Chapter 12
One Year Ago Part VI
"Talking"
"Thought"
"Inner/Demon Talking"
"Inner/Demon Thought"
"Move/Ability Talking"
"Move/Ability Thought"
Last Time: Sakura saved Konohamaru's life from a bunch of bandits. Meanwhile, Naruto is up against a more significant threat. One that will challenge him to his very limits. But who will it be?
(Story Begins)
(Timeskip: The Next Day, Location: Unknown, Specific Location: With Naruto, Tsuki and Jiraiya)
It was morning, and the three were walking across a forest with what appeared to be ancient ruins of an old temple. Apparently, it was the ruins of a temple that belonged once to monks who served the Blaze Daimyo who served in the Third Shinobi War.
"I can see this place had seen better days," Jiraiya commented.
"You know this place, Jiraiya-Sama?" Tsuki asked.
"This used be the temple where they trained monks who protected the Blaze Daimyo. It was attacked one day by enemy Shinobi which killed nearly all of the monks, so few of them survived, and the Blaze Country fell. As you can see now, it is nothing more but a host town." Jiraiya explained.
"It's a ghost town…" Naruto added, silently.
"I agree. It's almost as though you can hear the voices of the dead roam around here still." Jiraiya said, as he stopped in his tracks and shifted his eyes to the corner. "We are not alone…".
"What?" Naruto asked before Jiraiya threw Tsuki into Naruto, pushing them away as a Kunai was thrown, creating an explosion that separated them from each other.
Naruto held onto Tsuki in a tight hug, as he and she were thrown in the air by the explosion. Naruto made sure he was to fall down on the ground first, facing his back towards the hard ground. Once he got up, he helped Tsuki up and looked to where both he and her used to be. They were thrown a few hundred meters away from Jiraiya's location, and judging by the explosions and dust covering his area, they could tell he was in a fight.
"Hello there… Naruto Uzumaki. Or should I say? Naruto Uzumaki, Namikaze." Naruto's eyes widened in shock, he heard that voice-only ONCE in his entire life. He listened to that voice when… When he met Sasuke's brother.
"I-Itachi…" Naruto turned his head as he got a good look at the figure behind him. He wore a dark cloak, with red cloud patterns all over it. He had dark eyes, dark hair, fair skin. He was tall also, reaching Kakashi's height.
Naruto got in front of Tsuki immediately, pulling out a Kunai from his pocket as he gave Itachi a deadly stare. "And the daughter of the Fire Daimyo," Itachi said, finishing his sentence form where he left off.
"You stay away from her!" Naruto growled angrily at Itachi.
"The young daughter of the Daimyo concerns me not. It is you who I am after, Naruto. I heard what happened a while back, about how my brother almost defected the village if it wasn't for you?" Itachi said while pointing at Naruto.
"Yeah! So what?!" Naruto spat.
"I wish… To challenge you, Naruto." Itachi said. "I want to challenge you at your maximum, at your strongest power." Itachi placed his hands to one another, and did a number of hand signs before… "And if you were to refuse…".
Underneath Tsuki's feet, a black drawing which was described in Kanji swallowed her up from toe to head in a single second, as though she fell through it like gravity. "TSUKI!" Naruto yelled as he saw her disappear in writing. Naruto was about to jump in and save her, but the script shrunk down to nothingness.
POOF! He turned his head to face Itachi, which next to the former ANBU Elite, was a cloud of smoke which was revealed to be Tsuki, in a large glass which was a container of sand of time, and she was at the bottom of the glass, with the sand slowly falling from her head.
"This container's times are for half an hour. I'd estimate that would be the required time for you needed to defeat me before your friend suffocates to death." Naruto took a step back as he gritted his teeth in anger. He was about to open his mouth, about to protest against Itachi, but was cut short. "I know she's the daughter of the Fire Daimyo, but I do not care. I have no quarrel against Fire Country or Konoha, and I'm not doing any of this for revenge for what you did to my brother, and personally, I'm not doing this for the Akatsuki either. You beat Sasuke, despite having the Cursed Seal and powerful Jutsus on his side, you somehow managed to defeat Sasuke without permanent injury. All I wish is to test my strength against yours, Naruto.".
Naruto wanted to say no, thinking what Jiraiya would do in his place but he couldn't. He looked at the smoking battle where his mentor was at, hoping that he could finish his fight soon, but it was getting more and tenser by the minute. He had no choice, he had to fight Itachi, or die.
Tsuki pressed her back to one side of the glass, and her hands and feet to another and pushed with all her strength, hoping she could move the glass or break it in some way, but couldn't, she just wasn't strong enough.
Naruto did a number of hand signs and yelled, "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" POOF! A group of ten clones of Naruto appeared, all giving an angry, yet battle look while taking a battle stance against Itachi.
"Like Pervy-Sage told me! This guy became an ANBU Captain when he was younger than me! His Chakra is strong, even HE couldn't beat Itachi! I need to see what his weakness is, and maybe I could beat him!" Naruto thought with determination while referring to the word "HE" as Sasuke.
All of the Narutos, including the original, charged at a head forward assault towards Itachi. "I expected for someone like you who trained with someone like Jiraiya would've learned by now that a tactic like that is child's play and reckless," Itachi said, unamused. But all of a sudden, Itachi's eyes widened when the Naruto clones, five of them, jumped ahead of the rest were readying their fists up to their vests. Initially, Itachi wasn't scared, but he realised Naruto had something up his sleeve. Or should I say, Jacket!
The five clones ripped open their vests, revealing paper bombs around their chests and stomachs which were ready to blow up. Itachi took a step back but… For some reason, to the original Naruto's eyes, Itachi fell back, clutching his heart? Naruto didn't understand why, but he had to ignore it for now and use the rest of his clones to pull Tsuki's glass away from explosion range. She was amazed at how fast the clones carried her, despite taking a heavy object on their back, they must've been training hard?
BOOM! Naruto and his clones were launched as well as Tsuki. Tsuki's glass trap fell where she was on the bottom on the ground, where the sand continued to pour over her head. Naruto got up and saw where Itachi was at, only to see that he was gone. He rushed to Tsuki, who was still struggling in her trap.
"Tsuki-Chan, watch out! This isn't gonna be easy!" Naruto said as he formed a Rasengan in his hand. "RASENGAN!" He yelled, and he slammed his fist against the glass, hoping it would break or dent. But it did not, it didn't crack, only VERY little, a single crack line the size of an ant, actually, an ant would be more significant than that crack. "NO!" Naruto yelled.
"That glass was made to survive explosions such as this." Naruto turned to see who said that, only to receive a kick in the face by Itachi, who sent Naruto towards a building, which created a dust explosion.
"NARUTO!" Tsuki screamed, slamming her hands twice on the glass as she leaned forward in a panic.
Naruto coughed heavily, as he slowly got up on one knee and stared at Itachi, before wiping away a stream of blood mixed with his saliva on the corner of his mouth. Naruto gripped his own ribs hard in pain.
"So strong…" Naruto whispered. "But… I thought it would be stronger than that? Is Itachi holding back on me?" Naruto looked at Itachi, who was standing there, a few meters away from Naruto while giving him an unamused stare.
But something wasn't right? Itachi's legs were shaking, only by a little bit, and his chest was huffing, as though if he was breathing heavily in the inside. Naruto didn't know what was going on with Itachi, but he knew he had a chance against him…
(Location: Jiraiya)
"AHHHHHHHH!" A shinobi, dressed in black with his eyes being the only ones revealed to Jiraiya. He slashed his sword from up to down onto Jiraiya, who side-stepped with ease before delivering a Karate chop on the back of the enemy's neck, which sent him straight down like a bullet to the ground, causing it to crack.
Once a little bit of the dust cleared, there hundreds of knocked out Shinobi bodies everywhere, and a few hundred more surrounded Jiraiya with their weapons pointed at him.
"Gee! These guys are just coming and coming! There's no end to them!" The Pervy-Sage groaned in annoyance.
"Where is she?!" One of the Shinobi demanded.
"Where is who?" Jiraiya asked, but he pretty much knew the answer to that question before he proposed.
"TSUKI! THE DAUGHTER OF YOUR FIRE DAIMYO!" One of the Shinobi yelled.
"Yeah, I know her. I haven't seen her in a long time, maybe I should go visit Fire Country sometime to see her?" Jiraiya smirked, fooling around with the Shinobi who were not amused by his words.
"WE KNOW YOU HAVE HER! GIVE HER UP NOW!" One of the Shinobi demanded.
"You forgot to say please…" Jiraiya smirked more, as he kneeled down and released his hands on the ground, which caused the earth underneath the Shinobis' feet to launch them up in the air. "You really think you can intimidate me!" Jiraiya said, in a smile.
"Wait till our Uchiha friend gets her and your little blond student! Itachi will be a big help to us!" One of the Sinobi said.
"WHAT?!" Jiraiya exclaimed as he focused his gaze in seriousness towards the Shinobis. "So that's their game! Damn it! Naruto must be fighting Itachi right now! I can't get anywhere with these guys around, I need to finish this battle quickly and get to Naruto, or else the Akatuski will get him first!" Jiraiya thought as he began fighting the seemingly endless army of rogue Shinobi.
(Location: With Naruto, Itachi And Tsuki)
It's been a daring twenty-five minutes since the battle began. During that time-frame, Naruto has continuously been using nearly every-single trick Jiraiya had taught him every single Jutsu he's learned. And yet, Naruto could only land a few hits on Itachi.
The sand was up to Tsuki's shoulders, which have slowly been swallowed up. She was running out of breathing room, the pressure of the sand was getting to her, as it slowly started to squeeze the air out of her lungs. Her head was set in such a way that the sand was coming down from the back of her head. The top part of the timer's sands was slowly shrinking.
Naruto looked exhausted, he used up as much Chakra as possible. The only thing Naruto could do was to tap into the Kyuubi's Chakra, but even that looked like it was not enough against someone like Itacthi's strength.
But Itachi too looked exhausted, in fact, Naruto managed to land critical hits using Jutsus like the Rasengan and Big Bang Rasengan, as well as a few other moves Jiraiya had taught Naruto. Something was not right? Itachi was stronger than this and Naruto knew it deep down.
"Why is he gripping his heart always when I get an attack on him?" Naruto thought to himself. "Wait! Hang on a second! Of course, that's it but… Why? If he's in no condition to fight, then why is fighting right now?" Naruto thought to himself.
"You're not holding back on me because you're merciful…" Naruto said as he stood up straight. "You're not holding back at all. The Pervy-Sage told me about your strength and your techniques, so I'm guessing that, if I was fighting you at your fullest with the way I am now, I would barley land a blow to you. So, I'm guessing… That you're dying." Naruto said.
Tsuki grew shocked, she was up to her chin, and her ear was getting clogged by sand, but she still could hear Naruto perfectly clear.
Itachi gave Naruto a simple look, before he did some hand signs and place an O-shaped by his fingers on his mouth and said, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu.". The fireball travelled all the way to Naruto, who closed his eyes before re-opening them again just before the fireball reached him.
"NARUTO-KUN!" Tsuki yelled in panic, tears streaming down her face, believing Naruto had died. Itachi showed no emotion; he showed no empathy or remorse for Naruto, only silence.
That was because he knew Naruto was still alive. When the dust cleared, Naruto was covered in red Chakra. His teeth were sharp fangs, and his body became a little bit darker red colour. He looked like he was naked, but really, he was covered in dark-red Chakra, enough that would make the strongest of Jounin shiver at sight. The only thing Naruto retained of his old self, was his spiky hair, which was still visible in shape.
Itachi prepared himself. It seems like, Naruto had found out Itachi's weakness.
"Now, let the true fight begin… ITACHI!" Naruto's demonic voice rang.
Author's Note: HELLO THERE! Yes, it's me! I know I said I would upload a chapter once-per-week, and even told you about the release date of this chapter… BUT, Four weeks ago, a lot of stuff happened, nothing important but work, mainly just work, and a new workout schedule that has been planned for me. I also was working on some other projects, even art. I apologise, but I promise next Sunday, a chapter of Fairy Worlds, will be uploaded.
Reviews:
Namitheking: I know, my language and spelling were pretty bad back then. I have a feeling that's the main issue I have, it's a good story, but the opening was terrible. A bloodline that copies other bloodlines I was inspired by other Naruto Fanfics, which used this feature. It sounds OP now, but there will be limitations to level the plain field a bit.
EMR-one7: You're welcome, I like taking advice from reviews from time to time on how to improve the story or what mistakes or mishaps I made in the past, so one day I could rewrite them in order to correct the story. And I thank you for your advice.
Narusakufan1985: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.
YeagerMeister31: I plan to make Sakura little bit stronger than her actual self in the show.
Hotstreak's crossover stories: Glad you enjoyed the chapter.
Anyway, as usual, if you enjoyed this story, I have more below here:
Konoha's Runaway Demon.
Trying To Move On.
Fairy Worlds.
Long Lost.
Journey Of Happiness.
Straw Hat Or Nine-Tailed Fox… Choose Wisely.
Naruto Uzumaki Mitarashi.
Konoha's Proud Demon.
Also, please do write your reviews and your thoughts on this story, so I know what I did wrong what I should've done, or maybe if I'm on the right track?
DON'T FORGET TO READ AND REVIEW.
I hope you all enjoyed.
Thanks dudes😊.
