this, Naruto promised himself. But something tells me this is just the beginning.