Naruto woke up with a start, as well as a very stiff body…
He breathed heavily, but since he had fought an internal battle to break free of his own mindscape that he only won through outside help, which he still questioned what the hell that was all about, it was understandable. He got up off the hard floor that he was on and looked to observe his surroundings. He saw that he was is a cell, one of the ones that had a door with bars to look through and a part on the bottom to slide in food. He was shackled to the ground via a chain on his leg that kept him from really leaving the room if he somehow managed to escape, but other than that there was nothing in the cell except for a bucket which he guessed was to piss and shit in.
Naruto sighed since he was not truly prepared for this situation, but Mifune had always taught him to keep a clear head and form a plan. So he got into a comfortable sitting position and began to meditate on what to do…
As Naruto sat in his cell, without either his Grimoire or Gashi by his side, the latter of which Naruto could only chuckle about since that meant there was some unlucky son of a bitch who had to carry the blade and there was a very good chance it became fatal in the end. As he did this, Naruko was on an operating table, crying out of fear of what was going to happen to her. She was so young and had no idea what was going to happen, and to be honest, it was probably for the best since Orochimaru planned to play the long game with her and mold her into the perfect host body to inhabit in the future. This would involve plenty of painful, as well as inhuman experiments, but he did not care for others, only his own continued existence.
Naruko cried out for someone to help her, first her brother Naruto, then her parents, and finally Menma. No one came. She was alone in the room, but there was no need for added security for a five year old girl who was bound in metal braces to a table. She had not the strength to get out of her situation, nor was anyone needed to keep her there. Her tears began to flow heavily out of fear, but she could do nothing else…
As her and Naruto were held in captivity deep within the bowels of one of Orochimaru's numerous hidden bases, Minato as well as Kushina were tearing their village apart searching for their kidnapped daughter. Hell, even Danzo was trying his hardest to find her since Minato offered to make ROOT an official unit once more if he could do so. Danzo could not pass on such an offer so the many Shinobi under his control were doing their part to seek her out, but Naruko was sadly not in the village or anywhere in the surrounding area. Kushina lost it and broke out into tears since she had failed as a mother and lost her own daughter without even knowing it until it was too late…
It seemed like evil would win here, since there was no trail to follow, but the universe has a strange way of flipping things on its axis in the most unforeseen of ways…
Years ago, there had been a family of Uzumaki, who had left their home of Whirlpool for a vacation outside of the elemental Countries. When they had come back, well Whirlpool had been destroyed in the Second Shinobi War, and thus they found another place to settle. They had no idea that there were others of their clan still alive, for they hid their own appearance out of fear of being killed like the rest of their family. Yet tragedy still found them in time, and the parents were killed while buying their daughter enough time to escape and live on.
She made it to safety, but she was alone and without a home. This is how Orochimaru found her on the streets and essentially kidnapped her. He had no idea of her Uzumaki lineage, nor did she mention it since her parents had warned her multiple times not to mention it. There she was essentially forced to learn medical jutsu, which she did very well in to her ire, and there she remained as she kept to herself in fear that one day she would become just another expendable pawn for Orochimaru to either have her body stolen or just thrown away. But she was now here, under the orders of Orochimaru to inject this little girl with several syringes full of various fluids that would do things to make her stronger in the future at the cost of it being in tremendous pain now.
She had entered the room with the case that housed the syringes and set them down on the table next to Naruko.
"Please let me go," cried Naruko in genuine hope that the young woman would do so out of the kindness in her heart.
"Sorry kid," said the young woman sadly as she opened the case, "there is no escape from this. The sooner you accept that, the better."
"Please," said Naruko as the tears intensified, "Naruto save me!"
"If you are calling out for the man who was captured alongside you," said the woman as she grabbed a syringe and pulled the end off the needle portion so as to inject it into the subject. "Then you are out of luck. He is nowhere near this portion of the base. Now please hold still. Otherwise this will hurt far more than it already will."
Yet Naruko kept weakly shaking as she tried her hardest to break free. But she was too weak to break out of her binds, and there was nothing that could change that. The woman looked at her and understood the fear since she herself had been there in her youth when her family was attacked and it was only because of her parents that she was still alive, and their memory kept her sane in these harsh times.
"Who are your parents?" asked the woman simply, "keep their memory in your heart. It will help keep you sane. Believe me."
"My name is Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze," said Naruko as the tears refused to stop. She was too afraid of what was going to happen to stop the flow of them. Her response though… it made the woman drop her needle in surprise…
"Say your name again," said the woman as she looked at her so as to see if the little girl strapped down in front of her was telling the truth.
"Naruko Uzumaki Namikaze."
"You are an Uzumaki," said the woman to herself as she thought to herself on the matter. She had always assumed that she was the last one since her parents had died, and the others had been killed off in the Second Shinobi War. But if she was one, and she mentioned her brother… Hope began to rise up in her own soul… hope that she was not alone anymore…
"Was the man who was captured with you your brother?" asked the woman who wanted to be absolutely sure on the matter before she made a decision to do what she was thinking.
"He is my older brother," said Naruko. It was at that point that the woman closed the case with the needles in it and walked out with them since she refused to inject her own family with chemical concoctions so that Orochimaru could eventually inhabit her body as a vessel. She had wanted to flee for years, but Orochimaru had people everywhere as well as the fact that she had no other place to call home so what would have been the point of a little girl not even in her teens trying to fight off or outrun such an infamous monster of a Shinobi?
Once she disposed of the needles since they would not be used, she made her way towards the prison cells. To make it not at all suspicious, she got a tray with some food on it and took it there as well, with the lie of feeding the prisoner with a 'special' sauce. She was known throughout the place as one who was proficient in the field of chemicals as well as medical jutsu, so no one questioned her as she said that and simply believed her. She found Naruto's cell, which was deep underground since Orochimaru wanted to make sure he did not escape from it. But there were no guards around, mainly due to the mazelike layout of the place. She opened the flap on the bottom of the door to push in food, and looked to see the man inside.
She saw Naruto sitting there as he meditated on what to do, but he did open his eyes as he sensed the woman standing there to deliver food. This made him question things since while he assumed he would be fed, he didn't think the person in charge of providing such a thing would stay back to talk with him. This made him wonder what she wanted from him.
"What do you want," said Naruto simply. He had no joy or happiness in his tone of voice, but then again he had been captured and imprisoned against his will while trying as well as failing to save his younger sister, so he got a pass on that.
"I wish to only ask you one question alone," said the woman.
"Okay," said Naruto with a hint of curiosity mixed into the tone, "shoot."
"Are you an Uzumaki as I have heard?"
"Yes and no," said Naruto with a chuckle.
"How is that an answer to my question?"
"I am one genetically," said Naruto in explanation, "but I was disowned by my mother so I am no longer one legally speaking. But you can't rid me of my Uzumaki genetics so I am still one in spirit."
"Why were you disowned?" asked the woman. She had heard stories form her mother about how their family cared for their own above all else. To hear of one being disowned must have meant this man had done something very bad in the past if it was true.
"I thought you only wanted to ask me one question," said Naruto, "and yet we are on the third one."
"Just humor me here," said the woman as one of her eyes twitched. This guy was a smart ass and she didn't like those types of people.
"I was disowned simply due to image concerns," said Naruto as he finally moved and took the bowl of slop that had been given to him to eat. It didn't taste too bad, since he had worse. Apparently Mifune, while he was a master samurai who had the respect of an entire country filled with them, sucked horribly when it came to cooking. He somehow managed to set water on fire while boiling it. Naruto had no idea as to how he did it, but he just never ate whatever Mifune made and quickly learned to cook for himself. "believe it or not, but I was born without Chakra, and it made my parents see me as some sort of abomination that had to be stricken from memory so that no one knew that two powerful clans gave birth so such a thing. So I was disowned and thrown out of my home when I was seven."
"So that's why I can't sense you," she said to herself. She was an excellent sensor, and yet Naruto was invisible to her in that sense, and now she understood why. While it was shocking to hear of someone who didn't have the very energy that kept everything alive, but she could literally sense he was not lying here so she had no means to argue.
"So now that I answered your questions when I only agreed to one," said Naruto simply, "who the hell are you? There has to be a reason that you asked all these things."
"Would you believe that we are related?" asked the woman.
"Ah," said Naruto since he put the pieces together fairly easily. While he may be dense as all hell when it came to reading women, he was still smart enough to understand things and put them together like this. "So you are an Uzumaki like me and my sister."
"How is she your sister if you were disowned?"
"While that may be true," said Naruto with a chuckle, "but she is only five while I myself am sixteen. She wasn't born or even conceived when I was thrown out of the house since I was seven when that happened. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I met her once through pure coincidence and she latched onto me ever since. It's kind of nice really, and if she wants to refer to me as her big brother since she doesn't understand what the term 'disowned' means, why would I ruin that?"
"Understandable," said the woman with a smirk. "But my name is Karin," said the now named Karin, "who are you?"
"Oh right," said Naruto with a chuckle, "where are my manners? The name's Naruto. So what happens now? You gonna let me out of this cell? Escape?"
"I wish it was that easy…" said Karin half assedly.
"Well it actually is," said Naruto matter of factly, "but I will need my Grimoire as well as my sword. Do you know where they are?"
"If you are talking about that book that I am hearing about that no one can apparently read," said Karin in thought, "than yes I know where it is. Your sword is in the same room, but no one is willing to touch it since it killed two Shinobi in route to where it is now."
"That's because it devours the chakra of everything it comes into contact with. And since I have none to absorb, I alone can use the thing."
"Not gonna lie," said Karin, "that sounds like the perfect combination there. But how can I get the things to you? The sword will kill me if I touch it and the book is being examined constantly."
"Give me your hand," said Naruto out of the blue. This caused Karin to look at him with shocked eyes since it was so random.
"Why!?"
"Just trust me, one Uzumaki to another," said Naruto with a sigh. Karin looked at him for a second, but in the end put her hand through the bars so that he could get to it. Naruto stood up, which made Karin blush for a second since he was not only taller than she expected, but was far stronger looking if his muscle mass was any sort of giveaway. He grabbed ahold of her hand, and she felt a small electrical shock course through it that made her arm go numb. He then let go, and it was then that she saw a strange symbol the likes that she had never seen before appear on the back of her hand. "When my Grimoire is within range I can simply call it back, but it is outside of my range and that is where you come in. Simply use the hand I grabbed and touch it with that hand. Simple enough?"
"What did you do to me?" asked Karin, who was still shocked about all this. What power did he use if he had no means to control chakra at all?
"Now is not the time for more questions," said Naruto, "the longer we are here the more my sister suffers, and I won't stand for that. Please, find my Grimoire and do as I asked."
"But how will that help us?"
"Oh," said Naruto with a smirk, "don't worry about that. I would tell you how, but that would ruin the surprise entirely and I don't like doing that."
"Fine," said Karin, "but I swear that if this somehow backfires and I end up dead, I am going to make you pay for it in the afterlife."
"Oh please," said Naruto with a smirk and a wave of his hand, "I have heard plenty of worse threats from countless people I fought in the years leading up to this moment. I'll give you points for originality, but other than that it was fairly weak."
"I'm gonna go and get your stupid book before I get too pissed at you to help you," said Karin in a huff as she set off to find his Grimoire. Naruto sat back down as he chuckled to himself. While it was true that his magical power came to him through the thing, he still had traces of it in his system, and he had surged it into Karin so as to help him retrieve it. What would happen is that the ability to call it back would be amplified tenfold, and would then return to his hands as it normally would otherwise. Once he had that, well then his blade would be next, and then his sister. Once he had all that, freedom would be next. He hoped he could do all this without too much trouble since while he had no problems letting loose when he fought, especially when he had not a single ally around him so there was no need to hold back, but now he had two people he had to protect on his way out and he would do so since they were family.
Karin made her way to the area where the sword as well as the book was being examined at the moment by Kabuto himself under the orders of his master. He was at the moment observing the blade more than the book since it was something he could understand easier since the book was full of words from a language he had never seen before. He was not fluent in the art of deciphering such things, and it would take time for him to find someone who could aid him to do so. Yet the blade was a different matter. He was able to touch the thing, but only for a second since the blade would drain so much chakra out of him too quickly that he could risk no longer than that.
"Ah Karin," said Kabuto as he heard the door and saw who it was that was coming into the room. "What do you have to report?"
"Not much," said Karin as she rubbed her numb arm, "but I came to see if I could take a quick look at the book that no one can seem to read."
"And why do you wish to see it," asked Kabuto with a quizzical tone since it was strange to hear out of the blue like that.
"Not sure," said Karin in a neutral tone. She was trying her hardest to not act nervously around the right hand of the man who had basically kidnapped her, "I just wanted to see if I recognized anything from it is all."
"Well by all means go ahead and try," said Kabuto with an uncaring wave of his hands, "since I highly doubt you can do what I myself can't."
'Wow,' thought Karin, 'narcissistic much?'
But as Kabuto paid attention to the blade, fully thinking that Karin was wasting her time and would not be able to read the book he himself could not, Karin walked over to where it was. She gulped nervously as she grabbed ahold of the thing with her marked hand, and she yelped in pain as the same shock that she went through not too long ago hit her again as the Grimoire sucked the magical energy from her arm into itself. Kabuto looked up and saw the book glowing, and to be honest he was surprised to see it floating there as it was and glowing.
"What did you do foolish girl!" shouted Kabuto in rage that this was happening, and he would blame Karin to Orochimaru when he reported it while taking all the positive credit that would come from unlocking its power.
"I just touched it!" said Karin, who was just as shocked as he was. When Naruto said to touch the book, she had no freaking idea what would happen and had decided to roll the dice on this one. This was the last thing she expected really. But the book than simply popped out of existence in front of them, which made both of their jaws open wide out of shock.
As they stood there like deer in lights, Naruto smirked as he held out his hand. Within it appeared his trusty Grimoire once more, which the second he held it he felt his power return to him. With his strength alone, he grabbed ahold of the shackle that was attached to his leg and ripped it in half off his leg. While it was true that he could have done that without the aid of the Grimoire, he didn't since he needed a proper plan to escape and if he was caught again they would just put thicker ones on him that he would not be able to simply break like he did with these ones.
He stood up and cracked his various appendages since they had gotten a bit stiff from being in this cell like he was. When he was done with his stretches, he powered up his hand with magical power and ripped the door off his cell. He threw it aside and began to run towards the entrance of the jail he was in. He made it to nearly the door itself before the door was opened wide, and in came Kabuto himself with several Shinobi accompanying him.
"So my master's side project has escaped captivity," said Kabuto with a smirk, "but I'll tell you what. You head back to your cell and explain how your book works, and I won't proceed to torture you for the information."
"You Shinobi have one major flaw that you just don't seem to understand until it is too late," said Naruto with a sigh.
"And what would that be," said Kabuto as he motioned for his men to begin closing in towards Naruto. But as they all rushed in to attack him, they were greeted with nothing more than his after image. The real version of him was behind Kabuto, both hands placed firmly on the sides of his head.
"You can't help but boast too damn much," said Naruto simply before with a sickening crack he snapped the bespectacled shinobi's neck, letting his body fall to the floor. "So who's next?"
The Shinobi were startled for a brief second, yet they got over it and all attacked him once more. Yet this time Naruto met them head on, using the hand to hand techniques Mifune had trained him in. Gramps had always told him that the sword was an extension of his own self so that if he was to become a strong samurai, he would first have to make himself stronger so that he had a baseline to enhance further. And now Mifune's training was paying off since he was able to block as well as deflect their blows.
They were at a disadvantage here since they were fighting to restrain him since Orochimaru would punish them greatly if he was killed. Plus they had come here expecting a weakened young man to not put up much of a fight so none of them had any sort of gear to aid them other than a few swords, yet once more they couldn't use them due to the fact they needed to capture the boy, not kill him. When their numbers dwindled down to two alone, one of them said to hell with it and used a jutsu since fighting him hand to hand was not working out so great for them. Naruto was prepared for this as well though and held up his hand. In it he summoned a miniature black hole, one powerful enough to suck up the flames that had been launched at him without burning him in the slightest.
The two remaining Shinobi were understandably shocked to see him do this, due to both never seeing a jutsu like that or ever hearing of one that could, as well as the fact that a man, who they knew from their master could not use jutsu had done what they assumed was jutsu. They didn't get to ponder this much though since Naruto grabbed them by the necks, and with a quick yank, they snapped from the amount of pressure he put on them. He then bent down and picked up one of their swords to use for now. While it wasn't Gashi, it would do for now since he was a swordsman and without one he felt like he was too underpowered at the moment.
He made to leave the area once and for all, but then he heard a groan behind him and saw that Kabuto was still alive somehow. This made his eyebrow rise since he had snapped the man's neck with a clear audible snap. He would have taken the time to fully try and understand this, but he was on a tight window of time so he simply used the blade to stab him in the head with a powerful thrust of his borrowed blade. To drive the certainty of his kill, Naruto twisted the blade before he pulled it out of the man, and then wiped the blood and brain matter off on Kabuto's back since the thing was stained with it.
After he was sure that the man was dead this time around, he once more began to rush through the base towards where he felt his blade was. While he may lack chakra, his blade had trace amounts of magical power in it to track it with. Since there was no one else with such power to call their own, he was easily able to track it, even more so since the main source of his power was now back by his side once more. Along the way, there were a few Shinobi who got in his way, but they were not a challenge since he sliced their heads off with a clean swipe within seconds of them making themselves seen. Half of them didn't see him coming at all and died in full on shock of this.
Eventually he made it to the room where Gashi was being stored, and with a smirk he threw his borrowed blade to the side since it was no longer needed and picked up his own blade to use once more. Picking it up made him feel whole once more, and he placed the blade back into the straps that where on his back. Luckily they didn't strip him of his clothes while he was knocked unconscious, just his weapons. He was truly thankful for that. He looked around to see what else was in this place, and that was when he saw Karin there with a bruised face. He walked over to her and held out his hand to help her to her feet.
"Are you okay," asked Naruto in genuine concern.
"I'm all rainbows and fucking sunshine!" said Karin sarcastically as she winced from the pain in her face. Kabuto had been beyond pissed about what had happened and showed his displeasure for it by attacking Karin savagely before he left to head towards Naruto, who he assumed got his book back through means he would learn in time.
"What is it with women being such bitches to me when I try to help," mumbled Naruto to himself. First Shizuka, now this? He seemed to have such bad luck with women, with Temari hating his guts so much she couldn't even stand to be near him or refused to talk with him unless it was necessary. "But what happened to you?"
"Kabuto is what happened," said Karin with a growl as she grabbed ahold of Naruto's hand and pulled herself up off the floor, "he got super pissed that the book just vanished and…" It was at this point that Karin saw that the said book was on Naruto's person. "Okay, how the hell did you get that?"
"Magic," said Naruto simply since that was one hundred percent the truth. Yet Karin thought he was being a smartass and would not accept that as an answer.
"Oh right…" said Karin with a growl and a rolling of her eyes, "and I am secretly Orochimaru in this body. Okay smart ass, how did you really get that book? What type of jutsu did you use, and for that matter how did you use one when you have no chakra to speak of?"
"Whether you believe it or not," said Naruto as he turned to leave, "magic is the answer to all those questions. Now could you lead the way to my sister? I don't know this place like you do."
"Fine," said Karin with a huff. She thought that Naruto was stilling being an ass to her and not telling the truth on how he did as he did, but she would get the answers later when they were far from this place. While she had no idea as to how they would escape, but her instincts were telling her that things would be just fine if she went with him. So far her instincts had yet to be wrong so she trusted them once more and lead the way to where Naruko was being kept. Like when she had left, there were no guards here since Naruko was only five years old and no one was stupid enough to try and mess with Orochimaru's prized possession. She opened the door and ushered Naruto inside quickly as she looked to see that there was no one to surprise them when they made a dash for the exit once Naruko was free.
"Big brother!" cried out Naruko as she saw Naruto enter the room. She was so happy to see him here, since she had known he would save her.
"Naruko," said Naruto simply as he saw the position she was in with her being strapped down like she was. This pissed him off to see her like this, but he fixed that easily by undoing the restraints that kept her on the table. She held her arms out towards him and so he picked her up to put her on her own two feet, but he stopped since she hugged him around the neck as the tears flowed out in joy that he had saved her. Naruto smiled as he pat her on the back, but while he was enjoying the moment, he told her that they needed to be quiet and escape this place as soon as possible. Naruko simply nodded as he passed her off to Karin to piggyback. Karin looked at him in a questioning manner, but that only lasted a minute since she understood that speed was a key factor right now and a five year old girl was not the fastest person so she would need some assistance. Plus given the fact that he was essentially the muscle of the group meant that he needed to keep his arms free to wield his sword if and when they came across anyone who wanted to stop them on their way out.
So with the three of them all ready to leave this place once and for all, they all left the room and Karin began to point them in the right direction towards the exit. They took their time and used empty rooms to avoid patrols and the like until they got close to the main area where they would have to get through to escape. The problem with that is the main area was wide as well as fully populated since this was where most of the people were at while they were not busy guarding specific areas or places like that. But a few corridors shy of getting to that place, they came upon a group of five Shinobi who were standing in the way. There was no way around them, so Naruto told Karin to stay back and keep Naruko safe for the moment. Karin was curious as to what Naruto was planning, but she never got to ask him since he had quickly walked out into the open where the Shinobi could easily see them and called them out.
The Shinobi were understandably shocked with a healthy dose of confusion since the man who should have been locked away in a cell farther underground was standing there yelling at them to come at him. Yet the surprise was only short lived since they had the advantage of numbers and made to capture the young man once more. Naruto simply stood there while holding the scabbard of his blade as he used his thumb to slide out the sword itself about an inch. He waited calmly like a master swordsman does in a situation such as this, and once the first Shinobi was within striking range, he quickly grabbed the hilt of his blade and sliced the man upwards at an angle. Multiple organs were slashed through, many of them vital, so he died quickly as he bled out as his body hit the floor. The others still believed that he was at a disadvantage, but he quickly turned the tides on them as he sliced through them flawlessly one by one. Once the last man fell, he paused for a second since he heard one of them groan, which meant they were still alive so he walked over and pierced them in the heart through their backs so as to end their life. Once done, he whipped the blood off of his blade and sheathed it once more. With a quick whistle, Karin came out of hiding and began to follow him once more. She was shocked to see Naruto kill off Shinobi so ruthlessly yet flawlessly as well, but those were thoughts to ponder on later.
They tried their best to remain hidden in the main area of the place, but while they tried, it did not end so well. And not for the reasons you would think. It was because of the discovery of the bodies that Naruto had left behind that caused the place to raise an alarm and to go on full alert. Naruto and his group had tried to use the chaos to mask their exit, but they were stopped by the one person they didn't want to be stopped by…
Orochimaru…
The man had just been about to head out to visit one of his other bases since he was in need of a new vessel since this one was nearing the end of its three year course. He had left Kabuto in charge of this one so he was not worried about anything and was genuinely looking forward to any and all breakthroughs in their research about either the book they had taken from Naruto that he knew was the source of the boy's power or the sword he wielded itself. The blade interested him since if he somehow was able to match the ability to quite literally drain others of their chakra to empower himself, then he would be nigh unstoppable. Plus with the added power of the dark energy he had seen Naruto use to beat the container of the Nine tails itself was a power he was mentally salivating to obtain for himself.
"Well," said Orochimaru as he motioned for his men to surround the three escapees. Karin and Naruko looked terrified since they thought that they were so screwed, but Naruto stood his ground since one of the first lessons that Mifune had literally beaten into him was to never show your enemy fear. They thrived off that and those who did would get angry when they didn't get what they wanted. And from their anger they would make a mistake that Naruto could then exploit and defeat his opponent. "I have to say that I didn't see this coming. And Karin…"
Karin's face lost all the color in her face as she saw him look at her with eyes filled with anger as well as disappointment. She was visibly shaking in fear since she knew that things never turned out well for those he had such eyes for, and she was not wrong if his next actions were anything to go on.
Orochimaru spat out his sword towards her, which would have pierced through her face judging by the trajectory. But the blade was stopped by a source she was not expecting, or never would have guessed could even happen. Naruto had moved in front of her and simply held up his hand. In the palm of it he conjured a black hole that swallowed the blade up, and then he closed his hand, thus cutting off the black hole and breaking the blade as it did.
"The Kusanagi!" Yelled out Orochimaru in rage that the legendary blade he had spent so long finding in his youth had been broken by this brat of all people. "You will pay for this boy! The experiments I will have done to you to find the means to replicate your power will only be more painful now. Restrain him!"
On his orders, multiple Shinobi moved cautiously forward. They did so since this was a samurai with abilities they had never seen. Sure they had the numbers, but they were suspecting that he had killed the five Shinobi that had been the reason behind the alarm being raised in the first place so they were going to play it smart. Orochimaru wanted him restrained yet there was not a time limit to his order.
Naruto simply breathed a bit heavily to get full control of his breathing. Once he had that down he unsheathed Gashi from its scabbard and held it with one hand as he waited for the first fool to rush him. The Shinobi looked at each other for a second before one of them used a jutsu to launch a cluster of mud at him so as to blind his vision since his face had been the target. Naruto simply dodged the jutsu, but then saw that from his angle it would hit Karin so he conjured up magic to form a Black Cocoon to protect her and Naruko while he dealt with this. Once he knew they were safe, he turned around only to be sucker punched by a rock encased fist to the face. The Shinobi thought that his jutsu would be enough, yet Naruto did not go down and glared at the man as he spat out the blood that had pooled in his mouth.
"I'm sorry," was all he was able to say before a quick chop to his neck by Naruto silenced him with a sick audible snap. The others at this point rushed him, but Naruto was fully ready for them now and held out Gashi in preparation for his attack.
"Darkness Magic," said Naruto to himself as he channeled power to Gashi, who ate it up as the gluttonous sword that it was, coating the blade in the dark power his magic was named from. "Dark Cloaked Avidya Wild Slash!" Naruto then began to swing his blade in a disorderly fashion, creating multiple streams of dark magical energy that was just as sharp as the blade it came from. Many Shinobi were cut down with his initial strike alone, but he was not done since with his blade still coated in magical energy he rushed forwards and cut down all who stood in his way foolishly. As he did this, Orochimaru simply observed from the sidelines. He cared not if these Shinobi died since they were expendable pawns that he cared little for in terms of whether they lived or died like this. But to see one boy, who had not even reached adulthood stand toe to toe with so many Shinobi like this made him only wish to capture the brat more. Such power would be a perfect replacement to the Kusanagi that he had broken. Who knows, maybe in the future he might be able to wield Naruto's blade given enough time. The thing was emanating with such power that he wanted to wield and he was nothing if not patient when it came to things he wanted.
"While it is rather impressive that you have defeated so many of my Shinobi so far," said Orochimaru, who was still observing from the sidelines since he was analyzing Naruto and his abilities up close. Their brief fight before had not really shown him much other than what he had already seen used against Menma, and now he was seeing that there was so much more to his power than he had initially thought. He would crack the enigma that was Naruto and learn to harness such power himself in time. "How long do you honestly believe that you can hold this up boy?"
Naruto was fighting on his last leg here. He was tired and exhausted from having to fight so many people at once, and the only thing he had going for him was his sister was at least safe so he did not have to hold back his power so as to not hurt her. He was breathing heavy, but he knew he would have to use his strongest technique to escape this place once and for all. While he didn't want to use it since he did not see Orochimaru as a worthy opponent when he was sending so many others he deemed expendable to tire him out, now was not the time to let his own pride keep him from escaping this place.
"Long enough," said Naruto with a look of all seriousness plastered on his face. He stood up straight and grabbed ahold of his Grimoire in his hand to channel most of his magical power out of it. While he had found the means to use his magic without opening the thing, which was something he had one upped Yami himself in, this technique he had to since it was too powerful not to. The area around him became dark all of a sudden, but the strange thing is that it stopped in a circle around him. It was like this veil of darkness that domed over him in a set area, but then above him a black hole itself formed. Those caught in the dark veil screamed out in pain as they felt the chakra in their bodies rip out of them as it was absorbed into the black hole. This caused Orochimaru to smirk sinisterly since this technique Naruto was using was amazing!
But it was too bad that Orochimaru would never see him use anything else…
With the other magical ability active known as Black Moon, Naruto held up his sword, drew it back, and super condensed the spell's effect into a small area around his arm. Naruto then moved faster than anyone thought possible and thrust his sword toward Orochimaru; the thrust created a focused blast that destroyed Orochimaru's torso entirely. Since most if not all his vital organs had been utterly obliterated within the blink of an eye, the mad scientist of a Shinobi died with that smirk never leaving his face since he had not reacted fast enough to change his expression.
This technique had been the hardest one he had learned. It took him a literal year to get it right without nearly passing out from the massive use of energy he had to use to use it. Then when he got the energy output worked out, it took about six months to finally master the technique itself since it had not only to be done faster than an opponent could react, but the form had to be flawless as well. He could only use it once since it drained him so much to use it, so missing was not an option when using it.
Naruto quickly undid the Black Cocoon that he had covered his family members in and told them to run. They did as he said, and the entire time not a single Shinobi followed them as they did. This was due to a mix of both shock over the death of Orochimaru himself since mainly everyone there was under the impression that said man was incapable of dying as well as fear for the man who not only held off so many Shinobi that they threw at him, but then also went on to kill the man they deemed unkillable. This made them freeze in place, and it was thanks to that that Naruto and his group escaped.
Once Naruto and his group escaped the underground base, and as the other two ran out, he turned around and channeled magical power into his blade. Once he had enough he then scraped the ground to throw said energy towards the entrance of the cave so that it blasted the cave shut. Only with the entrance sealed off did he finally catch his breath since by Kami his body was on fire from all that he had done in such a short time.
"Why did you do that?" asked Karin in confusion since it seemed so unnecessary to be honest.
"Just a means to slow them down long enough for us to get the hell out of here," said Naruto simply as he sheathed his blade since it was not needed at the moment. "But what about you? What will you do now that you have the freedom you wanted for so long?"
"To be perfectly honest," said Karin as she rubbed her head in embarrassment since she was so gun ho for gaining her freedom that she did not fully plan this whole thing out before she went along with it. "I have no clue."
"Well," said Naruto with a shrug of his shoulders, "you mentioned family, so the way I see it is that you have two options here. You could either stick with me as I travel about, since I tend to do that, or you could take my sister back to Konoha and stay there. While they may hate me, you are normal so I'm sure you will be just fine."
"No!" said Naruko in sadness as she hugged his leg tightly, "please don't leave me big brother!"
"Naruko," said Naruto simply as he pulled her off his leg and sat down to be eye level with the little girl, "you have to go home. Where I am heading, you could get hurt and that is not something I want to happen to you."
"Please don't go," said Naruko, this time with tears in her eyes, "Menma is mean to me. Mom and dad are never home. I don't want to be alone anymore."
The moment she said those words, multiple emotions flooded his mind as well as the memories of his own past of being ignored by his former family. They honestly were terrible parents since they had let Naruko be kidnapped like this and as it was she apparently was safer with him than in her own home village if such a thing could even happen in the first place. Plus, he could always get to know his little sister better along the way.
"Is this really what you want Naruko?" asked Naruto as he looked her directly in the eyes to show how serious he was on the subject. "Because if you want to, you can come with me."
"YAY!" shouted Naruko as she rushed forward and hugged him. She couldn't really reach around him since he was a big guy and she was only five years old, but it was still nice all the same.
"Is that a good idea?" asked Karin in thought, "she is the daughter of the Hokage, and this could be deemed as kidnapping."
"How is it kidnapping if I saved her from the one who did so?" asked Naruto, "plus this little lady doesn't wish to return home yet, and wants to come with me. When she wants to go home, I'll take her there myself, so no harm no foul."
"You can't be that stupid can you?" asked Karin as she face palmed herself hard.
"No," said Naruto as he piggybacked Naruko, who was smiling as he did so and held on as he got up, "since I believe she is safer with me than the village she was kidnapped from in the first place. They expect her to be there, they won't look for me since in a world filled with Shinobi of all sorts of infamy, samurai are easily overlooked since they are deemed inferior."
"Why do I have a feeling that this is going to bite you in the ass sometime in the near future?"
"Probably because it is going to," said Naruto with a shrug, "but to be quite honest, I really just don't care. I will deal with it when it becomes a problem. So do you wish to join us, or head to Konoha? Cause I have a current job I need to get to and I am at least a day behind schedule due to all this and so I am going to have to run a bit to make up for it."
"Well," said Karin with a sigh since she didn't fully know what choice to make, so she went off the one that was at the forefront of her mind and just went with it, "I think I'll stick with you since you did get me out of there. Plus it's not like there is a time limit to go to Konoha."
"Well I would appreciate the company," said Naruto with a genuine smile, "I have been traveling by myself for a bit so it's nice to have a group to talk to."
"Where is this job you are heading off to anyway?" asked Karen since if she was going to remain with this man who was related to her, she wanted to know exactly where they were heading. "And just what job requires a samurai of all things?"
"I was hired to bodyguard a famous actress," said Naruto.
"An actress," said Karin with a raised eyebrow, "anybody I might know?"
"Does the name Yukie Fujikaze ring a bell?" asked Naruto. Naruko's eyes lit up in joy as soon as she heard the name.
"I get to meet Princess Gale?! Yay!" Naruko was a fan of her movies since her mom started to take her to see them earlier this year. The first time was on her birthday and she loved it.
"Yep," said Naruto with a smile since he was glad to see his sister happy after all that she had been put through. It reminded him of the time he first met her and she was being chased by dogs and he had saved her. He had cheered her up by buying her ice cream and now here he was going to do a job that got them close to her favorite actress. He might try and get Naruko and autograph, but he was not going to promise anything. "So shall we get going?"
"The further away we get from this place the better," said Karen since she wanted to start living for once since she never really got the chance to do so while she was basically enslaved to Orochimaru as she was. So with their destination in mind, the three of them set off towards adventure together…
(A/N: Sorry once more for the delay in posting chapters. Like I said in I'm sure at least two other stories, my creativity has been negatively impacted by the fact that I am stuck at home due to Covid-19. I am trying to overcome this, but it is a process and I will at least try and post faster than I have been. So until next chapter!)