Chapter 40: Sapling in a Forest
"With Jashin's betrayal, the path has been severed, the golden age is lost. A dark age is approaching. What will be left? The Animal Sages? Jashin's Army? One cares little for the fate of the world, the other is ill prepared to do anything but destroy the ancient knowledge. I fear they may be successful.
# # #
The demonic monster before Naruto filled him with a certain pressure. Extreme danger. Naruto shivered. What was with the kekkei genkai working with the curse mark? Something nagged at Naruto's consciousness about-
"It's over."
Naruto, distracted by his thoughts, barely saw the movement as the red-skinned demonic Kimimaro slammed into him. He held up his tanto blade just in time to block the bone lance which threatened to pierce the very fabric of space itself.
The earth and sky spun as Naruto was flung like a ragdoll through the air. The wind rushed in his ears, making it feel like he was going in slow motion. Naruto knew though, that guy would be there. Instinctually he strengthened his tanto and stabbed it into the ground.
"Tch!" Naruto's shoulder burned from the strain of stopping his momentum and the strength behind Kimimaro's blitz. He looked up in time to see Kimimaro touch the ground and a forest of bones sprouted in all directions, endlessly. It was all he could do was flip into the air so he wasn't stabbed through by a spike from below.
"Kage-Bunshin!" In the air, Naruto made the seal and two clones appeared at his side and threw him towards Kimimaro, continuing to make seals. "Release!" Naruto felt a spike of anger and hatred, his body was wrapped in red chakra. Damn fox! Something wasn't right.
Using his frustration, Naruto instinctually clawed at Kimimaro using the red chakra from the air, while Kimimaro only smirked and blocked with more bones.
The chakra cut through the bones like they were regular earth, making Kimimaro frown an instant before he himself was sent spinning away.
"Damn FOX!" Naruto glanced back to see a single tail. How?! With the seal, he shouldn't be able to achieve such a state without a real emotional upheaval! The fox must have used the constant higher-level chakra flowing through it to weaken the seal! "We're going to have a conversation after I kick this demon's ass!"
A sense of danger reappeared from behind him!
Naruto pushed off on all fours into a spinning dodge, the bubbling red chakra cloak rolling with him. He avoided Kimimaro, who bloomed like a flower from one of his bone trees behind him. That damned lance just grazed his shoulder.
"Orochimaru-sama! I will not fail you!" Kimimaro cried out.
Looking back at his shoulder, Naruto's wound evaporated in a red smoke from within the roiling chakra. His thoughts were becoming difficult to manage. Scattered thinking. He needed to stop this.
"Fuinjutsu: Dissolve!" The five-part seal dissolved, removing the mixing chakra from the number imbalance, and the damper due to the five elements. Yang chakra flooded his system even further, staggering him. He was turning into a stupid fox!
Kimimaro took the opportunity to make another assault from behind using the lance.
"FUCK OFF!" Naruto roared, his breath filled with pure Yang chakra. Kimimaro was blasted away once again.
Damn! Damn! Damn! He had to calm down, not get angry because of his opponent. His clones had popped when he went into two tails. Calm! Calm! Hisato-sensei was safe, he was safe. Kimimaro was a distraction. He must win, and win without the fox. He was a ninja, not a brute. He needed spiritual energy to overwhelm the Yang. He focused outward.
Looking around, Naruto only saw a forest of bones. The few bone trees that were broken had healed, the bones steadily grew higher. With the moon out of sight, Naruto had no sense of direction at all.
Kimimaro had changed the landscape to his advantage. He needed to do the same in order to win. Even if he managed to regain a foothold in the area, he still needed a way to finish the fight. His tanto wasn't doing the job… he needed to do maximum damage. Naruto glanced behind him again and he was back to one tail. Naruto sighed in relief and kept strategizing in order to push back the fox and win this fight!
"I'm so close to my own… this is my test! How can I develop a kekkei genkai if I can't even beat one?!" Naruto made hand signs in a flash of movement. His determination doubled with his calm. "Kage Bunshin!"
A clone jumped above the forest of bone, its toes landing on the point of a bone.
Kimimaro once again bloomed from the bone, this time attacking the clone. It popped and Kimimaro stood triumphantly on top of where the clone once stood. They had been healed, but three slashes stood out like bone colored scabs across his chest. A remembrance from the fox's claw.
"Your chakra may be plentiful as a jinchuriki, but that state takes out a lot from you."
Naruto smiled. "Your state is worse. That's some form of nature energy altering your body. But it's all through that seal… The seal is an imperfect method and damages your body with the nature energy imperfections. The only reason it works is some other kind of-" Naruto snapped his fingers. "You were supposed to be a vessel, weren't you? When you said useful again—there's something wrong with your body, isn't there?"
Kimimaro's eyes became much less calm, even with his demonic irises. "My body may be failing, BUT I AM OROCHIMARU'S MOST LOYAL!"
Naruto made a seal.
*BOOM*
An explosive tag the clone hid exploded. Shards of bone and dust filled the area. Naruto quickly made more clones and spread them out. They flitted into the bone forest and completely out of sight. The weakness of a taijutsu fighter wasn't just range. Time for the true counterattack!
"Doton: Desolate Flatland!"
Naruto carefully controlled the jutsu using his control of earth chakra . In a twenty meter radius, the bone forest was swallowed up, and the land solidified. He wiped sweat from his brow, watching as Kimimaro emerged from another bone and walked into the center of the small earthen arena that had been set up. Kimimaro's arm holding the spinal sword was hurt, his lance aimed forward when the dust settled.
"You've only wasted chakra making an arena for your own defeat! Dance of the Rageful Spearman!" Kimimaro called out before launching himself forward.
"I don't have the sensory ability to do it like my father but I have my own way of doing things!" Memories from a clone that had just popped itself flooded his mind. Naruto grinned evilly and activated the jutsu of his recently popped clone. Space folded, and he appeared on the other side of the arena next to a bone. Who needed to sense anything? He was just there! Behind the bone tree as a clone.
"Fast, but that isn't your true speed!" Kimimaro had changed course and was almost upon him. Naruto only stood there waiting until the lance was inches from his face.
A different clone had popped, and Naruto took the memory to align himself with the other Hiraishin seal. Space folded again, and Naruto was in front of another bone seal. "Boom."
Just as Kimimaro's bone lance was piercing empty space, the tree next to him exploded.
"Guh!" Kimimaro tanked the hit and charged again, but Naruto saw blood and no bone to replace it. "My desire is stronger than yours! I stake my life for Orochimaru in all things!"
Naruto did the same thing again, appearing in another part of the arena. This time, Kimimaro was more prepared for an explosion, he was clipped, his injured arm now only hanging limply at his side. It was out of the battle for good.
"Your desire is obsession and mine is determination! YOU'LL NEVER WIN!" Naruto taunted.
"For me to fall for the same trick twice is already absurd! Your tricks end!" Kimimaro had lost his cool completely, the curse seal making him almost frenzied.
"Wrong!" Naruto slammed his palm into the earth. "Rasengan Variant: Seal Whirlpool!" Sealing lines spread instantly around the makeshift arena and centered around Naruto. Naruto stood on those sealing lines like a soap bubble above a shifting earth. Using seals, clones, and earth; Naruto created a large form earthen Rasengan below him. Kimimaro would be sucked in and torn apart!
Naruto grit his teeth as the earth below him began to rage, all in the direction of Kimimaro who was pulled under at an amazing velocity before he could say another word. A layer of bone forest was stripped away, revealing Naruto's setup with clones equally helping him circulate chakra, and creating a barrier which could contain the massive swirling chakra under the earth. All Naruto could hear was the deafening rumble of earth his newly created technique caused underneath him.
A hand and then Kimimaro's face ruptured the earth. Stripped of skin and bloodied. "RAAAAGH! UZUMAKI! I WILL NOT-"
"DIE!" Naruto screamed, making the raging earth churn at an even faster velocity.
All he could do was look in horror as Kimimaro tried to pull his body out of the earth which was sucking him down with an ungodly force. He sweat, as even with all of that, a hand remained above the surface.
The bloody skeletal hand went limp, completely stripped of all flesh. A sprout in a forest of bone.
"Ugh…" Naruto popped all of his clones, giving him enough chakra to safely pass out.
# # #
Itachi snatched a scroll from the air; a hawk screech could be heard in the distance. Stood on a hill with Kisame meditating next to him, Itachi unfurled the scroll with one hand and stared intently.
"Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke…" Itachi muttered, "Hyuga Hinata…"
"What's the deal? Didn't we check up on your brother?" Kisame rolled his head around complaining lazily. He winked one eye open. "I thought you were making another stab at the fox."
"Not Sasuke," Itachi said without explaining further. Hinata was the name the old version of Sasuke mentioned. They were on a team together. No coincidence. "Uzumaki's trail has gone cold. I don't think they would hide his death, we have to assume he went into hiding after the Orochimaru confrontation."
Kisame stretched using his giant sword to pull his arms back. "Makes sense. You owned that bitch before he even lost his jutsu. Where to?"
"A mine on the border. Near Waterfall."
# # #
Shikamaru wished it had been a week of lazing around Suna, but it was not to be. After being placed in a comfortable residence off of the Kazekage's compound, he was immediately dragged into small missions by Temari. Telling him he couldn't afford to laze around unless he wanted to hurt their alliance. Gaara had assigned her as a liaison, which she took far too seriously. Why was she so comfortable bossing him around? He was a diplomat, she wasn't in a position to command him.
Oddly enough, he hadn't heard a peep from Konoha. He thought they would throw him into diplomatic activity, at least have him drop information. Nothing. His mission was open-ended.
Shikamaru stretched as he pulled himself out of bed. The apartment for diplomats was pretty swanky. Fancy pottery, a great southern facing balcony on the fourth floor, and the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in. Yawning, he noticed the light out was more than he was used to. Temari normally woke him up early.
Was she busy? Good. He opened the windows and walked out on the balcony, where a lounger was waiting for him to watch the sky and nap. He carefully laid down half in shade, taking precautions to not get sunburnt. The clouds were too thin to properly cloud watch, but he could navel gaze.
The squawk of a messenger bird interrupted his thoughts as it landed above his head, dropping a scroll. It bounced off Shikamaru's forehead as he raised an unamused eyebrow.
"KYAH!" the bird cried loudly into his ears, before flapping its wings and flying away. A few feathers floated onto Shikamaru's face.
"Ptew!" he stood up, wiping his face and picked a feather which had fallen into his mouth. Nasty… Shikamaru opened the scroll to read it: Konoha's seal, and encoded.
With some quick mental math using the cypher he had been given, the message soon became clear:
Please read this message privately, and burn it immediately.
Shikamaru my son, your placement in Suna involved many moving pieces. I was myself, originally opposed. You are far too inexperienced to receive such a post. Yet, I was forced to sign off, having to begrudgingly admit your suitability for the role. After receiving news of your activity in Sunagakure, I was nothing short of immensely proud.
This is where the happy part ends Shikamaru. Others did not take so kindly to your activity. It has become clear, they were counting on your inexperience, but most of all, your laziness. I'm sure you have noticed the accommodations, a forced point of negotiations. There are those who would like to take me down, take your team out of the picture, and keep the relationship with Sunagakure on a simmer. You were meant to be a lazy clan brat that could make the villagers resent you.
Since, my diligent son, their plan has backfired, you will soon be receiving an advisor. Suddenly my objections have been heard. No matter what they tell you, YOU ARE THEIR SUPERIOR. Keep doing as you have.
This burden should not have fallen to you, a child. I have to constantly remind myself that you are a Chunin now. I digress, the appetite for expansion and war never stops Shikamaru. We should have a new Hokage by the time you come back. Hopefully they are more amenable to a stable relationship with our allies. In the meantime, beware of sabotage.
-Dad
Shikamaru burned the message with fire chakra.
"Dammit Temari…"
If he had just done what he wanted, none of this troublesome cloak and dagger would be happening.
