- What do we do?
The boy whispered to the Bijuu beside him, with his body leaning to the side watching the men ahead.
He was far away, but he could hear their hearts beating, their breaths calming with each step they took.
He still hadn't gotten very used to it, especially since he had to maintain a certain chakra control in order not to hear too much and end up going deaf.
- They are strong... the city can't be far away, see their equipment? The best thing to do at this moment is to remain unnoticed, a fight here will put us in a disadvantageous position.
The boy nodded, returning to hide behind those tall bushes between some trees.
- One more thing. They can't see me. As I said, the city is nukenin, its surroundings must have many wanted men.
- So what do we do?
-... You're an Uzumaki... remember when I absorbed that frutomel?
Naruto nodded.
- It's a peculiarity of mine. I will hide in you, in a similar way to my sister.
The boy made a confused face, widening his eyes slightly as he saw the Bijuu's body begin to melt, and slowly turn into a kind of smoke, which was enveloped by his body, and seemed to be absorbed by his skin.
His body felt heavy... much heavier, a feeling that didn't take him long to get used to, although it was still uncomfortable.
- You are an Uzumaki, with DNA similar to my sister's on top of that. For that reason alone, it is possible for me to do this without your body collapsing and occasionally dying. It's not like a sealing, or a blood contract that molds your body to support a Bijuu.
He heard her voice in his mind, something somewhat strange and incredibly cool.
- It is the weight of an entire Bijuu on your body...normal people would die. Senjus, Uzumakis and some members of other clans can bear that weight and so on.
- But what do we have here?
A male voice interrupted Nibi's speech, and Naruto turned around startled.
"How could I not feel or hear this guy?"
Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of the man in front of him; he recognized that guy well. And he, in turn, seemed to recognize him too, for as soon as he faced him, he cracked a smile.
- Look at that... the boy friend of Bijuu is back. Lucky me.
"His equipment... that's why I didn't feel his chakra"
The boy ran his eyes all over the man's body, and could notice some runes written on his clothes/armor, he had heard of similar equipment before.
Those runes have several types of functions. Hiding chakra, presence, silencing footsteps. As far as he knew, that equipment was very expensive, and was usually used by nobles who don't have good chakra control or similar.
That guy didn't look like a noble, which means he must have stolen it.
The man took a step forward, and Naruto took a step back.
- Your eyes, I noticed this before... I wonder how much money you must be worth. The eyes of the Kyuubi, and friend of a Bijuu. Where are the two tails, by the way?
He looked around, letting his guard down on purpose, underestimating Naruto.
The boy clicked his tongue and quickly acted, trying to punch the man in the stomach. However, he was surprised to see that he held his fist.
This guy was staring at him intensely, his eyes seemed to glow and a wicked smile was born on his lips.
- This is not a punch from a child... hehehe, no way, Kyuubi adopted you? Your eyes are identical to hers, I'll never forget it.
Naruto tried to pull his arm back, without success. He didn't want to use chakra so as not to attract other nukenins around, however, he had no choice.
And pulling his arm again, he walks away with some force, glancing back, making sure that the men from before hadn't noticed anything.
- Don't worry, they're dead.
Naruto looked at him, his eyes wide in surprise.
- No way in hell am I taking the risk of a jewel like you being captured by someone else. If I hand you over to the right person, I'll be rich... although I'm not sure that's the best option. It's not every day that someone like you shows up.
The man took a dagger with a brass knuckles, getting into an attack position, although he still had some openings, probably because he didn't see Naruto as a threat.
The boy swallowed dryly, that man was strong.
"What do I do?"
"You can't run away, he'll catch up to you. Your only choice is to fight."
Naruto stood in an attack position.
" Oh boy... ok... ah Kami... what are my chances?"
"...Not many, but you should be able to handle it... I hope. Remember, your body is not the same anymore."
- Relax, kid. I'll take it easy, I don't like to damage my goods too much. But don't flatter yourself, I have a score to settle with you for killing my men.
The man stepped forward, and in reflex, the boy dodged to the side, leaning his body. The man tried another punch to the side of Naruto's face, but the boy dodged it, ducking and counterattacking with a kick to the side of his torso, which was defended by the nukenin's forearm.
The man then kicks Naruto's legs with the intention of knocking him down. However, still in the air, the boy puts his hand on the ground and kicks the man in the stomach, sending him backwards while, at the same time, he walked away.
The nukenin then makes a few hand seals, spitting out a certain amount of water. Naruto grimaced slightly, as that water was not meant to attack him. It was then, that the nukenin smiled, and raised one of his hands.
- Kirigakure no jutsu.
Soon a dense mist spread over the place, thick enough to cut with a machete. The man used it to hide himself.
"Kiri?! He's from Kiri?!"
And that, mixed with his equipment concealing his presence, made Naruto a little worried that he had lost sight of him.
"A little help would be welcome!"
He dodged a punch on instinct, and put his arm in front of his body, protecting himself from a punch coming from the man, who laughed a little and went back to hiding in the mist.
"Right now, he's just playing with you. A slave trader, mercenary, he must be estimating your value. As I said, you need experience, I will only help you if the situation becomes critical."
The boy felt an attack coming towards his face, and raised his arm to defend himself. But he was surprised to feel a kick to his stomach, strong enough to expel the air from his lungs and send him flying backwards, stopping only when he collided with a tree.
That blow had hurt.
"You're kidding me right?!"
He stood up amid a faint groan of pain.
"You won't die, you can't die. You are a bearer of the nine-tailed fox, it would be a disgrace. So don't die."
Naruto was hit by a punch to the side of his face, sending him sideways. He recovered quickly, but not quickly enough to fend off another punch to his chin, followed by a kick to the stomach, and finishing with a punch to his cheek, sending him flying sideways.
The blow was so strong that he destroyed the trunk of the tree he had crashed into.
Naruto groaned in pain and put one hand on the ground, spitting out a small amount of blood.
His instincts screamed, and he raised his arm. Another groan escaped his throat as he felt his forearm being cut, and he, once again, being hit in the stomach.
"This is getting ridiculous!"
He growled, that situation was getting annoying.
Concentrating his chakra in his hand, he felt his heart beat stronger, and his muscles stiffened.
With force, he flattened his hand on the ground, and an explosion of raw chakra took place. The amount of chakra he used was large, very large, which was more than enough to dissipate the mist and stun the man for a few moments. This same man was a few steps to the boy's right.
Advancing quickly, Naruto landed a punch to the nukenin's stomach, followed by a hook to the chin, a punch to his cheek.
The man tried to counterattack, however, Naruto dodged the punch and hit him with a knee to the stomach, finishing with a backward somersault followed by a kick to the chin, sending the nukenin high into the air.
Concentrating chakra in his hand, Naruto creates a rasengan and leaps toward the man.
Gritting his teeth, the nukenin makes a few more hand seals, still in the air.
- Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu.
The nukenin spits a continuous flame thrower towards Naruto, who creates a few clones while still in the air and uses them as momentum to dodge to the side.
As he does so, Naruto launches his rasengan towards the man, who slightly widens his eyes and spits a stream of water at the chakra sphere.
Not being enough to stop it, but slowing its speed and power.
A small explosion happened still in the air, and Naruto stared at the cloud of smoke for some time.
Sighing, he lowered his head.
- You bastard! Do you know how much that costs?! Lucky for you I stole it!
The nukenin said through gritted teeth, not far from there, with the armor on his chest destroyed. Now Naruto could feel his chakra and hear his heartbeat.
- Okay, kid. I realized that you are even more valuable than I thought. A lot of degenerate people will pay through the nose for you. Injured, or not.
The man's posture changed, and he looked more serious. The openings he had before were closed.
He would stop playing from now on.
The boy sighed, this fight was getting complicated. One mistake, and he would be defeated.
But, he had an advantage. That man didn't have much chakra. A little more than a normal person, maybe.
The thing is, that mist from before, because it was so dense, cost him a greater amount of chakra.
The price of showing off, maybe.
If Naruto didn't win by "knockout," he would win by fatigue.
With that in mind, he put himself in attack position.
However, he was surprised when the man simply appeared in front of him. It was very fast, faster than he had thought it would be.
And because of this, it was inevitable that he would be hit with a punch to the face, causing him to "fly" backwards and destroy some of the trees he hit, such was the force of the blow.
When he finally stops, he widens his eyes and instinctively tilts his body to the side, deflecting a punch that penetrated a rock with some ease.
It didn't stop there, the nukenin began to viciously attack the boy, who despite being able to defend himself from some of these blows, was not fast enough to dodge them all.
With each blow that hit him, the huge rock behind him cracked, until he was hit by a strong punch in the face, completely destroying the rock and making him fly backwards again.
However, Naruto recovered and jumped to the side, at the same time spitting a common fireball towards his opponent, who simply dodged to the side.
However, the fireball exploded into smoke and a clone of Naruto appeared, surprising the nukenin, who was hit by a punch to the side of his torso.
A strong punch... too strong for a clone.
At a glance, he could see the Naruto who had spat the fireball explode into smoke. So that was the real clone.
The nukenin resisted the punch and grabbed Naruto's arm, and quickly, drove his knife into his shoulder. The boy cried out in pain, and a small smile appeared on the man's lips.
However, that smile died as he felt his legs being grabbed. Soon, the boy he was holding blew up in smoke, and another boy appeared from the ground, hitting him with a sharp hook to the chin.
A very strong blow, to the point of throwing him into the air.
But before he could be thrown too far, his leg was grabbed again, and he was thrown back to the ground.
The nukenin groans in pain as he feels his back slam into the ground, but he quickly recovers and throws his brass knuckles blade towards Naruto, who grimaces, mocking him as he is hit, and explodes into smoke.
- What?! Another clone?!
He shouted in disbelief, and his eyes widened as he felt the ground below him heat up.
As he felt the amount of chakra below him, he tried with some desperation to get away from there. However, his arms and legs were grabbed by hands that came out of the ground, preventing him from moving.
A projectile of fire was thrown in his direction, and he cried out in pain as the jutsu hit him. An explosion of fire occurred, and his body was thrown violently in some random direction. The explosion was so strong that he bounced several times on the ground before stopping after colliding against a huge stone wall.
He coughed a few times as he stood up, spitting out a small amount of blood and groaning as he felt the pain and burning in his back.
- Son of a bitch!
He growled, and turning and grabbing Naruto's leg, counterattacked with a strong chakra-wrapped punch to his stomach, followed by a kick to the side of his face, which threw the boy against the stone wall, which cracked even more.
Without giving him time to recover, the nukenin tries to punch the boy once again. However, Naruto ducked, spun his body around, and delivered a double kick to the man's chest, who was thrown backwards.
However, he recovered quickly and advanced again. As soon as he got close, he spat two balls of water towards the boy, who was forced to dodge as he sensed the amount of chakra used.
But that was exactly what the man wanted, and soon, he managed to land a powerful punch on Naruto's face, which made him "fly" backwards.
He didn't even have time to recover, and groaned in pain as he felt a strong blow on his back, sending him flying upwards.
Gritting his teeth in anger, the boy created dozens of clones, which soon advanced towards the man, who defeated the clones with exquisite skill.
However, there were too many clones, which prevented him from advancing toward Naruto. For each clone defeated, the boy created two more.
The man then violently expelled his chakra from his body, and all the clones in the chakra blast area were destroyed.
Yet more and more clones appeared, too many for him to take care of. And due to his low chakra, he could not do what he had done before.
That was his mistake.
On the ground, a row composed of him and four more clones formed. They all made some hand seals.
A jutsu he had seen a friend of his father do, and when he mentioned it to Kurama, she insisted (forced) him to learn it.
Soon, the clones started piling on top of the nukenin, giving Naruto the perfect opportunity.
- Goton dairendan no jutsu!
The five "Narutos" spat projectiles of all the elements towards the man, who, because of the clones, was hit.
A huge explosion of elemental mixture occurred, destroying the entire surrounding area and pushing Naruto away due to the impact, destroying his clones in the process.
The boy gasped, he had made many more clones than it actually seemed. But thanks to Kurama's training, his mind could handle a large amount of clones destroyed at the same time.
Although that didn't make it any less tiring.
His knees gave out. He spent a stupid amount of chakra. One of Kurama's warnings about that jutsu. Especially since he had trained barely any of the Doton and Raiton elements. Barely the Suiton ones.
Raising his head, he observes the place. The destruction was tremendous, it certainly drew attention, so he couldn't stay there any longer.
Getting up, he widens his eyes, and groans in frustration as he sees a silhouette approaching further ahead.
The man was approaching with staggering steps. Blood was dripping down his almost naked body. His clothes had been destroyed, his torso had burns and bruises, and some debris stuck to his flesh.
He was panting harder than the boy.
- Don't you ever give up?
Naruto said, making a wind rasengan. However, the sphere inside was fire. One of the possibilities after mastering that jutsu.
He could manipulate its elements at will.
- I... underestimated you! Shit! I shouldn't have fooled around!
The sphere in Naruto's hand decreased in size, but the speed with which it spun increased exponentially. The elements in the sphere compressed even more, and its power increased.
That man was very dangerous, and he only lost because he underestimated him. The boy had no choice but to kill him.
The nukenin then made some hand seals.
- Katon: Housenka no jutsu!
Soon, he began spitting out several fireballs, varying in size due to the chakra used in each individual ball.
Naruto advanced towards him, dodging all the fireballs as he went.
- Suiton: Suiryudan no jutsu!
The man spat out a huge water dragon, using most of his remaining chakra.
The boy stared at the jutsu, his mind soon remembering his father, and his eyes brightened.
Concentrating his chakra on his legs, Naruto increases his speed.
Just before he was hit by the jutsu, however, he acted.
A blink of an eye, that's how long it took for Naruto to appear right behind the nukenin.
The man's eyes widened, startled, and all he could do was turn part of his body backwards, before being hit by the boy's jutsu.
The sound of the rasengan hitting the man's flesh was overwhelming. Naruto heard with every detail the man's muscles tearing and being torn apart.
Soon, another explosion happened, and this time, the man's body was completely enveloped by the elemental blast.
Inside, Nibi watched unblinkingly. The boy was... a mystery. The way in which he fought changed several times during the course of the fight. It was as if his very essence changed as he acted.
What slowed him down the most was his lack of experience, so he didn't even notice. However, Naruto was great at analyzing and reacting to attacks, although his body was not yet fast enough to keep up with them.
An unknown... he was a genius. Although he didn't know it himself.
The boy had his back against a rock, already far away from the scene of the fight. He gasped, his body ached, not only from the blows that hit him, but also from the fact that his "new" body was not used to that chakra.
A mixture of his own chakra and Kurama's, and that spending left his body shaking.
Groaning in pain, he crawled towards the lake in front of him and put his feet in the water.
A blue smoke began to emanate from his body, and soon, Nibi lay down beside him.
- Good job. You're alive.
The boy snorted.
- It would be ... a disgrace ... damn, why do I feel more pain now than before?
He said, groaning in pain as he crawled into the water. The top of his clothes were gone. He only had his pants on now.
- Adrenaline. It is common for this to happen. Luckily, I have this.
From her body, a bright green fruit appeared, and she threw the fruit toward the boy, who grabbed it still in the air and smiled faintly.
- Why didn't you give me this earlier?
he asked, taking a generous bite of the fruit.
- Because you have regenerative properties... although those properties are still dormant, just like my sister.
Naruto's eyes widened.
- I can heal myself?
- To a certain extent yes. As your relationship with my sister improves, this will also increase.
She lay down on her paws, and they were silent for a while.
As soon as he finished eating, Naruto took some water and poured it against his face. Ever since he woke up he had avoided thinking about anything else.
However, with that silence came the feelings he was trying to hold in.
He missed his parents, and was anxious to see them again.
- What are you going to do when this is over?
The Bijuu's voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he sighed lightly.
- Well, I'll make sure you're free and well hidden... after that, I'll go back to my parents.
Nibi stared at him for a while, touched to hear him say that he would make sure she was safe, although she didn't show it.
-... They will be weirded out by this appearance. Your parents must not be stupid, especially since you are an Uzumaki, they will recognize your eyes.
The boy widened his eyes, surprised. He had forgotten that detail, and soon, a certain despair began to rise in his chest.
- So... I won't be able to go back?
- Relax ... you can go back.
The boy stared at her.
- How?
- This is how you look now, no matter what. But you can change your appearance back to the way it was before. Not like a simple henge, something more consistent. And you can "change" those two appearances whenever you want.
- Really!?
he asked excitedly.
- Yes, this is for all those who make a blood contract. My sister will teach you. Well, now that you are rested, we should go. It's not good to stay here any longer.
She said, getting up, and the boy followed her.