Chapter 50
"You arrogant brats. How is it that you are here and alive?" Zhin got up looking annoyed at the interference.
"People say I am too stubborn to die." Naruto smirked. "Besides it would be stupid to die when fighting against some moving pile of scrap metal."
"How are others?" Asuma asked not taking his eyes off the opponent. Zhin himself was a ninja that Asuma would have little trouble taking out, but that shield basically neutralized any chakra based attack, while Zhin himself had no such limitations, not to mention the ability to reflect the jutsu back at the user.
"Everyone is alive, thought not without injuries. Nothing life threatening, but we shouldn't rely on any additional help." Sasuke spoke, but didn't say anything about Hinata hiding somewhere in the area. Zhin was within hearing range and it was unwise to do anything that would allow Zhin to find the Hyuga.
"So, what is the plan. Toero suggest us stick to clones and taijutsu, but I could go for some details." Naruto looked at his comrades, especially at Asuma, who looked battered, but overall uninjured.
"His shield works only on attacks that directly affect the wielder. Techniques like the shadow clone are basically chakra based constructs that create physical mass capable of attacking the enemy independently. That shield will not affect the clone techniques, Toero was right on that. Also any technique that can be used to create an opening also will work."
"Alright then. Shadow clone jutsu!"
Several identical copies of the blonde ninja popped into existence and charged. Zhin frowned, but for now he wasn't really concerned. The sharp edge and the large mass of his shield was enough to cleave through the clones like through butter, reducing the copies to harmless wisps of smoke. Still for a genin to use such a chakra consuming technique so effortlessly was an impressive feat. After all the shadow clones were never designed to be used as an offensive jutsu. They usually served as a type of distraction or for infiltration purposes. Zhin never before faced an opponent that could basically multiply himself. Luckily the clones were relatively fragile and never scored anything more than a few glancing hits.
"Ballista kick!" Zhin felt the strike that made contact with his shield. Asuma used a wind based jutsu to basically propel himself forward towards the distracted missing nin. The jounin flipped in mid air and rammed both feet into the metal surface of the shield. There was no visible damage, but the force the Zhin back.
"Damn you!" Zhin landed on his feet, but slid back while trying to stop. His attention though soon shifted to the young Uchiha who moved in with his blade positioned for a strike. If successful the genin would slice the rogue ninja in two, but obviously the strike met with the solid surface of the shield. A moment later Sasuke received a punch to the jaw that made him turn into a small cloud of smoke.
"Dance of the crescent moon!"
The Uchiha dropped from above the exposed back of his foe in his sight. For him it was like in slow motioned, his sharingan picking up every little detail. Unfortunately it didn't help him when Zhin suddenly placed his shield over his back effectively blocking the strike, thought the force of the blow did make the rogue ninja fall down to one knee.
"Gah!" Sasuke doubled in pain when a limb shot out from the ground smashing into the Uchiha's gut. The rock hand followed by a head and torso until Zhin's exact copy sort of pulled itself out of the ground, followed by two more copies around.
"You didn't think that your blonde teammate was the only one capable of making clones, now did you?" Zhin smiled. With his shield over his back his hands were now free to form seals. The rogue nin observed how his rock clone grabbed the Uchiha by the throat lifting him off the ground. Sasuke swung his sword, but it did little good against the foe made of solid rock.
Sasuke felt his throat getting crushed, but just as he was about to pass out the grip disappeared and Sasuke felt getting pulled away by a strong hand.
"Thanks." The Uchiha nodded while rubbing his throat and looking at Asuma whose trench knives left the rock clone armless. "Where is Naruto?"
"RASENGAN!"
One of the rock clones got a sphere of pure swirling chakra rammed into it's back. The rock clones were tough, but due to their mass they were slow and clumsy and never managed to avoid Naruto's strike. The powerful jutsu ripped the rock clone to pieces throwing numerous shards at Zhin who once more covered himself with his shield to avoid injuries.
"Wind Style: Slicing air waves!" a barrage of barely visible air blades left the tips of Asuma's fingers moving towards the last remaining rock clone.
"I waited for this." Zhin intercepted the jutsu placing his shield in the way and as always the powerful ninjutsu attack was first absorbed and then launched straight back at the ninja who create it. The rock clone basically played the role of a bait.
Asuma avoided his own attack due to his experience, Sasuke escaped with only minor cuts thanks to his sharingan that allowed him to see this usually practically invisible attack with perfect clarity.
"Bastard!" Naruto jumped over Zhin and landed on the shoulders of the last rock clone that tried to get rid of the annoying genin. Soon enough Naruto was thrown off, but not before he left an explosive note attached to the clone's head that detonated the moment Naruto landed.
The explosion blasted the head and most of the clone's torso to pieces leaving only the legs that lost color and crumpled into a pile of rocks.
"Rock style: Jaws of the beast!"
"Huh?" Naruto felt the ground under his feet tremble. A second later something resembling crude jaws of some unknown monster appeared an encased the blonde ninja trapping him in some sort of a rock prison.
"Good. One nuisance down, or at least will be when he will run out of oxygen." Zhin stood up with a satisfied expression. That jutsu created a barrier powerful enough to withstand a great amount of force and even that nasty chakra sphere the kid used would be unable to get through.
"Idiot got himself trapped." Sasuke cursed.
"I'll distract Zhin, while you get Naruto out of there. By the looks of it there isn't much air in that thing."
"You think I'll let you help that brat? Think again!" Zhin raised his shield once more. "Nobody is getting out of my jutsu until I myself cancel it. You can consider your little friend all but buried, my jutsu will serve as his tomb and ….. aghhh!"
The rock formation holding Naruto suddenly exploded from within getting replaced by someone quite large.
"Whoah, I was summoned. Neat!" Naruto was standing atop a dark green toad that was the size of an elephant. "Hey, you are that Naruto brat the boss keeps ranting about. Naruto, right? I am Gamashuri and I hope this isn't going to get boring."
"What?" Zhin took an involuntary step back when he saw a giant toad.
"Awesome. That guy with the shield, spit oil at him!"
"Alright, her it comes!"
"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!"
"Shit!" Zhin paled. The fire of course was a chakra based technique his shield could absorb, but the oil it ignited wasn't. And right now that giant toad turned itself into an enormous flamethrower. Seconds later a burning mass of burning oil seemed to wipe away all trace of the rogue ninja.
"Naruto, your jutsu stinks!" Sasuke yelled.
"Huh? What was that teme, it was awesome!" Naruto objected from his spot atop the toad.
"No, literally. Burning oil stinks."
"You want Toero's smoke bomb to compare?"
"Tsk, whatever." Sasuke covered his nose not liking the scent of burning oil that now covered the ground. It wasn't horrible and the young Uchiha could endure, but that never meant he had to like it.
"That is your answer to everything. It did the job, didn't it?" Naruto jumped off allowing his summon to return. Gamashuri grunted about not getting much action, but then shrugged and disappeared.
"Stop it you two, we are not finished."
"What do you ….. " Naruto and Sasuke were both blasted back by two identical rock pillars that shot out from the ground. Asuma managed to avoid the one that was meant for him and with a single strike of his trench knife sliced through it.
"Where did that come from?"
Naruto rolled over rubbing his chest. The blow nearly broke several of his ribs and knocked all the air out of his lungs. By the looks of it Sasuke didn't fare any better.
"He is underground, but don't worry, he will come out soon." Asuma sliced through several more rock pillars proving that tactic to be quite ineffective against him. With wind chakra channeled into his weapons Asuma was capable of cutting through rock with the same ease he would cut through paper.
"How can you be sure?" Sasuke asked while using his word as support, pulling himself up into a standing position.
"He himself said so. That jutsu of his doesn't allow any fresh air inside. Just watch."
Soon enough genin understood what the jounin meant. The exact replica of the jutsu that captured Naruto before now raised from the ground. The identical stone jaws cracked and crumbled revealing Zhin. The rogue ninja was out of breath, but was otherwise unscratched.
"Tsk, he used that jutsu as a protective shield against that attack."
"Exactly, but it isn't designed as a defensive jutsu. The fact that whoever is captured by it runs out of air is clear proof that it is designed for capture or elimination."
"Great, we are basically back where we started." Naruto frowned. His whole body was one big bruise already.
"Fine, I will admit that for a genin you are formidable opponents." Zhin no longer looked amused. "And with you around it gets hard fending off someone like Sarutobi Asuma. Very well, enough toying around."
"Prepare." Asuma raised his trench knifes.
"For what?" Naruto turned to the jounin.
"Considering that I have no idea what will happen, prepare for everything."
"Your plan lacks details, Asuma-san." Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"If you have a better one, please, tell me oh wise Uchiha."
"Hey, no need to get my family name into this."
"Sasuke, I think we have other things to worry about." Naruto rubbed his head. The reason was clear as pieces of earth were getting pulled out of the ground by an invisible force. The huge lumps of earth and rock were compressed into large spheres that now floated above Zhin.
"Scatter!" Asuma yelled and jumped to the side when three of those spheres were shot at them. The impact was so powerful that there was a large crater left every time the sphere smashed into the ground.
"Huh?" Sasuke saw one of the spheres near him glow and barely dropped down in time as it detonated throwing rock shards in every direction.
"Wind style: spreading impulse." Asuma spread his arms creating a wave of compressed air that protecting him easily throwing back all the rock shards that were about to turn him into a batter pile of meat. But if that wasn't enough some of the spheres began to change shape turning into crude replicas of a man that moved quite quickly despite their crude forms.
"CHIDORI!" Sasuke sliced through two of these new foes, but it didn't seem it would do much good.
"That is his style of fighting. He uses his shield to make his opponent exhaust their supply of chakra and then goes in with powerful techniques. Zhin basically has most of his chakra supply intact." Asuma moved back.
"Then we need to stop the jutsu!" Naruto decided and rolled between the legs of one of the rock creatures. His target was clear, but Zhin expected as much. The spheres that were still in mid air fell down helplessly but the rock creatures now separated Naruto from his teammates. Without a doubt it was what Zhin was aiming for from the beginning, he wanted to break up his foes and take them out one by one, preferably starting from the genin. Despite the impressive scale the jutsu used by Zhin wasn't an actual attack, but a diversion. Even with all of his chakra he couldn't keep such a powerful technique working for an extended period of time, but the advantage was that those rock creatures could stay active even without him adding more chakra. They would collapse eventually, but that would provide the missing nin with enough time to get rid of the annoying blonde ninja.
"Shadow cl …. "
"Enough clones for today, brat." Zhin jumped towards Naruto forcing the blonde ninja to roll away without any time to finish his jutsu. The next moment Naruto's face came in contact with the solid surface of the shield. The sharp edge of the shield sliced through Naruto's cheek and now blood decorated the surface of Zhin's unusual piece of gear.
"You are out of your league, brat." Zhin's kick threw Naruto back towards the trees, while his teammates were desperately trying to get through their rock foes who proved quite durable to be taken down quickly. Zhin shook his head with a smirk and jumped forward with full intention to bring the full mass of his shield upon Naruto and cleave the annoying genin in two. There was no stopping him and Naruto's eyes widened as he watched the rogue ninja getting closer and closer.
"Huh?" Zhin heard the boy practically roar, but there was little human about that roar. It was followed by a wave of energy that smashed against the metal shield and before Zhin even understood what happened, he was blow back like a leaf, crashing some distance away.
Naruto began getting up, feeling the unpleasant sensation of the having the reddish chakra course through his body. This time he used it on pure instinct, without any preparation and as a result was left slightly disoriented. But he still registered when a smoke bomb detonated in front of him.
"Huh? Who ….. Hinata?" Naruto turned around recognizing the Hyuga who seemed to become a little bit smaller when he looked at her with his eyes that now glowed with the red. The suffocating aura returned and Hinata had to take a deep breath to start speaking.
"Your chakra …. this chakra. That shield it …. it didn't absorb or reflect it when you …. roared."
"I see." Naruto nodded feeling how the cut on his cheek began to seal up. Hinata also seemed unable to look away from the picture of his flesh mending at such an amazing rate even though not so long ago she saw him recovered from a sword rammed through his chest.
"Damn, the only jutsu I can willingly perform when I am like this is the shadow clone jutsu. I barely have any control over the chakra right now."
Hinata noticed how Naruto failed to say that it was his chakra, but brushed the thought aside for a moment.
"I can … I mean I could … try t-to shape chakra for you."
Even through the hatred and rage that now dominated Naruto's gaze Hinata recognized surprise when he heard his proposal. She for a second was afraid that he would dismiss her offer, but a moment later Naruto raised his hand and Hinata saw how reddish violent chakra began to gather.
…
At the same time Asuma and Sasuke were busy fighting and while Asuma's trench knifes when charged with wind chakra proved effective, Sasuke's sword was only getting dulled when he tried cutting these unusual foes. The only way he could effectively take them out was with a chidori, but he would run out of chakra faster than he would get rid of them.
"Sasuke! I am going to clear a path, but only for a second. Go and help Naruto. Keep Zhin busy until I come."
"Got it!"
"Wind style: great breakthrough!" the powerful wind blast knocked over a good portion of the rock creatures, but they immediately began to get up. Still the opening was just what Sasuke need to get past and he immediately began looking around trying to locate his teammate when he once more felt that unmistakable feeling when Naruto used the chakra of the nine tailed fox. The Uchiha barely had time to step aside when Zhin flew pat him after being blown back by that roar.
"You little brats. How dare you humiliate me like this. I escaped countless hunter nins, I defeated opponent that were far beyond you. I can't be brought down by some annoying blonde brat and his arrogant teammate from a clan that should've been wiped out long ago!"
"Tsk." Sasuke's grip over the hilt of his sword became harder when he heard the rogue ninja insulting his family, but a moment later Sasuke's features relaxed. Zhin never expected such a reaction from the young Uchiha. He took a careful step forward holding his shield and then saw Sasuke leap into the air, but by doing so he allowed Naruto to charge forward passing under Sasuke when he was in mid air. Next to him ran Hinata, her hands moving rapidly as she helped maintain the mass of reddish chakra that Naruto was holding. The feeling from that jutsu made Sasuke shiver. It wasn't something that a mere human could create yet alone wield.
"Aghh!" Hinata finally lost all strength and fell down, rolling to the side, residual red chakra dancing around her arms, but she did enough as Naruto was just a few steps away from his target. With a roar Naruto slammed the spinning ball of chakra against the metal shield.
Sasuke slid back when the output of energy from the jutsu reached him. He saw how the shield began to vibrate as if struggling to oppose the amazing power unleashed against it. Zhin now held it with both hands, but that didn't help.
"Impossible!" the rogue ninja exclaimed when he saw how his prized possession began to crack. Pure terror found it's way into Zhin's heart who looked up at the strange genin wielding such inhuman power. A terrified scream escaped Zhin's mouth when for a second he saw a spectral image of some creature that surrounded the genin. It opened it's mouth a released a roar just when Naruto took a final step forward. The roar mixed with the name of the jutsu as the shield finally gave in.
"RASENGAN!"
