- Yo!
Minato narrowed his eyes slightly and stared silently at the man in front of him. By the crumpled clothes and an almost imperceptible huge bruise on his face, this had not been the man's first stop.
A sigh escaped Minato's lips, which ignored the man's incredulous stare.
- Oe, oe, what was that reaction?
- You said you were coming straight here, but you spied Tsunade in the bathroom again, didn't you?
-... Nooooo... argh, okay, I admit it, but look, that was my record time. I managed to spy on her for thirty seconds before she discovered me.
Minato sighed again, shaking his head.
- Tsunade is in love with you, if you ask her to date you, she won't mind you seeing her naked, Jiraya-sensei.
The senin opened a wide, mocking smile, putting both arms behind his head.
- I am waiting for the right moment, I have a surprise for her birthday. Besides, that risk is what makes the whole thing more interesting.
The man arched an eyebrow.
- Really? Can you tell me how?
- Ah my dear pupil, you wouldn't understand. I don't even do it just to see her naked anymore, I've seen it all.
He pouted, and Minato slapped his own forehead.
- Oh, you know what? Whatever, come on in. Maybe you'll get Kushina to let Naomy go.
He made room, and Jiraya came in right after removing his ninja sandals.
- Minato, you don't really believe that, do you?
He asked with a small smile, though he took on a slightly more serious posture.
- Kushina... well...
Minato looked away.
- She is afraid to let go. I can't say I blame her, but... I don't know, it doesn't seem healthy to stay like that.
- I see... well, as you said yourself, we can't blame her. Has she even let you hold her?
They started walking across the room, towards the stairs ahead.
- Yes, but only for a few minutes. I thought she was going to kill me if I didn't hand Naomy over to her.
As they walked up a few steps, they could hear Kushina's voice talking something to her daughter, since there was no one else inside the room.
- Why didn't you come earlier? There's still plenty of food and drink for tonight, but why didn't you come for lunch?
The man stared at him as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
- I told you I have a surprise prepared for Tsunade's birthday. I got busy. But I will come tonight.
- Kakashi will be very excited.
- Hehehe, I know. I also have a surprise for him. Exclusively autographed!
Minato grimaced.
Jiraya always gave his exclusive books to Kakashi, who was a portfolio fan of the senin's stories.
Minato couldn't stop himself from getting a little jealous, he wanted one of those exclusive books too. The techniques that Jiraya wrote down helped him a lot when-
- Ah, Jiraya, you still have the audacity to come here when you didn't come for lunch?! Even Kakashi and Obito came, and they are the ones who delay the most!
The redhead appeared in front of the bedroom door, and Jiraya gave a yellow smile.
- I got busy, believe me, it was for a good cause. And I decided to come earlier to take a look at this little princess.
The senin approached, his eyes focused on the sleeping baby in Kushina's arms, who sighed, but allowed him to look at her.
- Just don't make too much noise, she's only just fallen asleep.
- Oh, what a pretty little thing... pulled the mother, pretty as a butterfly.
Kushina smiled, Jiraya lightly stroked Naomy's cheek with a warm smile on his face and Minato grimaced.
- What about me? Aren't I pretty as a butterfly?
- No, you're ugly as a mule.
Minato's frown contorted, especially when Kushina laughed softly, looking away.
-... Kushina...
- Sorry... hahaha. Relax Minato, you're not that ugly.
Jiraya laughed loudly while Minato looked incredulously at his wife, who sent him an "innocent" smile.
- Sorry about that, Minato, but if the boss says so, there's nothing I can say.
Minato stared at them both for a while, sighing in defeat, but smiling soon after when he saw the brighter face on Kushina's face. He was right in thinking that that child would fix things, it was even having an effect already.
He just hoped it would stay that way.
Gritting his teeth, Naruto crawled as fast as he could toward the dead body of the white mamba, hearing the footsteps of the approaching Behemoth cub. With each step, his desperation grew.
Slow but precise steps, as if the creature was just watching him crawling in vain, as if it already knew it would kill him and didn't even care about the chance of him escaping.
Hm... human-like creatures, in terms of arrogance.
As he crawled, Naruto tried to move his legs, which, although they began to move gradually, were paralyzed.
Probably because his spine had just recently regenerated. If it really was that, all he had to do was survive for a while.
The cub's steps became more hurried, and at that speed, the boy could not get into the snake.
Turning with some effort, he concentrates chakra in both hands and uses the wind element to propel him backwards, away from the cub that had tried to grab him, and crashing his back against the wall of earth, right next to the white mamba's head.
Grabbing one of its teeth, it begins to crawl inside. Not all parts of his body had been devoured, so there was the perfect place to wait until his legs were back to normal.
The worst part is that he couldn't even make clones, because they would come out the same way he was.
The Behemoth cub then began to concentrate chakra in his mouth, soon, launching massive chakra spheres, similar to Bijuu damas, towards the white mamba's body.
Holes began to open in the huge snake's body, spheres passing dangerously close to Naruto's body as it made its way deeper into the snake's body. He, at least, was thankful the spheres didn't explode.
And thankful that it was a puppy, otherwise he would be dead.
At one point he had to struggle to lift the cold interior of the snake, that's where he decided to stop moving forward. If he continued, it would reach the stomach, and he preferred not to risk being covered in stomach acids and ending up making his situation worse, even though the snake was already dead.
However, staying still didn't seem like a good idea either, he was in an extremely uncomfortable, cramped, cold, and disgusting place. You couldn't just try not to think about it when it was literally right in front of you.
However, it seemed that the cub knew that he had stopped crawling, and started biting and tearing chunks out of the white mamba's body.
Naruto had stopped crawling in a place where the outside had already been devoured, so it wasn't long before a hole opened up in front of him, and he was facing the cub's sharp teeth.
Gritting his teeth, he shifts position and makes a few hand seals.
- Katon: Housenka no jutsu!
The boy began to spit a hail of fireballs towards the cub, each fireball with an even large amount of chakra.
Explosions of fire were going off in front of him, and the explosions went away as the cub went away.
After a while, he stopped spitting out the fireballs, and started crawling back into the snake's mouth.
However, before he began to do this, his gaze focused on the cub, and his one eye went wide open.
There was no wound on its head. No burns... no sign that he had been hit by a machine gun of fireballs.
Which should be impossible, even the mother of that thing was affected when he hit her with the Rasengan.
Naruto had no time to think, as the cub, again, attacked. This time, it concentrated an even greater amount of chakra than before. It had probably become irritated.
Naruto crawled away as fast as he could, especially after the Behemoth began spitting a continuous massive chakra beam toward the snake's body.
That chakra beam melted the white mamba's body, disintegrating it. If Naruto was caught, he could kiss his legs goodbye.
Maybe even his body completely.
Naruto gritted his teeth and groaned as he threw his arms out of the snake's body, and the Behemoth canceled out the beam of light that had overtaken the snake's body and pierced deep into the earth, as if it had ignored all that matter in its path.
Soon, the son began to run toward him, and Naruto's eye widened.
Concentrating his chakra, he reached into the ground and created several clones below the cub, clones that made hand seals and spat projectiles of fire towards the Behemoth before it could spit that continuous beam of chakra again.
While his clones kept the creature occupied, the boy crawled, still on the ground, to below the pile of bodies the cub was devouring earlier, and hid behind the pile.
He came out of the ground right in front of a man who had his head cut off. The head had its right side bitten off, even the bones were shattered, and the boy was forced to look at this grotesque scene.
Especially the exposed throat of the body.
Disgusting, was the least he could say for that.
Concentrating on something else, he crawled to the side of the pile of bodies and faced the Behemoth. The cub spits that chakra beam toward the ground, destroying all his clones. Again, without having an ounce of injury on his body.
It was as if he was immune to his jutsus... no... his chakra... that chakra beam expended an absurd amount of chakra. But after the clone jutsus, it seemed that his chakra had increased...
"... That thing absorbs chakra"
Naruto clicked his tongue and lurched again.
"If that's the case, that's bad... my punches won't take effect... the sword!"
He looked at his ring. To get the sword, he would have to concentrate a small amount of chakra. An amount that that behemoth would surely feel.
But, looking on the bright side, his legs... came back.
Getting up, the boy takes a deep breath, and soon, concentrates chakra in his ring, taking the sword he had found weeks ago in that wagon.
Soon, he was forced to jump from there, as the Behemoth shot a chakra sphere that destroyed much of the pile of bodies.
Yellow beastly eyes stared into a single red beastly eye. Both glowing brightly.
The cub began to concentrate chakra, this time on its tail. And soon, several thorns, more like daggers, were hurled towards Naruto.
He made some hand signals, still in the air.
- Fuuton: Toppa.
The boy spat out a strong gust of wind that prevented the thorns/pikes from reaching him, and soon after, he created a few dozen clones, which advanced quickly towards the cub.
The Behemoth roared, and as soon as the clones approached, it turned around and began to tear off chunks of earth with its paws. Huge debris and chunks of rock flew towards the clones, destroying them.
Using a clone as momentum, Naruto advanced towards the Behemoth from above, and tried to pierce its back with his sword.
However, the creature jumped up a few inches and violently spun its body still in the air. Its body began to create strong cutting gusts of wind, which advanced rapidly towards Naruto.
Opening his eye, the boy creates clones while still in the air and uses them as momentum to get away from the cutting gusts of wind. However, the Behemoth, while spinning, made the wind blades follow the boy, who kept running until he reached the white mamba's body, using it as cover.
"Can it absorb jutsus that hit it directly, or does it absorb any matter that has chakra?"
He clenched his eyes.
- Katon: Haisekishou.
He then spit out a stream of chakra infused gunpowder, which circulated the entire region. Taking advantage, he jumped up high and observed the Behemoth.
The cloud of gunpowder was not dissipated at once, but was slowly dissipating. Which meant that he was sucking the chakra from the gunpowder that touched his body.
Clenching his face slightly, he raised his sword as he fell toward the Behemoth.
The creature, however, sensed him, and began spitting out, again, the massive chakra spheres. But Naruto used his clones to dodge the spheres while still in the air, even throwing a clone towards the Behemoth just before it spat another sphere, obstructing its view with the cloud of smoke from the clone.
The boy then tries to pierce the Behemoth's back. The sword actually pierced him, although it didn't go deep enough, and the sword broke. For a few moments, he didn't know what to do.
The Behemoth took advantage of these moments to attack him with its tail. Naruto's eyes widened and he gritted his teeth, it was like being struck by an iron whip.
The Behemoth didn't stop there, and attacked Naruto with its paw. The boy's body was thrown violently against the wall of the lair, destroying the surrounding area and raising a large cloud of dust.
"... damn it... I can't escape, the lair is surrounded by a barrier, probably put up by the mother... how do I kill this thing?!"
The cloud of gunpowder dissipated further, and he could see the silhouette of the Behemoth approaching.
"The sword managed to penetrate its skin... the kunais, maybe."
He looked at his ring again. But, it was something else that caught his attention.
In the pile of bodies scattered around the place, not far from where he was, he saw the body of that nukenin he had fought with earlier.
Half of his body was probably already devoured, but from his chest up, he was still intact.
And another thing that was intact was his sword.
A completely black blade with runes just above the hilt, also black. A sphere, similar to a jewel, on the border between the hilt and the blade.
That sword looked much tougher than the previous one.
Creating a few clones, Naruto throws one of them towards the Behemoth and runs towards the sword.
The creature focuses its eyes on him and runs towards him, however, the clones had stopped it, hitting its face with chakra infused punches and kicks, which didn't have much effect.
The creature swung its tail hard, creating a blade of wind that destroyed all the clones while spitting another sphere of chakra towards Naruto.
The boy leaped forward and grabbed the sword, doing a somersault soon after and slamming his hand into the ground.
A thin pillar of earth rose up below the Behemoth, with enough force to hurl it a few feet into the air.
Seizing the opportunity, Naruto leaps towards it, and again, attacks it.
The Behemoth, still in the air, spins its body, causing Naruto to hit one of its paws, rather than its back, with the sword infused with his fuuton chakra, lengthening the blade and making it even sharper.
What they both did not expect, was that the Behemoth's paw would be severed by the waving of the sword.
The creature fell and rolled on the ground a few times, while Naruto landed on his feet and faced the sword.
A strong blade, definitely.
Something that caught his attention was the jewel on the hilt's border. It glowed purple... the same way it had when he fought that nukenin.
He didn't know what it was, but it was awesome.
And the best part... now he could kill that cub.
Smiling, Naruto creates dozens of clone, and turns to the Behemoth.
The creature began to concentrate chakra in its mouth again. From the amount, it planned to spit out that continuous beam of chakra from before.
However, his jutsus acted faster, and the ground below the creature rose again.
The Behemoth was thrown into the air, but the clones didn't stop there. More and more pillars of earth rose up and hit the Behemoth's body, throwing it like a toy from side to side.
The boy clenched the hilt of his sword, and waited. At a certain moment, his red eye glowed, and he leaped toward the Behemoth.
The clones made a few more hand seals, and expending a large amount of chakra, which caused them to explode into smoke, pillars came out of the earth from all directions, and left the Behemoth trapped.
Again, yellow animalistic eyes stared into a single red animalistic eye. Both fought to see who was the fiercest.
And unfortunately, for one side, the title of "fiercest" already had an owner.
In two quick, and not so precise movements, Naruto tore the Behemoth's neck open, and finally cut off half the beast's neck, leaving its head hanging from its body.
The pillars of earth were shattered, and the creature's body fell to the ground.
Naruto landed on top of the Behemoth, staring at its body.
Horrible cuts. Kami, what an ugly thing... but, he was good for someone who had never used a sword before.
The muscles that still attached the Behemoth's severed neck to his body were slowly breaking away. A bizarre scene, especially since Naruto could hear the sound of its flesh tearing apart.
He didn't even notice when the sword jewel glowed harder, until it returned to its normal purple... although mixed with red.
A sigh escaped his lips.
What was supposed to be a relieved sigh, became a tired sigh.
That fight had taken longer than he had thought, and of course it would draw attention.
His situation only worsened when he raised his head.
At the top of that crater was the mother Behemoth, her yellow animalistic eyes glowing in anger as she stared at the body of her cub.
"Aahhhh... shit"