Chapter 36

"Remember Naruto, don't rush into this. If we will fight one on one battles against him, he will wipe the floor with us." Sasuke muttered drawing his sword and taking a basic defensive stance. Sakura slowly took a few steps back to cover her teammates, after all she wasn't a frontline fighter.

"I know, I want to kick that guy's ass, but I don't fancy getting pummelled into the ground. Hmm, lets start. Shadow clone jutsu!"

Several clones appeared in front of the genin, but the next second an arrow flew through the air. IT went straight through one clone and then dug deep into the chest of a clone behind it and only then the clones finally exploded into clouds of smoke, making the genin take an ivoluntary step back.

"That bow, such power." Sasuke scowled and activated the sharingan. Without it the arrow was reduced to a white blur and he wondered how on earth did that girl, Tenten, manage to knock it out of the air back in the forest of death. To hit something moving at such speeds required an amazing amount of skill.

"Damn!" Naruto jumped to the side and went into a roll, when another arrow destroyed one more clone. That was enough reason for Naruto to send them forward.

"Get him!" the clones charged, moving from side to side to make it harder for Toero to hit them, but despite that another clone got an arrow straight through the eye. Still Toero couldn't make arrows without straining his chakra reserves and Naruto could easily give him more targets than he could take out this way, so now that the ranks of the clones were somewhat thinned, Toero placed the bow on his back and slid into a taijutsu stance. The first clone that came close received a kick to the face with enough force to break two ribs before it exploded into smoke.

"Hmm?" Toero took a step back when the world around him began spinning.

"Release!" Toero threw off Sakura's simple, but confusing illusion and flipped back avoiding Sasuke's slash.

"Tsk, he reacts fast." Sasuke scowled and spun around, but just as he prepared to attack Toero again he saw how the archer blocked a punch from a clone, he then grabbed Naruto's replica and threw him straight at Sasuke, knocking the Uchiha down. Luckily the clone disappeared after the impact, or otherwise Sasuke would've been stuck under Naruto's body.

"Take this!" two clones threw the original Naruto at Toero turning the genin into a missile.

"Ghhh." Toero grunted from the impact when he raised his hands in a cross to block Naruto's kick. The force behind it was truly impressive.

"Now!" Naruto kicked away from Toero, flipping in mid air allowing two kunai with explosives tag to fly under him and land right in front of Toero. The next moment there was a huge explosion that seemed to engulf both Toero and the remaining Naruto's clones.

"Heh, I wonder how he liked that?" Naruto landed next to Sasuke and looked back at Sakura who had thrown the two kunai. Suddnely he paled.

"Sakura, he used a substitution!" Naruto yelled, but it seemed to be too late as Toero appeared behind Sakura in a puff of smoke, having replaced himself with one of his arrows. That was another advantage of using them, being white they were easy to spot. The drawback was that using a substitution with such a small object required more chakra and higher degree of control than exchanging with an object of similar size.

"Not this time!" Sakura ducked under a kick that was aimed at her head. She instantly spun around and blocked a punch. Toero strikes were too strong for her to block effectively, so she ducked under another strike and rolled to the side before Toero overwhelmed her.

"Raaghh!" Toero saw how Naruto created two more clones before jumping at him. The clones were dispatched quickly and efficiently, but the real Naruto grabbed Sakura and jumped away.

"Fire style: fireball jutsu!" Sasuke released a large fireball at Toero who seemed like an easy target. Still the archer dropped down, the fire passing over him, though he did feel the uncomfortable heat as the fire moved over him.

"Damn it, this is no good." Naruto and Sakura moved over to Sasuke who scowled. Despite their best efforts Toero seemed to shrug off or easily avoid their attacks without getting even a scratch, while they already supported some bruises.

"I know how each of you fights, so your usual tactics will get you nowhere. I know you strengths and I know your weaknesses, your attacks and moves are easy to predict and thus easy to counter, while you struggle to avoid my quite simple attempts to counter attack. It seems that I have overestimated your progress"

"Shut up, we'll beat you yet!" Naruto yelled trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his leg after he kicked Toero. It felt as if Toero's hands were made of stone.

"I care not for your claims, Uzumaki."

"Then we will prove it. Naruto, Sakura, lets fight if our lives depended on the outcome. Lets show him who we are and what we can do."

"Yes, Sasuke-kun." Sakura nodded.

"I've got your back, teme." Naruto grinned.

...

"You are in a good mood, Tsunade, I trust the surgery went well?" Hiruzen looked up from his paperwork when Tsunade walked in. Shizune left at the hospital to take care of things that didn't require the attention of her master. As for Tsunade herself, she had to prepare for her title of the fifth hokage, something she wasn't all that looking forward to.

"All went perfectly. The genin will recover, with time and proper therapy of course. Now, what do want me to do, but no financial stuff"

"I wouldn't dream of it, Tsunade. To be completely honest, I hoped that your assistant will handle the finances, just to be safe."

"Safe?"

"I would never trust you with money, Tsuande, no offence."

"Right, of course." The medic sighed and sat down on a sofa in Hiruzen's office. She didn't really care about that, actually if her gambling habit saved her from some of the annoying paperwork, than it showed that something good could actually come of it. "Anyway, what have you go for me."

"You should familiarize with our current active ninja roster. Here." Hiruzen threw Tsunade a heap of files and the future hokage began looking through them, starting from the genin. She stopped for a bit on Naruto's file, noticing that it had quite a bit of information left out for obvious reasons.

"Hmm? How interesting. So, Orochimaru continued with experimentation on bloodline transplantation. To think that he achieve such a high measure of success." Tsunade hated Orochimaru, but she was more than capable to admit that he was a strong ninja and the he had talents in many other fields, including genetic research, but lacking any moral limitations."

"You we seen Toero-san's file I gather. I actually wanted to ask you about that, the bloodline transplantation. Why does it seem like such an achievement, Tsunade? I mean Kakashi had the sharingan transplanted in field conditions."

"Pfft and they call you the professor?" Tsunade smirked.

"Questions of medical questions are outside my field of expertise Tsunade, now please, explain, I prefer to be informed."

"Fine. It all depends on the type of bloodline. Some are concentrated around certain organs, like the sharingan, which is an ocular type bloodline which manifests through the eyes. Thus transplantation of an eye will transfer most of what the body needs to use it, provided that the procedure is performed correctly. Anatomically the eye of an Uchiha is not that different from an eye of a regular human. Still, the chakra network that the Uchihas developed around their eyes will still be missing in the one who received an eye. This means that he will lack an ability to control the new abilities the same way as the Uchiha. Kakashi for example lacks the ability to deactivate the sharingan and suffers from chakra draining effect due to the lack of proper chakra network for it to be used. The only option he was left was to cover the eye or keep it closed outside combat."

"Very well, that sounds logical." Hiruzen nodded and Tsunade continued.

"Now, when we talk about a bloodline that manifests itself in the whole skeletal structure we are talking about a completely different level. This Toero, whoever he is, went through a procedure that involved transplantation of massive amounts of bone tissue in order to modify the whole skeleton. The survival rate of such a procedure should be extremely low and the user will have even further limitation in the use of the bloodline should he adapt. Also such a bloodline requires a body well adapted for the use of such an ability and Toero clearly lacks most of what is required. This is why I am impressed that Orochimaru actually managed to make it work somehow."

"I am not entirely sure that it was all Orochimaru's doing, Tsunade. Still, your explanation and theory doesn't contradict what I heard from Toero himself."

"I would like to give that guy a medical checkup in the future. A matter of bloodline transplantation is a field where very little research was done and this ninja is a unique case as his bloodline is not a chakra type like when Orochimaru tried to recreate the mokuton abilities of my grandfather."

"If he agrees, you are welcome to do it."

"Can't you just order him?"

"I can, but I would prefer not to, Tsunade, I don't wish to abuse the trust of that ninja."

"Fine, I'll think this over." Tsunade nodded.

….

"Oh damn!" Naruto flew through the air and smashed against the tree, sliding down with a pained moan. Toero was sure not kidding when he threatened to send them to the hospital. His attacks were fast and precise, requiring the genin to be on constant alert. It also clear that Toero aimed to scatter them in order to make it harder for the genin to make coordinated attacks.

"Fire style: mystical flame flower!" Sasuke began showering Toero with a barrage of fireballs, trying to pin his opponent down, but the archer seemed to dance around them while still approaching. The fire jutsu passed harmlessly and Toero was almost upon the young Uchiha who once more reached for his blade.

"Afraid not." Toero jumped forward grabbing Sasuke's arm and pushing the blade back into the sheath. Sasuke was left completely open and received a knee to his chest, a blow strong enough to knock all air out of the Uchiha's lungs.

"Let him go!" Sakura threw a pair of kunai at Toero's back, but the archer suddenly spun around using Sasuke as a human shield. Suddenly the kunai stopped in mid air and very pulled back, revealing that they had metal strings attached. The attack was a mere distraction as the new position allowed Sasuke to elbow Toero in the side and finally escape his grip. Sakura smirked form her position on a tree branch.

"Fire style: fireball jutsu!" Toero realized that the jutsu came from the direction he never expected such an attack to appear from. Naruto had created a massive fireball that was almost upon Toero.

"Another substitution." Sasuke scowled when he saw the remains of a still burning log. That meant that Toero would attack their most vulnerable teammate. Sasuke quickly pulled out a folded windmill shuriken throwing it forward just as Toero once again appeared behind Sakura. The girl spun around, but then took a step into nothingness, sliding off the branch, revealing the approaching shuriken.

"Of all the … "Naruto cursed when Toero caught the weapons just when the blades were inches away from his face. Still, Sakura who was falling down grabbed the branch just as she was flying buy and flung herself around it, ramming both her feet into Toero's back, pushing him off the branch. She ended up in a crouching position and looked down with a satisfied smirk. Her triumph was short lived though, as Toero flipped in mid air recovering from the blow and threw the large shuriken he was still holding. It sliced right through the tree branch and Sakura began falling down with a terrified scream.

"Got you!" Sasuke appeared snatching his teammate out of mid air before she fell to the ground. Toero who actually landed on his feet was greeted by another group of clones that distracted him long enough for Sasuke to safely lower down Sakura.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun."

"We are even."

"Aghh!" Toero allowed Naruto to head butt him, but since his skull was also made of far denser bone, Naruto stumbled back seeing double. The impact broke skin on Toero's forehead, but the archer didn't seem to care. Instead he punched Naruto in the gut, went around him and delivered a fast kick to the back of Naruto's head, smashing him into the ground.

"Down!" Toero pinned the blonde genin down with his knee and raised his palm, a bone stake sliding out of it.

"Aghhh!" Toero leaned back covering his eyes when the area was filled with light so bright that it actually burned.

"Naruto, get away!" Sasuke yelled and tackled Toero who was blinded. Sakura was standing not far, eyes closed in order to maintain a much more complex genjutsu, using herself as an epicenter. This particular illusion was tricky as it required direct physical contact to be made prior to it being activated. Basically a small portion of chakra had to charge into the opponent, sort of marking him. Sakura did that when she kicked Toero off the branch, but she never expected him to throw that shuriken at her.

Naruto using the distraction took the moment to roll away and jump up shaking his head to regain focus.

"Ughh!" Sasuke was kicked away and Toero got up, but he was still trapped in an illusion, so he couldn't open his eyes. His opponents clearly had no such problems. First there was a punch to the chest, then to the back and finally a kick to the jaw that sent Toero flying and rolling back.

"Hnn, not bad, Naruto." Sasuke's voice came as Toero heard the footsteps approach. He suddenly leaned back avoiding a kick and tripped Sasuke, forcing him to fall down to one knee.

"I can still hear you, Uchiha." Toero spoke and Sasuke heard him take a deep breath.

"Shit, not that!" Sasuke yelled, but it was too late as Toero detonated one of his modified smoke bombs. Sasuke began coughing uncontrollably while rubbing his eyes that burned from pain. The blast was large enough to reach Sakura who had to break the genjutsu and relocate, while Naruto barely escaped in time. Still Toero wasn't in a hurry to open his eyes. He knew where Sasuke was and delivered a powerful jump kick that threw the Uchiha out of the smoke. The boy sailed through the air, bounced off the ground … and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Toero saw that as he jumped out of the smoke finally opening his eyes and taking a deep breath to fill his lungs with so much needed oxygen.

"A shadow clone, you exchanged techniques." Toero looked around spotting the trio of genin some distance away.

"Tsk, I am not that dumb to speak while you lack sight and are relying on your sense of hearing." Sasuke replied. "We are not nearly done."

"Agreed." Toero nodded and the genin saw how their opponent created a long spear, pulling it out of his knee.

"Whoah!" Naruto saw how Toero landed right in front of them swirling his spear. The attack was so fast that defending from it seemed nearly impossible. Naruto barely avoided the spearhead, but a kick sent him rolling on the ground with a busted lip, while Sakura missed a punch that threw her back against a tree, she slid down holding her eye.

"Tsk!" Sasuke grunted from the effort of blocking the spear with his sword he managed to pull out just in time. Left, right, from above followed by a spin kick, another thrust, a strike from the left. Sasuke slowly retreated, but kept blocking, the two opponents engaged in a bitter fight.

"I can see. I can see your moves!" Sasuke smiled his sharingan spinning as he kept blocking the strikes faster and faster as that attacks intensified.

"Whoah." Naruto got up looking at the duel.

"Incredible." Sakura also watched with wide eyes. But it was clear that Sasuke couldn't last forever. The spear had a superior reach and unlike a regular one, it could easily block Sasuke's slashes the dense bone suffered little damage from the blade. Perhaps given enough time Sasuke would be able to cut through it, but not in this situation. He finally slipped and Toero mercilessly rammed the dull end of his spear into Sasuke's gut and then kicked the sword out his hands. A moment later Sasuke received a strike under the chin so strong that it for a moment lifted him off the ground, somehow not knocking out any of his lower teeth.

"I've had it with you!"

"Huh?" Toero looked up and saw Naruto dropping down like a cannoball holding some strange, but clearly powerful jutsu that resembled a sphere of pure chakra.

"Naruto?" Sasuke gasped blood streaming from his mouth.

"RASENGAN!"

"Ghnnnn!" Toero scowled from the force of impact. He raised his spear just in time to block the attack, but it was so strong that the archer actually slid back, his feet leaving gashes in the ground. To his surprised the jutsu actually drilled through the shaft of his spear until the middle section simple exploded into pieces, but apparently Naruto was at his limit, unable to keep the rasengan balanced any longer and the powerful jutsu exploded. Naruto went spinning through the air and landed face down a small distance away. Toero was even worse as he smashed against the ground so hard that a small cloud of dust raised. He tried getting up, but felt someone grab his hands, pinning them down over his head. Sakura looked down with determination. He could throw her off, but that required time and Sasuke was not giving it to him.

"Gah." Toero grunted in pain when Sasuke landed right on him, planting his foot into his gut.

"You loose!" the Uchiha declared while holding a fully powered chidori in front of Toero's neck, the air filled with the sound of a thousand chipping birds.

"Yes, that appears to be true." Toero nodded. "Our fight is over."

"Yeah, we did it!" Sakura jumped up with a sheer while Sasuke deactivated the chidori and stood up with a pleased smirk.

"Yeah, we totally kicked his ass, believe it!" Naruto came up grinning. He and Sasuke shared a look and nodded to each other and then offered their hands to Toero, who accepted them after a moment. Without much effort the two genin pulled their colleague back onto his feet, who dusted himself and moved his hand around feeling sore.

"So now tell me, do you yourselves feel that you have improved? Was your training worth it despite everything?"

"Tsk, I guess." Sasuke sighed with a small smirk and went to pick up his sword, putting it back on his back.

"We did improve, no doubt there." Sakura nodded with a smile despite a nice bruise forming around her eyes.

"We were good, but now we are awesome, yeah!" Naruto punched air. "I say we go and eat something, maybe …. "

"My turn to choose, Naruto, we had ramen yesterday anyway. I know a good place to eat not far from the Ichiraku's ramen stand." Sasuke said.

"Great idea Sasuke-kun." Sakura smiled. Sasuke sighed wondering if she would ever stop with those dreamy looks that looked ridiculous especially now that there was a bruise covering her eyes. He looked back at Toero and tilted is head.

"You coming or what?"

"Mmm?" Toero looked at them curiously not expecting such a question.

"Sure, you are a part of this team too." Naruto grinned. "Just not the best part."

"Why not, lead the way." Toero nodded. The genin didn't notice, but for a moment his figure looked much more relaxed than usual.